Insurance - part 13

[miriam_e]

(2153 words)

total so far:

24,832 / 50,000
(50%)

Oh cripes I am so late today!
I have sort of a good reason though. I was interrupted by the cool writers group I go to each month.

This chapter comes in at more than 2,000 words. Yay!
But I am still a whisker below halfway. Damn!
I'm going to try and keep above the 2,000 word boundary for future chapters.

Today's one is about two very cool concepts. Have fun reading it. :)

Let me know what you think.

(If you haven't started reading this story yet, it is best to start at the beginning. Scroll down below to part 1. It is down toward the bottom of this page.)

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.

13 - selves

Sally and Rachel met Zoe and Viv on the beach at their world. Hugs were exchanged. Zoe and Viv were dressed as before. Zoe was barefoot in a long red dress with white flower designs. She looked like a willowy teenager and had long, flowing brown hair. Viv had shorter hair, wore the white t-shirt and scuffed, tight, blue pants. She was barefoot too and had the appearance of a strongly set, though not tall, twenty-some year old. Neither woman was green.

Rachel and Sally wore simple, matching, white bikinis and looked exactly as they did in the 'real' world.

The morning sun, though lower to the sea horizon than in their previous visit, was warm in a sky almost devoid of clouds, pale, hazy blue near the horizon and deep, bright blue at the zenith. The breeze onto the land was cooler and a little stronger too. The small waves were about two handspans tall, and the fronds waved gently in the palms growing tall where the white sand gave way to shrubs.

Zoe said, "I think you two will enjoy this event."

Rachel asked, "Is it in this world or another?"

Viv answered, "Here, but another island. We flew over it last time you were here."

Zoe added, "We will be early because I want to introduce you to the musicians." She grabbed Viv's hand and they drifted gently into the air.

Sally launched herself into the air too and Rachel followed. She caught up and held her hand. It was like those dreams where there is nothing odd about flying -- you simply want to move in a direction and you find that you can.

The two couples flew out over the water, gradually gaining height till the island chain spread out below and before them. There were dozens of the small, randomly shaped islands, each covered in green, fringed with white sand which blended into the amazing blue of the water. At a couple of points in the flight one or two seagulls flew with them for a little while, before losing interest and returning to their feathered fellows.

Soon Zoe pointed ahead and she and Viv began to descend toward an island only slightly larger than average. At its center was what looked like a white crater. As they approached they could see that the 'crater' was a large, dish-shaped, open theater and that there was already a scattering of tiny figures gathering there. They noticed some other distant people flying in to the island singly and groups too.

They alighted gently upon the sand and walked up the beach to the grey sandy soil under the palm trees. As they walked further from the beach the landscape became more like a carefully groomed park or garden. It was open, the ground covered increasingly with short grass and daisies. There were still palm trees, but little shrubbery.

Ahead was an enormous, exotic-looking white structure. It looked like a little like those high-speed stop-frame images of the crown-shaped splash a drop makes falling into milk, except that this was much more fine and delicate. White spheres that must have each been several meters across were suspended above thin spires that leaned outward at regular intervals around the wide building.

There were more people here, but still no more than thirty over the hundred meters of grassy area that could be seen to the left and right. Most were walking toward the white building, though others were standing in small groups, chatting. When Zoe and Viv reached the white wall they didn't slow, they simply walked through. Rachel looked at each other in surprise and followed. The wall offered no resistance at all.

Inside the enormous arena -- it must have been 200 meters across -- spaced about 20 meters apart around the edge were black spheres that seemed flecked with sparkles. They constantly roiled with energy. Every now and then people would step from them. Zoe noticed Rachel looking at the black spheres and explained, "Teleport stations. Purely decorative of course. In VR you don't need a receiver, just a coordinate for your destination. But they are pretty, and dramatic."

Rachel thought for a moment. "What would happen if someone walked into one?"

Zoe answered, "They'd step out of the matching gate, elsewhere in this world or another, but returning is simple. You just step back in."

Viv spoke to Zoe, "I just talked with them. They want us to come now."

Zoe put her arm around Viv. "Thanks honey," and asked Sally and Rachel, "Ready ladies?"

Suddenly they were all standing in a large dim room hung with red fabric decorated by gold tracery. Light seemed to seep in without any obvious source. Standing about the room, leaning against walls, sitting cross-legged on red cushions, were 5 young men. All five were dressed identically in deep blue long-sleeve shirt and long black trousers. Each had short black hair styled the same way, and each wore black sunglasses.

Zoe stepped forward and embraced the nearest and said "Hi guys."

They each lifted a hand and responded "Hi Zoe," in near synchrony.

Zoe stepped back and held out an arm to indicate the five young men, "Sally, Rachel, let me introduce The Selves."

Rachel and Sally waved greeting and the five responded. The one Zoe had embraced indicated big cushions on the floor behind the girls and bade them have a seat, then sat, himself. The girls sat.

He smiled and explained, "You understand how brain scanning works, right? A highly detailed 3D map of the brain is made and that information is used by a computer to create a working model of the brain. This recreates the person's consciousness inside the computer. Build a virtual body and a virtual world for them and you have a veep in their element. But have you ever thought what happens if you recreate a person more than once?" He paused for effect. "We were originally the same person. We have the same memories of a single childhood, growing, and developing musical skills. As a child I always had many different musical skills and felt on more than one occasion how useful it would be able to clone ourself. On emigration I ensured that five copies were made from the one brain scan, so that there are five of me." He beamed. All five of them beamed happily.

Another of the five took up the explanation, "Of course, the moment two copies exist simultaneously their experiences begin to diverge, so although we began from one person we are now five extremely similar, but slightly different people. Each of us specialises in a different musical area and accomplish far more than one ever could alone."

Zoe added, "A number of times people have had duplicates of themselves made as veeps, though usually very unsuccessfully. Most times the people who do it are people who have few friends and tend to be difficult to get along with. Unfortunately such people almost invariably find themselves impossible to live with."

One of the young guys spoke up, "We were always very comfortable with ourself. We were extremely lucky to have had a very stable and sane upbringing by wonderful parents. We enjoy our own and other's company."

Sally asked, "What kind of music do you make?"

The Selves brightened, clearly more happy talking about their music. The one nearest Sally answered, imagine fusing Bach with trance music, sprinkle a little Mozart... now multilayer the music several times." He grinned.

Rachel asked, "What kind of instruments do you play?"

Another answered, "In virtual reality you are limited only by your imagination. You're not limited by the laws of physics. Sounds can be designed with any kind of texture. We each use almost conventional-looking instruments, but that is just because the motor circuits of our brains know how to use keyboards, guitars, violins, trumpets, drums, and so on. But that just is for ease of interfacing. The sounds that come out of those instruments can be unlike anything you've heard..."

Another interrupted, "...or perfectly normal. It is entirely up to us."

Rachel smiled, "What's with the sunglasses? Part of the cool image I suppose. Beats me how you see in here."

A couple of them chuckled. One closest to Rachel said, "Before we emigrated we were blind. Technically we still are, but we can feel all the things around us using some neat programming Zoe did."

Zoe explained that, "We all have 3D maps of areas in our minds. It doesn't matter how we build them up, whether through seeing with our eyes, or through touch. The 3D environment map is the same and exists in the same part of the brain. I simply connected that map directly to the virtual world. The Selves are still blind, but know where everything is around them." She picked up a small pillow and threw it to one of the guys and he caught it easily. Then she asked him to turn around. He faced away from Zoe and she threw another pillow above his head. He raised his arm and caught it.

He turned back again, smiling. "It is better than seeing with eyes, because I see all around me at once."

Zoe held her hands behind her back, balled her fists, then spread three fingers. She asked, "How many fingers?"

He chuckled, "Three. We can see behind and inside things for quite a distance around us."

Another said, "Zoe is the best!"

All five chimed in "Yeah!"

Zoe blushed. She said, "So when are you slackers gonna play?"

One answered, "Patience, grasshopper... the arena isn't full enough yet."

Sally asked, "Where are we now? Are we under the arena?"

One of The Selves answered "Yep. Like our place?"

She replied, "It's beautiful! I love the red and gold."

One of them chuckled, "That's one thing we still can't see. We never had a sense of color, so there is no way for us to see it now."

Zoe said, "Well, actually..."

He added quickly, "...without making more brain additions than we are keen on at the moment. We already add to our brains, like most veeps -- improve numeracy, spatial ability, and so on -- but haven't done anything really major yet."

Another said, "Not like Zoe. She has given herself massive brain extensions." He addressed Zoe directly, "You must have an IQ of several hundred by now huh, Zoe." All five of them grinned.

She blushed again, uncomfortable at being the center of conversation. "IQ isn't really a meaningful concept. All IQ tests are so deeply biased by cultural assumptions they're worse than useless."

The five Selves burst into laughter. Viv joined in with them. Rachel and Sally smiled, not understanding the joke.

Two of the Selves put an arm around Zoe, one on each side, and another said, "The arena is starting to fill. We'd better show you around before the fun begins."

They took the girls on a tour of their 'pad' as they called it. It was a bewildering tangle of tunnels and rooms of various sizes all connecting with one central room which contained lots of musical instruments and odd bits and pieces of junk. This big room was where they created their music and was where they spent almost all their time. They didn't have to sleep, eat, bathe, or use the toilet. Often they would work on a composition for months continuously. One of them proclaimed delightedly. "This is a musician's dream, I tell you."

After a while the four girls teleported to the surface, to the arena. There were now hundreds of people present. Not all were in human form. Some were as unicorns or birds or butterflies. One was a Celtic knot floating in the air. There was an excited buzz of conversation.

Suddenly a strange, distorted gong sounded, like a giant, metal door closing. A hush fell over the arena. All eyes turned toward the center and those who were in the center hurried to the edge. A gathering hiss grew and the air over the center of the arena appeared to shimmer like heat haze. The hiss grew deeper and deeper till it became a low rumble that you could feel, while the shimmering air grew more defined like a watery glass sphere. Something could be seen inside, but it was vague and distorted, it might have been the five selves. Suddenly the watery sphere appeared to explode outwards and it was like night; like the sun had been switched off. Complex patterns of music crashed, rippled, and shattered over everybody's ears as the five selves were standing bathed in pools of light. Hundreds of people roared with applause. And the concert had begun.

The show went on for many hours. Rachel couldn't believe the incredible complexity of the music. It was unlike anything she'd heard before.

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Comments

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

me too! Enya is a writing and sewing companion of mine. I actually switched on "Caribbean Blue" while reading your chapter.

Anyway, I must stop procrastinating and get back to it! *cracks whip*

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I haven't got Caribbean Blue. I'll have to seek it out.

I play a lot of trance music while I'm writing. The optimism and energy help me keep at it for long periods. If you're not familiar with trance music email me your postal address. I'll burn a selection of tracks to introduce you to it and post them off to you.
miriam at werple dot net dot au

I have to go out again today. Won't be back for hours. Waaahhh!!
Looks like my next chapter won't go up till tonight. :(

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Ah. I see. It is a track off Shepher Moons and Paint The Sky With Stars. I don't have those.
I just noticed that the has another album due for release this month titled Amarantine. Cool!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Shepherd Moons that is. My "d" keeps sticking.