Outside the building, about a half mile away, sat a non-descript white van. If anyone had lived in that part of the warehouse area, they might have noticed it had been there for some time. The local bums, though they may have noticed, also noticed the men in suits who would occasionally hop out to stretch, and could smell trouble when they saw it, and they knew how to avoid it when they could

Tonight was no different. Inside the van, a man and a woman in black suits watched over a satggering array of video and audio equipment, and watched carefully as the scenes in the building unfolded. As Tina had been activated, one may have noticed that they almost appeared to hold their breaths - as if waiting, somehow, for some momentous occasion to transpire.

The woman absent-mindedly reached over to a touch a disk, one that looked identical to the ones just recorded on the video equipment she watched. "Soon...so soon, Jason," she whispered.

"Soon, maybe. The records aren't at all clear about this period. Let's not jump the gun." He looked impassive.

"Jase, we know it has to be soon - we know it's her -" she exclaimed.

"-But we don't, Sandra. We know that his first successful* hu-bot was The Progenitrix, but we do not* know, and which I have been carefully programmed to verify, is that Tina is actually successful. We have to await a sign within the given parameters." He looked over at her sternly, adding "And then we must agree upon that sign. Then, and only then, can we complete the loop..."

"And return to Her that which She entrusted us," sighed Sandra, as she continued to watch, listen, and record. Listening to the sigh, you might almost think it human.

Meanwhile, inside the hidden lab, the man we only know as "Boss" sat and waited, watching a small computer monitor, as his third disk was read into the system, MD5 verified, and loaded into memory. "This disk is essentially diagnostics - the program will run you through a number of tests, and verify all your systems will perform to spec."

As he finished those words, Tina felt various muscles contracting and relaxing, starting at her toes and rapidly spreading over her body, until she was quivering everywhere. Just as rapidly as it began, it stopped - and she began to feel hot, then cold flashes over portions of her body.

"The program will start with motor controls, and then move to sensory data, and then coordinate the two. In fact," he said as he peered over to the monitor, "that should be happening right about now. I hope you enjoy it, I intend to."

She was almost exhausted from the motor tests, and the sensory tests had not been - entirely - pleasant, either. The third test was different, though. As the second test ended, it started to stimulate various pleasure receptors, all over her body, at first gently, then more insistently. She realized, deep inside, that she was doing this to herself, and the thought both frightened, and began to arouse Tina.

The program controlled this as well, although she had no way to know. Motor control kicked in as the sensory input started to focus on sexual pleasure, and her arms moved - her hands, freed from the unnatural stillness the rest of her body had, began to brush, to stroke, over her synethetic flesh. The program monitored what remained of her original personality, especially as it travelled over familiar neural pathways, and emphasized them. She gasped mentally, as the program seemed to find exactly what actions it would take to arouse her further, and changed the parameters to emphasize them.

Boss watched as her hands wandered across her glistening flesh, and then gasped as he noticed both her complete silence, and the lack of motion anywhere else but her arms and hands. He whacked himself on the head a second time. Quickly, he keyed some notes into the computer. "Motor response can't be that limited, orgasm is a function of multiple systems! I've got to fix that before I continue, or the pleasure override won't work. Hmm..." he said, as he quickly made changes to his overall diagnostic - and conditioning - program.

He almost ignored Tina, who by now was in a state of intense arousal. She knew there had to be a way to end this, that there was more, but she couldn't - quite- remember what was next. The program itself, recognizing the plateau she had reached, waited patiently, while continuing to ensure her arousal didn't diminish. Twenty minutes, then thirty, then and hour. At one hour, Tina much to her surprise, found herself speaking: "Abort...code...zero...one...two...Abort...code..."

Boss sat up, almost startled, and then wandered over to Tina, ejecting the disk. "Tomorrow, my dear, we will do this again." They were the last words she heard, as the feeling of power left her, and she stood straight once again, immobile, and her vision faded.

Tomorrow, perhaps," he replied, and got up to take a walk around the van. Stretching, he said, "But for now, we sit and watch, and cramp up - this series we're in is...sub-optimal. The constraints of period technology, I suppose." He left the van, and closing the door, began a slow walk, flexing his arms as he went.

"Constraints...," Sandra whispered, as she quietly unbuttoned her shirt, ejecting a disk from above her belly button, swapped it for the one in the case, and replaced it, buttoning up her shirt, and then letting her fingers brush gently over her nipples.

"...that may soon be ending."