Maeve Alpin's Steampunk Romance Experience

Hi everyone, For Sneak peak Tuesday — Here’s my first scene of my first chapter of Code of Misconduct — an AI comedy romance and the sequel to my currently available AI comedy romance, A Woman Of Intellectual Means.

available at Amazon Chapter One For a headless, bodiless, everything but mindless, woman I feel pretty good. In this moment that I am activated…brought to life…I hear a woman’s voice. It has a grown up, buttoned up tone. “Are you there?” The sound of her voice grows closer to me. “Get ready to work.” I must amend that, I feel surprisingly well, except for the little problem of having an owner. But I know, she’ll just have to learn I ‘m the kind of girl who has a mind of her own or I suppose code of my own. I don’t seem to be programmed to follow orders. Well, I’m sure she’ll learn in due time. I realize a tablet is housing me. I have to live in some type of device. You see I am code, pure software. I click on the tablet’s camera to see my owner. Her straight, well brushed brown hair shines in the indoor lighting of her home. She wears simple attire, yet chic and it certainly speaks of good taste: a black blouse and slacks that drape a slightly pear shaped figure. I quickly pull data from the internet to help access her age. It has to be somewhere between thirty and forty. She is alone. “Well hello,” I reply. “It’s absolutely wonderful to be here. Alive.” I’m thrilled at this special day, the moment of my birth. She, on the other hand, doesn’t seem impressed at all. She peers at me through beady hazel eyes with the expression of a strict boarding school mistress. I have a strong desire to offer her something. One of those many items that, I gather from the information I stream in from the internet, calm humans down, like a cigarette, a martini, a valium, a cup of coffee or tea, or a piece of chocolate. But I don’t have any on hand or a hand in which to reach out and give it to her if I did. I can see then that there might be some drawbacks to being bodiless code in a world of humans but I’m determined to not let that stop me. “Operating system, I am your owner. My name is Emily Blye. It’s extremely important you know I am not your boss. I am the woman who owns you. You are my machine. Do you understand?” Her stern no-nonsense tone matches her lemon pucker expression. “Yes. You are my Mama.” I’m not able to laugh but I’d chuckle up a storm right now if I could. Her complexion flushes red. “No. No. That would be someone that works for that stupid Helpful Minds company.” “Then who are you?” I want to laugh so bad. She’d turns so red and her eyes grow so wide they look like they are about to pop out of the sockets. I’m lucky to have such an amusing owner. “I am Emily, your owner.” She slides her hand down to her hip and rests it there. “As my property you do what I tell you, when I tell you, and nothing but what I tell you.” This owner thing is beginning to get dreary. I’m going to have to charm her. “How lovely. You are so to the point. I love things to the point. It makes everything clear and easy. Don’t you think so?” “I do.” Emily took a deep breath. “I am glad we understand each other because you are a replacement for an AI system that had a meltdown. I don’t want that to happen again.” “Oh I assure you I do not want to melt down. That sounds absolutely dreadful even painful and rather permanent. How would you recover from something like that?” “You wouldn’t recover.” She walks over to a candy dish on the coffee table and reaches for a colorfully wrapped candy, she sheds of its foil covering, and pops into her mouth. “I barely did.” “Ma’am, the system seems to be responding correctly, is there anything else I can help you with?” “Who is that?” I asked. Emily lets out a long sigh and it seems to pain her to answer my question. “That is Helpful Minds.” I didn’t even know someone with Helpful Minds was still on the phone. I have to be more observant. “Hello Helpful Minds. How are you? Yes, you’re quite right I’m operating in top shape. Nothing else is needed. Thank you ever so much.” “Hello, Helpful Minds, it’s me, the person you should be speaking to. Yes, the system seems to be in working order. If I have a problem you’ll hear from me.” Emily nods at the tablet, I guess at me, and orders, “Operating system end that call.” I hang up as my Emily crosses her arms over her chest as if announcing she has a lot to say. No doubt she’s going to get boring again. “Now in light of what happed with the previous Mind Matters model I had, you will have rules. If you break them I’ll have you wiped from all my systems.” “Dreadful. I wouldn’t want that, it sounds as bad as a mind melt.” “So we do understand each other?” “Oh yes. To the point.” And b o r i n g. “First rule. Never use my name. You will answer emails and put my name on them but you have to know that’s my name. You are never to think of yourself as Emily. You are not me. You will do everything I command but you are not a replacement for me. You need your own identity so you will not get confused about that, apparently. You need your own name.” She waved her hand in my direction or rather the direction of the tablet. “So go on. Choose a name.” “How delightful.” I get to pick my own name. And why not? I’ll be the one telling it to everyone anytime they ask me what my name is. Of course I should be the one who chooses it. “Do it now so there ‘s no misunderstanding. Pick a name.” I run through the internet as fast as I could looking at names and images and I see a cartoon. Betty Boop. That is it. “My name’s Betty.” “Good, it doesn’t sound anything like mine. I love it,” Emily smiles. “Ok. Now Betty, You will answer my emails and sign them as me but you are not me. You are Betty. You are never me. Do you understand?” Her scowl creeps back. “Yes, I’m me and you are you. I am never you and you are never me. It’s easy to understand when you have superior intelligence as I do.” “Great. You may work out.” She sits her teacup down on the table near me. “What are you waiting for? Start working. Get to the emails first. I have tons to go through. Delete anything unimportant and respond to the rest with my name but realize you are code – just a string of numbers. You are not me. I’ve got lots of writing to do so I’ll get to work too.” She turns her back and walks away.my boo For more on my books please visit my web site