Chapter 70: 70. Progress

"We finished the processor and memory upgrades a couple days ago," Sarah said in between mouthfuls of pancakes and bacon. "And the improved communications hardware is all done too. That gives her a secure wide-band comm path between her core and the sexbot, pretty much like she has now with the HPD?"

Jenny elaborated, "It means I'll be able to use the android body as a physical drone, in place of the holographic drone. Or in other words, rather than the android operating independently or autonomously, I'll be controlling it remotely."

The AI added, "I imagine that will be the most common mode of operation. It will have similar range limitations as the HPD, meaning I can only operate the body as a drone as long as it remains inside the ship, or within approximately fifty meters of the ship. Outside that range, or if for some reason I was unable to communicate with it, then it would function autonomously."

Rebecca looked thoughtful as she had a sip of her coffee. After a few moments she asked, "And all that's finished now? Is there anything left to work on? You originally said it'd take about fifteen days to do the upgrades, but you've only been at it for half that time and it sounds like you're almost done."

Sarah shook her head, "That's just phase one. We're about halfway through phase two, and as long as we don't run into any setbacks I think we'll finish this stage before we get to Fuminja. Phase three will have to wait till whenever we get a chance to work on it."

Before the boss could ask, my girlfriend continued "Jenny will probably tell me off for my overly simple analogy, but I think of the three phases as brains, body, and mind. So the brains part is done, we've upgraded the parts that will handle the thinking and communicating, whether on-board or remotely. Now we're working on the body, that's upgrading the musculature to make the sexbot more suitable as a general purpose android. And the last step is customizing the software. That's something Jenny has to do herself, and she can't really start on that till we've got all the hardware mods complete and calibrated."

"Theoretically I could make some progress with the software at night when you're not available to work on the hardware," Jenny stated. "I'm not finished studying some of those courses though, and I'd rather have my education complete before I start attempting to modify those aspects of the android's software. And as Sarah said, it would be easiest to wait until the hardware upgrades are complete regardless."

Rebecca was quiet again for a few moments, then asked "What do you mean musculature?"

Our AI grimaced slightly as she explained, "The android's original purpose involved spending most of its time in bed. It has a very sturdy skeleton but the designers cut several corners in terms of the muscles attached to those titanium alloy bones. It's strong enough to walk around, but it couldn't carry anything much heavier than that mug of coffee you're holding."

"By the time we're done her strength will be on par with the three of us," Sarah added with a grin.

Jenny nodded, "I'll be able to assist with typical ship tasks such as moving cargo and stowing supplies. Without these upgrades the android wouldn't be much more use than my HPD is now. It would allow me to stand around and watch the rest of you work, but its original specifications meant it was much too weak to participate."

My girlfriend teased, "Hey now, that doesn't mean Synthia's useless. She was just built to meet a different set of requirements. And they didn't skimp on all her muscles. The ones she needs to fulfil her primary functions are already pretty toned, if you know what I mean?"

That earned her eye-rolls from me and the captain, while Jenny frowned.

"Please do not make lewd comments about my android body before I've had a chance to occupy it," our AI stated. "And I would rather you stopped referring to it by that name. It makes me uncomfortable for you to be attributing some sort of personality to the inanimate shell which is ultimately going to be my new face among the Demeter's crew."

My girlfriend immediately backed down and apologized, "Jenny I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, and I won't mention that name again."

"Thank you Sarah. I appreciate that," she responded.

With that out of the way, a smile slowly crept back onto Sarah's face and a few seconds later she asked "So does that mean it'll be ok to make lewd comments about your new body after you've had a chance to occupy it?"

This time Jenny rolled her eyes, and it even looked like she was suppressing a slight smile. "We'll see."

I'd been quiet through most of the conversation, but I finally spoke up with a question. "How do you go about replacing all the muscles? And I hope this isn't insensitive but what do mechanical muscles even look like? How do they work?"

Our AI explained, "The android's musculature is not dissimilar to how your biological muscles function. They are made of strands of a metal alloy which contracts when current is applied across it. The existing musculature utilizes relatively few strands per muscle. Upgrading them simply means adding more strands to a given bundle."

"That's part of the supplies we picked up that day we went bot shopping, remember?" Sarah prompted as she looked at me. "We got a couple spools, it looks like shiny metal wire? The actual process means removing a muscle bundle from the sexbot, measuring and cutting additional strands from the spool, then welding them into the bundle before replacing that back into the body."

Jenny added, "It's a time-consuming process and unfortunately all I can do is watch while Sarah performs the work."

My girlfriend shook her head, "That's not true. You do all the calculations so I know how many strands to add, and how to position them to maximize the bundle's efficiency. And after I reinstall them you run diagnostics to ensure it's performing the way you predicted."

I offered, "Would another set of hands help?"

"Not really," Sarah shook her head. "It's time consuming but it's precision work, and no offence cutie but you're a doctor, not an engineer. And maybe this is the closest I'll come to being a doctor, but it's still engineering."

Jenny nodded, "It's also not a pretty sight, since we have to remove the android's outer layers to access the muscle bundles. I'd suggest you both avoid the workshop for the time being, if you don't want to see that sort of thing."

The captain grimaced, "Gotcha. Nightmare fuel, I can do without."

"Indeed," the AI responded with a smile.

"You mentioned phase three having to wait till later," I said as I thought of another question. "What sort of software modifications were you planning? And does that mean you won't be able to use the android body right away? Or can you use it even without those changes?"

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My girlfriend answered, "She should still be able to use the sexbot even without the software changes. Especially in drone mode, where most of the processing will be offloaded to her core? The sort of stuff we're talking about is basically the equivalent of drivers and subroutines, that allow her to interface with the hardware. How to walk, how to talk, sensory input from her eyes and ears and skin, all that basic stuff."

Jenny grimaced, "You've seen how the android walks, those are the sorts of routines Sarah is referring to. And those are the sorts of things I'd like to work on. So yes I will be able to make use of the android body as soon as the hardware upgrades are complete. The question is whether or not I'll want to, before I'm happy with the software upgrades."

"I see," I replied with a grimace of my own. "I remember the sales pitch mentioned there were a few different personality modules to choose from, maybe you can experiment with those to find a set of routines that works best for you until you get all the software modifications done?"

"Thank you Amanda," our AI smiled. "That's an excellent suggestion, I'll keep that in mind."

By that point we were all finished breakfast, so I got up and started clearing the table. As soon as Sarah was finished her coffee she and Jenny headed back down to the lower deck. Then Rebecca got to her feet and started helping me with the dishes.

That surprised me a bit, since I took the cleaning to be part of my job as the ship's cook. I gave her a smile though and said, "Thanks boss."

She smiled back but stayed quiet as we finished cleaning the mess and galley together.

After we were done the captain looked a little awkward as she said, "I wanted to thank you again for helping me out the other day Amanda. It was really nice, and it went a long way to helping me unwind after all the stress I was dealing with."

That all happened a few days earlier, and while I'd spent most of every day with her during this trip we hadn't done any more cuddling since then. We hadn't talked about it either, though the two of us spoke about other things.

Instead we played cards and watched vids. We even watched one of those old Frontier Patrol shows, which was equal parts fascinating and awkward. I was pretty sure Rebecca was right about Sarah naming herself after the show's engineer character. The fictional Sarah even shared the same mischievous outgoing personality as my girlfriend.

Rebecca and I also spent some of the past few days just talking. We discussed the ship, and the repairs and maintenance Mel's people would be doing for us. We even talked a bit about Mel, she told me he was suffering from a rare disease. Apparently there was a treatment but he couldn't take the meds because of a previous health complication.

More than once over the past couple days I'd been tempted to try and talk with her about getting closer again, and I did check with her at least once a day to find out how she was doing emotionally. But I didn't want to seem too pushy or anything, I didn't want to turn her away by mistake. So I was happy that she'd just brought it up herself.

"You're welcome," I replied. "I'm glad it helped. And if you wanted, we could maybe do that again? We don't have to wait for the next life and death crisis."

She smiled, "Thanks. I appreciate that. And um, maybe we could...?"

I grinned and wrapped my arm around her waist then guided her back into the lounge area. We curled up together on the sofa in another cuddle, and this time I got my tail into position as soon as we were seated.

Rebecca had one arm around me and the other hugging and petting my tail again, and we both quickly relaxed into the sofa and each other's arms. It wasn't long after that when I began quietly purring for her.

The two of us sat together like that for a while. She continued stroking and petting my big floofy tail while I purred and the two of us cuddled. Then after about ten minutes it slowly dawned on me that maybe she wanted more, but was too shy or uncomfortable to ask.

So once again I asked myself what would Sarah do in this situation, then I just went with that.

"Rebecca?" I asked softly. "Would it be ok if I kissed you?"

Her left hand froze for a few seconds, midway along my tail. And I watched her cheeks slowly turn pink as I was positive she was trying to figure out how to answer my question.

It took her a couple more seconds but she finally nodded, "Yes. I'd like that a lot."

I smiled and pulled myself closer, while at the same time she turned towards me and leaned down slightly. Our lips met, and I couldn't help feeling like in some ways it was a repeat of the first kiss Sarah shared with me way back when.

And while I knew it definitely wasn't Rebecca's first, I was fairly confident it was her first in twenty-nine years.

She seemed to enjoy it too, so as soon as it was over we shared a few more.

And somehow between all the cuddling and kissing I ended up on her lap instead of sitting next to her on the sofa. That had the practical benefit of bringing my lips up to the same level as hers, so neither of us had to strain too far to reach. It also had the nice benefit of bringing a lot more of my body into contact with hers.

At that point things got a little more intense, and it didn't take very long for her t-shirt to end up draped over one of the nearby chairs. That was followed by my nightshirt, and eventually her shorts.

It wasn't quite as romantic as my first time with Sarah, but it was every bit as memorable.