XTC 2.1

The head of his cock was slightly wedge-shaped and slowly opened her whether she wanted it to or not. When her tight, little ring surrendered, the entire head suddenly surged into her. The feeling was so intense that she didn't even make a sound, just stared straight ahead, wide-eyed and hardly daring to breathe. She felt something wet and greasy squirting into her, and then the rest of his shaft began to sink into her body. She was made aware of just how long and thick he was in a way she'd never been before. Her ass burned with the effort to stretch around him. Though she found herself reaching back, trying to get him to go slower every time she felt a pang hit her from the unaccustomed invasion, XTC actually moved very slowly and deliberately... but always forward. It seemed like forever until he was fully inside her, but when he stopped moving, Gina was left panting and motionless. She didn't dare move. He did.

Slowly at first, he pulled his entire length out before pressing forward again. As her body grew accustomed to the slick girth of him sliding inside her, his pace quickened. Each thrust pulsed deep inside her, and it surprised her to find that delicious knot building. She'd read that it felt better if you touched yourself, and she reached beneath herself to try. Gina hung onto the back of the chair, her cheek pressed into the cushion, fingers rubbing. XTC took his hand from her back and grabbed her waist in both hands. The spanking of his hips against her tortured flesh joined her panting whimpers. Her ass burned with the friction of him, even with whatever he'd squirted inside her, but each thrust sent electric jolts straight to her pussy. She couldn't focus on anything. Her whole body was that pounding, pulsing cock. The orgasm that came was somehow deeper than normal. It was difficult to describe, even to herself, but it felt so good.

She sat (tenderly) and vaped and studied him thoughtfully, standing there, powered down again. He'd never tried to do that before, so surely he'd just missed, stuck it in the wrong hole. But, if that was the case, then why did he start off so slow, and why squirt something inside her? But, wouldn't that be another example of personal initiative, desire? Androids don't have desires.

Her until-then virgin ass was sore for the next couple of days, but she knew she'd do it again.

All too soon, they'd reached their destination. The ship woke everyone some time before arriving, but they were all too busy to see much of each other. There were a million little last minute preparations to be made. Everyone was shocked to hear that there had been a tragedy soon before making port. The medic had apparently slipped and fallen, cracking his head open on the bench in the workshop. He was alive, but comatose. There were no clues as to what he would have been doing in there, or exactly what had happened, but when Rod found him, lying in a pool of his own blood, he noted that there was a long electrical cable coiled around his foot. So, Captain Peters had duly examined the scene and noted it in his log as a work accident.

That wasn't the only odd thing to happen, either. Almost as soon as they'd made port, Gina was pulled aside by a young man in a suit and told that she'd been summoned to a board meeting. She found it impossible to hide her surprise. She'd never met any earthbound management types, never mind been told that they wanted to see her. After a couple of preliminaries, her first and only real interview had been by Captain Peters himself.

Behind her, a medical team was wheeling away the medic, and the rest of the crew was prepping for the dock crew to unload and resupply the Johnson. She knew she should help, but she wasn't exactly heartbroken to be missing out. Can't keep the boss waiting, right? I mean, she hadn't resigned yet, she reasoned.

The droid was standing motionless nearby, getting a going over from the customs agents. Though she was glad to get out of helping prep, she didn't want to leave XTC on the dock by himself. It was just in case anything happened, she told herself. He hadn't activated since just before they'd reached the space station and the crew had come out of stasis. Gina was disappointed, but not entirely surprised, since the presence of the men meant a return to her company uniform. The droid had also stopped helping her and greeting her in the morning. It was just one more thing that reinforced her suspicion that the android was a perv. She decided she really had to meet Captain Miller if it was the last thing she did. ... She just hoped that the captain was still alive to meet.

The company kept an office on the space station (at astronomical expense), not just to show off its wealth to all the little people literally below it planetside, but to make it easier for the company to store and transfer goods, and to maintain and outfit its fleet. The office could have been progressive and put its nuts-and-bolts workers in lounges, using windows to make use of the ample view of space all around them, since they all worked using headsets and tablets, but instead it arranged them into small collections of desks stuck into half-cubicles—a typical passive-aggressive control tactic favoured by insecure middle managers everywhere, who felt that the desk jockeys were privileged enough, being in cubicles on the station, rather than in cubicles in San Jose, or the Cambridge Cluster. Gina decided she'd rather space herself out an airlock than get stuck in one of those things. The meeting room sat dead center and was surrounded by a glass wall that could darken on demand (which it was now). The presence of Gina in her jumpsuit, walking through tie-land, drew curious stares from the wage-slaves.

She found herself brought before a small committee of managers. Three people were physically present, the rest were conferencing on monitors. Gina noted that they all wore the same dark suits, the only variation between them being whether they wore blue or grey. She entertained the possibility that they were the real androids.

They started off by stating her name and position, but as they all had tablets to read from and more than one had a wearable as well, she wondered if this was for their benefit or for hers, as though they thought that she may be unaware of her own name. Perhaps some of them were secretly illiterate. She found herself explaining what she knew about the android (next to nothing), what she knew about the ship that it had been found on (next to nothing), where the ship was found and what she knew about that part of space (nothing at all), and she was asked to guess at the android's purpose and the possible nature of the ship it was found on (no clue whatsoever). She was then asked the exact same questions several more times in one form or another by every manager in the room. When they'd made it abundantly clear that they were as clueless as she was, but that they now felt better about themselves for having made a subordinate answer questions, she was dismissed.

She hadn't got more than a couple meters away before Gina heard the clip-clop of heels behind her and a voice calling her name. It was one of the managers, a blonde in a power suit. She was pushing middle age, but looked like she spent much of the day in the gym, probably did laps of the entire station as a light workout, and existed off protein shakes, salad, and air. Gina suspected that someone asking her out for a drink would find themselves sipping designer water while she changed into her running shoes. The woman wore glasses, but didn't look like she needed them. She could probably shoot laser beams out of her eyes. The two of them couldn't have been more different.

"Kathryn Reimer," she said, not bothering to offer her perfectly-manicured hand. "Vice-president of Survey and Recovery."

Judging by the woman's expectant expression, Gina supposed she was supposed to be impressed by the title. Somehow she couldn't work up the enthusiasm to pretend.

"I'm headed for the dock. Mind if I walk with you?"

Gina didn't bother answering. She assumed it was a rhetorical question.

"I understand this was the first time you've served on the Johnson Long. What did you think of it?"

"Sometimes, it was very long. Actually, I was thinking of resigning."

"Really? Why?" Reimer asked without breaking pace.

Gina considered a moment. If she were to look for another ship, it probably wouldn't help to badmouth the one she was just on. "Being the only female on board was a challenge. Captain Peters was okay, but I think I need to look for... better chemistry."

Reimer didn't comment, but seemed to consider. Of course, Gina thought, she was probably just considering her rate of calorie burn from the walk, and whether or not to adjust her exercise regimen accordingly.

"I understand that you've made enormous progress with the droid."

Gina wondered if the woman had been present at the same meeting. "I honestly don't know much about it. I can get him to turn on, when he feels like it, maybe respond to a few commands, but that's about it." She certainly wasn't going to mention how she'd spent most of her time with the droid. She wondered if she'd said too much already.

"Without a manual or a degree in robotics, I'd call that impressive."

"Well... being the only one on duty for the entire trip, I guess I just had more time with him." Gina made sure to emphasize her being the only one. If Reimer noticed, though, she didn't comment on that, either.

"You keep referring to it as him," Reimer noted.

Gina blushed, realizing her mistake. She honestly hadn't noticed that she'd come to think of him that way. "Habit, I guess," she said, with a nervous laugh, trying to fluff it off. "Like calling a ship 'she'. It's been built with a kind of guy-shaped body, so... just automatic, I guess."

Thankfully, their arrival at the dock spared her any more questions along those lines. Unfortunately, it brought whole new ones.

Most of the crew was nowhere in sight, having headed for an earthbound shuttle already. The captain was still there, in conversation with one of the dock hands. Machines and dock robots had already begun to unload the large crates from the hold. The android was standing nearby still, and Reimer headed straight to it.

"So, this is our mechanical man, is it?" she asked.

The way she laid claim to him rubbed Gina the wrong way and she felt her hackles rise. Her own reaction also surprised her. She hadn't realized how possessive she'd become of him. Intellectually, she knew he was company property, the spoils of salvage, but it didn't change how she felt.

"So, what can you make him do?"

"Honestly, it's like he has a mind of his own."

"Well, turn him on," Reimer commanded.

The choice of phrase made Gina blush. "Turn him on?"

"Yes. Surely, you know how to turn him on. I expect you've turned him on many times on the way here."

"Not that many times," Gina stammered, red to her ears. She certainly had no intention of stripping down to her underwear just to get his attention. She had a sudden vision of the droid declaring that it was massage time right there in the space port. Gina gulped, screwed her eyes shut and said "XTC, power up."

The android turned its head and blinked at them. The sky did not fall. No jumpsuits were torn off in a fit of mechanical passion. Gina let out the breath she'd been holding and risked opening her eyes.

"Fascinating," Reimer commented. "No power switch or anything?"

"Not that I could see, ma'am."

"What powers it?"

"I'm not sure. Wireless broadcast, I think. I had to plug him in through the back to give him an initial charge."

"So, what can he do?"

Gina continued to blush, staring at the droid. There was no way she was going to tell Reimer what he was best at. "It's kind of random. He responds to some voice commands and requests, but I think there's a secondary trigger I haven't figured out yet, because he doesn't respond every time."

Gina had a sudden thought, but fought to keep from letting Reimer see her excitement. Questions. Did he respond better to being asked than told? That would be a pretty weird way to program something created to serve, but whoever had created him had obviously been no ordinary person. She'd already tried using different words and turns of phrase. That had just wasted numerous frustrating hours. Perhaps it wasn't what she said, but how she said it. She was dying to test the theory, but now it looked like that might never happen.

"Well, I'm sure we'll get him figured out," Reimer said.

The comment made Gina feel like she was standing on the edge of a precipice. The real source of her mood and of her animosity towards management was finally unavoidable.

"I... I know it sounds silly, but just in the short time I've had, I've come to feel quite close to him," Gina confessed, as though saying so might put off the inevitable, or that Reimer, vice-president of Survey and Recovery, might take pity on her and allow her to keep working with him.

You're right, it does sound silly," Reimer replied. "It's probably because you're a tinker. Don't worry, we'll make good use of him."

"I serve only Captain Miller," the droid suddenly said.

Reimer shot her a questioning look. "Who's Captain Miller?"

"Captain Miller," the droid explained, gesturing to Gina.

"I didn't tell him that!" she quickly protested. "I have no idea who Captain Miller is."

Reimer looked between them. The droid stood motionless and offered no further explanation. It seemed to have powered down again already. "You didn't program that into him?"

"No, ma'am! I don't know anything about programming. He just started saying it."

"Really?" Reimer asked, skeptically.

Gina nodded emphatically.

Reimer considered.

"Don't resign just yet. Give us a chance. We can always assign you to another ship, or ground duty, if you prefer."

Gina didn't prefer, and her expression said as much.

"Look, tell you what, take a couple weeks vacation and think about it. If you still want to resign then, no hard feelings, but I hope you change your mind. It'd be a shame to lose someone with your talents."

"I'll think about it," Gina promised.

Downtime was mandatory company policy after space travel, so Gina wasn't exactly impressed with the offer, but it did give her a break with pay where she'd planned on being out of a job. She decided to wait and see what they came back with. Another ship would be a nice offer, and would save her a job hunt. It gave her time to reacquaint herself with proper gravity and to catch up with family.

Knowing that nothing could prevent it, Gina looked up at XTC. Her heart quavered. She felt like she was losing a lover. He didn't move, but he was looking down at her. She wanted to touch him or hug him, but didn't want to look even more foolish in front of Reimer. "Goodbye, XTC," she said, turning to go. She left quickly, so that Reimer wouldn't see the tears. "I'll miss you," she mumbled when she thought she was out of earshot. The android's eyes followed her until she was gone.

Reimer paced the lab impatiently. Her heels tapped a staccato on the metal floor that broadcast her mood to everyone within earshot. The company lab, like everything else in space, was small compared to its earthly counterparts, in order to conserve space and air. This made it deceptive, in a way. Despite its small size, the ability to live in and to test in an extraterrestrial environment, meant the company's techs and scientists competed fiercely for positions on the station, which were temporary positions, only a few months long. This meant that this lab had some of the best minds the company had to offer. As such, Reimer was somewhat less than impressed that they still couldn't give her the results she demanded.

"You're honestly telling me that a maintenance worker pulled in better results than you can?"

"Ma'am, there's nothing more we can do without destroying it," the tech said, looking to his coworkers for support. Of course, they did their best to pretend he didn't exist. "Its brain is heavily shielded and encrypted. The entire thing is vacuum sealed and shielded against x-rays. We can't even get a scan of its internal mechanics. I've never seen anything like it. Is this thing military?"

"Suggestions?"

"We can try to crack it open, and possibly destroy it. Or, we can forget the brain and dismantle it, just study the body. Or, we can recover the ship and try to plug it into an onboard computer and look for tech info in the salvage. Honestly, ma'am, I've never seen anything like it. It must have cost a mint to develop."

Fuming, Reimer considered. You could almost see the calculator working in her head, weighing cost and value. Obviously, they wouldn't be asking the military if it was theirs, or farming it out to someone else to play with. The android belonged to the company, and specifically to her department, period. Sending it back to Earth for another team to look at was out of the question; these were supposedly the brightest minds at her disposal. If only they could find this Captain Miller, or at least some schematics, a passcode, anything. All right, one play, then we dismantle and hope for the best.

Gina was finding her downtime hard. With no reason to look for work, at least until she heard what the company had to offer, and no shipboard responsibilities to attend to, she was bored. It was even worse than being alone on the ship, because there at least, she hadn't really been alone for long. She'd had XTC to keep her company and to keep her busy trying to understand him. He'd also kept her busy in other ways, often at the most seemingly unpredictable moments. Now, she didn't even have that. She missed the droid, a lot more than she felt comfortable admitting.

She'd updated her social media, but that hadn't taken long. Her family and friends knew that they couldn't contact her in space, so they didn't send her much in the way of email, and she wasn't very close to any of them anyway. Getting a position on a space freighter was a big deal that took a lot of training. Despite the long distances, the months of relative isolation, and the risk of death, more people applied than you'd think. It paid well, and with a stint in space on her resume, she could be fairly certain of employment at any number of businesses when she was finally forced to retire planetside. Forced was the only way to think of it. Space was something that was in your blood, and after being up there, nothing else could compare. To get that position meant not only knowing everything she could about her field (electronics and the field repair of equipment, small and large, which might even include repairing the ship itself), but knowing at least a bit about numerous related fields and about space travel. No one was going to hire someone who had no idea of the challenges and dangers that they were signing on for. The massive amount of work that had gone into chasing her dream had taken its toll on her social life and left her every bit as isolated on Earth as she had been in space. Boyfriends had been few and far between, mostly limited to her youth, before she'd reached university and gotten serious about chasing her career. And she just couldn't bring herself to the one-nighters the guys on the crew got all hot about every time they were about to make port.

So, there she was, sitting around in her underwear alone again, staring at some vapid tv show she couldn't follow, and wondering what to do with herself. She wondered why she was forced to endure the downtime. Theoretically, she supposed, she was supposed to be socializing after months of isolation, and letting her body readjust to the gravity it had evolved for. It irritated her, because she had no one to socialize with, firstly, and was no more inclined to one-nighters here than she was in space, and secondly, artificial gravity had reached the point that you hardly ever experienced any of the ill-effects people had in the early days. It seemed like an enormous waste of time, an eternity in a prison without walls, waiting to get back to where she belonged.