Insurance - part 3

[miriam_e]

(2262 words)

total so far:

6,218 / 50,000

Late again, but more words than I expected. Yay!
I gotta run off to do some work.

Let me know what you think.

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.

03 - preparation

The garden was pretty. There was a pond with goldfish, lilypads, and a small waterfall trickling down rocks shaped into the wall. Grass was underfoot and there were several small shrubs in the area. There was a random sprinkling of decorative flowering plants. If it wasn't for the small gardenbot tending the plants it could have been entirely natural. The light looked natural too. It was easy to imagine that the sky was just the other side of the frosted glass ceiling several meters above, but it wasn't. This was 27 levels below the surface, more than 100 meters down.

There were sparrows here too. Rachel wondered how they came to be here. Had someone brought them down or had they somehow found their way through the maze of corridors?

"They got in when the complex was being built."

Rachel jumped and looked at Savannah.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. Everybody wonders the same thing when they see them. You were frowning."

Rachel smiled uncertainly.

Savannah continued, "I imagine they found the workmen's lunch crumbs irresistible. And once sealed in there was no way back out. It is nice having them here though. I and a few others feed them when the grass isn't seeding."

Rachel was sitting cross-legged on her cape spread out on the grass. She found that miniskirts are not good for sitting with legs crossed on the ground. Savannah was sitting nearby, her shiny pink bikini matching her bright pink hair.

"Show me again how many are likely to claim insurance and what the loss to the company would be." Rachel asked. She absently pulled at a piece of grass.

Savannah nodded and sent the data to Rachel's cap -- the filamentous wires embedded in the skin of her scalp. It projected the data directly to the visual cortex of her brain. Zoe closed her eyes and studied the data. The projected claims wouldn't send the company bankrupt immediately, but coupled with the low rate of new policy holders would mean the end of the company in just a few years.

"Show me the number of claims resulting from natural or accidental death."

"You mean exclude suicides and suspected suicides?"

"Yes."

Rachel looked at the data. The numbers were smaller, but not enough to save the company.

Trying to avoid interrupting Rachel, Savannah said, "We have gone over this a couple of times already today. Are you stuck?"

Rachel smiled shamefacedly.

"We've had corporate lawyers poring over these documents for months. I don't think the answer is in there. If it was he wouldn't be hiring a psychologist. He is hoping for you to convince the court regardless of the figures and the law."

Rachel pondered that. "You can't sway a court with emotional arguments. It is interested in logic, greater good, and fairness."

Savannah looked directly at Rachel. "Exactly."

Rachel followed that. "Veeps have almost no use for money. They live in virtual worlds and can create whatever they want out of nothing -- it is all just data. It is not fair for them to take money from humans who need it to buy things. The greater good is defined by benefitting the greatest number of humans. As veeps are not human--"

"Yet." Savannah interrupted.

Rachel nodded. "Mmmm. That is the dangerous pivot point for all this."

"Winning this case is not hard. How do we ensure they can't claim human status and come back for a second attack far stronger?"

Rachel shook her head. "We're flying blind. I wish we knew what they were going to argue."

Savannah looked thoughtful. "That's a good point. Maybe we can work that out. Our lawyers thought their most likely strategy was what you said in Mr Donaldson's office."

Rachel raised her eyebrows.

Savannah smiled, "He insists I record everything."

Rachel nodded. "Veeps almost certainly don't want the money, so they may want us to use an argument that will lead to the conclusion that they are human; that they didn't die, so no insurance need be paid out."

"They might even introduce a variant of it themselves."

"Surely they know we'll see that and keep away from it."

Savannah shrugged. "Perhaps they expect a purely legal defense. Also it probably doesn't matter a whole lot to them. They have thousands of years in which to patiently wait till humanity comes around to their way of thinking."

"Why mount the case at all then? The money doesn't matter. Time doesn't matter. I'm sure they don't much care what humans think of them."

"Perhaps it does matter to them how humans see them," Savannah suggested.

Rachel frowned.

"Don't you watch machinima Rachel?"

"Not very often, no."

"There has been some brilliant work lately that has gentle messages of sympathy for veeps."

"Why would anyone feel sorry for veeps?"

Savannah chuckled, "Not commiseration. Sympathy as in allegiance."

Rachel brightened. "And machinima is created in virtual reality," then frowned in thought again, "But the question remains: why would they want humans to think well of them?"

"You're the psychologist."

Rachel stood and walked about the grassy area. "To make it easier for people to emigrate to VR, perhaps? At the moment some groups are organised against them. For instance, all religions hate them." She chuckled. "They went straight to heaven without the churches."

"Religion has been declining for ages and churches have no real power anymore."

Rachel shuddered as she remembered the old days when they came so close to snuffing out civilisation in their rabid desire for a final war of religious intolerance.

"OK. Economists. They believe that money is some kind of final truth. Veeps don't need money and undermine the economy by suggesting that you can have everything for nothing..." Rachel smiled wryly, "if you give everything up."

Savannah countered with, "But businesses have begun to prefer veeps as employees over flesh and blood in some jobs. They don't need sleep, they often enhance their own minds, and they work for peanuts. Veeps have been good for the economy."

Rachel nodded. "How about the energy corporations? They came close to owning and controlling everything. Veeps don't need the grid. Their computer systems use ambient energy."

Savannah was silent for a few moments. "Veeps are beyond their influence, but as far as I know big energy doesn't care one way or the other whether people emigrate to VR."

"The unions? They're strongly opposed to veeps entering the workforce. It displaces human workers."

"They are almost as powerless as the churches after they lost their legal battles against robots, and later, us androids."

"Slaveowners."

Savannah looked surprised, "Excuse me?"

Rachel smiled. "It isn't a technical term. It's what I call people who like to control others. They might oppose emigration. They are losing their power."

"There are plenty of us androids. Why force people to be unwilling slaves when you can have people who are happy to serve?"

"Perhaps they don't see you as human. Most people don't. They may want to be able to force people... like how rape isn't about the sex, it is about the power."

Savannah looked at Rachel with a soft expression. "You see us as human though, don't you." It was a statement not a question.

Rachel blushed. She thought of Sally at home. Right now she was probably on the lounge, reading, naked... Rachel's pulse shot up, she felt a twinge between her legs, and her mouth went dry. She gulped, then smiled, embarrassed, as if Savannah could see what she was thinking. "Sorry I was thinking of... um..."

"Sally?" She smiled seeing a hint of confusion flit over Rachel's face. "I had to do a background check on you before you were hired of course," she explained.

"Uh... of course." Oddly, Rachel felt a little easier knowing that Savanna knew.

"I didn't bother passing on that information as it may have prejudiced your selection, so your secret's safe with me." She winked at Rachel.

Rachel smiled back uncertainly. "Back to the case. We have," she ticked them off on her fingers, "churches, unions, and slaveowners as being the groups most clearly opposed to emigration. Why would veeps go after the insurance industry? They don't need the money."

"...in VR. They don't need money in VR. But here in the real world they do. If they want to oppose people here they need money."

Rachel sat again. The damn miniskirt riding up uncomfortably as she did. "Well... that could be it..."

"But you don't really think so."

Rachel shook her head. Put her head in her hands and thought a moment. "If it is all about undoing opposition to emigration, why make more enemies by destroying the insurance industry?"

"The insurance industry is dying anyway. You've seen the figures. Maybe they think milking it while it still has assets is a good idea." Savannah shrugged.

"Again, why make enemies? I doubt it is money. They make plenty as it is."

"So it all comes back to being seen as human. Why would that be so important to them?"

"It isn't to you?"

Savannah shook her head. "I adore humans, but I have no wish to be one. Why would I?"

"Sally does." Rachel felt happy just saying her name. "Perhaps it's because I already feel she is. What counts is here." She tapped her head. "This," she pinched the green skin on her arm, "is unimportant."

Savannah gave a gentle smile and said softly, "Sally is very lucky."

"I'm the lucky one."

They sat for a while in the greenery of the garden. The sparrows chittered and hopped and flitted about. The little waterfall splashed and echoed. The gardenbot slowly weeded and trimmed.

Savannah broke the quiet. "We still have a lot to do and the case is first thing in the morning. Mr Donaldson had me reserve a suite for you. He was under the impression you lived alone and wouldn't have a problem staying overnight."

Rachel had been looking forward to getting back to Sally, but Savannah was right. There was still a lot to be done. She nodded. "I'll call Sally and let her know I won't be back till tomorrow."

---

The room was half the size of Rachel's entire home. It had the same luxurious, deep red carpet, wood-grain walls, and point lights in the ceiling. It had a large window in one wall which displayed the view from the surface 27 floors above. Savannah had said it was piped down using optics -- no electronics. What you saw was the actual view; not a rendition of it. It was night up there and Rachel was tired. It had been a long day.

Rachel sipped a glass of water, looking at the night scene beyond the window. She was considering talking to Sally again on the net when there was a knock at the door. She was naked so she called out "Just a minute," while she fetched her cape and wrapped it around herself.

"It's just me, Savannah."

Rachel felt guiltily pleased and annoyed at the same time. With the cape wrapped around her she opened the door, conscious of her nakedness under the covering.

Savannah strode in, glamorous and confident. "Just wanted to check that you are settled and happy."

She looked at Rachel clutching the cape around her. "But you aren't are you. You look very uncomfortable. Here, don't worry about that. I don't care if you are clothed or not. The only thing I care about is your wellbeing."

Rachel thought that sounded sensible and was considering dropping the silly cape, but Savannah horrified her by dropping her own clothing.

"Eeep! What are you doing?"

Savannah looked innocently surprised. "I thought it would put you more at ease if we were on the same footing. It makes the men more happy when I do. I thought that seeing as you are a lesbian it would help you too."

"Well you thought wrong. Put them back on." Rachel gulped and could have bit her tongue as she said that. She could hardly take her eyes off Savannah's pink areolas and the bright pink hair of her crotch -- the same color as the hair on her head.

Savannah looked a little confused as put the bikinis on again. "I'll go then. Sorry Rachel."

"No, I'm sorry. Do stay. I need someone to talk to," she tied the cape about her waist but felt better now.

They talked for hours about androids and humans and veeps and what is happening to society.

When it was time for Rachel to sleep, Savannah asked if she could stay. When Rachel was about to protest Savannah said "You know that Sally wouldn't mind."

Rachel realised that was true, "But I'm monogamous. Sally is the one I love. I'm not in the market for anyone else or even casual sex."

Savannah laughed. "Oh I know that. I understood that when you got me to put my clothes back on. I want to stay for my sake." She blushed. "I want to know what it is like to be with someone who sees me as human."

Rachel couldn't think of anything to say. All she could think was how the hell am I going to get to sleep with this gorgeous woman here?

In the end it proved not to be a problem. Sex didn't intrude at all. The dynamic was entirely different. Rachel fell asleep easily with Savannah snuggled up against her like a child needing comfort. It made her feel protective, like a mother, and she dozed off happy and relaxed.

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