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Insurance - part 2
(2,525 words)
I'm a bit later posting this than I intended. Fell into bed early and exhausted last night and woke up with a rotten headache. But I have it done, and happily with a word count that makes up for yesterday's low count.
Note that what follows contains adult concepts.
The love of two females for each other is central to this story so if you are offended by that stop reading now.
Rachel surfaced gradually from sleep. She lifted her head to look at the clock. 6am. Good. Closed her eyes again for a while.
---
Rachel stumbled, yawning, into the dining/living area and flomped down in one of the armchairs near Sally, who looked up and smiled her perfect smile at her. Rachel returned a blurry version of the smile and leaned forward to pick up the hot cup of tea Sally had made for her.
Sally was spread out on the lounge reading from a tablet computer, as was her custom. She had probably spent most of the night so engaged. Being an android, Sally could consume War and Peace electronically in seconds, but she preferred to take her time reading the human way, on a tablet computer. She still used the direct method to learn when it was important, but for recreation she preferred the slow way (though slow for Sally would have been speed-reading for a human). She insisted that passage of time during reading added an important dimension that the direct method missed. Rachel had often wondered if it was simply Sally's love of humanity that led her to read the old-fashioned way. All androids loved humans and humanity, but Sally... Rachel sighed as the searing pleasure of her love for Sally stabbed through her again.
"Careful, you'll spill your tea." Sally was smiling at her.
Rachel gulped it down and replaced the cup on the coffee table.
"What are you reading?"
"Cameron Rogers' latest novel. Excellent piece of work."
Rachel got up, stepped over to the lounge, lifted Sally's legs so she could sit there in contact with her lover.
Sally dropped the book down on her chest, "No hanky panky sweetie. First day at the new job today."
Groaning Rachel forced herself to her feet again. She leaned down, kissed Sally on the forehead, "You're right."
"Of course I'm right. When am I ever wrong?" Sally ached to get up and wrap herself around Rachel, but she knew that would only delay her.
"Androids! Why would I take up with an android?" She pretended to tug on her hair and turned to flash a smile at Sally, regretting the joke immediately.
Sally smiled back. "Go get dressed, lowly human."
---
Their front door slid silently open and Rachel and Sally stepped out into the chill air. Kookaburra laughs echoed in the valley along with lilting currawong chorus and assorted twitterings. There was still mist below. Goosebumps immediately surfaced Rachel's skin. Sally, of course, remained as smooth as ever. Rachel let the cape hang behind her as she stood in the early golden sunlight, her green skin exposed to the light. She was wearing the same conservative outfit as yesterday.
"You'll get cold."
Rachel shook her head, her eyes hooded in pleasure. The first morning sunlight on the algae in her skin always felt so nice. A tingle spread over her as they began manufacturing sugars, and vitamins and other trace nutrients. Humans still needed to eat; the algae worked too slowly to fuel the full demands of a human body, but all the specialised requirements were taken care of. Total protection from the damage of ultraviolet light was a nice bonus too.
Rachel remembered what it was like just twenty year ago when people used to cover themselves up against a sun rendered harmful. Ozone depletion would continue for a couple of centuries even though people had long since ceased to pollute the atmosphere with CFCs. It would take hundreds of years for the CFCs to break down.
"Come on dreamy. You have a job to get to."
Rachel kissed Sally, whose eyes flicked around to see if anybody was nearby. Rachel linked arms with her and they walked down the dew laden, grassy path, Rachel's sandals and Sally's bare feet crunching gumleaves littering it.
---
Inside the station Rachel ran the last 50 meters to the train which as it was sliding into the platform. Her cape billowed and flapped behind her. She boarded and turned to wave to Sally, who returned a wriggling fingers wave.
After Sally and the platform slid silently out of sight Rachel turned to choose a seat. The train was almost empty, with less than 10 passengers, most with their eyes closed to read books or watch shows. Sally sat near the door. The carriage was lit with gentle, diffuse light which appeared to be sourceless, but came from the curved softly glowing ceiling panels.
The journey was eventless, smooth, and noiseless, with a dozen stops to her destination. Rachel spent her time, like her fellow passengers, with her eyes closed, reading. To ensure she was ready for the new job, she re-read a summation she'd assembled of the recent history of veeps. The name came from the initials of "virtual person". Ray Kurzweil had been one of the great proponents of scanning technology, and one of the first veeps. In Australia Damien Broderick continued to champion the cause from his virtual world, producing a veritable flood of books since his "emigration" to virtual reality.
One of the most enigmatic figures in the field was known simply as Zoe. She had been born with cerebral palsy which had damaged the motor nerves of her brain, but not the intellectual functions. She was an active mind in a body that refused to move properly. Back in the days when "spastics" were commonly thought to be drooling idiots, her amazing parents had nurtured her mind with knowledge and love. It wasn't until direct brain connection became available that her extraordinary abilities became evident. The fine, hairlike filaments that everybody now wore over their scalp hadn't been developed back then. The early versions of the cap were large, thick helmets. Extremely sensitive aerials in the cap picked up the tiny electrical fluctuations of nerve action in the brain and a powerful computer built up a three dimensional map. This made it possible to send data directly from your brain to a computer, and Zoe took to it like a fish to water. Not having been encumbered with natural fine movement she used this equipment in ways that others could only marvel at.
Brain-reading technology was later refined to create the scanners that were used to copy a complete mind into a computer. The argument made by Kurzweil, Broderick, and others was that such a duplicated mind would continue the consciousness of the original person after biological body died. That is what a veep was: a person scanned into a computer, living in a computer-generated world. Rachel didn't see the point. She felt it was like pretending to be alive.
The complement to brain reading was brain stimulation. This is the technology Rachel was using to read right now. In this case the system was reversed, with feeble electric pulses transmitted to individual nerves in the brain. It worked best on cells at the surface of the cortex -- the grey wrinkled outer part of the brain. It was hard enough for the equipment to focus through the bone of the skull; deeper in the brain was almost impossible.
Rachel read more about Zoe because she understood she was advising the veep representative in the court case. Just as she had shown great ability with the early brain reading technology, she had been equally adept at taking input from computers. It was rumored that she spent all her time, vegetable-like with her mind inside virtual worlds. Rachel shuddered. How horrible. She felt repulsed and sorry for her.
Rachel covered more background information about the court case she'd be representing; the fears of the insurance companies, the laws surrounding death and suicide, and the legal arguments being used by the veeps -- or rather their human representatives. Veeps, not being human under the law, were not entitled to argue their case.
Presently the train pulled in to Rachel's destination. Her reader alerted her, she opened her eyes, got up, and exited to a station very like the one near home.
The Station opened into an large subterranean complex. Rachel rarely went into the city, but whenever she did it always reminded her of the giant shopping malls her mother would sometimes take her to. As a child Rachel would be awestruck by those magical places, so different to the dirty, smelly, noisy cities outside. Now, of course, the entire city was inside, like a complex of shopping malls. One great difference between those days and the present was that cities and shopping malls used to be bustling with throngs of people, but now they were sparsely populated. Walking along the wide carpeted corridor in the side of an enormous open area she looked over the railing and could see no more than perhaps thirty people in the couple of acres of central court below. The whole area was lit by morning sunlight streaming in through a glass dome above.
Rachel stopped at elevator doors with big, white, illuminated letters "LIFT" above them. The machine recognised a waiting human and signaled for service automatically. Shortly, the doors slid open with the same ding sound elevators always had. She stepped over the word "OTIS" embedded in the bottom of the door, and said "Insurers Consolidated" to the computer as the doors closed. The elevator whisked her downward while letters on the wall and a soft voice counted the floors. At 27 it came gently to a stop, the doors dinged again and slid open. She stepped out into the plush offices of Insurers Consolidated. Wine red carpeting, dark wood-patterned walls. She walked ahead to the elegant receptionist android who greeted her, while Rachel's computer conferred via wireless link.
The android's large, brown eyes brightened. "Rachel. Welcome. I'm Savannah. Mr Donaldson will see you shortly. Would you like me to get you a drink or a snack?" She had short, pink hair and skin as pale as Sally's.
"No thank you, I'm fine."
"You have quite a reputation Rachel. I hope your work with us will be as rewarding for you as I'm sure it will be for us." The android was almost gushing excitedly.
"Thank you Savannah, I'm sure it will." Rachel wondered if androids gossiped and if Savannah somehow knew about Sally, or if this was how Savannah reacted to all humans.
Savannah came out from behind her desk and stood, facing Rachel, leaning back on her desk, clad only in a tiny bikini top and a string bikini bottom. Rachel gulped and marveled at the android's finely crafted beauty.
"Rachel, if you ever need any resources please ask me. I've been instructed to help you in any way possible."
"That's most kind. Thank you." She smiled warmly at the android and received a megawatt smile in return. Rachel looked nervously down at her own black-sandaled feet. Damn. This android made her skin feel hot. She was blushing.
Savannah said, "Mr Donaldson will see you now Rachel. This way please."
She led down a dim corridor with the same deep red carpet and walls of fake dark wood. Lighting was via old pin lights in the ceiling. Savannah opened a door near the end of the corridor and introduced her to someone inside. "Rachel to see you sir." Then passed Rachel with a soft smile and a touch on the shoulder.
Rachel entered the office. In contrast to the corridor it was all stainless steel, marble, and glass, except for three large black, velvet armchairs. The room was lit by a large, luminous screen entirely covering one wall, depicting an old, turn-of-the-century cityscape as if seen from a skyscraper. Music from the late 90s played quietly. This person clearly lived in the past. Mr Donaldson was a well-proportioned, if somewhat slender, older man with greying hair and weirdly, casual green briefs almost camouflaged against his green skin. Weird for someone who obviously lived in the past to be dressing in the latest fashion. He wore several gold rings on his fingers, a gold eyebrow ring, and a gold nipple ring.
He strode forward, hand out, to shake Rachel's hand. "Rachel. So glad to meet you at last. I've heard so much about you. Take a seat and we'll discuss the case." He indicated an armchair. "Can I get you anything?"
Rachel seated herself. "Thank you, no."
He seated on the other side of the glass coffee table and crossed his legs, leaning back into the chair. "You understand our predicament. We can't possibly pay out to the damned veeps and hope to survive. Our income is diminishing as it is. This would be the coup de grace."
Rachel nodded. "Yes. It seems fairly straightforward. I'm not sure why you need a psychologist to argue your case though. The law seems clear. Wouldn't you be better with a lawyer?"
Donaldson smiled, "We have been using lawyers. They just argue the law, but things are no longer so simple. It is not just a matter of law. We believe veeps are going to use this case as a wedge to argue that they are human."
Rachel thought for a moment. "But that would defeat their aims, wouldn't it? They want to claim the insurance money from the death of their biological bodies."
"Ostensibly yes, but notice how you described it: 'the death of their bodies'? This is how everyone is beginning to think of it."
Rachel frowned. "Well, why don't you agree with them? If they are continuing to live then..." Rachel's eyes widened. "Oh. I think I see. At the moment they are excluded by the law because they are not recognised as human. If they succeed in establishing that they are a continuation of their biological selves then they will lose this case because they won't be dead, but then being recognised under law as human will enable them to mount a second case to collect the insurance money, presumably by redefining death as almost like a disability."
Donaldson's face lit up with a big grin. "By golly girl! Got it in one. You're as good as they said. The veeps don't really mind losing this case so long as they lose on their terms. They hope to guide the court to their conclusions. We need you to steer them away from that."
"When is the hearing?"
"Oh it has been going on for some weeks. And I don't mind admitting it is going badly. We want you to speak tomorrow."
The blood drained from Rachel's face. "Tomorrow? But I haven't prepared."
"Oh, don't worry about that. We have all the information you need. Savannah will help you with it. Frankly there isn't all that much to know. And tomorrow is just one hearing. There will be another in a few days." He smiled, with confidence that Rachel would succeed where others hadn't.
Rachel sighed. "Okay... You are certainly paying me enough." She stood. "Better get started then."
Donaldson smiled in relief and stood too. "Savannah?" he said to the air.
Savannah opened the door a few moments later and smiled warmly at Rachel. "I'll take you to your office."
I'm a bit later posting this than I intended. Fell into bed early and exhausted last night and woke up with a rotten headache. But I have it done, and happily with a word count that makes up for yesterday's low count.
Note that what follows contains adult concepts.
The love of two females for each other is central to this story so if you are offended by that stop reading now.
02 - meet the boss
Rachel surfaced gradually from sleep. She lifted her head to look at the clock. 6am. Good. Closed her eyes again for a while.
---
Rachel stumbled, yawning, into the dining/living area and flomped down in one of the armchairs near Sally, who looked up and smiled her perfect smile at her. Rachel returned a blurry version of the smile and leaned forward to pick up the hot cup of tea Sally had made for her.
Sally was spread out on the lounge reading from a tablet computer, as was her custom. She had probably spent most of the night so engaged. Being an android, Sally could consume War and Peace electronically in seconds, but she preferred to take her time reading the human way, on a tablet computer. She still used the direct method to learn when it was important, but for recreation she preferred the slow way (though slow for Sally would have been speed-reading for a human). She insisted that passage of time during reading added an important dimension that the direct method missed. Rachel had often wondered if it was simply Sally's love of humanity that led her to read the old-fashioned way. All androids loved humans and humanity, but Sally... Rachel sighed as the searing pleasure of her love for Sally stabbed through her again.
"Careful, you'll spill your tea." Sally was smiling at her.
Rachel gulped it down and replaced the cup on the coffee table.
"What are you reading?"
"Cameron Rogers' latest novel. Excellent piece of work."
Rachel got up, stepped over to the lounge, lifted Sally's legs so she could sit there in contact with her lover.
Sally dropped the book down on her chest, "No hanky panky sweetie. First day at the new job today."
Groaning Rachel forced herself to her feet again. She leaned down, kissed Sally on the forehead, "You're right."
"Of course I'm right. When am I ever wrong?" Sally ached to get up and wrap herself around Rachel, but she knew that would only delay her.
"Androids! Why would I take up with an android?" She pretended to tug on her hair and turned to flash a smile at Sally, regretting the joke immediately.
Sally smiled back. "Go get dressed, lowly human."
---
Their front door slid silently open and Rachel and Sally stepped out into the chill air. Kookaburra laughs echoed in the valley along with lilting currawong chorus and assorted twitterings. There was still mist below. Goosebumps immediately surfaced Rachel's skin. Sally, of course, remained as smooth as ever. Rachel let the cape hang behind her as she stood in the early golden sunlight, her green skin exposed to the light. She was wearing the same conservative outfit as yesterday.
"You'll get cold."
Rachel shook her head, her eyes hooded in pleasure. The first morning sunlight on the algae in her skin always felt so nice. A tingle spread over her as they began manufacturing sugars, and vitamins and other trace nutrients. Humans still needed to eat; the algae worked too slowly to fuel the full demands of a human body, but all the specialised requirements were taken care of. Total protection from the damage of ultraviolet light was a nice bonus too.
Rachel remembered what it was like just twenty year ago when people used to cover themselves up against a sun rendered harmful. Ozone depletion would continue for a couple of centuries even though people had long since ceased to pollute the atmosphere with CFCs. It would take hundreds of years for the CFCs to break down.
"Come on dreamy. You have a job to get to."
Rachel kissed Sally, whose eyes flicked around to see if anybody was nearby. Rachel linked arms with her and they walked down the dew laden, grassy path, Rachel's sandals and Sally's bare feet crunching gumleaves littering it.
---
Inside the station Rachel ran the last 50 meters to the train which as it was sliding into the platform. Her cape billowed and flapped behind her. She boarded and turned to wave to Sally, who returned a wriggling fingers wave.
After Sally and the platform slid silently out of sight Rachel turned to choose a seat. The train was almost empty, with less than 10 passengers, most with their eyes closed to read books or watch shows. Sally sat near the door. The carriage was lit with gentle, diffuse light which appeared to be sourceless, but came from the curved softly glowing ceiling panels.
The journey was eventless, smooth, and noiseless, with a dozen stops to her destination. Rachel spent her time, like her fellow passengers, with her eyes closed, reading. To ensure she was ready for the new job, she re-read a summation she'd assembled of the recent history of veeps. The name came from the initials of "virtual person". Ray Kurzweil had been one of the great proponents of scanning technology, and one of the first veeps. In Australia Damien Broderick continued to champion the cause from his virtual world, producing a veritable flood of books since his "emigration" to virtual reality.
One of the most enigmatic figures in the field was known simply as Zoe. She had been born with cerebral palsy which had damaged the motor nerves of her brain, but not the intellectual functions. She was an active mind in a body that refused to move properly. Back in the days when "spastics" were commonly thought to be drooling idiots, her amazing parents had nurtured her mind with knowledge and love. It wasn't until direct brain connection became available that her extraordinary abilities became evident. The fine, hairlike filaments that everybody now wore over their scalp hadn't been developed back then. The early versions of the cap were large, thick helmets. Extremely sensitive aerials in the cap picked up the tiny electrical fluctuations of nerve action in the brain and a powerful computer built up a three dimensional map. This made it possible to send data directly from your brain to a computer, and Zoe took to it like a fish to water. Not having been encumbered with natural fine movement she used this equipment in ways that others could only marvel at.
Brain-reading technology was later refined to create the scanners that were used to copy a complete mind into a computer. The argument made by Kurzweil, Broderick, and others was that such a duplicated mind would continue the consciousness of the original person after biological body died. That is what a veep was: a person scanned into a computer, living in a computer-generated world. Rachel didn't see the point. She felt it was like pretending to be alive.
The complement to brain reading was brain stimulation. This is the technology Rachel was using to read right now. In this case the system was reversed, with feeble electric pulses transmitted to individual nerves in the brain. It worked best on cells at the surface of the cortex -- the grey wrinkled outer part of the brain. It was hard enough for the equipment to focus through the bone of the skull; deeper in the brain was almost impossible.
Rachel read more about Zoe because she understood she was advising the veep representative in the court case. Just as she had shown great ability with the early brain reading technology, she had been equally adept at taking input from computers. It was rumored that she spent all her time, vegetable-like with her mind inside virtual worlds. Rachel shuddered. How horrible. She felt repulsed and sorry for her.
Rachel covered more background information about the court case she'd be representing; the fears of the insurance companies, the laws surrounding death and suicide, and the legal arguments being used by the veeps -- or rather their human representatives. Veeps, not being human under the law, were not entitled to argue their case.
Presently the train pulled in to Rachel's destination. Her reader alerted her, she opened her eyes, got up, and exited to a station very like the one near home.
The Station opened into an large subterranean complex. Rachel rarely went into the city, but whenever she did it always reminded her of the giant shopping malls her mother would sometimes take her to. As a child Rachel would be awestruck by those magical places, so different to the dirty, smelly, noisy cities outside. Now, of course, the entire city was inside, like a complex of shopping malls. One great difference between those days and the present was that cities and shopping malls used to be bustling with throngs of people, but now they were sparsely populated. Walking along the wide carpeted corridor in the side of an enormous open area she looked over the railing and could see no more than perhaps thirty people in the couple of acres of central court below. The whole area was lit by morning sunlight streaming in through a glass dome above.
Rachel stopped at elevator doors with big, white, illuminated letters "LIFT" above them. The machine recognised a waiting human and signaled for service automatically. Shortly, the doors slid open with the same ding sound elevators always had. She stepped over the word "OTIS" embedded in the bottom of the door, and said "Insurers Consolidated" to the computer as the doors closed. The elevator whisked her downward while letters on the wall and a soft voice counted the floors. At 27 it came gently to a stop, the doors dinged again and slid open. She stepped out into the plush offices of Insurers Consolidated. Wine red carpeting, dark wood-patterned walls. She walked ahead to the elegant receptionist android who greeted her, while Rachel's computer conferred via wireless link.
The android's large, brown eyes brightened. "Rachel. Welcome. I'm Savannah. Mr Donaldson will see you shortly. Would you like me to get you a drink or a snack?" She had short, pink hair and skin as pale as Sally's.
"No thank you, I'm fine."
"You have quite a reputation Rachel. I hope your work with us will be as rewarding for you as I'm sure it will be for us." The android was almost gushing excitedly.
"Thank you Savannah, I'm sure it will." Rachel wondered if androids gossiped and if Savannah somehow knew about Sally, or if this was how Savannah reacted to all humans.
Savannah came out from behind her desk and stood, facing Rachel, leaning back on her desk, clad only in a tiny bikini top and a string bikini bottom. Rachel gulped and marveled at the android's finely crafted beauty.
"Rachel, if you ever need any resources please ask me. I've been instructed to help you in any way possible."
"That's most kind. Thank you." She smiled warmly at the android and received a megawatt smile in return. Rachel looked nervously down at her own black-sandaled feet. Damn. This android made her skin feel hot. She was blushing.
Savannah said, "Mr Donaldson will see you now Rachel. This way please."
She led down a dim corridor with the same deep red carpet and walls of fake dark wood. Lighting was via old pin lights in the ceiling. Savannah opened a door near the end of the corridor and introduced her to someone inside. "Rachel to see you sir." Then passed Rachel with a soft smile and a touch on the shoulder.
Rachel entered the office. In contrast to the corridor it was all stainless steel, marble, and glass, except for three large black, velvet armchairs. The room was lit by a large, luminous screen entirely covering one wall, depicting an old, turn-of-the-century cityscape as if seen from a skyscraper. Music from the late 90s played quietly. This person clearly lived in the past. Mr Donaldson was a well-proportioned, if somewhat slender, older man with greying hair and weirdly, casual green briefs almost camouflaged against his green skin. Weird for someone who obviously lived in the past to be dressing in the latest fashion. He wore several gold rings on his fingers, a gold eyebrow ring, and a gold nipple ring.
He strode forward, hand out, to shake Rachel's hand. "Rachel. So glad to meet you at last. I've heard so much about you. Take a seat and we'll discuss the case." He indicated an armchair. "Can I get you anything?"
Rachel seated herself. "Thank you, no."
He seated on the other side of the glass coffee table and crossed his legs, leaning back into the chair. "You understand our predicament. We can't possibly pay out to the damned veeps and hope to survive. Our income is diminishing as it is. This would be the coup de grace."
Rachel nodded. "Yes. It seems fairly straightforward. I'm not sure why you need a psychologist to argue your case though. The law seems clear. Wouldn't you be better with a lawyer?"
Donaldson smiled, "We have been using lawyers. They just argue the law, but things are no longer so simple. It is not just a matter of law. We believe veeps are going to use this case as a wedge to argue that they are human."
Rachel thought for a moment. "But that would defeat their aims, wouldn't it? They want to claim the insurance money from the death of their biological bodies."
"Ostensibly yes, but notice how you described it: 'the death of their bodies'? This is how everyone is beginning to think of it."
Rachel frowned. "Well, why don't you agree with them? If they are continuing to live then..." Rachel's eyes widened. "Oh. I think I see. At the moment they are excluded by the law because they are not recognised as human. If they succeed in establishing that they are a continuation of their biological selves then they will lose this case because they won't be dead, but then being recognised under law as human will enable them to mount a second case to collect the insurance money, presumably by redefining death as almost like a disability."
Donaldson's face lit up with a big grin. "By golly girl! Got it in one. You're as good as they said. The veeps don't really mind losing this case so long as they lose on their terms. They hope to guide the court to their conclusions. We need you to steer them away from that."
"When is the hearing?"
"Oh it has been going on for some weeks. And I don't mind admitting it is going badly. We want you to speak tomorrow."
The blood drained from Rachel's face. "Tomorrow? But I haven't prepared."
"Oh, don't worry about that. We have all the information you need. Savannah will help you with it. Frankly there isn't all that much to know. And tomorrow is just one hearing. There will be another in a few days." He smiled, with confidence that Rachel would succeed where others hadn't.
Rachel sighed. "Okay... You are certainly paying me enough." She stood. "Better get started then."
Donaldson smiled in relief and stood too. "Savannah?" he said to the air.
Savannah opened the door a few moments later and smiled warmly at Rachel. "I'll take you to your office."
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I do live there and it is a bit like that, yes. :)
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Cool. If you have the time I'd be interested in what you think.
I must try illustrating some of the scenes too...
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I'm finally getting around to reading the back-log now after a long week either with very little time for web access or mild concerns about work-safe issues. I doubt Clown would have a problem with me reading this based on the content so far, but I wanted to suss it out at home first.
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Ummm... chapter 7 "willpower" might not be worksafe. :)
After pretty-much giving up on being able to write sexual scenes, that day the characters took over and wrote it themselves. I was just taken along on the ride wondering what the hell was going on.
Thanks for reading. :) I'm rapt.