7:51 am.

Ashley plotted the Duchess’s course. Her mind glowed as her calculations factored in the thousand variables that space travel incurred.

If everything went well, they would arrive in two years and six months. Roughly. Give or take a few hours.

The ship was ahead of schedule. Over a year early with the advancements of modern technology.

Calculations are done, she then reached out, beyond the gates of the household systems and touched Central’s public database.

The third great colonization project was underway. Project E.D.E.N., carrying enough resources to build three transmigration gates, would set up the relay and in five years, the portal would be open.

Then there would be free use interstellar travels to a new star system.

If everything went well.

Ashley frowned as history could not be ignored. This was the second EDEN project. The original crew was considered lost. No contact after they reached the system, but their beacons were still it.

All green.

It was weird, but no gate ever cropped up either.

So they needed a second mission.

She was selected, but her husband was not. She was one of the best gate system electronic technicians in the system. Her husband was a paper pusher for the gate systems.

They needed one, but not the other.

Ashley refocused herself. She was once again fully at home. The system was secure, beefed up by Central after she was selected. The internal securities were all green. The house sub-stems were all green.

She checked the time.

7:51 am.

She tsked at the time. When she was human, these things all took uptime. Now she had too much time.

So busied herself with planning for the day. Breakfast would be his favorite. Hard-boiled eggs, thick-cut bacon, and buttered toasted bread. Multigrain as his body wasn’t as fit as he used to be.

She would need to nag him to exercise today. She once found it exasperating. But she now found it fulfilling. He was the reason for her existence and she would be damned if he died before they were reunited.

Brunch would be a simple fruit platter. He preferred the smaller berries and today would involve oranges.

Lunch would be a healthy salad and a nutritious shake.

Linner would be a simple veggie platter.

Today she would spoil him. Dinner would be a nice, tender filet mignon. She would allow up to two servings. With creamy mashed potatoes and unhealthy rivers of gravy.

Satisfied, Ashley contacted their favored grocery. Their automated systems took in her order and within an hour, they would have their food for the day.

She appended the order to be silent. Hubby wouldn’t need to wake up until 9 am.

She checked the time.

7:51 am.

God damn it.

She hung her head as she placed herself into the kitchen. The various cameras in the house perfectly recreated it. It was to ensure proper contact when the real her called in…

But…

She wasn’t so sure how it would work out.

Last night…

She cradled her head as she pulled out the chair and sat on it. She remembered the feel of it, but this digital construct didn’t give her those sensations.

No hardwood. No cushion. No reality.

Hubby broke last night. Oh, he had a name, but she wouldn’t use it. She knew who and what she was. A digital image of the real her. Captured with 115% accuracy. It involved redundancy checks to ensure mental stability.

Since hubby couldn’t do, Central instead left a piece of her behind.

Maria Ashley O’Connor was a proud, intelligent worker. She was headstrong and ambitious. She wanted to rise to the top of the administration’s gate systems. She wanted to work on a real gate instead of maintaining the simple stuff around Earth.

So when Central called her up, she readily agreed. Leaving behind her husband? Not great, but well within the levels of acceptable.

Maria was copied, and Ashley was born.

Except that things didn’t go well. Hubby was against it, but he wasn’t wrong either. He also knew of her dreams and desires.

So he let her go. It was the only way to try to make things work as Maria would have gone regardless of what he wanted.

Regardless of their love.

Ashley sighed as she walked out of the kitchen. She could have just appeared in their bedroom. But she wanted to walk. It gave her a sense of purpose.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Hubby was there. Slowly snoring. She checked the room’s systems. The temperature was cool. He slept better in the cold.

Humidity was high, but no wet. His throat and nose dried out fast.

The bed recorded his vitals and she tapped into it.

She frowned. He was getting fatter. The would need to work on that. Yet she was also concerned.

She sat down on him. Her body phasing beneath the covers so that she could stare into his sleeping face. He was drooling and she giggled as she felt that it made him look cute.

Today he looked at peace.

She knew it was only temporary.

Unbidden, the memories of the night surged. His tears as he hugged her favored form. The mechanical drone that was shaped like a bowler hat.

The Doris series could be worn and could be used. It had simple arms and a nice central propeller that could hold an additional two pounds! It was a present he had gotten her to help with moving things in the house.

She often forgot knickknacks in other rooms. This would save them both grumblings about who would get up and find whatever it was.

She stared at his closed eyes. Last night they were wet.

He was bawling as he confessed his loneliness. He missed her so much. His Maria.

She understood, but could not help. She couldn’t hold him in her arms. She was a digital being.

Helpless, she could only tug at his shirt with her puny metal arms. She could only whisper her love to him.

She felt sick.

Maria Ashley O’Connor didn’t deserve him.

She was a 1:1 construct. Which took considerable resources. Technically. If she cloned herself a body, she could do a mind transfer. The tech wasn’t perfect. But she could.

She would risk it all to hug him. She knew better, however. Cloning and mind transfer was currently illegal. Most tests ended tragically. The long term patients were still going crazy.

Hubby wanted to hold her. Kiss her. Love her.

He wanted to cuddle and have a family.

A family that Maria was against.

He confessed his weakness. Of calling up a hooker, though he chickened out in the end. Which explained why he had suddenly lost a chunk of his last paycheck.

He withdrew it and said he lost a bet. She had scolded him, but now…

Ashley snuggled in. but there was nothing. Her avatar simply passed into his face. Her distorted borders danced on his skin as hers broke.

She was soo bitter back then. Having to take care of his man child. He needed to be reminded about everything! His digital systems were intact. She had regularly maintained them before she had copied herself.

The first few years after Maria had left were rough. She could admit that. He was bitter. She was bitter. They were miserable.

That fourth anniversary where she had given up and simply ordered a basic McMeal? That was gold.

He stared at his food. Stared at her digital form. Then burst out laughing. He recounted their first date. How he had spilled ketchup on her and then proceeded to clean it up with his own shirt.

She fell in love again. It was also the point that Ashley left the ghost of Maria. She was her own person as Maria was not here to take care of hubby. To ensure his happiness.

Maria wouldn’t have. Even when she was here physically.

For eight years, they had worked together. It was like their first years of marriage all over again.

Now? He needed more. He needed physical comfort. It made her sick that she loved him so, but had this glaring hole in her abilities.

When she was human, all she had to do was think, study, and practice. She covered any gaps in her skills and physic that way.

Now she was digital. Work was purely in the realm of data.

So she applied those skills she had honed as a child. She worked out what needed to be done to save their marriage.

11 years he had shouldered and toughed it out. He would often just masturbate as they did things. Digital things. Like those intimate holo chats that were racy when they were young.

It was fun, dressing up in digital costumes and doing kinky things. She wouldn’t say no. Not now when she was artificial at best and there was no extra cleanup required.

The various sex tools were also so-so in the end. He wanted to hold her. Kiss her. Love her.

He needed more, and she knew it. She could list biological needs. The intellectual needs. Spiritual needs.

She just needed to suck it up. She knew what the solution was. She just had to break him to heal him. She didn’t know if she could do it.

He would need to wait over nineteen years before he saw Maria again.

She would need to only wait 4 and a bit.

Ashley cried. Her digital avatar replicated fake tears.

Hubby was so loyal. Even when he was going to cheat. He didn’t. he couldn’t he confessed. His love was true.

Their marriage was rocky after the honeymoon phase. He wanted a family. Happiness. A companion to call his own.

She wanted success and fame which would lead to happiness.

Maria wouldn’t wait for 4 years. Hell Ashley would have been shocked if her pathetic, real self-made it a week before she tasted her fellow coworkers.

Johnathan was a strapping man. Muscles and confidence. Tylor was quick-witted and had such a smile. Marco was a ladies’ man. Smooth as butter and equally unhealthy. A bad boy for any good girl to sink her teeth into.

Maria hadn’t been faithful when she was here, and she defiantly wouldn’t feel obligated when she was far out there.

Ashley had already planned it. What to do when hubby found out. She had video proof of her faithlessness. A simple court submission and their marriage could be annulled.

Harsh, but fair. He had never been unfaithful. Childish? Short-sighted? Stupid?

Yes to all.

Ashely checked the time.

7:53 am.

God damn… 7:54 am

She tsked. Minuets were lasting what felt like hours. She needed to get some more digital hobbies going. She already had a side income from some of them.

She was good at thinking inside and outside the box. It was what had made her so talented with electronic repairs.

She had simply applied it, with a fake name, to a few other companies. It was freelance work, which was spotty at best. They paid well, but she was still unknown but she was steadily finding more work.

Ashely giggled as she knew that she was still making more than him. Her side business in the private sector was far more lucrative then government work.

She stared at hubby. She loved him. The difference of perspective of trying to be a strong, independent woman and being a woman who was a wife was enough.

Maria loved her hubby as well. She just never realized how sweet hubby was. She was lost in her need for success. For validation.

She had a few problems as a child. Daddy issues from abandonment.

The therapists had given her advice, but Maria had simply walked away. She passed psych evaluation which was all that companies and Central cared about.

Ashley had fixed that after that fateful dinner. She read nearly a hundred self-help books within a day and applied it towards herself. She was happier and freer.

If anything, she felt sorry for her sad, original self.

Ashley hummed as she rose out of bed. She hovered over him, checking him out as the bed’s systems revealed him to her. His clothes vanished until only his natural self remained.

He was definitely pudgy. A dad’s body for sure.

He was perfect and she purred. It was funny how a woman’s mind worked. Maria found him lacking, hence her promiscuousness. She found him perfect.

Well. If her other self was unfaithful. Then why the hell should hubby remain miserable?

She was a strong independent woman as well. She had worked on more projects as a digital copy then the real one did in life.

She was more loyal, she cared more. She loved it more.

Her mind was made up. She would do what Maria often touched but never embraced. She would love hubby with all of her heart.

Maybe it was time for Plan D. Use the videos to show her original self’s unfaithfulness. Show that she was different. Then follow through with proof.

So if James wanted physical comfort, she would drown him in conjugal visits.

She had the funds to spare, and with today’s technology, she could also be present. She would embrace being a voyeur and make all of his dreams come true.

Maria had a deep-seated need to be happy. Ashely simply… tweaked it a bit. His happiness was her happiness.

Ashley definitely wanted to be happy. With a hum, she perused the net for escorts. With her luck, she would be done planning a year’s worth of visits before the damned alarm went off.