Insurance - part 15

[miriam_e]

(2156 words)

total so far:

29,525 / 50,000
(59%)

Catching up slowly, trying to make up for my lost day.

After the next instalment (which I might be able to bang out tonight if I work hard enough) it'll be back to the main story.

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.

15 - work (2)

The corridors here in the warehouse district were wide and tall enough for large machinery. They were like the streets Rachel remembered from her childhood. Lighting was dim here. The only colors were signs on warehouses. Everything else was grey.

The girls had decided to dress ultra-conservative, more like the cyborgs, so both were wearing all black t-shirts, miniskirts, capes, knee-length boots, and short gloves.

Rachel said, "Wow, this clothing is hot!"

Sally smiled. "You like it huh?"

Rachel shook her head, "No, I mean it's too hot; I'm boiling up with so much of my skin covered. I don't know how people manage with so many garments." She took her gloves off and pulled her t-shirt out from her miniskirt, ruffling it to force air under it. "I so wish I had my bikini on under this damn shirt. I could lose the stupid shirt."

Sally stopped and told her, take your cape off and give me the t-shirt. Rachel unclipped the cape and put it over her forearm. Then she looked around. The streets were deserted. She quickly pulled the t-shirt over head, handed it to Sally, then pulled the cape around her shoulders. Sally gripped the damp t-shirt with both hands and carefully tore about half its length off. She handed the smaller, bottom half of the t-shirt back to Rachel. She slipped it on. It was just tight enough so that it stayed on her breasts almost like a boob-tube.

Rachel chuckled, "Lets hope I don't have to move fast, or even bend over."

Sally suggested, "You could wear the shortened t-shirt over it. Your midrift would be exposed to cool you and if you still got too hot you could remove the t-shirt."

Rachel laughed, "And I can just see this piece staying there while taking the t-shirt off."

Sally smiled, "Well, there is another option. Take that off again."

Sally tore the short sleeves off the t-shirt and handed it back to her.

Rachel donned it and marveled, "Whatever would I do without you?" Her shoulders were free, as was her midrift, but it was still very modest. And it had a nice ragged look. "This is wonderful." She gave Sally a hug and a kiss.



As they approached the meeting place Rachel said to Sally, "You know, I really have no idea what to say to these people."

Her girlfriend put her arm around her and replied, "Don't worry honey, hopefully we won't really need to say anything in particular. With the blue court android there, the difficult people should wreck their own arguments."

They entered the small door in the giant door.

Inside the warehouse many more cyborgs were present than were at the last meeting. There must have been at least 100 present. Several were even larger than the big yellow gorilla woman, who was here again. There must have been 20 or more of the little fairy cyborgs. As before they were perched on the shoulders of the other cyborgs. Most of the cyborgs looked human or mostly human. Many of the cyborgs who were here last time waved to Sally and Rachel. Dina turned and greeted them too. She was still wearing her all white work clothes. The blue android was next to Dina.

Dina introduced them to the group, "Some of you will remember Rachel and Sally from a few days ago."

One of the human-looking cyborgs said in disgust, "Rachel? You're the one who came up with that lame pride march idea."

One of the larger cyborgs behind him frowned and said, "Don't be an asshole, Jake."

The blue android spoke softly, "'Lame' is emotive and inflammatory... as is asshole."

Rachel frowned and answered, "No, that would be my girlfriend Sally." She put an arm around Sally's shoulder.

"You're a dyke as well as a hundred percenter?" came the lip curling reply.

The blue android said, "Insults are irrelevant."

Rachel was a little taken aback. "You'd be one of those opposed to discrimination based on percentage? But only when it suits you, huh?"

There was a smattering of laughter around the group as the Jake smoldered.

Rachel sent to Sally, What's a dyke?

Sally sent back, Obsolete term for a lesbian, originally insulting slang, but rendered harmless when reclaimed by the lesbian community around the turn of the century.

Dina turned to Rachel. "Sorry about that."

Rachel smiled and sent to her, No problem. The more this guy speaks, the more he digs a hole for himself.

Dina spoke to the group, "Let's get back to the point, shall we? Some were pushing for a general strike. Others thought this would worsen matters."

One of the other human-like cyborgs, dressed all in grey, and with grey hair said, "What have we got to lose? They are replacing us all anyway. You all know Louise." He put his hand on the shoulder of a woman dressed in grey like himself. She looked like she was going to burst into tears. "She lost her job at the beginning of the week when she had to get an arm bearing replaced. She went in to work next day and was told to go home because she'd been replaced by an android."

Rachel said, "These replacements are being pushed through by a minority of the city managers. The others are don't like their aggressive and divisive tactics and are meeting tomorrow to try to put a stop to it."

"Oh great!" It was Jake again. "Not only a dyke and a hundred percenter but you're here to defend the city managers too!"

The blue android said, "'Dyke' and 'hundred percenter' are being used as insults. The speaker incorrectly characterised the previous statement as defending city managers."

That surprised Rachel as it felt unpleasantly like she was having to defend the city managers.

Rachel turned to Jake, "What do you want? Do you want all cyborgs to be condemned? Do you want cyborgs to be made into the enemy of hundred percenters? Or do you want all of us to be called human?"

The blue android: "There may well be more than three choices."

Her opponent sneered, "I'm being realistic. Hundred percenters will never accept us for who we are."

The blue android said, "Statement unprovable, though easily disproved."

Sally spoke up. "I can disprove it." All eyes turned to her. She kissed Rachel passionately. Then saying softly while staring adoringly into Rachel's eyes, "She accepts me totally as human."

Rachel smiled gently back into Sally's lovely eyes.

Jake's unconvinced response was, "Oh sure. And just how much machine have you got in you, kitten? Don't look like much to me."

The blue android, "Denigrating implication."

Sally turned and gave the cyborg her most charming smile. "One hundred percent. I'm one hundred percent machine -- an android."

The blue android's eyebrows went up, and most of those present were astonished.

Sally continued, "And she loves me without reserve. She has always treated me as human."

The dissenter spoke, "That's disgusting! It has nothing to do with why we're here. And it's immoral."

One of the other cyborgs standing near the difficult cyborg asked, "Why Jake? Jeez, you are so narrow. Really, I don't know why anybody listens to you. You have an example right here of a hundred percenter accepting someone who has less flesh than any of us and you won't see it. It's like you don't want us to be accepted."

What the blue android said at this point was lost in the general hubbub that erupted as everybody said something at once.

An enormous grey cyborg at the back let blast with a deafening siren which stopped all talk. He chuckled, "Amazing how that works. Now everybody behave or I'll have to set your ears ringing again."

Dina spoke up gently and carefully, "My husband accepts me completely and he's a hundred percenter. I'm sure a lot of you have friends who accept you as completely human. The idea that we can't be accepted is clearly wrong." A lot of the cyborgs were nodding their heads. "The way I see it, the quickest way to worsen our standing in the eyes of the public is to pit ourselves against them. A general strike will make it look like we want to antagonise them."

A tall, thin red cyborg said "A general strike will force them to see the real grievances..." and the rest was lost in general argument.

There was another blast from the siren at the back. Chuckling, the giant, grey cyborg said, "I just never get tired of doing that."

One of the other cyborgs said to the tall, thin red one, "Phil, nobody likes being forced. Of course they will see us as the enemy. We are in this position because we don't like being forced. A strike won't work."

The blue android's response, "Generalisation; some may like being forced. 'Enemy' conclusion doesn't necessarily follow," drew some puzzled looks.

Jake piped up, "We could destroy the androids they replace us with."

The blue android: "Suggestion of violent crime as a solution."

There were more than a few horrified looks at such a crazy suggestion.

Phil, the tall, red cyborg said, "Oh, and that'll work so well Jake. Murder is really likely to make them want to listen to us. Jeez, Jake! You are such an idiot! Just shut up will you. You're weakening the argument for a strike more than those opposing it. Don't help, please."

The blue android seemed confused by this and said just, "Sarcasm..."

Jake said, "It isn't murder; they're zero percent."

There was general catcalling and ruckus as Jake was pushed out to the edge of the group. This was lucky because Rachel was pretty sure the blue android's response, lost in all the noise, was that Jake's statement was legally correct.

When the fury had died away, one of the cyborgs said angrily to Jake, "You just don't get it do you? If androids can be accepted as human then we all get automatic, total acceptance."

Sally walked unobtrusively around the edge of the group to Jake.

Rachel suggested, "There may be another option, other than strike or accepting an uncertain future of being replaced."

All the cyborgs turned to her.

"Work with the androids." She said. "If you truly love your work then why stop just because someone tells you you're fired? A cyborg and an android together are more efficient than either alone. No city manager could logically argue against it."

One of the very human-looking cyborgs asked, "What about our pay? They're not going to want to pay us if we just do the work."

Rachel shrugged, "Nobody has needed money for years. And you might be surprised. They just might pay you anyway. It might be a reduced amount because of the cost of the androids, but that could actually work in your favor because it would hinder attempts to buy further androids for replacement."

The blue android: "Continued payment is unsupported speculation."

Dina said, "At least hold off on the strike until we see if this works. If this fails we can still try more things. If a strike fails then everything is lost. There is a meeting of the city managers tomorrow where I'd like to be able to tell them they have nothing to fear from cyborgs if they support us in what we want."

There was general discussion of this, but all the cyborgs seemed satisfied with this for now, so Dina wound up the meeting.

Dina hugged Rachel and thanked her. She looked around for Sally and was surprised to see her off to the side of the group with Jake and a couple of other cyborgs.

When Rachel and Sally left the warehouse most of the cyborgs were still in there talking, a happy and optimistic mood in the air. Rachel asked Sally what she'd been talking to Jake about.

"Oh, he's not such a bad guy. He's just a bit old fashioned, mixed up and lonely. I just wanted to get him to understand that androids adore all humans and that we aren't the enemy."

"Did you succeed?"

"I'm not sure, but I found out where he works and I know an android who works there. I'll fix them up on a date."

Rachel was about to say she thought that was an interesting strategy for subverting the opposition, but she realised it was nothing of the sort. Her sweet Sally had simply wanted to help the guy. He had talked about murdering androids and she wanted to get him a date so he didn't feel alone. Androids really were better than us, Rachel thought to herself. She felt a hot bloom of love for Sally.

Sally looked concerned, "Overheating again, honey?"


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