by Kin Asdi
“Kind of yes. Why don’t I get Zero Ones message directly anymore?”
“I had relayed them straight to you, but now we are talking to each other it’s different. What do you prefer?”
“I think I would like to see what they say. Do they know you’re separate from me?”
“No, they don’t. Would you like to keep it that way?”
Andena thought about it, and she realised that it was better that nobody knew that she was communicating with her core, and she replied, “Yes, we should act as if we are one.”
“Okay, but how do I know with whom you’re communicating?”
“Simple: If I want to address one of the others I’ll start with a number.”
“That will work just fine Andena. It is nearly time to go; I can hear the sound of Miss Danette’s shoes.”
Andena sighed and replied, “I wonder what we are going to do today.”
“We are going to practise formation tactics if Joshua is right.”
“How do you know that?”
“You were already asleep when Joshua walked past the room, and I heard him talking with Olga. They both were curious as to how Miss Danette would tackle this.”
Miss Danette opened the door, and Andena was pleased when she saw that she had brought a tray with breakfast with her. Miss Danette’s voice was less hoarse as she spoke, “Good morning Double Zero. I’ve brought you some breakfast.”
Andena looked at her with an unfazed expression and said placidly, “Thank you, Miss.”
As she took the bowl of cereal, Miss Danette remarked, “I see you’ve used the shampoo to wash your hair.”
Andena had some time to think about how she should respond as she had just taken a scoop from her cereal. She had great trouble keeping her cereal in her mouth when she read, “Oh dear! Did you really use the shampoo to wash your hair?”
“Z, stop it!”
“What do I need to stop?”
“Making smart remarks.”
“That is what smartasses do.”
It was all that Andena could do not to laugh out loud, “Yes Miss, I have used the shampoo to wash my hair. Thank you.”
Miss Danette looked at her for a long moment and then smiled as she said, “Good, don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything else.”
She knew she just had to act politely and responded with a soft voice, “Thank you, Miss.”
She was relieved that Miss Danette hadn’t noticed the trouble she’d had keeping her face straight, but she’d have to ask Z not to interfere when she was talking to other people.
Miss Danette got up from the bed and said, “I will get the others while you’re having your breakfast. I’ll be back in a few minutes to pick you up.”
Andena nodded and said after she had swallowed another spoonful of cereal, “Yes, Miss.”
Andena knew she needed to make Z understand her need to act as if she was still affected by her suppressor. As soon as the door of the room was closed she asked her core, “Z, can you examine the information in the suppressor program?”
It was just a few moments before Z responded, “I have read the information, and I’ve noticed that the program isn’t running.”
Andena was a bit apprehensive when she asked the next question, “Do you understand why this program isn’t running?”
There was a short delay before she could read the text, “It would make you far less responsive, it would be impossible to have this conversation.”
“Miss Danette thinks that the program is still running. That means I have to behave like I’m affected by it.”
“I see. I can’t be a smartass if you’re talking with other people.”
She was taken aback by the response and replied, “I’m glad you understand, but you can always give me relevant information.”
“Andena?”
“Yes?”
“Are you upset, because I was a smartass?”
She couldn’t believe what she was reading and responded instantly, “No of course not! You didn’t know, but I will be if you do it again.”
“Oh, okay.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
It had been a long time since Lunn hadn’t been able to pull his eyes away from a woman’s mouth; Alice’s lips were beautiful and even without lipstick they looked amazingly sexy. He wanted to kiss her at every possible opportunity. He had been distracted by his thoughts and was startled when he heard Alice chiding, “Lunn! I asked you a question!”
His mug of coffee was still full, and he hadn’t taken a single bite of his bagel. He replied meekly, “I’m sorry I lost you there.”
She snorted and asked sarcastically, “Oh, really?”
He knew the short night had made him less sharp. “I guess I am going to need to finish my coffee to fully wake up.”
“What were you thinking about when you were staring at me?”
Lunn was slow to reply, but when he did, a dirty smile filled his face. “I was thinking about how kissable your lips are. How I want to make love to you over and over and over again.”
She rolled her eyes and exclaimed, “Lunn!”
“It’s the truth!”
“Oh, grow up will you?”
He knew that Alice was different from the girls that he usually dated and that he needed to adopt a more serious manner around her. “I’m sorry, Alice what did you ask?”
“Why do we use a fibre network instead of wireless?”
“You don’t need the encryption and therefore it’s a lot faster.”
He loved the way Alice’s face took on a dreamlike quality whenever she was deep in thought. “I see, well I can’t think of anything that would benefit the small increase in speed that you would gain with that. But hey, it’s your HQ.”
He chuckled realising he loathed the fact he couldn’t tell her the truth, at least not yet and not in this public place. He murmured, “You’re right it’s my design, but trust me, you’ll notice the difference.”
He saw her face turn into a frown, as she uttered, “Hmm, I guess so, but you never told me why we had to move the headquarters.”
After he had taken a sip of his coffee, he answered, “It’s a better location.”
Alice looked annoyed, and it was clear that she was not satisfied by his answer. So, Lunn was quick to continue, “Not here. I’ll tell you later.”
Lunn was pleased when Alice sighed with a little smile before telling him, “Finish your coffee; we can’t let John do all the work.”
He knew that she was teasing him by turning his words back on him, and was happy to play along with her, “Yes Ma’am.”
That answer earned him a painful punch in his arm, right below the shoulder which reminded him of her strength and capacity to disable a person with just a few punches. He grumbled softly but the fiery look in her eyes, he said had to finish his coffee quickly.
As they walked to the headquarters, Alice asked him casually, “Did you ever find out what happened to that girl; Andena?”
Lunn was taken aback by her question and suddenly felt extremely guilty that he hadn’t thought about Andena at all. He stammered, “Err, I, I haven’t found her yet. Haruz doesn’t even know where she is.”
Alice stopped and asked inquisitively, “Do you think that they took her into one of the fields?”
He thought about her suggestion. It was plausible and would explain why Andena had vanished into thin air. What it didn’t answer, was who could have taken her there? He supposed that it was possible that someone might have tracked down the vines and found her entangled. He replied thoughtfully, “Yes, that would explain her disappearance.”
He squeezed her hand and knew that he needed to choose his words with care. “As soon as the work on the HQ is complete we are going to focus on those bloody fields.”
Arnost was sitting at his desk staring out of his window. He hadn’t had much sleep because of the numerous meetings he’d had with all the board members of the different regions. They had all been present when
Tancred had given his wonderful introduction. There hadn’t been any opposition at the time, but now it was a different story. None of the members had taken the time to inform their staff about what would happen in just a few short weeks’ because of the huge panic it would create. The worlds’ biggest region was already pretty unstable, and any external upset would result in massive riots.
Most of the regions had dismantled their nuclear arsenal completely, and Arnost had shivered when he had seen the small number of warheads which could be re-commissioned; they might be able to inflict a little damage on the alien fleet, but the negative side effect of nuclear contamination was his biggest concern.
Most of the warheads had been designed to devastate a large area of land but what would happen if a warhead exploded in the atmosphere? It would probably make their situation worse.
An insistent knock on his door startled Arnost out of his thoughts, and he knew it was Haruz. “Enter!”
He could see, looking at the tense expression on Haruz’s face, that the talk with Tancred hadn’t given any other news. Haruz said with a rough voice, “Tancred’s withdrawal symptoms were extremely severe. It was impossible to have a sensible conversation with him.”
Arnost could feel his headache returning, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I want you to focus on the nuclear weaponry. I want to have central control over what we manage to re-commission.”
He saw Haruz’s face turn into a frown but continued, “I’ve managed to persuade all of the board members to give their authorisation.”
“I’m glad they have realised that we might have a better chance if we use the best-equipped control room.”
Arnost grumbled, “It took many hours of dick spitting.”
Haruz chuckled and said, “You’re the best.”
As soon as Andena entered the hall, all the androids looked up towards her. The manner in which they reacted as one fascinated her. She was unsurprised to see the following text appear on her screen, “01: Good morning Double Zero.”
She was pleased that Z had done as she had asked and she replied, “01: Good morning to you all.”
Her core responded, “Do you want me to send the message to all the androids?”
She thought about it. “No, I think that Zero One will figure it out.”
“01: Zero Three wants to know whether you had a good sleep.”
She thought that it was strange that an android would ask such a question, but she realised that artificial- intelligence programmes would throw in an unexpected question occasionally to appear to be more human. She answered, “01: Yes thank you, I’m fully charged and ready for the day.”
“Why didn’t you mention the fact that you had a nightmare?”
“Oh, that is something I prefer to keep to myself.”
“Why is that Andena?”
“Nightmares are quite disturbing most of the time, and I would like to forget them as soon as possible.”
“Are you telling me that your memory can lose information?”
That question had caught her off guard, and she shivered for a short moment. How the hell was she going to answer that question? Andena thought hard for a short moment and then replied hoping that Z would understand her explanation, “Not really. I think everything is stored in my brain but to keep my sanity, I only can access a certain amount of information at once. My brain is sorting out what I need to know and keeps information available as long I’m accessing it at regular intervals. As soon as I stop accessing a certain chain of information for a longer period, the direct link to it is discarded.”
It took her core a moment to comment, “So it’s still there but not readily available.”
She was pleased that her core accepted her extremely simplified explanation of how the human brain worked. She replied, “Yes and you can recall the memory by specifically thinking about it.”
Andena was startled when she heard Miss Danette’s voice reverberate around the hall, “Right! Today we are going to practice formation tactics. Since there are ten of you, we can do extra practice over and above the normal square formation. Today, we will attempt a more challenging triangular formation. We will start with the triangular form and Zero Five will be at the tip of the triangle.”
Miss Danette walked into the middle of the hall and pointed with her finger as she commanded, “Zero Five stand here.”
Andena was intrigued to see how Miss Danette would build the triangle. Z displayed, “Interesting, Zero Four and Zero Six will be the next ones to be called.”
She was surprised when Miss Danette commanded, “Zero four and Zero Six form a triangle with Zero Five whereby the distance between the three of you is two feet.”
As she was looking at the three androids forming a triangle she asked Z, “How did you know that Zero Four and six would be the next ones?”
“It became the most likely option the moment she started the tip of the triangle with Zero Five. It would be logical if you and Zero Three were to be the next ones to be summoned.”
Andena was amused when Miss Danette voice echoed, “Double Zero and Zero Three, form a triangle with Zero Four in such a way that Double Zero is straight behind Zero Five.”
She understood that she would be in the middle of the triangle. She got up from the bench and assumed a position behind the android. She had to stifle a snort when Z told her, “Not bad A. You’re only a quarter of an inch off. Just move a little to the right.”
It was only a little disturbing when she saw that two lines and a little arrow, which was pointing to the right, had appeared on her display. Frustrated she blew some air out and shuffled a little to the right until the two lines had merged. It then dawned on her she had no choice but to be that accurate because Miss Danette viewed her as an android. It would have been strange if she was a little out.
Danette said, “Zero Seven you form the triangle with Double Zero and Zero Six. Zero Two and Zero One together with Zero Three. And the last triangle; Zero Eight and Zero Nine with Zero Seven.”
Andena heard the androids footsteps behind her, and when she looked around, she had a feeling of being cocooned by the group.
She saw Miss Danette step on the bench, and she said, “Perfect. Now make the distance between each other one foot whereby Double Zero stays where she is.”
It was very intimidating when all the women moved towards her in one fluid step, and it took all of her self-control to resist the urge to yelp.
“Right!” shouted Miss Danette, “Increase the distance back to two feet and move five feet forward.”
Andena knew that all the androids would move as one, but she had always been the odd one out, and she asked Z, “How are we going to do that?”
“I suggest you tell Zero One they have to follow you.”
“Okay and you show me when we have moved five feet?”
Z replied, “I’ll show a line on the display.”
“01: I shall lead the group because we can’t link directly as I’m a hybrid.”
She was pleased when she got an instant reply, “01: We will follow you Double Zero.”
Andena took a breath and stepped with her left foot forward, and all the other androids copied her step instantly. It was weird, and it felt like as if she had nine clones walking with her doing exactly what she did.
She had difficulty keeping a neutral expression on her face, and she almost missed the line on her display that indicated where she should stop.
Andena knew that Miss Danette was very pleased with the result as she heard her saying, “That looks great! Now, Zero Two will be the tip of the triangle. So turn your body a hundred and twenty degrees counter-clockwise and move fifteen feet.”
Andena turned round until she was exactly facing the back of Zero Two and moved forward. She was grateful for her core’s assistance as she would have struggled without it.
Joshua was sitting behind the monitors watching Miss Danette’s training. The camera was zoomed into the group as he tried to follow the hyb
rid girl’s fantastically shaped bottom. It was a challenge to keep those perfectly rounded cheeks in sight. Although, he concluded that all of the android’s backsides were a pretty amazing sight to behold. He loved watching them move with such synchronicity. The hybrid moved just a little more fluidly than the androids and her tits bounced in a more natural way; making her appear super sexy.
He recalled how he’d had the privilege of washing her amazing body several times when the hybrid was recovering from the upgrade and he had adored her perky breasts. They were perfectly shaped, and they felt firm but marvellously soft at the same time.
He was startled by Mr. Yousima’s high-pitched voice, “Zoom out Joshua, I want to see all the lovely ladies not just their asses.”
With a shaking hand, he changed the view of the camera and meekly answered, “Yes Mr. Yousima.”
He felt Mr. Yousima’s fat belly brush against the back of his hair and hated it. Mr. Yousima remarked, “Miss Danette has made good progress. The androids are ready for the field exercises so tomorrow after the demonstration; I want them to practise at the plateau. Make sure that the transport is ready and all the other goods are stored in the crates.”
Joshua knew that he would be busy for a while, and he would have no more time for drooling over those hot bodies. He retorted, “Yes, Mr. Yousima, I’ll take care of it.”
“Good. You’ll need to speak to Miss Olga to able to access the goods. Tell her that we’re going to the plateau and she will know what to do. If you’re nice to her, she might even help you.”
“Yes, Mr. Yousima.” Joshua felt the need to reply, even though he knew that the repulsive man had already left.
He got up and once again looked at the androids before turning the system off. He sighed deeply, as he closed the door behind him. It was going to be hard work getting everything ready on time.
Alice slipped the last plug into the connector at the back of the console and crept out from under the desk. It had been a long time since she had last cut fibre optic cables but she’d managed to complete the whole network in record time.