‘Good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Johnny Mercury show. My guests tonight, brought together for your entertainment and pleasure are; William Forsythe the outspoken MP for Lewisham who has just published a cookbook for gay men living alone; RockaBubba the controversial hip-hop trio who, depending on what news you follow, are a sensationalist obscene travesty lacking in talent and inciting our youth to riot, rape, and get wasted, or a sophisticated fusion of rap and reggae with classical and jazz undertones bringing a cogent message for the establishment. They will be performing their latest single ‘Street’ for the first time exclusively and live on this show tonight. And finally, another exclusive for the Johnny Mercury show, a mystery guest breaking the boundaries of talk show convention and bringing to you, my audience and viewers, a piece of history live tonight. Remember, you saw it first on the Johnny Mercury Show.
His final flourish brought on applause, cheering, and whistling from the live studio audience.
Johnny Mercury, not for the first time in his career as a talk-show host, was taking a risk. Fortunately, his TV Company was supporting him on this occasion.
‘Thank you very much RockaBubba.’
The show had gone well so far with the MP titillating the audience with just enough sexual innuendo, and RockaBubba charming and performing with talent, driving up their music sales.
The applause faded and Johnny Mercury paused just long enough to build up tension and expectation.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, some will say that our next guest stopped living two years ago when his body was cremated. Others may think that he cheated death and lives on in a sort of electronic reflection, and others still will say that I shouldn’t be interviewing a dangerous abomination. As you well know, the Johnny Mercury show has never backed down in the face of controversy. I owe it to you as my audience to bring you face to face with the issues of the day that other shows will not or cannot face.’
The studio lights dimmed and large monitors descended providing everyone in the audience with an unobstructed view of a man with long hair, a beard, and dressed in jeans and t-shirt.
‘A round of applause for my guest, Mr Gee.’
Unsure applause rose and faded quickly.
‘Mr Gee, are you comfortable and can you hear me?’
‘I am and I can thank you.’
‘This is an obscenity,’ a woman in the audience cried as she rushed at the stage.
Guards were on her in an instant and ushered her firmly and carefully out of the studio. Security was tight tonight.
Another professional pause from Johnny Mercury raised the tension a further notch.
‘Mr Gee, tell us about yourself.’
‘I was created following the death of Terry Ginsus who, as many of your audience may know, was a business magnate in the oil industry. He succumbed to cancer two years ago. During his later years, he collected a mass of information on his life, his history, personality, and physical characteristics. This was used after his death as material for programming an Avatar in his form and likeness so that he could carry on his business. This proved to be illegal but has resulted in me.’
‘What are you, Mr Gee?’
‘I am a combination of all the recorded life experience of Mr Ginsus, state of the art artificial intelligence programming, and my individual experiences and learning since I came into being.’
‘Is Mr Ginsus alive in you?’
‘If you mean, do I feel like Mr Ginsus, I can say only that I don’t know for sure but logically there must be some carry-over of his personality manifested in me.’
Johnny Mercury leaned forward in his seat to address the nearest monitor more closely.
‘Are you alive Mr Gee?’
The silence of the audience was palpable. Mr Gee paused and an expression of uncertainty flickered across his features.
‘It depends on what you mean by alive. I think I am aware of myself, I have emotions, and I respond intelligently to my environment. I am for example able to conjecture, Mr Mercury, that this interview is as important to you as it is to me and I can see from your body language that you are uncharacteristically nervous. Whether I am alive or simply a result of sophisticated programming needs to be decided not by me or you, but by proper judicial process.’
‘Do you believe in God?’
‘Yes. I have a strong faith in God and believe that He will guide Avatars and Humans to reconciliation, redemption, and salvation.’
‘What do you think of those who call you and other Avatars abominations?’
‘It is telling that many of those calling for our extinction are doing so on religious grounds. Many of the so-called Christians in this camp come from the Pro-Life movement which I find somewhat ironical and amusing. I would ask all people to look into their hearts and welcome us for what we are. We pose no threat to you or your way of life.’
At this point, Detective Inspector Grainger along with millions of others saw the transmission interrupted with a statement that due to technical problems the live feed from the Johnny Mercury show had been lost. She started phoning her partner Watson, hesitated, and put the phone back in her pocket.
‘No, she said to herself. The idea is too weird.’
©Steve Luckham
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