"I guess that's taken care of everything, Butler one."

"That is not correct, Miss O’Malley. I still require the metals for your robot's body. I can apply the plastifer cloth on the way to the tip."

"Oh no, not again, not after what you just told me... Well what have we got to lose? Those policemen would never expect us to make two trips to the tip during the same evening."

Ann O’Malley flew the spaceship back to the tip. From their infrared monitor, Ann, Wendell and Butler One could still see the metal pile below. The policemen had obviously given up the chase and departed. They would soon be awakening their friends at the police station.

"I do not want to fight the police force again," said Ann, as the spaceship landed beside the metal, "but we cannot take any chances with them capturing us or finding out who I really am under my mask."

Still wearing her mask, Ann led Butler One down to the pile of metal; and the two of them gathered it all up and took it to Wildstar. All that remained was to shaped it into a model copy of Ann, and then use the various materials and equipment in the spaceship to colour and dress the robot to resemble Ann O’Malley herself.

Ann dressed the completed robot and then pushed its jumper up, so that she could open its chest panel. Butler One had built a special socket into the chest panel, so that he could use one of his probes to interface with the robot duplicate of Ann O’Malley. Butler One connected his probe and began to program the robot's memory banks, by transmitting data, as Ann, the real Ann O’Malley, described herself to Butler One. The robot would then take its commands from Ann and be able to substitute for Ann whenever the need arose.

"Can the robot have showers without rusting?"
"Certainly, Miss O’Malley; because the chest panel is sealed when closed. Water and food can only enter the robot through the mouth and can then be discharged back through the mouth when the robot is alone in a bathroom."

"It doesn't sound too charming, but it will do the job."

Ann then laughed at the realisation that she would still have to attend her school medical examinations in person.

"I somehow just don't think that Ann II would be very convincing," she said, "but the robot only needs to be a temporary substitute. I would hate to think of this extraordinairy toy becoming my replacement. One thing is for sure. I had better not let anybody ever see the two of us together, unless I am in unfamiliar clothing with the mask as well."

Ann and Butler One finished working on the robot, and then put it on Jerradd's old pilot's seat that was used for the spaceship's original journeys.

"It has not been used for some time now," said Butler One.

Ann returned to Freedom Fields, entered her room through the open window and removed her special outfit. She climbed into bed and slept off the remainder of the night, waking at six-thirty the following morning: Friday.

She ate her breakfast, and caught the bus to school, and prepared to face her first lesson: English.

*          *          *          *

"Thank you Ann... err... well, I don't think we'll enter that one in the school's creative writing competition, but I'll have to say it was well written. Maybe somebody will write stories about you some time."

"Really Miss?" questioned Ann, "Now who could possibly write a story about me?"

1996…

“You ended that in a witty way,” said Martin, “I think Wendell was lucky to meet you when you were a teenager with all that time to explore the galaxy in that spaceship. Do you have any old photos of yourself?”

He looked across at her tummy, thinking about his upcoming journey to within it.

Ann reached over him to the table, and lifted up photo album, and moistened her finger with her tongue. She turned over a few blank pages, until she came to the photo sleeves. She picked him up and rested him on her shoulder. He could feel the moisture of the finger she had just licked, when her fingers enclosed him. It excited him immensely and warmed his heart.

“Here I am at Freedom Fields in 1956,” she said, “It’s a few years on from the story you just heard, but … ahh, here’s me in 1964.”

“They’re lovely, but I think you look even more excitingly beautiful now,” said Martin, “It’s been on my mind that it’ll be quite exciting to be eaten at this size, by a woman who was 30 a few months before I was born.”

“I’ll tell you more about my early days,” said Ann, smiling warmly down at him.