One
Jaxon’s footsteps echoed around the empty halls, his gaze scanning the place as he walked followed by his assistant and tried not to touch anything. The dirty floor, the dusty tables, he could hear a few dogs barking in the distance, the continuous sound of drops falling to the floor. Everything was just a mess. The lady walking in front of them seemed to not be bothered by any of these things, kind of expected since she was one of the few employees left of the shelter. She guided them towards the back of the building like nothing was happening and Jaxon wasn’t sure he liked it.
“You see, Mr. Brown, this facility is going to close soon, and we only have about five left,” she explained like she could hear what he was thinking. They walked down a long hall until they reached a door to what Jaxon believed was a warehouse. The lady pulled a set of keys from her back pocket, entering a key and turning it slightly to open the door. When it didn’t budge Jaxon thought of suggesting using another key; however it soon made a shrieking noise, opening at just a little force.
He didn’t say anything as they made their way inside, the musty smell soon filling his nostrils. She turned on a light that did nothing to illuminate the area; Jaxon managed to sort of see what was inside. A mountain of metal parts, just piled in the middle of the room, greeted him. Metal arms and legs, torsos, heads. More than a sheltered warehouse, it looked like a junkyard.
From time to time Jaxon took it upon himself to visit some warehouses, where forgotten and discarded androids were taken. Sometimes they would get re-sold, but there were times when they ended like this, just a bunch of metal deemed useless. Jaxon knew otherwise. On his expeditions he would always buy something, usually taking it back to his company and fixing it to sell again at a much higher price. That earned him the nickname of ‘android angel,’ saving what he could and what he couldn’t, then they would look for a different opportunity to be reused.
Androids were a very expensive acquisition, of course, depending on the task they were created to do. His company was dedicated to making them from scratch, and he had the best team in South Korea, making the best androids in the market. However, from a few years on, he decided buying old androids and fixing them to sell once again was also very profitable. Not everyone could afford a brand-new bot, and even when he would sell it for higher than what he bought it for, the price was okay to the general public.
He dedicated himself to visiting places like this, looking for what could still be recycled and putting it to function again.
“The androids are in the back,” she informed, guiding him behind the pile of junk to where five androids were standing, obviously turned off. Some were missing some parts but nothing too tragic that couldn’t be fixed. The first android had bright blonde hair, average height, the nose was well done, but it was missing an arm. Jaxon figured that could easily be fixed. “This is model BH4. The software works well. The owners left it here after its arm broke and they didn’t have money for repairs.”
Jaxon nodded, giving it another look and then moving on to the next one. This one needed a leg.
“Model YX10, almost the same case. There was also a glitch in its software,” she looked down the list and Jaxon nodded once again. They went down a few more until the last one. “Model KS12, really good conditions, however according to the previous owner it’s defective. Apparently the software doesn’t run well.”
Jaxon took a look at the bot. Its features were pretty well done, full lips, black hair covering its head. He couldn’t really see the skin details with the poor light, but he was sure it was fine. It looked like a high-quality brand. Jaxon turned to his assistant, James, pointing at the androids.
“Buy them all, and also tell the boys to check this pile and see what can be taken,” he instructed.
“Yes, sir,” James said, pulling his cellphone and giving instructions as soon as someone picked up on the other end. Jaxon made his way back with the lady to settle the paperwork. They moved into a back-office that looked neater than the rest of the building at least. Jaxon looked through the papers, signing them and giving James a copy of them, for him to pay for the bots and the parts.
“When will they be at the lab?” Jaxon asked. He wanted to start working on them right away.
“The bots will be there today, the parts more than likely starting tomorrow, after they pick the ones that can be used,” James responded, walking behind Jaxon towards their car.
“Perfect. Cancel the rest of my meetings. I want to inspect the process.”
“No problem, sir.”
And with that Jaxon was moving back to his office.
Later that afternoon, Jaxon was walking around the halls of Brown Tech, employees greeting him maybe for the third time as they saw him, and Jaxon returned the gesture slightly. He usually had a private route to head down to the lab; however, there were times he would use this one, just to keep the employees on their toes. He had received a call about the bots already getting repaired, so he wanted to look at the process. He still had a ton of paperwork waiting for him inside his office, but he could take care of that later.
He had his lab technician check on the androids; according to their recent report two of them could be sent already to get properly repaired. Jaxon walked into the lab after typing in the access code on the door. His eyes wandered around until he spotted the bots and the techs working on them, then approached them. Jaxon watched as Miles ran some tests on them, updating their software if needed, running a virus scan, replacing the software also. Androids worked like normal computers technically. Miles was one of the best technicians in the country. If he couldn’t fix it, then probably nobody else could.
“How is that going?” Jaxon asked. Miles flinched a little, as he was completely focused on his job and was not expecting any visits. He brushed his blonde hair back, glancing at Jaxon for a moment before going back to the task in his hands.
“It’s going,” Miles responded. He pointed at the one he was currently working on. “We gave BH4 a temporary arm and updated its system. KS12 and this one were originally made to be boyfriend bots; YX10 was an idol bot. We could set them all as boyfriend bots.”
“SM is asking for one so if you could get this one as good as new, we could add it to the offer,” Jaxon informed. YX10 had a handsome face, so more than likely it would make a popular idol.
“Okay. KS12 had errors and its system was outdated. The outside is almost perfect but it’s still glitchy no matter what I do,” Miles mentioned. They both turned to look at the bot in question. Now in this light, Jaxon could see its features perfectly. It also had a very handsome face. The skin detail was very well done; it could almost pass as human skin, but with the software issue more than likely, he wouldn’t be able to sell it.
Throwing away a bot like this would be such a waste. Especially with such good conditions. Jaxon’s eyes were glued to the bot. Somehow to him, out of the rest, this one stood out the most. He could easily deal with a glitch. However, clients wouldn’t be as pleased.
“That’s fine. Just finish what you can and send it over to my residence. I’ll keep it.” It wasn’t the first time he had done something like this. He had a butler bot back at home that he just couldn’t sell at all, and instead of scrapping it, Jaxon decided to take it home himself. So far, he was very satisfied with Sebastian.
He had no idea what he would do with a boyfriend bot, but he would figure it out.
“Sure. Do you want me to install any mods, or would you like to do that yourself?” Miles looked down at the tablet in his hands, checking on the installation in process.
“I’ll do it. We have a lot of downloadable content and mods for boyfriend bots.” He smiled. It could even be fun.
“Yes, sir. Consider it done then.” Miles went back to work and Jaxon decided it was best to not bother him any longer. As he was walking out, he looked over his shoulder at KS12, its eyes closed as he was updated. He would have to get clothes for it and also a name.
It would be fun.
Jaxon finished a few reports before stretching. It was already very late, and his head was starting to hurt slightly. Looking at the time he noticed it was almost seven. Running Brown Tech was never easy, but it was fun, nevertheless. When he started, he loved the idea of giving people something comparable to a Sim. People could adjust their personality traits, picking from a very large variety; they could download mods or any other official DLC to make their bots more interesting.
At first, he thought it was only going to be a way of entertainment, but it ended up being something way bigger than that.
There were bots working at different businesses, calculating data faster than any human could. Idol bots were used all the time by the entertainment companies, although that was mostly kept in secret. Police bots, boyfriend bots, chef bots… There were so many things they could do that Jaxon was always so surprised.
He even had bots as customer service.
It was incredible.
He dropped his papers. He could do them tomorrow. For now, he had a relatively new bot waiting for him at home, ready to be played with. He stretched once again, grabbing his keys and his cellphone, and left his office. He gave James a nod as he made his way to the elevator and from there down to the underground parking.
Getting home, the first thing that received him was Sebastian, giving a polite nod as he opened the door for Jaxon. Sebastian had been an older model that buyers refused to purchase. Even after lowering the price Jaxon just couldn’t sell him at all. Instead, he kept him for his house, and it had been a huge change for him. Humans could sometimes be difficult to handle, but an android would do exactly as requested and expected. That was what Jaxon liked the most. He smiled at Sebastian as he took off his shoes, giving him his briefcase.
“Good evening, sir. Dinner will be ready in twenty-three minutes exactly, and there is a package waiting in the living room.” Sebastian took Jaxon’s jacket, folding it softly over his arm. Jaxon nodded, giving him a bright smile.
“Thanks, Sebastian,” he said, heading to the living room immediately, partially excited to test the android and see what Miles was talking about and partially excited to play with something new.
When he reached the living room, the big wooden box was the first thing to greet him. The command tablet was on the coffee table, as well as an instruction manual that Jaxon quickly discarded, grabbing the tablet instead. It wasn’t the first time he had dealt with a boyfriend bot, and he was sure Miles had already installed their program on the bot, replacing the outdated one from a different company that the android had first.
He moves to open the box, revealing the handsome android standing on its charging platform. It was wearing an all-black uniform, with Brown Tech’s logo at the front and back of the t-shirt. He had to admit this one looked better on bots than the previous white version they had. Of course, they would send the whole set. Jaxon went through the commands, turning the bot on. Soon the big eyes fluttered open, looking at the empty space. Jaxon guided the bot out of the box. The first thing he had to do was to give it a name.
“Let’s see...” He looked over at the form tab on the tablet, one he had to fill. “What would you like me to call you?” was the first question. He just put in his name, not giving it much thought. He could also change it later. He also skipped the android’s name for now because he couldn’t think of anything yet. The next category was traits. The traits were important because that would basically be the bot’s personality. He had to choose four out of a list of almost a hundred traits. Jaxon scrolled down, sighing. He liked this part, but it was somewhat tiring, too.
Flirty, neat, outgoing, introvert, prankster, creative, decision-maker, lazy…
There were so many to choose from. He thought about how his perfect partner would be. Being a boyfriend bot, the android had to be romantic, so he picked that trait. He scrolled down some more, picking good in the kitchen as well. Maybe Sebastian could get some help in that department. He picked happy as the third trait, and then picked clingy as the last one just to see how it would affect the bot. He could always cheat to get that removed if he didn’t like it.
Jaxon was also aware of a mod that would allow selecting a fifth trait, but he would test that out later.
He finished customizing the bot to his liking, the voice, the way it walked, also giving it access to Wi-Fi just in case, auto-download was enabled, along with a few other features. Siri had been an obsolete tool since bots started using Wi-Fi. Every android had two modes, the standard mode which allowed the user to pre-select every move and everything it did, and then the autonomous mode, where the bot would act on its own. Since Jaxon wasn’t going to be around much, the autonomous mode seemed the way to go.
Before he did, though… A name. He had to name it.
Let’s see, KS12…
Kaiden?
That sounded right.
He typed in the name, saving all the changes and finally setting the autonomous mode, turning on the android. Jaxon observed it, the bot doing nothing for a few seconds, and he thought maybe it wouldn’t respond at all when it finally blinked. It was a slow process but Jaxon watched as the android loaded all its settings and data according to what Jaxon had input manually.
“Hello, Jaxon.” The bot smiled as its synthetic eyes focused on Jaxon’s figure. “I am Kaiden, model number KS12, boyfriend bot 2018, created to fulfill your every need.” The voice was exactly what Jaxon was looking for. He laughed at that opening statement, saying it would fulfill his needs was a little too much.
Jaxon didn’t know about all that, but they would see.
“Hi, Kaiden. Welcome,” he said. The bot stood silent for a few minutes; now Jaxon would see about that software error, more than likely in his programming. Finally, after a moment, the bot looked up at him, their height difference being significant, with a warm smile. The way this bot’s features worked was so realistic; Jaxon would give the creators props for that.
“Thank you, Jaxon.” Kaiden moved, wrapping his arms around Jaxon softly. “What can I do for you, my love?”
Jaxon laughed. Okay, maybe a boyfriend bot was a little too much. He could install another software and get a different one, but more than likely he would do that later. He patted Kaiden’s head gently. “For now, you don’t need to do anything. Let me give you a tour around the house.”
Jaxon broke from Kaiden’s embrace, turning around to do as he said. The bot instantly linked arms with him, its eyes fixated on Jaxon as they walked away. It was interesting how the romantic trait would work. They walked out of the living room, coming face to face with Sebastian.
“Master, dinner is served.” Sebastian bowed politely before walking back into the kitchen. Jaxon felt Kaiden’s arm tighten around his.
“Who’s that?” Its bottom lip was sticking out softly, and a frown adorned its face.
“That’s my butler, Sebastian, an android also like you,” Jaxon explained. He was a little confused at the sudden change of expression.
“Oh,” Kaiden didn’t say anything else, avoiding giving Jaxon any hints as to what it was thinking. Jaxon would have to investigate the traits further later. They walked into the dining area first. Considering the circumstances, he could start here and then show Kaiden the rest after dinner.
“This is where I have my meals, except for breakfast and maybe lunch depending on work.” Jaxon sat down at the table. Sebastian came in quickly, putting a plate filled with Jaxon’s usual dinner in front of him. Kaiden looked at everything, more than likely inputting the data into its system. Kaiden sat down next to him, watching him eat.
Once Jaxon was done with dinner, he quickly thanked Sebastian before moving to show Kaiden the rest of the house. They walked through the kitchen, the living room where they had just been, the game room and his home office, so after they could move upstairs. Jaxon explained basically the functions Sebastian had, since he was more than likely going to turn Kaiden into another butler bot, as he had no use for a boyfriend bot anyway.
Jaxon opened the door to Sebastian’s room. There was a bed in it that Sebastian never used, and his charging platform was standing right next to it. Of course, Sebastian had a closet where Jaxon kept all of the butler’s clothes. He would have to go shopping for Kaiden, too, since it was significantly smaller than Sebastian and sharing clothes wouldn’t be convenient.
He then opened the door to a guest room.
“This will more than likely be your room. I need to get you some clothes and we need to bring your platform here.” He looked down at Kaiden; the bot was looking around, taking in the space.
“So, I won’t sleep with you?” Kaiden’s lower lip was sticking out, looking at him with its giant eyes. Jaxon had to remind himself that it was all fake. The silent plead in its voice and its eyes felt so real that he felt so tempted to let the bot sleep with him.
“You won’t,” Jaxon confirmed, moving then to show the bot the bathrooms and lastly his own room. He walked inside the neat room, looking like Sebastian had been in there recently since there was a lingering scent of the cleaning products he used. He turned around, finding Kaiden standing still at the entrance, its stare blank as it looked straight ahead. A few seconds later it blinked a few times and walked inside.
A glitch indeed.
“This is my room. I think this is the last place in the house to see.” He smiled at the bot, the android returning the gesture right after so naturally. It was bright and warm, very well replicated. “Let’s get your platform to your room for today. I’ll get you more clothes tomorrow first thing.” They did as he said, allowing the bot to hang around and adjust as he went back downstairs to answer some emails before going to sleep.
The next day would be busy since Jaxon had another shelter visit ahead of him. James could take care of the clothes issue more than likely, so it would all be covered. He made sure to send James the detailed instructions for the next day, while also checking his schedule. Suddenly, Jaxon heard his door open and close. This had never happened before since Sebastian would never bother him while he was in his office, unless it was something demanding or very specific.
Kaiden was walking in, looking around as he approached him. This, however, was not what surprised Jaxon the most. What had his jaw-dropping was the fact that Kaiden decided that other chairs were not enough and that his lap was the best option to sit down. The android wrapped its arms around Jaxon with a smile, the most loving smile Jaxon had received in a long time.
“What are you doing?” he asked the bot. It took a moment for the bot to answer, its eyes getting lost in the distance for a few minutes. It took even longer than before to get the bot to respond, and meanwhile, it was still sitting on Jaxon’s lap. It was heavy but not unbearable. He could almost hear the CPU processing information inside the android before it finally reacted.
“I wanted to be with you.” The smile never faded as it said this. Jaxon sighed.
“I’m working right now. We can hang out when I’m done.” Jaxon was very strict about his schedule. However, there was something in the way the bot was looking back at him that he just couldn’t bring himself to force it off his lap. “Okay, you can stay for a while.”
The android smiled again as Jaxon tried to make his way around it to keep working. It wasn’t really that bad. Kaiden was playing with his hair as he watched Jaxon work. The bot’s hands were soft and its touch in a way soothing. Once he was done, he made the bot leave his lap. His legs were a little numb, but he found out he didn’t care much about it.
Jaxon instructed the bot to head to its newly designated bedroom, while he retrieved a light blue t-shirt for it to wear to charge. He thought the color would fit the android more. The uniform it was using was okay, too; however, he couldn’t help treating his androids as humanly possible. Folding the shirt carefully and putting it on the bed, he turned around to look at Kaiden.
“I’ll be going to sleep. You can wear this while you charge.” He pointed at the shirt and smiled. “See you in the morning.”
Kaiden just stared, and Jaxon took that as confirmation. Closing the door behind him, he walked back into his room. A shower was the first thing on his list. After a long day of work he totally deserved a nice warm shower. Despite not being at work, his brain wouldn’t stop going over work information, schedules, visits, things he could do with different androids, new ideas for a new software. He was continuously working, even outside the office. The only moment his brain would shut down was when he was asleep, for which he was very grateful because it wasn’t like he did it on purpose.
The soft sensation of his sheets was a welcoming feeling once he finally made it into his bed, releasing a relieved sigh as soon as it came in contact with his skin and he could wrap himself with it, closing his eyes right after. It wouldn’t take much for him to drift off to sleep, the heavy sleepy feeling hovering over him already. Jaxon was almost fully in dreamland when he felt his bed squeak under an extra weight. His eyes fluttered open, searching in the darkness of the room until he finally saw Kaiden, wearing the blue shirt Jaxon had provided and crawling over to him.
What was this bot even doing?
Kaiden hesitated for a moment—or maybe it was the glitch, Jaxon wasn’t sure—and then finally laid down next to him, head over Jaxon’s chest, one leg over Jaxon’s, and one tiny hand resting right on top of Jaxon’s stomach. Maybe it was his imagination, but he could’ve sworn he heard the bot sigh, pleased as it closed its eyes.
“What are you doing?” he spoke softly. In theory, he could move, but he didn’t, just lying there as he waited. Kaiden didn’t say anything for a moment. In the dark he couldn’t really tell if it was glitching or just processing what to say.
“I don’t like my new room. I like this better.” The bot buried its face against Jaxon’s chest as if accentuating its point. To be honest, the weight of the bot felt very human-like in a moment like this.
“When will you charge then?” Jaxon asked. The bot extracted a small piece from under its ear, showing it to him, which he could barely see.
“As long as my platform is charged or plugged in, I can charge with this wireless piece from anywhere.” Kaiden placed it right back in, wrapping his arms around Jaxon once again. Jaxon had to remember this was a newer model, and by the looks of it, the company that created Kaiden was very advanced. He did not have enough energy to get the bot off of him, so he just let it be. Closing his eyes again and drifting off once more, but all he could think of was clingy boyfriend bots.
…
