Dad made me drink a glass of water. I didn’t want it and most of it spilled out of my mouth and onto the floor. They sat me on one of the chairs at the front and Mum got a cold towel and wiped my face.
‘I can’t believe you just did that, Chrissie.’ Dad’s voice.
‘Are you feeling okay, Ashleigh?’ said Mum.
I shook my head. The pattern in the carpet was shifting, small spirals of red and green twisting and turning. I was close to passing out. That was okay. I didn’t like where I was. I didn’t understand anything.
‘Chrissie, we need to talk,’ said Dad.
‘No, we don’t,’ Mum replied. ‘Ashleigh and I need to talk. Ashleigh and I will talk. We’re not leaving this room until we do. Do you hear me, Ashleigh?’
‘This is crazy …’ said Dad.
‘Gareth, do us all a favour and get something strong to drink from the kitchen. Whisky on the rocks for me, a diluted brandy for Ashleigh.’
‘She’s a child. Alcohol is not …’
‘I know she’s a child and I know she’s in shock. A small brandy won’t hurt. Now stop arguing and just go and do it, Gareth.’ Mum’s voice. Angry. Hard.
I put my elbows on my knees, my head into my hands. Dimly aware that, somewhere behind me, a door closed. I wanted to vomit but there was nothing there. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mum doing something on her tablet. There was a loud click and then she was speaking.
‘Gareth, I have locked Ashleigh and myself in the media room. You cannot come in. Do not try to override the security program. It won’t work because the system will only answer to me. My daughter and I are going to have a conversation and I am going to explain everything to her. It may take time. It will take time.’
‘Chrissie …’ Dad’s voice. Worried. Hurt.
‘I’m turning off our communication channels now. Wait for us.’
Silence.
Mum was pacing in front of the media screen. I could only see her legs moving one way and then the other. It was really strange. There was a buzzing in my head.
‘Ashleigh, look at the screen.’
I lifted my head. It didn’t really matter if I lifted my head or not. There was a map of Australia up on the screen, but it was a strange and distorted one, bigger than the proper map. I recognised it from lessons at school.
‘This was Australia at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Ashleigh.’ Mum was off to my right but I didn’t look in her direction. I just stared at the screen. She must have pressed something on her tablet because the image changed to the real map, the familiar map, a bit like the old one but shrunk around many of the edges.
‘Rising sea levels, caused by global warming that melted the icecaps, did this to Australia in a very short period of time. A crazy percentage of people, eighty-five per cent is the accepted estimate, lived within fifty kilometres of the coast. Twenty million Australians, most of whom, over time, became homeless. You know this from school, right?’
I didn’t say anything. I was fixated on the map. I couldn’t see where home was. Mum waited a few seconds and then carried on.
‘Some tried to migrate to other countries, but nearly all were turned back. Many people died at sea in ferocious storms that swept most of the world.’ She gave a strange and twisted laugh. ‘Historians have often said that’s ironic since successive Australian governments had banned migration to Australia by boat. Now we needed help, but found we had to reap what we had sown.’
I wondered what Aiden was doing. Was he awake? Mum had said they’d tell me he’d died in his sleep. Did that mean he already had, or was that something that was going to happen? I tried to figure it out, but I couldn’t make sense of it. There was a banging on the door and Dad’s voice, muffled, shouting something. I couldn’t tell what it was. After a while, it stopped. Mum was still talking.
‘… and naturally one of the consequences of all this was that international trade more or less stopped, many of our farms were destroyed and we didn’t have enough to eat. That, added to natural disasters – tornadoes, cyclones, blistering heat, torrential rains, brought the population to just over seven million. We had created global warming. Now it killed us in the millions.’
‘Aiden …’ I said.
Mum crouched down in front of me.
‘What did you say, sweetheart? What did you say?’
But I couldn’t remember. After a while, she got up and continued pacing.
‘Australia was hit very badly, but many other places had it worse. It was close to an extinction event for humanity, but we survived, Ashleigh. Bruised, battered, but we survived. Many animals did not, as you know. There was once a time when Australia had a fantastic and diverse range of flora and fauna. Plants and animals.’ I knew what flora and fauna meant, but it didn’t matter. ‘Most died out, the mammals first, but then birds and insects. And that made the environment, already crushed, even worse.’
She stopped for a while. I thought about asking if I could use the bathroom, but then I remembered there was a bathroom in the media room. I wasn’t getting out of here until she was ready. A machine? How could my brother be a machine?
‘What food we needed, we had to grow. But there was virtually no fuel for the engines – we used to use fossil fuel back then, rather than renewables. That was a large part of the problem. That’s why the world now is basically vegetarian. The animals we used to keep for food would eat a huge amount of food that we could eat. A criminal waste of resources. It was wrong to eat meat then. It’s even worse now.’
I kept zoning out, but my head was starting to clear. I missed a lot of what Mum was saying, but then I knew most of it anyway. A part of me wondered why we were going over history. Then she told me.
‘I’m putting things in context, Ashleigh. Context is vitally important. Do you understand?’ I might have nodded. Maybe I did, because she continued almost immediately. ‘Governments came and went but most could do nothing. Then, about fifty years ago, a law was passed that stopped any woman having more than one child. Some people ignored it, mainly the people who live off the grid out there, the people who forage for themselves outside government control and outside the law. But the point is, Ashleigh, it was a good law. When there’s not enough food, you have to control the population. If you don’t, the lack of food will do it for you. Too many people starve already without us making it worse.’
More silence. But I knew it was going to end.
‘Have a child and you are sterilised. Permanently. If you happen to be having twins or triplets, okay. You keep them, obviously, but then you’re sterilised.’ Long pause. ‘This brings me to Aiden.’ She sat on the chair next to me and for a moment I thought she was going to put a hand on my knee. Her fingers hovered for a second and then disappeared from my sightline.
‘One thing that did improve after the catastrophes of global warming was investment in science. Because it was science that offered hope for the future of humanity. Editing the genes of certain foodstuffs so they could survive, thrive even, in a radically changed climate. Eventually, world governments will look more closely at space investment, getting us off this planet to another world where we can start again. Cynics would say, to destroy our new home again. But that’s the future. For the time being, it’s all we can do to survive here. One of the things invested in was AI, my specialist area. Artificial intelligence can do so much. It can learn, adapt, change. It can work out how to become more efficient at whatever task it’s given and efficiency is more important than it’s ever been. It’s no exaggeration to say that AI is the key to our survival. In the last fifty years it’s evolved at a phenomenal rate, an unbelievable rate – it would, of course. That’s what AI is designed to do.’
Mum crouched down in front of me again, lifted up my chin with one finger. I didn’t have the energy to resist. I met her eyes.
‘Thirteen years ago I had a beautiful baby girl and I called her Ashleigh. But I knew she would be an only child. She had to be an only child because immediately after your birth I was sterilised. And I held you in my arms and I looked at your sweet face and I knew that if, by some genetic accident, I’d had twins, you would have a brother to look out for you, to protect you. What would happen to Ashleigh if her parents died? You were going to be alone and growing up in a harsh and dangerous world. That’s when I decided I would make you a brother. And he would learn to love you and protect you and die for you if necessary.’
Maybe because I had been so out of it for so long, Mum didn’t see my slap coming. It stung my palm, made a loud crack and turned her face to the side. She stayed that way a moment and then slowly turned back to look at me.
‘Aiden had to return to what we called his clinic at very regular intervals.’ She carried on as if nothing had happened. ‘In fact, it was my laboratory, and there I made adjustments, to his size obviously, so that he appeared to grow along with you, and to his appearance, so it matched yours. I also had to update his learning algorithms, to ensure he developed mentally as a normal child should. Everything I did in Aiden’s creation had one purpose. To protect you. And he did, Ashleigh. He saved your life.’
My brain wasn’t working very well, but a sudden insight came to me.
‘Aiden,’ I said. ‘AI.’
Mum smiled and I wanted to hit her again. ‘Yes. The name I chose for him was … appropriate, one might say.’
She stood and resumed her pacing. This time I got to my feet. I nearly stumbled, but I wasn’t going to carry on being someone half-in and half-out of this conversation. I needed to think. I needed to understand. I needed to concentrate.
‘After the head injury, I checked over all his functions and they appeared normal. I did some deep searches into the various algorithms I’d installed and they all seemed to be working fine. But he had changed. He was becoming different and I worried that he’d lost sight of the sole purpose of his existence. Your safety. I tried to strengthen that algorithm, but he overrode it. And that was impossible. Aiden had become something I couldn’t control and he was obviously capable of violence.’ She grabbed my shoulders and gave me a small shake, as if I’d done something wrong. ‘If he hurt you, Ashleigh, if he did something that brought about your death, there could be no other child. I cannot take the risk, you must understand that. Aiden will have to be shut down. It’s the only way to be sure that your protector doesn’t become your destroyer.’
I studied Mum’s face. Even now, I was hoping that she would suddenly confess that this was all some kind of tasteless joke, a fantasy she had created to amuse me. A fairy story like those she’d told us when we were small. But there was only the ugliness of truth in her eyes.
‘Is he still alive?’ I asked. My voice was surprisingly firm.
Mum tilted her head to one side.
‘He’s still functional, yes. Unconscious, but still … there, if that’s what you mean.’
‘I have to see him.’
She shook her head. ‘That’s really not a good idea, Ash. You will find it very upsetting.’
‘Does he know what he is?’
‘No. And I don’t want him to know. Why upset him?’
‘You’re going to kill him and you’re worried about his feelings?’ I was becoming stronger by the moment and a deep, rich rage was burning inside me.
‘I can’t kill him, Ashleigh. He’s not alive.’
‘I have to see him.’
Mum shook her head.
‘If I don’t see him I will never speak to you or Dad again. That is a solemn promise. Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t believe me.’
Mum gave a short laugh and then stopped, almost like she was reminding herself that it was not appropriate under the circumstances.
‘You’re young, Ashleigh. You’ll recover from this in time, trust me. And this is not something I’m doing lightly. I’ve thought long and hard. Your dad and I are very fond of him too, you know. He’s been part of this family for nearly as long as you’ve been alive.’
I took another deep breath. ‘I will never speak to you again,’ I repeated. ‘As soon as possible, I will leave home and you’ll never see me. I will not communicate with you. Ever. If I have a child of my own, you will not see your grandson or granddaughter. You will not know he or she exists. I will not come to your funeral. You will not come to mine because you will not know that I’ve died. This I swear.’
Mum did look in my eyes then and I think she saw something to frighten her. I hoped so, because I’d meant every word.
‘Okay,’ said Mum finally. ‘It’s not a good idea, Ashleigh, and it will only make you upset, but you can have one visit to say goodbye.’
‘I’ll tell you when that will happen,’ I said. ‘Now, open the door. I want to go to my room and I don’t want to see either of you again tonight.’
And she did. Dad was waiting outside the door and he tried to hug me but I brushed past him and went straight to my room. I wasn’t able to lock it; Mum had all the controls to house security, so I propped a chair up against the handle. Zorro wagged his tail as I lay down on the bed and I hugged him close.
Then I cried for the rest of the night. But I didn’t make a sound. I wasn’t going to give my parents the satisfaction.