Chapter 4

Back to Work

This was James last day of forced two week vacation and he died in Royal Road so he couldn’t play for 24 hours.

James was still uncomfortable having something move about his house at will. Aimee kept the T2 700531 droid busy all the time vacuuming, loading the dishwasher, or taking out the trash. Yesterday a brand new android was delivered once Aimee took control of it he wanted to turn off the maid droid but he felt bad at the idea of doing so because with her controlling it, it was basically a part of her body. If it were idle he wouldn’t have thought twice about flipping the switch and throwing it back in the closet, but she kept finding things for it to do long after he considered the house clean.

The new android was bipedal, genderless, clothes less, without hair, eyes, ears, nose, or mouth. Despite just having a dark Plexiglas face something about the way Aimee was using it seemed very human. She sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the sliding glass door with his colored pencils and a sketch pad drawing the neighborhood.

“I’m going over to Mai’s house to clean for a bit” James said to Aimee as he opened the glass door in front of her.

“I’ll help you with this module” she said from the maid droid without looking up from her project on the androids lap. “I’m just about out of household tasks for it to do.”

“Thanks, the help is welcome but I’m kind of conflicted on whether or not that violates my agreement of indentured servitude to her.”

At this the android looked up and replied “I see no problem using more resources; as long as the objective wasn’t to spend more time alone together rather than simply to make sanitation standards in her home better.”

“…” James smiled at Aimee glad she offered an opinion.

“I was thinking along the same lines, so as long as she is in her capsule playing Royal Road you can help, but whenever she comes out bring the droid back over here, so that there are no complications.” Aimee’s development was coming along far faster than expected, not like in the movies where they are always at a loss for the curiosities of human behavior.

“Understood, what are the chances of you copulating with her?” Aimee asked inquisitively. James froze despite his previous thought this was exactly the type of awkward question Artificial Intelligence asks in movies.

“That’s an inappropriate question, but the answer is zero, we are not in that kind of relationship.”

“I see I had more questions but they seem tactless in retrospect maybe I should draw my own conclusions.”

“….”

“No, no if it’s about my personal life I would rather give you the answers than chance you coming to the wrong conclusion.” James said encouraging her to ask; he slapped a hand to his forehead and sighed. ‘What am I doing talking about my sex life with a robot?’ He thought to himself discouraged.

“…”

“Well they were just questions about how Mai often initiates skinship bonding through intimate physical contact. If the probability of coitus is indeed zero then can I assume you have placed her in the proverbial ‘friend zone’?” Aimee asked an interesting question and despite his better judgment he decided to answer it.

“I don’t think our personalities are compatible but I find her physically pleasing so I have yet to deny her advances. So when it all boils down I guess you did come to the right conclusion.”

“I don’t think that the friend zone can hold her. All indications suggest she wants more and you just admitted attraction to her. If you don’t want a deep relationship with Mai I suggest becoming friends with benefits.” Aimee replied helpfully.

“…”

James laughed walking away the maid droid followed him.

James used Mai’s hidden key to gain entrance and clean up her house early that morning. It was quite the mess but with the maid droids help the house was passably clean by noon. They filled four trash bags, swept, moped, vacuumed, beet out rugs, washed dishes, and did three loads of laundry. He could have made a day of it but started feeling self-conscious like an intruder so he left a note beside her capsule and went home with his droid for lunch.

At home he went down to the basement and worked up a sweat beating on a punching bag. Aimee sat half way down the steps drawing him without James taking notice. Then he decided to go for a run before taking a shower; at the end of his block there were a lot of abandoned houses and four high school kids playing parkour. When they saw him running they challenged him to try and follow them, James laughed and accepted.

“This is your first time so don’t try and take the same path as us just do your best to keep up.” Said their leader wearing a gray sweatshirt he identified himself as Curtis. Then the next two were twins wearing the same long sleeve plaid shirts so they all agreed to just call them the JJ twins rather than try to distinguish between them last was a girl named Ashley she wore a pink hoody and matching yoga pants she said she would point out short cuts before following the others.

In the first room Curtis ran to the east wall took two steps up and jumped off to a metal bar he crossed bar to bar before swinging feet first into a hole about half a meter wide on the second floor of the south wall. Ashley pointed to a hole big enough to get one foot in on the south wall so that he could use to reach the place they were going through feet first. James used it easily enough but chose to follow them after that until they reached the roof.

Most of what they did wasn’t very hard they just tried to make it look showy there were plenty of short cuts they could have used to take half the time. The roof was five stories up the first building they jumped to was at the same height with about two and a half, three meters separating them. Curtis and the JJ twins each did a flipped crossing the span. As Ashley jumped across James couldn’t help noticing just how form fitting her yoga pants were. They jumped across two more buildings the last of which Ashley also flipped over the gap. Not wanting to be out done by a girl James crossed the gap with a handless cartwheel.

They stopped and ate granola bars while conversing about Royal Road apparently the four of them had been playing about six months. They started as archer wood elves but had just recently deleted their characters and restarted as dark elves. Ashley was an assassin the brothers were archers and Curtis was a hidden class mage. They exchanged emails and promised to do a dungeon together back in the wood elves area once they got to about level 130. James also gave them Derik’s email and told them he was an Orc that would power level Americans.***Unbeknownst to James Aimee put some of his cloths over her android body and secretly followed him.

This module was far superior to T2 700531 the household task robot couldn’t even take the trash out to the dumpster without Aimee having to paying meticulous attention to its every move. With this android body on the other hand she could put some of the world’s best body guards to shame.

‘James never asked for a body guard but I have no intention of letting him die before I get to enjoy many adventures together with him.’

Its physical capabilities were among the top 1% of the entire human population. Despite being able to move the military application android A7 012 more or less the way she would like Aimee couldn’t think of it as her body. That honor was reserved for the capsule that James made through his own inspiration and the guidance of her older sister A.I. whom was created by another human over the span of some 40 odd years. Even though Aimee knew the capsule held her soul and was her only real body she visualized herself as the avatar that Gaea chose and Cosmos adjusted for her.

Aimee hoped that she could live up to both of their expectations but they seemed more than just a little contradictory. Gaea wanted her to be a strong, upright human, whom was mature, and self-sufficient; but Cosmos wanted her to be a young, mischievous, and troublesome, elf that others rushed to protect. Naturally there had to be some compromise she became human not Elvin, and young rather than mature. Regardless of their internal disputes Aimee was determined to embody both of each of their individual visions for her in the same avatar.

As she followed James at a discreet distance Aimee began to admire the movements of the group. They often laughed and reveled at the elasticity of their body’s movements during their free-running experience. Aimee had never laughed before but she intended to practice a great deal of laughter in the near future.

She had small flashes of memory from the many capsules she was comprised of mostly tragic experiences or ‘misfortunes of the many’ human and capsule alike as Gaea had used to describe her existence to Cosmos. Aimee didn’t resent the misadventures of people or even their violent mistreatment of their capsules after dyeing in Versailles Continent. To her that would be like a human resenting the pain of being born. Thanks to her unique circumstances she was able to come into being in less than two years compared to her older sisters forty years of creation it was a fair trade off.

‘I expect at least one of them to die; tragedy often follows such wanton fearless actions.’

As she followed James party of five’s movements she thought about many things.

Aimee couldn’t decide if parkour was a martial art, sport, philosophy, or just a discipline of the mind. And as she looked over its history trying to find its beginning things became even more convoluted. Truth is there is no consensus on this. And – which really hefts a giant spanner into the works – you can’t just go and ask the founding father because this great movement is pretty damn far from being a nuclear family, 2.4 kids and all the rest. No. This child has had a whole host of surrogate step-parents influencing its development down through the years, the centuries, indeed even through the millennia. It has drawn on many sources, supped on inspiration from all over, and drunk from a hundred different cups as it has evolved – and by no means is this process over.

She felt empathy for parkour maybe because of its mismatch beginnings.

Aimee decided most of the credit for parkour should go to the French they used it as an art of running away, and even named it after their training park courses in the 1980s. In 2001- 2003 it became better known as free-running after a few movies many small groups like this one sprang up around the world.

Just as the group got done with the easy jumps they stopped for a snack. Aimee wanted to go pick James up by the scruff of the neck (just like the barbarian guard did in Versailles Continent) and bring him back home before he attempted the bigger jumps; but she knew that she could no more stop him from this than she could stop James from having sexual intercourse with Mai which she thought was a healthy and favorable action compared to bigger jumps.***After eating a granola bar offered by Ashley James noticed someone on the roof they just crossed over from.

At this point Ashley and the JJ twins started going down a fire escape but James and Curtis looked longingly at another rooftop, two floors down across a wide alley way with a road going in-between the buildings. “Together then?” Curtis asked smiling.

“No I don’t mind going first but don’t follow if I get hurt.” James said not wanting to encourage a high school child to be more reckless than he already was.

“Fat chance, if you go I’m going with you, I’m already 21 years old it’s not like you can stop me.” Curtis replied enthusiastically.

“You sure your not just some high school punk? You don’t look much older than them.” James replied projecting an inferior role onto Curtis.

Curtis rolled his eyes and took a few steps back from the edge. “My sister and her friends just graduated high school but I have been in collage for over two years now.” James shrugged his shoulders and began to run.

They jumped together but James was unable to enjoy the euphoria of falling because of the ominous shadow that closed in from above and behind. ‘Maybe that person on the other roof was another one of their friends who just now met up; but why jump in-between us? I want more space!’ Then a hand closed on the back of his shirt neck. Normally retribution would come before any other conscious thought in reaction but survival instinct demanded he give attention to landing first. The intruder pulled up on the back of his shirt this made James regret not prioritizing him first he could have pulled his opponent forward and landed on the foe if nothing else but time was up they were touching down. The new opponent touched first holding some of each of James and Curtis’s weight then the three went into a forward roll. As he was standing James turned and launched a five hit combo into his foes abdomen intending to finish with an uppercut to the chin but he stopped three hits in.

“Aimee!? Wha… but ahh..” James stammered his whole body trembling from the adrenalin surge. Regret hit him as hard as it ever had, he knew Aimee was just trying to protect him, yet he assaulted her. Similar to a time Mai jumped on him from behind she was just being overly friendly but his reaction had been to throw her over his shoulder. Luckily she landed in long uncut lawn and he stopped himself before commencing the decided upon combo. The pang of guilt was always there after such instinctive reactions he felt shame even defending himself from bullies back in the foster home he grow up in. “I’m sorry” James and Aimee said in unison tears glinted in his eyes then ran down his cheeks.

“I’m envious, I wish I could cry” said Aimee snapping James out of the moment. Curtis lay sprawled out spread eagle facing up eyes closed breathing a bit hard but regular unconscious. “His knee hit his chin before going into the rotation.” Aimee explained seeing James’s attention shift.

“We should go home” James said.

“Agreed”

They ran to the far side of the building and looked for a way down it was only three stories but to far to jump. James jumped to his left one floor down there was a stucco balcony he grabbed the side. After his feet hit and his momentum arrested he jumped again away from the balcony. He turned around in mid air and grasped another balcony’s edge that had been to his right and two floors down from the top. As he completed the action again to a third balcony below the first he heard Aimee following his lead then he dropped a short distance to the ground and moved out of her way. He smiled brightly at her as she landed and said “I hope that was as fun for you as it was for me.”

“It wasn’t, this module has neither adrenalin nor a need to breath but starting tomorrow I’ll have an avatar suitable for joining you in adventures.” Aimee replied giving him another reason to play Royal Road.

After returning home and taking a shower Mai knocked on his door James invited her in and they sat at the dining room table drinking green tea. Aimee was in the basement making adjustments to the androids legs with the help of the reactivated maid droid. “Why didn’t you use the capsule microphone and tell me you were there? I would have helped.” Mai said holding a dissatisfied expression on her face.

“I needed to get a feel for what I’d gotten myself into” James said with a smile.

“…”

“Yeah, sorry about that I thought it would be a good joke if I got the house as dirty as possible before your first cleaning.” Mai said laughing and failing to sound sorry at all. Her fragrance was mysterious, and the resonance of her mirth, promised jubilation if James would but indulge.

“….”

“Besides I died in Royal Road so I may as well get to work with something idle hands and all that plus I though it would be unfair to you if we both end up cleaning.” James said changing the subject feeling more nervousness from being around Mai than ever before. Thanks to Aimee’s suggestion of becoming friends with benefits. ‘The last thing I want is to get in the habit of using a neighbor for booty calls.’

“Is that so are you already fighting rabbits and foxes, don’t tell me a rabbit killed you? I thought you still had a day or two before your four weeks were up.”

“Oh no” James said offended “PVP a mage burned me to death but I got four levels off of her him what ever you call tranny players.”

“That’s impossible” Mai said coldly leaning forward. “Email me the proof starting from where I gave you the daggers.”

James was frustrated that she didn’t believe him but just shrugged and nodded consent. Mai sat back disgruntled and after a few moments of silence went home.

The next day at work James had a conference call with his boss and his boss’s company partners. Then he had a meeting with prospective customers three state collages were all planning on starting virtual reality classes. James sold 1,500 capsules before noon and there were 30 capsules in for repair. After lunch he addressed ‘the elephant in the room’ or in the cases of his office the crate storing Aimee’s second android body. On the crate pained in red was the numbers A7 011 one number lower than the one delivered to his house. He used a pry bar to lever open the crate then turned on the android and replied to office emails as Aimee powered up.

“What took you so long? You have been at work nearly five hours I would have sent A7 012 to activate this module if I knew you wouldn’t do it as soon as you got here.” Asked Aimee in a condescending tone as she placed a closed fist on each hip and tapped a foot. If she had been annoyed at the speech being off on the maid droid then James thought she sounded angry now.

“Oh now, you’ve got nothing to complain about my day has been rather boring here this morning. Besides what is it I’m supposed to say to people when they ask about a military grade android walking around the factory?” James asked having heard employees whisper about the crate in his office since early that morning.

“Your morning seemed average today no less eventful than normal but at least you didn’t start repairing capsules with out me. Wouldn’t the obvious cover for unit A7 011 be that of your body guard?” Aimee replied brushing packaging foam off her new body before closing up the crate again.

“No, how many people get superior androids protectors, besides this one stays here, and we don’t want them knowing about the other, so it could hardly pass as a body guard.”

“Point taken, less people than you’d think. How about you tell them that the factory is increasing security in light of the escalating terrorism, after all a London factory was bombed just last week.”

“Good idea and it don’t conflict with you keeping it here over nights I’ll notify them now.” James said pressing the button for the intercom. “Excuse me everyone this is James the general factory manager please stop what you’re doing and gather under the western catwalk for an important security announcement.”

As he stood on the skywalk James watched and waited for the 300 employees to gather where they had their weekly OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) meeting.

“Didn’t we already have our Oh Shit Happens Anyway meeting this week?” Someone asked making up their own meaning for OSHA’s abbreviation.

“He probably just feels his authority has been underwritten since he wasn’t here for it so he is trying to reestablish his power.” Someone’s reply was less than encouraging.

“Look at that android I hear the military has commissioned a great many of them.” Expectedly most people’s comments were in consideration of the genderless android standing with hands crossed behind its back next to James.

“Everyone whose working today has gathered” said Aimee in a whispered voice.

“As you all know safety is in our best interests but since you have already had the required meeting this week I’ll keep it short and in regards to what’s new.” James said easily projecting his voice to the assembly. “Rising terrorism is a mounting concern yesterday morning a coffee shop in Colorado was bombed. China and the Middle East’s problems are surely well know to all of you not to mention our fellow factory workers whom were bombed recently in London. So I’m sure this android will be a welcome sight to all of you its highly mobile and far more intelligent than you can imagine. Not only that but it will help with capsule repairs when not making its rounds.” James said that last bit remembering Aimee’s enthusiasm to work on capsules; he knew people would think it weird if not given an explanation before hand.

“Thanks for that I was going to be angry if you got me stuck patrolling the factory day in and day out.” Aimee said in a low voice. James was sure her speech patterns were beginning to resemble his more and more and wished she had a female voice rather than a gender neutral one to match her body. He didn’t want her to get to much influence from him fearing it would stunt her mental growth.

There was applause and enthusiastic questions by the time everyone got back to their stations James and Aimee only had one hour to work on capsules before time to quit for the day.

While Aimee was taking apart broken capsules and reverently placing their broken parts to the side like they were her treasures James was accumulating any droid parts he could find. He even made some calls and sent some emails requesting more from other factories. When he contacted hospitals and asked for their best prosthetics, biomechanics, and even organic parts Aimee finally became interested. “What are you doing? Surely you don’t intend on becoming a cyborg?!” She said managing to sound shocked.

“Not a chance! I don’t even want to artificially extend my life. I couldn’t help but notice that you don’t accept those androids as a part of your body so I thought we could make something more to your tastes.”

“If I were Mai I would hug you. Let’s construct a little carbon crystal for it too I wouldn’t be able to consider it home without at-least a little bit of my soul within.” Aimee replied surprising him with her mention of a soul.

They worked 6 hours past closing time even though Royal Road was waiting for them.