All Under Control!

Choices

by EHY

7. Revelations

The next few weeks were some of the happiest Dianne had ever known. She no longer feared disappointing Henry, and so she let herself be more herself around him. She knew that as his android it was important that she do nothing to upset him, but now she trusted her robotic director to guide her in this. She learned not to fear Lianna overriding her will. She didn't always like it, of course, especially when Henry's orders prevented her from enjoying herself or embarrassed her, but she no longer considered Lianna's overrides a sign of her own failure. That was just the way the entity known as IPM Evening Comfort Lianna was supposed to work. And besides, there wasn't all that much she really wanted to do that Lianna wouldn't let her.

Among her new-found pleasures was sex with her master. Henry still never left her completely free during sex, and he still did often turn her mind off for it completely. But other times he let her stay aware during sex, and even let her enjoy it. It became a source of erotic anticipation, wondering whenever Henry began to make love to her whether he would leave her mind on for it. She sometimes tried to entice him into leaving her awake, but it didn't seem to have much effect whether she did or not - and why should it? As far as she knew, her lovely android body was just as much fun, sexually speaking whether Dianne's mind was awake inside it or not.

Henry also saw a great deal more of Jean over the following weeks, but Lianna did not see much of Brice, and never did they have another occasion to talk freely.

The one thing Dianne did not think much about was Jerry, the man she'd "met" one day in the laundry room while she was in passive mode. And so it was a surprise to her when one day she was moving Henry's laundry into the dryer and heard a friendly voice behind her.

"Hello, Lianna," Jerry greeted her. "Lucky meeting you here." She turned her head to see him smiling at her as he carried his bag of laundry to the washing machine next to the one she was emptying.

"Hello, sir. Jerry," she replied. The "sir" wasn't Dianne's idea; Lianna added that on her own. "It's not hard to be lucky, sir. I'm here almost every Thursday." Once she'd said it, she wondered if it had been wise. She was still quite sure Henry wouldn't be happy if she did half the things with Jerry that she wanted to... but he hadn't told her not to, and Lianna didn't see fit to stop her.

"Well, who knew? If you'd told me last time..."

"You could have asked me, sir," she suggested.

"I didn't think of it," Jerry admitted. "I was too busy thinking of other things." He let himself brush against her pleasantly.

"So was I, sir."

"You didn't look it."

"I couldn't, sir. I was in passive mode that day."

"Not too passive to tell me you wanted to make love to me."

Dianne would have blushed at the memory had she been equipped. "You asked me what I desired, sir. I had to answer you. I... hadn't intended to say that."

"Oh," Jerry said. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to force you to say something you didn't want to."

"It's all right, sir," Dianne admitted. "I did want to say it. It was very frustrating having to just stand there looking saintly while you looked at me the way you did."

"You did not look saintly," Jerry said meaningfully.

"Didn't I, sir?" Dianne teased, as Jerry poured detergent into his machine and started it. Gathering her courage, she turned to face Jerry fully. "I would have preferred to look something more like this for you," she said. She was wearing a long blue wrap dress. She thrust her leg forward, letting a long length of smooth tanned leg show through the high slit. Then she arched her back, slunk her hips, and raised her hands behind her neck, pouting as sexily as her programming had ever taught her. "And today I can, sir," she concluded.

"Indeed," Jerry said. "I take it I didn't get you in trouble last time?"

"No, sir. My master never asked me what I did during the day."

"Well, then..." And then the man finally took her in his arms and kissed her. She returned his kiss fully, running her hands freely through his long tousled hair. He was as good a kisser as she remembered him being.

"Last time," he said when they had parted, "you said you would come to my apartment with me if you could. Can you now?"

"No, sir," Lianna answered immediately. Dianne wasn't sure whether to be frustrated or relieved. "I must stay and tend to my master's laundry."

"Oh, well," Jerry sighed. "Do you want to come with me?"

Once again, Lianna forced her to answer the literal question. "Yes, I do, sir."

Jerry looked thoughtful. "Well then... Is there anything your master requires you to do just now other than wait for the laundry to be dry?"

"No, sir, nothing specific."

"Then am I right in thinking you have do anything I order you to, so long as it doesn't conflict with your master's orders?"

"Yes, sir," Dianne agreed, not without some trepidation. "As long as you don't ask me to disobey my master's orders, or violate his privacy."

"But other than that? You have no choice in the matter? If I told you to... to take off all your clothes right here and fondle yourself on a dryer, you'd have to do it?"

Dianne could tell the thought appealed to him. She was less sure it appealed to her, just now... "Yes, sir. But if somebody came in and saw me..."

"Oh, don't worry, I wouldn't do that to you," Jerry said, and Dianne let out a small sigh of relief. "I admit, I like knowing I could, but I wouldn't. I do have an idea, though. The dryers here have a one-hour cycle." His voice hardened, and he spoke firmly. "Lianna, come with me. Return here in fifty-five minutes." He held out his hand to her.

For a moment, nothing happened. Dianne didn't know whether she would have to obey that order, or even whether she could. After a second, though, she decided which way she wanted Lianna to decide. (Come on, Lianna,) she silently urged her director. (He's human, and he gave us an order. Henry didn't tell us not to do this. Let's go!)

She heard no silent answer. After what seemed like a long time, but was probably no longer than a second or two, she finally opened her lips.

"Yes, sir," Lianna agreed. "Thank you, sir!"

Happily, she reached out to take his hand, and walked where he led her.

It turned out Jerry's apartment was up on the sixth floor. It was somewhat smaller than Henry's, and much more sparsely furnished. But the walls were covered with artwork of various kinds. There were some finished paintings and printings, but most of the works were incomplete: small pieces of picture, a face or a building, or sketches and line-drawings.

"Did you do all this, sir?" Dianne asked in surprise, looking around in awe.

"Not all of it," Jerry said proudly, "but a lot of it. Most of the rest is by a friend of mine. We trade a lot of our work."

Dianne's attention was drawn by a drawing whose subject was quite familiar to her. "This is me, sir!" she exclaimed. It was only a colored line drawing, but it was quite accurate, showing her in the short blue dress she had been wearing that other day in the laundry room.

"Yep," Jerry agreed. "I drew it after the last time we met. I didn't want to forget what you looked like. Of course, then I found this..." He flipped through a news magazine to a full-page IPM ad for "Evening Comfort: servant, lovely playmate, intimate companion, and perfect friend - visit your local IPM showroom today!" With, of course, a full-color photo of Lianna, or at least, of an android identical to her. "But I like mine better."

"So do I, sir," Dianne agreed. She did, too. The ad photo showed a... well, a sex android, though she was clothed enough to meet standards of decency that were still insisted upon in public. There was almost no suggestion of her being a person. But somehow Jerry had managed to portray a girl who looked like Lianna, but still had something of Dianne inside her - and the part of Dianne that she actually liked, not the bumbling, ugly, clumsy old woman she had been. "How did you do that?" she asked wondrously.

"It's a printing," he began to explain. "I drew it on my computer using -"

"No, sir, I don't mean that. I mean - well, I look real in your picture. I mean, like I'm a real person. But you never saw me like that. All you saw of me was the android. How did you know?"

Jerry just smiled. "You think it's accurate, then?"

"Accurate, sir? It's - it's perfect! But how?"

"That's how I saw you. I can't explain any more than that. But thank you. Do you want it?"

"Yes, sir! But you can't be serious."

"I am."

"Oh, sir... I can't take it. I do like it, but... well, I can't own anything of my own. I belong to my master. I don't think you mean to give this to him, sir."

Jerry frowned. "No, of course not. But... I'll tell you want. I'll keep it for you. But it belongs to you, if you want to accept it.

"Well... thank you, sir," she said. And then she approached him, put her arms around him, and thanked him more thoroughly.

Only a few minutes later, they were in his bedroom. He gently undressed her, then himself. He didn't turn her off, and he gave her only one order, when she started to stroke his sex with her hands. "No, don't do that," he said. "Let me make you happy."

And make her happy he did. He touched every sensitive part of her, carefully and lovingly. He was more attentive to her needs than any man she had ever been with, as human or android. It seemed to her that he gained as much pleasure simply from pleasing her as he might from anything she might do. Lianna kept out of her way, since she had no programming requiring her to satisfy this man who was not her master, and she simply did whatever came naturally. Somehow Jerry's attitude convinced her that whatever she did would be right, simply because it was she doing it.

After they had made wonderful love, they simply lay together. Jerry's rough hand played gently over her smooth skin, while she simply lay still in his embrace, basking in his love. She lost track of time, but Jerry was evidently watching the clock.

"You'd better get dressed," he said, sitting up. "You need to go back downstairs in a few minutes." It was nearly two o'clock.

Indeed, she had barely finished putting her shoes back on when she felt Lianna nudging her toward the door.

"I have to go, sir," she said. "Come kiss me once more before I leave?"

Jerry obliged, getting between her and the door, and taking her in his arms again. "I love you, sir," Dianne said, wishing Lianna would let her stop calling him "sir." "I have to go now."

"I love you too, Lianna," Jerry said, letting her out of his apartment. "I'll see you next week."

"Yes, sir. I'll be looking forward to it."

Dianne stayed in a dreamy reverie while Lianna returned to the laundry room and folded Henry's clean laundry. But she was shocked out of her daydreaming when she returned to Henry's apartment to find him at home. Henry never come home early, not since he had first purchased her. Yet here he was, his shirt collar open two buttons down, holding a glass of water in his hand. Not for the first time, Dianne was glad that her robotic director typically overrode her natural responses. She was sure she would have looked as guilty as Henry's cat when it scratched something it wasn't supposed to. But as soon as he spoke, she knew it wasn't going to matter.

"Lianna!" he exclaimed, "Where have you been?"

"I was in the laundry room, Master," Lianna answered calmly, to Dianne's short-lived relief. "And in Jerry's apartment."

(No! Don't tell him that!)

Henry suddenly erupted in a fit of coughing. Dianne had the sudden irrational thought that his outrage at her behaviour had triggered the coughing, until she realized he still had no idea what had happened. She stood there, confused and apprehensive, while his coughing subsided. He took a drink from the glass, then suddenly stopped. "What? Who's Jerry?"

Dianne tried to hold her tongue, but she answered helplessly. "I don't know his last name, Master. He ordered me to go with him while your clothes were drying. His orders did not conflict with yours, so I obeyed." She wondered miserably what he would do to her for this.

"It didn't occur to you I don't want you going off with just anybody who asks?" Henry demanded, his voice raspy. He must be sick, Dianne realized - that's why he came home early. Come to think of it, he had seemed a little out of it this morning. God, what would he have thought this morning if he'd known what she would do this afternoon?

"You've never ordered me not to, Master," Lianna explained, "so I felt I could obey Jerry's order. I'm sorry if I was wrong, Master."

"What did he want you to do? Did you sleep with him?"

(Say 'no!') How he would hate her for betraying him...

"Yes, Master. He also-"

"Never mind," Henry interrupted with a cough-interruped sigh, to Dianne's minimal relief. He took another sip of water. "From now on you're not to obey anybody except me or people I tell you to obey, and you're definitely not to sleep with anybody but me, unless I order it. And by that I mean flirting and fondling too, anything like that. You're mine, and I expect you to remember it. Understood?"

And just like that, he had made another hour of pleasure with Jerry impossible. "Yes, Master," Lianna said meekly.

"Good," Henry said. "Go put that in the bedroom, then go out to the store and pick up some cough medicine. Liquid, not drops. Cherry flavor is good. I feel like crap."

And there it was. She felt as if Henry had killed a part of her she had only just discovered. The one man who had ever treated her like a human being, even when she had been one, and in a few casual words, Henry had ended their brief affair as if it were nothing. The fact that she had expected no less if he learned of it did not ease her feelings a bit. She wanted desperately to cry, but Lianna would not let her.

Moments after she returned from the store and helped Henry take the cough medicine, the front door buzzer rang. It was Jean - and Brice, as she discovered when she opened the apartment door.

"Welcome, Mistress," Lianna greeted the newcomer, though a nod was all she was permitted toward Brice. "Henry has gone to bed, but he asked for you to go to him when you arrive."

"Good. Why don't you two cuddle out here till one of us calls for you." Her tone made it clearly an order. Obediently, Lianna went to Brice's open arms, as Jean went into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

"Sometimes I could swear she does this just to annoy me," Brice murmered softly in Lianna's ear.

"Oh, Brice, you have no idea!" Dianne exclaimed, as quiet as he, although she made no effort to stay quiet. She buried her face against Brice's strong shoulder.

"What's wrong?" the tall android asked, concern wiping away the joking tone of his voice. He gently stroked her soft black hair.

"There's a man in this building," Dianne explained. "I liked him the first time I saw him, but I was in passive mode, so I couldn't say anything. But today I saw him again, and... Oh, Brice, he was so nice to me! He's an artist. He drew a picture of me, and he wanted to give it to me! But when I got back, Master was here, and I couldn't help but tell him the whole thing!"

"Oh," Brice said. She couldn't tell whether his gentle caresses were a genuine attempt to soothe her, or just obeying Jean's order to "cuddle," but it felt good anyway, in the midst of all her despair. "What did he do?"

"He was so angry with me. I knew he would be, but I hoped he wouldn't find out. He told me never to 'flirt and fondle' with anybody but him unless he told me to, and... but I fell in love - I am in love with him! Oh, God, I screwed things up again, just like I always did when I was human!"

"Of course you didn't," Brice said soothingly. "And if you did, you won't again, because your master told you not to. That's the thing about being androids. When we don't do what we're supposed to, nobody bothers to blame us for it or hate us for it. They just fix us."

"I know that-" Only Lianna's control kept her voice whisper-soft. "I realized that weeks ago - but this time I don't want to be fixed! I want Jerry!"

"How old are you, Lianna?" Brice suddenly asked, taking her by surprise with the non sequitur. "I mean as an android. How long have you been activated?"

"I guess... about twelve weeks, why?"

Brice didn't answer right away. "It took me a while to realize it, too, I guess," he finally said with a sigh. "That's the other part of being an android. The reason nobody blames us for doing the wrong thing is that we don't get to choose. That's the hardest thing to come to terms with - at least, it was for me. Not just that we have to do what our masters want, but that it's right that we have to. That's the price we pay for never making mistakes."

"But what about Jerry? I still love him, and he loves me, and I can't see him again now."

"You don't really want to, though," Brice said.

"But I do!"

"Do you really? Knowing that seeing him again would upset your master?"

"Well..."

And there was the rub, Dianne realized. It was a choice: keep Henry happy with her, or have the freedom to see her lover again. A choice, just like the choices she had always screwed up as a human being. And she would have screwed up again, just now, if she could. She wasn't sure which choice would be wrong, but she was sure that whatever she decided would have been wrong, because she always chose wrong. That's why she had wanted to become an android in the first place.

But now she was an android, and the choice wasn't hers to make. Henry had made the choice for her: she would not see Jerry again. Was that the right choice? Dianne didn't know. But it didn't matter, either, because that was what she was going to do, like it or not. As Brice had said, that was the price you paid, for never being hated or blamed: you also lost the power to make your own choices.

She looked up at Brice once more.

"You see it now, don't you," he said.

Dianne nodded. "Yes. You're right, I don't want to see him again - or if I do, it doesn't matter. I belong to Henry, and I must do what he wants me to."

Brice opened his mouth to answer, but instead looked up, as Dianne heard the door to Henry's bedroom open. She wanted to turn to see who it was, but was unable to stop nuzzling Brice.

"Mistress?" Brice called.

Jean's voice came from behind her. "Yes, Brice?"

"You asked me to advise you on how you might make Master Henry happy."

"Go on." Dianne had realized that she could turn her head and press her cheek against Brice's chest, and thus see Jean. She looked interested.

"Lianna told me she accidentally displeased him this afternoon."

Dianne looked up in surprise. Why would he tell Jean...?

"Yes, he mentioned that," Jean said. "What about it?"

"I think it would be a good thing if you ordered her to forget the person involved in the incident."

"What?!" Dianne asked in surprise.

Jean looked equally surprised. "How would that make Henry happy?"

"I'm not certain," Brice explained, "but, I believe Lianna's feelings about... that person, might cause her to do or say something someday which would displease Master Henry. Just as you have said my feelings about a certain person displeased you, before you ordered me to forget them."

Dianne's thoughts spun. She continued helplessly cuddling with him, but part of her wanted to hit him. How dare he say what her feelings might make her do? But another part of her wondered if he was right. Maybe it would be best if she forgot him. Maybe Brice even thought it would be best for her - and maybe he was right. She was not going to be happy the next time Jerry met her in the laundry room and she was unable to show her love for him.

"I see," Jean said. "Lianna, did you fall in love with this... "person" you visited?"

Dianne didn't even try to avoid admitting her guilt. "Yes, Mistress."

"Oh. Henry didn't ask that, did he?"

"No, Mistress." Lianna answered. Dianne added, "And I didn't think it would be a good idea to tell him."

"No, it certainly wouldn't have been," Jean agreed. Dianne was pleased to learn she had evidently done something right. "Lianna, when you were at my house, Henry told you to obey my orders as if they were his. Will you still do so?"

"Yes, Mistress, but-"

"Good. I want you to forget ever meeting that person. Forget everything you know about him, and everything you did with him, and especially everything you felt about him."

"Yes, Mistress."

As Lianna finished acknowledging the order, Dianne felt something happening to her mind. It was almost as if there were something tickling her soul, and erasing things as it went. She had been thinking about making love to Jerry in his apartment - she could hardly avoid thinking about it. But she couldn't remember what his body looked like... or what his face looked like... or where they had been... or what they had been doing... or who she had been with... or...

"Thank you, Brice," Jean said. "Now, Lianna, Henry says you know where the spare sheets and blankets are. Set up the couch in here as a spare bed for me."

"Yes, Mistress," Lianna acknowledged once more. Disengaging herself from Brice's grasp, she went to obey her orders. As she worked, she remembered her conversation with Jean's android, and talking about having fallen in love with a man - Jerry, his name had been. But she could no longer remember doing so. She couldn't even remember the man. It seemed like a story she'd been told, except that she had been the one to tell it.

Had Brice been right that Henry would be happier for Lianna having forgotten the man? She didn't know. She couldn't imagine what she might do if she loved a man other than Henry - maybe she would have done something to displease him. But it didn't matter. Jean had thought it best to have her forget, and Henry had told her to obey Jean.

When she finished making up the couch as a bed, Jean told her to go to Henry's room in case he wanted her. He told her to come to bed with him, and once she was in, he switched her to passive mode. He said nothing about Jerry.

Return to All Under Control!