Chapter 3
created: 2023-06-04T10:39 updated: 2023-06-04T10:
Chapter 3
Cassie awoke to the smell of bacon frying. After rolling over and looking at the clock, she sat up and got out of bed, slipped her robe on and headed for the kitchen. Once there, she discovered Sarah cooking breakfast. Sarah was dressed like she was going to go to the office.
"Good morning," Cassie said, causing Sarah to spin and look at her. "Are you going to the office?"
"No," Sarah said, flipping the eggs that were cooking in the pan next to the pan of bacon. "I just tend to work better if I'm dressed for work. Even if all I do is sit at my desk upstairs." Sarah expertly flipped some eggs on to a plate and added some bacon, before handing the plate off to Cassie who walked over to the table and sat down. Sarah carried her plate, and two cups of coffee over to the table without spilling anything on her or the floor.
"You want to write up a proposal so that we have something solid when we talk to Senator Gordon, don't you?" Cassie said, taking a bite of her eggs.
Sarah brushed her ponytail back behind her shoulder before answering. "Yeah. There is going to be a cost to this and most of that cost is going to be absorbed by the government at the federal level. I want to get an idea of cost per person, as well as try to figure out long term costs for this..." She took a bite of her bacon. "Project."
"Ok," Cassie said. "Can we expect some of the cost to be absorbed by the protectees."
"I don't know. There are padlocks, so someone needs to hold the keys, who do we trust?" Sarah sat down and started eating. "I don't think that the females should hold their own keys..."
"Why?" Cassie asked.
"A, Where would I keep it. Probably on my keyring." Sarah replied. "I go out, get attacked, the attacker gets my keys, removes the device, Bam, I get pregnant. Or B, I could simply remove the device, and not wear it unless there was an inspection or something."
"Ok, point taken," Cassie said. "So what do you propose we do?"
"I haven't figured that out yet..." Sarah said, standing and dropping her plate in the dishwasher.
Sarah stood in line at a Starbucks waiting for her coffee to come up. As she stood there, she looked around at the mostly college student crowd. A quick count indicated that there were twelve girls in here alone that would have their lives affected by the research that she would be conducting as she sipped her coffee.
"I have a venti carmel latte." The barista said. Sarah smiled and took her coffee, and found a table to sit at. She pulled her laptop out and connected to the network only to discover that the sites that she needed to access to do her research and write the proposal were blocked by the network provider that this Starbucks had chosen. Sarah cursed under her breath and activated the VPN so that she could work through the servers at the CDC rather than the decidedly crippled servers in the coffee shop. She started her research by figuring out the cost of manufacturing a single device. Unfortunately, there seemed to be multiple versions of the device, ones for males and females and even one for males that looked like a female device. Sarah decided to go mid range and figured up the cost when she thought of something. She pulled out the phone that had been issued to her when Cassie had been appointed director of the CDC.
Sarah pulled her car into the garage and parked it next to Cassie's gleaming Yukon. It looked like Cassie had gone out and taken care of some things and gotten the SUV washed while she was out. She got out of the car and grabbed her laptop and headed into the kitchen. Cassie sat at the table, her reading glasses on, reading printed copies of the data that Sarah had forwarded to her before she had left the Starbucks.
"Quentin's plan is going to get expensive..." Cassie said, glancing up from a page to look at Sarah. Sarah guessed that Cassie was looking at the spreadsheet that she had put together. The next page proposed a way to pay for it.
"Yep." Sarah replied, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a bottle of water. "You want a bottle of water?"
"I've got one," Cassie replied, and then started laughing. "The folks in the military aren't going to like that..."
Sarah glanced over and saw that Cassie was now looking at the proposal on how to fund this initiative. "Yeah, well, it's either that, or they won't have anything to defend because the species will be gone..."
"True," Cassie said, taking the reading glasses off and placing them on top of the print out. "Looks like you have the majority of what I will need to send to Senator Gordon."
"The only thing I haven't figured out yet is what to do about the third gender..." Sarah let the thought trail off. Ten years ago someone had finally realized that there were more than two genders and the decision had been made to finally acknowledge those that were either transgender, intersexed, or just simply didn't want to be identified within the gender binary.
"Well, Any female to male transgender persons that have not already gone through SRS would fall under female biologically. I would imagine that most of the male to female persons would opt to be treated like a female in every respect." Cassie said, with a shrug. "I didn't see any data in the report about that..."
"That's because it's not in there, but I do have it," Sarah replied. "I looked at that too."
"My assistant is so thorough..." Cassie said. "Add it in and let me take another look at the whole proposal. You know we are going to have to fly to Washington and meet with Senator Gordon, right?"
"Yep. I was thinking about ordering one of the devices," Sarah said. "That way we have one to show to him after he sees the proposal. I don't know if I can get one in time though."
"I'll sign off on it as a agency purchase," Cassie said, glancing into Sarah grey eyes. "That way you aren't out any money."
Sarah smiled and took a swig of water. "Don't you have to get approval for expenditures like that?"
"Nope," Cassie said, "I can do damn well as I please. I'm the director." Both girls collapsed into a fit of laughter. "It has to be over two thousand before I need to seek approval."
"Ok. If we order one for me, I'm going to need to be measured. There is a measuring kit that we can order, but I don't know how accurate it will be..." Sarah steepled her fingers under her chin.
"Go order a measuring kit, use the expense cards, I'll sign off on it," Cassie said, picking up the stack of papers on the table. "Order exactly what you've outlined here, and nothing more. If you want something more, the difference comes from your pocket."
"I can live with that..." Sarah said. "We know it's going to take time for this proposal to gain traction, so we should have a device to show the committee before they vote on this, and then it also has to pass the full congress."
"Yep," Cassie stood and smiled. "Maybe by then you will have worn it enough that you can provide feedback on how it will affect the lives of the women wearing it..."
"First hand experience is going to be beneficial..." Sarah said. "What happens if the Congress doesn't care about this?"
"Then the Congress won't have anyone to govern," Cassie said, a smile forming across her face.