Insurance - part 20

[miriam_e]

(3066 words)

total so far:

41,216 / 50,000
(82%)

Yay! Broke the 40,000 word barrier. Wrote my biggest instalment yet, though it doesn't feel like it.

I'm happy with this part even though soon after I started it I realised I'd made a big mistake and had to alter it. I'd airily thought to write this part about something and then came to understood that I couldn't. Major panic and rethink. But I'm glad, because it all worked out for the better I think.

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.

20 - celebrate

"Good morning, honey." Sally's voice.

Rachel's muffled, "Mmmh?" as she gradually surfaced from sleep. Big yawn. She opened bleary eyes to see Sally lying on her side watching her. Rachel put out a hand and clumsily stroked the side of Sally's face. "Morning Darling. Whatcha doing?"

A smile from Sally. "Listening to your dreams."

Rachel closed her eyes again for a bit. "I send during my dreams?"

"Sort of. Not all the time. It's all jumbled up. I can definitely say it has gotten stronger during the night though. If your cap continues learning at this rate... well, this should be really interesting."

Rachel opened her eyes again. "Must remember to ask Marc and Dina if they appear in each other's dreams... or do synchronised dreams."

Sally chuckled, "And they would know this, how?"

Rachel sluggishly thought for a minute. "Hmmm... you're right. No way to tell. Really needs a third person to tell, and that's a bit invasive of privacy."

Sally added, "...and wouldn't say anything really useful anyway."

Rachel said, "So... if you can listen in on me you should be better at predicting when I'm waking and be able to get my--"

Sally handed Rachel a mug of hot tea.

"--morning cuppa." She gurgled a sleepy laugh and sat up, coming dangerously close to spilling it over herself. "Whoa! Almost hot tea on naked Rachel. That came very close to being not fun." She slurped it down, waiting for it to kickstart her brain.

Sally said, "I'd like to experiment more with communicating through the cap today."

Rachel nodded. "Me too."

She continued to drink her tea and think. "Later today I want to prepare a presentation for the insurance people. We need to get them to realise how good veeps could be for their industry. I'll send it out to all the insurance companies, not just Insurers Consolidated. If one moves on it all the others will have to. And it may make Brian Richards' job of convincing the other stick-in-the-mud board members easier."

She continued to think. "I might contact Zoe too, and find out what attempts have been made to get the travel industry interested in VR and veeps. And it occurred to me that the funeral industry might be good ones to get involved too."

Sally said, "Oooh, the funeral industry! Good thinking, Ninety Nine."

"Ninety Nine??"

Sally chuckled, "Twentieth Century humor... nevermind."

Rachel brightened, "Hey! A perfect experiment for the cap: try sending me the concept of that joke."

Sally looked doubtful, "Well, it's not really a joke in the normal sense... OK I'll try."

She watched Rachel.

Rachel frowned. "An image of a pretty woman... her name was Barbara Feldon and was the foil for Don Adams who played a bumbling spy named...86? What kind of name is that?... oh... I see... Barbara Feldon's character was agent 99." She smiled. "I think I understand the humor, and why it is not exactly a joke, so much as a kind of recurring theme." She looked at Sally. "Impressive! It's still mostly images and sounds, but I noticed background feelings and nuances I've never got from a cap before. I'm getting quite excited about this."

Sally gave Rachel a quick kiss. "Me too." She smiled and sent a feeling of deep satisfaction and relaxation at being here with the one she loved.

Rachel's eyes widened. "Oh wow! That was amazing." She put the almost empty mug aside and said with a slight catch in her voice, "You are amazing." and pulled her to her. They simply sat there cuddling, feeling fulfilled by each other, till they were interrupted by a call. They shared it.

Savannah's excited voice came through, "A wonderful morning to you two!"

Rachel smiled and Sally chuckled. Rachel replied, "You're in an exuberant mood today Savannah."

Savannah laughed, "You haven't heard then?"

Sally asked, "Heard what?"

Savannah spoke excitedly, "The new law. Androids now have full human status. I have a lot of cyborg friends and they are over the moon about it because it means the total end of discrimination against cyborgs too. I bought a house and I'm having a celebratory party today. You're both invited." She sent the address. "Gotta go. I have a lot more people to invite. Bye." And she was gone.

Sally and Rachel looked at each other in surprise and laughed softly together at Savannah's excitement, then it gradually dawned on them what this really meant. It had finally happened. She hadn't really let herself believe this day would come. She'd thought that getting equality for veeps would eventually yield it for androids but that it would likely take years of battling hidden shady forces. And now suddenly, unexpectedly, it was here. Rachel's eyes filled with tears. Oh, the relief!

Rachel lifted Sally's face to hers and saw she had tears in her eyes too. She looked at her in wonder and whispered, "I didn't know you could cry."

Sally half-smiled through teary eyes. In a small, raw voice she said, "Neither did I... the wonders of engineering." She started to laugh, but it turned into sobbing.

Rachel hugged her tight and stroked her golden hair. She whispered intensely, "I love you so much."

---

They decided to give Savannah a handwoven floor rug -- something that would be tedious to make using a replicator. It would make a nice housewarming gift. They'd wrapped it in one of those new iridescent cloths created from thread which diffracted light. It scintillated and shimmered with colors. Sally joked that the wrapping was nicer than the present.

Savannah's house was on the far side of the city -- around half an hour by train. They'd removed the green dye from Sally again. She shone, pale skin in her white bikini and sandals, and blonde hair. It was a bright contrast with Rachel's green skin and black bikini, black sandals, and straight black hair.

It seemed there was a lot of shining today. Everywhere they went they met androids who greeted them with wide smiles and shook hands with Sally or clapped her on the shoulder. This was one of those days that would go down in history, and everybody knew it.

They walked along a bright, ten meter wide corridor where the walls were decorated with colorful murals. The floor was some kind of green, non-slip, rubbery material, and the four meter high ceiling glowed with a soft, white light which gave a convincing illusion of a bright, cloudy day. All around were the sounds of birds and the wind in trees. Rachel wondered if they actually came from above. When there were lightning storms above did the sound system send thunder reverberating through these communities?

They came to Savannah's door set in a beautifully detailed painting of a seaside sunset. She opened it a moment later to flood the quiet corridor with music and conversation. Big brown eyes, pink tousled hair, and little shiny pink bikini, she threw her arms around Sally and then Rachel. Rachel was suddenly uncomfortably warm. They gave her the rolled, wrapped present. She hugged each again and drew them inside. Sally grinned at Rachel and sent to her, You're blushing. Which, of course made Rachel blush even more. Rachel found herself wondering why she hadn't made an excuse to stay home. She had all those presentations to prepare. She really was not a party animal.

Savannah's home was full of people, about half of whom were androids and a quarter were cyborg. Rachel was surprised how many she recognised. A number of them saw her and waved and sent greetings.

Sally sent to Rachel, You look completely at ease, but I can feel how nervous you are. I never realised before how uncomfortable around crowds you are.

Rachel sent back, Not all crowds. I find parties... difficult... but I'm fine. She smiled at Sally.

Sally twined an arm around one of Rachel's arms and sent, Rachel, honey. You're not fooling me. We'll go. I know you have all that work you wanted to do anyway.

Rachel was horrified, No, no. This is your celebration day -- a once in a lifetime occasion. I'm fine, really I am.

Sally smiled and rolled her eyes. Sweetie, you are my celebration. You are my once in a lifetime. Parties like this are nice, but they are nothing in comparison. She sent a message to Savannah explaining that they needed to go.

Savannah turned back to them and said that they had to at least meet Dot before they left. She led them out the back of her house to a large yard with grass, some shrubs, and flowers growing under the glowing ceiling. On the lawn was a large, slender, white dog with a long, pointed snout, and many irregular black spots in her short coat. Two large, black spots covered each side of the dog's head so that they looked almost like some kind of mask that also enveloped two of the largest ears Rachel had ever seen on a dog. She stood and elegantly walked over.

"Hi" she said. She had a wide collar with a white disc covering it at the throat. That was clearly a speaker of some kind.

Rachel was agog.

Sally, completely at ease with a talking cyborg dog, squatted and said "Hello Dot. I'm Sally and this is Rachel." She rubbed under Dot's chin and scratched at the corners of her jaws.

Dot gave a single bark and wagged her tail.

Savannah said, "She doesn't want to come inside because there are too many people."

Dot said, "Noisy there. Not noisy here."

Rachel asked, "How long have you had a doggy friend?"

Savannah said, "Oh, just since today. Some friends went to visit their family overseas and couldn't take her, so I'm dog-sitting for some months. She's nice, but I'm worried she'll be bored while I'm at work."

Sally said, "You could share her with some other people so she gets variety. That would stop her being bored."

Dot said, "Good. Me go with you."

Rachel laughed, then noticed that Sally was giving a questioning look at Savannah.

Savannah shrugged and said, "Why not? If she's happy then that's good. I can come pick her up tonight or first thing in the morning."

Sally asked Rachel with a look. Rachel kissed her on the cheek and said that it was fine by her.

---

Sally, Dot and Rachel walked along the bush path up the hillside toward their home. Well, Sally and Rachel walked. Dot, with her enormous black ears pricked and big brown eyes shining, would run ahead sniffing things. Then she'd gallop back. She was clearly having a great time. A number of times they had to call her, worrying that she was lost. It was then Sally discovered Dot had a cap. It made sense really. That was how she talked through the speaker on her collar. From then on, when Dot disappeared from sight Sally or Rachel would simply send to her to please stay in sight. Dot would send an OK back and come back in sight again till something else distracted her.

When they got home they introduced the door to Dot, telling it that she was part of the family so that it would open for her. Dot looked delighted. After the girls went inside Dot stayed at the door for a while telling the door, "Open," and it would slide open. "Close," and it would close. "Open," and it would open again. "Close." Over and over again. Eventually Rachel asked Dot not to confuse the door too much, please. She answered "OK and padded inside to look around the house.

After a little while Sally realised Dot might be thirsty with all the running around earlier and asked her if she wanted a drink. She started to fill a bowl with water and Dot said that she was OK, she'd had a drink. Sally was surprised and asked where, thinking that there must be a source of water outside somewhere.

Dot answered, "Toilet."

Sally said, "Well I'll put this bowl here in the kitchen for you. Now you don't need to use the other one in the toilet."

Dot said "OK." It clearly didn't make any difference to her. If she could have shrugged she would have.

Rachel was sitting on one of the armchairs in the livingroom deep in thought about the best way to construct these presentations.

Sally wandered over to her, trailed a hand across Rachel's shoulder and neck and said, "Honey, why don't you work on that presentation and I'll take Dot for a walk down to the river and back."

Rachel looked up at Sally and sent her gratitude. Thankfulness for saving her from the party and now for this.

For what? Sally wondered. She would be perfectly happy walking with Dot.

And suddenly they realised neither had said or sent a word. The cap was already starting to use concepts.

"Good grief! Its only been a couple of days!" Rachel said.

Sally gave a giant smile. "Work," she said. "I'll be back soon."

After Sally and Dot left, Rachel started developing the arguments to convince the insurance companies to work with veeps. Sitting in the chair, she looked almost like she was asleep except that she was sitting rigidly upright and her expression would change with the parts she was recording. Occasionally she'd shake her head if a bit didn't work right and she needed to erase it.

It went like this:
"Ladies and gentlemen, your industry is in crisis. As you can see, [display image of profits five years to current] income has been declining steadily over the last several years. You have made up some of the shortfall by increasing premiums but that has also had a negative effect by discouraging people from taking out new policies.

"Recently there was a veep legal challenge to Insurers Consolidated, in which they, the veeps, wanted to be able to claim the life insurance money after their biological body dies. Insurers Consolidated battled that claim reckoning that massive payouts would cripple them. I was part of that defense and we prevailed, as I'm sure you all know.

"I have come to believe it was a mistake to battle the veeps. Without them the insurance industry is doomed to slow but inevitable decline. If, however the veeps are negotiated with, the industry could see a boost to its growth which could see it become a leading force in the world again.

There are several aspects to the way veeps can benefit the insurance industry, but I'll concentrate mainly upon one. Firstly though, a number of you will be wondering how it is even relevant anymore. After all, there was a law passed very recently which blocked veep access to human rights. That doesn't really affect what we are going to speak about here because veeps don't need human rights in order to benefit the industry.

"The main, and by far the greatest benefit to the industry, is that veeps are effectively immortal, but live with the fear of accidental death. If the insurance industry insures veeps then they will be making payments for ever. All the insurance industry need guarantee is that they will safeguard the veeps' virtual worlds and brain scans so that in the event of damage to either they can be resurrected from backups. No great payments outgoing, yet great and growing payments incoming forever. The number of veeps is beyond many millions already and will only continue to increase. Please refer to the accompanying graphs to see some conservative estimates of how this would affect the industry's fortunes over the next few years..."

Rachel worked on this for a while, polishing the presentation, detailing the several other aspects of how veeps could be of great value to them. She put a lot of effort into ensuring that they got the primary message. She didn't want to dilute it with less valuable ones. In the end she was happy with it and sent it off to a list of all the insurance company executives and industry groups that she could find net addresses for.

Then she turned her attention to the travel industry. She outlined the advantages of infinite worlds and a growing market. She pointed out that the insurance industry would likely make an announcement in the next few days that they would be insuring veeps regardless of the law. If the travel industry put themselves in the right position they would be set to pick up a very lucrative market. Beyond that she pointed out the vast number of worlds out there waiting for human travellers. All waiting to be exploited at no cost to the industry. It was the perfect business model: they would collect fees from customers for matching them with worlds that would suit them and would cost them nothing but their own time.

Finally she sent a short piece to the funeral industry pointing out the benefits of arranging veep accommodation for those who have died. She figured there was a chance the insurance industry was too inflexible to avert its own demise. There was a possibility that the funeral industry would see the massive potential income. They had another slight advantage and it might be the winning factor. They were interested in ensuring the friends and family were happy with the funeral. She asked what would make friends and family more happy than to see their loved one still alive and well, and living as a veep?

When all these were finished and sent she walked outside to stand in the sun and look out over the valley. She listened to the birdcalls and marvelled that just twenty years ago this had been ugly suburbia -- a blight upon the landscape. Just twenty years ago 3D printers were just coming into popular use. Just twenty years ago most of the world's population starved.

Now she was lucky to live in what was, by comparison, utopia. There were still problems, granted, but life was so very good now. She thought of her wonderful Sally. And she thought to herself, tonight we'll celebrate. We will really celebrate.

-----------

Comments

Congratulations on breaking the 4K barrier!

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, this chapter is so good! I have to say I got all choked up when Sally cried in Rachel's arms...so sweet! I'm so so glad for them, what a lovely thing to have happen.

I also love Dot, I laughed out loud when she admitted matter-of-factly where she'd found the water. I want a talking doggie like that. You've got the warm fuzzies happening too, their little family has expanded and doggie makes three.

This is a great chapter, I know as it gets down to the line it's getting harder to keep churning out those words, but we can do it!!

BTW I sent your CD yesterday.

Re: Congratulations on breaking the 4K barrier!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

:) Thank you.

I thought the bit about Dot drinking out of the toilet was a good idea until I realised this morning that in my detailed future that I've worked out, everybody has composting toilets, not the flushing kind. Oh well, I'll leave it in for now. It is a nice smile.

Dot is modeled on my dog Dot. You can see pictures of her on my website.
As a pup http://werple.net.au/~miriam/images/Dotty.jpg
Fully grown: http://werple.net.au/~miriam/images/Dot_Timber.jpg
She died in 2000... which seems like only yesterday. [sigh]
(In the second picture, on my bed, you can also see Margaret's dog Timber. Margaret is my ex.)

Cool! Thanks for sending that off. :) I look forward to it. Yay for more music!
Yours should turn up at your place any day now.

Re: Congratulations on breaking the 4K barrier!

[jenna2.livejournal.com]

you so rock mims,
I now have some thing to keep me occupied at work today,I saw what you were doing so I printed the whole thing out and will organize it and give it a read today.

jenna

Re: Congratulations on breaking the 4K barrier!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Heheheh :)
I am rapt that you are going to read it. Thank you.
I really hope you enjoy it. Please remember though, that it is really a first draft. I'll end up going over it and fixing it up later. Then the whole thing will go up on my website.

Re: Congratulations on breaking the 4K barrier!

[jenna2.livejournal.com]

hi mims,
read it loved it d/l the next chapter to read tomarrow,Bun is going to read it as well will let you know what she said

Re: Congratulations on breaking the 4K barrier!

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yay!
Thankyou. :)

You're starting at the beginning, right?
http://www.livejournal.com/users/miriam_e/134550.html

Let me know if you think something works well, or doesn't, so I have some things to go on when I do the big rewrite.

Thanks for reading it possum. :)
And thanks to Bunnie too.

Re: Congratulations on breaking the 4K barrier!

[gothxxangel.livejournal.com]

I just got your reply this morning. Checked out Dot, she's soooo cute! I love both pics, especially the puppy one where her ear is flopped over. I got "puppy ache" for her. It's a lovely tribute to her memory to put her in your novel.