“Lorra?” Jana reached out to touch the sexbot and recoiled when she felt, not the vibrant imitation flesh she had expected, but cool plastic skin.
“Why do you call me that? My name is Alpha 3.”
“You’re a sexbot?”
“I am a heuristically programmed AI device utilizing state of the art nanotechnology.” The voice sounded slightly tinny. The Lorra they knew from the future had a voice that coaxed, caressed and invited sexual dalliance.
“That doesn’t sound too sexy at all,” Erik said. “But it does look like Lorra.”
“You mistake me for someone else,” Alpha said. “I can instruct you in the proper form of address later. My assignment is to take you to my mistress.”
“The woman who spoke to us in the room?” Jana looked over her shoulder into the dimly lit interior where she, Case and Erik had been trapped. For a prison, it wasn’t that bad, but the threat of actually locking them up if they didn’t perform sexually still irritated her. She wasn’t a trained animal to jump through anyone’s hoop on command.
The sexbot looked at her without expression. Jana moved closer and examined the robot more carefully and saw immediate differences between this creature and Lorra. She reached out and pressed her palm into the robot’s cheek. She felt steel cheekbones and synthetic flesh unlike that of Lorra.
“She does look a lot like her,” Erik said in a low voice. Jana saw tears in his eyes, welling but unshed. This startled her because she had not thought Erik had become so attached to Lorra in the brief time he had spent with her. Would spend with her in fifty years. Or had spent with her last week. It all became too confusing.
“You’re a prototype,” Jana said to the robot. “That’s the only explanation. The Lorra we saw was developed from this one. Right, Case?”
“You must be right. Take us to the man who invented you,” he said to Alpha.
“I am to take you to my mistress. My inventor is not with her.”
“Lead on,” Jana said. She reached out and laid her hand gently on Erik’s arm. He started to pull away, then let her link her arm with his.
“This is crazy,” Erik said. “We’re naked and being shepherded around by a robot from the future.”
“From the basic model of a future sexbot,” Case corrected. “I wonder if we ended up here because of her. Or what she’ll become.”
“Something in the power supply?” Jana guessed.
“However she is powered, it must be pretty amazing. It has to be lightweight so she can walk like that.”
Erik snorted at Case’s observation of how this robot had quite a twitch to her ass as she moved.
“Stop it, you two,” Jana said. “She’s a machine. It’s a machine.”
“You said ‘she.’ You know there’s a spark of humanity in there, even if it isn’t like you and me. It comes from electronics rather than organic cells, but that doesn’t make Lorra any less human.”
Jana almost argued with Erik, then realized he was in no mood.
“Ahead,” Case said. “We’re there.”
“Wherever there is,” Jana said. “I’m wondering what kind of place this is. If it’s some kind of TV studio, it’s weirder than anything I’ve ever seen. There’s nothing but those crazy-opening doors along the hallway.” She stopped suddenly and faced one of the iris doors. Jana ran her hand over the wall, felt the tingle but none of the stimulation she had when she had been inside. Leaning forward, she applied pressure to the center of the door. It opened to reveal four people inside writhing about. The dim lights made it hard for Jana to figure out at first what was going on. Then she gasped.
“I’m no prude, but look at what they’re doing. That’s disgusting!”
The robot returned and closed the door.
“Do not disturb transmission. They are A level performers.” Alpha interposed herself between Jana and the doorway to prevent her from opening up the wall again.
“Then I’m glad we hardly qualified as B,” Jana said.
She stared into the robot’s glassy eyes and saw tiny violet electrical discharges deep within. This was yet another way Alpha lacked the human qualities shown by Lorra fifty years from their current now.
“Your numbers will be in soon. You must ask my mistress,” Alpha said.
The robot did not budge, forcing them to continue down the corridor. Alpha quickly passed them and opened a door ahead, waiting patiently. Jana watched for any sign of emotion on the robot’s face. Tiny twitches as if motors worked the lips and eyes gave the only hint of feelings. Lorra, not that far in the future from this time, was a vast improvement.
“Would you consider getting married?” Jana asked as she came even with Alpha. Erik and Case had preceded her. The way Alpha’s face changed showed real emotion unlikely to have been programmed.
“I would have no need to marry another robot,” Alpha said.
“I meant a human.”
Alpha frowned as this worked into her silicon brain. Finally, she lifted her face to Jana’s and said, “I would need a reason.”
“Love.”
“Robots cannot experience love.”
Jana laughed and went inside. It felt good being a time traveler and able to know things even those in her future did not. From the way Alpha paused before responding, the robot had never considered this before. But she was doing so now. It might take her primitive computer of a brain a while, but the answer was pretty close to being a cinch. Because Jana had seen the result five decades in the future, it had to have occurred.
It was her turn to frown as she worked on this problem. Had she just created that other future with her question or would Alpha have begun thinking about it on her own?
“Sit, please,” called the woman with short, dark hair and gray eyes who sat behind a vast desk festooned with tiny computer screens. Although the woman spoke to them, her gaze never left the screens. She occasionally touched a control under one screen or the other, but was obviously charged with maintaining some kind of order in this tiny universe of coupling men and women.
Jana saw the corner screens and actually blushed all the way down to her breasts. This provoked a staccato laugh from Erik and a look of irritation from Case. But she couldn’t help herself. She had a lusty enough sex life, especially now that she was Case’s assistant—and had discovered Erik—but her experiences were nothing compared to what this woman watched on a dozen screens.
“I’m Ms Abbot.”
“This is all your, uh, show?” Case asked.
Ms Abbot looked at him as if a small child had spoken nonsense but who expected to be treated as an adult.
“Yes,” she said. The sarcasm laced in that one word made Jana sit a little straighter and vow she was not going to be pushed around.
“We want our clothes now,” Jana said. “And some civility.”
Ms Abbot rocked back in her chair. Her eyes went a little wider in surprise, then she nodded once. She reached out and worked at a recessed keyboard.
“Clothes will be provided in a few minutes. My apologies, Ms—”
“Cross.”
“, your performance was excellent. For unknowns you scored almost a one rating.”
“One? That’s all? I thought we did a damn sight better than that. Why, I’d have reckoned we did at least a two.” Erik wasn’t bothering to be polite. Jana was put off by the woman’s attitude, also, but they needed her to figure out where they were—when they were—and learn all they could before the Temporalizer opened the doorway back to the safety of Case’s lab at the university.
Ms Abbot ignored him and turned so she faced Jana squarely.
“We publicize the best of our live shows. Yours went out as a special feature where no one knew what to expect. If I must ask, , how did you get onto the set? I don’t find any audition footage.”
“My footage was all it took,” Erik said.
“Please, don’t,” Jana said. She reached out and put her hand on Erik’s arm to keep him quiet.
&n
bsp; “Yes, be quiet or I’ll have you removed. You obviously don’t know your place.”
“And what place is that?” Erik got to his feet and glared at the woman. “You make it sound like we’re some sort of slaves.”
“Of course not. There are civil rights laws about that, but you know what I mean, I’m sure.”
From the way Ms Abbot said the words with such relish, Jana realized the social order just fifty years from their own time was considerably different.
“If I might ask—”
“No, you may not,” Ms Abbot said, cutting Case off.
“I’m and am a physics professor at the university. You might be director or producer or whatever here, but you should accord me and my associates some respect.”
“Respect? For a man? For a man who fancies himself to be educated? There hasn’t been a man with any real education in years. Everyone knows they can’t be taught a thing.”
Jana swallowed hard. It had been hard for her in school back in 2016 when 80 percent of the students were women. Getting a date, unless she wanted to go out with girlfriends, had been almost impossible unless she wanted to find a guy in some menial job. The men in college had been nerds, but they had been nerds in high demand. That made her all the more grateful for finding a man like Case. Whatever else that could be said about him, he was smart and he was anything but sexually inept.
“You know how it is after such a session,” Jana cut in. “They’re tired out. Exhausted.”
“Oh, yes, how I know that,” Ms Abbot said. “When I was working my way up to this job, I’d go through a dozen men a day. Very seldom saw the same ones on the following day, either. They do get so…drained.” She laughed and Jana forced herself to laugh along. Case hadn’t told them how long he had set the Temporalizer for before they could return, and Ms Abbot was obviously in command around here. Keeping her happy until they could return was necessary.
From the sharp edge to her voice and the way she looked at Erik and Case, this was not a woman to be crossed.
“There’s your clothing,” Ms Abbot said, looking past them. Alpha stood patiently in the doorway, stacks of clothes folded over her arms. “Why don’t you run along and dress while I have a few words with about your contract.”
“You’re offering us a contract?” Erik grabbed himself and shook hard. “This is what I think of any deal you’d have for us.”
“Erik, come on.” Case grabbed his strong upper arm and herded him from the room.
“There is a certain primitive fire to that one. I see why the ratings were so high, but I don’t know how you tolerate it. You are an exceptional woman.”
“Thanks,” Jana said. She felt exposed and vulnerable sitting across the desk from a well-dressed woman while she was still in nothing but her birthday suit. “What’s it worth, having us sign?”
“I couldn’t start at anything more than a million.”
“A million!” Jana almost jumped out of her chair. What she and Case and Erik had done was so natural now—and so incredibly enjoyable. She hardly believed Ms Abbot would pay that much for something that they had been doing for nothing.
“All right, all right. I know that’s a lowball offer for your highballing ways,” she said quickly. “Two a week.”
“Two million a week?”
Ms Abbot heaved a sigh and her lips thinned to a line.
“You’ve got talent and the red-haired one has a certain appeal, I know,” she said, “but two million apiece a week is the top offer.”
Jana settled back in the leather chair, her bare flesh sticking to it as she sweated. This woman had just offered them a total of six million dollars a week for a live sex show that’d be broadcast on the Internet and around the world. A week of fucking was more than Jana expected to make in a lifetime as a physicist, although any ownership she had in the Temporalizer would certainly gain her both fame and money unless the government seized it in the national interests. In that case, she wasn’t likely to see much and would be bound by confidentiality, not to mention losing her and Case’s Temporal Operations Project completely.
“I’ll present it to them. They have a say in the contract, too, after all,” Jana said.
Ms Abbot made a dismissive motion with her hand and rocked back in her chair. She took a few seconds to scan her screens, make a few corrections on the keyboard and only then turned her attention back to Jana.
“That won’t be a problem, will it? Sometimes men can be so bullheaded.”
“It won’t be a problem. I have them wrapped around my little finger.”
“Now that would be something that’d pull in the ratings.”
Jana laughed. Ms Abbot didn’t.
“Let me talk to them. And I need to get dressed.”
“You look fine the way you are. Perhaps a tattoo might help. A tramp stamp at your lower spine? Talk to someone in wardrobe about it. Might make for a more colorful coupling, if you know what I mean.”
Jana saw that the woman’s full attention was once more on her programs. If every screen held one room, Ms Abbot was broadcasting at least two dozen live sex shows. From the feel of the corridor, this might be only one of many. The idea that there were more directors like Ms Abbot made Jana shiver a little.
“This way, please.” Alpha stepped back so Jana could go through the doorway into the corridor ahead of her, but once they were outside the office, the robot quickly took the lead. “Follow me.”
Jana lengthened her stride and came up beside Alpha. This seemed to confuse the robot.
“You do not allow me to lead you as I should? Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Tell me about this place. Everything, including what you know about Ms Abbot. That’s an order.” Jana imagined the gears and circuits, and whatever else there was inside Alpha’s head, all grinding together as conflicting orders had to be sorted through. The robot finally spoke.
“We are in the studios of Ultimatum Productions, the largest purveyor of organic sexuality in the Northern Hemisphere.”
“At least we didn’t come out Down Under,” Jana said.
“That is a popular position. There are three channels devoted entirely to—”
“Never mind. How important is Ms Abbot to the company?”
“She is a mid level executive. There are many others with more authority, all the way up to the president of the company, . She has been president for more than ten years, replacing .”
“Are all the officers women?”
Alpha looked at Jana with a curious expression on her semi-mobile face.
“Of course. Men are not qualified for such important jobs.”
“Are you the product of Ultimatum’s laboratory?”
“I am,” Alpha said. Something in her cautious reply made Jana want to ask more.
“Who’s your inventor?”
“ was department manager and supervised the project when I was constructed and brought to life. That is pseudolife, of course, since I am a robot and not alive, nor will I never be.”
“It’s a good thing you’re not a betting gal,” Jana said.
“I do not understand.”
“Where can I get dressed? I’m freezing.” Jana rubbed herself until the gooseflesh disappeared. The air conditioning in the hallway offset the heat that must be coming from all these rooms. Although Jana couldn’t see into any of them without opening a doorway, she knew what was going on. Ms Abbot had been watching dozens of naked, writhing people and the rooms along this corridor were probably her personal domain.
“In here, please.” Alpha pressed her hand against the middle of a doorway. The small circle quickly irised open like a camera lens to a sumptuous bedroom.
“More performance required of me?” Jana wasn’t sure she wanted to be on camera again so soon.
“This is merely a prep room.”
“No cameras or recording devices?”
“Such information is not shared with me.”
“Where are Case and
Erik?”
“They are in adjoining rooms. I am not sure which is in that room and which is in the other.” Alpha pointed to doors that opened on adjacent walls.
“I can take any of the clothing?” Jana stood before an open closet that stretched more than fifteen feet back. Clothing of all styles hung from the racks on either side. At the rear was a wall of shoes. She entered and ran her hands over the skirts, blouses and fine dresses until she reached the back of the closet. On either side, rose a full-length mirror, and in front of her, the shoe rack was more extensive than she thought. She pressed a small button on the side, and the shoes began rising and disappearing on a motorized rotisserie.
“I can wear any of this?”
“Of course. If you prefer fetish gear, we must go into another room. I thought this would suit your personality better.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you, Alpha.”
She began taking down one dress after another and holding it up. She quickly discovered the mirrors provided a 3-D view. By shifting quickly from side to side, she got a full virtual view of herself as if she wore the clothes.
“That’s the way to use cameras and computers,” she said.
“There are things they’ll never replace,” Case said. “Like you.”
Jana turned and dropped the dress she held as Case engulfed her in his strong arms and pressed her backward, kissing her passionately.
Chapter Four
“Um, you taste good,” Jana said, pushing away from Case. “But this isn’t the time or place for it.” He wouldn’t let her get free and kissed her again. She felt at a disadvantage since he was dressed in loose-fitting clothes like pajamas and she was still naked. When he moved from her lips down her chin and throat and slid lower still, kissing and sucking and licking at her breasts, she felt her legs going weak.
“Act like I’m turning you on,” he whispered.
“You are.” She clung to him for support as he took first one, then the other nipple between his lips and drew the hard little pebble away from her body. When she thought he would pull it entirely off, he let it go and worked down even lower to her belly. His tongue flicked about her belly button, and Jana knew she was lost.
Elements of Time and Sex: Exhibitionists Page 3
