A/N Photo had messages asking what a hobble skirt from the previous chapters was.

Please forgive the spellings/grammar - we are following the just write it mantra!

The next morning I felt terrible. Waking up with an Oblivion hangover feels like someone has driven over you in a dump truck full of needles and pin. Reversed back trying to make sure your road kill, then dumping the needles and pins on you.

My body hurt and now didn't feel good about it. My head felt someone had left my skull in the wash and it had shrunk. Finally and worst of all I felt trapped without the possibility of escape. It was as if hope had packed up its bags in disgust, thrown the house keys at me and said it was going to stay with its mother for like, ever. Added to that I felt that ring of burning on my spine where he had thingyed me again. I thought, the coal bag only thingyed you once? I felt like one of those toys where the battery has run down but if you nudge it there is still has enough power to rattle for a few seconds before finally slowing until still again. It was hard to tell what was champagne, what was thingying and what was my temporary perfume addiction. I woke up my mouth was as dry as the embers of a hundred burnt love letters. I craved obedience, not good.

Against all that, I had woken up in his arms and it made me feel like I had armour against the world's worst problems. The fact I felt safe with him was possibly the most disturbing aspect of all. I was sleeping with a shark who was waiting for a sign of caring for him like blood. One small cut of affection and the feeding frenzy would begin. He rolled over and smiled.

"What are you thinking about?" he said his body next to mine.

"It's complicated. I was wondering about the best way to kill you in your sleep." I lied. "What are you thinking about?"

"It's complicated is that your third question?" he said.

"No," I said smiling.

"OK, I'll tell you anyway, for free. I was just thinking about the debate they are currently having in the robot house of Congress. They've come back to the issue of what language all slaves should speak. They narrowed it down to 6 options."

"Which are?"

"Well at number 6 there is some kind of purpose-built language which the machines would invent. That didn't work well last time" he said.

"Why not?"

"They wanted everyone to talk in a kind of audio binary. It was like ba ba da ba da da they couldn't get slaves to speak the simplest phrases. Even took five minutes to say yes master" he smirked.

"OK so not some machine invented language, "I said.

"5 Sign language. Turns out it's less universal than most spoken languages, they could pick one. The robots didn't like the idea of a slave not being able to say yes master when carrying something. Also too poetic. Not enough subservient words. They did like all the word signs the deaf have for the non-deaf people like 'those hearing b*****ds' and this one" said Rockwood moving his hands.

"Which means?"

"Music loving, patronising, b*m ******ing condescending hearing c******s who think they are so clever simply because they can listen to Barry Manilow" he said.

I laughed, covering my mouth for some reason and getting a whiff if my own lavender scented breath.

"You're supposed to say LOL" said Rockwood.

"People don't say LOL" I said

"It's the Algorithmic age people say LOL," he said. Obviously thingying me put him a good mood, the sooner I became 50% armadillo the better.

They tried inventing their own version good gestures though like this" he said wiggling his fingers past his eyes.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"Pasteurised milk, As in past-your-eyes milk"

"painful,"I said

"Well next in order of robot popularity was number 4 Klingon"

"Klingon as in the fictional language of Star Trek?" I said.

"Aye that's right. Apparently, the guy who invented it wanted all the sounds which American's find hard to pronounce in other languages. So it got thumbs up for really irritating the Americans."

"Too nerdy," I said.

"At number 3 Spanish. A nice link with the Romans they built a strong long-lived empire on slaves. The New Mechanical Order as Rome 2.0 the Romans built a lot of amazing things which lived on during the dark ages" Rockwood said.

"Monuments like Hadrian's wall, All built on the backs of forgotten slaves. So Spanish at a pinch" I said.

"At number 2 was Mandarin. Mostly because it's the hardest for westerners to learn"

"hmm. Not convinced" I continued.

"and number one. That language in which all the classics of our time were written..." started Rockwood.

"I think I can guess this one, mostly because you haven't mentioned it yet," I said.

"You're not supposed to interrupt me," said Rockwood.

"I'm so the most shoddy slave of all time. Master, Overload, Sir, 01010011 01101001 01110010" I said ending in binary my collar translated.

"Siv? you mean 01010011 01101001 01110110" corrected Rockwood "any way the number one language which the robot council voted was...."

I waited, holding my breath. English it had to be English.

" COBOL" he said.

"COBOL?"

I googled 'Cobol' on my collar. I discovered it was a programming language invented in the 1960s as an English like language meant for programming accounting systems. Trust the machines to want to talk to us using it.

"Where did English come in?" I asked.

"89th, I think. Some people speak it, but it's a rubbish language. The spelling is all wrong too, I mean, 'saw', 'saw', 'sore' and 'soar' four different meanings and three different spellings. Better to start with a clean slate. A huge A.I in Europe is computing a new language. It's noticed humans have large numbers of short words for things you care about. Did you know the way the Eskimos have 50 words for snow* and Americans had 190 words for genitals? So they have created hundreds of words for master or mistress. Like Athelue, meaning 'Dear owner' and 'Ceyalisu' meaning 'dearly loved supreme being who I want to serve body and soul for the rest of my existence, the one thing which completes me and who by devoting myself to makes sense of my life'... Hey good news the new language of the slaves has gone into beta test."

"Are we going to be forced to learn it anytime soon?" I said.

"Are we going to be forced to learn it anytime soon? Athelue" said Master.

"Are .we . going. to. be. forced. to. learn. it. anytime. soon? Athelue" I said rather dull and mechanically showing my dislike for it already.

"No - changes which affect humans can't become new mechanical order law without a general vote from both the cyborg and human councils.The A.Is are just trying to figure out what they want. Hey they've invented a huge number of insulting and demeaning words for slaves, like Judaka meaning flaccid meaningless skin flaps, do you feel demeaned by that?"

"Not enough," I said.

"Not enough, ceyalisu" he said.

"I don't think I will be calling you 'ceyalisu' anytime soon," I said.

"Say-ay-ee-soo" Rockwood corrected. One day you will and I'll make sure you'll mean it" he said.

'Just about the time hell installs central heating to take the chill off the place' I thought.

"That's handy version 1.1 of the beta test has come out with handy words like Tnetennba. Now you can say Good morning that's a nice Tnetennba. Such a time saver!" said Rockwood mysteriously.

The piano and stool wheeled itself into the room. I got the hint.

Master got up and so did I. I went into player piano mode while he got dressed and had breakfast. I was getting better my fingers felt less like someone had ironed them when I finished.

"Have a dreadful day managing the human population. I hope to see your holes they shot in you when you come back. Don't forget you deserve everything" I told him as I left.

"Well you have some important visitors today so be nice to them," Rockwood said leaving.

My collar told me to get dressed properly and after a few reminder shocks, I stood in the dressing station. I came out in a completely white slave catsuit. I looked around, the room was completely white. Did he expect me to do an impression for a statue for a hobby?

"Wonderful - I'm now completely camouflaged. If anyone comes they won't know I'm here" I said to #6502 who nodded.

She approached me and whispered in my ear. "#160A How you felt last night, we can help you feel that again. We can teach you how to unburden you. Release your inner hierodule, feel like that again, all without the need of cheap perfume. We are always waiting for you there is always space for you with Adherance"

I don't know how much they understood of our contract but that would definitely terminate my internship with him.

Smiled "My name is Jenny Banks, I'm a student at Caltech, I'm late for class" I said. I braced myself and took the wasp string house PRISM system give me as punishment for speaking my name.

"OW!" I said as it struck.

I was determined not to show myself weak, mostly because if she asked me again I felt I might not be able to resist. I could hear obedience calling me.

I spent some time wondering who was coming. There was a warning on my collar.

"You must kneel quickly for your visitor" my collar said.

"All hail our glorious mechanical overlords." I said. rushing to kneel and look at the floor. My eyes looked at two pairs of very shiny high heeled shoes.

****



A/N Who are our mysterious visitors? Join us on Friday for the next thrilling episode of 'I'm a cyborg's pet'

*The idea that Eskimos have 50 words for snow is a myth spread in the 1940's by Franz Boas. Rockwood is naturally aware of all this and is using it in its colloquial meaning.