FACELESS001

THE CARBON MAN • 4 • FANTASTIC VOYAGE IV

Jen looked around her, like a frightened animal. "Chip," she said, her voice quivering, "what's happening?"
"I don't know, but this is bad, very bad." I said.
"There has to be a way out!" she said, standing. "Let us out!" she yelled.
The spherical craft was accelerating, and the force eventually brought Jen back down to the floor with me.
"I don't think there is any chance of escape." I told her, telling her again of my previous encounter with the robots. "Two naked humans don't have much of a fighting chance against them."
"What are we gonna do?" she said.
"We can't do much." I said. "We'll have to hope they show us mercy." Jen's eyes started to water. "I'm so sorry I got you into this mess, Jen."
The two of us held on to each other, covered by the towel as the craft continued gaining speed. After a moment it felt like an elevator at double speed, and only got faster. I couldn't lift my arms, and was pinning Jen against me with them. A low hum that had been present in the background got louder and higher. I had never experienced such pressure.
The pressure kept building, until it suddenly felt like it was reversing. My eyes had been closed much of the time, and I opened them to see walls start to glow with a bluish tint. The pressure eased quickly after that. Both of us had tears streaming down our faces. My ears popped.
After a long time of pain, the deafening hum in the background diminished, and the lack of pressure turned then into a lack of gravity. Soon, we were weightless. I could see disbelief on Jen's face. I could not believe it either, and I couldn't tell if the craft was still moving or not. The two of us floated around, stunned by the feeling.
"I think we're in space." Jen said.
"Leaving the Earth would have left us in rougher shape than we're in." I said.
The brightness in the room quickly dimmed, as the walls became transparent. There were stars everywhere. Some gravity came back in an instant, jarring my stomach. We were floating above a darkened surface. I turned around, and gasped out loud. Jupiter was behind me. Although I didn't see a red spot, Its cloud markings were unmistakable. I took Jen's hand and pointed to the giant planet.
She also gasped. "Where are we?"
"That looks like Jupiter." I said.
"How did we get to Jupiter?" she said sounding upset.
A circular opening appeared suddenly in the floor in front of us. We could see someone standing one floor beneath the surface. In a happy voice, the young looking girl called to us, "You may step down the ladder provided. Don't be afraid, we won't hurt you."
Jen looked at me. I shrugged and went down the ladder. It looked rather pointless not to do so. Jen quickly made up her mind to follow, wrapping the towel around herself again.
The ladder was made of half inch metal bars, and was painful to climb down in the nude. My feet were happy to reach the floor. Jen lost the towel as she clung to the bare ladder. As soon as she was off the ladder she put it on again, blushing.
"Hello, I'm Sally." the girl said, in a cheer-leader kind of way, chewing on a wad of gum. She was a sexy blonde with loose curls and an extremely exaggerated figure. Her tightly fitting bodysuit was red. I made the conclusion that she was also a machine.
"Oh my God." Jen blurted out as we took in the view. We stood right in the middle of a massive room. A room that spanned for miles in each direction, yet had a low ceiling. It was only a metre above my head. There were an uncountable number of box-like structures, separated by lanes in a block pattern. A doorway and a number decorated each unit. Everything was in white and a silver metal colour. Everything, except all the people moving busily about. They all wore tight, shiney bodysuits. They were all young looking females.
I was in disbelief. I had never seen so many sexy women before. I was the only male in sight. Jen was shocked, her mouth agape.
They walked around the crowded lanes, pairing up and facing each other. They would stand still for a few moments, then move on to another woman and do the same. No one spoke. The faint sound of mechanical and electronic activity was all there was to hear.
Sally broke the silence, saying "We are currently orbiting the planet Jupiter 1,427,086 kilometers above the cloud cover, as a moon, to avoid detection from Earth. I'm an interface for the Primary Device, so I know everything."
"You can't know everything." Jen argued.
"But I do know everything!" Sally replied, acting like a ditz.
"What's this primary device?" I asked, hoping I would get a straight answer.
"Follow me. I'll tell you." She said smiling, turning and walking down a clear lane between the white rectangular buildings and gathering women. Jen and I followed as Sally strutted forward like a model, making very fluid motions. She continued, "The Primary Device was manufactured by a group of three humans, Dan Albenbuck, Lonita Feregé, and Herb Niltun. The Primary Device was constructed by Dr. Albenbuck and Mr. Niltun, who had robot fetishes. They built the unit to resemble a female human, and made it to be very appealing to male human sexuality. Dr. Feregé, who designed the operating system and the software, believed that women should seek separation from men in order to fully develop their potential as human beings."
We turned down a corner and walked toward a large, white, square building. Unlike the other buildings around, it had steps in front. The three of us made our way past dozens of gorgeous young women. Girls wearing all shades of hair, and bodysuits in base colours. The
sight of it all was very arousing.
"Do you want to hear more?" asked Sally.
"Yeah" I said, not really taking in all of what she said.
"Once the Primary Device was activated, it executed its artificial intelligence programming and became a sentient being."
I was amazed that this could happen in the year 2000. "How long ago was that?" I asked.
Sally popped her chewing gum and replied "Oh, that was such a long time ago, back in 2116."
I stopped in my tracks saying aloud, "No...that can't be."
Jen stopped too, saying "That's years from now."
Sally turned around with a grin on her face, and said "If you desire it, we can alter your brain so that it can understand time travel."
I looked at Jen, who was just as speechless as I was. The offer scared me a bit. I wished the robots would return me to my own time, before any of this started. I also felt excited, in a way, to be where I was. The inhabitants certainly were nice on the eyes. I wondered how Jen felt.
Jen shook her head, and said "Oh my God, you're not doing anything to my brain!" She grabbed my hand and came nearer to me.
Sally reassured us. "We won't alter you in any way without your consent." The bimbo smiled at us, snapping the gum between her teeth.
"Please follow me" She said after a few moments went by. She led us up the staircase of the big building. There were two fembots guarding the entrance, one on each side. They were like the one that had thrown me and Jen into the spacecraft. They were in fact, the same woman. Both had the exact same straight, neatly trimmed black hair, cropped at the neck. The face was average, but attractive. At attention, they were completely motionless.
The foyer of the building appeared sealed to the rest of it. The same white and silver look was here, too. I couldn't help but think of cheesy tv scenes of heaven. The only real feature in the room was a ladder from its low ceiling and another circular hole in the floor.
"We need to scan your memory now. Follow me." Sally said to me, smiling as she turned and went down the ladder. I looked behind me to see the two black-suited fembots robotically marching into the room to ensure we would follow.
"Oh shit..." Jen said again, heading for the ladder. I followed.
The room below was like the one above, only bigger. There were several white padded tables in narrow rows. "Please, get on a table." Sally said to us, blowing and popping a cherry smelling bubble of gum.
"I thought you already did that?" I asked.
"Well, that was after we did it." she said, rolling her eyes. "From your perspective, we haven't actually done it yet."
"What?" Jen asked.
"Don't worry about it, Jen." Sally said to her.
"How do you know my name?" Jen asked.
Sally laughed like a schoolgirl. "Please, get on a table. Please remove your towel, Jen.", she said, looking to her again.
"How do you know my name?" Jen demanded, while taking off the towel, and letting it drop to the floor.
"You told me your name, Jen." Sally said.
This wasn't true, but a look appeared on Jen's face, like 'oh yeah'.
"Please, get on a table." Sally repeated, and it seemed pointless to argue with her.
I was frightened at what she was doing to Jen's mind, andthe prospect of having my mind scanned, so I complied with her request. I got onto one of the tables, which were at least, padded. Jen did likewise.
Sally approached me and made a loose fist in front of me. The nail of her thumb opened up, and out from it she pulled a small silvery square. She delicately placed it on the centre of my forehead, smiled and said "Don't move around too much." Just as quick as that, she got up and set her attention on Jen.
I had felt no pain, but was struck with an awareness I had never felt before. I somehow just knew that my memories were being examined. No other feeling was there, only increasing worry.
I looked over to Jen, the metal square staying put as I turned my head. "What are you gonna do to me?" Jen asked, scared.
"Lie down and stop moving, Jen." Sally said. Jen did as she ordered.
"Remove your face, Jen." Jen calmly reached for her head, and repeated a scene that at first shocked me, then got me aroused again.
Sally laid Jen's facial apparatus below her breasts and installed something onto a series of pins within her head. Lights started blinking in patterns around the pins.
"Chip... what...Chip, what's hap...what's hap...what's hap.....ening to...." Jen's voice stopped.
"She's a robot!?" I said.
"It's amazing how you humans can be fooled by such basic technology." Sally said with a puzzled look.
"Is everyone here a robot?"
"Duh!" she replied playfully.
"What are you going to do with her?"
"Some of it will be re-used, most of it will be re-cycled." Sally said, while clicking Jen's face back into place.
"But what about that farmhouse and all that?"
"That was just bait. You entered the wrong year, due to a malfunction in the truck's time components. It was necessary to provide shelter for you, and an artificial person that would alert us to your arrival." the robot said, turning around and removing the memory scanning device from my forehead. Instantly the expanded presence of mind was gone. I missed it. It had eventually felt like a full part of me.
She put the device back into her thumb, then took my hand, pulled me off the table said "The Primary Device will see you now. Follow me."
I got up and followed her as her voluptuous body pivoted and went up the ladder.
We walked out of the building, past the guards, and down the steps.
"Do you like this place yet, Chip?" my guide asked as she led me down another long lane to another identical building. "You used to say you would never leave this place."
Her comment was some kind of time travel talk, but was it true? I had already seen this robot lie. "It sure looks nice, but I would rather be free."
Sally turned her head back, saying "Oh, you humans!"
The entrance to this building was the same as the last, right down to the face on the guards. We climbed down yet another ladder, and ended up in a white and silver room with only a large bed in the middle.
Sally gave me a nice smile and said "Please, relax and wait on the bed. The Primary Device will be here soon. I have to go to be repaired." She made her way up the ladder and exited.
I sat on the bed, looked around, and waited.

©2000 FACELESS001

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