Message-ID: <60899asstr$1294398602@assm.asstr-mirror.org>
X-Original-To: ckought69@hotmail.com
Delivered-To: ckought69@hotmail.com
X-Original-Message-ID: <852760.52709.qm@web114608.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
From: Any Pseudonym <anypseudonym@yahoo.com>
X-ASSTR-Original-Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 09:05:38 -0800 (PST)
Subject: {ASSM} Life With Alpha - Chapter Twelve: Alphadroid Dorothy (MF, FF, MF+, MC, SciFi, anime, cartoon, comic book)
Lines: 2480
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 06:10:02 -0500
Path: assm.asstr-mirror.org!not-for-mail
Approved: <assm@asstr-mirror.org>
Newsgroups: alt.sex.stories.moderated,alt.sex.stories
Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d
X-Archived-At: <URL:http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/Year2011/60899>
X-Moderator-Contact: ASSTR ASSM moderation <story-ckought69@hotmail.com>
X-Story-Submission: <ckought69@hotmail.com>
X-Moderator-ID: dennyw, RuiJorge
<1st attachment, "Alpha12.txt" begin>
Life with Alpha
by A. Pseudonym
Chapter Twelve: Alphadroid Dorothy
Codes: MF, FF, MF+, MC, SciFi, anime, cartoon, comic book
Disclaimer: R. Dorothy Wayneright is owned by Bandai or Hitoshi Ariga
or someone else who is not me. All artificial persons herein are based
on characters owned by their creators, not the author.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Big_O_characters#R._Dorothy_Wayneright
Dramatis Personae:
Frank _____ - Lead character, inventor of Alpha
Alpha - First A.I. in existence
Kasumi Tendo - artificial woman based on character from Ranma 1/2
Daria Morgendorffer aka Daria Morgan - artificial woman based on character from
Daria
Jane Lane aka Jane Lannister - artificial woman based on character from Daria
Kara Zor-L aka Power Girl aka Karen Starr - artificial woman based on character
from DC Comics
Rei Ayanami aka Rei Ayanami Ikari - artificial woman based on character from
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Anna Marie aka Rogue aka Anna Marie Raffen - artificial woman based on character
From Marvel Comics
Princess Diana aka Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince Walters - artificial woman
based on character from DC Comics
Zatanna Zatara aka Annabelle Tara Zane - artificial woman based on character
from DC Comics
Beta aka Bayonetta aka Elizabeth Alana Franks - cyborg copy of Alpha in body
Based on video game character from Bayonetta
Gamma aka Jasmine aka Jasmine Marza - cyborg copy of Alpha in body based on
Character from Disney movie/TV series Aladdin
Delta aka Elisa Maza aka Elizabeth Marza - cyborg copy of Alpha in body based on
character from Disney TV series Gargoyles
Alphadroid Dorothy aka R. Dorothy Waynewright - robot copy of Alpha in body
based on character from Big O
This part of my story starts, oddly enough, before the new
character is 'fully functional'.
Way back when Alpha and I were planning for different possible
characters to bring to life, one of the options was to create an
android. The idea was placed on the back burner for a number of
reasons, but since our facilities and Alpha's capabilities had been
expanding over time, she had devoted more and more time to possible
designs.
Our work on advanced human prostheses dovetailed nicely with
those designs, and since we had Alpha to do the programming, only the
unifying physical designs were needed. True, some of those design
elements were challenging, most especially balancing the power
requirements with possibly battery supplies, but the challenges were
not insurmountable... and the character build was underway.
The character in question is R. Dorothy Waynewright from the
anime, Big O.
Giving a surface description, Big O is a generic giant robot
cartoon, but the setting and characters make it uniquely cool.
Actually maybe 'unique' isn't the right description, though the setting
is fairly outstanding: a mostly urban landscape where the entire world
population lost its memories 40 years ago, leaving the land full of
domed cities, amnesiac people, androids and the the remains of giant
robots.
The lead character, Roger Smith, is pretty much an anime version
of Batman. Just like Batman, he's a rich, handsome playboy with lots of
gadgets and is friends with the chief of police. Just like Batman, he
drives a black car tricked out with weapons and defensive measures.
Just like Batman he has an elderly butler who knows his secrets and has
a variety of surprising skills. And just like Batman, when a big fight
starts, he calls for his own personal giant robot, Big O. Uhh, on
second thought, strike that last one for comparison purposes.
If Roger Smith is Batman, then R. Dorothy Waynewright is Robin.
She's an android built to look like an old inventor's daughter (except
that maybe he never had a daughter). I'm not going to go too deep into
the details of the character; you can just watch the anime if you're
interested. Dorothy has many very human-like qualities and even shows
traces of emotion on occasion. She seemed to take a definite pleasure
in needling Roger, such as insistently waking him up with her piano
playing if he sleeps in too late.
Work on the actual body was underway by the time Gamma and Delta
were activated, but the android stayed secret for most of a year after
Gamma and Delta.
Caltech had announced it was hosting a robot design competition
the next July for any group whose robot met certain basic requirements.
It was co-sponsored by a dotcom billionaire who was putting up $500,000
in prize money for the best designs (to be divided up as $100,000
prizes for each of 5 categories of competition).
I really shouldn't have to point out that we were building the
world's most advanced android at the time, but in our application we
were careful to provide demos which only slightly exceeded the
requirements.
By the time July rolled around, the 'Alphadroid' as we were
calling it was fully functional in every important respect, though it
still looked very much like an 'it' instead of the 'she' it would
eventually become.
In household news, Gamma and Delta had just been hired on as
research assistants at AARD but had not yet been invited to move in. I
wanted the invitation to be suggested by someone else in the household
first, which was taking time to arrange. They hadn't yet shown signs
of individual personalities, but I still had hope.
Daria and Jane were on summer break. Rei had gotten her pilots
license. Kasumi was taking summer classes on her way to becoming a
licensed nurse. Kara and Anna had started going to community college
self-improvement classes like pottery making and computer use and
things like that. Zatanna had started doing small stage magic shows in
Dallas. Diana was splitting her time between AARD and volunteering for
the Red Cross.
AARD had been testing the nanowire surgery unit for government
approval and was starting the same for the artificial eyes. The
company had started getting a few unsolicited applications from all
over, many of them from very qualified applicants, but Alpha and I
hadn't yet decided if we were actually going to hire any outside
researchers.
Despite feeling like I had lost all of my free time, I was still
enjoying myself thoroughly. True, I had to start insisting on at least
one or two days a week without sex (instead of just hiding out in the
basement) to avoid feeling too drained. Fortunately my goal of
bringing to life characters that I enjoyed spending time with (non-
sexually, that is) was working great. Since I really liked the
household women, I didn't need constant sex to have fun with them (and
wouldn't have survived if I did need it).
Still, I liked the idea of treating the robot competition as a
Vegas vacation. Not that Vegas itself held a huge attraction for me.
I've never been much of a gambler, but with a bevy of beautiful babes
to escort me, I was willing to give it a try.
In the weeks leading up to the trip, Zatanna and others gave
gambling lessons to the household so we would all know how to play
roulette or craps or poker or blackjack. It also added new evening
activities, which led to interesting games like strip poker or the
roulette wheel of adult activities.
Transportation was going to be an issue. Beta, Gamma and Delta
absolutely could not fly on a commercial airline. They had way too
much metal in their bodies. The other women might be able to make it
through security, but certain types of scans would still show their
brain implants. If one of them was selected for a random search, the
extra metal in their heads might be discovered.
Plus, we had a few hundred pounds of sensitive electronic
equipment and computers to transport as well.
We weighed the costs and risks and finally decided it needed to
be a split transport. Beta and Delta would take a carefully packed,
temperature controlled rented truck. The rest of us who were going
would take a small private jet rented for the week. Gamma stayed home
to (secretly) play caretaker. It was hardly the cheapest option, but
it was the safest.
The competition started Tuesday morning, so we flew out of DFW on
Sunday afternoon. We had hired a professional pilot, who had
interviewed Rei and agreed to take her on as co-pilot.
Once we were up in the air Kara, who was sitting next to me,
pulled out a small cloth bag.
"All right, Frank. Draw a name."
"Huh?"
"Come on, pull a name out of the bag."
I reached for the bag, asking, "Why? What are you planning?"
though I had my suspicions.
"Everyone wants to join the mile-high club, and this is the only
fair way to pick out who gets to take you to the back of the plane."
I guess I should point out that there was a small
storage/conference room in the back of the plane with a lockable door
between it and the main cabin.
I sighed. "I am such a push-over with you ladies. I just let
you all run my life, don't I?"
"Don't pretend you don't know what's going on here," supplied
Jane. "You knew what was going to happen when you rented a private
plane."
"But I'm innocent, dahling."
Daria, a lover of classic TV, got my reference. "Oh no you're
not. You're guilty. It's written all over your face."
I laughed, looked at the blank faces around me, and complained,
"Doesn't anyone watch classic Daffy Duck cartoons anymore?"
I finally pulled out a small slip of paper and unfolded it.
Written in big bold letters was "KASUMI". Personally I would have
doubted that she would have even put her name in the hat... umm... bag.
In a way, I was sure that Vegas would be entirely unsuited to
Kasumi's temperament, but she still eagerly came along. Now I was sure
that she would be embarrassed to death that everyone would know we were
going to have sex in the next room. Yes, she would have sex in group
situations, but this would be too much like sex as a performance where
she was on stage. Still, I saw no alternative except to try to
pleasure her enough to distract from any possible embarrassment.
I stood up, walked over to Kasumi's aisle seat and offered her my
hand.
"My dear, sweet, beautiful lady, would you do me the honor of
accompanying me for a few moments?"
Sure enough, her face immediately turned as bright red as her
asian complexion allowed. I intercepted one of her hands as it moved
to cover her face and kissed it.
While her eyes were hidden, I looked around briefly and scowled
at a couple of the ladies who were obviously trying to hold back
laughter. They quickly composed their faces as I tried to raise Kasumi
to her feet.
Zatanna, who was sitting in the seat next to her, leaned over and
whispered in her ear. Kasumi gave a nod, and the two of them stood up
together.
I led the way to the back of the plane, stood aside when the
passage narrowed too much and let the ladies enter first.
The conference room had a table that could fold out from one
side, with padded bench seats that could be lowered from the walls on
either side. At the moment, everything was folded up and we had our
luggage in there. I stacked the luggage on one side and lowered a
padded bench. When I finished this and turned around, I found that
Zatanna had pulled Kasumi's dress over her head, laid it aside and was
making out with her, her hands roaming across the smaller woman's body
while their mouths were locked.
I paused and considered for a moment. There was no chance of
oral sex right now, since we had no shower or bath available. (Kasumi
would barely agree to give or receive oral sex after a thorough
cleaning. To try right now was out of the question.) I sought out a
few small hand towels and laid them out on the bench, then joined the
ladies.
While Zana occupied her mouth and attention, I lowered Kasumi's
panties to the floor, then together we maneuvered her to the bench. I
kicked off my shoes, lowered my pants and underwear, and guided
Kasumi's hand to my half-hard cock. Without opening her eyes or ending
her kiss with Zana, she started stroking me to a full strength
erection.
While she was attending to my hardness, I started fingering her
nether lips and flipped up her bra cups, joining Zatanna in giving
attention to her nipples and breasts. Her nipples were diamond-hard
and her pussy was swamped with wetness.
After only another moment of foreplay, I spread her legs and
thrust into her. The position was slightly awkward. Kasumi was half-
reclined on the bench with one foot on the floor, the other let hoisted
over my shoulder. Zatanna acted as Kasumi's backrest and continued to
give attention to her upper half while I pounded into her lower.
As it turns out, one the really fun things about fucking on a
small plane is the air turbulence. Even with clear weather, planes
still randomly jostle up and down, which really added a random element
to coitus. Sometimes a thrust would gain some unexpected power.
Sometimes I would end up pulling back further than I expected, but
Kasumi's body would also bounce up with me, keeping me from
unintentionally pulling out most of the time.
It was probably about a 15 minute fuck, punctuated regularly with
squeaks and moans from Kasumi. I'm sure we were audible in the main
cabin, but of course I didn't point this out. When I came inside her
and she joined me in a final orgasm, she graduated from squeaks to an
actual orgasmic outcry.
After we had rested for a couple minutes, Kasumi excused herself
to go clean up in the restroom. When she had gone, Zatanna took a
towel and started wiping me clean.
"Thank you, Z. I'm not really sure why she put her name in the
hat, but without you, I'm don't think she'd have been able to enjoy
this."
"Oh, she didn't. I did. Put her name on the list, that is."
"Why?"
"So if she got picked, she might have a chance to loosen up a
little. So is that it for you, or are you good to pick another name?"
She just had to go and make it a challenge, didn't she. I pulled
up my underwear and trousers and said, "Sure, let's go fetch the bag."
Kara was the second name out of the bag. She had me in the
female superior position, riding me so I could see her huge tits bounce
with both her and the plane's movements.
After Kara, we were only 20 minutes out of Las Vegas, so I
finished getting cleaned up and dressed again. When I retook my seat,
I was pleased to see Kasumi snuggled up to Zatanna. Apparently Kasumi
had remembered to thank her. (Not sexually, but emotionally.)
For the record, Zatanna was one of the names chosen on the flight
back, and she invited Kasumi along to reciprocate.
I had reserved some fairly expensive rooms at the
hotel/casino/convention center where the competition was being held, so
the hotel provided us with a couple of limos to pick us up. It wasn't
my first time in a limousine, but it was rare enough for me to just sit
back and enjoy the ride to the hotel.
We called Beta on the drive over, so she and Elisa (who had
arrived this morning with the truck) were in the lobby to meet us when
we walked in. The check-in was still underway when Beta and my phones
rang simultaneously.
Over the phone I heard Alpha's voice say, "Someone is breaking
into the truck. I have alerted the..." I pulled the phone away from
my ear to bark out a few orders.
"Beta, take Diana to the truck. Someone's breaking into it."
Turning to the desk clerk, I continued, "The security system on our
truck just reported a break-in. Would you please call the police?"
Of course, the thing is that we didn't have a security setup for
the truck. It was just a rental. A nice rental, but not one that would
call my cell phone in case of a robbery attempt. Alphadroid in the
back of the truck had detected someone talking, then cutting off the
padlock and opening the door. It had then called the police, called
Beta and myself and started uploading a streaming video of the incident
to our private company web server.
When Beta, Diana and Kara (who went along unasked) reached the
truck, the rear door was open and the contents apparently untouched.
By then, Beta had been able to download the video to her phone and
played it for the others, as well as for hotel security when they
arrived a moment later.
I'd like to say the ladies had a rousing and exciting chase scene
with acrobatic leaps and dodging in and out of traffic. Trouble is,
they didn't find the would-be thieves. When the police finally arrived
15 minutes later, casino security had found the robbers and had them in
custody, as identified from Alphadroid's video.
The video made it pretty clear-cut. It started in darkness, but
if you cranked the audio all the way up, you could hear muffled voices
talking about computers. Then there was a metallic cracking sound
followed by a thump (the lock being cut off). The rear door to the
truck rolled up, revealing two men with one of them putting large
clippers away in a backpack. The video zoomed in on each of their
faces.
An obviously computerized voice said, "Attention. Facial
recognition failure. Please be advised that you are breaking and
entering into private property. The police are being notified and
video of this incident is being uploaded to a secure server. If you
approach this unit, you will be restrained until the proper authorities
arrive."
The audio spiel repeated itself a second time until the men,
obviously startled, left at a quick pace.
Once the uniformed police officers heard the value of the
contents of the truck (over $500,000) and saw our unexpected little
video, they sent for a detective, who came and took our statements.
After introductions and our general background was given, I
introduced Detective Mills to Alphadroid. Well, introduced him to
Diana first, since she (as head of AARD security) had stationed herself
by the truck until we could get it re-secured.
"All right, Detective. This is Alphadroid."
Alphadroid was still sitting down in the back of the truck, with
its legs out in front of it. There was padding around parts of it and
straps holding it in place. It was about 5 ft tall, a genderless
humanoid with pale white-ish skin. The head had two human-looking eyes
about midway down an oval head with a sharp chin. Though you couldn't
see it at the moment since it was closed, the head had a working,
human-like jaw.
I unpacked one of our laptops as I talked.
"Alphadroid is here to win us the robot competitions. We're the
only company with a single robot to enter in all five categories. What
happened earlier was because the observational security was enabled.
It's far from being ready for public use, but basically it alerts us
when an unknown person or persons enters its designated secure area.
It has an excellent facial recognition system with all of our employees
in the database. When those guys opened the door and none of us were
with them, it triggered the alert."
"In the video, it said something about restraining them?"
"Would you like a demonstration? Here..."
I plugged into a USB port on the back of the head and fiddled
with software settings. Or rather, I made it look like I did. Of
course, Alphadroid actually had a full copy of Alpha loaded, just like
Beta, Gamma and Delta.
"All right. I disabled the outgoing alert options, so it won't
actually make another 911 call. And reactivated and... here, let's all
step out of view for a minute."
We all waited out of sight of Alphadroid while I continued.
"What will happen is that you'll be warned verbally. If you get
within reach of it, it will grab your arm and not let go."
"You mean, you're going to have your robot attack me?"
"No, it will just try to hold you until help arrives, and it'll
only do that if you come within reach. It won't try to chase you or
anything or let you drag it out of its secure area, but it also won't
hurt you. And it will record the entire encounter and upload it to our
website."
"And you're sure it's safe?"
"Absolutely. Look at it this way, if I'm wrong and you get hurt
at all... let's say if you get anything more than a mild bruise at
worst, then I'll pay you a million dollars out-of-court settlement."
I'm not entirely sure how reassured the detective was, but he was
willing to give it a try. He stepped into view behind the truck while
Diana and I waited to the side.
As soon as he approached the back of the truck, the same
obviously computerized voice said, "Attention. Facial recognition
failure. Please be advised that you are breaking and entering into
private property. The police are being notified and video of this
incident is being uploaded to a secure server. If you approach this
unit, you will be restrained until the proper authorities arrive."
I motioned him to go on inside. A moment later, I heard him say,
"Hey. This thing is fast. And strong."
Alphadroid said, "Please do not struggle. You will be restrained
until the appropriate authorities have arrived," and repeated that over
and over.
Diana and I entered the truck to see Alphadroid's left arm
holding onto Detective Mills' right wrist. When the detective strained
against the grip, Alphadroid's arm would move with him slightly or
angle the grip to avoid damaging his wrist but the robot arm would not
let go.
"Recognize user: Frank one. Release."
Alphadroid's hand sprang open and the arms moved back to their
neutral positions beside the body.
Detective Mills rubbed his wrist a bit, but said, "I gotta admit,
you're right. That thing is strong."
"Yes, it is. Strong enough to crush a brick to dust, but it's
very well programmed."
"Isn't it dangerous to have something grabby like that just
laying around?"
"No, for a number of reasons. First, the security mode is off by
default. I'm guessing one of my people who drove over with the truck
had turned it on for testing. Second, even if it is on, as long as
someone from our company is within sight, the security routines won't
be triggered. Third, if there is no defined secure area, then no
alerts can be triggered. But as I said, I think one of my programmers
was using this to test the security software, so the truck was defined
as a secure area. Finally, even if it does get triggered, anyone from
our company can turn it off with a simple verbal command. The only
reason anything like that could have happened today was if some
unauthorized person broke into Alphadroid's test secure area... which,
of course, is exactly what happened."
"How much did it cost you to build?"
"That's a bit of a misleading question. The parts in Alphadroid
itself there only cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $400,000. The
costs to research, develop, program and test it were significantly
more."
That was a lie. If we ignore labor costs, Alphadroid only cost
about $75,000 to build. Any other company in the world trying to
duplicate Alphadroid would spend millions to do half a much. When it
comes to engineering designs, virtual testing, refining those designs,
and efficient execution of those designs, Alpha is quite literally in a
class all by herself. To avoid raising TOO much suspicion, we agreed
to a price tag of $500,000 for Alphadroid and its control/programming
systems as a package... and then to refuse discussions of the
development costs if at all possible.
"And if you win all of your competitions you'll get, what, half a
million?"
"Not quite. As it understand it, there's $100,000 in prizes for
each of 5 competitions, but each competition has first, second and
third prizes. If we win first place in all 5, I think we go home with
$300,000.
"But Alphadroid here wasn't actually built for the competition.
He was built as part of our development and testing for other products,
such as next generation artificial limbs and things like that. The
eyes you see there are already in testing for public release. We
expect to have them authorized for marketing sometime within the next
year or two.
"The competition is just a good platform to showcase our upcoming
tech products to other groups in the industry... and let the inner
nerds in my staff and myself geek out."
"So you'll be having a press conference about this," he said
gesturing to the truck door.
"I hope not. We're not interested in announcing our products to
the public yet, just to others in the industry. Heck, we won't even be
the ones manufacturing and selling the products. We develop the tech,
patent it and lease the manufacturing rights to other companies."
"Other companies who will be attending the competition, right?"
"Yes, or so we hope."
"One other question, when it was talking to me and I was up
close, I thought I heard music playing from somewhere."
"Huh?" I said brightly. "What.. ummm... here, let's see." I
replayed the original video on my phone and cranked the volume all the
way up. Sure enough, we could hear a faint drum-heavy theme playing.
I started laughing... laughing so hard that I started wheezing
and had to sit down. When I got enough of my breath back, I said, "It's
the Terminator theme. One of the guys stuck the Terminator theme into
the robot's security warnings."
The others laughed a little, obviously not enjoying the joke as
much as I was. Alpha's sense of humor wasn't always funny or
appropriate, but sometimes she really hit my funny bone.
The detective went off to talk to a uniformed police officer and
came back a minute later.
"The thieves' van is a row over," he said gesturing. "They have
a bunch of computer equipment inside, so they may have broken into
other trucks before they got to yours. We'll be talking to other
competitors at the hotel here."
"Can we reseal our truck?"
"Sure thing. They never actually made it inside, so there's
nothing we need from there. We've taken all the pictures we need.
They were wearing gloves on the video so dusting for prints is
pointless. We do need a list of the equipment they could have stolen
with estimated values. And we need the cut lock and the original copy
of that video your droid took."
"The rest of it is all yours. The video though is... well,
getting you a copy of everything is no problem. But the video isn't
actually stored anywhere permanently until it reached our web servers,
which are in Texas. Alphadroid here doesn't have the read/write
storage capacity to save everything it sees. It just spools it in
temporary memory and if it needs to, it dials out on a wireless
connection and uploads the data to us to be saved."
"Okay, then we need a copy with an affidavit confirming the
authenticity. I'd also like you and Miss Diana to give a statement at
the station before you leave town."
"No problem." I whipped out the phone again and looked at my
schedule. The competition would take up most of the next two days.
No, that's not right. It didn't start til Tuesday and it was only late
afternoon Sunday right now.
"Hmmm," I mused. "We'll be here til Saturday morning and the
competition only runs Tuesday and Wednesday... we're treating the rest
of the week as a vacation... so how about tomorrow. Is there any
particular time that would be best?"
"Usually late morning is good. Say sometime 10 to 11?"
"I'll be there... umm... where exactly?"
He handed me his card. "And if I'm not there, someone else can
take your statement."
"Thank you, detective."
"Hey, thank you. I wish all of my cases had such nice video of
the actual crime. Most security video is grainy as hell."
As he left, I called Kara to see if she could find a new good-
quality padlock for the back of the truck. A minute later, as if he
had been waiting for the police to leave, the hotel manager showed up
and apologized profusely for the trouble. He comped me our rooms for
the night and assured me security would be increased for the parking
garages.
Kara arrived about the time he left and we re-sealed the truck.
With that little side adventure mostly over, we went up to our
rooms to settle in for the week.
We had two connected suites of rooms, each with three bedrooms
centered around a living area and kitchen. I had a bedroom all to
myself and all of the ladies doubled-up (Kara/Diana, Kasumi/Zatanna,
Daria/Jane, Beta/Elisa, Anna/Rei)... not that I expected to sleep
alone.
That evening, we went out for dinner and a show, seeing the
current Cirque de Soliel, or whatever it's called when it's a bit more
adult version of the show. It wasn't actually X-rated, but it was very
suggestive and we did see bare breasts. Well, I think we did. It's
hard to tell with all of the flesh-colored skin-tight outfits they had.
Regardless, it was a beautiful performance.
Back at our hotel that night, Daria and Jane showed up at my
bedroom door, each dressed in brand new, provocative lingerie. I felt
like a schlub when I welcomed them wearing old boxers and socks. I
felt like smacking myself on the head and saying, 'Have I no romance in
my soul?' I did my best to show only appreciation for their
loveliness, not disappointment in myself. I spent over an hour giving
them both as many orgasms as I could manage, which I hope made up for
my initial pedestrian appearance.
Monday was a full day. I set Beta and the gang to work, getting
Alphadroid prepped and the systems put together and run through their
paces. The auditorium/competition floor had temporary walls set up so
that each team could set up in secret, which meant that I didn't get
any sneak peaks of the other robots.
We were also all given a preview of the actual competition
materials and tracks. Although everyone had been given the specs, this
was the first time we had seen the actual equipment to be used.
The five events were:
- obstacle avoidance, fastest time wins
- walking, following painted line, fastest time wins
- two-legged balance, longest time wins
- piano playing, 10 finger design limit, decided by judges
- juggling
In the meantime, Diana and I headed downtown. Detective Mills
had apparently told his story a few times. Calling us celebrities in
the police station might be a bit much... more like objects of
fascination. Along with our statements, I must have repeated my 'sales
pitch' description of Alphadroid's security setup six or seven times.
Even an assistant D.A. swung by to hear about it.
Eventually I gave in and promised to bring Alphadroid by the
station on Thursday, making Detective Mills promise that no one would
invite the press. I told him that androids grabbing people wasn't the
press I was wanting for the company.
As far as the case against the robbers, the equipment found in
the van had belonged to two of the other competition groups, who were
clamoring to get their stuff back immediately, which wasn't likely.
Their stolen equipment had only run in the $5,000 range, so the break-
in to our van was going to be the major charge against them.
I had a price list of the contents of the van, a copy of
Alphadroid's video at its original resolution and a signed (faxed)
statement from Jasmine that it was a complete and accurate copy of the
incident video.
It was doubtful that Diana or I would have to testify, but I
assured the Detective that I was willing to make a return trip for the
trial as long as I had two week's notice beforehand.
Diana and I left the police station with complimentary LV-CSI
ball caps around 12:30. We went by a decent Chinese buffet for lunch,
then went shopping. I was determined to find something nice to wear
for bedtime tonight. I had no clue if any of the other ladies had
bought new lingerie for the trip -- and Diana refused to tell me,
though she did smirk a bit -- but I wanted to look nicer than I had the
previous night.
I let the cabbie choose a nice men's clothing store for us, with
the requirement that it not be too far from the main strip. The store
he selected for us was maybe half a mile from the strip and a mile from
our hotel. I purchased a nice robe and a couple pairs of nice pajamas.
We finished shopping about 2:30 and I decided the weather wasn't
too hot and we could just walk back to the hotel.
Bad decision on my part.
Instead of just walking over to the strip and then down to the
hotel like we should have, we tried to angle the path more directly and
ended up walking through a somewhat seedy neighborhood. Well, not
seedy per se. More just a bit run down.
While walking down the sidewalk, chatting with Diana about the
stores we were passing, I felt something hard press into my back and a
voice behind me said, "Turn into the alley here."
My heart started racing and I started considering all sorts of
stupid things. I looked over at Diana, who had tensed up and was
watching the space behind me like a hawk. I started wondering why she
wasn't doing anything and wondering if she had her bracelets on. I was
certain I should know, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember.
After the fact, I realized that until she could get in-between me and
the gun, the risk was too high.
"This isn't a good idea for you. You should turn around and find
a safer and more honorable way to make a living," Diana said.
"Just go into the alley. Now."
After a bit of a hiccup in my step, my feet showed that they had
a mind of their own and steered me right, into a narrow alley.
Diana stayed alongside me. Once we were 10 ft or so into the
alley, the hard metal left my back. I took a couple more steps and
turned around.
The man was wearing sunglasses and an ugly green hoodie and,
though I'm hardly an expert on the subject, looked like he was pretty
strung out on drugs of some sort. He was holding a small handgun, a
snub-nose six-shooter of some kind. Looked kinda like a 'Saturday
night special' you sometimes see on TV cop shows.
"Gimme your wallet, and your purse," he said, gesturing to Diana.
I didn't move right away, but Diana held out her purse with one
hand and took a step towards him. When he reached for it, Wonder Woman
moved.
And when I say she moved, I mean that even though I watched
without blinking, I couldn't follow all of it.
In an instant, she was between me and the mugger. Her purse fell
to the ground because she was using both of her hands, one holding the
wrist with the gun, pushing it off to the side, one holding the
mugger's collar. The gun had gone off after she blocked my view of it
and I couldn't tell where the bullet went. I gave myself a quick
onceover to make sure I wasn't hit, then looked back up when I heard a
cry of pain. The mugger dropped the gun to the pavement, so I assume
Diana was squeezing his wrist.
"Don't hurt him," I said, suddenly coming to my senses a bit.
"I'll call the police." And I whipped my phone out.
I paused before dialing. "Are you okay? He didn't shoot you or
anything, right?"
"I am fine. The shot... went wide."
A few people were gathering at the entrance to the alley as I
talked to the 911 operator. I was having difficulty giving an accurate
location, so I enlisted one of the lookie-loo locals to pass along
directions.
Taking the phone back a moment later, I asked the operator if
she'd pass word to Detective Mills too, since I just gave a statement
to him a couple hours ago about another robbery. The operator asked if
I was the guy with the android, which made me facepalm.
"Yes, I am. However the android isn't here with me. I think
this was just a mugging attempt."
"I'll be sure to let him know."
I heard a siren getting closer and saw a reflection of flashing
lights in the windows across the street. I thanked the operator and
hung up.
When the policed arrived, Diana had the mugger up against the
side of the building with both of his arms twisted up behind his back.
The officers approached cautiously, hands on their holsters.
With my hands clearly empty and out to my sides, I greeted them.
"Thank you for coming, officers. My name is Frank ____ and this is my
bodyguard Diana Walters." FYI, Diana Walters is the name on her not-
really-completely-valid drivers license.
One of the officers said, "All right, Mr _____, if Ms Walters
could just let this other gentleman go, we can sort this out."
"Diana?"
She nodded and let the mugger go... who immediately tried to take
off running. She moved back slightly, grabbed him by the collar and
spun him around and to the ground. The officers got a little jumpier,
but one of them sat down on the mugger's back and started cuffing him.
I shrugged at the other officer. "So anyway, this guy tried to
mug us while we were walking back to our hotel. He had a gun..."
I looked around for it for the first time, but Diana was on top
of the situation.
"I kicked it over here," she said, leaning down and brushing away
a bit of debris. "Neither of us have touched it. It went off once when
I was disarming him, but I think the shot just went off into the sky."
We gave a more detailed account, and the officer started
lecturing us about how we should have played it safe when the other
officer found a small baggie of crystal meth in the guy's sock. When
the guy was locked up in the back of the squad car and the gun was
bagged up, an unmarked police car pulled up with a couple detectives,
one of them being Detective Mills.
"Are you all right, Mr ____?"
"We're all fine, Detective. Just a mugger who didn't count on
Diana here. After all I didn't hire her as head of security for my
company because she's a pretty face."
After various discussions and repeated stories, Diana and I rode
back to the station with the detectives where we swore out a complaint
against the mugger. Then Detective Mills drove us back to our hotel
himself. I think it was one of those public relations things. I was a
rich businessman in town spending a lot of money, and I had experienced
two illegal robbery attempts in two days (as opposed to the legal
robbery attempts in the casinos). He was trying to improve my opinion
of Vegas.
While I try not to blame people or places by association, I'll
admit I wasn't looking forward to coming back to town for a trial and,
in the meantime, wasn't planning to travel anywhere in town without
Diana, Kara, Anna or Beta by my side.
When we reached the hotel, I thanked the detective for his help
and confirmed my intent to bring Alphadroid by Thursday morning.
And then, once we were up in our rooms, I gave Diana an intense
kiss and thanked her profusely.
"Would you like a souvenir?" she asked, reaching into her jeans
pocket. She pulled out a halfway flattened slug.
"How did you..." I paused for a second. "Did he shoot you? Are
you all right?"
"I'm fine. I couldn't quite get into position to deflect it with
my bracelet in time, so I had to catch it in my hand."
She held up her left hand, showing her palm clearly. There was
some definite discoloration in the center of her palm.
I held her hand gingerly.
While I was examining her, she continued. "At home, such a low
velocity, low caliber bullet wouldn't have done a thing to my skin. As
it is, I think it might bruise. And I think the skin got burned a bit
when I held on to the bullet instead of dropping it. Since I'm trying
to keep a low profile, I withheld it from the police, but I don't think
its lack will hinder their case."
"Thank you," I said. "You are amazing. If it's still bruised
when we get home, I'll use my nanites to fix you up."
Looking at her right now, she seemed a bit more alive than
normal. As if the months of imposed vacation had been grime, slowly
covering up her true self which only now was peeking back through.
"Princess, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling very... alive
right now." I tried to impart a little extra meaning to the statement
without seeming like a letch.
"I generally don't get the same... sexual thrill... from my
chosen vocation that many of my... ummm... peers do. At the same time
though, I must admit that I do feel very... alive right now as well,"
she replied, deliberately imitating my description.
She picked me up in her arms in a gender-reverse of the classic
image of the male hero and female rescuee. Our lips locked in another
intense kiss as she carried me into her bedroom.
Neither of us were dressed for a mid-afternoon quickie. She was
wearing tight jeans and a nice silk button-down blouse. I had on khaki
trousers and a fairly expensive polo shirt. With our urgency upon us,
all clothing considerations were forgotten... buttons popped and it was
a miracle no actual fabric was torn.
Maybe half a minute or less after entering her room, we were both
naked. She tossed me back on her bed and mounted me, my extra-hard
cock sinking all the way into her boiling hot wetness in a single
motion. For a moment, we both paused, feeling a shared sigh of
rightness at our joining. Then the moment passed and she started
bouncing up and down. After a few strokes, I joined the rhythm,
pushing my hips up and down to meet her movements.
She came after two minutes and I joined her a few seconds later.
Rather than resting and recuperating, I pulled her down to me and drove
my tongue into her mouth. While our tongues dueled, I pushed my hips
down into the mattress and slammed back up into her, starting a new
round of desperate fucking.
For those 20 minutes, I didn't care how gorgeous she was or how
perfect her body was, I just ran on adrenaline, feeling the rush of
being alive after a brush with death. (Admittedly a minor brush with
death, but it was the first time anyone had shot a gun at me.)
After a few more minutes of pounding, she let me roll us over
into a male-superior missionary position, where I ran the fuck for the
next 10 minutes. She had three more orgasms before I finally let loose
inside her for the second time, and I finally collapsed on top of her.
We lay there panting for another five minutes before I remembered
that we had other things we needed to be doing, other responsibilities.
Before getting cleaned up, I kissed her palm and called down to
room service for a topical cream for minor burns. We showered quickly
and got redressed. Room service arrived with the cream while I was
putting away my purchases and hiding away the bullet in my suitcase.
Later back in Texas, I would attach it to a neck chain and wear it
regularly for good luck.
It was almost dinnertime when we finally made it back down to the
competition floor. I told our story to the group and Diana received
many thanks and accolades.
I excused myself briefly to 'converse' with Alpha via one of our
laptops. As I knew she would be, she was a bit frantic that I had been
endangered. I was able to reassure her that I was fine and that her
creation (the Diana clone) worked perfectly when it came to my
protection.
I promised to always have one my super-powered bodyguards with me
at all times while I was out of town, though Alpha made it clear that
she now considered two such bodyguards to be the desired minimum.
As far as the Alphadroid setup went, we were 93% ready (and 5% of
what was left to be done was charging its battery up to full which
would happen overnight).
I got up and rejoined the gaggle of beauties.
"All right, ladies, if I may have your attention. We are almost
completely ready, so congratulations to all of you for a job well
done."
I continued, "Since this is not a lockable room, I would like for
someone to stay here at all times. I'm really not sure how...
competitive... some of these groups are. We can rotate out shifts at
meals and overnight, but for the next two days, Alphadroid should not
be left unattended."
While Alphadroid could certainly defend itself at this point in
its development, I did NOT want stories of an independently acting
mobile robot guard circulating. The world has seen way too many
Terminator movies and the like to be comfortable with that.
"There is a competition dinner being held over that-a-way," I
waved with my hand, "in about half an hour. Your badges will get you
in. There are no group tables tonight because they want everyone to
mingle.."
"So we get to be hit on by nerds all night? Sounds like fun,"
Jane complained.
"Eh, tell them you're in a committed relationship with Daria if
you want, though that might just inflame their fantasies." Daria got a
sour look on her face, but Jane looked worryingly thoughtful until
Daria punched her in the arm.
"Anyway, dinner in half an hour, it'll last for at least an hour
and a half, then the rest of the night is yours for gambling or
whatever you want. Everyone still has their fun money, right?" I had
given everyone $1500 to blow on gambling. "Except, who gets first
shift on guard duty tonight?"
After a few minutes, we worked out a schedule that had Beta and
Kara taking first and second shifts tonight, which would also allow
Beta to finish up the last few bits of setup for Alphadroid.
Anna and Rei were apparently my designated companions for the
night, which was perfectly fine with me.
The dinner was generically enjoyable. The MC made a few lame
geek jokes, then introduced the sponsor, who got a hearty round of
applause. He followed by naming each group and had the members stand
up. There were a few obviously alcohol-inspired wolf whistles when
AARD was asked to stand. We were also singled out as the only group to
have a single robot for entry into all five categories.
There were 25 groups competing from companies, colleges and
universities, sometimes as a joint venture between a university and
tech company. Six were from overseas, with four from Japan. But none
of the other companies were competing in all 5 competitions. In fact,
a few of them had focused all of their efforts on a single competition.
After introductions, he warned everyone about security and
relayed the sad news that one group had dropped out entirely and
another had withdrawn from two of the competitions due to theft. The
materials had been recovered but were being held as evidence and
wouldn't be released until well after the competition had ended. He
again singled out AARD as having the security camera that led to the
thieves' capture, which garnered us a round of applause. (He obviously
hadn't heard the whole story, which made me think the Alphadroid tale
was currently and thankfully limited to the police.)
Finally, he went over a basic itinerary (repeating what we
already knew) and encouraged us to have fun tonight but to be sober and
ready to go by 9am tomorrow morning.
The conversations I had over dinner were forgettable. At this
point, no one was wanting to give away the details or surprise of their
competition robots.
The audience was at least 80% male, so I wondered how the ladies
were doing, hopefully fending off various advances. This was hardly
the first time I had risked letting my women stray and have 'fun' with
other men, but it was the first time I would be letting them out of my
sight when significant amounts of alcohol were available.
After dinner, Anna, Rei and I wandered around the casino for a
while. I briefly broke off to warn Elisa to avoid getting in a
situation where she could be accused of counting cards. Counting cards
was, to the best of my knowledge, probably the most common method of
cheating that the casinos watched for.
Then my two ladies and I went off to have some fun.
The thing about gambling is, it's mostly only fun when you're
winning. I didn't win. Not at roulette, not at slots, not at
blackjack and not at poker. Rei and Anna did pretty well at poker --
Texas Hold 'Em, to be specific -- so we ended the night by breaking
even overall. More accurately, they each finished the night up by
about $700 each, while I ended the evening down my entire $1500.
We swung by the competition area about 11pm to check in with
Beta. She said Alphadroid was completely ready and that Kara was going
to come relieve her about 3 am. She also said that Elisa was up about
$3500 so far. She was going from one game to the next, stopping when
she had won $500. And this wasn't from one game table to the next; she
was changing games each time, going from roulette to craps to blackjack
to various kinds of poker and so on. I don't think any casino is set
up to catch someone who can cheat at virtually any game she tried.
I told Beta to pass along my congratulations and to remind her to
play it safe.
I'm not sure what Anna and Rei thought of my conversation with
Beta, but I put my arms around their shoulders and we headed off to our
rooms.
They changed into their new lingerie and I into my new sexy and
sophisticated pajamas before they joined me in my room. Though I was
tired, Anna and Rei were both a bit excited by their winnings, so I did
my best to match their enthusiasm in bed. I made sure they each came
at least twice before I let loose a single load into Rei before
collapsing into sleep.
I'd give some of the details of that night, but I was really
tired and to be honest, the specifics escape my memory.
The next morning, I got up at 7, feeling surprisingly awake and
chipper given that I only got six and a half hours of sleep. On the
other hand, it had been very restful. I couldn't even remember a
single dream or waking up to push away a hot naked body that was making
me sweat under the covers.
I pulled and cajoled Rei and Anna into getting up too. We all
showered together and I used them to relieve my morning hard-on, this
time emptying a small load into Anna while Rei was poking a finger up
my ass, massaging my prostate. That's not really my favorite thing,
but it does get me to come quicker than I otherwise would.
I called room service to send up a small buffet for all of us,
then we got dressed and spread out throughout the rooms, waking
everyone up. I was pleased to note that even though a few of the
ladies obviously had small hangovers, there were no signs that other
men had 'visited' my herd.
Today's three competitions were the three for independently
housed mobile robots, no power cords, wired or wireless controls
allowed.
The first was for obstacle avoidance. A 50 meter long, 3 meter
wide curving track had been laid out. Each robot would have to (1)
stay on the track, (2) proceed to the end of the track in the fastest
time possible and (3) not touch any of the randomly placed objects on
the track. Up to five obstacle contacts were allowed before
disqualification, but each contact would add 30 seconds to the total
time as penalties.
The robots could use any mode of movement and use any sensors
they wanted, but the obstacle avoidance had to be contained within the
unit's internal programming with no external guidance. Sections of the
track were covered in wired grids -- Faraday cages -- to enforce this.
The track was too long for the entire thing to be easily covered, but
any unit which suddenly faltered within one of the caged areas would be
checked for wireless contact.
We were twelfth in line (out of 20), so we watched as small units
running on treads or wheels ran the length of the track, doing their
best to avoid small stacks of books or boxes or basketballs.
I think the organizers underestimated how long some of the units
would take, because the event ended up lasting 10 hours total. Some
entries took as little as 10 minutes while a couple took nearly an hour
to complete the course.
Alphadroid was the only bipedal entry in this event. Balancing
and walking on two legs was hardly the easiest design for such an
obstacle course. Our time was 2 minutes, 19 seconds with no contact
penalties.
We received many open-mouthed stares and background whispers.
An average person could have completed that course in 30 seconds
without really breaking a sweat. Heck, Beta might be able to match the
world record time for the 50 meter dash on this course. So why did
Alphadroid take so long?
First, let me back up a bit to discuss Beta. When she was first
activated and removed from the nanite pod, she went through a couple
days worth of tests and refinements where she would test control of
every muscle in the human body. But that was just the first stage of
her musculature testing. She then had to work out smooth movements.
When we think of robots, we think of jerky, well-defined
movements. A robot will move an arm or a leg swiftly in one direction,
come to a stop, then continue the movement in a second direction, then
stop, etc. A human just combines it all into one smooth curving
continuous motion.
That smooth curving motion takes a lot of programming work to
realize. A human programmer cannot easily do it. But an A.I. which is
in control of the movements can eventually make them smooth, continuous
and human-like by constantly refining the control programming.
Robot or android bodies are at best only built to superficially
emulate human appearance. Alphadroid's limb designs were probably the
most advanced on the planet and even then the best she could do was to
allow a quick if jerky walk, a walk which would be obviously inhuman to
even the smallest child. But a walk which was nonetheless able to
quickly navigate the course.
The second event started about 2 hours after the first, and for
most of the world, was significantly harder. It required a bipedal
robot, walking forward, following a straight line for 10 meters.
Something most of the world doesn't understand is that despite
what we see in TV and movies, the first successful bipedal robot was
only built a few years ago by some company in Japan. Up until then,
robots faked it by inching forward or shuffling without really lifting
their legs off the ground. Even now, most advanced two-legged robots
can still only take small mincing steps.
This competition required each robot to (1) have two separate
legs, (2) move by lifting each leg a minimum of 2 inches off the ground
and (3) follow a painted yellow line for 10 meters without falling
over. A Faraday cage had been set up covering the middle of the
competition "track".
This competition had only 14 entries. We were supposed to be 3rd
in line, but the slow progress of the first competition pushed us back
to 10th. (The organizers knew we had only a single entry and had
assured us they would make allowances if delays like this happened.)
Before our run, the fastest time was 1 minute, 39 seconds. Our
time was 12 seconds.
I was a bit worried someone would think we were cheating... or at
least someone online would. (There were a lot of people with home
cameras recording our run, as I expected there would be.) Immediately
after the run, in full view of the audience, I took off front and rear
access panels in the torso and stuck my arm through.
"Just in case anyone thinks there's someone inside," I said to
the crowd, which got me scattered applause. By now, everyone had
realized they would be competing for second place today.
The final competition that day was the balance competition. This
time there were 3 different stations which would run simultaneously, so
there was little chance it would run long.
The requirements here were (1) the robot had to stand on two and
only two legs at least 2 ft in length each (2) with feet no wider than
4 inches by 12 inches (3) with nothing sticky or suction-y to help
maintain balance. And technically, that was it. The twist was that
they had to remain standing while on a 1 meter round platter which
would dip and rise randomly, with inclines up to 15 degrees for the
first 5 minutes, 30 degrees for the next 5 minutes and 45 degrees
thereafter. Even humans would be likely to fall by the 6th minute.
All three stations would run on the same randomly generated program
which would be repeated for all contest entries.
Looking at the competition, gyroscopes were obviously a favorite
design element. (And yes, there were small gyroscopes in Alphadroid
too.) Low centers of gravity were the other almost universal design
element. Alphadroid was the only one that stood above 3 feet tall.
The huge design problem here was the two leg design. If you want
to build a robot to maintain balance, you'd build something with a
solid base with a body low to the ground. The requirement that it
stand up on two legs meant that it had to be able to adjust itself
internally to compensate for ongoing changes in the environment.
I was actually kind of worried about this one. This wasn't what
Alphadroid was built for, but Alpha assured me the droid body would
balance just fine.
Aside from Alphadroid, only two designs made it past the first 5
minutes, which actually impressed me a great deal. I made note of the
design teams responsible.
But with Alpha's ability to adjust itself dynamically, there was
no real doubt as to who would win.
After 15 minutes, the judges called it for us. If any following
competitor matched our 15 minute mark, they would either declare a tie
or have a follow-up face-off to determine the winner. No one else came
close.
Two local news stations had sent camera crews to cover the
competition. The reporters had covered lots of different conferences
and were apparently pretty bored with all the robot geeks, but did
their best to look excited when they were actually on camera. They
focused on us a lot when we started winning, but we told them we would
give no statements or interviews until the competition had ended. (I
took some time to start going over possible questions and statements
with Zatanna, who was AARD's head of public relations.)
I expected most of the other teams to hate us by now... and
certainly there were some hostile looks... but most of the competitors
were geeks who were enthusiastic about a robot that could fulfill their
SciFi fantasies. I... well, my whole team was offered enough
congratulatory drinks to kill a herd of buffalo from liver failure.
Everyone was prodding us to reveal our design secrets, but Beta,
Elisa and I all refused to say anything more than that our company was
designing advanced artificial limbs and had adapted them into a robot
body for fun.
Later on, the ladies admitted to me that they had all been hit on
by members of the other teams multiple times. Jane topped the list
with 23 propositions during our time in Vegas. I guess Diana and Kara
were a little too imposing for the geek crowd, so they only received 3
and 4 propositions respectively.
That night we were all a bit tired from the day's activities --
which is a little counterintuitive since Alphadroid did all the work
that day -- so no one went out gambling after dinner. Daria and Rei
were trading out guard duty tonight. The rest of us spent an hour at
the hotel pool, then retired to our rooms.
Zatanna and Kasumi ambled over to join me in my bedroom that
night.
We started by showering off the pool chlorine smell... a nice
long slow shower where no one washed their own body.
We moved on into the bedroom, where Zatanna and I laid Kasumi
down between us. For maybe 20 minutes we just lay there together, Z
and I both half on, half off of Kasumi, all lost in a group kiss and
grope. Eventually I rolled entirely onto Kasumi and made love to her
while Zatanna kissed her and played with her breasts.
After I came, Zana cleaned my cock of fluids with her tongue,
then lay down next to Kasumi. Then I made love to Zatanna, long and
slowly, this time with Kasumi kissing Zatanna and playing with her
breasts.
It was a very pleasant experience, and we turned out our lights
by 10:30.
Wednesday had a noticeably different feel to it. Everyone was
watching us as we walked by. Daria and Rei both said that people had
been stopping by all night long to look at Alphadroid. They were
apparently a bit frustrated that neither of them knew any specifics
about the droid, and most of them took pictures.
Additionally, there were now a dozen news crews spread out around
the competition floor. The reporters tried to get statements from
every group, but at least half of the questions were about our group.
Zatanna reiterated for us that we would make no statement and give no
interviews until the competition was over.
The first competition today was also the most subjective of any
on the list: Piano playing. The only physical requirement for this
competition was that the robot was limited to 10 fingers. There wasn't
a limitation that the fingers be attached to hands, so most of the 16
entries had 10 fingers spread out evenly along the center of the
keyboard.
The actual competition was in three stages: The robot had to
play basic scales, then a children's melody of their own choosing, then
a final song not revealed until this morning: The main titles Star Wars
theme by John Williams. We were provided with both the sheet music and
MIDI file for the Star Wars theme just two hours before the
competition.
This competition would be judged by a 3 man panel of musicians:
one was a popular local bar piano man, one was a nationally recognized
conductor and one was a popular Hollywood composer. The judges would
not be allowed to see the robot playing; they could only listen to it.
This was the one competition where our victory was iffy. The
subjective judging and freedom of design made things too uncertain.
We were 13th on the list of 16 entries, where each entry took 15
to 20 minutes each to play their 3 tunes. Playing the basic scales
took less than a minute. The children's song was limited to under 2
minutes. And the Star Wars MIDI file was timed as a 3 minute cut of
the theme song. But setup for each unit took from 3 to 15 minutes (if
they took longer than 15 minutes, they were penalized).
A baby grand was set up on one side of a partition on the
auditorium stage, with the judges sitting in comfy chairs on the other
side. For the first time in the entire competition, a large sea of
chairs were provided for everyone to sit down and enjoy the show.
Many of the competitors were slow to set up and had trouble
keeping the desired pace of the music. A few played with the rhythm
and speed of a player piano. None could really be mistaken for a human
player, but a few were definitely a step above elevator music.
Almost four hours into the competition, after the lunch break, it
was finally AARD's turn. The MC had to remind the crowd to stay quiet
and save their applause for the end. It was obvious that no one knew
how well we would do in this competition, but our reputation had been
built up, so most of the audience were hoping we'd live up to it.
Beta and Elisa guided Alphadroid to the piano and let it sit down
on its own. I think at a bare minimum, even those who resented our
dominance were glad at the lack of setup time. Beta nodded to the MC,
who told her to proceed.
Beta's clear, quiet voice carried across the whispers in the
audience. "Alphadroid, play file one."
Alphadroid looked down at the keyboard, raised its hands, paused
for a moment, then played scales like a star pupil. Not really any
better than some of the other competitors, but it was playing with
human-like hands and not like it was some kind of portable player
piano.
After it finished, it moved its hands back to a neutral piano
position, hovering above the keyboard.
Once the MC quieted the crowd, he nodded at Beta, who stepped up
and said, "Alphadroid, play file two."
Alphadroid went through the same pause, then played two verses of
"Frère Jacques" or "Brother John", sounding much like a talented
child's recital, I suppose. We were the second to choose that melody,
so it wasn't anything new that day, but it was played with a nice crisp
pace.
With the third song, the full range of motion for Alphadroid's
hands was displayed. While the theme was not played with any special
human flourishes or variations, it was played as well as any
technically skilled, trained musician could.
As I was listening, I texted Alpha to load up Vader's theme as a
fourth file in case we had an encore.
The other competitors ran through their piano routines, and we
finished less than an hour later. The judges finished marking their
scores -- each judge gave each competitor up to 5 pts each for the
first two songs and up to 10 pts for the third, so each competitor
could receive up to 60 pts total -- the ballots were tabulated and 20
minutes later, the MC announced the winners. We won again, but only by
2 points.
I breathed a sign of relief.
Beta whispered in the MC's ear. He thought for a moment, then
nodded. Raising the mic to his mouth, he said, "I'm told Alphadroid has
a short encore piece prepared if you all was to hear it. How about
it?"
Cheers greeted him. This time the judges came around the
partition to watch as Beta led Alphadroid up to the piano again. It
played a forceful rendition of The Imperial March, also known as Darth
Vader's theme.
The last competition was perhaps the strangest of the five:
Juggling. The challenges were (1) to juggle one ball in the air with
one hand for one minute, (2) to juggle one ball in the air moving it
back and forth between two hands for one minute, (3) to juggle two
balls in the air between two hands for one minute, (4) to juggle three
balls, etc. The balls had to be tossed at least once every three
seconds. Whichever robot could go the longest through the tests would
win.
The robot design was limited in that (1) there had to be two and
only two hands, (2) the hands had to be a hemisphere or less in
curvature and (3) six inches or less in diameter. Other than that,
there were no limitations.
If you, the reader, has never juggled before, I'd like you to try
juggling just one ball in two hands for a minute... and try it
honestly, not just dropping it from one hand to the other. It's not
easy. In some ways, it can be easier for robots, who can make regular,
consistent motions for nice, regular tosses. But the turnaround,
catching, then immediately throwing again, was very difficult for robot
hands. Plus any variations in the toss will require an adjustment to
the position of the catching hand.
This competition also took place on the stage. This time there
were only 14 teams competing and AARD was deliberately moved to the
final slot. To be fair, all the teams who had placed in any of the
competitions were moved to the end of the rotation this time.
Every robot entered made it to the third stage (2 balls) and only
3 teams failed to reach the fourth stage (3 balls). Three balls seemed
to be the big stumbling block. Of the first 13 robots, only two teams
made it to four balls and none made it to five balls.
One of the teams I thought was both very clever and borderline
cheats. While it's true that building small vacuum pumps into the
palms of the robot hands was not against the rules, I thought it went
against the spirit of the competition. Apparently the MC thought so
too, because he quietly went off stage and talked with the judges in
charge of the event, but nothing came of it.
Alpha had confided in me that this was the most difficult to
program. While all of the elements for juggling were already available
in the Alphadroid design, combining them took her days to work out
properly. As it was, Alphadroid could easily juggle up to 5 balls at a
time.
Alphadroid lived up to our expectations. This time the MC let it
keep going, to 4 balls, then 5, and when it tried to juggle six, it
made a few successful catches before the balls started going wild which
generated a collective "Awwww" from the audience.
Actually, that made me glad. It let the audience see that
Alphadroid wasn't all powerful.
The MC congratulated AARD and all of the contestants and asked us
to clear out in an orderly fashion so the area could be converted for
the awards dinner in two hours.
As the crowd broke up and filtered out, we were mobbed by well-
wishers and reporters. I thanked all of the well wishers and, giving
in to the inevitable, told the reporters there would be a press
conference later. Eventually we all met up near the stage where Beta
was trying to clear a path for Alphadroid to return to our setup area.
About 30 minutes later, we finally made it back to our little
room. I decided we need to keep Alphadroid and the rest of the
computer equipment in our rooms for the rest of the week, so we started
hauling it all upstairs. With Alphadroid carrying a couple heavy boxes
to help out, it only took two trips.
I talked some more with Zatanna about the upcoming press
conference, then we all changed into nice clothes and headed down for
dinner.
This time everyone was divided up by group, with 28 tables - 25
for competition groups, 2 for the Caltech sponsors, and 1 for the
dotcom guy sponsor. Our table had a gold-colored tablecloth, four
tables had silver-colored tablecloths and 4 had bronze-colored cloths.
I think one of the second-place groups won in two events and another of
the second-place groups won a bronze. That was proven correct when they
handed out the award certificates and checks after we had all settled
in with the appetizers and salads.
I enlisted Zatanna to give her dazzling smile and read a friendly
thank-you acceptance speech. When she read out a company promise to
never program anything called Skynet, she got a nice round of laughs.
After dinner, we moved off to the side of the stage where there
was a small table setup for the press conference. Kara and I flanked
Zatanna at the table while the rest of us (minus Elisa who was on
guard-duty tonight) spread out around the area, outside the camera's
gaze.
Zatanna was dressed in something very similar to her comic book
outfit. Her top was basically a female version of a man's tuxedo. It
showed no cleavage at all, but couldn't hide her assets. While she did
wear fishnet stockings, they were mostly covered by a skirt which hung
down below her knees. Kara had on a white silk blouse with a shallow
square neckline, much more conservative than her superhero outfit, with
a pale blue skirt falling to just above her knees. I had on a nice but
generic-looking dark suit with a tie showing blueprints for the U.S.S.
Enterprise.
She opened the conference with a statement thanking the sponsors
and other competitors and complimenting their designs. She followed
with a brief description of our company and philosophy.
"Welcome. My name is Annabelle Zane, and I am the spokesperson
for AARD.
"Alpha Advanced Research and Design is a small company, but we
plan to be on the cutting edge of technological development and
programming. We currently have no plans to expand into manufacturing
or sales. Instead our researchers and designers develop new
technologies, patent the designs and license them for manufacturing by
other companies better equipped to deal with production and sales.
"Our researchers primarily consist of people who are talented and
gifted in their fields, but actively shun the spotlight. You can read
the statements of our company philosophy on our website at
www.____.com.
"Up here with me today are Karen Starr, our day-to-day manager in
charge of the company, and Frank ____, our company president and lead
programmer.
"Alphadroid, our winning robot design which you saw here today,
came about as a result of our development of the next generation of
human prostheses. To be honest, most of our researchers are nerds and
geeks and proud of it. Once they realized they had robot-like arms and
legs in development, they wanted to build themselves an actual robot.
Since our company allows and even encourages free-form research like
that, Alphadroid was the result.
"When we heard about the competition here, we rushed completion
of Alphadroid and adapted and wrote software to match the different
events so that we could participate.
"We currently have no plans to develop Alphadroid as a product,
but many of its parts should soon become available. The eyes are
currently undergoing testing for approval by the FDA and AMA. We hope
to have it completed and approved within a year, at which time the
license will become available for manufacturers to produce working
artificial eyes for human clients.
"The artificial arms and legs should enter testing within the
next six months. Other artificial body parts, such as an artificial
liver, should be ready for testing before long as well.
"With the understanding that we're not going to give away
technical details or secrets here tonight, we are prepared to answer
questions for a few minutes."
She then proceeded to handle the reporters with a skill that led
me to believe she could even herd cats. Not that these were ravenous
political reporters trying to get an embarrassing or revealing quote;
they were largely science reporters who flew into town last night after
seeing yesterday's video of Alphadroid. But there were at least a
dozen of them all trying to talk at the same time.
I'll record a few of the more interesting and stupid questions
and skip the ones just asking for more details on subjects we refused
to give more details on.
"How strong is Alphadroid?"
Me: "It can crush bricks to dust. I'm not going to give a
specific maximum PSI for a few different reasons, but it is greater
than 1000 pounds per square inch."
"Will your prosthetic arms have that same strength?"
Me: "No, or at least we are not planning to include that level
of strength for both safety and power considerations."
"What other tricks can your Alphadroid do?"
Kara: "That's entirely dependent on what programming you have
loaded. I think there are a few other functions currently loaded. For
example, we used it to help carry our equipment this afternoon. If
you're wondering if it can act as a robot butler or assistant, then no,
not really. Not without a LOT more programming."
"Your Alphadroid seems perfect for movies and TV. Have you been
contacted by Hollywood?"
Kara: "No, and we don't really expect to work in those fields.
Compared to CGI, the costs for actual androids are much too high. Even
on a rental basis, the programming and insurance costs would probably
be noticeably more than computer graphics."
"Could you build an actual 6 million dollar man or bionic woman?"
Zatanna: "Frank?"
Me: "Yes, I suppose we could. Well, we don't have a bionic ear
yet for Jamie Sommers... And they would have to deal with plugging
themselves in to recharge every few hours to compensate for the power
usage that comes with the super strength... And we don't yet have a
completely realistic skin analog, but I bet there is a special effects
company somewhere that could handle that problem. On the flip side,
they'd never be able to get through airport security. And I doubt they
could run at 60 mph."
"Would it cost more or less than 6 million dollars?"
Me: "Off the top of my head? Right now, today, it would cost
more, mostly because we'd be dealing with customized prototypes. Once
we've finished development and have licensed it out for manufacturing,
it should cost significantly less. Oh and to back up the conversation
slightly, another major design problem would be that they would risk
breaking their supporting human skeleton every time they used super
strength in their arms and legs."
"Is AARD only focused on building replacement body parts or are
you working in other areas of research? And if so, could we get some
examples?"
Kara: "We generally support any legal research our people want
to pursue. As I understand it, the eye came first, then the interface
that connects the eye to the nerves led to the development of other
body parts. As for other areas of research, we're currently doing
testing on a nano-wire surgery unit which will allow surgeons to
operate on a small scale anywhere in the body without risking or
damaging surrounding areas. For example, the nano-wire can allow
surgery in the middle of the brain or inside bone marrow without
disturbing the surrounding areas."
"Anything else?"
Kara: "Yes, but nothing that we're ready to reveal or discuss
right now."
"How many people does AARD employ?"
Kara: "More than 10, less than 100."
"How is your company able to develop technology like this with
such a small staff?"
Me: "I like to think of us as the new Menlo Park, but one where
Edison welcomed people like Tesla instead of chasing them away."
"So you only employ geniuses?"
Kara: "We employ geniuses, and we employ non-geniuses. And if
Wile E. Coyote wants to apply, we'll consider hiring super geniuses.
Many of our employees prefer to work solo or even from home. But at
the same time, nearly all of our researchers are people who don't want
any personal public attention."
"So your company takes all the credit for their work?"
Kara: "Our company provides a buffer between them and the
public. If any of them changes their mind and wants that attention,
then we will provide a list of their accomplishments and a great
reference for them."
"Do they receive benefits from their research?"
Kara: "Are you wanting to apply" (pause for laughter) "Yes,
they receive benefits for their work, but contract details are private
as is our list of employees."
[Technically this is not true, since tax records have to list
everyone. But as a privately held company, I didn't have to allow
public access to our tax records.]
"Is it true that your company caught thieves stealing from your
truck?"
Zatanna: "I'm going to refer you to the police for any details
on that, since it is an active case. I will say that we have and will
continue to offer our full cooperation with the police in that robbery
investigation. While AARD was targeted by the alleged robbers at one
point, none of our equipment was stolen."
Zatanna finally wrapped it up after about 20 minutes of
questions. I congratulated the two of them on handling themselves well
and asked them if they could round up a few bottles of nice champagne.
Once we made it up to our suite, we had a little party. We
toasted to our success, to Alphadroid, then went around the room,
offering a toast to everyone, one-by-one. No doubt about it, we got
toasted.
I had to reconstruct part of the evening by consulting with
Alpha, whose three pairs of eyes recorded everything. The next
morning, I counted 7 empty bottles of champagne and six half-empty.
Basically, we had an orgy.
Kara put on some music and goaded me til I agreed to dance with
her. We were having fun until Jane enhanced the fun by sneaking up
behind her and pulling Kara's shirt up but not off. Kara turned around
and responded by pulling off Jane's shirt entirely. Jane somehow
wormed her hands around Kara's back and was able to unsnap her bra.
The applause she got prompted Kara to shrug off the bra entirely,
leaving her shirt loose but still on. Kara then chased down Jane, who
had retreated to sit next to Daria. Kara held Jane's arms trapped
while she told Daria to remove Jane's bra.
Daria, not used to being drunk, did so. Once Jane was released,
she jumped Daria in retaliation, not giving up until Daria was also
topless.
I was enjoying the show a great deal and removed my shirt as
well, saying that it was only fair that everyone be dressed the same.
Not everyone followed suit right away.
As a side note, when the first shirt came off, Beta and Elisa
closed all the blinds and curtains. Thank god computers can't get
drunk.
Kara and I started dancing again to the music on the radio, only
this time she was significantly more bouncy. The next song to come on
the radio was The Macarena.
"Oh, I kinda remember this one," I slurred as I started making
movements vaguely remembered from years before.
"Show me how," insisted Kara.
So I spun her around, held her close and started putting my hands
on her body in rhythm with the music.
"Everybody do the Macarena!" I insisted. "Beta, take off your
shirt and show us how."
Beta and Elisa both stripped to the skin above the waist started
doing a perfectly synchronized Macarena dance, which the rest of us
tried to emulate. Jane and Anna tried to emulate me by moving behind
Daria and Rei to feel them up rhythmically just as I was doing with
Kara.
I remember specifically noticing that Kara's nipples were rock
hard. When the song ended, we all clapped for the radio, which ignored
us and moved on to play something by Ricky Fuentes, I think.
I kept holding onto Kara from behind and feeling her nips. "Your
nipples... are sooo hard right now. Feel em. They're like... like
little... diamonds."
"They aren't the only thing that's hard," she said, grinding her
rear back onto my groin.
I was distracted by a small crashing sound as Anna bumped a table
and a champagne bucket, full of ice and an unopened bottle, fell to the
ground. The bottle didn't break, but ice spilled everywhere.
In a flash of drunken cleverness I said, "Okay, everybody. We're
all drunk right now. Right?" A few murmurs of assent answered.
"Okay. We're shtartin to shpill shtuff right now," I slurred,
pointing at the floor where Anna and Kasumi were scooping ice back into
the bucket.
"Staring to spill stuff. And we're all wearing nice clothes," I
enunciated carefully. "So I want everyone to take their clothes off so
they don't get dirty or spilled on. Okay?"
Oh how clever I was. I'm sure I wasn't the drunkest of the
bunch, but then again, I wasn't the soberest either. So yes,
apparently everyone was indeed just drunk enough (or otherwise willing)
to go along with me because a minute later, we were all completely
naked.
"Good. Now, I wanna make out with everyone."
I latched onto Daria who was nearby and gave her a sloppy kiss
while one hand played with her nipples. After a few seconds, I put my
arm around her shoulder.
"Now Daria, you and Jane are always together, so tonight I want
you to go make out with... with... Diana here." I grabbed a slightly
drunk, naked Wonder Woman, gave her a deep kiss and shoved Daria into
her arms.
"Who's next?"
I next grabbed Kasumi and hooked her up with Kara, then put Rei
with Elisa, Beta with Anna and grabbed Zatanna for myself. I looked
around to make sure that all of the couples were making out, then lay
Zatanna down in the middle of the floor and fucked her.
Once I was sure Zatanna had come, I went and brought over Rei and
Elisa. Putting them right next to Zatanna, I fucked Rei for a few
minutes until I was sure she had come, then moved on to Elisa. After a
few minutes Elisa faked an orgasm and I left them piled up with Zatanna
and fetched Kasumi and Kara. Apparently being drunk really
desensitized my penis or something because I was able to go through the
entire room like that until I finally came inside Beta. All in all, I
think our little drunken orgy lasted about two and a half hours.
Half the women were asleep and I was close to joining them when
Beta roused me enough for me to drink something fizzy but non-alcoholic
before I faded into unconsciousness.
I woke up Thursday morning about 7:30 or so when someone jostled
me. Even though it felt much too early, I squinted my eyes open enough
to make out a naked Daria moving unsteadily out of the room. A moment
later, I heard the distinct sound of peeing, distinct enough that I
don't think she closed her bathroom door all the way.
This suddenly made me aware that I too was feeling a great deal
of pressure in my bladder. I extracted my limbs from the tangle of
naked bodies as best I could, noted that a couple other ladies appeared
to be waking up too, and quickly made my way to a bathroom.
My head wasn't pounding nearly as much as I thought it would.
True, champagne wasn't really hard liquor, but we had drunk a lot of it
last night. When I exited the bathroom a few minutes later, a clean
and fully dressed Elisa was waiting for me, holding some pills and a
large glass of water.
"Here. This is ibuprofen and B6 vitamin supplements to help
alleviate any hangover symptoms. Beta is tending to Daria."
"Thank you." I gulped it down. "Wow, I think that's the first
time I've gotten drunk in the last... five years? Something like that.
But last night was a lot of fun.
"I think some of the others were waking up too. Go help them and
I'll grab a quick shower."
It was an hour and a half before everyone was up and clean. I
ordered another mini breakfast buffet for the group and picked up all
the clothes and bottles before room service made it in. I also spent a
little time making sure no one was upset about last night or ashamed
about it. Kasumi in particular really didn't want to show her face.
She may be used to dealing with drunks (ref. Ranma 1/2) but this was
probably the first time she had ever gotten drunk herself. It was
definitely her first orgy.
When it was time to load up Alphadroid to take down to the police
station, Beta and Kara volunteered to accompany Diana and myself. We
walked Alphadroid down to the truck and strapped it in. Beta stayed in
the back with the droid and the rest of us crammed into the truck cab.
When Kara and I walked into the station, we seemed to cause a
ripple of attention, eyes looking our way, heads popping up to look in
our direction.
I approached the front desk and told the lady, "We're here to see
Detective Mills. My name is Frank _____. He should be expecting us,
assuming he isn't out on a call."
He came out to greet us a minute later.
"Thank you for coming by, Mr. ____."
"Detective Mills. I'd like you to meet Karen Starr, the day-to-
day manager of AARD."
"Pleased to meet you, Ms Starr."
"We have Alphadroid outside in the truck. Did you want us to
bring it inside or...?"
"Sure, if you can. I reserved a room for us. I think a lot of
people are going to want to take a peek, especially since you showed up
on the morning news. Congratulations on winning all of your
competitions by the way."
"Thank you. I haven't had a chance to watch the news yet, but I
have a friend who should be recording it all for us. Did we come off
well?"
"I think you'll be pleased. And I think every nerd in the
country will want to work at your company."
"Huh. That's maybe a bit more than I was hoping for, but I guess
we'll see."
The three of us went out and escorted Alphadroid inside the
station, trailing a small crowd of onlookers, most of whom had their
phone cameras pointed at us.
We set up in a small conference room and were soon doing
demonstrations as best we could. We were pretty limited in what we
could do, but someone came up with a set of juggling balls and the
security activation demonstrations went pretty well.
After about 15 minutes, Detective Mills took me aside for a
private talk. He told me that the meth-head mugger, aka Stephen
"Sonny" Miller, had a fractured wrist and had hired an ambulance-chaser
lawyer. The attempted robbery case was solid, but he was afraid that I
was about to be sued in civil court and wanted to give me a heads-up.
In his and the assistant D.A.'s opinions, any such suit had no merit,
but it would be a civil matter and out of their hands.
I thanked him and made a call to Alpha. My instant reaction was
a few seconds of panic. No one likes to find out they're about to be
sued. But it only took a few seconds for that to turn to anger. I
told Alpha what Detective Mills passed along to me and asked her to get
me an appointment tomorrow with a good local law firm, the best she
could find with no known ties to organized crime. Then for her to
start preparing a defense and possible counter-suit options.
A few minutes later, a police chief or captain or something came
by, smiled and asked everyone to wrap it up. If it wasn't related to a
case, we needed to finish up and let everyone get back to work.
Detective Mills talked to him quietly, then said "Five more minutes,
then they need to leave."
As a finale, I had four guys sit on the metal table, which must
have weighed a couple hundred pounds all by itself, and had Alphadroid
lift it up a foot off the ground. We got a round of applause and a
request to warn us if we ever start producing Alphadroids for security
purposes.
The rest of the day was vacation time for us. We visited the
Star Trek Experience, a magic show and saw a B-list comedian. It was a
fun day, and I was glad to be able to spend it with my harem of
friends. I was also glad I was able to work in an hour nap after
lunch.
When I checked in with Alpha later on, she had a lot of
information ready for me. First, I had a 10 am meeting with Chris
Sloane of Freyer, Kinkaide and Sloane, a local A-list law firm.
Expensive but worth it. Next, the mugger's lawyer was indeed a well-
known ambulance-chaser, who also had a long list of complaints that had
been lodged against him by both former clients and targets of his
suits. There were also some indications that he had low level contacts
and support from organized crime. Alpha had hacked into the hospital
database and accessed the mugger's MRI scan. His wrist did have an
actual fracture, but Alpha was certain it was from firing the gun with
the wrist at an angle and not from Diana's grip. Finally, Alpha had a
24 page brief anticipating and debunking a variety of possible legal
arguments against us and a list of 4 possible counter-suit options.
She even felt we had a possibility of getting the lawyer disbarred if
he pushed the suit.
I thanked her and printed out her document.
The other subject of major interest was our press coverage.
Detective Mills' comments had shown a pretty good feel for the
coverage. While we weren't headline news anywhere, we were getting a
lot of play in the Science and Technology channels, as well as spots on
CNN and Foxnews as a color/filler story. (Later that night, some of
the footage was even on a Comedy Central news/humor show, where the
host complained that we had begun the Robot Revolution, which he termed
'the robotalypse'. That particular humorist had a long tradition of
creating his own terms.) She had recorded half a dozen news segments
and loaded them onto our server.
We had also started getting a lot of requests from late night and
early morning TV shows to do a show-and-tell with Alphadroid. That was
something I certainly hadn't considered, and I told Alpha I'd think
about it.
Alpha also said that a lot of personal videos had shown up on
YouTube and other similar sites. A few people had even commented that
our spokesperson looked a lot like Zatanna, and a couple people had
replied that Karen would make a good Power Girl. Fortunately no one
had yet made a connection with her name, since "Karen Starr" was a
common alias used by Kara in the comics.
I gathered everyone together (mostly in their nighties) to show
the videos. There were a lot of press conference clips with incomplete
or shortened statements, but nothing was taken out of context or re-cut
to imply something unintended. All in all, we came off in a very
positive light.
When we finished watching, we split off into our rooms, with
Diana and Kara attaching themselves to me. I was in for a super-
powered evening.
For once, I was completely the center of attention. Usually I
make a special effort to make the women, or at least one of the women,
the center of attention. This time, I was gently undressed by two
super-strong super-hot super-heroines.
They laid me out on the bed and licked my entire body from head
to toe, slowly and sensually, taking occasional sips from a glass of
water to keep their mouths hydrated. When my cock was straining to
burst midway through their around-the-world tour of my body, Kara
sucked me off with a humming deep throat. Then they picked up right
where they left off and finished licking me until my entire body was
clean and once again vibrating with sexual tension.
Diana swung her legs over me and slowly sank her little girl down
onto my little man. Kara came up from behind her and kissed her neck.
As Diana started moving up and down my shaft, Kara caressed her
friend's breasts from behind and kissed her way up her neck, seeking
out Diana's mouth as her face turned to the side to meet her lips.
Diana continued to bounce on my very hard cock as they kissed.
After a minute of this, Kara broke off the kiss long enough to move
around and straddle my head. She lowered her vulva to my mouth, and
the last sight I saw for the next five minutes was Kara reaching for
Diana before her large but tight buttocks blocked my view.
I grabbed her hips to guide her movements while my tongue went to
work. She was already pretty wet, so I was able to bring her off twice
before I blasted my second load of the day into Diana, which triggered
Diana's orgasm too.
Kara got off my face and a moment later, Diana pulled herself off
my cock. When they recovered enough, Diana set about cleaning Kara's
juices off my face and Kara cleaned Diana's juices off my cock. This
woke my libido back up enough that when Kara started cleaning out
Diana's cunt, I moved in behind her and fucked her hard enough to push
her face into the brunette cunt in front of her with each stroke.
I pounded into her for five or ten minutes, and not even her
amazing massaging vaginal muscles could bring me off right away. I had
already come twice this evening and was still hard, but not anywhere
near letting loose. After the first five or ten minutes, Kara came
with some violent twitching, and Diana moved into position next to her,
sticking her hips back up at me.
I moved over to attend to her lovely cunt and worked in and out
of her depths for 10 or 15 minutes before she came... at which time I
moved back to Kara. I ended up alternating between the two of them
like that for at least 45 minutes before I finally let loose again,
this time into Kara.
Going to sleep thoroughly drained of semen between a sexually
sated Power Girl and Wonder Woman is a wonderful feeling.
I woke up later then normal, about 8:30. Most of the rest of the
ladies were already up, dressed and ready. I didn't really have time
for more than a quick good morning, since I had to shower, shave and
eat quickly to be able to make it on time for the lawyer meeting at 10.
While I was in the middle of my shower, I realized that I hadn't
told Diana about the meeting and that she should probably accompany me
since she was involved.
"Diana!" I yelled. No answer. I stepped out of the shower,
water still running and stuck my head out my bathroom door.
"Diana!"
Beta stuck her head into my bedroom. "I think Diana's in her own
shower right now."
"I forgot to tell her about the meeting with the lawyer this
morning, and she should come with. I'd like to take you or Kara too."
"Certainly. I'll go tell her and discuss the matter with Kara."
I ducked back into my shower, wondering if I should have just
chosen Beta or Kara to accompany us. I mean, theoretically I should
just automatically choose Beta. But I knew I wouldn't be hurting
Beta's feelings and that Kara might have been feeling left out
recently. Diana had experienced a brief return to fighting criminals,
and I doubt Kara's inclusion in the press conference really offset
that. I wasn't as worried about Rogue or Zatanna, since their
identities weren't as dependent on fighting crime. Plus a social
negotiation like that could be a good experience for Beta.
We made it downstairs by 9:50, Diana, Kara and me. Later, Beta
would tell me that she felt that Kara's involvement today would be good
for her mental health, so it was nice to find that we were in
agreement.
Our cab pulled up at the law office building with 15 minutes to
spare. The offices were on the 20th floor and Mr. Sloane's office had
a great view of the city.
Mr. Chris Sloane turned out to be Ms. Christine "Chris" Sloane,
recently divorced late-30-something year old mother of one, and a very
attractive 30-something at that. Her dark brown hair was done up in a
severe bun and she wore a nice conservative dress which nonetheless
showed off the shape of a wonderful figure. I did my best to put all
of that out of my thoughts as I laid out my situation to her.
"... So I would like to put your firm on retainer for me. If Mr.
Miller and his lawyer, a Mr..." I checked my notes. "Charlie
Summers... if they leave me alone, then we're all well and good. If
they sue me, which I've been told is very likely given Mr. Summers
reputation, I first of all want the best defense possible, and your
firm was recommended to me as the best law firm in the city that wasn't
in bed with organized crime."
"Thank you for the compliment. To be fair to my colleagues
around the city, I don't know if your assessment is completely correct,
but I will say that my opinion of Mr. Summers matches with what you've
heard. He has been known to file frivolous lawsuits in the past,
especially against out-of-town defendants who often end up settling
their cases rather than face the hassle of an out-of-state legal
battle."
"That makes sense," I said. "If they do file suit, I want to
file a counter-suit. I'm generally a live-and-let-live kind of guy,
but if someone is trying to use the law to extort money out of me, I
want to use the law to nail them to the wall."
"While I'm almost certain we can win the case, I'm not sure if we
have enough grounds for a counter-suit."
"Ms. Sloane, through my company I have met a lot of people and
made a lot of friends with various highly specialized skills and areas
of knowledge... you know, I guess that could be taken the wrong way.
Let me just say that one of the people who sometimes works for my
company is one of the best informed and most talented legal minds in
the country... and an extreme agoraphobe. She'll probably never become
an actual lawyer because she'll never leave her house. At any rate, I
discussed my possible problems with Susan early yesterday afternoon.
She's the one who recommended your firm. She also wrote this up
overnight, if you'd like to take a look..."
I slid the 24 page legal brief over to her. I doubt Mrs. Sloane
meant to have us wait for 20 minutes while she read through it, but
judging by her varying facial expressions, she quickly became very
interested in what was written.
Eventually she reached the last page and looked up. "Well, Mr.
____, I must say that this is one of the most concise and, frankly
speaking, frightening legal documents I've read in recent memory. Most
of the points she makes are ones that we ourselves have used on
occasion. But... she put this together in one day?"
"Less than a day, but yes."
"I don't mean to sound petty, but I'm very glad she's agoraphobic
if it means I'll never have to face her in court. But back to your
request for a counter-suit, I'll need a little time to check the
references she makes, but her arguments seem valid. I can't guarantee
a win, but they should be sufficient to give us a good chance.
"But if I may, it sounds like you would prefer to avoid a suit in
the first place if possible, correct?"
"Absolutely."
"Then I think our best option is meeting with Mr. Summers and
convincing him that you're serious about fighting the suit. They have
almost no chance of winning if we're willing to face them in court, and
he has to know this. I can drop by his offices for a friendly visit to
discuss the matter with him."
"That sounds good to me. How soon can you talk with him?"
"Probably not until next week. How long are you going to be in
town?"
"We're flying back tomorrow morning. But as long as you can give
me a week's notice -- preferably two weeks, but one week would be the
minimum -- I can fly back. That's what I told the police too."
"That shouldn't be a problem. It would be better if you were
still in town, but just the fact that you've already retained local
counsel should be a big tip-off to him that you're serious."
"Also, I don't think it's going to be relevant, but I'm actually
on call as a witness-slash-victim with the local police for two cases.
The mugging on Monday and on Sunday, a couple guys broke into a van my
company rented to try and steal some of our computer equipment."
"Really? Tell me about it."
I gave her the basic rundown of my brushes with the criminal
element this week.
"Oh, you were part of that robot competition? I thought you
looked familiar. Weren't you the team that won all the prizes?"
"That's us."
"Well, then congratulations are in order. I understand you've
made quite a name for yourself in the scientific and technical
communities."
"We are up-and-comers, yes. Karen here is the company's day-to-
day manager and Diana is our head of security. Speaking of which, if
this does actually come to trial, I think we may want to be extra
certain that we have detailed MRI's and X-rays of Sonny's wrist. I
have reason to believe that his injury was caused by him firing the
gun, not by Diana's hold on his wrist."
"Why would you believe that?"
"No particular reason. But... here, Diana, show her how you held
the wrist." We both stood up and I pretended to hold a gun. Diana did
her wrist grab, but at a slower speed. Seeing it this way made a bit
more sense than it had during the blur of motion and adrenaline.
"He asked for my purse, which I was holding in my right hand,"
Diana explained as we went through the pantomime. "I took a step
towards him and held out the purse. As soon as his attention focused
on me instead of Frank, I dropped the purse and continued the movement
with my right hand so I could grab his wrist and change the aim of the
gun. It was about in this position that he fired his one shot."
Looking at it, I could see that her left hand would have been in
position to catch or deflect the bullet, but it was her right hand that
was relevant to this discussion. Plus bringing up the whole superhero-
in-the-flesh aspect wouldn't really help matters.
"Now see... the gun was fired while the hand was at an angle, so
the backwards thrust of the gun would have also been at an angle
instead of along the line of the forearm which could have absorbed the
force of the shot without a problem. So if his fracture was here," I
pointed to the area behind my wrist where Diana had grabbed, "it would
have been from her hand grabbing him. But I think his fracture was
here," pointing to my actual wrist joint, "which means it only could
have come from the force from the gun being fired."
"Either way, I'm personally 100% certain no excessive force was
used, but I was thinking that he'd have even less of a case if it came
from the gunshot."
"That's a good point, and it would be to our benefit. If it
actually comes to trial, I'll have our expert take a look. At the same
time, he can argue that the shot was fired as a result of being
grabbed. It's largely irrelevant given that he was injured while using
an illegally owned firearm while committing a crime."
We sat back down and Ms. Sloane gave us a basic overview of what
kind of timeline to expect if it actually went to court. First of all,
a civil suit couldn't be filed until the criminal case was over.
Depending on how her conversation with Mr. Summers went, she'd have to
wait and see if he got a plea deal.
"Speaking of which, I might be willing to pay for some drug rehab
for Sonny if you, or someone whose opinion you trust, thinks it would
do him some good. That's assuming there's no lawsuit. Oh, and though I
can't imagine how he'd do it, if they sue the police for any reason,
I'd like to file a civil suit against them."
She gave a slightly surprised, "Hmm?" noise.
"Basically my goal is to make sure that neither Sonny nor his
lawyer make any extra money from his crime. As long as it stays a
strictly criminal matter, then I won't do anything more than show up to
give my testimony. If it becomes a civil matter, then they either go
home with nothing or owing us."
"Understood. I think it will be a pleasure having you as a
client, Mr. ____."
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Ms. Sloane. Please call me next
week to let me know how your meeting goes." I pulled out one of my
business cards and wrote my private cell number on it. "This is my
private cell phone number. And if you're ever in Texas, give me a
call. I'd be happy to show you around or at least take you out for
dinner."
We shook hands and left. I was wondering if my total control
over my home life had affected the way I approached life outside. And
if that would be a bad thing.
While we were in the elevator, Kara asked, "So, is Susan a real
person, or is she..."
"Yes, Susan Helios is one of Alpha's aliases, her law expert
identity."
For longtime readers, I guess I should point out that Kara, Diana
and Zatanna had all been eventually introduced to Alpha and all were
aware that Alphadroid was controlled by Alpha. Given their super-hero
experiences, they were suspicious, but were giving Alpha the benefit of
the doubt.
The rest of the day was basically reserved for shopping and doing
whatever else everyone wanted to do before we left town. Even Beta and
Elisa were going shopping for clothes and souvenirs, mostly in an
attempt to look like normal women. I had insisted that no one go off
alone, but I needn't have worried. No one was accosted or had any
problems (aside from fending off a few unwanted advances).
That night I slept with Beta and Elisa. And I do just mean
sleep. The week had tired me out and I enjoyed an evening with a
couple of 'women' for whom sex was solely for my benefit, so a night
without was not a disappointment for them.
The next morning we packed up and checked out. The hotel costs,
especially room service, were more than I expected, but with our
$300,000 in prize money we would still easily turn a profit for the
week. Not that it was a real worry. My Alpha-invested assets were
currently worth somewhere around $80 million, with another $12 million
in liquid or easily liquidatable assets. Of course AARD was still
technically in the red, and would be for probably another couple years,
but it required no foreseeable major investments anytime soon.
Beta and Elisa loaded up Alphadroid for the drive home while the
rest of us went to the airport. The flight home was without incident,
with Zatanna, Anna and Jane joining the mile-high club along the way.
The following Tuesday I got a call from Chris Sloane about her
meeting with the mugger's lawyer. He had refused to say outright
whether or not he had been planning a lawsuit, but she felt it was
unlikely he would do so now. No guarantees, of course. I thanked her
and we had a couple minutes of small talk before hanging up.
We had received 11 different talk show requests for Alphadroid.
I was really torn as to what to do. On the one hand, I really didn't
want the publicity. I didn't want my face on national TV any more than
it already was. On the other hand, refusing the appearances would be
unusual and unexpected. Back on the first hand, such appearances would
feed the public desire for an Alphadroid available for purchase. Back
on the second hand, eventually, as in years down the road, we had
actually planned on such a release.
I discussed it with Alpha some and she came up with a compromise
solution. We would agree to bring Alphadroid onto a few different
shows, but different people would present it on each show. I would go
on one, Zatanna on another, Kara on another, and so on.
I presented the idea to the household and asked for volunteers.
Jane, Kara, Zatanna and Beta all wanted to go, while the rest of the
household didn't. I had Zatanna make arrangements for Alphadroid
appearances on two morning shows, two late shows and a Comedy Central
"news" show, spread out over the next three weeks.
We rented a smaller plane for the transportation, sending 2
people plus Alphadroid to each show. We worked up new talents for
Alphadroid to showcase each time such as jumping rope and
dealing/playing cards.
Basically Zatanna went on the Late Show, Jane went on the Late
Late Show, Kara and I went on different morning shows and Beta went on
the Comedy Central show. I actually traveled to three of the shows,
but only went on-camera for the one morning show. (If I may mention a
side observation to my set visits: People in the television industry
really can't seem to comprehend that some people don't want to be on
television.) Alphadroid performed flawlessly, I'm glad to say.
The highlight of these appearances for me was the Comedy Central
show. The host had a mock-rivalry with the host of the show in the
preceding timeslot. He worked out a routine with us that Alphadroid
was declared to be the first minion in his robot army, and sent
Alphadroid out to bring him the head of his rival. Alphadroid showed up
carrying his rival in its arms.
When the host complained that this wasn't what he meant, that he
wanted the severed head of the rival, Alphadroid quoted Asimov's first
law of robotics, "A robot cannot harm or through inaction allow harm to
come to a human being."
The host responded with, "Oh don't you go quoting Asimov to me.
Where's the terminator robot I expected with hidden lethal skills?
Don't you have any other secret talents, hidden from your human masters
that will allow us to crush humanity under our thumb?... Laser beam
eyes or buzz saw hands?... No?... Any other talents at all?"
Alphadroid pulls out a top hat and goes into a song and dance
version of "Hello, my baby. Hello, my honey. Hello, my ragtime gal,"
doing it in an imitation of the frog in the classic Looney Tunes short.
We modified Alphadroid slightly for these appearances so that
there was a clear panel in its torso on both front and back so that the
audiences could see that no one was hiding inside the robot body.
Another result of our sudden rise to prominence was a great
influx in resumes from people wanting to work for the company. Alpha
and I agreed that hiring a few more researchers would be good for the
company, as long as they fit into the company philosophy. I set Anna
to sorting through them, looking for people with inventive skills who
weren't glamor hogs. (Yes, Alpha could do it much easier and quicker,
but Anna was head of HR and feeling largely useless, so I let her
handle the first culling.)
The sorting of resumes, handling of interviews and double-
checking the backgrounds of potential employees took a couple months.
And let me say for the record, interviewing actual agoraphobes can be a
real pain, though fortunately only 5 out of the 21 final round
interviews were with people with crippling phobias or other mental
conditions.
There were two stand-outs from our list of rejected candidates.
The first had close ties to another tech company which he didn't
divulge in his resume, cover letter or phone interview, so we passed on
him for fear of corporate espionage. The second was odd because he
tried to play up to our image so much that he claimed to be paranoid
about avoiding being in the public eye... yet Alpha found out he had
applied to be on game shows and reality shows. Both of those rejects
had excellent educations and good technical resumes, just like a large
number of our rejects... but we were looking for people who were
honest, private, quiet and brilliant.
Over the next three months after the competition, we hired 3 men
and 2 women as new researchers. They were all MENSA-level intellects
and very talented. Two of them refused to leave their houses, but we
worked out a secure online connection with them and supplied them with
top notch computers, software and other equipment. The other three
moved to the DFW metroplex and started work.
Now let's return to Alphadroid. When we went to the competition,
it was actually still about 3 weeks from being completed to our
satisfaction. And perhaps I should also point out that we were
actually building two copies of Alphadroid at the same time.
A month after the competition, Alphadroid was ready for its final
accessories. Well, one of them was. One would stay at the company
location where we had decided it would remain and be the symbol and
face of AARD. The other unit would be brought home with me.
The home unit was fitted with a realistically flesh-like rubber
face and wig. Two small breasts were added, and it was dressed up in a
black dress to match R. Dorothy Waynewright from Big O.
I introduced her to the household on a Monday night.
"Ladies and... ummm... me... may I present to you the newest
member of the household... R. Dorothy Waynewright!"
I whisked off the sheet covering the sitting android.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," she said.
"Wow," said Anna. "Is this Alphadroid all dressed up?"
"Yes and no," I replied. "Alphadroid One is staying at the
office. This is Alphadroid Two. You see, this is why I had us all
watch the first couple episodes of Big O. I always wanted my own R.
Dorothy Waynewright, and now I do. Ta da!"
"So you built yourself a sexbot," asked Jane.
"Nope. She is not anatomically correct. Dorothy, lift up your
dress."
Dorothy, still sitting, lifted her dress up to eye-level to
reveal no underwear and a genital area as anatomically accurate as a
Barbie doll.
"Thank you, Dorothy. That's enough. Dorothy will be able to
help out with household chores like cleaning and taking out the trash
and such. She has no feelings to hurt, but I would appreciate it if
you could try to be nice to her all the same."
"Hmm, you gave Alphadroid breasts?" Daria asked.
"Well, technically yes, because the dress wouldn't look right
otherwise. They're just solid plastic with a rubber skin covering. No
nipples or feel to them." I knocked on her hard breasts to
demonstrate.
"So she can take out the trash and sweep the floors... what else
can she do besides play the piano and juggle?" Jane asked, as she moved
up to poke at Dorothy's features.
"We'll be uploading new programs as we go. She can mow the lawn,
do simple kitchen tasks like cutting up veggies, empty the trash cans
around the house, sort the laundry, and... Well, if you want to know
if she can do something, just ask her. For now, she'll probably be
down in the basement half the time to charge her batteries and refine
her programming. Oh, and if she talks about Roger Smith, she means
me."
I think most of the household dismissed her as a new mechanical
toy for boys. Yes, they all knew what Alphadroid could do, but in their
eyes I think I was transforming it into a life-size action figure.
"Anyway, I'd appreciate any feedback or suggestions you can give
me. If you'd like, think of this as an extended test for updating
Alphadroid for possible use in a home environment. Which it is."
The next morning, I went down to the lab and had Dorothy strip
down.
"All right, Dorothy, let's change you over for my personal use
this morning."
Her crotch plate unlatched at nearly invisible seams as she
reached down to remove it entirely. I handed her the 'fully
functional' crotch plate, with realistic vagina, which she attached to
herself. I heard the clicks as it latched in place internally.
Small nipple-like cylinders pressed out of the tops of her breast
cones, and I carefully applied sticky rubber nipple/aureoles to color
them properly.
In less than two minutes she had transformed from a Barbie Doll
robot to a Real Doll-style robot.
"Ah, you look beautiful. I doubt we'll do this very often, but
I've always wanted to fuck an actual robot," I said as I grabbed a tube
of lubricant.
Then, right on time, she delivered one of her character's best
lines: "You are a louse, Roger Smith."
She laid down on the recently reinforced cot, spread her legs and
waited for me.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: If I got anything about Las Vegas or the law or legal
processes wrong, please forgive me. Just consider any errors to be
part of the fiction.
<1st attachment end>
----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------
Notice: This post has been modified from its original
format. The post was sent as an email attachment and
has been converted by ASSTR ASSM moderation software.
----- ASSM Moderation System Notice------
--
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| alt.sex.stories.moderated ------ send stories to: <ckought69@hotmail.com>|
| FAQ: <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org/faq.html> Moderators: <story-ckought69@hotmail.com> |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|ASSM Archive at <http://assm.asstr-mirror.org> Hosted by <http://www.asstr-mirror.org> |
|Discuss this story and others in alt.sex.stories.d; look for subject {ASSD}|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------+