... and every step I take takes me further from heaven...
A little experiment inspired by the classic Roxy Music song of the same name.
Day One
I didn't need to look into her eyes to know our time was almost over. It was instinctive after these last few months. We lay in each other's arms, gently caressing each other. No matter what we had done to each other over the time we were together, however brutal, loving, perverse, it always ended the same way.
She smiled, pulling away from me. Her incredible green eyes were starting to dim. I looked at her longingly. "Someday soon, I promise..."
Her silent look said it all.
'How long have you been saying that?'
The guilt washed over me as it always did.
She stood, removing her basque, her gloves, her boots. I ached to feel the leather slide across my back once more, to hear her command or implore me to do something utterly depraved to her. But there was no way that was going to happen.
She removed her elaborate red wig and placed it on a stand next to the thirty or so others that covered the cabinet-top in our bedroom. Her eyes were getting darker by the second.
She carefully placed all her garments into the wardrobe that was exclusively reserved for her, taking care to ensure that everything was in its rightful place. I looked upon the racks of outfits, ranging from predatory dominatrix through policewoman, nurse and air-stewardess to innocent schoolgirl. The boots, the high heeled shoes, the sneakers. The fetish gear, the prom dresses, the sports outfits. Sometimes we made love as if it was our first time. Sometimes she used me as a fuck-toy, violating and brutalising me. More often I did the same to her. She could be my girlfriend, a porn-star, a famous actress I meet on the street who allowed me to do unthinkably depraved things to her.
She turned to face me, wrenching me from my reverie. That smile. The one that said,
'See you again soon.'
The opaque door on the right-hand end of the wardrobe slid open and my heart sank.
She approached the alcove that was revealed and turned to face me. She held her left hand up in a farewell.
I gazed on her, tears coursing down my cheeks as they had done every night for the last three months.
"Goodnight, my angel."
I could barely see her through my tears as she stepped back into the alcove. Her body went rigid as she touched the floor-plate. Soft leather bands emerged from the wall, entwining around her ankles, wrists and forehead holding her gently in place.
And then the moment I dreaded the most.
That little metallic click as the recharging cable locked into the interface at the base of her skull. Her incredible green eyes stared at me as they flared brightly for an instant before going completely black. It was purgatory to watch, but I had to. It was the least I could do. Her eyelids closed over the lifeless black orbs and her head dropped gently forward a fraction, held by the band across her forehead. The opaque door closed and I heard the cleansing hoses begin their work, removing the filth that I had inflicted upon her once more.
Forgive me my love, for I have sinned.
Again.
Biting back my tears I showered, pulled on a dressing gown and poured myself a beer. I booted up the computer and settled back to wait. It took an eternity to get up to speed. That is not surprising as it was incredibly complex and powerful. I was on my second beer by the time it was live and my heart was pounding.
As ever.
Three months and no progress whatsoever. But I could hope. I could pray. I looked back down the short hallway to the opaque door in the bedroom. I couldn't promise her again, but I could hope.
I brought up the program interface. She smiled at me in 3-d from the holo-deck in front of me, still in her blonde pigtails from a previous scenario. I shuddered a little as I recalled all too vividly that little encounter. In that fantasy she had been anxiously awaiting the chimes of the town clock to announce a new day - the day of her eighteenth birthday. It was wild, wanton and she was the most lascivious, filthy virgin I could ever have hoped for.
One of the best programs I had ever written. There were seventeen versions of it out there, all subtly different. All mind-blowing. The sales of those seventeen outstripped virtually everything else I had sold put together.
With that in mind, I brought up tonight's program and made a few changes. It was incredible and it was going to run and run. Or so I thought. I added a few more scenarios for some of my more demanding clients. A cigarette holder. A cigar. Vape pens.
I saved the changes.
'Sexy_smoker_2'
'Sexy_smoker_3'
'Sexy_smoker_4'
Fucking hell, I loved this thing. Every fantasy I had ever had there at my fingertips.
I checked the code a few more times. Yes, it all looked good.
I published the code.
By the time I had drunk another beer there were fifteen sales on _2 and seven on _3. Maybe the vape pens would catch on at some stage.
Ok, that was another month's rent paid for.
Now it was time for my real work to begin.
I opened a module named 'Alyssa_Voice_Files'. Over ten thousand carefully crafted .wav files taking up terabytes of storage. Over ten thousand grunts, moans, soft encouraging sounds. There were violent demands, gentle persuasions, fearful pleas. She could ask me to fuck her in the ass or come in her face in thirty languages; in the voice of an innocent schoolgirl, my current porn star of the moment or the girl from my favourite series on Netflix-4d.
I played one now. Her pigtailed smiling face synched perfectly with the sound. "Shoot your load on my face. Come on, let me feel your fucking cum rain down on me." I played it on a loop, randomising the look, the voice, the inflection, the persona each time through. I managed around fifty reps, but it was that Parisian whore one that did it to me every time. The beret at an angle, eyes narrowed at the smoke curling up from her Gitane. I tried to imagine my big, clumsy fingers were her own slim elegant ones holding me tantalisingly to her mouth. I watched her hologrammed lips purse and I groaned half in lust and half in disappointment as my cum dribbled down the back of my hand. Her holo-persona was licking it from her lips. In reality it was dripping down onto the floor and it took me a long time to clean up the mess.
Thereafter, the night was spent in my usual way - combing the code for the error. Trying to find the one or two tiny bugs that meant that the voices I could hear on holo-version of Alyssa could not be transmitted to the Alyssa in the Pod.
To my constant frustration and annoyance, Alyssa had no voice and I desperately needed to hear her tell me she loved me. It was driving me crazy.
It had taken me eighteen months to find her. There were rumours all over the dark web about the new super-model synthetic lovers they called ALIX - 'Android Love Interface-X'. It took a lot of digging, a lot of hacking and a lot of patience.
When I did find her, I knew I had to have her whatever the cost.
And that cost was astronomical - over three times my annual salary. Given what I did back then and how good I was at it, that was an awful lot of credits.
It took me every last vestige of my life savings and my programming skills to come up with it. The program was a little bit of genius - skimming off the odd credit from each account on the dark web instead of plundering them in one hit. It took a few weeks, but eventually I had enough.
I was told to give them a floor plan of my apartment showing the required locations of the charge Pod and the computer interface. I was then told to leave the London Dome for the weekend. I took a sky shuttle to the Berlin Dome and spent some time with a hacker friend there.
When I returned it was all done. The Pod was in place, the interface whirring away.
I had named her Alyssa. With my heart in my mouth, I chose the first program. I wanted it to be gentle for the first time. I thought I would pass out as I heard the door of the Pod open. I gave her time to get ready in her long blonde wig and lacy underwear.
I intended to make it last, but when I saw her lying there, I went at it like a bull in a china shop. I lasted forty seconds. It was only when I lay in her arms apologising that I realised that she had no voice. My pleas to the supplier were met with firm denial. She had been shipped fully operational - it must be my programming. I tried to argue but was also told in no uncertain terms what would happen to me and Alyssa if I did not desist.
It was the dark web. They were those sort of people.
I desisted.
By three-thirty in the morning, I was exhausted. I had made another few changes but as ever did not hold out much hope. I uploaded Alyssa's program for what was now later that evening and prayed once more that I could give her a voice.