Nu-U AnthroRobotics

Nu-U AnthroRobotics is a corporation in the Unified System, headquartered on Ganymede, one of the larger moons of Jupiter. The company has been in operation for approximately 40 years, historically producing and distributing cybernetic replacement components to hospitals throughout the System.

Approximately five years ago, a disgruntled employee sabotaged a shipment of replacement arms, destined for a military hospital on Earth, uploading a virus to the cybernetics' microcode. When the appendages were replaced on the wounded soldiers, they would not stop making masturbating motions. The PR nightmare that resulted nearly destroyed the company.

However, a corporate vice-president with connections in the field of biological brain-mapping created a division that marketed insurance plans to wealthy individuals, guaranteeing a sturdy, younger-looking android body when the time of the policy-holder's biological death was imminent.

The product was a huge success, selling hundreds of thousands of policies within the first year. It was very profitable for Nu-U, since the average lifespan for policy-holders was on the order of decades after purchasing a plan, and Nu-U didn't have to invest in the actual inventory for many years.

The influx of cash allowed Nu-U to return to solvency, and invest in other ventures to turn even more profit.

Nu-U ran into a potential snag when a very young policy-holder, one Ashford Bishop-Call III of Pluto, fulfilled the contractual terms required to have Nu-U pay out, long before inventory was available. Having been alerted to Mr. Bishop-Call's imminent biological death by the authorities, they were in no legal position to refuse, so they quickly acquired the minimum standard parts in order to upload the subject's consciousness.

It was later determined that the company quietly paid off Mr. Bishop-Call's considerable debt and arranged for a minor diplomatic posting with the Plutonian Diplomatic Corps in order to secure his cooperation and silence.