The Artificial Kid by Sterling Bruce

Author:Sterling, Bruce [Sterling, Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Fantasy
ISBN: 9781497688100
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 1979-12-31T11:00:00+00:00

9

“I’m sure it will be no surprise to you, Mr. Chairman, to realize that I am Rominuald Tanglin. Or rather, I was once Rominuald Tanglin. Our relationship is a peculiar one, rare enough so that there are very few terms for it. At any rate, Secretary Tanglin underwent terminal personality disruption and I now inhabit his body. You can call me his son, his clone, his successor, or anything you please.

“This happened twenty-eight years ago, so you might call that my age. That makes me the youngest of the three of us by far, and I have the tastes and appetites of the young—well, some of them, anyway. I have what old people call the vices of the young—impatience, impetuousness, carelessness, cruelty. No doubt you could name several more, Anne. I’ve had mine named often enough. Named to me by old people, of course, old people who slaver at the idea of a young man following his own pursuits instead of their fossilized scheming. Since they deprived the young of any chance of making a mark in the world, we chose our own ways; is that so bad? And if it is, can you stop me? I have power and vitality, you see that I have no patience with argument, because words are the nets of the old, and old people are stuck waist-deep in their own approaching deaths and they long to lure the young into the mire as well.…” My voice died away and I shook my head in frustration. Long oratory didn’t suit me; I shared Rominuald Tanglin’s contempt for long-winded formal apostrophes. My best efforts were in the exchange of stinging insults, followed by the cry of combat, the sizzling crunch of impact. I was no orator, no politician. I preferred to make my point with a blunt edge.

“You’ll be old yourself one day. Or you would have been,” Anne said.

“I’ve been old! I’ve seen what happens to me—to him, that is.” I looked at them suspiciously. “He went insane. You probably think that I’m afraid that the same thing will happen to me, that I’m afraid of age because I know I share his weaknesses. Well, it’s not so! I’m independent of him, completely independent, I assure you. I don’t share his vices, his weakness, or his madness. I’ve never met him, of course, but he left me an extensive collection of tapes, so I’ve seen him at his worst, and I know him well. His last madness took the form of a persecution mania. He claimed that humanity was riddled with cunning aliens impersonating people, who preyed on human vitality. He claimed his own wife was one of them. Leeches, he called them. I won’t bore you with the details.

“I was born an adult, you know. Into an adult body. I was born able to speak and with a knowledge of basic trained behavior, table manners, hygiene, how to walk, run, swim, operate a keyboard. I was never a child, not really. I suppose that’s why I chose to live in an artificially childlike body.

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