And then I took a slider to college and tried to remember when I started keeping secrets from my father.
The problem is that the longer I leave it, the harder it gets to tell him. And he’s not easy to talk to at the best of times.
-3-
File: 113/43/00/fgi
Source: LinkDataLinkDiaryPeter_VincentPersonal
My life is getting weird.
Like I’ve opened some strange door by signing up for an extra class, and now other things are coming out through that door.
Like Amalfi.
Amalfi Del Rey.
I guess the Amalfi thing only happened because Ms. Donlevy embarrassed me in front of the class.
In fairness she probably didn’t mean to, but when she started talking about my father in glowing, reverential tones it made my face redden, nevertheless.
My father casts a long, long shadow, even across my science lessons.
We were discussing the development of artificial life, and Ms. Donlevy decided to illustrate the talk with an infoslice on David Vincent’s breakthrough work on the bee project.
Bee numbers had been declining for centuries, and careful study of environmental factors had at least stabilised them for fifty or so years.
But then the Black Labium mite arrived. The mite was a parasite, and it was small enough to make its home on the feeding tubes of honeybees.
Generally speaking, parasites maintain a balance with their hosts: they take a little of what they need, without putting their host in danger. This makes sense: killing a host is pretty bad business for a parasite.
Unfortunately, the black mites had crossed over from another threatened species – a butterfly, of all things – and they were ignorant of the needs of honeybees. They prevented the bees from receiving some amino acids that they needed to survive.
And the extinction of the bee as a species began in earnest.
The problem with losing the bees was that the plants they worked so hard to fertilise also came under the threat of extinction. And without plants, the human race would face a very bleak future indeed.
At the time, my father had been a researcher on an artificial life project that had already engineered an electric ant. Artificial creatures were a relatively new area of study, but there had been a few successes. What made my father’s ant different from the dozen or so other living robots was its ability to think.
And it was a triumph of miniaturisation: where some of the other creatures were unwieldy and large, my father’s electric ant was just about the same size as the real thing.
When it was forecast that honeybees would be totally extinct within ten years, my father’s team had turned their attentions to the creation of artificial honeybees.
I remember my father telling me that they had attempted to copy the precise structure of the creature they were trying to mimic. But it had turned out to be a dead end because it was so hard to get the bees to fly as accurately and delicately as they needed.
So, eventually, they had ditched the natural template and went for a design that looked nothing like a bee at all. In fact it owed its form more to the common housefly, with some pouches added to its backmost pair of legs.
The infoslice that Ms. Donlevy showed even had a vid of my father addressing a symposium.
‘Programming the bees was the easy bit,’ he said from the vid. ‘Making them weatherproof was the real challenge.’
After a few prototypes had been built, the artificial bees had gone into mass production and were released into the wild with huge success. All the plants of the world had been saved, and my father was guaranteed a lifetime of wealth.
You see, the bees couldn’t reproduce – and they had a pretty limited lifespan – which meant that they were always in demand.
And always in production.
Ms. Donlevy suddenly turned to me. ‘Your father is an incredible man,’ she said, ‘and an inspiration to us all.’
I fashioned a passable smile and then looked around. Everyone in the room, it seemed, was staring at me with smirks and sneers on their faces. And that only made my face feel hotter.
Even Perry had his eyes raised to the ceiling in mock exasperation.
Thanks Perry, I thought, never mind that your father helped too.
I honestly didn’t know where to look. And, in searching for a place to rest my eyes, I saw a female face that was studying me with something different in her expression.
Warmth. Maybe compassion?
I hadn’t seen her before, but I appreciated her look and gave her an uneasy smile.
She smiled back at me and then turned her attention to Ms. Donlevy at the front of the room.
‘I can’t help thinking that it might have been better if he’d targeted the mites instead of the bees,’ the girl said pretty loudly.
Ms. Donlevy’s face did three things in quick succession: it stretched with shock, then crinkled with puzzlement, before relaxing into amusement.
‘Ah, Miss … Del Rey, I believe.’ Ms. Donlevy spoke with the kind of fake brightness that was so shallow you could hear the steel reinforcements running under the surface of her words. ‘Would you care to elaborate on that point for the benefit of the rest of us?’
The girl nodded enthusiastically.
‘I was just thinking about the Law of Unintended Consequences,’ she said brightly. ‘David Vincent’s work was visionary, but he approached the problem from the point of view of an engineer. He manufactured an artificial bee that saved the world …’
‘I’m struggling to see a problem here.’ Ms. Donlevy’s voice became that little bit sharper.
‘Well, have you seen any real bees lately?’ the girl said. ‘Of course you haven’t. The fake bees were so good at their job that they muscled out the biological ones. We didn’t save them, we simply engineered their replacements.’
‘Replacements that saved the world’s food crops,’ Ms. Donlevy said, crossing her arms.
I was sitting there watching, shocked.
I mean no one talks to Ms. Donlevy like that. She’s one of our more … formidable lecturers. She can cut frivolous or disruptive students down with nothing more than a look.
But I also felt a little bit of admiration. The girl might be arguing at the expense of my father, but you had to admit: she did have a point.
‘I’m only suggesting that if we had focused our energies on attacking the mites we could have saved the real bees,’ the girl said matter-of-factly.
‘The word “could” is key in your observation,’ Ms. Donlevy said coldly. ‘And as much as I enjoy a game of “if only we had”, this is neither the time nor the place to indulge in such pursuits. I realise that you are new here, Miss Del Rey, so I will suggest to you that you keep your asides to yourself in future. Now if you could all open up your LinkPads …’
It wasn’t as bad a smacking down as Ms. Donlevy could have delivered, and I saw the faintest of smiles pass across Miss Del Rey’s lips when our eyes met.
LinkList/Peter_Vincent
My Top 5 LinkTunes Playlist
5.
‘My Quantum Beatbox’ by The Definite Articles
A thumping slice of techno mayhem, with the vocals sampled from a children’s educational film about quantum jumps. Contains equations for the calculation of quantum events, but they never get in the way of the music. And the drum programmer isn’t just keeping time on this track, he’s inventing it.
My Rating: ****
4.
‘If I Dream’ by Mr. Melt
An orchestral opening gives way to some fierce industrial guitars in this cover version of an old Eddie Leakey choon. But where the original was about the courage of dreaming the impossible, Mr. Melt subverts the message with subliminal tones that evoke nightmares.
Powerful stuff.
My Rating: ****
3.
‘Until the Sun Goes Cold’ by Laurie Lauren
A smooth, chille
d-out ballad. OK, it’s about the eventual cooling down of the sun, but it’s not as gloomy as that might make it sound. Laurie’s voice stretches through the octaves, but it’s in a less showy way than on her last few tracks. ‘The last winter ever/Temperatures are falling/Hello Hello/Eternity is calling.’
My Rating: ****1/2
2.
‘Lumpy Gravy’ by A Clinical Sign
Apparently another cover, but the original exists only on paper and hasn’t been heard for many centuries. A Clinical Sign are forging a bit of a niche for themselves by recording songs from so long ago, but it sounds fresh and new and as if it was written yesterday.
My Rating: ****3/4
1.
‘Forward, Only Forward’ by The Little Engines of Destruction
Every now and then a song comes along that manages to condense thousands of years of civilisation into one seven-minute dance track. DogFather’s ‘This Is Where We’re From’ started the trend, but TLEofD’s title track from their new compilation encyclopaedia takes the idea and runs with it.
At times the compressed historical information is a little overwhelming, even disorientating, but I feel that was kind of the point. And, let’s face it, it’s a great way to learn.
My Rating: *****
-4-
File: 113/43/00/fgj/Continued
Source: LinkDataLinkDiaryPeter_VincentPersonal
Mercifully the lesson ended pretty soon after.
The rest of the class were filing out of the lecture hall, but I’d remained seated, waiting for the room to empty.
‘Look, I’m sorry about my outburst,’ said a voice at my shoulder. ‘But she really shouldn’t have done that.’
I turned around and was surprised to see Miss Del Rey. She was blonde, with piercing blue eyes and a mouth that looked mischievous.
I avoided turning bright red and managed to reply, ‘Who shouldn’t have done what now?’
‘Ms. Donlevy, putting you on the spot like that. It wasn’t fair.’
‘I guess that’s the problem with following in the footsteps of someone with massive feet,’ I said, trying to sound dry and witty. ‘Or living in the shadow of a monolith. Choose your preferred metaphor.’
‘I think I’ll go for metaphor A,’ she said. ‘You’re Peter, right? I’m Alpha.’
‘Alpha?’ I asked her.
It was Alpha’s turn to look uncomfortable.
‘It’s better than Amalfi,’ she said. ‘That’s me, by the way. Amalfi Del Rey.’ She smiled a thin smile. ‘My parents didn’t seem to realise that a name has to be said out loud.’
I packed my LinkPad into my bag and zipped it up.
‘Anyway, I’m sorry. Attacking your father; it was out of line.’
I think I surprised her by smiling. ‘It was an interesting point you were making. And to be honest it was worth it just to see Ms. Donlevy’s face. It’s good to meet you, Alpha.’
‘Good to meet you too.’
I stood up and said: ‘You’re new.’
‘I know,’ Alpha replied impishly, ‘I was made just yesterday in a secret factory. The same place they make sarcasm and the dappling of light through trees.’
‘I meant to this class.’
‘I know what you meant,’ she said. ‘And I deflected your observation with some sparkling wit. It’s called a defence mechanism. I’m enjoying talking to you, and know that as soon as you find out anything more about me, about my family, about my background, then any chance we have of being friends will be gone forever.’
I shook my head. This was weird, but I sort of liked her, and I didn’t want her to stop talking to me.
‘We are going to be friends,’ I told her. ‘In fact, it’s too late. It’s already happening.’
‘You say that now,’ Alpha said, ‘But when you hear my dark secrets, you’ll run a klick. In record-breaking time.’
‘I couldn’t break a record if I tried,’ I said. ‘Who wants to talk about family anyway?’ I offered her my hand. ‘Peter No-Middle-Name Vincent. Officially a friend of Amalfi Del Rey.’
She shook the hand gently, and smiled.
‘You’ll run a klick,’ she said, but warmly.
‘A lady of mystery.’ I grinned. ‘Save the secrets, I don’t even want to know them. How about we just go and get ourselves a drink?’
‘Done and done,’ Alpha said. ‘If you’re good, I might even let you pay.’
LinkList/Peter_Vincent
The Dark Secret of Amalfi Del Rey
So, I’ll run a klick, huh? But run from what?
Here are my top five guesses:
1. She’s a clone
We’ve been making them for years, because clones without consciousness make perfect transplant banks, but what if she is a clone that accidentally developed a real brain. And escaped from a spare-parts bank? And is on the run?
Likelihood rating: 1/2
2. She’s a serial killer
Once upon a time, long, long ago, people were born who were different to everyone else. Instead of going about their lives in the ordinary way, they hid under bridges and jumped out and killed people. OK, so the existence of serial killers is probably a myth, a scary story to tell the kids, but what if she really is one? Better not go under any bridges with her, just to be on the safe side.
Likelihood rating: 1
3. She’s from a parallel universe
Certain interpretations of quantum theory say that there are zillions of multiple universes, even one where I’m made of cheese and am king of the world. Maybe she’s slipped over from the universe next door to borrow a cup of calcium, and she’s taking in a few of the sights before she leaves.
Likelihood rating: 1 3/4
4. She’s a robot from the future
If you could send a robot back in time, chances are it wouldn’t look like a hunk of junk with death rays and stuff, but would be an exact replica of the people it was going to meet in the past. Maybe she is on a mission to change something in her past to avert a global catastrophe, and she’s made friends with me because I’m important to her unknowable future-robot scheme.
Likelihood rating: 3
5. She’s completely imaginary
Maybe I’m losing my mind and I’m just imagining her. She’s like some alter ego or something, a figment of my imagination that embodies my essential boredom with the world. And I invented her to make my life a bit more … unpredictable.
Likelihood rating: Let’s face it, 5
-5-
File: 113/43/00/fgj/Continued
Source: LinkDataLinkDiaryPeter_VincentPersonal
We bought a pair of fruit soys from the refectory and took them outside to sit in the fresh air.
The sun above was scorching hot, but humidity was mercifully low. Yet again the people at Climate Control had managed to pull off another spectacular day, even reassigning the rain to somewhere that actually needed it.
I connected to my jacket with my filaments and in seconds it was a shirt.
Alpha turned a blouse and trousers into a floral-patterned dress.
A rough template, sure, but there were lots of pinks and yellows in the pattern and it kind of worked.
I really don’t usually notice things like that.
We walked past the seats on the terrace and opted for the manicured lawn that sits out front of the college. There we discovered a mutual liking for mango soy and banana soy, but a mutual dislike for the banango variety.
‘Hybrid fruits creep me out,’ Alpha announced. ‘If you want an apple crossed with a gooseberry – which, in fact, I really don’t want – then put them in a blender, but don’t go combining genes.’
‘They’ll kick you out of Biogenetics class for statements like that,’ I said wryly.
‘They’ll do that the first time they grade one of my papers,’ Alpha said. ‘It’s my parents that are keen on me getting some science into my life, so here I am,
hopping classes in a desperate hunt for something that I’m actually good at.’ She frowned. ‘Two classes with Ms. Donlevy have convinced me that biogenetics is not it.’
‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘Two lessons aren’t enough to make that judgment. You’ll find your feet soon.’
‘OK, I’ll stop talking like the world’s number one loser,’ she said, and then she looked around us. ‘Has everyone here gone study mad?’
‘A centrally administered learning-quota adjustment,’ I said. ‘Or, in everyday linguish, they just raised the bar again.’
‘Looks like I picked a great time to arrive,’ Alpha said. ‘I guess I’ll start packing when I get home.’
‘No, you had a point today,’ I said. ‘I just don’t think Ms. Donlevy is looking to have her thinking changed.’
‘But you are.’ She arched an eyebrow and it kind of turned her statement into a question.
‘I guess so.’ I studied the muddy deposits at the bottom of my drink. ‘I’m trying to be the perfect student my father wants me to be, but he doesn’t seem to notice. Lately, I’ve been wondering why I work so hard to please him.’
‘It’s not a bad question,’ Alpha said.
‘I even signed up for a literature class. My father would freak if he found out.’
Alpha studied my face for a moment, and then shrugged. ‘We all have to do things our own way. There’s actually no point in following in another’s footprints too exactly, you’ll end up leaving no tracks of your own.’
I nodded.
‘The point is that you need to stop worrying about what others think and start concentrating on what you want,’ Alpha said.
‘I guess that’s where I hit the wall,’ I said. ‘I don’t know what it is that I want. I just know that this …’ I gestured around me, ‘is not quite it.’
‘That’s a start, though, isn’t it?’ Alpha said. ‘Sometimes I feel that we all have potential inside us, we just have to discover what our greatness is and how to let it out.’
The Future We Left Behind Page 2