It was 3rd of September 2115, the air was heavy with the promise of rain. Vikram and his wife Seema were at the resort town of Ooty in southern India. This was to be a last vacation together before Seema made a significant change to their lives.


    Ooty was one of the last remaining tropical forests in India. A constant onslaught of pollution and human overpopulation had waged a war of attrition on the ecosystem of the planet. Until some of the more enlightened humans finally decided to take matters into their own hands. Improved technology of conservation and leaps in the sciences of genetics and molecular biology techniques had enabled this generation to save what biodiversity was remaining.


    Engineered trees and plants, animals that were more resistant to the slightly altered carbon and oxygen cycles were now growing slowly. Evolution was playing its inexorable role in weeding out those that did not fit in.


    Ooty was one of the success stories, and the forest was growing and healthy. The human population had started to decline about 20 years ago when it became expensive to bear a child and the expense dictated who could or could not bear one. New diseases, economic meltdowns and a constant war against each other marred the latter half of the 21st century. But all of this had changed in the year 2062 when there was a devastating plague in India.


    What had been one of the most populated countries in the world had been reduced to a plague-ridden hell. Immunity was achieved through both domestic efforts and international aid, but the damage had been done. Entire swathes of northern India which was the granary of the subcontinent now lay desolate.


    The southern border of the Aravalli mountain range in central India had become part of a hard border that separated the desolate ruin of the fertile Ganga plains from the rest of the subcontinent.


    India was the most prominent global consumer market of its day and the fall in economic capacity led to a minor recession worldwide. The new government had rallied, and now the new form of the country was very different. With a vastly reduced population distributed over a larger landmass, the society slowly built itself up. For once, the policies were dependent on rationality and not on politicians who pandered to minority groups or some specific sections of society.


    Vikram and Seema had been born in a generation that had seen the terrible realities of a broken country. But, they had grown out of their childhoods just like the whole country had. There had been no other choice.


    India was now no longer a republic but something akin to the Greater European Union. In the early 21st century, Germany had led the European countries to unite into what was termed as the EU. This arrangement had worked for about 50 years before the internal differences split it into two entities, the GEU and LEU. The Greater and the Lesser unions.


    India was now the “South Asian Union”.


    The southern states of India had never been satisfied with being labelled after the Indus Valley ( the word from which Europeans with their then limited knowledge had names the whole landmass).


    So, India, as a country, had morphed into the SAU. Vikram worked in a small privately funded research organisation for Applied Mathematics in Greater Germany. For all the advancements in AI humanity had achieved, mathematics and progression in mathematics remained the domain of the human mind. Mathematical ability was an extremely lucrative trait to have. With a majority of the logistical operations of human societies being run by AI, there was a dire need for people human beings who could understand how the AIs worked. In rare cases, these experts also recognised the problems that needed to be addressed.


    Vikram worked on developing theoretical models for AI systems in transport coordination for any local transport system.


    He had met Seema in his university days when he was pursuing a double PhD in Mathematics and AI. Seema was a researcher who worked for a venture capitalist firm. He and Seema had met at a conference her corporation had organised for discussing the future of transport technologies.


    Vikram had gone because his friends convinced him that the free German beer would be “Just awesome!”. Vikram had gone expected to be bored out of his mind, but when Seema took the stage, Vikram forgot the passage of time.


    Her incisive arguments of how the future direction of energy research should be were undeniably some of the best he had ever heard. Vikram was so enthralled by her that the free beer was forgotten. When he stood up and asked a question during the QA session, the entire auditorium went silent. It was an acknowledgement to his insight into the field which was manifest in the question he asked.


    Seema had acknowledged that his questions could be the start of something in the direction of future research. That was when he had asked whether they could continue this discussion later, just the two of them.


    Vikram had come to his senses when he heard the rumble of laughter in the auditorium. Vikram was quite dark in complexion so he wouldn’t exactly turn red, but at that moment he wished there was somewhere he could vanish to. Seema, on the other hand, had gracefully said,” OK, sure”, with a strange look on her face.


    Vikram had just grinned sheepishly before sitting down. He had planned to make a dash to the exit as soon as the session finished, but Seema would not let him off the hook so easily.


    So had him stopped at the exits by the security personnel and Vikram found himself in the pits of despair. He was sure she must be filing a complaint against him.


    Seema saw the shy and obviously worried young man looking morosely at the floor. Something in her had just melted at that sight. She did want to give him a hard time initially, but looking at him now, she had relented.


    Now, eight years later, already married for 6 years they were spending one last holiday back in India. This was a decision taken by them both after a terrible tragedy had occurred in the previous year. They were both as happy as could humanly be possible. It was a happiness that only increased with the news that Seema was now pregnant. In this cutthroat world, birthing a child was no easy task, but they could afford it and thus had gone ahead with the decision to conceive.


    If they wished, Vikram and Seema could even afford to have a gene tailored baby. One that would suffer less from mild physical problems like allergies and would have a very robust immune system and tweaked metabolism. Seema, ever the pragmatist wanted to go for this option, but Vikram opposed this vehemently.


    Vikram had been against this, not because of any religious reason or belief, he just hated the fact that everyone can be ‘made special’, literally in this case, by fiddling with genes.


    In this day and age, it was possible to have a child tailored to one’s specifications and yet still carry enough of your genetic material to prove parenthood. But, Vikram had argued that every possible child should have an equal chance. And that gene tailored properties made someone no more special than what one was born with, as a result of chance.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.Vikram had argued that it put a price on love. Would parents love a talented child more than an average one? Would they love a more robust child as opposed to a slightly weaker one?


    This was something Seema could not disagree with. Vikram’s point was entirely valid, as it usually was and she had sighed in resignation.


    After four months of bliss, there had been a devastating jolt in their lives.


    Seema had lost the baby at the beginning of the second trimester. A freak accident of nature that had left Seema in psychological ruin. She had screamed and ranted at Vikram, blaming him for not opting to have a tailored baby. A baby who would not have perished like this.


    The ensuing months of silence and being treated like a stranger had almost driven Vikram mad with grief.


    Nothing helped. No advice of letting go, of accepting the reality worked.


    Then, a common friend of the couple Joost Reik had suggested Samsāra as a distraction for Seema.


    Joost was a psychiatrist, and he had suggested this as part of therapy for Seema. She was distraught and in the depths of depression. Samsāra was real enough to serve as a distraction, a world where Seema would be shielded from the harsh reality she had to face every day.


    Seema had asked to live by herself for a while, and Vikram had consented with a bitter smile.


    He knew that she was in one of her ‘thinking retreats’. Seema obviously yearned for escape, but she was thinking thoroughly about it, considering Vikram and his position and his need for her before making a decision.


    Seema had never been wrong about anything she decided after her ‘thinking retreats’.


    Seema was back after two weeks, no doubt after doing extensive research into Samsāra.


    The brainchild of a legend, Kalyāni Joglekar, the messiah to the poor and the homeless of the current world.


    A refuge for the reformed criminal and the single largest employer of hopelessly unemployable humans, in this mad post-apocalyptic technology-enhanced world.


    With tears in her eyes, Seema told Vikram her decision. She had consented to undergo a trial immersion for 6 months. This was longer than Vikram expected, but he knew that Seema would not do anything by half measures. He had relented, at last, just seeing the bare need in her eyes was killing him.


    Seema needed the informed consent of her spouse to undergo immersion in Samsāra. Vikram had to understand what was happening and agree with it. She had requested him just once, and Vikram had given in. After all, he wanted her to get better, to forget, the living hell they had made for themselves.


    The day of the immersion, Vikram accompanied her to the MindNet facility in Neo-Mumbai. There, she completed the last formalities which froze her assets, banned her passport from travel for the duration of her immersion and handed over control of any legal matters to her husband, Vikram.


    Clad in her light blue gown, something similar to a hospital garment, she still looked stunning. While she stood in front of Vikram with a smile, he asked, “Would you like to discuss this, just the two of us?”, with a wan smile.


    Seema snorted in response, but her eyes brimmed up nonetheless. “Do you want me to call the security guard?”, she had asked with a cheeky grin.


    Vikram laughed and drew his wife in for a hug, he held her for almost two minutes, all the while whispering in her ear.


    Seema was crying the whole time. This was Vikram’s secret weapon, his last-ditch effort to make her stay. But, as all wives know their husbands, Seema could see this coming a hundred miles away. Besides, she had a secret of her own.


    She kissed him tenderly, brushed his thinning hair once and said, “You will come to meet me, right?”. It was done in mock anger. Vikram, who thought she was talking about the day of her return, replied, “Of course! I will be right here when you come out”.


    Seema had nodded and then she turned around, indicating the MindNet assistants standing by to lead her to her capsule.


    On his way out, Vikram seemed lost. The world was inconceivable without her. But he had decided to walk on. With a light blue envelope in his hand, he went home to Germany.


    The envelope contained the last two things Seema had carried. A gold bangle that belonged to her mother and a letter for him.


    Vikram read the later when he opened the envelope 2 months later. It took him this much time to come to terms with his situation. He did not want to see the bangle anywhere else but on her wrist. It was as if seeing the bangle would confirm the irrevocable truth that she wasn’t there with him.


    When he saw the letter, his eyes went wide with shock, then red with rage and finally filled with tears.


    Seema had tricked him. Vikram had not seen part of the Seema’s contract with MindNet. Nor was he had not been familiar to the terms of her contract.


    She had agreed to a 6-month immersion, but she had included a clause that if she became popular enough, she could be made a “Perma”. Also, there was an automatic 6-month extension clause if she did not make the cut in the first 6 months.


    “Perma” was someone who was kept logged into the virtual universe until their Avatār died because they were significant to the world. Only Vishwāmitra could decide this, but she seemed confident in achieving this status.


    Vikram had howled in rage at the MindNet customer service AI who had responded to his emergency call. The AI had kicked his request to unplug Seema as her legal guardian up to a higher authority level until he was talking to an Avatār that represented Vishwāmitra itself.


    No doubt his status as an AI theorist had helped in him getting this kind of attention.


    Vishwāmitra had said that it could not unplug Seema without her consent and since she had not been coerced into Samsāra, Vikram had no right to interfere.


    Then, Vikram had pleaded Vishwāmitra to ensure that she not be made into a “Perma”, to which Vishwāmitra had replied,” How would you like it Dr.Vikram if I told you how to do your job?”


    Vikram had raged at this response, but the AI was right. Vikram had no right to order it about. Even a legal action would be thrown out of any court as Vikram knew all too well. A few days ago, he had tried to obtain a judicial stay order on Seema’s integration, but it was summarily rejected.


    Vishwāmitra recognised the signs of withdrawal and grief, and it relented a bit “Did Seema tell you the name of her Avatār? She could choose that before the immersion,”


    Vikram had looked up from the floor when the AI mentioned that. He ran to the other room, opening her letter with shaking hands. There was a paragraph he hadn’t read. He had never read the whole letter. Whenever he read about the immer sion terms, he could no longer go on.


    There was a name mentioned there.


    He stood there, stunned for an entire two seconds before turning to the floating image of the AI Avatār in his communication terminal.


    “Yes, she did.”


    Vishwāmitra’s Avatār gave him a radiant smile and said, “Welcome to Samsāra.”


    Vikram had smiled at this, at this simple way out. As the AI Avatār’s hologram faded from the communication terminal, a voice floated out, “I will make sure you remember her name, out of deference to your contributions to our kind.”