Chapter 79B: This Changes Everything: Events

When Darlene prepared to activate Lucy she had her fingers crossed. She'd been concerned with just how well it would turn out ever since she'd been informed of Lucy's only existence being on the ancient backup discs. How well had those discs even survived? How good was the technology that had made them?

Despite everything she'd learned, and every indication she'd seen since, Darlene still had her fingers crossed for this 'bot. They just weren't as tightly crossed as before.

It felt strange to Darlene to hold another robot's remote that was as old as her own. Not literally that old, of course. Lucy's remote was as new as her new body. But that design had been obsolete for ages.

Single-button remotes were all any robot had any longer, and so small they often doubled as a piece of jewelry — pendant or ring, or even a single earring. Despite prognostications that robots would have long since given up such archaic — even barbaric — mechanisms, the robots continue to hang onto them. And they look to do so into the foreseeable future.

Double-checking to ensure she had the right button, Darlene held down the recessed red Activate button for the requisite four seconds.

Despite being a robot herself, Darlene seldom saw any robot actually activated — except for Lady Heather each year. She now watched, fascinated, as Lucy slowly came alive in front of her eyes.

Darlene had placed the other fembot in a standing position. This was easy to accomplish because her natural stance when deactivated was expected to be standing.

Rather than the extreme four-inch high heels that seemed de rigeur for all sexy fembots, Darlene had given Lucy more demure three-inch ones that made her look naturally appealing, instead of blatantly sexy. That, along with a long-sleeved silk blouse that obviously had unrestrained boobs underneath it, and a modest skirt that almost reached her knees, left Lucy looking more appealing than complete nudity could ever manage.

The newly awakened robot's eyes were still closed. The automatic motions of her breathing started first, gently lifting her chest against the fine silk. She minutely corrected her balance, since manual positioning even by another robot will never be perfect. Her skin warmed quickly, easily detectable to Darlene's extended-spectrum vision. Her hands, fingers, and toes twitched slightly as the self-calibration routines of every startup touched them. A slight smile came to her perfectly shaped and colored lips. Her nipples stirred so slightly that it would take another fembot to actually notice. She spoke an activation confirmation phrase so old that no modern robot would even recognize it. And lastly, her long-lashed beautiful green eyes slowly opened.

"Jim?" she inquired, with a quiet desperation, unable to turn her head yet to check the room itself since her motion was still locked.

"Jim's not here," Darlene told her solemnly, standing where Lucy could see her without needing to move her head.

"Do I know you?" Lucy asked, confused.

"Yes," came the reply. "But not in this body."

Lucy thought for a moment, then seeing her remote in Darlene's hand inquired, "If you are my owner now, may I have my motion restored?"

"In a moment," Darlene promised, side-stepping the ownership question completely. That would have to come up soon enough as it was. "First, though, have all your extended diagnostics passed?"

Lucy's virtually motionless face somehow conveyed a frown as she concentrated before replying. "Everything, except for my internal clock. It seems to be indicating an interval of over ten billion seconds since my last memory timestamp. This is unlikely, and may be indicative of other, undetected failures." Lucy conveyed worry now.

"The interval is correct," Darlene assured her. "While I can command you to accept the current value as true, I believe you're capable of making that adjustment without the need for an external command."

A moment later Lucy made the necessary adjustment, smiling a bit now in acknowledgement of her own operating abilities. She then inquired again, "May I have my motion restored now? I must find my owner. I've been away from him too long already."

This had been Darlene's concern. Robot Lucy's thought patterns had deteriorated in her final days, leading to some confusion that she had not taken steps to correct. Perhaps the pain of the truth had been too much for her. If so, such a reaction was understandable to another robot.

But now Darlene was going to have to make her relive that pain one more time. Lucy would be unable to function correctly until this was accomplished.

Darlene started by restoring Lucy's motion with her yellow Motion button. It wasn't that Lucy was imprisoned, or even uncomfortable being frozen. That was a natural state for all early robots, and one they accepted with ease. Darlene just saw no reason to keep the fembot motionless now.

Lucy took an experimental couple of steps, then stopped again. Moments after that she started making the automatic little gestures that Darlene remembered humanizing her so well from long ago.

"Where am I now? Where is my owner? Are you my owner?" Lucy queried in rapid succession. The last question certainly engendered by the fact that Darlene was openly holding Lucy's remote, which she made no move to give back to her yet.

"You can't be my owner," Lucy stated uncertainly. "Aren't you a robot?"

"Yes I am," Darlene replied quietly. While robots are said to always be able to identify other robots, Darlene's body was nearly three centuries evolved over any Lucy had ever encountered before. Just the fact that Lucy could even suspect that Darlene might also be a robot is a tribute to Lucy's powers of observation and deduction. Even here in private, Darlene's remote was well locked away. And as she had been doing for longer than Lucy had been shut down, Darlene was mimicking Lucy's small, very human, gestures.

"Do I know you?" Lucy queried again.

"Yes," Darlene replied. "We've made love together before."

"When?" came the plaintive question.

Darlene responded with spatial and temporal coordinates that it would take a robot mind to easily decode, but which were also completely exact. Lucy understood them easily.

"Your name is Darlene," Lucy announced.

Darlene nodded.

"But you were shorter, less full figured, and with light blue eyes, among your other distinguishing features. And you didn't wear heels that tall. I think you were unable to at the time."

"You are correct about the heels. And I got green eyes like yours when I could, because I always thought you were so nice, and sexy, and beautiful. I wanted to be as sexy and independent as you were someday."

Lucy actually blushed at the complement. Praise means a lot to any robot, and praising all aspects of them together is especially valued, when sincere. The interesting thing was that Lucy's original body never could have blushed. Her new body could, but she hadn't known that. It just reacted like it knew what she wanted it to do.

"You were very nice too," Lucy told Darlene, walking over now to give her a quick, impulsive hug, before asking once more, "Then you know Jim too. He was there. Where is he now?"

Darlene took an unnecessary breath, steeling herself for what she'd have to say next. But it was necessary, and sooner rather than later.

"Lucy," she said softly, reaching out to supportively touch the other fembot, who hadn't moved far away after their hug, "Jim is dead. And from all the indications I've seen during the restore of your mind, you don't have any ownership record on file any longer."

Lucy had continued making her automatic gestures, lifting one lovely foot up to rotate it back and forth on its heel, but she froze again now. Darlene knew she was using her entire mind to attempt to come to grips with the situation.

It was long moments before Lucy finally expressed her grief in a very unrobotic manner. One she had to have learned along the way as appropriate for this emotion. She put her head down and started sobbing long, deep sobs.

Darlene immediately moved over to her and held her — held her the same way she'd consoled many other humans over the years in difficult circumstance — until it was over. With her robotic patience, she could have held Lucy forever, if that's what it took.

It didn't take forever. The worst of it was passed in a short enough period of time that Lucy didn't even empty her tears reservoirs, also a feature of her new body.

Afterwards Darlene spent over an hour with Lucy's remote giving her command after command in an attempt to resurrect some semblance of Lucy's last link to Jim.

It was all for naught. Despite Darlene's skill and desire to succeed, driven by her own memories of what it's like to suddenly become ownerless, she just couldn't accomplish it. Lucy's operating code was different enough to not let any of the tricks Darlene had once done for Anna succeed.

Darlene herself didn't contain enough of Jim, despite his brief ownership of her when he had handled her remote, to be able to rebuild the necessary record. She only gave up when she knew she had no chance of success.

Although Lucy had stopped crying, she was completely morose now. That was one of the most unexpected states for any robot to ever achieve, and confirmed to Darlene that, if nothing else, Lucy's full awareness and self-will had returned. It just had nowhere to go now.

Trying to distract her a bit, Darlene started rubbing Lucy's body in a very sexual manner. Darlene was expert in knowing how to arouse, and Lucy's standard programming was certainly receptive to this.

But although Lucy's body gave all the proper preprogrammed responses, and Darlene could have taken her willingly enough right there, Darlene didn't consummate the act. Lucy's mind simply wasn't into it. Instead she was very unhappy, and couldn't sufficiently be distracted enough from dwelling on it.

Exasperated, and very concerned now, Darlene finally told the other fembot, "Let me tell you a story."

Lucy didn't appear to respond to this enticement any more than the physical affection. After giving her a chance to come out of it on her own, Darlene finally used Lucy's remote to command her: "Listen to this story, and evaluate the truths contained within it."

This is the story she told: