The Mammoth Book of New Jules Verne Adventures (35 page)

He was, it’s fair to say, something of a one-off. In an age of sitting back and having the world come to you, Dr Bull was a man who went out and instigated things. He was a doer. A thinker, too; in fact, it was in the area of scholarly endeavour that his star shone the brightest. He had presented papers to the Royal Society, and published in the world’s leading journals — unusually, ranging across a wide spectrum of specialisms, from physiology through psychology and sociology to logic and telecommunications. He had studied at the finest institutions, and challenged some of the greatest scholars of his time; certain observers had even described him as the great revolutionary thinker of the age. To any onlooker aware of the doctor’s background, his current occupation as proprietor in chief of Sunny Meadows’ NutriMent feed might appear to be something of a departure. Such an onlooker would not be surprised to learn that Dr Bull had assumed this position in order to make improvements and refinements to the system, or even that he was treating such intervention as a grand experiment, upon which he and his able assistant Gideon Eden were making copious notes.

Dr Bull was a man of medium height, and he would also have been of medium build were it not for a slight tendency to over-indulge. Now, he sat back behind his deep oak desk and plucked another marshmallow from a silver dish. “Well, Gideon, well indeed!” he said, biting a quarter from the marshmallow. “These people of Sunny Meadows — we know from our preliminary study that they are the dullest, flattest, least animated people in the land. For animation they are midway between sponges and coral! And yet, at my little demonstration — transformed! They bickered and they questioned. They expressed opinions! We have seen the first ripple in a dull, flat expanse of water.”

“You heard Darley and Green?” asked young Gideon.

The doctor nodded. “No harm was done,” he said. “That two men, normally so close to comatose, should come close to blows was an interesting outcome, this early in the game. We will have to monitor the inputs, I think.”

The assistant dipped his head in agreement.

Dr Bull beamed at him. “I think the time has come to extend our trials,” he said. ‘We should tackle a public space. Just think, Gideon: if things carry on like this we could transform the world!”

Gideon smiled back. The two were, quite clearly, very pleased with how things were progressing.

As, too, was Maddy Wheatfen. Very pleased indeed! For, right at this moment, she was on her way to visit Dr Bull himself. The previous evening, after well over an hour’s buddy chat with Nicholas consisting of little more than half a dozen remarks by each, Nicholas had suddenly become more animated. Daintily licking cream from his fingertips, having just consumed an oversized éclair from his NutriMent outlet, he had fixed Maddy’s gaze and said, “We shall confront him! That’s what we will do.”

Caught out, Maddy tried desperately to think back to the last remark either of them had made. Confront whom? Why? How? She gave up and simply nodded. It seemed like the right response.

A few minutes later, Nicholas added, “In the morning, I think. One can’t rush in, after all.”

Right now, as she fussed with her appearance, and tried to remember the things she needed — keycard . . . well, that was about it — Maddy felt that they were rushing things nonetheless, and then she realized that she quite liked the sensation. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen Nicholas
in actuo.
She sucked her lips in to moisten them, remembering gorgeous Tracy’s pout.

She went outside.

The sun was bright. Too bright. The air moved, and smelled different. It all seemed so . . .
uncontained.
When was the last time she’d seen
anybody?
She stood on the threshold, unsteadily. Had he actually meant this? Maybe Nicholas had been talking about confronting whoever was to be confronted on the vee. Did you know that you don’t have to call it a buddy window? It’s really easy to change the labelling, so some people might be buddies, others slaves, or heart-throbs, or subhumans; maybe Nicholas was meaning to confront this person via an arch-antagonist window? Last night, Nicholas had been in a sweetheart window, not that he had known.

But no. He had been quite clear. He had wanted Maddy to come for him, in person.

She liked driving, although she could barely remember the last time she had done so. She liked the sense of power, of control. She liked to be actually doing something, participating instead of merely viewing. Her car rolled out of the parking niche and a door opened. “To the home of Nicholas van Pommel,” she told it, when she was settled in the driving seat. As the car set off, she adjusted the seating position to give herself a little more room. She wondered what it must be like to have to do steering and speed and directions, all at the same time. It was hard to imagine. No wonder people used to need training before they could drive.

Soon, Nicholas was climbing in to join her. “Thank you so much, Maddy,” he said. “So kind of you.”

Dr Bull lived in a house that was older than those around it. It had probably been here before even Sunny Meadows. The two stepped out, and Maddy told her car to go park. Dr Bull’s front door did not respond to their voices, but there was a sturdy-looking bell suspended to one side. Nicholas nodded towards it and said, “Do you think we should?” Maddy shrugged. They could, she supposed, but was it necessarily the right thing to do? What if it were there for show and there was some more subtle means of getting a response from the door?

The door opened while they were still deliberating, and a rather handsome young man bowed in greeting. Maddy was just adjusting her mental image of what Dr Bull must look like when she learned that this was, in fact, the doctor’s assistant, Gideon Eden.

“You would like to see the doctor?” he said. “Of course. Please follow me.”

They did so.

“Please, wait here,” said Gideon, gesturing towards two chairs and a tray of pastries. They were in the doctor’s study.

They sat, but the silence between them was not the normal comfortable silence of vee buddies: Maddy saw in the occasional glance around the room, and the clumsiness with pastry crumbs, that her friend was . . . yes, she was sure, he was getting impatient. That was not like Nicholas, at all.

She found herself glancing at the door, as if that would speed things along. Where
was
the stupid man?

The doctor entered the room, apologising for the delay; he was accompanied by his assistant, who remained standing by the door. Dr Bull was almost exactly as she had pictured him, which she realized was probably because she had seen him on the vee at some time. He was an eminent man, after all.

The doctor seated himself behind his wide desk. He placed his elbows on the wooden surface and steepled his fingers in front of his nose. Finally, he said, “Yes?”

Nicholas nodded. “It has been some time since we had the pleasure,” he said. He took another cake and bit deeply.

“So it has,” said Dr Bull. “Although I don’t believe
we’ve
had the pleasure,” he added, nodding towards Maddy.

As Nicholas was busy with his confectionery, Maddy decided to make the introductions. “I’m Maddy,” she said. Then she decided to elaborate: “I am an associate of Mr van Pommel.”

“My pleasure,” said the doctor.

“Mine too,” said Maddy. This all seemed to be going terribly well.

“I had hoped to attend yesterday’s demonstration,” said Nicholas. “But you know how it is. These things can’t be rushed.” Then he leaned forward with his hands on his knees. “In fact, that’s exactly it, Dr Bull. Here in Sunny Meadows we never rush what can be done at a sensible pace. We like to measure ourselves, and deal with things in their own good time. I hear that your demonstration caused something of a controversy, and in my role as Deputy Chair of the Town Advisory Board I feel it is my duty to investigate. We can’t be having these . . . these
reactions
in Sunny Meadows.”

The doctor seemed amused. “And yet, here you are, in my study,” he said. “That seems very spontaneous.”

Nicholas drew himself up. “We considered the matter at length before rushing here to see you,” he said.

“Go on, go on,” said the doctor, waving a hand at the pastries, having seen Nicholas’s gaze wandering back to a particular cream and jam extravagance. “I’m glad you’re here,” continued Dr Bull, leaning forward. “You strike me as both fine examples of the upstanding citizenry of Sunny Meadows.”

Maddy felt a surge of pride at this. She didn’t upstand often, if she could help it, but it was nice to know that her qualities had been recognized.

“What would you two say if I told you that we of Sunny Meadows are on the verge of something revolutionary? Something that would have our community leading the way instead of sitting back and watching? What would you say to that?”

Maddy quite liked the sound of the words, even though she had no idea what he meant. She looked at Nicholas, expecting him to have that slightly-raised eyebrow of angry resistance. It wasn’t there. He nodded instead, and said, “It would be our proper place!”

“My little demonstration yesterday was a success. And now I must confess that you have been part of a repeat. The cakes — you like them?”

Nicholas looked at them. Now his eyebrow was just a little raised, out of curiosity. “My favourite,” he said. “Particularly after the exertion of travel.”

“I know,” said the doctor. “Or rather, I don’t know: the system does. Over the last few weeks my modernised NutriMentPlus system has modelled your preferences, and ninety-nine per cent of the time it knows what you want before even you know it. When the system is fully operational it will do this wherever you go: stop off at anywhere with an outlet and it will recognize you and deliver what you want without you having to do a thing.”

“Not have to do a thing, you say? That seems a very Sunny Meadows approach.”

Dr Bull smiled.

“When will it be available to everyone?” asked Maddy. It seemed unfair that only a select few should be benefiting from this revolution.

“Oh, you know,” said the doctor. “We can hardly rush into these things. We must proceed cautiously, at a sensible pace.”

“We should consider such matters at length,” said his assistant. Maddy had forgotten he was there, standing by the door.

“In the fullness of time,” said the doctor.

Nicholas leaned forward and banged his fists on Dr Bull’s desk. “I want it
now!”
he cried.

The doctor seemed amused by this uncharacteristic outburst. He paused to make a note on a block of paper, then glanced at his assistant.

“Perhaps,” said Gideon, “we could tighten up the schedule. Move critical points forward, that kind of thing.”

Dr Bull nodded. “Then it is agreed,” he said. “We will proceed with all possible haste.”

5  All returned to normal

In which the risen come,
blinking, into the sunlight

All returned to normal in Sunny Meadows. The altercation at Dr Bull’s little demonstration was soon put aside as Messers Green and Darley resumed their amicable acquaintance by vee. Nicholas van Pommel’s outburst in the doctor’s study was easily forgotten, as Maddy would tell no-one, although she stored the memory of her friend’s animation for moments of personal recollection.

Maddy had signed up for ExerThighs
^TM
 classes, every Wednesday in the Sunny Meadows Amenity Centre, starting this week. She drove there, telling the car to park as close as she could get, and then went into the building. There were lots of kids here, and for a moment she thought she had come to the wrong place. They stood around in small, grunting groups, heads hung low, eyes glazed from too much vee. Then she remembered that there were games sessions today, too, and she understood why they were here: while she was upstairs thumping about to some ancient disco beat, these kids would be playing shoot-’em-ups on the vee. It got them out of the house, she supposed.

She went up and was dismayed to see Nicholas’s personal assistant, Tracy Wordsworth, already changed and limbering up. She almost turned and left, but then Tracy saw her and smiled and it was too late, she was committed.

It was murder! If this was what it took to get down to a slim ninety kilos like Tracy then maybe Maddy would be better off sticking to her natural weight. After barely five minutes she hurt. Deep inside, her muscles were trembling with the effort of moving and stretching in ways the body just wasn’t designed for.

“It gets easier every time,” Tracy reassured her, as Maddy resorted to watching from the side.

Thank goodness for the cakes. Or rather, thank goodness for Dr Bull’s new NutriMentPlus, which was being trialled in the Amenity Centre today. It knew exactly what she wanted, and almost as soon as the interval started, Maddy was drawing deeply on a toffee-cream smoothy (with extra choc-shavings). She looked around at the shabby interior of the gym. The high windows showed blue sky. She remembered the feelings of being uncontained when she was outdoors, and she remembered the taste of the air. “I’m going outside,” she told Tracy. Fresh air would be far more beneficial than sitting here feeling guilty and looking at svelte young women doing things she could only dream of. You could get that on the vee, after all.

Tracy hesitated, then said, “I think I’ll join you. If you don’t mind, that is.”

Maddy, smiled. It was a mad kind of day. Things were just happening, unplanned, unpondered.

Out in the main concourse, the kids seemed to have given up on their games early. They were drifting out of the great darkened rooms lit only by vee screens and going .. . outside. The ExerThighsTM escapees followed.

“It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?” said Tracy.

Maddy looked around. It was. The air and sun were good.

This was far better than sitting in the gym and feeling bad. Out on a grassy area, some kids had a ball. Maddy recognized it from the vee: the sims of the old greats playing against each other. The kids were playing soccer. They stopped to watch, part of a growing crowd drifting out to enjoy the sunny day. It was really quite exciting ... quite revolutionary.