Coral-600 (4 page)

Chapter Four

I waited for Paisley. I knew from past experiences with her social life that she would be out until well past her usual time to retire for the night. I decided against my skin maintenance routine until I had a chance to discuss what happened in Quinn's room.

Orgasm. I'd had an orgasm. If that was what happened to Paisley when she had sex, I had no idea how she stopped herself with just one. Why did she even bother coming back to the castle if she could have orgasms?

It must have to do with what she meant by needy men. Whatever they needed, if they were all as talented with their tongues as Quinn, then fulfilling their needs was a small price to pay.

Quinn had said he needed to take a shower. I wondered if I leaked excessively on him. I'd never leaked like that before. I opened my maintenance downloads and began running a complete systems check. The check would be sent back to the Bio-Dyne research center for uploading. Bio-Dyne worked closely with the Department of Mechanical Affairs, and they frequently worked on projects for the governing body in exchange for funding.

I didn't have to return to the manufacturing lab as long as I sent in data. Sending in the data also gave me access to all updated virus programs. I needed to make sure I hadn't contracted something when I was working with that new CPU for the palace's internal vacuuming system.

No malfunctions were tagged as worrisome, and no viruses were detected. The data collection file did ask for confirmation, which happened when something I was reporting was unusual. However, it did not recommend that I come in for maintenance. If my mechanics were malfunctioning in a way that was detrimental, they would have asked for me to come in for a systems check.

I had just finished doing a third program check and submission when Paisley walked in.

“Oh, Coral. I thought you would be out cleaning or getting a magnetic boost or something.”

Paisley's shirt was wrinkled, and one of the buttons seemed to be missing. I would need to sew that for her. “I want to talk to you about orgasms.”

Paisley snorted and started getting items out of her small purse to put them away. “Well I've had some first-hand research tonight. What do you want to know?”

“I had one with Quinn. I want to know why he made me leave after it was over.”

Paisley stopped in the middle of putting her keys on the tray. She slowly put everything in her hands on the dresser and turned towards me. She was smiling wider than I can ever remember seeing her smile.

“Coral, I thought I had a great night, but yours sounds even better. Let me get changed and then we can head down to the kitchen to talk.”

“Why do we need to go down to the kitchen? I am capable of dictating tonight's events in our room. The acoustics are perfectly satisfactory.” I couldn't stop my smile as I said, “I even recorded some of what Quinn said when he touched me.”

She snorted air through her nose, “This is so much better than internet porn.”

Paisley threw some of what she called her comfy pants at me and a tank top.

“Put those on while I get changed.” She closed the bathroom door and I could hear the clothes rustling from behind it. “We have to go to the kitchen because I am still a bit buzzed and I want some coffee. I will be damned if I miss one detail about the data you have for me tonight.”

I smiled. Paisley was usually very patient with me, and she always answered my questions, but this was the first time she had shown excitement for the information I had to share. It was yet another reason I wanted to have more orgasms with Quinn.

Paisley yelled at the coffee maker until it spewed her drink into her cup. She took two long sips and once again the magic liquid seemed to clear her mind. I wondered if the sensation was something like a defragging. The human brain was not very analytical, and didn't run in a pattern that I could track easily, so I was constantly trying to find ways to understand. Coffee. I understood coffee at this point. The queen had a similar reaction to this substance, and she always had me bring it to her at a temperature that the king teased her about. He said it was so hot that the queen's throat must be lined with metal. I reminded him that her throat was made of cartilage and tissue, but he denied my assessment every time. Paisley'd had to explain to me that he was joking.

It was unpleasant not understanding jokes right away. Each human joked differently and learning each individual's facial and body language commonalities to figure out their humor took up way too much space in my internal memory. For the most part, I tried to delete all data that didn't come from Paisley and let her explain the jokes to me. It occurred to me as she drank coffee that I would have to allocate more space for those humor triggers. I'd need information from more than just one source if I was going to appear human.

“You have that look on your face, like you are doing something with your computer brain. You really need to drink coffee. I am telling you, it clears up all the cobwebs.”

“If I want to correct my systems, I need my maintenance liquid to contain lubricant.” She knew this.

“Speaking of lubricant…” Paisley sat on the stool at the end of the kitchen island with me and wiggled a bit until she found a comfortable spot. “Tell me what happened with Quinn and if he needed any lubricant.”

“He needed no lubricant. It turns out my vagina is self-lubricating. I never knew it had that feature.”

Paisley grinned. “It's always much better when the self-lubricating feature is working properly. So what did he do to get you to self-lubricate?”

This was where even my playback mechanism began to fail me. I replayed as much of the scene as I could before everything went haywire, but it didn't make sense.

“I don't know what he did to cause it, but it seemed just having him look at me and watching his frustration build caused my malfunctions.”

“You got wet by having him look at you?” Paisley refilled her coffee cup. “That must have been some look.”

“His genitals grew quite large, and I asked him if they were mechanics as well.”

Paisley put down her coffee. “Wait. They make mechanical penises to put on human bodies?”

I often skipped over these things since Paisley didn't go to the repair shops with me when I ran errands for the palace. She never seemed interested in mechanics before. “Pleasure robotics has been a large part of the market for as long as bio-metal has been in existence. Most people cannot afford an entire pleasure robotic-system, but many insurances cover components that can be implanted to cure human erectile dysfunction. I assumed you knew that.”

“I don't really check into what my health plan covers for old penises, but that is something to think about. Can those things malfunction?”

“Only when the user tries to magnify the results with old-fashioned medical prescriptions.”

Paisley laughed. “Because men would never try to amplify their penis size.”

I was about to disagree, but then my system catalogued Paisley's grin, and the way she leaned towards me, and I realized this was her sarcasm. I recognized her sarcasm before I could ask her about her statement. Either I was learning about this process more, or I was still malfunctioning in some way after my orgasm.

“Sorry, I know we're here to talk about you. So tell me what happened when you saw Quinn's erection.”

“He was trying to get me to leave, but I really wanted to talk about tonight. I wanted to get my data filed away properly, so I asked him if he would answer my questions. I got comfortable like I always do when we talk and he seemed to have a strong reaction.”

“That's strange. Why would he be uncomfortable just answering some questions? Quinn seems like the type of guy who would be more than happy to give you the data you need.” Paisley raised the coffee mug back to her lips.

“I even offered to help him take off his clothes as well. He seemed so put off by my nudity.”

Paisley spit her coffee all over the island. I got up immediately to clean it. Paisley usually helps me clean up when the mess is hers, but this time she seemed to be violently choking, or laughing.

“You got naked in his room?”

“I told you.” I frowned at having to repeat myself. I also didn't enjoy Paisley laughing at me. “I got comfortable. He told me to.”

“Quinn told you to get naked.” Paisley slowed her speech and deepened her voice. She did this when she didn't believe me.

“I didn't say that. He told me to get comfortable. I am most comfortable without clothes on. He didn't specify that I had to adhere to some level of comfort that he set.”

“Coral, it's no wonder that guy had an erection. You can't get naked in a guy's room like that. It's a good thing Quinn is a good guy, because anyone else would have taken advantage of you.” Paisley thought about that for a moment and her mood seemed to sour. “He didn't take advantage of you, did he?”

“I don't know what you mean.”

“Coral, did you have your recorder going? I need to know what happened.”

I looked into my files. I tended to record most everything that happened that I wanted more input on. But this time… “It malfunctioned.”

“What do you mean?”

I tried to draw out input of any type from those moments with Quinn, but the data was corrupted. “Everything was malfunctioning. My internal cooling system stopped working, my recording devices wouldn't work, and even control over most of my musculature failed in the most erratic ways.”

“Well, at least it was a good orgasm. That sounds pretty normal to me.”

“But you're human. I am a machine.”

“Coral, if you were just a machine, I wouldn't be taking you out like I am.”

That put me back. What did she mean? I replayed her statement. At least my recording device was functioning correctly again.

“I mean that you are more than just a robot. You have emotions. You have something inside you that makes you…you. You just don't have all of the horrible insecurities that humans are trained to have.”

“From what you said, the insecurities are from unattainable images in magazines. My skin donor was a model that used to do print work. Why would I doubt my beauty when I am the image that caused other females to doubt theirs?”

“That is one of those statements we talked about that makes me hate you a little bit. Things like that will make other women hate you. Stop it.”

I filed that one away into the human interaction file in my database. I don't know why the statement of my donor's attractiveness offended. I was simply stating a fact.

“Do you think my attractiveness was why Quinn forced me from his room?”

A throat cleared behind us, and Paisley looked around me before she spoke.

“Yeah, Quinn. Was it her attractiveness that caused you to force her from your room?”

I turned and watched Quinn go to the refrigerator and grab a bottle of beer from the door.

“I thought you would be in your room. I just needed a beer.” He was going to leave and then noticed the coffee in Paisley's hands. “Aren't you going to be up all night with that?”

Paisley shrugged. “I still have one more day off. Coral and I are going back to the club tonight. I can go to sleep after breakfast and get plenty of rest before we dance our butts off again.”

Quinn frowned. “You didn't tell me you were going back out. I don't think it's a good idea.”

Now I was confused. “I want to go back out. Why shouldn't we?”

“Coral, you're too innocent. People out there will take advantage of you. Men will take advantage of you.”

This was the second time that phrase had come up. “What do you mean ‘take advantage'? I am mechanics. The people in that club were all human. I am stronger than all of them. How could they have the advantage over me?”

“This isn't about physical strength. You don't understand when someone is using you for their own pleasure with no thought of yours.” Quinn raised the beer and drained half the bottle. “It's not right for them to use you like that. I shouldn't do it either.”

I watched Quinn finish the bottle and get another.

Paisley put down her coffee mug and wiggled her shoulders. She did that when she was about to get angry about something.

“So because she's a woman, she is the one being taken advantage of? Seems to me that Coral really enjoyed her orgasm and wanted another one.”

I nodded.

“So why is it not perfectly okay for her to go out and find a man willing to give her one? I have a feeling if we go to the bar and tell some stud that she just had her first orgasm and wants to explore what her body can do, that we will find someone who is more than up for the challenge.”

Quinn drained the second beer. “She's worth more than that.”

“Sexuality and enjoying sex does not diminish a woman's value. If both parties agree, and if both parties leave satisfied, who are you to say that it wasn't okay?” Paisley was getting upset.

I didn't like seeing Paisley upset. This was something I had heard her discuss with one of the other human staff members who worked in the palace on occasion. Paisley liked sex. I now completely understood why she was argumentative when people tried to tell her she shouldn't.

“Don't make Paisley angry.” I took Quinn's beer bottle. He looked worried. Did he think I was going to hit him with it? I rinsed the glass before tossing it in the recycling. “I want to try and have sex. The orgasm was wonderful. Sex would give me more of those, yes?”

Quinn seemed to have trouble forming words around me. Paisley was used to this type of bluntness from me and answered easily.

“Totally depends on your partner, Coral. Some men couldn't care less if the woman has an orgasm, and they decide sex is over when they erupt.”

“Erupt? Does part of them explode?” I looked at Quinn. He was a man. He should explain.