This is a short story I wrote for the Edinburgh University science fiction competition. I was one of the runners-up:
www.eusci.org/2010/02/23/euscifi-competition-runner-up-connect
Rease couldn’t bring herself to move, although it was unbearably hot. She sat where she had collapsed after getting out of bed, staring at the mess from the night before; empty wine glasses giving off a stale stench, half-eaten food nestled in scattered bowls, clothes discarded in a pile on the floor. She squinted, straining her neck to see through the window, contemplating the pinks and purples of the sky, the long shadows that crept across the hotel opposite.
“What time is it?”
“Eighteen fifty two and three seconds,” said Inex in a soft monotone.
“Can’t believe I’ve been asleep for that long. Inex, stop tidying and open the window.”
Inex nodded. Rease watched it put down the dishes it had been gathering. She had never liked Inex. She had hoped she would get used to it, but she never did. Everyone else she knew had given their Inex a name, but Rease couldn’t find the familiarity and affection that she felt was required when naming something. It unnerved her. The plastic sheen of its face was too perfect, cold and smooth like porcelain. The glassy eyes were an odd fusion of doll-like passivity and the alert glimmer you catch in the eye of a predator.
The eyelids made a faint clicking as they opened and closed. She didn’t even understand why it had eyelids. She guessed to make them seem more human, but for Rease this only increased its strangeness, its apartness. She confided this to friends, but they only chattered about how their children were so attached to their Inex, how they treated it like a pet. “And you can monitor them,” they said. “No more lies. It’s perfect.” Rease couldn’t explain that she hated how nothing was private anymore. It affected her body, the way she moved as she walked in the street, feeling their huge eyes locking on her, complete strangers recording you. She watched as Inex climbed up to the window, scaling the wall like a spider, its movements agile and perfect. It undid the latch and pushed the window open, letting in the hum of traffic and the drone of bagpipes.
“Oh god,” she said, “Why is there bagpipes?”
“The market is on today,” Inex said.
“The market!”
Rease extracted herself from the embrace of the couch and went to the window, peering out over the Grassmarket to see the stalls. A heady mixture of smells hung in the thick hot air; pungent fruit, bitter coffee, the warm creaminess of butter, and the sweet perfume of rose and jasmine.
“There’s flowers. Are they real do you think?”
Inex turned to the flower stall.
“No.”
“I guess they wouldn’t be…Oh, they have books!”
“Old books,” Inex said. “They are obsolete.”
“They’re not obsolete.”
Rease was irritated, and felt like hitting Inex. She often felt like hitting Inex. She wondered if it would even feel anything. She wondered what it would do, if it would just stand there and let her hit it. Maybe it would admonish her, ask her to stop, or simply scramble away.
“Dial-in for Philip,” Rease said.
“Dialling. Connected.”
“Philip?”
“So you’re up?”
Philip’s voice spilled from the lips of Inex. If there was one thing that unnerved her most about Inex, it was this. She looked away, turning back to the market.
“Yes, I’m up. Can you get me headache pills on your way home?”
“What kind?”
“I don’t know, just anything.”
“OK.”
“The market’s on.”
“Is it?”
“Yes, I’ll pop down and get us something for dinner. They have books, you know.”
“We’re going to eat books?”
“Oh, you’re funny.”
“Look, we don’t need any more books. People already think we’re weird.”
“I don’t care what people think. Anyway, I’ll see you later. Disconnect.”
“Disconnected,” said Inex.
She stared out the window, and her eyes fell on the hotel opposite. The growing shadows of the trees snaked across the hotel windows. She was about to move away when she saw a naked man in one of the rooms. She laughed and blushed, bringing her hand up to her mouth as if he might have heard her.
“Look,” she mumbled between her fingers.
Inex looked, its eyelids clicking.
“Inex,” she said. “Connect to me. Connect in, and show me a close-up… I know, Inex, but isn’t everyone a voyeur?”
“Connected,” said Inex.
Rease could see the man as if he was standing right in front of her.
“Oh my god,” she said. “Inex, do you know who this is?”
“Minister Alastair McDonald of the Democrat party.”
“Check and confirm it, Inex.”
“Confirmed,” said Inex.
“I can’t believe it. What’s he doing?”
“He is here for the Scottish Parliament conference on genetics.”
”No, I mean, surely he must know people can see in. There’s someone else with him. Pull back a bit, we’re too close.”
A man walked towards the minister and they kissed. The minister began to undress the man, removing his jacket and shirt, unzipping his trousers. Rease laughed.
“Inex…Maybe we shouldn’t be…you know, watching…”
“Disconnect?”
“Yes, disconnect.”
“Disconnected.”
Rease heard some yells from below and looked down to see protesters outside the hotel. A few disinterested policemen milled around.
“Protesters are the last thing on his mind,” Rease said, laughing. “I’m going to take a shower, Inex, then we’ll go to the market.”
“The minister is dead,” said Inex, its eyes still fixed on the hotel window.
“What?”
“There are no vital signs,” it said, eyelids clicking.
“Connect in, Inex. Connect in now, and close-up.”
“Connected.”
Rease watched as the man lowered the minister to the floor. McDonald’s eyes were glazed.
“Inex, what happened? What did he do? Right panel replay.”
Rease watched the man collect his clothes, whilst simultaneously viewing the replay of him kissing the minister and inserting a needle into his neck.
“Inex? Disconnect replay.”
“Disconnected.”
The man threw on his clothes before crouching and gesturing to someone. “Is there someone else there? Inex, pull back further.”
The man gestured again, and an Inex walked into view. The man held out a hand to it and grasped it by the neck. Reaching back into his pocket he took out a knife. He stabbed the Inex in the chest, dragging the blade down to its stomach and pulling it open with his hands. Blood spilled on the floor. Rease gasped.
“Inex? Inex…I thought…I didn’t think you had blood.”
“We are a living organism,” said Inex.
“But, I thought…”
The man pulled out organs and wires, scattering them across the floor.
Reaching in, he removed something small and silver, placing it in his pocket.
“What was that?”
”We record everything,” said Inex. “That is where it is stored.”
“Can it feel what’s being done to it?”
“There are no vital signs,” said Inex, eyelids clicking.
“But could it feel that? Before? Oh god!”
The man had gone to the window. He stared at them. Rease froze. He squinted, leaning closer. It was as if his face was right in front of hers.
“Disconnect,” she whispered.
“Command?”
The man locked eyes with her and smiled, backing away from the window.
“Disconnect!” she said. “Disconnect!”
“Disconnected.”
She ducked down from the window.
“Oh god, Inex. He saw me. He saw me…”
“Dial-in for the police?”
“No, no. There’s no time.”
“We should dial-in.”
Rease pulled on some shoes.
“Inex, he knows what apartment I’m in, I have to get out. We’ll get to the police at the protest.”
They ran down the stairwell and burst out into the street where they were enveloped by the crowd. Rease pushed her way through.
“Excuse me, Miss?”
One of the stall holders blocked her way.
“How about some flowers, Miss? Almost like the real thing. You won’t find a better perfume.”
Rease pushed past him, her eyes fixed on the police. She waved at them, hoping they would see something was wrong. Then she collapsed. There was a searing pain in her head. Inex had connected in, and Rease saw him. The man from the hotel took a knife and stabbed her in the chest, pulling it down to her stomach. Rease screamed as he plunged his hand inside her and pulled out the silver chip.
“Disconnect,” she whispered. “Disconnect.”
There was blackness, and then she saw people around her, faces peering down at her, clamouring at her. She rolled on to her side, scrunching up, as if to protect herself. Her hands were pressed firmly on her chest and stomach. She stared between the legs of the jostling crowd and saw Inex lying beneath a stall, organs and wires spilled out around it. She closed her eyes and thought she heard a faint clicking.
“Did you feel that?” she whispered. “Did you feel it?”
