Alex and Steve were devastated.

The AI System designed to run the new home help android had crashed, again.

“Damn it!”

“It’s just too complex for the existing hardware. We’re never going to be ready for the launch, now.”

“There must be something we can do. The grant is worth millions! If we lose it…”

The pair had been working so late, they hadn’t noticed that the cleaning staff was in, tidying the building up. Then they both looked up as Mia started cleaning the corridor outside, and a wicked smile appeared on Steve’s face.

“Do you think…”

“Steve, no! We can’t!”

“It would only be until the AI was running properly. Everything else works fine. We’ve even got a spare bodyshell in the workshop, that a model walked round in to demonstrate it. All we’ve got to do is get the ‘raw materials’.

“She’d never agree to it!”

“Who said anything about asking her…?”

Steve already knew Mia fancied him; she’d jumped at a chance to help out, and keep him company, once before.

He went out and chatted with her in the corridor; then, he came back in with her unconscious body, easily carrying the diminutive Asian woman.

“I had to ‘persuade’ her…”, he said, simply.

“I’m having nothing to do with this!”, said Alex. “At the same time, I won’t call the cops on you, as long as you don’t mistreat her.”

“I’m not going to do that; I fancy her too. But she’s the only person in the building the right size, and we need her for this project to work.”

Alex went out, shaking his head sadly. “Poor woman. She’s got no idea what she’s in for…”

Steve quickly undressed Mia, then dressed her in the inside layer of the new suit. Made from neoprene, it covered Mia’s entire body except for her eyes and nose. Steve had fitted the modifications, this time, to allow for long term wear; Mia would never need to take the suit off (not that she’d be able to…).

Steve then slid the suited Mia into the legs of the bodyshell; her feet locked into place in the boots, and fittings in the shell connected to fittings in the suit. Steve checked they were aligned correctly; Mia moaned as his hand went between her legs…

He next fitted the arms with their inbuilt gloves. Mia was looking more and more like a robot.

Fitting the torso shell locked the arms and legs onto Mia. There was also an inbuilt collar, waiting for the hood.

Steve removed a small panel at the back of Mia’s head in the neoprene suit and put it to one side. He then shaved off all of Mia’s hair underneath it.

This next part was the most delicate. If he made a slip, Mia could be paralysed for life, or worse…

Using a handheld scanner, he located the section of the brain he was looking for, then he very delicately drilled a few holes in the skull…

Still watching the scanner, he placed the electrodes. Wires were then plugged into a tiny box, that fitted into a slot in the rear half of the helmet. This was Mia’s new ‘control unit’. The lab computer now had complete motor control over Mia. Steve also fitted earbuds into Mia’s ears, to feed her instructions and communicate with her.

Mia herself was still unconscious as the computer made her sit up, hands resting on her knees.

Mia’s eyes had just started to open, with her moaning faintly into the gag built into her suit, as Steve fitted the faceplate, sealing her away…

Mia was terrified. She recognised where she was; she was in the main lab. However, she couldn’t move a muscle. She tried to cry out, but nothing happened except for a faint moan. Suddenly, she moved, but not under her control. She swung her legs off of the cot and stood up, then walked over to Steve and stopped in front of him.

“Hello, Mia”, said Steve. He was talking into his phone, and she could hear it through the earbuds in her ears. “I’m sorry, but I need your help. We’ve had to do this, as the appropriations meeting is today, and the home help android needs to be seen working. You’re the only one in the company that would fit into the prototype mock-up suit. The real one is still weeks away from completion.”

“I need you to be the android; just for today. After all this is over, I’ll let you go. The only drawback will be the patch of hair that’s now missing, and I’ve got something to go over that. I’ve had to connect you up to the computer because your movements need to look engineered, not natural; also, you can’t speak at the moment because the android has no speech circuit, so you can’t speak either. I’m so sorry, but I’m desperate. We need the grant.”

Mia was furious. If Steve had asked, she might have volunteered. However, he’d done all this behind her back, and now she was sealed in this damn suit! She fought to move, yell, slap him, do anything. All she could do, though, was stand there until ordered to do something else.

The lab computer instructed her to tidy the workshop; she got on with her work. The inbuilt visor showed her areas that needed special care, as well as warning her when some items couldn’t be handled without special tools. She would have burned her hands, or worse, if the suit hadn’t stopped her.

To her surprise, the suit let her have frequent breaks; it realised that she was getting used to the suit and tiring easily. It also fed her liquid food and drink from a backpack that Steve had strapped onto her.

She looked just like an astronaut in a space suit; that was what people saw when they met her at the reception for the grants committee later.

Alex had refused to attend; he was disgusted by the way Steve was treating Mia. Apart from her loss of freedom, though, Mia didn’t feel that she was being mistreated. She was finding it strangely relaxing, handing control over to the computer. It was almost as if the computer was caring for her.

Steve was also extremely protective of her; one of the execs was abusing and heckling her, saying she was a gimmick. He even started pushing her breasts, saying she’d make a good sex toy…

Steve took him to one side, discreetly, then kneed him in the nuts as hard as he could manage.

“Disrespect my work again”, he said, “and we will have a real problem…”

Mia had seen everything, as well as having had to put up with the exec’s advances without being able to respond.

Steve came back to her.

“I’m so sorry about that”, he said. “Do you want me to add a defence protocol on the computer, so you can fight off these idiots?”

He handed his phone to her, so she could type a reply.

“No thanks”, she typed. “I’ve got you.”

A tear ran down Steve’s cheek.

“I’ve betrayed you! I’ve let you down. Oh God, I’m sorry…”

He turned, and Mia turned to follow him automatically.

“I’m taking you back to the lab and undoing this. Hang the damn grant, it’s not worth torturing you for.”

He hadn’t realised that Mia was still holding his phone until she suddenly stopped, and turned back toward the hall…

“Mia? Mia!”

Steve raced back to her.

“I thought I’d programmed you to follow me back to the lab…”

“I overrode it”, Mia typed. “You need this grant…”

Steve had never loved Mia more than he did then.

“I can’t ask you to do this!”, he cried.

“You’ve come this far”, Mia typed. “Don’t quit on me now…”

Mia was now in complete control of her suit, but she still allowed the computer to affect the movement to make it look artificial.

For the demonstration, she handed control over to the computer completely, preferring to ‘sit back and watch’ like the guests.

It was then that she saw Alex in the back of the hall. He was holding a gun…

“Maniacs like you need to be stopped!”, Alex cried, raising the gun.

Before he could fire, Mia threw herself in front of Steve. Her inhumanly fast reflexes allowed her to catch the bullet before it did any damage, apart from denting her palm.

She then stormed up to Alex and slapped him, knocking him out.

Steve was on his knees, in shock.

What the hell had just happened?

He heard the thud of Mia’s boots as she came racing back to him.

She knelt down and checked him all over.

“Are you ok?”, she typed, helping him to his feet.

“I can’t believe he just tried to kill me”, he said. “You saved me…”

“I always will”, typed Mia, hugging him gently.

Unfortunately, by now, people were realising there was something more to Mia than was being let on.

Before anyone said anything, though, a figure stood up in the audience.

“Had you ever considered the military aspects of your project?”

“No”, Steve said, simply. “And I won’t be, either. This was only a special set of circumstances.”

“She’d make an amazing bodyguard, if nothing else”, the man continued. “Come on, Dr. Hudson; it’s obvious that she’s at least 50% organic, if not more. Those reflexes, though, are incredible. To be able to actually pluck a bullet from the air…”

“I’d love the chance to serve again”, came a voice from the back of the room, surprising everyone.

Major Peter Francis came forward, in his wheelchair. He was a war hero; he’d saved countless lives in his last mission, but it had been at the cost of his legs.

“Would your system let me walk again?”

Steve started thinking furiously.

He suddenly realised there was a metal arm round him, cuddling him.

He looked into Mia’s visor. She just nodded and nuzzled him with her helmet.

“I can damn well try”, he said. “Only drawback; we’ve only got female body shells at the moment…”

“I don’t give a shit if it lets me serve again”, said Peter…

Peter had lost his legs above the knees; this meant there was room for the servos and electronics for the android’s legs. Steve had already proved he could wire into the brain’s motor areas; it was surprisingly simple (to him) to be able to link Peter’s brain to the new legs.

“To start with, I’m only going to give you the bottom half of the suit”, he said. “This will help you to learn to walk again.”

“Damn, I was looking forward to getting a set of breasts”, Peter said, with a giggle…

In front of Peter, Steve removed Mia’s visor.

“Meet Mia”, he said, simply. “She’s made this possible for you.”

“Thank you, Mia, for everything”, Peter said. “You’ve given me a second chance at life.”

Mia giggled, happy. Steve then took her to one side and went to remove her suit.

Mia slapped his hand away.

Steve tried again, Mia did the same.

“All I want you to do is modify the suit so I can speak”, she typed. “Apart from that, I’m quite happy in here. I love my ‘superpowers’. I also love being your property…!”

Mia snuggled up against Steve…

Steve gave Mia an electronic voice, that sounded similar to her original one. She loved it. She then got him to fit her visor back on.

“The only place I won’t wear it is in bed…”, she said. “Darling.”

Peter was able to return to duty a few weeks later, however ‘he’ was now Major Petra Francis. ‘She’ also never came out of her suit; by that time, the computer had been miniaturised enough that it fitted into a collar round her neck. She loved running again; she could hit 60mph without breaking a sweat.

She also loved the protection that she suit gave her, calling it her ‘armour’. She went on to serve her country for many years.

The military were grateful. Very grateful. Steve was never short for money again and neither was his institution where he worked. What he asked for, he got. What he wanted most, though, was Mia.

He got that as well…