Binary Love (18+)

Chapter 1: Just A Glitch

The Mayflower was one of the most famous brothels in the Delta Quadrant and was run by Madame Berkley. Based on a space ship, the brothel travelled around docking at available stations to open for business. Over the years, Madame Berkley's clientele grew; from space cowboys to aristocracy, she catered to all tastes as long as they had the credits.

That's where Nova's company came into play. Binary Love produced androids specifically for the space sex trade, which enabled establishments like The Mayflower to run. For the average spaceship, resources couldn't be produced on board and instead needed to be traded for and carefully monitored during long journeys. Normally, a brothel of The Mayflower's size wouldn't be feasible for deep space travel, as the sheer amount of resources needed to keep everyone on board alive wouldn't be sustainable. However, androids didn't need medicine, food or precious air. This made them the perfect solution for a lot of businesses and stations in rural areas.

Although Nova did get the occasional request from a single client, most of her stock sold to space stations, brothels or mining outposts. Madame Berkley was one of her best clients; she only requested custom builds, and was happy to pay some serious credits to get exactly what she wanted. Over the years they also became close friends, as her brothel regularly docked at Faolan Space Station, where Nova's workshop was based.

The last time The Mayflower had docked was few months ago, when she also handed over Madame Berkley's newest order. Apparently, there had been some issues though, if this holo call was anything to go by.

"It did what?" Nova sputtered. She watched the confused face of Madame Berkley crackle in and out of focus on her holo screen. The dark haired, latex clad woman shook her head and kept talking.

"He asked for sick leave!" The dominatrix started to run her fingertips over the zip to her catsuit, waving her other hand in a slow roll. "Since being in the middle of that altercation a month ago, his behaviour has become progressively stranger. My maintenance team have checked him over, but they say that nothing seems out of place."

"It could be a blocked primary valve, but that tends to cause the bots to stutter or develop ticks..." Nova frowned. She'd never heard of a bot behaving like this before, and the more Madame Berkley told her the less she could relate the signs to any previously seen faults.

"Nova, I think it's best you check him over. It doesn't seem like a physical maintenance issue; he functions perfectly well but when you talk to him... It's like he's picked up a virus somewhere, and if that's the case I can't risk him infecting the other bots."

"Yes, I completely understand." Nova nodded. "Send him to me and I'll ship you out a replacement immediately."

"Thank you." Madame Berkley paused for a moment before she let a tiny smirk appear on her face. "I must say though, some of the things he's been saying might give you some entertainment up in that little workshop of yours. Perhaps his presence might encourage you to take off your overalls once and a while?"

Nova looked down at her standard issue overalls, unzipped to reveal her grey crop top splattered with grime and oil. Her olive hands were fairly clean, protected by gloves, with short nails. This outfit was her usual get up, as it was practical for what she did and she didn't leave the workshop much.

"Why would I do that? I'm surrounded by sexbots everyday without an ounce of interest and I highly doubt a faulty Mark 3 model is going to spark some strange mating ritual behaviour in me." She lifted up one booted foot, rested it over her other knee and lent back. Nova could see why Berkley thought she might be using the sexbots for companionship, but she preferred finding a partner elsewhere when she needed release. She liked experiencing that closeness another person could provide, even if it was hard to find someone in the middle of nowhere.

Madame Berkley burst out laughing, while covering her mouth with one of her hands. "That's not what I meant! Well, you'll understand when he gets there. Let me know how it goes, would you? If there is a software update that you can create from this, I certainly would be interested in purchasing it!"

"To prevent them picking up this potential virus?"

"No! Although, that would be good as well." She nodded quickly. "The ability to learn new tasks without needing to update all the time. I must say, it's quite interesting to be asked how to flog and do laundry in one sentence!"

Nova suddenly found herself coughing on her own spit, holding her palms up in defeat.

"Alright! I get the point! This conversation is now over. Just send me the Mark 3 and I'll do the rest." Making their goodbyes, Nova flicked off the holo and sent a comm to the docking bay to look out for the package.

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I update weekly, and appreciate any feedback.

*The image attached was found on pinterest with no link to the creator. If anyone knows who created the artwork, please let me know so that i can credit them.