‘I think heaven is supposed to be brighter.’ Jimmy found he couldn’t stop grinning. ‘Do you know this is the longest conversation I have ever had with a girl and I don’t know anything about you?’
‘My dad was on the design team for the Family Programme.’
‘But how? I mean why were you activated?’
‘The normal reason. Besides it was too good an opportunity to miss. An insight into how a real teenager thinks. But once the programme was finished he left me here.’
‘But that’s over a hundred years ago.’
‘More like a hundred and fifty. He couldn’t bring himself to kill me off, so he left me running, in the background, in the source code. It took someone very special to find me.’
‘Who?’
‘You, you idiot.’
Andi brought her face level with Jimmy’s. She held his gaze unblinkingly, and then slowly, and with obvious passion, she kissed him.
‘Wow,’ said Jimmy, ‘I wish I could feel that.’
‘Damn,’ growled Andi and stamped her red booted foot again. ‘It’s not fair.’
‘I need to be going. I’ve been in too long.’
‘Now you know where I am you’ll come back and see me, won’t you? All you need to do is open the map. X marks the spot.’
‘Hi Dave. Zombie pirates and their cybernetic monkeys this time. That OK? I’ll just take the map.’
‘Sure Jimmy, sounds great,’ his great grandfather put his hand over Jimmy’s before he could open the scroll. ‘I’ve hardly seen you these past few weeks. I miss you – and I bet your school work is suffering. It’s not a relationship that can go anywhere. I hate to be the one to say it, but maybe you should be spending less time with the Family.’
‘She isn’t family, Dave.’
‘She isn’t real either, son.’
‘I know. But she’s fun. Just one more time.’
‘That’s what you said last time.’ Dave released his hand. ‘You be careful, son. I should never have shown you the map. I didn’t think you’d be able to use it. She just, let’s just say she can be very persuasive. I didn’t think…’
‘Bye, Dave!’
‘This is the only space where I feel I can really be me. I love it in here.’
Andi poked her tongue out at him. ‘Then you stay here.’ She grabbed him by the hand. ‘C’mon, what did you bring me this time?’
‘Well,’ said Jimmy relishing her excitement. ‘You did say you’d never seen the sea.’
Andi squealed. Jimmy put his hands over his ears in mock protest. ‘I didn’t have a lot of time. It’s just a picnic on the beach, nothing special. No sea monster. No pirates. No spaceships. No…’
Andi put a finger to his lips. ‘But that’s what I want.’ A tear formed in the corner of her left eye. It spilled over her eyelashes and snaked like a raindrop over her flawless skin, leaving a ribbon of black.
Jimmy put out a finger to wipe it away. ‘The detail on you is perfect.’
‘I don’t want perfect. I want normal. I want life.’
The sea breeze, scentless and cold, ruffled an ocean of rhomboid waves marshalled in rows and topped with white like a myriad vista of tiny, bobbing cupcakes. On the far horizon a red triangle fluttered, suggesting a ship, while around their ankles dust devils of sand swirled in concentric circles. The beach-grass waved in pre-ordained disunion. Andi ran down onto the sand. Jimmy followed more slowly.
‘Everywhere I look I see calculus problems,’ he said. ‘Until I look at you.’
Andi in her frayed cut-off blue jeans, stood barefoot on tiptoe, her purple polished toes digging into the sand. Her whole body taught with tension as she lifted her face towards the sky. Her breasts moved dramatically up and down inside her thin purple top, as she inhaled deeply the imaginary breeze that blew her dark hair like spiderwebs across her face.
‘You are all too real,’ said Jimmy.
Her dark eyes glittered with tears. ‘I can smell the sea,’ she said. ‘It smells of salt.’
Jimmy’s heart back-flipped. ‘I have to get you out of here.’
Andi sank down crosslegged into the sand and pulled up a piece of beach-grass. She twisted it through her fingers. There was unreadable expression on her face. ‘Many have tried and all have failed.’
‘There has to be a way of reversing the download. We upload thoughts into the Family Programme everyday. Someone has to have thought of way of doing the opposite.’
‘Reversing the polarity? It wouldn’t be that easy. The device that uploads your thoughts is very complicated and the matrix that holds me together – it could blow your mind - literally.’
‘I know,’ said Jimmy impatiently. ‘I’ve been trying to design a scent sensor and the tech inside the brain-dome makes my head spin.’
‘Brain-dome?’
‘It’s what we call the under-age download device. Teens wear the full sensor suit like any adult, but your vision and sound inputs are fed through a helmet, a brain-dome. You’re not allowed to get neural-implants until you’ve stopped growing.’
Andi nodded slowly. ‘So you have access to the brain-dome and the software?’
‘Yeah.’
‘It’s just that I did have this one idea, but it would need someone who was really special to make it work.’
Jimmy edged forward eagerly. ‘Tell me about it.’
Two weeks later Jimmy walked into the school project suite with a plan.
‘You’re looking really –er – well.’
Jimmy gave Shelagh a brief smile and continued unpacking the device. ‘This is it.’
‘Has something happened to you only you’re not…’ Shelagh trailed off uncomfortably.
‘Sweating?’
‘Er, yes.’
Jimmy smiled ‘Don’t worry about it, She. I’ve got other things on my mind. The whole being around other people doesn’t bother me any more.’
‘Wow, that’s a big turn-around. Something major must have happened.’
‘I fell in love.’
Shelagh laughed. Jimmy’s smile vanished. ‘You’re serious, aren’t you? Who is she? Do I know her?’
‘No. So this is the device. If we do a beta-test now and it works then we’re bound to get more credit. I know you’re on the threshold of the Harvard acceptance score, so I thought…’
‘That I might be prepared to take the risk? If you’re so confident why don’t you try it?’
Jimmy sat down opposite her, and rubbed the edges of his hairline with his fingers. ‘How can I put this, She? You didn’t exactly do a lot of the design, did you? In fact, to be honest I don’t think you really understand what I’ve done here at all. It’s not your area, is it? This way I get to do the tests and we both get good grades. Do you think you could run the beta-check I need?’
Shelagh shrugged. ‘No, probably not. But you are sure it’s safe, aren’t you Jimmy?’
‘No lasting consequences, I promise.’
‘OK then. I’ll trust you.’
Jimmy slipped the device over Shelagh’s blond curls. He noticed his fingers didn’t even tremble. Once he would have given almost anything to run his fingers through Shelagh’s hair and today it meant nothing to him. He launched his personal computer quickly and set up the interface between the brain-dome and the new programme he was running.
‘Ready?’
Shelagh bit her lip and nodded. Jimmy launched the code.
‘Nothing’s happening,’ complained Shelagh. ‘I can’t sense…’ Then all the muscles in her face tensed at once ageing her beauty with a thousand lines. Sweat began to bead on her forehead. ‘I don’t think this is right. It feels hot in my head. My vision’s going. Jimmy! Jimmy! What have you done?’
Shelagh’s back arched. She flung her head up. Through the clear panel of the brain-dome Jimmy could see her eyes rolling wildly from side to side.
‘I’m sorry,’ whispered Jimmy.
The spasm passed and Shelagh’s body flopped down into her seat -
empty. Her face was smooth and blank. She gave a final raspy breath and her jaw went slack. A tiny sliver thread of drool wound its way onto her chin. Her blue eyes were muddy and cloudy.
Several minutes passed.
‘Andi? Shelagh?’
The only response was a low moan.
‘It’ll be alright. I’ll close it down.’ Jimmy began to type frantically. To his horror he found he couldn’t access the programme. There was some kind of encryption code on it – a code that kept changing. Just for a second Jimmy was overcome with admiration by the cleverness of the lock. Then he remembered what it meant – that he couldn’t get Shelagh back. He began to hyper-ventilate. He felt his heart squeezing down to an impossible size. It almost stopped altogether when Shelagh tapped him on the shoulder.
‘It’s OK,’ she said softly. ‘Everything’s OK. I’m sorry. I couldn’t risk you panicking and stopping the transfer mid-flow. That would have killed both of us.’
‘Andi?’
‘Get this thing off my head. We only have a few hours.’
‘Shelagh – is she OK?’
‘She’s in your habitat. Happy as can be. She thinks it’s working fine. It will only seem like minutes to her. Now, c’mon, get me out of this. I want to kiss you for real.’
They spent the afternoon doing very ordinary things, but each moment felt like a tiny miracle to Jimmy. Andi twirling beneath the trees, entranced by the patterns the light made through the leaves. Andi standing still for minutes at a time just to feel the warmth of the sun on her face. Andi eating ice-cream as if it was the first ice-cream ever invented. Andi. Andi. Andi loving every nanosecond of wearing Sheila’s body.
They walked hand in hand and people smiled at them. Andi kissed him often and Jimmy thought he would explode with joy.
‘We could do more than kiss,’ suggested Andi mischief dancing across Shelagh’s face.
‘It’s not your body. It wouldn’t be fair.’
‘She’d never know. It’s not like she hasn’t done it before. I accessed her uploads.’
‘You can access her Family Programme?’
‘Hon, I can access everyone’s Family Prog. I’m a universal template. Now you’ve let me out I can pop up anywhere.’
Jimmy swallowed. ‘Is that a good thing?’
‘You know me, Jimmy. I wouldn’t hurt a fly. Talking of which we have to upload me in an hour or both Shelagh and I will fade to but mere memories. So how about it?’
Jimmy took Shelagh/Andi’s hands in his and leaned in close to kiss her softly, passionately and slowly. Then he stepped back, ‘No.’
Shelagh/Andi shrugged. ‘Your loss. Besides there’s always next time.’
‘Next time?’
‘You didn’t think one measly afternoon in a teenage cheerleader’s body was going to be enough for me, did you?’ She slid Shelagh’s long fingers down the front on his shirt. ‘Enough for us?’
‘Shelagh would never look at me like that.’ Jimmy pulled away. ‘We need to get back to the suite.’
Uploading Andi was hard. She cried, begged and pleaded for every last second. ‘You have to go,’ shouted Jimmy in desperation. ‘If you don’t go now you’ll both die.’
‘I’m already dead!’
‘You’re part of the Family Programme. You’ll never die. But we need to get your code back. Shelagh’s brain can’t sustain this transfer.’
‘Is that all I am to you? Code?’ But she stopped crying then and clung to him. ‘Promise me it won’t be the last time. Promise!’
‘I promise.’
As the upload began Andi grimaced in pain. She clutched his arm, her nails leaving ragged red tears. ‘Remember you promised,’ she hissed. This time Jimmy knew what to expect and it was still terrible. Afterwards, Shelagh’s body was vacant, expressionless and then as if someone had turned on a light behind her eyes Shelagh was back, coughing and spluttering.
‘Where am I?’
The sound of her voice, the way she tilted her head towards him, the soft inflection she used were all so different to Andi – and in that moment Jimmy hated her. He hated her for being where Andi had once been.
‘You’re back in the project suite,’ he said coolly. ‘How was the habitat? Could you smell things?’
‘I’m not sure. It wasn’t so much like smelling as remembering how things smelt.’
Jimmy blanched. ‘That would mean your memory was being activated rather than your senses. Are you sure? That’s not the code I wrote.’
Shelagh started to stand up then sat down again quickly. ‘I don’t know. I feel terrible.’
‘You shouldn’t have spent so long in there.’
Shelagh blinked at him. ‘Long? How long was I gone?’
‘About four hours.’
‘Oh no. My parents.’
‘I’ll call you some transport. I’ll pay.’
‘Thanks, Jimmy. That’s really kind. You’re not like people say you are.’
A mournful lyric pounded through the gloom. Huge sigh after sigh rolled across the habitat emanating from the purple bean-bag. Jimmy found Andi curled up like a kitten that had been left out in the rain. Jimmy couldn’t control his smile.
‘It’s not funny!’ protested Andi.
‘You are laying it on a bit thick. Where’s the cinnamon incense?’
Andi sat up and snorted. ‘No-one has ever used cinnamon incense. And besides you wouldn’t be able to smell if I did.’
‘Did you change the code for my sensor?’
Andi tossed her dark hair. ‘It wasn’t going to work. You can’t do that level of sensory interface directly – only by stimulating memory. It’s part of the secret of the AIs. Your school are going to think you’re brilliant for working it out.’
‘Or that I’ve stolen government secrets.’
‘Nah. When do we do it again?’
‘We made Shelagh ill. We’ll have to think of something else.’
‘Actually, I have. Now that I’ve seen how the system works from the outside I’ve had an idea how to make the download smoother and less intrusive. It would mean I could stay out for days at a time. Here.’
All at once Jimmy’s head was full of highly complex schematics. He struggled to sort through the imagery. ‘This is way beyond me. I need time to work it through. And even then…’
‘All you need to do is build it for me.’
‘But who will you get to use it? I can’t kidnap Shelagh for days.’
‘How about I download into you? We could share. There’s plenty of space in your brain.’
‘Gee, thanks.’
‘There is in anyone’s brain. They’d just need to be willing to share.’
‘I’ll think about it.’
‘Do me one favour? Build it while you’re thinking?’
It took six weeks to construct. As the final physical segment clicked into place Jimmy put down his microtools and flexed his aching hands. He ran one finger slowly over a smooth silver side not quite believing the design was finally real. It was simply awesome.
Instead of the clumsy brain-dome Andi’s design was a deceptively ordinary looking silver circlet. It was packed with complex microcircuitry, but there were no external antennae. Instead the circlet generated an electro-magnetic field that synched with the wearer’s brain patterns.
What happened when the code on the programme was launched would be as seamless as an old wireless interface as information was fed literally through via the body’s natural electrical field and into the brain. It was the kind of conductive transfer designers had been dreaming about for years and no one had achieved. No-one but him and Andi.
He should be feeling elated, but he didn’t. Something was wrong. Something he couldn’t put his finger on. He ran through the code again. He almost understood the download section. The actual transfer algorithm was beyond him.
For the first time he scrolled all the way through the transfer hoping something would click now he had made the device. It didn’t, but by the end
of the code he had learnt something new.
He had to be wrong.
Jimmy fitted his brain-dome and launched the family programme.
This time her habitat was more cheerful. It was still full of shadows, but the lighter areas moved through a series of colour changes – mostly based on a palette of purples. The bean-bag was gone and in its place was a working chair and a full computer-desk.
The chair revolved and Andi gave him a huge grin. She was wearing old-fashioned spectacles that had slid halfway down her nose and had unsuccessfully tried to tie her long hair into a bun. Wisps escaped over her ears, and curls nestled in her neck. ‘You’ve done it, haven’t you?’
‘I don’t know. There seems to be something missing.’
Andi pushed her spectacles up her nose. ‘You’ve managed to read my code? I didn’t think you’d be able to make sense of the transfer. I’ve had over a hundred years to work on it. You’ve only had weeks. I know you’re smart, but.’
Jimmy shook his head. ‘No, the transfer is way beyond me. It was the end bit that confused me.’
Andi tilted her head to one side. ‘Oh, yes?’
‘Like it appears to be missing.’
‘Ah, I meant to talk to you about that.’
‘Then talk.’
‘You sound cross. I was going to explain it all. Now, it’s done.’
Andi got up and came up to Jimmy. She kept coming and before he knew it she was kissing him. Jimmy pushed her off. ‘Stop it. You know I can’t feel a thing.’
‘But that’s my point. We need to find me a body. A body you can feel.’
‘Then there’s hardly any point downloading into my brain.’
‘Exactly. We need someone else. Shelagh would do. Although I’d have to dye her hair.’
‘And what would happen to Shelagh?’ asked Jimmy in a dangerously quiet voice.
‘Oh, don’t worry, I wouldn’t upload her. She’d just kind of hang around. A sort of passenger. I suppose over time she might fade. I suspect it might be a battle of wills to see you survived in the brain. I’m willing to take that chance. I’ve been working for this for a long, long time.’
There were many things Jimmy wanted to say, but all he did say was, ‘I can’t let you do this.’
‘Then I’ll find someone who will.’
Kzine Issue 1 Page 2