The Perfect Companion

The perfect companion 

Marlin was sitting on the balcony of her apartment. She lived in those self-sustaining residential complexes that had a very low cost for employees within the system. There was no longer a government as we used to understand it in the past. Large corporations divided power among themselves. In fact, there was little politics in the administrative system. The advancement of science had buried forever a series of ideas, prejudices, and ways of acting. As always, there were both positive and negative aspects. There were few social concerns. The biggest conflicts were more of a personal nature, often enveloped in a terrible boredom generated by the fact that everything was predictable and resolved beforehand. People lacked a bit of uncertainty, a bit of danger, something to sharpen their senses.

Also, judging from Marlin's appearance, the very look of human beings was quite different. People were slim, tall, with lean yet well-defined muscles. Their heads were completely bald. As for their clothing, it was very casual: they wore tunics that were not very different from each other.

Marlin and Ray were talking in their living room:

• So, Ray, how was your day?
• A bit boring. The only interesting thing this week was the news about the particle accelerator. The Mars Administration is going to inaugurate it next week on the planet.
• I heard about it. It's unprecedented in size... However, it seems they're not sharing everything that the Earth population should know about the project. The news staff says the company managing this project doesn't care much about marketing and public relations and is full of secrets. They must have their reasons, I believe.

The English language spoken in this new world was quite different from the one spoken in the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. It was as if it had absorbed the other well-known languages, crushed their words, harnessed the essence of what was assimilable, and coated everything with an American touch. Anyone who knew an ancient language, especially one of the Romance languages, could feel that there was a bit of the spirit of their own language there, without being able to say exactly what.

Marlin and Ray suddenly changed the subject to more local news:

• Of course, they don't do anything without reasons. Anyway, at the moment, what's most talked about is the 20th-century-style restaurants that are popping up all over the city.
• I've heard comments about that. One of them has nearly perfect holographic images of people from that time. It's as if they were walking through the scene. Even more than that. They emit scents from that era. They even managed to bring the smell of the streets from that time inside the restaurant. And other strange ideas. One of them even has a beggar looking from outside through the window, extending a cap.
• That's bad taste. It blends into the scenery, though. People enjoy it. You know how hard it is to entertain people these days.
• I do...

They talked, and they kept talking... it was good. At a time when all forms of entertainment seemed exhausted, when everything seemed to have already been invented, all topics covered, and all stories told, it was good to have someone you could talk to for more than an hour.

Marlin thought to herself how Ray was a good companion. He had been wonderful since the first day he entered that home.

She fell silent for a moment. Then she got up, said a very tender "goodnight" to Ray, who responded with a smile, and went to bed. The soft lights on the balcony automatically turned off. Ray then lowered his head, rested his chin on his chest, and became silent and motionless like a puppet, right there in the armchair where he had been all along. One would never know who Ray was if they couldn't look, with a lens, behind his neck, at some tiny inscriptions. There, it said the name of the manufacturer, the year it was made, and other technical data. He was a companion robot. Perfect. Ray was Marlin's best and only friend.