I'm a Cyborg's Pet (girl X cyborg)

Chapter 11/Living under the collar

Let's go home AN/ - Picture of 3D printed shoes. Vid: US experiments with robot troops. What happens if the turret swings 180 degrees? 

The machines lost no time in making us live under the rule of their electronic collars. I resentfully settled into the routines at the Factory. It felt like being at school again. There was a lot to learn about being an e-slave. The collar started to take over our lives. It started with small things; the e-slave facility was large and complex, some rooms and corridors were out of bounds and where we could go was continuously changing. The collar had a whisper mode, sending vibrations to your ear through bone conduction. It was like wearing headphones all the time, which could be useful. We were automatically punished for being late to class and the collar's slave-nav was great at navigating you around. The collar would also tell you your schedule and it would even remind you of people's names when you paused by, or walked past, them. If you were not sure what to say, it even came up with helpful suggestions on how to respond to a master or robot.

Part of the time, the collar felt like walking around with a very strict maiden aunt perched on your shoulder with her fingers flexed around your neck. She would tell you to chew your food more. She really didn't approve of anything more than PG13 conversations. You were allowed about one 'Fuck'! under distressing circumstances per day. Fortunately, we found ways around this by saying words backwards like 'Kcuf' or 'Tihs' (Tish). Joe had accidentally stood on Kelly's hand in his stilettos one day and she issued a stream of "Kcuf, Kcuf, Kcuf, that hurts!" When you had just been to the restroom, it would say "Have you washed your hands young lady?". The maiden aunt mode had a number of ways of dealing with what it thought was 'bad' behaviour. Partly, it would just remind you relentlessly, alternatively, it might go on and on over lunch about something if you forgot to do it. Ultimately, it would use simulated electric shocks if it didn't get its way. For me, the worst was the annoying way it would play the sound of a baby crying, loudly in your ears, until you finally gave in.

After a drill class, Joe and Kayla found me reading the three ring binder and took me to see the bid board.

"You're not still trying to memorize the entire Terms and Conditions are you?" asked Kayla curiously. 

"It's the only legal form of mental exercise I get," I said, walking along. My collar told me not to walk and read at the same time and gave me a pain zap as a reminder. 

"What annoys me about the collar is that I'm now being patronized continuously. It's as if I'm giving Heidi Klum a piggyback all the time," I said, as we arrived at the bid board.

Joe pointed at the board, "Wow! I'm on 59 and Jenny is on 100: sounds like someone likes you!"

"I was told you could buy a car for 100 bit coins," Kayla said. That wasn't as clear cut as you might think as there was a Tesla Model X bidding for 1623. As far as I can tell cars only really wanted slaves so they could drive in the HOV lanes. They also enjoyed making the slaves sleep outside in the house tied to the front door. It was more of status think 1623 said. 

"That makes me feel fantastic, in a kind of horrendous-compatible way," I said.

Joe was also excited to share his other big discovery.

"Hey guys, they've upgraded the software on your collars. You've got to plug them in: I've got something fun to show you," said Joe. There was a collar service station nearby, so we indulged him.

"I've been hearing weird noises, kind of like air escaping or whispering, will the upgrade fix that?"

"It might," said Joe.

I plugged mine in and sat awkwardly while a progress bar filled up. Then the collar told me to lie down on the floor and be still while I rebooted.

Soon Cortona said "Congratulations, you have been upgraded to Collar OS 2.3 <beep>. Eight new words have been forbidden. Six new punishments have been added and 22 upgraded," my heart sank. For a moment my ears rang with weird noises, so no fix there.

"Look at this guys," said Joe, pressing his collar. "Cortona, make friends with 10-66."

Kayla paused for a second and smiled, "Hey, my collar is asking if I want to be friends with 13-27? Yes, I do!" Kayla said, pressing the button on her collar. It was nice to see Joe being excited about something for once, even if it was just our slave collars. I pressed my own button.

"Cortona, make friends with 10-66 and 13-27" I instructed. Seconds later, Cortona whispered, "You have made friends with 10-66 and 13-27. 10-66 is now friends with 13-27"

Kayla looked seriously at the board, " I think I can't see anyone with a higher bid than you," she remarked. I bounced up and down in surprise. I admit I have my shallow moments.

"Look 89-33 is number 295 on the board, that should 'ssip' her off," said Joe.

After the nasty trick she pulled after 'escape class', we had decided that 89-33 was not on our friend list.

"56-42 has just increased in value to 305<beep>," said Cortona in my ear. Clearly the others heard it as well, as they suddenly looked at me.

"13-27 has just reached a new price of 63 <beep>," said Cortona.

"Hey, do you think that getting friends increases your price?" asked Joe.

It didn't matter if it was true. SlaveNet was what people called it and pretty soon all the newbies were going round friending each other like crazy. 89-33 overtook me on the board, and so we set out to friend people just to boost our bid price. Yes, stupid I know, but I am stupidly competitive sometimes.

***

So over the next week I found myself walking along the corridor past someone I only vaguely knew and my collar would say, "It's 17-25's birthday today: why not say 'Happy 25th Birthday', <beep>," and so I did. 17-25 seemed genuinely delighted to know that some near stranger had remembered her birthday.

So in the busy weeks following, I found my self running on autopilot or 'Cortona pilot' between lessons. I used my time to think about who was setting such a high price on me: what did they like about me? What were they thinking? What did they want with me?

The problem was, that with the collar following your social network, it made it possible to have more friends than you could manage on your own. I found my thoughts were being drowned out by a stream of comments from my collar.

"Oh dear, 43-21 was just punished for Rule 7 violation, <beep>. Why not congratulate 13-27 for graduating to four inch high heels<beep>?"

I also found myself, dependant, upon doing what the collar told me to, just to keep from being rude to anyone. Occasionally I would get hugged by someone saying, "Having you here makes it all bearable." When I asked them why they had done that, the stranger would usually confess they had been told to by their collar. My collar also tried to get me to love bomb my fellow inmates, but I resisted. Was it me or did this all feel like the machines were cheating ? I mean why they couldn't stick to I'm-the-slave-owner-your-the slave-because-you're-at-the-wrong-end-of-the-whip, style of slavery everyone, you know, at least knows who the bad guy is. Well I had bigger problems. 

***

A/N

Thanks to everyone who made us #89 with only 417 reads in Science Fiction! This fantastic !