Tanya's Mistake

The firmware modification Tanya wanted to perform on her Batsman 3000 Cleaning and Personal Care robot required that she attach a cable. This meant kneeling and crawling on the floor around the inert ‘bot, but it was no hardship to do so: The floor, at least in that room, was covered with a lush carpet, a pastel lavender in color and fur-like in texture. It caressed her bare legs and tiny feet as she struggled with the connection before finally managing to snap it into place.

Standing up, she stepped over and checked the cable’s other end before sinking into the console-chair. She adjusted her top. Above the knee, her clothing was a muted green that set off the green in her eyes and put fire in the red hair braided into a pair of pigtails. The chair fit her average height well enough, unlike some of her friends who found it too large or too small. A few keystrokes brought up the diagnostic program.

She could hear her two other cleaning ‘bots working elsewhere in the house. They were the older, Batsman 2000 model that she had bought a couple of years back – one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Keeping up with the cleaning required for her large country house meant that they had to run flat out, and adding a third ‘bot would ease the load. Besides, the new model supposedly had a special unofficial feature that Tanya found… interesting.

She selected a certain item on the old-fashioned menu, and typed in the code she had acquired through back channels. Nine numbers and six letters. Nothing happened until she selected a second menu item and the ‘Easter Egg’ program opened. Now instead of the plain menu, a set of animated faces did a square-dance across the screen. Tanya re-entered the code.

A new menu, even plainer than the original, appeared. Along with a text box: “WARNING: This modification of the Batsman 3000 Cleaning and Personal Care Robot will void your warranty! OK/Cancel.” Tanya selected OK, and began to adjust settings. Settings that over-rode the “safe” defaults. Settings that would authorize the Batsman to give Tanya a special sort of personal care. She blushed and giggled as she contemplated this new standard of care, one small foot unconsciously rubbing the other. She blushed harder, hiding her freckles, when the menu asked for her bra size, followed by “Be honest, now. Are you really 34C?” Giggling, Tanya selected “Yes.”

Finished. And a last text box: “WARNING: These changes to your Batsman 3000 cannot be reversed. Are you sure you want to make them?”

“Yes” Tanya selected. The computer downloaded the new settings into the Batsman’s ‘brain’ then displayed “Ready to disconnect.” And once more Tanya had to kneel and crawl on the furry carpet, this time to disconnect the cable.

On powering up, the Batsman 3000 didn’t do anything special. It simply started routine pickup and cleaning, much like the behavior of Tanya’s two older Batsman models. She stood in the room with it, waiting for it to do something. She’d been told that it could take a while for the new settings to show themselves, but she was impatient. After five minutes, she gave up and left to get a snack in the kitchen. Behind her, the Batsman 3000 continued to vacuum, dust, and neaten the clutter of the room.

After finishing her snack, Tanya left the plate on the table and returned to where the new Batsman was cleaning. It had the same general shape as the older ‘bots, half a foot shorter than Tanya’s five-six, but much more heavily built. It’s can-shaped body walked on four short mechanical legs, and sprouted four heavy-duty arms along with a pair of lighter limbs for finer manipulation.

The Batsman appeared to ignore her until she had come within a couple of steps. Then it turned about smoothly and without warning, and attacked. Two of the main arms grabbed her ankles with a soft but unbreakable grip, and the other two did the same to her wrists. Tanya found herself set on the carpet with a swift action that was too gentle to be called a throw, and saw the two fine manipulators reach out to remove her clothing.

She squeaked in surprise and struggled, but she could not get leverage against the Batsman’s hold. She blushed and giggled at the belated realization that the Batsman’s actions were entirely in accordance with the new settings she had given it. And she blushed and giggled again as she felt her clothing being removed, leaving her wearing nothing but her panties.

Releasing her ankles, the ‘bot pulled Tanya to her feet and dragged her over to a nearby closet. Tanya’s eyes widened as she saw the new package of rope. She hadn’t thought of that when she put in the new settings, but now the Batsman’s intentions were obvious. She kicked at it, and found her ankles caught once more.

Now the Batsman released her wrists, but she couldn’t reach anything useful with her ankles hoisted into the air. She felt the rope being tied around them, binding them together. And then her large toes were tied, too. She giggled at the ‘bot’s touch as she felt her feet being rendered helpless.

Her arms came next, bound in a box-tie, wrist-to-elbow, forearms parallel behind her back, and the ropes brought across her chest to form a simple harness. She struggled a bit against her bonds and found herself quite well caught. She hadn’t expected this, but it made sense: The new settings authorized the Batsman to tickle her, and it could not effectively do so unless it first restrained her.

And now the tickling began. Lightly. All over. Tanya giggled, squirming in the ropes as the Batsman applied a duster to her naked skin. A major arm held the ropes binding her ankles, so that she could not avoid the fluff-fur ball as it ran softly over her soles, across the tops of her feet, and down her legs. “Heeheeheehee stop it hahaheeheehee letmego heeheeheehee!” she cried.

Just as Tanya expected, the Batsman ignored her pleading, moving instead to lightly run the duster over her belly and breasts. “Heeheehee oh hahahaheeheeheeeee!” The ‘bot’s new settings were such that it would not stop, would not release her, unless it heard a note of genuine desperation in her voice. This initial tickling, although amplified by Tanya’s sense of helplessness, was still too soft and gentle to make her cry for mercy as if she really meant it.

The ropes binding Tanya’s arms made another convent handle for the Batsman’s main manipulators as it held her up to duster-tickle her upper body. Down the back, over the arms held perfectly by their ropes, across the back of her neck and around to the front, the soft furry touch of the duster made its tickling way. Ears and face, Down between her breasts and over them. Along her sides and over her belly. There it concentrated for a time, while Tanya struggled futilely, unable to avoid the tickling touch. “Hee heeheeheeheehee oh please stop hahaheeheeheehee! Stop stop heehee stop!”

The Batsman continued to ignore her as it moved the duster down her legs once more. Tanya loved it. This tickling was even better than she’d imagined it would be. And now the duster reached her soles, and lingered over them, making her squirm on the furry carpet. But her cute little feet could not do more than writhe slightly, not with the Batsman holding the rope around the ankles with an unbreakable grip, and the large toes bound together with a cord. Back and forth, back and forth, the cleaning ‘bot applied a tender tickle to those vulnerable soles. “Stop heeheehaheeheehee oh stop letmego stopstop heeheehee!” Tanya giggled.

Finally the Batsman did stop, but only for a moment. Only for the brief time required to switch to a broom-like brush with long stiff bristles. “Eeeek!” Tanya squealed as this new implement swept across the petite and helpless soles of her feet. “Hahahahaheeheeheeheeee!” she giggled as the back-and-forth swish sent tickle-sensations shooting through those soles and halfway up her legs. Then the ‘bot paused, and Tanya shivered in anticipation. Three additional brushes came out, and as the initial broom made an occasional sweep over her soles, these softer-bristled brushes were applied to the rest of her skin. The Batsman held the ankle-rope with one main manipulator, the harness around her chest with a second, and that left two main and two secondary arms to wield the tickle-implements.

There was no escape. Tanya could only laugh and squirm, held in place for a tickling that was impossible to avoid. It felt wonderful. She no longer demanded a stop as the stiff-bristled brush made a sweep over her soles once every few seconds, as two softer brushes ran up her legs and over her sides hand back, and as the fourth brush – the softest of all – squiggled lightly over her belly and around her breasts. Tanya blushed and shivered and giggled madly, tickle-drunk from the sensations that the Batsman forced on her.

After a time, the tickling paused, and the Batsman released its grips on the ropes. Tanya gasped for breath. She managed to roll over, squirming on the carpet. “Will you untie me now?” she asked in a tiny voice. It had been a wonderful tickle-session, but all good things must come to an end.

The Batsman didn’t untie her, however. It set its brushes aside, and Tanya’s eyes went wide in shock as she saw the brushes exchanged for a set of four buffing wheels. “Nooo! Stop! Please! Don’t!” For the first time a note of genuine desperation entered her voice, but the Batsman ignored her cries. It began to polish her skin. All over. And it tickled diabolically. Especially on the soles of her helpless feet, which the ‘bot treated with special attention. Nor could Tanya possibly escape that attention, not with two of the ‘bot’s main arms once more holding her firmly in position by the ropes binding her. She could only squirm and laugh. “Hahahahaha no please no hahahaheeheeheeheehee stop!”

But the tickling didn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop until the Batsman’s voice-stress analyzer detected that Tanya really meant it, and unfortunately she had set that parameter far too high. She had badly underestimated just how much sincerity the Batsman need to hear, at that setting, and now she was suffering for that mistake. The tickle-buffing went on and on, impossible to avoid, her wild and useless struggles only making it worse as it forced laughter from her. She begged and pleaded and demanded, between her giggles, but her words had no effect.

Finally, the Batsman did stop. This had nothing to do with her begging and demands for a halt (which it still perceived as insincere), but rather was the result of a timer reaching its ultimate limit. The ‘bot untied Tanya, leaving her lying on the carpet as it temporarily set aside its tickling task to continue cleaning the rest of the house.

# # # #

The next morning, Tanya hooked up the cable again. Yesterday’s experience had been too much of a good thing, and so she would reset the ‘special’ program’s parameters to something a little more sane. The Easter-egg display came up with it’s dancing faces, just as before, but this time reentering the code gave only a PROGRAM PURGED message. Further checks showed the same results: Tanya could not find any sign of the tickle-program still residing in the Batsman.

“Must have erased itself when it hit the time-limit,” she told herself. “I’ll have to reload it from scratch. No hurry about it, though.” She unplugged the cable, and set the cleaning ‘bot to perform its normal chores.

As a matter of fact, Tanya was wrong three times over. The tickle-program hadn’t been purged, it didn’t need to be reloaded, and it should have been adjusted right away. But unfortunately for her, making this adjustment required entering a different code – one she didn’t know.

Exactly thirty-seven seconds later, the Batsman 3000 grabbed her ankles and began to tie them. And then it was too late. The longer the tickle-program ran, the more deeply it was burned in to the Batsman’s memory. And now Tanya’s Batsman 3000 was firmly set in the mode: Maximum Tickle.

(End)

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