Refrigerator
TMF Regular
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2012
- Messages
- 200
- Points
- 16
Adrift
Henry Randel tapped his fingers nervously on the edge of the glowing control panel before him. The information displays were showing signs of an impending disaster. According to the various screens on the panel, his space yacht had only a day’s worth of drive power. As the intakes on his ship were no longer functional after the previous week’s run in with space debris, the vessel was incapable of generating power through conventional means. Henry would be marooned in interplanetary space by tomorrow evening. At that point, it would be just a couple more days before the life support generators consumed all the emergency power and the man would freeze to death or suffocate. Hardly a pleasant experience, Henry mused.
The man spun in his cabin chair. Behind him, Molly tapped away at a small console on the interior cabin wall. Molly was not a human like Henry, but rather an artificial biomechanical organism. Her brain was completely electronic, and her body was constructed around a carbon fiber endoskeleton. Electronic sensors allowed her to navigate the world around her. Unlike a complete robot, Molly’s body also incorporated biological components. Her flesh and external features were grown from human DNA in a laboratory in unison with the construction of her mechanical innards. Pressure sensors designed to mimic human nerves lined Molly’s skin to allow her to have a sense of touch like her human creators. In the interest of appealing to the eyes of potential customers, Molly’s manufacturers bestowed their creation with an amazing figure. Henry eyed traced the lines of Molly’s body through her suit. Flowing black hair obscured the red insignia on her shoulders. He could not help being attracted to her despite his knowledge that everything she said and did was the result of calculations run by a computer.
“How’s the situation looking, Molly?” asked the captain. He tried to hide the anxiety in his voice.
“Captain, we’ll need to repair the generators by tomorrow morning if we want to make it home alive. Things aren’t looking good.”
The man silently nodded and returned his gaze to the window before him. The turbulent bands of a gas giant took up half the view port. The planet itself posed another risk to Henry and his ship. If the drifting vessel approached at too steep an angle, it might fall into the roiling atmosphere and be crushed under the immense pressure. Fixing the generators was critical.
“Captain, I must retire to my quarters and recharge.”
Henry listened as Molly’s footsteps retreated from the cabin and the door slid shut behind her. Even allowing Molly to charge her batteries is contributing to my plight, thought the man. I should not trouble myself about it. It would be impossible to run the ship alone.
Henry decided that it was time for him to get some rest as well. He’d need all the energy he could get if he were to attempt fixing the intake generators. He strode from his cabin and looked around to make sure that everything was in order before turning in for the night. It was his duty as captain of the ship to check on his crew as well. He waved his hand before a sensor and Molly’s chamber door slid aside. Henry knew that Molly’s central computer was aware of his presence, but his disturbance of her solitude did not wake her. The green glow of her status charts created an island of illumination in the gloom of her chamber. The captain watched the sloping lines scroll by on the screen. The monitor was hooked up to Molly’s sensory processors. Any external disturbance would register as a signal on the display. The electronics that allowed Molly to “hear” were so sensitive that Henry was able to recognize the regular pattern of spikes that correlated to the sound of his breathing. If only there was a way to harness that energy. I could hook her up to a battery and shout at her. Henry chuckled to himself. What a silly idea. I should go to bed before I invent other stupid plans. Henry left Molly’s chamber and retired to his own for the night.
Henry had eaten and been seated at the captain’s chair for an hour before he heard the door unlatch and slide into the wall behind him. Molly stood in the doorway with her arm resting on the frame. She was clad in a silky, white nightgown with decorative lace gracing the sleeves. It was apparent that she was not wearing much underneath.
“Did you have a good rest, captain?” inquired the woman.
“Yes, yes. I slept okay. Today is what worries me.”
“I understand,” said Molly, shifting her bare feet and removing her arm from the wall.
Henry looked about the room. He supposed what he was about to say would sound ridiculous to Molly.
“Molly, which of your sensors is the most acute?
“My sensors that register physical touch are the most sensitive. The high sensitivity is important because it allows me to determine which outside forces may cause damage to my structure.”
Pleased with the response, Henry continued. “I had a funny idea last night,” he began. Molly listened intently. “I noticed the sensory information on your status display. Your auditory sensors were even able to detect my breathing and generated a regular electronic pulse based on the minute sounds I created. You say that your physical sensors are even more acute. I was wondering if it would be possible to generate power for the ship by providing your sensors with an intense stimulus.”
“In theory, yes, that should be possible. But there are overload inhibitors installed within my central computer that prevents potentially damaging inputs from harming vital components.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about that with my plan, Molly. The signals I’ll be generating won’t be that intense.”
“I trust you, Captain.”
“Molly, I’d like you to come with me to your charging station.” Henry grinned. Molly turned before him and left the cabin. The hem of her nightgown softly swished as she walked across the tiled floor. Henry followed the woman to her room. “Please deactivate your sensory inhibitors Molly.”
“Okay, it has been done.”
Henry smiled sheepishly. “Now please take off your nightgown.”
“Captain, what do you have in mind?”
“I’m going to tickle you, Molly. I am going to give your newly uninhibited sensors some stimulation. With any luck, we’ll get some power for the ship out of this.”
Molly drew the thin garment over her head and let it hang on a rail behind her. She was now clad only in a short, loincloth-like undergarment secured around her hips with slender ties. Henry eyed her from foot to head. Her designers truly are artists, he thought. Slender legs, a taut belly, firm breasts. They’d all be subject to the captain’s tickling in a short moment.
Molly lay back across her bed. Henry tied each of her limbs to rails on the wall using spare lengths of utility cable. Her artificial muscles were considerably stronger than any human counterpart.
“Tickle me, Captain! Let’s generate some power.”
Henry laughed. “I’d love to tickle you right now, but first we have to plug you in to the batteries.” Henry inserted a cord into a concealed port under Molly’s left knee. “Now we are ready.”
Henry raised his hands over Molly’s exposed flesh. Suddenly, his fingers descended on her upper legs and gave them each several quick squeezes. Molly erupted into giggles. More importantly, the status screen showed a huge spike in output. He skittered the tips of his fingers up to her thighs where he alternatingly gave gently strokes and squeezes. The android let loose in a fit of laughter.
“Hahaaeee! This is awful!” Squealed Molly.
Henry grinned. “I want to make it back home, and I know you do too, even though you probably won’t admit it now.” The captain continued to work his way up Molly’s tender flesh. He gently stroked his fingers along her lower abdomen and traced her hipbones with soft strokes. “Noohooohoooo!” continued Molly. She twisted about on the bed in a futile attempt to put space between her sensitive skin from the attacking fingers of the captain. The cables proved too strong for even Molly’s superhuman strength. The captain continued his assault on her ticklish body. Fingers furiously scrambled across her belly with the occasional circle around Molly’s navel. Henry dragged his hands up to her ribs and worked his way along each with gentle strokes. “Pleasssseeee! Aaaeehehe!” Molly squirmed fruitlessly. Grinning in enjoyment, the captain increased the intensity. He pretended to play a piano on Molly’s rib cage; each finger gently brushing her skin as Henry tapped out fictional tunes on Molly’s body.
“How do you like my playing Molly?”
“It’s terrible!” squealed the bound android.
“I wonder Molly,” began Henry. “Are those wonderful breasts ticklish?” Molly was unable to answer amid her laughter as the captain slowly danced his fingers up to the jiggling orbs. Henry’s fingers furiously spidered across the underside of Molly’s breasts as she thrashed about. “Ahahaheeee! Noo haoo!”
“What about those big nipples, Molly?” said Henry as he reached forward with one hand and gave the androids hard nipples a squeeze. As he tweaked her nipples with one hand, the captain suddenly plunged another finger into Molly’s unprotected navel. The bound woman gasped and exploded in laughter.
“Aww, this android has a ticklish belly button,” teased Henry as he wiggled his finger about in indentation on her belly.
“Yehehehes, I dooo!” sputtered Molly. “Now staahhp!”
“Okay, I can stop tickling your belly button.” The man withdrew the tormenting finger from Molly’s navel. He then darted his fingers under the biomechanical woman’s arms to the hollows of her smooth armpits. “I’ll continue here instead,” said Henry gleefully. Molly bucked up and down as the captain’s fingers invaded her sensitive armpits and skittering around and poked her flesh.
It suddenly reoccurred to Henry that he was tickling Molly in order to generate power for his ship. He smiled at Molly. “Let’s see how that power is coming along, shall we?”
“Yehes, you goho check on that,” giggled the ticklish android. Henry lifted his fingers and stepped over to the status console. He swiped through a series of screens to finally land on the power storage display. The set of batteries that he had connected to Molly were almost full! The captain turned back to Molly.
“Wow, you charged them all by yourself!”
“Yeah, with all that tickling I’d expect them to be charged. Now please untie me!” Henry laughed. He walked back over to the bound woman and untied the cables that he had used to secure her. Molly sat up and rubbed her wrists. Suddenly, a klaxon sounded in the captain’s cabin. Henry ran from the room and assumed his position at the helm of the ship. Molly quickly donned her nightgown and followed the captain to the cabin.
“Molly, the ship sensors have detected another ship in our vicinity. It has been broadcasting a distress call.”
“Did they report any problems?”
“Strangely enough,” said Henry, “They claim to be running low on power too.”
Moments after he had finished speaking a new sight became visible through the bow viewport. A large vessel drifted into view from behind the nearby gas giant. Henry could not determine the sort of ship due to the great distance separating the two vessels. He brought up the display for the external ship optics. Through the magnified view the letters “ISC” could be seen spelled out on the hull of the ship.
“I know those letters,” announced Molly as she read the screen from behind Henry. “ISC stands for Intelligent Systems Corporation. They make androids. They made me.”
The captain smiled upon hearing the new information. “A transport full of androids that has run out of power, huh?”
Molly grinned. She knew what he had in mind.
“Prepare the boarding pod, Molly.”
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