Las Vegas used to be like a bunch of big casinos in the middle of the desert, with names like Dunes and Sands, where you could gamble see the likes of Elvis, Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. on stage. They were run by the mob and were full of gangsters and their molls.

Nowadays, the lawyers and accountants have taken over. They smelled the money, and since they are a lot more vicious and ruthlessly inhuman than any gangsters can afford to be, they just walked in and took over.

They liked the idea of the casinos, but they broadened the concept and these days, it's more like Disneyland than a gambling paradise.

So here I am with a couple of office buddies, who I hardly know, but insisted I came along. I'm not much of a gambler. The odds are so stacked against you it's a miracle they don't just hold a gun to your face and ask your wallet. But hey, there's a lot you can do in Vegas today, besides gambling, or so I've heard...

Futureworld. The latest and newest "concept-theme-park-casino-megahotel-brothel-amusement-place-type-thing."

We stepped out of our cab and walked into the towering city of neon glass and steel. A couple of spaceships were standing on a "spaceship only" parking lot and a couple of guys in silver suits came over to us to haul our bags.

The whole place had an air of a good-bad fifties movie, It looked like "The day the earth stood still" but more high-tech with computers everywhere. Everything was interactive, even the staff at the desk, all wearing those ridiculous silver suits.

I sort of resigned myself to have a good time and leaned against the reception desk when I saw a couple of weird robot like creatures walk up to me. It was hard to tell where they had stuffed the performers into the strange boxes. I supposed one or two people had to bend over twice to fit into the robots they were supposed to animate. They looked like they'd had an encounter with a trash-compactor on the way. They sort of tried to cheer me up, but I ignored them, just paying attention to my buddies, busy chatting up one of the staff.

They hardly knew each other, and were making up by acting like a bunch of college students on steroids.

This was going to be a long weekend.

And then I noticed this girl. She stepped out of a side entrance and looked like a million dollars. Long, brown curly hair and a very nice figure. And yet, she didn't look like all the other girls around. She had something very likable about her, something refreshing. I told the guys to grab my bag and I would join them later and as they stared at me go off, I went after her.

I followed her outside in the cool night and saw her call a guy. Fearing the worst I casually strolled past her, while trying to listen to their conversation.

"Have you heard they reshuffled the whole roster ?" She asked the guy. "I just did my part all afternoon and I'm supposed to do the next shift as well."

I feigned looking outside and turned back and just as I passed, she bumped into me. I hadn't expected that move on her behalf and in my eagerness to grab hold of something to prevent me falling, I dragged her along. Well, she was falling anyway...

"I'm so sorry, sir." She said, sitting on top of me. The guy grabbed me by the arm.

"It's okay, I should've looked out." I tried to reassure her I wasn't going to suddenly cry out "Whiplash !" and scream for a lawyer.

"No, I wasn't paying attention." She said, helping me up as well.

I smiled at her as I dusted myself off and slightly nodded to her.

"You're sure, you're okay ?" She asked me one final time.

"I'll be fine. I have a tough skin, I used to play football, but you would've made a good tackler."

She laughed.

"Could I get you something ?" I moved my first piece on the board.

"No, we're not allowed to mingle with the customers." She said. Check !

"Oh, I shouldn't have bumped into you then ?" It tried the back door.

"Look, I'd love to chat, but I'm a bit busy right now." She looked at her watch, smiled and darted off. Check Mate !

Barely one hour in Vegas and I was already even more miserable than I arrived and on top of that, the college boys had caught up with me and scooped me up. I was going to have a good time even if it killed me.

Futureworld had a few rides, a couple of very special shows and you could simultaneously gamble and log into Internet on a one-armed bandit. Nice, but a bit confusing at times.

Using techniques some Ninja would envy me, I finally managed to ditch the gang and wanted to go to my room to take a shower.

I was so happy to have escaped ...

"Hey, Nick ! Where are you going ?" They had found me already !

My only hope was to feign being deaf-dumb and round the corner as quickly as possible.

The next moment I saw a flash of metal, there was a big bump and next I was staring at the ceiling.

I scrambled back on my feet quicker than Hulk Hogan on the count of two and tried to make sense of what I had bumped into.

I'd knocked over a statue or something, but then it moved.

As it lay sprawled over the floor I saw a chrome woman struggling to get up. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I instinctively bent down and helped the robot back on its feet. A shiny face with a visor stared at me for a second and I could hear a muffled "You again ?" somewhere under the shiny metal.

I raised a confused eyebrow and felt how my ankle notified my brain it was shutting down all activity. I collapsed only to be caught by her, almost knocking her over a second time.

Ten minutes later I was dumped by an astronaut and the robot into a bed. The astronaut left, leaving me with five foot eight of shiny, nicely curved chrome.

"The nurse will be here any moment." I heard her say, while she tried to remove her helmet.

And then I saw the same gray-blue eyes appear. She was shaking her hair out of her face.

"Oh, It's you !" I said, still a bit stunned.

"How's your ankle ?" She looked very nervous and a bit angry.

"It'll be fine, old football injury."

"You're not here to cause trouble or something ? You're not trying to ..." She didn't know how to put it.

"What ?" She could smell I was in insurance and I probably knew every trick in the book about fake injuries and outrageous court settlements.

"You're not one of those sci-fi nuts, who'd love to ..."

I had no idea where she was going to. "Look, I was just trying to get back to my room to take a quick shower and I just bumped into you. That's all !"

She didn't look convinced. But the nurse arrived with a first aid kit. She took the opportunity to leave before I could say something else.

A quick support bandage and I was back on my feet. Limping a bit, but I was used to my ankle packing up on occasion.

I thanked the personnel who looked horribly grateful I didn't even mention the accident.

"And here's some chips and a few freebies." The guy handed me the stuff.

I thanked him and resolute to go to my room I darted off.

A few moments later, I was starting to think I had been working for Mack Sennet in a previous life. I might have even been Jerry Lewis' lost son.

You see, I had dropped a chip and I was so eager to go to my room I ignored it for a full second, before looking back to see if it was worth much. And then I looked back just too long to realize I bumped into something ... again.

I heard an almost familiar clatter and I felt the chips and vouchers fall out of my hands.

I dreaded to look and when I did I could see a chrome female robot sprawled over the floor, trying to get up again.

This time I got a big slap in the face and the plastic on her hands didn't exactly cushion the blow. And it wasn't even Friday the thirteenth.

The next day, my ankle and cheek didn't feel much better. Both were a bit red and swollen.

I went downstairs and realized none of the guys were around to drag me off to the seediest bar in Vegas. With relief I hoped to see the city and just play it cool until tomorrow evening.

And out of the corner of my eye I saw her. She paced through the hall like she really was a robot, with all those mime-like movements. And I must say that the combination of suit and movements had something very fascinating to it. She suddenly turned and walked towards me and did her routine in front of me. I lipped her that I was sorry, but she didn't react. Again she wasn't supposed to, but I hoped she'd at least notice it.

But then I thought it probably wasn't her anyway. I suddenly felt guilty. It had been love at first sight, but now I felt like a jerk.

"Excuse me." I hailed a clerk at the reception desk.

"I had a little accident yesterday and it turns out I sort of kept bumping into the same girl a couple of times and I wanted to apologize to her. Could you put me in touch with her perhaps ?"

"We normally do not give names or addresses, sir."

"Could you pass on a note or something, just to say I'm sorry, that's all."

"I'm really sorry, but that's against our policy."

"Look, just tell her when she's here that the guy who bumped three times into her is very sorry. That's all."

"I can't help you on that, there are several hundred people working here."

"Could I speak to someone in charge ?" I was growing tired of the brick wall treatment.

"You must understand that if we ran errands for all our customers and employees, we'd have to open a dating agency."

"I just want to apologize to a girl I accidentally knocked over a few times last night. She thought I was doing it on purpose or something..."

"I'm sorry, sir ..."

I abandoned the idea of ever seeing her again and just walked out. I heard Caesar's Palace was quite cool, so I went over and checked it out.

Just as I was about to go back to Futureworld to grab a bite, a guy came up to me. A typical silver suit astronaut type, he beckoned me.

"You're the guy who kept on bumping into Tanya, right ?"

I nodded.

"I heard you wanted to see her again."

"Yeah, I ..."

But then he interrupted me. "Look, she's had a rough time with another of you sick bastards, so back off and go back to jerking off on robots."

Stunned, I listened to what he had just said long enough to boil over. "What ! But I just wanted to apologize ! I don't wanna jerk off ... on, on, on ... robots !" Or at least I hoped that's what he had said. "What's with you people !"

He looked a little less sure of himself now.

"Just don't try to see her again. She had a lot of trouble recently."

"I'm sorry to hear that. But why am I suddenly a sick bastard ?"

He hesitated a second and then confided.

"About a month ago, just after we opened, there was this guy who walked in wearing a Star Trek T-shirt and pointed ears. He said he wanted to speak to the robot queen of planet 'whatever' and jumped Tanya when he caught sight of her wearing that robot suit. He wanted to have sex with her."

"Wow !" I suspected something like that, but the idea was so weird.

"Now you know why she was a bit jumpy when you came along."

"Oh God, I REALLY have to apologize now !"

"I'll speak to her." He finally said.

Later that night something struck me. I had seen a few of those quite erotic pictures of female robots before. I'd never really paid much attention to it, but obviously there were people out there who enjoyed female robots, I mean, they made those pictures for somebody, didn't they ?

And then I imagined being with a robot woman. The thought of running over a cold kitchen floor was not pleasant, but getting onto a metal woman ? Shivers assured. And what about the hardness ?

Finally I dismissed those thoughts and went to sleep.

The next morning there was a note with my breakfast telling me to come to one of the cybercafes.

I sat down at a table and ordered one of those weird cocktails with liquids that glow in the dark.

Not bad and neither was she.

She walked in, sat down, and stared at me like I was Saddam Hussein.

I made the first move. "I'm really sorry about what happened Friday evening, but it was all a horrible coincidence !"

"I really hope, so because if you plan on stalking me ...

"I'll be back in Philadelphia tonight, you'll never see me again ! I swear !"

She looked at me. She had this knowing smile. Undoubtedly she'd seen the wide variety of human trash pass in front of her eyes ever since she began working here.

"Every time you bumped into me, I kept seeing this guy again."

"He didn't hurt you ?"

She quickly shook her head. "I was wearing the suit, it sort of ... kept him out."

"Probably."

She sighed. "I'm tired of this place. I came here to dance and I ended up in a glass-fiber robot suit."

"I can't imagine somebody wanting something like that."

She gave me a puzzled look.

"I was thinking about it, a robot made out of metal is cold and hard. It's not that nice to ... You know."

She just burst out into laughter.

Surprised, I joined in.

"That's the whole thing !" She said, still sniggering. "There are thousands of people out there who are attracted to female robots ! A couple of them probably tried it out !"

"How, there are no robots like that ?"

"And what do you think I wear in here, half a week, every week ?"

"You mean there are girls who voluntarily dress up as robots and have ..."

She nodded.

"Others might do it with mannequins, spray painted silver or gold, or just the mannequins as they come."

It might be at that moment that I realized something deep within me. Something about what she had just told me suddenly almost made sense. I reeled at the thought of it and then she caught sight of me thinking.

At that moment we must've been telepathically linked.

We reached out for our hands at the same time and told each other things without saying them.

She got up and I followed her. She used her card to get "backstage" and took me to a dressing room. She showed me the suit and got into it. Perhaps it was due that weird cocktail, because I tried to find my inhibitions, but they had gone for a quick holiday around Vegas.

The mask had been molded on her face, making it quite sensual. Just as she snapped the last piece in place I felt the transition. Something she had felt the very first time she donned the suit, but now she had found somebody, she wasn't afraid of sharing it with.

She was no longer Tanya, but something else, hard, and smooth. But the hardness didn't matter. To the contrary, it added something new to the experience. One thing was missing, but we didn't care.

Safely hidden in the dressing room, We had found our fetish.

I pressed myself against her and kissed her lips. Her face was hard and unyielding, but the way she rubbed herself against me made me shudder. I could just pick up her eyes behind the visor, but shifted so the light blotted them out, turning her back into an object. She was a great mime and her robotic performance and rhythmical movements were so appealing.

I rubbed my crotch against her body and enjoyed the feeling, withdrawing at the last moment to let out my dick before I soiled myself. As I stepped aside, she began to rub her own metal crotch, enjoying it so much she cried out.

After that I was sweaty, and panting. And when the mask opened, her face looked drenched, and her deep panting exceeded mine.

"It can be done !" She proclaimed in triumph.

But the weirdest thing of all is that just as we left, I saw this guy who looked like Elvis. A bit older and fatter, but it really looked like him, voice and all ...