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of this ersatz sister, this companion ghost of many years. She might only have been a fabulously intricate simulated identity hologram, a genie conjured by state-of-the-art logic circuits, and no more real or sentient than the com-screen back at his dome, but the illusion satisfied some deep need within him. She salved his pain, briefly; she fuelled his memories.
     
    ‘Ella, you know I told you that Daddy was ill last time?’
     
    She nodded, suddenly serious. ‘How is he?’
     
    He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I mean, not good. He’s just so old - over a hundred now.’
     
    Ninety years older than you were when you died, Ella. There was no justice in the world.
     
    ‘Does he still tell you off?’
     
    Bennett smiled. What a little girl thing to say! It was what he loved about his hologram sister. It was just what Ella would have said.
     
    ‘No, not any more, Ella. He’s still... I don’t know, censorious - I mean critical. Still finding fault in everything l do. I’d like to win his respect,’ he said, and hated himself for the admission. He shrugged. ‘He’s very old and frail now, but inside he’s still the same person he always was.’
     
    ‘Why do you mention him, Josh?’
     
    There were times when the program was just too advanced, Bennett thought. Would Ella have asked him that?
     
    ‘His doctor contacted me yesterday. Dad wants to exercise his right to undergo euthanasia.’
     
    Ella frowned. She was seated cross-legged on the ground now, her hands placed primly on her bare knees. ‘What’s eutha— whatever?’
     
    ‘It means he wants to die. He wants to take a drug that’ll end his life. I’ve got to go and see him today. Talk it over.’ He stared into her big, unblinking eyes. ‘You don’t understand, do you?’
     
    She pursed her lips, then nodded. ‘I think I do, Josh. You feel guilty.’
     
    The program running the simulated identity hologram had a learning facility. Over the years it had integrated everything Bennett had said to Ella, analysed and interpreted his pronouncements for meaning.
     
    ‘It’s just . . .’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t want to do this, Ella. I can’t face him about this. I don’t want him to see that I understand his life’s been a terrible failure.’ After so long being so distant from his father, he realised, the time was coming when they would have to share an unaccustomed emotional proximity. Perhaps it was just that he didn’t want his father to see that he really cared.
     
    Ella was smiling at him. ‘You’ll do okay, Josh,’ she said. ‘You know what you always tell me?’
     
    ‘What?’
     
    She pulled her pretty, thinking-cap face. ‘What is it - something like, reality is never as bad as you expect it to be.’
     
    He laughed. ‘I’ll remember that, Ella. Thanks.’
     
    They stared at each other for a long time.
     
    At last she said, ‘Josh,’ and slowly, watching him, she reached out a slim brown arm, fingers outstretched towards him.
     
    He reached too, staying his hand so that his finger-tips were millimetres from her own, so as not to spoil the illusion. Like this, he told himself, in the long silence there was some kind of contact happening that could not be quantified by logic.
     
    He dropped his hand. ‘I must be going, Ella.’
     
    Still seated, she gave a quick wave in the air. ‘Come back soon, okay, Josh?’
     
    ‘I’ll be back.’ He stood, and the image of his sister disappeared before his eyes.
     
    * * * *
     
    4
     
     
    It was almost ten when Bennett reached Mojave Town.
     
    Automobiles were not allowed within the city limits, so he parked in the small lot on the perimeter. Rather than take an electric bus, he walked the two kilometres to the town centre.
     
    He shared the wide streets with citizens out jogging or strolling, cleaning-drones that seemed to have very little to clean, and children on scooters. The habitats on either side of the streets occupied spacious, abundant gardens, an