Defective Doll

Thinking quickly, Hailey got into the box and stood motionless, donning the same blank eyed smiling face as the other dolls in the lineup. A middle aged woman in a gray pantsuit and a young female scientist soon entered the room.

"I take that this is part of the new shipment, Emily?" The woman asked the scientist.

"Absolutely, Ms. Gal!" Emily exclaimed as she donned a pair of latex gloves. "They're all ready for inspection!"

Trying hard not to blink, Hailey's eyebrow raised. So, this was Ms. Amanda Gal. Founder and C.E.O. of Gal Robotics.

"Let's get to it then." Amanda said, leaning against a concrete beam. "I don't want my costumers getting shoddy products."

With a nod, Emily walked towards the last doll in the line up and reached for the butterfly tattoo, gently touching it. Within seconds, the robot came to life as it blinked.

"Hey Cutie." It purred, "My name's Amber. Wanna play?"

Emily gently pressed the tattoo again, and the gynoid powered down. Walking over to the next one, she gently pressed the tattoo and the gynoid sprung to life.

"Hey, Baby." It purred, "My name's Alice? Want me to rock your world?"

Hailey watched as this continued on for a while. Emily would press the tattoo on the doll; the doll would be activated; the doll would call the one who activated it a pet name, say the name it was given, and basically asked any variation of the same question. Once that was done, Emily would deactivate the doll with another press of the tattoo. All the while, Ms. Gal was nodding approvingly with each test.

Finally, Emily reached Haliey's box. As she touched Hailey's tattoo, the latter squeaked and fidgeted, causing Ms. Gal and Emily to both raise an eyebrow quizzically. Not wanting to get caught, Hailey knew she had to act fast.

"Hey Stud Muffin!" She purred, using the name she usually gave Dylan when they were dating. "My name's Hailey. Wanna do the horizontal tango?"

"Is this a joke, Emily?" Ms. Gal barked, frowning at the scientist as the young woman quickly pressed Hailey's tattoo again. "This one is way off script, riddled with bugs! Hell, it's not even in the right alphabetical line!"

Hailey felt her stomach drop at that last one. It only occured to her now that all the dolls that were activated before her had names that started with "A"!

"Ms. Gal, I swear! This has never happened before!" Emily defended, "Someone from the H Unit must have put it here as a joke!"

"And the fact that it made a noise and malfunctioned slightly when you activated it?"

"Well, okay. This one might have a few glitches." Emily admitted looking over Hailey. "I'll just send it over to H Unit and ask them to fix any bugs in the code."

"'H Unit'? I want that thing sent to the incinerator!" Ms. Gal barked, causing Hailey to gulp rather loudly. "See?! It's still making noises even after you deactivated it! I'm not going to put a defective product on the market, Emily!"

"But what if we get an order from someone who wants a "Haliey'?"

"Emily, we have 528 million "Haliey"s ready to ship out and a unit making nine millon more as we speak." Ms. Gal commented, "I think we have enough. Look! It's glitching again right now!"

Emily looked over Haliey again, the woman in the box invoulintarily shivering fearfully. The young woman thought to herself before coming up with an idea.