Doctor Who_ The Stone Rose - Jacqueline Rayner [59]
‘Afraid of me,’ said the Doctor,
* * *
SEVENTEEN
Rose was shocked. ‘Why should it be afraid of you? Did it think you were gonna squash it like so many Slitheen?’
The Doctor nodded. ‘Perhaps. I think it saw inside my mind, just a little way, when I realised what it was. A GENIE, from the year 2375, created by Salvatorio Moretti.’
‘My father,’ put in Vanessa.
The Doctor nodded in acknowledgement. ‘GENIEs were supposed to be a boon,’ went on the Doctor. ‘A great boon, a brilliant boon. This was a society where everything was available, and its citizens came to expect that they could have a thing as soon as think of it. The GENIE was supposed to facilitate that. No more popping down the shops, just tell the GENIE what you want. Fancy a holiday? No waiting around, you’d be there quicker than winking. Envy your neighbour his hovercar? You’ve got one just the same.’
He paused and gave a sad smile.
‘Humans always muck things up, though, don’t they? Just with the prototype GENIEs, things began to get out of hand. People would wish they had a GENIE too and – pop! – there one was. They spread all over the planet like scaly little bunnies. The inventors had no idea how powerful they were, because they’d failed to take into account the I in AI – that the GENIEs were intelligent. They could think for themselves, work out how to tap into power systems to grant larger and larger wishes. And they’d also failed to take into account human nature. Envy your neighbour his hovercar? Well, why not wish it was yours instead, and that your neighbour was cast into poverty and forced to envy you? Fancy a holiday? Why not wish for the sun to always shine – you’ll get a tan, and who cares if the planet slowly dries out? Why not wish that your enemies become weak and that your nagging wife would really lose her tongue? Humans, never satisfied, vindictive, always putting the pleasure of the moment above the needs of the future.’
‘You still like us, though, don’t you?’ said Rose.
‘Love ya,’ said the Doctor, giving her a grin. ‘But you do make a mess of things sometimes. Most of the time, in fact.’
‘So what happened next?’ Rose asked. ‘With the Earth, and the GENIEs and stuff?’
The Doctor looked at her blankly. ‘I have absolutely no idea.’
Rose frowned. ‘What?’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘I’m sorry. What were we talking about?’
‘Doctor?’ Was he joking or what? ‘Is this, like, regeneration trauma again? Or are you having me on? Or has someone wished something?’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Sorry. No idea what you’re on about.’
‘The GENIEs destroying the world!’
He looked at her, then at the GENIE cowering in its cardboard box. Back at Rose, back at the GENIE. Then he rapped his fist on the side of his head and shook it vigorously.
‘Sorry about that. Time Lord occupational hazard. Where were we?’ He took a deep breath. ‘Thanks to the GENIEs – no, that’s wrong, thanks to the people using the GENIEs – the Earth was on the brink of destruction. There could be no stability, because a wish could change anything. Pass a law to stop the wishing, and someone else’ll wish for it to go away. Fix the planet, and the next person’ll wish for it to be destroyed again. And the power that was being used up to grant all these wishes – you wouldn’t believe it.’
‘I would,’ said Rose, remembering how the creature had sucked up Ursus’s body.
‘There had been some fail‐safes built into the GENIEs. You can’t wish anyone dead or not to exist, for example – and that includes the GENIEs themselves. They thought about trying to wish for the GENIEs never to have been created in the first place, but they couldn’t do it ’cause it would create an almighty reality‐imploding paradox – who would have granted the wish?’
‘I thought that!’ said Rose eagerly. ‘That’s what I said to, you know, our GENIE.’
‘Your GENIE indeed,’ came an indignant muttering from inside the box. But Rose could tell it was paying very close attention to everything the Doctor was saying.
‘There were ways around that, though. Someone came up with a plan. They found the earliest GENIE