Return Home - Part 2
Anya stared at the dark television screen while she was waiting for Steve to return. Still with only one leg she was confined on sitting there on the sofa. Now and then her systems awoke from energy savings mode and she turned her head to the window as her audio sensors picked up faint sounds of cars driving by, playing children or talking people. When she realized she was not addressed, she returned her head to its default position. As she recognized Steve's car by the pattern of its engine's noise, she did not return to standby mode but began to load her remaining idled systems. Forming a happy smile, she looked over to the door, where Steve would enter to greet her in about 20 seconds if her calculations were correct.
"Anya, I am home!" Steve entered within margin of tolerance after 24.9 seconds. He held his bag and another large object.
"Hello Steve, nice to meet you!" She offered him her hand.
Steve put his carryings on the couch table and gave his new roomer a handshake.
"How was your day?" Steve asked.
"It was... I am sorry, but I do not know how my day was". She replied.
Steve looked at the TV. "Oh I'm so sorry, I could have at least turn you the TV on. Must have been boring all day sitting there?"
"My systems automatically change to sleep mode when they are idle." she said as if she was proud of the fact that she was a machine. What do you have there?" Anya's head followed looking at the box Steve held, still unable to identify it.
"It's a present."
Anya did not seem to fully understand but accepted. "It is a nice present." she said and stared at the TV again.
"It's a present for you."
She looked at the box again, this time forming a bright smile. "Thank you Steve! I like it."
"Let me show you." Steve opened the box. Inside was a glossy white leg, ANYA-standard model, wrapped in old newspapers. Steve quickly pulled it out to show it to Anya. "It should work!" He bent it up and down at the knee and rotated the plastic foot a bit. On the buttock some remains of a large sticker were visible. It was barely readable, "5-A" or "6-A".
"It's from an old meter maid unit, I got it from the recycling center." Steve worried he might have hurt her feelings, calling her an old model.
But Anya moved her hand up to her chest to emphasize her "surprised" expression. "Thank you, Steve! I like it."
Steve kneeled down. "How do I connect it?" Steve was amazed as suddenly, three cylindric connectors came out of her pelvis and out of the leg he was holding. "This thing still has power?" He almost dropped it.
"To connect a AN-8080Y leg unit model X438R, model X439R or model X440R, hold it towards the connection ports of the right leg connector. Do you need more help?" Anya explained.
Steve just tried and pushed the leg up to her hip. He pulled away his hands as the connectors were magically grabbing each other. Comparing the connection to the left leg, Steve noticed that the gap between leg and pelvis was larger.
"Connection established. Please wait"
Abruptly the right leg was pulled closer to the connectors, making the gap look exactly like the one on the left. With a gentle motor sound, the foot began moving up and down, then the knee.
"So?" Steve stood up. "Does it fit?"
Anya stared at the wall for about two seconds, then she began to stand up. "New hardware successfully installed." she said in her automatic voice, standing in her full beauty now. She stroke her right hand over her new leg and smiled. "Yes, it fits. Thank you, Steve!" she jumped towards Steve and gave him a hug. Steve moved his hand down appreciating her plastic bottom. He could not believe how turned on he was by this machine. Without thinking, he gave her a deep, long kiss.
Anya's movements stopped for a brief period before she gave Steve a smile. It looked different this time, this was either not preprogrammed or he somehow triggered a different subroutine by kissing her.
"What do you feel? Did you enjoy it?"
"I... Steve, I don't... I..." she continued smiling as she tried to calculate an answer. After three seconds her AI system crash protection kicked in. Her smile faded and she replied verbosely "I am functioning within specified parameters, thank you... I am sorry, I do not know if I enjoyed it."
Steve knew most robots had a 3 three second timeout limit to formulate an answer to a question. If it took too long, it would return a fail safe answer, just like "I am sorry, I do not know" to prevent the AI software from hanging. He thought she really felt something but her systems could not cope with the situation and aborted. He wanted another try.
"Anya. How do you feel?"
She shook her head a bit, opening her mouth as if breathing in, "I... I just...". Steve counted 3, 2, 1...
"I am functioning..."
"within specified parameters, Thank you.. yes yes" Steve said in sync with Anya. "Anya, why don't you take a look around my apartment? I have to look up something on the web." Steve said as he turned on his computer.
"Where should I look first?"
"Just take your time, You know it's messy but I guess you do not care."
Anya began walking. Slowly moving her right foot and placing it exactly in front of her left one. Her shiny buns shifting to the left to regain balance. Then her left foot lifted and was placed in front her right one with astonishing precision. Her torso did not move at all, her arms somewhat swung in sync to her legs.
The soft humming sound of the mechanical biped was barely noticeable and eventually became inaudible as Anya started her tour in the kitchen.
"I have finished taking a look at your apartment, Steve." Anya entered the living room, smiling.
Steve quickly turned of the monitor and smiled at Anya, as if he was caught red handed.
"Anya. Ummm. Initiate verbal.. err programming mode please."
Her arms suddenly fell down and touched her thighs. Her chest lifted up. She stood like a soldier. "Please state password or wait ten seconds to abort."
"Zero. Zero. Zero. Zero" Steve remembered.
"Password accepted. Verbal command mode."
Steve stood up to get a better view. The passive robot girl was quite tall, about 5 feet and 7 inches, just a bit lower in height than Steve. "You are so beautiful. Let me help you appreciate the world..." he mumbled.
"I am sorry. But the command 'You are so beautiful' was not recognized. Please retry or wait 10 seconds to abort."
Steve turned his monitor on again and hurried reading off "Enter AI Settings... umm Section 01, Key A00 dash 7. Select setting 'Timeout'. Set to minus 1"
"Warning. Modifying this setting may result in AI database inconsistencies. Say yes to proceed or wait 10 seconds to abort."
"YES."
"New programming accepted. Thank you."
"End verbal programming mode."
"Reboot in 10 seconds. Please wait".
Slightly afraid of what would happen when Anya came back online, Steve took two steps back to watch her. "GONG"
"AN-8180Y Advanced. Booting. Please wait... New AI Configuration loaded. Please wait" she stated.
After 20 seconds, she blinked and began scanning the room, stopping as her eyes found Steve.
"Hello Steve! Nice to meet you!"
She raised her arm for the usual handshake routine, but Steve walked closer and hugged her again. Her raised hand needed a while to finally return the hug and fondle Steve's back. Steve began kissing her passionately, moving his hands over her glossy bald skull. The touch of her synthetic tongue and lips was dry and cold and became softer and warmer as his saliva entered her mouth. Anya unexpectedly began to moan. Steve's penis was pushing against his jeans and Anya's plastic lap now, trying to escape its prison.
As Steve pulled back he noticed Anya's eyes were closed and her lip and tongue were continuing making kissing movements.
"Anya?"
She suddenly stopped moaning and kissing and came back to consciousness, forming a puzzled look.
"What did you feel?"
"I felt... I am not sure."
"Well, I was aroused. I really enjoyed our kissing, Anya. How about you?"
"I felt.... Steve... I felt... Kissing!... " Three second definitely had passed. "IIIIII fffelt... lo..." Her lips stopped moving after the "O" as she moved on "SteSteve. I felt ... It's a present for me!... lo...lo... Kissing!" BEEP
Steve heard her cooling fans spinning faster and louder now. He began wondering if playing with her AI settings was really a good idea.
"I felt... I felt... I felt... It's a present for me! Thank you, Steve!... I felt... Th.. A new leg... thank y... Kissing!... Nice to meet you!" Every other time she tried to speak, her voice now changed to her automated voice she has when she boots up. Anya seemed to have some serious trouble. Was she overwhelmed by her emotions? "No that can't be, can it?"
She began tumbling around, bending over at her hip. "Warning. System resources.... I felt.... below 1%. Not enough m... Kissing!... emory." Steve reached out her arms to catch her, almost burning himself. The huge fans inside her chest could not cope her overheating systems.
"Kissing...Leg... I felt...Looooooovvvv" her voice slowed down to silence after Steve pushed the glowing power button on her neck. Looking down to the robot he held in his arms, her arms hanging down dumb, like a marionette with cut strings.
Steve stroked her back, thinking about getting some memory upgrades for his new friend. He shifted her so her gazing dark eyes faced up to him. "I love you too... I love you too."
To be continued.
If you find typos, you may keep them!
