Perfect Couples // SCI FI STORY

Four inhabitants of the Penn Hills suburb were the lucky ones selected by the New Life company to test the new line of androids manufactured by the Occinox corporation. The law passed, legalized the marketing of robots for any use, including having them as partners.

Joe Duvall, was one of the first singles to order, investing all his savings. He was almost 40 years old and had been divorced three times. He worked as a security guard at the community supermarket. Joe was impressed by the perfection of the human replica of the female robot. The synthetic skin felt like a human. Plus, the android was beautiful. They had used the face of a famous 20th century actress as a model, whose descendants sold the rights to the robot company.

The android cooked, cleaned, kept the house in order, organized the clothes, paid the bills. Joe's entire life was in the hands of the android. Joe applied for the delayed vacation and during those days, he made love to the new partner. He never said no, he was always available. She was the perfect woman. At night he would connect her to the special chargers installed in the house, to recharge her energy.

Newspapers and magazines made great stories for the four lucky ones, recounting the experience. The New Life company received thousands of orders. It was total madness. Two months later, the first 100,000 androids were sold and delivered. But there were also problems. Statistics showed that divorces were on the rise. Many families were breaking up because of the androids. Married men were placing orders and keeping the robot in another house or hiding in the offices where they worked. Religious leaders began to put pressure on the government. In addition, feminist associations, which had many influential women in their ranks, organized massive protests. The female androids were a laggard for all the progress they had made. They blamed the politicians for being sexist.

Many men who bought the female androids were attacked by the feminist organizations. Especially the more radical ones. The leadership of New Life and Occinox were concerned. They had plans to support Senator Johnson for the presidency in a couple of years. They found a solution to calm and neutralize the radical groups. They manufactured the male model. The super man. They also took the opportunity to include models with different ethnicities, so that everyone would be represented. Avoiding any kind of protest for discrimination.

Agatha Woodland, a 48-year-old widow, was Joe's neighbor. She was against robot couples. New Life gave her one of the new male models. They turned out to be a total success. They were androids who never got tired, never said no. Happiness was now shared by all. Even Agatha, she stopped protesting. She was a happy woman with her tireless robot.

Divorces were up to 90% across the country. But at the same time, the population was happy. Men and women separated, but absolutely happy with the android couples. Religious leaders were still on television declaring against what they considered an aberration, was the destruction of families. But almost everyone was convinced. New Life gave them several androids and briefcases of money to keep them quiet.

People had more free time, the robots did all the work. And they could do anything with the robots. They were the new slaves. Machines built to serve humans. Some traded the androids to sleep with them. There was no problem with jealousy. There was no danger of disease. They could even beat the androids, yell at them, insult them. Joe was a witness to that. As a supermarket guard, he watched the women accompanied by the androids. They would give the bags to the Meacanic slaves. They treated them badly. The look of satisfaction on their faces was enormous. Everyone's dreams were coming true. An android looking like a man, totally submissive.

Over 20 million androids were sold in the first year. Soon they would start manufacturing the next model, which they intended to export all over the world.

New Life had achieved the goal. Each android collected the most intimate information about each person. Data, images, videos. They were given full access to the most intimate aspects of each inhabitant. The darkest secrets would now be in the hands of New Life. The data would be used for the grand plans they had in mind. The data would allow them to be in complete control. They would be able to put presidents in place, destroy adversaries. Decide the fate of the world.

The new world order was germinating, while the population would be absorbed in a fantasy, with the androids inside the homes. Modern slaves, the enemy within, the perfect partners.