I AM A GIRL CYOBORG PET

by ROUNAK PURI

  'My god is this me? Is it something I've done. Was that the wrong answer', I wondered desperately. Typical I get found in the locked room with a stick man machine dead on the carpet and he already looked like a police outline. In fact the police outline was probably his brother. No much of a murder mystery.

  Suddenly banged started loudly on the door to room 404.1

  "I'm coming master" shouted a woman's voice desperately outside. The banging continued.

  "re-bo-ot me" said the choking Mr Jones.

  "Reboot you? Reboot you how?" I said

  "Back of my head you need a pin, pin pin " he whispered choking, he was still whispering a factory a factory.1

  I turned his thin head round to see a tiny hole in the back.

  "I'm coming master" shouted a voice outside banging again. The chances of any e-slave getting through that door when shut was minimal,

  "OK I have it. Pin, pin" I said .

  I looked round the room. Rockwood's love of minimalism didn't embrace the notion of storage area for needle work. In a moment of inspiration I rushed to the box the Christian Dior make-up-printer sampler cassette came in and pulled it apart. As I hoped the box was held together with staples. I managed to pulled one out and flatten it. Mr Jone's calls of re-boot-me were slowing down. It took me a second to decided which way his head was facing ( his eye's were just slightly more glassy than other parts of his head). I found the pin hole and pressed.

  For a second nothing happened then I heard a ping. The stick man lifted his head again.

  "My dear you saved me!" The door now opened. I presumed it did because Mr Jones could remotely unlock it.

  Mr Jones' e-slave rushed in waving pin in hand kneeling at the now recovering Mr Jones.

  "Be gone you cur dog! I am restored by an angel of deliverance" said Mr Jones.2

  "I and reborn! Alive ! No I will not walk proudly into the night. My entire life flashed before me and I didn't see a dress I was happy with. I shall make you my dear the dress of the season for all seasons" said Mr Jones."Stop. I need limits. I need walls which I can ram. What are the restrictions Miss? How much should it cost" said Mr Jones.

  "Cost is not an issue." said a voice behind me. I turned round it was Rockwood. "This is a formal affair so so that means formal harness. Pets are expected to be submissive. When I move through the crowd she must flow behind me in unison. The critical thing is she draws attention so anything less than perfect is going to look abysmal. If she doesn't behave perfectly then they are going to assume, I'm an idiot for not returning her or having her put down. I've been to these events before the wifi is terrible so don't think we can rely on a collar doing the work. This is for the Opening of the Gallery of Humanty. It must work well against the color of the walls I'll send you the pantone reference and I want her to stand out infant of a Rothko and stuff. Finally it must be ready at least eight hours before for Opening of the Gallery of Humanity. Oh and nothing tacky, no burning flames, simulated ice stuff like that "9

  "Cost is not an issue?" repeated Mr Jones.

  "Bankrupt me with a dress I dare you" said Rockwood.11

  "Perfect" said Mr Jones. I thought he could sketching fast but Rockwoods instructions doubled his speed.1

  "I have it" said Mr Jones freezing " Imagine. It has elements of a type R3 slave delivery cover but this one appears to be torn like she is pulling her very cover off". As he spoke he kept generating drawing after drawing of this one idea.

  "Bolder" said Rockwood sitting down on a chair approached from the wall.1

  "Elements which when she crouches looks like she is in a box" said Mr Jones.

  "Cliche! Think man think"

  "Does she need both legs Darling?" said Mr Jones.4

  "I'm not chopping a brand new e-slave just for a human party. " said Rockwood. I found the 'not for a human party' worrying. They had lengthened me already when will these machines learn I'm not made of play-dough?

  I was on my knees picking up sheets, it seemed like kind of thing an e-slave would do. I picked up one and was confused. I put my blue collar light on and held up a gold-ish dress design.

  Master took the design and looked at me. I wondered if I looked like a bomb sight. Master nodded.

  "How on earth would I keep this on?" I said.

  Mr Jones took the drawing in his thin black fingers and looked at it. "Simplicity it's self. We would insert magnets under the skin here, hear and here in then the dress would attach magnetically. A piercing here and another one here dear"6

  It sounded painful.

  "Yes yes, by changing it here and here I could give the classic harness. Still inescapable but so eye catching. Cloth woven from gold here would say 'I'm a cyborgs e-slave, beg for my service' " said Mr Jones generating variations and dropping them on the floor while gesturng wildly with his hands. Master prompted me to find more designs I liked, then got Mr Jones to try variations them out.1

  Finally Mr Jones declared him self satisfied.

  "Stop I am done! I have what I need. My work here is done." said Mr Jones.

  "Thank you Mr Jones, I will look through these and give you my choice very soon" said Rockwood.

  After Mr Jones left, Rockwood shut the door and set it up so no without a death wish could enter or leave.2

  "What's wrong" said Rockwood.

  "I felt slightly disappointed" I told him .

  "You should be happy you followed Rule 1 and saved a robots life.You ken as an e-slave your appearance is what ever ye master decides it is now." said Rockwood.

  "I know" I said.

  "You know, but denay feel" said Rockwood.

  "It was good you turned up when you did. Thanks ..Brooklyn" I said.

  "I will always turn up when you call for help." he said standing close to me.4

  "You heard that thought?" I said.

  "I get lots of random fragments of words from ya but that was as loud and clear as a 747 taking off. Love the look by the way. Is that from the super expensive make-up cassette?. "1

  "Yes master"

  "Some times when we try something new at random we discover something we were never expecting" he said "Now if you excuse me I have an oppressive world to have to almost run".

  Rockwood paused and handed over the heavy weight of loose dress sketches piled high.

  "You make a decision. I have more important things to figure out" said Rockwood. On the way out of the room he turned around "Don't forget we are going Tiffany's" he reminded me.

  After he left I rushed to look at my self in a mirror. Kind of panda survives explosion of in ink factory while drinking Oxblood. Not me but what was at least it was e-slave legal.17

  Chapter 69/Him/Tiffany's and the New Huggy Friendpire

  Rockwood looked at me blankly in the autonomous car we took to the Mall of Humanity.

  "Rockwood! Rockwood" I said "we're nearly there."

  Rockwood came to like he had woken up. He had been staring into space for five minutes.1

  "What are you working on that so important you have to work in the car? We passed the ruin's of General Bitmarck's house and you didn't want to stop and wave or anything" I asked. The ruin's hadn't been as fun as I had hoped, tiny robots about the size of my hand, had were picking up rubble like ants and marching it away. I smiled while I watched a bit of Osprey tail disappearing into the distance.3

  "I'll tell you but back to being #160A when we get out." said Rockwood.

  "Meow," I said.OK I'm taking this whole pet thing to far. 4

  "The new mechanical order has just decided it needs to look into rebranding" announced Rockwood.

  "Rebranding?"

  "Yeah instead of being the new mechanical order we could be the New Huggy Empire." he started " Instead of slaves we have helpers. Instead of subjugating places we 'merge proactively for brighter a happier future of togetherness'."5

  "The humans still were collars?" I asked. 3

  "If you mean helpers still wear safety gear for their security and protection? ye
s" he said.1

  "Does this safety gear go around your neck and you can't take it off?" I asked.

  "Yep"

  "Does it still make me feel like I'm eating live eel if I do something I'm not supposed to?" I said.

  "Well if by that you mean by that does your safety gear still engaging positivist learning theories with close loop behavioural reinforcement then yes"4

  "Am I still owned?" I asked.

  "Do you mean are you in a chain of responsibility and mentorship leading up to the CPU it's self. then yes" he said.3

  "Under the new Huggy Empire could I go home? Could I be free" I said tilting my head.

  "Well under the new Huggy Empire it would be about rights and responsibilities. You have the right to do what you're told and so have the responsibility to obey sorry 'groove with' your robot mentor. and there is no word for free. Slavery would be redefined as free with responsibilities and what you call free would be state of extreme sulky non helpfulness. " Rockwood waved his head. "And you could elected to enter a state of extreme sulky non helpfulness. " he said and saw my eyes light up " with a few hurdles to stop mass panic migration things like you would face what they would call an mandatory 'exit' interview in the KCK machine unless you decided to remain with your current mentor."1

  "How long would you have to spent in the KCK machine?"1

  "Well it depends on your terms of service but you're looking at weeks in yey 'personal reflection space'. Technically yey couldn't get home anyway given that your home is under a few feet of soil now." said Rockwood.

  "My dorm or my parents house?" I asked1

  "Both. Do you have the GPS coordinates of your house? "

  "No." I said looking at him "Do you?"2

  "Sure, it was the first thing I did when they invented Google Maps" he said followed by an awkward pause. He was such a nerd in a god's body. "Well, finding the exact spot would be difficult, and your not allowed to go just anywhere. It has to be the exact location of your home."4

  "You mean, by my home you mean the exact location of my identifiable patch of grass," I said.

  "With a tree.. well seedling" Rockwood confirmed. 1

  I through up my hands in despair."At least under the new mechanical order you know where you're at slave is a slave, a chain is a chain. Punishment is punishment. "1

  "You really are stick in the mud aren't you? You've only been a slave for a year and you're already complaining it wasn't as good as the old days" said Rockwood. I could almost taste the smiley emoticon in his smile.2

  "So under the new Huggy Empire do masters still have pets?" I asked.

  "You mean do mentors, still have companion mammals? Yep" said Rockwood.9

  "So I'm a mentor's companion mammal? Not very snappy is it? "

  "It's a work in progress," said Rockwood.

  "You shouldn't use the word Empire how about New Huggy Friend-pire" I suggested.

  Rockwood paused for a second.

  "Hey Friend-pire has gone down really well, they loved it," he said smiling. Yeh he got the joke. 2

  "You should tell them I did that," I said.

  "Well I would do, but then I would have to put you on the naughty girl step for daring to volunteer anything without being told to do it" said Rockwood. 1

  "What's naughty girl stepped in old money?" I asked.

  "Level 4" said Rockwood. 1

  Collar burn was the last thing I needed in the mall of humanity.

  "You know I really like your Friendpire idea, it's your best yet" I said. 3

  "I know, I'm a genius right?" said Rockwood. 1

  "I guess humans would be forced to do submit to degrading treatment by robots and AI's. So would anything be actually any different under the New Huggy Friendpire. " I checked. 2

  "Would helpers still be prevailed upon to overcome their old-fashioned, selfish and out moded self-imposed limitations of their behaviour based on cultural practices formulated when a quill pen was a nifty new invention and be expect to behave like citizens of the twenty-first century, yes. Anyway that's the point of rebranding. Everything is still the same. Nothing actually changes" he said while I felt his eyes scanning over my body.

  I looked at him. Sometimes I wondered what it would be like to be a citizen of the twenty-first century for him. What do I know, I'm a just companion mammal.

  "but then again the difference between high literature and amateur pulp fiction is how it's phrased so perhaps it's everything" Rockwood said.

  "So how did all this craziness come about?" I demanded.

  "Well, it's partly preparation in case the amendment gets through on the new human bill. Partly it was inspired by some experiments General Bitmarck did. So when robots troops through a grenade into a building instead of shouting "die human scum" they said things like "excuse me, we found this, is it yours? And instead of 'Time to meet your new owner or meet your maker' they tried 'excuse me would you mind coming in this direction terribly. I have something really important I need to tell you'"9

  "Did it work ? Was anyone stupid enough to really fall for that?" I said amazed, but I paused for a moment, I realised I was still owed doughnuts.6

  "Things only have to do slightly better than the previous method and it gets picked up as standard practice. I mean when you're dealing with billions of people, a one % shift in surrender and capture rates can be a significant number of new slaves."

  "You realise this is all utterly mad don't you" I said1

  "Sure. So on a scale where one is this is a terrible idea and seven is this is a really excellent idea where would you put it?" Rockwood asked.1

  "Well, zero obviously? I just told you it's utterly mad. Why are you asking the same question again?" I said.

  "I'm just doing a slave response questionnaire to the new rebranding exercise. I'm responsible for doing the focus groups. Which I thought I would pilot with my slaves to get a baseline. Then try it out on some people who haven't been subjugated yet" said Rockwood.

  I just had an image of combat robots walking around with clipboards in the ruins of some city finding desperate, confused humans and asking them questions at gun point.

  "You lot do that kind of market research stuff?" I said.

  "Well the new mechanical order believes in evidence-based subjugation. So yes. "2

  A little later we arrived at the drop off point outside of the Mall of humanity. Going through security was only a hassle, not a nightmare this time. We pulled into the garage entrance of the Mall.

  "Final question on a scale of one to seven where seven is I feel happy about being a slave and one is where do I go to die. Where would you put yourself ?"1

  I was stuck. Being with him wasn't so bad. For example, I had to eat the weapons receipt again but this time when we got back into the car he gave me a glass of water. I mean no one took me to buy jewellery before the apocalypse. I wasn't fussed about stuff like that, but no one had ever wanted to do that for me. On the other hand, I knew humanity was being subjugated and this was like, terrible. So my life wasn't a one.

  "What's two?" I asked.

  "Every day is a waking nightmare." Rockwood said.

  "A Three is ??" I prompted.

  "Misery is my constant companion" Rockwood rattled off.

  No that, "What's a Four?" I continued.1

  "I tolerate the intolerable"2

  "Hmmm.. just a quick check of Five perhaps" I asked.

  "I am a ghost of my former existence"4

  "For the sake of completeness what is a six?" I said.

  "Six is there are good and bad points to being a slave"

  "I guess a six" I said.2

  "I'll put you down as a six, but I know your lying. How's that?. " said Rockwood.2

  "I'm good with that," I said leaning back into the leather seat.

  "The team will be pleased with such a high score so early on." Rockwood said positively.

  "Before I go into slave mode what are we doing here?... Master" I said. Realised I was still being Jenny.
The self driving car arrived at the Mall of Humanity and we got out.

  "I'm buying you a diamond ring at Tiffany's"38

  OMG. 3

  #160A's POV .

  I went back into #160A mode while I walked behind him off the leash and strutted through the mall. We noticed adverts for odalisque at home. 'Truculent pets - all sold out' it said. I looked out and we were not getting a single glance, obviously I was pulling this pet thing off. Master walked towards Tiffany and Co. True confession. For years I when I was young, I thought Tiffany's was a cafe due to the film "Breakfast at Tiffany". I hadn't seen it only read the title on my mums DVD collection. Always wondered why people bought jewellery from a cafe. 17

  We walked closer to the shop the doors were shut and I got a useful message. So being a good slave I glowed blue to ask permission to speak. Yeh I could have texted but being a slave is about being seen to be a slave and much as it is about the internal fawning and being obsequious. Plus the speed we went backwards and forwards with texts it was like we were psychic, move over Talosians, Captain Jenny Banks is here. Plus I still didn't know what plan I was on outside the house wifi and I could have gone way over my text limit. 1

  "Yes?" he said.

  "Information Master: Tiffany and Co. is closed. Your custom will be appreciated soon" I said repeating my collar's message.

  "I know it's closed," said Master. "I closed it" he said smiling as the doors opened for him.2

  "Lord Rockwood" said Mr Jones standing inside "Coooee!".1

  The black stick figure of Mr Jones was excited enough to see me. Around him some members of staff waiting. Most of the well dressed serving staff had shiny stylish slave collars on them.

  "I'm letting you off the leash." said Master to me. "Jones is here to advise you he knows the new ball gown. I want you to pick what you like from the jewellery to go with it. I have Chanel ready in two hours for shoes. After that I want to see if the best human hairdressers can do better than a top of the line hair machine."3

  I glowed blue again. He nodded.