The Organic Skycar

"Dahl! What the hell were you thinking! What about our Baby License!"

My husband had just spent fifty thousand credits – of OUR money – on a new skycar. I gazed at the new vehicle, just trying to make sense of the whole situation. It looked no different from the thousands of other cars in the skyport. Fifty-thousand goddamn creds...

"Trust me Lynsa," I heard him say. "This ain't no ordinary skycar. This is an Organic Skycar! D'ya know how much we'll save in the long run? Thousands of creds a year. And it will last for decades! This puppy here is the future of transport!" He placed his hands on my shoulders; I somehow resisted the urge to shrug them off. "Sweetie, you're gonna haveta trust me!"

I took a deep breath. "Okay Dahl," I said, my voice trembling. "What's so special about it?"

"Like I said, this is an Organic Skycar. Remember how our last 'car was gettin' a bit rusty round the edges, and was no longer reaching its stated cruisin' speed of three hundred miles per hour? That's cause it was built usin' what you'd call 'traditional materials' - carbon fibre, DuraOx alloy, etcetera etcetera. Parts which you gotta replace over time. This model, however, is organic, in that it continuously repairs itself in the same way a livin' creature repairs itself. In other words, my dear, this car is alive!"

I wasn't convinced, and Dahl could see it on my face.

"Of course it's not alive in thatta way," he continued. "It doesn't have a brain and it can't think for itself. It's controlled in the same way as a regular car. But it will be much cheaper to run! And as I said, it will save us thousands of credits a year on fuel and repair bills."

I was still sceptical of his claims. "Why have I not seen these advertised on the holoscreen? And why have they not been talking about them in the MemoryZone? The kids are normally clued up on any new tech."

Dahl smiled. "Ah. That's 'cause it's still a prototype. They aim to put it into production in the next couple of months. They'll charge hundreds of thousands, no doubt about it! I was lucky that I have these connections at work...someone who was prepared to sell it to me for a bargain price."

"So then Dahl, how will it save us 'thousands a year'?"

"I was just gettin' to that. It runs off Universal Formula. It eats what we eat. It will cost practically nothin' to..."

The full gravity of the situation was sinking in. "But Dahl, it will take several years to recoup that fifty thousand!" I was screaming at him now, and the neighbours were staring. "Why do you always have to do this Dahl? It's because you just don't want a baby with me isn't it! Isn't it!?"

He continued to protest, but by now I had had enough. I turned round and walked briskly back to the elevator, leaving him alone with the skycar. I felt so frustrated with him, yet there was nothing I could do. He had been like this ever since we met. It was part of his nature, this constant spend spend spend on all sorts of technological shit without a care in the world. At times I was giving serious consideration to divorcing him and starting my life afresh.

I still needed to calm down, and despite having been in there for seven hours that day, I decided to escape to the MemoryZone for the rest of the evening.

####

As the following day was Saturday, Dahl had his usual morning in bed to catch up with sleep, and so I decided to use the new 'car to visit the skymall in Conurbation XC90 to meet up with some of my girlfriends. We could have rendezvoused in the MemoryZone, but I wanted to see everyone face to face. Plus I'd be able to get away from my idiot of a hubby for the day. We would probably do our usual routine - head for a Synthocoffee and spend several hours complaining about our partners. But at least it got me out for a while.