Chapter 6: Hacked Again

Thoughts

Events

Jim held Darlene's remote for several long moments, not noticing her unmistakable physical reactions to his ownership over her. He was busy composing the command he intended to give her. He was quite aware that commanding an unfamiliar 'bot was quite different from interacting with Lucy. He did consider asking for Lucy's obviously expert opinion on this matter, but he realized that Lucy was already expecting him to deal with it. If she'd had something to add, she would have said so by now.

After careful thought, he pressed Darlene's remote and addressed her by name, although that was unnecessary as long as she was the only one whose remote was broadcasting the command override signal.

Jim knew Darlene's name since he, with Lucy's covert approval through tiny hand-squeezes they used in public, had picked Darlene's image off of the screen of available partners.

Jim always addressed any robot formally. It didn't matter if he was commanding them, or just conversing with one. He felt it conferred a true identity on them to do so. He agreed with the statement, made by another wise thinker, that no one would accept machines seriously, no matter how intelligent they became, until they had names and identities.

Lucy, when she first became able to speak her mind freely, told him that this courtesy had been her first strong memory of what made Jim special to her.

"Darlene," he commanded. "This is Lucy. I would like it very much if you'd make love to her right now as if making love to another woman."

Jim's command absolutely thrilled Darlene. It was everything she'd hoped it would be. Personal. Concise. Easily parsed. And guaranteeing his approval of her actions in compliance with her Second and Fourth Laws. A robot couldn't ask for anything more. Darlene would do her absolute best to fulfill it.

"Lucy," Jim said, thumbing the other remote. "Please retry your last command to consummate your relationship with Darlene."

Lucy flashed Jim a dazzling smile as she moved forward into Darlene's waiting arms.

As they pressed their nude, finely formed bodies together, and brought two pairs of deep red lips into contact for the first of may kisses to come, Jim's own obvious arousal at two such beautiful women began to show in his pants. He pulled them a bit to create more room.

This was just an obvious bonus as far as Jim was concerned. He had no intention of joining in himself. This was strictly for Lucy today. Lucy was the only lover Jim needed - or wanted - and she knew it. Tonight she would more than make up for anything he'd missed earlier, as she always did. Jim was one of those few, wise men who knew that just because you are having an erection, that doesn't mean you have to do something with it. It can be enjoyed just for what it is.

Soon Lucy and Darlene were running their hands over each other's bodies, paying special attention to necks, backs, asses, and especially breasts - but missing nothing, save one tiny bit. And although Lucy's enjoyment and full engagement of all her sensory systems was complete, she suddenly broke away from Darlene's embrace in obvious disappointment. Darlene was left standing with no partner, and quickly froze herself in her last position.

"What's the matter?" Jim quickly asked.

Although ambiguously directed, only Lucy answered.

"She's not into it," Lucy said succinctly, and it was obviously true. Though she made all the right motions, Darlene showed none of the physical signs of arousal she'd had when Jim had commanded her.

Jim understood Lucy's problem immediately, and its probable cause. "She's still locked," he replied, then added, "I wouldn't have expected that here of all places."

"Now what?" Lucy asked so plaintively that she seemed more human in her disappointment than any real woman could manage.

"I get it fixed, or course," Jim replied to Lucy quickly brightening smile again. "Wait here," he added, ducking out the door and closing it again carefully behind him.

With nothing more to do, both fembots remained standing in their respective positions several feet apart.

Robot don't suffer from muscle fatigue. They can hold a balanced position forever, which is a good part of their charm to some owners. However, only a minute or so after Jim left, and with only another fembot for an audience, Lucy suddenly shifted her pose, straightening one leg to put her full weight on it, while lifting the toe of the other shoe and pivoting her foot out on its spike heel. This pushed her knee and smoothly tanned leg out at a very attractive angle that only women in the highest of heels can accomplish properly.

As her wait continued, Lucy soon slipped one elegant foot out of the thin back-strap of her shoe, leaving it dangling only by the thin straps crisscrossing over the top of her foot. She looked around a bit as well, as if to say, "Is anybody noticing me yet?"

Darlene was fascinated by this. It was driving her analysis routines into overdrive. It wasn't how graceful, and just downright sexy, those small movements were. Leave that to the humans to appreciate, which Jim most certainly did.

Instead it was how Lucy, without any humans around to witness it, continued to emulate the human she was designed to mimic regardless of lack of an appreciative audience. She certainly knew Darlene wasn't that audience, yet she continued to be a woman at all times.

This insight thrilled Darlene's Fourth Law. It showed her a way to improve her own functioning that she'd never considered before. Aroused again the way that her heuristic routines seemed to trigger each time they discovered any major new insight, buoyed by this new knowledge and her own Fourth Law, Darlene actually made a couple unnecessary movements of her own - and felt pleasurable feedback wash through her systems. Such feedback always encouraged her to push her limits a bit further.

During this time Darlene also extended her fingers in the re-sync gesture. However, either because Lucy knew they weren't compatible models, or for some other reason, Lucy did not reciprocate this offer.

Darlene might have continued with her experiment, but just then the door slammed open with the large, swarthy man barging in ahead of Jim.

"Now what's the problem?!" he demanded loudly, taking in the scene at a glance.

The swarthy man felt he already knew what was going on. He had a customer who wanted to have some heavy fembot-on-fembot action, no doubt with himself joining in afterwards and converting them from lesbians to straight Christian women in the process. Yeah, right!

But rather than pay the price for two of his 'bots to play out this fantasy with, the man had brought one of his own instead. He was just another cheapskate, and the swarthy man had no respect for that.

Then on top of all this, the man now wanted special favors at no extra charge. None of this left the large man in a charitable mood, since charity in this business is the fastest route to bankruptcy. The swarthy man was completely wrong on just about every count.

Jim and Lucy were here because of a question Lucy had asked Jim soon after she gained the ability to do so. A question Jim found that he couldn't answer well.

"What is it like to make love to a fembot?" she had asked innocently. That question had probably been triggered by Lucy's built-in desire to improve her own performance, although she had proven to be curious about many things from the beginning, which is one thing Jim really liked about her. It appeared that no one had felt it necessary to include this information in her intrinsic database, and she wanted to know.

Jim's responses of, "Amazing, wonderful, unforgettable," and many other synonyms were not precise enough for Lucy.

She modified her query in ways she felt might elicit more information - although they were just different ways of asking the same question - without substantial success. That is until one day Jim finally said, "I think you're going to have to find out the answer to this one yourself."

"Can I?" Lucy responded quickly.

"I don't see why not," Jim answered. And from there a plan was hatched.

They didn't immediately run out to the nearest whorehouse available. Instead they planned this adventure out together.

Jim first made certain that Lucy already had all the necessary knowledge and responses to make love to another woman. She did. It just needed to be enabled, since until now Jim was both her only owner - and only lover. Jim immediately helped her enable these previously hidden abilities.

That, however, was only half the battle. Another woman was not the same as another fembot, and they both knew this well. Programming for one fembot to make love to another one didn't exist. Or if it did, it was well suppressed.

It was Jim's inspiration that gave them the solution. He pointed out how they could more fully explore and come to understand Lucy's own responses. As he said to her, "Between the two of us, we already have both a fembot who should be able to tell us everything we need to know, and a willing partner to help her find it."

Lucy agreed immediately and later told Jim, "I'm certain I would have never come to that realization myself. People think robots automatically understand everything about themselves. That is no more true for robots than it ever has been for humans." Jim could certainly agree with that!

Then she added, "Without you, I'd never have become as capable - or happy - as I already am."

While Jim tried to demur and minimize his role, Lucy would have none of it. She could be quite direct when she wished.

"I know my capabilities - and my limits. I ran a simulation soon after I became self-aware that subtracted all your input from my mind. Do you want to guess the results?"