Coral-600

by Roxy Mews

  “Every time I talk into your robo-ear these people think I am kissing your neck. All the guys around us are getting turned on.” Hands brushed over both of our bodies as she spoke. “And some of the women.”

  I felt the crowd change as the song selection moved from the heavy fast beats to something slower. The next five songs were all slower, heavier bass beats, and much more of a sensual throb.

  Everyone around us responded. Even Paisley. The man behind her watched Paisley’s hips as she moved to this song. This was a move she used a lot, and the men seemed to respond every time. I grabbed her head and pulled her ear close to me so I could relay the message about the guy behind her.

  “Do you wish to separate and go have sex with him? He seems to be excited about the prospect.”

  “Oh he is.” Paisley assured me. “He has been dancing behind me for a while. He is very excited about it, trust me. But tonight is about us. Do you want to keep dancing? Or do you want to do something else?”

  Something else? I really enjoyed dancing. I loved feeling the bodies around me. They weren’t as nice as Quinn’s but the feel of them and the way many admired me was something I wanted to keep doing. But the way Paisley smiled as she offered a new experience led me to believe I might enjoy the next one just as much.

  “I want to have fun. You show me what to do, and I will gladly follow your instructions.”

  Paisley bit her lip before her cheeks plumped and she couldn’t contain her smile any longer. “I will be your fun educator, you sexy metal chick. First, I want to torture this guy a bit. Here is why we travel in twos as women. This guy will follow us off the dance floor if we leave. So you’re going to pretend that you’re my lover and you’re angry about his advances. Do you remember the television shows I watched with you?”

  There were shows that were on in the afternoon that Paisley recorded on the DVR. They had a lot of dramatic music and the people slept with each other and were often angry at who the other person had slept with. I couldn’t find much of a consistent plot other than that. It was good information to draw from.

  Paisley turned in my arms and placed my hands on her hips. It was where I had initially put my hands when I was learning to mirror her movements. She had been facing away from me the first time. This time she pulled my hands over more and her hip bones were against my palms.

  The guy who had been behind her stepped closer to us.

  “You two look beautiful together. Do you like to share?”

  A similar conversation from the television shows replayed in my brain. I remembered that I shouldn’t use a recording, but I summarized the response from one of the main characters.

  “I don’t share.” I wrapped one arm around Paisley’s waist and mimicked a move from the show: I petted her hair and smoothed it over so that her skin touched mine. I turned up my cooling system to keep her comfortable. She was overheating in here. I felt her shiver at the coolness of my skin and turned it back off.

  “I can see she enjoys your touch. I can make you both feel good.” The man stepped forward, and his hands reached around Paisley to touch my hips.

  “Get your sweaty uncultured hands off her.” The voice was loud to me because it was right beside me.

  Quinn grabbed the man’s hands—they were in fact quite sweaty—and pulled him off of us.

  “They were dancing with me, man. If they belong to you, it sure didn’t look like it a minute ago.” A few other men had stepped behind our dance partner. They were all quite large.

  Paisley whispered to my neck. “That’s not how this usually goes. We usually pretend we only like women and are in a relationship. This is much hotter, but I wanted to explain the ploy to you in case we ever need to use it again.”

  Quinn advanced on the men. They looked confused. They must not have men challenge the three of them without blinking an eye very often.

  “I am happy Quinn is here. I enjoy his hands on my skin much more than yours.”

  Paisley laughed. “Well, let’s just hope that he doesn’t get his ass kicked.”

  “If he did, the men would hurt their feet. From what I felt, a good portion of his gluteus muscles were replaced by mechanics. Even though it is bio-metal, it would hurt to kick it.” I let go of Paisley to go stand at Quinn’s side.

  “Coral, go to the bar, and I will meet you and Paisley there.”

  Quinn was a royal family member, but we were not in the palace, and I found that I didn’t enjoy being told where to go like I was doing my service time.

  “I wish to see what happens.”

  “We’re going to kick your boyfriend’s ass, that’s what will happen, lady. We’ll show you how real men fight.” The three men who had begun to clear space on the dance floor high-fived each other.

  “Real men fight only when they have a three-to-one advantage? It occurs to me you are fighting to prove masculinity, but your numbers speak more of cowardice than of gallantry.”

  The men stopped at my words, and it was obvious their vocabulary databases didn’t include many of the terms from our exchange.

  “These guys speak in a more monosyllabic dialect, Coral.” Quinn wrapped an arm around my waist as he spoke and kicked up his chin to direct my attention to the large men in black shirts who checked our IDs at the door.

  “That dude just called us homos!”

  “Now we’re really going to kick your ass!”

  The three men were only able to take one unified step forward before the security guards had their feet dangling in the air.

  “These guys bothering you?”

  “They seemed upset when I wanted to have sex with Quinn instead of them. They threatened to beat us up when I used large words, and I really don’t enjoy the way that one’s sweaty hands feel.” I listed off my grievances because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do.

  The guards and Quinn smiled at me like I didn’t do something right, but what I had done seemed to amuse them.

  “She’s not from around here, is she?” The guard held one of the guys in the air. He stopped struggling when the guard shook him until his teeth clacked together.

  “English is her second language, but she is doing very well, don’t you think?” Quinn used my naivety to our advantage. I was a bit insulted that he didn’t think I could handle myself.

  The guard Paisley seemed to be friends with the first night here handed the guy off to another man in a black shirt and waved his hands to get the suddenly silent music pumping again. “I promise, miss, not every guy is a jerk.” He looked up and shook hands with Quinn. “Thanks for not killing him.”

  Quinn stepped in front of me and put his hands on my hips. My hips were getting a lot of attention tonight.

  “I know him.” Quinn pointed to the man who helped another guard throw the last of the potential combatants out the front door. “He’s a good guy.”

  “He knows you’re mechanics?”

  Quinn’s face darkened as he looked around. I forgot I wasn’t supposed to mention us being mechanics in this place. My circuitry didn’t work right when I was in this close of a proximity to Quinn.

  “I served in the war with him. Even if I came back all machine, he would want me back. That’s why I am welcome in this club.”

  “But if he knew of me, I wouldn’t be.” I frowned. I was a higher percentage of mechanics than Quinn, but I didn’t like the idea that I wouldn’t be welcome in this establishment if someone knew that.

  When Paisley brought us in here, it was all about collecting data. Now, I was enjoying myself, and I didn’t want to get kicked out simply because of what was under my skin.

  Quinn’s hands stopped my data examination and he pulled me close to him. The music that began to build again was soft and slow. The person playing the songs really was skilled at building a sensation with the music he played. I had no doubt we would have some
faster music soon enough to get people back into the happy frenzy Paisley and I had stalled by engaging in an altercation with those men.

  “Where is Paisley?” I realized she wasn’t next to me.

  “She is at the bar with my credit card.” Quinn lifted his chin up to indicate a location behind me.

  I looked over my shoulder and saw Paisley at the bar attempting to get the bartender’s attention. She waved at me in a way that indicated I should continue to dance with Quinn. Then she gave me a thumbs-up and an over-exaggerated wink.

  I turned my head back to Quinn and he was much closer this time. His breath was warm against my lips when he spoke.

  “I enjoyed that kiss earlier today.” He didn’t have to speak loud for me to hear him. He knew that, and it made our conversation carry a much more intimate feel. “I enjoyed it too much.”

  Quinn’s hips began to sway back and forth with the music. His arms circled me and his palms flattened against my back, holding me in place and forcing my body to comply with his movements. It felt better than all the bodies pressed against me before. It occurred to me that Quinn’s one body carried more sensation for me than hundreds. Interesting.

  “You didn’t enjoy it enough to orgasm. I find that our encounters have been anti-climactic for you.”

  Quinn pulled me closer and I mirrored his tempo and movements.

  “I have taken three showers since last night. The water couldn’t get cold enough.”

  “That’s strange. I only enjoy showers where the water is at least human skin temperature. Does your mechanical makeup prefer a cooler temp?” I leaned back to look at him, and he frowned. “I said something odd again, didn’t I?”

  His hands loosened their grip. “I keep forgetting what you are when I am around you.”

  “I can’t seem to get a grasp on what I am any longer either. My functionality seems to be changing.”

  “How so?”

  “Well, I could go into detail, but I find myself reluctant, because every time I discuss my mechanical elements you appear upset.” I took a step back. “Perhaps I should go back to Paisley.”

  Quinn grabbed me and pulled me back to him. He held me against him with one arm. Yes, he was definitely mechanics there. His other hand touched my face. Not many people touched my face. In fact, I had to go quite a way back in my memory banks to even recall one instance. Was the face an erogenous zone like the genitals? I didn’t ask. I didn’t want Quinn to step back again.

  “I can’t figure you out, and I am struggling with the ethics of touching you.”

  “I am considerably above the age of consent for sexual interactions, Quinn.”

  He just pulled me closer. “And it is obvious that you have all the right parts to participate in those interactions, but you know as well as I do that fully automated pleasure bots are outlawed.”

  It didn’t matter how strong he was then. I pushed him until he released me. “I am not a pleasure bot. I am Coral-600, and my artificial intelligence is much smarter than your real intelligence if you think describing me as a mindless sex machine is remotely appropriate.”

  I forced a slow and deliberate pace as I went back to Paisley. I wanted to run, but my biometal legs ran too fast and it would be obvious I wasn’t supposed to be in this place. I was mechanics. Up until Quinn had spoken to me, I had felt like I was an appropriate member of this group. Now I could not push aside the fact that I was different. Fitting in here wasn’t great data and amusing any longer. Now I just felt like an imposter. The people who knew me, or would get to know me, would never accept me as a member of this group. Quinn enjoyed me, at least sexually, and even he couldn’t accept me.

  I was a machine, and tonight I was shown that no matter how much my AI advanced, everyone would always see me as a pile of metal.

  My vision blurred. I was…crying. Again. The excessive fluid leaked down into my sinus cavity and I grabbed a napkin off the stack at the bar to clean myself up. I was grateful that my tears were normal. There were some robots who leaked only their lubricating fluids. My lubrication beverage was pink. Crying in neon pink would have had me tossed from this human-only establishment in a second.

  “Coral? Honey, are you okay?” Paisley approached me and kept her voice at the level of a concerned friend, but I could see by the large amount of the sclera visible around her iris, it was obvious to me that she was worried about my functionality.

  “I would prefer to return home, Paisley. Can we go now?”

  “Um…okay. Let me go get Quinn and—”

  “No. I wish to return separately from Quinn.”

  Paisley’s eyes went from very wide to very narrow slits. “What did that ass do?”

  “It was the words he used. Not his ass.”

  Paisley looked at the small piece of plastic in her hand and tossed it to the bartender. “Pay for a round for everyone at the bar before you give this back to the ass working his way off the dance floor right now.”

  While I filled Paisley in on what Quinn had said, the bartender came back over.

  “I can’t charge a card that’s not yours at your request, ma’am.”

  Paisley leaned over and whispered something to the woman. The bartender leaned back with her mouth open. “Fuck him.” Then she rang a loud bell. “Free round for the bar!”

  I walked out with Paisley and she got us a cab.

  “What did you tell the woman at the bar to make her use Quinn’s credit card?”

  “I told her the truth.” A cab pulled up and we both slid in. “I told her the asshole called you a prostitute.”

  “A pleasure bot is not the same as a prostitute. I am mechanics, and it is time I stopped trying to pretend I am not.” It would be much more convincing if I could stop leaking from my eyes.

  “Coral, you may be mechanics, but you are not a mindless robot. You are more genuine, and more real than any human I have met since I started working at the palace.” She brushed my hair from my face.

  Two people had touched my face tonight. The touch from Paisley didn’t ignite my skin sensors like Quinn’s touch had. This time I felt…I don’t know what I felt, but it affected some of my circuitry deep inside my body. There was so much pain that could be caused with words. I wondered why humans bothered with speech. They should use blunt instruments to get their points across. Physical blows healed much quicker than verbal ones.

  “I appreciate you bringing me out, Paisley. I know now that I am mechanics and I should not be allowed to mix with humans on a social level.”

  The driver coughed and cleared his throat. “We’re pulling up to the palace gates now. Where did you want me to stop?”

  Paisley paid and we returned to our quarters. I undressed and handed Paisley back the soft jeans and shirt she had provided me with.

  “Coral, I feel bad for you, but I am not doing your laundry.”

  “I am returning these items to you. I won’t need them any longer.” I placed the items neatly in Paisley’s hands before beginning my routine for the evening.

  “You have to have something other than your uniform when we go out next weekend.”

  Paisley tried to hand me back the items, but I just turned and went to get my oils.

  “I won’t be venturing out again. I see now that I was wrong to do so. I am going to file away the data I have collected. It was all very interesting, but I don’t find myself needing to expand upon this information for my hard drive.”

  “You’re going to, what, erase all of the last two nights from your memory? You can’t do that.”

  “I am not erasing the information. It could be valuable knowledge to draw from if I have to interact with visitors again, but I don’t plan on doing so for the foreseeable future.”

  Paisley tossed the beautiful clothes on the ground. “I know where you’re at, Coral. But there will be guys you like who are assho
les. I’ll give you a few days, but this is not the end of us getting you out into the real world.” Paisley kicked the folded clothes she had dropped and caused them to be completely disorganized on the ground. “I know you can’t stand it when things aren’t clean. If you don’t want me to walk all over these items when I come back to our room, you’ll just have to pick them up and put them away.”

  When the door shut, I looked at the clothes. Then I picked them up and hung them neatly in the closet. I shoved the items to the very back and shut the closet door. Paisley was wrong, I wouldn’t need them again.

  I had been recharging for quite a while when the door burst open.

  “Coral, you need to get out of here.” Paisley looked around and threw open all the doors. “Why do we not have a back door?”

  “Paisley, why do I need to go elsewhere?”

  She ran to me and put her hands on my cheeks. “I am so sorry, Coral. I never thought we would get in trouble. The most that happens to people who bring mechanics is usually a slap on the wrist. I never thought those jerks we danced with would follow us.”

  I was about to ask Paisley what she was talking about when our door opened again. The officials that stood in front of Miss Matilda were ones that no mechanical being wants to see. They wore uniforms emblazoned with a large gear shape on their breast pocket.

  They were with the Department of Mechanical Affairs. If they were here in an informal capacity, they would have sent representatives. The representatives would have been wearing suits and ties, and would have worn their lanyards with their pictures and titles on them.

  These men wore jumpsuits similar to repair specialists in town. This was the disposal unit. They were in charge of invasive mechanical investigations. Which was really just a nice way of the government saying they wanted to tear you apart and see how you ticked. I touched my skin. I would miss it. The last android that was captured by the DMA was dismantled to understand how the AI had become so advanced. I hoped they would shut me down first. The only way to my circuitry was through my skin which had grown and altered its makeup many times over the last decades. But they wouldn’t shut me down first. They would have to have my circuits working while they dismantled me or my inner workings would not reveal what they were looking for. I wished, for the second time that night, there was a way to turn off my pain sensors.