Note: This is a sequel to the first "JNE-99". This story will not make sense to those who have not read the first one.
"Next Stop, UN Terminal. Prepare for arrival."
There wasn't much preparing to do. All my carry-on luggage fit in my jacket pocket, and I had already taken a moment to freshen up. Preparing for arrival meant nothing more than sitting tight for another minute and a half. The only difference was the slight downward and barely forward pressure that indicated the train was slowing.
Still, the idea that I was reaching my destination gave me a bit of a rush, and I squeezed the hand of my traveling companion.
"Nervous, Sandi?" asked the slim girl at my side. She gave me a pretty smile, and gently squeezed my hand back.
"Maybe a little," I said. "This is the proverbial It, you know. I'm getting my life back. It's been a long time." I took a deep breath. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, Jenny."
Jenny's brilliant green eyes seemed to twinkle. "You did it all, Sandi. But I'm glad for whatever help I could offer."
I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss, feeling the familiar tingle in my lips as I did so. I wondered how it was that she inspired such feelings in me, since I knew that no matter how she might seem, she truly had none of her own.
Jenny was my best friend, my constant companion, and my lover. But she was one other thing too.
She was a robot.
* * * * *
The train emerged from the airless tunnel through which it had crossed half the continent and slowed to a final halt in the underground terminal where we were to disembark. At one time the United Nations had been headquartered here, but that was before I was born and the complex had been one of the many casualties of the brief "global warming" period at the middle of the 21st century. By the time the water level had receded and the area was fit to build on again, the UN had firmly re-established itself in New Zealand, and the former headquarters became the main New York terminal for the planetran system. The tunnel continued on across the Atlantic to London, and eventually around the globe, branching off to every major city along the way.
As I stepped off the train, I took a deep breath and felt reborn. My home in the lost Denver suburbs was miles behind me (though still in my name, it didn't pay to sell it) and I was back in the city, where humanity really lived. For the briefest moment, I felt a bit claustrophobic with the large crowds of people streaming about me - it had been a couple of years since I'd been in such a place. Jenny's presence at my side was infinitely comfortable.
The process of disembarking, checking out through security, arranging for transportation to my new apartment and seeing to it that my luggage was brought along took almost two hours. It was a hassle, one that I knew from my studies of cultural history had been a problem ever since the first railroads were built, and it had only gotten worse as time went on. Efficiency of travel improved as time went on, but so did complexity, and the latter increased faster. It was common stand-up comic material that a trip such as mine from Denver to New York took about thirty minutes, four hours of which were spent in the terminals at either end.
But in any event, we got through the system and on our way to my new apartment.
An air-taxi wasn't the cheapest mode of transport, but it had been a while since I'd seen New York and I wanted a good view. The taxi driver was a robot, and my first order to it was to take us to our destination in silence. For some reason, in New York they program the taxis for inane small talk.
The cab lifted smoothly off the ground, and I pressed my face against the window to take in the sight of Manhattan.
Of course, the most prominent building was the Empire State Building, housed in its protective dome that kept the two-hundred-year-old structure safe from the elements. It was the one significant building that had survived the flooding of Manhattan, mostly because all the stops had been pulled out to save it. In the end, it would have cost about one-tenth as much to let it be destroyed and then rebuild it, much like they had to do with the rest of the island. Oh well, sentimental value and all. It was the tallest building on Manhattan by half due to new building codes, though mile-high skyscrapers surrounded the island on the New York and New Jersey shores. It's funny to look at old pictures that show Manhattan with the tallest skyscrapers in the world, where now it's more of a valley between leviathans.
Real-estate prices in that valley were astronomical. My apartment was on the Jersey side, where it was still possible to find a place for less than three thousand euros a month.
* * * * *
"Where do you want this, Sandi?"
"Mmm... right there. Under the stairs."
Jenny lifted the three-hundred-pound steamer trunk with no visible effort and slid it gently into place where I had indicated. She was great to have around for this kind of thing. It was a double-edged sword, though, because I didn't really like seeing these reminders that she was a robot and not a person. There was some part of me that was never entirely comfortable with that. Still, it hardly made sense to hire a moving crew when Jenny could do it all.
"That should do it, I think," Jenny said. "I'm a bit dirty from all that moving. Mind if I take a shower?"
"No, go ahead," I said with a wave. Jenny had done almost all the physical work, so I hadn't even broken a sweat in the moving process. I was feeling a bit travel-weary, however, and more than a little strange in the apartment. I had gotten used to a 4,000 square foot house all to myself, and to make the adjustment to a three-room apartment would take a little doing. It would have been nice if it were possible to live there and commute to New York, but the trip I had just taken convinced me of the impossibility of that. I could telecommute, of course, but that was seen as something of a passing phase. It was pretty much accepted as a matter of course that the real doers and shakers were there on the scene, not punching a keyboard a thousand miles away.
I looked out the wide picture window, across the water to the island and the shore beyond where other skyscrapers formed a nearly solid wall of twinkling lights and high-rising steel. I was back in the city, among the throng of humanity I had avoided for so long, and yet I still felt lonesome. I needed something to shake me out of this funk.
When I heard the water come on upstairs, I got an idea as to what the something was.
* * * * *
Jenny's silhouette on the frosted glass of the shower echoed the perfect embodiment of the female form. Her breasts were high, firm, and pleasantly large, her waist narrow, her bottom rounded and smooth, her legs long and toned. She had turned around to let the water flow through her hair. I felt my pulse quicken as I dropped my clothes and pulled open the door to the shower.
"Sandi!" she said happily. "Are you coming in with me?"
"I thought I might," I said with a grin. The shower was large, with plenty of room for both of us. I stepped up close to her anyway, touching my body to hers. Our nipples met at exactly the right level, and I felt mine go hard upon contact. I shivered with the delight of the sensation. No one but Jenny had ever had the power to arouse me so quickly and completely. My lips were on hers before I was even aware of it, and our tongues caressed each other even as we felt each other's bodies up and down.
I had never made love to her in a shower before. Her skin felt wonderfully soft and lubricated under my hands, and I loved the way our tits slipped across each other. My kiss became hungry and lusty as I forcefully licked at her lips, across her cheeks, down her neck, back to her lips again. In bed it would have been wet and messy, but in the shower we were wet anyway, so I felt like it didn't matter. Taking her cues from me as she did so well, Jenny returned the kiss in kind, and soon she had made her way down to my tits, where she pulled each nipple into her mouth. Knowing that I liked it a little rough, she sucked hard and long, until I was moaning out loud with lust.
Before I knew it she had me pushed up against the wall, my legs spread wide. The shower sprayed a fine mist into my face and across my breasts as she dropped to her knees and deep-kissed my pussy as if it were my mouth. Her tongue thrust inside and moved slowly in and out, driving me up close to the edge.
