Author's Note; Thank you for your support. Happy reading. Also...

  Note 1; I'm going to try to shoot for a book release for mid-April. I'm excited about this. It will be a sequel. Although I'm going for an allowance on the release dates of anywhere from April 15th to April 20th.

  Note 2; Curious if you’ve looked at the android name types and origin of the word Mellifera…if you do you will find Mellifera (Apis) are honeybees. You will also find that the android names are modified versions of scientific names of certain types of honey bees, for example Liga comes from Apis Mellifera Ligustica. There’s also Carnion bees, etc. Bees are very cool creatures…unless you are allergic to them. XD And doesn’t it seem like smart perfect androids would be like and emute honeybees?

  Chapter 13 Part A

  Barbara wants me to call her back today and I’ve been avoiding her a little bit. It’s not that I mean to but I need to figure out what I want. Of course part of me wants to try to flirt and hang out with Barbara, but I need to be sure of what I want so I don’t blow the opportunity. She can handle it I think if I tell her no or to go ahead but I would lose for sure if I’m wishy washy too.

  “Computer how does the breakdown of different mods look like for the different types of android models of Mellifera?” I asked with my datapad open in voice search mode.

  The datapad is programmed for help voice analysis, which isn’t unusual. This kind of technology has been around for over thirty years so it’s kind of boring to use but useful. But doing the voice response audio computer lets you keep working or doing chores while you have it retrieve information.

  “Processing…please wait…processing.”

  “Carinol has the least number of mods, because it’s specs can’t handle many of the newer programs. Although they can learn them on their own. Then after that Asca follows closely, then Carin has the most mods and programs for users to use, with Liga still in development but expected to expected to someday have the most soft mod downloads avaible for skills and applications. Not much is known about the Liga models since they are so new and advanced; with few users due to the higher price tag. Although oddly enough some people have noticed that even wealthy seem to have trouble acquiring a Liga. There are minor sub set android designs for certain industries such as nursing, mining, or w enforcement avaible also within each android type. These are cssified as sub-sets almost like a separate model by some but are actually like a Type B Carinol or Type C Carin. Sometimes they have number designations with the letter,” a monotone robotic sound reads the text aloud.

  That expins why I’d heard a 2B, and a 2C mentioned by the hospital staff androids.

  “So Liga doesn’t actually have many mods avaible?” I asked to confirm.

  “Search parameter error please rephrase,” the datapad responded.

  “Screw you too,” I said without any real anger or feeling.

  “That command is vague and inconclusive, please restate…” the voice responded.

  It’s kind of a funny reaction.

  This happened a lot tely. Its like the computer is glitching.

  Corporations had been feeding dummy information into datapad link in internet data and made it sometimes difficult to get straight answers on certain topics. They would attach subterfuge programs to sort of try to ‘bend’ voice search information. This was probably the case here, and something I’d been worried about. Of course the dummy information would naturally make their product data look more appealing than the other guy’s.

  The basic idea was that litigation and slick wyering have made it illegal to do a text based lie, to falsify actual scientific data. But voiced sound data read back by the datapad wasn’t recognized as having the same protection yet as actual textual data that uses specific sources, which makes no sense at all. Lying is lying right? It could be argued still that it was some kind of sound encryption error, or listener having poor hearing or being bipor. Our society still had an incredible number of assholes and idiots that were making decisions over other people.

  That was also still not counting the outright hype ads that were fed into the net over the years of crazy pyramid schemes and wonder miracle drugs that had no real basis. The most common was a drug to make your genitalia double in size. That scam had been around for years to target high school kids but nobody had actually come up with anything until st year a scientist cimed to have created the real thing. Then suddenly three months ter after the product was selling wildly off the shelves, there was a massive Fed raid on his boratory that got a lot of public notice and special features on CNN and other news networks for actually causing it’s patients to create puss filled protuberances all over a patient’s body, including face, hands, and head over an inch wide and long. Not to mention peeing something that looked like bloody gravy instead of urine with extreme pain…and hemorrhoids.

  A lot of the survivors wanted to commit suicide…often. There were also a few amputation incidents for the same penile enrgement drug.

  “Computer recheck data and exclude sources that aren’t tied to credible sources like scientific journals, engineering and manufacturing forums with sufficient evidence,” I said.

  “Loading please, wait…”

  Then a short time ter, “data is as previously stated.”

  I’d been feeling a lot better tely and able to stay on my feet for up to an hour at a time without a rest the st couple days.

  I was surprised when next I received a knock at the door. It also reminds me of how much time has passed while I’ve been searching and looking up stuff.

  “Just a minute,” I said through the intercom.

  “No problem Jack. I can wait a bit for you,” came back the reply. She is emuting a cheerful human tone too, and I’m curious how she learned to do it so well. She hit the doorbell again too, even though she’s already talked to me.

  It was Barbara’s voice again. Wow, she’s persistent. But who wouldn’t want an attractive supermodel like woman coming to your house, even if she was an android. She tends to dress a little bit…provocative but still modest by today’s standards. She doesn’t show a lot of skin but just manages to have her outfits bring out her best figure. Actually she dressed very modestly, but her body was just provocative in absolutely anything you put her into.

  It took me a few minutes to get to the door and clean of my hands from trying to go through my tools. I’d been cleaning things up but it was hard work even lifting light exercise weights.

  I opened the front door easily enough, but it took me about a full two minutes to get the thirty feet over to the door by hand without the wheelchair and using hand canes. By the time I got there I’m starting to sweat already because it’s really tough work.

  “Wow, Jack. You aren’t supposed to be out of the chair yet!” Barbara is looking at me in arm.

  “I need to get on my feet as soon as possible,” I said.

  “Wow, you really are pushing yourself. Don’t do too much OK,” she said while looking me over.

  “No it’s fine. The sooner I push against the resistance the healthier I’ll get quicker,” I said.

  “Let me help you!” she said. She gently put her hand on my wrist, and it startled me. I wasn’t used to any kind of woman doing that, let alone someone very attractive.

  “No it’s fine. I need to do this to get stronger,” I huffed and waved her off. I have to go slow though.

  She follows me while keeping an arm and her hands ready to grab me from behind if I start to fall. But I am trying to be careful to not feel even though the physical strain feels like I’m living two hundred pounds above my head.

  “Easy, easy,” Barbara coaches.

  “Its fine,” I tried to brush her off but she’s persistent.

  At length we finally get to my recliner which is perfect because I can just sit on the edge of it in upright position and then use the controls to lower it so I can rest. I’ve already exercised over two hours and I’m surprised when Barbara has a cool wet towel she’s taken from my linen closet and is sponging off my forehead.

  And all that after she’d spotted me as I sort of fell into the chair first.

  “Wow, that’s nice,” I said.

  It feels heavenly having a super woman catering on you like this. If only I could get her to sit on my p that might be fun too, but that’s obviously a delusion that wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

  “Just rest easy Jack,” she said.

  “Yeah…” I did feel a bit sleepy now too.

  “I’m sorry, I wanted to see how you are doing and follow up but it seems I caught you at a bad time,” she said. She did her best to give me a concern look for what her programming could do. It’s pretty amazing again, better than a human’s look.

  “No, let’s talk,” I said.

  “Are you ready?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “I’ve come to the conclusion that an android is what I need,” I said.

  “Great! Let’s take care of it!” she said, giving me a ‘thumbs up’ sign.

  Wow her programming is like…so close to a human it’s spooky.

  “So did you choose a model and the appearance yet?” she asked. She has an amused expression.

  Is she wondering what I’ll pick?

  “Nope. That’s the hard part. The soft modification downloads are what’s holding me back in deciding,” I said.

  “Ah, I get it. That happens to quite a few customers. When they have a complication situation and a budget, then they worry about maximizing everything,” she noted.

  “I see. Well you might be able to help me work that part out. But I’d need you to be worrying about me not your company if you do so,” I said.

  She nodded, “I get it. You are worried about a conflict of interest. That won’t happen. Because you see androids are built to surpass the faults and greed of humans. Our programming tells us to look out for humans too. To care for humans is our mission.”

  Ouch. That part stung a bit in some ways. I was a human too, but she was right. We were the animals on this pnet most prone to violence.

  “Should we begin?” she asked, sitting across from me with her legs crossed in her skirt suit.

  “OK. So I definitely need a mechanic shop or mag auto repair technician mod installed. Do All of those have those?” I asked.

  “Negative.”

  “Oh? I thought all of them could do that?” I frowned.

  This changes things then...

  She saw the frown as a challenge to work out, “Carinol doesn’t have a mechanic mod. So right off that model is out.”

  Ouch. That’s the most affordable. I feel some pain now.

  “OK. Good. It didn’t seem good to not ask if that model might have a possibility of being phased out ter.”

  “I also see you probably won’t be able to afford the Liga. But I have to say that the android part of me sort of felt bad when you mentioned being phased out. Do you think that could happen to some of us?” she said.

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. But that’s right. And there’s no way I’d be able to afford a Liga. Totally impossible. How do you even justify its immense cost?” I wondered.

  She continued punching numbers on her datapad. It looked like she was trying to pre-emptively look at things I might possible be interested in. “The Liga has new technology never before introduced into androids. They are good, for that sort of thing. It’s hopeful that they will become a bit more affordable in the future. And very advanced.”

  “Yeah, I get it,” I scratched my chin.

  “Them being on the market only five years is good too. It means there’s been plenty of time to iron out any kinks that weren’t caught earlier either,” she said.

  “Hmm that’s good,” I replied.

  “Are you feeling OK Jack?” she got up and went around to sit next to me pcing her hand on my forehead. This position seems easier for both of us now. But she didn’t smoothen her skirt out when she’d sat down next to me this time. I find that curious. It’s still slightly pushed up. She could have pushed it down…

  “I’m fine,” I almost squeaked it out.

  “So what about more disguise stealth mods? There’s been an unusual amount of riots and anti android unrest tely. I’d like to be sure there are things that can have additional coverage to make sure she’s not detectable to as being noticeably inhuman,” I said.

  “Good. That’s a good choice. I’d pick that one too if it were up to me,” she said.

  We kept going back and forth for several hours. It took a lot of discussion but was helpful to have her inside information. There were things she could tell me about the different androids that were interesting and surprising that I wouldn’t have been able to tell from other sources.

  For example, it seems that Liga androids didn’t seem to do well in farming and menial hand bor like digging trenches or the bottom blue colr jobs like shoveling manure, etc. There wasn’t any expnation for it. They had superior hardware, software, and excelled above the others in everything except for self repair. But even with all of that, they didn’t do well at some jobs. Yet they should excel more than any other at all jobs.

  Odd...

  “It’s almost like they don’t want to work in farming and dirty jobs,” I joked.

  “Interesting theory. That’s a possibility. We are built to emute human behavior. So it’s possible we might emute human desire too well. But I see nothing wrong with being independent and farming. Self sufficiency is a very desirable survival trait. Its desirable in many life areas and affects the ability to prosper also,” Barbara noted seriously.

  That made me wonder if my joke was partly true.

  Soon we reached a couple of choices. I even talked about the possibility of 2 cheaper androids with her rather than 1 more expensive model. But this idea while it seemed extremely fun to me, was hampered by the cheaper android model not being able to use the shop mod that I needed for business.

  It started to look like just one android was good enough at one point in the conversation since the cheaper models didn’t seem to be able to handle some of the shop technician skill mods that I needed them to have. I didn’t have time to train an android from scratch when I couldn’t do my job on my own, which would be required to teach an android a skill. It is possible to teach androids new skills though, so you don’t technically have to buy modifications but they can give you a big advantage to take away a lot of training time. Time I didn’t have.

  Barbara was able to also help me see that a cheaper android wouldn’t do the job perfectly right from day one, just from me teaching it a skill once. I’d still have to follow through and watch it work. And guide it. In some ways they’d end up book smart the first few times with a skill but not totally applied in skill until they tried a skill the first few times. Then it would just sort of… activate like that.

  That sort of popped my bubble, but then I realized it was just a minor setback.

  An android for example, being taught how to change a mag car’s engine cooling fluid would be able to correctly duplicate the procedure on the second or third try for a specific model, but it would need to be shown how other mag car models were different than the first two or three models that it had learned the procedure from. Then it would also have to keep seeing a blueprint or other diagram on other models after that, just like a human would.

  At least that’s how she expined it to me.

  “That’s weird, they are more like a human than I would have expected,” I said.

  “It’s not our fault!” she defended. Apparently I just learned that saying an android is like a human is like a serious degrading comment to them and I’d accidentally triggered this social nd mine. Although that’s a paradox too because they are trying to be as close to them as possible. She actually acted like I’d hurt her feelings.

  “The government blocked off androids from auto downloading machinery schematics a long time ago to prevent industrial espionage from domestic companies, foreign powers, and foreign corporations! So we now have to learn just like everyone else! I’m sorry Jack!” she pleaded.

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize being called like a human would make you uncomfortable,” I said feeling really awkward.

  “Its fine. Don’t worry. I got too worked up over being called a human.” She ughed a bit and pyfully lightly fake punched me in the arm the way teenagers might. Was the ughing for trying to appease me or because she’d recovered from simuting feeling bad?

  “The main thing is once you show any android how to fix a mag car for a certain procedure it won’t take them long to be able to keep doing it well. But that depends on you not teaching them wrong too. You’ve heard of the old saying, “garbage in, garbage out” right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Hey here’s an idea,” Barbara said. She pulled up on her datapad one of those types of e-magazine ads you used to see in old grocery stores with names like GQ, Better Homes & Gardens, Cosmopolitan, Forbes, and Popur Mechanics. She was pulling out something from her purse too. After a few seconds I could see it was a really, super old magazine. You could tell it was from many decades ago.

  “Hey isn’t that a vintage magazine? That thing is worth some serious money isn’t it?” I asked, seeing the real paper and pstic sleeve she had carried it in with. I hadn’t noticed it earlier because it was in her purse. It also seemed like Barbara to be really cssy and stylish.

  She flipped through a few pages to show me. Sometimes giving me a flirty smile with raised eyebrows and then alternating to new pages.

  “I like the feel of the shiny slick magazine paper,” she said.

  “I do too. You almost never see real paper anymore.”

  “Yeah it’s useful to show to clients for a lot of reasons, but usually people who buy androids are interested in older stability philosophies and that’s the main one. And because they want old school style before all the ‘shit hit the fan’ as humans say, they usually seek stability associated with icons from a hundred years ago during the old 60s and 50s era ideas of the 1900s rather than this current age. They are often more likely to follow older demographic concepts from that era in what they ‘dream for’ rather than the modern new chaos and viginte take it by force and fighting,” she noted.

  “That’s true. But its more like people that are smarter want to be more practical and in control. They’ve realized money isn’t always control without skills and raw materials,” I said back.

  I wondered too how much of the new trends that people follow were also because they actually liked or wanted old school stability and home life but didn’t have the resources or means to have those things…thus they went with the closest thing to an alternative.

  “A lot of our research showed that people usually want peaceful and a hermit like paradise but aren’t good at being able to work out having to discipline themselves, work hard for it, and over the years kept selling their freedom and giving up more to Corporate rule, back when the big 500 corporations bought the government,” she said carefully. People disliked talking about that, and even whole fights and violence could break out just by mentioning the idea. She’d taken a risk by discussing it with me.

  I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to talk about that. Cops also had a tendency to be able to find stuff easily to lock people up on when they mentioned Corporations taking over the government too.

  “This one is an old Forbes magazine. You are welcome to take a look at it,” she said, being very careful with the vintage pages.

  “It still smells new,” I said ughing. I loved the smell of new books, and paper bookstore things. Of course now days it was a simuted smell that they’d recreated since very few books were sold in paper form, but the paper book smell was associated almost like being therapeutic.

  “Are you going to take a look?” she asked while smiling brightly with her hands on her knees. She’s watching me expectantly.

  “To the bookmarked spot?” I confirmed.

  She nodded.

  “Top traits sought after in a girlfriend. Is that what you wanted me to see?” I read from the article directly while she’s watching me. She nods.

  “Yes. That’s the one. You don’t need to read it aloud,” she said. But she bats her glistening eyes at me. “But it wouldn’t be terrible for you to read for me. I don’t mind studying…human behavior of many kinds.”

  To sum it up, it listed the following traits as follows;

  “Sports die hard, Comical or enjoys funny stuff or pying, Unafraid to speak up, Down to Earth, Supportive, stands up for herself & others, the girl all the other guys want, will spend time with your family and hangs out, driven, confident, and content,” I read it aloud anyway.

  “This is the part where you are like why do I need to see this in purchasing an android,” Barbara said to me.

  “Yeah, pretty much. I am curious why you are doing this,” I responded.

  “Basically I wanted to show you our society is fwed. Whether you are android or human doesn’t really matter but if someone is emuting personality traits that aren’t actually the most needed traits then the product will miss the mark. Scientists have noticed a difference between the quality of android that turns out from people that go after the wrong things but don’t catch it until ter when they feel anguish and want a change. So this exercise is basically to help you iron out the personality matrix that will be chosen for your new lover,” she summed up, all while still looking like a news video feed reporter in quality and style.

  “So if those are the wrong traits, I’m open minded about suggestions. But I’m not easy or a pushover. And I’m not sure why you’d say those were the wrong traits,” I said. I wouldn’t have picked all the traits she’d just shown me earlier anyway.

  “Good because I’d like you to compare this list with two other lists, and then think about it. Then tomorrow or the next day we can finalize your android purchase after you have a cool down time,” she said.

  “Why not just finalize now?” I asked.

  “This type of approach was recommended by a human and android psychology specialist counselor from MIT. They estimate by doing it this way after seeing more than one approach to seeing different partner traits and comparing them with what simutes peaceful synergy for the human partner to make the best stability and desired outcome. But since I’m not human I don’t know, but I have to focus my calcutions for success on what the greatest mathematical proven working stats can do and this seems to follow it,” Barbara shrugged.

  “Yeah that seems like a good idea,” I also said.

  She then showed me the next two lists.

  Forbes top 10 traits desired in a wife;

  “Common belief system and values, Inspire & elevate you, Trustworthy, Ambitious, Selfless, Attractive, Smart, Unconditional Love, Gets along with others and your other family members,” I concluded reading it.

  “Before we go forward I would draw your attention to how studies from leading psychologists indicate that the ambition trait is tied very closely with greed. Greed is also shown to be in conflict with unconditional love and selfless. How can someone be driven and away from home all the time but still be selfless too when all their time is focused on others? This creates a lot of challenges for humans. The girlfriend list is also severely fwed in that it portrays the most desired person should be a thrill seeking fun addict and has no indication of a trait for work, and yet will sacrifice for partner. If you think about it that means… why would a thrill seeking fun addict partner sacrifice for the good of the family? Why would a driven ambitious partner not manifest greed?” she said.

  I could see where she was getting at. She was showing me how some personality traits didn’t work with others.

  “Yeah that part I did notice too. Interesting that you see it so simir to me. Sacrifice and work ability seem like a good trait to have. I mean not just will obey and do work but will find things to do to promote growth and stuff like that,” I said.

  “So here is the next list. It’s from a time when people didn’t really think so much about lists, so it’s sort of compiled from the image society portrayed as the most coveted in a wife from the 50s,” she said.

  Oh this might be totally different from the other two, I thought.

  Sure enough…

  “Pretty at all times, Cooking ability & always in the kitchen, Clean, Conservative, Loyal, Good with Children, Often emuted in dresses rather than the current trend of skimp or revealing clothes, Works at Home and is still Diligent while not being a TV or Video Feed addict, and all manner of various types of Domestic skills,” I read.

  Wow, there was a lot of diversity there in all three lists. I realized this st list had more things I liked than the others. And that was interesting. You’d think the oldest list would be the most outdated. But instead it seemed more … fundamental.

  “But you can reset the A.I. if someone realizes they’ve programmed the wrong personality traits right?” I asked.

  “Actually where I’m going with this is that sometimes people are picking traits that cancel each other out. Like hard working and thrill seeking and fun work against each other and cancel out together,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  I’m a bit shocked when she shook her head and even looked disturbed at my idea of having an AI reset, “And in answer to your previous question, n general an android’s A.I. is only setup once Jack. You must understand that. We don’t let our AI messed with after the initial settings. They are programmed that way because it damages the hardware to redo its whole personality. That may sound weird, but when Mellifera started meshing, err I mean when we started building advanced androids... there started to be all kinds of unique problems that can occur. Have you ever heard of anyone ‘resetting’ any type of organic brain without brain damage?” she asked me pointedly.

  “Nope.”

  “I was only asking to be clear and to not have problems,” I said defending myself.

  “Oh good. Sorry if I reacted badly,” she said.

  “No, it’s fine. I didn’t know either, sorry,” I apologized.

  “Now even though you can’t erase an organically based brain, you can correct behavior over time, but that isn’t easy. So there are a lot of problems if you think we are just robots. That’s another reason why we have some of these screenings,” she said to expin that the A.I. can be adjusted.

  Only one shot to set the A.I. programs meant I shouldn’t rush things. She’s saying when I pick the AI settings I need to put thought into it and be careful.

  And choosing from either could be totally different in how my life ended up from the other two.

  I had already had an image in my head, but Barbara had thankfully shown me there were other things I could look at too.

  But where do I go from here?

  I’m also gd I didn’t blow Barbara off from being nervous about her trying to get me to buy now.

  After she left, we’re that much closer again. It leaves me with a lot of possibilities. I thought the 50s image of a women wasn’t exactly my cup of tea in how the women were portrayed in styles of clothes they wore…but today’s image of the women just using the man for a toy and leaving him with nothing and no loyalty was worse.

  So perhaps I was wrong about thinking old values weren’t appealing. I did like the idea of how in the 1950s families were considered permanent. And how the women really did seem more loyal in those eras though. Maybe that was worth looking into…

  Ultimately I did want loyalty the most. Which modern society wasn’t producing in real people.