Teaser Tuesday

~~~
Home again.

The secretarial job didn’t prove to be any more satisfying the second week, either. More phone calls cancelling appointments, and no new clients, either. If this continued, she’d be out of the job soon.

However, the android was almost complete. She could feel a bubble of excitement growing in her stomach when she flipped on the light to her workshop and saw it sitting in a chair, cold steel and lifeless looking. But that would change today.
She could feel its blank eyes staring at her as she moved across the room to a storage closet. From inside she retrieved a bag containing silicone “skin” and a wig. Peering inside, she fought back a shudder. The contents gave her the creeps.
She set the bag on the floor in front of the android and propped her fists on her hips. She tilted her head to the side and considered. This was going to be so weird.

Awesome.

She had to bite back a squeal of revulsion as she handled the silicone skin and fitted it to the exoskeleton. Taking a needle and fine thread, she stitched the wig cap to the android’s head, using miniscule stitches.

There, now it didn’t look quite so creepy to her. It was simply… naked.

Going back to her storage closet, she rummaged in a box near the back, and pulled out a somewhat misshapen shirt, and with further digging, unearthed a pair of pants that had probably belonged to her father at some point, and dressed the android in them.

She was straddling its lap some time later inserting teeth when a voice behind her asked, “I hope you are fully aware of how awkward this looks.”

Karina gasped and her hands jerked, nearly sending the container of glue she was holding flying through the air. She turned. Her friend Erin was leaning against the door to her workshop, one of her eyebrows raised.

“Erin!” Karina said, righting herself. “What are you—“

“You haven’t called me in a week! I thought maybe you died or something!” She scowled at Karina, who blushed.

“Sorry,” She said, shifting her gaze away from her friend. “I, uh, got sort of caught up in this project, and, um.”

Erin raised her eyebrow. “Which gives you a perfectly good excuse to disappear for a week and a half?”

Karina couldn’t meet her friend’s eyes. “Sorry,” she said again. She fiddled with the nozzle on the glue bottle.

“Well. It’s okay, I guess,” she said, uncrossing her arms and coming into the room. “What’s that?”

“That,” said Karina, “is the project that is going to save my job.”

Erin’s eyebrow shot up again. “This is going to save your job.”

Karina rapped the android gently on the head. “Yup. As soon as Christenson sees this fella, he’ll be begging me to go back to my old position.”

“I don’t know.” Erin scrutinized the android. “Does it work?”

“I haven’t tried it yet,” Karina admitted. She didn’t really feel like testing it with Erin around. Fortunately, her friend didn’t seem interested in pressing the subject.

“Why don’t you come out with us tonight?” Erin asked as Karina made a pot of coffee in the kitchen. “A bunch of us are gonna go down to Carl’s and get drunk.”

Karina snorted. “Yeah, no thanks,” She said, handing Erin a cup of coffee. “Too much to do here.” Erin shot a glance at Karina’s workshop. “It’s not that,” Karina said hastily, crossing her fingers out of notice. “I have to clean, and do other things like that.”

Erin looked like she wanted to say something, but didn’t. She left soon after, and Karina stood by the window and watched her go. She did feel bad, of course, about not calling, but this was important! She couldn’t let it wait for too long.

She went back into the workshop and finished inserting the teeth. It looked human now, sitting there in her father’s old clothes, and a mouthful of teeth. Karina went over to the blueprints on her desk, and rummaged through them until she found a small envelope. Sliding it open with the edge of her finger, she tipped it over and let the chip fall into the palm of her hand.

Karina unscrewed a small panel in the back of the android’s neck and, taking a deep breath, slid the chip into the slot.

Nothing happened.