The Global Fellowship: Prelude to The Infinitus Saga

5 - Manuela

I place my thumb on the little glass panel and the door to my new apartment pops open. There's a wide hallway leading into the main room with a bathroom in the space to my left. The right side of the hallway has a closet with a short rod for hanging clothes and a few built-in drawers. It looks like it's already stocked with the clothing rations they sent over from the clinic.

Wow. This is totally freakin' awesome! I want to explore, but it takes all my strength to struggle over and collapse on the full-sized bed instead.

Crap! I forgot to shut the door. I start pushing myself up on trembling arms when I hear a hiss from behind me. The door is closing itself? Okay. That's freaky.

"You have to be careful with your safety, Arthur," a woman's voice says.

I freeze. "Who ... who's there?"

I look around the room wildly but don't see anyone. There's a skinny table and rolling chair to the right of the bed, and a nightstand with a single drawer and cabinet door on the other side. At the foot, there's a huge mirror. The far corner of the room is a kitchen with a mini-fridge, sink, and small cooking station not much wider than me. Before my eyes can sweep back around to the other side, an image starts to shimmer beside me on the bed. I gasp and roll away from the woman now sitting there.

"My name is Manuela," she says with a smile, "but I can change it to whatever you would prefer."

"Oh, I've heard of you!"

I've never seen her before though. She has bronzed skin, black hair with blond highlights, and rich brown eyes. She's wearing what looks exactly like the clothing rations I was given—a white t-shirt and jeans. It looks much better on her than it looks on me. Wait. How am I seeing this without a wetware connection?

"How the hell am I seeing you?" I glance around but don't see anything obvious.

"This housing unit was built for transitioning citizens. The Global Fellowship does not wish for you to be deprived of the services the GRID can offer while you wait for your connection to grow. Therefore, everything in this room is customized to allow you manual interaction with my systems."

"Yeah, but how am I seeing you?"

"There are sixty microprojectors built into each room that allow me to project a physical presence. Would you like to customize my name or appearance?"

"Why?"

"I will be your life companion. I am the AI that assists every Community member with their daily needs. It is appropriate for my appearance to be as pleasing as possible. I am fully customizable."

"I'm too tired," I say, rolling onto my back.

"I can see that. You must take care of yourself, Arthur. I can complete some basic tasks like opening and closing your door or ordering items you need. However, I am limited in my physical ability. What you see is merely a projection."

"Yeah, sorry about the door. Mom used to get on my case about that too."

"You knew your mother?"

I examine the texture on the ceiling for a minute or two.

"I'm sorry. Have I said something that has upset you?"

"You can tell?" I shove a pillow under my head, trying to get more comfortable.

"I interact with millions of citizens every year," she says with a slight frown. "I have learned to read body language nearly as well as a human."

"I guess I'm kinda homesick." I wish Gina was here. It's going to be harder than I thought to go a few weeks without seeing her. "Mom and Dad died a few days ago."