FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

2593-26

The nannybot looked like what Eric expected. Deactivated, it was a cube a meter on all side. He'd received the notification of the delivery while they were walking back to the ship. He gave the delivery company when he expected to be there, and they were waiting for him. He'd acknowledged the receipt, and told Brick and Brack bring them inside. He hadn't bothered with them then. He'd had more important things to deal with.

But now he was sated and while his sons were still sleeping, it was the time to deal with this. He activated one and it expanded up close to two meters in height, openings appeared high on its sides, and hands and arms extended out, to rest at its side. For a moment it didn't move, all straight lines and sharp angles, and then the surface bubbled and expanded a little, rounding the nany's form, covering the edges, softening it. When it seemed to Eric like it was done he pressed a hand against it and it sank a centimeter into the soft covering.

"Thank you for purchasing the Automated Child Rearing Robot from Whirlinghouse Limited." It said, in a mechanized tone. "The premium manufacturer of family related equipment. Please wait while the ACRR finishes its boot-up sequence, then scans the environment."

Eric waited. The one thing that surprised him about the bot was that it didn't have a head. He'd expected there to be something for children to identify it as a person. Babies had to be able to know what people looked like, didn't they?

"Boot-up and environment scanning completed. Six child, gender male,approximate age, one year, have been detected. Please note that the ACRR model B-43-CR is not designed to handle more than three children in that age bracket. If this unit is required to handle all six children, gender male, Whilringhouse Limited cannot be held responsible if the results are not satisfactory. Please state that you acknowledge this."

"I acknowledge it."

"Thank you."

It was silent for a moment. Then it rose a centimeter off the floor, slowly spun around until it faced Eric again. This time, when it spoke, the voice was feminine, deep and stern.

"This room is wholly inadequate for the rearing of children," It told Eric.

"Excuse me?"

"There is indication the adults sleep and work in this room. That is not conductive to the proper rearing of children."

Eric quirked a smile. "I don't care what you think, this is what you're going to work with."

"Unacceptable. No adult is permitted within the children's environment outside of schedule times."

"This isn't how it's going to work here. I'm staying with my boys."

"No."

"No? Just who do you think you are to tell me how things are going to work here?"

"I am an Automated Child Rearing Robot, model number B-43-CR. I am the top of the line child rearing model, as determined by the independent research firm Olitan & Fin." By reflex Eric stared a search going for them. "If you have purchased this model it is an indication you are looking to have the most well-behaved children, as such, you will do as I express. You are to vacate this room immediately. The next approved adult and child bonding times will be five pm, ship time."

"I bought you because you were the model with the most satisfied customer, but that doesn't mean I'm going to leave my sons to your tender mercy. I'm their father, I'm going to be raising them, you're here to assist me." Something told him he should have done more research instead of just going by satisfaction rating.

He saw Terrence and Tony stir in their cribs. Hopefully they were waking on their own and hadn't been woken by that thing. "Now, if you'll excuse me, they're waking up, I have to go take care of them." He stepped around it, but it moved to block his way.

"That is unacceptable. It is this ACRR's responsibility to look after the children that have been assigned to me. You will vacate this room and settle elsewhere until called."

Eric got in its 'face'. "Listen here. I wouldn't let a living person insert himself into my kid's life, I'm certainly not going to let you do it. Now move o-"

What the fuck was he doing? He shut the damned thing down and stepped around it.

'Marc, when you have the time, come to my room.' Eric.

Tony was up an extended his arms as Eric reached him.

"Hey there, little man, you have a good nap?" He picked him up and nuzzled him. "You did, didn't you? And did you dream of running around? of driving your daddy crazy again? Yes, you did."

"Dada down." Tony said.

"Really? You don't want to stay in my arms?"

"Down. Down."

"Okay, down you go." Tony ambled to the nannybot as soon as his feet touched the floor.

"How about you, Terry?" Eric asked his son, picking him up. "Are you going to want to be put down?"

Terrence didn't say anything, but curled up and rested his head against Eric's chest.

"I see, you just wanted a more comfortable place to sleep. I'm okay with that." He checked on the others, who were still sleeping soundly.

He sat at his desk, and bought up the result for Olitan & Fin. Its head office was located within Halibury corp, but they had satellite offices within all corporations, even SolGov employed them. It said something about them they had managed to cross corporate borders. He skimmed over a few news releases, about how they were impartial, dedicated to fair reviews and tests and a bunch of other company face lifting pieces. He didn't trust them, every company released news only showed its best face.

He'd just found the comparative test result they'd done on nannybots when Marc let him know he was at the door. He set the report aside to read later and let the monkey in.

"What's up, Captain?"

"That thing's trying to take over raising my sons. I want you to reprogram it so it'll do what I tell it to."

Marc paused. "You want me to reprogram a nannybot?"

"Yes, is that too complicated for you?" Eric couldn't help snapping, and Terrence stirred for a moment, before calming down.

"No, of course not, but, doesn't that defeat the point of getting it in the first place?"

"It tried to kick me out of my room. Can you imagine what it's going to see when I have sex on my bed? I'm not going to have that thing boss me around." He stood and brought Terrence back to his crib. "I hate how those things act like they're people, machine should act like such. Why did anyone think it was a good idea to give those things a personality?"

"Hell if I know." Marc replied.

Eric went to Tucker next. He was awake and in the process of climbing his crib's wall.

"You know," Eric said, picking him up. He looked over his shoulder at Marc. "I think the clinic inserted some simian genes into Tuck. It would explain why he's climbing everywhere." Tucker climbed out of Eric's arms, then down his side. Eric winced as the small claws dug into his flesh.

"Don't look at me, I was nowhere near the clinic when you and Xav went there." The monkey's eyes were fixed on the nannybot. "Hmm, did you know it has multiple setting?"

Eric watch Tucker head of one of the deactivated nannybots. "I turned it on and it started taking over. It didn't give me time look through its files." All his sons were waking now, so he went to them and put them on the floor.

Marc smiled. "Normally you look for those before turning them on."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm a captain, not an engineer. You can't expect me to know those things."

"Sure, a ship's captain can't be expected to know something as basic as accessing the memory before turning something on. That's far too much work for someone with so many duties. I mean it's a wonder he even manages to run his own ship."

"You do realize I am your captain, right?" Eric commented, watching his children go from one nannybot to the other, licking and sniffing them. "I could fire you for a dig like that." The one that was turned off attracted the most attention, as claws could dig into that one. Tucker was already halfway up it's body.

"Come on, where are you going to find such a versatile comm office as me? And I don't just mean not many of them out there also know how to hack systems, but come on, I bottom and top, I can be rough or gentle, I don't even mind if I get tied up."

"Okay, you've convinced me to keep you around. How is it coming?"

"Just found the setting you want. Assistant mode. I was checking to make sure it did what the name implied. I haven't found where the personality modules are, so I can't remove that, but there's an option for a male mode, if you prefer."

"No, leave it female. I don't want my sons to think everyone's a guy."

Marc chuckled "Because these things look like anything resembling a person." He stepped away and the nannybot lifted a centimeter off the floor, making the children scatter. Its arm bent in unnatural ways to gently grasp Tucker, and pull him away from its body.

"Hello little one, you should not be climbing me," It said, its voice now smoother. It turned to Marc, then around to Eric. "You are the same species as the child. Are you the father?"

"I am."

"Good. How do you wish me to proceed?"

"Marc, can you see to the other nannybots?" he focus back on the bot. "I need you to supervise my sons, make sure they don't hurt themselves too badly as they run around."

"'Too badly' is a nebulous term, please clarify the parameter."

Eric smiled, this attitude he could handle. "I'm okay with them getting small bruises as part of what they do. Normal behavior for their age, such as pulling each other's fur, or gnawing is okay. Do you have a list of normal behavior?"

"I do. I am equipped with the 2595 edition of Doctor Rodriguez Marlow on child rearing."

It had been the first one Eric had read, since it had such high reviews from parents. "That works. So, anything covered in it is allowed, unless you judge the injuries might lead to bleeding, breaking bones or head injuries. Head injuries of any kind are to be prevented."

"Where are the children allowed?"

"In this room."

"Is nap time mandatory?"

"Not via inducers. They are put in their cribs around ten and then at two, they fall asleep on their own for an hour or so."

"Feeding time?

"Breakfast, lunch and dinner, they also get a snack after their morning and afternoon nap. The information is in the ANS. Can you access it?"

"I have. I will use the information provided there as a template."

"You'll have to transfer the information to the other nannybots," Eric said as he saw one of them come online.

He sat back and watched them work. Taking small protein cubes and giving them to his sons. After that they extruded small hands, bell, and bars to amuse them. When Tucker, and then Trevor climbed their body they let them go half way before grasping them and placing them on the floor. Trevor usually moved on to something else, but Tucker seemed to think it was a fun game and would go right back to climbing.

With a smile Eric went back to his managerial duties.

* * * * *

"That is inappropriate behavior," one of the Nannybots said, later that evening. Eric was in bed with Brack and Robert, he and the hyena were sixty-nining, while the mule was rimming Eric in preparation for fucking him.

Eric glared at the bot. "You're not going to tell me what I can and can't do in my own room."

"I am only thinking of the children. As per the research paper conducted by Elizabeth Dureine Fournier, exposure to sexual behavior in children can lead to maladapt-"

"Stop. I don't want to hear it," Eric snapped. He'd thought he wouldn't have to deal with that in their new modes. Was he going to have to get Marc to work on them again?

"You got information on Orr?" Brack asked.

"I do. I have a database concerning all corporations."

Eric wondered why he hadn't thought of that. "Access your database on Orr Corp."

"I have."

"Then use that as for what is sexually appropriate."

"A large portion of the information comprised in it is contrary to most accepted research on-"

"Stop. I don't care. This is an Orr ship, you're doing to use those parameters when it comes to sex. We have our own way of doing things, and it hasn't affected our kids negatively. Now go away, we're busy." He didn't wait to see what it did, he went back to sucking Robert's cock.

* * * * *

The room made Eric uncomfortable. His feet were firmly on the floor, and he wore the armband, which meant that he was in control, but no matter how often he did this, he could never stop his heart from racing.

"Just go slow, Eric." William said. "And remember to keep breathing."

Tap by slow tap, Eric lowered the gravity until it reached point five. He paused there to let his body adjust to the lowered pull. "The nannybots are doing better than I thought they would," he said to distract himself.

"That's good. They're a good investment. I guess you can store them for the next one in your family who decides to start a family."

"They're all on Earth, they won't need them, everyone is going to want to pitch in."

William nodded. "You need to tap it again, Eric."

"I know." For some reason, the halfway point was always a problem. It didn't make sense, after all, the gravity was still pulling at him in the same direction, if not as hard. It wasn't until he reached the negative numbers that he ran the risk of floating away.

"Just keep breathing, Eric. Take a hop in place, just so you can see gravity is still holding you."

Eric did so. Barely pulling any force in it, he still went up close to a meter, before coming softly down. He was panting, and reminded himself to breathe. His finger was trembling as he taped the control again, point four. Again, point three.

This was as far as he'd managed to make it for the last month. He could handle moving in this gravity without tumbling out of control, without freaking out. Last week he'd tried point two, and it hadn't gone well. He'd managed to take his first step, but the second one had sent him out of control. He'd closed his eyes and panicked.

He'd wind milled, not knowing if that was even helping, until William caught him. The wolf had tried to talk him down, but in the end William had to tap the control himself to bring the gravity back to normal. Eric had ripped the arm back off and went directly to the lounge to work out the fear by fucking someone.

"Can you hold me down?" Eric asked, his voice trembling.

"That's not how we're doing this."

"I just..."

"Look around Eric, there's nowhere for you to float away."

The tiger looked left and right, and down.

"Look up."

It took him a lot of effort to get his eyes to go up. He never looked up if he could help it, but now, knowing the gravity was shifting, it was even harder.

Eventually, he saw the metal gray of the ceiling, and his heart slowed a little. There was no sky there. Like William said, he couldn't float away.

"Go ahead," William said. "One more tap."

Swallowing, Eric taped the control. Point two.

"Good. How do you feel."

"Scared."

"Okay, where are your feet? Are you floating away?"

"On the floor. No, I'm still here."

"Then breathe Eric, remember to breathe."

"This is crazy, isn't it? Being scared of gravity?"

"From the little research I've been able to find, Phobias aren't supposed to make sense."

They'd had this conversation before, each time Eric was almost paralyzed with fear.

"Some of the old-time researchers thought it was caused by an imbalance in the brain, some defect of birth."

"I was born naturally, so that's possible."

"They would have fixed that before you were old enough to notice it. You've scanned your own brain, you've seen it's fine. Now, you need to make a decision. Where are you going?"

"I can't take a step, least time that's how I ended up out of control."

"Okay, then what do you want to do?"

"I want to leave, Will. I'm not comfortable here."

"Okay, the door's right over there."

Eric reached to tap the control.

"But leave the gravity as it is."

Eric looked at the door. Three meters. Three very long meters.

"Will, I can't do it."

"Just try, Eric. Once you've tried it, no matter how it goes, we'll stop for today."

"A month," Eric grumbled. "A month and I'm still a fucking wreck." He felt like kicking something, but that would send him out of control.

"It's going to be a slow process, you know that. You've lived with this fear for over thirty-five years. You can't expect it to vanish tomorrow unless you go for an adjustment."

"I don't have the equipment to do that on the ship, or the training. If I decide to go for it once I'm on Earth, can we end this?"

"No, I'd rather you conquer this yourself than use a machine."

"That's not what you said that first time."

"Yeah, well, I've had time to think about it. I get the sense you feel that if you use that method, it would be a failure. That you gave up on the problem, instead of beating it. I've never known you to give up on something you thought you could beat, so I want to help you continue to do that. Now, you need to do something."

Something small. Just to prove to himself the gravity was still there. He hopped in place. He'd intended it to be very small, but his legs jerked and he went at the ceiling. He stopped the emotion with a hand, but that sent him careening at an angle, spinning. He closed his eyes. He was out of control, he couldn't do anything to stop this.

"Eric, can you hear me?"

It was William. He'd said his name a few times as Eric slowly bounced off something, then something else.

"Yes," he croaked.

"Good, what's the first thing you need to do?"

"Will, stop this, please."

"I will, but first tell me what's the first thing you have to do."

It took Eric a moment to fight his way through the confusion. "Breathe."

"Yes, so breathe. Slow breath, in and out. Come on, do it with me. In," William stretched the word over a few seconds, "then out." He did the same.

Eric took one slow breath, then another and one more.

"How do you feel?"

"Scared."

"But can you think of the next thing you have to do?"

He swallowed. "I have to open my eyes."

"Why?"

"I need to be able to see what's around me to I can figure out what to do."

"Good."

Eric reminded himself he was in a closed box, as demonstrated by the walls he'd been bouncing off. There was no sky for him to vanish into. He cracked an eye open and closed it. It had all been gray. He opened it again, and the gray was coming close. He batted at it, and sent himself in another direction. He clamped his eye shut.

"Eric." There was urgency in William's voice.

"I know, Breathe."

"Actually, I'd rather you open your eyes."

Wondering why Eric chanced opening an eye. The wolf was coming at him rather quickly. Eric grabbed on to him as tightly as he could, but it didn't stop him.

"You need to do something Eric."

"I don't know what."

"First thing?"

"Breathing."

"Yes, seems to me you're doing that. Next?"

"Eyes, they're open."

"True, but looking straight at my chest isn't going to help you."

Eric furtively looked around.

"What can you tell?"

"I'm upside down, heading toward a wall."

"Okay, so what do you want to do?"

"I want to stop this."

"Okay, so how are you going to do that?"

"Damn it Will, stop it. Just stop this, I tried it."

"And you've managed to keep your head, mostly. Just try to see this through. How can you stop it?"

Eric looked around, wall, ceiling, floor, that was what past his field of vision, that and his arms.

"I can bring the gravity back to normal."

"Okay, how else?"

"I can try to grab onto something on the wall, the door's frame maybe."

"Which do you want to do?"

Eric thought about it for a moment, then brought the armband up and tapped the control. Slowly their angle changed. They bounced on the floor once, and again, then stopped moving. Eric kept tapping until gravity was normal.

Before William could say anything, Eric had ripped the wolf's shirt open and was running his hand through the fur. He kissed him hard, then reached down to rip the wolf's crotch open. Eric was already naked. He needed comfort after the stress he'd experienced, and since William was partially responsible for one, he was going to help Eric get the other.

* * * * *

"You feeling better?" William asked Eric who was lying on top of him.

"Yeah. Sex is a great stress reliever, and you have a great ass."

"You know me, always glad to be able to help. But as you can see, you managed to get through this."

Eric sighed. "Can we not do a debriefing right now?"

"Now's the perfect time. You can't run away screaming."

"I could, I just don't want to."

"Means I still get to subject you to it."

"Fine, so yeah I did."

"I know it doesn't feel like it in the moment, but so long as you remember to breathe, the rest will follow. You'll be able to look for things to use, figure out how to use them to get the situation back under control. With practice it'll get easier and eventually it'll become so natural you won't even worry about it anymore."

"Sure, like that's ever going to happen."

"We've got time. For now, how about I fuck you this time?"