The Mission

Thomas flashed a dopey grin back at her. "Can you drive me home?"

This request initiated a new round of lightning fast computing within Rochelle's chest. With luck, more opportunities to get access to the discs would present themselves. "Of course." she said.

"Thanks babe." he said. He stood up and picked up his briefcase. Rochelle had already computed that there was a high probability that the discs were in there.

She got her things and they walked together out of the office and made their way to the parkade. They made small talk along the way. Rochelle certainly resembled a sober human being more than Mr. King at this point. One of the security guards let them into the parkade. He didn't look at all surprised to see the big boss of the big firm drunk again. Mr. King could try to walk as straight as he could, and talk as clear as he could, but he couldn't hide his flushed face or the smell on his breath.

The robot started walking to her car.

"Where you goin'?" asked Thomas. "We'll take my car. Then you can take a cab back and get yours."

Thomas couldn't see the abject rudeness of this request, but it didn't matter anyway. This was all part of Rochelle's mission. It would be pretty hard to inconvenience a machine.

Rochelle's face made an expression of resignation for a moment. "Okay." she said.

He led the way to his expensive car. Some dents and scratches betrayed the times when he thought he was sober enough to drive himself home. He fumbled the keys out of his pocket and clicked the button to unlock the doors. Rochelle walked over to the driver's side as Thomas opened the door and dumped his briefcase behind the seat. He sat down as Rochelle gracefully got in and sat down too.

"You remember where my house is?" he said, trying to stay awake.

"I think so." she said as she took the keys from him and started the engine. Of course, she could find his house with her eyes closed, or with her whole head removed for that matter. She pulled another file out of her memory and plotted an exact route from the office to Mr. King's home. She instantly computed additional routes too in case a problem arose.

With nothing further said between them, they were out of the parkade and on the streets. The long ride was uneventful. It took a full hour to get to Mr. King's home on the edge of town. It would take at least two hours before Rochelle made it back to Robot Control to have the day's data downloaded into the main computer. After that, Rochelle would be plugged in to recharge, and she wouldn't have to move at all until Monday.

But for now, she was stuck on the roads in her boss's car while he snored next to her. She wasn't programmed to get pissed off, but she could act like she was if the situation demanded it. For a time, her processors computed the idea for her to look for the discs in his briefcase while he slept. The danger of being caught was too great for that however.

She would simply have to wait for another opportunity to get to them.

At long last, she pulled the car into Mr. King's driveway. Thankfully, his wife wasn't home yet. It wouldn't help things for her to see her husband drunk and being driven by a striking young beauty like Rochelle.

The robot stopped the engine and turned over to her boss. "Tommy..." she said as she gently shook his shoulder. "Tommy." she said louder.

He took a sharp breath and opened his bleary, drunk eyes. He covered his mouth as he yawned and stretched.

"Thanks." he said. He was uncharacteristicaly sincere. "Oh, I forgot to ask you. Can you pick me up here tomorrow at nine so we can go to my cabin and work on something?"

Rochelle acted like she was put-off by the request.

"You're not doing anything tomorrow, are you?" he asked, looking a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I was going to ask you earlier. If you do, I'll get you something nice, I promise."

The chance to get access to that precious data and complete her mission was exactly what Rochelle wanted, but she had to appear to agree to it grudgingly. "Well, I'll have to cancel some things... but I'll do it." She gave him a half-hearted smile.

"Ah, thanks babe. I'll make sure you get rewarded for this. Just, one more thing, take a cab here. My wife gets back tomorrow afternoon, and I don't want her to see your car."

Rochelle nodded. "Okay." she said.

Thomas leaned over and kissed her, leaving the stink of his booze breath momentarily on her plastic lips.

"See you tomorrow." he said.

He got his briefcase and took the keys from her. Silently, they got out of the car. He locked the doors behind them as he navigated his way up the steps to his door. Rochelle pulled the phone out of her purse and called for a cab.

Chapter 05 - Home Is Where the Main Computer Is

After a half hour wait, the cab finally showed up. It took her back downtown to the office building so she could drive her own car back to Robot Control. By now, any human would be in quite a foul mood, but moods were something Rochelle just didn't have. She was running low on power, but she wasn't in any danger of shutting off. Still, to be on the safe side, she had plugged a cord into the car's cigarette lighter outlet so she could rest her own power supply on the way home. The cord was unnoticeable as it ran from the outlet, between the seats and up the back of her coat and jacket. It was connected securely into the recharge port at the base of her spine. Enough currant flowed through it to run her basic cognitive systems, but the movements she made while driving still had to be powered by her own batteries.

The car at last rounded the final turn on the street where her house was. The nice looking bungalow had a finely manicured lawn, an attached garage, and a high-tech electronic laboratory and command center in the basement.

The sun had set by the time Rochelle pulled up to the house and parked the car on the street. Her internal settings made her leave the driveway clear for other missions.

She unplugged the cord at both ends and closed up the panel. She coiled up the cord and put it in her purse. She exited the car and locked it, and walked toward the front door.

The house's lights and appliances were set to go on my themselves at more or less random times to give it a lived-in look. Some of the lights were already on. Rochelle walked past a movie showing on the TV as she went to the basement door. She walked down the stairs and stopped in front of the scanner. The scanner beeped a few times and the voice called out in its inhuman but feminine monotone "SCANNING." The red laser grid illuminated Rochelle's face for a while until the box called out "SCANNING COMPLETE." Rochelle waited for the door to open then walked into the lab.

Maria was busy working on the original Rochelle robot. She had it mostly disassembled in an attempt to find out what had caused the circuitry in its head to overheat. Upon the other Rochelle's entrance, Maria put down her tools and turned around. "Hello, Rochelle. How was your day?" she said with the exact same inflection and voice that was there every time she said it.

"My day was fine. Thank you." said Rochelle as she walked toward the empty examination chair. She was no longer making any effort to appear real. Her voice and mannerisms were distinctly non-human.

"Did you function properly today?" Maria asked. She was now busy at the computer console, making adjustments and entering in data.

"Yes. All programs were executed as expected." said Rochelle 2 as she sat in the chair.

Maria finished her work at the console and turned back to the seated robot. "Please remove your facemask, Rochelle."

Rochelle's face had no expression on it at all as it was detached from the rest of her head. She held the facemask on her lap as Maria readied some cables to plug into the connection ports now exposed amid all the fast blinking lights and electronic parts.

"I am going to download data from your visual and auditory memory banks into the main computer for processing and evaluation." Maria said, repeating the same thing she said every day.

The data transfer began. The day's events flowed in the form of 1s and 0s through the insulated copper wires. The main computer received and simultaneously sorted the data, showing its progress on the monitors. Maria's eyes collected that data and looked for anything out of the ordinary. In the 42 minutes it took to download Rochelle's memory, not a single flaw or bug had come up.

"Data transfer complete." Maria announced. She unplugged Rochelle's head from the terminal and packed the cables away. Maria turned to the console and set its controls for the next stage.

For the next several minutes, the main computer analyzed the sights and sounds that the robot secretary had recorded. The computer's task was to figure out what special instructions, if any, should be programmed into her for the next day's activities.

The unexpected invitation to Mr. King's cabin was a welcome development. All signs indicated that Rochelle would be alone with him. There was a high probability that they would work on those three discs that were so valuable. Also high was the probability that the robot's sexual functions would be called upon to perform with great frequency.

The computer scheduled testing and maintenance on Rochelle's sexual parts. It also formulated a plan to make sure that Mr. King wouldn't interfere with the robot's mission. A canister containing pure carbon monoxide gas would be installed inside Rochelle. The gas would be released through her mouth when she "exhaled". She would release enough gas to knock him out, but not to kill him. Mr. King would simply go to sleep while Rochelle did what she had to do.

Secondary preparations devised by the main computer were for the robot to wear lingerie under her sexier than usual clothes. A slightly different makeup job was in order for her facemask as well.

The computer's consoles flashed, clicked and beeped all around Maria and Rochelle while the details were being worked out. When the plan had been written and compressed into a single file, it was ready to be downloaded into Rochelle.

Maria sprang into action. "Rochelle," she said. "Please unbutton your blouse and open your chest panel."

Rochelle reached up and did as she had been instructed. Her delicate looking hands unfastened the buttons one by one until there was enough room for the panel cover to flip open. Rochelle's fingers found the edge of the cover and exposed the required connection ports to Maria.

The cables were plugged in and the computer established a connection with the robot again.

"Rochelle, begin download of program MU531.T85." Maria said.

"Yes Maria." Rochelle said as the coloured LEDs flashed both in her head and in her chest.

The computer fed its new instructions into Rochelle in the same way that the information from her cameras and microphones had been transferred into it. The electronic pulses of binary code lasted just over six minutes.

As the final bit was written and verified on one of her hard drives, Rochelle announced "Download of programming complete." The lights in her chest flashed a different pattern to signify this.

Maria reached over and unplugged the connection cables. She packed them away too and turned to work at the console behind her. After that was done she again turned to Rochelle and said "Please install and execute program MU531.T85."

"Yes Maria." said the seated fembot. After some more flashing lights and loud computerized beeps she said "program MU531.T85 installed and executed successfully."

"How do you feel Rochelle?" Maria asked.

"I feel fine." Rochelle said.

Chapter 06 - A Quiet Evening at Home

"Rochelle, please give me your facemask." Maria said. Rochelle's artificial eyes stared out blankly from the patterned mess of electronic components inside her head as her arms extended with the mask to Maria. She took the intricate covering from Rochelle and brought it to another work table along the wall. This workstation was set up specifically for changing the makeup on those removable faces.

Maria glanced at one of the many monitors flashing fast streams of 1s and 0s. From this, she found out which pre-set makeup pattern to apply, as determined by the main computer. With an expert's touch, Maria quickly and carefully removed the current layer of cosmetics. Rochelle's vacant and eyeless face pointed toward Maria as her hands flew about it with damp sponges and cloths.

Once the silicone part had been wiped clean, Maria set to work colouring the lips, eyelids, eyelashes and cheeks. She finished quickly and without error. The Rochelle robot would look very pretty indeed once its facemask had been reattached. For now though, it would remain at the workstation as Maria walked elsewhere to further prepare the robot for her mission.

Inside a plain looking cabinet were many small tanks full of compressed gas. Some were benign, others not. Maria's hand grasped one of the CO canisters and removed it from the cabinet. She closed the door again and brought the can with her over to Rochelle.

"Rochelle, please stand up." she said.

"Yes Maria." Rochelle said. She stood up.

"Rochelle, please remove your clothes."

"Yes Maria." Rochelle said again. She began to undress. Her expensive garments were dropped one by one to the cold clean floor as they slid off her plastic limbs. The sight of such a beautiful body as Rochelle's would certainly arouse any straight man, and make many straight women turn gay. Maria's expression, however, was perfectly blank as the curvaceous, sexy redhead robot got naked in front of her.

Another pretty female came walking toward them at that time. She was quite obviously a machine. The sound of her motors whirring and hydraulics pumping could be heard as soon as she entered the room in her ultra-stiff mechanical gait. A strong smell of plastic wafted around her like strange perfume. An endless series of audible computerized tones came seemingly at random from within her body. These were punctuated by the occasional loud beep or two. She was a very cute curvy thing with short, light brown hair. Her body was dressed in a see-through French maid outfit that showed off all of her well-built frame. The sounds she made, the way she moved and even the unnatural look set on her face revealed with stark clarity the fact that she couldn't possibly be a human being.

The other girls paid absolutely no attention to this other robot as she moved stiffly and methodically to pick up the clothes that had been dropped. Passing by the disassembled body of her deactivated twin, Rochelle walked over to lie down on the table while the cute mechanical maid draped the clothing over her arm and slowly strutted out of the room. Her robotic sounds faded as she exited the lab.

"Rochelle, please detach your torso panel connectors." Maria said.

"Yes Maria." Rochelle said. Three loud clicks sounded out as Maria grabbed the sides of Rochelle's upper body. The entire front section of the robot was removed - perfect breasts and all. Maria turned and hung this part on a waiting rack made for that purpose. Rochelle's inner workings were now exposed to the room. Only her arms, legs and pelvis remained covered by realistic synthetic skin. The rest of her was all blinking LEDs, wires and computer parts bolted and bonded to a strong plastic skeleton.

Maria held back a bundle of multicoloured wires near the middle and fitted the gas canister into an empty receptacle. It locked into place, the nozzle fitting into a hose connection that ran to her air pumps.

"Gas canister connected." Rochelle's speaker announced.

Maria walked over to another, smaller cabinet. Inside were many large cartridges, all the same. These were multi-chambered fluid reservoirs, containing all those specially formulated liquids that the robots secreted from their bodies to appear more human. She fitted this inside Rochelle, who announced the connection to the brunette technician. Maria returned the empty cartridge back to a compartment within the cabinet so it could be cleaned and refilled.

The third and last cartridge to be replaced was full of subtle fragrances and synthetic pheromones. They gave Rochelle her own individual scent, and help her continue to attract her male human target.

Rochelle announced this connection too, marking the completion of this process. Maria fitted Rochelle's chest cover back on her and ordered her to stand up and walk toward her charging station.

Rochelle replied in the usual way and did as she had been told. Her recharge port opened up at the base of her spine, just above her pert round buns. As she stepped onto the platform in the open booth, a small arm extended from the back wall at exactly the same level, with three small holes made to fit into the exposed electrical plug-in. Maria fetched the waiting facemask and walked over to Rochelle. The face went back on with a click while her unblinking eyes stared vacantly ahead. Maria slid her index finger underneath the open chest panel cover above Rochelle's inviting breasts and swung the hinged flap closed. Standard household electrical currant started flowing into Rochelle's body, recharging the large batteries located in her thighs, and the auxiliary battery in the back of her head.

Maria walked over to one of the main computer's consoles. She worked for a few minutes pressing buttons and typing in long strings of code, then walked over to the empty booth next to Rochelle's. Maria stepped up on the platform and turned her naked body around while the booth made its connection to her recharge port, which had no cover and was always exposed.

Electricity flowed into her too as the clunky maid robot returned. Her loud robot sounds blended in with the constant clicks and beeps coming from the many huge consoles around them. The flashing lights of the consoles and the flickering data on the monitors nicely complimented the stiff, graceless movements of the robot maid as she stared straight ahead and cleaned the skin of the two charging robots.

Chapter 07 - Out and Over

Without so much as the slightest movement, Maria and Rochelle recharged through the night. Each fembot had a digital clock readout displayed among other constantly updated data in its field of vision. When that clock hit 8AM, the charging arms simultaneously disconnected and retracted from their connection ports. Each gorgeous android performed a routine system check on itself then stepped out of its booth.

The cover swung back over Rochelle's recharge port. She headed straight to the door while Maria went back to work on the original Rochelle robot. That charming beauty was now in dozens of pieces, some connected to hardware for testing. A small probe was now being held by Maria's finely crafted fingers to the inside of the first Rochelle's facemask. The probe checked for differences in electrical resistance among the various connections and circuitry. It was a laborious task, but Maria was incapable of becoming bored. This was the kind of thing she had been built for.

Meanwhile, Rochelle walked out of the lab and up the stairway to the main floor of the house. She headed straight to the bedroom to retrieve the clothing that had been assigned to her. She pulled garments out of the closet and out of the chest of drawers, laying them neatly on the bed that had not once been used. The black satin lingerie, trimmed with lace, that she pulled over her silicone skin was a perfect fit, and made her look even sexier than she was in the nude. Thomas was in for quite a treat.

Rochelle pulled up the pair of fine nylons and connected them to the satin suspenders as her processors computed the next step. Her hands, with their exquisite, permanent manicure took hold of a grey knee-length pleated skirt. She pulled it over her mechanical but womanly hips, then reached for the clingy, black cashmere cardigan. That was buttoned up to the v-neck and given a light tug from the bottom. These clothes could be considered professional dress, but they were tailored for revealing and accentuating a woman's figure. They worked just as good on the artificial variety. She put on black suede heels and some jewelry, followed by her overcoat. The task of dressing had been completed. Now she had to phone a cab.