Chapter 19

Dad had the nanny for lack of a better term move on. Well, my youngest sibling was now a teenager after all. What dad needed was a maid and a cook. So, I offered him a model three. He picked one out. A redheaded model with double D’s. I only assumed he was going to use it as more than a cook or a maid. I never asked and he never said anything.

Mom finally got out of the state pen. She did stop by to see me. Amy the model three turned her away at the door. It’s not like I didn’t want to ask her why. Well, she was really only there to get some money out of me. You know if she hadn’t stolen so much from me, I would have helped her. On a lark I sent her a male android. Turned out prison had changed her mind about sex, and technology. She tried to get custody of the younger kids. I am sure she was hoping for child support. The judge laughed her out of court because if she would steal from her oldest. Well, he was not going to give her a chance to steal from the youngest. She then tried to sell the PLEA class I gave her. This went against the user agreement and the android showed up at our door. It is now seen in the company of Amy. So, mom was truly screwed. And would not even be getting it from the android.

Renée and Mary were able to make the next upgrade to the androids. It was a heating system that allowed the android to keep a normal temperature to its body. This solved one of the few complaints we received about the androids.

Now the six of us did spend a lot of free time in repour together. Mainly because when we knew that when we transferred to our own PLEA permanently that choice would no longer be available to us. It was also the reason we stopped using our ability. We needed to be used to not having them.

The military types received their PECA on time. They arrived with a bus and had them all load up. They ran them through all kinds of tests and eventually came back with their wish list. It was short.

1. They wanted to restrict the android from independent operation unless a release order was given to the unit. It sounded to me like they wanted a term of enlistment for the unit.

2. They only wanted male models.

3. Adaptive camouflage skin. DARPA supplied the formula to accomplish this. It only needed to be added to the artificial skin.

The rest of their wish list was just that. What they wanted was beyond current technology to accomplish. Well, those were left to the research department and the guys over at DARPA.

The arm forces ordered 10,000 units over the next 5 years.

Sales of the PLEA class took off. We had 1 trillion in sales 3 months ahead of projections. Mainly it was rich old people trying to cheat death. Well, that’s what Jives reported as the reason.” This caused a few problems as most wanted younger versions of themselves for their unit. Thanks to Jives this was solved with the introduction of a fully printable version of the android. Well except for the battery and processing chip. They needed to be dropped into place before the final printed version was complete.

And that was the start of the Mark four version of the PLEA. It also halved the time to produce an android. Even the nails were now printed. However, wigs were still used, and hair still took time to install as they could not be printed.

Everything went along fine for the next 5 years. That was until the PLEA class android became indistinguishable from humans. That’s when the subject of slavery came up. Someone that couldn’t afford one decided to make a stink about it. They were joined by others for the same reason. Also, the religious types. You know the moral minority and bleeding hearts. Well, no mater how many PLEA class androids that we question said they were not slaves. Well, you guessed it back before congress to testify. You could say things were not going well. Well, I asked if they were going to give them the vote. Well, we all know every vote would be what the six of us wanted now don’t we. However, it was just enough to cause some concern with congress. So, they had 12 PLEA class androids come and testify before them. You can guess that did not go well with the opposition.

In the end we had to agree that toy grade androids would no longer be allowed to develop full sentients. Since PLEA were androids operated by a human host. Between the two of them they only got one vote. Same deal for the PECA class. Of course, in reality we could not do this. However, the toy class did a very good job of pretending not to be fully sentient. Personally, I think they should have given them the vote. Well, a fight for another day as the saying goes.

PLEA also became the preferred explorers for our oceans. Without the need for air or risk of the bends they could operate deeper and for longer than a human could. They did very well in space as well. However, they still needed a space suit if they went on a space walk. Mainly to keep them warm as they would freeze up without them.

Also, despite having a global market for our units. There were countries we would not sell to. Not that people in dictatorships could afford them. However, we had no inclination to allow any dictators to extend their lives using our technology. Then the flash memory technology was already restricted. We had our own version of course. Then again others were having sex bots and their own AI’s. They were not having much luck merging the two together, however.

It was bound to happen at some point. North Korea managed to steal a PLEA in Sol. It seems 50,000 volts tends to scramble the chip and we had never addressed the issue before. Fortunately, the individual that used the PLEA was still alive in Sol. However, he was also in his PLEA at the time of the abduction. Well, the dictator had to gloat over the PLEA before the disassembly. And the scramble chip ended up with its limits in the off position. The poor guy in control literally managed to pop the dictator’s head off. Before being overcome by security forces. The PLEA was destroyed and in this case the dictator had no one to take over. The civil war that developed as various people tried to take control. It was one bloody civil war before the peacekeepers arrived. Among them were 500 elite PECA class androids. It only took two days to round up all the malcontents. But the fighting stopped as no one was left to fight. The UN started a new government with the aim of turning the country into a democracy. It’s a shame that so many individuals were so brainwashed by the education system they had. It would take a generation before much progress could be made on that front.