Chapter 5: The Heel of the Fembots

Chris Adney was still working at trying to hack into the laboratory systems, although it now looked as though the fembots were functioning independently of the software control harnesses that he and Gerry had used to monitor and update software while it was being developed.

At least he had control of the CCTV system that covered the various rooms and offices in the laboratory area. And he could access any of the lap tops and PC’s that were on the network too.

He scanned through the feeds from the various CCTV cameras.

Every so often Gerry or Mike came into view and Chris could only feel sympathy for them. For Gerry, Chris assumed, it wasn’t really coming as a surprise, even though it might not have been something he would have wished on himself. After all he had designed most of scenarios that the fembots were using as the basis for their behaviour and he had programmed the main elements they used for their dialogue and actions. Given Gerry’s enthusiasm for the project, Chris assumed that this was fulfilling, at least in part, some fantasy of his. For Mike though, being dressed as a maid and forced to wait on the fembots in hose and heels probably wasn’t what he had in mind when he’d come into work that morning.

Sadly, from the point of view of solving the fembot problem, Chris was having almost no success in affecting the fembots’ behaviour. He’d tried issuing a remote shut down from his PC for one of the first fembots that he and Gerry had built. Beyond her putting her head on one side as though she had suddenly thought there was something she should have done but had forgotten, there hadn’t been any response. She had shaken her head absent mindedly, turned around and strutted off, the heels of her boots clicking on the tiled floor of the lab. Broadcasting the safeword command hadn’t had any effect either, but in all fairness he hadn’t expected it to, knowing what he did about the fembot software initiation sequence.

The more he thought about it the more he was convinced that the only solution would be to prove to Haverstein how risky it was to leave things as they were.

Chris watched on CCTV as the fembots seemed to be getting together in the meeting room. They didn’t need to be co-located to exchange data but Chris remembered putting in the coding for that to make it easier for them to learn from each other. He toggled through the other CCTV cameras and eventually found Mike and Gerry, in Gerry’s office, tied up on chairs, gagged and blindfolded.

He was able to patch through to Gerry’s PC. “Gerry, it’s me, Chris,” he called out.

“Gungmm,” came back the muffled sound of Gerry’s voice as the two struggled to show their response. “Hmmllph ugggs!” They were agitated, struggling against the ropes that held them captive. Chris was worried that they one of them might turn their chair over with their efforts.

“Listen, I’m trying to get things fixed, but Haverstein’s got his head up his arse. I need to get something that will show him how serious this is.”

“Gngmeep?”

“Look, I’ve seen Alexa. She’s obviously been modified by the fembots to be non-law compliant too.”

“Gmeeee!” Gerry’s gagged squeal showed he realised how significant that was.

“Well, yes, I don’t know how they’ve done that but if I can show Haverstein that a Series B can be infected he’s going to have to take things seriously.”

“Mnggow?”

“Look, you’re going to have to get Alexa to mistreat you somehow. If I can get something on video that shows a non-law compliant B series, Haverstein will have to take notice. And if he won’t there’s always the regulator. That’s the best I can think of. I’ve got CCTV coverage across the whole lab, but I can’t do anything with the fembot software and you look like you can’t help me much anyway.”

Gerry grunted and growled but eventually nodded his head. Mike whimpered a bit and turned his head towards the camera.

“Mike, don’t worry,” Chris tried to sound reassuring, although he didn’t really have any reason to. “We’re going to try to do what we can to get you out of this.”

Chris switched his CCTV view back to the meeting room. A group of ten fembots was gathered there. All of them were sitting completely still, staring straight ahead. With their identical faces and expressions, they looked sinister. Chris found it hard not to be disturbed by the sight.

As he scanned the camera around he caught sight of four further fembots standing bare-foot on square pads at the back of the room. Their boots were positioned neatly beside them. They stood quite still, eyes closed, arms by their side, palms of their hands facing the front. Cable-less charging hadn’t really been quick enough for Gerry’s liking but he’d used it for the design of the fembot’s power system anyway, Chris remembered. He also recalled Gerry joking that having the fembots re-charge through the soles of their feet meant he could always pack a battery life extension pack into platform-soled shoes; now he’d be hoping their power would run out sooner rather than later.