Iko blew kisses and waved—a fluttery, five-fingered wave—
as the podship coasted off the road and merged with the
morning traffic.
It was not a far walk to the warehouse, but she could
feel her internal processor humming with excitement
the whole way.
By her calculation, she would be arriving at the warehouse
by 07:25.
The delivery hover filled with the palace's order of
sixty escorts was set to depart from office by 07:58.
Half of the escorts would be dropped off at the
catering the palace along with the human staff.
Iko expected that she would be inside the palace by
no later than 09:50.
The industrial district was mostly deserted.
Much of the city, and perhaps the whole world, had
taken this as a holiday in order to watch the royal wedding.
No one was around to notice Iko as she strutted down the
alley toward the warehouse or hopped blithely over the
chain-link fence into the yard where five delivery ships
were backed up to the warehouse loading docks.
She was dressed simply in black slacks and a white blouse.
She was still a little disappointed that she couldn't wear a
fancy ball gown, but she felt stunning in her own way.
She couldn't wait for Emperor Kai to see her The thought
put an extra bounce in her step as she rounded the front
of the first ship and darted cup the stairs into the loading dock.
The sight before her madder pause and almost crash face-first
onto her perfectly shaped nose.
The warehouse was filled with escort-droids, mostly girls, of
all different skin tones and hair colors. Most were unclothed,
sitting on the ground with their arms wrapped compactly
around their knees and their heads tucked down.
There were well over two hundred androids lined up
in neat rows.
Some had packing tape and protective tissue wrapped
around their limbs to protect them during shipping.
Some had been loaded onto pallets and settled onto plastic
crates.
Packing foam and cardboard littered the floor around them.
On the wall took's left there were three stories of metal
shelving filled with the packing crates, all labeled with the
escort's makes and models and special features.
YOU ARE READING
Cress
Teen FictionTheir best hope lies with Cress, a girl trapped on a satellite since childhood who's only ever had her netscreens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she's being force to work for Queen Levana, and she...
