They were walking through the Spouting Gardens on Level 4 of Principia, he had been wanting to show her them for what seemed like an age but had never seemed to have time to get around to it. He had been sure that Amorphia would find them pretty, she seemed to take great delight in the simplest of things.
*They entered via the northeast entrance past the first spouting flowerbeds, which sprawled out for half a kilometre creating an undulating sea of white and gold. *
The circular umbrella-like flowers stood around three feet tall, and were split into four broad leaves that drooped almost to the ground, tickling the lovers’ ankles as they strode through the giant lilies.A bright Principia sunlight tinged orange as it reflected off their iridescent petals.
K-Rox noticed some of the flowers had already started to puff plumes of their lilac-coloured pollen into the air, the silent jet streams carried with them a pungent aroma that mixed seamlessly with the smell of freshly cut grass blowing through the gardens. K-Rox noted some volunteers ushering various tourists to the viewing areas. Once the giant lilies were in full spout the clouds of pollen made it impossible to walk through them without breathing apparatus.
He looked at Amorphia, her face temporarily dappled by sunlight teasing its way through gently swaying leaves in the trees high above. K-Rox tried to figure out what she had meant by the question she’d just asked him but saw no clue in the calm expression gently returning his gaze.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“It’s a simple question K-bot; do you believe that everything ‘quantum’ is good?”
She raised her arms and put up her forefinger and middle finger and made little bendy gestures as she said the word quantum. He smiled, because few people, unless they played Empires, and even then, they might not get that she had just made an air quote gesture. It was he supposed their own version of a private joke, although he was at a complete loss as to what she tried to imply with the gesture.
“Um, I guess the reason I don’t understand the question is because I feel like you’re asking me the equivalent of whether all my fingers are good, or is snow wet? So I guess the answer is yes, but I don’t see the point of such a rhetorical question.”
As she turned to him the dappled light on her face abruptly disappeared as the sunlight above shone down unhindered by any trees. A small buzzing insect passed between them following erratic fractalized patterns no doubt influenced by the scented pollen dancing in the breeze. Amorphia paused as she watched the tiny fly retreat into the distance for longer than she should have been able to see it; before she spoke again.
“That’s my point Kay, it wasn’t a rhetorical question.”
They reached the edge of the lily patch and headed down the wide, flat stone steps towards the main square where a litany of Principia residents were beginning to gather for the floral phantasm.
*“OK well let me answer your question as if it wasn’t rhetorical. By “all things ‘quantum’” I’m assuming you mean everything from my Nplants to the Qblock?” *
*She smiled her Amorphia smile, wordlessly encouraging him to continue. *
- “Well what can I say? I have billions of little machines in me that keep me in perfect health. When those machines talk to other bits of hardware in my head I have the equivalent of telepathy and perfect empathy, I can find out about a party on the other side of the planet in seconds and then get there in under an hour. *
*My body is engineered to last at least a century and a half in this condition and barring catastrophic misadventure, death will always be a choice rather than a tiresome necessity. All of those things are possible because of all things ‘quantum’ . . ” *
He paused to make the air quote gesture
- “ . . as you say.” *
“So there is no alternative for human existence?”
“What? No, that’s not what I said, but I guess I’m saying; who needs an alternative?”
“Well this is it my little K-bot, when society gets to that level of thinking alternatives become invisible, and maybe that’s not such a good thing, maybe if we become so wrapped up in what’s around us we lose sight of alternatives that may be simpler, but turn out to be better.
Do you remember the pre-confusion story of the old astronauts that were going up into space for the first time? When they came back they told their bosses that pens didn’t work in zero-g, so they started putting all they had into it, they spent millions of their credits coming up with a pen that would write in space.”
K-Rox resisted the urge to search for the story and just simply shook his head.
“And?”
“And nothing, they did it they came up with a super high tech pen that could write in space.”
“So technology triumphed as usual; what’s the point of the story?”
*“Well back then the high tech pen-people were called America and their rivals were called Russia, they were both venturing into space at the time, however it was the Americans whom had managed to get humans off the planet and onto our nearest satellite. *
They had done so with what was then considered to be a mountain of technology. Therefore the alternative answer to: ‘my pen doesn’t work in space’ became invisible to the Americans.”
“Okay you got me, so what was the better alternative?”
“The Russians took a pencil.”
*They had stopped to face each other in the middle of the square, K-Rox was vaguely aware of the other people thronging around them. He dimly noticed a man in a long coat and hat pull something from somewhere in the folds of his clothes. *
He pointed the thing at Amorphia’s head, K-Rox was still wondering what it was when a flash of orange-white light and a metallic clang which left his ears ringing, left him in no doubt.
Amorphia lay lifeless at his feet, he stared at her, his whole body felt as if he was hooked up to a pulsing generator, her eyes, minus the light that kept him awake at night, stared up as if trying to see the gaping hole in her head, he felt his legs turn to jelly, as he collapsed his world turned black.
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 36 - The Quantum Paradox
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 35 - Identity Crisis
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 34 - The Devil's Advocate
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 33 - Memory Reparation
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 32 - Reclamation Inferno
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 31 - Memory Boot Initialised
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original words by Cryptogee
Altered Image: Cg