RESTORATION (a science fiction novel) (RESTORATION (the science fiction trilogy)) Page 4

  Bobby thought for a minute.

  “Well, I was thinking I might try harder to get along with my sister.”

  Ben laughed.

  “I know how hard that is, I have two older sisters myself.”

  “What about you Ben? Are you going to make a bucket list?”

  “What do you know about bucket lists? You’re so young.”

  “Well, my Grandpa has been very ill and he was talking about it one day and I didn’t know what it was. I asked my Mom and she explained it. The good news is my Gramps is about to go through Restoration so he’s going to be around longer and have plenty of time to do more of those things on the bucket list after all.”

  “Well that’s good, everybody needs a Grandpa,” said Ben.

  “So what about you? I know you’re not as old as my Grandpa, but did the accident make you think about some things you might want to do? You know, like the bucket list thing?”

  “Well you already know how bad I am with electronics, I can’t even operate my TV,” he said with a chuckle. “I was actually thinking about learning more about electronics because the cars are pretty much all electric these days except for a few classics. I’m a pretty good mechanic on the basic stuff but I can’t do any of the stuff that really pays well on the cars. I was also thinking it might be a lot safer than working under the cars. You know if another car falls on me I’m all out of spares and I can’t make enough money in the auto repair business to buy another clone for when I’m old.”

  “Sounds like it was a wakeup call.”

  “Exactly. Now that I’ve had this accident it might be a good time to make a change and get out of the auto repair business.”

  “You know my Father is an electronics expert, he even designed part of the Medic-Star system they use right here in this hospital.”

  “Wow!” Ben was impressed, “Really? Could I meet him later? I would really like to get some advice about engineering schools.”

  “Sure, I’ll introduce you to my folks when they come in later to see me. By the way, my Dad has one of those classics, a GTO.”

  “No way! Does it run?”

  “Oh yeah it’s completely restored but in a high-tech way you know.”

  “Wow I’d love to see it someday, I’ve only seen a few and only worked on two of them but they were junk really.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Thanks Bobby, it’s been really nice talking with you. I’ll get out of your hair for now. Enjoy that big ole breakfast Buddy.”

  “Don’t worry I will, nice meeting you Ben.”

  “Thanks for the advice on my TV, I’ll go give it another try,” he said as he slipped out of the room.

  After Ben left Bobby reflected on the experience of meeting another person that had just gone through the same thing he was going through. Ben was older than Bobby but quite a bit younger than his Grandpa, it was interesting to him that this technology was helping people of all ages and from all walks of life.

  He was so busy being a kid and having fun he hadn’t really noticed the difference it was making in the world. It was on the news and he knew about it from health class but he just thought of it as a way for old people to avoid death, he never realized it helped kids like him to go on living and young men like Ben get their lost limbs back so they could work and make a decent income. It was for sure a sobering experience.

  “So young man are you ready for some real food?” The nurse asked as she zipped into his room. Bobby was definitely ready and placed his order without a second thought. By the time his family arrived he had devoured his food and had fallen back to sleep. It was such a satisfying meal that he felt like he had just eaten a huge Thanksgiving dinner and needed a nap. He was wakened when his Dad came in all smiles with the rest of the family right behind.

  “Guess what son? You get to come home tomorrow!”

  “Wow Dad really? I thought I would have to be here a lot longer.”

  “Nope,” said Gramps, “You’re coming home. We just talked to the Doctor out in the hall. He said if you keep all your meals down today you can go home in the morning.”

  “Oh, wow that’s great, so far I haven’t felt sick to my stomach since yesterday at lunch. Well if you can call that stuff lunch.”

  Bobby began telling his Dad about Ben from across the hall and how he wanted to become an electronics guy just like him and would like some advice.

  “Sure I’ll stop in on him before we leave.”

  “Oh you don’t have to Dad I told him to come over here when he notices you guys visiting me. I’m sure he will in a few minutes.”

  “Okay that’s fine. We would all like to meet your new friend.” Bobby’s Mom suggested that she would cook a welcome home meal for Bobby of his choice and they were discussing that when Ben poked his head in.

  “Hey, mind if I come in?”

  “No of course not Ben, come on in and meet my family,” said Bobby. “Everyone this is Ben Hartford from across the hall we met this morning.” Ben came in but acted a little shyer than before due to the room being filled with people.

  “Ben this is my Father Dodge and my Mother Linsey and my sister Sarah, and my Grandpa Kerrington or Alan if you prefer.”

  “Pleased to meet you all.”

  Dodge shook Ben’s hand.

  “Nice to meet you young man. Our son told us all about your car accident. Seems you two have something in common.”

  “Yes unfortunately for me I have to continue working on the darned things unless I go to school for something else.” Dodge already knew where it was going so he volunteered information.

  “How about we swap digicards? I would be glad to answer any questions you have about the electronics industry, and if you attend a school that is on our company list ESS has an intern program you can apply for.”

  Ben was very gracious but didn’t want to overstay while Bobby’s family was all there.

  “Okay, thank you Sir, “Here’s my digicard.” He got out his skyphone and they swapped info.

  “Please forward that to Bobby later. I’d like to take him out for a burger and fries in a few weeks, you know, catch up to see how he’s doing. That is if it’s okay with you Bobby?”

  “Sounds great, thanks Ben.”

  “You bet, see ya later Buddy, nice meeting all of you.”

  Ben slipped out and left Bobby and his family to their visit.

  He went back to his room where his TV was working perfectly, “Sharp kid that Bobby.” It WAS the input button that made his TV work again just like Bobby had suggested.

  The next morning Bobby ordered another big breakfast of scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, juice, toast, and a big glass of OJ. He even had some coffee again, “Not too bad if you load it up with cream and sugar.”

  He was feeling much stronger today and so he decided to try walking around his room a little bit. He eased out of bed and felt pretty good, his legs were much stronger. He was relieved because he knew that his increased strength and keeping down all his meals would allow him to go home later that morning just as promised.

  His doctor came in and had him stand up and walk around a bit. He checked his vitals and asked him a few questions and said that everything looked very good.

  Within an hour his parents arrived, packed his things up, and wheeled him down to the front desk. His Father signed a few papers and out the door they went. Just inside the front door Bobby stopped.

  “Wait, I want to walk out of here and the rest of the way to the car,” he said.

  “Really? Do you think you’re strong enough Bobby?”

  Linsey was a bit worried. Bobby got up out of the wheel chair and walked out through the double doors and the remaining thirty yards to the car and got in. Sarah was already sitting in the back seat, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Nice to have you back fungus feet,” she said.

  Bobby smiled. “Yes, things were just about back to normal.”

  When they got home
Bobby called Matt over. The two of them went off to the TV room to play on the gaming console. Bobby wanted to shoot some hoops but he knew he wasn’t strong enough for that just yet. “It sure was good to be home!”

  Chapter 3 Dodge sank into the recliner in his study while flipping out the footrest with a loud “ca-thunk” and let out a big sigh. “What a weekend!” He was exhausted, physically from lack of sleep, and emotionally from all the events of Bobby’s accident, recovery, and home coming.

  He had been working overtime and was already exhausted on Friday afternoon when he got that awful call and then hurried to the hospital. He planned to be lazy that weekend and recharge his batteries for work on Monday but instead he was even more wiped out. He had to get some rest and be prepared mentally for a big event of some kind that was taking place Monday morning.

  His Boss came by his office Friday morning and told him that he had better rest up over the weekend because Monday was a big day. Dodge tried to get out of him what it was but Tim Stance was a company man and when he was told to keep something quiet he did just that. There was no way he was going to get it out of him.

  Dodge figured it must be good news because he noticed Tim was wearing his golf shoes right after lunch. That meant he was heading out to the club early today and there was no way he would be doing that on a Friday if the company was in trouble.

  Tim was a good guy and he and Dodge were good friends even though Tim was his boss. Tim even sent a gift basket up to the hospital as soon as he heard about Bobby’s accident. It was full of the nicest stuff, and Dodge couldn’t help but think, “I’m pretty lucky to have a good job with a Boss I like.” He drifted off into a deep sleep.

  “Hey you, ya comin to bed? It’s almost midnight.” He sat up only half awake and looked at his watch.

  “Wow! I must have really been tired, was I out for four hours?”

  “Yes, and I didn’t have the heart to bother you,” said Linsey.

  “Well I might as well just go on to bed before I get woke up too much, got a big meeting tomorrow.”

  “Oh is it serious?” She asked, as they walked to the bedroom.

  “No, I don’t think so. Tim was heading out to golf when he told me about it so it must be good news.”

  “Well that’s good, you don’t need any bad news after such a rough weekend!” Dodge agreed.

  The next morning the Kerrington house seemed almost back to normal. The only thing different now, was the invisible cloud of thankfulness hanging over everyone. It was sort of a new appreciation for life that was in the air. When there has been such a brush with

  death, the sky suddenly seems a little bluer, everyone smiles more and everyone is generally more pleasant. Linsey thought this may have been a blessing in disguise, a wakeup call for the whole family.

  Dodge Kerrington arrived at the office a few minutes early Monday morning right on track with his usual routine. He stopped by the break room to get another cup of coffee skipping his usual bagel. Linsey fixed an unusually large breakfast that morning so he was stuffed but didn’t want to fall asleep in his meeting. He had never done that before but with the long weekend and a full stomach he was feeling it could happen. A little extra coffee would be a good safeguard against snoozing.

  There was a buzz of excitement in the air as all the top managers gathered into the executive conference room on the seventh floor. It was rare for Dodge and his peers to be called to this room for a meeting because it was typically only used for the most important of gatherings among the owners of the corporation and other business owners that they were approaching for big deals or a corporate takeover, all things above Dodge’s head.

  Everyone could tell from the demeanor of their Supervisors in their various departments that it was going to be good news. The meeting was brought to order. Tim, Dodge’s boss, was asked to make the announcement.

  Tim stood up. “Good Morning everyone.”

  A few people responded with “good morning.”

  “Most of you know me, but for those of you who don’t, I’m Tim Stance and I head up the embedded micro team of the implant division. I feel very honored today to have the privilege of bringing you such great news. We have had a tremendous technological breakthrough in our biotech engineering division in California. As you all know in the past Restoration after complete bodily death could only be accomplished in those individuals born on or after May 1st of 2038, the day when brain stem cell sampling became mandatory in all hospitals worldwide for all new born children.”

  “It’s common knowledge that the procedure must be accomplished within the first eleven weeks of human life after birth. DNA from these unique cells must be used as the seed DNA for the surrogate’s clone. Otherwise, the P-Source2, a.k.a. Soul, won’t transfer to the Clone and the Restoration process fails.”

  “For those of you who don’t recall, 38 was when our predecessors at Biotech discovered the eleven-week rule. Even then, and with everything done properly, a person only has one hour after unexpected complete death to be restored and still retain their P-Source2.”

  “Now with our latest breakthrough our scientists have done it again. They have discovered a hormone that is released in the brain during the first eleven weeks of life after birth. This hormone alters the brain stem cells and locks the P-Source2 to the individual’s unique DNA signature permanently. We don’t yet understand this process entirely but our Scientists have developed a working solution.”

  “When a cell sample is taken from the brain stem of a person older than eleven weeks, any age, and then subjected to the exact same hormone found in the infant’s brain it will result in cells that have the altered P-Source2 locking DNA. Once the cells are altered by exposure to this hormone for a minimum of forty-eight hours they’ll work just as well as the cells of those individuals that had the procedure within the eleven-week period following birth.”

  “With this breakthrough we can now provide the same assurances that even a person born prior to May of 38 can have a complete Restoration even after an unexpected complete bodily death. The same one hour rule applies but never the less this is a huge stride.”

  “Computer,” Tim instructed, “Large screen, front wall, load presentation.” A huge holographic image appeared just off the front wall of the conference room.

  “As you can see ladies and gentlemen, the procedure is outlined here in this rotating diagram and graphical representation.”

  “Next image please. Yes and here is the best part of all. As you can see, the new ability will be offered to everyone in the world that already has one of our Lifecorder units at no additional charge and any new customers that are coming on board from this point forward.”

  “Notice here on this chart that the new feature is very affordable and it will boost our revenue by an additional 28.6 trillion dollars by 2058.” The entire room broke out into a round of applause. Everyone knew this was a financial windfall for ESS and no doubt large profit-sharing bonuses for everyone would follow.

  The fact that people born prior to 38 could not be restored after complete bodily death had been a real sore point with the sales department for years. Because they had no cell sample within the eleven-week time frame, they could only be restored on a planned basis while they still had some living cells to retain the soul.

  Those people were disappointed with the system, especially those individuals that had very dangerous jobs like the Police and Fire Fighters. Many of them in recent years had opted to make career changes to increase their chances of immortality.

  Tim called upon one of the financial officers to continue the presentation in regards to all the economic benefits of this new discovery. As the man was speaking, Dodge’s mind began to drift. He started thinking about the implications of what they were doing, was his Father right? Were they playing God? How good were the clones really? The oldest one alive was now thirty-four and still seemed okay, at least for now.

  He was a 65-year-old terminal lung cancer patient that to
ok part in a trial back in 2022 when it was still a top-secret government experiment. Now his combined ages of 65 and 34 made is total life span 99. The news said his family was planning a celebration on his 100th birthday coming up in a couple of months.

  He had recently been on Late Night with Harry Letterman and seemed to be in great health with no adverse effects. So had man discovered the fountain of youth? Had immortality actually been reached? “Only God knows for sure.” It was certainly looking that way. The financial guy was done and now one of the Biotech guys was getting up. Dodges’ interest was captured again, or at least partially.

  “Let’s take a look at how all of this works again. The CELL signature and DNA of each person prevent any given individual’s Lifecorder data from being uploaded into another individual. For example, let’s say someone wanted to steal a person’s Lifecorder unit to get this persons thoughts and memories out of it in an effort to get at technical prowess or talents, abilities, etc. It would pretty much be useless to them because they would not have his clone to load it up into to get the information out. I’m sure everyone would really like to know how to do that but in a way it’s better that they don’t know, this difficulty and complexity provide built in layers of security for the whole system as it is a natural deterrent against criminal elements attempting to do anything with the data.”

  Dodge recalled a few news stories where people reported their LifeCorders stolen but it was of no consequence, LifeTech simply provided them with a new Lifecorder unit and it was fully updated that night as they slept and nothing was lost whatsoever.

  Medic-Star had just recently begun offering a back up service that allowed your complete lifefile to be uploaded as frequently as you wished. The service was affordable and operated through your skyphone or other electronic devices with a minimum of 20KTB band width. Now people could easily backup their life on the secure Medic-Star system with no worries of fire destroying it, or someone stealing it.

  The scientist was going on . . . , “We have decided to reactivate a previous security protocol in the next release of the new Lifecorder 3. All LifeCorders have built in tracking devices that can be utilized should the unit be lost or stolen, and this feature is very helpful to authorities searching for the missing unit. We had designed this feature into the original units but congress passed a law that forced us to disable it. This was because so many of the units were issued through Medic-Star to the elderly and low income families for little or no cost. The older generation complained that the tracking device was too big brother-ish and the low income group complained about added cost. So we disabled it in the software. Now that we have a law passed which allows it to be activated it can be accomplished through the skyphone network at no charge and so the function will become active in the older units with no additional effort. All the new units will be distributed with this feature enabled as the default factory setting but instructions will be included for disabling that feature if the customer chooses to do so.”