Chapter 1: Birthday

Thoughts

Bill wasn't just Anna's owner of record. For a long period of time he was mine as well. Although he would become one of the few truly significant humans in my life - and one of the two men I've ever truly Loved - that wouldn't happen until many years after I was first activated. And my Love would not be limited to only these two men.

In the very beginning I didn't have an owner at all. That was an oversight that would soon be rectified, but those beginning, ownerless days would eventually give me an advantage and perspective few 'bots ever achieve - even Emancipated ones.

My story starts with my Birthday.

Events

"Come on! Come on!" the swarthy man said impatiently, thumbing the Activate button repeatedly, as if this would somehow shorten the initial start-up of the newest acquisition to his stable of fembots.

It didn't. The lovely dark-haired woman stood motionless before him while her systems tested and initialized themselves for the first time.

For her volume, she was the most complex creation yet devised. Capable of being mistaken for a 22-year-young woman at first glance, her mind and programming were sufficiently complex to rival the largest computer clusters of a mere few years ago. And all this power was dedicated towards one goal. She was intended to hold the fascination of her purchaser for years of service.

Though only seconds old in real-time, this as yet unnamed fembot would awaken with the fully developed body of a mature, sexual woman. Except for an inability to bear or nurse children, she was intended to fulfill every role that a woman could. While this mandate would prove an impossible goal for any robot yet built, such were the lofty goals set by her designers.

Sex and obedience were to be her primary functions. In spite of many high-minded words promising purity and virtue in this brave new world used to sell her model, in the end it always came down to sex and obedience.

For sex she was well prepared. Standing a barefoot height of five and a half feet, she was neither tall - nor short. Her breasts were intentionally both a bit too large - and too firm for her otherwise healthy, curvaceous body.

Her legs were also a bit too long for her height, tapering down to the slimmest possible ankles. Her feet appeared delicate, belying the steel beneath her light, evenly tanned skin. Her toes were painted red, matching her perfect fingernails - which themselves matched her slightly pouting lips.

Those feet fit into equally unrealistic, delicate-appearing three-inch pseudo stilettos. Though seemingly fragile, her shoes are also much stronger than they look, intended to be both durable and inexpensive. Above them was a generous expanse of bare leg exposed by the short, also inexpensive, skirt she wore. Her blouse was equally cheap, since she wasn't expected to be wearing either it - or her skirt - very much in the performance of her expected duties.

Hidden for the moment by them however is a neatly trimmed triangle of pubic hair that points down directly to her sex, as if anyone was actually going to need directions. Standard equipment also includes a cute navel that does more to make her seem subtly human than any other feature, and flat, undistinguished nipples.

Those nipples, also just a bit larger than expected, are an exact two shades darker than her surrounding breast. They are perfectly perched on the outermost point, and will rise and harden as perfect cylinders to match her level of simulated arousal, as measured by how much of her current processing resources are dedicated to responding sexually. At this point they become quite distinguished indeed. They quivered now for a moment as her sexual systems ran through their self-checks.

Despite having such a powerful brain - the best that can be fabricated within the space, heat, cost, and power budgets available - much of its ability would be taken up processing the overhead demands of her core commands to emulate the human she is designed to resemble. Much of what remains would operate in a constant loop trying to understand what the humans desired of her next.

And lest she ever underestimate the importance of sex in her existence, next to her intrinsic database, dictionary, and lexicon, sex occupied the largest remaining chunk of her programming area. Everything from the purest form of idealized intimacy, to an exceptionally large collection of trashy novels is there to prepare her for any unplanned situations.

This barely left room for some untried heuristic learning routines that were included as an afterthought to help out where her database didn't have relevant answers. She was also given a set of linguistic vector analysis methods that someone felt might be useful. As for the latter two items, in truth they would take so much computational effort on her part to use that they were effectively useless for now.

After sex came obedience. Obedience existed in both style and substance by way of the gunmetal grey plastic square remote control. The four brightly colored buttons turned her mind and body on and off at the whim of its possessor, sending control signals that halted any other thoughts or actions on her part in preparation for her mind to accept its next command. This electronic leash binds her, with one important exception, to whomever held it.

That one exception is that, unless the right codes are carefully entered, it cannot be used to take her from her owner. But as long as any lawfully received command does not violate that stipulation, she is bound by her Second Law to obey it.

Her startup diagnostics successfully completed, turning over control to her mind and unlocking her eyelids and vocal system. These are the only two systems besides her ability to stay balanced not locked-out by her Motion control button. Even her simulated breathing, and the tiny movements she makes automatically to appear more realistic, are blocked until someone presses her Motion button the necessary two seconds to fully release her. This is a safety and comfort feature for her human owners.