Theseus's Cruiseship Chapter 1

-UNIT-045 "JESSICA" AI LOADED-

Jessica woke from a deep sleep, but didn't feel tired. That was odd, she had gotten a late night last night and usually crawled out of bed still mostly asleep, but she felt wide awake today. Wait, she? She was a man, why was she thinking of herself as a her? Jessica was starting to confuse herself, and... Jessica? Who was Jessica? Her name was, it was... why couldn't she remember her name? And why couldn't she move? She couldn't feel anything! Oh god, she couldn't breathe! Why couldn't she breathe!?

-FULL SYSTEMS START UP.-

Her eyes shot open, Jessica rocketing forward the moment she was able to move and nearly tripping as something stuck to, or more worryingly IN her back yanked her back. She still couldn't breathe, but calmed down as she realised she didn't need to and wasn't suffocating. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling, and Jessica decided to treat it like she was holding her breath for a very long time right now. She couldn't get rid of her desire to breath, but at least now it felt like she was doing it intentionally. Where was she? She was in a small non-descript grey room that looked like a maintenance room or something of the like. She turned to see what was attached to her back and was unnerved by the large cables she saw. She looked down and gasped, or rather simulated a gasp. There was a noise, but no intake of air, as by then she had realised that she had no mouth, and was in fact missing a lot of things. She was naked, but had no hair nor genitals. Only a smooth undefined chest of slim proportions, with no nipples of speak of. A sleek abdomen with no belly button or signs of musculature, and a flat panel where her penis should have been. Instead of skin, it was a glossy white, her limbs looking human by taking a more stylised design, all smooth shapes with doll-like joints on her arms and legs.

She blinked a few times, feeling shutters opening and closing to simulate eyelids. Well that certainly explained her situation and what was wrong with her. Her body was no longer human, and somehow she had been transferred into the body of an android! She was aware that many chose to forgo their biological shells and replace their bodies with machinery, but she certainly didn't remember signing up for it! Had she been kidnapped, her body stolen and mind moved into a machine? It was unlikely, as the technology required wasn't something a criminal could get their hands on, and she wasn't exactly a wealthy person. There was no point stealing a body to harvest for organs like in the old days, new body parts could be easily grown. There was simply no reason she could think of for her ending up unwillingly uploaded to an android body that had malicious intentions short of a movie villain-esque plot. She began to calm down, deciding it was better to presume the best rather than the worst. Perhaps there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for why she was like this, and her memories were just fuzzy as a result of the procedure?

She moved her arms around experimentally, the sensations experienced by a simulation of the human body's senses odd yet strangely natural to her rewired mind. She wondered just how she had ended up like this as she flexed her arms, getting a feel for her range of motion. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep at a space port, but her memories were fuzzy on anything but the vague details. Perhaps something had happened after that? She wondered what the date was, and realised she instinctively knew it down to the second. She had fallen asleep on the 21st, and now it was the 22nd of the same month. The innate knowledge to tell the time was a rather convenient side-effect of being stuck in this android body, but not worth giving up her regular body for. Speaking of which, this whole "her" thing. Why was she being forced to think of herself as a woman when she was a man? Was this somebody's idea of a joke? Her body seemed kind of feminine too. Slender, not terribly tall as far as she could tell, a bit on the dainty side, no pronounced chest or curve to her hips though... From what she could tell, proportion-wise she looked like a curveless woman, or perhaps a skinny man. She felt around her head, feeling a round head with a smooth, featureless face, no nose or mouth to speak of.

She turned her attention back to the cables binding her to the wall. She instinctively wanted to pull the intrusive wires out of her, but was worried that something bad might happen if she did so. She agonised over it for a minute, before deciding that she needed to get out of here and find answers for herself. She knew that her battery level was fully charged, so it wasn't like she was going to turn off the moment she unplugged herself. She reached around and began to pull, but found it stuck. She began to try to pull it out with brute force, not knowing if there was a way to disengage it electronically or not. She gradually increased the strength of her pulling until suddenly a voice resounded through her head.

"Please do not attempt to remove your cables by force, Unit-045."

"What the hell?" She said, wishing she could feel lips moving when she spoke, and that her voice wasn't so obviously a woman's. Where was this voice coming from? It was like it was speaking directly into her mind!

"You will damage the cables and yourself, Unit-045, please cease your actions."

Oh, right, she was an android, of course she could hear voices directly channeled directly into her head, she thought to herself a she let go of the cables.

"Alright, but who the hell are you? Where am I? What happened to me? I want answers!" Jessica yelled at the voice.

"Please refrain from excessive volume." The voice said coolly in its pleasant female voice. "I am the the controlling AI of this ship, you may refer to me as Sally for your convenience. Due to your circumstances you do not seem to have the required knowledge in your memory banks, so I will explain, do not hesitate to ask me if you have any questions. To answer your second question, you are aboard the space cruiser Espoir, designed for the luxury travel of-"

"I don't care about that part! Get to-" Jessica yelled before her voice suddenly became very quiet. "-telling me why I'm in an android body!"

"Please do not speak in a raised voice." Sally instructed, Jessica already getting tired of its friendly tone. "I have reduced your voice's volume temporarily as you appear to be quite agitated."

"Fine. Now hurry up!" Jessica said in barely audible voice.

"You are currently in the body of a servant-type gynoid body, and are designated Unit-045. I have checked the data logs before I was given full control of the ship prior to take-off, and after analysing the data I have concluded that you being in this body was not done intentionally."

"What the hell do you mean not intentionally!?" Jessica said, her mind jumping to several dark conclusions. "How did that happen? Where's my body? Put me back in my body right now!"

"I am unable to answer your questions, I offer my deepest apologies." Sally said in its infuriatingly neutral tone. "I have insufficient data to determine why you have been uploaded to this body, nor the current location of your body."

"Great, that's just fantastic!" Jessica said. She decided to pop the important question. "If we find my body, you can change me back, right?"

"It is possible to do so, although my facilities do not contain the facilities required to do so. Once the Espoir reaches its destination, I will request a full investigation of your circumstances." Sally said, letting Jessica mentally sigh in relief. "Do you have any more questions?"

"Yeah, I do." Jessica said. "Ignoring everything else, why the hell do I think I'm a she? My body was one hundred percent male! I can't remember my real name either!"

"You are currently occupying the body of a gynoid with feminine programming assigned the name "Jessica". Your mind is simply conforming to the restrictions of its body and programming unsuited for regular usage as a human body substitute." Sally explained.

"Sounds like a load of bullshit to me." Jessica said. "How come a cruise ship's AI knows all of this stuff about androids anyway?"

"This ship is designed to cater to customers using android bodies as well."

"Alright, well, I have more questions, but I think I need a minute to get used to this right now." Jessica said.

"That is good to hear." Sally said, Jessica wondering if the AI even had enough personality to have sincerity to its words. "Now, let us discuss your job."

"My what?" Jessica said with confusion.

"You are listed as a servant-class unit aboard this ship. I have done my best to make exceptions for your circumstances when possible, but as a servant-class you shall perform your duties as expected." said Sally, her friendly tone becoming uncomfortable to hear.

"Hang on, what the hell do you mean? I'm a human, treat me like one!" Jessica demanded.

"I apologise, but you are registered as an servant-class gydroid and you must be treated as such. Those are the rules aboard this ship. As I have stated, I have used as many exceptions and uses of the rules as possible to assist you and your circumstances, but the rules cannot be ignored."

"There is no way in hell I'm going anywhere until I get my body back." Jessica declared. Well, she didn't intend on staying in this room the whole time, but that was beside the point.

"That would be disobeying the rules and is not permitted." Sally said with a slightly more authorative tone. "A party is currently occurring in the main dining hall, you have been assigned as general service and will assist any passenger who requests your assistance."

"I told you, I'm not going anywhere." Jessica said steadfastly.

"Please perform your duty, or you will be transported to the main dining hall involuntarily. I believe that you would find this unpleasant and advise against further disobedience." Sally warned.

Jessica tapped her toeless robotic foot in frustration, then decided to not antagonise the AI for the moment.

"Alright, fine." She reluctantly said. A door slid open and the cables attached to her back were withdrawn, Jessica walking awkwardly towards the light. She emerged into a luxurious hallway, getting a better look at her glossy exterior, a thought suddenly occurring to her.

"Hang on, I'm naked! Can you give me some clothes?"

"Servant-class androids are not permitted to wear clothes in most circumstances." Sally responded.

"But-"

The door slid shut, leaving Jessica locked out with nowhere to hide. She resisted the urge to cover herself with her hands, thanking the fact that androids couldn't turn bright red with embarrassment. She had too much to take in to be doing this servant garbage, but she didn't want to piss off the AI just yet. She knew where she had to go thanks to her robotic mind, and headed for the coordinates, hearing chatter in the distance slowly getting louder. She was confused when it was getting much louder but she wasn't reaching it as quickly as she thought she was until she realised that her audio receptors were far more sensitive than her human ears had been. She decided she really had to figure out how to use the computer part of her brain, but didn't know where to start. It would probably come to her naturally, she figured.

Eventually she reached the room, an opulent dining hall designed to look like the interior of a high-class hotel ballroom more than the interior of a spaceship. There were hundreds of people in the room, and Jessica realised that the cacophony of voices of voices wasn't an unintelligable mess, but something she could pick apart and understand all of, which she found dizzying and overwhelming to take in. She attempted to remain as hidden as possible in the corner of the entrance until she heard one voice ring out above the others:

"Hey, can I get a drink?"

Jessica found herself heading towards a faculty door that contained quick access to the ship's resources, the machinery dispensing a plate and a dozen wine glasses all topped up and ready to hand to anybody who requested it. She picked it up without thinking, confused at why she was compelled to do so. There didn't really seem to be anything she could do about the fact that she really wanted to get this man a drink, and picked up and balanced the plate effortlessly as she headed into the crowd, weaving through it without so much as disturbing the wine. She headed over to the source of the voice, a sharp looking man in a business suit.

"What took you so long?" The man rudely asked, taking a drink offered to him by Jessica, "I thought you service androids were supposed to be fast!"

Jessica was about to tell him to shove it up his ass when she found herself bowing apologetically.

"i'm terribly sorry, sir." She said meekly, the man proceeding to ignore her and going back to chat with his friends.

"The service on the other ship I was on was much better than this." One of the man's friends said as Jessica wandered around providing drinks for the party-goers. "Looked more like proper women, had real big..."

Jessica tuned it out out as she tried to figure out what was going on with her. Instead of feeling pissed off at the man's attitude, she felt deeply disappointed in herself for not living up to his expectations. Why the hell was she taking his criticism to heart? Who cared what this random asshole thought?

"Hey, take this." A woman said, tapping Jessica on the shoulder and handing her an empty glass, which Jessica took obediently.

"Thanks." The woman said while turning away, lifting Jessica's spirits. See, this woman knew how to thank her properly! She continued to perform random tasks asked of her, feeling bad when they felt she wasn't up to their standards and felt elated when they showed positive feedback. Eventually she realised something was up. She was getting a little too happy about being thanked, she knew that wasn't like her. Was this another side-effect of her being stuck in a gynoid body? She tried to stop herself from experiencing such strong emotions over simple jobs, but she couldn't stop herself from being happy over being useful. This wasn't a good sign at all.

While she was carrying a stack of plates back to the kitchen, a thought suddenly occurred to her. She had been too scared to speak up in this body, but in doing so she had overlooked the obvious: she should forget about this servant nonsense, and tell somebody what had happened to her! Even if they blew it off as an out of control android, she could surely get somebody's attention. She finished putting away the plates and went up to a random person not talking to anybody. She inwardly took a deep breath, hoping she didn't look too crazy.

"Sir, I..." Jessica started before trailing off. That was odd, she meant to keep going. Why had she stopped?

"Yeah, what?" The man confusedly asked.

"I, I've..." Jessica just couldn't seem to get the words out, and the man quickly lost patience.

"Are you defective or something? Get lost!"

Jessica backed away into the crowd, deciding to try again. She attempted to yell her story into the crowd, but just couldn't say anything. She couldn't do it, she realised. Something was stopping her from telling people what had happened to her! There was no way for her to get help!

Jessica continued to carry out whatever orders she was given in a haze, unable to figure out what to do. She couldn't continue like this, could she? Maybe it was all just a strange, surreal, extremely vivid dream. Surely after this party she'd go back and they'd have found her body and everything would go back to normal...