“To put it simply, the industry will soon be upgrading to both larger and more efficient tanks for the production of AI guided robots.... the tanks will, eventually we hope, be able to create life sized humanoid robots for matters of everyday convenience.”
It was a boring day, at my boring job, sitting alone in the waiting room for someone to order flowers. Although I had to admit that the news was interesting, I was dubious how true it was.
“Are there any worries that autonomous robots could be a problem? Like in the movies?”
“Ah, at this stage, there are no worries. We have created robots able to do short functions, but as of right now they have a short lifespan. We are hoping that with an upgrade to larger tanks, they will survive for longer before their power runs out.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Put simply, our process works with nanobots. Nothing too sophisticated, but the nanobots are able to embed themselves into the robot we have created. Then, together on all of them we share the programming. The problem so far is, they are very weak to electric shocks, and we can only get our robots to move for an hour at most. They also seem to lose their memory, including our original settings, if they run out of juice....”
“I see, so how will larger tanks assist this? I've heard there was quite the large donation recently.”
“Right! Its all thanks to that donation that we're able to proceed here. Plus, our research with nanobots will be used in the medical field as well. Put simply, before now we've had to put each separate part in a tank and soak it, making the process quite long and frustrating. We believe that soaking the robot as a whole in the nanobot fluid may allow it to last longer. And once we have longer lasting charges, we can begin working on a more portable charging system.”
“How long after you get them to remain animated will it take to program them? Will they seem human at all in their movements?”
“Well... we're not particularly worried about that. We have an entire team working on that already, and--”
Click.
“Yo, Kou. You've got a delivery.”
It was my boss, an attractive but cranky older woman and mother who ran this flower shop. I had to hand it to the news, this time I had actually been distracted by it. If only I would be able to afford any of those servants, even if they did work. It would probably cost a fortune, even in upkeep. They sure didn't sound very self sustainable.
“Got it, I'm off then.”
I nod to my boss and grab the bouquet in question, rushing out the back door.
Only a week later, I would be very glad I paid attention to the news that day.
It was luck, just a coincidence, at most. On top of my job delivering bouquets to people, I also have college and a job with a magazine. That magazine asks me from time to time to get pictures of places, events, or people within about a four hour drive of my place. I'm studying photography in college, and having my pictures featured in a magazine is great publicity. It was that day that I visited that research center I saw on television just a week before.
“Hello, may I take a few photo's for my magazine? Perhaps a small interview with one of your researchers?” I ask politely at the front, looking very much like the typical photographer for just about any magazine with my fancy camera. I wait for a good half hour, but then they let me in.
My first impression is that I'm not very impressed with the size of the facility, but I'm already imagining how I can make the photo's exaggerate it. Like, if I did a focus shot of the tank, it'll make it look like its in a huge room. Maybe imply a lot of other tanks. Then I can get a shot of their work table with the whiteboard behind it and make that seem like a separate room. I'm still sizing up their facilities when the same researcher I saw on TV walks up to me.
“Hello, I heard you wanted to take photo's for a magazine?”
“Ah! Yes, my name is Kou, its nice to meet you.” I shake the researchers offered hand, smiling at him. “You're Ishida correct? I saw you on television the other day.”
The man instantly brightens up, giving me a very happy smile. “Right, the more publicity we get the better! Are you also going to be writing an article...?”
“Ah, I'm supposed to ask a few questions for one, but I'm not writing it myself.” They're always disappointed to hear I'm not writing the article, but the magazine I work for can't have their writers going everywhere. “I'm just taking photos, is there anything you would like me to focus on?”
“This tank, for sure.” Ishida walks over to the big tank by the wall. “Should I be in the photo?”
“Sure.” The tank is indeed huge, its a good three feet taller than Ishida himself. He could fit on the inside and still have a foot between his head and the ceiling. And, its wide too. I take a few shots. “If you like, you can assemble your team at the table and I can get a few snaphots of that.”
Ishida shakes his head. “They're all in the other room, assembling the robot that's going into that tank tomorrow to charge. Unfortunately, I can't show you that process.....”
“I understand, it is a research center after all. I've dealt with these policies before.”
We seem to get along pretty well, and before I know it we're both sitting at the desk he has, discussing his project. The discussion is fairly boring, he doesn't say any more to me than he did on the television, and seems to scratch the back of his head whenever he's hinting he can't say anything on a certain topic. Before I know it, an hour has passed and our conversation has meandered far off the beaten path. My notes are well done, and I've snapped a few more photos.
Our goodbyes are polite, but on my way out, I notice something very, very interesting. The guards are both outside the gate dealing with other reporters, and I see the trash lying. Immediately, I eye a smaller version of the tube from inside, two of them in fact. I stop my car and after a small moment of hesitation, rush and put them into my back seat. I'm almost about to get into my drivers seat when I see a box with the brand of the company that makes nanobots. I grab the hefty box, and together the three things completely fill my back seat. I cover it all with a blanket and get to my front seat just in time to drive by the guards.
Did I just steal something?
The thought echoes through my mind on the long drive home. It occurs to me now, and only now, that the tubes are likely only meant to activate the nanobots. If the box contains none, what I have just grabbed is useless. Adding onto this, how exactly do they work? Would I even be able to power them? The cords coming out of those tubes, which are set on a thick base almost like an out of date video game console, are thick and have unfamiliar ending. I'm pretty sure though, that I have a place it'll plug into at home, where there used to be a hot tub.
So, I can run the machine. I have no idea how to work it though. Or, again, if I have everything I need. Or what I'll even accomplish by running it.
Most of all, I have no robot. Nor any idea or expertise on how to make one. What I've taken is completely useless without that. At most, I can use it to satisfy my curiosity, but I doubt I can even throw it out now that its taken. It wasn't with their regular trash.
If they have security camera's, I'm more than screwed. For all I know, I'll hit a police blockade, or come home to find some policeman, or worse at my house. Who knows why they'd assume I had taken it. I personally didn't think I looked suspicious, but not suspicious people didn't just go and steal something on a whim like that!
The entire drive home was a mess of paranoid pointless worries, and when I got home to find everything completely normal it almost worried me more. I checked the house thoroughly, confirming all of the locks before going outside to view the heavy duty plug for the hot tub. It wasn't viewable by my neighbors or the street thankfully, so I'd only have to worry about guests. It was just outside my private bathroom.
Already hatching a plan, I returned to my car and brought all of them in. I set one of the devices on the windows shelf, thankful it was large enough to contain it, and then throw the cord out the window. It barely reaches, and the lights dim in my house for a moment when I plug it in.
I turn off the machine once I'm inside, worried that I may already have irreparably damaged it by letting it just turn on like that. All of the little lights on the front were green though. The futility of what I'm doing rises like a pit in my chest once more, but I ignore it. I grab the box next, and bring it into the free space in my room to open.
Immediately, I wonder just how lucky I really am. There are a number of green gel sacs, about the size of my hand each, marked nanobots. Almost the top half of the box is filled with them. After carefully moving those over to the side of the box, I find another strange appliance. This one is open in the top, and has a clear marking on it as a charging bay. Surprisingly, there are also a lot of handwritten notes, and a few heavy duty flash drives. I grab the notebook closest to the wide and heavy appliance and begin reading it.
All nanobots must be charged in the charging bay with the proper OS before being moved to the animation bay.... The life of the robot could be temporarily extended with soaking parts daily in the charging bay, but one large enough to hold a full robot would be too large a drain on the power... robots need to be made of light materials, so that the nanobots can move them properly and--
Wait.
The robots themselves aren't important?
A small plan begins hatching in my mind as I spend the next two hours reading several manuals, even pulling out my computer to look at the source code for many of the programs. Eventually, I grab my old laptop, too old and fragile now for me to take anywhere, and hook it up to the Animation bay. Instantly, I find programs being installed onto it for use of the animation bay. The charging bay seems to work by simply plugging in one of these usb's with the information on what it's supposed to do pre-coded into it.
For an experimental device, it's surprisingly dummy proof. And after examining the source codes of many different 'personality' files, I find myself almost feeling as if I could write one on my own. The AI allows the intelligence to learn, so all I need to do is specify what it's supposed to learn, in what order, and give it a small pool of pre-learned knowledge.
Then, the most exciting feature that they were working on was the ability to base the AI's mannerisms and personality off of a movie file. Put simply, they recorded themselves doing various action and had the AI examine them before being installed into the robot. The robot moved, acted, and talked like them. The only problem was the closer they got to the robot being lifelike, the shorter amount of time the nanobots worked.
It didn't need any internal parts, the nanobots would embed themselves into the robot, and move it by combined effort. A note even says in here that it could plausibly have military use, being able to force a person to do certain things. Its immediately followed by a statement that they wouldn't do anything of the sort though.
Its too much information to digest in one sitting, and my mind is already racing. There's one single glaring fact. One great burst of inspiration in my mind that's just begging to be answered. They soaked the parts one by one, maintaining them in the charging bay. Their solution, a larger tube.
Why not a smaller robot?
Perhaps because they were aiming for commercial life sized robots with the ability to do chores for people, they saw little point in making a smaller robot work, but what if it did! Couldn't a common figure, a toy, be animated? I wasn't a businessman, but the thought excited me. I happened to remember a gift, a joke, but a gift nonetheless from a friend that he had given me a few months back.
It was a figure, a collectible, called a figma. It had replaceable hands and faces, as well as many joints for it to be able to take any pose from the series it came from. Its name was Aigis, a robot character from a game I had played at his house a long time ago. She had short blonde hair and blue eyes, a headband that ended in her robotic ears. Her fingertips were metal, I remember her being able to shoot out of them in the original. And her hip and shoulder joints were obviously those of a robot. Instead of feet, her legs ended in almost pointed tips, I thought it would be impossible to balance this figure without the stand.
If I was going to animate something, why not a figure of a robot? If it worked, I could order more figures and animate something just a bit seriously. I unpackaged the figure for the first time and examined it inch by inch. I chose her happier face, wondering if it would be able to change after the nanobots had their way with it. It was almost four am when I finally realized the time and stopped working on the charging bay, trying to set up the program that Alpha, as I had dubbed my Aigis figure, would have to contain her personality within.
I finished up the program the charging bay was supposed to be giving to the nanobots and went to bed, the green glow of light coming through the gel I had deposited into the bay giving my room an undersea feeling to it.
Work ended, and I wasted no time in getting back home. Thankfully, the process I had begun the other day didn't take long and all of the nanobots were ready. I removed some for use in the animation bay, and placed Alpha inside of it. I knew I had a lot more work to do. I didn't have a video to base her off of, so I had to create the intelligence for her from scratch based on their program. Somehow, I still had this ominous feeling, like I was working under a time restraint. Like I could be arrested at any time. As I selected the tasks the nanobots would be doing, like making her joints more flexible and lifelike, and making her facial expressions adaptable and lifelike, the time estimated for the task to be completed became larger and larger. Even when I set it to use as much electricity as it needed, the end result was a week long wait for all of the things I had set it to do.
No wonder they had trouble doing it part by part, it took forever to run this thing. The idea of charging the whole smaller thing at once and reaching success was seeming more and more likely with each moment. I set the bots to make her skin more lifelike, for the face anyways, and also to give her hands complete dexterity. The most time consuming functions were the alterations on her face and hands. Her fingers had no joints, so it would be making those from scratch. Her face, naturally, could not move normally. I scanned the other two replacements as references and it had shown me the range of emotions she would be able to express in the end.
All of the parts would be binded and reinforced by the nanobots so that breaking her would be nearly impossible. Most of all it seemed that she would be really, really strong. Like an ant based on her size, she could probably carry things three times her weight after the nanobots were done with her. I had already been considering whether I'd need little ladders going throughout my house, and doggy doors, but with that maybe she could just climb to get around.
That's, of course, assuming she can move properly. But after the program quite easily adapted to make her body work like it described, my doubts in the process were fading. The only thing left to be tested was her ability for speech, and interaction. Would her voice be small and squeaky? Would she be hurt by loud sounds? Would she really be able to interact, or would I have to tell her each and every task she was supposed to do?
The last detail was, owners name. What to address him. I put in Master with a little hesitation and began the process. I had a week's wait now, just to find out whether or not it would work.
Nothing important at all happened that week, I was not hunted down by the FBI, for which I was thankful. The big green light was on that showed the process was complete, and now bubbles were running up through the nanobot liquid to aerate it. Inside, Alpha's hair was mobile with the bubbles, and her joints seemed to have fused together. I opened the computer to check for problems and found that everything had gone according to plan. I started the tank draining, the nanobots not in use being saved below the tube, and as the Alpha slowly lowered, she seemed to barely balance on the two tips of her feet in the tube, a hand moving out to steady herself.
Her eyes closed, I watched as she stretched her arms and legs, neck and shoulders, a small little light scanning her as the computer again stated that no problems were found. Slowly, she began to open her eyes. They were amazingly lifelike. I had been wondering why all of the research labs parts were grey, but now saw that the nanobots even added and aided pigment. It was like seeing the figure in high definition now that the green fluid was gone. A sudden burst of air up in the tube made her stagger inside, cleaning off the last of the excess liquid before the light turned green again.
I removed the tube from the console and moved it over, the robotic girl within seeming almost timid in the way she examined the room around her, me in the mirror, and me right there in front of her. I opened the top and reached my hand in, without hesitation she climbed onto it, standing with unsteady balance on my palm as I returned the tube to its proper place. A small yellow light told me it was recycling extra nanobots for the next part, but for now I had no intentions of animating anything new, or anything to animate even if I did.
Instead, I was distracted by the very lifelike nature of her eyes and movements. Though I knew she did not need to breath, her chest moved slightly as if she did have that need, and she blinked at all the appropriate times. A sharp clear voice rang out from her, I was so shocked that I didn't properly hear what she said. “So you can talk....” I mutter.
“Yes, I can master.” Her response is fast, intelligent. Not an automated response. “My programming indicates that I am to be aware that I am not a human myself, and that I am to be mostly for companionship purposes. Is that correct?”
I nod, wondering if after all of that work, she could really change her program at will. Perhaps those are the only options able to be changed, either way I had been certain when I set her program. “Maybe clean a little from time to time, but since you're so small....”
She seems to examine herself before her steady gaze returns to me. “Approximately five point eight inches.” She says. “With proper power usage, I should be able to remain online for about two weeks. One if I'm doing strenuous activity.”
Convenient, and good to know. “Could you just sleep in the charging bay every night to keep your energy full?”
“That would be recommended for the longevity of the nanobots.”
I nod. “Great... lets go to my room.”
I begin moving to my room, and the limits of her strange legs show immediately. She has to spread them and crouch on my hand to keep balanced, a single hand of hers laying against mine to support her as I move and sit on my bed. Once I've sit down, she sits on her knees and looks at me again.
What was supposed to happen now? My first urge is to take pictures of her. Proof that she exists, and just an interesting subject to photograph. That would get old quite fast though. Next of course is sexual thoughts. Those last a short time before I doubt I could do anything with a girl of her size. I wonder which would be larger if my dick was standing up next to her.
I've never been a sexual deviant. In fact, despite being twenty I'm still a virgin. I've done things, gotten and received oral sex, things like that. Thanks to my photography I've also seen more than my share of nude women, and was quite the voyeur when I was young. In truth, I've always been more interested in viewing the female form almost than in actually laying with it.
In fact, during high school that interest bordered on obsession. I could probably be jobless for a year just working off from the funds I got selling pictures of our classmates to other classmates. A surprisingly lucrative business, but a story for another time. I hadn't been able to continue my voyeur antics since high school, but I was realizing now that with this technology, I could really put it to good use....
I had seen kids use those helicopters with camera's to spy, jury rig a camera to a remote control toy, but such things were loud. I could only imagine that, as a computer created intelligence, Alpha could probably spy on someone completely unnoticed. A part of me reveled in all of the possibilities this had, another was disappointed. Did it only take me being alone with a female in my room, robot or not, to bring back all these perverted thoughts and intentions I had once repressed?
I considered calling my old partner in crime, named Cable, but immediately decided against it. He would give no good advice. He would only lure me into doing everything I was afraid I'd do, and then remove all feelings of guilt for it. He was manipulative and merciless. I honestly have to assume he's a sociopath, I've seen him do unspeakable things and not feel cruel for it even in the slightest.
Still....
“Do you have any programmed sense of right and wrong?”
Her response was immediate. “I do recognize moral values, but am not restricted by them.”
Immediately, her wording redirected my thought processes away from strapping a wireless camera to her arm to more short term gratification. “Have you been... programmed for sexual use at all?” I find myself asking.
“... At a normal size, yes. In this size, I am unsure how to accomplish that....” She boldly spreads her legs and points between them. “I also lack genitalia, in this form. Not that anything could fit with my size.”
She almost seems bashful, the way they designed her was amazing. My analytical mind works for a moment to figure out whether they would all get bashful like this, or whether it was based on some cue of mine, but of course is cut off by hormones.
“I could attempt if you like, Master.”
There's no hesitation at all, I nod. A surprising blush spreads across her face, and she seems to take a deep breath. She hops onto my shirt as I undo my pants, and then pushes it up to give herself more room as I lean back against my pillows.
Both of us seem to be eying the situation, as my penis is around the same size as her. How one pleasures something the same size as them is beyond me, but she doesn't hesitate. Walking up to hug the shaft, I'm amazed at the softness of her breasts and stomach as she rubs her entire body against me. She tries to use her arms to stroke me, but the motion is to gentle to do much, and on the very tips of her pointed feet she just barely is able to kiss the top of its tip.
It feels amazing, but both of us are definitely able to see its limitations. Even with her hands gently scratching, her soft and warm body gently pressing, its going to be hard for me to finish with just this. Again with little hesitation, she gently moves to the other side of it, legs spread around my cock, ass over my balls, and surprisingly warm crotch pressed to my cock. With a movement involving her entire body, legs pushing up as her arms do, and then pulling down, she manages to stroke me.
Though still not comparable to the pressure of a real persons hand, including my own, her strength is amazing. So is her knowledge of how much she can use, and where a mans sensitive spots are. To my embarrassment, I actually begin to let out small whimpers when she begins licking at the glans as she strokes. She herself lets out small moans, apparently pleasured by her crotch rubbing against me, and it only adds to the effect.
The pleasure when I finish is like a lightning bolt going up my spine from the strange combination of stimulus. It shoots straight up, and thanks to the angle she's forcing my cock into, entirely covers her and the tip of my cock. If she were a real breathing human, she would surely suffocate under the heavy layers of cum. Instead she strokes a few final times, then feebly moves up to sit on my leg, arms wiping from her face so she can look at me.
The urge to try pleasuring her hits me almost immediately, her realistic flushed face and heaving chest compel me to. I reach and pick her up, sitting up and gently setting her on the desk. Confusion on her face lasts only for a second before she understands. With one hand on her, I gently press my thumb between her legs and rub down on her, making sure not to exert too much pressure.
The result is immediately, held back my only my hand, she writhes with pleasure and lets out miniature adorable moans. I begin stroking myself again furiously as her hips arch up into my thumb, and she kisses the tip of my middle finger.
Its the sight of her cumming, hips shaking and quivering as she lets out a high pitched moan, that makes me shoot my final load all over her. She continues shaking and grinding against my thumb for several moments, but then collapses on the desk with heavy breaths and a dark blush.
I haven't cum that hard in a long time. I have to lean against the wall a few moments while the blood returns to the rest of my body, and then I pick her up to go wash the cum off of both of us. A simple tissue clean isn't enough for the amount I did, and it takes me about ten minutes to finish cleaning. By then, her breath is normal, but her cheeks are still a light pink color.
“So... that's pleasurable for you?” I find myself asking.
She nods. “It feels good. Just because I'm programmed doesn't mean I don't feel things like that....”
I believe her immediately. I feel as if, had she not been an action figure themed as a robot, I would have had difficulty not treating and believing her to be a real human. I need to get more figures, most definitely. “Lets do that some more then, tomorrow.” She blushes a slightly deeper red, and then nods. “Can you get in and out of the charging bay yourself?” I ask, thinking of the hassle it would be to place and remove an entire harem of figure girls every night and morning.
She nods though. “I can.”
“Then goodnight... I'll see you in the morning.”
We both crawl into our respective sleeping places, and though I feel a bit embarrassed to be saying it to an AI, I say “Sweet dreams.” Before rolling over to sleep. A smile on my face.
The next morning, I wake up to the sound of sirens.