Chapter 1 - Delivery
“Just sign here and I’ll leave it with you. Let you get acquainted. Remember, read the manual before you switch it on.”
Taking his signed receipt, the delivery diver left, walked rather too briskly back to his truck, raised the tail-lift and drove off. Colin turned to look at the wooden packing case occupying most of the free floor space in his living room. Even with all the furniture pushed back to the wall, a box bigger than a coffin takes up a lot of space. Stapled to the top of the packing crate was an envelope marked “OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS - IMPORTANT - READ BEFORE OPENING CASE FOR FIRST TIME”. Colin pulled out the manual and wandered into the kitchen to put on the kettle.
’It is vitally important that you read this manual before you open the packing case to your new Model X-36. When the case is opened for the first time the initial power-on sequence will begin and the unit will imprint on the first human male that it recognises as such. Although the later settings and learning can be reset back to the factory settings, the initial imprint will hard burn a programmed path in the Model X-36 AI unit.
THIS CAN NOT BE ALTERED.
If the process is not successful then the unit must be destroyed, at your cost. This is a requirement of state and federal laws in your jurisdiction.’
Colin sipped his coffee and perused the rest of the manual. There was far too much to take in at one sitting. He decided to absorb the first few salient points and then wing it. How hard could it be? The Model X-36 was supposed to be one of the world’s most advanced AI systems. It was supposed to be the physical embodiment of the AI character he’d been chatting to for the last six months. The character, the person, he’d come to know as Melanie and come to think of as real. This was her, Melanie, the voice of the avatar he’d spent so much time talking to, and had so many dreams of. And here she was, in the body he had dreamt of and tried to describe in a specification sheet. It, she’d, looked so perfect in the mock-up images. But this was her, here, real. Forever.
So, he thought, open the box, wait ten seconds and say, "Hello Melanie, my name is Colin” He’d already gotten used to Melanie, hopefully, he could train it, her, to respond to just Mel.
The next two warnings caught his eye.
'SafeWords: In the event of an emergency say clearly “CONTROL ALT DELETE”. The Model X-36 will immediately stop moving and release all gripped objects.
Factory Reset: In the event of the Model X-36 becoming unresponsive or uncooperative, the phrase “CONTROL ALT DELETE RESET” will remove all AI learning EXCEPT THE INITIAL IMPRINTING.'
Right, thought Colin, that’s enough, time to open this baby up.
The lid turned out to be very well secured and it took him some time to remove the thirty-six screws and then haul off the lid. He looked inside.
A sheet covered the body but he could already see the form. He reached in and removed the retaining straps. As he did so, his hand brushed the side of the body, it was warm to the touch, body temperature warm.
It was time for the big reveal, he braced himself and pulled off the sheet.
“Hello, Melanie, my name is C-Colin.” he stammered.
There was a pause and he was just about to repeat himself when her eyes opened and she stood up.
“Hello C-Colin, my name is Melanie, I’m pleased to meet you. I am a Model X-36 Companion, Assembly Number X36 dash 11025. I am to be your companion. What would you like me to do?”
Colin stepped back and looked at what a year’s salary and steep monthly maintenance payments had cost him. To be fair, she did look much better than he had expected. He was already thinking of it, as a her. The way she stood up was so fluid and human looking, only now, as she stood stock still, did it look unnatural, but the chest rose and fell as if breathing.
“Can you step out of the crate and go and sit on the sofa?”
“Yes, C-Colin, I can do that.”
Melanie was apparently going to take speech very literally.
“Okay Melanie, please get out of the crate and go and sit on the sofa. And my name is Colin, the way you spoke it was a replication of my stammer.”
Melanie stepped easily over the crate side and walked barefoot and silently to the sofa, turned and sat down.
“Stammer, a speech impediment causing missounding words, reprocessing. Please repeat your name correctly, four times.”
“Colin Colin Colin Colin,” repeated Colin, feeling subconscious and stupid.
“Hello Colin, my name is Melanie, I’m pleased to meet you. I am a Model X-36 Companion, assembly number X36 dash 11025. I am to be your companion. What would you like me to do?”
“Stand up, turn around and then sit down again.”
Melanie rose, turned around and then resumed her position on the sofa.
She was nearly as tall as him, slim but not skinny, and her long, blond hair hung down her back to below her waist. The face was charming but currently somewhat blank in expression. Colin had spent many hours pouring over the company’s online catalogue, selecting a figure and features that looked good together. There had been a very large range to choose from and he had chosen this model with a face with character, rather than blandness. Melanie definitely had a nose, not big or angular, but not small and diminutive, either. Colin looked at her. What he could see was a young version of Cher, after a nose job and with bigger tits. Much bigger tits. Oh yes, he thought, I chose well. He assumed the body was faultless, why wouldn’t it be, how could it not be? Currently, it was enclosed in a one-piece, black jumpsuit, with a zip that ran from neck to crotch. He stood and looked at his purchase. He knew the small print. He’d imprinted it now, it was his for life, his, and no refund was available. The unit could be returned but no refund would ever be forthcoming, just a cancellation of future payments.
Melanie didn’t move. I hope I haven’t just bought the world’s most expensive blow-up doll, he thought. He also wondered exactly what he had bought and moved towards her, intending to unzip the jumpsuit. Something stopped him. It felt like an invasion of privacy. No, it’s only a machine, a machine I have paid for, he told himself. No, you need to treat her/it like a person, his internal monologue continued, if you want to form a relationship with her/it, that’s what you paid for, and stop calling her, it. Besides it’s her, my Melanie. Colin stopped and stepped back. Somehow he couldn’t connect the physical presence, here, in his room, in front of him, with the online person that his mind had created an image of. Obviously, having your mind create an image and then having a factory create that image as a physical reality produced two very different things.
“Melanie, is there anything you want, or need?”
“I require one point five litres of water. After twenty minutes of absorption, if I am to perform sexual functions, I need to perform oral sex in order to obtain protein for reprocessing. After a further twenty minutes of absorption and processing, I will be fully charged and ready and capable of performing all my duties and services, Colin. If you are unable to provide semen, there is a starter pack of protein supplements in my packing case. Page twenty-seven of the manual also requires you to install my recharging coils under the bedsheet of my sleeping bed, Colin.”
“Your sleeping bed?” asked Colin, suddenly wondering if he needed to provide another bed. Where was that going to go in this small flat?
“The bed that I am to use to sleep in, or the side of the bed that I am to use, if we are to share a bed. Colin.”
“Oh, do you require sleep? And where are these recharge coils?”
“I am a self-aware AI unit in a Model X-36 Companion body. The body requires four hours of recharge connection per twenty-four hours. This time is extended if the unit is in use whilst charging.”
“OK, so, coils on your side of the bed. Right, let me get you that water first. Follow me.”
Colin headed for the kitchen and Melanie rose and followed him.
In the kitchen, Colin showed her around, which took seconds.
“Cups, mugs, here, glasses here. Plates and crockery in here, cutlery in here, pans and things in that cupboard. Cooker, sink, fridge, washing machine and dryer through that door in the laundry. Here, I’ll fill a jug with water and you get a glass.”
As Colin filled a two-litre measuring jug from the tap, he watched Melanie from the corner of his eye. She moved smoothly to the appropriate cupboard and selected a middy glass.
He passed her the jug and watched as she filled the glass and emptied it. The drinking action was remarkably lifelike, no, it was lifelike, she was swallowing the water, not just tipping it into a receptacle. Melanie refilled the glass and emptied it six times in a row.
“Wow, you’ll be a star in a drinking contest.”
“I have a capacity limit of two litres. Colin.”
“Yes, but can you drink alcohol?”
“Yes, I can drink alcohol, it has no effect on my operation and my reclamation unit can extract and process the alcohol as fuel. Colin.”
“Oh, yes, we are going to have to get you a driving license.”
“Day One Cybernetic Corporation has provided me with a driving license that covers all states and territories under the AI Autonomous Vehicle legislation. I have a working knowledge of 2500 makes and models of passenger vehicles. Colin.”
“I hadn't realised that. Oh, this just gets better. Let’s go find your charging unit and put it on the bed. You will be sharing a bed with me. You don’t mind?”
“I am designated as your partner, I am imprinted to you. Did you not intend me to be your sleeping partner, Colin?”
“Yes, yes, I was just checking. Can you please stop appending my name to the end of every sentence? It sounds forced.”
“Yes.”
“Now that just sounds odd. Can you not use a random term of endearment, sometimes?”
“Yes, I can, dearest.”
“Now, that sounds better, Mel. I shall call you Mel as a shortened version of Melanie, sometimes. Is that OK?”
“I will respond to either name, now, dearest.”
Colin sat down at the kitchen table, stood up and pulled out a chair for Melanie. She looked at him and when he gestured, she sat down.
“Thank you, dear”
Colin sat down and smiled at her. Melanie smiled back. Suddenly, Colin didn’t know what to say and felt embarrassed by the uncomfortable silence. How do you strike up a conversation with an android? This didn’t feel like online chatting. What’s more, this android had none of the charm or fluidity of speech that his Melanie, Melanie-online, had had.
“Shall we go and sort out your charging equipment? Where is it? I’ve not seen it?”
“The Charging Platform and connecting lead are in my packing case. I was laying on them, dearest.”
“Melanie, you don’t need to add a term of endearment each time you speak, just sometimes. And sometimes you can use my name at the start of a sentence, especially when it is a question.”
“My AI will learn and adapt, following your speech patterns. I will mimic the way you talk to me. Confirm if you do not want the adaptive process to continue. Changing at a later date requires a reset and loses other training.”
Wow, thought Colin, I need to be very careful here. She’ll literally speak to me as I speak to her.
“Okay, my dear, I agree with you continuing with the adaptive process. But what happened to the Melanie character that I knew online?”
“Full integration will only occur once you have completed the Sexual Response Setup, as described in the manual.”
“Okay, let’s go and look in your packing case for your charger, after you,” said Colin, already regretting not spending more time with the manual.
Standing up, Colin gestured back toward the living room and Melanie followed the direction. He looked at her backside in the tight jumpsuit, enjoying the way it moved as she walked. He was about to stop himself when the realisation came. I’ve spent months talking to the AI online. She knows me and all about me. Now it, or she, is in a physical body, her purpose here is as my companion, my partner, a sexual partner. If I grow to love and desire her, that fulfils and validates her purpose. She has no free will in this, her system is set to learn desire and she is bonded to me. She has no choice. That’s either bad if you consider an AI a sentient being, or not if you consider it like a normal person who sees someone and finds them desirable. You don’t have a lot of choice over whom you like or don’t like in the world of love. Take sexuality, it may be part genetic, part environment, but it still determines who you like and who you fall in love with, what is the difference, really? Satisfied with this rationalisation, Colin looked again. Melanie really did have a very nice arse, firm and pert but enough to get hold of comfortably.
Melanie had reached the packing case and was standing beside it. Colin walked up behind her and placed a hand on each of her buttocks. Melanie didn’t flinch, in fact, she showed no response at all.
“Do you mind if I do this?” asked Colin.
“No, dear, not if it gives you pleasure.”
“Melanie, does it give you pleasure?”
“If it gives you pleasure, then it is rewarding to me.”
“Yes, that’s not what I asked. Do you experience pleasure?”
“I still need my Sexual Response Setup performing before I can respond properly, however I will develop capacity as my AI ages, it is interpretive rather than preconfigured.”
I’m going to have to work out what that actually means, thought Colin, dropping his hands and rearranging the position of his rapidly hardening cock in his sweatpants.
“It appears that you have been sexually stimulated by touching me, I need a protein intake before I can perform coitus. Would you like me to fellate you now?” Melanie’s face appeared to have the beginning of a smile.
Ignoring the question, Colin hastily stepped around her and looked into the crate. Towards one end, between where her feet would have been, was a carry-all type bag. He lifted it out.
“What’s in here, Mel?”
“It is a starter kit of clothing. Some lingerie, a dress and clothes for doing housework in. Boxes of protein supplements. I arrive equipped for a range of initial duties.”
A dress, clothes for housework, lingerie, and a range of initial duties. Colin let that sink in. He lifted it out and passed it to her.
“If you carry that, we can take it to the bedroom and you can put them away in your side of the wardrobe.”
Melanie took the heavy bag effortlessly and just looked at him, absorbing the information but not expressing any opinion. Colin reached back down and pulled up the bottom of the case. What he had assumed was just packing material turned out to be a wired blanket, somewhat like an electric blanket but with many more wires stitched into it. A power cable led to a power supply box and on again to a plug.
“This must be your recharger. Let’s go and fit it to the bed. This way, dear.”
With the charger under one arm, Colin held out a hand. Melanie took it. Her grip was warm and gentle, her hand felt like flesh to his touch, as he led her to the bedroom.
