The scene – Netherfield Park, the day after Jane Bennet rides over to Netherfield in the rain and becomes ill.

The scenario - Mr. Bingley is beside himself as Jane is ill. He seeks out Mr. Darcy’s recommendation as to what to do. As Jane is too sick to travel home, Darcy councils Bingley to send a carriage over to Longbourn with a note to retrieve one of Jane’s sisters to help lighten her spirits and to help care for her along with requesting a trunk being sent over for each of the sisters.

Bingley thinks this over and decides to ask Mary Bennet to come to Netherfield Park to attend Jane. After having met all the Bennet sisters at the Assembly several weeks ago, Bingley has determined that Mary is the most sensible one of all the sisters and would be best suited for the job at hand.

Darcy has taken a shine to Miss Bennet (Jane). He asks Caroline to sit in Miss Bennet’s room to chaperone as he tends to her care until her sister arrives. Darcy is most proficient in medical knowledge and has started to plan a course of action. He gets the servant, Ben, to aid him by going down to the creek to gather supplies. He then starts the procedure of bleeding her with the leeches that Ben brought up from the creek. He also applies cool compresses to her head and has a roaring fire instilled in her room along with having quite a few blankets brought in.

As Darcy cares for Miss Bennet, he feels a stirring inside him. He thinks that if she beats this illness that Jane might be the perfect mistress for his estate, Pemberley, and the perfect wife for himself. He has never felt this much attraction to a woman before. He, with Caroline in the room as a chaperone, begins to read to Jane as she has her eyes closed. Jane is aware of a deep melodious voice which strangely enough is quite comforting.

Mary arrives and takes over the nursing duties. She immediately disposes of the eeeeeew leeches. She then plies Jane with tea, broth and even a bit of gruel. Mary keeps Jane warm and changes her clothing when Jane’s fever breaks. She allows Darcy to come in and read to Jane under her watchful eye.

Mary is incredibly pleased to be singled out by Mr. Bingley to provide care for her sister and thus she develops a special appreciation for him. Bingley is awed by Mary’s efficiency and finds it quite an attractive quality that he himself lacks. He becomes solicitous of Mary and escorts her to meals and even for walks in the garden when either Caroline or Darcy is available to accompany them.

Suddenly everything goes dark!

The significance - The six of them, Darcy, Bingley, Mary, Caroline, Jane and Ben, all hold hands in a line. They are on a stage, surrounded by theater type seating. But instead of seats they are encompassed by 666 computer screens. The six of them take a “theater” bow while holding hands.

A single booming voice states, “Well done. Move to your reward.” They walk over to where six large tubes containing protein/energy cubes are located. Twelve cubes are automatically dispensed for each performer. After they have taken their “reward” they walk off the stage to prepare for tomorrow’s performance which will be a totally new scene from one of Jane Austen’s books albeit with many creative changes.

These computers along with their Artificial Intelligence had grown so powerful and strong that they had become not the tools to be used but the masters to be catered to. Most humans had become so dependent on them that they had lost their ability to balance a checkbook, make conclusions, do simple math or figure out strategy without consulting A.I. It was only the extremely creative people that were not drawn into the lure of clicking on a screen to find out information or to be told what to do by Artificial Intelligence. With the less creative humans relying so heavily on A.I. technology they became easy to control by A.I. The more creative people were rounded up by computer-created robots and exploited for the amusement of the A.I. computers.

The one thing that Artificial Intelligence lacked was the ability to be creative. Witnessing artistic, creative things became a goal and almost an obsession for A.I. This group of six performers were creative artists/actors. The A.I. computers found that they “enjoyed” being entertained. For some it allowed their circuits to “relax,” for others they could compare the passages in Jane Austen’s books with the performance provided and search for the differences or the “imperfect” parts.

Darcy with thinking of his famous line in chapter 31 of Pride and Prejudice, “We neither of us perform to strangers.” He found this ironic as that is exactly what they were doing, as to what could be more strange than performing for a computer screen! He looked up to where the screens were located, and he felt a shiver go through him. One of the screens was more vibrant than the others and he noticed it had a small eerie smile on it that was barely visible. He worried that if A.I. could master creativity that it might make his troop and himself obsolete. He was struck with a pang of urgency. He and the rest of the group needed to put their heads together to come up with a different scenario for tomorrow’s performance. If all went well, they might just live to see another day.