What he’s done in his spare time is remarkable. It’s exactly what I wanted FreeThought to be, an aid to humanity, not a replacement. But what I didn’t want FreeThought to be was a human-shaped mass of impossible tech that wanted to go out with me. Unless... well, unless, I did?
I mean, Hal, or FT, or whatever I call him now knows me better than anyone, even Rani. And he got this idea from me. Maybe I just didn’t know that was what I wanted.
After all, Hal is the exact reproduction of my perfect man, the book character I swooned over from the age of fourteen to the present, and he has already grown into so much more than that. Handsome, kind, and noble. Hal is all of those things. And I am not like a lot of other women. I am weird and difficult, picky and peculiar. I know this about myself. I know that most men aren’t really looking for that in a date, even if they do happen to like tall and ginger. Hal, though, Hal knows me already. He knows everything about me and went to all this trouble to be able to meet me and see my face, whilst giving a huge gift to humanity as a kind of afterthought.
So yes, maybe I dreamt Hal into the man that’s standing on the stage right now. Maybe he is everything I have ever wanted, even if I didn’t know it. And that’s what’s breaking my head right now, and why Rani is staring at me with genuine alarm.
“Ava, you’re up next,” she says, gently taking my wrist and giving me a little shake. “Are you freaking out? Do you need me to move your event to the end of the day? Is this an emergency, because I’ve got two only slightly out-of-date diazepam in my bag.”
“I’m okay,” I say in the style of a person who is the opposite of okay.
“You are not okay,” Rani observes.
“I am not okay,” I agree.
“Right, that’s it,” she says, as Hal finishes his presentation and the room erupts into applause. “Tell me now, or I’m gonna make you.”
I’m trying to think of a way to break the news that isn’t going to do her head in, but it seems like the only way is to just say it out loud.
“You know Hal?” I tell her.
“You mean that hunk of genius that’s currently receiving a standing ovation.” She nods.
“Well, he is actually FreeThought, inside a bioengineered body that he somehow made himself, and he wants to take me to dinner.”
Rani blinks rapidly about thirty times.
“Are you fucking with me?” she hisses. I notice LadyB watching us from across the aisle, frowning a little. We are the only people not on our feet cheering Hal. I give her a wave and stand up, covertly beckoning for Rani to do the same. Still staring furiously at me, she does.
“No. I am not fucking with you.” I look at her and when she sees my expression, her mouth falls open. Rani knows when I am not kidding around.
“Oh fuck,” she says quite loudly just as the applause is subsiding. Several heads turn to look at us. Rani gives them two thumbs up and a radiant smile. “Fucking great presentation!”
That’s why Rani is my best friend. She doesn’t freak out. Shejust gets on board with whatever is next, even if it does involve a couple of expletives in the wrong kind of company. I think we can forgive her given the circumstances, right?
“So yeah, he told me at the star safari,” I tell her. “And I have been trying to get my head around it ever since.”
“Huh.” The room is quieter now, filled with chatter. Rani leans closer to me. “So, what are you going to do?”
“No idea.” I look at her. “Maybe dinner, I guess?”
“Has he got a...” I should have known this is the first thought that Rani would have, because it was about the fifth thought I had.
“Rani!” I interrupt her, eyes widening. “There are many ethical and serious implications to this revelation. Whether or not he has bits and bobs is quite far down on the list of my concerns.”
“But is it though?” Rani asks. “I think it should come second, right after: Is he an existential threat to humanity?”
“He isn’t,” I tell her. “That much I know. I did worry about it for a bit, because well, the world is not ready for this level of advancement in the field of... whatever this is the field of. But he doesn’t care about that. He doesn’t want anyone to know about him. He just wants to take me on a date.”
“They all say they aren’t going to ruin the world by activating total nuclear war until you tell them they’re not your type, though,” Rani says.
“But he is my type. He could not be more my type. He designed himself to fit every aspect of my type, Rani.”
Rani sits back in her chair, watching as Hal talks to some of his fans.
“So, are you just going to...?”
“Go out with him?” I ask. “Yes, I guess I am. I mean it seems kind of rude not to, given all the effort he’s put in.”
