Waiting for the Machines to Fall Asleep

by Waiting for the Machines to Fall Asleep- The Best New Science Fiction from Sweden (retail) (epub)

  "Nice to have you back here, Mrs. Lorentz," Marilla said. "Please. Have a seat."

  "No, thanks," Christina said, after a glance at the offered chair. She could swear it had lichen growing on it. "Do you have it?"

  "Straight to the point this time, I see." Marilla chuckled. "Yes, I have it. But payment first."

  "No, I want to see it first."

  "You know what, Mrs. Lorentz, I have a feeling that under other circumstances we could be good friends. We think alike, you and me. Or maybe we would be mortal enemies, hah! Here it is." Marilla dug in her pocket and presented the watch.

  Christina nodded.

  "Can I have it? I want to make sure everything is – alright."

  "No, you can't."

  "Do you expect me to run away with it?" Christina nodded towards the armed goblins.

  Marilla sighed and handed her the watch. Christina looked at it, weighed it in her hand, shook it slightly, and when she realized what was wrong, she closed her eyes for a moment, pressing her lips together.

  "Damn," she cursed under her breath. She opened her eyes and looked at Marilla, her voice rising. "What have you done? You let it out! Have you any idea what you've done!"

  "What are you talking about?" Marilla was genuinely confused. One of the male goblins started to raise his gun, but she waved at him and he relaxed.

  "There was something in the watch," Christina said. "Something that's gone. Someone has let is out. You didn't know? Damn! Then it must have been the girl."

  "Exactly what was in the watch?" Marilla asked.

  "It's too late anyway," Christina sighed. "I might just as well tell you. A jinni – a genie. I have no idea how it ended up in there. It was there when I obtained the watch a few years ago."

  "Obtained?"

  "It was a gift. Now, I could probably afford a Patek Philippe, at least the less expensive ones, but definitely not back then. But it doesn't matter. What matters is that a very dangerous creature has escaped."

  Marilla stared a Christina for a moment. Then she raised her voice.

  "Ella! Come on in, I know you're listening!"

  The door opened and a familiar-looking goblin girl in a dirty pink dress sneaked inside and stopped beside the goblin in the leather jacket. He immediately straightened and put his hands on his hips, protectively trying to look bigger and broader than he was.

  "Yes, gran?" the girl said, and Christina understood that the old woman had fooled her from the start.

  "Ella," Marilla said, "this lady here has something very interesting to say, as you probably heard when you were eavesdropping. What was it you were telling me about the watch, Ella? Why you took it?"

  "It ... it asked me to. I'm so sorry about this, Mrs. Lorentz, I know I did something wrong, and I shouldn't have taken it, but it begged me to take it. I know it sounds insane, but ..."

  "Actually, it makes perfect sense," Christina sighed. "But how did you open the safe?"

  "I didn't," Ella said. "It was open."

  "What? No, that's impossible."

  "Well, I didn't open it!" Ella protested. "I have no idea how to open a safe without knowing the combination!"

  "So the safe was open when you entered the office? And the watch was still there, obviously. The jinni saw its chance to find someone new to manipulate. And then you made a wish."

  "No no," Ella said. "Come on, Mrs. Lorentz. Everyone knows you can't trust genies, especially not trapped ones. Don't humans have fairy tales?"

  "Actually, in our tales you have to let the genie out before you can make the wish," Christina said. "It was sheer luck that made me realize that it might be trapped in there for a reason. And when it tried to bargain with me I figured I could – alright, I admit it, I took advantage of the situation. Made it agree to grant a certain number of wishes before it would go free. And when the number was almost up ..."

  "You locked it away." Marilla nodded in approval.

  "I did," Christina said. "Now I have pretty much everything someone could ever wish for. And I did some research as well. It seems that being trapped in a device made of humans and forced to grant wishes is an ancient method of punishment practiced among the jinn. Experts of jinn lore think the idea was that jinn deemed as dangerous to mortals should be humbled by serving them. This jinni – jiniri, actually, it's a female – has probably been trapped for hundreds or even thousands of years."

  "In a modern wrist-watch?" Marilla raised her eyebrow.

  "Not all the time. It might very well have started out in a lamp, like in the old tales. I have no idea how the transitions are made, and why it's not freed if an old item breaks, but it's likely that the jinni has been trapped in several cages before ending up in this watch."

  "Well," Marilla said, "even though this little lecture in jinn lore and history is very interesting, I think the time for this business meeting is running out. You've got your watch back, with or without the genie. The genie was never part of our agreement, so I consider my job done. Payment, please."

  Christina produced an envelope from the inner pocket of her tweed jacket.

  "Please don't insult me by counting the money," she said. "Now excuse me, but I have to figure out how to escape the revenge of an angry genie."

  She turned to leave, but stopped and looked at Ella.

  "If you didn't let it out, who did?"

  "No idea." The girl shrugged. "Maybe Rat wished he could have some extra food, I don't know."

  "Or maybe your human friend did," Marilla said. "Marcus Jensen."

  "Gran!"

  "Marcus Jensen?" Christina frowned. "That name sounds familiar."

  "He works at your company," Marilla said. "Some sort of system administrator, I believe."

  "Oh yes, now I know," Christina said. "Rather nice-looking guy in his late thirties? He drops by my office every now and then to install something on my PC. How did he become involved in all this?"

  Marilla stared at Ella until she began to explain that she had contacted Marcus since she figured he might have an opportunity to give the watch back unnoticed. Christina interrupted her before she was done.

  "Do you know where I can find him? Good. Let's go there right away."

  The result came quicker than he could ever have imagined. Frankly, he hadn't even expected it to work. But less than an hour after the genie had stretched out in her full glory and disappeared in a cloud of yellow and white sparks through the window – which was closed, by the way – Marcus's phone rang. The display showed a number, not a name.

  "Hello?" he answered.

  "Hello?" a female voice said, a voice he would have recognized anywhere. "Marcus? Is that you? This is Emilia, from work."

  "Hi, Emilia!" Marcus said, probably sounding far too happy. Part of him wanted to jump up and down with excitement, while another part of him tried to reason that this probably was a work call. Maybe she worked overtime and her computer wouldn't connect to the system correctly. Not that anyone at work would or even should call him on a Saturday about something work-related.

  "Hi!" Emilia said. "I bet you wonder why I'm calling, but thing is ... Well, I was wondering, can I come over? I'd really really like to see you. We've never really talked, you know? You seem to be such an interesting person, and I want to get to know you better. Are you at home?"

  "Yes, I ... uhm ..." He wanted to ask her why she wanted to see him, but the excited part of him told him to shut up, tell her she was welcome, then clean up the worst mess in the apartment as fast as possible, have a really quick shower and maybe even have time to run down to the convenience store and buy condoms.

  The less excited part tried to point out that Emilia's behavior was a bit odd, and maybe Marcus should be careful, but he chose to ignore it and began cleaning up instead.

  Half an hour later, the doorbell rang, and there she was, with her big brown eyes and copper skin and dark hair curling over her shoulders. She gave Marcus the kind of smile he had dreamed of so many times.

  "Hi!" she sa
id. "Here, look, I brought wine!"

  She stuck the wine bottle in his hand while she took off her jacket and revealed a tight pink top that made it very clear that she didn't wear a bra. When Marcus finally was able to remember to look at her eyes and not further down, he saw that she still was smiling.

  "You're so handsome!" she exclaimed. "Why haven't we spent more time together? Come, where do you keep the wine glasses?"

  There was still a reluctant, more logical part of his brain that tried to point out that Emilia seemed a bit unbalanced, hardly acted according to normal social codes, and possibly, maybe, just might be under a spell.

  Shut up, Marcus said to the logical part of his brain as he followed Emilia's swaying hips towards the living room. If there was a problem, he could worry about it later.

  A short while later, Emilia had nearly emptied her glass of wine while talking eagerly about how much she hated celery (which Marcus quite liked), that she liked to play tennis (which Marcus found boring), that her favorite author was one of most popular (and in Marcus's opinion least interesting) crime authors, that she just loved house music (which Marcus hated) and that she had seen some celebrity at some trendy club last weekend (Marcus couldn't care less). She asked Marcus what he liked to do in the evenings, and when he replied that he enjoyed RPGs, her face got a blank look for a moment before she told him that "I love RPG too, those movies always make me laugh!"

  Marcus was just figuring out how to tell her that he was talking about role-playing games and nothing else without making her feel stupid, when the doorbell rang for the second time that evening.

  To be honest, he didn't mind.

  Waiting outside were Ella and Gorm, which was a bit surprising but not completely unlikely. The woman in their company, however, was none less than Christina Lorentz herself. Having her show up on his doorstep was about as unimaginable as Emilia sitting on his couch, placing her hand on his thigh every time she mentioned another completely uninteresting fact about herself.

  On the other hand, that was just happening, right?

  "Good evening, Marcus," Christina Lorentz said. "Do you have a moment? There's something very urgent we need to discuss."

  "Come in," Marcus said. "Anyone want a glass of wine?"

  Christina Lorentz's eyes switched back and forth between Marcus and Emilia, clearly surprised and also clearly dissatisfied with what she saw. Marcus reminded himself that the company didn't have any policy against romantic relationships between the employees as far as he knew, so if he and Emilia wanted to spend an evening together, it was really none of the VP's business.

  Nevertheless, Christina's dislike hung thick and heavy in the room.

  Emilia didn't look happy either, but for completely different reasons.

  "Make sure they leave quickly," she whispered to Marcus, leaning herself heavily against his arm (definitely no bra). "We're having such a good time, don't you think? It can only get better, you know."

  She winked and smiled, and Marcus was once again torn between the more logical part of his brain, that told him that he unfortunately had absolutely nothing in common with the girl of his dreams, and the part of him that was more concerned with the fact that he hadn't had time to buy those condoms.

  "So, Marcus," Christina said. "I think you might guess why I'm here, so let's get to the point. I got the watch back, you see. The only problem is that something's missing. And I think you know perfectly well what that might be. Or maybe I should say – who?"

  She knew about the genie. Of course she knew about the genie.

  Please don't let her out.

  Ella had known as well. The pieces began to come together in Marcus's mind.

  "Shit," Marcus said, leaning his head in his hands. "I think I've made a terrible mistake."

  "You made a wish, didn't you?" Christina smiled a wry little smile. "The last wish of the hundred wishes she was to grant before being set free. I made the first ninety-eight. I was a bit sloppy at first, didn't keep track, wished for insignificant things. Then I learned to think at least twice before uttering the words 'I wish'."

  "How could you be sure you made ninety-eight wishes if you didn't keep track?" Ella asked.

  "I asked the jinni. She kept track, believe me! I never trusted her, though. I suspected she might try to fool me by saying that I had more wishes left than I had. That's why I locked her away when my records said ninety-eight."

  "I only made one wish," Marcus said.

  "Turns out my ninety-eight wishes were in fact ninety-nine, then," Christina said. "I was right, she did try to trick me. And in the end, I guess she did."

  "I thought genies were good," Marcus said.

  "I suppose some might be," Christina said. "But this one struck me as wicked – actually, I think she's a bit insane."

  "If she's been locked up for hundreds of years, that's no wonder," Ella said.

  Christina nodded.

  "I think I'm done here," she said. "Unless someone has more information on how my safe was broken into?"

  The question sounded innocent enough, but Christina's eyes were sharp and mean as she looked at them all in order.

  Gorm looked blank. Emilia frowned.

  "I still don't understand that," she said.

  "I've already told you, the safe was already open when I came there," Ella said. "But okay. I admit that I did take the photo down. It was hanging askew, so I thought I should straighten it up, and then, you know, there's always a safe behind paintings, at least in films. So I had a look, and there it was, and it was open, and – you know the rest."

  Christina looked at her, and after a few moments, Ella noticed how she had a worried look in her eyes, as if she just had remembered something troubling.

  "I actually believe you," Christina said. She cleared her throat. "Thank you all for taking the time. And Marcus and Emilia – don't be surprised if the company will find itself under new management very soon. I think I have to take a long vacation, some place where genies don't go."

  Marcus followed her out in the hallway.

  "Mrs. Lorentz," he said, "you don't happen to know if those wishes are reversible, do you?"

  "Not as far as I know," she answered. "I suppose you could use another wish to undo one – but in this case, there are no wishes left. You have regrets, don't you?" She shook her head with a knowing smile. "Yes, I've been there, too. I suppose you have to figure out a way to solve the situation on your own."

  "I suppose I have to," Marcus said as Christina Lorentz closed the door behind her. "I suppose I have to."

  I wish Emilia would fall in love with me, even though we might not have much in common.

  That was what he had said, first.

  And I wish that this is for everyone's best, that no one is hurt because of it, and that we both can be happy together.

  He hadn't really made one wish. Of thoughtlessness, he had made two. But since the first one had freed her, the genie hadn't bothered with the second.

  Humans. What was so special about them? Filthy creatures of flesh and blood, created by dirty clay. The jiniri stretched out in a way that she had been prevented from for centuries. She looked at her limbs glowing and sparkling, created by pure, smokeless fire.

  It felt good to be perfect.

  She laughed aloud as she recalled how she finally had managed to play with the human woman's mind, made her forget to lock the safe, to leave the door open. And then the goblin girl! An easy victim, the jiniri had thought, but even though she was quick enough to grab the cage, the jiniri hadn't been able to persuade her to make a wish. Lucky for her, the girl had left her with the human man – and now, here she was, flying high in the heavens again.

  She knew exactly where her last prison keeper was. Boarding one of the machines the humans had created in an attempt to fly like jinn and angels.

  The jiniri chuckled.

  An accident was about to happen.

  "Quadrillennium" – AR Yngve

  The family has gathere
d at the northern habitat on the bloodline's home planet, as tradition commands.

  Winter Solstice is imminent. We land our ships near the foot of the mountain range, and get dressed in suitable winter bodies.

  The reunion with distant members of our family becomes unusually emotional. We pass around joyful greetings and comments.

  "Young Klallapar! How cute you are! Let us hug you and take a few cell samples."

  "Mojniham! Such a long time since we saw you in bodily form! How's life on Neptune?"

  "Nothing new, dear relatives. We look forward to our brains bonding tighter to make a stronger We."

  "A happy Winter Solstice to you all!"

  "Where's the mother unit?"

  "In the kitchen."

  "Mmm, it smells great!"

  "How we missed the traditional smells on Ganymede ..."

  We exchange pheromones and move our fleshy, fur-clad winter bodies to the kitchen, under the merry shouts from the mother unit: "Come and see! The Savior is baked and ready!"

  The Savior slides out of the oven: an adult man of our forefathers' breed, dressed in an arcane manner, without implants, unmodified.

  But he is not completely baked; his brain is like a newborn, devoid of experience.

  We swiftly put him into a sleep and feed the brain with the stored Savior memories, as tradition commands.

  Listen to how his growing memory curves, translated into sound, sing as in the days of old. Ah, this is going to be an old-fashioned holiday!

  The little ones gather expectantly in the kitchen where we prepare the Savior: Ertoj, Klallapar, and our favorite Inrawdack who soon will be joined with the family We.

  Inrawdack, triple-sexed to mirror a complex structure, helps our oldest family members lift the Savior out of the oven mold.

  He rises unsteadily and looks about himself in confusion.

  Instead of thought transmission he uses a mixture of lisping, clicking and howling sounds which are shaped by tongue and larynx.