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"I assure you, I am real, and far from perfect, ma'am," Harlow said, dropping the mop into the bucket for the last time. "I still feel guilty for how I left you last night. I've been trying to work out how I might make it up to you. If there's anything you wish of me, you have only to name it, and it shall be done. I swear it."
She wagged a finger at him. "See? Too perfect. I'm probably imagining the way you boarded up the window, too, so I should get a glazier out here first thing to fix the window properly. Good thing I know one who owes me a favour..."
She pulled out a small device, the size of a calling card, and held it to her ear. After speaking into it for a few minutes, she returned it to her pocket. "Right. Repairs sorted. Now, I need to get home, because I just remembered I promised Tacey I'd stay home with Rory while she does the grocery shopping, or I'll have to go to the supermarket, and I never seem to get the right things. And whatever Tacey cooks always tastes better anyway." She pointed a finger at Harlow. "As for you, my perfect hallucination, you can stay here until tomorrow night, when I'll come back to work on my virtual Swan River Colony. Then you can tell me everything you know so I can make it even better than it already is."
Harlow bowed. "I would be honoured."
TEN
It was a rare day when Octavia was awake before lunchtime, especially as she usually went to bed just before dawn, but the morning after the break in was one of them. Everyone else had already left for work and school, so she could totally have spent the day watching TV in her pyjamas, but she was too restless to just lie on the couch. When she'd lived at home, she'd have gone for a run, but now she wanted to direct her energy into something more practical than pounding the pavement.
So she headed to the café, waving hello to Rochelle as she headed upstairs to work on the immersive project. She'd forgotten to check last night if it had finished rendering, and she needed to see the final result before she sent it to the Bicentennial Council with her project application. If they accepted it, she'd have the funding and time to take it from a concept into a full-blown virtual world, which would have its own place in the new WA Museum when it opened at the end of the year.
Then everyone would know Carline's story, among a number of other women who'd worked hard to turn the fledgeling colony into a thriving state with industry that funded most of the country, something people on the east coast had no idea about, either.
Maybe then Mum would believe that the women in their family were more like Carline and Tacey, brave rebels who didn't spend all their time trying to slot into the perfect niche. No, Bell women broke down walls, blazed trails, and had the courage to not only write their own destinies, but provide for later generations, too.
Bell House was the perfect example. Built to replace the crumbling Bell Cottage that had been Carline's home, it was held in trust as accommodation for Bell women who wanted independence from their family to pursue their own path. Even the lease conditions said no men were allowed to live there – though male children could, as long as their mothers lived in the house. Paying little more than a pittance for rent (because it was a family property, held in trust) had allowed Octavia to keep studying and work on her VR project, when ordinary circumstances would have made her graduate and find a job long before now. Just like Sybil and Alethia. And Tacey...well, Tacey had needed this place as much for herself as she had for Rory. It had given her a place to stay, with a support network of family who could help her with Rory and the café when she needed it, while she'd become a sort of surrogate mum to all of them.
Tacey made sure the bills were paid on time, and that there was food in the fridge. She'd even been known to do a load of laundry for you, if you left it beside the machine or on the line and forgot about it.
So Octavia had to get this project finished, and out there where the public could see just how amazing the Bell women had been over the centuries. It was their legacy, as well as their future. And maybe, just maybe, when she was done telling the stories of women far more amazing than she'd ever be, she'd have the courage to choose a path for herself, something she hadn't even dared to consider until she'd moved into Bell House.
In the years she'd lived in Bell House, she'd considered it, but she still hadn't made any kind of decision. There were so many things she could do with her life...if she only had the courage to do them. If stepping into this finished VR world would give her even a spoonful of the courage her ancestors had possessed, it would be enough.
But the first step was submitted the pilot for funding.
Octavia reached down and flicked on the power switch for her computer.
Nothing.
She pressed it again, harder this time.
Still nothing.
The third time, she held it down like she was trying to do a hard reset on the system. That always got a response – usually an angry beep, followed by the hum of her computer starting up.
Only today...there was still nothing.
A normal person would panic or call IT support.
But Octavia was tech support. At the mine site, they'd called her Batgirl for computers, because obviously she couldn't be Batman. She'd just smiled and thanked them for the compliment. Best that they didn't know the truth...
Only right now, with her tower case wide open and the acrid smell of burned circuitry in the air as she pulled out each dripping, fried piece of what had been functional tech, she felt more like she'd gotten on the wrong side of the Joker.
Water damage she could have dealt with. A big bag of rice and heat would have saved most of her hardware. A bit of burnt wiring would have been regrettable, but replaceable. But this...it was like someone had deliberately poured water through the vents until they'd flooded the machine, and then they'd turned it on, turning the tower into a network of short circuits until the whole mess burned out and fused together into an unsalvageable lump. The only more effective ways to destroy a computer and all the data in it were to use fire or acid.
Whoever had done this knew what they were doing, destroying the computer and all the data on it. Not to mention the graphics card, which had been nearly new and it'd cost her more than the rest of the system combined. You couldn't do proper, immersive virtual reality without a top of the range graphics card, and a system that could handle it.
Octavia's breath hissed out through her teeth. She'd have to start everything from scratch, including building a new system with new hardware. She'd be pushing to meet the grant application deadline with the Bicentennial Council now. Then again, she'd be recreating what she'd already done, and she did have all her notes and the original graphics stored in the cloud. The only thing she didn't have was the render, or the project files she'd used to make the render.
She sighed. She should have let Tacey list the computer system and all her studio equipment on the café's insurance policy, no matter how high the cost. Then she'd have been able to claim the whole replacement system on insurance. But she'd said at the time that it was unlikely anyone would try and steal her cobbled together system, so the price of paying for the extra insurance would be put to better use for equipment upgrades in a year or two.
Upgrades, not a whole new system. Even after working at a mine site, she didn't have enough money to replace the whole system in one hit, and she wouldn't see a cent of that for another week or two.
If she wanted a new computer sooner, she'd have to take on some freelance work in the meantime. The sort of jobs that paid cash on completion.
Oh well. At least she could rejoice in the fact that if her mother knew what she was doing, she'd probably have a conniption. So with a smile on her lips, despite it all, Octavia fished out her laptop and ducked into the dark web to check out the job boards.
