Ningyou Macher

Part 2: Erin I stared at my phone, grimacing at the mailbox. Nothing…precisely what I got last time I tried talking to the police. With a pained sigh, I stopped pacing about my gloomy studio apartment and tossed the thing on the tattered, maybe second-hand couch next to the waiting maidbot skin. “I guess I’m doing this,” I told myself, looking at the mocha skin waiting to be filled. But not yet. There were things I could do, things that needed doing which would also delay the inevitable. Turning my attention to the watch I bought yesterday, I swiped and tapped my way through the unfamiliar 3D interface projected in front of me until a small cube appeared in the lower left filled with a bust of myself. The red recording light began blinking. I probably should have put something on besides the lavender cami, but whatever. It was morning. ...

Lisa I glanced at my phone, checking the time. Time…precisely what Erin and I were running out of. Not that repeatedly verifying that fact helped. Looking around at the decrepit walls of our rented bathroom, now covered in a layer of chicken wire, I wondered if this was enough. “You don’t have to do this,” Erin said, pointedly turning dark brown eyes towards my phone. She did not, however, let go of the chicken wire. “In fact, that sounds like a much better idea.” ...

Chapter 0 - Twenty Years earlier One by one, the tech reporters filed into the small press room and took their seats. They had been told this was to be some huge announcement that would eventually change everything. Coming from the press secretary for Humanoid Robotics Services, the statement held a lot of weight. Still, they would have expected a larger venue. Considering the price of admission, they collectively thought it better be good. Not that they were concerned; this was one of the fastest growing companies in the world. In a matter of 5 years, a team of collage students from Canada—often likened to another famous Canadian, Elon Musk—began designing robots that were without equal. Whatever it was, it would surely rock this world, and each of them would have gladly payed double for the honor of being the first to hear it. ...

Chapter 4 - …It Might Come True Sierra activated at 7:00 A.M. in accordance with her programmed schedule, however she felt as if something was different as compared to all the previous mornings. As the door to her pod opened and the service probes retracted back into their stand-by positions, she felt as if she had forgotten something important. It was like waking from a dream that fades just before you can grasp it. She remembered ‘Mistress Sierra’ riding her, the brunette from months before and her shocking news, the video of Kim, and the incident with the pool crew—most shocking of all, she recalled being free to think as she wished. Yet at the same time, it was all too vague to be real. ...

Dolly’s First Day Its eyes fluttered open, less as a part of shaking off sleep and more an affected sign of wakefulness. One moment it was simply lying motionless on the lake-side bench, half hidden by low-hanging maple branches, and the next, this new born’s eyes were set in motion by some force not its own. It sat up straight, hearing the clicks and the clacks as it did so; the tight corset doing nothing to inhibit the action, nor restrict its non-existent breathing. ...