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Perfectly Imperfect

Timothy Kidwell

    He had never done it with an android before and, looking down at her, after having finished, felt an awkward mixture of satisfaction and revulsion. Her body was warm and smooth and curvy in all the right places, and she moaned and moved and touched just like a living lover would. But no matter how beautiful her big, green eyes, how sweet-smelling her hair or voluptuous her breasts, it was all artificial, from the pleasure she experienced to the inviting taste of her lips. Even her coy smile denoted nothing more than what her programming told her to do.
    Jordan rolled off of her. It, he reminded himself. With some modifications and a firmware upgrade, Lilly could easily be Lyle.
    “Was it good for you?” Lilly asked, raising herself up on one elbow and swiping a strand of sandy blonde hair out of her eyes.
    “Uh huh,” he hummed and nodded, still staring at the ceiling. It had been good. There was no question about that. Lilly was extremely attractive, as all androids were — inhumanly so. He guessed the company thought there wasn’t any reason for creating androids that looked less than perfect, no matter how they would be put to use once released into the general population.
    “How are you?” he asked, not trying to keep the disgust out of his voice.
    “Really good,” Lilly sighed.
    He could have been awful in bed and she wouldn’t have complained, although he guessed that wasn’t much different from real women. Unless she was a real bitch, a real woman would say you were great even if you’d been the worst lover in the history of sex, and then complain to her friends about you. But Lilly wouldn’t complain to her friends — not that she’d have anything to complain about. A smirk formed on his lips.
    “What are you smiling about?” Lilly asked.
    Jordan pursed his lips and shook his head.
    “It’s nothing,” he said.
    “Are you sure?” she pushed.
    Was that doubt he detected in her voice? No, Jordan told himself. It couldn’t be. Its programming wouldn’t allow an android doubt, at least not in a situation like this. Sure, you couldn’t convince one to jump off a bridge or shoot itself in the chest with a gun, but something about an android’s programming always made it naîve concerning interpersonal relationships. Lilly must be trying out something she had seen on a videx show.
    “Positive,” he said.
    “Okay,” Lilly smiled, wrapping the bed’s comforter around her body. Weird, this display of modesty. “I’m going to take a shower,” she said and headed toward the bathroom. The door slid shut.
    “Fine,” Jordan sighed, putting his hands behind his head.
    The alarm clock shrieked, loud and persistent, for precisely five seconds.

    “Well done,” Janis said as Lilly emerged from the sonic shower in a powder blue terrycloth robe. Janis held a ream of papers in her hand and the pocket of her white lab coat was jammed full with pens.
    “Thanks, Jan,” Lilly said, combing her fingers through her tousled hair. “How are the readings?” She gazed at the android’s still and lifeless form through the faint digital weave of the illusory wall.
    “Great!” Jan said. “All the cortex readings are on the screen over there, and you can read a thought transcript in a couple of minutes.”
    The lab bustled with activity; the engineers and scientists all wore excited smiles.
    “The girls and I think we got it right this time,” Jan said, clapping Lilly on the shoulder and giving her an affectionate squeeze. “An android who can believe it’s completely human. Full societal integration.” She chuckled. “It even had some very flattering thoughts about you.”
    “It said with an ‘upgrade’ that I could be a man,” Lilly said, disgusted. She continued to scroll through the readings on the computer screen. “We should have stopped our work a year ago.”
    “A year ago? Why?” Jan raised an eyebrow.
    “Now, it’s altogether too male.”
    “In a world without a Y chromosome, isn’t that what we wanted?”
    “I guess,” Lilly said, sounding unconvinced. “At least this time we can just turn them off.”

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