There was a sharp edge to Olivia’s tone that made Lucy feel that she was more of a charity case than she would have liked. She was running EpiFutures, but she was also following her doctor’s instructions not to push herself too hard. In her experience, what ‘too hard’ meant in the corporate world was the point at which insanity became counterproductive. At Strategy, there had been a semi-satirical competitiveness about late hours and work-annihilated weekends from which she knew she was now exempt but also knew that she was now excluded.

‘That’s another thing that worries us about having a baby,’ Olivia went on, ‘there are seven billion of us already de-wilding the planet.’

‘True,’ said Lucy, ‘but there’s a drastic shortage of sane human beings, and you and Francis would definitely provide the world with one of those. How does he feel, other than co-stunned?’

‘Open,’ said Olivia. ‘Hang on, here he is, I’ll ask him.’

Lucy could make out some muffled response from Francis. She took the opportunity to swallow the medicinal mushrooms she had ready on the ledge beside the hammock: chaga, maitake, lion’s mane, reishi, coriolus.

‘He says he’s apprehensively excited by the pregnancy,’ said Olivia, ‘but stoically resigned to ending it, if that’s my decision.’

‘In other words, he’s being perfect as usual,’ said Lucy.

‘Perhaps too perfect,’ said Olivia, ‘I think he may be a cyborg.’

‘You could be the mother of the first cyborg-sapiens child,’ said an awestruck Lucy, ‘and the child shall be called The Chosen One.’

‘That’s made me feel much better about my decision. There’s nothing like starting a new race and a world religion to take the pressure off,’ said Olivia. ‘Hang on, Francis is trying to give me a long list of his all too human failings.’

‘A classic cyborg move,’ said Lucy.

‘Absolutely classic,’ said Olivia. ‘I think I’m going to have to adjust his settings – switch off Human Camouflage to get my perfect companion back.’

‘For God’s sake hurry,’ said Lucy, ‘before Human Camouflage achieves a black box recursive learning autonomy, making it more human than any human being, until it ends up destroying us on the logical but unintended grounds of our sub-optimal humanity.’

‘That’s exactly what I was worried about,’ said Olivia.

‘I’d better leave you to deal with that emergency,’ said Lucy.

‘I’ll call tomorrow to check up on you,’ said Olivia. ‘I feel I’ve taken all the airtime today.’

‘Well, not quite,’ said Lucy, ‘and, anyway it’s a huge moment in the history of the species.’

‘Thanks for putting it in perspective,’ said Olivia, ‘it’s so easy to lose sight of the big picture.’