BYRON LOOKED around the cabin. "Th-this is amazing. It looks so real."

"It is real." The robot lowered her arms and placed her hands on the curves of her hips. "Well, it's close enough. What's the difference? You saw The Matrix, right?"

Byron ran his hands over his chest and face. It felt completely real. He could feel every wrinkle of his clothes, and smelled a chemical scent like ozone. He could even hear a distant hum of engines in the background. "How is this possible? I mean, they're just getting virtual reality headsets going. Nobody ever said we were close to anything like this technology."

The robot giggled in such a sexy way that it made his armpits prickle with sweat. "Byron, you're sitting in a fucking spaceship with a talking robot, and you're worrying about technical specs? Shit, you gotta lighten up."

He shook his head. "Sorry, I just...nobody prepared me for this."

The robot's eyes widened. "Oh, you fall asleep during the orientation? Naughty, naughty. No wonder you're freakin' out. Okay, lemme give you the grand fucking tour."

She crooked a finger to beckon him and turned around to face away from him. Byron couldn't help glancing down at the curve of her ass as she walked out of the control room. It looked naked with rounded cheeks and a deep crack. As a buttman, he appreciated it.

He slowly got out of the chair, took a moment to get over the idea of how real it felt, and followed her.

The spaceship looked familiar, like the ships he'd seen on movies but more Star Wars than Star Trek. Outside the control room, they walked into a large gray entryway with an airlock and onwards to a corridor with curved walls.

As they walked, the robot said, "Welcome to your bitchin' spaceship. You have to give it a name, but we can deal with that later. It's a class-five frigate, has three plasma guns, and four torpedo tubes. Oh, wait. I went too far. Let me start at the beginning."

They passed out of the corridor into an even larger open space that looked like a recreational area. Couches and chairs gathered around a large screen on the wall while a counter nearby had a series of bottles mounted on the wall.

The robot walked over to the counter and took down some of the bottles. "Welcome to Venus Online, a VRMMORPG. That's a tongue twister."

She waved a finger in the air. "As you've probably guessed, it's set in space."

She began pouring the contents of the bottles into two glasses. "If you've seen Star Wars, Star Trek, that kinda shit, you know the drill. I won't bore you with all the details because you'll find out soon enough and whatever you don't know, I'll tell you. I'm your sidekick, your guide, and your first mate. I'm whatever you want me to be."

She paused to raise an eyebrow at him. "And I do mean whatever you want me to be."

The way she said "whatever" made his cock tingle a little bit. He wasn't an expert on women, but he could pick up a sexual overtone from this robot. He told himself he had to be imagining things. Besides the fact that he couldn't imagine a gorgeous woman like her being interested in him, this was also a robot standing in front of him, not a human female.

That made him think maybe he had misunderstood. "I just realized, are you another real player like me?"

Her full lips curved into a pout. "Aw, you had to go there? No, Byron, I'm exactly what I look like. I'm a robot in the game as well as real-life, sort of like an assistant to help you out here. There are a lot of NPCs in Venus. If you ever meet another player, you'll see a red star glowing over their head like you have."

That made him look up to see a small red light flickering over his head like a tiny sun. "Oh, okay."

She went back to mixing the contents of the bottles, looking like an expert bartender. "Anyway, as you can see, the game is a perfect simulation. It links directly with your brain so you don't need all the fancy goggles and shit. You can see, hear, feel, smell everything, just like real life."

He felt a surge of panic and touched his temples. Maybe his imagination kicked in, because he suddenly felt a throb. "Wait, it connects to my brain? Is it safe?"

She stopped and pressed her fingers over her cheeks. "Well, you're a beta tester, right? I guess we'll find out."

She burst into laughter a second later. "Shit, you should've seen your face. Nah, I'm just fuckin' with ya. Yeah, it's safe. Don't think of all this as a machine plugging into your brain. Think of it as a dream where they can control what happens in it. In the real world, you're asleep and will stay asleep until it's over."

Byron shook his head and began looking around the room. "Okay, this is all really cool but I think I'd like to get out and think about it for a little bit. How do I log out?"

The robot picked up the two glasses and held one out to him. "Yeah, I thought you'd need this. Drink up."

He took the glass. "What-what is it?"

"Just my little cocktail. It'll help." She took a sip.

"Look, I don't want a drink. This is kind of freaking me out. How do I quit?"

The robot shrugged. "Fine, you want the truth? You don't get to just quit, Byron."

"Wh-What?" He looked up. "Computer, end program. Computer, quit program."

"This ain't the fucking holodeck, sweetie. It's a game. And if you want out, you have to win the game."

Byron felt dizziness sweep over him. "They didn't tell me that. They just said it was a game. I can't be stuck in here. I have a job, I have a Mom and a sister. I'll starve out there or die of thirst."

She reached out to pat his cheek. Her hand felt softer than he expected. "Chill the fuck out, baby. Time works differently here. You can spend days inside the game and only a few minutes pass in the real world. The virtual reality pod also has a life-support system that will give you enough nutrients and fluids to survive for over a year. You won't die."

She turned away and took another sip. "At least, not from hunger and thirst. Now drink up. You're hurting my feelings."

The last thing he wanted was a drink, but he decided to humor her. He took a sip and burst into coughs as the liquid burned its way through his mouth and down his throat.

The robot giggled again. "Wow, you're a lightweight. You gotta learn to keep up, baby."

She put the glass down. "Okay, let's get the boring stuff out of the way. You've played RPGs before, so this won't be too much of a shock. Venus Online has three stats: strength, dexterity, and NRG. We'll get to that last one in a minute. Tap the bracelet on your wrist. It'll give you your stats."

Byron looked down and noticed the bracelet on his right wrist for the first time. He tapped it.

A menu floated in front of him.

MARINE - LEVEL 1

STR: 10

DEX: 5

NRG: 1

ARMOR: 1

HP: 100/100

CREDITS: 100

The robot pointed. "Nice, you're a marine. Badass. Okay, strength is just that. How hard you hit, how much you can pick up, also determines what weapons you can use. Dexterity is how fast you move, how quick you are, and also how sneaky you are. Also determines how good you are with machines and crafting. As you can see, your stats aren't worth shit right now, but you'll bring them up with leveling up and new gear."

She held up her finger. "NRG is a powerful substance in Venus Online. I could give you the whole spiel they give you in orientation about how it's this mysterious alien substance that enhances your body and mind and all that shit, but let's just call it magic, okay? You can use it to move things with your mind, start fires, teleport, that sorta thing. It's pretty cool. If you decide to raise that stat, we'll talk more about it. Right now, you can't use any of it."

Byron winced. "Aw, man."

"No biggie. We'll get you a neural implant, you'll be ready to roll." She clapped her hands together with a metallic clank. "I don't think I need to go into armor and health. You look like you know your way around an RPG."

"Yeah, yeah. But look, let's get back to me getting out of here. Why can't I just exit?"

She winced and twisted one toe into the floor. "Well, I can't really tell you that. You could say the company wants to get its money's worth. But it's also part of the game. There is a way out and you have to find it. But hey, maybe you'll like it so much in here that you won't wanna leave."

Byron thought about his tiny apartment, dead-end job, and lack of romance, and had to admit he didn't have much to go back to. At the same time, he didn't like the idea of being trapped in a video game. He also thought about his sister, Molly, who was a sophomore at a nearby community college. She would probably wonder about him. Then there was his mother who lived in a nursing home where he visited her every Saturday. She would miss him, wouldn't she?

Still, the robot seemed to say it would be days in the game before morning came in the real world. He'd have time to worry about it later. "Okay, so what am I supposed to do now?"

The robot spread her arms. "Whatever the fuck you wanna do, dude. You're in outer fucking space. You've got your spaceship and me, your loyal and faithful companion. We'll explore, have adventures, all that shit. So the first thing we need to do is give your spaceship a name."

That made him pause. He always hated that part of games where he had to think of a name because he could never pick the right one. "Oo, uh, okay. How about the Enterprise?"

She folded her arms. "Sorry, that name's taken. You gotta be more original, dude."

He took a deep breath, feeling a lot of pressure until he suddenly remembered the name he had given his ship on Battlefront: Deep Space. "Okay, how about the Icarus?"

SPACESHIP NAME CHANGED TO: ICARUS

She folded her arms behind her back while bowing her head in a nod. "Icarus, it is. And now I'd like you to come up with a name for me."

Byron chewed his lip as he looked over her. "You look kind of like Scarlett Johansson. How about Scarlett?"

The robot shrugged. "Sounds good to me."

ROBOT'S NAME CHANGED TO: SCARLETT

She took slow steps towards him while narrowing her eyes. "Now, let's get back to my original question. Should I call you Byron, Captain, or Master?"

He swallowed. "Uh, Captain is fine."

"Okay. But you know I'm not just here to hoist the sails and give you tutorials, right?" She reached out to run a finger down his chest. "I'm also your faithful companion, here to serve your every need. And I do mean every need."

He tried to swallow again while glancing around. "I'm, uh, not sure what you mean."

"Yes, you do." She stopped close to him, pressing her breasts up against him. They looked like solid steel but felt soft and mashed up against his chest. "As you can tell, this game was programmed by guys. Well, and a few women. But mainly guys. And they know the first thing most guys want to do with a female robot."

The text popped up on his vision again:

NEW OBJECTIVE: HAVE SEX

He took a step back. "Okay, this is gettin' kinda weird."

Scarlett dropped her arms to her sides. "What are you, gay? 'Cause if so, I can switch to a male version."

"No, I mean, I just got here. It sounds like you and this game want me to have sex with you."

"It's not just that I wanna have sex with you. You wanna have sex with me, too."

He flinched at her confidence and tried to look surprised and shocked. "What? No, I don't."

She planted her hands on her rounded hips. "Hey, I'm a robot. I can scan you and tell your heart rate is going up, your pupils are dilating, and I don't need scanners to see the blood rushing to your dick. So I know you want some o' this tits and ass. What's the problem?"

He paused a moment, considering all his objections. "Well, first of all, you're a robot."

"Yeah, with all the necessary equipment." She reached up to jiggle her boobs up and down. "On the top and the bottom."

She turned her back on him and bent over to touch her toes. A small hatch slid open between her butt cheeks, revealing a moist and pink hole that looked really inviting.

"Shit." Byron ran his hands over his face to find it moist with sweat. He couldn't believe this conversation. "Okay, look, I'm also not comfortable doing something like this with those guys out there watching."

Scarlett turned to face him again. "Captain, no one's watching. There's thousands of people logged into Venus Online. Some of them are fighting, some of them are fucking, nobody gives a shit. The company has better things to do than watch everybody. If you want, we can even block all monitoring in private mode. Just tap your bracelet and turn private mode on."

He went back to his bracelet. When the stats came up, he noticed other options on the menu bar including "Private." He tapped it.

PRIVATE MODE: ENABLED

His robot smirked. "Military-grade encryption. We can't communicate with the rest of the game while it's on, so we can't keep it on all the time, but it's good for quickies. You have total privacy. So now what's the problem?"

He took a deep breath and glanced around.

Scarlett giggled. "Look, I know you want me, and I'm not just a robot. I'm capable of feeling horny and feeling pleasure, so I want you, too."

She waved a hand in circles over her head while rolling her eyes. "So we could do the whole thing where we have this sexual tension floating around between us until we finally fall into bed. Or we could just get it over with right here, right now, and get on with saving the universe."

"Wow." He couldn't hold back a grin. "Never met a woman so aggressive before."

Scarlett reached up to stroke her breasts again. The nipples glowed pink. "Baby, you've never met any woman like me before."