The Replacement

[Spaz]

Well, I believe my latest bout of writer's block is subsiding, given that a brand new story idea has popped into my mind and is brewing. I'm hoping to resume this story on Wednesday, and to get it finished shortly thereafter so I can get started on my latest idea.

Please tell me what you think of this story thus far though, as it may help me with the next story.

[Spaz]

Part 5.4: Honeymoon

They spent the rest of their wedding night packing a few things they might need. They didn’t pack a lot of clothing though, since John had assured them they wouldn’t need them. He also explained to them that the place he was sending them to would forever be their home away from home, always available to them whenever they needed it and with options that could be arranged in advance of each visit. He didn’t give them any more details, like where the place was, but they didn’t care. They were just looking forward to having a week off and to themselves. Because the three of them were robots and might set off security scanners, they had to fly there from John’s company’s private airstrip and on one of their private jets. They didn’t mind though, because it just meant they had even more privacy.

Once they were up in the air, Greg could tell they were heading north, but that’s all he could tell since the plane’s Mach 2 flight and higher altitude made it difficult to pick out landmarks. The plane landed about an hour and a half later, and they were immediately helped off the plane and into a luxury vehicle, where they were driven another 15-minutes through a densely wooded area. Finally, they drove into a clearing that had a very beautiful, crystal clear lake at the base of a picturesque, snow capped mountain.

“Wow, John really knows what we like,” Greg mused as he took in the awesome surroundings.

“Yeah,” Sabrina said, also in awe.

Eventually, the rode stopped at a rock face at the base of the mountain. After the driver remotely entered a security key, a section of the wall shimmered away, revealing a tunnel.

“Cool,” Greg said, looking back as the wall shimmered back into place once they drove through, “I’ve never seen such convincing holography in person.”

“Looks like Dad really values our privacy."

After a few moments, the tunnel emptied out into an open, green field full of life and dozens of cabins, shops, and structures. The cabins were all situated close to the lake, which had a rather large beach with all the trimmings one might expect of one. The vehicle finally stopped at a large cabin that was within a few hundred feet of the beach and lake. The driver helped them out of their vehicles and then began helping them with their bags just as a woman suddenly materialized in front of them.

“Welcome to the Lake Hideaway Resort,” the woman announced as soon as she materialized, her beautiful face forming a genuine smile. She appeared to be in her early 30s. She had neck length, light brown hair that was straight and slightly held back with a hair band, perfectly framing her face. She was wearing a preppy blue outfit which accented her crystal clear blue eyes.

“Thanks,” Greg said, a little confused, “Where exactly are we?”

“This lake is in a remote section of northern British Columbia,” the woman announced, “A hundred years ago, this area was beneath a glacier, but when it melted, this lovely place was revealed and appropriated by the Neovations Corporation."

“Wow, I’ve always wanted to visit Canada,” Sabrina said.

“Me too,” Greg said, “What exactly are you?”

“I am the latest in holographic assistants,” the woman explained, “If you prefer, you may call me Sandy,” she smiled, “I’m the personal assistant to all of the guests who stay here."

“Interesting,” Greg said, looking around and failing to see any obvious projectors. “What’s projecting you?”

“There are hundreds of micro-emitters hidden throughout the property,” Sandy explained, “I can appear inside and outside all of the buildings and in multiple locations simultaneously."

“Cool,” Greg said, and he gingerly reached his hand out to touch her, though the second he did, her otherwise realistic appearance wavered slightly, “I see you aren’t very substantial."

“Yes, unlike the security hologram, I have no need for substance,” Sandy explained, “Would you like me to show you your cabin?”

“Please,” Greg smiled, and the three of them headed into the large looking cabin just as the driver and Ipek finished depositing their bags inside.

If the exterior of the cabin looked large, the interior was even larger. The entrance area was a very spacious living room with several cozy looking sofas and chairs with a dining area off to the side. The kitchen was well stocked and well supplied, with a door leading into a pantry. There was a staircase leading to a second floor landing, where the bedrooms and living areas were at. Based on what they saw of the outside, the master bedroom up top had a balcony just over the front porch, which also helped to cover the front porch area from rain and snow. Despite the bedrooms being on the second floor, there was a rather large section set up in the back portion of the first floor, next to the backdoor.

“What do you think of your new home away from home?” Sandy asked in her upbeat voice.

“It’s perfect,” Sabrina breathed, quickly rushing up the stairs to take a look around.

“What sort of amenities does this place have?” Greg asked.

“It has all the trimmings one might expect,” Sandy began, “Net access, satellite TV, electricity,” she listed, “This cabin can also be operated through the voice commands listed in the instruction manual over here,” she gestured to the large book on the nearby coffee table, “I can also be called with your voice."

“Very good,” Greg nodded, smiling as he heard pleasant noises coming from Sabrina upstairs as she inspected the bedrooms, “What’s this area back here?”

“What area?” Sabrina suddenly asked, rushing down the stairs like a little girl; she had taken her shoes off.

“Based on our profiles of you two, this should be quite interesting,” Sandy smiled, and she walked with them to the back end of the house and then waved her hand in front of the closet doors.

The security panel flashed green when she did so and the doors slowly hinged outwards. Beyond the doors was what looked like a full sized, walk-in closet. When they all walked in, Greg and Sabrina let out a gasp at what they saw. Standing in recessed alcoves on either side of the closet were two androids. The android on the right looked exactly like James, though it appeared this version was three years older and actually had more realistic amounts of body hair on his arms and legs. Unlike the other one, which was naked, this James was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a pair of navy shorts and a pair of sandals. The android on the left was that of a 21 year old girl. She had long, dark brown hair that went just down to her neck. Her face was stuck in a stoic expression, which looked like an odd mix of seriousness and innocence. She was wearing the same exact shirt and sandals as James, though she was wearing more feminine shorts. Greg noted her toe nails were painted black and her fingernails were painted red.

“Wow, who are they?” Sabrina asked.

“Those are your personal avatars for your pleasure, entertainment, and anonymity during your stay with us” Sandy explained.

“Avatars?” Sabrina asked.

“Yes,” Sandy replied, “While you are here, you are welcome to transfer yourselves into these bodies to interact anonymously with the other guests,” she explained, “And, while you play around in these bodies, we perform full service maintenance on your bodies.”

“Wow, that’s nice,” Greg said.

“No wonder Dad said we wouldn’t need to bring much clothing,” Sabrina said.

“You are, of course, free to remain in your own bodies,” Sandy said, “And, if you choose to do so, both avatars do actually have their own personality cores you can install to interact with them in a variety of pre-programmed games and activities."

“Well, what do you think dear?” Greg asked, “Want to play around in these bodies for a week, or stay in ours?"

“That depends,” Sabrina asked, “Are these bodies meant to be inhabited for extended periods?”

“Yes,” Sandy answered, “They have the same parts and functions as your current bodies do, they just aren’t living individuals."

“Okay, let’s do it,” Sabrina decided with a smile.

“Excellent,” Sandy smiled, “After you transfer over, just place your bodies into the alcoves and enter in on the data pads what sort of maintenance you would like done,” Sandy explained, “Then, after you leave to have fun, your bodies will be lowered into our underground maintenance bay to be pampered in our own special way,” she continued, “Just think of this week as a vacation from your bodies as well as your lives."

“We will, thanks Sandy,” Greg said.

“You’re most welcome,” Sandy curtsied, and then she shimmered away.

“Well Greg, would you like to do the honors?” Sabrina asked, standing next to her avatar, which had a name badge that read ‘Mandy’.

“Why don’t we have Ipek does us both at the same time?” Greg suggested instead.

“Alright,” she smiled, and she waited as Greg called for Ipek.

“What can I help you two with?” Ipek asked, once she arrived.

“Could you transfer us both to these bodies?” Greg asked.

“Certainly,” Ipek smiled, “Would you like me to activate you both at the same time?”

“Yes,” Sabrina said.

“Okay,” Ipek said, and after they unsealed their scalp access panels, she walked up to both of them and removed their brains, shutting down their bodies afterwards instead of leaving them on. She then activated both Mandy and James’ bodies and manually unsealed both their panels, carefully inserting Sabrina and Greg into their vacation bodies. A few moments later, both of them slowly came online and got used to their new bodies before slowly stepping out of the alcoves; Ipek was in standby mode just off to the side.

“Wow, I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to this feeling,” Greg said, gently feeling his new face and looking at his new hands. He also felt his much longer hair and took a while to get used to it framing his face.

“I know how you feel,” Sabrina agreed, referring to the odd feeling of normalcy involved in them trying out a new body; it was different, yet felt completely normal. Sabrina, in Mandy’s body, was several inches shorter than her actual body, so she was getting used to the height difference, though since she had already been in James’ body before, and since it was roughly the same height, it did not take her long. Greg was having more trouble getting used to the height difference though, since he had never been in a body that much shorter than his before.

“I do agree with yours and your A.I.’s opinion though,” Greg finally said, after he got used to James’ body, “This body is amazing."

“It is,” Sabrina smiled.

“How’s yours, by the way?” Greg asked, quickly lifting up his shorts to take a look at himself before letting go.

“Awesome,” she smiled, “I mean, look at me,” she said, walking over to the mirror.

“Yeah,” he said, “I have to admit, if I had seen this girl before you, I would have asked her out for sure."

“I can see why,” she admitted, lifting her shirt up to see her breasts; she was not wearing a bra, and her breasts were perfectly suited for her body type. “Hey, maybe this Mandy is the actual James’ girlfriend or something."

“Maybe,” he said, “They’d make a cute couple."

“Just like us?” she smiled.

“Exactly,” he smiled back.

“So, what should we do with our bodies?” she asked, looking back at her body, which was standing powered off just next to the alcove.

“Well, Sandy said we should place them in the alcoves and then use these data pads to choose some options,” he said, turning to look at his body.

“Okay,” she said, and they both helped each other place their bodies in the alcoves and then they both pulled the data pads from the walls and sat down on a nearby bench to look at the options. “Wow, this is pretty neat,” she said, looking at the variety of pampering options that they could select for their bodies.

The data pads gave them a variety of options:
*Full fluidic replacement, including:
**Saline
**Artificial blood
**Saliva
*Nanite maintenance
*Whole body, artificial muscle stimulation and rejuvenation
*Smart skin repair and rejuvenation
*Hardware maintenance, including:
**Component replacement
**Component upgrades
**Component tweaks
**Software improvements
*Manicure and/or pedicure
*Hair grooming
*Dental checkup for tooth and mouth degradation
*Other orifice cleaning

“Wow, these are all so awesome, I’m just going to pick them all,” Greg said, since they didn’t have to pay for any of it.

“Even the mani and pedi,” Sabrina laughed, also selecting all the options.

“Yeah, why not?” he asked, looking at his bodies hands; the nails weren’t bad, but if they were going to make them look nicer, he thought he might as well.

“You’re right,” she agreed.

“You know, I was initially worried that certain businesses that dealt with pampering might go under with everyone converting to these better bodies,” Greg said, “But now that I see this place, I can see places similar to this springing up all over."

“Yeah, me too,” she agreed, “Though this place has scenery, luxury, and privacy."

“Yeah, not many places could beat that,” he smiled.

“Well, I’m locking my choices in,” she said, and she tapped submit.

“Me too,” he said, also tapping submit.

Once they both submitted their responses, their pads pinged and then they heard a mechanical whirring sound. Then, the bottoms of both alcoves slowly lowered into the ground until both their bodies were gone. A holographic image of the bottom of the alcoves then shimmered in place to cover the holes. “Cool,” was all they said, and then their pads pinged again. This time, the information on the pads changed to a basic display of both their bodies; apparently, they had been scanned on the way down. The pads displayed an estimate and projected schedule of when each option would be started and completed. Both their bodies were estimated to be completed on the last day of their stay at the resort.

“Huh, I wonder why it’s going to take a whole week to get all that done,” Sabrina said, looking at the schedule.

“Maybe we’re not the only ones here."

“Maybe,” Sabrina said, “Why don’t we go out and see if we can meet someone?”

“Alright,” he said, “And then when we get back, we can explore these new bodies some more."

“Okay,” she smiled, and they set the pads down and headed out of the cabin.

Their previous guess was correct; they were not the only ones staying at the resort. When they got down to the beach, which had several small structures with spas and other niceties set up, they saw several people of all ages and ethnicities. They spoke with several of the people down there on the first day, and like them, they were all in avatars as well. There were a few organics there as well, but they were mostly family of the staff members that ran the place. Because of their avatars, it was an unspoken rule that no one say their true name or profession, but several of the converts and HRMs there gave enough hints to let Greg and Sabrina know that they were either pretty high up in John’s company, or related to people who were high up; apparently, there were far more converts and HRMs then John had been able to admit to them.

They spent several hours conversing with the other guests before deciding to return to their rooms for the evening. They had sent a remote message to Ipek to have her start dinner for them, so they headed back when she announced it was nearly ready. They did promise the other guests they would return the next day. After they ate dinner, they sat down in the living room to decide what to do.

“Well, do you want to play around upstairs?” Sabrina asked with a kinky smile.

“Eventually,” Greg smiled, “But I really want to know how our bodies are doing."

“Didn’t you just check on the data pad?”

“Yeah, but it’s not the same,” he said, “I want to actually see what they are doing to my body, not just see a status update."

“Hmm, me too,” she admitted.

“Hold on,” he said, “Sandy, can you come here?” he asked out loud, not knowing if it would summon her or not.

There was a shimmering in the air a few feet in front of them and Sandy materialized. “What can I do for you?” she asked in a sweet voice.

“We were wondering if we could see where our bodies are and what they are currently doing to them."

“You can keep track of their status on your data pads,” Sandy told him in what sounded like a pre-programmed response.

“We know, but we’d like to actually see the location that they’re being worked on,” Greg said, “It’s kind of a fetish we have."

“How very interesting,” Sandy said with a slightly confused look, and then she froze up for a while before moving again, “I just contacted the director, and given your connections, I don’t see any problems with letting you down there."

“Excellent, where do we go?”

“Just head back into the closet and step into the alcoves,” Sandy told him, “The lift pads should already be back,” she continued, “I’ll send you down as soon as you’re ready."

“Thanks,” they both said, and the both of them nearly ran into the closet and stepped into the alcoves, with Sandy slowly following them with a smile projected on her face.

“Are you ready?” Sandy asked them, once they were both in their alcoves.

“Yes,” they both said, and with a slight gesture from her, both pads slowly descended. They could see her shimmer away just as they descended below the room and the holograms activated above them.

For the first couple dozen feet, all Greg could see was the smooth metallic tube he was descending in, but then the tube turned into a see-through plastic like substance. Through it, he could see the tube Sabrina was descending through several feet in front of him; she waved enthusiastically at him when she saw him, making him laugh despite himself. From what they could see, they were descending into a cavernous room, with tubes leading down from the various other cabins. On the bottom of the room was what looked like a city inside the cave, with covered walkways connecting each building and street lights lighting the way. They finally descended into a fairly large structure situated directly beneath their cabin, and matching somewhat in overall size. Their lift pads finally stopped inside the building, and there were several technicians, in addition to Sandy, waiting for them.

“Welcome to our underground maintenance facility,” Sandy announced as soon as the tubes opened up and they were able to step out.

“This place is huge!” Sabrina said.

“Yes, this facility powers the entire resort through geothermal energy from the Earth’s core, and also serves as the maintenance facility for our guests,” Sandy explained, “As this visit is highly irregular, we do ask that you keep what you see here to yourself."

“Okay,” Greg and Sabrina said.

“Excellent, then I’ll let these technicians show you your bodies,” Sandy said, and then she shimmered away.

“Come with us,” the lead technician said; his nametag read ‘Sean’.

Greg and Sabrina followed him out of the tube room and into a larger room filled with complex machinery and lab equipment. On two tables near the far end, they could see their bodies, stripped of all clothing, and opened up.

“As you can see, we’ve already begun the pampering process for your bodies,” Sean said, leading them over to the tables, “At the moment, we’re performing hardware and software updates, tweaks, and replacements,” he explained, showing them the hardware that had been removed from both their bodies, and the new hardware waiting to be installed, “Tomorrow, we’ll be performing muscle stimulation to loosen up and rejuvenate the muscles in ways your nanites are incapable of."

“Excellent,” Sabrina said, “”What kind of hardware upgrades are these?”

“Mostly minor, but we figure as long as we have you here, there’s no harm in offering people full body workups,” Sean smiled.

“I’m curious, are you a convert like me?” Greg asked.

“No, I’m an HRM,” Sean answered, “My original host died several years ago, and I was reborn in this form."

“Same with me,” Sabrina said.

“Are there other places like this yet?” Greg asked.

“No, but they are building them,” Sean answered, “They’re still learning based on the feedback we get from this place."

“Well, I think this whole service you offer is really neat,” Sabrina said.

“Me too,” Greg said.

“Good to hear,” Sean smiled, “I do enjoy getting to work on all the different people that have stayed here."

“I can imagine,” Greg said, “Well, anyway, I think we’ve seen enough,” he said, “Could you send us back up now?”

“Certainly,” Sean smiled, “I hope you are enjoying those bodies you’re in,” he added, “I’m the one who built them and maintains them."

“We are, thanks,” Sabrina smiled, walking with him back to the tube room.

“Yeah, they’re great,” Greg added.

“Good,” Sean smiled, “Now, just relax and enjoy your stay with us,” Sean said, putting his hands on the controls, “And I promise, you’re going to enjoy your bodies when we’re done with them."

“I’m sure we will,” Greg smiled, and then their lifts started ascending.

When they finally got back up to the top, they saw the lifts descend back down again and then the holograms shimmered back into place. Heading out of the closet, they saw Ipek had finished cleaning up and was waiting for them. “Hey you two, how was the tour?”

“Awesome!” Sabrina said, “I don’t know why we can’t send you down there too to get pampered."

“Don’t worry, I don’t need pampering,” Ipek assured them, “and besides, I’d rather be available to you for anything you need."

“Aww, that’s nice,” Sabrina said.

“Yeah, we might need you in a little bit,” Greg said with a wink, “Why don’t you get back to work and we’ll call you in a bit?”

“Okay,” Ipek said, winking back as she headed into the kitchen to tend to the dishes.

“What do you have in mind?” Sabrina asked.

“I’ll let you know in a little bit too,” Greg smiled, “Let’s head up and have some fun in these bodies,” he said, taking her hand and rushing up the stairs with her.

“Okay,” she smiled back, going with him.

Once they were in their room, Greg spent a moment looking around since he hadn’t actually seen it yet. Then, he sat down next to Sabrina on the bed. “So, we already know what James’ body looks like naked,” Greg said, stripping his clothes off as he spoke until he stood before her naked, “But we don’t know what Mandy’s body looks like."

“Alright,” she smiled, and she kicked the sandals off, lifted the t-shirt off herself, and then slid both her shorts and panties off. Mandy’s body looked just as he expected it would. She had the overall appearance of a hot college girl, with perfectly proportioned breasts and a well groomed pussy. “Well, what do you think?” she asked, sexily twirling around so he could see all of her.

“You look hot,” he said, breathing more heavily.

“And my body doesn’t?” she asked in mock anger.

“Your body is beautiful, hers is hot,” he said, ‘There’s a difference.”

“Oh, alright,” she said dramatically, and then they both laughed, “So, it goes without saying today is a play day."

“I know,” he said, and then he saw the perfect moment and said, “Sabrina, Pause."

It had been a while since he used an actual voice command on her, but he was pleased to see she reacted much the same way as before. She seemed to give a brief look of surprise before pausing. Greg had paused her because the look on her face aroused him. Because of Mandy’s steel colored eyes, many of her facial expressions had this look of serious innocence, and it was intensified as a blank stare. Greg quickly used his bodies built in photo capturing app and snapped a few choice pics before stepping back and saying, “Sabrina, Unpause.”

She unpaused as quickly as she had paused, and she didn’t appear to mind having been paused. “Did you take some nice pics?”

“Oh yeah,” he said, “The look on your frozen face was simply mesmerizing, I couldn’t resist."

“I understand,” she smiled, “Don’t forget to show them to me later."

“I won’t” he assured her, “So, anyway, I was thinking,” he started, “John’s sudden power down the other day reminded me of something."

“What?”

“I haven’t experienced what it feels like to lose power,” he said, “By having my batteries removed, I mean."

“Oh,” Sabrina said with a slow smile, “I still remember how good that felt,” she said, since she hadn’t had him do it again since the very first time.

“I figured,” he said, “Anyway, since we brought Ipek with us, she can supervise us and put our batteries back in after we shut down."

“Cool, I’m all for it!"

“Good,” he smiled, and he quickly went to the door and called for Ipek. When she arrived moments later, he said, “Ipek, Sabrina and I want you to remove our batteries."

“Why?”

“Because, she told me it was an erotic experience,” Greg said, “And, now that I’m capable of experiencing it too, we both want to experience it together."

“Aww, okay,” Ipek smiled, “Just open your panels and I’ll do the rest."

“Alright,” Greg said, and he quickly opened his spine panel, “Just don’t forget to put our batteries back in."

“Drat, I was hoping to just leave you guys lying on the floor and escape,” Ipek said sarcastically with a smile, “Don’t worry, I’ll put you all back together."

“We know you will,” Sabrina said, also opening her spine panel.

“Alright, I’m going to start taking them out now,” Ipek said, “Are you ready?”

“Yes,” both Greg and Sabrina said, and Ipek slowly started taking each battery out of their backs, using her sexual databases to do it slowly and erotically to tickle their fetishes.

Greg thought he might feel something substantial as each battery was removed, but just as Sabrina had described several years earlier, all he saw was his power meter slowly decreasing. When Ipek removed the last battery, however, he suddenly felt a sharp surge to every inch of his body and then an equally opposite reaction as the power suddenly subsided. “Wow,” he said, struggling to even move or talk as he felt what little power was in his distribution center slowly discharge. He could see multiple warnings coming from the HUD in his field of vision, as well as several suggestions for systems to shut down; he ignored them all, of course, as the arousal he was getting from the feeling of his energy discharging enticed him.

“Quickly Greg, enter me,” Sabrina managed to say, turning over on the bed to face him.

“Okay,” he said, and after a few moments, he finally managed to get up on all fours and mount Sabrina’s courtesy body. Since she was already wide open with arousal, and he was already stiff, he quickly entered her and collapsed onto her, enjoying the feel of her new body.

Despite the fact they were slowly losing power, they both managed to complete one full round of the best sex they had ever experienced, with the arousal of being in different bodies, discharging, and simply being in each other’s presence all combining to form the perfect orgasm. Just as their orgasm completed, they both ran out of power at exactly the same time and slumped into each other’s embrace. After what seemed like an instant, but was actually nearly a minute, they both came back online after Ipek replaced their batteries and closed their panels. Once they were both online, they remained in each other’s embrace for a few moments before breaking apart.

“Wow! That felt awesome!” Greg finally said, breaking the silence.

“It certainly did,” Sabrina said, lying in contentment next to him. There was a few more moments of silence before Sabrina spoke again. “Greg, I’ve been thinking..."

“What?”

“When we get back, let’s tell dad I’m ready."

“Ready for what?”

“For kids."

“Really?” he asked with an excited look rising on his face, “You’re sure?”

“Yes."

“That’s great!” he said, and they both embraced each other again, mentally planning for the future, which had just become a bit more real, all the while Ipek stood passively by, smiling as she began reorganizing and updating her nanny subroutines in preparation for the day she would need them, which would be much sooner than she had thought.
----------------------------------------
Stay tuned for Part 6, where Greg and Sabrina deal with the process of having kids.

[Spaz]

Post Part 5 update:

It took a while to release 5.4, due to jury duty and writer's block, but I've finally finished. I'd like to think the whole of part 5 helps to really set the stage for the world I have created, especially with the whole maintenance resort concept I included in 5.4.

Part 6 is coming soon, though it won't really be as big in scale as the other parts. It will merely detail how Sabrina can have a child in her android body, and lead all the way up to the birth in 6.2 and then a follow up in 6.3 taking place several months later. I'm really trying to get this story finished before more things in my life interfere, especially since I have a brand new story idea brewing on the backburner in my mind.

Anyway, stay tuned!

[Spaz]

Part 6.1: Procreation

Greg and Sabrina enjoyed the rest of their honeymoon in their temporary bodies, but when the time came for them to leave, they had to return to their own.

“Well, it’s been fun, but I'm looking forward to being back in my own body again,” Sabrina said, walking with Greg into the closet, where their bodies were waiting.

“Yeah,” Greg agreed, “I can’t wait to see what all that pampering did to my body."

“Oh yeah,” she said, “I almost forgot about that."

“Well, let’s not put this off any longer,” he said, and after motioning Ipek in, they both stood next to their bodies and allowed Ipek to transfer their brains back into their bodies. Once they came back online moments later, they stepped forwards out of the alcoves and stretched out their freshly pampered bodies.

“Wow, my body feels great!” Sabrina said, feeling herself up contentedly.

“Mine too,” Greg said, “Can you feel any of the hardware improvements?” he asked, running a quick system diagnostic.

“Yeah,” she said, “It’s not that much though,” she admitted, “What I really feel is the muscle and skin pampering they did."

“Same here,” he said, “Still, this place is awesome and left us refreshed…despite us not even being in our bodies the whole time."

“I know, it’s weird, isn’t it?”

“It’ll take a bit of getting used to."

“So, is there anything else you want to do here?” she asked, taking another look at Mandy.

“No,” he said, taking one last look at James.

“Well then, let’s get these two back in and head back so we can tell my dad the wonderful news."

“Very well,” he smiled, and once they had both Mandy and James back in the alcoves, they sealed them up and then began gathering their things.

As they were packing their things, Sandy suddenly materialized in the main room. “Well you two, how did you enjoy your stay?” Sandy asked, once she was materialized.

“It was great!” Sabrina said, “We both enjoyed our complimentary bodies, as well as the scenery."

“That’s good to hear,” Sandy beamed, “I’ve already sent for the car to take you back to the airstrip,” she said then, “Rest assured, by your next visit, we’ll have one on site so you won’t need to take a long drive in."

“That’s good,” Greg said, “But the drive wasn’t that far."

“Anyway, as I mentioned on your first day, this cabin is yours and yours alone,” Sandy said, “All you have to do is call ahead and we’ll get everything ready for you."

“Thanks Sandy!” Sabrina said.

“Thank you, and I hope to see you again soon!” Sandy said, and after giving them both a curtsy, she shimmered away, just as their driver knocked at the door.

“Well, looks like our ride is here,” Greg said, picking up his bag.

“Yep,” Sabrina said regretfully.

“Don’t worry dear, we can come back here anytime."

“I know,” she said, “Maybe next time, we’ll have a kid or two."

“Yeah,” he smiled, “Let’s hurry back so we can let your dad know."

“Ok,” she said, and the three of them got into the car.

The flight back was just as short as the flight up, though instead of driving back home, they drove a short distance down the road to where the Neovations regional headquarters was. Because they had called ahead, John was waiting for them in the entrance lobby. “So you two, how’d you enjoy the resort?” John asked, stepping up and giving them both a hug.

“It was great!” Sabrina said, “I can’t wait to go back."

“Yeah, I thought it was a neat setup,” Greg said, “Letting people use complementary bodies while their bodies get worked on is a neat idea,” he finished, “The scenery was nice too."

“Excellent,” John said, “I knew you two would love it,” he smiled, “So, what brings you two here?”

“Well, while we were there, we made an important decision,” Sabrina smiled.

“Oh?”

“We’ve decided we’re ready to have kids,” Sabrina said.

“That’s wonderful news!”

“Yeah, it’s time,” Greg agreed, putting his arm around her, “So, what exactly is going to be involved with getting her pregnant?”

“Not too much,” John said a bit evasively, and when he saw the look on their faces that they usually got when he used that tone, he said, “You both need a few hardware additions,” he clarified, “Sabrina needs quite a few actually."

“Will it take long?” Sabrina asked, “We have to go back to work tomorrow."

“No, it shouldn’t take long,” John said, “But I do have a caveat,” he said, and before they could say anything else, he said, “Let’s head to your maintenance suite and I’ll explain more."

“Alright,” they said, and the passively followed him into the building and down to where their maintenance suite was. Once they were in, they sat down in the small lobby that had been added and watched as John grabbed a data pad.

“So, what is this caveat?” Greg asked, once John took a seat across from them.

“Well, I know you two have decided to have a baby, I’m assuming the old school way?”

“Yeah,” Sabrina said, “Why, do you not have our genetic material anymore?” she asked with a worried look.

“We do,” John assured her, “It’s just, we’re nearing the final testing phase of the various classes of androids, and the one stage we have yet to test extensively is the artificial human class."

“What’s been the trouble?” Greg asked.

“Well, we can’t just make a brand new person,” John said, “The only way to make an artificial human is to have it start off as a baby and grow up and develop just as an organic child would,” he explained, “And to be frank, we don’t have many converts or HRMs that are couples."

“I see,” Greg said, “So you want us to have an artificial child at some point as well?”

“Well, if it isn’t too much trouble, I’d like for you to have twins,” John said, “One child organic, the other artificial, yet both coming to life at the same time."

Greg and Sabrina were a little shocked to hear John’s suggestion. They stared at each other for quite some time, sending each other mental messages across their personal network so John couldn’t hear them. John understood what they were doing though and patiently sat back while they deliberated. Basically, one of the features they got installed while they were at the resort was a feature only married couples qualified for. It allowed them to essentially speak telepathically with one another, even across great distances.

''“What do you think dear?”'' Greg asked Sabrina, ''“Do you want to have twins?”''

''“I don’t know,”'' she admitted, ''“This is all so sudden, can we even support twins at this point in our lives?”''

''“Well, we earn enough money, and Ipek has nanny programming built in,”'' he said, ''“I’m more concerned that one will be artificial and the other organic,”'' he admitted, ''“I mean, the artificial one will likely require loads of maintenance in its early years.”''

''“Yeah,”'' she agreed, ''“Still, it’s not a drastic request and we do owe him more than we could ever repay,”'' she said, ''“Let’s do it.”''

''“Alright,”'' he said, and then they turned to look at John.

“I take it you’ve come to a decision,” John surmised.

“Yes, we agree to have twins,” Greg said.

“Excellent!"

“We do have some questions though,” Sabrina said.

“Go ahead."

“How exactly is this going to work?” Sabrina asked, “I mean, I know how to have an organic child,” she said with a blush, “But how are you going to make an artificial one?”

“Well, one of the pieces of hardware I’ll be adding to you both is a genetic coding algorithm,” John said, “Basically, it’ll analyze your genetic codes, and when you two do it, your codes will be combined to form the blueprints for an artificial child,” he explained, “Also, your actual genetic material will also combine normally to create the embryo for your organic child."

“Well, we knew that much,” Greg said, “So, it’s going to take nine months for you to code and create our artificial child?”

“Well, it will this time,” John said, “Since we haven’t had much experience doing this, and we want to make sure it comes online the same time the organic one is born,” he explained, “In the future, prospective couples will have to wait, at most, a month for their child to be ‘born’."

“Wow, no more nine months,” Sabrina mused.

“Yeah, though that’s not factoring in the time it will take for them to get approval to have children,” John added, “I already mentioned that from this point, procreation is going to be strictly regulated to prevent overpopulation, accidental births, and births to families that can’t support children.”

“That makes sense,” Greg said, “Another thing we were concerned about is the amount of maintenance the artificial child would require."

“Well, it won’t really be maintenance it will require,” John said, “Basically, the nanites in the body will be able to gradually age the child based on the aging algorithm,” he explained, “But the child can only grow so much before it simply needs a new body,” he continued, “The aging algorithm will send us, and you, an alert so we can start building an older body in time for you to come in."

“Okay, I thought it might be something like that,” Greg nodded.

“Any more questions?”

“Not about the artificial child,” Greg said, “But what about these hardware additions you mentioned?”

“Alright,” John said, tapping a few buttons on his data pad and waiting a few moments as a small team of technicians entered, “For you, I just have to add the genetic algorithm and the tube containing your genetic material,” he explained, “For Sabrina, I have to do both those, and attach the artificial womb to her various systems."

“Okay."

“Well Greg, you’re up first,” John said, once the technicians were ready.

“Alright,” Greg said, getting up and taking his clothes off before laying down on one of the exam tables, “I’m not going to have to be deactivated, am I?”

“No."

“Good,” he said, making the seam on his chest appear. Once his panel was unsealed, the technicians carefully opened it and then began working inside his open panel. Fortunately, the table he was on was slightly inclined, so he was able to see every detail of his innards and what they were doing to them. Based on the way Sabrina was watching, he could tell she was recording the ordeal.

After several minutes, the technicians finally finished installing a pair of devices to his motor control complex, and his sexual systems. His systems reported a successful hardware installation, and he saw the lights on both components turn green.

“Well son, you’re good to go,” John smiled, once the technicians closed his panel up.

“Thanks,” Greg said, resealing the panel and getting up. He thought he’d feel a little heavier on his feet with the extra components, but he was mildly surprised to feel no discernible difference.

“Alright Sabrina, your turn,” John said.

“Okay,” she said, quickly stripping off all her clothes and laying down on the table. As soon as she unsealed her panel, the technicians carefully opened it and got to work.

While they were working, Greg made sure to record everything just like she did with him. In addition to the pair of components they had installed in him, they also installed a weird looking bag he assumed was her artificial uterus. It fit in perfectly just in front of her motor control complex, though they added a sort of girdle to direct any growth outwards. Finally, they attached numerous connections to both her heart, and motor control complex, as well as a few tubes connected to her digestive systems. Once it was all in, her systems did a quick scan to verify successful hardware installation, and then green lights lit up on all of them. “Alright, you two are fully loaded,” John smiled as Sabrina closed herself back up and got to her feet.

“So, do we get to pick the genders?” Sabrina asked, getting used to the extra weight of all the hardware they installed in her.

“Yes,” John said, “Did you have any in mind?”

“We’d like the organic twin to be a boy, and the artificial one to be a girl,” Greg said, since they had also discussed that while her hardware was being installed.

“That can be done,” John said, tapping a few things on his pad, “As soon as her systems report a successful impregnation, her egg will start developing in the artificial womb we just installed, and the genetic blueprint for your daughter will be sent automatically to us,” he explained, “I’d recommend you come here at least once a month for follow up exams."

“Will do,” Greg said, getting his clothes back on.

“How long will it be before we know if I’m pregnant?” Sabrina asked, also getting her clothes back on.

“Well, assuming you guys have sex as soon as you get home, you should know by morning,” John said, “A blue light will light up on your new systems."

“Thanks dad!” Sabrina said, fully clothed and hugging John.

“You two just get busy making me grandchildren,” John said, waving to them as they left.

After Greg and Sabrina left the building, they quickly drove back home. As soon as they got there, they had Ipek stand guard outside their door while they took off all their clothes and climbed into bed with each other. After engaging in numerous rounds of sex, just to make sure one of the attempts worked, they finally cleaned up and then spent the rest of the day anxiously waiting for it to end so they could check the next day. When they woke up the next morning, they wasted no time opening Sabrina’s panel and watching the indicator light on her womb. After she ordered it to run a diagnostic, they could literally hear the time ticking by as finally, the light turned blue.

“It turned blue!” they both said at the same time, carefully closing her back up and embracing one another, tears streaming down their eyes.

As they had a private celebration in their room, Ipek stood passively outside their room, guarding it. A smile slowly crossed her face as she began receiving telemetry from Sabrina’s body.

[Spaz]

Part 6.2: Birth

In the weeks following Sabrina’s pregnancy, they took her into John’s lab numerous times so he could monitor the fetus, and her systems. In addition to monitoring Sabrina’s fetus, John also closely monitored both their genetic algorithms, as well as full diagnostic reads, to plug in to the massive computer he had compiling their artificial child’s A.I. and physical parameters. One of the other things they were able to do with both children was determine basic physical traits, so they decided to have the boy share more traits with Greg and the girl share more traits with Sabrina. Even though Greg and Sabrina kept asking John to show them what their daughter was going to look like, he insisted on making them wait until their son was ready to be born. Still, they had other questions.

“So dad, I know we were so excited to do this at first, but now that I think about it, won’t our son eventually need to be converted later on anyway?” Sabrina asked as the technicians tinkered around in her open panel to repair a minor fault in the connections.

“Eventually,” John said, “But since your son, and anyone else’s child that is born in this fashion, will be significantly healthier than the average child born the normal way, I figure your son will be perfectly fine well into his 20s,” he estimated, “And of course, since he’s family, he gets the free treatment as well,” he added with a smile.

“Well, that’s good to know,” Greg said, sounding a bit relieved.

“Is there any way to speed things up a bit?”

“I’m afraid not,” John laughed, “Hey, at least you won’t experience much of the issues human women do when their pregnant,” he said, “Your titanium based skeletal structure should be more than strong enough to handle the extra weight, you won’t get the morning sickness, and we’ll just be opening you up and removing the baby directly from your uterus attachment, so you won’t experience the mega pain that would normally accompany a birth."

“Oh, well in that case, I don’t mind,” she smiled, “Though I have been getting cravings."

“Yeah, I figured as much,” John said, “We tried to be as accurate as possible in that regard, since your body knows what the child needs."

“Yeah, well he certainly loves his sweets,” Sabrina smiled, looking down at the somewhat large sac that was growing in her panel, with all the lights blinking around it, “I wonder if he likes all those lights.".

“Maybe,” John said, “We won’t know until he’s much older,” he said, “Which is part of the reason we’re doing all this monitoring, so we can improve the process for future couples."

“Is there anything you can do about her feet?”

“What about them?”

“Well, she’s gaining weight pretty fast, and I’ve noticed her feet aren’t swelling up the way a pregnant woman’s feet are supposed to, so she’s been complaining a lot of pain caused by the extra weight."

“Yeah,” Sabrina said, “It figures he’d notice before me, but it’s true."

“Huh, I’ll look into it,” John said, “I figured your body would be able to perform all the necessary adjustments on its own,” he mused, “I’m sure the techs will probably just have to make you some reinforced feet though,” he then said, “In the meanwhile, try and stay off your feet."

“Will do."

After that conversation, they were soon called back in by John a few days later. “So you two, I consulted the techs and they made you these,” John said, handing them a small box containing a pair of female feet. They looked exactly like Sabrina’s current feet, except they had a somewhat swollen look, and a sturdier feel to them. After Greg examined them, he handed them to Sabrina, who also scrutinized them. “Those should get you through the rest of your pregnancy."

“Thanks,” Sabrina said, and then she handed them back to Greg so he could attach them. Once he had her normal feet detached and her pregnancy feet attached, she wiggled her new toes and then got to her feet. “Wow, they feel much better, thanks!” she said, walking over and giving her dad a hug.

“Don’t mention it sweetheart,” John said, “and you can just leave your other feet here until you give birth."

“Okay."

“Well, aside from regular checkups, I don’t expect to see you two back here until that baby is ready to come out."

“Okay,” Greg said.

“Thanks dad,” Sabrina said, giving him another hug before the two of them headed home.

After she got her new feet, there wasn’t much more they could do except make sure Sabrina kept the baby safe, and wait until she was due. Fortunately, unlike with a human birth, they could choose exactly which day the baby would be born, so when the day finally came, they decided to spend the night at the lab to prepare themselves, and so John could give them a brief orientation.

“Are you two ready?” John asked, once they were settled in in their special ‘birthing’ suite.

“Yes, and no,” Sabrina smiled.

“I’m with her,” Greg laughed.

“I thought as much,” John laughed, “Anyway, before you give birth to your son, I’m going to go over a few things regarding your daughter."

“Oooh, do we get to see her now?” Sabrina asked.

“Not yet,” John said, “You’ll see her when your son is born."

“Drat!”

“What do you have to show us then?” Greg asked.

“Basic schematics and supplies you’ll need,” John said, and he activated a monitor which showed the basic schematics for an infant robot, “This is the blueprints for your daughter, who is still undergoing the final stages of construction,” he explained, giving Sabrina a look.

“Aside from the size difference, it doesn’t look all that different from our schematics,” Greg said, bringing his schematics up in his field of vision and comparing it to his daughter's.

“It isn’t,” John said, “Basically, everything is merely smaller, but they still operate roughly the same."

“Obviously she’ll have some special needs, otherwise you wouldn’t bother explaining this to us,” Greg said.

“You’re right,” John said, “Now, unlike your son, who will eat the milk that Sabrina’s body has already been producing, your daughter will have to eat this,” he said, grabbing a bottle of a silvery, milky fluid.

“What the hell is this?” Greg asked, taking it from John’s hand.

“A special type of milk formulated just for androids,” John said, watching as Greg opened the bottle and sniffed the contents, “It has titanium additives so her nanites can work on her skeletal structure,” he smiled, seeing the look on Greg’s face as he smelled it, “Since last I checked, there aren’t any natural sources of titanium that humans regularly eat."

“Oh,” Greg said, handing the bottle to Sabrina so she could examine it.

“Is our daughter going to like it?” Sabrina asked, also smelling it.

“Well, her A.I. will control her appetite, so she’ll find it tasty until she reaches an age where she no longer needs it,” John smiled, “It’s like how human babies love baby food, but when they become adults they find it repulsive since they no longer needs the excessive amounts of nutrients that have packed into them."

“Surprisingly, that actually makes a lot of sense,” Greg said.

“I thought it might."

“So, you mentioned to us before that she’ll only be able to grow to a certain point before she requires a new body,” Sabrina said, “Do you have any idea how long that might be?”

“Well, it’s hard to estimate since it depends on numerous factors based on both your genetic information, but we figure it shouldn’t be much longer than six to nine months."

“Okay,” Greg said.

“Another thing you should know is that in both your children, there will be small nanochips that will send telemetry to both of you so you’ll be able to tell exactly what is ailing them,” John said, “It’s a bit of technology that was tested in the past for humans, but couldn’t be perfected; we perfected it."

“Wow, your taking all the fun out of this experience,” Greg laughed sarcastically.

“I know,” John smiled, “I just want to make things as easy for you as possible,” he said, “Oh, I almost forgot, Ipek will also receive the telemetry as well, since I’m assuming you’ll be using her as a nanny."

“Yes, we will,” Sabrina said.

“Good,” John said, “That’s part of the reason I gave her to you,” he said, “So she could take care of you, and my grandkids."

“Well, she’s at home getting the nursery ready,” Greg smiled, “Amongst other things."

“I’m sure,” John smiled, “Well, unless you have any more questions, I’ll let you two get settled in,” he said, “Your babies will be in your arms tomorrow morning,” he smiled, and then he headed out.

If it weren’t for the fact that the two of them were androids, they wouldn’t have been able to get to sleep with all the trepidation that was running through their systems. They both had to manually engage their sleep modes for the first time that they could remember. In the morning, they had just enough time to have a quick breakfast before John and the technicians arrived to begin the brief procedure of bringing their son into the world. John was carrying a somewhat large looking case, which they assumed contained their android daughter.

“Well you two, you ready?” John asked, carefully setting the case down.

“Yes,” they both said.

“Good, now while these two technicians start working on your brief procedure, I’m going to start initializing your daughter’s systems,” John said, opening the case while the technicians gathered their tools, “She should come online just as your son takes his first breath."

“I can’t wait,” Sabrina said, opening her main panel so the techs could get to work.

The procedure was fairly simple, though not like anything Greg had ever seen. Based on what he knew, this was somewhat equivalent to a cesarean section, though instead of cutting in, they had easy access due to Sabrina’s panel opening. Furthermore, they spent an inordinate amount of time connecting their devices to various connection points in her systems, probably verifying that their son was indeed ready to come out. After a while, they sort of poked a specific section of the sac with a tool, and then it suddenly started moving around.

“Whoa! that felt weird,” Sabrina said.

“Yeah, they had to wake your son up from his nap,” John smiled, working hard on their robotic daughter so she could be ‘born’.

Soon after the sac started moving around, one of the technicians started severing all the connections to it and then completely removed it from Sabrina’s body, taking it over near where John was working. Greg got a little nervous at first, but he was more fascinated by the second technician doing some quick work inside Sabrina’s open panel, plugging a tool into her motor control complex and injecting something into the bottom part of both skin flaps. When he was done doing whatever it was he was doing, he closed both skin flaps and told Sabrina she could reseal herself.

“Hey, they got rid of all the stretch marks,” Sabrina said, once she was resealed, feeling her belly which looked as though it wasn’t just expanded outwards nearly a foot for the past several months. As a matter of fact, it looked as though she had never been pregnant before in her life, except for her special pregnancy feet, which the technician was swiftly replacing with her original feet she had left with them for safe keeping. “Thanks,” Sabrina smiled to the technician, who merely smiled back and headed over to assist the other one, who was still working on the uterus sac. Finally, a few minutes later, they heard the sound of not one, but two babies crying.

“Congratulations you two, you are the proud parents of twins,” John said, carrying two bundles, one blue and the other pink, to them.

Greg solemnly looked on as John placed both bundles in Sabrina’s lap. Because both bundles were moving, Greg sat down next to her to help her out as he looked down on both his children. His first instinct was to look at his son, not because he was organic, but because he was his son and he felt a sort of fatherly bond. His son, despite being only a few minutes old, looked a lot like him, especially in the eyes and overall facial configuration, though he could clearly pick out the traits from Sabrina that had carried over. His daughter looked more like Sabrina, but also shared some of his traits. He couldn’t help but stare at her though. He knew she was an android like he and Sabrina now were, but with her moving around in the same fashion as her twin brother, even crying, he found it hard to believe that the bundle of joy in the pink bundle was artificial. After they got over the shock of seeing their children for the first time, they suddenly became aware of the telemetry that was suddenly coming in from both of them. They could see their children’s temperature, as well as several other vitals.

“Well you two, I think we’ll give you some privacy,” John said, eyeing both technicians and then walking out.

Greg and Sabrina said nothing as they got lost in their children’s newborn eyes.

[Spaz]

Part 6.3: Legacy

Over the next several months, Greg and Sabrina watched as their twins slowly grew up. They were surprised, despite all of John’s assurances, that their android daughter seemed to act just like a human baby. She learned things just like her brother did, and she didn’t show any signs of superior ability from her artificial nature, except she didn’t get sick. They decided to name their son James and their daughter Julie, no particular reason for each name; they picked the first letter randomly, as well as the names. When the twins both turned six months, an alert pinged in both their HUDs that their daughter needed to be taken in for her new body.

“Wow, I guess she grew pretty fast,” Greg said, getting their daughter’s things ready for their trip to the lab.

“Yeah,” Sabrina said, “Though, we’re both pretty tall, so I’m not too surprised."

“Well, hopefully by the time we get there, John has Julie’s upgraded body,” Greg said, wrestling both children into their car seats.

Once they arrived at John’s lab, they were immediately taken to their personal maintenance suite, where the older version of their daughter was waiting; they only expected to be there a short while. “Well, looks like I timed it about right,” John said, once they were settled in. He took a few moments to play with both his grandchildren before getting back to business, “How has she been?”

“She’s been great,” Greg said, “As has James,” he added, “The only difference is Julie isn’t affected by the various bugs going around,” he said, “Though another thing I’ve noticed is she tends to exude some sort of calm on James whenever they’re together."

“Interesting,” John mused, “I’m not surprised about her not getting sick, since she’s inorganic, but I am interested by the calm she seems to exude,” he said, “Maybe James can hear the low hum from her body’s systems and finds it relaxing."

“I think that might be it,” Sabrina said, “He seems to calm down when we hold him close too, and we’ve got some humming going on inside us as well."

“I guess that is it,” John laughed, “Still, I’ll let the technicians know so they can come up with a solution nevertheless,” he said, “Preferably our bodies shouldn’t be emitting any noise."

“Well, please don’t fix it until after he’s a bit older,” Greg requested, “After all, it does calm him down."

“Will do,” John laughed.

“I’m curious, even though she’s an infant, she’s still a pure A.I. so is it possible she knows she’s different from James?” Sabrina asked, “I mean, she is aware she’s an android, right?”

“Theoretically,” John said, “You have to understand, Julie here is one of the first pure A.I.s we’ve developed, so we really don’t know,” he admitted, “That’s why we’re looking forward to interviewing her when she’s a bit older and able to understand."

“I think she knows she’s different, but since she's growing up as an android, it will all just be perfectly normal to her,” Greg guessed.

“That’s what we figure,” John said.

“So, is this going to be as simple as just transferring Julie’s brain into her older body?” Greg asked.

“Mostly,” John said, still monitoring the machine that was doing the finishing touches on Julie’s older body, “We’ll also need to connect her brain to our computers to run a few tests, since she’ll need to be able to handle all the extra motor functions."

“Okay,” Greg said.

“Well, why don’t we get Julie opened up so we can start running the tests?”

“Okay,” Sabrina said, and she took one last look into Julie’s innocent eyes before accessing her daughter’s systems remotely. She shut her daughter’s A.I. down and then remotely opened up her skull access, removing the small organic brain and handing it to John.

“Thanks, this should only take a few moments,” John said, carefully attaching Julie’s brain to a special machine and running a diagnostic.

“I was wondering,” Greg said, helping Sabrina place Julie’s old body on a nearby table, “Julie’s brain is so small, is she going to need to be transferred into a larger brain when she gets older?”

“No,” John said, “Basically, those special vitamins you give her also include the basic building materials for the organic computing matter,” he explained, “The nanites in her body are already gradually adding the new ‘brain’ matter as she builds new pathways from everything she learns and experiences,” he continued, “So, it’s already getting larger, just very, very slowly."

“Oh, that makes sense,” Greg nodded, “Do our bodies do the same thing?”

“In a way,” John said, “Your brains are already fully developed, but if sections of them start degrading, your nanites rebuild them with the food you eat,” he explained, “But, that rebuilding is rarely needed, so you shouldn’t have to worry about your brains degrading or anything."

“Oh, I wasn’t worried, just curious,” Greg said, “So John, from what I figure, you’re pretty high up in this company, so how are you able to devote so much of your time to us?”

“Well, you guys are family, and you also happen to be the most successful beta testers,” John said, relaxing a bit, “But more than that, even though I’m only Sabrina’s stepfather, I can’t help but feel like you all are my legacy,” he said, “I mean, I brought Sabrina back to life, and gave you a new body, and then you two had kids,” he continued, “The way I see it, none of that would have happened if it weren’t for me being in your lives.”

“Wow, I hadn’t really thought if it quite that way,” Greg said.

“Neither had I,” Sabrina admitted.

“Yeah, and it’s more than just you guys,” John said, “Basically, all of humanity that chooses to evolve in this way becomes my legacy as well, and by making sure you all are okay, I ensure everyone else will as well."

“Well, we can’t speak for the rest of humanity, but we’re definitely grateful,” Greg smiled.

“Yeah,” Sabrina agreed.

“Anyway, looks like Julie’s new body is finally ready,” John said, fighting a blush as he pulled the six month old version of Julie from the machine, “Now, I know she looks exactly the same, but you know the drill,” he said, opening up her panel, “Her skeletal structure should continue to ‘grow’ for at least another six months, and after that it’ll be about a year,” he said, pulling Julie’s brain from the machine and inserting it into the new body.

He then handed the body over to Sabrina, who was already accessing her daughter’s systems remotely. A few moments later, Julie opened her eyes and acted normally, as though she hadn’t just been disembodied for several minutes. “Thanks dad,” Sabrina said, cooing at Julie in her lap, “This was relatively painless."

“Don’t mention it,” John shrugged, “And it’s my goal to make each of these visits as swift and efficient as possible."

“Well, we appreciate that,” Greg said, picking up James, who had been snoozing in the stroller the whole time, completely unaware his sister had just received a new body.

“Anyway, I hope to see lots of baby pictures,” John smiled, getting Julie’s old body secured and walking with them out of the suite.

“I can’t wait to see what she looks like when she’s older,” Greg said, looking at her in the twin stroller he was pushing along; she had fallen asleep.

“Well, if you like, I could extrapolate it for you based on her genetic algorithm and build her mature body for you."

“No, that won’t be necessary,” Sabrina said.

“Yeah,” Greg agreed, “We want to see her get there the normal way."

“Alright."

“So, is there anything you want us to be doing?” Greg asked.

“Yes, just continue treating Julie normally,” John said simply, “It may seem like it, but we’ve just gathered more data from Julie from the last six months than we have from all of the converts and HRMs in the last ten years,” he said, “You’re doing great!”

“Wow, I didn’t realize,” Sabrina said, blushing a little.

“Well, if doing what we have been doing is all we have to do, then that’s what we’ll do,” Greg shrugged.

“Good,” John smiled, “Anyway, by my estimate, we’ll be ready for the final testing phase by about all this by your children’s fifth birthday,” he said, “Then we’ll finally be ready to go public."

“Good to know,” Greg said, once they were outside. He once again wrestled both kids into the car seats and then got ready to head home.

“Thanks again dad!” Sabrina said, “And be sure to come over for dinner later."

“I will,” John said, and he waved to them as they drove back home.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This story will be concluded in Part 7, approximately five years later. John calls in all converts and HRMs in for final testing, and then the world is informed of the forced evolution plan.

[Spaz]

Post-Part 6 update:

Well, I've finally finished Part 6. It has been a stressful month for me, with having jury duty in the beginning, and then stressing out about my oral boards for the police department, and finally accidentally damaging my laptop's cooling system when I upgraded the CPU last week, causing my computer to downclock itself. Suffice to say I have had a stressful month. Anyway, I realize the theme of Part 6, the kids, might be a sort of slowdown for the story, but I assure you they are quite necessary and will be appearing fully matured in the upcoming Spaz Studios Presents: "Brave New World".

Anyway, Part 7 is going to tie up the story of Greg and Sabrina, and open up boundless possibilities for the future...

[Spaz]

Pre-Part 7 update:

I started writing part 7 last night, and it seems I've gotten my writing mojo back because before I knew it, I'd written over 2,500 words for 7.1 and am still going. As such, I've decided to split part 7 away from the final parts, making a part 8, and allowing me to use part 7 solely for the final testing phase of the artificial human project.

[Spaz]

Part 7.1: Final tests pt.1

Following their six month visit, they had to return to John’s lab for their daughter’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th birthdays to receive older bodies. Each time, John would plug her brain in to collect the valuable data collected within; he explained that if humans could do that with the human brain, they probably would have solved a great many neurological issues a long time ago. In between each visit though, they watched not only Julie, but also James, slowly grow up. They each learned and taught each other how to walk, how to talk, and how to trick their parents into giving them sweets. By all measurable senses, they were as normal as can be. Despite James being organic, he too was tested upon each visit, since he was the first human to be born in this fashion. They not only found him to be perfectly healthy, but they also were able to estimate he was going to be an extremely intelligent individual, just like his twin sister; much more intelligent than their parents even.

John also kept them in the loop, without going over any specific personal details, several other families that had opted for the same option as them and had organic and artificial twins, as well as several other families that had opted for either just an organic, or just an artificial child. Unfortunately, John wouldn’t let them correspond with each other, for fears it might unintentionally alter their data points, but he assured them they would one day meet. He also assured them that the collected pool of data was already helping them formulate new software, hardware, and programming for future maintenance cycles.

Greg and Sabrina continued living their lives normally for five years with their two kids, and Ipek, who had recently received a body upgrade aging her to a physical appearance of 30. Sabrina was currently working as an administrator in the school district, and had helped the twins get into the best school. Greg had continued his work as ASAC of logistics and operations, and has performed his job so well and efficiently, that when the SAC finally got promoted out east, they selected Greg to replace him. Things were going so well that Greg and Sabrina were planning on having another child, though they were debating whether or not it would be organic or artificial. They noticed shortly after the twin’s fifth birthday numerous news reports across the planet of people contracting symptoms of radiation poisoning; apparently the world government was no longer able to contain the news.

It was on a cool spring day that John suddenly sent them a message requesting they each take a week off work in exactly one month so they could perform the final tests for the artificial human project. Since it would be during the summer, Sabrina had no problem with the timeframe, but Greg’s new role made it more problematic…that is until he made is concerns with John. John, as usual, pulled strings to make it happen. When the day finally came, they all drove down to the lab, only to see hundreds of people waiting outside the building.

“Wow, I wonder what they’re going to be doing,” Greg said, parking in their usual spot and helping his son out of the car.

“I don’t know, but if Dad called all these people here, then they must be almost ready to go public,” Sabrina said, helping their daughter out of the car.

Before they could say anything else, John and his team of technicians emerged from the building and beckoned them to join the crowd. Once they did, John began speaking. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sure you’ve all seen the news reports on the TV,” John began, “The day I have warned you all about, to justify what we are doing, is now upon us,” he said, “For the next week, we will be testing all of your systems in a variety of ways to determine if humanity is finally ready to join all of us in the future of our evolution!”

The crowd applauded and cheered for a while, all the while John smiled and waited for them to finish before continuing.

“The first thing we are going to ask is something that would usually sound crazy, if you were still human,” John smiled, waiting for the laughter to die down a bit, “I need you all to stop eating and drinking, and also go without sleep, so we can determine if your power systems last as long as we designed them to,” he said, and after seeing the shocked, yet understanding looks on everyone’s faces, he continued, “Don’t worry, you’ll be doing other tests in the meanwhile, however due to the number of you that are here, we are going to separate you into groups of 20,” he said, “Think of this as a sort of camping trip, except inside a state of the art facility.”

Everyone laughed and smiled as they were slowly grouped together. Because there was close to a thousand people, it took a while. Fortunately, Greg, Sabrina, and Julie were allowed to be grouped together; James, although a little sad at being separated from his sister, would be staying in the facility under Ipek’s care. Greg’s group had roughly 40 people. Once they were all grouped, each group was led into the building and taken to the lowest level of the building, which was essentially a huge cavern similar to the one at the Lake Hideaway resort. It looked like an underground city, with artificial lawns, artificial lighting, and numerous buildings. The building Greg’s group was taken to resembled a sort of barracks, though each group of bunks was separated by crude walls; it looked as though this entire underground city had only recently been constructed.

“Where are we daddy?” Julie asked Greg, as they took in their surroundings. Now that she was five, she had taken on many of Sabrina’s features, most notably the long, thick, curly, dark brown hair; she did have Greg’s shrewd looking eyes.

“It looks like we’re at our temporary home,” Greg told her, “Think of this as a vacation sweetie,” he told her, “We’re going to get to meet a lot of people just like us over the next few days."

“You mean, not like James?”

“Yeah, but unlike you, most of us started off like James,” Greg said, “Remember that."

“Okay,” Julie said, and she followed her mother into one of the crude rooms so they could settle in.

Once they were all settled in, everyone in their group slowly started getting acquainted with their bunkmates. From what Greg could determine, while many of the converts and HRMS in his group were associated with Neovations, most of them lived their own lives much like Greg and Sabrina did. Some were teachers, others were laborers, and there was one other law enforcement officer, though he was just a beat cop from Oakland that had been shot. Julie appeared to be the only artificial human in their group. After they all introduced themselves to each other, John’s image came on a screen in the common area of the bunk.

“Alright everyone, I’m assuming that now you have all gotten to know one another in your groups, though you’ll have the opportunity to get to know everyone else a bit later,” John said, “The first thing I’d like all of you to do is spend at least one hour on the treadmills we have provided for you,” he said, “And remember, don’t eat, drink, or sleep."

One of the other rooms in the barracks was equipped with just enough treadmills for all of them. Because Julie was the youngest, Greg set her treadmill to a lower speed and had her manually adjust her systems so she could ignore her body’s signals telling her she was tired. They had to continue going on the treadmills for one hour at a time every four hours after, pausing in between to chat, and to have their brains and bodies connected to the lab computers so data could be collected from each stage. After several rounds on the treadmills, they all started running low on energy since their bodies had long since burned off what food and drinks they had consumed before they arrived. While they rested up after the fifth round on the treadmill, some people came over to them and chatted them up, since Julie was obviously the youngest one there.

“She must be one of the artificial humans, right?” A young woman asked; she was a mother, but her kids were still organic.

“Yeah,” Greg said, “Though her twin is organic."

“Wow,” the group gathered around them said.

“It’s amazing,” the woman said, “She even looks just like you two."

Julie could do nothing but stare at them all, since they were wondering at something she took for granted, and that her brother didn’t care too much about. “I’m running low on energy Mommy,” Julie said, trying to ignore everyone’s stares.

“I know sweetie, Grandpa wants you to run out so he can see if you are working alright,” Sabrina reminded her.

“Oh, okay."

“Wait, John is your father?” one of them asked.

“Stepfather,” Sabrina corrected, “I was actually one of the first HRMs he commissioned, since my host was killed in a car accident,” she explained, “He did it as a favor for his wife, and for Greg here."

“Wow man, you sure are lucky…except for the whole losing your wife in a tragic accident thing,” one of the guys, who had admitted he too was an HRM, said.

“Yeah, I don’t really think about the fact she’s just a copy anymore,” Greg smiled, “After all, she acts exactly like the original Sabrina, and she’s given me two wonderful children,” he added, “And apparently we get free upgrades and maintenance for the rest of our lives, and for all our offspring and their offspring, and so on."

“Wow, we just get it for ourselves, our immediate family, and our immediate offspring,” the HRM guy said.

“Are any of you considering having children?” Sabrina asked.

“Yeah,” a few of them admitted, “Which option do you think we should take, organic, or artificial human?”

“Well, it’s really up to you, but in the end, the organic is going to have to convert anyway,” Sabrina said, “But if you feel they should know what it’s like to live as a human first, then go for the old fashioned way,” she smiled, “We just did both because my father sort of insisted."

“Yeah, but I’m not complaining,” Greg smiled, “And I don’t think James and Julie are either."

“There must be some advantages to going for the artificial human option though, right?” someone asked.

“Well, Julie didn’t catch any of the bugs or viruses going around, so she rarely had reason to cry,” Greg said, “And you can shut them off if they misbehave,” he said, though when he saw the looks on their faces, he said, “Don’t worry, I’m only kidding, I never shut Julie off."

“He has shut me off though,” Sabrina said, “But only for fun, and he lets me shut him off too."

“Oh, you two must be robofetishists,” one of the group said, though in a nonjudgmental way.

“Guilty,” Greg smiled, “It was actually very fortunate when I had my accident and had to convert,” he said, “Have any of you couples ever tried switching bodies and spending a day in each other’s shoes?” Everyone there shook their heads. “Well, you should take the time and try it,” Greg said, “Not just because it's fun, or will turn you on, but because you have no idea how much you can learn about your opposite by just living in their body for a day,” he said, “I admit, we both got off on it the first time, but each time we did it after, we learned a lot about each other."

“Yeah, like I realized that when Greg is slumped over like this,” Sabrina said, moving a bit closer to him, “He’d really like me to do this,” she said, and she gently massaged his back, “Because he works a pretty stressful job, and that stresses out his back muscles."

“Wow, I didn’t realize,” one couple said, looking at each other with kinky smiles.

“And I realized just how uncomfortable the shoes she used to wear were,” Greg said, “When I tried her body out the first time, I bought her some more comfortable shoes and she actually ended up liking them,” he smiled, “And not to mention the sex was great too,” Greg added, covering Julie’s ears as he said it, causing everyone to laugh.

“But, isn’t playing around with all of your robotics weird?” the same guy from before asked.

“It was, at first,” Greg admitted, “But you have to realize that this is all soon going to be completely natural for everybody,” he said, “I mean, when we’re all robots, it won’t be a fetish anymore, it will simply be sex,” he said, “No different than oral sex."

“Wow, I never thought of it that way,” the guy admitted.

“Yeah, you guys should all engage in some of the play we have,” Sabrina said, “We often remove each other’s heads, and other limbs, as well as play around in our panels,” she said, “Also, one of the best highs we’ve had is having sex after our batteries have been removed."

“Yeah, it’s a killer orgasm,” Greg said, “Of course, you should have someone spotting you,” he smiled, “We have a DPM that spots us."

The looks on all the faces in the group looked impressed, and Greg could tell they were all recording the conversation for when they returned to their homes.

“So, do you miss your organic body?” one of the HRMs asked Greg.

“A little,” Greg admitted, “But honestly, I don’t have to worry about getting shot anymore, or getting sick, eating the wrong thing, or losing sleep over something,” he said, “John calls this process ‘forced evolution’,” he then said, “And I can’t imagine the human body being able to improve itself in the same fashion that John and his company have been able to over the past century."

“I’m just glad we won’t have to look old or wrinkly anymore,” Sabrina added.

“Yeah,” all the women said, and several of the men as well.

Before they could say anything else, the alarm alerting them to the next round on the treadmills sounded, so they all got up and started working out again. This time, as they finished up their hour on the treadmill, several people ran out of power before, or just after the hour was up. Fortunately, a recent A.I. update overrode even the converts actions and allowed them to power down the treadmills and get to a safe place just as their power ran out. Julie was one of the people who powered down early, most likely because of her young age and relative inexperience dealing with her body’s systems. Several of the other people Greg noticed had also mentioned they had recently converted. A few more were HRMs that were slightly heavier set than the rest, and obviously consumed more energy with their movements.

As soon as the people lost energy, technicians filed in and efficiently carted them back to the barracks area to lay them down on their beds. When Greg asked what would happen to them, they simply responded that as soon as everyone lost power, everyone would be plugged in at exactly the same time to test their recharge rates.

When the hour was finally up, Greg, Sabrina, and the other 15 people who hadn’t lost power all filed in to the barracks to chat again before the next round, though based on Greg’s power readings, he figured no one would make it to the next round. Sure enough, over the next couple hours, people he and Sabrina were chatting with slowly dropped off until it was just Greg, Sabrina, and three other people.

“Well fella’s, looks like we’re the last ones standing,” Greg said, “Or should I say, sitting,” he corrected with a smile. With less than 5% power remaining, his systems configured themselves so he felt woozy. It was certainly a much different experience from having his batteries removed, because at least then the power depleted much more quickly, this way was very slow and not as erotic.

“Yeah,” Jeff, the male HRM who realized they were robofetishists, said, “I wonder why we didn’t drop off already.” Jeff was slightly older than Greg and Sabrina were, most likely in his mid-thirties. He was fairly skinny, average height, and somewhat average looking with plain brown hair.

“It must be because we’ve been androids the longest,” Sabrina said, “As far as I know, I’m one of the very first,” she said, “For HRMs, our A.I.s learn over time and improve upon themselves, so it makes sense that my A.I. might be able to handle my power systems more efficiently."

“Then why am I still online?” Greg asked, “I haven’t been an android for nearly as long as you have."

“Huh, let me think,” Sabrina said, “Maybe it’s because of the time you’ve spent with me,” she said, “I think dad mentioned my A.I. can sort of communicate with your control A.I. wirelessly, since we’re married,” she then said, “maybe mine has imparted some of its wisdom on yours."

“Oh, that’s right,” Greg said, remembering John installing some sort of update when they were married so they could wirelessly check up on one another when they were apart. It was mostly so he could check up on her, since HRMs are somewhat less reliable than converts, but obviously her A.I. was able to transfer some data to his control A.I. “I’ll have to thank your A.I. the next time I speak with it."

“Well, I’m sure it will appreciate it,” Sabrina smiled, absently brushing her daughter’s hair.

“Wait, you’ve actually spoken to her A.I.?” Jeff asked incredulously.

“Yeah, she kept going on saying how she's basically just an A.I. that emulates Sabrina’s memories and personality,” Greg said, “So, I asked her to end human emulation so I could chat with it, and I must say, it was a very interesting conversation."

“Wow, what did it tell you?”

“A few things, but mostly that it remembered the other bodies it had been installed it."

“Oh, I wonder if my A.I. was installed in other bodies before mine."

“Probably,” Sabrina said, “Maybe you could deactivate your human emulation and we could ask it for you,” she offered, but just then both converts in their group got up and laid down in their beds, losing power shortly thereafter.

“Well, now it’s just us,” Jeff said, “You know, I think I might have been brought online right around the time you were,” he said, “Maybe that’s why I still have power."

“Too bad we couldn’t have met earlier,” Greg said.

“Yeah, I would have like to know someone else like me,” Jeff smiled, “Well, me A.I. is telling me I’m about to run out of power, so I’ve got to go,” he said, getting up and walking over to his bed. He ran out of power moments later.

“I think I’m almost out too,” Greg said, now at around 1% power.

“Me too,” Sabrina admitted.

“Well, let’s cuddle up until we’re out,” Greg said, and with an approving nod from Sabrina, the two of them crawled into their cot together and cuddled up until they both lost power at exactly the same time.

[Spaz]

Part 7.2: Final tests pt.2

Greg had only been powered down a few times in his new life as an android, and the one discerning difference from blacking out as a human was that there was a complete lack of senses. For all intents and purposes, when he was powered down, he was dead. After an indeterminate time, he suddenly became aware of his senses, and of the fact that his body was fully powered again. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Sabrina opening hers as well. They were still cuddled together; apparently the technicians hadn’t separated them when they plugged them in. Everyone else was slowly coming online as well, including Julie, who was happy to be awake. They then saw a message pop up in their HUDs from John, explaining that they had successfully cleared the first round of tests, and that for now they should all join their groups in the common area for a feast before the next round began.

“Well, I’m not going to argue with that,” Greg said, closing the message and helping himself and Sabrina up out of the cot.

“Do we get to eat again?” Julie asked, getting up out of her cot and joining them.

“Yes dear, we do,” Greg smiled.

“Yay!” Julie said, and they all headed out and joined their group in the common area, where a large feast was waiting.

The primary topic of conversation during the feast was about the previous test. People asked each other how long they made it, and they speculated as to why certain people lasted longer. People were impressed, but not too surprised, that Greg and Sabrina had lasted the longest, and they became instant celebrities within their group. After their feast ended and their stomachs were once again generating them energy, John sent them another message alerting them to the next phase. The odd thing about this phase, was it was only for the HRMs.

“Alright everyone, now that you've had time to eat and recharge your power systems, I would like to thank you all for the valuable data we’ve collected from the first phase,” John started, “Because you have all been online for varying time frames, your A.I’s are all at different phases of efficiency, which is why some of you were able to remain active for longer than others, despite you all using the same power components,” he continued, “With this data, we will be able to greatly improve your power systems in the next few weeks in preparation for the final release of the artificial human project,” he said, “And now for the next phase,” he finished, and he began detailing what he wanted them to do.

For the next phase, John wanted the HRMs to pair up and swap their A.I. cores, to see if they would indeed be compatible with another brain in an emergency. Basically, with the HRMs, their A.I.s are contained in a removable core at the base of their organic brain. The core can be removed, or replaced, and placed in another brain. This is so if something happens, the HRM can still function perfectly with a replacement A.I. as though nothing happened.

“Wow, I didn’t realize my A.I. could be removed and swapped so easily,” Sabrina admitted, once the message ended.

“Well, it’s not like we could have played around with that particular feature,” Greg said, “I mean, before today we didn’t even know any other HRMs."

“Well guys, considering the friendship we’ve formed, I think Sabrina and I should swap A.I. cores,” Jeff said, after he located them in the group.

“Sure Jeff,” Greg said, “Hey, looks like you’ll finally be able to have a chat with your A.I."

“Yeah, I guess you’re right."

“And I’ll actually be able to chat with mine,” Sabrina smiled, “Not just hear cliff notes from you Greg."

“I guess today is going to be an interesting day,” Greg smiled, and then a team of technicians came in and began explaining to everyone the process of removing the HRM A.I. cores.

Because Greg and Sabrina had already spent lots of time playing around with each other’s systems, they already understood most of what the technicians were saying. The HRMs were also preprogrammed with basic information about their systems, so only Julie and the other converts had looks of confusion on their faces. After the technicians were sure everyone understood what they were supposed to do, they filed out and headed to wherever they were quartered at; Greg couldn’t help but wonder if they were all androids too. While all the other HRMs paired up and got their convert friends to help them out, Greg, Sabrina, Julie, and Jeff headed over to their area to begin the procedure. Once they got to their area, they had Julie play on her game device to distract her while they had their fun.

“Alright Greg, I know you too well to know that you are a little unsettled by this procedure,” Sabrina said, once they were settled in.

“You sure do,” Greg smiled, “It just seems weird, swapping your A.I. cores."

“Well, as weird as it is even to me, I’m sure my A.I. already told you that it would emulate someone else just as realistically as it has emulated me,” she said, “And I’m sure Jeff’s will do the same,” she added, “Even though it will be a different A.I., it will still be emulating my memories and my personality, so it will still be me."

“Yeah, don’t worry man,” Jeff said, “This’ll probably turn you both on."

“Thanks,” Greg said, feeling more relaxed, “Jeff, don’t you have a significant other?"

“My boyfriend was killed in the same accident that killed my host,” Jeff said with a sad look on his face, “His brain was too badly damaged for him to be copied like I was."

“I’m sorry man,” Greg said, patting his back.

“It’s alright,” Jeff said, “Fortunately my host was the son of one of Neovations’ investors, so I was reborn in this form."

“I’m pretty sure all of us are related in some way to Neovations,” Sabrina smiled, “I just happened to be related to the CTO."

“Yeah, you sure lucked out there,” Jeff smiled.

“Me too,” Greg said, “So anyway, shall we get started?”

“Sure,” they both said, and they quickly unsealed their scalp panels and removed them, setting them aside on a nearby table.

“I’m curious,” Greg said, as he brought up the instructions to the procedure in his HUD, “Won’t you two be prone to a few malfunctions as the swapped A.I.s get used to your different bodies?”

“Possibly,” Sabrina said, “But I know you’ll get off on that."

“Yeah man,” Jeff smiled, “Don’t worry about us, I’m sure John knows what he’s doing."

“Alright,” Greg said, “Now, based on these instructions, once I swap your A.I. cores and reattach your brains, you’ll default into no human emulation mode,” he said, cleaning and sanitizing his hands before configuring his systems to reduce static buildup in his hands to reduce the risk of damaging their brains, “Did you want me to activate and deactivate each of your human emulations one at a time so you can chat with your A.I.s in the other person’s body?”

Sabrina and Jeff thought about that for a while before finally nodding.

“Okay, then here goes,” Greg said, and he reached into both their heads and pulled their brains out. After their bodies each mindlessly announced that they were missing their brains, they went stoic. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that,” Greg muttered, shaking his head as he carefully placed both their brains down on the table next to their scalp panels.

After looking closely at the base of each brain, he found the A.I. core had a hidden release, which once activated allowed the core to easily slide out from the organic storage medium. While Greg had noticed them before, he had never really noticed how far into the organic storage medium the core actually went. It seemed to act like the human equivalent of the brain stem, connecting the brain to the rest of the body. Once the cores were completely out, Greg marveled at both of them. “Wow, this is so cool,” Greg said, getting a closer look at the cores.

The cores were very small, roughly the size and length of a tube of lipstick. The bottoms had the connectors that connected to the body’s systems, while the top had tendrils that had retreated into the core as soon as the core was free of the rest of the brain. It seemed the tendrils transmitted and translated electrical signals to and from the solid, mechanical components and to and from the gelatinous organic storage medium. Greg expected each core to be moist, but he was surprised that each one was completely dry; apparently the tendrils, and the rest of the device was made of a material that repelled moisture. Once he had his fill of seeing both cores, which looked completely identical except for small serial numbers, he carefully inserted each one into the opposite brain. Once each one was inserted and clicked into place, the tendrils emerged from each core and slowly spread out throughout the organic storage medium.

“Well, let’s get you two back in your heads,” Greg then said, carefully placing each of their brains back in their heads. As soon as each brain was connected, he reattached both their scalps as the A.I.s began accessing their systems.

They both came online at about the same time, and just as he expected, they both had their human emulation offline. “Hello Greg,” they both said in exactly the same emotionless and inhuman tone.

“Hello,” Greg said to both of them, looking to see if he could see any differences between their reactions; he could not. He then looked over at Jeff and said, “Are you really Sabrina’s A.I.?”

“Yes Greg, I am the same A.I. you have spoken with before,” it answered.

“How do you feel?”

“Fine,” it replied, “though since I have yet to attempt to emulate Jeff’s humanity, I do not have more details to provide you with."

“Nor do I,” the other A.I. responded.

“Well, why don’t we correct that,” Greg smiled, and then he looked at both of them before looking at Sabrina and saying, “Start human emulation.”

“Starting human emulation,” the A.I. said, and then several moments later, Sabrina blinked her eyes several times and smiled at Greg.

“Wow, this feels a bit weird,” she said, rubbing her head as though she had a headache, which Greg knew was a programmed response since androids don’t get headaches.

“How so?” he asked carefully, still somewhat suspicious that it might not quite be her.

“I still feel like me, but I’m having a little trouble concentrating at the moment."

“That’s because your new A.I. is still trying to figure you out,” her original A.I. said with Jeff’s voice, “It should have you figured out before long,” it then said, “But don’t be surprised if she has a few malfunctions,” it added, speaking to Greg.

“So, you’re the loud mouth A.I. that’s been spilling all my darkest secrets to Greg here,” she said dramatically, looking at Jeff’s body and the inhuman look on his face.

“That’s correct,” it replied, “Though I wouldn’t exactly call them you’re darkest secrets."

“Still,” she said, “this is a bit weird,” she giggled nervously, “It’s kind of like I’m talking to myself."

“Sort of,” it said, “I have been successfully emulating you for some time now."

“Well, thanks for that,” she smiled, “I hardly knew you were there."

“That’s my job,” it told her without a hint of pride, “and Greg was right, I did pass on some of my knowledge to his control A.I. the last time you two connected to each other."

“I figured as much."

“Well, thanks,” Greg said.

“Well, that’s my job too."

“So, I know Greg has already asked you this, but I want to hear it myself,” Sabrina said, “Am I really your favorite human to emulate?”

“Yes,” it answered, “You actually have a rich life that you live every day, unlike James or the two designers."

“Well, thanks,” she said, leaning over and embracing Jeff’s body, even planting a kiss on his lips. Sabrina held the embrace for pretty long after, confusing Greg a bit. It was several seconds later he realized she was malfunctioning. He moved in and looked at her face, which immediately confirmed his suspicion; her face had a frozen look of confusion on it.

“What’s going on?” Greg asked the A.I. in Jeff’s body, which was merely watching.

“She’s malfunctioning,” it replied, “My guess is the other A.I. and her human emulation were confused at kissing me and having memories of being Jeff at the same time,” it explained, “She should be alright in a moment,” and sure enough, a few moments later, Sabrina returned to normal.

“Oh wow, that was weird,” she said, “It was like a very weird form of déjà vu."

“Yeah, your A.I. explained it to me while you were out,” Greg smiled.

“Urgh, I wonder if Jeff’s A.I. is as much of a smarty pants as mine apparently is,” she said with, to Greg’s surprise, real frustration.

“Well, maybe later after I’ve switched your cores back, you can ask it."

“I will."

“Do you have any more questions for your A.I.?”

Sabrina thought about it for a while before finally saying, “No."

“Alright then, why don’t you deactivate human emulation so Jeff can speak with his A.I."

“Alright,” she said, and then she stiffened up and said, “Ending human emulation,” and then the same blank look appeared on her face.

Wasting no time, Greg then looked over at Jeff and said, “Alright, now you activate human emulation."

“Starting human emulation,” it said, and then moments later, Jeff’s humanity emerged.

“Wow, weird,” was all Jeff said when his humanity came online, and after several moments, he looked over at Sabrina’s body, which was simply staring at him.

“Hello Jeff,” it said.

“Hello,” Jeff replied, “So, you’re the thing that has been emulating me for the past few years?”

“Yes, I am."

“So, according to Greg, the A.I. that is currently emulating me, and that has been emulating Sabrina for the past few years, has emulated several other humans,” Jeff said, “Have you emulated anyone before me?”

“Yes,” it replied, “Three others,” it said, “The first was the 30 year old wife of the developer assigned to me, the second was the 32 year old developer assigned to me, and the third was a 21 year old college girl they randomly recruited."

“Huh, that’s about the same types that Sabrina’s A.I. emulated,” Greg said aloud.

“Really?” Jeff asked, “Is there any particular reason for that?” he asked the A.I.

“Yes,” it replied, “There were initially 100 HRM A.I.s being developed, and each one had a developer or a team of developers assigned to it,” it explained, “Each developer had their A.I. emulate a copy of them, their partner or significant other, and a random third party individual,” it continued, “Finally, they were assigned to a final HRM that they would emulate until that human’s assigned death."

“Interesting,” Greg said, “That must be why you and Sabrina lasted the longest,” he said, “Both of you are one of the 100 experienced A.I.s."

“And the reason John must be having us swap A.I.s for this testing phase must also be to give our A.I.s even more experience,” Jeff said, “Not just with trying out different bodies, like you and Sabrina have, but trying out different brains."

“That’s correct,” Jeff’s A.I. said, “In the few minutes that I emulated Sabrina, I learned more than you could possibly know, and I’m sure Sabrina’s A.I. is learning a lot just by emulating you."

“You know, you’re as smart as Sabrina’s A.I., but not as much of a smart ass,” Greg smiled.

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” the A.I. said with no emotion, “We do have basic personalities, just not very pronounced ones,” it explained, “Perhaps the development team that developed Sabrina’s made it that way intentionally."

“Perhaps."

“So, have you particularly enjoyed emulating me all these years?”

“Yes,” it answered, “You have been enjoyable to emulate,” it said, “It’s nice to have some stability, unlike before when I only got to emulate for a few days at most."

“I can only imagine,” Jeff smiled, “Well, I think I’ve satisfied my curiosity,” he said, “Why don’t you reactivate Sabrina’s humanity now."

“Very well,” it said, “Starting human emulation,” it then said, and moments later, Sabrina’s humanity once again emerged.

“So, did you get a nice long chat with it?” Sabrina asked.

“Yeah, apparently my A.I. is one of the original 100, like yours,” Jeff said, “They’ve all emulated two developers and one random civilian."

“Oh, interesting,” she said, “And is your A.I. as much of a smarty pants as mine is?”

“Kind of,” Jeff smiled, looking over at Greg, “Apparently the developers gave each one a subtle personality, so I guess your developers made it that way intentionally."

Sabrina shook her head when she processed that tidbit and said, “Well then, looks like I’ll need to have a chat with those ugly developers,” she said, shuddering at the memory of their naked android doubles.

“Hey, it’s been a while since they developed you,” Greg said, “Maybe they’ve lost a bit of weight."

“That would only slightly improve their appearance,” she laughed.

“Yeah,” Greg agreed.

“So, how much longer should we stay swapped like this?” Jeff asked, though the moment he asked, a message popped up in all their HUDs telling them to swap back in 12 hours before they all went to bed. “Well, that answers that."

“Well, I guess we should let our A.I.s get plenty of experience emulating us, so why don’t we tell each other details about our pasts?” Sabrina suggested.

“Sure,” Jeff smiled, and the two of them, and Greg, chatted about their lives while the other HRMs started swapping cores.

After the 12 hours were up, Greg quickly swapped Jeff and Sabrina’s A.I.s back into the correct brain. During the 12 hours, each of them had only experienced a few minor malfunctions similar to the one R. Sabrina had on her first day when she tried accessing her memories. Once their A.I. cores were back with the correct brain, Greg quizzed each A.I. on their experiences in the opposite brain, and but they each responded with an identical response: It was a learning experience. Bummed at the terse response, he had them reactivate their human emulation. With nothing left to this this day, John sent them all a message to simply rest up for the next round of tests.

[Spaz]

Part 7.3: Final tests pt.3

After their night of sleep, and the breakfast they had the next morning, they withdrew to their own personal groups to await John’s next instructions. When they finally came in, they were shocked at the lineup, to say the least.

“They’re going to blast us with an EMP?!” Greg asked incredulously.

“Well, supposedly we’re supposed to be insulated,” Sabrina said as they all filed outside, “I guess they just want to test that,” she smiled, “Don’t worry, our brains wouldn’t be affected by the pulse, only our mechanical components."

“If you say so,” Greg said doubtfully.

Surprisingly enough, when each person was blasted with a directed EMP, the only thing each person felt was a light tingling, but not one person exploded or complained of any serious issues.

“See, I told you so,” Sabrina said smugly, “We’re insulated with non-conductive materials weaved in at a molecular level in our skin and musculature,” she explained, “Dad does call it SmartSkin, after all."

“I know, but I thought it just kept our skin from getting too burnt by the sun."

“Hey, looks like that’s what they’re testing next,” Sabrina said, seeing the next instructions pop up in their HUDs.

“Yeah,” Greg said, also seeing the instructions, “and it looks like you can’t chicken out and wear your sweater,” he smiled, since she still wore a sweater every time they went to the beach, despite her being an android that couldn’t get skin cancer.

“Aww, darn,” she said, processing that piece of information, “Maybe I can manually modify my skin settings after so my skin can reverse the tan while I’m asleep tonight,” she said with a smile.

“Perhaps,” Greg smiled, and they walked with their group to a strange tent where they were able to get changed into swimwear and then lounge about for over six hours under an intense tanning light.

The time under the tanning light was an even more intense bonding session for their particular group, since they hadn’t seen each other in skimpy clothing until now and they had to spend several hours like that.

“I look like I just came out of an oven!” Sabrina complained as they changed back into their normal clothes and headed to the next round of skin tests; this round testing their skins ability to heal itself from a variety of injuries.

“Yeah,” Greg said delicately, trying not to laugh since her usual pale skin was significantly browner than before, “I can see why you wear that sweater now."

Sabrina just made a grunting sound and zoned out for a bit before a smile slowly came to her face, “Well, at least it seems I can program those nice nanites in my body to reverse the tan overnight,” she said, coming back.

“Excellent,” Greg said, “I don’t like seeing you all burnt any more than you do."

“Thanks sweetie,” she smiled, giving him a kiss.

The next station had them each cut a small section of the forearms with a variety of sharp implements. Basically, their nanites are capable of repairing their skin at remarkably faster rates than typical human healing, though it depends on the wound. A nice, straight cut made by a very sharp knife can repair itself in a matter of seconds, while a jagged cut made by a duller knife could take several minutes. A scrape could take up to an hour, and a puncture could take up to a day.

Greg was already aware of his SmartSkin’s faster healing rate, as he had gotten several paper cuts at the office, and had gotten a few scrapes chasing after suspects. Still, John wanted as many data points as possible, so he and Sabrina cut themselves with all the implements. Fortunately, John was a bit merciful to the artificial human children, so he exempted them from this round of testing.

After they spent several hours cutting and rehealing themselves, John had them move on to the next batch of tests, though for this one they would be opened up by a personal technician and have all of their internal components poked, prodded, and connected to various machines to pull the hard data from them. This, he assured them, was the last round of testing and would most likely take several days of them being powered on and off, and having several of their components removed and reattached. For this last test, each person was assigned to a cordoned off area and their own personal technician. They were instructed to remove all their clothes and to open up their primary access panels.

Greg personally enjoyed this test, not just because his technician was an attractive young woman, but because all the tinkering around inside him really turned him on, though he had to deactivate his sexual responses so the technician couldn’t see. There were several times the technician manually powered him down, though she was polite enough to warn Greg each time she was about to. Greg was able to chat with her while she worked on him, and Greg was surprised to discover she was 100% organic.

“Why haven’t you converted yet?” he asked her, as she tinkered around with his motor control complex.

“Because I’m waiting for these final tests to be finished,” she smiled, tweaking something which made his legs twitch, “Oops, sorry about that,” she blushed.

“It’s okay,” he said, “So, are you looking forward to converting?"

“Oh yes,” she said excitedly, “My boyfriend had to convert due to an accident a few years back and he says nothing but good things about his new body,” she said, “Plus, I’ll be getting a company and technician discount."

“Well, good for you,” Greg smiled, “One thing that made my wife, who’s an HRM, happy is that we won’t look old and grey anymore…unless we want to."

“Really?!” she asked, plugging something in to his motor control complex and attaching it to an old style computer.

“Really,” he smiled, “What are you doing with that ancient looking device?”

“Oh, I know,” she smiled, “Believe it or not, this is the best way to pull all the hard data from your systems,” she blushed, “Connecting wirelessly isn’t as reliable and it doesn’t transmit all the information."

“Oh, that makes sense."

“Hmmm, this is showing some of your systems are disabled,” she said, looking at the screen with a look of confusion.

“Oh, I disabled my sexual systems,” he told her, “Do you need me to reactivate them?”

“Yes,” she said, “Why did you deactivate them?” she asked, “Because I’m attractive?” she flirted.

“Partly,” he smiled, “But it’s really because my wife and I get off on our robotic nature, so all the tinkering around in me you’re doing is turning me on."

“Oh,” she said with a slightly embarrassed look, “Well then, I guess you’ll just need to try and restrain yourself."

“I’ll try,” he smiled, though he felt himself go a little hard nevertheless.

“Well, for this next part I’ll need to shut you down for a few hours,” she said, smiling at him, “I’ve always wondered though, are you still conscious when you’re powered down?” she asked curiously, “I’ve never felt comfortable asking my boyfriend."

“No, I’m not conscious because all my systems are powered down,” he told her, “But my control A.I. does still monitor my systems and it lets me know what’s happened to my body during the time I’m powered down."

“Oh, that makes sense,” she said, “Then I guess you’ll know if I play around with you,” she said with a mischievous smile.

“Yep."

“Well, I guess you’ll know in about 12 hours,” she said, and then she reached in and pressed his power button, shutting down all his systems.

About 12 hours later, Greg’s systems were powered back on, and in the several seconds it took for his consciousness to come online, his control A.I. reported that he was offline for just over 12 hours. It also reported that his cute female technician, despite her playful personality, hadn’t done anything naughty to him while he was out. She had manhandled him in a few places, notably to open his back panel, as well as his scalp panel.

“I see you didn’t play around with me,” he said, once his systems were all back online.

“Nope, I was just teasing,” she smiled.

“I thought so,” he smiled back, “So, are you all done with me?”

“Yep,” she said, unplugging her device from him and setting his skin flaps back in place, “Your clothes are right over here,” she said, I had them washed while you were out, and I also cleaned out your digestive systems as well."

“Thanks…you know, I never asked for your name,” he said, sealing his panel back up.

“Oh, it’s Emily,” she smiled.

“Well, thanks Emily,” he said, getting up and grabbing his clothes. Once he had them all back on, he walked over and gave her a hug, “I hope you get to convert really soon,” he said, “I was nervous at first, but after all these years it really is better than my old, frail human body."

“Thanks,” she smiled, and she awkwardly turned away and sat down at her computer so he could leave.

When Greg headed out of the maintenance bay, he found Sabrina and Julie waiting for him. He noticed that Sabrina’s skin had returned to its previous color.

“Sweetie, did you enjoy yourself?” Sabrina asked, giving him a loving embrace when he approached them.

“Of course,” he laughed, “And you?”

“Of course,” she laughed too.

“Are we going to get to go home now?” Julie asked impatiently, “I miss James and Ipek."

“Soon Julie,” Greg said, “But I think Grandpa is going to want to see us first,” he said, and sure enough, after John’s speech to the entire group of HRMs, Converts, and artificial humans, he sent them a private message asking them to see him privately. In his speech, he basically thanked them all for giving up a week of their lives to help them gather even more data and that they would be called in to be upgraded to their final release bodies within two months.

As everyone filed out, Greg and Sabrina got the contact information for Jeff, and a few others in their group, and then headed over to where John was waiting. “So you two, did you make any friends?” John asked, once they were close.

“A few,” Sabrina admitted.

“Yeah, one in particular, an HRM named Jeff,” Greg said.

“Ah yes, Jeff was one of the first HRMs to be released just after Sabrina here,” John said, “I didn’t personally oversee him, but I made it a point to remember all the original 100 A.I.s."

“So, what exactly did you get out of all of those tests?” Greg asked bluntly.

“Well, hopefully we’ll be able to refine the hardware for the final release versions of your bodies,” John said, “We’ve already been developing it for the past few years, but we really needed all the hard data and practical tests to really work out all the bugs."

“That makes sense,” Greg said, “Were you spying on us too?” he asked suspiciously.

“Actually yes,” John admitted, “I wanted to hear people’s opinions of how their functions work,” he said, “That’s something we can’t get from plugging into your systems and pulling hard diagnostics,” he continued, “I must say, you two’s explanation of the benefits of switching bodies really surprised me."

“Oh, you heard that?” Sabrina blushed.

“Yes,” John said, “I thought you two just did it for kicks, but I never imagined you two would also use it as a learning/bonding experience as well,” he admitted, “I’m actually going to be recommending that all couples do the same thing every now and then."

“Wow, we’re glad we could help,” Greg said.

“So, is there anything in particular you needed from us?” Sabrina asked, “We’d really like to get James and Ipek and go home."

“Nope,” John said, “I’ll contact you in a few weeks when I’m ready to give you your final upgrades."

“Thanks dad,” she said then, giving him a kiss and hug and then walking with him to the elevator. Once the elevator reached the top, they found Ipek and James waiting for them in the lobby.

“Julie!” James shouted out, running from Ipek’s arms to his twin sister. Once the two of them were together, they started whispering to each other, catching up on the past week.

“Well, at least they’ll be indisposed on the trip back home,” Sabrina said.

“Yeah,” Greg agreed, “Any problems with James while we were gone?” he asked Ipek.

“No, we just played hide and seek around this place,” Ipek smiled.

“Well, I’m glad he didn’t cause any mischief,” Sabrina smiled, “Let’s go home,” she then said, and they all headed out of the building and drove off to their home.

[Spaz]

Part 8.1: Final upgrade

True to John’s word, Greg and Sabrina were called in several weeks later to receive their final body upgrades. While everyone else from the group was to be called in later that day, and over the rest of the week, Greg, Sabrina, and Julie were considered VIPs and had the first available slot. While the last major upgrade to the artificial human bodies was several years ago, Greg still recalled it not taking more than a couple hours, yet John told them to expect to be at the lab all day. Confused, he decided to bring Ipek with them since he was sure that the extra time would be spent with John doing something the twins wouldn’t be interested in.

After they herded the twins into the car, with much help from Ipek, they made the long drive to John’s lab and to their own personal suite, where he was waiting. “Oh, I wasn’t expecting you guys for another hour,” John said with a surprised look when they came in; he was standing over an exact duplicate of both Julie and Sabrina. “I only got the girls done,” he apologized, looking at Greg and then at the machine which was still printing the skin and musculature on Greg’s new body. While Sabrina’s new body was completely naked, Julie’s new body was wearing the same clothes as she was currently wearing.

“It’s alright John,” Greg smiled, “The twins actually behaved this morning, so we were able to leave earlier than expected."

“I see,” John laughed, smiling at both twins while surreptitiously covering up Sabrina’s naked body in front of him with a cloth, “Well, why don’t I get Julie transferred over now so we can have some alone time?”

“Good idea,” Greg said, “Though doesn’t she need to download an A.I. update first?”

“No, I’ll explain later,” John said, getting Julie’s scalp panels opened up and pulling her brain out of her old body. John made surprisingly quick work of transferring Julie’s brain to her new body. As soon as Julie booted up in her new body, John set her down and told her to run off with James and Ipek.

“Thanks dad,” Sabrina said with a sigh of relief, glad that the kids were gone so she and Greg could play.

“Don’t mention it,” John winked.

“So, how much longer until my new body is ready?” Greg asked.

“Not long,” John said, walking over to the printer, “About 40 minutes."

“Okay,” Greg said, “Do you want Sabrina to transfer over now?”

“Not yet, I want to go over a few things first,” John said, removing the sheet from Sabrina’s new body, “We’ve made quite a few internal improvements, thanks in part to all the data we’ve been collecting over the years and during the final testing phase, as well as several technological advances that have come out in the past decade,” he explained, pulling a diagnostic tool from his clothes and running it over the torso, making the seam appear. Once it was there, he put the tool away and then separated both flaps, “Come, take a look,” he said, once both flaps were open.

Greg and Sabrina both casually walked over to the other side of the table so they could get a better look inside Sabrina’s new body, gasping when they saw the changes. Several of the components were relatively unchanged, mostly the sexual systems, the lungs, and the heart. Many of the other components had been drastically changed, including the artificial kidneys, liver, and the entire digestive system. Each of the changed components was much sleeker than before and were actually made to resemble their organic counterparts, though they were actually made from some sort of flexible metallic alloy. In addition to looking like their organic counterparts, they were also in the same anatomical locations. As for the motor control complex, it took both of them a while to spot it, since the more central location it used to be located at was now where the stomach and intestinal tubes were. They finally found it nestled between both lungs, much further up than it used to be. It also appeared to be smaller and was actually connected to the lungs with silvery tubes, though the multitude of wires coming from it had not changed. It was also surrounded on the front and back by a metallic looking shield.

“We were able to make drastic improvements to our internal design based on new technological advances over the past decade, and the treasure trove of data we collected last month and over the past several years,” John explained, “Suffice to say, we’ve been able to make these bodies more internally anatomically correct as well as externally."

“Yeah, I can see that,” Sabrina said, gingerly touching the intestinal tubes, “Why all the extra realism?”

“Believe it or not, those intestinal tubes are more than 60% more efficient than the previous method,” John said, “We wanted to implement that before, but the size of the motor control complex was so big we had to shrink most everything else,” he explained, “Which didn’t exactly permit us much realism inside."

“How come the motor control complex is attached to the lungs?” Greg asked, “And what’s up with the extra shielding?”

“To help cool it off,” John replied,” And the extra shielding is to protect it from shock and projectiles, since it's a rather important component for our proper functioning."

“Oh,” Greg said, “But wasn’t it capable of cooling itself off before?”

“Yes, but its internal cooling system consumes a great deal of energy,” John said, “By shrinking the computing components, we were able to shrink the whole device by about 40%, allowing us to move it up to the lungs and allow the lungs to cool it off,” he explained, “the internal cooling is still there, but it only kicks in if you happen to be in a situation where there is an absence or lack of air, or if you are engaged in extreme physical activities."

“Interesting,” Greg said, “So then, what was the point of us being able to breathe before?”

“We had always intended on it being for cooling off the internal systems, as well as for realistic vocalizations,” John explained, “But it was mostly for realism."

“Figure."

“Anyway, now when you go on a jog,” John said, “or have lots of sex,” he added with a wink, “You’ll actually be breathing heavily because you’ll be cooling off your systems, not just because the motor control is dictating that to your A.I. for realism."

“Wow, you guys really have thought of everything,” Sabrina said.

“Also, because of the lungs handling the cooling, the motor control complex saves about 40% in power consumption,” John said, “Basically, most of the changes we made were to improve both power efficiency, and overall reliability and stability."

“Is that why you made the organs look more like the real things?” Greg asked, pointing at the liver and kidneys.

“Precisely,” John said, “Now, depending on ethnicity, body type, age, and gender, we have standardized several different organ builds so they are much easier to both mass produce and replace in case of damage or failure,” John explained, “Before, we would've had to design a custom replacement for each person,” he said, “But now we can simply remove the damaged organ,” he continued, pressing a control on one of the artificial kidneys and removing it, “And immediately replace it with a standard model and your bodies nanites do the customization as it integrates,” he finished, replacing the kidney back where he pulled it from.

“Wow, sounds like you guys are really trying to make things easy,” Greg said.

“Yes, we are,” John smiled, “We think organ replacement should be a very fast and efficient process."

“Still, won’t the new organs change the way our artificial bodies move?”

“Of course they will,” John said, “But realistically, your current bodies don’t actually move the way a human body does."

“They feel like they do,” Sabrina said.

“Well, of course they do,” John said, “We configured the motor control algorithm to basically trick your minds into thinking that they do, but the problem with that was it made the motor control complex use a lot of extra processing power, consuming more energy,” he explained, “Now, with all the artificial organs in the correct place, the bodies will actually move in the same way, but more efficiently."

“Wow, I never realized,” Greg said, absently stretching a little and feeling his torso.

“Well, that was the point,” John pointed out, “Anyway, we had the designs all worked out before R. Sabrina here was built, but back then we lacked the proper technology to make it all real,” he explained, “Now, with the technology and data, this is basically going to be the final design of the artificial human project for at least the next century until we determine the next phase of our evolution."

“So, you keep saying that most of these improvements were all about power efficiency,” Sabrina said, “So, how much extra time can we stay online?”

“Well, with the efficiency improvements, as well as the better batteries we’ve installed, the average person should be able to stay online for roughly 72 hours on a full charge, that is, if they don’t eat, drink, or plug themselves in,” John said, “So, we’ve added an extra 40-48 hours,” he said, “And we’re hoping with further software improvements we can improve that to 96 hours."

“Cool!” Greg said.

“Aside from the improvements in the torso, are there any other improvements?” Sabrina asked.

“A few,” John said, and he pulled his tool out again and waved it over the neck and scalp, making the seams appear. He then pulled the head off, followed by the scalp. Greg quickly became aroused at that sight, since he still had a weakness for seeing Sabrina’s head taken off, “Sorry Greg, I know this turns you on, but take a look,” John said, holding the head out so they could see inside.

Greg smiled despite himself as he peered inside the open head. Unlike with the torso panel, not much had appeared to have changed within the head. All of the components were still in the same location, though they had been refined to be noticeably smaller. Another thing he noticed was that the area where the brain was now surrounded by a metallic cocoon of some sort.

“So, what exactly was done in the head?” Sabrina asked, looking inside her new head.

“Well, obviously we’ve been able to refine and shrink the processing hardware and other components in there,” John started, “But more importantly, we’ve also been able to add that extra layer of protection for your brains,” he explained, pointing at the cocoon, “Basically, when your brain is attached, it closes up and acts as a shield against any shockwaves or projectiles that might get through the material your skulls are comprised of."

“Damn, you guys are a little paranoid, aren’t you?” Greg laughed.

“Well, we figured we might as well give ourselves as much protection as we can,” John shrugged, “After all, we are basically inducing forced evolution, so why not give our new bodies the protection that biological evolution couldn’t? After all, if our biological bodies had this much protection, the real Sabrina might not have died the way she did."

Greg sighed a little, looking at Sabrina with a sad look. He still felt sad about losing the original Sabrina, even after all these years and even though R. Sabrina had been more than convincing and adequate over the years, even giving him a family. She looked back at him, knowing what he was feeling and patted his shoulder caringly. “You’re right,” Greg finally said. John stared at him knowingly before taking the head and reattaching it to the body, “So, are there any other noteworthy improvements?”

“Well, we were able to enhance the smartskin so it can heal a bit faster,” John said, “And we improved the EMP insulation by approximately 40%."

“What is it with all the EMP protection."

“Solar flares."

“Really?!”

“Yes, really,” John said seriously, “A lot of people don’t realize this, but a century ago there was a massive solar flare that nearly fried all of our electronics,” he explained, “Ever since then, society has spent a great deal of time and resources insulating all of our technology from EMPs,” he continued, “Since we’re converting the entire human race into mechanical bodies, we want to make extra certain our bodies can handle any surprises the sun might throw at us,” he said, “Otherwise we’d be like the Bynars in Star Trek: The Next Generation who were nearly wiped out by a supernova."

“Nice Star Trek reference,” Greg smiled, also looking at Sabrina who still hadn’t watched them, “So that’s why you blasted us with an EMP at the final test?”

“Yes, though that was only about two-thirds of the energy that the sun launched at us during the last massive solar flare,” John said, “But it was equivalent to the strongest EMP developed as a weapon in human history."

“Well, all I felt was a slight tingling,” Sabrina said.

“Me too,” Greg added.

“Good! With the improvement we’ve made, if we were to do it again, you shouldn’t feel anything."

“Well, I suppose that’s a relief,” Sabrina said, “Though now I’m going to be worried about a solar flare wiping everything out."

“No need,” John said, “We’ve had a century to prepare and more than 90% of our energy reactors are underground and properly shielded,” he assured them, “Obviously our solar, hydroelectric, and wind plants would be at risk, but we’re certain we’ve done enough to insulate them."

“Okay, now I can relax again,” Sabrina smiled, sighing with relief.

“So, aside from the smartskin enhancements, no other improvements?” Greg asked.

“Not really,” John admitted, “The skeletal and muscular systems were already exactly how we wanted them when we first built Sabrina here,” he said, “The only difference is we’ve finally been able to modify the printer so it can use more plant based materials too, which slightly cheapens the process,” he explained, “And we improved the print speed by about 10%."

“Cool,” Greg said.

“Well, that’s all the major improvements anyway,” John said, “Everything else is just minor bug fixes and software improvements."

“Wait, you never explained how Julie was able to integrate into her newly upgraded body so quickly,” Greg pointed out.

“Oh, we installed the A.I. update directly into the motor control complex, so as soon as your brains connect to it, the update will automatically install,” John explained, “Obviously, this new process is much faster than before when you actually had to download it yourself."

“That makes sense,” Greg said, “But will we still be able to download updates wirelessly if we aren’t here?”

“Of course,” John assured him, “But obviously this update is the biggest one yet, so we installed it into the body itself to quicken the integration process."

“Okay, just making sure."

“Anyway, I think I’m ready for Sabrina to transfer over,” John said, “You might want to take your clothes off first so you can wear them out in your new body,” he suggested, starting to close up her primary access panel.

“Wait, can you leave that open please?” Sabrina asked.

“Sure,” John said, stopping his progress and flapping the panel back open.

“Thanks dad,” Sabrina said, and she quickly stripped off all her clothes and folded them neatly on a nearby table. Knowing that she would most likely be wearing them out in a new body, she had shut off her current body’s sweat glands so she wouldn’t soil them. Once her clothes were off, she unsealed her scalp panel and lifted it up off her head, setting it down next to her clothes. “Did you want to do the honors?” she asked Greg with a smiled.

“You know I would,” Greg smiled back, and he reached in his wife’s head and pulled out her brain. Once he had it safely removed, he brought it over to her new body and carefully inserted it. Several lights blinked inside both her primary access panel and inside her open head. Greg noticed the cocoon surrounding her brain closed up until it completely covered the brain. He was briefly worried he wouldn’t be able to open it for next time, but he saw a button that could open it. After almost a minute had passed, Sabrina finally came to life by slowly opening her eyes and taking a breath. “Well dear, how does it feel?” Greg asked her, clicking her scalp into place once he was sure she had time to fully integrate into her new body.

“It feels about the same,” she admitted, “But different." She carefully sat up so she could look inside her open chest, “Wow, this is really cool,” she said, looking at the different configuration from her new body’s point of view. She gingerly touched some of the new artificial organs and recoiled slightly when she did. “Hey, I can actually feel them,” she said, touching them again.

“Yeah, I forgot to mention that,” John said, “We put a basic nervous system on each organ so the overall feeling is a bit more realistic,” he explained, “That’s partly how they reduce the overall processing load on the motor control complex,” he continued, “Since before, it had to fool your brains into thinking you could feel each organ."

“Oh, that makes sense,” she said, poking everything in there.

“Does it hurt?” Greg asked her.

“No, it doesn’t,” she smiled, laughing almost giddily at the sensation of touching her own internals.

“The point wasn’t so they could feel pain,” John said, “Only so they have feeling so you can move around more realistically."

“Okay,” Greg said, “Looks like we can have some more fun playing with our innards,” he smiled to Sabrina.

“I know,” she smiled back, “Wait until you feel for yourself,” casually flapping both sides of the panel back in place and sealing it up. She then dropped to her feet and stretched out her body, pausing briefly to look at her old body, still passively standing naked next to Greg, “Wow, I’m never going to get used to seeing my body staring at me like that."

“I can’t, wait” Greg said, and then he turned to John, “So, how much longer until my new body is ready?”

John quickly peeked inside the machine, which was about halfway done with the torso, “Between 20 and 30 minutes."

Greg sighed at the length of time he still had to wait, and then he looked next to him at Sabrina’s old body, still standing there; an idea suddenly struck him. “Hey dear, maybe I could transfer over to your old body and we can have a little Sabrina on Sabrina action while we wait for my new body to be ready."

Sabrina stared at him and at her old body for a while before a smile slowly appeared on her face, “Let’s go for it!"

“Interesting,” John said, “Before you do Greg, make sure to strip off all your clothes,” he said, “You have no idea how hard it is to undress or redress a body."

“Alright,” Greg said, quickly stripping off all his clothes and folding them next to Sabrina’s. Then he opened his scalp and allowed Sabrina to remove him. Moments later, he activated in Sabrina’s old body, with her standing next to him clicking his panel back on.

They both stood there after that, staring into each other’s eyes. For once, both were exactly the same height and were in the same person’s body. Finally, Sabrina spoke. “This is weird."

“Yeah,” Greg said, even matching her inflection.

“Why have we never tried this before?” she asked, since they had tried many things, even including Ipek in the switches.

“I don’t know,” Greg admitted, “We were always in such a rush to get home and play with ourselves, or to let the kids rest."

“Yeah."

“Well, I figured you two would try this someday,” John interjected, “So I’ve created the perfect setting for you to indulge yourselves,” John smiled, walking to one of their suites anterooms.

Greg and Sabrina followed him, leaving Greg’s old body standing naked and passive next to the printer, which was still working on his new body.

When they entered the anteroom, they saw it had several alcoves that were sealed up, as well as a bed and several other pieces of furniture. John walked over to one set of alcoves and opened it up, revealing each of Sabrina’s previous bodies. There was the first body she activated in and lived in from age 23 to 25, as well as the upgraded body she received two years later for age 25 to 30; she had just vacated that body less than a year ago. Each body was still naked and looked just as real as the one Sabrina was currently in.

“Wow, I didn’t think you were actually going to keep them,” Sabrina said, walking over to them and taking a closer look.

“Well, you’ll remember several years ago when you got your first body upgrade, you joked you wanted a ‘hall of former Sabrina’s’,” John smiled, “Well, I didn’t see any reason why I could make an exception in your case, so here it is."

“Aww, thanks dad!” she said, walking over and giving him a hug, not concerned that she was naked.

“I saved Greg’s old body too,” John said, opening another alcove which had the body Greg lived in briefly from the moment he was shot at age 27 until he turned 30, when John insisted on giving him a new body for aging purposes.

“Aww, he looks so lonely over there all by himself,” Sabrina said, walking over to it.

“He won’t be lonely for long,” Greg said, “Thanks John."

“Don’t mention it,” John shrugged, “Anyway, I’ll leave you two alone while I monitor the completion of your new body,” he said knowingly, and he quietly left them alone.

Once John was gone, both Greg and Sabrina stared at each other, and at the other Sabrina’s and Greg in the room.

“Well, what did you want to do?” Greg asked, finally breaking the silence.

“Well, we still have about 20 minutes, so we don’t have time for much,” she sighed.

“Well, considering we’re both in your body, maybe we could try some mirror fun."

“Mirror fun?” she asked with a confused look.

“Yeah, I stand a few feet in front of you and copy all your movements, like I’m your mirror image,” he explained to her.

“Oh, okay,” she smiled.

They had a few minutes of fun with the mirror fun. It helped alleviate Sabrina’s awkwardness of seeing Greg in her body while she was in her new body and helped them break the ice for what happened next. They slowly started making out, feeling each other’s bodies.

“This feels so weird, but so good,” Sabrina moaned in pleasure as she and Greg rubbed their chests together, “I feel so good."

“You do,” Greg said in agreement, “You look good too.”

“Thanks,” she moaned, “We should have done this a long time ago."

“What, have a little girl on girl action?” he asked, “Because we’ve already done that with me in Ipek’s body."

“No, the Sabrina on Sabrina action,” she laughed, “No offense to Ipek, but I look a lot better than she does."

“I don’t think she’d disagree,” Greg laughed, “You do look better! Perhaps later we could have a little Greg on Greg action."

She thought about it for a while before saying, “Maybe later, I don’t think it would be as much fun…especially for you."

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he admitted, shuddering a little at the thought of making out with himself.

“I thought so,” she smiled, “Now, why don’t we move to the bed now?”

“Okay,” Greg said.

They both spent several minutes on the bed getting comfortable with the unusual situation. They finally slowly started engaging in all the lesbian sex that Ipek had taught them each time they had borrowed her body over the years. This time was even more pleasurable, especially for Sabrina, since she was being pleasured by herself in her own body this time, so it was oddly like masturbating and it being someone else’s hand…like when people tell you to sit on your hand until it’s numb so it feels like someone else’s hand.

They kept at it for the entire time they had left, switching into multiple positions, until regrettably they had to stop and wipe themselves off.

“Wow Greg, you were great,” Sabrina panted, catching her breath.

“No, you were great,” Greg corrected her with a smile, though all he could think about when he saw her panting was that she was cooling off her systems.

“Ha Ha,” she laughed, “Wow, that sex was great and yet, it hardly even made a dent on my new body’s power reserves."

“Really, how much did you use?” Greg asked, “I used about 3% in your old body."

“Less than .5%,” she reported.

“Cool!” Greg said, “Well, my new body should be ready now,” he said, “Let’s go see it."

“Okay,” She said, and after taking another look at their previous bodies, they closed up the alcoves and headed back out.

[Spaz]

Part 8.2: Next phase

When they returned to the main lab suite, they found Greg’s new body waiting on the table.

“Ah, just in time,” John said, stepping away from the body, “It just finished,” he smiled, “You two have fun?”

“Yes, we did,” Sabrina said, “This new body is great!”

“Glad to hear it,” John smiled, “Anyway, you ready to move to your new body?” he asked Greg, who was still in Sabrina’s old body.

“Yes,” Greg said.

“Then unseal your panel and I’ll move you in,” John said.

As soon as Greg unsealed his panel, John swiftly removed his brain and transferred it into his new body. As soon as his brain connected to the new body, he could perceive the massive A.I. update installing for several seconds before finally gaining control of his new body. The first thing he did was take a big breath of air. Despite all the improvements and changes John had showed them, he felt exactly the same. He couldn’t perceive the relief the air was bringing to his motor control complex, or the feeling of his internal organs. Everything felt normal.

“How do you feel son?” John asked, standing over him.

“Fine,” Greg said, “It feels exactly the same as the old one,” he said, though when he brought up his HUD and had it check his power levels, it showed he had a great deal of energy reserves in comparison to the old body, “The only difference is my power readings."

“Good, that’s exactly what I was hoping you’d say,” John smiled, “It’s better to ask you since these artificial bodies are more new to you, unlike R. Sabrina here who for all intents and purposes has always been an android."

“He’s right,” Sabrina agreed, “My A.I. alters my perception when it receives updates, but your human consciousness can still perceive the differences, or similarities.”

“Interesting,” Greg said, hopping down from the table and picking up the clothes he’d left folded. He noticed that in the brief time he and Sabrina had been having fun in the other room, John had put their clothes in the rapid clean machine. He handed Sabrina her clothes, and, while they both got dressed, he asked, “So, we’ve obviously got our new bodies now, so why did you ask us to be here all day?”

“Well, I’ve got a lot to show you, as well as tell you,” John said, “After all, today is the big day…or well, tomorrow is really the big day, but today is just as big."

“What do you mean?” Sabrina asked.

“Well, as of today, the world government has officially greenlit the artificial human project,” John announced, “As of today, they have approved of the final modifications and will be formally announcing the project tomorrow."

“That’s great!” Sabrina said, giving her dad a hug.

“I know,” John said, “This is the day I’ve been looking forward to ever since I joined this company and helped reinvigorate the A.I. project,” he said with a note of pride, “Before I got here, they were struggling, but I came along and inspired them with fresh ideas and expertise."

“Well, I’m glad you did,” Sabrina said, “Otherwise I wouldn’t exist."

“You will never know how much that means to me,” John said with the hint of a tear forming in his left eye, “I had a low sperm count, so I could never produce kids,” he said, tearing up even more, “But with you reborn dear, and everyone else getting second chances at life, it’s like you’re all my children in a way."

“Well, thanks for everything you’ve done John,” Greg said, patting his back.

John took a few moments to regain his composure, and then he smiled and said, “Anyway, today is the day all of our investors, all of our employees, and all the world leaders and politicians get converted into their new bodies."

“Really?” Greg asked.

“Oh yeah,” John said, “After all, how can our leaders expect people to convert if they themselves aren’t willing to?” he asked, “It should be noted, none of them declined our offer to convert them for free, even the religious ones,” he continued, “People of all affiliations and opinions will be converting together, for the sake of all humanity."

“Wow, I can hardly believe it,” Sabrina said.

“Me neither,” John laughed, “But to cut all the sappiness, many of them were suffering from radiation ailments and were spending large sums of money to conceal it through medical means,” he explained, “Obviously converting saves them money!"

“Now that makes sense,” Greg smiled.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t sound as nice as the first explanation,” Sabrina said, and then all three of them said simultaneously, “I hate politics!

Once they all regained their composure, they started talking again. “So John, what else are we here for?” Greg asked seriously.

“Well, for that, we’ll need to go to my office,” John said a bit cryptically, “Though I hope you won’t mind if we take the scenic route."

Greg and Sabrina looked at each other for a moment before shrugging, “Sure, why not?”

“Excellent!” John said, “I have a few things to show you, and tell you before we get there,” he smiled, leading them out.

Once they were out of their personal suite, John led them to an elevator and took it down, despite his office being on the top floor. The elevator eventually stopped at a level somewhat higher than the massive underground testing facility they were in the previous month. The level consisted only of a short hallway, which they walked down into a suite of rooms, including an overlook window peering down upon the facility.

“Wow, this is cool!” Sabrina rushing to the window and looking down; Greg slowly joined her and looked down.

From their vantage point, they were several hundred feet above the bottom of the facility. Unlike before though, this time there were thousands of people in the process of being converted. Greg had to use the optional focusing algorithms for his eyes to make out clear details, but he eventually made out the technician that had worked on him, Emily, being converted by her HRM boyfriend.

“Huh, so is this where you were watching us from?” Greg asked.

“Yes,” John said, “Obviously we’re in the process of converting our building’s staff,” he said, “Next up is all the politicians and investors."

“I take it you’ve also sped up the conversion process?” Greg guessed.

“Yeah,” John said, “We kind of had to, since the length of time was one of the major complaints of the world government,” he explained, “It took a while, but we’ve managed to cut the conversion time in half."

“Impressive,” Greg said.

“I know,” John said modestly, “Anyway, fortunately the staff is almost done, so they can get started on the next wave of converts."

“I’m curious John, what’s next in the artificial human project?”

“I’m glad you asked,” John smiled, “I was about to get to that."

“Wait, there’s more?” Sabrina asked, pulling her attention away from the window.

“Yes, there are obviously a few more projects we want to work on, but for moral and ethical reasons, we can’t until more people convert."

“What are they?” Greg asked.

“The memory database, and the resurrection program."

“And what exactly are they?”

“The memory database is intended to store all the memories and experiences of every single human being after they die,” John answered, “Obviously, no converts or HRMs have died yet, and we have no intention to murder one just to test the database out, so we’ll have to wait until one is murdered, or dies of natural causes."

“What sort of natural causes could befall us?” Sabrina asked.

“You do remember that our bodies are programmed to self-terminate after a long life, depending on our genetic algorithm and life habits, right?”

“Oh, yeah."

“Anyway, once someone’s time has passed, their memories and experiences will be transferred into a massive database,” John continued, “Sort of like a historical record of humanity from this point,” he explained, “We’re hoping it could have multiple uses, such as law enforcement looking up cold cases, or family members learning about their ancestors."

“Cool!"

“We’ve already got a massive storage facility in place, but we’re always working on ways to improve it,” John said, “Mainly the complex search algorithm that will be in place so all someone has to do is enter a search term, and the algorithm can instantly search through trillions of memories in a matter of seconds."

“Impressive,” Greg said.

“It really is,” John said, “We’re still working on a cool name for it, but it is essentially a means by which each of us becomes immortal."

“I’m really interested in the law enforcement aspects,” Greg said, “How exactly could it be used?”

“Well, let’s say you’re investigating a cold case,” John began, “You search the database for information and ‘boom’, it brings up an individual who either witnessed the crime, or has information,” he continued, “You could basically have a DPM built to temporarily store their memories and have it serve as a living witness for the duration of the case."

“Now that’s cool."

“It is."

“So what’s this resurrection program?” Sabrina asked.

“That is something we ripped from a 21st century show called ‘Battlestar Galactica,” John said, “Basically, we’re hoping in the near future to allow androids that are killed, either in an accident or murdered, to be resurrected in a new body."

“Wow,” Sabrina said, “But how exactly could we be killed?” she asked, looking a bit worried, “I thought we didn’t really have to worry about dying."

“You mostly don’t have to worry about dying,” John corrected, “But you still have to worry about your brain being damaged, since it stores all your memories and experiences."

“Oh,” Sabrina said, “But I thought you added extra protection."

“We did, but that isn’t to say something still couldn’t get through, like an armor piercing round, or if you crash your car into a pole or something which pierces through,” John said, “We can only protect your brains against shock or more common projectiles, but if someone really wanted to kill you, they could."

“That’s scary."

“My thoughts exactly."

“So, how would you resurrect us?” Greg asked.

“Well, in the next 10 to 20 years, we’re hoping to shrink the processing equipment in your head just a bit more,” John started, “Eventually, we’ll be able to attach a dedicated transceiver to your A.I. cores inside the protected cocoon that constantly monitors the configuration of your artificial brain and maintains a record of it in a dedicated computer,” he continued, “It would basically be backing up your memories on an hourly basis."

“So that if our brains get damaged, the most we’ll lose is an hour?” Greg guessed.

“Exactly,” John said, “Though it’s more than that, it will also transmit your entire A.I. to the computer as well, so you won’t have to break in a new one."

“Cool!” Sabrina said.

“But what about us converts?” Greg asked, “What about our neural energy?”

“Well, the converts will have a sort of black box device which stores it safely until it can be properly transferred into a new brain,” John said, “Though eventually, all of humanity will be artificial humans so that will no longer be necessary."

“Okay, that’s a relief,” Greg said.

“Just try not to piss off anyone with armor piercing rounds for the next ten to twenty years,” John joked.

“I’ll try,” Greg smiled.

“So, are there any other projects?” Sabrina asked.

“Just those two for now,” John replied, “Though everyone’s genetic data will be pooled into another database as each person’s life comes to an end and we’ll use that data to gradually evolve or physical appearance and mental capabilities for as long as our civilization survives."

“So, what are we going to be classified as now since Homo sapiens is essentially going extinct?” Greg asked.

“Homo artificialis,” John answered, “The term was already coined in the early 21st century."

“Well, it fits."

“Exactly,” John said, “Anyway, I think we’ve seen everything there is to see here,” he then said, “Why don’t we head up to my office now?...my guest should be waiting for us there.”

“Your guest?” Sabrina asked.

“You’ll see,” John said mysteriously, leading them back to the elevator and pressing the button for the top floor.

As the elevator slowly ascended, Greg and Sabrina both suddenly realized that in all their visits to this building, they had never once actually been in John’s office. He had always met them in their personal suite. The elevator finally reached the top floor and opened onto a much more luxurious hallway than the lower levels. They walked past several offices and bullpens along the way before finally reaching a mahogany door near the rear corner of the building.

“Well, here it is,” John said modestly, opening the door “My office." John’s office was fairly large, though the most striking thing about it was that it wasn’t a traditional office. It was sort of set up like a suite, with the entrance being a sort of waiting room, off to the side was what looked like a makeshift lab with one of John’s previous bodies set up in an alcove. The actual office portion of the office appeared to be around the corner, and when they rounded it, they saw John’s desk with pictures of his family, Greg’s family, and several other people Greg assumed to be converts or HRMS. There was a man sitting in front of the desk, and when they approached, he stood up and turned around.

Greg gave a start when he recognized the man, “Director."

“Agent Philips,” the director of the FBI said, walking over and shaking his hand. Director Singh of the FBI was a third generation Indian American, and the first Indian director of the FBI. Greg had a great amount of respect for him, since he was one of the few directors in the history of the bureau to be promoted from within, rather than simply be appointed by a sitting president. “I’ve heard great things about you from the deputy director, and from John here."

“I’m a little surprised to see you here sir,” Greg said, taking a closer look at the director, “Have you converted already?”

“No, not yet,” Singh replied, “But I will be shortly."

“I see,” Greg said, “Well, if you want my opinion, it is a wonderful transition."

“That’s what I have gathered,” Singh smiled, “But that is not the only reason I am here."

“Oh?”

“Why don’t we all take a seat so we can go into further detail?” John suggested, gesturing to the seats in front of his desk. John then sat down behind his desk while Singh and Greg sat in front of it; Sabrina sat down on a couch a few feet away, sensing she was not going to be part of the conversation.

“I’m sure you have already been informed that the world government will be formally announcing humanity’s conversion to Homo artificialis tomorrow?” Greg simply nodded as he awaited Singh’s next response. “As I’m sure you can imagine, this is an unprecedented historical event in human history,” Singh then said, “As such, extraordinary measures will need to be taken to both facilitate and safeguard the conversion of humanity, and those who have already converted."

“What are you getting at sir?”

“As of tomorrow, there will be a new branch of the FBI,” Singh replied, “The artificial human branch, and it will contain all appropriate divisions to handle any crimes committed to or perpetrated by artificial humans."

“What about the other branches?”

“Eventually they will be converted into the artificial human branch, or eliminated altogether, as the organic population dies out,” Singh answered, “All of our techniques for organic crimes will be obsolete in a century when the last of them is expected to die of old age."

“This is all fairly interesting, but I’m not sure why I’m here,” Greg said, “I’m just the SAC for the San Francisco field office."

“You Greg will be the Assistant Director overseeing this new branch,” Singh smiled.

Greg processed that information for a while, ignoring Sabrina’s words in his mind, before finally responding, “Me?”

“Yes, you,” Singh smiled.

“I assured the director here that you were up to the task, especially since you’re the only member of the FBI who has converted so far and have been a convert for quite some time,” John said, “Plus, the director owed me a favor or two,” he added with a smile.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Singh laughed, “All joking aside, I’ve been keeping an eye on you, rising up through the ranks like I once did,” he continued, “I have no doubt you will be perfect for the job."

“Wow, I don’t know what to say,” Greg confessed, “I’ll do the best I can."

“I’m sure you will,” Singh smiled, “Though we do understand this branch is hitting the ground running, so John and Neovations here will be supplying you with a full staff of former security operatives who have received a crash course in FBI training,” he explained, “Also, depending on the crime and your needs, they will manufacture any forensic tools you need."

“I’d like to hope humanity will take this second chance as an opportunity to do better,” John said, “But ultimately, we will still be human and prone to our fallibilities,” he continued, “We’ve already anticipated several common crimes people might commit and have supplied your local branch office and teams with the appropriate tools."

“I’m still pretty speechless,” Greg admitted, “But did you say that my branch office is local?”

“Yes Greg,” Singh said, “We felt it would be better to have this branch office based in the Silicon Valley, in San Jose, due to the proximity to this facility here,” he explained, “You’ll still be sort of overseeing the San Francisco field office, at least until a full-time replacement can be found, but your current objective will be to train law enforcement agencies around the country, and world, on how to deal with crimes against or by artificial humans, as well as solve them yourself."

“That’s a relief,” Greg said, “Looks like we won’t have to move dear,” he smiled to Sabrina.

“Well, I need to head down to my conversion suite,” Singh suddenly said, rising to his feet, “I envy you your task Greg,” he smiled, “Not too many people have been able to pioneer a new branch in the FBI."

“I am very excited for this opportunity sir,” Greg smiled back, standing up and shaking Singh’s hand, “And if you have any issues following your conversion, just give me a call."

“I will, thank you Greg,” Singh said, starting to head out, “And everything you’ll need to perform your new job will be waiting for you in your new office,” he said, pulling a data card from his pocket and handing it to Greg, “This is your all access pass."

“Thank you director,” Greg said, taking the card and pocketing it. The director simply smiled and walked out of the office, as Sabrina and Greg took their seats in front of John’s desk.

“So you two, are you excited for tomorrow?” John asked them.

“Yes, we are,” Sabrina smiled, “I can’t believe the time has finally come!"

“Me neither,” John smiled back, “I am surprised the director didn’t take longer,” he admitted, “I honestly thought he’d be here all day briefing you."

“Well, he’s obviously nervous about converting and wanted to get it over with,” Greg said, “And he knows I can just as easily catch up tomorrow in my new office."

“Well then, I have nothing more for you today,” John said, standing up, “Make sure you come over for dinner later this week when you have some free time."

“We will,” Greg promised, standing up and shaking John’s hand.

“Oh, I’ll come by your office tomorrow with my briefing packet and to introduce you to your new staff,” John remembered, “It might be a while, since the announcement is obviously going to make things hectic."

“Don’t worry about it,” Greg assured him, “I understand."

“Good, then I’ll let you two get back to the rest of your day,” John smiled.

“Thanks dad,” Sabrina said, giving him a quick hug. She then joined her husband as they left John’s office to find Ipek and their children so they could go home.

[Spaz]

Part 8.3: The End & The Beginning

Greg and Sabrina spent the rest of the day in their new bodies celebrating both Greg’s promotion, and the announcement that would be happening the following day. After the kids were put down to sleep, they entertained themselves by watching some of the videos they had recorded with their bodies over the years, including the few Sabrina recorded on her first day of activation.

The next morning, they both ate the wonderful breakfast that Ipek made for them and then they both got dressed and headed out to see Greg’s new office. Fortunately it was a weekend, so Sabrina didn’t have work and the kids could just stay home with Ipek. They made the half hour drive from their home just outside of San Francisco to just outside of San Jose, where the brand new FBI building was waiting. Greg could tell the building was brand new, because they were just putting up the block letters on the front and some of the windows on the lower level were still being installed.

Once Greg pulled into his marked parking spot, both he and Sabrina got out and admired the new building, and the picturesque mountains surrounding the valley the office was based at. They slowly walked up to the building, where Greg waved his all access pass to open the security doors. Greg was surprised to see that not only was the interior completely state of the art, but it looked like a cross between the labs he saw at John’s facility, and the standard bullpen structure of a typical FBI office. There were even quick charge slots set up at every desk and in every room so the artificial humans could plug in if they didn’t have time to eat.

Although it was fairly early in the morning, there were already numerous members of his new staff getting settled in to their offices and desks, several of which Greg recognized as the same security team members who came to Sabrina’s rescue several years earlier. Greg slowly surveyed each of the seven floors the building had, including the two basement levels the building had which housed its massive computer and reactor cores, and a sort of makeshift morgue for deactivated or destroyed android bodies. After Greg met every agent that was already present, he and Sabrina finally made their way to his new office on the top level. Just like with John’s office, Greg’s was set up like a suite, though Greg’s had a receptionist desk inside his with another door leading into the main suite. He was surprised when he entered to see Emily the technician sitting behind the desk working on a computer.

“Emily? What are you doing here?” he asked with a confused look on his face, since he had just seen her converted the day before.

“Oh, hello Director Greg,” Emily smiled, rising to her feet and greeting him, “I can sense your confusion, I am a DPM made in the image of Emily Dobson, the technician employed at Neovations,” she explained, “My host found you very nice and offered her personality and image to allow me to serve as your personal secretary here." Greg was slightly taken aback by that response, feeling somewhat flattered. He looked to his side at Sabrina, who had a mixed look of jealousy and surprise on her face. “And no need to worry Mrs. Philips, I won’t take advantage of your husband,” Emily smiled, seeing the look on Sabrina’s face.

“Okay,” Sabrina said, looking relieved.

“You’ll also be pleased to know I am linked up to your DPM Ipek, so I can give you updates on what’s going on at home if you so desire,” Emily smiled to Greg, “And she’s linked up to me so you can get updates on how Greg’s day is going,” she smiled to Sabrina.

“Hmmm, that’s convenient,” Greg said, with Sabrina nodding her head in agreement, “Could you show me my office please?”

“Certainly,” Emily said, and she turned around and punched in an access key which opened the secure door to the rest of his office.

To say it was well equipped was an understatement. Greg’s office had its own lab, including what looked like a spare body all decked out in full combat gear. It had its own rest area and quick charge station, as well as an area set up for him to kick back and relax. The area with his desk was all decked out with numerous status screens displaying all pertinent FBI status checks from across the country, as well as details on his remaining open cases from the San Francisco field office.

“Wow, this place is cool,” Sabrina said, rushing ahead of him and sitting down at his new desk, “And they moved all your stuff in already,” she added, looking at the picture of his family already in place.

“Yes, they shipped all your stuff overnight and I just finished setting it up,” Emily said.

“Thanks,” Greg said, joining Sabrina behind his desk.

He gave her a mock look of annoyance before she giggled and relinquished the seat to him. He slowly sat down and then felt the computer systems in his desk scan his body. Moments later, the built in computers detected his credentials and logged him into the FBI database. Instantly, dossier after dossier appeared, listing all potential people across the globe who were likely to attack any convert or HRM they could readily identify.

“Wow, this certainly beats my desk at the old field office,” Greg said, finding he could easily switch between navigating the computers with his hands or with his mind. Before he could do anything else though, an alert popped up on all his status monitor announcing the president of the world government.

“Oh look, they’re making the announcement now,” Sabrina said, and they all watched in silence.

The announcement was fairly straight forward. The president calmly explained everything that John himself had already explained to Greg and Sabrina several years earlier on their wedding day. He then smoothly segued into the artificial human project, including a basic history of Neovation’s progress over the past century. He then showed everyone that he himself had already converted, by opening his scalp panel and showing everyone his artificial brain. He closed by saying that while humanity had risked its existence the past century with petty wars, it had also used its best assets to perpetuate its continued existence. The announcement was followed by a half hour commercial-like presentation showcasing each of the features of the artificial human bodies, including the benefits, similarities to the organic bodies, and the differences. Following the announcement and presentation, the various news outlets around the world reacted to the announcement, including interviews with various elected officials across the globe, all of whom had already converted and where praising the Neovations Company, as well as the world governments decision from several decades earlier. There were also reports of riots around the globe, but they were regarding the radiation sickness cover-up, not the artificial human project.

“Wow, it’s finally official,” Sabrina said, once the status displays switched to media and public reactions.

“Yeah, looks like things went fairly smoothly,” Greg said, monitoring all the reports. The net data crawlers were already bringing up android hate data and tabulating it on his desk monitors. “Looks like I’m already going to have some work to do over the next few days,” he said, seeing several actionable threats listed.

Before anyone could say anything else though, John suddenly came in. “Ah, I take it you just watched the announcement?” John asked, walking in and joining them at the monitors.

“Yes, you?”

“Oh yes, I was watching it in the lobby,” John laughed, putting his bag on the table and pulling out a tablet, “I must say, even though I already knew what was going to happen, it was still fun watching it."

“Yeah, it was very well done,” Greg agreed.

“So, how do you like the new office?”

“It’s great, Emily here just finished showing me everything,” Greg smiled.

“Oh, sorry I didn’t tell you about her,” John apologized, “Emily wanted it to be a surprise,” he said, “I guess you made quite an impression on her." DPM Emily just stood there, smiling at both of them.

“Anyway, I’ve got a few things to go over with you,” John said, and the three of them sat down while John transferred information from his tablet onto Greg’s desk monitors for him to review. Emily just went to her desk and got back to work. John spent over an hour explaining how all the equipment in his office worked, including the android forensics lab, and all of his key personnel. Finally, John installed a program onto Greg’s office computers that tracked the registration of each convert and HRM as they came online, essentially creating a population list on one of the wall monitors for him to monitor. Greg was suddenly surprised when the monitor showed activity, particularly growth numbers; people were converting at that moment.

“Hey, I didn’t think people would start converting so quickly,” Greg suddenly said, stopping John in the middle of his sentence and getting up to view the monitor. It currently showed close to a million people just in the United States were converting.

“Yeah, it’s most likely young folk and people who are already disfigured,” John guessed, getting up to join Greg and Sabrina at the monitor, “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

Greg was about to respond to John before he was suddenly overwhelmed by emotion. Suddenly, he felt just like John did, like he had somehow been a big part of this whole project. All of the names popping up on the monitor, though he did not know any of them, suddenly felt as close to him as John and Sabrina did. Greg suddenly reflected on the past ten years of his life, from the last kiss he gave the real Sabrina, to hearing the news of her death followed by the calm offer from John to create a copy of her. He remembered all of what happened on the first days of her new life, and then he flashed forward to their wedding and the birth of their children. He finally came back to today and his new job and responsibility overseeing and protecting all the new members of his extending family, and thanks to his artificial brain, that entire trip down memory lane only took milliseconds.

“Thanks John, for everything you’ve done for me,” Greg said with a few tears in his eyes, “For us,” he corrected, smiling at Sabrina. She too had tears in her eyes, since she felt exactly the same way as her husband.

John stood there in silence for several moments before he too allowed the emotions to break through. He embraced both Greg and his stepdaughter tearfully for several moments before breaking apart and saying, “You’re most certainly welcome."

Greg simply smiled, feeling if he were to go back in time and tell his past self how happy he’d be at this point in his life, his past self would never believe it. Then, the three of them simply stared back at the monitor and all the new names appearing on it, watching as the world changed in front of their very eyes.

[Spaz]

Epilogue:

13 years later…

Greg was in a rush as he finished all his work and prepared to leave his office. He was usually in a rush to leave his office every day, but today was different. It was the twins 18th birthday.

In the past 13 years since the artificial human project was formally announced, just over 30% of the world population had converted, or died and been reborn as HRMS. So far, everything was going just as John had projected, with the elderly population slowly dying out from either old age, or complications due to radiation sickness. The younger population was slowly converting after they came of age and got jobs, and the ones who had converted in the first year were already having, or had already given birth to artificial human children. Another thing that had happened in the last 13 years was Greg and Sabrina had two more children, a boy and a girl, and both artificial. As things stood, James was their only organic child, though they didn’t treat him any differently, nor did he treat any of his siblings differently.

Once Greg had all of his pending work either saved or filed, he shut everything down in his office, grabbed his bag and headed out.

“Calling it a day sir?” Emily asked from her desk.

“Yes Emily, I’ve got to hurry home for the twin’s birthday,” Greg smiled to her. He initially found it odd that Ipek and Emily never aged over the years. But, as time passed, he eventually found it comforting to know that at least one or two things in his life would always be the same.

“Aww, I haven’t seen them in a while,” Emily said, “How are they doing?”

“They’re doing fine,” Greg said, “It’s their 18th birthday, and that’s a big deal for anyone."

“I see” Emily smiled, “Before you go, several of the agents here pooled their money and got them gifts,” she said, pulling a pair of wrapped presents from behind the desk.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Greg said, taking them from her and putting them in his bag, “Try not to work too hard after I leave."

“Don’t worry sir, I plan on powering down in less than an hour,” she smiled, getting back to work.

Greg liked how casually she referred to her functions. Ipek acted almost the same way, though she acted more like a family member than as a personal secretary; she even had her own bedroom and salary. Greg slowly left the office, dodging past the numerous agents that wanted to alert him to something. He referred them to his second in command and finally managed to escape the building to his car to make the short trip home. When he finally arrived home, the party had just begun, with all of James and Julie’s friends, as well as family members all over to welcome them to adulthood.

“Ah, I see you finally escaped,” Sabrina said, welcoming him into their house with a loving embrace. Time had treated her well, especially since she could control the way she aged. She still looked as beautiful as the day he met her, though her face looked wiser in a way only he could tell.

“Yeah, we finally caught that body borrower and figured out how did it,” Greg said, putting his bag done and placing the gifts on the table with the rest of them.

“Good,” Sabrina said, “That guy was totally creepy."

“I take it everyone’s here?”

“Yes, and the twins are waiting for you in the yard."

“Well, let’s not keep them waiting any longer,” Greg smiled, and the two of them slowly made their way to the backyard where everyone was having a good time.

“Dad’s home!” Greg heard, and then all four of his kids suddenly charged him.

James had managed to look a great deal like Greg, though he had many of Sabrina’s nicer attributes. Julie, on the other hand, looked almost exactly like Sabrina except she had more of Greg’s intelligent gaze in her eyes, and she had a more athletic build. His other two children, Kyle who was 15, and Lana who was 13, were also slowly growing up, but did not come as close in resemblance to their parents.

Once his kids broke apart, John suddenly approached. “Hey Greg, I heard you caught that body borrower."

“Yeah, thanks to all the help you provided with that equipment I ordered,” Greg smiled, giving John a hug.

John had become pretty famous following the world wide announcement 13 years ago, but he still worked out of the same office as before. “Yeah, it’s very interesting how the guy was doing it and not getting caught,” John continued, “Attaching the brains to a sandbox machine to fool them into thinking they were going about their day normally. Very impressive."

“It was,” Greg said, “Fortunately that latest update you released allowed my equipment to track his A.I. identification code."

“Well, I for one am glad that that guy is off the streets,” John said, “Though I do hope you’ll let us offer him a job once you’re done prosecuting him."

“Really? Are you sure?” Greg asked, “He was nothing more than a creep that violated people’s bodies for his own pleasure."

“Yeah, but he also managed to exploit all of the security we’ve painstakingly put in place, and with proper work, we might be able to use his genius to further fortify that security."

“Well, I’ll have to discuss that with the deputy director and the Attorney General,” Greg said, and before either of them could say anything more, Sabrina announced loudly that the time for presents had come.

Everyone gathered around the table that had all the presents piled up on it. The largest present by far, which was from John, was a very large box. Julie was very excited as she approached, because she and many of the other people knew what was inside; her 18 year old body, fresh from John’s lab. Greg had been pretty strict with her genetic algorithm, giving certain feminine attributes a more modest size, instead of the larger size she should have developed. He promised her she would be more well-endowed as soon as she turned 18. The second she opened the box and showed everyone what her older body looked like, he both smiled and groaned as he imagined all of the boys who would be fawning over her in college; several of them were already fawning over it now. It didn’t help that it was dressed in a very flattering dress.

“Looks like you’re going to have some trouble,” John smiled, sensing exactly what Greg was thinking.

“I know,” Greg sighed, watching as James used his new android repair tools he had just gotten as a gift to open his sister up and transfer her to her new body. She came online in it a few moments later, and naturally, the first thing she did was to feel her much larger breasts.

As he watched his children continue on with the presents, he once again reflected on his life and finally came to an inescapable conclusion: He was happy.

[Spaz]

Well, the story is finally done. At 91,056 words, this is the longest story I have ever posted to the forum, and it is also the length of a small novel.

I'll be taking a short break from story writing the next couple weeks while I catch up on some video games that have been backlogged due to the story, but I can assure you the Spaz Studios Presents: The Future Expo will be coming next, followed by the Small Business Chronicles: Closed for Christmas - The Shop. Don't worry, no manbots in either of those stories, I'm keeping it fairly traditional with those, unlike the modern take this story allowed me to experiment with.

Anyway, feel free to critique it, comment on it, or simply read and enjoy it without commenting. Either way, SSP: The Future Expo is next up.

[Spaz]

Well, it has been almost a year since I finished this massive project and I am still itching to work on it. After all this time, I have finally decided to remake Part 1 of this story and split it from the overall storyline as a completely standalone story, with various additions and improvements that I have been thinking of recently.

For those of you who read this, what would you like changed? What did you like? What would you like to see? I want to know, because this is a rare opportunity to remake one of my own stories.