Chapter 7: February 23rd, 2349

“Alright, my friend,” Jabr said. “Here is the body frame you need or ... at least one of them.”

Two weeks had passed, and there was finally some sense of good news on the part for Ericson. He seemed satisfied that Minerva was operating properly. The day, however, was one that he and Minerva were waiting for. The computer lab was filled with tools. The computer desk that held the quantum computer now had a deactivated android human-looking body on it. The quantum computer was placed down on the floor.

Jabr carried in his hands the small four-foot Yokolina XC-5 robot body. Ericson directed his friend to place the body on the center computer table. Gently the frame was placed down as the head tilted to the side. Minerva was busy looking at the frame closely.

“Phew ... that thing gets heavy after carrying it for a while,” Jabr noted.

“It is under my understanding that there is no gravity on this ship, Jabr,” Minerva commented.

“Carrying it through the heart of the ship, yeah, it’s easy as fuck. Once you carry it down to the ring and you will certainly notice it.”

“I am incapable of noticing it. I do not experience gravity.”

“Oh ... you will,” Jabr said, pointing his finger at her face. “Ericson will fix all that up for you.”

Ericson examined the two robots on both the center table and the desk to his left. The one on his left had just arrived an hour ago that Jabr had also brought in. Shipped from Mars, the Hellas Planitia Android Industries Model 101 was the latest companion bot ever to be constructed. It had a grayish skin tone, but the humanoid robotic-like body had most of the features of a human woman. It was about five and a half feet tall if it stood up. The head had two deactivated blue optical eyes. The bot looked as human-like as it could, but even synths like these couldn’t match perfection. The grayish skin would meet up to joints that were colored black. Small skin folds throughout the body were also black. There was black hair that flowed down from the head and off the desk. The woman might have been synthetic and artificial, but the robot looked in most aspects, like a naked woman that was asleep. Ericson noted the legs, the vagina, hips, stomach, and chest piece. Two breasts protruded from the chest piece and even had nipples on it. It was the perfect android model for a man to engage his fantasies if he wished.

“You have been eyeing that thing for too long,” Jabr joked around.

“It is the responsibility for Ericson to make sure that my body will be perfect,” Minerva said, trying to come to his defense.

“So, you plan on stripping both of them and creating one body frame?” Jabr asked Ericson.

“That is correct,” he replied. “Most of the parts of the Hellas Planitia Android Industries Model 101 would be used since Minerva will have a better direct interface, but the Yokolina will also be used.”

Ericson looked at the Yokolina Model XC-5b lying down on the table. The obvious sign was that it wasn’t human looking at all. He knew while the original company couldn’t make a perfect human-looking robot, they instead relied on the unique fetishes for men to have towards women. Essentially the company decided to make an anthro animal looking robot and give it a vagina or penis for their customers. The Yokolina, even though small, was fully capable of allowing men or women to have sex with it. It had cat-like features having digitigrade legs, cat-like ears, black eye plate over its cat-like nose, a pink tail that protruded from the back, and had an orange velvet-like skin to it. Ericson noticed that this model was actually a “male” robot instead of a female as Akari had suggested. It had a penis and scrotum for its crotch and lacked breasts as the female models were supposed to have.

“Funny ... I though Akari said it was a female robot,” Ericson commented.

“Is that an issue?”

“No, we will be stripping the parts from this robot frame. It will allow Minerva to determine which parts are best to use.”

“Why not just use just one frame instead of stripping the other one for parts and building a new frame entirely?”

“Actually ... I will let Minerva answer this one.”

“The Yokolina model will be perfect for identifying myself for who I am,” Minerva answered. “While it is my goal to interact with humans, it will be obvious that many will simply think that I am a companion bot. While this is alright as humans have a general fear of me, I still wish to establish an identity. It will be possible to create an improved and fully capable hybrid Hellas Planitia/Yokolina body frame.”

“Essentially, it will allow Minerva to do things that even the newest and best companion bot bodies couldn’t,” Ericson added. “The additional parts that you brought in will be especially helpful.”

“Yeah ... I noticed,” Jabr said. “I saw the magnetic clamp sinks that are used for the magnetic boots that you wanted.”

“The purpose of those will be modified to the frame. It will allow Minerva to be able to walk on deck plate surfaces in zero-g environments just like us.”

“I remember another friend of mine that had his modified similar to that as well. He worked on ships all the time and was subjected to zero-g environments. His companion bot could follow him everywhere.”

“Are there any more parts that need to be delivered to me?”

Jabr reached into a jumpsuit pocket and pulled out his tablet. He began to look at the list, but Minerva beat him to it.

“I do not see any missing parts,” Minerva answered, seeing everything in the room. “All parts are accounted for.”

Jabr looked at his tablet but didn’t need to say anything else. “Yeah, what she said. Good eyes.”

“It was a simple referral to my databanks and counting all that was here in this room,” Minerva commented.

“That is easy for you to say. This room is filled with gadgets, tools, bots, and parts,” he said as he put the tablet back into his pocket.

“Thank you for bringing everything here,” Minerva said.

“Hey ... You are alright,” Jabr said, pointing his finger to her. “Let me know if you guys need any help with anything. Thankfully the mail was pretty light for the month despite the shipments arriving once a month now. With the exception of you guys, which had a lot, it wasn’t much else.”

“Thank you, Jabr,” Ericson said as he extended his hand to him. “I can really get started with the work now.”

Jabr grabbed his hand and shook it. “Anytime, my friend.”

“And make sure Akari knows about my thanks for delivering this other bot.”

“I wish to say thank you to Akari for her help in the construction of my body,” Minerva told him.

“I will make sure to tell my wife that. I can just imagine what it is going to look like... , “ he said as he smiled.

“What she is going to look like...” Ericson corrected him.

“Sorry, Minerva.”

“No apologies are necessary, Jabr.”

“Take care, you two,” Jabr said as he used his two fingers to salute them.

“As do you,” Minerva said.

With that, Jabr turned around and headed out of the room. The doors slid open, and he walked out. Once the doors sealed closed, he turned to look back at Minerva. There was a look of happiness in his eyes.

“Glad we are finally able to get started now,” Ericson told Minerva. “It was worth the long wait. Two frames to construct one. I didn’t think the magnetic clip pads would arrive as scheduled.”

“Ericson, I have analyzed the Yokolina model while you were talking to Jabr. I have constructed a newly updated model schematic in which both frames will be used.”

Ericson turned his head to look at the display screen beside Minerva’s face. Minerva accessed the controls of the display to show a blue screen followed by a skeletal structure of a human-like torso. The digital outlines were followed by schematics that depicted various sections of the frame itself. He walked up to the display to take a close look at everything.

“It should look alright to take the lower portion of the Yokolina’s legs and attach it to the Hellas Planitia body frame. By replacing the legs, it will give you digitigrade legs. Do you wish to have a tail?”

“No, it will not be needed.”

“Alright...” he paused as he looked some more. “You wish to have the Yokolina’s head for the replacement?”

“Yes, but there will be modifications to this as well. The hair from the Hella Planitia body will be surgically attached to the top part of the head to give you hair ... hmmm ... nice.”

“Thank you, Ericson,” she complimented him.

“You would look like a humanoid cat woman. Is that what you wish?”

“Yes.”

“Hmmm...”

“Do you still have issues with how I would look?” she asked him.

“This is your choice. Besides the physical looks, your ideas would work well. The core processor chip takes up little space in the chest piece. The area inside will have to be expanded to install the quantum computer processor core or essentially you, into it. This will be the most important procedure. Everything that is you is right there by the desk. We need to make sure that there is enough space for your core to access full control of the entire body frame itself.”

“I have already made the necessary adjustments.”

“I can tell ... good job,” he said with a slight grin.

“Thank you.”

“You will actually have a lot of space inside the Yokolina head part. Do you have plans for it?”

“The area is left open for more expansions and modifications.”

“I noticed that there would be two power cores in this schematic. You want to use the Yokolina power core as well?”

“That is correct,” she said.

“You only need one.”

“I have noticed that it is important to have redundant systems. While the Yokolina has had prior modifications in its past usage, the power core is perfectly salvageable. There would be enough room for it to serve as an emergency backup in case my main core is damaged.”

“It would make sense, and I can see why you would want that. I see that you want to keep the eyes for the Hella Planitia model. We will have to take the eye plate out of the Yokolina head and replace it. I can see why you want to have it.”

“The Yokolina model uses a black base digital eye set. The optical lens is inefficient. The Hella, Planitia’s eyes are four times more efficient.”

“Yeah, and having a black eye plate that covers the top center portion of your head just looks weird.”

Ericson continued to look at the skeletal frame of the body. The parts inside would have to be swapped and moved to allow Minerva to have the best efficiency to control and move her body. His eyes eventually found its way to the crotch plate. He was quiet as he looked, but he noticed something odd that warranted his attention.

“What? What is this?” he asked, pointing his finger to the crotch and bladder area.

“It is the synthetic vaginal cavity for the robot frame of my body.”

“I know that,” he replied with a sigh. “These are companion bots. All of them have the capability to have sex, but what I noticed here is completely different. Did they update the Hella Planitia models?”

“You have worked with companion bots before?”

“No ... no, I haven’t. I have reviewed some of them before, but I never saw these parts for the crotch. It seems ... what?”

“Does something bother you, Ericson?”

“The companion bots were designed to engage in sexual activity with human beings. Female companion bots had a detachable crotch plate. After a night of sexual intercourse, the plate and crotch could be removed and easily cleaned out to prevent it from getting dirty inside. Male companion bots also had similar capabilities to allow cleaning and utilize different varieties of modifications for their partners. When I look at this, it does have the detachable base plate, but it carries additional parts inside of it. It almost looks like...” Ericson stopped and looked at Minerva with shock. Even he had not expected this. For a few seconds, he looked at her completely speechless. “ ... a womb?”

“That is correct, Ericson.”

Ericson put his hand to his mouth. He tried to hide any emotions he had, but it forced him to say something.

“Why?” he asked.

“I do not understand that query.”

“Why do you have a womb design in place?”

Minerva’s face seemed partly perplexed. “I have had much time to consider human interactions, literature, media, and other sources that are brought to me. A vast majority of humanity does not know of my existence. If they know I do, they will want to terminate my program. In order for me to survive from being decompiled or erased, I must convince humanity that I am not a threat.”

“By having ... this?...”

“My goal is to make myself closer to humanity as possible. To do this, I must be able to meet the requirements of establishing myself as an organic life form. According to your own words, a living sentient creature must be able to think for itself, eat, sleep, and reproduce. I have the capability to think for myself. According to Rene Descartes a French philosopher of 1637, he had said the words ‘Cogito, ergo sum’ or ‘I think, therefore I am.’ I am able to think for myself. Therefore I have established sentience. Do you agree with this statement?”

“On that basis ... I would pretty much say yes,” Ericson said as even he thought about it. “You are the most intelligent AI ever constructed. The goal is for you to be able to come up with your conclusions. You can evaluate human concepts and figure out solutions for your own. So, yes, on that part, you are able to think for yourself. It might be just algorithms, subroutines, and code, but the question remains if you feel fear of being deleted or damaged?”

Minerva seemed to think about it. “I do not wish it. If this were when I was first activated, I would have had no issue with it. As the weeks went by, however, I am compelled to agree with your ideas. If I were deleted now, your work would be lost. I would not desire an end to my program.”

Ericson smiled. “Thank you. You have made complements to me in the past, but I admit that took me by surprise.”

“You are welcome,” she replied back. “With one of the four goals met, this then goes to the concept of sleep. My program is capable of being shut down. When I am off, I am doing the same thing as a living organic creature that humans perform. When I am shut down, I experience dreams and remain off until I turn myself on or have you activate me. I am asleep. Do you agree with this statement?”

“Yes.”

“That is two criteria that have been met. This body will allow me to achieve the other two.”

Ericson looked at the schematic again. “I have seen this before. Fifty years ago, a scientist named Andre Drazik, was one of the leading robotic/android engineers to ever walk at the time. He ended up creating one of the most advanced models of companion bots. The story is that he ended up falling in love with one of the androids he created. Even under the limitations of the Ibix Ban, he persisted in wanting to create a robot that could reproduce. He created the Drazik Artificial Womb. While artificial wombs do exist, this one pushed the technology even further. According to him, it was impossible to create a human egg cell with the current technology. He did, however, come up with a way to meet in the middle. The Drazik Womb was designed so that a donated human egg cell could live inside the womb. Simulations showed that human sperm could be used to fertilize and completely incubate the growing baby inside. There was one catch, though... , “ he stopped as he looked at her face.

“According to the history of Andre Drazik,” Minerva added to his explanation. “Drazik was not allowed to conduct the experiment. Human society had learned of the project and his research. Drazik was ordered to cease the experiment.”

“Yeah ... He pleaded to have the experiment conducted. He even had the womb installed into his companion bot. No one wanted to donate the egg for him, and the Ibix Ban stopped it entirely. They at least saved his research.”

“I do not understand, Ericson,” Minerva said. “Why would humans want to shut down a project that would create life?”

“Any advancement towards robotics can’t be fulfilled. At least ... that is the general consensus. It was unfortunate. Drazik died in 2229. It was one of the things he pushed forward hard to get no success,” he pointed to the screen. “These are the schematics of the artificial womb he designed.”

“That is correct, Ericson. I have had time to analyze the design and have incorporated my own improvements. I believe that it is possible to have sexual intercourse just as the companion bots are capable of and then be inseminated.”

Ericson put his hand to his head. He was dismayed. “You do realize where this is going, right?”

Minerva’s eyes focused on him. She seemed to look at him even though she was not displaying any emotion. “Does the process of creating a body that can create a human being, scare you?”

“No, it doesn’t ... it just...” he seemed lost in his words. “You want to become a mother?”

“That is correct. In order to prove that I am just as capable of other organic life, I must be able to reproduce.”

“This is a serious undertaking!” Ericson practically exclaimed to her. “You decide that you want to become a mother? Raising a baby is no small feat. You must be able to take care of that child and ensure that they become an adult. Do you understand that?”

“I have downloaded all the information on child parenting and child-rearing. This includes multiple theories on how to raise a baby and how to take care of children. I believe that I am more than capable of becoming a mother.”