Chapter 56: 56. Synthetic

"Sarah, Amanda," Jenny said with a slight frown on her face. "Are you quite certain this is the model I specified?"

I blushed but kept quiet. In fact I was trying to stay out of the whole conversation, and I was almost looking for the opportunity to sneak away while the others were talking.

Meanwhile Sarah nodded as she replied, "Yeah of course Jenny."

A moment later she added, "Well, mostly."

And a second after that she explained, "The guy at the store was really excited about the sale, and the fact that we were paying cash rather than getting financing? So he offered to throw in some upgrades at a substantial discount."

"Don't worry," Sarah continued. "I paid for the upgrades myself, that didn't come out of your budget."

Apart from one raised eyebrow, Jenny kept a straight face as she responded "I see."

The four of us were in the secondary hold next to Jenny's capsule, standing around the robot Sarah and I purchased for our AI crew-mate. It was standing motionless in front of us, looking straight ahead with an unblinking stare.

There was a bit of an awkward silence, till Sarah commented "I think she looks ok? And she already sort of fits in with the rest of us, age-wise at least. She looks about nineteen right?"

That much was true. The robot looked like a girl somewhere between the age of eighteen and twenty, which definitely fit in with the rest of us. It was attractive too of course. The face was pretty, and it had a shapely figure with wide hips, a rounded behind, and substantial bust. It wasn't as tall as Rebecca or Jenny, being a couple inches shorter than both of them, and just a bit taller than Sarah. Its figure was slim, soft, and curvy.

The robot's purpose was pretty easy to guess just by looking at it, which probably wasn't quite the look Jenny would have wanted.

I finally spoke up, "Are these the hair and eyes you wanted Jenny? I was sure they had a blonde option."

The robot's hair was long, even longer than Sarah's. It was just as straight, but unlike Sarah's and Jenny's hair the robot's was jet black. And its eyes were bright green, which was also very different from the AI's blue-grey look.

"The eye and hair colour are actually customizable," Jenny replied. "The pigment in them is controlled by software. So I should be able to match my colours fairly accurately, once I get the hang of it."

"That's pretty neat," I responded. "It's too bad the face is so different from yours."

Jenny agreed, "Yes, though I have some ideas about that too. It can't be done through software, but I've examined the schematics and technical documents and I can see a way to modify the facial features, to a certain degree."

The captain had been silent all this time, just staring at the robot as it stood there. She finally asked Sarah, "Please tell me you got some clothes for it?"

"What's wrong with the outfit she's got on?" Sarah asked with a grin.

Our AI crew-mate frowned, "It's see-through. It's lingerie. And there's no way I'm wearing that."

My girlfriend made a show of pouting, "Are you sure? It fits perfectly, and it looks pretty good too."

Jenny rolled her eyes but told the boss, "I asked Sarah and Amanda to purchase an outfit, I'm sure they did so. However it's premature to be worrying about that. I won't be animating this robot until after we've made some significant changes and modifications."

"What sort of changes?" Rebecca asked.

"For starters," Jenny replied, "It desperately needs an upgraded processor and memory. And needless to say I'll be purging all the software it was pre-loaded with."

"I'll make a back-up first," Sarah added. "Then we can go through it and you can load all the useful routines."

The AI frowned, "Are you serious?"

"Yes," our engineer stated. "You may as well keep all the basic routines like how to walk and talk and interface with the senses and other peripherals. Otherwise you'll have to figure that stuff out from scratch yourself."

"Ah," Jenny grimaced. "Good point Sarah."

My girlfriend couldn't help herself, she added with a smirk "I'll also hang on to all the interactive fun routines, you never know when you might want to try those out too."

Both Jenny and Rebecca responded with an eye-roll that time. Then the captain asked "Is that it, or do you have any other upgrades planned?"

"There's more," Jenny stated. "It needs an over-all performance upgrade. It's not designed to be a general-purpose android, but it's actually a good platform to work with. I also need to replace its communications hardware with a more robust, higher-bandwidth unit. And with enhanced security."

She continued, "The list I gave Amanda and Sarah included everything we'll need to make all the necessary modifications. If all goes as planned, I think this will work out very nicely."

"Where are you planning on keeping her?" the boss asked. "And where are you going to be working on her?"

Sarah suggested, "For now we can keep her in the workshop? And that's as good a place as any to work on her. She won't be in the way there anyways."

Jenny added, "Even after the work is finished I shouldn't require my own cabin. A place to rest the body while it recharges should be more than sufficient. Such as a chair in the ship's lounge, since you hardly ever use that area?"

"I can install a charging port in there," Sarah offered. "Though it might startle guests if people come aboard and find her sitting there with a cable sticking out of her side."

Rebecca frowned, "Ok, we can worry about that later. The workshop sounds like a good solution for now. How long do you think these upgrades will take?"

"No idea," Sarah replied. "I haven't even looked at the schematics yet."

Jenny added, "I don't imagine this will be ready any time soon. We likely won't even be able to begin working on it until after we've completed our next stop at Ecclestone's World. It might be ready twelve to fifteen days after that, but we'll see."

The captain nodded slowly, "All right. I'll stay out of it, this is your project Jenny. Just please don't leave her laying around half assembled or something? It kind of creeps me out."

"Of course," Jenny nodded. Then she looked at Sarah and asked, "How do we get her into the workshop?"

My girlfriend smiled and addressed the robot, "Synthia wake up."

The robot seemed to come to life, and took a step forward towards Sarah like she was paying attention to the cute blonde.

"You named it Synthia?" Jenny asked as she gave my girlfriend a disbelieving look.

"I had to call her something," Sarah replied with a shrug. "She's voice activated, she needed a name."

"Is she an AI?" Rebecca asked. "Is she sentient?"

My girlfriend shook her head, "Not even close. She has a few thousand pre-programmed responses and some clever algorithms, but she's not alive. She's nothing like Jenny, if that's what you're wondering."

The captain nodded slowly, "Good to know."

Sarah looked back to the robot and grinned, "C'mon Synthia, I'll show you where you'll be staying."

The rest of us watched quietly as the robot followed Sarah aft, out of the secondary hold and through the short corridor into the workshop.

After they were out of sight Jenny sighed, "I'm not sure I want to keep that walking subroutine after all. I didn't realize how much it would sway and jiggle."

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Rebecca and I exchanged a glance, and both of us came to the same conclusion. We headed up the nearest ladderway to the main deck and left Jenny and Sarah to play with their new toy.

The captain and I ended up sitting at the table in the mess, she got herself a coffee and I had some water. She smiled at me, "I take it you're not planning on getting involved in that project either?"

"Not really," I blushed slightly as I shook my head. "I'm sure it'll all work out ok, but it seems a bit awkward to me."

She laughed, "Just a bit awkward, that about sums it up."

I grimaced, "What do you think of the whole thing?"

Rebecca shrugged, "I'm not surprised Sarah suggested it? I feel like I've gotten to know the both of you pretty well already, even though it's only been forty-five or fifty days. And yeah, Sarah suggesting a sexbot feels like exactly the sort of thing she'd do."

After a sip of her coffee she shook her head, "What I didn't expect was for Jenny to agree with it. Having said that, I trust Sarah knows what she's doing in terms of engineering, and I trust Jenny to know what she wants and what'll work for her. So I guess we'll just wait and see how it plays out."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I just hope it turns out the way Jenny wants."

"Yep," the captain nodded.

Sarah and Jenny remained down on the lower deck for now, while Rebecca and I stayed up top. And things were relatively quiet until later in the afternoon, when Mel came by to visit the ship again. He arrived on a grav-sled, and he had our payment for the salvage with him.

Rebecca got me and Sarah to carry the heavy strongboxes into the ship, while Mel came aboard as well. We left the strongboxes in the secondary hold for now, and all four of us took the engineering lift up to the main deck.

"Where's your AI hiding?" Mel asked as he looked around.

Sarah replied, "I think she's studying? She downloaded a bunch of courses, trying to earn herself a few degrees I think."

"Ah," the shipyard owner nodded slightly.

The captain got some water for herself and Mel, and the two sat down at the mess to talk.

"Would you like some privacy?" I asked. "Me and Sarah can go find somewhere else to be."

Rebecca nodded, "Thank you Amanda. I'll call if we need you."

"Sure thing boss," Sarah replied.

The two of us headed back down to the lower deck, then she motioned me to follow her into the workshop.

As soon as we entered I saw Jenny's new robot was sitting on a stool in a corner, still dressed in nothing but the transparent lingerie it came with. The robot's eyes were closed, and I could almost believe she was just having a light nap or something. Except she wasn't leaning against the wall, she was sitting upright. Her hands were resting on her lap, and there were two cables connecting her to ports on the wall.

One appeared to be a power cable, it was plugged into somewhere on her right side, just above her waist. The other was a thin fibre-optic bundle that emerged from the back of her head or the top of her neck beneath her hair and connected to the ship's data bus.

"So have you already voided the warranty?" I asked my girlfriend. "I can't believe we spent a quarter million credits on that thing, and you're going to take it apart."

I startled slightly as the robot's eyes suddenly opened and it turned its head to look at me. Earlier it seemed sort of dull and lifeless, but something was different about it now. Its face took on an amused expression, and it raised one eyebrow as it looked me up and down.

Then in a sultry, seductive voice it said "I purchased this specifically for the purpose of disassembling it Amanda, then rebuilding it to my own specifications. As I said earlier, it's an ideal chassis to work on. The frame is a lightweight titanium alloy skeleton with a full human range of motion, and the outer coating looks and feels like human skin. It's even pressure sensitive, meaning it has a sense of touch. This body can feel things."

"Jenny?!" I half gasped. "Are you already in there?"

"Not exactly," she replied as she shook her head. The motion led to some slightly distracting jiggling but I did my best not to stare. "I'm operating the body remotely, through its diagnostic port. Sarah suggested it would let me get an early feel for it, before we start working on it."

I nodded slowly as I looked her over. "And what do you think?"

She bit her lower lip, and even that came across as sultry. Then she pouted, "I think a lot of these built-in subroutines need to be reworked or deleted. Apart from that, I'm pleased. This will give me a physical presence rather than an illusionary one, and enable me to interact physically with people and objects. When the upgrades are complete it will also allow me to operate independent of the ship, meaning I'll be able to accompany you on shore leave, among other things."

Sarah added, "We won't know what the battery situation will be like until after the upgrades. It's rated up to thirty days between charges right now, but the modifications will draw more power."

"The upgrades aren't likely to increase demand that much," Jenny responded. "I think usage going to be a bigger factor. I assume its only meant to be used for a few hours a day, if that? If I'm using it hours on end it's probably going to need more frequent recharging."

"Good point," I responded. Then I smiled, "I imagine you're also going to change the voice? Right now everything you say sounds kind of seductive."

Jenny pouted again, "There'll be a lot of changes I think. Like I said, it's a good platform to work with. But it definitely needs work."

"Do you think you can really get that body to look and sound like you?"

The android shook her head and giggled, "Not really. There's a few things we can change, but it'll never be an exact match to my original and holographic appearance. In a way I suppose it might be similar to the experiences the rest of you have had?"

Sarah commented, "I guess you're also going to override or reprogram as many of the behaviour modules as you can, so you'll stop acting like a sexbot?"

Jenny pouted once more, then added playfully "I'm actually trying to roll my eyes, but the body interprets that as a pout."

I grimaced and told my girlfriend, "Don't look so disappointed Sarah. It's not funny, I bet Jenny's getting frustrated."

"I just think it'd be a shame to throw all that out," Sarah protested. She was grinning though, so me and Jenny both knew she was teasing. "You never know until you try right? Maybe you'll enjoy it?"

Our AI crew-mate's pouting intensified, then she bit her lip and glanced upwards at the ceiling in a cute but confusing way. Finally she commented, "I believe the captain and Mr. Lancaster have finished their meeting. They're descending via the engineering lift. Switching the android back to standby mode."

A moment later the robot's eyes closed as she went dormant again.

I looked at my girlfriend and commented, "I hope she's not bothered by your teasing. If she asks you to stop, you'll leave her alone right?"

"Of course Amanda," Sarah promised. "I've checked with her before, and let her know I'd stop if she wanted."

"Thanks Sarah," I smiled. "I figured as much, I just wanted to be sure."

Before she could respond the workshop hatch opened and the boss stuck her head in.

"Sarah, Amanda, can you two please bring the grav-sled in and get it stowed away? We'll be lifting off a little after breakfast tomorrow, so we won't be doing any more trips into the city. I figure we may as well get that taken care of now."

"Sure thing boss," Sarah nodded.

I agreed as well, and the two of us headed forward to the main hold while Rebecca went back up to the main deck.

My girlfriend got the hoist controls while I went outside and climbed into the small craft. I unlocked the controls, then started it up and carefully navigated it backwards up the ramp and into the main hold. Finally I set it down on the deck and shut everything down.

I helped Sarah get it hooked up to the hoist, then she hauled it up and stowed it away. Finally she climbed up and used the cargo straps to secure it in place, while I hit the main airlock controls to close the doors for now.