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Short Story

Freedom 2199

Jonathan Sheasby discovers some unexpected perils of AI.

Steve sat in his B38, a sleek grey capsule descending deep down into Novus’s core, plummeting like a hammerhead shark in pursuit of its prey. Our hero experienced an increased sense of disorientation as the speed at which he was travelling jeopardised his already rather tenuous connection with reality.

The interior of the pod reverberated, increasing its occupant’s unease as he glanced at the coloured windows which, comfortingly, or perhaps discomfortingly, revealed nothing of the capsule’s surroundings.

“Want a mint?” asked the disembodied voice of the IDEX, his electronically generated companion for the journey, programmed to put its passenger at ease with light-hearted solicitous questions of this nature. Steve’s stomach churned with the downward motion of his vessel.

…