After my session with Nicole I couldn't get her out of my head. Only the guilt of needing to focus on my work kept me from booking time with her every day. A week had passed, and I was feeling proud for having stayed focused. In some gratuitous twist of fate, I actually owed her another four hours of practice time this month. Maybe I should visit today. Was I rationalizing? It was hard not to daydream about her. Her? Nicole wasn't real. I suppose that's not completely true, as somewhere in the world there was a real flesh and blood operator, not that her real name was Nicole. However, the impossible 7'3" tall raven hair goddess in my daydream was a machine. A carefully constructed telepresence unit. Most models were normal size, with a permanent tether plugging them into power and computers. However, some new prototypes had been made oversize enough to contain the batteries and computer systems required for them to operate without the tether. The experience was rather seamless, and most of the time one could be fooled into thinking the machine was real. The operator and machine acted as one, took on a persona. It was hard not to think of her.
After our last session, I was beginning to think the disconnection of the operator lowered their inhibitions. They couldn't be hurt, they couldn't be seen, they couldn't even really be identified. It was really an ideal situation to be able to play a part without reprocussions. My coworkers had nicknamed the testing labs the 'fantasy factory', referring to the ability of sessions to include intimate interaction. I'd experienced only a couple sessions, and they were made up of much more fantasy than reality. The name was fitting.
It hadn't always been this way. I had only worked at Telemesh for about a month. However, the company history contained some details of a decade long development path. The first units had simply been walking cameras. Competitors had built camera telepresence units on wheels, but in a world built for humans, wheeled units, like the handicapped, had serious limitations. Even as these walking units saw customers, the ability to open doors and carry objects was in demand as a logical extension. An attempt had been made to make even those early prototypes look less like machines, however, their movement was clunky and awkward. Then came a new technology, a technology that changed everything. It enabled the units to balance and move themselves in a more lifelike manner. Even with the relatively crude first generation operator consoles, with units that looked like robots, they started to move like humans and so they appeared human. The technology was called the Dymostat, or Dynamic Motion Stator, and I had co-developed it before I even knew Telemesh existed. Thinking about work reminded me just how much I needed to get done this month.
An email alert popped in, clicking over I saw it was from Susan. Images flashed in my memory of my first Telemesh demonstration session. Images of Nicole had almost chased her out of my mind, but Susan was my 'first' so to speak. My first operator. That day I had first visited Telemesh they had made an incredible offer for me to come on board. As I considered it I walked the practice area, and had stumbled into a room with Susan as an operator. It was hard not to think of them as relationships and think somehow my time with Nicole was at Susan's expense. She had been out of town this month, so I hadn't seen her in weeks. However, it was Susan that had been the one encouraging me to visit Nicole to give her more practice time. She didn't seem bothered at all that I'd promised her four more hours this month, in fact she seemed excited about it. This whole economy was so strange, as if I was the scarce resource, and Nicole was the one benefiting from our sessions. From my end it felt entirely the opposite.
Susan's email was simple. She confirmed she was still offline for another few weeks. She thanked me for visiting Nicole and made reference to hoping it didn't hurt too much. Had I hinted at the physicality of my session with Nicole? We had exchanged several emails and I could't remember. Maybe these operators were closer than I thought. I realized at that moment that I had no idea exactly how many operators there were. Certainly the practice rooms were too elaborate to be for just a handful, but there could be a hundred or a hundred thousand. In her email, Susan asked how my latest engineering challenge was going. She asked quite a bit about my work. In fact, she seemed more interested than my boss. Maybe she was just being polite. I tapped out a response. This time I was working on a feedback innovation that would enable operators to feel objects with much finer precision. The current system, in order to operate in a lifelike manner, had a massive computer object identification system constantly judging the force to be placed on objects. The operator could, of course, also control it, but they didn't have much direct real-time feedback. The Dynmostat was a self-contained control loop within the unit. This new modification would allow the feedback paramaters to be fed back to the operators, so they could feel the environment in a much more natural way. It would also reduce the need for these tuning computers to be constantly in place, though some might still be used to enforce safety protocols. As I finished my email, I realized that I was a place in my work where I really needed to test and tune some parameters for the feedback software. That was a good excuse to visit the testing grounds, and if I was going to visit, I might as well visit Nicole!
After making a session reservation on the Intranet, I congratulated myself for my craftiness, and made a bag of my testkit boards to use in testing. Of course I could do this testing in my personal lab, so I did feel a twinge of guilt as I walked across our campus to the practice area. However, I would be working, so I wasn't too guilty. I navigated the corridors of the testing facility quickly, and arrived at our classic living setting. It was setup as an open-floorplan 1br condo, complete with tasteful art and decor. The test unit was standing in a cradle against the living room wall and lifeless as I walked in. I hadn't made any special requests for this session, so it was clothed in a standard issue long black pleated skirt and white blouse. As I reached it, the activity monitors woke it up, and in a few moments I heard Nicole's voice. "Welcome back Kenneth. I admit, I had expected to see you sooner." She looked down and twirled around flaring her skirt. "Ohh, I havn't seen this in a while." She was over seven feet tall, and as she twirled, the long skirt spun outwards, fabric dragging against my waist. As her spin came to a stop, she leaned down and kissed the top of my head. "Hey cutie. Is there a reason I'm looking so, traditional?"
I set my bag of test parts down on the coffee table. "Actually, yes. Today is a bit of a working visit. I need to test a new feedback system. I thought it's be more fun to do it here and give you some practice time in the process. I owe you a few more hours right?"
She was excited. "Four hours! At least! Sounds like fun, what are we going to test?"
"I've been working on a new feedback control system. I need to tune a few parameters, and if it's working right you should see some dramatic changes." I emptied the contents of my bag. A few test boards, some ping pong balls, golf balls, a wire hangar, and a handful of round steel bars. "I'll need access to the upper-actuator subsystem C panel."
"Upper system what? I have no idea where that is. Remember Kenneth, I'm just an operator." Of course. The labrats I usually worked with knew these machines inside and out, but she only ever used the operator console. I didn't know if she'd ever seen a unit in person.
"Turn around. Now kneel on the floor." The panel I needed was just below the right shoulder blade. She was sitting down on her butt, and the access panel would be at an awkward height. "Kneel up straighter."
"So in command today Kenneth. I like it." I chalked her comment up to levity. I put my hands on her shoulders and gestured her up. Kneeling up straight her shoulders were a bit below mine, perfect for the access panel. I tugged at the collar of her shirt. "I'll need you to let down the back of your shirt."
Her head swung around towards me. "I thought you would never ask," her voice thick with melodrama. In a moment her shirt was unbuttoned and dropped down to her waist. I swiped my diagnostic tool across her skin, and the familiar lights illuminated below the service. The positions served as buttons, and after I pushed on them in the right sequence, a seam in her skin loosened and the access panel opened.
"Excellent. Before we begin I would like to do some quick control tests. Grab one of those ping pong balls and crush it."
She picked one up. "I can't do that silly. The safety protocols won't allow it." She looked to be squeezing the ball, but not making a dent. Because of challenges with feedback in the sensor loop, the operators didn't have an amazing amount of feeling over their actions. Because the robotic parts were very strong, the safety system had very generous tolerances to prevent the units from inadvertently damaging objects or people.
"Okay, sit tight." I gently removed the upper-actuator controller board from the back of the unit and inserted my test board. I keyed a code into the back panel of her skin to enable verbal paramater input. "Simsystem, disable upper-actuator C subsystem safety protocols for inanimated objects." A computerized voice repeated my command, confirmed. "Now try Nicole." The ping pong ball exploded with a sharp pop.
"Wow! That seems a little dangerous Kenneth."
"Did you feel the controller feedback? I'm guessing not from how quickly that popped." She shook her head. "Simsystem paramater input, feedback epsilon 4.25." A computerized voice repeated and confirmed my command, feedback epsilon 4.25, confirmed. "Try the golf ball this time Nicole." She picked up the golf ball. She held it daintly at the end of her thumb and forefinger, and I could see her digits squeeze it for a few seconds.
"Oooh, I feel it Kenneth." She turned it a bit, and squeezed again. This time there was no pop, one side of the golf ball dented, and then her pointer finger dug into the surface. "Oops."
"It's okay, it's part of the testing process. Simsystem, paramater readback, feedback threshold delta." The computerized voice returned, feedback threshold delta 414.4 newtons per cubic centimeter. I quickly churned some numbers in my head. "Simsystem, paramater input, feedback epsilon 8.35." We both waited for the computer to readback it's confirmation. "Go ahead Nicole try again."
She picked up another golf ball between the points of her digits. "Wow, I can really feel it this time." She moved it about in her fingers. Then she slid her fingers across the top of the golf ball. "I can sort of feel the texture of it. That's amazing!"
"Try to crush it." She squeezed it in the points of her fingers. My calculations would have to be really far off for that to work. Then she squeezed gripped it in her palm and tried her best. Half a minute later she opened her palm, the golf ball still in-tact.
"That's remarkable! Are the safety protocols still disabled?"
I nodded to her. "With this feedback system engaged, the force is limited by your own strength. If you were strong enough to crush a golfball, then lookout! Eventually new safeties will still be in place with this feedback module, but we'll be able to reduce the sensitivity. Try the ping pong ball." She picked one up and had a similarly unsuccessful time trying to crush it. "Remarkable strong arn't they?" I shifted around in front of her to grab a thing steel bar, momentarily distracted by her both shirtless and braless top. Her breasts were firm and athletic, at the moment. "Simsystem, paramater input, feedback torson 4.0." I handed her the wrench. "Take this, try to bend it." She squeezed one end of the metal in her fingers. "No, with both hands, try to bend it." She took one end of it in each hand, and quickly bent it into a U-shape without looking like she used much effort at all.
"Wow, that was fun!" She was giggling. "Like super-woman." She unbent it, though it didn't come out completely straight. "Like super muscles, can I keep them? Still, I didn't really feel it. I could use maybe a little more feedback."
I nodded. "Simsystem paramater input, feedback torson 8.4." We both listened for the confirmation. "Try again." She exerted her hands on the bar, but it didn't budge. She intentionally put on a pouty face. "Try the hangar." She picked up the hangar and easily bent it. "Feel about right?"
"Yes yes." She had a bit of dejected tone to her voice. "It feels about right for a hangar."
"Excellent. At least that was productive, I made some real progress today." I started packing my things back into the bag. Nicole was running her hand along the coffee table, obviously exploring her new feedback system.
"What are you doing Kenneth? This feedback is so great! Can't I keep it?"
"This is just a test board, I can't leave it in the unit. Just a week or so of testing and they should have the software update installed." Her hand had stopped feeling the coffee table, her attention back on me.
"But you reserved an hour didn't you?" I nodded. "Don't you think we should test it some more?" It was 2pm in the afternoon. I was pleased to have I found a way to visit Nicole while also keeping focused on work. I wasn't so sure about a mid-day fantasy distraction. "I can't hurt a person can I? I mean with this board installed?"
"No no. I only disabled the safety protocol for inorganics. You couldn't hurt a fly."
"Well, in that case, close that access panel back up. You owe me four hours this month, and we have forty five minutes left in this session. I can keep the feedback at least until the end right? Think of it as some extended testing." I sat pondering for a moment.
"I really should be getting back to work. Maybe I can come back this evening."
She was hardly paying attention. "Simsystem, close rear access panel." Close rear access panel, confirmed. She had a satisfied look as she pulled the shirt back up over her shoulders, still leaving it unbuttoned down the front. "Ohh no Kenneth. You're staying." She walked over towards the door, it was a double-sliding door, probably there to make moving furniture in and out easier. "Simsystem, parameter input, fedback .. torson ... 5.5." Confirmed. She was a little slow, but had picked up the command language pretty quickly, maybe it was a bit too intuitive! Only then did I realize she still had one of the steel bars in her hand. She slipped it through both doorhandles, and easily bent it into a circular shape around them. She dangled her makeshift lock for my benefit as she looked back towards me. "You can tell your boss there was no way for you to leave." As she walked back towards me, I convinced myself there was no reason to protest. "Thought why I'd have to force you to stick around is beyond me. If this outfit isn't sexy enough I can change." She waved one side of her open shirt. As I glanced at her nakedness inside, I should have been excited to stay. I had been daydreaming about her all week. "Maybe I punished you a little too much last time? I promise no spanking."
"No no, that's not it. I think... it's just... it's hard to get my mind off work in the middle of the day." That must be the reason, right?
"Well Kennth, that is my specialty."
- paramaters?
- gimmick?
- kate?
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now she's certain she's missing out on all the fun. You sure we can't let her do something? Maybe bring you a glass of water?" I shook my head pretty violently, still whimpering into her hand and trying not to outright cry from the pain. "Kate, us an ice pack, and some water," she responded towards the intercom. She turned back to me. "This will only take a minute."
The intercom responded, "right away miss." I was mortified. I did my best to stop whimpering before Kate strolled through the door. When she did, Nicole removed her hand from my mouth and I noticed something I hadn't noticed before. There were tracks on the floor. As Kate walked, a small black receptacle followed in the track. Her tether was plugged into it. The distraction from my predicament ended all too soon as Kate reached us. I felt very exposed and trapped as she walked around behind me. "Kenneth, you're going to feel a chill on your bottom as I put this icepack on, tell me if it's too cold." I felt the icepack. It was refreshingly cold. It did help numb the pain. A moment later Kate was back in view in front of me. She tipped the glass of water up to my lips and I took a sip. She might have been 5'6", and she looked tiny and innocent compared to my voluptuous captor. While I swallowed,
she pulled at her collar. "Phew, is it hot in here? Kenneth would you mind terribly if I loosened this up a bit?" I didn't really feel like I was running the show, but as I looked to Nicole she stayed silent, acknowledging that the question was for me.
"I don't mind. Make yourself comfortable."
Kate slowly placed the glass of water on the counter to the side of her like it was the most precious thing in the world. She gently took the bottom of her dress in her hands. With equal grace, she shocked me by lifting it straight up over her head. Nicole laughed a little bit at my reaction. She still held and patted the icepack on my rear. I was going to have to stop being surprised by this place. It was, after all, nicknamed by my coworkers the 'fantasy factory'. I was beginning to see why. Kate delicately placed the dress on a chair. Underneath Kate was wearing black lace stockings, a garter belt, and matching black lace bra. Her hands met at the back of her head, and she let out a sigh of relief as it fell down around her face. "That's better. I was feeling very very over-dressed for the occasion. Just one more little adjustment." She shook her head, tossing her hair around as it shifted from a very plain shade of light brown, to a darker and incredibly sexy brown with fiery red highlights. The change was remarkable. She looked down between my legs. "Quite a sustained reaction you have there Dr. Nicole." I was still sticking straight up despite the lack of recent contact. "How is that icepack Kenneth? Is it helping?"
"Yes, thank you Kate." She picked up the glass of ice water as if everything was normal, and returned it to my lips for another sip.
"Yes, thank you Kate," Nicole added before turning to me. I heard the icepack drop to the floor behind me. "It's time Kenneth. You have four more coming. May Kate stay, or would you like me to send her out?" It felt rude to respond. Kate was stunningly beautiful, and still alternately tipping the cup of water up to my lips. Still, I didn't really want an audience.
"If she stays, I'm sure she'd be happy to provide you a... distraction."
My lack of response was apparently enough. "Very well. That will be all Kate." She nodded in acknowledgement, taking the glass away from my lips and precisely collecting her dress from the chair.
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"" I couldn't budge my hands. "No no silly. You'll need to be more creative than that." The fabric of her shirt was already pressed against my face, so it didn't take much to bite and tug at it. I managed to tug a button free, but couldn't get any further. She had massaged my hands long enough, and I hadn't really made any headway on her blouse when she rose up away from me. "That didn't work out as I had planned." She swiveled around to my side. "I can make a playful show of it." She tugged at her blouse, and started at the first button when she read my intention to stop her.
"Hold on Nicole. I have a better idea. Leave the buttons alone." Her hands stopped and her interest peaked up. "Just bust out of it." She looked at me with a puzzled look. "Just burst the buttons free." Her puzzled look remained.
"Do you mean for me to tear it off?" Her hand gripped the top of her blouse gesturing as if to tear the front loose.
I shook my head. "No no. Expand your breasts. Expand them enough that the buttons pop free." She looked more puzzled than ever.
"What ever are you talking about Kenneth?" It dawned on me, her time on this model was very limited. She might never had been trained on the body alteration that susan had showed me. I quickly explained to her what I had been taught, shown, about the models. She was a bit surprised, but didn't doubt my explanation. "Okay, give me a minute here, I need to fish around in the operator console." Her eyes shifted away for a moment. "I think I found it." She looked down and put her hands on her breasts to confirm. "Yes, that's what you were looking for. I set it to happen very slowly." She leaned across me, her elbow propping her up. "That should give you front row seat. Maybe I set it too slow, just a moment." Her eyes shifted away for a moment, and I could see her bust filling out her blouse. "OOh, this is fun. I bet these little buttons arn't going to hold me for long." Her fingers began to flick the fasteners while staring intently right at me. First her shirt became strained, pull marks appearing. Next, her cleavage swelled and puffed up on her chest.