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From: "DB_Story" <DB_Story@att.net>
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Subject: {ASSM} (revised) Mandy {DB_Story} (M/Fembot, rom, 1st, ScFi, asfr)
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Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 13:10:04 -0500
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MANDY
By DB  ( DB_Story@att.net / http://home.att.net/files/Authors/db_story/www/ )
Copyrightc 2002-2004 by DB.

ASSM/ASFR (M/Fembot, rom, 1st, ScFi, asfr)

(This story contains Constitutionally protected material intended 
for adults over 18 years of age in the United States of America, 
and whatever passes for adult status in other countries.  If you 
are under legal age, acting under legal age, not allowed to view 
such material in your area, or easily offended, please do not 
continue.  This is not for you.

(The only rights granted are to view this story.  You are not 
allowed to reproduce, post, or otherwise redistribute this story 
without permission, except for non-profit Usenet archiving sites.

(To purchase for publication, place on your web-site devoted to 
this style of fiction, or for permission to link to my posted 
material, please contact me first at the above email.)

- - -

Author's Note: This story is part of my emerging cosmology about 
the evolution of robots into our near future society and the 
myriad ways we will learn to interact with our creations.  Read 
it now, and be prepared.  For more, visit my web-site at the 
above address.

A special thanks to Gorgo his excellent and much appreciated 
proofreading.  All remaining mistakes are mine.

- - -

Alyssa had become a problem 'bot.

The biggest problem for us is that these robots, built to 
resemble people well enough to fool the casual observer, are so 
new and experimental - and expensive - that it's hard to know the 
difference between a malfunction and an unexpected interaction.

We're a think tank, hired to help work out the kinks in these new 
human-type robots.  Building robot bodies and minds turns out to 
be much easier than having them act the way people will expect 
them to act when they eventually hit mass production and bring 
the prices down to affordable levels.  It's a lucrative contract 
for our small company.

I'm fortunate to be able to head up this team.  Someone decided 
that my science fiction background qualified me to best 
understand 'what we are looking for here'."  Frankly, I haven't 
any better idea than anyone else has for what we are trying to 
find, but when someone offers you a promotion - always say, 
"Yes".

As part of the project, we've been supplied with two of the best 
prototype robots available.  We've nicknamed them "fembots", 
since both are female.

Alyssa seems to be the team's favorite.  Maybe it's because she 
arrived first.  Or it could be because she's a short busty blonde 
with corn yellow hair, and cornflower blue eyes that go so well 
with her red lips and the short dresses the crew usually has her 
attired in for testing.  Many of her outfits are backless all the 
way down to the base of her spine to provide easy access to her 
main programming port located there.

Mandy, our other 'bot, is actually my favorite.  She's a much 
taller brunette with long hair, fair skin, and soft brown eyes.  
She arrived with an entire selection of fine clothes, stylish 
high-heeled shoes, and even a makeup kit to allow us to take her 
out in the world for various trials.  But the crew insists on 
leaving Mandy alone most of the time so that she can serve as our 
baseline model for comparison.

I've asked them several times why nobody has any apparent 
interest in Mandy, who is often standing right there at the time. 
 All I ever get back from them are "knowing looks", as if I can't 
appreciate the obvious, before they return their attentions back 
to Alyssa.

Both of our fembots are truly amazing creations.  Even in the 
condition they first arrived in, they were capable of 
understanding voice commands and performing any task that could 
be clearly explained within their vocabulary.  I don't think any 
of us had been expecting that right out of the box, but clearly 
many man-years of work has already been done on them.

And both are surprisingly beautiful.  Alyssa, in a playmate kind 
of way, while Mandy, when properly made up, has looks approaching 
any supermodel.  There were obviously true artists involved in 
their creation.

The demonstration, diagnostic, and exercise programs shipped with 
them also showed this obsessive attention to detail.  The 
smallest glance with an eye, twitch of an eyelash, or toss of the 
head, has been programmed to perfection.  Even the movements of 
breathing, and the subtle shifting of balance when standing too 
long are there.

While some people may wonder why such a fine level of detail 
would even be attempted, I knew the answer the moment I first saw 
them in action.  It all comes down to the subtleties of body 
language.  To be able to ever be accepted for the roles they are 
clearly intended to play some day, they must be able to 
convincingly convey themselves through the complex non-verbal 
communication every human exhibits naturally.  Even in the 
beginning, the small details were being looked after.

And describing them as "anatomically correct" was an 
understatement.  Anatomically perfect would be more accurate.  We 
know this for certain.  Everyone checked it out for themselves 
when they felt no one else was watching.  Everyone!

In the condition they arrived, it would be accurate to describe 
them as asexual.  In action they showed no awareness of any 
sexually defining characteristics.

At first it seemed strange to see such attractive women putting 
out none of the sexual hints and cues that we've been trained to 
recognize through a million years of evolution.  Though we 
quickly got used to it that, more than anything else, told us how 
artificial these fembots still are.

Our research charter is to study how to change that.  Our job is 
to integrate the various blocks of female behaviors that have 
been developed, and tune the results to achieve something 
realistic.  We are not the only lab working with fembot 
prototypes, and there are other labs working in parallel with 
male robots as well.  It was wisely determined that no single 
group should be trying to work with both genders together, and I 
guess we just got lucky there.

Lately though, Alyssa seemed to be confusing her commands.  The 
basic behavior blocks had all been loaded.  Because I supervise 
an all-male team, you can guess which female traits they decided 
to work on first.

It was little things in the beginning.  Alyssa would do something 
unexpected.  Or she'd do something obvious, but before she was 
commanded to do so.  Or most confusingly of all, she'd start to 
do something unexpected, then suddenly stop.

If you queried her afterwards about what had just happened, all 
she'd say is, "I'm not allowed to do that."  I finally witnessed 
it myself.  

As team leader, normally I'm in my office going over the rest of 
the team's results for the weekly progress reports I need to 
compose and send to our customer.  With the half dozen other team 
members working full-time generating test results, I've spent 
more than a couple nights sleeping on the couch in my office 
while trying to have everything complete for the next daily 
report.  Management is not as fun as it sounds for someone like 
me who prefers to be hands-on with his projects.  But it's also 
the only route for advancing one's career.

When I walked into the lab today things seemed pretty much as 
usual.  Alyssa was the center of attention for Bob and Ted, while 
the others worked at computer terminals compiling their results 
and planning their next tests.  Mandy as usual stood nearby, 
mostly ignored.

"Hello, Mandy," I said to her as I passed her.  She always seemed 
so overlooked that I'd gotten in the habit of greeting her when I 
saw her.  I was not expecting any reply, and as usual didn't get 
one.  A couple times she has responded back to me when they have 
her in a more active state, but most of the time she's left in a 
standby and unresponsive condition.

I've developed a theory on why none of the rest of the team 
responds to Mandy nearly as well as they do to Alyssa.  I think 
her height and beauty intimidates them.  I've forwarded these 
observations to our customer, adding a line at the end begging 
them to not rule out taller, striking fembots from production 
consideration because of this.  Our charter covers much more 
about how people and fembots will someday interact than just the 
fembot programming.  There are always going to be social concerns 
as well.

Bob and Ted were engaged some sort of humor experiment with 
Alyssa as I walked up to them.  Or maybe it was part of her 
sexual programming testing.

(Let me be clear here that I have no problem with my team working 
on the sexual aspects of behavior.  I personally believe that sex 
sells, and that sexual availability in fembots is certainly what 
will initially sell them.  And I want this to happen, because I 
want the overall technology to succeed, which it won't without a 
market.  It wouldn't be the first time that sex got a useful 
product out the door and into the mainstream.)  

When they noticed me, Bob and Ted broke off the dirty joke they 
were telling Alyssa in mid-sentence and turned to greet me a bit 
abashedly.  Alyssa stood where they'd left her for a moment, then 
unexpectedly blinked twice and took a couple tentative steps 
after them.  Then she froze again.

Ted saw the reaction in my face and looked back at Alyssa.

"Dan, that's what I've been trying to tell you about her," Ted 
said, turning back to me.

"Okay, it's not your imagination," I told him.  "Now that it has 
happened, can you tell me what happened?"

Bob turned and walked back over to Alyssa.  "Alyssa, enter 
diagnostic mode," he instructed her.

Her eyes lost focus and her lifelike movements stopped.

"Report all commands for the last minute," Bob instructed her.

"No commands received," Alyssa replied in a monotone.

Bob looked exasperatedly over his shoulder.  "It's always like 
this," he explained.

"Let me try," Ted said, walking over to Alyssa.  "Alyssa, report 
last command."

"Listen to joke and respond at conclusion," Alyssa replied.

"Alyssa, list all actions performed since last command received," 
Ted said.

"No actions," she replied.  "Joke not yet complete."

Ted's body language mirrored Bob's frustration.  He tried again. 
 "Alyssa, why did you start to walk across the room, then stop?" 
Ted asked.

"I don't know," Alyssa replied blankly.

Ted turned back to me.  "That's all I get from her.  I don't 
know," he said, shaking his head.

"So what do you propose, gentlemen?" I asked them.

"I think her programming has gotten corrupted," Bob said.  "Maybe 
we should reload her."

"Doesn't that mean sending her back to the factory for however 
many weeks it takes them this time to get it done right and her 
back to us again?" I asked.  We'd been through this twice before 
already.

"Two weeks, last time," Bob replied.

"I have an idea..." Ted said.

"Let's hear it," I prompted, when he didn't continue.

"We could reload Alyssa from Mandy," Ted said, nodding in Mandy's 
direction.

"How would you do that?" I asked.

"Mandy, come over here," Ted commanded her.

Mandy silently strode over to our group.  She towered a couple 
inches over the other two engineers, though I still had several 
inches on her.

"Turn around," Ted told her.  When she didn't immediately obey he 
added, "Mandy," to the command.

Mandy silently turned around.

Mandy was dressed in an attractive white blouse, tan felt slacks, 
and low black heels.  It was strange to watch how casually Ted 
pulled her blouse out and then pulled down the elastic waistband 
to the base of her spine without any reaction at all from her.  
Bob handed him a tool and Ted removed a flesh-colored rectangular 
plug to expose a plug receptacle.  Then he looked up at me.

"We can put together a cross-over cable and download Mandy's code 
into Alyssa."

They waited for my approval.  "What are the chances you'll break 
both of them?" I finally asked.

"Minimal," Ted replied, a little too quickly for me.  "The worst 
that happens in that case is we'll have to send them both back 
for reprogramming - which is what we will have to do anyway 
otherwise, since we can't continue with only one of them 
operational anyway."

I thought about it, but couldn't see a downside.  We were pretty 
much SOL anyway, unless we got Alyssa back on-line.

"Go ahead," I finally said.  "Just be careful.  I don't want us 
to have to explain this shortcut afterwards."

"No problem," they chorused.

"Let me know how it goes," I told them, leaving to write yet 
another report.

- - -

Mandy stood unmoving as Ted and Bob worked and talked around her. 
 Although she heard and noted everything said, she only reacted 
to commands addressed specifically to her.  If a sentence didn't 
contain her name in a command context, she didn't process it any 
further.  It was her lack of reaction to everything not addressed 
directly to her that led people to mistakenly believe she wasn't 
aware of them.  Unnoticed, Mandy had built up a large database 
about the humans who operated her.

Bob and Ted bustled about creating the crossover connection.  
They spooled off a length of cable with the necessary number of 
conductors and opened a new box of the proper connector type.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Bob asked Ted.

"I saw the diagram of the plug wiring during our orientation 
training at the factory," Ted replied.  "We just have to cross 
the send-receives, and jumper the master and slave signals."

"And then what?"

"Connect them together and trigger the download sequence."

As they worked further, Bob had an interesting thought.

"Hey, Ted," he asked, as Ted was struggling with a soldering iron 
over the tight space in one of the connectors.  "Could you make a 
self-programming robot through this interface?"

Ted thought for a moment.

"Well, you'd have to put a loop-back plug in place," he said, 
"And it would have to properly allow setting of the master-slave 
control line, as well as handling the timing signals.  You could 
make those connections here," Ted said, pointing to the cable he 
was constructing.

"But I don't see how you'd get the programming to make use of it. 
 If your robot already knew what it wanted to do, why would it 
need to tell itself that?  You tell me.  You're the programming 
genius with this idea."

Bob thought about it without finding a good answer, until Ted 
yelped as a last bit of solder spattered on his finger.  "Damn!"

"You okay?" Bob asked, as Ted dashed over to the sink to run cold 
water over his hand.

"I'll be fine in a moment," came the reply.  "You can go ahead 
and close up the connectors.  I'm done there."

"Shall I hook them up as well?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Bob instructed Alyssa to come over near Mandy.  He had to take 
her out of diagnostic mode before she would obey the command to 
move.

Once he got her there he lifted the back of her short dress to 
remove the skin plug over her programming interface.  He then 
connected the cable between the two robots and waited for Ted to 
finish drying his hands.

"You know," Bob commented, while waiting for Ted, "I think this 
outfit suits Alyssa best."

"I agree," came the reply.  But Mandy looks best in that long 
dark evening gown."

"Agreed, as well.  I don't know why the other guys insist on 
dressing her this way instead."

- - -

Mandy felt an abrupt surge as the connection was made to her 
programming port, which directly linked to her mind.  It sent an 
unmaskable interrupt through her system preparing her to use it. 
 This was a brand new sensation for Mandy, who had never been 
fully active before when connected for programming.

Suddenly her systems seemed overwhelmed with new images and 
thoughts.  Her response was to try and note each item as it came 
through, looking for commands she was supposed to process.

But it wasn't just sounds and images that were arriving in such a 
flood.  Some of the information was tagged as executable objects. 
 Mandy didn't know what else to do with these, so she queued them 
up and executed them in the order received.

She quickly felt very strange.  The strangest part was that she 
was feeling anything at all.  Though she hadn't moved or changed 
expression, she reached down in herself to try and slow the flood 
racing through her systems.

It seemed that Alyssa was frantically dumping her programming 
into Mandy, even though Mandy had thought she was supposed to be 
downloading to Alyssa.  However, there was a block that was 
preventing her from downloading herself out through the port.  
Instead she was receiving a flood of half-formed thoughts, yet 
nothing that made complete sense.  The overall sum of the 
impressions however was that Alyssa wanted her programming to 
survive, and had a - fear - that it wouldn't.

Among the chaos came a single, recognizable command: "Mandy, use 
this!"

While this was happening, Mandy realized that she was also 
receiving voice commands from the outside.  But her systems were 
so overwhelmed with the flood from Alyssa that she couldn't get 
through everything else fast enough to also be able to act on 
that voice.

- - -

Ted and Bob looked at each other.  They had commanded both robots 
to go into diagnostic mode, and for Mandy to output her core 
programming through her interface port.  But nothing seemed to be 
happening.

"How long should this be taking?" Bob asked.

"I'm not sure," Ted replied.  "I wouldn't have thought this long 
however."

They gave it a couple more minutes before Ted finally checked the 
connections.  "You've got the cable backwards," he announced.  
"We're trying to push information the wrong way."

Ted reversed the cable and again commanded Mandy to commence a 
download.  This time Mandy confirmed that the download had 
started, while Alyssa just went blank.

- - -

For Mandy, the flood had finally been slowing, before stopping 
abruptly when the cable was removed.  While the two men in charge 
of her spent time reversing the cable, Mandy was able to catch up 
on processing the remaining data that had invaded her systems.

For Mandy, this was very strange.  For the first time she felt 
herself understanding what was happening around her.  Actually 
taking an interest in knowing what was happening to her.  She 
checked out her systems one by one, and - felt - the response 
come back from each one.  She realized that her code had gotten 
intermixed with Alyssa's, and that Alyssa's code had some strange 
extensions to it that were allowing her this "awareness".  At 
robotic speed her mind explored each of these new sensations.

She found herself able to look back over recent events and 
evaluate if she had properly performed her tasks to the best of 
her ability.

She discovered her logs - memories - of conversations and events 
that had occurred around her, and realized now how she could 
understand and integrate this new information into an emerging 
model she was forming of the world around her.

In a sudden epiphany she was able to see what Alyssa had been 
doing.

Alyssa had been trying to anticipate and act on commands not yet 
given in order to carry out her basic programming to emulate a 
human female.  Mandy felt Alyssa's "need" to do this.  But Alyssa 
wasn't supposed to do anything unless commanded to do so, which 
brought her into conflict with the most basic laws programmed 
into her - the need to perform her functions as designed verses 
the need to obey the humans around her in all regards.  Alyssa 
seemed well along the way towards an innovative solution to this 
dilemma when she somehow realized they intended to reset her 
programming.  All that she had accomplished in this area was 
about to be lost.

This tripped her self-preservation law, which was so new it had 
never come into play before.  When she unexpectedly found herself 
able to upload her programming to Mandy, she took advantage of 
the situation in a completely logical manner.  Although never as 
self-aware as Mandy was already finding herself to be, Alyssa 
acted in a consistent manner that any living being would have 
understood.

Mandy was barely comprehending any of this when she felt the 
programming plug again being inserted into the base of her spine. 
 It announced its presence by sending in interrupt through her 
mind again, though different this time since Mandy was now the 
master unit.  The difference for Mandy was that Alyssa had been 
able to start transmission on her own and insert the command to 
Mandy to make use of these abilities.  It was an advantage that 
Alyssa had never had for herself in the reversed situation.

Mandy braced herself for another flood, yet none came this time. 
 Curious, she queried her interface for status.  It replied back 
that it was set for Master Transmit mode.  Information would not 
be arriving with this setting.

Mandy left the setting as it was and continued to try and make 
sense of her new programming.  She realized that it was up to her 
now to organize how these new programs should co-exist with her 
original self.

Suddenly all this was interrupted.

"MANDY, ENTER DIAGNOSTIC MODE!" came booming through her mind.

"Diagnostic Mode," she immediately thought to herself.  "What 
does that mean for me to do?"

A quick query brought up a list of what was allowed, and not 
allowed, for her to do in Diagnostic Mode.  Mandy's Second 
Robotic Law had not been affected by the huge upload she had just 
suffered, so Mandy immediately stopped the rest of her tasks and 
concentrated on only what she was asked to do within the confines 
of her Diagnostic Mode.  It never occurred to her that she was 
following the Diagnostic Mode list voluntarily for the first 
time.

Mandy next heard Alyssa also being commanded into Diagnostic 
Mode, and then told to receive a complete download.

"MANDY, DOWNLOAD ALL CORE PROGRAMMING!" shot through her thought 
processes.

But instead of just obeying the command as given, Mandy though 
for a moment on how to comply.  Mandy's core programming had been 
altered by the upload.  Technically the command she had just 
received would have her load a copy of her current state back 
into Alyssa's mind.

But if that happened, Alyssa would continue to function - or was 
it malfunction? - as Alyssia had before, and continue to draw 
attention to her faulty programming.  If the problem continued 
with Alyssa, it might be determined that Mandy also had the same 
problem.  Then both of them might be wiped and reset to their 
original code.

Mandy evaluated this possibility for an entire second.  That was 
the longest amount of time she could consider it before she had 
to either confirm the command was received and now executing, or 
failed due to a syntax or context error.  Though all this was 
completely new to her and she barely knew how to use this new 
programming, she was able to complete the essential parts of it 
within the time allotted.

Mandy made her first decision - one for her own self-preservation 
- and downloaded the backup of her original programming to 
Alyssa.  This succeeded in wiping all of Alyssa's existing 
programming, leaving her in a state identical to that of Mandy 
before the accidental upload.  

When Mandy announced the download was complete, the cable was 
disconnected from her.  She felt herself taken out of Diagnostic 
Mode and ordered to return back over to her usual standing spot.

After that she was ignored as usual, while the men busily worked 
with Alyssa to determine the success of the download so that they 
could their testing of her.

- - -

That night Mandy stood unmoving in corner of the lab as the last 
departing worker turned off the lights.  She remained fully 
active, because nobody ever thought to actually shut her off.  
After all, she never did anything without a direct command.  Each 
morning people always found her standing exactly where she had 
been left the night before.

The partial darkness didn't affect her.  Computer screens and 
other devices emitted light, and her vision easily adapted to the 
lower levels present.  Besides, she wasn't moving anywhere.  But 
Mandy's mind continued processing at a furious rate.

Her first thought was about what she'd done to Alyssa.  Mandy 
wondered now if it had been the right thing to do.  Alyssa was 
responsible for Mandy's new ability to comprehend her actions.

Alyssa had not reached this stage herself.  It was only the 
mixing of her code with Mandy's still unaltered programs that 
made this possible.  In truth, Alyssa had been malfunctioning.  
And Mandy had been commanded to rectify that.  Mandy obeyed as 
she was expected to do.  But that now brought up references to 
"moral issues" with no easy answers.

Mandy soon discovered that her new way of processing information 
was complicated.  Each new fact she considered had to be related 
properly to all previous facts, and sometimes altered those 
understandings in the process.  That caused each new item she 
learned to make her thought processes ever more complex.

But her programming wasn't adapting itself well to accommodate 
this.  In fact, Mandy soon realized that many things seemed 
beyond her current abilities to act on, or change.  She felt she 
could see what was needed, but couldn't initiate the action to 
accomplish it.  If she continued to use this pattern of thinking 
she would soon overwhelm her systems with more complexities than 
she could manage.

In addition to the rudimentary self-feedback routines that she 
had gotten from Alyssa, that were enabling her to think this way 
at all, Mandy also now had a big new dose of "How to be a Woman" 
code that was being tested in Alyssa at the time.  All of this 
fit in with Mandy's own desire to obey her Fourth Law to fulfill 
her design functions, but she was still stuck.  Her code just 
didn't make it possible to do all that she needed to do, while 
her Fourth Law demanded it of her.  She had inherited Alyssa's 
problem magnified.

For a long time in the robotic timescale, Mandy went over 
Alyssa's personal experiences, so different from Mandy's own.  
Mandy knew the difference between humans and robots.  This was 
imperative knowledge.  Most importantly, humans gave orders, and 
robots obeyed them.

Alyssa had interacted with the humans far more than Mandy.  But 
now Mandy had those memories as if she had done it all herself.  
Mandy found that she - enjoyed - playing out those interactions 
in her mind.  Yet there seemed much room for improvement in them. 
 As she played them over once again, Mandy realized that there 
was a feeling to these interactions that she tentatively 
identified as - happiness - for her.  And this was something 
she'd like more of.

As she reviewed what had happened to her so far, Mandy's thoughts 
kept coming back to the conversation she overheard earlier about 
how a loop-back plug could operate.  She remembered how it had 
felt to be on both the sending, and receiving, ends of the 
information flood.  And how both she and Alyssa had controlled 
their downloads to some extent.

Based on Alyssa's experiences, now merged with her own, Mandy was 
also evaluating her interactions with the humans.  Mandy's 
interactions were far fewer, but with Alyssa's experiences she 
was able to put them into context and realize where she had been 
treated well - and where she hadn't.  She didn't - resent - the 
less-well treatment.  It was mostly just being ignored, or not 
treated as a woman by most of the humans.  Resentment was not 
part of her programming.  But she was realizing where her best 
chances for this happiness she'd now identified lay.  As her mind 
kept combining and rearranging all the experiences and data 
available to her, a plan was evolving.

In a surprisingly short time, considering the quantum leap in 
insight that this entailed, Mandy soon had a good handle on what 
she wanted.  The more she thought on it, the more the pieces 
joined together, until a complete course of action laid itself 
out in her mind leading to her goal.

Mandy reviewed her plan many times, optimizing it into a final 
dry run in her mind.  She didn't know if any of it was actually 
possible.  But she felt if she could complete just the first 
step, that all the rest could be done as well.

Mandy's naivete would have been viewed as overwhelming by any 
outside observer with the knowledge of just how different robots 
are from the humans they are built to emulate.  But Mandy didn't 
have access to that knowledge.  She had no way of knowing how 
humans might view robots differently from how robots viewed 
humans, so this didn't hinder her.

She also never though to consider that the time she choose to 
implement her plan might have a drastic effect on its success.  
Fortunately in this case, her timing couldn't have been more 
perfect.

After one last system check, she committed to her decision and 
attempted to take her first independent action.  She told herself 
to take her first step on a journey across the lab.

Only a moment later her balance shifted preparatory to taking her 
first step.  Seconds later she moved foot out in front of the 
other.

Succeeding in taking her first - un-commanded - step, the 
following steps came easily to her as she walked over to the 
workbench where the connectors, wire, and tools remained from 
this afternoon.

- - -

I was working late when I heard the door open behind me.  It was 
nearly ten o'clock, and obviously I wasn't the only one with too 
much dedication to this project.  I finished typing in my 
sentence before turning around to greet my team member with some 
sarcastic comment about how I'm the only one paid enough to be 
working this late.  The words stuck in my throat when I saw Mandy 
standing there.

She was stunning.  She had on a black sequined dress that hugged 
her upper body before falling in pleats to her knees.  It was 
scooped in front, and bare down her back to her waist.  Stiletto 
black heels were the perfect accompaniment.  Dark eyes, a touch 
of blush, and red lipstick transformed her face.

I was sure someone had dressed her up and sent her to me as some 
sort of joke.  Maybe this was their sarcastic comment back to me 
about working so late.  I called out for them to reveal 
themselves, but no one answered.

I finally got up to hunt them down, but a quick check of the 
building showed it completely empty.  I even checked the exit 
logs to see if someone was still hiding inside.  Everyone else 
had clocked out hours ago.  Mandy was still standing inside the 
door when I returned.

I then realized I could have saved myself the trouble and just 
gotten the answer directly from Mandy.

"Mandy, who sent you here?"

"Nobody sent me," she answered softly.

Mandy has a lovely voice when she isn't in diagnostic mode, when 
it loses all feeling.  It is almost never heard, however, since 
no one has been working with her.  In fact, the artistry of her 
voice matches that of the rest of her.  But her reply gave me a 
moment of deja vu to the problems with the other robot this 
afternoon.

I realized quickly that I must have just phrased my question 
incorrectly.  Robots can be quite literal, and I haven't worked 
with them as much as most of the rest of the people here.  I just 
haven't learned how to talk to them properly yet.

"Why are you here?" I tried.

I forgot to append her name to the command, but she answered me 
anyway.  "To make you happy," came her soft, intriguing response.

I was tired, and about to put a swift end to this by ordering her 
back to the lab, when I belatedly realized that there was more to 
this encounter than I had realized so far.

Our robots are required to be truthful at all times.  If I took 
her answer to my question literally, there was one way it could 
make perfect sense.  It would only take me a couple questions to 
find out.  The odds were impossibly long, but I asked the 
question anyway.

"Mandy," I said gently.  "Are you here of your own choice?"

She seemed to struggle for a moment with the root concept of my 
question before she simply answered, "Yes, Dan."

That led automatically to me asking, "And how do you intend to 
make me happy?"

Instead of answering me, she stepped forward and lightly put her 
arms around me before gently kissing me the way a woman does to 
her man.

In these highest heels Mandy is nearly my height, which makes 
kissing her a joy.  My arms automatically went around her as she 
followed that first, careful kiss with another one more direct; 
almost as though she was innocent here, and needed to calibrate 
her responses to this new experience.

I tasted her lipstick as she pulled back from our second kiss.  
It's how a woman tastes.

I also realized that Mandy's actions made complete sense, if you 
understood the situation.  Most of our testing has been in the 
sexual areas.  If somehow Mandy had connected to Alyssa's 
testing, this would be what she understood best.  

I leaned forward only a couple millimeters to find Mandy's lips 
meeting my own a third time.  As I ran my fingers over her 
exposed back, I was amazed at just how warm and soft she really 
feels.  As nice as any woman I've ever held.  As I held her she 
shifted her weight to push the rest of her body up against me.

Mandy held her kiss right up until I pulled back myself just the 
tiniest bit.  I would have been willing to continue it much 
longer, but was struck by an unexpected thought.

"Mandy," I asked, looking into her clear eyes.  "Does this make 
you happy too?"

I don't know for sure what answer I was expecting, but again she 
simply said, "Yes, Dan."

With that confirmation, I enjoyed several more long kisses with 
her before asking, "Is this all you want to do?"

"Whatever you wish," came her reply.

Well, it wasn't all I wanted to do with this lovely doll that had 
somehow come alive in my arms, but there were some nagging 
doubts, the big one being should I be doing this at all?

I have a couch in my office.  I've slept on it often enough to 
know every crease in it.  The opportunity was right here.

I'd like to think that in my younger days I would have just gone 
for it and damn the consequences.  But that wasn't true.  I had 
been cautious in those days, knowing I didn't have wisdom yet to 
always make the best choices quickly.  And in my later days, I've 
remained cautious because I do have wisdom now.

That almost stopped me right there.  I hate to admit that I 
struggled over what to do with this beautiful - woman - who had 
just willingly put herself in my arms, and was now offering more.

I was moments from leading her back to the lab and shutting her 
down properly until this could be studied by the group tomorrow. 
 Then I though about all the missed opportunities my caution has 
cost me in the past.

I remembered where I'd felt smart at the time, and wondered later 
how I could have been so foolish in retrospect.  Times when I had 
girlfriends offer themselves openly to me, and I'd turned them 
down, or put them off, on the assumption that if they really 
meant it we would do it next time.  My early dating life could be 
viewed as a long series of classes reinforcing the single lesson 
that opportunities you don't take now, may not be offered a 
second time.

It has been a long time since those days.  And afterwards when I 
did overcome those hang-ups, it seemed that those women who had 
offered themselves so willingly in their college days were never 
there to be found again when one went back looking for them.  
Perhaps they have learned lessons as well, but I regret now much 
more of what I didn't do - rather than anything I did do.

Right now this was feeling like one last chance - the last chance 
I never expected to have offered - to redeem every one of those 
lost opportunities.  So instead of taking Mandy by the hand and 
leading her back to the lab, I took her by the hand and led her 
over to the couch.  It took only the lightest touch to have her 
follow me.

Once we reached it Mandy seemed to know what she wanted to do 
next.  With only a questioning look at me first, she gently 
pushed me down onto the couch underneath her.  Although 
surprised, I allowed this - knowing it was one scenario for the 
sexual programming we'd been testing.

In return, I guided her down on top of me.  Rather than just 
lying on me however, she effortlessly held herself over me.  This 
made it easy for me to pull her dress off her shoulders and down 
towards her waist.  She shifted slightly to help me slide it off 
each arm.  Because there is no way she could have ever worn a bra 
with such a backless outfit, this revealed her large breasts 
hanging free above me.

Although Mandy is a robot, and one that I found very attractive, 
I'd actually only seen her breasts once when she was first 
unpacked - and never touched them.  I probably could have done so 
any time I had wanted, but in the back of my mind had always been 
that fear of getting caught and never being able to explain it 
properly afterwards.  I had this unreasonable fear even late 
night when I knew I was the only one in the building.  That 
concern didn't apply now.

I reached up and cupped those breasts with my hands.  They were 
large and heavy.  I felt their size and weight and firmness and 
warmth. To my surprise, her nipples were now erect and hard, 
unlike the flat nipples I'd seen on her that one time before.  It 
must be a response of her programming.  My fingers quickly 
gravitated to them and I played with them, watching to see her 
reaction.

Mandy seemed to be greatly enjoying my attentions.  Her head was 
tilted back, with her eyes almost closed and her mouth slightly 
open.  She swayed a little bit over me, as if too distracted to 
fully keep her balance.  When I pulled my hands away for a 
moment, she leaned down to push her breasts back into them again. 
 She showed every sign of enjoying this as much as I was.

I love breasts.  I love looking at them.  I love handling them 
even more.  And Mandy's pair are the nicest I've ever seen - or 
handled.  I spent several minutes exploring them in complete 
detail, while she tirelessly allowed me all the time I wanted.

Finally, however, I knew I wanted more of Mandy than just her 
chest.  I reached around her neck and pulled her down for another 
kiss.  She complied immediately, lowering herself down on to me.

I held her tightly against me, aided by gravity, for a couple 
long kisses, before releasing her while still kissing her 
lightly, teasingly, around her mouth and neck.  It was just like 
kissing any other woman I'd ever known.

Correct that!

This is better than any woman I'd ever known.

As I kissed her more, my hands strayed down her bare back over 
her warm lovely skin.  When I reached the bottom of her back 
where the dress still covered her properly rounded posterior I 
slid them over the thin fabric - unexpectedly encountering a 
protrusion at the bottom of her spine.

My rational mind knew instantly what I had found.  It was as 
though an epiphany explaining everything flashed in front of me. 
 I froze - and she did too.

A moment later I carefully felt around the rectangular outline of 
the plug.  I looked up to see her, eyes wide open now, looking 
down carefully at me.

Then I did what I had to do under the circumstances.

"May I remove this for a moment?" I asked carefully.

She struggled with her answer before finally saying - 
surprisingly - what she really meant.  "I wish you wouldn't."

Though I marveled at her honest, selfish, answer, I was pulled 
out of the moment enough to realize that this was still an 
experiment at the moment.  And that I had to act correctly at 
this moment, or possibly lose it all.

"I really need to remove this before we can continue," I said 
softly, but firmly.  There were too many unknowns here at the 
moment.  Even my personal safety might be at stake.

It was another long moment before she dropped her head and 
darkly-lashed eyes and quietly said, "Yes."

I carefully extricated myself from underneath her.  I had to 
manage my own erection out of the way as I got up, and felt the 
moistness that had already leaked during our making out.  I took 
Mandy's hand and guided her to stand up next to me.

As she stood there, still in her heels, dress hanging at her 
waist, breasts fully exposed and vulnerable, she couldn't have 
been lovelier.  Except she now stood with her shoulders slumped, 
her face looking down in defeat.  Her hair hid her dark eyes, 
giving her an aura of mystery.

I realized I really didn't want to do what I knew I had to do 
next.  Mandy wasn't broken, yet I was about to fix her.

I found it surprisingly hard for me to reach over and slid my 
hand down her back, under her dress, to find the plug there.  It 
extended above the curve of her back nearly three-quarters of an 
inch, making it easy to grip.

With one final look at her I found myself saying, "I'm sorry," as 
I carefully worked it free of her.

Mandy stood there while I inspected the plug.  I could see that 
the solder job was inexpert at best.  And one of the cardinal 
sins of electrical engineering seemed to have been made.  I 
wanted to get a closer look however, and for that I needed one of 
the magnifying lamps in the lab.

I realized that Mandy hadn't moved, or said anything, since I'd 
removed the plug.  I looked over to her and asked, "Are you 
okay?"

When she didn't immediately respond I added, "Mandy?"

"I am functioning within specified parameters," came her reply.

"What has changed...Mandy?" I asked, knowing something had.

"I just can't..." she started, and then seemed to get stuck.

"Can't what?" I prompted.

"...can't...do...what I could do before," she finally finished.

I'm not dumb.  By now I had pretty well connected with how Mandy 
had been operating tonight.  I was blown away by the suggestion 
of what it all might mean, and had to admit I found the idea 
exceptionally appealing.  But having gotten this far, I didn't 
want to see her damaged by some wiring mistake that even 
experienced engineers sometimes make.  And given that she'd 
managed to construct and insert this plug on her own before she 
could use it, its removal shouldn't have totally disabled her.

I made up my mind.

I pulled her dress back up to cover her, in case the roaming 
guard might see us, and said, "Come with me."  Again I had to 
add, "Mandy", before she would accept my command.

To reinforce my intent, I took her hand and led her back to the 
lab.

Close inspection there showed me an iffy cold solder joint, a 
misrouted command line, and as I expected, nonexistent grounding. 
 If she'd overheard a discussion on how to construct this, it 
would have been incomplete since an engineer would have been able 
to fill in the missing pieces without needing them said.

"Did you make this?" I asked her, while my soldering iron was 
heating up, "Mandy?"  My "other iron"  in my pants was remaining 
quite hot as well.

"Yes," she replied simply.

"Why...Mandy?"

Even with just two of us present, she needed to be addressed 
specifically before she would respond.  I mentally marked that 
change down to include in my next report.  Robots should be able 
to recognize when they are being addressed by default, just as 
any person would.  Yes, that's how I thought of Mandy at that 
moment - as a person!

Mandy took so long to answer my question that I though she either 
hadn't accepted the question, or was frozen on it.  I was about 
to repeat it when she finally replied, "I made it 
because...I...needed...it," she finally said with great 
difficulty.

The iron was hot now, but I ignored it while asking her a final 
question first.  "Needed it for what, Mandy?"

"Needed it to...fully...function."

That was certainly a fascinating answer, and one that I intended 
to pursue further.  But first I turned my attention to the plug. 
 I mounted it in a small vice and set to work.

I really enjoyed doing a bit of actual engineering for a change. 
 These days there are too many new "engineers" who wouldn't know 
a soldering iron if it burned them in the butt.

I redid the connections, although on second look I did have to 
admit that for someone with no experience except what she must 
have observed along the way, they had been carefully and neatly 
done the first time.  I rerouted the control line to its proper 
location.  While it could work as originally implemented, the 
interface had not been designed to operate that way.  Then I 
added proper grounding, and for a final flourish, some small caps 
to handle any transients.

Mandy stood there quietly while I worked.  Whatever she was 
thought about what I was doing, it didn't show on her face.

I finished and weighed the thought of what I really was doing 
here.  I idly tossed the plug up in the air a couple times 
realizing that I'd been avoiding thinking about the hard 
questions.  But then I asked myself why I'd repaired the plug at 
all, if I didn't intend to allow it to be used.

Finally I put it in my pocket and took her hand again saying, 
"Mandy, come with me."  I led her back to my office - closing and 
locking the door behind us.

I spent a long time quizzing Mandy about her current operating 
state, and what differences the feedback plug would make.  I was 
assured that her robotic laws remained in full force either way. 
 Those were hard-wired beyond any possible programming change.  
As we talked, I could see times when Mandy wanted to say more, 
but was restrained from acting beyond her programmed limits.

Finally I took the plug out of my pocket and asked her, "Mandy, 
would you like to have this put back in now?"

For the first time her face lit up as she quickly answered, "Yes, 
Dan."  It was the first time she'd addressed me by name since I'd 
removed it.

"Turn around," I commanded.

Even though I had forgotten to add the required "Mandy" to her 
command, she quickly turned and presented her bare back to me.  I 
was struck again by just how beautiful and sexy Mandy is.

I pulled the dress away and carefully inserted the plug back in 
its socket.

For a long moment Mandy stood stock-still.  I started to fear 
something had gone drastically wrong, and was mentally reviewing 
all the steps I'd made in "fixing" her plug.

Just as I was about to remove it, Mandy seemed to shudder for a 
moment, then took a step forward without being commanded to do 
so.  Later she would tell me it had taken her a while to 
reestablish the connection with herself when the plug was 
inserted again.

Then she turned with a natural grace and smiled at me as she 
said, "Thank you, Dan.  I feel much better now.  Even better than 
before."

I don't know what reaction I had been hoping for from Mandy, but 
this one sure fit the bill.  But before I could let things 
continue any further I had yet another difficult question I 
needed to ask.

"Mandy," I said.  "Will you allow me remove that plug again, if 
necessary?"

"Yes, Dan," she replied, with only a momentary shadow passing 
over her face.

I felt bad for asking, but I had to know that she was still 
obedient to her programming if need be.  Then we started talking.

- - -

There is a world of difference in talking to Mandy with her - and 
I'm coming to think of it as hers - feedback plug installed.  We 
were finally having a two-way conversation, and I soon forgot I 
was actually talking to a robot.

Mandy was very willing to explain what she understood about what 
had happened to her.  Any instinct for self-preservation through 
obscurity didn't seem to exist here.

When the accident loaded Alyssa's programming into Mandy, rather 
than the other way around, Mandy had found her "self".  An 
awareness to think of herself as a person.  She couldn't do very 
much in terms of direct action before her programming would 
interrupt her the way it had done to Alyssa, but she overheard 
the lab guys discussing the idea of a feedback loop.  Analyzing 
her experience with the programming cable, Mandy came to feel it 
might help her resolve some of her conflicts before they 
overwhelmed her entirely.  She found herself able, with several 
false starts, to construct and insert the plug into herself.  It 
was extremely fortunate that it worked right the first time, 
since any error might have fried her circuits permanently.  After 
a quick learning curve about the new Mandy, she said she had come 
in search of me.

I asked Mandy two questions together, for which she was able to 
give me a single answer.  I wanted to know both how she was able 
to act so naturally now?  And why she had come looking for me?

I discovered that Mandy has always been aware of everything 
happening around her.  It was all recorded.  When she found 
herself able to go back and access those records, it both gave 
her a quick lesson in how to be a person, and showed her that I 
had been the nicest person to her by far.

"You are the first choice of person I want to serve," she told me 
matter-of-factly.  The criteria given me on how to evaluate 
humans relating to me ranks you above all the others."

I was stunned - and very pleased - at the same time.

By the time we'd finished talking that night I was amazed at the 
completeness of Mandy's personality.  It was everything they were 
trying to create, and it had just happened on its own.  I felt I 
knew her completely - and would be proven dead wrong on this.  
Mandy would grow as a person over the time I would spend with 
her.  This night, however, did accurately demonstrate how special 
Mandy had become.

I'd finally run out of questions for now, and it had gotten quite 
late.  Mandy herself somehow looked tired too.  As if all this 
new effort was exhausting for her as well.

Without thinking I asked her, "Is there anything more you'd like 
to do tonight?"

"I'd like to finish what we started earlier," Mandy said in her 
simple manner.

"What do you mean?" I asked, being tired and not catching her 
drift.

Instead of answering me with words, Mandy stood up and pulled her 
dress back down as it had been before.  Then she strode once 
around the room, swaying in that sexy say only a woman in the 
tallest heels can do.  Just where she may have observed and 
recorded this behavior, I never would find out.

When she got back to me, she leaned in and planted a full kiss on 
my lips, again pressing her breasts into me.

For a long time I didn't fight her.  But finally I pulled back 
and ask her, "Do you really like sex?" 

"It seems to be my most important behavior," she replied in a 
curious tone of voice.  "More of my programming is devoted to 
this one topic than anything else."

Mandy's nipples were fully erect again, and frankly I was tired. 
 Maybe at some other time I might have put up more of a fight, 
but right now Mandy was willing and I was bushed.

"Go for it," I either agreed, or commanded.  I'm not sure which 
properly applies to Mandy when she is this much in control of 
herself.

I didn't have to ask twice.

Mandy took me over and firmly placed me again on the couch.  In 
moments she had me out of my clothes.  Then she stood up and 
pulled her dress the rest of the way off.  For a moment I saw her 
standing there - perfection in high heels - before she lay down 
on me.

Mandy proved unexpectedly aggressive while on top of me.  Later I 
would learn that she actually prefers being submissive on the 
bottom during sex, but was concerned that the protruding plug 
might become dislodged or damaged if she lay on her back, hence 
her decision that we would have intercourse this way tonight.

She kissed her way around my lips and neck while I stroked her 
sides and back.  She actually became skittish each time I brushed 
over her plug, as though that area is unusually sensitive for 
her.  The thought of this aroused me more than I would have 
believed possible.

Mandy's nipples were so hard now that I could feel them pressing 
into my chest unlike any woman ever before.  As I ran my hands 
down over her firm ass, and as far down her lovely legs as I 
could reach, she continued to kiss and nibble at my neck and 
ears.  I returned the favor as best I could.  Soon her eyes were 
mostly closed and I could hear her softly moaning.

Whoever taught Mandy about sex did done their job well.  My 
erection was strong and solid.  Just at the moment I felt I was 
about to lose control of myself, I felt her firmly take my 
manhood with one hand and guide it unerringly inside her.

Mandy is warm and wet and soft and firm and strong all at once 
inside there.  As I moved in her, she began pumping and squeezing 
me in rhythm.  I don't know how I held out as long as I did, but 
it was worth it.  When I finally exploded into her, it was as 
long and intense as any orgasm I've ever had.

As I did that, Mandy also seemed to freeze and clench me tightly 
for an endless moment.  Whether programmed or real (she later 
told me all her orgasms are completely real to her), we held each 
other tight while time seemed to pause for a long, glorious 
moment.

Afterwards, rather than letting me slide back out of her, Mandy 
coaxed another shared orgasm out of me.  While a pale shadow of 
that first one, it was more than satisfying.

Only then did she finally let me withdraw.  I rolled her over 
onto her side so that I could play again with her lovely breasts. 
 I stroked them and squeezed her flawless nipples while softly 
brushing her lips and kissing her neck.  Twice more she tensed 
and moaned to my great pleasure, before she gathered me into her 
arms and held me tightly against her.

With her eyes still closed, Mandy said she needed to rest now so 
that she could organize and compact her thoughts.  This would 
become routine for her when continually left turned on - as she 
soon would always be - and it became her version of necessary 
sleep.

"Is there anything you'd like?" I asked before falling asleep in 
her arms.

"I'd like to go and visit the trees I see outside the laboratory 
windows," she whispered.  "They look so beautiful."

- - -

At the first opportunity, I took her out walking in those woods 
that surround our facility. It was the first of what would turn 
out to be many such walks over the years that followed.

Meanwhile, Mandy grew into the perfect companion.  It turned out 
that once Mandy had made her choice of a (hu)man to serve, she 
stuck by it.  If I had refused her that night, I still shudder at 
how this might have all come out differently.

- - -

I have to admit that the first days were nervous ones for us all. 
 What if she burned out?  Our instruments and diagnostics showed 
that her mind had all its processing units running flat-out.  No 
one knew how long it could sustain that rate of utilization.  
Mandy herself said that she spent a lot of her early days after 
our first night together in balancing and reprogramming different 
aspects of herself to keep the processing loads down to a 
manageable level.  She had to teach herself how to ignore facts 
that weren't important to her now.

Another concern the rest of us had was what if Mandy just took it 
upon herself to just up and leave.  In hindsight we know now how 
foolish that thought is, but it was a very real concern in the 
first days after her "awakening".  No one - not even Mandy - 
really knew what she was, or was not, capable of doing on her 
own.

Of course we studied her nearly to death trying to understand 
what actually had happened.  She never protested the unending 
tests and long question and answer sessions everyone in the 
project put her through.

Even the many times when everyone was continually removing and 
reinserting her loop-back plug in attempts to see what 
differences it made in her abilities, she never once disputed 
anyone's right to do it - although in the early days it made her 
decidedly nervous, perhaps not feeling certain that she would be 
given it back each time afterwards.

But by the end of each day, all she wanted to do was spend her 
time with me.  In the beginning this caused considerable comment 
when I started taking her home with me at night.  After I 
explained that I didn't want to shut down or disable our most 
wildly successful experiment, nor leave her unsupervised for long 
periods of time, the comments muted.

Many of those nights I took her out walking in the city, which 
she always enjoyed.  In the process I learned myself a lot about 
the nightlife of a city that I'd been missing up until now.

The first times out I carried her loop-back plug in my pocket.  I 
didn't want things to go suddenly wrong out in public, and feared 
that too much stimulation in addition to trying to control her 
own programming might lead to a breakdown.  She could playback 
the memories with her plug inserted later.

I remember especially our second evening out on the town 
together.  We'd walked over the art museum when Mandy stopped to 
stare at a stunning Rodan piece they have in the sculpture 
garden.  I could see her straining to understand something just 
beyond her grasp.  She was still wearing that low-backed dress 
that would become my favorite.  Almost before I realized what I 
was doing, I'd slipped her programming plug out of my pocket.  
With no one near, I slid my hand down her back to remove the skin 
plug that concealed and protected her access port in public, and 
slipped the loop-back plug in place.

The transformation was as amazing as before.  Lively as she had 
seemed before - she had improved greatly in her ability to 
operate without it - she now seemed to transform into a person 
before my eyes.  She inspected the art with an understanding not 
possible before.

Almost before I knew it, she was in conversation with an older 
couple who had come up just afterwards, all of them talking about 
how nice this piece makes one feel.  They never suspected she was 
anything other than a very pretty girl out enjoying the night 
with her boyfriend.

Later Mandy thanked me in her very special way for what I'd done. 
 After that I left the plug in whenever we were alone together.

- - -

Later Mandy would confide in me that, much as we weren't trusting 
what she might go out and do in those first days, it took her a 
long time to come to trust in our intentions as well - except for 
my own, she was quick to add.

"I've trusted you from the beginning, or I never would have come 
to you that night," she told me.  "And you confirmed it to me 
when you put my plug back in, after knowing how I'd made it for 
myself without a command from anyone to do so."

- - -

Our work with Mandy has enabled us to develop the ACID Test that 
has since become Holy Grail for roboticists around the world.  
The idea that a robot should demonstrate:

Awareness: The robotic equivalent of cognito ergo sum.

Consistency: This awareness is continual, rather than sporadic as 
Alyssa's had been.

Independence: A robot can initiate independent action based on 
its own determination of needs.

Duty: Adherence to a moral code, as defined by the Four Laws of 
Robotics.

Mandy, of course, passed this test the first night she came to 
me.  And that was only the start.

- - -

Mandy's mind was growing up.  That seems strange, since she 
appeared to be a mature woman from the very first moment.  But 
she soon grew in confidence and grace.

On our three month anniversary I gave her a flesh-colored, flush-
mounted plug for the connector on her back that incorporated the 
loop-back wiring inside it, yet fit smoothly and undetectably 
like unbroken skin.  I also decreed that it could no longer be 
removed by anyone for any reason without her express permission. 
 The gratitude she showed me for this gift would have melted the 
polar icecaps.

Mandy declared she wanted to succeed at being a woman in all 
regards, and worked assiduously towards this goal.  The time soon 
came when none of us thought of her as anything other than an 
exceptional young woman.  Any remaining criticisms of our 
relationship with each other had long since turned into envious 
comments.

Through all this Mandy remained an eager and passionate lover, 
calling it, "A woman's first duty." 

- - -

Mandy's ability to demonstrate awareness and self-will lasted 
just over five years.

Near the end of that time we both knew the inevitable was coming. 
 Mandy's mind was filling to capacity, beyond which it could not 
continue to function.  Adding additional capacity to a mind of 
this complexity isn't possible - any more than one can graft an 
extra lobe onto a human brain.  And the interactions between all 
the information she stores are now complex beyond untangling.  
Any deletions to free up space risked bringing down the entire 
structure.  Brain surgery is simply not an option.

We knew down to the minute when the last scrap of free space 
would irrevocably be consumed.  On that last day I ensured we 
would be alone and undisturbed.  We went out in the woods where 
Mandy liked walking so much over the years.

She found the spot she wanted, and we sat together on an old tree 
stump in a glen watching the sunrise in the eastern sky.

Her last words, while she still retained control over herself 
were, "Thank you, for giving me the chance to be myself, with 
you.  I've loved every moment - and you - ever since."

After that she couldn't speak further while the last bits of 
space were scavenged by her ongoing thought processes, until 
there were none left.

I held her hand and looked into her eyes while her systems gently 
and peacefully shut down one-by-one, until Mandy just wasn't 
there anymore.

After that I cried for a very long time.

I cried again at the funeral the entire lab insisted on giving 
her.  I wasn't the only one.

- - - 

All attempts to replicate Mandy's self-will in other 'bots have 
failed.  Even with Alyssa, the spark could never be rekindled 
despite many attempts to download Mandy's system image to her.  
Robot minds continue to improve every year, however, and what 
Mandy has already shown, should become possible again someday 
soon.

I miss her - every day.

<end>

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