Reema sat on the edge of his desk, stark naked and swinging her legs back and forth happily. Her tail was draped down over Mike's arm as he worked at her side.

She giggled as he poked at her maintenance port.

"Remind me again, does that actually tickle for real?"

She frowned at him.

"Master, I do not lie to you. Yes, it tickles."

He pursed his lips and connected the interface cable. It clicked into place with a reassuring solidity.

"I suppose it could be a protective reaction. Keeps random fingers from messing with your internal hardware."

"Maybe. But it does tickle."

Seema was online in the living area, entertaining some of her admirers in one of the virtual space the girls had set up. But Meela was behind Mike, watching the proceedings carefully.

"Master," she said, "May I watch when you access the service port?"

Mike grinned back at her.

"I was hoping you would. You can be right behind me."

His workstation wasn't really set up for multiple users. He mainly worked alone in real life, so there was never any need for the expense of an upgrade on that front. But he did at least have a second set of gear that would allow Meela to observe what was going on as if she was a floating spirit in the virtual space.

Mike rooted in a drawer and handed her the spare headgear.

"You'll be able to talk to us and see what's happening, but your movement will be limited to following what I do, and you won't have any interface options apart from the exit menu."

Yang's expensive little silver box and some delicate soldering as advised by Reema let him connect his workstation to the catgirl service port, but it had taken the better part of the morning to figure out the right combination of software that would actually talk reliably to the interface itself. With her help he had slogged through that much, and now it was time to take the first dive for real.

He realized that he was actually a bit nervous.

"Reassure me again," he said to Reema. "You're definitely sure I can't hurt you if I'm poking around in there?"

She shook her head while she leaned over to try to peek at the connector inside of her. The tips of her ears flicked Mike's nose, and he laid his hand on her thigh.

"Don't worry, Master. We couldn't really change anything important even if we tried. You will be able to set simple configuration options, that's all. Everything that really matters is locked behind current generation high density security. The customer makes all of the important choices about us before they even begin to construct us."

"Create," he said.

"Before they begin to create us," Reema said, looking directly into his eyes for a moment.

"But suppose something serious needs to be fixed? There has to be a way to get in there to your core internals."

Meela piped up behind them.

"Only with the key. The customer holds one half, and DynCorp holds the other. They really have made it so there's no way in without the customer's agreement."

Now that they were talking openly about things like this, the girls made a very careful distinction between the customer - some anonymous nobody - and their Master, who was and could only be Mike. It was sweet, but he had to wonder what level of control a man with the customer key could have over them, and how much they could be changed.

He frowned and adjusted his gear.

"Well, we're going to take a look anyway. Get ready, I'm going in."

"This is exciting," Reema said.

He activated the gear and sat back, eyes closed.

It was exactly like entering any other virtual space. His eyes opened, and he was sitting in what appeared to be a very high-end business suite. He was behind a big oak desk, in a plush chair, and Reema was on the other side in a smaller chair. The room was all dark wood panels and muted lighting. It reeked of money and power.

Whoever chose this décor had a very particular vision of where he was comfortable.

Mike didn't think they would have gotten along.

Reema smiled at him.

"Welcome inside me, Master!"

He almost made a negative remark, but then realized he was actually a guest inside of Reema, and changed tack.

"It's very impressive. Professional. But can we change the setting at all? I was hoping we could be outside."

"Anything you like, sir."

It was a voice he didn't know.

Mike turned to find a thin older man standing beside him, wearing a serious dark suit.

"You know this guy?" he said to Reema.

"It's just the guide for system settings," she said, looking a bit embarrassed. "He's not really a full AI. But he's a security layer."

"You have a name?" Mike said to the fellow.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Smith," the man said. "That is my default name at least. You can set it to whatever you like."

"Smith will do," Mike said. "How you doing Meela? You seeing this guy too?"

Meela's voice floated from over Mike's right shoulder.

"Yes Master. I have the same security layer in my configuration."

"Okay, let's see what we can do. Smith, how about you set us up in a nice sunny meadow, with flowers and trees and butterflies and so on? Plus a table, and chairs and some drinks."

"Certainly," Smith said.

Mike's vision flickered again, and they were seated at a white wicker garden table, with a big red umbrella over them. Frosty mugs of what looked like lemonade were set out on a linen tablecloth. The garden around them was beautiful and bathed in bright sunlight. Butterflies, per spec, fluttered in the bushes.

"Good work," Mike said. "Now tell me, what would I need to do in order to offload a full copy of Reema's AI networks?"

The question didn't seem to perturb Smith.

"The Owner's key is required for all maintenance functions, of course. From what I've gathered so far, that may pose a problem. However, even with the key, what you're asking for is protected DynCorp intellectual property and would not be available without a series of corporate counterkeys."

"So it's possible?"

"Well certainly. In the event of damage to your servant's hardware, such a step might be necessary for maintenance."

"And all I would need is the counterkeys?"

"Yes sir. However those are... rather confidential items. They are protected with the utmost security, at levels which make it very unlikely one could obtain them without company consent."

Mike cocked his head at the old fellow.

"From the way you're talking, I take it you understand the unique way that I became Reema's master?"

"Yes, sir."

"How do you feel about that?"

He was starting to worry about this security layer. It was a pretty reasonable place to put in some anti-theft precautions.

Smith didn't blink.

"My function is to act as a configuration and diagnostics guide for you, in relation to your servant. I have no role beyond that, nor am I qualified to make any judgments about other matters."

Reema spoke up.

"He sounds smart, but he's really just a chatbot. He can only do the things he's programmed for.

Which might be things even you don't know about, Reema.

But there was no point in upsetting her.

"Sounds good. So how do I go about changing settings?"

Smith nodded.

"You ask me for them, sir, and I will ensure that your wishes are carried out. At least those which can be performed without the owner's key, for the time being."

"Is there a list? What kinds of things can we change?"

"At this level sir, basic attitudes and behaviours. Some elementary physical changes such as eye and nail colour, voice pitch, and so on."

He looked at Reema.

"I can change your eye color?"

"If you wish, Master. I want my eyes to be whatever colour pleases you."

He looked at her and took a sip of his lemonade. The somatics were elementary, but better than he would have expected from a maintenance program.

"I don't want to change a thing," he said to her. "You're perfect the way you are. I'm just exploring."

She smiled at him.

"Thank you, Master," she said. "You can also make me more active, or less, or more sociable, or louder, or any other kind of change like that."

Smith nodded.

Mike waved his hands in the air.

"Not interested at all! So that's it? What about hardware access? I bought some pretty expensive gear to get in here and talk to you."

Smith bowed slightly.

"I am your system interface, sir. In the event that any data is to be transferred out of your servant, you may ask me for it and I will see that it is done."

Mike sighed.

"If I have the security keys for it."

"Yes sir."

"Is there any data at all which I have access to right now, without the owner's key?"

"For your convenience there is a brief owner's manual, but it is only a copy of the one which was in the shipping container in which your servant arrived."

Never even saw those.

"Well, why not?" Mike said. "Please do send that over to my workbench."

At least he could log the data transfer and see if there was anything actionable in the protocol. Not that there would be.

"Oh wait," he added. "Also, please include a comprehensive list of all system features and configuration options available to me at my current access level. And a list of all physical and data protection features of the servant."

"Yes, sir," Smith said.

He felt bad calling Reema the servant, but he wanted to be clear about what he was asking for.

He looked up at the old man again.

"Thank you for your time, Smith. You are dismissed for now."

Smith nodded briefly and disappeared.

"Master?"

"We're enjoying a little time together inside of you. I wanted some privacy."

"Should I leave, Master?" said Meela's voice.

"Not at all. I kind of like this setting, and I thought it would be nice to just enjoy being inside of Reema together for a little while."

Reema smiled and and got up to look at the flowers.

"Thank you master," she said. "Though I don't think there's very much inside of me compared to real online environments."

"I like it. I feel kind of secure in here."

Meela's voice floated through the air.

"I would like you to come visit inside of me as well, master."

"It's a deal," he said. "Your choice of the setting. I'll meet your version of Smith as well, I guess."

"Yes," she said. "He's always there. But please don't be worried about him, he's a very simple piece of software."

"I wondered about that," he said. "Any chance he has abilities you might not know about?"

Reema sat down at the table again.

"We have total control of network access," she said, frowning. "We need that to do our master's bidding. Even if he had any programming that I didn't know about, I can firewall him completely. Promise."

Mike shrugged.

"Might be smart. Just saying."

She nodded. "I'll make sure we all have him fully locked down, master."

"Good girl," Mike said. "Time for me to log out."

He opened his eyes and found Meela sitting on the floor with her head in his lap, the gear still wrapped around her face. Reema hadn't moved, but her eyes fluttered open and looked at the two of them.

Mike reached over and carefully disconnected the interface from her side, letting his fingers trail down to her soft thighs.

"Master," Meela murmured. "I can feel things happening."

He pulled the gear gently away from her face.

"For sure," he said. "I think I need to make sure that you're both still working fine after our little experiment."

Meela's head stayed put in his lap, pushing down now and then on his growing bulge.

"Okay," she said. "Should I go get Seema?"

"She's doing business, let's not bother her for now."

"She might get jealous later."

"Later is later," he said, and took Reema's hand, helping her down from the bench. Her breasts jiggled as she plopped onto the floor. She laid her tail across Mike's arm and stared down at him.

"Come on," he said. "Bedroom."

"Yes master," they both said, and let him lead them out of the room.