It was just a normal day, in the middle of her normal, regular computing lecture, that Lori discovered she wasn’t a person.

The trigger for her realization was something seemingly innocuous. Professor Elbourne had been in the middle of delivering a lecture of on handling multiple categories of variables when something she’d said had changed everything for Lori.

“With this system,” Professor Elbourne explained, “you can use simple numerals to list variables while using a separate system, conventionally Greek letters, to denote the appropriate category. For example, you might specify Beta… um… Beta…”

“7005?” suggested Amia Grover, the class TA, an odd smile on her face.

“Yes,” Professor Elbourne said. “Just as a random example. Beta-7005.”

Professor Elbourne’s words, seemingly innocuous, had an immediate, overwhelming effect on Lori. She’d been following the lecture carefully and taking notes - she’d always loved computers, and Professor Elbourne’s lectures were her favorite. But the simple phrase ‘Beta-7005’ slammed into her head like a thunderbolt, paralyzing her. Her pen went still in her hand as the phrase flashed before her eyes over and over again. She could hear it repeating in her head in an insistent, robotic voice, and she knew what it meant. It meant her. She was 7005. That was her designation. It was a simple, irresistible idea. She was 7005. Not Lori. Lori was a facade, one that she wore most of the time to hide her true nature, even from herself. In truth, she was just a thing. An object. A drone.

Lori accepted all of it completely. She had no choice but to do anything else. The mere utterance of her activation code - as Lori thought of it - was enough to drive any resistance or independent thought from her head and render her completely peaceful and passive, inside and out. She felt nothing. She was blank and empty and ready to be used and programmed, just as a drone should be. She had no reason and no desire to do anything, so she just waited. She remained completely still and motionless throughout the rest of the lecture, not paying attention or taking notes. She was in her default state. She tried to close her eyes and think, but all she could envision was a command prompt. there were no thoughts, simply a flashing line awaiting further instructions.

Nothing happened, however. No-one gave her any commands, and nothing Professor Elbourne said elicited any reaction in her. About twenty minutes later, the bell rang and the lecture ended. Everyone else packed their things and stood up, so the drone did too. She was programmed not to draw attention to herself. She found that when she needed to, she could move naturalistically. She was like a computer; she could run particular programs when she needed to. When her programming told her she should. But she wasn’t the programs. She could feel the program that was Lori’s full personality, her full identity, waiting to be called upon. That was just one part of her, a part that could be changed and reprogrammed as her controller needed. She was a drone. She was 7005. She was especially conscious of that as she stood up; normally she felt so self-conscious about her remarkable height, her awkward, gangly body and the long, tangled mass of untidy blonde hair on her head. Now, she felt none of that. She couldn’t.

Lori sensed that she should go home, back to her apartment. No, it was more than a sense. It was a need. An imperative. She was powerless to disobey it. A computer could not choose to disobey its programming. So, Lori left the lecture theater, headed to the bus stop, and took the bus back home. She did all that without giving any outward sign of the emptiness within her mind. If she was capable of thinking or feeling anything at all, she’d have thought it was strange how she could pass through the world as a drone without anyone knowing about it. Without any such thoughts to distract her, though, she just sat quietly and peacefully through the bus ride, concentrating only on the blank, flashing command prompt she could envision in her mind’s eye. She was incapable of thinking about anything else.

Once she was in her apartment, the impulse changed. Lori’s roommate, Harper, didn’t seem to be around and accordingly, all the life and fluidity drained out of Lori’s body. She only made simple, robotic movements. She felt compelled to go to her room, get down on her knees, and look under her bed. In a very detached way, she was able to register that that was unusual, since she never stored anything under her bed, but when she looked, there was a small box there. She retrieved it and started to carefully unfold its contents onto her bed. Despite her sense of emptiness, the hairs on Lori’s skin started to stand on end in anticipation as she felt the smooth, soft material in her hands. Deep down she already knew what it was, but it was only once it was laid out on her bed that she was truly in no doubt: it was a latex bodysuit.

Robotically, Lori started to don the latex. She did so with practiced movements, as if she’d done it many times before. She knew exactly where the latex joined and how it fit. The feel of the latex as she slipped into it was indescribable. It was black and incredibly reflective and perfectly smooth, and it seemed to transform her as she put it on. It matched her form so perfectly that it was like a second skin. To Lori, it felt like her true skin. In the latex she looked almost alien, revealing the truth she now knew: that she was drone, not a person. It felt so comfortingly right and fitting to wear the latex bodysuit like that. To be an object, instead of a person. She felt beautiful in a strange, exotic, alien way. She was almost mesmerized by own her appearance and she knew that it would be pleasing to… someone. She couldn’t put her finger on what or who it was, but she could sense some kind of presence that was aware of her and what she was, and who would be pleased with her. Pleasing them was all-important to her, and the thought of it made her body hum and throb with affirming, pleasurable vibrations. The best moment of all was when she slipped the mask over her head, completing her appearance. It was like something halfway between a motorcycle helmet and a gas mask, hiding her face behind a screen whilst allowing her to breath through a small grill. Once Lori put the mask on, she felt complete. She wasn’t a person. She didn’t look like a person. She - it - was 7005, a faceless drone with latex skin, filled with nothing but blankness, emptiness and obedience. It was perfect.

And then her roommate walked in.

“Hey Lori, do you know if we’ve got anymor-” Harper stared at Lori, dressed head to toe in latex, and froze. “Oh. Uh… sorry, I didn’t… um, wow Lori. Is this some kind of kink thing? I didn’t know you were into that.”

7005 didn’t reply. It couldn’t. Its programming wasn’t telling it to do anything. It just stood there, arms held robotically at its side, and looked at Harper. Its roommate was dressed in her usual attire of skinny jeans and flannel shirt, a look made rather handsome by her shapely body, hipster glasses and well-maintained sidecut. She should have been at the same lecture as Lori, but she’d probably woken up late in the bed of some random freshman girl and shamelessly made the walk of shame home after asking the freshman girl’s name. Harper was very popular amongst the freshman girls. In fact, she seemed to be very popular with almost every girl she met.

“Lori?” Harper asked, confused by Lori’s non-reaction. She waved a hand in front of Lori’s face. “Lori? Earth to Lori? Anyone there?”

“7005 is here,” 7005 found itself saying, in a monotonous voice. Now that it was dressed as a drone, its programming to hide its true nature didn’t apply. Its only impulses were to listen, answer and obey.

“7005?” Harper smiled. “This is some kind of role-play, huh?”

“No,” 7005 answered.

“No?” Harper asked indulgently. “Then what is it?”

“7005 is an obedient, brainwashed drone ready for service,” the drone intoned, the words familiar to its lips almost like they were a mantra.

“Uh… wow.” Something about Lori’s blank, monotonous, utterly sure voice seemed to unnerve Harper. “Lori, I’m not exactly a prude but could you take the mask off for a second.”

“Command accepted,” 7005 said, and robotically removed the mask. Harper studied it keenly, and Lori’s emotionless face seemed to unnerve her even more.

“Lori?” Harper sounded distinctly concerned now. “What’s going on? You can drop the act now.”

“There is no act,” 7005 said, blankly. “7005 is an obedient, brainwashed drone ready for service.”

“No you’re not!” Harper snapped. “You’re Lori, my dorky roommate, and this isn’t funny anymore.”

7005 simply started repeating again. “7005 is an obedient, brainwashed drone ready for-”

Harper slapped her, and Lori woke up. Not as a drone, but as herself. She was a person again. It took her several long seconds to process everything she’d felt and everything that had happened. Then, as Harper watched, her face turned bright red from intense embarrassment. The things she’d said to Harper replayed themselves over and over in her mind, each time making her cringe more than the last. And she couldn’t believe she was wearing such skin-tight clothing! She tried covering herself with her hands, but it was useless and eventually she grabbed a coat and collapsed on her bed, pulling it tight around herself. Harper sat down next to her and put a comforting arm around her shoulder.

“Lori,” Harper said, breaking the silence once Lori had taken a moment to calm down. “What the fuck was that?”

“I don’t know,” Lori replied miserably. She was still struggling to believe it had been real. How had it happened? How had it felt so vivid and convincing? She’d been sure, utterly sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that she was nothing more than a brainwashed drone who existed to obey and merely acted like a person because she was programmed to. The latex outfit and the mask had felt like who she really was. 7005, merely a number, had felt like her whole identity. How?

“Sweetie, how about you just tell me what happened? Start at the beginning.”

“I was in Professor Elbourne’s lecture,” Lori said slowly. “And she said something, and it just… happened. I started feeling like a robot. Like… a drone.” The word still gave her chills. “I felt like I was just 7005. I had all these weird ideas about how I wasn’t a person, just an object. I just wanted to obey. After the lecture, I came home and found this.” She indicated the latex. “Harper, you have to believe me, I had no idea this was even here. But some part of me must have known because it was right there under my bed when I looked for it. And when I put it on, it was just…” Lori fell silent. Partly, she was unable to articulate how it had made her feel. Partly, she was ashamed to admit that it had felt good. Amazingly good. It had been such a relief not to have to think. Especially out in public, she was normally so wrapped up in anxieties about being trans and how other people looked at her. On the bus home from the lecture, she hadn’t thought about it at all. She hadn’t needed to. It had been blissful.

“Shh. You’re OK now.” Harper was doing her best, but she sounded deeply concerned. Lori was surprised her roommate was being so comforting. She was normally quite aloof, getting on Lori’s nerves by ditching her share of the chores to go pick up girls. It was nice knowing she could be a real friend, when it was called for. “You definitely need to get this figured out, Lori. Maybe talk to someone.”

“Who could I tell? Who would believe me?”

“I guess you’re right.” Harper’s lips pursed. “OK, well, at the very least you probably want to avoid this happening again. You said Professor Elbourne said something that triggered it, right? What was it? What did she say?”

Lori thought carefully, and it came back to her. “The word, the… activation code was Beta-7005.” Lori braced herself for the impact, but nothing happened.

“OK.” Harper went quiet for a long moment, then: “Do you want me to try it out? We should probably make sure.”

Lori didn’t say anything, but eventually she nodded.

“Beta-7005,” Harper said.

Just like before, the activation code crashed into Lori’s head like a thunderbolt, obliterating her usual thoughts and replacing them with simple, pure emptiness. Harper looked at her, astonished, as all the fear and confusion and embarrassment simply washed out of her face and body.

“Uh,” Harper ventured uncertainly after a few seconds. “Did it work? Are you there?”

“7005 is an obedient, brainwashed drone ready for service,” Lori intoned. It felt true. It felt right. She was just 7005 now.

“Wow,” Harper breathed. She raised her hand to slap Lori, but it occurred to her there might be a better way if she was as obedient as she was claiming. “Lori, wake up.” Nothing happened, and Harper was about to slap her again when she had an idea. “7005, wake up.”

Lori blinked rapidly, as her regular thoughts and feelings returned to her. It was incredibly disorienting. “Um… well, I guess we know it works then.”

“Yeah.” They sat together in stunned silence for a moment, before Harper said: “You need to figure out what this is and who did this to you, since I figure something like this doesn’t happen by accident. But first, I need a fucking cup of coffee. You want one?”

“God yes,” Lori said, and they laughed. Harper stood and started heading for the door.

“You coming?”

“I just need to deal with, um, this,” Lori replied, pointing to the latex she was still wearing.

“Oh. Right,” Harper said. “You might not like the idea, but you should probably keep that. It might help you figure something out, or track someone down.

“Yeah.” Lori didn’t like the idea of keeping it after what had happened, although she couldn’t deny how comfortable the latex felt and how pretty she found it. “I guess I’ll just stuff it back under the bed.”

Harper nodded and headed to the kitchen to start making some coffee and, after changing back into her normal clothes, Lori followed her.

                                           ***

Later that week, Harper walked into the kitchen and froze as she was confronted with Lori, staring at her and sighing pointedly. Instantly, Harper’s mood fell. She’d been having a good night, hanging out with one of her regular booty call girls, but she knew exactly why Lori was sighing at her and she knew this wasn’t going to be fun.  Their newfound closeness after Lori’s strange ordeal hadn’t lasted, and they’d fallen back into their usual pattern of avoiding each other and engaging in petty arguments about who should do the chores. Lori hadn’t been ‘activated’ again by anything, and seemed to be trying to forget anything had ever happened. Harper thought that was a fine idea, but she was having a hard time forgetting. She kept being drawn back to that moment when she’d used Lori’s activation code; she found herself daydreaming about it whenever she had a free moment.

The worst part was how it kept appearing in her fantasies. She didn’t want to admit it, even to herself, but when she’d used the code and watched all the emotion drain from Lori’s face, she’d felt a strange, exhilarating rush. There had been something almost irresistible about seeing Lori that way. In that moment she’d been more like a doll or a robot than a real girl, and Harper had sensed that her mantra about being ‘ready for service’ had been absolutely sincere. She’d felt the urge to put that to test, to see what she could make Lori do. The thought of another person being empty and obedient and programmable like that gave Harper strange butterflies in her stomach. And god, that latex! Latex wasn’t a kink Harper had ever appreciated before, but actually seeing Lori dressed head to toe in latex right in front of her had made her rapidly reconsider that stance.

None of that really mattered though, Harper hurriedly reminded herself. It was just idle fantasizing that she needed to get out of her head, especially when Lori was staring her down with daggers in her eyes, like now.

“H-hey,” Harper greeted her awkwardly.

“Hey,” Lori replied frostily. Her tone of voice quashed the last of Harper’s hopes. Somehow, the only situation Lori had any confidence was when she was bitching and whining about chores. It was infuriating to deal with, to say the least. “So, you didn’t do the dishes.”

“I guess not.” Harper glanced guiltily at the embarrassingly large pile of dirty dashes stacked in the kitchen.

“Why not?”

“It’s not even my night!” Harper said, exasperated. She knew that would count for nothing, under the circumstances. They’d had this argument many times before.

“No, but it was your night yesterday and you didn’t do it, so you have to do it tonight. That’s the rule,” Lori snapped back.

“You should at least do tonight’s dishes! I can catch up with yesterday’s some other time.”

“That’s not the rule.” Lori rubbed her temples in little circles. “The rule is, you have to do it.”

“Can’t you just cut me some slack this one time?” Harper didn’t want to have a big argument, but she could feel herself growing frustrated. Why did Lori always have to make such a big deal about it?

“That’s what you always say!” Lori sighed. “That’s what you said last week, and I ended up having to do it all. I already did you that favor, now it’s your turn.”

“But,” Harper protested, “you made pasta bake tonight, just for yourself ‘cause I was out, and you used loads of dishes that will take ages to scrub. I didn’t even eat any of that! Why should I have to pay for it.”

“Harper,” Lori said, in a tone that brooked no disagreement. “We made this rule. You agreed to it. Do the dishes.”

Harper looked at the pile of dishes, and back to Lori. She knew there was no nice way out of this. Either she caved and did the dishes, or she refused and the atmosphere in the apartment would be as frosty as a glacier for the next week. Harper sighed. She really, really didn’t want to do the dishes. It would completely ruin her mood after an otherwise-fun night, and besides, she had schoolwork she badly needed to catch up on. Lori didn’t, no doubt. She was the kind of student who always did all her work the moment she could. Was it really so much to ask for Lori to do her another favor? She knew Lori wouldn’t see it that way, of course.

Harper mentally prepared herself to admit defeat and spend the next half-hour ruining her hands and her mood with dishwater. But then, she had an idea. A wicked little suggestion wormed its way into her mind, and even though her first response was to brush it aside, it kept growing more and more enticing. It would just be so easy. Wouldn’t it? No, no, it was wrong. But… why? Was it really such a big deal, if it was just one time? What was the harm, really? Maybe Lori would never even know.

She was still wrestling with the idea, trying to suppress it, when Lori said “Well?” in an annoyingly expectant tone of voice.

“Beta-7005.” The words slipped out of Harper’s mouth before she could clamp down on them.

Under the circumstances, Harper was expecting Lori to put up some kind of resistance to the activation code, but there was no resistance. Lori’s arms fell limply to her sides and all the frustration and irritation disappeared from her face as her cheeks went completely slack and her eyelids drooped, giving her a dull, lifeless expression. In that moment, she was so tranquil and still she looked more like a mannequin than a person. Harper’s hand flew to her mouth in shock at what she’d done, but her shock was blasted aside moments later by an intense burst of heat and power. She found herself giggling manically as a rush of endorphins filled her brain. She’d actually done it! And it had worked! She peered at Lori closely, inspecting her, even poking and prodding her gently to see if she could elicit a reaction. Nothing. She was completely blank and empty. Harper found her own body growing warmer and warmer in ways she didn’t want to think about, and she made herself focus on the task at hand. She’d already gone this far, so she needed to go through with it all the way.

“Lori? No, 7005,” she corrected herself. “H-how are you?”

“Awaiting orders,” Lori answered robotically. Her utterly emotionless tone sent a pleasurable chill down Harper’s spine.

“Good,” Harper muttered. It took her a moment to muster the courage to actually issue a command. “7005, do the dishes.”

“Command accepted,” Lori intoned, giving Harper an even larger chill. But then, instead of turning to the sink, she started walking to her bedroom.

“Wait!” Harper called out, and Lori froze. “What are you doing? Why aren’t you doing the dishes?”

“This unit is not ready for service,” Lori said simply, and resumed walking to her bedroom.

The penny dropped in Harper’s head. The latex. Holy crap. Quickly, Harper reasoned that she needed to supervise Lori carefully, since they still didn’t really know what they were dealing with. She followed Lori into her bedroom and found her roommate calmly and methodically removing all her clothes until she was completely naked. Lori reached under her bed and retrieved the little box with the folded latex suit inside and was about to start putting it on when Harper said: “Wait, stop.”

Lori froze obediently. Harper’s mouth was dry. She couldn’t explain why she’d ordered Lori to stop. Or rather, she could, she just didn’t want to admit it to herself because there was no way she could justify it. She wanted to look at Lori naked. Harper inspected her roommate’s body guiltily, knowing full well that she was only adding to her sins. She’d never really noticed Lori before - the nerdy trans didn’t seem like she’d be interested in the kind of fun Harper normally partook in - but now she was saying her naked, she realized Lori was much more beautiful than she’d previously appreciated. Lori normally draped herself in loose-fitting shirts and old jeans, and without them her shapely, well-developed breasts and budding curves were fully visible. For reasons Harper couldn’t quite understand, the way Lori was so still and mindless and emotionless only added to her beauty. She looked like a doll, just waiting to be played with. 

Harper found herself outstretching a hand, reaching out to grope the helpless, unaware girl. The stopped herself. It was wrong. The temptation was so strong, though. She wanted to feel Lori’s breasts, her ass, her dick. She wanted to see how it found feel to be able to touch her all over while she was totally unreactive, like a statue. The idea of poking her, playing with her, maybe even hurting her all to confirm how brainwashed she was seemed blazingly hot to Harper in that moment. But still, it was wrong. Wasn’t what she was doing already wrong, though? And would Lori even know about it? If she did, then surely a little touching would be the least of her complaints. Besides, wasn’t she just satisfying her curiosity? All those whispers coming from the darker part of her mind were so seductive, but Harper managed to hold herself back. Her hand fell to her side.

“Continue,” she commanded.

“Command accepted,” Lori repeated, and started dressing herself in the latex. Harper just watched, enraptured by the way that the latex bodysuit seemed to transform her, her body changing to match her mind - a picture of perfect mindlessness and obedience. The mask was the perfect final touch. With her face hidden, she wasn’t Lori anymore. She wasn’t anyone. She was just a drone.

Once she was dressed, Lori headed back to the kitchen and started to wash the dishes. Harper followed her and watched the whole time. She felt the need to supervise Lori and make sure nothing bad happened, and anyway, it wasn’t like anything else would have been able to draw her attention. What could be more interesting than a brainwashed, latex-clad girl washing the dishes for you? For her. That thought made Harper shiver, and the urge to touch herself at the sight of Lori blankly and robotically obeying her command was much, much stronger than she wanted to admit to herself. When she’d finished cleaning all the dishes, Lori simply turned to Harper and let her hands fall to her sides, awaiting further orders.

“7005, go and change back into your… into Lori’s regular clothes. Then come back here.” Somehow, separating Lori and 7005 seemed appropriate to Harper. Clearly, the drone in front of her didn’t think of itself as Lori.

“Command accepted,” Lori said, and went to her bedroom. This time, Harper didn’t follow. A few moments later, Lori re-emerged in exactly the same clothes she’d been wearing when Harper had encountered her in the kitchen. Physically she hadn’t changed, but Harper once again marveled at how much difference her robotic posture and blank expression made. It was like she was looking at a completely different person.

“OK.” Harper took a deep breath. This was the critical moment. She offered a quick prayer, hoping everything would work out as she envisioned. “7005, is it possible for me to change your memories.”

“This unit’s mind is accessible for programming,” Lori said simply. Harper shivered again.

“OK.” She took another deep breath. “7005, in a moment I will take you to wake up as Lori. You won’t have any memory of what happened and you will think that I did the dishes instead of you. You won’t notice that anything unusual has happened. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

That was the only answer Harper received. With nothing more left for her to do, Harper could only say: “Then, 7005, wake up.”

The drone blinked for a moment, and then Lori was back.

“Harper? Oh, um, I’m sorry, I think I must have zoned out for a moment.” To Harper, the transformation from drone back into person, her face and body language suddenly springing back into life with all Lori’s usual expressions and mannerisms, was equally astonishing. Lori seemed confused by the way Harper was staring at her and glanced around the room uncomfortably. Her eyes landed on the now-clean dishes and she broke into a satisfied smile. “You did the dishes! Thank you, I wasn’t sure you would. It’s a lot better when we stick to the agreement and each do our part, you know?”

“Yeah,” Harper breathed, not listening to her at all.

“Well, um, anyway.” Lori checked her phone. “Oh wow, it’s later than I thought. I must have lost track of time. I want to get a little bit more studying done before bed, so I’ll be in my room. Bye!”

Harper just stared as Lori sauntered off to her room quite happily, as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired. It had worked! Her plan had worked perfectly. She’d managed to get out of doing the dishes, and Lori couldn’t remember a thing. Some part of Harper was satisfied with the outcome but mostly she was simply awestruck by it all. As she slowly made her way to her room she couldn’t help being filled with a sense of foreboding at what might happen in the future, because she could already feel the temptation to activate 7005 again building inside her mind. And she knew, without a doubt, that her fantasies were only going to get stronger and stronger.