Out Through the Attic Read Online Free PDF

you.”
    “Stiggs, wait—”
    “End,” Mathew said before she could finish.
    Adrienne’s visage disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. He could almost see her putting the corporate wheels in motion with a flurry of comms.
    The lab was set up on the floor below Mathew’s living quarters in twenty-four hours.
    O O O
    Sleeping four dreamless hours out of twenty, it took Mathew six days to map the DNA strand and synthesize the core sample. On the seventh day he placed the sample into the incubator, punched in two liters for the volume to be generated, and selected aerosol for the dispersal type. The replisynther silently started fulfilling his request. Then he programmed the Yudius network of replisynthers to begin generating the new blueprint and emailed instructions to technicians in each lab with specific instructions. Coming from Mathew they would never be questioned. His creation complete, he turned from the terminal, went upstairs and walked out to his balcony. As the balcony door slid open before him, the sounds of never-ending traffic broke against his ears like a single, endless wave crashing against a shoreline. The smell of pollution soaked into him, making his nostrils tingle.
    “Could you send a request for Adrienne to meet me here, Emily?” he asked.
    “It is done,” the synthetic intelligence said immediately.
    “Thank you.”
    Mathew stared out into the floating river of lights that continued to stream in all directions above the city. He looked up and southward to soak in the rosy light of a full moon, looking bloody in the dusty, pollution-filled air. There had not been a pale, yellow moon in over a hundred and fifty years.
    “How are you feeling, Mathew?” Emily asked as he sat down and put his feet up on the table.
    “Calm,” he sighed. A look of curiosity held his face for a few moments as he explored his feelings. “Strangely calm, Emily.”
    “I’ve noticed a change in your behavior.”
    “Yes,” he affirmed simply.
    “Are you sure you’re alright?”
    “Do you believe in anything, Emily?”
    “I don’t understand the question.”
    It somehow pleased him that she could sound perplexed. “Never mind. It’s not important,” he said gently. “Ironically enough, I believe I could ask Adrienne the same question and get exactly the same answer … assuming she told the truth.”
    “Can I get you anything?” Emily asked.
    “I believe I would like a cup of tea please. Black, bitters, honey and lime.”
    Mathew leaned back against the repulsor beams and stretched his arms behind his neck. He stared at the ruddy, starless sky for a few minutes, wishing there was less pollution. Leaning forward once again, he rubbed his tired, red-rimmed eyes and took a few deep breaths of the filthy air.
    “What do you think of humanity, Emily?”
    “I love humanity,” she said simply.
    “Of course you do, but that doesn’t answer the question, does it?”
    “No,” she said. “It is done,” she added, her voice now coming from immediately behind him.
    Mathew watched a dull, skeletal, metallic arm silently place his tea on the table before him. He turned to peer at the physical manifestation of Emily. It walked on four, thin, spider-like limbs that attached to small, flexible quarter sections evenly spaced around the narrow base of a head-sized, spherical abdomen. The leg segments bent almost straight upwards then turned down sharply towards the ground at a flexible joint. Three more segments were spaced along the legs which ended in small, silicon-coated, hoof-like feet. With this layout, the base of the abdomen was only a meter off the ground.
    The headless, cylindrical torso attached to the abdomen had three arms evenly spaced around its top. Three multi-directional joints dotted the arms, and each arm ended in skeletal, human-like hands with three fingers and an opposable thumb. The hands, like the feet, were covered in high-friction silicon.
    “So what do you think of humanity?”