Insurance - part 17

[miriam_e]

(2109 words)

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We have completed the little diversion into the info about work and now are back onto the main story again.

After the first bit of fun it becomes another blah blah blah piece... but I like that stuff. :)
Hope I don't bore you too much with it. Sally does her best to liven it up.
Incidentally, the first part seems like just a bit of silliness, but there is a good reason for it. I mean it is no great portent of things to come or anything like that. It simply relates to the whole theme of this chapter... not important though.

Hope you enjoy. 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.

17 - I thought you thought

Sally and Rachel were sitting in the sun on a cape spread out on the grassy area outside their door. Sally had been dyed green again. They were both wearing very tiny, white bikinis, and both barefoot. Rachel was dreamily enjoying the sun as her skin algae manufactured vitamins and some sugars while being a near perfect sunscreen. Her skin just felt lovely and tingly. She felt drugged with the warmth. The buzzing of insects servicing the bush flowers around her reinforced the feeling that this was a day for being lazy.

"Well, what about walking down to the river?" suggested Sally.

Rachel murmured, her eyes almost closed, "Did that yesterday."

"Day before," Sally corrected.

When no response was forthcoming from Rachel she asked, "How about walking to the top of the mountain. Great view from up there."

The corners of Rachel's mouth curled in smile. "You go. I'll just soak up the sun."

A thought struck Sally. "Oh! I know. Remember Ken said he'd take us scuba diving anytime we wanted?" She waited. Nothing.

She tried a different tack. "What happened with that meeting? Wasn't Dina meeting with the other cyborgs and the city managers today?"

"Yep."

"I thought we were going along," Sally said.

Rachel sighed, "She seemed to have it under control so I decided not to push in. You can go though, if you want."

"Nah. You're right. She was handling it." Sally picked a piece of grass and shredded it piece by piece. "I'm reading a cool book at the moment. I could read it to you. We could take turns reading it aloud..."

"Mmmm..." Rachel sounded on the verge of falling asleep.

"Ra-chel!" She pleaded, "We should do something."

Rachel's eyes opened a slit and she shaded them with her arm. She gurgled with lazy laughter, "You're bored? Androids don't get bored."

Sally stood up, hands on hips. "I'm not bored. I'm just..."

"Stir-crazy." Rachel helped.

"We should do something," she implored. "It's a beautiful day. Life is too precious to waste."

Rachel mumbled, "I'm not wasting it. I'm thoroughly enjoying it."

Sally threw up her hands with a grunt of exasperation and walked back into the house leaving Rachel to bliss-out in the sun.

Rachel was almost asleep with the comforting heat blanketing her, the hum of bees all around, and chirps and warbles of birds an echoing lullaby, when suddenly, SPLASH!! Ice-cold water hit her and she shrieked shattered the calm of the valley. Gasping, her eyes wide, she saw Sally standing over her still holding a bucket. Rachel panted a few times with the shock.

Rachel started to get to her feet like a snake coiling for the strike, "Oh you are going to pay for that, kid."

Sally's ferocious grin began to shift to something a bit lighter as she started to back away. Clearly she hadn't thought ahead to an exit strategy. She dropped the bucket and ran up the hill as Rachel took off after her, both of them slowed by giggles.

When Rachel caught her she pushed Sally to the ground. Sally laughed and said, "Not bad running for a geriatric human."

Rachel laughed and said, "She just digs herself in deeper and deeper. I caught you. Now, what should I do with you?"

Sally shook her head, "Caught me? No way! I let you catch up." She laughed. "And I have bad news for you; making love to me won't deter me from doing it again."

Rachel laughed, "Who said anything about making love?" And she nipped Sally on the nose.

"Ow!" Sally wrestled Rachel over onto her back and planted a big kiss on Rachel's mouth.

Rachel gave in, groaned with want, and put her arms around Sally. They were becoming lost in each other, with Sally's hand moving down into Rachel's bikini when Rachel's eyes shot open, she gave a muffled yell into Sally's mouth, and was somehow standing, hopping around twisting to see behind her. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!"

Sally turned her about and saw a large black bullant attached to the back of Rachel's thigh by its stinger, its legs waving hopelessly in the air. Sally grabbed the inch-long ant and gently pulled it off her girlfriend then put the confused insect on the ground. "Poor thing," she said.

"Forget the bloody bullant, what about me?!" Rachel was still twisting about to see the damage.

Sally looked at the reddening lump forming. "Come on. We'll see if we can't put something on it for poor diddums." She looked at the ground around them and laughed. "Well no wonder. We were right next to a nest."

"Wah!" Rachel jumped in the air and moved quickly away from where Sally had indicated.

On the way back to the house Sally used her direct connection to the net to look through hundreds of books and articles on bullant stings.

Once inside, Rachel sat awkwardly on an arm of the lounge.

Sally said, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Rachel asked hopelessly. "But it stings."

"It'll stop soon." She grinned evilly, "And then it'll itch like crazy."

"Who are you, ya sadist? And what did you do with my sweet girlfriend?"

Sally chuckled. "Oh alright you big baby." She knelt down and placed a soft, tender kiss on the sore spot. "There, is that better?"

"No." Rachel pouted.

Smiling and shaking her head, Sally got up and walked into the bathroom. She returned with a small tube of something. She knelt again by Rachel and rubbed goo into the sting.

In a few seconds the frown lifted from Rachel's face. She sighed. "Wow, that worked." She pushed Sally onto the couch and lay on her. "Why didn't you do that in the first place?"

Sally pushed the glossy black hair behind Rachel's ears. "It didn't accomplish anything."

Rachel looked puzzled, "It stopped the pain!"

"The pain is an important message."

Rachel chuckled, "I'd already got the message. I was ready to move on to..." she kissed Sally, "other..." kissed again, "more..." kiss, "important..." kiss, "things." Long kiss.

Suddenly she sat up, a disenchanted look on her face. "Crap." A call was coming through on her cap. She shared it with Sally, "Hello?" It was Dina.

"Hi Dina." Sally chimed in.

"Good morning ladies."

"How did the meeting go?" Rachel asked.

"Wonderfully! It was a great success. The percent rule is dead. It is only a small step now to androids being given human status. That will be only months away I think."

Rachel looked at Sally and smiled, "Wow that's great news. Thanks Dina."

Dina said, "But that isn't why I called. I have something here I think you'll both be very interested in."

The two girls asked simultaneously, "What?"

Dina said, "Telepathy."

---

Sally and Rachel were standing in a rather messy room at Dina and Marc's place. Sally was holding Rachel's hand as they looked at the diagrams on the wallscreen.

Rachel frowned and asked, "This looks like just a normal cap."

Marc said, "It is -- well, except it has better resolution at depth..."

Dina continued, "However it isn't the resolution that's most important, it's the AI component."

You'd almost think Dina and Marc already had telepathy the way they tended to finish each other's sentences and think together on things. Marc had an arm around Dina's waist. He had a black t-shirt on with some strange, white swirly design, and was wearing large baggy tan shorts again. He had bare feet. Dina, her tall, youthful, and exotically sexy body clothed in a thin black bikini and knee-high boots, stood with her side pressed against her partner. Her grey hair was an unruly shoulder-length mane held back by a black hairband over the top of her head. Her black eyeshades made her look like some kind of human insect.

Sally asked, "Why does a cap need an AI?"

Marc held up a finger and smiled, "Ah, that's how we do the telepathy bit."

Dina said, "The AI watches and learns your modes of thought for some length of time." She looked at Marc.

"A week..." he said.

"Maybe two..." she said.

"It is hard to say till we've had a chance to try it out properly, but longer will definitely work better." He was frowning with thought.

Dina continued, "Anyway, the AI learns how you think and is able to use a method of encoding..."

Marc added, "It's a bit hard to explain... it's a little like fractal compression..."

Dina said, "But an easier way to think of it is like Roget's original Thesaurus. When he first wrote it, it was to try and catalogue all knowledge through the words that represent that knowledge. It wasn't intended as a writers' tool."

Marc said, "The AI catalogues all the person's thoughts via associations with senses and other thoughts."

Dina: "And because the AI is able to use an objective encoding for these things it is able to reliably transmit the information to another AI assisted cap which can stimulate the other person's mind in the right way to recreate those thoughts."

Rachel said, "I still don't understand why you need an AI. Wouldn't it be sufficient to link up two high resolution caps?"

Dina shook her head. "Each person's mind is different. Brains are like fingerprints. They're similar but all unique. It isn't just a matter of different experience either, though that is part of the problem. The actual topology of the brain differs slightly from person to person. You need an AI to learn those differences and adjust for them. Thoughts are far more variable than simple sensory information."

Dina and Marc smiled and looked at Sally and Rachel.

"Think of the implications," Marc said.

Rachel said, "Well, communicating more than pictures or sounds or broad emotions..."

Dina made a hand movement as if to say, 'more, continue...'

Sally said, "Teachers. They could convey a fully formed, complex concept without worrying that the students mightn't follow the words."

Marc and Dina nodded and looked expectantly at them for more.

Rachel thought of something. "When someone looks at things connected to an artist or listens to music connected to a musician it could open whole other depths of experience."

Dina and Marc wanted more.

Sally struggled, "Ummm... a blind person could understand what it would be like to see."

Rachel added, "And a sighted person could find out how a blind person hears."

Dina made the 'more' signal again.

Sally looked at Rachel, puzzled, "Scientists and engineers? They could finally communicate more fully what they know about the world."

Rachel said, "A normal person will be able to understand what it is like to be schizophrenic, or manic, or have some other brain problem."

Sally added, "And conversely an ill person would be able to be helped to think clearly."

Marc said, "The broader issue, though..."

Dina hinted, "Human thought itself."

Rachel and Sally shrugged.

Dina explained, "All throughout history people have developed unclear thinking processes that have caused all manner of problems. But this device... because of the need to teach your cap's AI how you think, it will tend to encourage people to think clearly. Muddy, incoherent thinking will not be able to be easily translated by the cap's AI. The quickest and easiest way to communicate complex thoughts will be if your thoughts are clear and logical."

Marc added, "Like training wheels for the mind. It won't force people to think clearly. But it'll help them see how to get there."

"Wow," said Rachel.

"Hmmm," said Sally. "I've thought of something else. Imagine the power of this in the hands of a propagandist."

Dina countered with, "Imagine the power of this for breaking the influence of a propagandist."

Sally nodded.

"But there's more," said Marc.

"More?" Rachel was surprised.

Sally smiled, "A free set of steak knives."

The other three looked at her, puzzled.

"Never mind," she said. "More?"

Dina said, "Hive minds."

"Pardon?" Rachel was at a loss.

Sally said, "A bunch of people sharing their minds to the extent that they become a single entity. They were often portrayed in old literature as something fearful... generally a thinly disguised metaphor for the old communist bogeyman." She put on a mechanical voice, "'You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.'" She grinned.

Dina looked surprised. "I'm impressed."

Sally did a little curtsey. "I read a lot."

Rachel corrected, "She consumes libraries at a sitting."

Sally asked, "So, is that what you wanted us to see? A hive mind?"

Marc chuckled, "Oh, no not at all. We just wondered if you'd be interested in trying telepathy."

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