How to Date an Android

Chapter 12 Part B, revised

I looked down at the table with the different models.

OK, now comes the hard part.

I have to figure out what I can do with the resources I have.

Theoretically I could use the android to not only work on the shop, but also sell more services using the pretty face if it had a good appearance like any of the models I'd seen so far. But I had to be careful of not getting into debt too much. As it is pulling this off would be difficult enough as it is.

With Barbara's help, she'd sent me a bunch of information that I did qualify for a much broader and bigger grant than I'd originally thought possible through the Violent Crimes fund; that would pay for the equivalent of value of something like a modified android for my shop completely for free at no cost to me. But I couldn't get the most expensive model with it. I would only be able to have it cover an Asca or a Carinol. There might be some change left over for some upgrades for a Carinol, but that's as far as it went.

I'm not sure an Asca would be able to handle selling and bartering...some of the forums I'd looked at didn't like the idea of using them in a shop as a seller, but did say it was possible, just not easy to start up with...requiring a hugely obscne almost sky high number of training hours that seemed impossible to get through.

OK. More number crunching. But then I had to stop and see what I'd missed. It turns out there's more. Additional features cost extra. Some of them could be worked around but some of them couldn't. It wasn't like you were totally screwed if you didn't have every upgrade out there, but advantages could help some.

Things like customization of the face, hair, and build didn't cost you extra because that was considered included in the package. They did that as a selling point to make 'every android unique like a real person'.

But other things were different.

If I do strip models then I can also get a bank loan which I qualify for because of good financial history. My shop showed it was stable also as a financial winner too. Plus the violent crime fund for more than one android. With that considered I can either buy two strip model Ascas, or three strip model Carinols, or one souped up and heavily modified Carilan. In no situation whatsoever will I qualify for the cost of a Liga, which was very heart breaking.

The Liga,... they seem to be a luxury model that not many people can do. Even the rich had trouble getting them for some reason, hinted certain rumors. I guess I'd have to live with not having a Liga...

But strip models with no upgrades didn't sound as appealing in some ways, though it would be very tempting. It was the equivalent of having like two or three 20 year old girls living with me and that was hard not to think about. It meant a harder start up, which would mean more stress because I would be worried about a lot of stuff while teach an android what I needed from it in the shop.

It's also a complication that mag cars weigh a lot and having more than one android might help with moving heavier parts like engine and transmission cores. Crap...I hadn't thought about that. Because of a lot of reasons it was hard to afford and get heavy equipment with high price tags for an auto shop, but now suddenly a back door was open.

Turns out only about ten percent of households can also get funding for an android because debt and bad choices are so rampant in our society. Any kind of prison record of anyone living with someone at an address could potentially get them axed from the list with Mellifera and the German companies too. They will usually also already have a lot of other financial commitments and then miss out on being able to buy them.

So I suspect Barbara wants to make this sale work. She's followed up with me at least once per day. I let it go to video feed messaging, but finally sent her a text only message that I was still going over numbers and research to determine what's best but that I'd be in touch with her very soon.

Text only reply came back less than a minute later, "Thank you Jack. Let's talk soon. –Barbara ."

Even though people have had video feed technology for a long time, text only messages are still popular because of ease and the feeling of not wanting to commit emotionally too much to people you didn't always know and having a screen to hide behind.

Next I had to look at the upgrade options. I wasn't even sure of everything available.

Because there had been so much social unrest the Asca model looked attractive. But it would take the longest to get acquainted with my shop. The Carilan had a mod download chip also for being able to work in auto mechanic shops. There wasn't a mod chip download for Asca's to use for shops since it hadn't been worked out yet and it was assumed that they were the official android of choice for anything related to guarding or security like police and prison guard work.

Oh that's interesting. There was a mod chip download for Asca's to drive planes and hover copters however, since they needed those types of responsibilities for those models as military soldier units or military support units. That was an unexpected find and low cost for their model only, since they needed it. They also held the lowest cost for farming software mod chip downloads, though that farming soft chip was available to all four models since it was considered necessary for humans to be able to live and therefore necessary to know for caring for humans.

Carinols had obtained the nursing and medical soft chip download for the equivalent knowledge of nurse job applications however, which the others had to pay extra for.

No pilot download programs for Carinol's were available now or in the future, however. Carilan did have a download support for pilot modifications but it was like five times more expensive than the Asca model's soft chip download.

There was also no rib and skull armor mod for the Carinol available. That made me nervous. That model was looking more and more like it wouldn't be able to care for me in times of danger or distress.

The rib and skull armor mod might not be necessary, but the town going to the dogs and who could say, plus Matt trying to kill me had made me totally freaking out paranoid. The description of the ribcage armor in all models seemed to describe it like a synthetic metal ribcage in place of where bone ribcages would be on a human that had a steel belted movable webbing between the ribs, strong enough and still a slight moving system to still be able to simulate breathing like a human would but also act as a fully functioning bullet proof armor. It also seemed that most of the major systems of all models were also located in the ribcage and skull so the armor wasn't a bad upgrade. It would not however stop bullets from damaging the exterior bioskin or areas below the edge of where the armor caging ended in the lower belly.

That wasn't unexpected however. You can't win everything. There would be limits if they were putting 'stealth as a human' as their first priority.

This armor mode was a really useful idea. It could be put on the Carilan, but came for free in the Asca mod. While being an extra cost with Carilan, if I could have afforded it with a Liga then it would be a very low extra cost, since the model cost alone was very prohibitive to anyone but the filthy rich.

The customization I hadn't even gotten halfway into. This was going to be a lot of homework.