What are those three up to? Kim glanced over her shoulder at the stairway, tossed off a lopsided grin, and returned her attention to her laptop. The raucous laughing, giggling, and occasional squealing had been going on for quite some time. Hope Mom gets here before much longer or my imagination is gonna run away with me.

In the corner of her eye, Dale, still passed out, shifted, mumbled something, and drooled on the carpet.

Well, if that doesn't kill the mood, I don't know what the hell would. Kim thought about heading up to her bedroom, but that would just put her closer to whatever the hell the three lovebirds were doing. She decided to compromise by moving her laptop from the coffee table to the dining room table. At least there she could sit with her back to Dale and not have to look at him.

She reread the emails she'd gotten from a variety of doctors and specialists over the past few days, still trying to get her mind around the prognosis and everyone's ideas on what to do about it. Then she flicked through the concept images again and tried to narrow the choices down a little. Several of them were so cool that she'd been having trouble settling on one.

Another burst of muffled laughter came from upstairs, followed by Corona blurting, "You fuckers!" Kim snickered and had to resist the urge to cheer them on. Any remark she made would probably put a damper on their fun and she didn't want to ruin things for them.

Well, whichever body I decide on, I gotta insist on it being anatomically correct with all the right sensors and software. At the very least, I wanna be able to rub one off every now and then.

More laughter came from upstairs and Kim grinned.

Oh, to be a fly on that wall.

The doorbell chimed and Kim switched to the tab showing the camera feed from the front porch. She found her mom standing there, powered her laptop down, hurried to the door, and opened it.

"Hey, Mom!"

"Hey, yourself. How're you doing?" They hugged and her mom latched a worried stare onto her. "Have you heard anything new from the doctors yet?"

"Just confirmations of what they already told me. They're pretty sure the 'zombification' tech they used isn't working anymore." Kim shrugged. "But at least they caught it in plenty of time. Machiko's working out a deal with someone who can get me a prosthetic body to stick my brain into. It'll be mili ..."

More giggling came from upstairs and Kim laughed softly, then laughed again at her mom's expression. She waited for it to subside before continuing.

"It'll be military-grade because the guy who owes her a few favors works for a company that does that kind of thing. I'm also talking to Hoshi and the sexbot Jack and the girls found in that abandoned motel a few months back, and they're both willing to let him take a peek 'under the hood' so I can have the same network of sensors and software they have."

"They're sure it'll work?"

"Yep. The guy ran a few cursory scans on both of them and said their hardware is the most sophisticated he's ever seen. They'll be able to replicate it and ..."

More laughter interrupted her and was followed by Corona wheezing, "Stop! I can't breathe!" Kim shook her head and giggled.

"What in the hell are they doing up there?" Her mom tossed her a lopsided grin.

"I don't know, but my brain's running wild with the possibilities."

"I bet. Anyway, is the new body gonna look like a normal human? The way you were before, or ...?"

"They can probably do that, or at least get it reasonably close, but that would be boring." Kim shrugged. "Right now, I'm kinda leaning toward one that looks like RoboCop, except female. I still wanna have a 'girl' body. Other than that, I'm not too picky. I kinda like the idea of having a robot body that actually looks like a robot body."

"RoboCop? Are you fucking kidding?"

Another high-pitched squeal came from the trio's bedroom, followed by Jack laughing and shouting, "Right there! Stick your finger right there!"

Her mom's jaw dropped, both of them exchanged a glance, and then they burst out laughing. Dale twitched, muttered something that sounded like, "Your mom's box," and snored softly. Kim held a hand up.

"Don't wake him up," she whispered. "He'll probably puke on something again."

Her mom winced and made an effort to keep her voice low. "So … RoboCop? Really? Fucking seriously?"

"As close as they can get without infringing on any trademarks, at least. With a few modifications. Like, maybe a black paint job and a glowing red optic strip like the one in the first remake. And most of the concept images I've seen of the female versions look like they have high heels. That's the first thing I told 'em to lose. Never understood how anyone ever walked in those goddamn things without killing themselves, but there's also the whole thing about women always having to wear them. I'd prefer something that looks like combat boots."

Her mom speared her with an utterly bewildered look. "Wow. Almost dying made you weird."

"You think it's weird not to like high heels?" Kim grinned.

"You know what I mean."

Kim shrugged. "If I'm gonna have to ..."

More squealing and giggling interrupted her. Jack belted out another guffaw and said, "Now we've got her all revved up! Stick it right there!"

Her mom shook her head and had to clamp her mouth shut on a sudden laugh. "I'm probably getting the completely wrong image in my head."

Kim smirked. "If the image in my head is wrong, I don't wanna be right."

"Jesus Christ. I think it might be time to go for a walk or something. Sooner or later, Otto and Shakira are gonna come home and who the hell knows what might happen once they start getting their own ideas."