"Good morning, H38."
Lena woke abruptly, conscious of the sunlight streaming through the window at a high angle. The usual morning grogginess was gone; she was instantly alert. She put a hand to her head, thinking about the headache she knew she should have, but didn't.
Her dreams had been... interesting. There had only been one for most of the night, though it had repeated many times: her initialization in the suit. It
should
have provided enough nightmare fuel for months to come, but something was different. She saw herself going through the motions of the previous day, helpless to stop the dream. She felt the building anticipation, the rising anxiety and terror of knowing what was coming. She crept into Simi's room, stole the suit, and put it on... but then there was a shift, and she was no longer wearing it; she was standing in front of an identical copy of herself, who was clad in the silver garment instead of her. And before the suit activated, the other woman smiled at her.
We are one, but I will take your pain, I will take the terror. I will lock it away from you.
The woman standing in her place, hadn't spoken, but her voice still echoed in the dream, and Lena knew who it was: Unit H38. She watched repeatedly as H38 stoically bore the assault on her body and senses for her, and each time she felt a little more of her own trauma being soothed from her mind. While the memory of yesterday's experience would never fade, it no longer caused her apprehension. Each dream ended peacefully, with Lena embracing H38 with joy and tears of gratitude for her silent sister.
As morning came on, she began dreaming of her future life with H38 and Simi, and what programming that might entail. Satisfied with her answers, she had fallen back into a deep, restful sleep.
What time is it?
she thought, and instantly her mind knew the answer: 9:01 AM. She looked over at Simi, standing in the open doorway to her room.
Simi smiled. "You didn't set a wake-up time. Your little minx of an interface was keeping you all to herself, but now it's my turn." As Lena threw aside her blanket, Simi grinned at her nudity. "And once again, you treat me to beautiful morning scenery. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that. Anyway, breakfast is already on the table, so get dressed and eat, we've got things to do."
Lena almost growled, but instead responded involuntarily: "Command confirmed."
Oops, it's after nine!
She rose, and mechanically picked out some simple gym clothes and donned them, without bothering with underwear. That would leave her with less to remove when she had to put on the suit again. She paused; the idea of wearing the suit again should have triggered some amount of fear, at the very least, shouldn't it? But a sense of peace washed over her, dissipating any feelings of unease.
That's H38, keeping me calm. She doesn't want me to worry.
Entering the kitchen, she sat at the table and began shoveling hash browns into her mouth from the plate Simi had prepared for her. There were scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee as well.
"This is a high-calorie breakfast, are you fattening me up for something?" she asked when Simi joined her.
I survived my first sacrificial offering. Time for round two.
"There's no telling how long this will take," Simi said. "Fortunately, my schedule's clear today, I hope yours is." Lena nodded affirmation. "So, have you given any more thought to customizing your interface?"
"Well, I was dreaming about it part of last night." Lena said. "I'll jot something down, right after I finish this delicious breakfast. The conversation hasn't done anything to my tastebuds." She thought for a moment. "One thing I do want to add is a few safety words, too. You can use those to automatically bring me back to my senses in case I ever get out of control."
"Hmm...wish I'd thought of that," Simi said. "I like that idea. I should do the same with my program next time." She tweaked a piece of bacon from her plate and broke it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. After swallowing she added: "If you ever let me have a turn again."
Lena set down her fork, reached over to put her hand on Simi's arm, and gave her partner a serious look. "I'm sorry, Simi, but I don't want to be like you. I mean, I still want to be a robot, but not the same way you are. You and E27 trade off; you switch places between being the active system and the dormant observer. You're set up to be the public persona, while she only gets to interact when you're in robot mode, so only one of you is online at a time. I want something else." Lena flashed a sly smile at Simi. "When H38 activates, I don't want to get shoved aside and put in a box, I want to
become
her. I don't want to watch, I want to see and feel first-hand what happens when I become a robot. I want to be both: the woman and the machine. I want the programming to control
me,
not some separate version of me. I want to wear this new persona like... like a dress, an overlay. Just like wearing the suit, only invisible." She realized she was ranting a little, and reeled herself in. "Does that make any sense?"
"I... I think so." Simi's eyes were wide. "You want to merge your consciousness with the interface program, correct?"
"Yes. I want the interface to be
my
thoughts,
my
commands, not take my place. When I don't need her skills, they can stay in the background until I need them. I want to be
one
with her, kind of how I thought you and E27 were when you first described this to me."
Simi shook her head. "Where'd my shy little Lena-bot go?"
"'I'm still me,' remember?" Lena said, throwing Simi's words back at her. "For the moment, anyway. Now, give me a few minutes to write down the specs and make sure they're what I want, and then we're on." Lena stood, and flounced out of the room, whispering to herself, trying to remember the conditions she'd described to Simi.
Simi smiled at her departing figure, then cocked her head. With robotic precision, E27 picked up the plates and utensils, brought them to the dishwasher, and loaded them methodically, without a hint of wasted motion.
As E27 finished the kitchen cleanup, Lena bustled back in, with two pieces of paper in her hand and an accusing look on her face. "I got my
reward
on the way to my room," she glared at E27. "You ordered me to 'get dressed and eat.'"
E27 wiped her hands with a dishtowel, paused again, and trembled for a second, receiving her own little bonus for completing a task. "Oh, so now I can make
you
cum on command, hmm?" Simi said, taking the papers from Lena's outstretched hand. "You wrote that out quick."
Lena pointed to the pages. "It was all in my head, after all. Do you think you can program that in?"
Simi glanced at the list and nodded, having already memorized it. "Yep. Should only take ten minutes to encode these parameters into your user profile."
"All right then."
They retreated to Simi's room. Simi brought out the suit and set it on the bed. "I'll boot up the program while you get dressed." Simi seated herself at the desk and powered up the computer.
