Star Dust

Sam and Steven spend the day in bed. They talk about anything that crosses their mind. They watch the morning sun push the clouds away. The late fall sun does not rise high in the sky so they are not over whelmed by its heat. Through out the day the wildlife wanders through the meadow paying little attention to the bubble and its occupants. Steven notices that his mind has let go of the world they left. He does not think about his dad, the caretaker, Foresight, the company in New York, the kidnapping, the robot, or even Sam and his history. He is completely present with her. He mindlessly traces his finger over her body. With a sudden urge, Steven tells Sam to roll over on her stomach. "Ooh, what are you going to do to me?" She teases. Laughing "Nothing like that… right now." Steven teased back. He grabs a pen off the little table next to the bed. "If you got a tattoo, what would it be?" Steven asks. After a moment of silence. Sam replies, "on the upper back I would get something that represented the universe." After some thinking Steven starts to draw on her back "my mom always told me that writing on myself with a pen was bad for me, I did a little research, and that is not true." Steven did his best to draw a spiral galaxy that span from Sam's left shoulder blade to her right shoulder blade. The bottom and sides of the galaxy he made stars that formed the spiral tendrils. The top part of the galaxy along her neck her drew the stars more unordered. On the top, there were no noticeable spiral but more like lines of stars leading up her back to her head. The idea he was going for was that her intelligence was coming from the universe or that the universe was made up from her intelligence. That each of us is a part of the stars and the star have a part of us. After trying to explain his artist objective to Sam she giggled. "Some days you are too sentimental, I don't know about having star dust in me, but I will take a little more of you in me." She said as she rolled over and pulled him into her. After making love they snuggled up and feel asleep in the warmth of afternoon sun.

Steven was brought awake by his phone vibrating on the nightstand. He ignored it. His assistant had been doing a good job at letting him and Sam be alone. But, he was awake now, the sky was transitioning to dark, Sam was laying naked on the bed sleeping on her stomach. He paused to apricate his innated attraction to her body. The curves. Her hair falling over her shoulders. His ink creation on her back. The drawing was smeared from their last moment of passion when she sweated during their climax. "I should have been more careful." Steven said to himself with a smile as he looked at his hands with ink on his finger tips and under the nails. His phone buzzed again. He looked to see who it was. It was Matthew. Steven was not wanting to put up with him at the moment so he put the phone back down again. Just as the phone his the table it was buzzing again. "A third call, it must be important." Steven thought.

"Hey what's up." Steven said is a subdued voice trying not to wake the sleeping beauty next to him.

"Hey good buddy." Matthew bellowed in his normal voice.

"Damnit" Steven thought. "This is not an emergency. He is just being his normal self." And he would rather snuggle back up to Sam instead of talking to Matthew.

"Don't act so excited to hear from me." Matt continued when Steven had not responded.

"Sorry, it just not a good time."

"Oh, it is the perfect time." Matt continued.

"No. It really is not. I took some time off. I needed to get away." Matt knew Sam, but he did not want to explain the last two weeks.

"I know. I have been keeping track of you." before Steven could continue, Matthew continued "and Sam."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, buddy we have so much catching up todo. I have been waiting for this day for so long. I am so giddy with excitement that I can't wait to share it with you. There is so much, I don't even know where to start." Matthew said in a voice even more excited than him normal self. "Oh, I know where to start. Let me send you a picture." After a moment pause, "There you go." Matt said as Steven's phone buzzed.

Steven pulled his phone away from his ear and looked at the pictured. "What the fuck? Where the hell did you get this picture?" Steven demanded, feeling fury rising to a level he had never experienced.

"Let's say that Sam gave it to me." Matt said as Steven was still processing what he was seeing. In the picture, Steven was looking into his own eyes. His face is framed on the bottom with Sam's half naked body. He hand pushing at her pants. The picture was taken in that moment when he had locked eyes with Sam while undressing her. Steven is looking right into the camera. His eyes are full of desire, passion, intimacy, commitment, vulnerability.

"Sam gave it to you?" Steven said catching himself mid sentence and lowering his voice from the yell it had been.

"Don't worry. You are not going to wake her."

"Why would Sam give this picture to you." Steven asked incredulously but still confused about how he got it.

"Okay, 'gave' is a strong word. Maybe I should say, I took it." Matthew laughed. Steven felt himself loosing control and decided it was just best to stay quiet. "Your lover is a biological machine, also known as a robot."

"That is bullshit. I am not certain how you got that picture, but I am certain Sam is not a robot." Steven raised his voice again, while looking over at Sam's sleeping body.

"Oh, she is." Matthew cooed. He continued, "and you just helped me prove that Sam and her siblings are ready for the mass market."

"Not possible." Steven says and reaches out to Sam and shakes her to waken her up. He might as well wake her up and let him know how she got that picture to Matthew. She does not stir. "Sam, wake up." Steven says with more control that he thought he was capable of at the moment.

"Hahaha. You are always a sceptic aren't you Steven." Matt says. "She won't wake up, I put her in standby mode."

"Sam, wake up." Steven shakes her a little harder.

"After she is programmed and shipped, we don't control what she does, we don't even control what she thinks. We can influence what she thinks, but that is at a very basic level much like humans influence the way other humans think. Obviously, we can see what she sees, and we see a lot." Matthew laughed at this. "We did install a standby mode because currently we are working though a lot of laws about how to deal with the robot legally. Someday they will break a law. When we are done talking I will give you the link to turn off standby, if you choose to."

Steven was still struggling to wrap his head around what Matthew was saying but there was no reason why he could not keep listening. Despairingly, Steven rolled Sam over and let her head rest in his lap as he stared at her closed eyes and Matthew continued.

"When Foresight shut down the project that showed so much promise in affecting human behavior, your best developers came to our team. You saw a version 1 of the human companion and how dumb he is. We discovered that that robot could not know they were a robot. Your work allowed us to get from version 1 to Samantha. The idea of stealing your trade secret was designed to push Samantha to the extremes to see how she would respond. I think she handled it well and helped you get through it. You were ready to die for her. You were ready to commit your life to her. Are you now? That is the funny thing about humans. When our perceived reality is broken, we get to decide how we are going to put it back together. Sam is still the Sam you know, and I would dare say fell in love with, and were willing to commit to. But now you know her full story and I am guessing you are now wondering about your love and commitment. I am going to send you a link that will allow you to take Sam out of standby. Here are two things to consider. First, If you ever fall in love again, you will never know if the person you love is what we call a 'traditional human' and second if you walk away I will retrieve Sam and we will erase her memories and program her for someone else. She will not remember you. I am going to leave you with your decision now. When things settle down I am sure you are going to have questions. Call me when you want to talk."

The phone went silent. A moment later Steven's phone buzzed with a new message. He clicked the URL; the web page had a single button in the middle that said "Activate".