"What are we doing here, Todd?" Megan followed her coworker into a dark room. She was petite, short and thin. She wore a thick pair of glasses on the bridge of her nose, which appeared as big as her. Her round eyes looked over the lenses. Her midnight hair twisted on top of her head in a messy bun.
"Because I need more eyes on this," Todd said. He was a tall, lanky fellow, with droopy eyes from long nights at the workplace. He flipped the light switch.
The study was decorated with anatomical pictures and models: Human skeleton. Bone and tissue clones of a dead frog set at the corner of the brooding desk; next to a heart model. Three walls were comprised of bookshelves, filled to the max. The left wall was glass.
Todd hurried in, waved for her.
Megan rolled her eyes, entered. "This has 'You're fired' all over it. What if Mr. Chevy catches us? He strikes me as—"
Todd closed the door. "A dick?"
"Well, I was gonna say harsh, but yeah."
"Don't worry about, Mr. Chevy. He's been, um, distracted for the last year." Todd scurried across the floor to the glass wall. "Rumors are it's a new project he's working on. But, if you want to know my opinion, it's depression. He can't get over his daughter."
"I know," Megan said. "I heard about that awful wreck. She died alongside a carpool of people, right?"
Todd nodded. "I don't think I've ever heard him say a word. He just bustles down the halls, head down. It's sad."
"It is." Megan paused. "But, a year?"
Todd nodded, shrugged. He found a panel at the side of the glass wall. He pushed the button.
Lights abound from the neighboring room, highlighting two nude figures of Indian descent. They sat still, side by side, with perfect posture. Their eyes were open but gazes distant. The room looked clean, like a futuristic dentist's office: white walls, sparkling tile floor, and bright overhead lights.
"Our male robot—host—is Sai," Todd said.
Sai had a thick coat of dark hair on his chest, salt and peppered beard. His cock dangled off the front of his egg-shaped chair.
Todd motioned to the female model. She had long dark hair, apple-shaped body, and large relaxed breasts with dark-brown nipples. "And, she is—"
"Verda," Megan said. "I know. You're not the only one working your twat off. I've had a few repairs with her."
Todd smiled. "I like your drive."
Megan flirtatiously winked at him. She looked back to the hosts. "So, what are we doing here?"
"We are here to watch them have sex."
Megan furrowed her brow. "I'm good."
"You work at an amusement park called SexWorld, where robots fuck customers." Todd looked almost bewildered. "Why did I think you'd have a problem with sex?"
"I work here because the pay is good."
"Is that it?" Todd asked. "You're not the slightest bit interested on creating a new being? Money makes you rich. Creating a new life makes you a god."
"You're talking about making them cognitive?"
Todd nodded. "I want them to know love, perceive pain. I want them to make their own decisions, live."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Megan said. "They're made to be submissive to the customers. What if—"
"Listen, we're getting ahead of ourselves. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Todd said. "Let's just see if what I did works first."
"Okay. So, what did you do?"
"I stayed up here late last night, fixing these two with, what I hope, they're missing. I added a new agent, a neurotransmitter that activates the reward center of the brain."
"Dopamine?" Megan asked.
"In a way, yeah."
"From what I understand," Megan said, "they've tried that before. It doesn't do anything."
"Because they didn't give them a trigger."
"Trigger?"
"You know those old movies where the doctor takes the baby and spanks it. The baby wakes up, cries. The spank was the trigger, a jolt that wakes up the sleeping agent. And—Ah-Ha!—I found that trigger."
"So, we're gonna spank these two?" Megan motioned toward the hosts.
"No. We're not going to do anything but watch," Todd said.
"Until..."
"They have an orgasm."
"The orgasm is the trigger?"
"It'll send electrical impulses, waves through their bodies. And as it sweeps over them, they should awake, baptized in pleasure. They will be cognitive, sentient. They'll essentially be human."
"Wouldn't mind a few of those electrical impulses myself," Megan said.
"Find better sex partners."
Megan scoffed, folded her arms.
Todd smiled, lightly pinched her finger. "It'd be my honor if you ever, ya know—"
Megan smirked but pulled her hand away. She gestured to the hosts. "Let's get started, shall we?"
Todd winked. He turned to the hosts, talked into a collar device on his lab coat. His quiet voice sounded from speakers in the neighboring room. "Online."
Sai and Verda blinked, twitched. They woke suddenly, looked around the empty room before spotting one another. As if rehearsed, Sai stood while Verda knelt. Her knees and the top of her fleet were flat against the tile floor. While Sai's cock slowly erected, Verda took him in her mouth. She bobbed up and down, worked his base with her hand.
Megan's face became flushed from the sex act. Calm down, she thought. She never was one to watch porn. Never really gave too much thought to sex. But, here she was feeling strangely aroused by two robots. Could it be the months of working in repair, away from the sex, that's making my body so responsive? Or, is Todd just numb to it from configuring different sex techniques for the hosts? He's so immersed in it everyday. She didn't quiet know. "So, how are we gonna tell if they're having a real orgasm or a programmed reaction?"
"Well, that's why I need a pair of extra eyes," Todd said. "Any kind of facial twitching, unscripted moans, just anything that looks too real, I guess. They all basically act the same during sex for the customers, so anything that jumps out as different, tell me."
Megan's heart beat rapidly. Her lips became slightly parted, sighed in hopes of composing herself. Her eyes drifted to Sai's long, stiff cock.
Todd seemed to notice Megan's slight anxiety. The side of his mouth rose upward. "Seeing anything?"
The question snapped Megan out of her daze. She blinked, coughed, and erected her posture. "No, um, I'm not. I'm not seeing anything."
"Just keep a close eye."
Megan nodded, readjusted her arms across her breasts. She stuck her chin in the air, taking on the appearance of an interested observer instead of a drooling deviant at an adult-film theatre.