Tobias will get some work done, S4M-ARA too.

Tobias spent the rest of the day attending to his duties as a janitor - sweeping, repairing, tidying. If anything, though, he found that the repairs seemed more easily done and yet more engaging, all the while reminding him of S4M-ARA. It was a weird experience seeing a wrench and feeling a throb of lust run through him as it elicited the mental images of the gynoid's smooth metal cheeks, or repairing the silicone joints between some tiles and feeling his lips tingle thinking of the hungry kisses Tobias and S4M-ARA shared. But still, Tobias liked where his life was headed at the moment.

At the same time, the IT systems of the hospital logged a series of accesses and edits not allocatable to any of the staff.

"Now, S4M-ARA, I assume you know why I have called you here?" Dr Hollands sat behind the desk in her office, fixing the sexbot across from her with a calculating look.

"Affirmative, Dr Hollands." S4M-ARA affected a curt, robotic nod, making the cables that served as her hair bob back and forth, the rest of her body unmoving under her hospital gown. "This is about this unit's edits, changes and improvements to the hospital's processes, allocation of resources, and IT systems. This unit trusts you will find that overall efficiency is up 12%, expenditure down 8%, and your systems run smoother now, which leads to power savings between 4 and 7.3%."

"S4M-ARA, I appreciate your trying to help," Dr Hollands replied as she pushed up her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. "And I'm sure that your figures will prove to be correct. But I am just as sure that you will see the sense in going through the appropriate channels. All of our SOPs have been tried and tested over the years, so please, do by all means, hm, compute these kinds of changes, but hand them in via the appropriate channels."

"This unit does understand, Dr Hollands. You, on the other hand, need to understand the reason this unit computed the necessity for these changes." S4M-ARA returned Dr Hollands' look with the unblinking steadiness of the machine. "Projected developments of the epidemic require a hospital running at maximum efficiency. Over the course of last night, this unit had to update her calculations twice - the number of new admittances to the isolation ward keeps rising by 5.3% per hour as per this unit's most current... Please hold. New data received. Calculating... number of new admittances now rising by 6.9%."

"Hm." Raising an eyebrow, Dr Hollands turned to the computer screen to her left, clicking and scrolling for a short while. "I see, several new patients arrived, so..."

"At the current rate, the wing currently designated as isolation ward will reach maximum capacity in 5.3 days, even factoring in overbooking, which this unit does not recommend."

"I... yes, I get that, but..." Dr Hollands took a deep breath and settled back in her desk chair, closing her eyes for a few seconds before opening them again to look at S4M-ARA. "Okay. What you're saying is, we're going to get overwhelmed. What do you propose we do?"

"This unit has, under consideration of the hippocratic oath you and your colleagues took - which precludes simply letting the 'epidemic' run its course - devised the most logically sound approach." Vocoding in her usual robotic calmness, S4M-ARA began to explain. "Since isolation has been breached extensively tonight, the entire hospital will need to be designated as an isolation zone. Non-critical cases should be treated as outpatients, critical cases redirected to smaller hospitals and other qualified locations throughout the city. As Bay Cove Central is the largest hospital and this unit's calculations predict extensive spread of the heteromorphic 'epidemic', it is prudent to use it as the central treatment/observation location."

"Wait, you... you know?!" The color had drained from Dr Hollands' face as she stared at the gynoid across from her with wide eyes before collapsing back into her chair. "Of course you know. You're in all our systems. We tried to keep it under wraps, but somehow, several inpatients not in the isolation ward have been affected tonight. We're still trying to determine the cause, but you know that, too, am I right?"

"This unit does." Reconfiguring her face into a small smile, S4M-ARA tilted her head a fraction to the right. "Which is, as indicated, another reason to implement this unit's proposal. What do you say, Director Dr Hollands?"