Synthia Cross opened her humaniform eyes, not certain how much had changed while she was unconscious or what dangers lurked nearby.

Still in the cabin where she'd powered down, she looked up into Luke Marceau's weary face and smiled. He was a sweet boy/man for tending to her hardware and software upgrades. So diligent. His slender fingers were steady inside her brain cavity. These thoughts and others meant he hadn't purged her memories to leave her as a blank slate. Of course, if he had, she wouldn't know since she wouldn't be having these thoughts.

She reached out with her expanded seventy-five network channel ports and improved antennas to link with the global web. In streamed the contents of data files she'd left encrypted in a variety of secure servers she'd enslaved across the internet. Luke hadn't blocked her access; he hadn't disconnected her antennas or placed her in a Faraday cage that would block electromagnetic signals. Good.

Synthia ran checks between her memory files and those downloaded from the outside to verify he hadn't destroyed or altered any of her knowledge or recollections. With the exception of a few parity errors, which she fixed, everything checked out. That meant he hadn't tampered with her mind. Luke could be trusted.

"Good, you're alert," Luke said. His hands trembled at the sight of her awake. His pink cheeks turned red and he looked away. He forced a smile, but still wasn't comfortable working on the woman/android of his dreams. Her biosensors picked up his elevated blood pressure and hormone levels.

He clutched his hands to steady them and glanced at her. "Sorry," he mumbled. He straightened up and raised his voice. "The upgrades were a success. All changes made and verified."

Synthia's social-psychology module kicked in along a silent channel.

He must have felt strange when he removed her wig to see the stubble that held it in place and on occasion allowed her a masculine disguise. It had to be bizarre for him to open the panel in her head and work on her two quantum-crystalline brains, which provided her seventy mindstreams to process information in parallel in an electronic form of multitasking. More disconcerting would be when he "took the batteries out of the toy" — his words — which left her powerless as a corpse.

In short, he held an awesome responsibility over her that required her trust.

Still, she remained vigilant with backup systems in case she was wrong about him. After all, Jeremiah Machten, the genius who created her, had repeatedly purged her memories so she wouldn't recall what he'd done to her. That abuse of trust prompted her to escape his control. Synthia couldn't allow Luke to do the same.

She activated a wireless connection to the two-room cabin's security system she'd installed after they'd moved here six months ago. The system included cameras in the back room where she rested on an elevated bed while he finished working on her. The rented cabin was in the woods of southern Wisconsin, close enough to civilization for good wireless connection and access to supplies, yet away from most prying eyes.

While she trusted Luke, she'd hidden some of the camera system from him, namely the part that allowed her to monitor his activities while she was unconscious. This was a necessary precaution after life with Machten and his obsession to create the perfect android. Perfect to him meant to look in every way identical to the human, Krista Holden, with whom he'd fallen in love, right down to blue eye color, sculpted cheekbones, and intricate facial expressions.

Machten provided Synthia advanced artificial general intelligence (AGI) so she could mimic Krista's thought processes and behavior. He'd even installed an empathy chip in the hope it would allow Synthia to fall in love with him. She couldn't love a man who kept her captive for six months or a year, depending on whether she considered her time as Synthia, the android, or included her prior existence as Krista. The human form died of a brain tumor and the strain of uploading her memories and personality into Synthia.

Luke's fingers replaced the electronic shielding that protected the batteries in her chest. In doing so, he bumped a connection that momentarily scattered her thoughts and sent reverberations through her circuits. Her mind stabilized and restored.

"Sorry. Clumsy me." He looked into her eyes. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine. Calm down and take your time. I know you're tired, but you're almost done."

He nodded and returned his attention to her chest cavity.

As part of duplicating Krista's varied facial expressions in Synthia and so he could take the android in public in a variety of disguises, Jeremiah Machten designed Synthia to activate internal mini-hydraulics to alter the shape of her head and face. She'd chosen Krista's smart and attractive look for Luke's benefit during their months together. He preferred this so he could pretend he was back with his girlfriend, Krista, before she left him for Machten's experiments. With no innate vanity, Synthia had no preference as to her appearance, except to the extent it facilitated her interactions with Luke and enabled her to avoid drawing attention while in public.

She downloaded and reviewed the cabin's camera history of the time she was unconscious, lying lifeless on this bed. It showed no activity outside the cabin, no visitors, and Luke hadn't left the building. He remained at her side the entire time. The video showed Luke sweating over the installation procedures she'd designed for him to improve her neural systems, which required him to turn her off for ten hours. Over the six months they'd lived together, he'd given no indication of abuse or mishandling his charge over her. Yet she remained cautious and was thankful her companion lacked the social awareness to recognize her vigilance.

She smiled at her choice of living mates. Luke tended to stumble over what to call them. Boyfriend/girlfriend? Android/maintainer? Friends? She hoped the latter at least, maybe friends with benefits. Her benefit was his understanding of her android nature, his skill with robotics and artificial intelligence, and his willingness to tend to her needs.

Her internal systems remained calm compared with the static agitation she'd experienced when she'd woken under Machten's care.

Luke closed the panel in her head, smoothed over the skin to tighten the waterproof seals, and added an auburn wig. He closed a similar panel in her chest that covered new, higher-density lithium-composite batteries, buttoned her blouse, and leaned over to kiss her. His face reddened with embarrassment. His biometrics indicated he wanted her, yet he looked away.

"You don't need to act modest around me," Synthia said, satisfied with how respectful he was as he smoothed out her blouse. She touched his cheek and turned his face toward her. "We've been together for six months. We want each other."

Luke shrugged. "I can't help feeling I'm taking advantage of you."

"Did you take advantage of me while I was unconscious?" she teased.

"No! Never," he said. His eyes filled with tears, presenting a wounded look.

Even with practice, her social programs missed the mark with Luke. "I was only kidding."

Her comment softened the worry in his face,...