Chapter 3

Cindy went over to her purse and pulled out her cell phone. She quickly found Shelley's number in her address book and started the call. Cindy's friend answered almost immediately and the two spent several minutes just chatting with each other. Then Cindy asked her friend if she would like to take a trip with her and Kyle. Cindy had to be a little bit cagey about the details of the trip, telling Shelley the details of the trip were a surprise. Shelley thought for a moment and then agreed to come on the trip. Cindy told her friend she would be coming to pick her up in a few hours.

"Kyle, Shelley wants to come on our trip, though I am not sure if she will still want to when she finds out what it really is. I think I should go back down to Earth to pick her up if she really wants to go," Cindy said.

"OK. Go ahead and take Becky with you. Be sure to use the shuttle with the car inside," Kyle replied.

"OK. Did you want to stay here while I'm gone?"

"Yes, I want to learn more about the ship while I'm waiting for you," Kyle said.

"OK, I will call you if I get delayed too much, or if anything happens," Cindy replied.

"You should get going so you can make it back soon," Kyle told her.

"OK, as soon as I get dressed again I am off," Cindy said as she walked over to her clothes and started putting them back on again. When she finished dressing Cindy called Becky to follow her out of the room.

The robot girl led the human one to a compartment that contained the outlet of a clothing synthesizer. This was a machine that Cindy would have to experiment with later! The robot ordered a set of stylish clothes and got dressed. Then the two females went down to the hanger deck, entered the same shuttle the two humans had arrived in, and left the ship to return to Earth.

Meanwhile Kyle decided to use the time he would be waiting for Cindy to see and learn more about his ship. So far Kyle had only seen a small part of the ship and he was very curious to see more.

"Adventure, I would like to see more of the ship. Please send an android to my cabin to guide me," Kyle stated aloud so the ships AI could hear him.

"There is an android on the way which should arrive in approximately one minute," the AI replied.

"Thank you, 'Adventure'," Kyle replied.

A moment later the door to the cabin slid open and one of the androids walked in. This one had the form of an Asian woman and since Kyle had not instructed otherwise the robot was nude. Again Kyle was struck by how lifelike the androids looked and moved. For some reason Kyle found the look of this specific android to be especially appealing and he was thinking it was going to be especially pleasant to continue his exploration of the ship today with this robot as his guide. The android came to a stop immediately in front of Kyle and looked at him with a very human-like questioning look.

Kyle thought it would be a good idea to follow Cindy's example and give this robot a name, just to make conversing with it more normal. For some reason the name Tracy seemed to be appealing for this robot and that is the name Kyle decided to use.

"Android, I've decided to give you the name of Tracy. I will address you by that name from now on," Kyle ordered.

"I understand, Kyle. From now on my name is Tracy," the robot replied with a very human like smile.

"OK, Tracy. Is there an observation room on this ship? Something that is better than the TV screen in this room?" Kyle asked the robot girl.

"Yes, there are several rooms aboard which can provide that function. Do you wish a direct view or a holographic projection?" she replied.

"Which will provide a better view?" Kyle asked.

"There is a full surround holographic projection room which probably would provide you with the most spectacular view of space." Tracy replied.

"That sounds interesting, let's go there first."

"Ok, please follow me," the robot replied.

"OK."

The android woman turned and immediately started walking for the door. Kyle followed behind the artificial girl, again marveling at how realistic her android body was. As he followed behind Tracy, Kyle had a hard time remembering that he wasn't following a real girl, he was definitely enjoying the view he was getting.

The android girl led Kyle to an elevator which they used to descend thee decks, then down the passageway to a door at the end, which slid open to admit Kyle and the robot girl.

Inside Kyle found himself inside a ball-shaped room about twenty feet in diameter and he was standing at the bottom. When he first entered the room the entire interior of the room was a neutral gray color. As soon as Kyle and Tracy were completely inside the room the door slid shut and then the artificial gravity was reversed to the point where the two were floating weightless. At the same time the lights went out.

Suddenly it seemed like Kyle and the android girl were floating in outer space, just above the surface of the asteroid upon which the ship was resting. The effect was so real that for a few seconds Kyle actually thought they had been ejected into space itself, but then he realized there was still air and warmth so he must still be inside the room.

For a few minutes Kyle just allowed himself to float there, too lost in the incredible view to even notice the falling feeling that comes with being weightless. The view provided by the holographic room was exactly like floating in space and the weightlessness reinforced this. Finally Kyle came to himself enough to start asking about the different ways the ship could display the surrounding space.

"Tracy, can you show me the view without the asteroid?" Kyle asked.

"Yes, I certainly can."

The surrounding view in the room flickered and suddenly the asteroid upon which the ship rested disappeared, leaving only the view that would have been seen if the ship was alone in space. Somehow this made the illusion of floating in outer space even more real. Kyle found himself wondering how the ship was able to reproduce the view on the side where it was blocked by the asteroid.

"Is this the actual view in the direction blocked by the asteroid?" he asked.

"Yes," Tracy answered.

"How do you do that?"

"We have a number of small observation drones in orbit around the asteroid which provide coverage in those directions unavailable for direct viewing," the robot girl replied.

"OK. Please turn the gravity back on now," Kyle ordered. He was starting to feel a bit nauseous from the constant falling feeling weightlessness gave.

"Restoring gravity now," the android replied. The ships AI was smart enough to know that the gravity should be restored gradually so that Kyle and the robot girl floated gently to the floor.

Even though Kyle and the android were now standing on the floor to the eye it still looked as though they were in space. Kyle slowly turned around in the room taking it all in. The small but brilliant sun came into view, though it was not as bright as it would have been if Kyle had actually been outside. He also found the tiny disk that was mighty Jupiter, but could not find any of the other planets.

"Can you show me the Earth?" Kyle asked.

"Yes, please look in this direction," the robot girl said, pointing. Kyle could see now two small bright stars close together.

"Magnify, please."

"OK."

The two small stars grew until Kyle could see two small crescents, one bluish colored and larger than the other.

"Can you magnify even more?"

"Yes."

The bluish crescent grew until it almost filled the view. Kyle could easily see continents and cloud patterns in the atmosphere. Off to one side was the smaller crescent of the moon, large enough to allow Kyle to see the larger craters and lava "seas". Kyle just stood there for a few minutes taking in the view of home. He had never realized how beautiful it was until now.

After a few minutes more Kyle grew tired of looking at the outside view and thought for a minute about what he would like to see next. It did not take him long to decide to explore more about the androids and how they were made. In his previous tour of the ship he had been brought through the android area pretty quickly and Kyle hadn't had much time to see what was done there. He decided he wanted to spend more time in the android area this time.

"Tracy, I would like to see android manufacturing next," Kyle told the robot girl.

"OK, please follow me," she replied. The lights came on in the room and Kyle followed the naked android girl out of the room.

Tracy led Kyle to a lift again, which could also act as a shuttle on the same deck of the ship. The lift took the pair up four decks and then aft for almost a kilometer before coming to a stop. The lift doors opened and Kyle exited with the android girl into the android center.

"Tracy, can you tell me more about the capabilities of the android infrastructure?" Kyle asked.

"Certainly. We can create an android with the appearance of either an actual living person or of an image of a person, real or artistically created. For a real person we can copy not only their appearance but also their memories and personality." Tracy replied.

"What about the androids we have on board the ship now? How was the appearance for them generated?"

"All of the androids we have now have an appearance which was generated from the many video transmissions which have been transmitted from the Earth to satellites for retransmission or broadcast back. From those we have been able to generate a wide variety of body and facial patterns that can be used for androids," the robot girl replied.

"What about memories and personalities?" Kyle asked.

"We have a number of basic generic templates that we used when the androids were created. Each android will add memories and experiences to that basic template to develop a richer personality over time."

"So the androids will become more human-like as time goes on?"

"Yes, that is correct, especially those which have a lot of personal interaction with real humans."

"And all of the female androids are fully functional sexually?" Kyle asked.

"Yes, all of the female androids are physically fully functional for sexual relations. You will find their performance of this function would improve with experience as well." Tracy replied.

"I will try this with you sometime, but not right now," Kyle told the android girl.

"OK. Just let me know when you want to have sex with me," the android girl replied.

"I will," Kyle said.

"OK. What else would you like to know about android manufacturing?"

"You said the ship can make an android that is a copy of an actual person?" Kyle asked.

"Yes, if we have the human available for scanning. There are two types of copy that can be made, a destructive and a non-destructive copy." Tracy answered.

"What is the difference between the two?"

"In the non-destructive copy only a light scan is made and the person is unharmed. But the android created in that process, while having all the memories and experiences of the person copied, will still display some occasional machine-like behaviors, and can be controlled by the network. In the destructive copy a very deep scan is carried out, down to the molecular level, and in the process the body is destroyed. However in that case the android becomes essentially the person being copied, and will have an independent logical state. You should consider carefully which type of copy you wish if you decide to copy humans to manufacture androids."