Chapter 9: "Testing, Testing, 123"

As soon as breakfast on Thursday was over - which Kam and Iris were up for, Kam went to classes, Iris went home, and I went to work. Kam was excited the whole time, though, and we talked more about her moving in. She was so excited to get moving in that we decided she could move in some time next week, like Tuesday if she could be ready by then. She excitedly agreed, saying she would start getting ready after classes, and every day between now and then, Saturday excluded of course.

After that, the rest of the day was fairly ordinary. Iris had been tired enough at breakfast that I would be willing to bet she went back to sleep when she got home. I didn't see her at the library until my shift was almost over, anyway. She came over to my place again afterwords for dinner, and apart from some kissing and cuddling, nothing much happened.

Friday was different, and apart from seeing Iris at the library and talking with her during some of the slow parts, the rest of the day was Iris free, due to my late hours on Fridays. But like I'd told her before, we introverts need some time by ourselves anyway, so I wasn't too bothered. Besides, I knew she'd be over sometime after 8 AM on Saturday.

In fact, Iris wasn't as early as I'd thought she'd be, not coming over on Saturday until 9:30. Apparently, she'd been reading a bit late into the night and was doing good to have gotten to bed early enough to be properly awake at 9:30. Even though I'd already had my breakfast, I made her something, since she'd gone straight from bed to dressing herself to coming over to my place. To my delight, she'd worn the silver dress I liked. Though this time, she'd worn some kind of under-dress under it, so it wasn't as see through this time. I guess that was because she didn't want to be dressed quite as flirtatiously when she'd be going to this intelligence test today.

"You know," I said as she finished shoveling up the last of her eggs, "having breakfast this late is gonna make having lunch a little difficult."

She shrugged. "Not really. Mama's picking us up at noon, we can get some drive-through on the way to the test thing."

"Are you going to be able to eat lunch that soon after breakfast, though?"

She shrugged again, looking at me placidly. "Why not?"

"You aren't nervous or anything?"

"Well, a little bit. But you're gonna be there, and besides, it's not like I have a whole bunch invested in this. Whatever the test says, I'm still me. And I doubt it will really affect the fact I've designed some cool stuff that Mama says will get patented. Some of the tools I designed are prob'ly gonna earn me enough hours to pay for college and supplement any future income enough for me to live comfortably."

"Wow. Well it's good you're taking this so well."

"You'll be in the room, right?"

"I will if I can be. I haven't had an opportunity to find out yet if I can."

"Well that's okay either way." She looked around a little, then asked, "Where's Kam?"

"I don't know, she hasn't been by yet. She left on Thursday morning for classes, and I haven't heard from her since. I think she's been busy getting ready to move."

"Speaking of your sister," Cleo the house AI said then, "she's informed me that she's on her way and should be here by 10:30."

"Thanks, Cleo."

Iris scrunched her face then in concern. "I hope she's not gonna wear something super sexy this time, I dunno if I could handle that on top of the testing stuff."

"Well if she is, I'll have her wear something of mine before we go out. She and I are close enough in size we can wear each other's clothes."

"That must be neat to be able to raid each other's closets like that. You know, you and I should get some kind of matching outfit."

"Yeah, that sounds cool. We can do that after the test thing today. I wanted to get you something anyway. Something to look forward to."

"Cool! I like shopping."

"I think everybody does, if they're honest with themselves. Some people just like shopping for different things than others do."

After Iris's breakfast, we sat down on the sofa, cuddling each other while we read our own respective books while we waited for Kam to arrive. After about half an hour, though, Iris peeked over at my own book, curious.

"Whatcha reading?"

"It's a historical romance. Takes place during the turbulent 21st century, when certain kinds of love - like our own - were banned. There were even a lot of places where adults who loved other adults of their own gender were at danger of anything from joblessness to death. This one has a lesbian inter-generational romance in it, between a girl and a friend of the family. It's a little more tense than I really like to read, given the forbidden romance angle, but the characters are interesting, and how they deal with the trials their love is put through is also interesting."

"Hmm ... I don't think I've read anything set back then. What's it like?"

"Well, only the interestingness of the characters and how they deal with the situations is letting me tolerate the setting. I rarely read novels set back then or farther back, because I hate nearly everything about the era. I'm pretty sure that if I'd lived back then, I don't think I would have made it to 25 before ... well..."

"'Well' what?"

"Um ... committing suicide," I said softly. "Being trans back then was even more fraught with peril than being homosexual or bisexual, though being a paedosexual was even worse. Any sex with anyone under the arbitrary age of 18 (in most places) was seen as being rape even if it was consensual. And having an asexual romance with a minor wasn't viewed much differently than a sexual relationship with a minor was. Anyone convicted of sex with a minor was put in prison with people who would kill them if they knew what they were in for, and one of the 'treatments' for the 'sickness' of paedosexuality was chemical castration. And even if you made it out of prison, you were persecuted for the rest of your life, lumped in with serial rapists, and given so few options of employment and housing that most convicted sex offenders (as they were called) ended up jobless and homeless."

Iris shuddered. "That sounds downright evil! Even Greshnok 4 isn't that bad!"

"You don't know how true that is. Life sucked for most people back then. Unless you were rich and white, and preferably male, your life sucked to some degree or other. Homelessness was rampant and viewed as an inescapable part of reality. Most people got paid ridiculously low wages for long hours of work, basically just enough pay to get away with saying it wasn't slavery. It was a world where most people had to work more than 40 hours a week just to afford a small apartment, and then couldn't buy food without help from the government. Which wasn't much help at all, as the rich men in charge kept cutting back the amount of help you could get, and set up this arduous obstacle course just to get - and continue to get - that necessary help."

"I don't wanna hear anymore. I'm glad we don't live in such a primitive-"

"Kamaria's ride is pulling up now," Cleo interrupted.

"Thanks Cleo."

We set our eBoards aside and got up to open the door for Kam. Iris got to the door first, opening it and looking out. She sighed in relief as she saw what Kam was wearing: denim overalls, a red blouse, and plain black trainers. She had her hair back in her usual Afro puffs, too. Quite a conservative outfit for her, in fact. Even when she wasn't trying to tease me or others, she rarely dressed so conservatively.

I checked my Omnus for the time. "Your estimate was off. It's almost 11."

Kam shrugged. "So I'm not great at ETAs. I knew that much. Which, in fact, is why I came as early as I did. I didn't want to hold anyone up. You guys eaten yet?"

I closed the door behind her as she came in. "Yeah, Iris and I have both eaten. She came in later than I'd expected, too."

"Yeah, we're gonna get drive-through on the way to the test," Iris supplied.

"Mind if I make myself a sandwich in the meantime?"

"You should know you can. Especially since we're gonna be living together soon."

"Thanks, sis."

Iris and I sat down at the dining table and watched Kam make herself a turkey sandwich. Halfway through that, I decided to get up and put some water on to boil so we could all have tea. I asked them what kind of tea they wanted, since I have a lot of different kinds. Kam had black tea, Iris had green tea with lemon, and I made myself some jasmine tea. Soon we were all sitting around the table, sipping our tea.

After devouring half her sandwich without saying anything, Kam washed it down and broke the silence. "So, sis, have you talked with Mom and Dad yet about going over there to visit next Saturday?"

"What? Oh, I forgot. Sorry," I said, blushing.

"Figured you had. Which is why I reminded you. But before you call them, might I suggest they might want to meet Iris?"

"Oh. Yeah. But I'd have to ask Matria first."

"Ask her after. After all, they might not be able to do it next Saturday. You need to be sure first, before you ask Matria."

I nodded. "Good point. Okay." With that, I called Mom on my Omnus. Soon, her image appeared, her graying hair pulled back in an Afro puff ponytail.

"Rianna! Long time, no see. It's good to see you again."

"Sorry about the long gap. I'm afraid I'm a bit absent-minded."

"Yes, Kam told us that after she saw you again that first time. Are you calling to set up a time to come over for a visit?"

I nodded. "That I am. Is next Saturday good?"

"Of course it is. Kam already mentioned it to us, just in case you forgot. Are you bringing your girlfriend Iris with you?"

"If her mother says yes. I don't think there's much risk of her saying no, unless they have plans they haven't mentioned to me yet."

"Well if they do, Sunday works for us, too. Your father and I both have weekends off."

"What about the twins?"

"Oh, they're still living here. And weekends are good for them, too."

"Great. I think Iris and the twins would get along great."

"I can't wait to meet your little sweetheart." She turned to look at Iris, and grinned. Iris blushed. "Is that her?"

"Yes, Mom. That's Iris. Iris Zahane."

"You're a cutie, little one. And such pretty thistle-colored eyes! You two will have such beautiful children, if you want them."

Iris's blush turned into full tomato face, which set Kam off giggling. "Mom," I said, "you're getting ahead of yourself. Sure, she's 14 instead of 8 like I'd thought, but she's got almost a decade before she'll be physically ready for kids. And we've only been dating for about a month."

"Oh, you two will still be together then, God willing. I have a nose for spotting true love, and even through the Omnus I can tell you two have true love. Plus, I have some interesting stories from Kam."

I gave Kam a Significant Look, and she feigned innocence. "Yes, and I will be having a discussion with her later about that."

"Now don't be too hard on her, I'm certain she gave me the censored version of the stories."

"Okay, mom. Well, I'd better call-"

"Wait! I have an idea!" Iris said, using her own Omnus to call Matria. Before long, two two women were chatting at each other as floating heads. It was too long a conversation to bore you with, but by the time they hung up, Matria had cleared Iris to go meet my parents. "After all," she had said, "You've met her parents, it's about time she met yours."

By the time that was done, there were only 20 minutes left before Matria would be coming over to pick us up. I looked over to Kam, who had long since demolished her sandwich. She was ready to go already. Iris was ready, too. But I was still in my house clothes, so I went to my bedroom to change and get ready before going.

Matria ended up pulling up about 5 minutes before noon, not long after I'd finished getting ready. I spent a couple minutes making sure I had everything I needed, and then the three of us were getting into the Zahane family vehicle. Kam got in the front passenger's seat, while Iris and I sat in the back, holding hands. Iris was getting more nervous than she'd been earlier, so I squeezed her hand gently in solidarity. She smiled and leaned against me; I could feel her nerves decrease a little as she did.

I was mildly surprised when Matria stopped at Taco Tavio's on the way for drive-through. Not because of the place, of course - Iris's favorite restaurant was Taco Tavio's. What surprised me was that Matria was going to let her eat tacos in the car. Which is indeed what happened. Luckily - and I hadn't known this, Taco Tavio's has recyclable "portable tables" that you can unfold and strap to your neck, to catch any food before it has a chance to fall to the floor of a vehicle. If I had known that, I would have gotten tacos, too. As it was, I got a medium sized burrito. Matria insisted I use a portable table, even though I knew I could eat a burrito without making a mess. But her car, her rules, so I, too, had a portable table.

One of the benefits of our modern world is that, since the car's AI was doing all the driving, Matria was able to eat while the car drove us to the test center. Thinking back to the novel I was reading, I was glad she wouldn't have to wait until we parked to eat, like people used to have to do, if they didn't want to be morally bankrupt by risking killing people by eating and driving at the same time.

The car dropped us off at the front door of the testing center before going off to find a parking spot. It was a large, modern building, but looked comforting instead of intimidating, which helped Iris a lot. We went inside and up to the information desk, where they referred us up to the third floor. A little flying drone led us to the right elevator, then from the third-floor elevator to the right waiting room. Once we were there, it headed back.

Matria went up to the desk, since there was no line (though there were other families waiting in the waiting room). The receptionist looked up from her work and smiled. "What may I help you with today?"

"I'm Matria Zahane. My daughter, Iris, has an appointment here at one."

"Okay, let me look that up," she said, even though the AI in her workstation was already pulling up the appropriate file. "Ah yes, Iris Zahane, 1 PM. And who are the other two ladies?"

I stepped forward. "I'm Rianna Goode, Iris's girlfriend. And this is my sister Kamaria."

The woman's face twitched disapprovingly when I'd said I was Iris's girlfriend, but she didn't comment. I wondered if this woman was an immigrant from some other world. As paedophobic responses went, it was a mild one, but it was still unusual for Paxum. Or was I reading too much into it, given the novel I was reading? I wasn't sure. At any rate, her demeanor didn't change the least.

"Ah, I see. Here for moral support, are you?" She was still warm towards us, so I decided I'd misjudged. I made a mental note to put that novel aside, as it seemed to be warping my perceptions.

"Yes. And I was wondering, Iris and I wanted to know if she can have others in the room with her when she's doing the test."

The receptionist nodded. "Yes, that will be fine. In fact, if having someone familiar in the room will help her loosen up and be herself, it's encouraged. Do you both want to be in the room with her?"

"Um ... let me check." I turned to Iris. "Is that good? Or would Kam be too distracting?"

Iris rolled her eyes. "In what she's wearing, no. It's cool, she can come with, too."

"Okay. Kam?"

"Sure. I mean, I can always leave if it becomes a problem."

"Yes, both of us will be going with."

"And what about the mother?"

Matria shook her head. "No, I don't think my presence would help. I'll wait here for her. Unless you want me to come with?"

Iris shook her head. "No offense, Mama, but just Rianna and Kam."

The receptionist took that information down, and then directed us to wait. I checked the time as I sat down; there was 20 minutes left before 1 PM. Iris sat on the sofa next to me and started reading. To get back a little at her for earlier, I read over her shoulder, but I was mildly disappointed; she wasn't reading anything salacious. It wasn't even fiction; she was reading some kind of technical manual, for what, I don't know. She didn't seem to be getting far in reading it, no doubt from nerves, since she'd devoured that book about building custom VCs before.

"Whatcha reading?" I asked in deliberate imitation of her, from earlier. She giggled appreciatively before answering.

"It's the latest issue of 'Virtual Design Engineer's Journal, ' the best technical journal there is for virtual design professionals. I know I'm not really a professional, since I don't have any formal training, but I can get through it pretty well usually, with some help from the eBoard's tools."

I nodded. Eboards have lots of built in tools, like dictionaries and encyclopedias to define terms, and Mesh access to get more information about things in the texts. Of course, such things had existed in some e-readers since the 20th century. These days, any eBoard without those tools was considered defective, and returned or exchanged.

"I see. You read technical journals for fun?"

She shrugged. "Yeah."

"Cool. I've read such things before, though not for that particular subject. Like, for art and stuff. I wouldn't say it was fun, per se, because a lot of it was challenging for me, but it wasn't the opposite of fun, either. I think if I'd been smarter, or interested enough in something, I might be able to say I'd read such things for fun, too."

She sighed contentedly, and snuggled up to me some more.

"Hey, you should bring that with you. Maybe read it as part of the test. That's bound to make an impression."

"Oh," she said, sounding surprised. "Wait, yeah; you said I could just like, do stuff in there, right?"

"Yes. You just do whatever seems interesting enough to you, and the AIs get all kinds of data from it."

"Cool. Yeah, okay, I'll bring my eBoard with me."

"By the way, how long have you been getting this kind of thing? And is it the only one you get?"

"Oh no, I get like, a couple dozen different journals, and some science and technology magazines, too. They come out at different times and stuff. The one I'm reading now only comes out every few months."

"And your family never noticed you getting all this?"

She shrugged again. "I have an allowance. The house AI makes sure I don't buy anything illegal, super expensive, or particularly violent, but I guess it never occurred to the AI to tell my family I was reading these things."

"Well I guess that makes sense. House AIs have stricter privacy rules than school AIs do. I guess the AI must have figured what you read wasn't anybody's business but yours, unless you told it otherwise."

"Probably."

"Zahane, Iris," a woman of Indian or Pakistani descent called out. She, Kam, and I got up, Iris waving her eBoard and saying "That's me!" The woman shook Iris's free hand and introduced herself.

"Hello Iris. I'm Doctor Anata Patel. Which of these lovely women is your girlfriend? Or are they both?"

Iris blushed and shook her head. She didn't seem to be able to speak, so I spoke instead. "I'm Rianna Goode, this is my sister Kamaria."

"Ah, Rianna Goode, so you're her girlfriend. I understand you're the one who figured out Iris might be a prodigy?"

"I don't think there's any doubt she's a prodigy, given that some of the things she's invented are in the process of getting patented. It's just a matter of finding out how much of a prodigy she is. But yes, that's true."

"Odd, how it wasn't caught sooner."

"Yes, indeed. A perfect storm of bad luck in that regard. I could go on in detail about it."

"Please do, as we walk to the Observation Room."

It wasn't a long walk, but we weren't walking very fast, because apparently this information was important; Dr. Patel was taking lots of notes on a tablet computer as I spoke, anyway; even after we got to where we were going. When I finished up, Iris looking bored, Dr. Patel nodded and smiled.

"Thank you for all that. Anything we can do to help figure out how to help other children sooner is appreciated and very useful. No system is ever perfect, after all. It can always be improved upon. Anyway, Iris, we're here. So let me just explain a few things before we go in."

"Okay. Can I sit down while you do?"

"Sure thing," she said, pulling up chairs for all of us. When we were all seated, she waved someone else over, then continued. "Okay, so my assistant Piotr here has in his hands the sensor we'll be putting on your head before we go into the Observation Room." A white man with blond hair - name tag confirming he was Piotr - showed her the "funny helmet" I had told her about during our vacation together. Only, it didn't look the way I remembered it. Or more accurately, they didn't look as I remembered them. For there were two of them. One looked like a crown, and the other looked like a fireman's helmet.

"We have lots of different designs, to suit the individual taste of the child being tested. Even ones for older children, as well as the old design. Anyway, there are sensors in these hats that constantly scan and monitor your brain activity. When combined with the room's other sensors and cameras - a lot like the scanners and cameras of a house AI, just more of them - they give us a pretty good idea of how your brain works, especially in regard to various stimuli."

Iris nodded, eyeing the crown-shaped sensor hat. Dr. Patel continued speaking, but nothing she was saying was anything new to either us after that point. Then she asked us if we had any questions, so I brought up the question of the eBoard. I was glad when the doctor confirmed we could do that, on condition that we allowed the monitor AI access to the eBoard's memory so it could examine what she was reading, as well as the metrics about her tool usage, the eBoard's estimate of her reading speed, and the same for the other nonfiction she read. Which meant we had wait while Piotr fetched Matria for permission. While we waited, though, Iris made a list of reading materials she would let them access if Matria agreed to the access, since Iris wanted to make sure they didn't see anything she might be embarrassed about. I rather got the impression, from this, that some of the nonfiction she read was raunchy or just embarrassing, which piqued my curiosity.

Before long, though, Matria approved the access to Iris's list, Iris picked out the crown-shaped sensor hat, and Iris, Kam, and I went into the Observation Room with Dr. Patel, who gave her a tour of the room, explaining everything available for use in it. The room was huge and contained all kinds of things, from old fashioned blocks and paper books, to a VC, a three-vee with a wide selection of educational entertainment, and even Autonotinies. I found myself wondering what they would get out of a kid playing with Autonotinies, but I didn't feel like a long explanation, so I didn't ask.

After the tour concluded, Dr Patel left the room, and the test begun. I did note that I hadn't seen her turn on the hat, but then I rather suspected it had been on since before Iris had even entered the room. Since Dr. Patel was no doubt going to monitor things from another room, if she'd forgotten to turn the hat on, she would come back.

Iris started out by reading from her eBoard, snuggling against me as she did. But she kept looking up at the other stuff, distracted no doubt by the other enticing activities. But she kept up with her reading for about 40 minutes before finally giving in and putting it in her pocket. Iris went over to the VC instead. I watched her as she did, and what I saw astonished me a little. I couldn't tell what she was doing at first, but when she finished this unidentified activity, I saw that she had used the VC's Mesh access to set up a remote connection to her own home VC, something I later found out she'd had to set up from home first, and must have done before coming over to visit me.

Once she had remote access to her own VC, she spent the next hour and a half working on one of her designs, apparently tuning out everything else in the room. It was fascinating watching her work, even though I didn't have much idea what she was doing, since she was doing it so fast. Kam, too, was fascinated. And I rather suspect Dr. Patel - wherever she was - was watching raptly as well.

As wrapped up in her own work as she was, Iris eventually stopped, looking a little weary. She saved her work, disconnected the remote access, and stepped away from the VC. Then she looked around the room some, wandering around it, considering. Finally, she poked me in the shoulder and asked, "You two wanna play Autonotinies?"

Of course I did. Kam did, too. So we followed her over to the quite extensive Autonotinies set and set to work. We built two separate families, at Iris's insistence, Iris doing her own while Kam and I collaborated on our own. Then Iris started directing one of the children, a young girl, to fall in love with one of my figures, one that was supposed to represent me. Naturally, Kam's figure got involved as well. Iris wasn't really very satisfied with this, though; she stared at the figures disapprovingly for a minute or two before explaining her thoughts.

"These Autonotinies all look too much like each other. Sure, they come in different races, but the figures look too much alike anyway. The kids are shorter, but otherwise they don't really look like kids. I think they could be improved. Personalized, 3D-printed figures would be nice. Maybe with interchangeable parts. And non-human figures, like robots or werewolves and so on. Maybe some pets, like little robotic dogs or cats. And cars! Yeah. Hmm..." She pulled out her eBoard suddenly, and switched it to data entry mode, taking down some notes. It looked like Iris had a new project in the works.

When she put her eBoard away again, we went back to playing. The romance among the three figures representing the three of us blossomed more, and got married, tiny Iris and tiny me having kids of their own. But then our play started to take weird turns, as I knew it would, and an hour later, there were two opposing armies of Autonotinies fighting each other, because one group had kidnapped tiny Iris, and tiny me had raised an army to get her back. My army had beaten back the opposing army, and tiny me was wrestling the opposition's leader in a fight to the death as Kam's figure snuck tiny Iris out of the compound to safety, when Dr. Patel came into the room, making us all look up.

"Sorry to interrupt," she said, "but it's almost 5pm."

"Oh my, really?" I asked, looking at my Omnus. Sure enough, it was 4:45. "Oh crud," I said, "we've been playing Autonotinies most of this time."

"Oh don't worry about that," Dr. Patel said, smiling and with suppressed laughter in her voice, "we learned loads. It's probably more than enough to get a good idea of Iris's intelligence, but we would like to get some more tests in, sometime."

"Okay, if Matria's cool with it. But if I'm going to join her again," I looked to Iris, who nodded at my unasked question, "then I should inform you I work on the weekdays, until 4 most days. And then late at night on Friday. And we have plans next Saturday."

"Yeah, sis, but now that I think about it, nobody ever said which meal that was gonna be. We could make it be dinner, which would get both things in."

"Ah, yes. Well, let's see what Matria says."

Dr. Patel took the crown-shaped sensor hat back from Iris, who looked mildly disappointed that she didn't have her own with her. This time, I noticed her switch it off. "So I was right, and you had it on before she even went into the room?"

The doctor chuckled. "Yes, that's right. I didn't think you'd seen that."

"I hadn't. I surmised it."

The doctor escorted us back to the waiting room, where we found Matria engrossed in her own eBoard. She looked up when the door opened, and put it back in her pocket. We spent some time discussing another appointment, which we set up for next Saturday at noon, just to squeeze another hour in.

Later, when we got back into the car, Matria called her home on her Omnus, and found out that her husband and wife were already done with dinner, since they hadn't known when we'd be back. So Matria announced to the rest of us that we were going out to eat again. To my relief, we did not go to Taco Tavio's again, but instead we went out for Chinese, actually eating in the restaurant this time. Iris had Kung Pao shrimp, I had beef and broccoli, and Kam had a combo of Mar Far chicken, Kung Pao chicken, pork fried rice, and some princess prawns. Iris, Kam, and I shared some of our food with one another.

While we ate, Iris talked about the test, with occasional additions by Kam and I. Iris was still astonished that I'd been right about it being just "doing stuff" in a room while the hat scanned her brain and the AI's sensors and cameras watched and listened. When she paused to eat some food, I told Matria about how Iris had remotely accessed her VC from the VC in the room, something Matria apparently didn't know could even be done.