Everyone was feeling elated about the news of the upcoming companion lottery. For a group of men who’d barely seen a woman in nearly a year, this was finally their chance to get some female attention.

Alex had to admit though that he was apprehensive about the process. Whoever this woman was going to be that was assigned to him as his companion on Vesta, she was going to have to replace Sophie.

And that was going to be tough to do.

Alex and Rick entered the small meeting room not far from the mess hall and took their seats. The room was shaped in a circular fashion, with a large platform in the center for the staff of the ship and seating spreading out in a circle from there. Around them, they had screens of outer space all around them, made to look like windows on the ship.

Alex knew they weren’t actually windows. That would be too dangerous for space travel to include such an obvious fail point. The “windows” were actually one-way cameras that were placed on the outside of the ship, posting the feed back to the screens inside.

Still, it gave a very eerie feeling to the room as they all entered.

“Come in men, come in!” said one of the staff members, an older man named Garrison who looked to be in excellent shape despite his advanced years. “Take your seats, we’re about to begin!”

Alex wasn’t pleased to note that Serrano and his gang sat not far from them, letting him hear their conversation in the process.

“So I told that fucking doctor that his eyes need checked,” said one of the men, Grant Lido, who’d easily fallen in with Serrano. “There’s nothing wrong with my fucking cock!”

“It’s probably all those whores you fucked on Earth in recent years,” said Serrano, laughing at him. “No doubt you caught something from them.”

“Don’t care if I did,” replied Grant, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “I told the doctor to treat me or I’d find a reason to remove his cock from his body. You should have seen him start to stutter!”

They were still laughing as Garrison turned the lights down low and began to talk.

“Okay, that’s quite enough, thank you, gentlemen!” said Garrison as he walked about the stage. “Thank you for coming to orientation!”

“Like we have a fucking choice,” grumbled Serrano from just behind Alex. “And this might be the last orientation if I have my way.”

Fortunately, Garrison didn’t hear or he chose to ignore it because he kept talking.

“We have a lot of business to attend to and not enough time to do it so let’s get started. Tonight, you men will be assigned your companions for the rest of the journey to Vesta and beyond!”

There was a small cheer amongst the men at that part. Alex knew it was because almost all of them entertained thoughts of getting laid tonight.

“There’s more on that to come though,” explained Garrison, which caused the men to go silent. “But first up, we’re going to go over the new technology that you’ll be issued as part of the colony program. I have several top-of-the-line upgrades for your new lives on Vesta, and the first thing is being handed out right now.”

Garrison gestured to his assistants who soon placed a small box directly in front of each man. Alex opened up his only to find a brand new P-com inside.

“That’s right, men! You get the latest version of the P-com for your troubles. These are directly from the factory on Earth with the latest firmware updates. P-com, of course, stands for personal communicator, but as you men already know, they are much more valuable than that. As I will demonstrate.”

Garrison gestured to his wrist, where he wore his own P-com already. It wasn’t much larger than an old-fashioned watch when it wasn’t being used but once he opened the display, a holographic screen emerged alongside several different command prompts.

“P-com, please reach out to Debbie Buford on deck two,” said Garrison into the display.

Within seconds, the P-com rang the line of Debbie and when she answered, it showed a full holographic display of her once the line was established.

“Testing out the P-coms again?” asked Debbie, clearly having done this several times already.

“Right you are,” said Garrison with a grin. “Thank you, Debbie.”

He ended the call and Debbie promptly disappeared. At this point, he turned to face the men again.

“Not only is the P-com your personal computer, communicator, internet source, and navigator, it’s been updated with a variety of features and apps to make your transition to Vesta as seamless as possible. We’ve also gone ahead and added in the profiles for every Vestan currently alive today, so that you’re able to break the ice as soon as you arrive.”

“Whatever would we have done without knowing their fucking names?” mocked Serrano just behind Alex.

Alex had to admit that the new P-coms looked pretty cool. He had a working model back on Earth before the incident that put him in prison and this was even faster and with a variety of new apps.

Garrison was only just getting started though. After putting away his P-com, he took out a small pulse pistol and held it in front of the men. “This nifty little gun is the brand new Sabert 32 PBP or pulse beam pistol. It has multiple improvements over the Sabert 31 model, including a slightly longer barrel and a better hand grip. The rate of fire has also been improved and there is a much quicker recharge time than the older versions. You won’t have any threats to worry about with your Sabert 32 by your side.”

“When do we get those?” asked Serrano, suddenly curious at seeing the new pistol.

“Not until we land on Vesta,” said Garrison quickly. “Can’t take the risk of these pistols going off inside the ship and putting all of us in jeopardy.”

There was some grumbling at that news, but the men weren’t upset for long as Garrison held up a small rectangular device that was about half the size of Alex’s small finger.

“This,” said Garrison, holding it up for all the men to see, “is your breather. As you may have noticed from your training modules, Vesta’s atmosphere doesn’t have as much oxygen as Earth’s. While most of the native Vestans have adapted to life with a lower level of oxygen, you’ll need some help. These breathers attach right above your armpit, just like this. Then, you’ll take the tubing and place it directly under your nose. Just like that, the breather will convert the water that you secrete into pure oxygen to be inhaled back into your body, helping you breathe in Vesta’s atmosphere.”

Garrison walked around, handing out breathers to everyone which caused all the men to try them out. It was Rick that had the first question once he had his breather attached.

“So this almost looks like we’re going to be inhaling our own sweat, judging by the setup?” he asked.

Garrison grinned. “Precisely, Rick! It’s ingenious, isn’t it? Recycling our own waste products for use in our own bodies once more. That’s the kind of cutting edge system that I can really get behind!”

Garrison seemed rather thrilled about it but most of the other men weren’t.

“Next he’ll be telling us we have to drink our own piss for water,” grumbled Serrano.

Alex saw it as a necessary evil though and stuck his breather in his bag. There were worse things in life than having to inhale his own sweat to stay alive.

The next technology demonstration would prove to be the most interesting yet. Garrison’s assistants rolled in several very large crates from the storage room, displaying the crates on either side of him. From there, the front lids were taken off, causing many of the men to start gawking.

Inside were nearly perfect-looking humanoid androids that were made to look just like women.

And not just any women. Very beautiful women.

“May I present the latest female androids from Inspiration Technologies,” announced Garrison with a beaming grin. “These are I-Mates, or Intelligent Mates, and they are a total upgrade in the market for sapient female androids.”

“Not another ArtFriend,” groaned someone from the crowd as they looked at the androids.

Garrison held up his hand. “No, no, no, these aren’t ArtFriends, or Artificial Friends. The ArtFriend 5.6 is the latest version on the market and it is very dated compared to the I-Mate. The I-Mate is capable of passing as a real human. They think, breathe, feel, and they have many quality of life features that make them resemble real people. Of course, with a name like I-Mate, they have one primary function.”

Garrison took one of the models and switched on the power which was located on her back. Instantly, she snapped to life, looking around the room like a doll that had just awoken from its slumber.

“Where am I?” she asked, looking at Garrison.

“The same place you were this morning, Caitlin,” he replied. “Would you be so kind as to undress for the men in front of you? We’d greatly appreciate it.”

Whereas a normal woman would balk at such a request, Caitlin moved quickly to remove all of her outer garments, standing before the men without a stitch of clothing just a minute later.

Alex had to admit, they’d managed to come a long way with android technology in recent years. He used to know someone who had an ArtFriend back at home, and it always struck him as incredibly crude. At the end of the day, you were still having sex with a lifeless robot, which turned him off to a great degree.

And yet, this I-Mate seemed like the real deal.

“Wonderful, thank you, Caitlin,” said Garrison as he put a chair in front of her. “Now will you be so kind as to sit and spread your legs wide open for my friends?”

“Of course!” she said with a bubbly voice. She moved quickly to do as she was told, and Alex had to note that her movements were very natural and human-like. There was little that indicated that she was a robot, even when she displayed her glistening vagina to all the men in the room.

“With a name like I-Mate, you know there was one primary function,” said Garrison, gesturing to Caitlin’s pussy. “These versions have fully working, lubricated vaginas for your immediate pleasure. Not only that, they have working mouths and anuses for anyone that prefers to use those holes as well. The I-Mates are durable and realistic in the bedroom, and it will feel just like you’re coupling with a real woman. But the greatest part of the invention is the womb technology.”

“What do you mean by womb technology?” asked one of the men.

Garrison grinned. “These I-Mates are fully capable of bearing a child to term. Your child of course. They will extract your DNA from your semen sample and use it to create a baby, which they will carry for four months as part of an accelerated growing program. Of course, the baby will be nothing more than a clone of you seeing as the I-Mates don’t have DNA of their own, but quite a marvelous invention for those without access to a real human female.”

With those words, Garrison looked down at Caitlin. “You may close your legs now, dear. And you may get dressed.”

“Thank goodness. I was getting cold!” she said, before rushing to follow his instructions.

“Any questions?” asked Garrison, looking out to the crowd.

Of course, there were many questions. Everyone wanted to know each and every detail about the I-Mates as they were passed out. Alex learned that they were fully programmable in terms of personality so that they could be made into a perfect dream woman. They were also able to change their hair, eye, nipple, and vaginal colors after being plugged into a working HUD.

There were half a dozen other details that Alex missed once his was deposited in front of him.

He had to admit that she was lovely. She had a young appearance to her, looking to be barely twenty in terms of age. She had a soft, angelic kind of face with green eyes and light-brown hair. She was on the petite side in terms of size but even Alex could see that she had an impressive set of breasts under her clothing.

After turning the unit on, she looked at him and smiled. “Hello, Master! My name is Kristina!”

Alex frowned and looked at Rick, who was immersed in his own. “Mine has a name already.”

“So does mine,” replied Rick as he looked at the manual in front of him. “Mine is called Haley.”

“I can’t wait to serve you,” said Kristina as she grabbed Alex’s hand. “We’re going to have so much fun together!”

Alex didn’t know what to think. On one hand, it was nice to have female attention again, even if she wasn’t technically human. On the other, there was still something a little robotic about Kristina. Something that didn’t feel genuinely human.

Around the room, everyone else seemed to be fully immersed with their I-Mates, even Serrano and his gang. However, one of the men in the room brought up a good question.

“Hey, these aren’t meant to be our companions, are they? I thought we were going to get real women for this!”

Garrison was quick to nod. “An excellent question, and yes, you are correct. Every man gets an I-Mate as part of going to Vesta but we still have yet to assign your companions. We will do so now!”