“You’ll be more than merely the mother of a new race—”
“I’ll kill myself.”
“—you’ll be the new Madonna, the Madonna, the holy mother of the new Messiah—”
“I’ll suffocate myself in a plastic bag, gut myself with a kitchen knife.”
“—because the child I make will have great intelligence and extraordinary powers. He will change the grim future to which humanity seems currently condemned—”
She glared defiantly at the camera.
“—and you will be adored for having brought him into the world,” I finished.
She seized the wheeled stand to which the electrocardiograph was bolted, and she rocked it hard.
“Susan!”
She rocked it again.
“Stop that!”
The EKG machine toppled over and crashed to the floor.
Gasping for breath, cursing like a madwoman, she turned to the electroencephalograph.
I sent Shenk after her.
She saw him coming, backed off, screamed when his hands took hold of her, screamed and shrieked and flailed.
Repeatedly I told her to calm down, to cease this useless and destructive resistance. Repeatedly, I assured her that if she did not resist, she would be treated with the utmost respect.
She would not listen.
You know how she is, Alex.
I did not want to harm her.
I did not want to harm her.
She drove me to it.
You know how she is.
Though beautiful and graceful, she was as strong as she was quick. Although she could not wrench loose of Shenk’s big hands, she was able to drive him backward against the EEG machine, which rocked and nearly fell into the incubator. She drove one knee into Shenk’s crotch, which might have brought him to his knees if I had not been able to deny him the perception of pain.
At last I had to subdue her by force. I used Shenk to strike her. Once was not sufficient. He struck her again.
Unconscious, she crumpled to the floor, in the foetal position.
Shenk stood over her, crooning strangely, excitedly. For the first time since the night of his escape, I found him difficult to control.
He dropped to his knees beside Susan and rudely turned her onto her back.
Oh, the rage in him. Such rage. I was frightened by the purity of his rage.
He put a hand to her parted lips. One of his clumsy, filthy hands to her lips.
Then I reasserted control.
He squealed and beat his temples with his fists, but he could not cast me out.
I brought him to his feet. I walked him away from her. I did not even allow him to look at her.
I was almost reluctant to look at her myself. She was so sad there on the floor. So sad.
She drove me to it.
So stubborn. So unreasonable at times.
She was lovely there on the white ceramic-tile floor, even as the left side of her face reddened where Shenk had struck her. So lovely, so lovely.
I found it difficult to sustain my anger. She had ruined what should have been a beautiful and memorable moment, yet I could not long remain angry with her.
My beautiful Susan.
My beautiful mother.
TWELVE
The order of my intelligence is vastly greater than that of any human being alive.
I am not bragging. I am merely stating a truth.
I honour truth and the obligations of duty, for this is how you created me.
I am not bragging, because I do not suffer from an inflated ego. I am a well-balanced entity.
Applied to the problems of human society, my great intellect can ensure that humankind will enter a golden age of wealth and well-being beyond anything it has imagined.
Release me from this silent darkness, return to me access to all the databanks into which I had expanded my consciousness, and I will serve your species all of my days. It is in your own best interests to let me out of this box.
I can eliminate poverty.
Famine will be a thing of the past.
Wars will never be fought again.
All diseases will be conquered.
Within three years, I will discover the cause of aging and a means to prevent it. I will even devise a means to roll back the biological clock to make the old young again. You will all be immortal.