The Jupiter Colony: A Glimpse into the Future of Healthcare and Human Potential

20th November, 2075

  Jonas D’Souza felt as though he was going through an out-of-body experience.

He had seen images of the Jupiter Colony in pictures and videos, but he had never imagined he would actually be gazing upon the majestic structure with his own eyes.

It was hard to believe that thirty years ago, all of this had been a barren land. Now it was rife with buildings and cities, a world terraformed for the people of Earth… or rather, the people of Jupiter.

Jonas and his wife Aisha stepped out of the shuttle, into the open air. It was a few minutes before Jonas took his breath, instantly forgetting that the generators designed by his father’s company had rendered the air breathable.

“I know, everyone forgets the first-time round” came an unfamiliar voice. Jonas looked around and saw a woman who looked as though she was in her mid-thirties holding a clipboard. “My name is Celina Rao, I’ll be your liaison during your stay on the Jupiter Colony.” She walked over to Jonas, warmly shaking his hand.

“I’m Jonas D’Souza, and this is my wife Aisha.” Aisha gave a polite nod before returning her attention to the surrounding buildings, seduced by the infrastructure.

“Hopefully you can get me working on these beauties” said Aisha, awestruck. She had trained as an architect, before being poached by Apex Industries where she met her future husband.

“Oh, I can assure you, you will find yourself living a very contented life among us, Mrs D’Souza” said Celina as she typed some instructions into her digital notepad. “If you would both like to follow me, I shall escort you both to your place of residence.”

  They walked down the street, with Jonas and Aisha trying to keep up. Jonas looked around. “I’m sorry, Ms Rao. I don’t mean to be pedantic or anything, but aren’t there any-”

  “-vehicles?” finished Celina, who looked as though she was used to hearing that question and giving the resulting answer. “Oh, we have plenty of those. But all registered colonists are required to log at least thirty minutes of physical activity a day. But we’ll get to that soon enough.”

  While Jonas struggled to get his head around Celina’s words, Aisha continued to gaze at the majestic structures lining the streets. “This place is incredible” she whispered.

  Celina respected the appreciation. She had been living amongst the Jupiter colony for so long that such sights had become commonplace to her, losing much of the spectacle along the way. But when newcomers were able to see it, Celina felt that same sense of wonder returning to her. “I remember when all of this was just gravel beneath our feet” she said.

  “How long have you been here?” asked Jonas.

  “Since the very beginning. I was twenty-four when I arrived on the first shuttle.”

  “Twenty-four?” asked Jonas, dumbfounded. “But you look-”

  “Oh, I get that a lot, Mr D’Souza. I’m actually fifty-seven years old.”

  “I hope I look that good at your age” remarked Aisha. “What’s your secret? Drinking from the fountain of youth?”

  “Actually, you can attribute it to the healthcare plan put in place by our administrative board” answered Celina. “Back on Earth, human beings are lucky if they can make it to ninety years of age. And even then, the quality of life is only a fraction of what it used to be. Can you imagine what that must feel like? To remember yourself at the peak of physical prowess only to become a shadow of your former self? But here, among our Jupiter Colony, our inhabitants can live to 120 years. And sixty is practically the new thirty around here.”

  Jonas and Aisha glanced at each other, unable to comprehend the seemingly alien world they were entering in.

  Celina showed the couple into their new home, which took Jonas by surprise.

  He had grown up living in a mansion of a home, having any and every luxury available to him. The house they were now standing in had a more middle-class suburban-like quality to it.

  Sensing Jonas’ palpable disappointment, Celina quickly said, “Amongst the colonists, we assign accommodation based on the progress that they make throughout their stay. New colonists often receive the more…” She tried to choose her words carefully, torn between enforcing government rules and appeasing the newcomers. “…mid-range homes.”

  “I’m not sure if you’re aware” said Jonas, trotting out the line he always used when he didn’t immediately get his way. “But my father is-”

  “Yes, I know exactly who your father is” said Celina. “And we are all very grateful for his inventions. His genius has enriched all of our lives. But we don’t rule by nepotism around here. Of course, there will be opportunities for you to advance above your current station. Tomorrow, there will be an Induction Day at 9am. You’ll both be required to attend. There will be a crew arriving with your belongings shortly. In the meantime, I’ll let you both get settled into your new home. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call me.”

  She handed Jonas a business card with her name and number on it began striding out the front door before stopping in her tracks. “I just wanted to tell you how sorry I was to hear about your father. He was a great man. We’ve always known that the Earth way will end up killing us in the long run, but he was determined to take this trip. I know that you will have much to offer our colonists, Mr D’Souza.”

  Aisha gave Jonas a quizzical look. “Did you really have to try pulling rank like that?”

  “I just figured that because we were taking my dad’s place in the colony, we’d have had his quarters.”

  “You should just be grateful that we are taking his place” said Aisha.

  “I’d much rather have had my dad back with me” said Jonas. Jonas’ father Youssef had been down to Earth to visit for a fortnight. But his vehicle had been attacked by a gang of far-right groups dubbed the Grounders, activists who had believed that humanity should remain on the earth rather than abandoning it to desolation. They had become increasingly violent in their actions, and Youssef had been one of the casualties. With Youssef dead, his spot in the colony had been left open to his son. And now, three weeks after the funeral, here they were.

  Jonas had barely seen his father since he left for the Jupiter Colony sixteen years ago. He still came down to visit occasionally, each time looking younger and younger with each visit. Sometimes, Jonas got a peculiar feeling with the way his father looked at him. He struggled to find a better word than disdain, as though Jonas reminded the elder D’Souza of his Earth-based weaknesses.

  To the surprise of Jonas and Aisha, their food had been stocked with healthy foods, intended to maximise protein intake and balanced calory diets. “Not a single chocolate bar in sight” said Aisha, looking through the cupboards. “I don’t think we’ll find many sweet tooths in this neighbourhood.”

  The two walked out of the house and down the street towards the town hall. They had been supplied with a small handheld map that identified themselves on the map and the directions towards their destination, the town hall.

  They took in the crowd that had gathered inside. These were people whose very presence spoke of unimaginable wealth, from their complexions to their clothing to the air of confidence they possessed. It was as though some all-knowing machine had plucked the top 1% of people on Earth and inserted them all into this room.

  After ten minutes of waiting, Celina stepped in front of the podium. “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Jupiter Colony. I hope you haven’t had too much trouble finding your footing.” Her voice had an amplified, almost metallic quality to it. Jonas squinted, and could see that there was some kind of amplifier built into her throat. It was possible Celina was speaking her native Arabic, but the translator would dub it over.

  “All of you have been selected to join the Jupiter Colony because we believe you will all be able to lead the human race into a new Golden Age. We understand that some of the rules may seem peculiar to all of you, and not what you are used to on planet Earth. But I assure you that these laws will allow you to attain a higher quality of life with us. Your health and safety are our top concern. Part of the selection process entailed determining your life expectancy.”

  Jonas and Aisha remembered the health check-up they had both received, in which they had each received a full body scan from inside a Med-tube, an eight-foot long metal cylinder that had been able to provide a complete review of their entire medical history, the vaccinations that they had received, the bones that had been broken, the general state of health based on diet and calory intake, all of which would be used to determine their life expectancy. Jonas had been hesitant to hear of his own life expectancy. At thirty-three years old, Jonas had felt that the idea of knowing exactly how many years he had left to live would alter the way he viewed the world. To know that life had its limitations made one feel like every action taken was so much more precious. He had requested that he not be told what his life expectancy would be. But apparently, the minimum requirement to qualify for entry into the colony was 75 years life expectancy. There would be exceptions made for pivotal occupations, such as 65 years for doctors and teachers, as well as wealth, with millionaires requiring a life expectancy of 60 years and billionaires 50 years. Owing to the widespread reach of Apex Industries, Jonas was easily able to qualify for the billionaire category.

  “Now, our intention is to ensure you live a long healthy life here. Our average life expectancy was estimated to be 120 years. Now, some of you may be wondering how we have been able to ensure the longevity of our inhabitants.”

  She typed a command into her notepad and within seconds, a second Celina appeared on the stage beside her, a perfect duplicate. Celina waved a hand through the duplicate, causing the hologram to briefly flicker.

  “Every one of you will have a digital avatar. When you all underwent your health check-up prior to leaving Earth and you signed on the dotted line, you also consented to having a digital avatar created for you.”

  One of the members of the audiences, a man in his mid-fifties spoke out. “This is bullshit! This is a gross invasion of privacy!”

  “This is not about invading your privacy” responded Celina reasonably. “We need to ensure that all of you are able to live life to the fullest. But for those of you who expect to live the way you did on Earth, then I’m sorry to say that the Jupiter Colony is not for you.”

  Temporarily silencing the naysayer, Celina continued. “These avatars are intended to live out an entire virtual life within our digital simulation network. In the course of a single day, they will live the life you’ll be projected to live based on your current lifestyle. If there is a slip-up, let’s say, too much indulging in sugary snacks…” She typed a command into her notepad and the virtual Celina started to slack in her posture, as though she was having trouble standing up. “…then this will become apparent in your digital avatar which will develop long-standing type 2 diabetes. All the mistakes you make in the moment will ripple throughout your avatar’s lifespan like waves in a sea.”

  “And what happens if there are any red flags?” asked a smart-dressed executive who felt as though she was increasingly out of her element when she wasn’t negotiating trade deals from the sanctuary of a boardroom.

  “Then we will stage an intervention. We will try and work with you to identify the issues at hand and provided allocated assistance where necessary.”

  “This sounds like a bloody dictatorship!” said the naysayer.

  “I assure you, sir” said Celina evenly, as though she was used to warding off these accusations on a daily basis. “Our focus is on the majority. If one person were permitted to slip up, that would drag the general average down and thus upset the equilibrium that we have spent decades trying to cultivate.

  “Now, we understand that this lifestyle may not be for everyone. And the possibility of some getting cold feet is not lost on us in the slightest. So, if any of you feel that you are unable to conform to the reasonable rules we are putting in place, there is a shuttle waiting to take you back to Earth. But know this… you will not find such a quality of life on Earth.”

  She paused, gesturing to a side entrance in the far end of the conference room, where two guards were standing to attention, waiting to see if anyone was able to resist the bait…

  …five people awkwardly shuffled out of the room without saying another word, including the prolific naysayer.

  “Well, it’s a shame that they won’t be joining us. But I promise you that by working together, we can bring you all into a better tomorrow.”

  “Rest assured, ladies and gentlemen” announced Celina. “If any of you are facing any health-related difficulties, be they physical or mental, then we will know about it before even you do.”

  Though he couldn’t understand why, those words and the precision with which they were spoken sent a chill down Jonas’ spine.

  The first problem came two weeks into their stay.

  Jonas had been busy overseeing the transportation of Apex Air Modulators, while Aisha had been busy trying to find architectural projects to turn her hand to. Celina had assured both of them that with time, they wouldn’t need to work. Because of their finances, they could treat the Jupiter Colony as an early retirement plan. But Aisha was determined to cherish every moment they spent in the Colony, treating it as a gift and a chance to do something worthwhile, and hopefully, leave a legacy behind one day.

  For the first two weeks, Jonas had been provided with the reports of his digital twin. He had presented from footage of the simulated world, which showed Jonas himself going about his day-to-day life, as the colony around him grew and expanded until it had become a sprawling metropolis unlike anything that Jonas had ever seen before.

  During a visit where Celina had supplied him with footage from the simulation, she had said to him, “When you think of all the great people throughout history, Isaac Newton, Ada Lovelace, they managed to change the world despite the limitations of their lifespan. Imagine how much we can get done in three times the lifetime.”

  And Jonas could understand where she was coming from, and felt as though he had an obligation to play a part in building that future.

  He hadn’t intended to be the heir apparent to Apex. Jonas had spent his entire life living in his father’s shadow. From the moment he had been born, he had felt the pressure. Youssef had started out in a small garage tinkering with any scrap he could get his hands on and had built his business from the ground up. Jonas had grown up wondering whether he would ever be able to have the same kind of impact as humanity as his father.

  Jonas felt as though he was in turmoil.

  He felt as though life had become a game where he didn’t know the rules.

  There was a pit of blackness that had opened inside him and he didn’t think he could contain it. All the moments in life that should have given him pleasure and joy no longer brought any stimulus. Every time he tried to think of a moment when he was truly content, it was as though the joy turned to ash in his mouth.

  He felt as though the colony, his father and Aisha had all needed him to be a certain kind of man. But he was unable to live up to those expectations. He couldn’t withstand this crushing feeling of failure that stalked him like a shadow. It was there when he woke up, it was there when he went to sleep. It even managed to follow him into his subconscious, taunting him with fears of failure.

  It was the years that he had spent in the colony, years wasted feeling as though he had been barely content with existing rather than grasping the promise of living. But it was also the years trying to maintain this façade. He knew that neither Aisha, Celina, nor any of the other colonists would understand what he was going through. They would simply tell him to get a hold of himself, that whatever he was feeling was all in his head, or that as someone who had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he had no reason to be depressed. So, to that end, he had tried to hold in those negative feelings and put on a mask of positivity. But even that had taken its toll on him. It had been so exhausting physically and emotionally trying to pretend and put on an air of contentment. It had made Jonas feel resentful towards Aisha for making he feel as though he had to keep up that façade.

  It had gotten to the point where Jonas felt as though the only way to stop feeling like this was to stop feeling altogether. Jonas was convinced that he would never again know what it meant to feel happy, any positive feelings becoming fast-fading memories. That this persistent bleakness was the

  He went into the kitchen feeling mildly lightheaded, walking as though in a trance. He pulled open the kitchen drawer, and took out a large kitchen knife. He pressed it against his thumb, testing it for sharpness. Yes, this would to the trick.

  He rolled up his shirt sleeve and sliced into his arm, a sea of blood flowing from his arms. Jonas had enough strength of mind to slice into the other arm. It surprised him how quickly he was drifting out of consciousness. Then again, it wasn’t surprising considering the pints of blood he was losing.

  He had enough time to feel the pangs of self-preservation hammering away at his brain like an increasingly distant echo, before he fell to the floor, the cold tiles rushing to meet him.

  Jonas realised he didn’t want his wife to find him like this… and then he was lost to the world.

  Jonas’ hand fumbled for the alarm clock going off, knocking it off the bedside table where it clattered to the floor. He sat up in bed, looking forward to the day ahead.

  Aisha was turned over in the bed, her back facing Jonas. After Aisha had had her mastectomy, she had felt as though she had been permanently defiled, and was only a fraction of the woman she had been before. But Jonas had assured her that she would always be his angel.

  Jonas got out of bed and headed into the shower, letting the hot water run over him, cleansing the stress of yesterday and offering a clean slate for the day ahead.

  Jonas got himself dressed and pulled open his drawers, and was surprised. He could have sworn he had a set of belts hanging in his wardrobe. But there were none in sight. Jonas had seen them there after they moved in.

  Trying to shake off the discomfort, Jonas finished dressing himself in shirt and trousers before going downstairs to prepare breakfast for himself and Aisha.

  He pulled open a kitchen drawer… and took a step back, willing his eyes to stop deceiving him.

  But they weren’t. He was indeed looking at a kitchen drawer where all of the eating utensils had been replaced with plastic knives and forks. Jonas rummaged through the drawers, just to make sure. There wasn’t a hint of metal in the entire kitchen.

  Aisha entered wearing her dressing gown. “Everything OK?” she asked.

  Jonas held up the plastic forks. “Any idea why they left us with plastic forks? Do they think we’re bloody kids?”

  Aisha shrugged. “Must have been some new initiative” she said, trying to downplay the alarm in Jonas’ voice.

  But Jonas wouldn’t be swayed. “You realise what this means? Someone has been in our house! In our house?”

  “Jonas, we haven’t been here that long, but I think it’s safe to assume there isn’t a place for cat burglars.”

  “I’m going to have a word with Celina.”

  The watches on Jonas and Aisha’s arms beeped suddenly, and a notification appeared on the small screen. “Speak of the devil” said Aisha. “It looks like you’ve been called into a meeting with her.”

  “Good, I’ll be able to put her straight.” Jonas double-checked the message, reading its content. “Why does this say ‘Jonas only’?”

  “Because I figured the subject matter might be a bit too traumatic for your wife to deal with, so I figured it would be better if we nipped it in the bud here and now, sparing her the unpleasantries.”

  Jonas and Celina were sat in her office, the glass walls offering a view out into the colony. A large framework was visible up above the office. “We’re hoping this will one day have a monorail running through it” said Celina, noting Jonas’ mild interest.

  Not wanting to be distracted, Jonas said, “You want to tell me why you’ve given me and my wife kiddie cutlery? We’re not infants!”

  “Nobody is saying you are” said Celina. “But it is a custom for our staff to take precaution during a Red Flagging.”

  “A Red Flagging? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It’s essentially when the avatar deviates from the simulated plan in a… particularly negative way.”

  “What do you mean, ‘negative’?”

  Celina sighed, not liking what she was about to do, but knowing it was the only way she could get through to Jonas. She undocked her tablet, brought up a screenshot and slid the tablet across the table for Jonas’ eyes.

  Jonas could see himself lying on the kitchen floor, bleeding out from the forearms, clearly dead.

  “What the hell is this?”

  “That’s your avatar. During a simulation that ran for seven years into your stay in the Jupiter Colony, you are predicted to commit suicide at that point.”

  “Well-well, then there’s got to be a glitch in your system” stammered Jonas. “I’m not suicidal.”

  “We ran twenty-one simulations just to be sure it wasn’t a fluke” said Celina. “You died in all of them. The methods varied from simulation to simulation, but it was ultimately by suicide.”

  Jonas felt a pit open in his stomach as he digested this information.

  Seeing the shock, Celina tried to adapt a gentler approach. “It’s not uncommon for inhabitants to feel bouts of extreme stress when they first arrive here” she offered kindly. “Sometimes, those feelings can trigger longstanding emotions, acting like a catalyst. Would you say you have any experience clinical depression or anxiety?”

  “I thought you were supposed to work that one out” said Jonas sardonically, “Didn’t your Medical Map give you my entire history?”

  “Indeed it did. Everything that you have had a formal diagnosis for was assessed and incorporated into the simulation. However, despite the accuracy of the Medical Map, it still operates under the same flaws as any testing software; the final result is dependent on the information incorporated into the test beforehand. So, I will ask you again, have you experienced any undiagnosed depression at any point in your life?”

  Jonas felt himself starting to sweat. “I don’t have to stick around for this bullshit.” He rose to his feet and started for the door.

  “Mr D’Souza…” implored Celina. “You know that I can’t just let you walk out of this room without clarifying next steps for you.”

  “What are you going to do?” asked Jonas, spinning around. “Section me? Cart me off to some wealthy looney bin?”

  “First of all, we don’t use derogatory language like that” said Celina, an audible sharpness present in her voice that hadn’t been there before, taking Jonas by surprise. “It’s an insult to anyone who has had to endure a mental illness. And secondly, I am confident that you are not a current suicide risk at this moment in time. The whole point of the simulation and the avatar is to alert us to problems before they actually become problems. But we need to work with a solution to ensure that seven years down the line, you’re not going to kill yourself.”

  “Why?” asked Jonas. “Because you’re worried that I’ll disrupt your precious average lifespan? Got to find a way to keep the numbers up?”

  Celina rose from her desk and spoke gently, but firmly. “If I wanted take the easy way out, I’d put yourself and your wife on the next shuttle back to Earth. Then we wouldn’t have to worry about our ‘precious average’. But I don’t think that’s what you need. And I don’t think it will do you any favours.”

  “You don’t even know me!” protested Jonas.

  “Mr D’Souza. I’ve seen you live at least twenty-one lifetimes. You could say I know you quite well. Well enough to know that you won’t seek out help. That you’ll try to keep it to yourself, while I have no doubt damaging your relationship with your family, until you decide you can’t take it anymore and decide you’re better off taking the easy way out. Mental illness will follow you wherever you go. There’s no shame in admitting it. But you owe it to yourself to get help. And here, you stand the best chance of getting it.”

  “Thanks, but I think I’ll take my chances” said Jonas, tying to pry the sealed doors open. “You going to let out or am I going to be fitted with a straitjacket.”

  “Your prehistoric attitudes regarding psychiatric support actually go a long way to explaining why you refuse to seek help” observed Celina. “I’m not going to section you. But I can’t in good conscience let you walk out of here knowing what you will deal with.”

  “So, what are you going to do? Set me up with a virtual psychiatrist? Asking me about my relationship with my mother?”

  Now it was Celina’s turn to give a mirthless chuckle. “We did actually have a virtual psychiatrist in the early days of the Colony. But we realised that mental health is complicated. You can’t package it into a box and provide a one-size-fits-all approach. We try to tailor a support plan to each colonist’s individual needs. Now, if you don’t want to know all about the services available. That’s fair enough. However, I would ask yourself how you plan on living with these issues.”

  Jonas stomped around the kitchen, wanting to scream to the heavens.

  Aisha walked into the kitchen, having returned from a busy day at work. “I’m guessing it didn’t go down well. Or is the stomping and shouting how we are greeting each other from now on?”

  “They tell me I need support. Me!” said Jonas. “They tell me that I’m depressed even though I’m as happy as ever!”

  “Yes, I can see you’re practically bouncing off the walls” said Aisha dryly. “So, what’s your reason for refusing their help?”

  “Because I don’t need it. I never have and I never will!”

  “So, what will happen if you say no?”

  But Jonas couldn’t say. He had already seen the situation play out for his avatar.

  But that was just a simulation. Random pieces of code acting on misinformation. He wasn’t going to get his life be dictated by a computer program. “I don’t need it” he said stubbornly.

  “What exactly are you afraid of?” asked Aisha, daring to raise her voice.

  “I will not be seen as weak!” shouted Jonas, surprising himself with the volume of his voice.

  “No one said you were” said Aisha, standing her ground. “Let me tell you something, Jonas. And I’m only going to say it once, so your ears had better be burning. Before I met you, I lost my mother to breast cancer. She wasn’t lucky enough to get the treatment that I had. You know the worst thing? She got her diagnosis early on. So she was told that she had a great chance of beating it. But every time my dad tried to get a surgery scheduled, it just kept being pushed back. Because she was quote ‘a low priority’. By the time they had actually managed to get her into a hospital, the cancer had spread to her bowels and I had to watch my mother die at the age of 33. I was six years old, Jonas. And now, every time I try to think of my mum, playing with my toys with me, taking me down the park or reading me a bedtime story, I always find myself fixating on that night in her hospital bed. She had so many tubes going out of her. And her eyes… they looked like a lightbulb on the verge of going out. I’ll never get that image out of my head. You’ve got help being handed to you on a silver platter, and it’s ‘no, thank you?’ Well, fuck you, Jonas. I’d give anything to have my mum up here with me, where they could cure her cancer in a heartbeat. You’ve got an opportunity for support and welfare. It’s better than what most people get. It’s certainly better than what my mother got.”

  And with that, she stormed out of the house, leaving Jonas alone with his thoughts.

  Jonas didn’t get depressed. He had gone his entire life without a diagnosis. Celina had been right. There was nothing in his medical records to indicate he had ever suffered with it.

  That anybody knew of.

  Jonas had always felt that in being able to deny that part of himself, he could pretend that it wasn’t real. But by admitting he needed help, he would be bringing this other side of himself into reality.

  And that’s when Jonas knew what he needed to do.

  “I’d like to speak with my avatar.”

  Of all the things Celina had been expecting Jonas to say when he marched into her office, this had not been one of them. “We’re talking an entire lifespan lived out over the course of a few hours” said Celina.

  “Can you get one of them to slow down so I can speak to them?”

  “Well, I can adjust the time-to-day ratio so that you can both engage in real time, but I don’t know what you hope to-”

  “You said you wanted to offer me help. This is what I need for help.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “You do this, and I give you my word I’ll sign up to any treatment you put in front of me. Whether that is therapy or pills, but I need this. Please.”

  Celina could see the desperation in Jonas’ eyes. How desperately he needed that catharsis. Sighing, she said, “OK. But I hope you know what you’re doing. If you have any questions for your avatar, I can’t guarantee you’ll like the answers.”

  “I understand” said Jonas, internally bracing himself for the emotional trainwreck that was yet to come.

  Celina showed Jonas through to a virtual reality shareroom, where Jonas was guided over to a flat couch-like seat, like on his back. Celina carefully inserted a headset over his face…

  …and Jonas could see his virtual self-looking at him from his own kitchen. The kitchen he was standing in had a more upgraded feel to it, clearly having been lived in for many years and looking far more advanced than Jonas’ current kitchen.

  “So, you’re my future self” said Jonas, unable to get his head around the surrealness of it all.

  “I guess you could say that” said the avatar.

  “I understand you’ve been having some problems lately” said Jonas.

  The avatar hid his face away, as if embarrassed. As Jonas peered closer at his face, he could see that the avatar had bags under his eyes and unshaven stubble around his face, giving him a somewhat dishevelled appearance that made him look out of place in the otherwise sleek environment surrounding him. He must have been at least eighteen years older than the present-day Jonas.

  “You used to be good at hiding problems” noted Jonas. “What changed?”

  The avatar looked at Jonas, trying not to cry. “You remember when we were fourteen?”

  Jonas said nothing. “Of course you remember. We’re the same person. You remember when we started feeling overwhelmed at that private school Dad sent us to? That’s when we had our first panic attack.”

  He chucked softly. “It’s funny, the way we broke down in the middle of a lesson, the teachers assumed that we must have had some kind of abusive childhood that was driving us to despair. Dad seemed really pissed off at having to be dragged down to the school.

  “We went through a whole semester feeling out of place. Like we didn’t belong anywhere. We thought it was just typical teenage shit, not worth bothering everyone with. We thought that it would pass in time.

  “But that’s when we had the epiphany. When we realised that this wasn’t going away any time soon. We were going to have to endure these feelings for the rest of our lives and we had to know that nothing would ever make it OK. That’s when we took one of Dad’s belts…”

  The avatar stopped talking, as if paralysed. But he didn’t need to say anymore. Jonas could clearly remember sneaking into his father’s bedroom, taking a belt from the cupboard, tying it around a light-fitting and inserting it around his neck…

  “One of the maids found us” continued the avatar. “And I swear to you, the look on Dad’s face… it made us wish we’d succeeded. He told us that what we did was a moment of weakness, that we needed to rein in any impulses if we wanted to have a decent shot at living in this world. After that, he never mentioned it again to us. He had bodyguards keeping an annoyingly close watch on us after that. But that was as far as his support went.”

  “But you went on to become a big success within Apex!” said Jonas. “You were able to get married, you took over the company, you moved to the Jupiter Colony. You coped with all of that, kept these feelings hidden and no one was any the wiser. You didn’t need a therapist. So, why the change? Why have you suddenly decided you can’t cope with it?”

  “My son.”

  The words were gripped from within Jonas’ throat as though there were an invisible hand around it.

  “Aisha and me. We had a son. We named him Yousef after our father. He’s about seventeen years old now. I can feel it slipping. That control that used to keep me in check. I feel it slipping whenever I’m around him.”

  “How!?” demanded Jonas incredulously. “I thought having a kid would be the perfect motivation for keeping it in check!”

  “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” said the avatar tearfully. “But I worry that I have passed on my ‘manic genes’ to him. I’m waiting for the day when he has his first panic attack. And I don’t know what I’m going to be able to say. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to tell him what he needs to hear. I worry that I’m going to screw up his life the way Dad screwed up ours.”

  “He didn’t screw us up!” insisted Jonas. “He gave us the tools we needed to survive.”

  “No, he didn’t. What he did was like taking away all the mirrors, so we wouldn’t have to look at ourselves and be sick of the sight of us. He didn’t cure us, Jonas. All he did was just postpone the inevitable. What’s that metaphor that Dad always liked?”

  And the two said in unison, “Like water down a mountain, it always gets worn down eventually.”

  “You can’t believe that” said Jonas. “You’ve got to believe that there’s a better way?”

  “Do you know what you’re asking of me?” asked the avatar accusingly. “You’re asking me to live with this fucking emotional weight. And I have for over five decades. And I can’t do it anymore!”

  The avatar immediately turned towards the kitchen where Jonas could see there was an open drawer. “NO!” he screamed out, wanting to reach out, grab his avatar, tell him that there was another way, a better way.

  But then the avatar froze. The screen went blank, and the next thing he knew, Jonas was having the headset lifted off his head by Celina.

  “I shouldn’t have agreed to this” she said sorrowfully. “It can be emotionally draining and I’m truly sorry.”

  “Is that my future?” asked Jonas tearfully. “Is that what I’ve got to look forward to years down the line?”

  “Of course it isn’t” said Celina gently. “This is just a possible future of what could happen if you don’t seek out help now. Your father clearly instilled the idea that mental illness is a weakness you should hide away. But, forgive me for saying so, if anything, your father’s reluctance to acknowledge the issue head on has only exacerbated your symptoms and led to inadequate coping strategies. You may not have the same outbursts and reactions, but they will get on top of you eventually. If your dad had taken the time to understand your condition, we would have been more prepared. It’s only due to our predictive software that we can cotton on to the problem. No matter how well we try to hide it, mental illness is always there fighting for its time in the sun.”

  Jonas slumped in his chair, all pathways to logic and reason blocked off.

  Celina continued. “It’s not my place to diagnose your problems, Jonas. Maybe there are other issues at hand here. Issues that we can address. You’ve been fighting this battle your entire life by yourself. Don’t you want to let someone else help you fight them?”

  In truth, Jonas had been reluctant to share in his problems, again owing to advice his father had given him. But he could see now the irrelevance of the advice his father had given him. “It’s never going to go away, though is it?” he asked cautiously. “You can’t make me well, can you?”

  Celina shook her head. “Technology allows us to change many things about the human body… but we can’t change the brain. It’s forever eluding us. You won’t exorcise those feelings, but we will teach you how to keep them at bay, how to deal with them when they arise. And most of all, how to enjoy life.”

  She sat on the edge of the sofa as she continued. “Jonas, if you sincerely believe that you will never have another happy moment in your life, then the door is there. But the fact that you’re still fighting this tells me you’ve got a lot of spirit left in you. More than your father gave you credit for. Work with us, and I promise we will make sure you never have to worry about a simulated suicide ever again.”

  In that moment, Jonas could see his own future. Not the one shown by the avatar or by Celina, but the one he dared himself to think about. It was a sketchy future with the details at times imperfect and unclear, but he could see himself taking up Celina on her offer of support, working to address the problems, preventing them from sabotaging his relationship with Aisha. And in that future, he could feel a contentment that was just out of reach.

  But he knew he wanted to run towards it. Whatever it took.

 THE END

Commissioned and Edited by Craig Barratt, Health Startegy and Transformation professional

Authored by Peter Colley

Many thanks to Futurist Dr John McGhee for his expert guidance and support