Android

When the technology was finally available to capture souls of people who had recently passed away, The insurance market sky rocketed. There were multiple versions of an insurance policy based around one particular theme. It was easy for the companies to capture souls in, and each policy that was activated made it even easier to capture souls.

New Robotic android bodies were invented and the soul capture device (strangely named SED) was installed in every android body.

The insurance policy could only go so far and there was a monthly fee for it. The policy captured your soul in the event of a death. It didn’t matter how the death occurred, premature, un expected, old age. So long as the insurance company was notified within 24hours of a death, it could capture the soul of the body then use SED to implant it into a new body. At first it was thought it could be used in the bodies of coma victims, bodies that were still usable but mentally dead.

What were the android bodies though. Well that’s where things got interesting. There were not enough coma victims throughout the world to accommodate the amount of policies the companies were selling. Also, it was another way of making money. The generic android bodies were created in the model image of their founder.

People complained. People always complain, but they were unhappy that their new generic permanent body, a  body that could never change, grow, gain muscle, get old, get a sun tan, have ginger hair was their only option. They complained that they had gotten tattoos on their own body and were not able to get their new bodies tattooed, they felt they were due refunds from the insurance company, Even that women would have to become fully functioning men – able to procreate, but when they were a woman, they had a man who was able to procreate, now they had been put into a generic male android – a family suddenly was not possible.

Soon, there were multiple models on the market. Even this was still not acceptable. Even the government expressed its concerns stating that if crimes were committed they had no way of telling which android committed the crime.

Eventually, each insurance policy was sold with “a customise your body interactive package. “ Obviously this bumped the price initially, but soon it came down as more and more people were taking the opportunity to effectively live forever. No one minded. Although androids didn’t need to eat or sleep, they were able too so people still enjoyed going out. People didn’t mind working either and economics were fixed, as people did not work for wealth, they worked for enjoyment. The population was still 90% human and 10% android. This would never change.

The customise your body package was downloaded to your smartphone it allowed constant updates to your insurance body. But during the first run of the application you are greeted with a holographic image beamed from your phone.

The first activation required 5 hours of your time
It created a “dummy” body that must now be edited to each individuals wants and desires. It really was a dummy body. Almost pure white, with no hair or colour in its eyes. It did not even have a gender. It was voice prompted. The first instruction was…
“Please select gender.” I of course said “Male” The beam made adjustments to the image and gave it male features.
”Please select age.” “I said 25” The beam made adjustments to make the body look around the age of 25.
“Please select desired height.” I said “6ft”
”Please select skin tone 1for white – ranging to 20 black.” I went through 5 to 10 and eventually settled on tone 6.

There were multiple further questions and it took hours to go through them all and in the end I had apparently created a body that I would be placed in. It asked further questions, shoe size, eye colour, freckles ideal weight all kinds.

After the voice commands I was invited to examine the body and make further adjustments to it. Like if I wanted dimples, body hair. All I needed to do was say what I wanted and the beam changed the body to suit my wants. That’s what they were, wants, they were not needs, but when I died, this would become my own body and something I had to live with for many many years.

Although I had picked my perfect android body, it was still changeable. At any time I could re activate the program and make adjustments. Things like make my skin colour match that of the guy sat next to me. Or add a tattoo. Make me taller, shorter anything I wanted I could change.
I had made changes almost on a weekly basis. Only little tweaks, but I liked who I was going to be and almost couldn’t wait to become him. I thought I had created the perfect specimen. Insurance was invalid if suicide was committed so I just had to wait it out.

There are droid blogs where people discussed problems, gave advise and discussed ideals with each other. Also, obviously, people saw each other every day and would make further changes to there insurance body.
Eventually after 15 years of waiting I died, naturally at quite a young age. Exactly what the policy was designed for. An SED extracted my soul; my insurance company instantly created my insurance body. The SED was inserted into a steel plug on my insurance body and my soul transferred into the body I had created.

The doctors were there to observe and help as necessary but I had longed for this moment and I was more than happy and more than capable of controlling my new body. Sure it felt heavy at first but it was warm like a real body. It felt real, looked, sounded and smelt real. It was the new me and I was made up.