Eric made his next wish: "I wish that until I say otherwise, Karyn is really a very lifelike robot created by me and Keith, and that right now she doesn't know she's a robot, but both she and Jon are going to find out by accident in a minute."
The room seemed subtly different. Eric couldn't place it, until he realized there was a very slight hum coming from his right. He looked over there to see an unfamiliar piece of equipment, a large metal box with a glass-covered opening just the right size for a human to lie down in. In it was what looked like a very realistic female dummy resembling Karyn but younger, and piled by it was a stack of USB memory sticks. One stick was plugged into the machine right beneath a screen, which displayed the words "Female Android code name Karyn Memory/Personality #163-ab, physical age 14, press start to begin."
On the TV, nothing seemed different. Jon and Karyn were playing games, but they were tired.
"Let me get a different game," said Karyn. Jon nodded. Karyn got up and walked over to the game console, but tripped on a lamp cord. Somehow the cord tore free of the lamp, leaving only the other lamp lighting the room and exposing a six inch long metal wire which Karyn landed on. There was a shower of sparks and Karyn was still.
"Karyn, are you all right?" asked Jon. He pulled the wire aside--being careful to touch only the insulated part--then lifted Karyn onto the couch and checked her breathing. Nothing.
Suddenly Karyn spoke in a slow monotone. "Electrical surge detected. Reboot successful. Press command button to begin. Then she stood up, shoving Jon aside and lifted up the bottom of her blouse to open up a panel in her stomach. In it were numerous tiny wires, circuit boards, and epoxied chips, as well as a big red button labelled 'Command'. She threw down the panel on a table. It looked completely like human flesh on one side, but was clearly some kind of metal mesh on the other.
Jon, frightened but not knowing what to do, pressed the button. "Accepting new voice for secondary orders." said Karyn. "Primary orders remain with Eric and Keith."
"Uhh, orders. I don't know, be Karyn again!"
"Orders accepted," said Karyn. Then her voice suddenly became normal again. "What happened, Jon? I just fell down and... What?" She felt around her stomach and looked down at the open space. "Why do I have a machine in my stomach?" She felt around, pressed the button by chance, and began speaking in a monotone once more. "Your orders?"
"Karyn? Is that really you?" asked Jon.
"I am an experimental robot created by Eric Stutman and Keith Wooley, designed to mimic the form of a human. My memory capacity is...."
"Never mind that! How can you be Karyn?"
"Not understood."
"Argh! Karyn can't be a machine, I've known her since we were kids!"
"Multiple models of varying apparent ages created by Eric, Keith, and predecessors."
"You're kidding, aren't you? Please, go back to Karyn. And stop saying 'orders accepted'!"
Once again Karyn seemed to act like herself. "That's strange, I wondered what pressing that did," said Karyn. She didn't even realize what had happened.
"Karyn, it's strange to say, but... you're a robot! I saw it, and that button worked."
"Jon, you sound serious. We both know there's no such thing in real life, and besides, I know I'm human. I can think, I can feel..."
"Karyn, you said something about accepting a voice for orders. So I order you to realize you're a robot."
"I... somehow I have to believe you. How can this be! I'm just a machine?" Karyn began to cry, very realistically....
