Chapter 14: Rescued

Thoughts

Events

As she finished the extended activation sequence required after her long shutdown the first thing Darlene saw was Anna holding her remote. Because of the modifications to her system to make the possessor of her remote her de facto owner of record, as well as the hacks to allow her to interrelate with Lucy so long ago, she felt an immediate warmth and affection towards Anna.

Although she did not know what had happened during the years she'd been in storage, Darlene was aware that she had been given a new, high-quality power cell. Querying it for status information, she discovered with pleasure it reported back an estimated three times the life of her previous PCs. That made her feel good in a way she couldn't quantify, but enjoyed. She must be valued highly to have been given such a valuable upgrade.

After taking a moment to take pleasure in that insight, she reached out to her new owner and offered her fingers for re-sync. Anna, however, curled her fingers away in refusal. Darlene's mind didn't yet have the capacity to handle all the information that might be transferred from Anna's own, much expanded computer brain, and Anna didn't want to take any unnecessary chances with Darlene's memories now that so much had already been accomplished.

Just getting Darlene here and running had been a major accomplishment. She'd stood alone in the darkness, abandoned and forgotten, for far longer than Anna had once stood in Samuel's secondhand store window. And without a main power cell to keep her memories secured during a shutdown, the small backup cell used to protect them during power cell changes had also exhausted itself. There was no guarantee at all that any memories had survived.

Just finding and purchasing Darlene had been a miracle. All of Anna's analytical skills she'd learned working as their own waking talking computerized assistant at the secondhand store had come into play in the search and negotiations. And this was not the only obstacle Anna had faced.

The thought of rescuing Darlene had been entirely Anna's own idea. Undeniable proof of her own emerging capacity for independent thought outside of her own immediate needs. And she'd worked diligently to amass the money necessary for Darlene's acquisition while searching her out otherwise. She intended to do all the work herself in carrying though this project.

That all came to a screeching halt when she discovered she was completely incapable of even replacing Darlene's missing power cell with the new unit that had taken most of her remaining funds. At a level so deep within her that she couldn't explain it, despite her active, self-willed mind, Anna couldn't bring herself to touch Darlene's inert body with any intent to modify her.

Anna was finally forced to go to Bill and explain her problem. Her head was hanging down, and her body language expressing unmistakable disappointment in her own independence, as Bill caught sight of her for the first time in hours.

He'd known she had a "secret project" in the works for weeks. Her preoccupation was obvious. But he had been rigorous about not prying into it. He wanted her to have this space to develop her own mind further.

And when the large crate had arrived and been immediately moved into the small, unused storeroom, he had contained his curiosity and not peeked inside, even when Anna had to run out for an errand. He was certain she'd tell him everything when she was ready, and he respected her privacy until that time.

Now as he saw her approaching, he was immediately concerned. One thing about Anna, she never hid her emotions from those who knew her. Even during those first difficult months when she was coming to terms with her own new mind and — completely unrobotically for her — had not wanted to be commanded even by him.

Those days were long past, but his love and concern for anything that affected her adversely was as strong as ever.

"What's wrong?" he was asking before she'd even finished walking up to him.

"I need help," she announced uncharacteristically.

"Anything," Bill replied immediately, not at all worried about what he might be committing himself to. Anna had helped him through so much in his life by now, it was hard to believe that she didn't already have the answers to everything.

Anna took Bill's hand in her own smaller one and led him back to the storeroom. Inside Bill was surprised to find another fembot standing motionlessly there.

This new 'bot was nude, and clearly deactivated. Her eyes were closed, and none of the small motions that a robot makes to appear more lifelike were present.

Somewhere along the way over the years even the cheap clothes this 'bot once must have worn had gotten separated from her. Only the mid-height economical heels remained on her pretty feet, probably because without those she would have been unable to maintain her balance when shut off. Her feet and legs were made for shoes like that.

She was clearly a sex-bot like Anna herself, though of a slightly different model. Bill's expert eye picked out many similarities, and some differences.

She was the same apparent age of twenty-two, just at the peak of her youthful sexiness. But unlike Anna's yellow-blonde hair, this 'bot had rich brunette tresses that were the darkest of browns. Her complexion was a shade lighter to complement them perfectly. Her face was a the tiniest amount rounder, and every bit as attractive as Anna's, though they'd never be confused for each other. While her hands and feet seemed identical, her hips were wider, and that carried through to her legs as well. The biggest difference was that her bust was a full size larger and more firmly outthrust, with her fembot nipples perched on the outermost points. Bill correctly assessed that she was a newer model, since that had been the trend in fembots since Anna's manufacture. The only thing he couldn't see yet were her eyes, to judge if they were like Anna's deep blue ones.

And unlike how Anna had been when Bill had first seen her years ago, forlorn and alone in the window, her hands reaching out as if in prayer against her final shutdown, this 'bot stood at ease. It appeared as though her last deactivation had been peaceful — or at least expected.

"Who is she?" Bill asked.

"Her name is Darlene," Anna replied. "She is my sister — and my best friend, outside of you."

Over the next few minutes Anna told Bill of her relationship with Darlene. He'd never asked, and she'd never volunteered before, any of her past history, which she admitted was incomplete due to memory damage on several occasions before Bill had rescued her. But she was able to give him enough of a picture to fill in most of the blanks.

It hurt Bill to hear how uncaringly these 'bots had been treated in the past. Even when Anna told him twice, "We were just machines at the time as far as anyone else was concerned. Looking back on it, I've never felt it was intentional," didn't make him feel any better.

Finally she finished and Bill said, "So in the same way her actions saved you in the past, it's gone full circle and you have rescued her now that you're able to do so."

"It's more than that," Anna said, and then told him what she had in mind.

"That's a wonderful thing!" Bill exclaimed, after he heard her plans. "And I'm sure Darlene would agree."

"He's done so much for me," Anna said. "Next to you, without Samuel I never would have become what I am."

While Bill felt Anna might be giving more credit to others than necessary and diminishing her own accomplishments in the process, he kept that thought to himself. Instead he asked, "So what's stopping you?"

"I can't touch her," Anna admitted. "Even just to install the new power cell, let alone the other enhancements I've put us in hock over."

"Show me," Bill said, needing to see the problem to better understand it.

Anna picked up the new power cell. She could easily handle robot parts because that was part of her job here at the shop as Bill's 'bot. She would have been much less useful to him otherwise, and her programmers had clearly taken that into account when setting up her usefulness.