Robo-Maid Alice

Part Two

Catherine does not have an exciting life, but that is okay for her. She enjoys her job, she likes the people she works with, and she does not bring any work home on the weekends. She has had some exciting times at work, especially when she had to "pretend" to be a robo-maid during a tense time with the R&D team. But, it all worked out and she went back to her average life. Not long after that, she was again called into action. This time, it was more serious as they needed her to have nano-something-or-other in her to help map the movements of the real robo-maid. It was kind of interesting and kind of scary. She was like a real robot for a time, but again, they got what they needed as she returned to work as usual.

She has been noticing lately, that her average job was not really cutting it. I mean, she reasoned with herself, what excitement can a database have over the latest and greatest projects in robotics? With the scary parts out of the way, she thought highly of her time with the R&D team, but realizes her robo-maid time was probably over... until she came into work today.

"Hey, Catherine," Jerry from the R&D team stopped by her cubicle pushing an empty cart. "How are you?"

Catherine swiveled in her chair and greeted him warmly. "I'm good, Jerry, How are the guys? I miss seeing you all."

Jerry nods his head, like he knew he needed to wait for a small talk answer before he could ask his question. "Good, good, so we were thinking of asking you if you happened to have some time that would be available in your schedule for a meeting that could or could not help us complete what it was we were supposed to do."

Catherine's facial expression must have clued him into her answer before she voiced it. "Uh, do you need some help with something? I'm not too busy later today."

Jerry nods his head, unable to come up with any other way of re-asking his question. He was supposed to write it all down, but then he left it at home on his toaster... wait, did I leave it on?

At this point, Catherine has stopped talking, as she realizes Jerry is lost in his own mind. She figures he was wanting help with something, but could not get past the awkwardness of asking someone of the opposite gender for anything. Chuckling to herself, she thinks that he probably knew every girl in the office by her shoes, because he never makes eye contact with any of them. At this point, Jerry looks up and notices the silence in the cubicle. "Uh," he starts again, "How are you?"

Catherine smiles and says, "So what do you need my help with, Jerry?"

"You see, it is like this," his eyes that were looking at her have moved to the floor. "The prototype did not work and our boss from someplace far away is coming next week." As he pauses, she rotates her chair with her feet moving in a small circle around her. His eyes follow her shoes as he talks, which makes her chuckle again to herself. "We need some time with a working robo-maid and the only one we have is, uh, you."

Catherine, having already figured it out, replies, "Well, I got some time today, so I could help out. Let me check my email real quick... "

Jerry breathes a deep sigh of relief, "Oh, good, I was so worried when I had to come ask you. I lost rock, paper, scissors, spock for this."

She nods with her back to him, not noticing the device in his hand. "Well, I... " She never finishes her sentence as she freezes in her chair. 'huh, what's going on? she thinks to herself, Why can't I move?' She feels her chair being pulled from behind. It rotates around and she finds herself being pushed up onto the empty cart, chair and all. Her fingers are out in front of her, like she was typing... which she was. He locks the wheels on the chair, then starts pushing her down the hallway. Fortunately, no one was paying any attention, as they all had their own work to do. The service elevator door is quite plain, she notices, as she stares at it from her chair on the cart. It takes them down into the basement of the lab.

When the door opens, she is greeted by the usual sounds and smells of the lab. It is a giant mess of organized robotics. She would turn to take it all in, as she has not been down here in a while, but she can't. As he rounds the corner of the large spacious room, the entire R&D team turn to them. Their first look is one of relief as Jerry has brought her, but then I think they realize what he did not do, Catherine reasons.

"Uh, Jerry," one of the guys asks, "Did you ask her if she could come?" A couple of the guys nod their approval of the question.

Jerry stops the cart and says proudly, "Yep, just like you guys said to, I asked if she would be willing to help us."

The guys look at Alice's frozen form then say, "Uh, that is not the same question as if she can come... Jerry, did you just highjack Catherine?" Jerry starts to reply and then he stumbles back and slaps his head. He tries to say something, but then he grabs his stomach and runs for the bathroom. Catherine still remains seated, smiling to herself, remembering why she loved hanging with these guys so much: they are so adorably awkward.

Within a few minutes, they have her off the cart and moving normal. "So, you see," one of the guys continues, "We think we have it ready if we had some more data."

Catherine replies smoothly, "Well, that should not be a problem."

"Well," they continue, "We really need some data away from the work building... in a more... uh... house setting." Catherine is not quite sure what they mean. "What we are trying to say is: we need you to come home with us." After the one fellow says it, he realizes how that sounded. He stutters, trying to explain himself.

Catherine was quick to help him out, "Oh, so you need the robo-maid in a real world setting that can help with the problems that could arise from being in a house with lots of variables, rather than a lab where everything is known."

The silence was longer than it should have been, but the one fellow in the back states very matter-of-factly, "I told you she is much smarter than she looks."

Catherine clears her weekend schedule and comes into work Friday morning ready for her next adventure. She heads down to the lab, but does not see anyone there. She sees her maid outfit on the table, but no one is in the lab. They should all be here by now, she thinks, although I am a little earlier than usual. With a smile, she gets dressed.

Her maid uniform is not overly sexy, like one might think, but it is rather tight and feminine. She strips quickly and pulls the lycra bra and panties on. The strapless bra provides no support for her girls, but then it does not have to, as her corset will actually do that. Speaking of her corset, she steps into it and pulls it up. The satin material is a little slick and it hides the hard plastic form perfectly. Walking over to her "storage" chamber, she turns around and hooks her back zipper on the side. Squatting down, the corset zips itself into place. "Hmmm," Catherine grunts, "I might have put on a little weight since they ordered this." Unhooking the zipper once she is done, she steps back to the table.

She pulls on her black miniskirt with the built-in, white ruffles. The elastic fits over the bottom of her corset, so she can easily clip it in place. The gloves go up to her elbows, which are also mostly black, with white lace on the trim. For practical purposes, the fingers were cut off. "Hmmm," Catherine notices, "I should have painted my fingernails this time." She puts her hair up in the hairband provided, and with great care, she steps into the high-heeled, platformed patent leather shoes. "Ow, these are quite uncomfortable."

With that thought, she realizes she forgot to put on her knee high stockings. Looking around for them, she hears the elevator door. There is not a clear line of sight to her, so she can hear who is coming before they actually see her. "... figure with them in that last minute meeting, we can take a quick look at their progress." Catherine does not recognize the voice, so who can it be? The mention of the meeting explains why the guys are not here, and these two walking up are obviously in on their project. The nano bots have not been activated yet, but if they see that she is human, it will spoil everything. She cannot hide or walk away without making noise, so her only choice: freeze.

Bending over slightly, she pushes her elbows out, brings her hands up to face away from her, and then tilts her head to the side a little. Putting a blank expression on her face, she stands like a paused robo-maid should. The gentleman who was talking is in a suit and looks important. The lady with him is probably an assistant, as her business suit looks tailored to her square frame.

"And there it is," he says waving his hand at Catherine. The lady whistles a "wow" as they both walk up to her. Catherine already knows she cannot maintain her pose and blank face for as long as they plan on staying. She will have to animate at some point, but not too soon, she reasons. The duo walk around her and examine her outfit. They tug at the skirt and push on the corset. With the two being mixed genders, neither is pushing the violation envelope here, Catherine figures. As they talk about software and marketing, the lady continues to stand in front of her while staring at Catherine's face. Ok, it's about time to animate here, Catherine says to herself.

The man is still talking, "... maybe it is like a START UP commercial." With that phrase, Catherine comes to life to cover her blinking eyes. As she straightens up, the lady jumps back and screams. The man must do the same, as Catherine hears his feet shuffle quickly. Ok, she figures, gotta make this good.

"Greetings, home owner, how may this unit assist you?" Catherine says in her best monotone voice. The lady is holding her heart, breathing quickly and swearing after each breath. The man recovers quickly and comes around into her field of view. "Well, I guess I said something to activate it," he says with some pride. Catherine holds her "animate" pose while blinking steadily. Oh that feels good, she thinks.

"Tell us what you were doing this morning, maid." The man asks in a commanding voice.

"Yes, sir," Catherine replies, "This unit was brought online this morning by the R&D team for testing."

The lady interrupts with, "What kind of testing?"

Uh oh, Catherine thinks, did not figure they would get that personal. "This unit was to dress in the maid uniform without aid."

The man notices her outfit and asks, "How did it go?"

"This unit did not complete dress program correctly. A subroutine is missing from the 'get dressed' protocol."

The lady looks around the table while the man looks her up and down. The lady holds up the knee high stockings and says, "Ah, you did not put these on."

Catherine turns to her and points at them, "Correct, this unit missed the knee-high stockings because they were not in the outfit list."

The man nodding at this, believing every word so far, and then asking, "So why din't you finish your task?"

"This unit was paused during the troubleshooting phase for a complete waste of time." Oh crap, Catherine says to herself, I did not mean to say that.

"A waste of time?" The lady chuckles.

The guy, putting the pieces together asks, "Was the waste of time an emergency meeting?"

Catherine nods her head, "Yes, sir."

The man says while laughing to himself, "Those nerds must have put that in its database as 'meeting.' " The man and woman laugh to themselves. Whew, that was close, Catherine breathes a sigh of relief.

The lady grabs a stool and pulls it over towards Catherine. Still holding the knee-high stockings, she says, "Finish your programming by sitting down here and putting on these stockings."

"Yes, madam," Catherine says while sitting down. Oof, Catherine thinks, this corset does not feel very good when sitting down.

"Take your shoes off."

Catherine bends down to comply, but she cannot reach her feet. The corset is restricting her too much. Straightening up, she tries again. Realizing they are watching her, she says, "Error, outfit prohibiting dressing program."

The man laughs even more now, "No wonder the guys cannot finish this project. They put hardware on their robot that hinders the software." He shakes his head slowly, while the lady stands up from her bent position. "What should we do now?" The man shrugs and checks his watch.

"The team will be back soon, and I did not want them to know we were down here."

The lady nods and adds, "Then lets put it all back and get out of here. At least, we know they are making some progress." Putting the stockings back down on the table, they move to leave.

Something on the table catches the guy's eye, "Hey, I found the remote." The lady turns to look at it as he pushes the off button. Catherine can feel the nano bots reactivating in her, that weird feeling of having your body being overtaken by someone else. She can feel that all the nano-bots are now working and then everything goes black. The man and woman watch the robo-maid straighten up then slump over, eyes closed, arms limp. Dropping the remote back on the table, they leave the way they came in. Unfortunately for Catherine, she is a deactivated robot now, waiting for the guys to return from their meeting.

The R&D team finally get out of their meeting and find Catherine still in the chair. They scratch their heads in wonder, but eventually they get back to work. They spend the rest of the morning getting the nano-bots updated and Catherine up to speed on her "duties." The basic plan is to use a shared condo that some of the guys have. They went in a few years ago and bought one on the beach just a couple of hours away. Each man with his family can use it once a year, and it has proven a good, personal investment. So now, it will be a professional investment as well.

"Ok, so it looks like Sidney will be staying tonight, then Leon for Saturday and Saturday night, and finally Michael on Sunday and Sunday night."

Catherine nods as she is back in control of herself. "And will I be in robot-mode the entire time?"

Leon says in reply, "I would expect so. We need to test all aspects of the programming, so it makes sense to keep you as 'Alice' as much as possible. However, I guess if you think you might need a break we could do that."

Catherine holds up her hands and says, "Not necessarily, I just wanted to get an idea if I would have any time for myself."

The guys had not thought of this, so one of the others says non-committedly, "We'll see."

They wheel in a transport tube from the back room. It is a large box that is designed for moving androids or robots from one place to another. Catherine sees it and asks, "Is that for me, uh I mean, for 'Alice'?" Somehow, she thinks to herself, I just figured I would ride in the car with them.

"Yes, it is," they say proudly, "We just got this in last week. You can be the first to try it out."

She can tell they think they are doing a great job by having this for her. "Oh, great," she tries to say as positively as possible, "Thanks."

The box has a hard plastic exterior with a soft foam like material on the inside. It looks to be shaped for a female of her size. She notices that there are some lights and electronics in the foam. Pointing to them she asks, "What are those for?"

Sidney, who would be driving her down, says, "Those are designed to monitor the bot and keep it, or in this case you, safe. The vibrations of the car might cause some software or hardware problems, so the box compensates."

Catherine cannot help but 'ooo' at that. This is really fancy, nodding to herself.

"Ok, I think we are ready," Leon states.

Catherine gulps noticeably and replies, "Well, I guess I'm ready. Hope you get what you need." As she looks around the room, she can tell they are expectant for this project to work and they are putting all their faith in this weekend.

She can feel the nano-bots taking over again. Her body starts to do things she did not tell it to do. In her silver, shiny latex catsuit, she climbs easily into the box. The foam fitted interior applies a comfortable pressure on her as she lays down. She continues to blink in perfect time as she stares at the ceiling. "Ok," she hears a voice say, "Let's put Alice into storage mode." She can hear a click and then she can no longer feel her feet. Woah, she thinks to herself, that is weird. Then her legs "disappear" causing her to feel a little nervous. Hands, arms, torso are all gone now. Only her head is still working, she figures, which means it will be-- With the final click, the guys close up their hopes and dreams. The box is locked and all the lights are checked. "Looks like we are ready to go."

Several hours later, Sidney and Alice arrive at the condo. It sits across the street from a beautiful beach. The condo is a two-story unit that is connected to about 10 more in a row along the 2 lane road. The first floor has the family room, kitchen, bathroom, and mud/laundry room. Most of it is one large area. The second floor has 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, and a media room, which has a balcony off its front wall. For a vacation, it is just about perfect.

Pulling into the parking space, Sidney unloads his suitcase and turns on the lights inside the condo. Pulling Alice in her box out of the back of the van, he rolls her into the condo. Unlocking the case, he opens the lid. The box automatically turns Alice on. She stands up smoothly and at attention next to the box. Alice can immediately tell she is somewhere new, I can smell the ocean... nice.

Sidney walks into her field of view. "Okay, Alice," he says, "Go upstairs and unpack my suitcase."

Alice replies, "By your command, owner," and walks easily up the stairs.

Pulling out his cellphone, he calls the lab. "You guys getting the video and audio?"

He can hear noises in the background, "Yep, all coming in well. We think we got the dressing program right, so test that next." Sidney nods his head and walks into the kitchen to put away some of the groceries. "Woah, woah," the guys say, "Let Catherine do that."

Sidney stops short and snaps his fingers, "Right, forgot." He can hear one of the guys say in the background, "... not Catherine, but Alice... " Sidney starts too say something, when they say, "Uh, Sidney, you better get upstairs. We got a problem."

Without replying, he climbs the stairs and goes to his bedroom, which is the largest one in the back of the condo. As he enters the room, he can see the "problem." Alice has been following orders and unpacking. However, what he sees is every single piece of his clothing laid out individually on the bed. She had carefully removed everything from the bag and laid it on the bed, even the socks were separate. She was starting on his toiletry bag, pulling out each individual containers. Sidney commands, "Freeze, Alice." Alice stops in mid motion. I was trying to tell myself to not do it this way, Alice says to herself like she was talking out loud. I knew this is not what you meant.

"Ok, who wrote the 'unpack program' as 'take everything out of the bag'... " Sidney starts the conversation. As the guys discuss and look at the code, they realize that she did exactly as she was supposed to: remove everything from suitcase. "Uh, that was me," Leon says sheepishly, "Unpacking means to take everything out of the bag... but then put it in the right place... my bad, guys." Sidney can hear the tapping of keys as they go to working on the problem. He walks over to Alice and takes his toothpaste out of her hands. "Alice, follow me." Alice straightens up and follows him out of the room.

They walk into one of the other bedrooms. Alice can see her outfit on the bed. "Ok, Alice," Sidney says while pointing to the bed, "Get dressed in your outfit." Alice thinks, well this should be interesting. I forgot the stockings, so let's see if they remembered them. It does not take long for her to dress herself. Despite her fears, the guys did well. Following her programming, she dresses herself properly in a few minutes. Looking in the mirror out of the corner of her eye, she can see herself in her uniform. Wow, she marvels to herself, I think I look pretty good like this. I never thought of a maid being sexy.

The rest of the day goes by smoothly. She puts away groceries and cleans the floor with a vacuum cleaner. Other than trying to vacuum the counter top, the programming works well. Alice finds herself easily pleasing Sidney and the team. She has no idea what time it is, but this has been a good day. So, Alice wonders, am I really proud of my accomplishments or am I being programmed to think that? That thought has never occurred to her until now.

Sidney walks up to her and says, "Well, I think we have done enough testing today. Let's get you recharged and stored." He starts walking upstairs. "Follow, Alice." Alice stops her cleaning and follows him upstairs. He goes into "her" bedroom. Once she enters, she sees the recharging station. He must have set it up while I was cleaning, she reasons. "Enter the recharging station."

"By your command, master." She steps into the tube. It is not as snug of a fit as the transport box, but it is comfortable. Sidney closes the door to it. As soon as it clicks, Alice can feel her entire body getting a dose of electricity. Oh my, she says to herself, that feels really good, almost like a---her mind is turned off, along with every other moving part. She is getting charged and rested now, just like a robot would. It would have been a great night's sleep, if she was conscious enough to enjoy it.

Saturday morning, Alice's eye snap open at exactly 7am. The storage tube activates her and sends her out. Wow, she thinks, I feel like I just got in there, but I can see the Sun coming up, so I know it is morning. As she walks downstairs, she feels very refreshed, like she slept for hours and hours. That might be the best night sleep I had, she reasons, if I could remember it. As she reaches the bottom floor, she turns sharply towards the kitchen. Hmmm, she thinks, it looks like Alice is gonna try her hand at making breakfast. Hope I don't burn anything down...

As it turns out, her programming has her doing a pretty good job. So far, the mess has been minimal. The eggs are cooked (a little runny), the toast is done (maybe too done), and the orange juice is on the table (in a bowl not a cup). Ah well, she thinks, not bad for a prototype robot. The programming is satisfied with it, so she turns and goes back upstairs. Sidney is snoring loudly in the master bedroom. Alice enters and says loudly, "Master, it is time to get up." He continues to sleep.

Alice repeats this for the next 15 minutes with no reaction. How long am I gonna stand her and just talk to him? His breakfast is getting cold, she complains. At the 18 minute mark, she enters a different subroutine. Uh oh, she thinks as she moves towards the bed, this is gonna be funny.

Climbing into bed with him, Alice lays down right next to Sidney. She puts her face right next to his where their noses almost touch. "Master, it is time to get up."

Sidney is not a fast person, but his eyes shot open and he jumps out of bed like he could fly. "Oh my, what are you doing in my bed?" He yells.

Alice props herself up on one arm and states, "This unit has attempted to wake you for 18 minutes. The snooze feature entered the next subroutine, master." Alice giggles to herself, he looks like he is turning every shade of red.

Sidney is breathing heavy and pacing the floor slightly as he says, "You are... I mean, never... oh, deactivate!" Alice collapses back onto the bed: deactivated. Sidney catches his breath, throws some water on his face, and goes downstairs for his breakfast. The team will spend most of the morning working on how to make a better breakfast in code, while Alice lays in bed deactivated.

At mid morning, Sidney hears a knock at the door. He ignores it, figuring Alice will answer. However, she cannot get to it, because she is still deactivated on the bed upstairs. Sidney does not hear the door open, but he does notice the odd sound of wheels and gears in the background. As he comes into the family room from the kitchen, he sees a late model service robot. It is all metal on the outside, which is a mix of chrome and bronze colors. It has 4 short, yet-extendable arms with a dual camera on top. It has sets of wheels that give it the capacity to move any direction, even up and down stairs. "Oh my," the service bot states, "This unit did not realize the condominium was still occupied."

Sidney raises his hands, "It's quite alright. What is your purpose and designation?"

The unit turns to face him, but it is hard to tell which direction is the front. "This unit is Cleaning Maid #17. It is designed and ordered to clean all the condominium rooms in this complex by noon of each day." Sidney can see no reason to make it leave, so he says that it can complete its duties.

He returns to the kitchen to work with the guys over the phone. They have been all morning straightening out some code. None have thought to ask him about Alice, and he is lost in thought to remember his real reason for being there. Cleaning Maid #17 begins its duties upstairs. Starting in the back room, it finds Alice still limp on the bed. A quick scan causes Cleaning Maid #17 to approach Alice. Using a special frequency, it activates Alice. Her eyes snap open and she sits up. Woah, she says to herself, what is going on now? My internal clock says I have been laying here for almost 3 hours.

"Unit, what is your designation?"

Alice cannot help but reply, unable to move from the bed. "This unit is designated: Alice."

The service bot processes that and replies, "By robot management priority, Alice will follow all orders given by Cleaning Maid #17."

Oh, there is no way that will work, you overgrown toaster, she thinks smugly. Yet, she hears herself reply, "Priority override recognized. Alice is now Cleaning Maid #17b."

Cleaning Maid #17 seems satisfied with that answer and moves to the bathroom. "Make the bed using protocol 3."

Alice gets off the bed and stands at attention. "Cleaning Maid 17b does not have the bed making protocols." Well, duh, you microwave, Alice says to herself, I cannot make a bed like this. The chrome and bronze bot rolls back over to her. Extending an arm, Alice can see a bright light in her eyes. At that point, Alice can see a hundred pictures in her mind about making beds. I had no idea there were so many ways to make a bed, Alice says to herself surprised. With her new programming, both cleaning maids set to working on the bedroom.

The rest of the morning goes by quickly. Alice follows all of her orders by the service bot. Sidney and the crew figure out what has been happening and start recording data. They all seem quite excited, Alice thinks in surprise. Alice's programming being overridden by another priority program validates all they have been doing, in some strange way. She figured Sidney would rescue her from this, but he watches her movements with curiosity. Alice noticed she was moving different than before her "hostile take over." She can hear them on the phone, "... notice that... must be the older bot's software protocols... causes the jerking motion... right... right... "

As the apartment is nearly done, she has found herself "updated" many times. She can now make a bed (in 17 different ways), clean the toilet (using any of 5 different brushes), vacuum the floor (evidently the service bot fixed their software glitch), and for reasons unknown, she can speak in rudimentary Spanish. For now, she is just glad that the jerky motions she has been under are almost over. She follows the service bot to the door. "Cleaning Maid #17 are you done?"

"Yes, sir," it replies, "Your room is now clean. Do you need any other assistance?"

Sidney rubs his chin and replies, "No, i'm good. But, I would like to have my robot back."

The service bot turns to Alice, who has finally glitched her way to the door. "Of course, sir," turning to Alice, "Cleaning Maid #17b!" Alice stops and makes a slight bow, "Se?"

"Render Cleaning Maid #17b files into archived memory. Reboot as Alice. Normal functions." Alice bows slightly again and says, "Se."

Alice can feel the nanobots processing the request. She recognizes this feeling: she is about to reboot. Great, Alice complains, I getting to where I really don't like being rebooted. It just feels---Slumping over, Alice shuts down. "Good day, sir," the service bot says as it leaves. Sidney closes the door and turns around. Alice straightens back up and says, "Greetings, homeowner. How may I assist you?"

Leon shows up within the hour and gets updated on what has been going on. Currently, Alice is giving Sidney a neck rub. Leon can hear the cracking of the cartlage underneath her hands. Sidney grimaces slightly each time, but he does not tell her to stop. "We might want to "crack" change the neck rub "crack" to a lower setting "crack" "feels good to me" crack! Leon butts in with, "But some people might not want their neck snapped in two," cringing at each cracking sound. Sidney nods and commands Alice to stop. She obeys instantly and stands in a ready position behind the couch.

"See you, Leo," Sidney says as he walks out the door with his bag. "Bye, Sid," Leon replies as Alice closes the front door. She turns to face Leon. Well, she thinks to herself, I wonder what new things I gotta do with him? "Alice, convert communication mode to French accent."

Alice can feel the nanites moving stuff around in her jaw. "Oui, oui, monsieur." she says to him.

"No, not full french, but english speech with a french accent."

Alice feels her jaw moving around again, "But of course, master, I live to serve." Alice can tell she has a different vocabulary now, which must be provided by a new database.

"Ok, Alice," Leon says, "Let's put away some dishes." Alice follows him into the kitchen. As he points out the dishwasher, she opens it up and starts to unload it. Leon sits at the table and watches her. She easily puts the first set of cups away. As she moves to the plates, she grabs one and turns to the cabinet. There is no other plate like it in the cabinet. Alice says to herself, well, let's just put it here. Instead, she freezes up, pausing in mid-motion. Leon waits at the table for her to do something else. When she doesn't, he rises to walk over to her.

"Alice?" She turns to face him, dropping the plate as she puts her hands down to her side. "Yes, master, how might I serve you?" Her french accent is rather heavy, but it sounds quite good, too, Leon thinks. The crashing of the plate goes unnoticed by Alice. "Hmmm," Leon says, "That is not good. Let's get the guys on this." He steps to the table and pulls up his laptop with the video conference software on it. "okay," he starts, "What happened here?"

They spend the next several hours working on it. Alice puts the same plate away a dozen times, while breaking about 5 in the process. She figured it out almost instantly, without a template, the programming has no idea where to put things. It would be nice if they would ask me, she thinks. Oh well, it has been a good trip so far, except for the entire afternoon of monotony.

Given enough time, they figure it out and start redoing the software. By dinner time, they have Alice putting plates and cups and silverware away perfectly. "Anything else, master?" Leon says goodbye to the guys and shuts the laptop down. "Nope, Alice," he replies, "I think I am done for the day." He heads towards the downstairs bathroom and says, "Take my bag upstairs and unpack it for me."

"Oui, master, I am here to serve." Alice walks gracefully out of the room and carries the rather heavy bag up the stairs. Oh boy, she winces, this thing is heavy and with these high heels, I'm glad the programming is doing this.

When Leon gets upstairs, he is greeted by a pleasant surprise. All of his clothes are unpacked and placed in their proper places. He will not need all those clothes, but he wanted to test their unpacking programming. Alice emerges from the bathroom with a smile. "I have placed your toiletry bag on the sink." Her pronunciation was a little hard too understand, but Leon figured it out. "Well, it all looks great, Alice." Alice stops in front of him, curtsying slightly. "Thank you, monsieur."

Leon smiles and commands, "Go to your recharging station. Set alarm for 7:30am." Alice nods and curtsies again, "Of course, master, good night." She walks out of the room to her own bedroom. Ah, Alice says to herself, I'm looking forward to a good charge. My stomach is growling and my feet are kinda hurting and I got a headache. She steps into the chamber and settles into it. Ah, she thinks, this feels so goo---

The next morning goes very well. Alice is awakened and sets about making breakfast. She wakes Leon up, which he promptly gets out of bed. He enjoys an 'amazing breakfast' and a 'perfect cup of joe' from Alice. He makes lots of notes and sends them back in an email. Alice finds herself feeling very good. She cannot help but smile to herself. I feel so accomplished, I mean, he really likes the way I did all this for him. Leon puts her through a few more cleaning tasks in the kitchen, and other than a dropped glass of ice, she did very well.

As noon rolls around, they both hear a knock at the door. Alice walks quickly to the door before Leon can answer it. Hmmm, he thinks, she should probably wait to be ordered to do that. He makes a quick note of that as Alice opens the door for Michael. "Good afternoon, monsieur. May I help you?" Michael has several bags in his hands as he pushes past her. "Well, of course I need a hand, you french toast tart. Take these upstairs." Uh ok, Alice thinks with a frown, this guy is new to the team and I already don't like him.

"Hey, Leo," Michael extends his hand, "How did it go?" Leon replies, looking up from his notes, "Fine, fine, Michael. thanks." They make some small talk while Alice gets Michael's bag upstairs. As she finishes, Leon yells up, "Go ahead and pack my bag, Alice." She curtsies to an empty room, "Oui, yes, monsieur master." With the same speed of unpacking the bag, she packs it. Nothing is put back the same way, but it all fits.

When she is done, she stands in the bedroom, waiting for her next command. Leon, figuring she might be waiting on him, yells up to her, "Bring it down when your done." Again, she curtsies to an empty room and carries his bag down. Michael and Leon have said their goodbyes, so he takes the bag from her. "Thanks, Alice, reset communication to default mode."

"By your command, master," she replies in plain english. As the door closes, she turns around to see Michael rubbing his hands. "Ok, Alice, let's get you in your new uniform." Uh oh, Alice says to herself, I do not like the sound of that.

"The guys are taking today off," Michael begins, "as they have been watching the world through you and your programming." Alice stands at the ready, hands in front of her, back straight, and a slight smile on her face. As he walks towards his backpack that he wore into the condo. "So, I have you all to myself," picking it up and starting to unzip it, "of course the rest of the team will eventually see the playback on your nanite-recorded vision, but by then," he chuckles, "I will have had my fun." Pulling out a pile of shiny clothes, he says to her, "Put this on, maid. And be quick about it." Alice nods her head, "At once, master."

Alice gets upstairs to her room with the outfit. It appears to be another maid's outfit, Alice reasons. However, it has one unique quality: it's latex. And judging from it's size, Alice figures, it will be really tight and probably pretty short... on the top and bottom. She strips quickly and dons the outfit. The black latex thong and bra are quite small but fit. They are definitely not designed for comfort, Alice reasons. The miniskirt and top are one piece of tight shiny blackness. The top does have a built in corset with selfzipping feature (battery operated... hidden in the folds of the back... very handy, Alice thinks). The entire outfit has white, latex lace. Her black latex knee-highs press onto her legs tightly. She fears that they might fall down, but with as much difficulty she had in getting them on, they may never come off. The elbow-length gloves and headband finish the look. All she needs is shoes... hmmm, she thinks to herself as her robot-controlled body looks for them,, where are the shoes?

Walking back downstairs, Alice reports, "This unit has completed dressing except for the shoes." Michael looks up from the couch, having been watching TV. "Oh, yes," he says eyeing her up and down, "Very sexy." He walks passed her, letting his hand trail along her waist, the latex squeaking slightly as his touch. "The shoes are over here, but you need a new subroutine for them." He pulls out his laptop and a pair of white, stiletto-heeled shoes. Those heels have to be, Alice figures, about 5 inches high. There is no way I can wear them.

Michael types a few things then says, "There you go." Alice can feel her nanites working, showing her how to walk in them. Oh, she can feel her body adjusting, they might not be too bad after all. Putting them on, she stands up. She is now taller than Michael, and from the look in his eyes, he is very excited about it. "Oh, you are a dream come true."

Putting her to work, Alice begins to clean the kitchen. She moves rather gracefully around the room in her unbelievably high heels. They click slightly when she walks on the tiled floor. Michael seems to have nothing to do than to watch her walk and work. Alice begins to ignore him as she sets about her duties. She is finding that letting herself go into the programming makes the day go by faster. Besides, she figures, there is nothing I can do anyway but watch myself go about their work for me.

The afternoon is a blur, and other than the costume, today has been fine. She is rather curious about all the things she is setting out. If she didn't know better, she would think there is a party going on here tonight. Extra plates, cups, and napkins are on one table. Another table is full of party-type foods and dishes. The counter in the kitchen has become a bar of plenty of alcohol. All that is missing now, Alice thinks to herself, are some guests. Ding-dong! "Alice, get the door and greet my guests." And, here we go...

Evidently, working on the weekend does not mean you have to work alone. Alice continues to open the door and show people to the food and bathroom. Almost as soon as she is done, another person comes to the door. She does not recognize anybody, as each couple greets her with not much of a thought. I think, she reasons, they think I'm human. The condo is now quite loud with all of the people and music. Michael will continue to give her commands about serving food or cleaning a mess or whatever he can think of. As with all other commands, she immediately obeys. Based off her responses, the number of people watching her does not affect her program. I guess that is a plus, she thinks.

A couple of hours into the party, Alice notices her "host" is acting weird. He has gotten louder over the evening, and his movements have been more and more exaggerated. No one seems to care, as long Alice keeps filling their drinks and restocking the food table. So far, no one seems to pay her much notice, and are being rather nice. Again, she thinks, they must believe she is a very well-trained maid. Michael breaks that with, "Alice, I need your help in the bathroom." Alice follows, wondering what he could need.

Once there, he stands facing the toilet. "Oh, Alice," he moans, "I gotta go so bad. Take me out so I can take a leak." Alice knows exactly what he means, but her programming does not. She freezes in place, as the nanites try to process it. He is not thinking clearly, and repeats it, "I gotta go, Alice. Unzip me!" Knowing his outfit, Alice unzips his pants and stands next to him. "Come on, Alice," he says loudly, "Get my boxers out of the way." Again, he said enough for her programming to process. She bends down and puts both hands inside his pants, moving his boxers around. She must have done something right, because his manhood jumps out of his pants. She can barely remove her hands before he begins to empty himself. Not sure I have done anything that degrading before, Alice says to herself sadly. I'm ready for this weekend to be over.

He finishes and gets her to help him zip up. He staggers out of the bathroom and greets several people with a smile. "You know these robo-maids are amazing." Alice is still standing in the bathroom, waiting orders. "They can do whatever you program them to do." The people closest to him can hear what he is saying, but they cannot see her waiting in the bathroom. "Yep, we are gonna change the world." Some people nod at this, still not quite sure what he is talking about. "All we need is a willing DNA and host body and then BAM, we got the market and the world in our robo-maid." As he staggers to the bar, Alice gets a picture she was not sure of until now. They need more than just a prototype, she reasons, they need my body. This thought settles into Alice's brain like a dark cloud. The next question is just as troubling: do they all know this and when was I going to be asked? Or was I?

She spends the next hour in the bathroom. Evidently, her programming had an auto feature, so she proceeds to help everyone empty themselves. At first, there is some hesitation by the guests, but then it becomes a game. A line forms as everybody wants their turn at being helped in the bathroom. No one is being mean or hateful, Alice thinks to herself, but there are about 1000 other things I would rather be doing.

Eventually, other matters need her attention so she is ordered out to refill the food table and freshen everybody's drinks. The party winds down when Michael passes out onto the couch. Everybody grabs a final snack and says their goodbyes to the unconscious host. Over the next 45 minutes, Alice shows them to the door, returning any article they had checked to her. She politely says, "thank you for coming and have a safe journey home." When the last person has left, she turns from closing the door. The condo is a wreck of food and plates and cups. Michael is still slumped on the couch, snoring loudly. Well, she wonders, what do I do now?

After a few moments, she tries to move on her own. She finds her body resisting at first, but then her programming has no protocol to follow at the moment, so it allows her to move on her own. It is a strange feeling now, she thinks, being able to move on her own. She had not been in her containment tube in a while, so she was feeling kinda strange. The containment charge takes care of her bodily functions and food supplements and everything else. She felt like she had run a marathon without any water or a bathroom break. She is not sure how much of her programming will allow, so she moves slowly to the table for a drink. She reaches out her hand for the water, when her programming pulls her up short. Great, she curses, I can't drink because I'm not programmed to. She turns to walk to the bathroom, and the same thing happens as she walks into the room. She tries the stairs and the same thing happens. Grrr, this stinks!

Not sure what to do, she goes over to wake up Michael. Maybe he can at least order me to recharge or something. Shaking his shoulder, she tries to wake him up. He rolls over and mumbles, "go away." True to his order, she replies, "Yes, master." She turns around and walks as far away from him as she can. Ok, she thinks, that didn't work.

By this time, the Sun has started to come up. Wow, is it morning already? She tries moving towards the kitchen again, hoping to find his laptop when a knock comes to the front door. Michael does not even notice, so Alice promptly walks to it. Opening it up, the cleaning maid from the other day rolls into the condo. "It is checkout day, so this unit will help clean while you pack." Alice thinks that impossible with Michael still passed out on the couch. She points to the couch but before she can speak, she feels a strange tingling sensation. What in the world?

"Start with the kitchen, Cleaning Maid #17B." Without hesitation, Alice turns and walks into the kitchen, "Yes, Cleaning Maid #17." Great, Alice complains, I get to help clean up the mess that they made. She also notices her movements are rather jerky as before, and now she wobbles uncontrollably. I guess Cleaning Maid #17 does not have a protocol for 5 inch heels.

The next 3 hours go by without interruption or event. Alice and the cleaning maid follow their programming completely. Every part of the condo is cleaned and polished perfectly. Alice is now completely worn out. She has got nothing left. She can tell she is moving much slower. In fact, it appears the world is moving faster, too. The cleaning maid's voice is like one of the chipmunks, and it is buzzing around super speed. Alice is not wobbling much now, but then she is really just scooting along the floor.

They had just finished the upstairs when Michael comes up slowly. He looks rough, and heads straight to the shower. The cleaning maid asks him a question, but he replies with a grunt and a "get out." Compliant, the cleaning maid leaves the condo. Alice is left in the hallway upstairs, still thinks she is the Cleaning Maid #17B. She cannot really move now and her shoulders are slumping a little bit more each minute. She hopes he comes out soon, as she is not sure what happens if she runs out of ---

story continues in Part Three
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