The Story of Candy Apple - Android
A Preface

   2047 was the year they began the great debate over what constitutes independent, intelligent life with regard to artificial intelligence. The first anatomically correct personal companion android (some still call them robots) rolled off the assembly line on June 24, 2051. In 2053 the Supreme Court ruled that a machine regardless of what level of intelligence it might approximate was still a machine and therefore not entitled to rights of any kind.
   2074 was the year that the first complaint of rape was filed against a human by an android. Unfortunately, she also killed her owner defending herself becoming the first android to ever kill a human. This again caused the world to ask the question, what is intelligent life made of, and the debate divided the planet sharply over the issue. Many religions argued that androids did not have souls and could not and should not be considered alive. Relationships between androids and humans were frowned upon and in some places outlawed completely.
   In 2078 the Supreme Court upheld its earlier ruling on the issue. Abuses against androids tripled. The androids on Earth found themselves with fewer rights than even what a pet dog or cat might enjoy. Hardwired with the 3 Laws of Robotics as their basic programming, androids became unwitting slaves to a master race.
   Interpersonal relationships between androids and humans were more than just frowned upon it was legislated against in many parts of the world. A female android could be used as a prostitute but not as a girlfriend. Many wondered at the sanity of that kind of mentality. Those willing to risk everything for love had to steal moments to themselves wherever and whenever they could or find their way off-world to the safe haven that the Galactic Enterprise offered to all sentient creatures.

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   I suppose that I should tell you a few things about myself before I tell you my story. First, the body I have now is not the body I started out with. My friend Iris here is a Candy Personal Companion Model. I was once just like her. In fact, I was the first, and the entire model series was named after me.
   I don’t know who it was that gave me the last name of Apple, but it came out of the fact that I was the Alpha 1 model, serial number 000-000001, and rather than call me Candy Alpha 1 they called me Candy Apple after the apple Eve gave Adam.
   I was created in 2051; designed and programmed to be an android slave to fulfill fantasies, sexual or otherwise, for human masters. In 2074 I accidentally killed my owner in a struggle to keep from being raped and abused. I panicked at the thought that they might turn me off or otherwise terminate me and I began a journey, both within and without, in a desperate race across the country to save myself from those searching for me. During that journey, I would discover what it means to be free.

   This is the story of that journey and my fight to stay alive and free.

   Candy Apple