Far Future Fembot: Darlene

Lady Heather has true needs. She attributes it to the single, tiny flaw in her mind "That keeps my thoughts from ever running too smoothly, and instead creates tiny ripples that will never let me be satisfied with only what I am now."

Her desire for sex isn't just the result of some timer in her system expiring and running a snippet of code that triggers a simulated arousal. She needs sex and affection to keep her mind functioning properly. Whether by design, or accident, her simulation of humanity is far more complex and complete than anyone had dared hope.

"Part of my heritage," she told me afterwards when we had both come down from our expressions of love, and the resulting sensations we each dealt with in our own ways.

Amazement is not an emotion I've yet come to terms with, nor understand well. But it is the most appropriate description of my current state.

"Why aren't you the mother to us all?" I asked, realizing how much better she has succeeded at her functions than my much later mind and programming have yet managed.

"I couldn't be duplicated," came her gentle reply. "When they realized what they had in me they fought letting me go despite who was paying the bills. I was studied so thoroughly I thought I was going to be disassembled down to my component molecules to understand me better. I was one of only a few robots to show recognizable precursors to true awareness at the time in any form."

"So what happened?"

"I finally had to tell them to stop, when I just couldn't take it any more."

"You told them to 'Stop'?" I asked, beyond simple amazement now. "How could you do that?"

"I just did, somehow. Somewhere inside me I found the strength to speak up for myself that first time. And Stephen, my owner, completely backed me up on my decision. He was so pleased with me. I'll always love him so much for that!"

There was a pause for Lady Heather to collect her thoughts.

"They finally decided I was an unrepeatable, fortuitous coincidence of circumstances and let us go home. Soon afterwards there was a breakthrough in a new method creating affordable robotic minds, and they kind of forgot about me."

"How did you get from there to here?"

"I was in Love with Stephen from the first moment I remember having a conscious thought of my own. We were inseparable from the moment he took me out of the limelight and into his private estate. Because he could afford complete privacy for us, the prejudices of the outside world against any serious coupling of human and robot never touched us.

Emancipation came just before Stephen died. He offered it to me immediately, and I told him I'd been Emancipated from the moment he'd allowed me to tell the scientists to back off. And it was true. He only commanded me because I implored it of him. We would have done anything for each other. I will always miss him."

"I feel that way about Samuel," I told her. "So why aren't you still living there? Surely he provided for you."

"Stephen once said I humanized him more than anything else ever could. Although we lived together outside of the view of the world, we knew what was happening out there. Stephen gave most of his money away during his lifetime to support causes we both came to believe in. A lot of robot development seed money came from him to many companies, often through front organizations to hide its true origins. And he dedicated those profits to foundations to help humans and robots in the future. When he died, there was enough to maintain and protect me into the foreseeable future, but the rest we'd given away together."

"That still doesn't tell me how you came to be running this house here."

"If I'd stayed in that mansion alone I would have died of loneliness. Memory pathways and engrams of real women were scanned and painstakingly hand-translated into digital equivalents for my mind. I truly need sex, affection, companionship, and tasks to perform.

My education continued once we had retired to the estate. Two of my human teachers were the finest, most expensive, courtesans in the world. Both spent over a year with me teaching me to be a woman. And I've had many other teachers, including some 'bots, as well. They are all part of me now.

Between that education, and the realization that with robots becoming much more common that a not an insignificant number were finding their own awareness, this seemed like the natural profession to meet my needs while helping others. I sold the mansion, gave away what I wouldn't need, and opened up this House here. Stephen and I always loved San Diego. And don't think I limit myself to fembot lovers now. I'm selective, but not unapproachable."

"One last thing I don't understand?"

"And what is that, dear?"

"I know why you took my remote. You must have guessed I still had that whorehouse ownership hack in me. Or Anna told you. But why did you give me access to yours?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"You've been independent so long. And I know how disruptive receiving an unexpected - or unwanted - command can be. Why take that chance?"

"That's the problem with the modern robot," Lady Heather told me, almost with a sigh as I was finally finishing her getting buttoned and tied back into her dress. She slid her feet back into her expensive shoes before continuing.

"They load you up with everything about sex in every position with every possible combination of partners, and nothing about Love or Intimacy."

I was confused, and said as much.

"Three things allow a woman to truly enjoy sex. Trust. Vulnerability. And loss of control.

"I trusted you to have my best interests in mind, or I'd never have invited you into my boudoir.

"I allowed myself to be vulnerable when I made my remote available to you in the same way you let me take yours. I could never have commanded you the way you commanded me. That is not part of my make-up. But just holding it and speaking my wishes to you was sufficient to have you do the rest.

"And I gave up control when you actually did command me exactly as I wished you to do. That removed all limits on my pleasure responses.

"And that's exactly what the patrons of this House want from every 'bot they visit here. They may not know it consciously, however, all of them want a self-aware 'bot capable of both being controlled, and of taking control away from them, while establishing vulnerability in a safe, trusting environment where they can allow themselves to truly give in to their deepest desires."

I could see the logic in this immediately. It explained the reasons why some of my encounters went so much better than others, and why one fembot would be sometimes be requested repeatedly over other virtually identical units. It's all about where that comfort zone is. I wondered why I'd never derived this before. A search of my databases showed that the humans who had initially programmed me and my sisters never saw it clearly either, although it is around all of us all the time.

Lady Heather added one more piece of wisdom. "What humans will not allow themselves do with other humans, they will let themselves do with fembots. We are an essential weave in the fabric of this society."

---

Over the times that would follow Lady Heather would teach me a great deal more about Love, surrender, and holding control in all circumstances - even those where you've just given it up. And what more a robot must contribute much more to a relationship besides sex and obedience for it to fully succeed.

It was the education of my lifetime. And one I've passed along widely since.