The guidance alarm woke me as the truck made its final approach to my ranch. I looked out the windshield and through the slip shielding. There lay the fence to my land. I was still more than seventy five miles from my new home. Damn it, Robert. I am supposed to lay low, not run a ranch larger than any other on the planet. I thumbed the mapping system to life. My land covered over fourteen million acres. I was definitely going to smack Robert when I saw him again.

The truck slowed, and I thumbed communications back to life. "Planetary Control, this is truck CVS1456 on final approach to destination. I request clearance to drop to one thousand meters and out of guidance control."

"Request granted."

"Affirmative, Planetary Control. Have a good day."

I dropped my altitude to private flight level. This was the highest you could fly outside of city limits without planetary control getting involved. I circled the ranch house as it came into view. I had to laugh. Robert had it built to my drawings -- times ten. This place was huge. I had designed a three-level ranch house with four bedrooms. This place had to have forty bedrooms. Robert had to overdo everything. I sighed.

I landed on the roof pad for the garage, and waited as the lift lowered the truck and trailer into the garage. Sitting in my garage was a sport flyer and several hoverbikes. Robert had set me up like a playboy millionaire.

I went to the door from the garage into the house and thumbed the identity plate. The door unlatched and swung open. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the woman standing there.

"Good morning, sir. I am your house android. May I get anything for you?"

"What is your name?"

"I am CFT521."

"You will answer to Cindy from now on."

"Yes, sir."

"Are there any other house droids?"

"Yes, sir, there are three additional female droids inside the house and a group of twenty male ranch droids to work the herds."

"Herds? How many head of cattle are on the ranch?"

"There are thirty thousand, one hundred and twenty two cows at present and seven bulls."

"Are there any other livestock?"

"There are ten thousand, one hundred and forty-four chickens. Seven thousand, three hundred and thirty-six pigs, and four thousand, seven hundred and twelve sheep."

"Call the droids to the house when it is convenient for them. I will meet and name them all."

"Yes, sir."

I walked into the house and headed to the front room. It was set up as a formal gathering hall. Robert must have thought I was going to turn into a party animal when I retired.

A couple of the droids passed by, carrying my bags to my room. I wondered why they had decided to make them so human looking. If you did not know what to look for you would not know they were droids.

I spent the day checking out my new house. The indoor swimming pool was a surprise, especially since there was an outdoor one as well. There was also a jacuzzi and sauna in both places. The gun storage room was exactly as I specified, and stocked as I had listed. The problem was there were ten of them under the mansion. The kitchen was a chef's dream. But the master bedroom was the shocker. It was massive. You could throw a formal dinner party in the shower. The closet had an assortment of clothes and shoes in my sizes. The man's vanity was set up with all the grooming supplies I would need.

There was a gymnasium on the bottom floor, along with a theater, bowling alley, and shooting range. The game room had a pool table, ping-pong table, several gaming systems, and a library of games for them.

When I finished my tour of the house, I went to a com panel and typed in Robert's identity number. Then I typed a text message of one word, "Asshole".

After taking one of the ATVs for a drive to look at parts of the ranch and meeting various ranch hands, I came back exhausted. Slipping into head, my mind was racing. My day was one of shocks and surprises. Why wouldn't the next day continue this?