Lauren felt embarrassed with getting off the phone with tech support and found out by leaving the Doll in standby mode. Even though she didn’t like using the Doll, it would’ve been nice to go home during her down time. There was almost nothing to do in this small makeshift apartment and they likely expected her to use the Doll to leave as well. The good news was they’d be able to log out of the system for her, the bad news is it was going to take a week. She didn’t know what she would do during that time.



It was too late to call Ben, or too early so Lauren decided she’d wait until after she slept and when Ben had finished work. In the meantime she unpacked the necessities from her suitcase and settled down for the evening. All she could do was watch TV for now and someone brought her a meal to eat. Thankfully she found out this small room was only temporary and that she would be leaving to another facility in the morning.



The pod Lauren slept in was quite cozy and she slept well enough. Though her dreams were wild to the point she wished she didn’t sleep. She dreamt of being a toy doll. She was able to move a little bit but her joints were stiff. She looked like the Doll she had been piloting but was made out of plastic over the synthflesh. She was set up in a dollhouse in her room where Ben keenly played with her. Though when she wasn’t looking her boss had broken into the house and stole her away.



Lauren woke up in a cold sweat, remembering the vivid dream clearly. She figured that it came from using the Doll and work sending her to Japan. Still she wondered why Ben was the one playing with her. She wouldn’t have taken him as the sort to play with dolls. She had to remind herself it was a stupid dream. Thinking about Ben and dolls she was reminded to call him and let him know what was going on.



When Lauren broke the news to Ben about not being able to use the Doll, she got a funny feeling. He teased her about not being able to use it and he even seemed happy she couldn’t. It was like he was hiding something, especially when she brought up the idea of him using it. A part of her wondered if he had done exactly that, even though it shouldn’t be possible.



The idea that she wasn’t able to use the Doll was confusing to her as well. Wasn’t the whole point of going into standby so you could do things as yourself and leave the Doll idle why you did so? What if you had to go work to home and they both had chairs, wouldn’t you want to be able to switch activation points? Though the technology was still experimental. She’d add that to the report when she could.



Lauren got dressed and freshened herself up in the bathroom as she wanted for someone to collect her. She waited longer than what she would’ve liked before an assistant came to escort her down to a car. She wasn’t sure where she was going and nothing had been explained to her yet as she was driven out of Tokyo to another town she didn’t know the name of. She arrived at another one of her company’s properties, this one had actual residence and she was given a small apartment to stay in. After leaving her suitcase and belongings, including her phone, behind, she was escorted by a security officer and the assistant to one of the large warehouses.

Before Lauren could enter the building, she had to put on personal protective equipment and go through three layers of security. She was escorted through the building, walking by rooms where Dolls were being assembled to various degrees. Each one was hand made by a group of three to four engineers. Lauren was then taken to an elevator and the security officer stepped back, this being as far as he was allowed to go. The assistant swiped her key card, said her ID number, which surprised Lauren as she wasn’t a 3 and was actually a 0. The young Japanese woman turned and gave her a smile after saying her number.



The executive and Lauren made their way down to R&D in the deepest floor of the building. They were buzzed through security and walked past multiple labs with open windows. Inside each lab, Lauren saw different parts of Dolls in each room all being worked on and tested extensively by people in lab coats and face masks.



The executive stopped and bowed at an older balding gentleman, with thick glasses. Despite his age and stature compared to the shorter woman, he made sure to bow lower. They then spoke in Japanese, first in greetings before Lauren became the subject of their discussions. Lauren had no idea what they were saying or why she was even here. The old man nodded as the executive left the two of them alone.



“Ah DLS-9,” he examined Lauren, looking past the person and focused on her body. “A fine specimen, though I see you’ve changed your hair since.”



“I’m sorry?” Lauren tilted her head. “I’m Lauren Smith, ID299935.”



“Right… right… I’m 400001,” the man replied, giving no further information. “I understand you had issues with your Doll, DLS-9?” He ignored her number and used the one he had given.



“I can explain, I accidentally left it in standby mode…” Lauren began to apologize.



“No, no, not that. You mentioned your skin being blemish free, your eyesight perfect” the man explained. “I would consider these to be perfect, yet given your report it would appear you do not.”



“Ah…” Lauren was trying to process what was going on. She wondered if this was the reason why she was here and if so, there had been a huge misunderstanding of her role in Japan. “I’m sure your Dolls are perfect,” Lauren began praising his work. “It’s just ah.. When you’re behind the wheel as it were, and it’s supposed to be your body, perfect doesn’t feel right.”



“I see, you’re not the first one to say such things,” the man acknowledged her criticism of his life’s work. “Out of the ten units, seven out ten have had similar feelings to various degrees.” He eyed her off again. “I acknowledge that my Dolls weren’t human enough but even before your feedback we have been working around the clock trialing new techniques and making cutting edge developments in bioengineering.”



The man opened the nearest lab door and motioned for Lauren to follow her inside. In the room there were several patches of skin, about arm's length. Each patch was a different shade and had hair at various lengths.



“Go on touch it,” the man told Lauren as he motioned to one of the skins.



“It feels so real…” Lauren complimented.



The man smiled and nodded as he led Lauren into another room. This one also had patches of skin, with freckles, moles, scars, stretch marks, acne, and other blemishes.



“These look real,” Lauren said as she examined them further, seeing the lack of hair. “Though they are hairless”



“We’re currently experimenting with blemishes and hair, once a Doll is ordered then we will combine the two.”



The man escorted Lauren down to another part of the floor, handing her off to a couple of older women. He didn’t explain what was going on as he left Lauren with them.



Lauren followed the two women to a dressing room, similar to what you might find in a doctor’s office. They gave her a gown, slippers and three patches, two circular and one oval shape. They then sent Lauren inside to get dressed.



“I’m sorry, what am I supposed to be doing?” Lauren questioned, hoping that the women were still outside and could speak English.



“Get undressed,” one of the women stated.



Lauren felt uncomfortable but complied, removing all but her underwear as she put the gown on to cover up. She still wasn’t quite sure what the patches were for though.



“No, no…” the other woman complained. “Fully, no clothes.” She then pointed to the patches and clasped her breast and crotch.



Lauren was mortified at the instructions, she wasn’t expecting to need to strip down completely. “You want me to get naked?” Lauren confirmed. “Why?”



The two women looked annoyed as they spoke in Japanese to each other then turned back to Lauren. “For your scan,” one of them said.



That’s when Lauren realized what she was in Japan for. She foolishly thought it was for her sales skills, but it turned out they sent her to the manufacturing plant so they could make a new, more realistic Doll of her. She thought about refusing then and there but she didn’t know what would happen if she did. She was in Japan on the company’s dime and people had been fired for less, they could have stranded her here if they wanted to and have her pay for her own way home.



Reluctant, Lauren took off her underwear and opened the patches, sticking one to each nipple and one on her crotch. She quickly put her gown back on and sheepishly followed the women to the scanner. Fortunately the techs in the lab were all women, but it still made her uncomfortable as the gown was taken away from her, leaving her basically naked. What’s worse is she had to stand there for half an hour as she was scanned from head to toe, with her arms at her side.



After the mortifying experience, Lauren was able to return to the small apartment she had been given. She fell down on the bed, stressed out about the position she had found herself in, knowing her NDA wouldn’t allow her to say anything to Ben. Still she wanted to hear his voice.



For the next week, Lauren was treated more like a lab rat than human. Everything about her was thoroughly tested. Her hearing and eyesight were tested again and again until the techs were happy. She had been linked to a detached head, fortunately with mental suppressants like miners got. And had to test her artificial voice box constantly until it sounded right to her and to the techs listening to it. The only thing enjoyable for the week was when she was put on a treadmill, testing her heart rate and breathing.



By the end of the week, Lauren was physically and mentally exhausted. Every call she made to Ben was cut short but a new test so she couldn’t speak to him as much as she’d like. He sounded miserable without her, like she was with him. She wasn’t sure if she could last an extra three weeks and told him that coming here was a mistake. The money didn’t even seem worth it anymore.



On Saturday morning she finally got some good news. The technicians had fixed the Doll and so it was ready for her to use again. She was escorted to the lab, where they kept brand new neurochairs, ones with IV drips and all sorts. The last bit of bad news Lauren was told was that they wanted her to test this and so she was expected to remain as the doll for the entire weekend. Lauren lost all energy to care, as she longed for the comfort of home and her husband.



“Lauren Smith, ID299935A,” she had been given an instruction to add the letter to her code for some reason. “Activate”



The intercontinental transfer took longer than Lauren expected as she was slowly eased into the Doll. She stood still motionless as her senses returned to her.



“Lauren Smith” she heard Ben’s voice. She opened her eyes and saw him on the neurochair. “ID299935…”



“Ben?!” Lauren was happy to see him again but wanted to know what he was doing in her office on the neurochair, using her name.



“Laura..n” Ben came to attention and took off the neurolink. The way he said her name was odd, a part of her wanted to smile when it sounded like he was about to say Laura…



“I was just making sure the new security system worked on my end. Sorry for coming into your office.” He apologized with an excuse she knew was bullshit. But why did it make her happy that he was planning to see if he could use the doll?



Lauran smiled at Ben, feeling happy to be back and relaxed her guard. “It’s so good to see you,” she stumbled off the charging station and gave Ben a hug. She felt so much love for him, happy to see him after the long week and excited that he was awake.



“I missed you too,” Ben returned Laurans’s hug meant for the both of them. If she had tear ducts, she’d cry; she was home.