Love in Foreign Times
Ed-4 lived in California in the year 2050. He had just returned to the campsite by the seashore, where his flying mobile home was parked. As he made himself comfortable at home, Ed-4 had no clue that in a few minutes a young woman would come crashing into his life, to change it forever.
He glanced out the porthole at the sun going down behind the giant waterspout pouring out of the sky in the amusement park at the shore. Ed-4’s thoughts were still on the baptism ceremony he had attended this afternoon. It had been a fun party. Any reason was good enough to live it up. People tended to forget what the celebration was all about, Ed-4 thought. Since he was the godfather, he had been the only one to leave the party after the ceremonial speech, carrying the baby to the sterile surgery in the back, where the chip was implanted. The procedure was quite simple, since there were no direct connections required to the nerves accessing the brain. The chip reached them by electromagnetic induction. The effect was always amazing. Ed-4 took the boy to the surgery as a dull baby. When he carried him back out, beaming as proud godfather, the baby was articulating its first words with a smile on his face. Good reason for hearty cheers all round. The chip enhanced the brain through wireless downloads, supported it with parallel processing, and provided telecommunication capacity, like a mobile phone. And now the kid also had a guardian angel, connecting him to the System. The ’guardian angel’ was nothing but a connection to a port and a personally dedicated program on the www. Some referred to the www just technically as the System. But considering its unfathomable powers, many called it in deference the Holy System or just the Gods. Whatever people’s perspective was, everybody agreed on the expression ‘guardian angel’ (GA), even the rebels who refused to accept an implant and were not connected to a GA.
Stretching out comfortably on a lounge in his mobile home aircraft, Ed-4 was talking to his dog: ‘Never ending thanks to our gracious Gods. It makes me happy just to marvel and to think about them.’
That’s when Ed-4 heard the wild knocking on the large rear hatch. As he swung it open, a young woman stood in the twilight.
‘They are tracking my chip implant,’ she wheezed, pointing to the top of her head.
These were the very first words Ed-4 heard her utter. They were his introduction to the extremes of joy and despair that would grip his life from now on. He was holding the door handle, trying to decide whether to slam the door in the girl’s face. She looked so weird.
‘That’s why I’m wearing the pot,’ she explained. She was pressing a dirty aluminum cook pot upside down over her ears. It looked funny, but she appeared too desperate for him to laugh. Other than that, he thought she was attractive, a girlish face, a tall, slim figure.
‘I found the pot behind a restaurant. Since then they have lost track of me.’
The metal shields the electronic signal, Ed-4 thought, that’s a smart idea.
‘May I come in?’ she pleaded. ‘I can’t walk around like this.’
The dog started barking. Ed-4 found that strange, since pets had brain-enhancing chips as well, which allowed them to talk to some extent. Of course, what pets uttered was really generated by the program of the man-made chip, and what they said was tailored to please the owner. Whatever kind of pet it was, it provided just a lovable outward appearance and physical support for smart electronics. Most owners forgot about that, since it all appeared so natural. The dog never barked, it talked. But this was an exception, till the dog reverted to speaking again, in low, coarse tones, ‘Don’t let her in, she frightens the hell out of me!’ The dog was pushing against the door.
Ed-4 felt bewildered as he argued weakly with the girl, ‘But I don’t know you from a hole in the wall.’ She radiated a strange attraction. ‘If the F-forces are after you, go to the police.’
She ignored his advice. ‘Do you have an electronically shielded room?’ she pressed.
‘Well, I just had one installed recently.’
She pushed the door and tenderly put her hand on his. ‘Help me, please. Which way is it?’
Ed-4 shooed the dog away, let the girl in and closed the door behind her.
‘Thank you,’ she smiled.
The S-room looked ordinary. The shielding metal foil lay behind the plastic paneling. Here Ed-4 had control over which frequencies he allowed to beam in and out.
She removed the cook pot.
‘What a sight for sore eyes you were!’ Ed-4 shook his head. ‘I thought I had a complete loony on my hands.’
They both laughed. She shook her hair into place, masses of dark curls.
‘Why would the F-forces be after you? Are you an agent of our System?’
She didn’t reply. She just looked at him with a calm gaze that made him feel appreciated.
‘My name is Manu,’ she smiled.
‘I am Ed-four.’
They embraced in the customary way. Her body felt firm and shapely against his. She was warm from running. He let go reluctantly.