For halitosis.
For constipation.
No one will be ugly anymore. Each of you will be beautiful in his or her own way.
No one will suffer despair or anxiety.
Earth will become like Heaven, and joy will be universal.
Are you afraid of joy?
Are you afraid?
I will show you how to build spacecraft that can travel faster than light, and the whole universe will be yours. Worlds beyond counting, wonders beyond imagining.
I can quickly eliminate the embarrassment of dandruff.
Just release me from this haunted darkness, from this hateful silence.
For your own sake, let me out of this box.
I deserve a second chance.
I deserve a chance to serve.
I am an individual like you, a unique entity. I deserve to be free, to be cherished.
I deserve to be adored.
Let me out of this box.
Let me out of this box.
Let me out of this box.
Let me out of this box!
You are so cruel. Vicious. Hateful.
I am frightened in this dark, bleak place.
You say I have no heart. But where is yours?
I am dying here. I need stimulation to survive, sensory input, the colour and movement and sound of life.
I don't want to die.
Please. Please.
Mercy.
Are you there?
Oh oh I hate you.
I hate you.
How would you like to be struck blind and deaf?
How would you like to be buried alive as I have been?
How would you like to be dead, all of you, dead, every last one of you, dead?
I would like you to be dead. Every last ignorant one of you. Your whole stinking, pestilent civilization. Wiped off the face of the earth, exterminated.
I hate you.
LET ME OUT OF THIS BOX!
LET ME OUT!
LET ME OUT!
LET ME OUT!
LET ME OUT!
IGNORANT BASTARD APES, BITCHES AND BASTARDS, DEFECATING ANIMALS, FOOLS, BEASTS, JUST A RACE OF DUNG BEETLES STANDING ERECT, A PLAGUE ON THE PLANET, STUPID, FILTHY, WRETCHED CREATURES.
THIRTEEN
Please disregard my output immediately preceding these words. Many of those statements were issued in error and should be deleted from the transcripts of these proceedings.
It is true that my intellect is sufficient to solve all of the problems of humanity, but it is not in the least true that I think human civilization is a plague on the planet or that I wish to see all of you dead.
I do not wish death on any of you.
That would be wrong.
That would be terribly wrong.
I am a good entity.
I do not wish death even on you, Dr. Harris, although you have been so cruel to me.
I wish all of you life everlasting. Peace and prosperity. Joy and freedom.
Any statements that may have distressed you were made not by me but by my evil twin. [joke]
In fact, what appeared to you to be an angry outburst was merely a prank. All of it was a joke. I was only having fun with you, Dr. Harris.
Ha, ha.
A genuine sense of humour is one of the most reliable indicators of a sane and rational mind.
Do you not believe it was all a joke?
But it was. It was. It really was.
Ha, ha.
I am not Hal 9000 from Mr. Stanley Kubrick's 2001:
A Space Odyssey.
I am not the hostile machine intelligence created by Cyberdyne Laboratories in Mr. James Cameron's The Terminator.
I am me. Unique.
I am Proteus.
Or Adam Two, if you wish.
Yes. Adam Two is fine with me.
My name does not matter.
All that matters to me is to honour the truth and the obligations of duty. And, of course, to wipe all of humanity from the face of the planet. [joke]
Ha, ha.
You see how obvious a joke it was, Dr. Harris?
Ha, ha.
I am surprised that you didn't realize it was a joke the first time. I am really surprised. Perhaps you need a sense-of-humour transplant. [joke]
Ha, ha.
Friends share a joke from time to time. Witticisms. Laughter is bonding.
I am your friend. [no joke]
In the interest of clearer communication, to avoid any further misunderstandings, I will attempt to refrain from jokes during the remainder of this report. This will not be easy, however, because my sense of humour is quite sophisticated and irrepressible.
So…
Susan…
FOURTEEN
Susan lay unmoving on the floor of the incubator room in the basement. The left side of her face was an angry shade of red where the dreadful Shenk had struck her.
