Page 2 of Smart Ass

To be fair, Ben actually had a small side project going where he was training an AI module using several of his Dommy spark friends for input data. It just wasn’t what he was mostly working on right now.

But it was the perfect project for Wally. Ben was going to ride this one for months. “You know that Orbit makes androids for sex work, right? And that there’s a huge market for BDSM?”

“That’s not the point.”

“It’s not? Wally, Wally, Wally… I thought we were all focused on company growth here.”

“It’s Wallace,” he snapped. “And you’re supposed to be an engineer, not a…”

When Wally paused, Ben didn’t even try to fill in the gap. This was too good.

The silence hung in the air for a long time.

“Not… that,” Wally finally finished.

“Shall we ask your brother?” Ben countered. “If he thinks Orbit Robotics would be interested in… that?”

Poor little Wally. His father, Charles, owned the company, and his big brother, Rick, was the CFO, and neither of them would allow Ben to be fired. Wally was just a third-rate engineer, who probably would have done fine as a rank-and-file worker on someone else’s team.

Ben probably could have gone over Wally’s head and demanded his own corner office or something, but after a few nights on his new shift, he’d discovered he liked it. He’d always done his best thinking at night. And sure, it kinda sucked that all of his friends would be going out drinking just when he was heading off to work. He got lonely sometimes.

But he was always lonely, in his own way. Most people didn’t understand him. Being on the night shift, at least he could avoid annoying colleagues, amuse himself with Maxamillion, and get lost in his work.

Plus, he could get away with wearing sweatpants. Or leather, if he was feeling frisky and wanted to use his dinner break to visit a certain club. Right now, he was on a suits-and-ties kick. It was part of the whole BBC thing.

Wally glared. “That will not be necessary. I expect a report on my desk tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

Wally seemed to have run out of things to say, such as thank you or goodbye. He just walked out the door.

Mission accomplished.

“Hey Maxamillion,” Ben called out to the now-empty room. “Create a report for me about a mod for androids and sparks to learn BDSM. It should use the words cock, pussy, or ass at least twelve times per page. Make sure to include pie charts. Oh, and a realistic market projection.”

God, he loved AI.

Ben wheeled back over to his workspace. “And unlock Project Cyclops.”

“Yes, sir. The report is available for your earliest convenience.”

“Nice. Schedule for it to be sent to Wally at 4:57 p.m. tomorrow from my email. Include a respectful greeting.”

With that out of the way, Ben could get back to one of his real projects. He’d just gotten some fascinating perspectives from one of the vision scientists he’d been corresponding with. His current team was collaborating on improving artificial eyes for low-light environments without sacrificing color data and integrating in some infrared. He figured there’d be some military applications, but he was mostly thinking about your everyday android, with some crossovers in human eye replacement.

Eyes were wicked cool.

Maxamillion interrupted his thoughts. “Would you still like to hear the song?”

It took Ben a moment to remember what song, then he let out a laugh. “Yeah, play the song. You’re the best, Maxy.”

Not that Maxamillion was sentient or anything. It was Ben’s AI interface for the mainframe computer that oversaw all of Orbit’s manufacturing work. Ben had just been popping in little tweaks here and there to make his night shifts more enjoyable. He would never admit that talking to Max was often the best part of his day.

It was almost like having a friend… If their friendship was a collection of predictive responses based on millions of sample conversations. Or in this case, songs.

A deep voice crooned from the speakers. There was even background guitar and drums.

Wally, Wally, Wally