Maid to Order: A Catgirl Harem Adventure (Build-A-Catgirl Book 1)

by Simon Archer

  I snapped my fingers in front of her face. “Ellie,” I said. She didn’t respond, so I touched her arm. Her skin was two degrees colder than it was programmed to be.

  “Ellie?” Bev said, not knowing how to help.

  Just then, Ellie blinked. I felt her skin warm under my hand and saw her chest start to rise up and down again. Her breathing program was operational again. She looked down at her hands, which were still holding the spool of thread and blinked several more times.

  Ellie’s eyes darted over to me, and she almost looked shocked to see me. “When did you get done with lunch?” she asked me.

  I looked over to Bev and back to Ellie and said, “About five minutes ago.” I watched as Ellie’s eyes got still for a moment. She was searching for matching information in her memory bank.

  “I have no memory of you sitting in here with us,” she stated, looking as confused as I was starting to feel.

  “What is the last thing in your memory bank?” I asked her.

  Ellie paused for a moment, searching once again. “Bev had just handed me a square of material that had a silver paisley pattern on it to put in the quilt,” she answered. I heard Bev gasp.

  “Kennedi, look,” Bev said, pointing at the quilt Ellie was sewing. There was one square matching the description Ellie had given sewn into the quilt, and there had been fourteen other squares sewn after it.

  Ellie saw what Bev had pointed out. “Kennedi, I have no memory of the past twenty minutes,” she said quietly, lowering her eyes to look at the floor.

  I knew what she was feeling. The first thought that she may have a defect had just entered her mind.

  “Ellie, look at me,” I told her as I put my hand under her chin and lifted her face. When I had her eyes on me, I said, “You are not defective. You’ve just been performing searches in a volume that brand new systems aren’t accustomed to. Then you stopped the searches while you were sewing. You most likely sparked when you started a new search.”

  My attempt to comfort her worked. She looked around to take stock of what she was supposed to be doing and suddenly, without a word, resumed spooling her thread.

  “Are you sure she’s okay?” Bev asked me in a lowered voice.

  “Yes, she’s fine,” I assured Bev. “It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve heard of it. Her systems are working without updates currently. Basically, they are re-wiring themselves for more manual learning instead of relying on updates for information. It can cause an issue occasionally. It’s just a one-time thing, though.”

  “Well, that’s a relief,” Bev said and let out a long breath that she’d been holding in. She was such a sweet woman. Her concern for Ellie, for all of us, was genuine, and I appreciated her for it.

  I was keeping a side-long eye on Ellie as she spooled her thread and started sewing again. While I knew that glitches did happen occasionally, it was still very rare, and I slowly became more aware that I may have reassured Bev to a level that wasn’t exactly correct.

  My thoughts were interrupted when my timer went off. It was time to wake Clark and resume his training. I glanced at Bev. “Do you mind if I steal Ellie for a while? I need her to help me with the last part of Clark’s training for today,” I explained.

  “That is perfectly fine. She has helped me so much already. Maybe it will be good for her to get outside,” Bev said. I had to smile at her human assumption that a cat girl needed to be in any one place or another for continued optimum function.

  I stood up, and Ellie, having overheard us, stood as well. She cleaned up her sewing supplies while I woke Clark, and the three of us headed outside.

  I had instructed Ellie on the drill we were going to help Clark with. When I finished giving her my instructions, Clark pulled me aside.

  “Are you sure she should be out here? Sally did have a point, and we can’t afford my opponent being prepped for the skills I learn here,” Clark said.

  “Of course, I’m sure. I’d never put you in danger. This particular skill isn’t something your opponent will need to defend himself against, and this is the perfect time to test Ellie. If your opponent shows up doing the same thing to avoid the vibrating panels, we will know she is uploading information somehow,” I explained. I watched as Clark mulled over the idea, hoping to see the look of approval from him that always made me so happy. It only took a second for me to get it. Clark nodded his head and took his position standing on top of his whip.

  Upon my signal, a simple nod to Ellie, we started rapidly pulling the tarp back and forth. Having Ellie as a partner made it much easier to get the tarp to mimic a vibrating motion. The difference from when Sally and I had done it together was slight, but Clark’s feet immediately rolled off his whip.

  Ellie and I waited until he reset and started again. I hadn’t been in constant contact with many cat girls since I was shipped out of my home store, so I hadn’t known how refreshing it could be to work with one. I didn’t have to slow myself down to accommodate human ability. Not that I minded doing so, especially when it came to being with Clark, but having Ellie around was starting to grow on me more and more.

  After several attempts, Clark found his balance and was able to stand on his whip while the tarp was vibrating for a full thirty seconds. He was such an amazing specimen of a man. The tan skin on his chest shone in the sun after he took his shirt off to avoid some of the Nevada heat. His arms were strong and muscled, but he wasn’t so huge that it became unattractive. All of my body tingled at the thought of how it felt to have those arms wrapped around me. When he was concentrating, his eyes became a shade darker blue than normal, and his black eyelashes made him look fierce and alert. One of the best parts of my every day was being able to look at him.

  After the first time he maintained his balance, I decided it would be good to have him do it several more times before moving on. He reset, and I looked over at Ellie to give her the cue to start vibrating the tarp with me. Her face was blank.

  “Clark, get off and look at Ellie,” I told him, alarmed. He hopped off his tarp, and both of us went to her.

  “What is she doing?” Clark asked. He’d picked up on the concern in my voice, and he sounded concerned as well.

  “Give me a minute, and I’ll have an answer for you,” I told him. I snapped my fingers in front of Ellie’s face as I had done in the house earlier. She was in the exact same state. Her eyes were vacant, and she was perfectly still even though she was hunched over with her hands wrapped around the edges of the tarp.

  “Ellie,” I said loudly. There was no response. This episode had now lasted fourteen seconds longer than the one in the house.

  “Ellie!” I shouted. Clark jumped back. He hadn’t expected the volume in my voice.

  Ellie’s eyes blinked. She looked down at her hands. I saw the confusion spread across her face once again. She looked up to see me crouched down in front of her.

  “Kennedi, what am I doing out here?” Ellie asked me in a small voice.

  “What is the last thing you remember, Ellie?” I asked her calmly. I waited while she searched for an answer.

  “I remember sewing in the living room for a few minutes after you and Bev told me I had forgotten the previous twenty minutes,” she said and looked down. She looked like she was in physical pain, even though I knew it was more of an emotional reaction. She once again thought she was defective. Only now, she had two occurrences to add to her pile of evidence.

  “You are not defective, Ellie,” I tried to reassure her.

  She tilted her head up to look at me again. “How long ago was I in the house?” she asked.

  “Twenty minutes exactly,” I answered her.

  Clark, who had been standing nearby silently, crouched down next to me and looked into Ellie’s eyes. I hadn’t had a chance to tell him what had happened earlier, so he had no idea what was going on. Somehow he seemed to know that Ellie was not in any condition to be grilled about it.

  “Ellie, I want you to go to the loft and lay down,” he
said firmly.

  “Clark, I--” Ellie opened her mouth to explain that she didn’t require rest, but he held up his hand to stop her before more words came out.

  “I know you don’t need the actual rest, but I don’t want you in harm’s way if this happens again without your knowledge,” he explained softly, helping her stand.

  “I’ll take her,” I told him and led Ellie away.

  “Kennedi, all my systems are operating as they should. I’ve run checks and diagnostics,” Ellie stated as we climbed the loft ladder, and I instructed her to lay down.

  “I understand, Ellie, but there is something happening. I’m going to go talk to Clark. You stay right here in this spot until we return,” I ordered her gently.

  Ellie nodded her acknowledgment and turned her head to face directly up at the ceiling, picking a spot to focus on.

  When I returned to Clark, he looked irritated. I didn’t like to see him upset. I knew his attitude was fueled by his impatience, and in this case, I could completely understand why. I quickened my pace until I was standing directly in front of him.

  “What the hell is going on with her?” he demanded.

  “I am not sure, but I have an idea,” I said. “The timing between her two episodes was the exact time an Omnicorp update would wait to retry a failed attempt,” I finished.

  “She isn’t connected. How can there be a failed attempt if she isn’t connected to a network that would allow for an attempt in the first place?” Clark asked, his voice getting louder with each word.

  There was only one way for me to find out what exactly was going on inside Ellie’s programming, but I wasn’t sure Clark would approve.

  “I have a way to get more information from her. I’ll need your approval and your help, though.” I kept my voice soft to ease his irritation.

  “What do you have to do?” Clark asked cautiously.

  “I have to physically connect to Ellie,” I said and waited for his response.

  Clark looked surprised. I realized he didn’t know that I had the capability to connect with another CG. When the surprise passed, he asked, “What would I need to do?”

  “You would only have to make the connection. I’ll take care of the rest,” I answered.

  “What exactly would you be doing?” he asked.

  I played out several explanations in my head before settling on, “I will be doing two things. First, I will create a one-way ‘valve,’ so to speak, in my own firewall. This will prevent Ellie from accessing my systems. Then I will cross through and examine her connectivity program files to see if there is a trace of information that she doesn’t have access to that will give us an answer since she can’t.”

  Clark just stared at me as he took in the information. I could see the questions come and go from his eyes. I expected him to start asking some of them, but he did not. Instead, he slowly started nodding his head and said, “Okay.”

  “I should connect to her soon. If something is happening that is causing damage, I want to stop it as fast as possible,” I said.

  “Let’s do it now. What do you need to get connected?” he asked. He sounded as though he’d just shifted into serious mode. I wanted to make this as easy on him as possible.

  “Go ask Bev for an HDMI cable. I’ll be able to convert that into the connection I need,” I instructed. He didn’t wait to reply before he started walking quickly toward the house.

  About twenty feet from the porch stairs, Clark turned and looked at me. “This won’t put you in any danger, will it?” he asked.

  “No, it won’t,” I answered.

  “In that case, let’s get going,” he remarked, already heading up the porch stairs. I headed to the loft to prep Ellie.

  27

  Kennedi

  I had instructed Ellie to remain where she was and to be compliant. Her AI was becoming stronger every day, so that took a little explaining, but in the end, she agreed. I had her sitting upright on the far side of the bed, facing the end, by the time Clark arrived with an HDMI cable. He had a steely glint to his eyes as though he was on a mission. He handed me the cable and looked around the room, not sure what he should be doing.

  “Pull that lounger over. I’ll need you to sit near the bed and make the connection,” I said to Clark.

  Clark pulled the lounger up to the edge of the bed. He watched while I pressed the sides of the connectors on the cable in so they would match the port shape that Ellie and I had. Connections weren’t normally made with an HDMI but, because my network was a closed one, it would work for what we needed it for.

  Clark walked from one side of the lounger to the other and back again. I could tell he was nervous, which was a good thing at the time. I’d learned that nervousness in humans could be used as an amazing tool for focus, and I needed him to focus.

  I reached out and took hold of Clark’s hand. He stopped his pacing and looked at me. Keeping eye contact, I pulled him towards the chair and had him sit down. He was stiff, and his mouth was set in a hard line.

  “I’m going to have to cut a small slit in the back of Ellie’s neck with one of my claws,” I told him very calmly. “I will need you to watch and then do the same thing to me.” I waited to see what his reaction was. He didn’t like it when he cut me with the whip, so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to convince him to take a knife to my neck. It was the only way to get to my connection port, however.

  Clark stared at me for several long seconds before answering. “What will I use for the cut?” he asked quietly.

  I unsheathed one of my claws and disconnected the outer two inches of the tip. I handed it to him very carefully. He took it from me and examined it.

  “What is it made out of?” he asked, turning it over multiple times in his hand.

  “It has a tungsten core with an overlay of CPM-110V steel and a diamond edge,” I told him.

  “So basically, this is not only the strongest knife I’ll ever see, it’s the sharpest and longest lasting,” he whispered, almost to himself.

  “Yes, exactly,” I confirmed. “It will cut the tissue on my neck very easily. You will feel the blade hit against the metal of the port. Then you just have to carve out the rest of it.”

  Clark took in the information and nodded his head as he listened.

  “Are you ready?” I asked him.

  “Yes,” he replied, suddenly sounding completely confident and prepared.

  I got on the bed and sat behind Ellie. Clark stood beside the bed and leaned over so he could see what I was doing since he would be repeating it. I unsheathed the index claw on my right hand. I moved Ellie’s hair to the side and located her sixth cervical vertebrae. I made a slow, deliberate cut down from C-6 to her first thoracic vertebrae. What appears to humans to be the small bump of the last vertebrae in the neck, C-7, was actually an enclosed connection port on cat girls.

  Once I had the vertical cut made, I sliced horizontally across the middle. Using the edge of my claw, I peeled back the four flaps of skin that were covering the port. I glanced up at Clark, and he handed me one end of the HDMI cable. I turned it over to line up with Ellie’s port and connected it.

  “Are you feeling normal, Ellie?” I checked with her.

  “Yes,” was all she replied.

  I moved to sit beside Ellie as Clark climbed on the bed behind me. I felt him hesitate for just a moment.

  “Don’t worry, Clark,” I said. “The port is made of the same material the blade is so you can’t damage it.” I had predicted the reason for his hesitation, and his small sigh of relief told me I had been right.

  I felt the blade slice through my skin. I had turned off my mindset control that made me feel pain as tickling to avoid moving during the process. I felt the second slice and remained still as he peeled back the flaps of skin.

  “Are you ready for me to connect you?” he double-checked.

  “I am. I will be in there for a while, so please try to relax after you connect me,” I told him hopefully.


  Clark seemed to ignore my comment completely and said, “Here we go.”

  A moment later, I felt a little pressure at the base of my neck and knew I was connected. I waited to initiate my programs to enter Ellie’s system until I heard Clark sit down in the lounger. I sat up a little straighter to optimize the connection and closed my eyes.

  I drew my consciousness inward towards my core processing unit and packaged it to go with me while I traveled the connection into Ellie. I would need to be able to describe what happened to Clark later, and my consciousness being present for the trip would help me do that.

  I would be traveling via microscopic electrical impulse, so I also drew in as much energy from my peripheral systems as I safely could. I didn’t know how long I was going to need to stay away from my own network so the more, the better. Clark’s words, ‘Here we go,’ echoed in me right before I initiated the pulse that would send me traveling across the HDMI cable and into Ellie.

  I hurtled through my own nano-glass cord, traveling towards my port. I decided to take the opportunity to perform diagnostics on my own systems during the process. It was a good thing I did, or I would’ve missed what I saw next.

  As I passed from my own network wires into the cable, I saw that one of my nano-glass wires was shattered at the very end. The cracks looked like white spider legs shooting off in all directions. The break hadn’t passed the wire barrier to cause it to fray, however. A quick check told me what I had already assumed when I saw it.

  That was my defect. My wifi-port wire was the one shattered.

  I filed the information and moved into the cable at lightning speed. Before a human could blink, I was entering Ellie’s system. Her port was a bundle of perfect nano-glass wires. Once I’d crossed over her port-wires into her internal processor, everything turned black.