Insurance - part 19

[miriam_e]

(2588 words)

total so far:

38150 / 50,000
(76%)

Posting waaayyy late today. It is actually tomorrow... or rather I should have posted yesterday. It is 6:30am. But no, I didn't stay up all night. I tried to work all day yesterday, but didn't get more than about half done. At about 11pm I figured I'd have a nap for a couple of hours. At 4am I awoke, much fresher and got straight back into it. Yay!

Now I have to do another chapter for today. [Groan!]

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.

19 - exhibition

The girls were resting in bed. Sally was looking at Rachel. "What does it feel like?"

Rachel said, "It's a bit itchy."

Sally shook her head impatiently. "No. I mean what does it feel like?"

Rachel gave Sally a sideways look through narrowed eyes. "I know what you mean."

"Well??"

"Sally, it is supposed to take days before I even start to get more than the normal cap messages."

"Yes, but I'm an android. It's never been done with one of the partners an android."

"I think the limiting factor is my cap mapping to my brain."

Sally frowned.

Rachel looked surprised. "Wait... wait! I'm sensing frustration!"

"Really??"

Rachel smiled. "Yes. The old fashioned way, "she held Sally's chin between thumb and forefinger, "by looking at your pretty face."

Sally rolled her eyes. She sat up and looked seriously at Rachel. "Send something to me."

Rachel sent Sally is an impatient nut.

"No." She hit the bed on each side of her several times in mock annoyance. "Really send something... something complex."

Rachel tried to tear her eyes away from Sally's breasts jiggling. "Alright." She tried to think of something to send.

Sally sighed and her shoulders sagged. "Nope. Nothing."

"Hang on, I haven't done it yet." Rachel protested. "Still trying to think of something to send." She thought for a bit, nodded, and sent the concept of how much better the retina of the human eye would work if the light receptor cells were pointing in the right direction. Light would fall directly on them instead of having to go through a lot of nerve tissue first, and there would be no blind spot.

Sally's face lit up. "I got a diagram of the eye and a black spot with a little cross a few inches away from it."

Rachel raised her eyebrows, "Interesting. I was trying to send how the eye would be improved by pointing the rods and cones the right way. The black spot with a cross a few inches away is a simple test to show that we all -- well humans anyway -- have a blind spot where the nerves go through the retina. Close. But you just got some of the images."

A little crestfallen, Sally sighed and got up. "We should do something."

Rachel moaned, "Not the stir-crazy bit again."

"We should do something to take our minds off the new cap."

"You mean to take your mind off the cap." Rachel corrected.

They both grinned at each other.

"Suggestions?" Rachel rolled onto her side, propping her head on a hand.

"Zoe's back. We could visit her... if she's not busy."

"Not a bad idea." She placed a call to Zoe, sharing it with Sally.

Zoe answered it immediately. Hi girls.

Sally sent Hi Zoe. If you and Viv are not doing anything can we visit?

Zoe laughed, I'm always doing something, but you two are welcome anytime. I'll meet you on the beach.

Yay! sent Sally.

Thanks Zoe, sent Rachel.

Sally flomped down on the bed beside Rachel and they both closed their eyes.


Suddenly they were standing on the white sand of the beach. There was a cool, gentle breeze blowing off the sea and the little waves made small surf noises. They could hear seagulls nearby and some other birds far inland. The morning sun was warm and still fairly low in the sky. Zoe stepped out of the greenery ahead onto the beach. She waved, smiling. The girls smiled and waved back and Sally ran ahead to Zoe. She gave her a little hug and turned to watch Rachel approach while holding Zoe's hand.

Zoe said, "I suppose you've come to tell me the bad news."

Rachel and Sally looked blank.

"...or not." Zoe smiled lopsidedly. "A law has been passed preventing veeps from gaining human status."

Both Sally and Rachel were surprised. Rachel said, "Oh no! We didn't know. I'm so sorry."

Zoe laughed as she herded them toward the path back to the house, "It doesn't really matter. It's only a little setback. I knew they were going to do something. It is just a tiny bit more extreme than I'd expected."

Rachel asked, "Who is 'they'?"

The path was only wide enough for two so Sally ran ahead to the house.

Zoe said, "What do you know of who did early brain scanning and developed the caps?"

Rachel wondered what Zoe was getting at. "The initial research was done to help disabled people, then there was IBM's Blue Brain project and the Connectome project. When usable technology came from all that, it was the sex industry, computer games, and communications companies that made the equipment cheap."

Zoe nodded, "True enough. But there was another group involved that quietly funded work and provided resources. Most people don't know about them because they avoided all publicity."

"A philanthropic fund, you mean?"

Zoe shook her head. "Not really, no. They were a cynical political group. They saw the cap and its applications as a useful way to distract and control the general population, so in the early days they funded a lot of development."

Rachel smiled, "This sounds very big bad conspiracy theory."

Zoe chuckled, "Yes, it does a bit. They didn't foresee veeps and emigration. What use is there in being a ruler if all your subjects go away? Veeps can't be controlled so they tried to prevent emigration. They used religious groups, employer organisations, unions, everything. Nothing could stop it. The genie was out of the bottle."

Rachel understood. "Aaah. They are the ones who are stopping veeps getting human status."

"Yes." Zoe smiled.

"You don't look very worried."

"I'm not. It's a temporary thing. People will eventually realise how much veeps can help them. The problems are purely short term."

Rachel chuckled. "But that's how veeps see everything isn't it. A human lifetime is short term."

Zoe laughed, "I hope it doesn't take that long."

Rachel asked, "So when do you think veeps will get human status?"

Zoe shrugged. "A year ago I thought we'd have it now. Now I think maybe next year. But who can say?"

Rachel said, "Last week, when you said you were worried about things getting dangerous... what do you think can happen?"

Zoe shook her head. "These people've had power all their lives. They think it's their birthright. What'll they do to keep it?" She looked at Rachel. "What they've done all through history... Absolutely anything."

They were approaching the house.

Zoe said, "Let's not talk about it just now. Viv hates this topic."

Inside the house Sally and Viv were chatting, sitting on the couch. Viv said "Sally tells me you have a telepathy cap, Rachel."

Rachel smiled, "Yes."

Zoe raised her eyebrows, "Dina and Marc?"

Rachel nodded.

"Interesting." Zoe looked at Sally. "Human-android telepathy. I wonder how long it will take."

Sally said, "We were wondering that too. Nothing yet."

Zoe asked Rachel, "Did you get scanned beforehand?"

Rachel looked a little surprised. "No, should I have?"

Zoe shook her head, "Not really. It would just be a nice reference so you could see how it affects your brain. And you should get scanned anyway. It's always good insurance."

Rachel grinned at Sally. "So Sally keeps telling me."

"So far, each of the people has found their brain grows in the areas their partner is skilled at." Zoe looked at Sally. "I wonder what will happen with an android partner. Androids are far smarter than humans are. I expect you'll find your brain improving in a whole lot of ways."

Sally looked a little uneasy. "I'm not going to have a bad effect on Rachel am I?"

Zoe smiled. "Good only I expect. You'll probably notice feelings getting shared before thoughts. Ordinary caps can communicate broad emotions because the old part of the brain is almost identical in all people. This cap has higher resolution, so you'll probably find you can send and receive more subtle emotions than before"

Viv said suddenly, "Lets go out somewhere."

Sally smiled brilliantly and chimed in, "Great idea! Where to?"

Zoe suggested, "What about the exhibition?"

"Perfect!" said Viv and stood.

Zoe said, "It's not in this world so we'll have to teleport there." She paused. "Ready?"



Suddenly the four of them were standing on what appeared to be a sandstone paved walkway in space. The walkway was about 10 meters wide and led straight to an enormous cathedral-like building about 100 meters away. There were a few other people on the walkway strolling toward the building. All around them was the star-studded blackness of space.

Zoe said, "That is the exhibition building. The stars are pretend. Although the space extends outward for infinity, this building is the only thing here. The stars are just images on a backdrop set at infinity."

Rachel asked, "How can something be 'at infinity'?"

Viv laughed, "I've often wondered the same thing.

Sally said, "I'd guess it's meant mathematically." She looked at Zoe. "Using homogeneous coordinates."

Zoe smiled. "Exactly."

Rachel and Viv looked at each other. Viv shrugged.

Sally chuckled and grabbed both Viv and Rachel by the arm and walked with them. "You two! It's not rocket science. It's old matrix maths. Let's go to the exhibition."

Rachel asked, "What do they exhibit here?"

Zoe said, "All sorts of things. Standard physics doesn't apply in this world so a lot of the things in the building are larger than the building's exterior."

Rachel was puzzled by that, "What sort of things?"

Viv grinned. "Oh, worlds mostly. But other things too, like buildings, plants, a mountain... lots of things."

Rachel shook her head.

Zoe said, "It is a display of cool stuff people have made, and also a world directory."

They walked forward till they came to the doors. They looked like they were about 3 stories tall and made of ornately carved wood. They simply walked through them. In spite of their appearance they were quite insubstantial. On the other side of the doors the path continued to stretch away ahead. It looked like it went for kilometers. But on either side of the path were archways and behind each archway was a different world. An archway was about 4 meters tall and about 8 meters across and it looked like it was built out of yellow sandstone like the walkway. Each archway led into a world. The weird thing is that you could see 180° around each as you walked past it.

Rachel asked, "What would happen if I poked my head into one?"

Viv smiled, "Try it and see, but don't step all the way through."

Rachel leaned into one arch, beyond which was a hilly world with green meadows and blue skies. The grassy fields were sprinkled with yellow flowers that looked like buttercups and the pale blue sky had high, windswept streaks of cloud. A light wind blew a strong fragrance. She looked around and was astonished to see that the walkway and her friends were not visible. Her upper body appeared to hang in the air and where she knew the archway was there was only more hilly meadow. She straightened, amazed.

She asked, "If I'd stepped through?"

Zoe said, "I'd have come and helped you teleport back. If you were a veep you'd have the return coordinates already and would just come back, but as you're a visitor it's a little more difficult." Zoe sent Rachel's cap the address of the exhibition world. If you get lost accidentally here is where you return and we'll meet you there.

Sally asked, "Can I get the coordinates the way a veep does?"

Zoe thought a moment, "I think maybe you can. I'll try sending the information to you the way Rachel's cap will."

Sally's eyes opened wide. "Wow! That was awesome! I suddenly understand." She giggled and quickly ran a little way down the path. Then suddenly reappeared in the spot she'd left. She started jumping up and down on the spot laughing and clapping. "How cool is that?"

She grabbed Rachel's hand and imitating someone's voice (Rachel had no idea who) she swaggered with a thumb of her other hand hooked in her bikini and said, "Shtick with me shweetheart and you'll be fine."

Rachel smiled uncertainly. "O-kaaay."

Viv shook her head, chuckling.

Zoe looked almost as delighted as Sally. She looked back and forth between Sally and Rachel. "You guys have very cool things in store for you when that new cap learns to adjust fully to your brain, Rachel."

Rachel looked at Sally and grinned. She changed the subject, "Right then, back to here and now. How many worlds are on display here?"

Viv shrugged, "It changes all the time... hundreds."

Rachel asked, "The grand tour then?"

Zoe nodded. "The grand tour."

Over the next few hours Zoe and Viv showed Rachel and Sally every conceivable world. There was a sunny, glistening, white, above-ground city of spires, a misty swamp world with the shadowy silhouettes of dinosaurs, a place that was night where the paving stones on the narrow paths looked wet in the moonlight. There was an underwater world with nothing but rippling sunlight lancing down through green water just now, there was a place of many crazily angled buildings and smooth walkways in space inhabited by, of all things, a cartoon black duck. There were innumerable worlds that looked like Rachel's memories of suburban life in the late 20th Century.

They stopped at one world with trees shading dirt roads with fields beyond. Beyond the trees bordering the road, almost hidden by them, but out in an open grassy area was a moderately large stone manor.

Viv said, "One of Zoe's favorites. She helped build this world."

Zoe inclined her head toward the building. "Amboise, France. Around 1517." When neither Rachel nor Sally responded, she said. "Where Leonardo da Vinci spent the last three years of his life."

The exhibition was laid out in a grid. It covered square kilometers of area.

Some of the arches were alcoves instead of portals. They were paved with that same yellow sandstone. These alcoves usually displayed some smaller model, usually hanging in the air. Visitors could wander all around these models and even touch them.

They wandered through this vast collection of worlds and models for hours.

Zoe said, "There are some amazing worlds here. We'll have to come back and show you more in the future. There are all kinds of historical worlds. There is a historical society of veeps whose special interest is getting those worlds right. They portray many parts of human and natural history. There are a surprising amount of worlds dedicated to special people. There are worlds dedicated to Alan Turing, Charles Babbage, and Ada Lovelace. You've seen one of the Leonardo da Vinci worlds. There are others for HG Wells, Grace Hopper, Jules Verne, Hedy Lamar--"

Rachel interrupted, "Wasn't Hedy Lamar a Hollywood actress?"

Zoe nodded. "She was much more than that. She was quite brilliant and was quite at home chatting with physicists. She patented frequency shift encryption that is the basis for spread-spectrum encoding that revolutionised wireless communications at the beginning of this century."

"Wow," said Rachel. I never knew that.

Zoe nodded then she chuckled. "There is even a Xenaverse."

They all smiled at that. Everybody knew of the fun exploits of Xena and Gabrielle.

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Comments

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

Ahahaa! I want to go to Xenaverse!! This chapter is so beautiful, I just love Sally more and more with each passing chapter. She's, well, so cute and lively. Rachel is a wonderful partner and foil for her, and the telepathy cap hints at more to come. Very nice work.

I can see how you've branched off into other stories with this universe. It's so layered and complex, I feel that each chapter is introducing a new concept that is a novel in itself: the veeps, cyborgs and humans all have their own views and worlds. Such thought has gone into making this world.

Wonderful work!! Keep going towards the magic 50,000 word!!