Waiting for the Flyers. Part 8 (David's opposite polarity)

Shifting position in the chair, David pulled his battered phone from his pocket. While staring at the illuminated screen he dabbed his eyes and, like me, sipped cold tea. Noticing me watching he twisted the apparatus so I could see the picture.

‘Me and Alice with Emma our Lab. Taken about forty years ago in Wales.’

‘You look very happy.’

‘Doesn’t work of course. It’s one of the last iPhones ever made before the DUIA disbanded Apple. Owning one was illegal after that. I was allowed to keep mine because I worked in media control. Still takes photos I think, but I daren’t try. It only holds a charge for about five minutes now and I’m afraid to lose the lock screen. It’s very precious.’

‘You had a dog?’

‘We had several over the years. Most people did. Compensated for not having kids. That’s why there’s so many wild dogs now.’

‘Is that why you hate the DUIA? For killing Apple?’

David looked down at the floor and smiled. He shook his head, ‘You came here in 2050 right?’

‘Yes’

‘I was thirty-two then. Based in Manchester at the old BBC headquarters. That was around the time the government began loosening up.’

‘When Lila-Grace said it was safe to set up here.’

‘Lila-Grace?’

‘The DUIA agent responsible for my safety.’

‘Oh yes I remember, sorry. We have very different views of that lot, don’t we?’

‘I don’t have a view. Lila-Grace was a driven person. Her job was to protect me. It wasn’t an emotional thing. The end game was saving humanity. She was prepared to do anything.’

‘Can’t make an omelette without breaking the eggs eh? . . . A hell of a lot of eggs though.’

I wasn’t sure where the conversation was going. I tried to change direction. I asked a question I thought I knew the answer to.

‘How were things after 2050?’ When things “loosened up.”’

‘The government made a big public announcement about a major worldwide accord with nations of all political and religious sways to work together on something called, The Universal Guardian Angel Project. UGAP they called it. All it meant for us was international agreements to share all research on AI for the benefit of the aging population. There was less control and censorship. We were allowed UGAP communication devices which let people contact each other “freely.”

‘Sounds like you were sceptical?’

‘I was in government media. Of course I was. I knew there was a lot more to that. I knew it would take more than a chat around a table in the UN to get the likes of the West, China, Russia and the Muslim world come any kind of agreement.’

‘Was there ever mention of people like me?’

‘People like you. What do you mean?

‘The tiny number of people around the World unaffected by the virus. The little communities set up by NATO and Euresco in the hope of populating the world with virus resistant humans.’

‘Never. We were told – I mean EVERYBODY in the World – there was an ongoing UGAP research to produce a vaccine and a cure for the disease. Over the years they made big splash-announcements of potential breakthroughs which always came to nothing.’

‘And in the meantime AI kept everyone happy or contented.’

‘Pretty much a world of Proles.’

‘Proles?’

‘The proletariat. Normal people who knew basically nothing about what was going on.'

Jonny told me the Guardian Angel Project started in 2038. He later admitted he felt eternally guilty for being involved in the work they did. He never said why except he wasn’t happy about his genetics research. Questions about what Lila-Grace’s organisation got up to in the eighteen years leading up to a world-wide agreement entered my mind. I suspected it was the cause of David’s hate for the DUIA, but this was not the time to ask him for details.

‘It looks to me, David we’ve lived in separate bubbles. Almost like the two ends of a magnet.’

‘Couldn’t put it better, Sally. Back then a meeting of poles would mean fireworks. I guess we were all meant to die out before your end was introduced to the planet.’

‘I could cry, David. There is so much your world could have told ours. We must seem like children to you. The idea of my people spreading out across the country with no AI support is daunting. There is so much out there we have no experience of. I am very concerned for our survival.’

Now it was David’s turn to take my hand in his.

‘It’s not too late. I still have a few years left. Statistically there must be others like me. You need to find them.’

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