SFS2: Science Fiction Short Stories
Krishna kumar Mani








SFS2 is an amazing collection of ten science fiction stories that will please any reader looking for adventure. The author aims for the stars and definitely hits his mark. Some of these ten stories seems like they could happen right now, and others in the near future. With the technology we live with today, this science fiction could be real life.

SUMMARY:


Lost Planet: A television news reporter trapped in a new post- apocalyptic world knows that there is more going on than what meets the eye. A surprise plot twist will make your jaw drop.

An Alien Animal: An exciting story with a hilarious plot twist. A semi ordinary guy with a big mouth lands himself in hot water when the adventure he dreams of suddenly lands in his lap.

Half Invention: A very interesting time machine story that leaves you wanting more. A definite view of how human excitement invariably transcends human reason.

404: A very interesting story about technology of the possibly not so distant future. This story has quite the humanistic touch as well as a mother loses her son and gains him back due to some extraordinary but illegal technology.

Lie Free Society: A tale that could have taken place at almost any time and location, it is a great cultural lesson on the powers of perception and belief.

Secret Invention: A devious double cross scheme. A brilliant scientist gains the ability to clone humans begins to be afraid of where this technology could lead when his boss forces him to clone a strange and unknown subject.

Successful Failure: A true disappearing act, this story will leave you amazed and feeling just a little sorry for the protagonist. A tale of government secrecy at its best.

Ten Million: A near future story that is full of intrigue and mystery. Quite an interesting plot of what happens when a schemer gets schemed himself.

Custom Kids: Really, a story that is not that farfetched and could take place in the near future with the pace that genetic study is moving at today. What would you do if the child you loved what not who you really thought they were?

Meat Market: A near future story that literally gives the term ‘a pound of flesh’ a new meaning. Read this story with the question ‘what if?’ in the back of your mind and just see where the author and your imagination take you.






Krishna kumar

SFS2







This book is dedicated to all science fiction readers.






1. Lost Planet


Year: 2600

I watched the video I had prepared. My image and voice came out from the screen. What follows is a transcription of the video.

“Today is the fifth world republic day. Today there is only one government. Before there were over three hundred countries on the earth. But after an alien attack most of the countries were destroyed. The people who were still alive were rescued and transported here. Later the government announced that they had won the war against the aliens. And after that we have had no more wars. The lack of population has put us all under one single government instead of multiple ones. Once this happened the military was dismissed and soldiers moved into different government jobs. Now the main job is agriculture. We don’t fish anymore since the chance of radiation poisoning is too high. On world republic day we remember all the people who died. This is the only place that was not attacked by the aliens. This place used to be called….”

The country’s name was censored but that was the only thing that had been censored. I relaxed because the video was approved for broadcast. Nowadays there’s only one television channel and its run by the government. It’s called “Earth Now.” I work as a program developer for them and was assigned to prepare the video for the fifth anniversary of the Earth’s government. Getting approval for the program and for the advertisements has been incredibly tough. The video must go through several approval processes before it can be broadcast.

I submitted the video ten days ago. Based on the comments I have to modify the program and then I am allowed to broadcast it. Some of my programs in the past were rejected since they had contained sensitive content. Since there are so many people from various former countries living here, the government doesn’t want to acknowledge any diversity. You can’t speak about former countries, a person’s color, and race or even mention different languages. There is only one official language here and that’s English.

I’ve already submitted another program for approval after this one. It’s about the mystery of some people who were killed by UFOs in the last six month. There’s no solid evidence backing this up but eyewitnesses claim that it’s true. I did research about it and found that there was a pattern for whom the UFOs were targeting, but the station is still reviewing my program.

I left the television station and headed home. There’s no private manufacturing of cars any more. All the cars belong to the government and you must rent them. They’re dual powered meaning they run on solar energy and electricity when the sun’s not out.

I sat in my bedroom thinking about my past life. I used to live with my wife and two kids in my own country. That was during the attack. I had come here for a conference otherwise I would have lost my life along with them. Sometimes I sit and think about why I’m still alive. Ninety percent of the world died. What right do I have to still be alive? I often look at my family’s photo and cry as I am doing now. Suddenly the power went out. Darkness took over the house and I heard a loud bang before I lost consciousness.

I woke up, or was I still unconscious? It’s so dark I can’t tell. I didn’t feel any pain so I figured I was still alive. I stood up and moved step by step. A bright light shocked the room. I closed my eyes and opened them after a long moment. A person stood in front of me.

“Hi, Michael. Relax. You are safe,” he said.

I had forgotten that my name was Michael.

“Where am I?” I asked him.

“Yes, sorry about that,” he said with a smile. “We shot you with a tranquilizer gun. It was to save you.”

I was in the media so I understood what had happened. He had kidnapped me. I have no idea why he was telling me that he had saved me but I had to go along with it. I had to wait until my chance to escape came up. I saw that there were a few other people around in the room as well.

“Do you think I could get a drink of water? And who are you guys anyways?” I asked.

“I will tell you everything. Please follow us.”

I followed them. I believed it was a place far underground. It might have been an old gold mine. Gold was worthless now so the mine had been long abandoned. They seemed to be some sort of anti-government force. We entered into a conference room and one of them handed me a glass of water.

“What time is?” I asked.

“Eleven in the morning, you can see it on the television.”

I realized I had been held captive for fourteen hours. I looked at the news scrolling on the television. It showed that a reporter named Michael had died in a fire at his house. I was surprised and looked at them.

“We knew that the government was planning to kill you so we rescued you before they could do it.”

I couldn’t believe that. They had to be lying to me.

“So why did the government have to kill me?” I asked.

“Your last report was about the UFOs. You found the patterns about who was attacked by a UFO and could predict who would be next.”

Could that really be the case, I wondered.

“As per your video, the people who died by a UFO were former chief army officers, correct? We are also former army officers in this group.”

“But how do you know what was in my video? It was never broadcast to anyone.”

“The government is killing off the chief officers one by one. It hasn’t been UFO attacks at all. No one knows that they are even former army officers because we all were assigned to different government jobs now.”

“I don’t understand though. Why would the government try to kill me? I’m not an army officer.”

“Because of your video about the former army officers. If they program was broadcast, the government would face a big problem. They wouldn’t approve the program and they knew how much you knew so they decided that they needed to kill you. We need you to go back to your television station and broadcast the video at six tonight. Everyone will be listening to the news. Tell them that you’re still alive and that it’s been authorized. Your video is the game changer that we need.”

“It… would be possible. But the government would punish me afterwards. I’m certain of that,” I said, afraid for my life.

“The government already tried to kill you. Once they know you’re alive they will kill you anyways. This video is your only chance at staying alive. If they kill you after it will be a problem for them.”

”Why did the government kill the army officers though?”

“The government is the one with that question. Do you think you can broadcast the video for us?”

“If they rejected my video that means that it will have been deleted from my computer as well.”

“Don’t worry about that. We have a copy of your video that you can play,” responded the army officer.

“But how? How is that possible?” I asked.

“The same way we know about the video. We will give it to you and you need to broadcast it at six pm, alright?”

They gave me a memory card, two officers blindfolded me and they dropped me near the TV station. They told me to not take any unnecessary risks and to broadcast it directly upon getting into the station. Everyone in the station was surprised to see me. Management had already disabled my biometric access so I had to enter the building with a visitor’s pass after I explained to the channel authority that I was not at my home during the fire and the news had been incorrect.

After I successfully logged in I wished to view my video again but I was not alone. I got a message via short message service or SMS.

“Government knows you’re alive. They’ll try to kill you again, perhaps with the police. Be careful – Ex. Army”

I had no idea what was about to happen. I set the video up to be scheduled for 6 pm. The news was only a few minutes away from starting. The intercom rang and I answered it.

“Yes?” I asked.

“Two police officers are waiting for Michael downstairs.”

I thought for a second about the seriousness of the situation.

“He left around 5 pm,” I told them. “He went to the fire station regarding the fire at his house last night.”

I disconnected the intercom after that. Suddenly my mobile phone rang. It was the office number. If the police were calling from inside the office I could not go out. I had to hide somewhere. I entered into the ladies restroom. The police might search many places but they wouldn’t expect to find me in there. In the mean time the news started. I saw the news through my mobile phone.

The kidnappers had cheated me. It wasn’t the news about the UFO attacks at all. How could I have been so stupid? Why did I listen to these guys? I should have checked the video!

The news ran on and on. It stated that the world was not destroyed by aliens. It said that the president had been the one that destroyed all the countries by going to the past using a secret time machine. He used the latest technology and killed people all over the world except for the people in his own country. Everyone thought that it had been a war against aliens, but really it had been a war with the future against the past. It was about resources and who could monopolize them. The top army officials were involved in this and the government decided they needed to kill off the ex-army officers one by one.

Some of the officers who had kidnapped me appeared on the screen. There were other there too, a lot of others. They apologized for their part in the war. They showed a lot of evidence on the video.

The news continued to play.

I came out from the rest room to see what was going on out here and why the feed hadn’t been stopped. Everyone had headed to the presidential building. Even the police. Everyone was rising against this government. On the television an army officer said that if we captured the time machine we could go back to five years ago and stop the operation and save all the people. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like anyone was watching the television.

After an hour, a flash news bulletin appeared. The president’s office had been set on fire. They seemed to believe that the president had escaped to the future using the time machine. They also reported that the time machine itself had been destroyed in the fire. The president was no where to be found.

The president opened his eyes. He guessed he was in a village based on the houses and people he says. It seemed to be an under-developed country somewhere. He was wounded and exhausted and lost consciousness. Some poor people came and helped him. They gave him water and placed him in a bed and gave him medicine.

After a few hours his health had been somewhat restored. He could not understand their language nor could they understand his English. He believed the problem with the time machine was that it transported you to some place in the year but he was unsure where. He checked the time machine’s remote control but ti wasn’t working. He figured the time machine had been damaged in the fire. His remote wouldn’t work. He’d have to make due here. At least no one wanted to kill him here.

He didn’t know what country he was in though and that bothered him. They had left him at an old house and told him to rest. He noticed a calendar that had the day on it. 28-Oct-2595. He had traveled five years in the wrong direction. The date that all the countries had been destroyed.

Everything had been on fire and he had only a split-second to get to the time machine. He must have pressed 05 backward rather than 50 forward. He cried out and tried to tell people what was happening. But no one understood what he was saying. He came to the street and saw the sky and started to cry. I am about to kill the whole world and myself, he thought. No one understood his language. They thought he was mad and simply went off to bed. He cried and watched the sky along with the clock as he counted the time.




2. An Alien Animal


My name is Steve. I’m a former professional athlete but I currently work for a space research organization. I actually got the job at the space research organization after I had done an interview on how they prepare astronauts for space travel. Someday I hope that they’ll send me to another planet and my name will be written in history for all to see. I pretend that I’m brave so I’ll be picked for this mission. But up until now they haven’t even sent me to a satellite. The space organization has a tough time finding jobs for me. They don’t know that I’m multi-talented.

I was at the office as usual, reading and sharing useless news on Facebook. My co-worker Ben came to my desk.

“Hi Steve. Got some urgent business, the chief needs you.”

“For what?” I asked. I didn’t look at him. I just kept checking Facebook updates.

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s urgent. You need to come quickly.”

I knew it probably didn’t relate to a space trip, but I ran along with him. He knocked on the door and we entered into the chief’s room. He was on the phone and didn’t even notice us. It was obvious that he was having a serious conversation. Ben stood silently, but I coughed mildly to get the chief’s attention. He noticed us and he motioned us to two chairs.

I immediately fell into the seat and lounged back. Ben couldn’t have been more different, he was on the edge of his seat waiting excitedly. I didn’t pay attention to what he was talking about on the phone. He was wasting my time by calling us in here. I could have been checking Facebook. We waited for a while until the chief hung up the phone.

“Urgent job for you, Steve. No time to wait. A secret government agency contacted me.”

His phone rang.

“Hold on, army captain is on the line,” he said as he answered.

He seemed to have completely lost his mind. We research space and now the chief thinks that he’s been getting calls from a secret government agency! Talking with some army captain or whatever? Probably just wasting my time. I looked over at Ben but he was listening intently to the phone conversation. I started listening as well but the chief had his back to us so we could hear only if we strained ourselves.

“His name is Steve. He’ll be there soon.”

“….”

“Yes, by helicopter.”

I’m going in a helicopter? To where?

“Steve, you have to get ready. You’re going to leave in just a few minutes. You will go to the border of our country. The terrain is forest. There will be fifteen army officers there to assist you but you will be in charge.”

Now I knew he was crazy. How could I lead fifteen army officers? I didn’t have the training. Had he gone crazy? Maybe I had gone crazy and was dreaming this. Either way I didn’t answer him.

“Oh sorry,” he said after he noticed my confusion. “I haven’t even told you the job yet! There really hasn’t been enough time. Anyways, listen. Our government received a secret message from an Unidentified Flying Object that landed in our neighboring country. Our enemy captured it but a small animal escaped from that UFO. It’s an alien animal. You’re the bravest of our organization so we’ve selected you to go. Again you’ll have fifteen army officers there with you to help you find, catch it and bring it back here.”

“An alien, sir?”

“Not an alien like in a science fiction movie! Think about it. We send animals to other planets to see what happens. It’s like that. Now it’s near the border and we need it for our own purposes.”

“Well how big is it? How do I identify it? Can it shape shift? Does it spit poison out of its eyeballs?!”

“No idea. Based on the agency’s report they say that it was one of the pets of the aliens. It may be similar to the size of a cat or a dog. You’ll have the army officers with you there to help you find and catch it. I’m sending you because the officers don’t have any idea about aliens. They might arrest a wolf! Or maybe they’d accidentally kill the real alien animal while trying to capture it. We need it alive.”

“So you’re sending me to go get this alien. When did I become the foremost alien expert? Why don’t you go?”

He ignored my comments and proceeded to speak. “Be careful when dealing with it. You’ll need tranquilizer darts, your whole team.”

“Even Doberman dogs are pet animals,” Ben said to me with a smile.

“Will this animal attack?”

“It could. I told you, be careful.”

I always carried myself as a brave person but the idea of an alien animal attacking me scared the crap out of me. Ben just laughed he had seen my worry.

The chief received another phone call. I prayed that the alien animal would be taken in by our army, heck even our enemy’s army would be better than me having to do it. Why is this crappy alien dog coming here to scare me? I wanted to cry about it, but I held together.

“The helicopter is waiting for you. I wish you all the best.”

When he shook my hand my hand was shaking due to fear. I visualized the alien animal in my mind over and over, each time it became bigger and scarier, more fangs, more poisonous, more deadly.

I walked directly to the helipad. There was no time to update Facebook. This was the worst day of my life. I scolded myself. Why did I choose this job? The chief hadn’t sent me to the moon like I’d wished, instead he decided to send me directly to hell. I still wanted to cry.

“You’re the man for the job,” said Ben. “That’s why I recommended you to the chief.”

I didn’t reply. I only cursed him underneath my breath. After a couple hours of flying, I relaxed a bit. Helicopter travel wasn’t the most comfortable thing I’d ever done but it would probably be better than facing an alien animal. I took some photos that I would put in Facebook when I got back. If I got back. We landed in the forest near a few tents. An army captain and other officers welcomed me. Based on their behavior, I could tell that they thought I was a great scientist.

“Steve is it?” asked the captain. “Your chief told us that you’re the most brave man they’ve got there. And also an expert in alien research. I didn’t even know they had a guy for that!”

He couldn’t have been more wrong about me. I was speechless and just smiled.

“We found the area. You’re in charge of the group and you are the authority, sir.”

Those 15 army officers saluted me. I felt safe because they were with me but my mind told me to be careful. The alien animal probably wasn’t small. Why else would they send fifteen army soldiers to fight it and capture it? It had to be big. I was certain that my chief had planned for me to die during this operation. One of the officers interrupted my thoughts and suggested that we got going.

We climbed in a vehicle with a covered roof. After about an hour, the vehicle stopped at the end of the road.

“Sir, from here we go by foot. We can split in three teams and go in three different directions,” said one of the officer’s whose name I hadn’t caught.

I was shocked by the idea to split up. If we split up we’d have only five people on each team. I might easily be killed by an alien. If we kept all fifteen together my chance of survival would be much higher. I knew what happened in the movies when people split up.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“Lieutenant Johnson, sir.”

“Well Lieutenant Johnson, I am in charge here. I have the command and we’re not splitting up.”

Every officer looked surprised and looked at me questioningly.

“How can we catch it if we’re all together?” asked Lieutenant Johnson.

I was speechless for a while. I had to come up with a way to show them that I was brave. Suddenly I had an idea.

“We cannot split the team up into three groups because I need to be there when we catch the animal. I can only be in one team.”

“Sir, where do we go? If we go in only one direction we’re likely to never catch it. We’ll probably never even see it without splitting up.”

“We will wait here,” I said not showing my fear. “We will send one person in each direction and if they find it they will communicate it back. Then you all… sorry… we all will go there and catch it.”

“Sir, even though we’re army officers, I don’t think we’re quite as brave as you are,” said Lieutenant Johnson.

“What?” I said, shocked and thought of running to the base.

“No, chief. What I mean is that instead of sending one person per direction we should send two for safety purposes.”

I was afraid because that would mean there were only nine officers with me. I told myself that if there was any problem the vehicle was here and we could escape.

After two hours there was no news from any of the three teams. Evening was falling. And the work day had ended about an hour ago. But the army didn’t keep to office time. But I was. I was going to make damn sure I got overtime for this. I might even write a letter so if I died I better still get paid. 6 pm. Here was dark, too dark. I went over to Lieutenant Johnson and asked if there was any message yet. They still hadn’t come across anything.

I was starting to think of going home. Today there was a football game that I needed to see. I certainly wasn’t going to see it out here in the middle of the woods. I decided we’d wait for thirty more minutes and if they hadn’t found anything we’d go back and restart the search again tomorrow. I prayed to god that the animal wouldn’t be found. I prayed for god to save me, but we got the message that one team had spotted it. It was larger than a tiger, but asleep at the moment thankfully.

Once I heard that it was bigger than a tiger I almost passed out. I didn’t walk, I ran over to the army vehicle and took a deep breath.

“Alright, let’s get in the vehicle and move.”

The officers stood there not moving.

“Chief, we’re going to have to walk there.”

I finally got what was going on. I had to catch it myself. Maybe I was the bait or the distraction. Maybe that was all I was good for. We headed in the direction that the animal had been spotted in. I walked safely behind the officers. After thirty minutes of walking we came upon two of the officers we had sent out in search. They gave the signal so our people secured the perimeter. I didn’t see the animal because it was too dark. I walked up to the two officers and stepped onto a rock.

“Where is it?”

“Chief, you’re too brave!…”

“Yes, I know that but where is it?” I interrupted.

“You’re standing right on it!”

I was shocked and I froze. What I thought was the rock was the animal. My legs realized that the rock was moving. Everyone pointed their gun at it.

“What do we do?” There were two possibilities. Either the animal was going to kill me and eat me or the army was about to riddle me full of bullets. I was silent. I heard a sound from the animal. I had disturbed its sleep. I cried out loudly but they misunderstood and took it for an instruction to open fire. I closed my eyes and sent up a prayer.

A sharp pain traveled through my leg. Oh my god, the animal has bitten me! I didn’t know what was going on. Gun shots echoed all around me. The animal made terrible sounds. I lost consciousness.

I woke up. I don’t know how long I was unconscious for. My army officers were there and I was in a cot. I checked my leg but didn’t find any wound. My legs are fine. God saved me!

“We captured the animal. Sorry, chief. During the encounter one of the officers shot you in the leg with the tranquilizer gun. You were passed out for a while. You should be alright though.”

In my mind I thanked the person who had shot me otherwise I might have died from fright. I couldn’t tell any of them that though.

“Do you want to inspect the animal now, sir? It’s sleeping again.”

I looked around me and didn’t find any rock. Last time I thought the animal was a rock.

“Where is it?” I asked, hesitantly.

“It’s in the box right below you.”

I suddenly jumped down and saw that I could see inside. It was asleep.

“You idiots! Why would you place me on top of the animal’s box?” I shouted.

“Chief, you are brave so you do not fear this animal. We had no cot since we were in the forest so we put you to sleep on top of the box.”

“I don’t know the meaning of the word fear. Hell, I don’t even know how to spell it,” I said after a moment. “I was thinking about the animal’s safety. If you hadn’t shot it I would have arrested it myself!”

They said that I should touch it and see that it was alright. Everyone else had touched the animal they told me. But I was afraid to touch it so I told them that I had already stood on it earlier. I had to produce this sleep animal to my boss and propose that he gave me an increase in salary and a promotion as well. We met the army captain and he wished well. They sent me back with the animal in the helicopter. I didn’t touch the box then either.

After we reached the research station people congratulated me as a hero. There were no army officers there to take the glory from me. I knew the animal was asleep and that it was inside the box so I projected out how brave I was. I moved the box just like my luggage trolley and warned people to stay away. I even bypassed security. Everyone knew I was the hero. I took the box to the lab.

“Is this the alien?” asked the doctor after seeing the box.

“I risked my life to catch it. It had better be the alien.”

“You touched it to make sure, right?”

“Yes, of course I did. What kind of question is that?”

He asked me to touch it again, but I simply walked away.

It was midnight and I went to my cabin to check the Facebook updates and count the likes on my useless shares. This morning I posted “I don’t like seafood.” 39 people liked that. I have no idea what the likes even mean.

The doctor and the chief came to my cabin. The chief’s face seemed to be scared. I needed him to be proud of me. I had done a good job. I put on my best smile.

“You idiot! I sent you with the army guys because you know about aliens,” he shouted. “They don’t know anything about aliens. You didn’t catch an alien animal, you brought a robot back to our base. It was designed by our enemies to find our research station. Had you touched it you would have known that it wasn’t an alien!”

”So what happens now?” I asked

“Just now we deactivated the robot,” he replied angrily. “Go and look at it.”

“One question, chief,” I said as I stepped into the lab. “It won’t bite, will it?”

“I should punish you, you know?” he shouted out of control. “Instead of sending any dogs or monkeys to another planet for testing, I think I’m going to send you there.”

“Thank you, chief. It’s always been my ambition. I’ve been waiting for this opportunity.”

“Wow. You’re not the idiot. I’m the idiot.”

Note:

The enemy country fabricated the story about the alien and leads the research station on a wild goose chase. The target country believed they were searching for an alien. The enemy had planted the robot there that was so bravely captured by our comedy hero.




3. Half-Invention


Date: 18-Dec-2013

My name is Robert. So far I’ve submitted five research papers. I have gotten grants from research funds to meet my expenses. I am currently working on my sixth research paper. I’ve spent over a hundred thousand hours on my latest research. Yes, actually a hundred thousand. But my research is still only halfway completed. I’ll have to at least as much time as I’ve already spent to complete it. But before I do that, I’m going to test my invention. It might only be half done, but I’ve already spent so much time. I can’t wait longer. My invention is the time machine. But as I said it’s only half an invention. So far it’s only able to travel to the future and cannot go back to the past.

Scientists believe in their research and dedicate their life to their work. But they’re not ready to perform an experiment on themselves. And neither am I.

I am going to test my time machine with a rat. But I need to know if the rat reaches the future safely. How you ask? I invented a device that is based on the theory of relativity. It’s about to communicate from anywhere in any time. It doesn’t matter if it’s sending a message to the past or the future or what. I attached the device to the rat so I could listen to the sound and see its body temperature.

My time machine is not ostentatious. It simply looks like a big box. I placed the rat inside the time machine, closed the doors and set the year to 2200 with today’s date, December 18th. It took a few seconds for the rat to disappear, but when I opened the time machine to check, it was empty.

Even though I had already tested my invention with inanimate objects such as books and dust bins this was the first time I was testing with something that was alive. I put on the headphones and listened carefully. I heard the mild sound of a rat moving around. The temperature reading was normal. I was excited and loudly sang a song of joy as I sipped my black coffee.

After I finished my coffee I checked the temperature and tried listening again. I got nothing. No sound, no temperature reading. I was surprised. What had happened? I waited for more than an hour but nothing ever changed. I couldn’t wait to invent a relativity camera to watch what was transpiring in the future so I decided to send the most intelligent monkey I could find.

I attached the device to the monkey’s neck carefully and gave him an air horn. I took the air horn and pressed it. The monkey pressed it as well and liked the sound. He kept pressing it over and over. Of course I kept the time machine’s remote control because although he was smart, he wasn’t that smart!

I placed the monkey inside the time machine. He was still making noise with the air horn and enjoying himself. I set the same date and time for the machine. In a few seconds the monkey was gone. I wore the headphones and could hear the horrible air horn sound. I reduced the volume and checked the temperature which turned out to be fine. I monitored him continuously.

After two hours I put the headphones back on and checked to see if it was still there. The same air horn sound came out of the headphones but now I could hear some people’s voices as well. I tried to listen but the air horn kept disturbing the voices.

I finally heard, “How did this damn monkey get this damn horn?”

I was super excited. A voice from the future. Unfortunately I couldn’t hear anything other than the damn air horn noise. So now I was going to do the thing that scientists never do. Yes, I was going to test my half invention on myself. I couldn’t control myself after having heard the voices from the future. I was going to travel through time. I didn’t require the relativity device but I took the relativity remote to control the time machine.

I set the same time and date once again and entered into the time machine. I stood there only a moment before it started.

I closed my eyes. A loud noise started so I covered my ears with my hands. Suddenly I felt like I was flying at the speed of light in the dark. Then everything was quiet. I felt again like I was on the earth.

I opened my eyes and looked around. I could see ultra-modern building, flying cars, and there were a lot of robots. The robots were cleaning the roads, taking pets for walks and there were a few cars in the road but they were all driverless cars. I started to get excited. Yes, it seems to be 2200. No one even gave me a second glance. I started to walk down the street and wonder what else I could find here in the future.

I saw a few people and kids standing near a tree and looking at it so I walked over there. And then I saw it. My monkey was still there making noise with the air horn. I was so proud of my invention. I didn’t want to stand there too long otherwise the monkey might see me and walk over to me. I covered my face so he couldn’t see me and began to walk down the road. By chance I noticed that the relativity device which I had tied onto the rat was on the ground. Now I understood why there had been no updates. The rat had gotten free of the device and someone had trampled on it, breaking it. I picked it up and put it in my pocket.

I walked for an hour and saw things I’d never even dreamed of. I saw a restaurant that I wanted to get a taste of and knew it contained the food of the future. But I didn’t know the value of money here. My credit cards were long past their expiration date and they probably didn’t even use paper currency here anymore. Regardless, I didn’t bring my wallet so I bypassed the restaurant.

I walked for so long my legs got tired. I took tons of pictures with my cell phone. I decided to go back home. I knew I couldn’t go back to before the 18th so I decided to go to the 19th of December 2013 , the future. I checked the number on the remote and it said “December 18, 2200.” Oh god. I couldn’t go back to 2013 because now that was in the past. I could only go forward. My half of an invention left me half of the way. How could I have been so stupid? Now I understood why scientists never experimented on themselves.




4. 404


Year: 2200

Mobile phones are a thing long forgotten. Instead, nano-chips are inserted into the ear and take their power directly from the human body. With your voice alone you can accept, reject and even make calls. You no longer have to worry about forgetting your phone at home or running out of battery in the middle of a call. Video calls and mobile applications use a holographic illusion that interacts with your body. There is not physical display. Every human being now has an IP address, ten digit phone numbers are a relic of the past. Computers, robots, all are mapped with human names similar to website domain names. And they’re inexpensive. Only the poorest cannot afford multiple robots.

The holographic screen appeared and the computer let the station know they had an incoming call. The dispatcher answered the call after seeing the caller’s photograph, name and address.

“Emergency services, how may I help you?”

A woman’s face appeared on the screen. She looked sad and had obviously been crying for some time.

“Officer, my son is missing. I have no idea where he could have gone. Please help me find him.”

After scrolling through the woman’s personal and family details, the officer came across a page with a family number named Stephen, a ten year old boy.

“This call is about your son, Stephen, then?”

“Yes, that’s right. Today’s a holiday for him so he went to play outside with his friends. I didn’t think anything of it because sometimes he gets distracted and doesn’t come home for lunch and eats with them or at one of his friends’ houses. But now it’s five o’clock. I’ve called his friends’ parents and they say they haven’t seen him.”

The officer tried reaching him from an adjacent screen. An error message popped up with error number 404 saying that the recipient was currently unreachable.

“Did he walk when he left to go see his friends?”

“No, he was riding his bicycle.”

“Alright. I will see what I can do. I will get back to you as soon as I have any information that I think will help.”

The police officer checked the last incoming and outgoing call information for the boy’s IP address. He did a broad spectrum search using Stephen’s photo and facial recognition to pinpoint his location with any surveillance cameras that might have seen him. One camera had photographed him just after noon. At one o’clock his number had become unreachable. He messaged the control room of the station nearest to where his photo had last been taken and relayed the information.

It only took an hour for the police to find the boy’s bicycle at the edge of a nearby lake. They thought perhaps he had gone for a swim and might had drowned. They made a precursory effort to find him in the water and searched all around the bank. The dive team wasn’t available until the morning, so they had to wait a few hours before resuming the search of the lake.

By then, Stephen’s mother had been apprised of the situation and she had gathered community members to come help search the lake. Stephen had been her only son. If she had to dive down herself, she’d find out if he was in that lake or not. They called off the search a few hours after midnight, vowing to come back the next morning and help the dive team. Stephen’s mother was distraught, but traveled home to try to get some sleep regardless. Stephen’s father had died four months earlier in a shuttle accident. She hadn’t taken it well.

Early the next morning, the boy’s mother and her neighbors came back to the lake to meet the dive team. Soon the dive team had recovered the body of the boy in the water. The community said they had looked in that spot and there had been no body then. The police told them that it had been late at night when they were searching and probably had been too tired to find the body. The police said they’d know more after the autopsy had been performed.

The autopsy results came quickly. The medical examiner confirmed that the boy had died after he entered the water around 1:30pm to 2:00pm. There had been a small mark on the head but said that it happened postmortem and hadn’t contributed to the boy’s death.

The police closed the case as an accident. But Stephen’s mother and her neighbors argued that it should be reopened and investigated further. Two days later, the boy’s mother got a letter in her mailbox without a postal stamp or address. The letter read, “I will bring your kid back to life. You must, however, agree to never reopen the case.” She immediately took this letter to the police. They agreed that it was strange and also agreed that they would re-examine the body and the area where Stephen had died.

Before they could get to the lake, a forest fire had broken out. The police were suspicious and believed that it had been a case of arson to hide any evidence. But they had no clues to go on. The news was all over town. Everyone now believed that Stephen had been murdered somehow. The news picked up the story. Eventually the police commissioner called the investigating officer.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions in this case. Where do we stand on it? What can you tell me about this mark they found on the boy’s head?”

“We haven’t been able to figure out what that is. But we’re still certain that the death was an accident.”

“Well, what about the letter his mother found?”

“It may be that someone did that as some kind of sick joke. They might also have wanted to confuse us or waste or time.”

“And what about the fire in the lake? Was that an accident as well?”

“Although we looked for evidence of arson, none was found. That too was an accident.”

The commissioner was not satisfied with these answers. “The boy’s mother put in a complaint. She said that they had already looked where the boy had been found the night before. How do you explain that?”

“They just didn’t notice him. They were out there in the dark and they were untrained. It’s not that hard to believe, really.”

The commissioner thought for a moment.

“There’s no wounds on the boy’s body,” continued the officer. “It was an accident. He drowned. The boy didn’t know how to swim.”

“Well hopefully when we autopsy the body again that the case will be closed for certain,” said the commissioner.

The story was still in the news, but Stephen’s mother couldn’t take it anymore. She surprised everyone when she told them to just close the case. She couldn’t handle the constant media presence outside of her house and around her, reminding her of Stephen’s death every moment of the day. Stephen’s mother removed his pictures from the house and gave away all of his things. Eventually the story became old news and talk started about the new Robot Act.

Sales executives meeting in a conference room:

My name is Peter. I recently joined this company as a sales executive. You could say I’m the hero of this story. Everyone met the target of ten orders per month, but I made only three sales. Everyone knows my last sale was a big tragedy. But now everyone will find out how I finally solved that issue.

“Secretly, one night, I went to Stephen’s mother’s house and saw her inside. She was distraught about her son. Her robot would constantly ask her to eat, but she rejected every offer of food. I knocked on the door and placed the second letter and the memory card on the doorstep. She was confused about what these things were, but she picked them up and read the letter. I had drafted the letter based off of the company’s customer letter template. It reads as follows:–

I don’t want to tell you my name, but I’ve done a favor for you. I understand that losing a child is the largest pain a person can experience. As a mother, you’re well aware of that. I also know because my five year old child died in an accident. You see, that’s what made me begin to copy the human memories from dead bodies to convert them to digital memories. I did this for your son, Stephen. But accidentally, you found clues that would have led you to me and that would have been a problem. That’s why I set fire to the lake area. I’ve helped many others, but as you’re no doubt well aware, this memory transfer process is banned by the government. But the government doesn’t understand the feelings of mothers and fathers who lose their children. I do. Please take this memory card and replace your robot’s existing memory card. You will have your son back. Perhaps not in flesh and blood, but his mind, personality and memories will all be there. Please destroy this letter and keep what we’ve done a secret otherwise the police will erase your son’s memory for good.

One additional thing:

If you want to help other people as I’ve helped you, whatever amount you can transfer to this account with non-traceable currency, please do so. The account number is written on the back of the page.”

“Stephen’s mother has been happy since that day. As I mentioned in the letter, she transferred a large amount. It’s more than enough to cover the missing sales from this month,” I said.

Everyone smiled and was happy that I had made my sales figures.

“We’re involved in a secret business that’s very profitable,” said the team leader. “We’ve got to be careful when we expand our business to other cities. We’re transferring memories and helping out those who have lost loved ones. They’re more than willing to donate for this cause. But as we know, this process is against the law.”

The team leader stopped and looked me in the eye. “Don’t take this risk again. You transferred the memories where the boy had died. That’s reckless. Next time, just enter the mortuary and transfer the memories from there. You might have earned more money with one sale, but your stupidity could have cost the company everything. Don’t do it again.”

Everyone laughed.




5. Lie Free Society


Sometime in the 1700s.

The king hated lies and the liars who told them. He punished them when he could, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. Liars were popping up everywhere. And he knew that if he decided to start punishing them more severely, there wouldn’t be any people left in his kingdom at all. So, instead, he decided to announce a competition.

“Whoever manages to not lie for a month will get thirty gold coins. A person’s neighbor will confirm that the person didn’t lie for the entire month. However, if I find out that the person did speak a lie, I will severely punish both the liar and his neighbor who vouched for him,” declared the king.

The king’s subjects were wary of this competition

“Even if we don’t lie for a whole month, someone else might tell a lie about us and we’d be punished. But if we do not claim that we have done the thirty days worth, the king will think we’re all liars. All of us would be better off deaf in this kingdom!” was the common consensus of the king’s subjects.

Ultimately, they could not come to a conclusion on what to do for the thirty days.

“How many of my subjects have been put forth as winners?” asked the king to his minister.

“Not a single one,” replied the minister.

“So then they’re all liars!”

“You’re Grace, the people are afraid to put forth anyone as a winner. Even if someone claimed they didn’t tell a lie, how could they be trusted?”

The king thought for a while and came to the conclusion that the competition had been useless. He called in the royal doctor.

“Doctor, your task is to find a medicine that detects whether or not a person is telling the truth.”

“Your Grace, based on my knowledge of medicine I do not think this is possible. You see…”

“Well, look through your books again! Contact all the doctors you need to. Only then will you be able to tell me for certain if it is possible.”

Two weeks later, the royal doctor returned to speak with the king. “You’re Grace, I am sorry to say that I could not find a medicine which detects lying. However, my teacher may be able to help. We should send for him immediately. He lives far away, but is the master of all medicines.”

“Then I have to meet him,” said the king.

The king’s summons was sent far and wide to search for the master of medicine. Finally they came upon him studying in a cave and brought him to the king. The king explained the situation to the master of medicine.

“As my student has told you, there is no medicine in the world which can detect when someone is lying. However, I can make a medicine which may make a person keep from lying. Anyone who tells a lie after taking the medicine will die within twenty-four hours. Would you like this medicine?

“I am not worried about the lives of liars. I believe this medicine is exactly what I’m looking for.”

“We can first implement this in a small village,” began the master. “I will be there to administer the medicine and see the results. Then from there we can implement it in the whole kingdom. It would be good to test it in the village first and it would give me time to produce the medicine for the whole kingdom as well.”

The king thought this was a brilliant idea. After a week they decided to start the test in a village. All the people in the village were assembled without telling them what was about to happen. They administered the medicine to them. After the last person had received the medicine, the master spoke to the people.

“The medicine you have taken kills you within twenty-four hours if you tell a lie. Be careful what you say if you want to live.”

The people from the village for scared. For days they didn’t even talk to one another because they were afraid they might lie by accident and then die.

After a week no one had died since no one had even spoken since they had been told what the medicine did.

“I have no idea if the medicine actually works. People are too afraid to talk,” said the king to the master of medicine.

In response, the master assembled the people from the village and spoke to them.

“Dear people of the village. You should not be afraid to talk for the truth is simple. If you tell the truth, you don’t need to remember anything. When you lie you have to think more and have to remember what you said. Just simply don’t tell lies when you speak to one another and you’ll be fine.”

He paused for a moment before continuing. “When you speak the truth to others, you may face problems. But you should take pride since honesty is a virtue of a good person. And any problems you will have will come from being a good person.”

A few weeks later, people became less scared and went back to their usual life. The king was surprised and implemented the medicine in the whole country. There were a few deaths, but the king was happy.

Fifty years passed. Then the king’s son became the ruler of the kingdom.

People had forgotten the meaning of the word lie. And the master of medicine himself was dying. He requested the king to meet him before he died.

“Master, why do you reject all forms of medicine?” asked the young king.

“I don’t require medicine any more. My life will end. I am at peace with that,” replied the master.

“You are a legend and a great boon to this kingdom. I will grant you any wish that you desire.”

“You don’t need to do anything. I know that you’ve started to build a temple for me. But please stop construction. People should not even know the word ‘lie’ or its meaning.”

“Construction on the temple will be stopped as you have asked. But we need your assistance, master. I need the formula for the medicine that kills people if they tell lies. It isn’t required for our country, but if we capture another country in the future it will be needed.”

“I will tell you about the formula. There is no formula. Nothing can stop someone from telling a lie, only their attitudes can do that.”

“What do you mean?” asked the young king.

“Yes, I told a lie. That lie was ‘if you tell a lie, you will perish within twenty-four hours.’ That’s all the people needed to change their attitudes. People were afraid to die so they told the truth to stay alive. They merely considered normal deaths to be due to lying and that kept them afraid.”

The master closed his eyes. The last words of his life came out of his mouth slowly. “That is the only lie I ever told in my life.” And with that, he died.

The young king was now confused as to what the truth was.

The first option was that what the master had said was true and that there had never been any medicine that killed people when they lied. Or that the master had told a lie and the medicine had taken effect on him and killed him.

Either way, the king was not ready to speak a lie or tell anyone about what the master of medicine had said.




6. Secret Invention


Recently my company fired me for a mistake in the lab. I wasn’t actually the reason for the mistake, but they didn’t believe me. I doubt you’ll believe me either. Everyone thinks it’s my fault. But I can assure you, it was far from my fault.

Now I’m without a job. And what’s worse, I can’t continue my secret personal research. No one wants to hire me because I was caught using the company’s lab equipment for my own research. But I can’t help it. My mind is always going, always evaluating new problems and trying to find solutions. My stomach needs food just like my mind needs my research. And that research needs a lab. So I used what was available to me.

I can go without food for several days, but going without research is a problem. Since I’ve lost my job I’ve been struggling to find either food or research. I decided to post my research on a crowd-funding website, but only in vague terms as my exact research has been banned by the government. What that is, I dare not say yet. Listen to my story a little further.

The website is now my only hope. I wait and wait for someone to contact me and I check my inbox frequently. I need the most advanced equipment out there. PCR machines, electron microscopes, and that’s just the start. I can’t buy a fully equipped genetics lab, especially without a job. If God came and asked me what I wished for, I wouldn’t wish for sleep or for to be able to eat, only a fully equipped lab.

As I sat in my apartment, the doorbell rang.

“Mail’s here!”

I signed for the mail and noticed a large manila envelope. “Oh my God, this is a legal notice from my old company.”

The company was run by stupid guys. They had a world class environment for my genetic research, but what they employed me for was beyond boring. During my free time I used the equipment and started my research. I was able to clone any animal from only a strand of their hair. Mind you, it has to have the entire follicle intact so it can’t be hair from the barber’s that’s been cut. And the age of the individual matters. If I have hair from a twenty year old, the clone will come out to be twenty years old. If the hair is from a forty year old, the clone will be forty years old.

At first, my research began on a rat. And then I moved to a rabbit. After many initial successes, I decided that it was ready for human trial and set about to make a clone of myself. Of course all of this was done in secret in my lab office. No one in the company knew anything about it. And I have no idea why they invested so much money into the laboratory because there were machines they would never use. It was probably for dodging income tax, but I don’t know for sure. They gave me a lab and a salary, so what did I care?

Everything was going great until one day I damaged an expensive machine. The cost of the machine was… well, I don’t want to say what the cost of the machine was. This is the reason they sent me the legal notice. They are asking for a million dollars in reparations. But what’s a million dollars to a guy who has less than a hundred? It might have well had been a trillion.

I went back to surfing the internet while waiting for someone, anyone, to email me about my research. In the meantime, I planned to sell off some of my fitness equipment on eBay so that I could buy groceries.

Next day

Wow. Some idiot actually responded. I mean, some gentleman. He’s ready to provide a lab for my research. I can’t believe it. We spoke at length in a conference call. That meeting went well.

After that and a few more phone calls, I met with his authorized representative who said they were ready to provide whatever I needed. The lab was 250 miles away and was set up so that I could spend nights in the office. I packed my things. I wished I had my laptop from the old company, but at least it’s configured to overwrite the hard drive if too many incorrect log-in credentials are tried.

The next day, two guys came to my home and got me. One asked me to sit in the back of the Lincoln and they’d drive me to the lab. They handed me a mobile phone to talk with the boss.

“Welcome. My manager has told me much about your research. I’m happy to fund this project. I think it can be mutually beneficially. Is there anything you need?”

“We spoke about the lab equipment I had at my old company. That set up is what I need.”

“That’s what’s in place now. You will have full access when you reach the lab.”

As our car drove near my old office, I thought about my past. I thought what my old company would do when they couldn’t find me. I certainly wasn’t about to pay them a million dollars. Suddenly the car turned into the company’s parking garage.

“Hey! What’s going on? Is this some kind of a joke?” I yelled at the driver. “Let’s go to the lab.”

“No joke, sir. This is the lab,” replied the driver through the partition.

Oh my god. It was them the entire time.

As I exited the Lincoln the chairman was waiting with a smile plastered on his face. I was silent.

“Don’t worry, Bob. We’re not going to go forward with the legal case. Well, provided that you continue your research here with us. I saw the details on your laptop and understand exactly what you’re trying to do. Come back and there won’t be any further interruption in your work. At least, not from our side. Our computer guy said you had a nice setup on your laptop. But it doesn’t help to overwrite the hard drive for bad logins when you leave the computer logged in.”

I wasn’t completely surprised that they knew the value of my research. These guys had a mind for money. But now that they knew, they’d want to dictate my every move.

“What do you really want?” I asked.

“Listen, we will provide everything that you need. There’s no need to stay at your small apartment any more. We’ll give you a nice place. All you have to do is create some people for us. If you do that, you will get enough money to live out the rest of your life comfortably. No more worrying about food, and you’ll be doing your research too.”

I knew then that they indeed did have access to the notes on my laptop. I am an idiot. The next project I needed to work on was a language that only I could understand because I couldn’t even protect my digital work at all. A great password or authentication is only as good as the person using it.

“Who do you want to clone?” I asked, getting right to the point.

“They’re not alive currently. One full strand of hair is enough for you to create them though, right?”

I thought for a while.

“What’s up? What are you thinking about?”

“Sorry. I was just trying to guess who you wanted to clone.”

“I may tell you later, but you’ll definitely know once you create them!”

He took out a hard cover book and also a plastic bag. Inside the bag was a longish gray hair. A spark fired in my brain that I had seen the book somewhere before but I couldn’t place it. He handed the hair to me.

“Is this a female’s hair?” I asked, looking at the length of the hair.

“No, it’s from a male. You can start the process now, correct? How long will it take.”

“I can start immediately, but it will take at least 3 months.”

“Three months is too long of a wait.”

“Even a baby takes ten months to be born,” I said with a smile. “I’m creating an adult in three months and you’re telling me that it’s too long!”

The Chairman laughed. This was the first time I’d seen him do so. He had a good hearty laugh.

“Well, is there any way to reduce your time? Do you need more people?”

At that point I had an idea.

“In my initial attempt to test my research, I tried to clone myself. That was when the machine was damaged. If I clone myself, the work will go twice as fast. Also, it won’t be a security risk like bringing in an outsider would be.”

He thought for a while. “Great. Do it.” Then he left.

I was so excited to see my clone that I gave up guessing who the hair was from. I’d clone them and then I’d find out. No big deal.

When I walked into the lab, I was alone. It’s almost like a jail now, but they can’t complete the research without me so they’re not going to kill me. I was at least thankful for that. I worked happily, but was still slightly worried that something bad could happen.

Would my clone respect me?

Who did they want me to create?

What will they do with them? Is it even safe for me to be here?

Growing up my mother always said that I was a lover, not a fighter. She was right. I had some fitness equipment but I wasn’t super strong and I didn’t know how to fight either. I had to be careful here. I knew that much, at least.

Two months later, the work on my clone was completed.

I smiled at my clone. Since he was my clone he knew the research but only up until the crash happened. So I filled him in on the rest. Being me, or a form of myself, he understood the predicament that I was in.

The Chairman was excited and asked about my clone, “You told me it would take three months to create a person, but you created your own clone in two. How did you accomplish this?”

“Please don’t mistake the speed for advancement. You didn’t look over the lab fully when I was fired the first time. I was already a month into the process so I picked up from where I left off.”

After seeing my clone he insisted that I continued to make clones of myself so that he could farm them out and have many researchers working for him. “We need to create a lot of people. The world has been missing out for years on some of the best talents that once existed.”

I smiled, thinking that he was a man who thought ten women could give birth to a child in one month’s time. The project manager didn’t have common sense, but he at least understood that the time it took was non-negotiable.

“This was only the first test,” I said. “So I only created one copy. Later on we can do more as we need to.”

“When will person X be completed?” “Person X is scheduled to be finished within the next 45 days. I have to wonder, why won’t you tell me the name of the person?”

“You will find out soon enough,” he said with a smile.

He thanked me for my work and left. My clone was hard at work so I decided to take a short break before heading back to the lab.

“Oh sorry. I forgot my bag,” said the Chairman as he came back into the room. He grabbed it and left again.

I thought maybe that he was person X, but the hair was too long. I talked for a while with my clone before I went to sleep.

I dreamed that it was the hair from a dinosaur. A raptor. It escaped and killed me. When I woke I reminded myself that dinosaurs didn’t have hair. And my technology wouldn’t work on them anyways. Or would it? Maybe if this were an action movie from the 1990s. I would stick to just humans. In 30 days the gray haired man would be standing in front of us. And then, if it were someone famous, I would know exactly who they were.

After a few weeks my clone and I became great friends. We were essentially twins, but even closer than that. He let me tattoo his hand to stop the confusion that was occurring around the building, but people were quieter too. They didn’t know which one of us was which so they were hesitant to initiate a conversation.

That day I could see most of the face of the cloned person. Person X. Who was it? I tried to guess, but still after seeing the semi-formed face, I had no idea. The seven foot box that contained it wasn’t much help to determine who it might be.

I decided that I couldn’t control my curiosity any longer. I opened the box. I could have never guessed who was inside.

“Oh my god it’s Einstein,” my clone and I shrieked together. They planned to make Einstein work for them. Who are these guys? What do they want with his knowledge of physics?

“No, I can’t do this. I have to destroy it,” I said.

“No, wait!” My clone stopped me and said, “We have to see Einstein. He is back on Earth. He knows so much. We can’t just destroy him.”

“We’re their prisoners right now. And they’re money minded people. They’re not going to share Einstein with the world, they’re going to sell him to the highest bidder. Maybe it will be fine, but maybe that knowledge will be used to hurt people.”

My clone replied, “So we delay the process. In the mean time we create multiple clones of us and let us fight and escape from here and take Einstein with us.”

“Even if we had ten of us we couldn’t beat them. Our mind is strong, but our body is weak.” We both laughed. “However, Box 2 will save us. You’re right though, we need to delay.”

“Okay, so Box 1 is Einstein, but who is in Box 2? I thought it was another clone, like me?”

“I know you think that, but that’s just for safety purposes in case it goes wrong you can say that I tricked you. He will save us though. He has to.”

Bob2 checked Box 2 but he could not recognize the man inside.

I hid the second box when I heard the Chairman approaching.

“How is the progress?” he asked with a smile.

“Chairman, I got the person, he is Einstein!”

“Wow that’s great, is he alive?”

“He’s not ready yet. There’s been some delays.”

He saw the box and was content. Thankfully he didn’t look around for a second box.

“What are you going to do with him?” I asked.

“He has a great future ahead of him and a country is ready to take care of him. He will be leading a team to start new research.”

I could barely control myself. This could lead to disastrous consequences.

“Next week I will come here with a renowned scientist. I’ll explain to him about your research and how it works. He’ll also start to work with you.”

I told him that will be fine.

Once he left, Bob2 came to me. “We are in danger. If you tell him how it works, he no longer needs to keep us alive. He will kill us! We have to do something. Call him and ask him for a week leave. Let us escape from here.”

Bob2 continued sadly, “At least for me get two days leave. I’ve only been alive for two weeks. I haven’t even been outside of the lab. There’s all these memories, but they’re not real.”

I laughed. Bob2 was very sad but he didn’t know what I had planned. It was nice to see how I would react in a different situation.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “Box 2 will save us.”

“Who are you cloning? Superman? Batman? Because unless it’s a superhero, I don’t know if that will happen.”

I told him to trust me or trust himself. Bob2 wasn’t convinced. A few days later both of the boxes were ready. I activated Box 2 and told him about our situation and kept him inside the room.

The chairman entered with the scientist and a few other people who looked like pretty bad guys. I counted seven people in total. If myself and Bob2 could each take two, that would leave 3 for the person in Box 2. But maybe we would be lucky to take out one a piece. I felt sick to my stomach. I didn’t think this was going to work. The only hope was the element of surprise working in our favor.

“Is Einstein ready?” asked the Chairman.

“Soon. He was over 50 so it will take an additional few…”

The Chairman took out his pistol and pointed it at me. He asked Bob2, “You know how to make Einstein live, right?”

Bob2 was shocked and said, “Yes.”

“I think one person is enough.” We put up our hands in protest.

“You know everything?” asked the Chairman to Bob2.

“Because I am going to kill Bob. You will be the only Bob hereafter. You will be the original Bob. You’d get to go on living and get to see the outside world too.”

I was shocked. I was counting the seconds before I died.

Unexpectedly, Bob2 stepped in front of me and crossed his hands. Chairman warned him to move out of the way.

“Chairman, Bob is a good person. He already finished Einstein, he’s just in testing so he’s not ready yet. Please go and meet him. Using the hair he created two versions, Box 1 and Box 2. But the Box 2 process produced better results, go in and see him. He’s waiting for you.”

The Chairman was surprised and happily went into the room. Then the next person followed. And the next after that. They continued to go, but didn’t come out. Eventually they were all gone. I smiled.

“Thanks for pretending to be me, Bob2. I thought the Chairman might kill me, so I asked you to take my place for the plan to work. I couldn’t allow him to kill you so I had to get in front of the gun.” We embraced one another.

“Who is the box 2 person?” asked Bob2. “Tell me.” “

“I won’t tell you. But you can see him. He’ll be familiar to you.”

I said loudly, “Mr. Box 2 please come outside.”

From that room, Mr. Bruce Lee came out

Bob2 was surprised, “Oh, you saved us!”

He replied, “You have given life to me, man.”

Bob2 was confused. How was it possible to get Bruce Lee’s hair. I took the Chairman’s bag from the table and pulled out a hardcover book.

“Do you remember this?” I asked Bob2.

I opened it and said, “I saw it on eBay. A barber had a hobby and collected famous persons hair with their autograph. After his life was over, his son put it on auction on eBay. It was too expensive to buy.”

“But once the Chairman knew about our research he purchased it, yet he only gave us the hair from Einstein first.”

“Well, then how did you get Bruce’s hair?” asked Bob2.

“Once I saw the hardcover I tried to recall where I’d seen it before. One day he forgot his bag and I looked through it. I saw Bruce Lee’s hair and I decided that he was our best chance.”

“Thank you again, Mr. Lee.”

“Hey, you know guys, I’ve always wanted to meet Einstein,” said Bruce. And so we activated Box 1.




7. Successful Failure


True or false? Yes or no? Success or failure?

Any one of these is only possible at one time. For example my statement can either be true, or it can be false. It can’t be both true and false. But in the case of my research, I’ve found a way to have both success and failure, what’s known as a successful failure.

FLASHBACK


I am an army scientist. I don’t want to share my name with you because you may be able to guess which country I belong to. My research is classified at the highest levels. We maintained it as above top secret even after implementation of the more practical aspects. No one need to know about it. Only three people knew about the research. And I was one of them.

Why does it need to be secret though you ask? Well, if you know history, you’ll know why. Do you know the history of the word “OK?” Alright, well I’ll tell you. It was a long, long time ago. Every day an army captain would send a status report to the base about how many were killed in both sides of the war. If none had been killed, he would report it as 0 Killed. And shortened it to 0K. Now “ok” is used in everybody’s life. Another thing is that we couldn’t live without the internet which was invented for the army. If my research wasn’t top secret, it might catch on like these other things have. And that would not be good.

However, I trust that you’ll speak to no one about what you’re going to read here. So I will share this with you. Of course our research is for our soldiers, but it could be helpful for all soldiers around the world.

If I question one of my soldiers and say to him, “You are in the war but you don’t have any weapons. You cannot escape. You have two options: either die or be captured by the enemy.” My soldier’s response will be, “I will fight. If I am about to be caught I will commit suicide.” This is because of war crimes. If he gets caught by the enemy, it will not go well for him. This is real to him. To the world it might be on page 4 of the newspaper if it’s in there at all.

My invention is a simple medicine. It helps soldiers escape from enemy hands. If he’s about to be taken captive, he self-injects the medicine. He will become invisible within five seconds and that way he can then return to base and avoid being captured.

You might ask if it’s possible for every soldier to be invisible and to win in combat that way. But I tell you that it’s not possible. The medicine is in it’s nascent stage. While the soldier is invisible, no one can see him or hear his voice. He can see others and listen to them but they cannot touch or feel anything. Even walking takes a while to learn. Operating a weapon or fighting someone would be impossible.

This sounds too good to be true, right? But it’s not. Like I said, the research is in it’s earliest stages. The main challenge is how long the soldier can stay invisible. Currently it lasts for five minutes. That’s far from enough time. One hour is what I’m shooting for. But I’ve researched so many hours, days and months. It just doesn’t seem possible to extend the duration of the invisibility. Of course since it’s a secret research, I can’t go down to the local university and ask the biochemists there to help. And there’s a severe lack of test subjects when your research is classified. I have however tested it on a deaf and dumb test subject, two monkeys and myself.

I was spending more and more time but I just couldn’t figure out how to extend the duration. How fast the medicine was taken up into the body and made the person invisible seemed beyond my control as well. My senior officer, who was the last person along with the deaf and dumb test subject to know about the project lost his hope and told me that I should just give up on that aspect of it. But I still had hope. I didn’t want to give up because I felt like I was so close. But no matter if I increased the quantity given or made chemical changes, it was no use. Of course I could be invisible for a long time if I kept re-injecting myself, but since it was impossible to manipulate objects while invisible, I had to become visible again to administer more drugs. This was, of course, a problem.

I was sleepless. I worked so hard that even my monkeys had to help me during two shifts. After two days of hard research with no marked improvement I felt so bad that I went to my house and stayed home the next day. I tried to refresh myself. I needed sleep so badly. I don’t think I ever slept so much.

Once I woke, I felt very refreshed. Again I started to think about how my medicine worked. What my medicine did was immediately spread into the blood and in five seconds it acted. My medicine is a bacteria, you see. And it only makes the person invisible until it loses its high level of concentration. Once the immune system responds and the bacteria die, the person becomes visible again. I’ve tried to improve this duration, but time and time again I’ve failed, as I’ve told you.

After an hour, possibly due to good sleep or a change of place, I had an idea. I rushed to the lab.

I pressed myself for days. One day at midnight I believed I had come upon a breakthrough. I went and looked at the two monkeys who were both asleep. I decided to let them continue to sleep and went to the room where I kept my human test subject. I smiled at him and he smiled back at me. I gestured that he should get ready for an injection. He got ready, we’d done this before.

I injected him with the medicine, and of course, after five seconds he disappeared. I started the stop-watch and had it counting. I didn’t know what he was doing but I knew he couldn’t hurt me. I checked the stop-watch. It had crossed the five minute barrier. I cross checked it with the wall on the clock as well. Yes! For the first time it worked as expected. Now it had crossed the ten minute mark. And then the twenty minute mark.

Around the thirty minute mark I became worried. What if he had escaped? I ordered gate security to alert me and find the dumb-deaf test subject. I knew he could not cross the area because the medicine lost power in the time it would take if it was only the five minute medicine. Since he couldn’t hear, maybe he was out there still, waiting for the medicine to wear off. The only option for me to find him was to go invisible and search for him. So that’s what I did.

As I had thought, he hadn’t left. He was asleep on the bed. I just looked at him and thought that I hadn’t started the stop-watch to measure my own time. But I couldn’t do anything about that now. So I just watched the clock. Three minutes went passed. Maybe I could way for an hour. That was the time that was expected. But the deaf-dumb guy should become visible before me. I was afraid for him. But he seemed to be sleeping and I wanted my test results to be accurate so I didn’t bother him. I went out to the security guard and wondered if they could see me. They couldn’t. They were still searching for him. A soldier entered the lab and placed my lunch and left. But I wasn’t hungry or thirsty at all, another benefit from the invisibility.

Flashback ends.

Finally my research was a success. When invisible people could communicate with one another. There was no hunger or thirst while invisible either. These are the successes of my research.

However, the failure may be greater. It’s been six months since I took the medicine. Today when I woke up, I was still invisible and I don’t see that ever changing. I modified the bacteria so that when they are killed they reanimate from dead cells. I thought the immune system would simply take longer to kill them all. But what happened was an endless chain reaction. When one bacteria dies, another is created and so on and so forth. This will continue until my last breath.

I was so excited to know for certain and to find my test subject that I used the medicine on myself. I knew exactly how to make myself visible. But I couldn’t touch anything. The army believes that somebody kidnapped me and my test subject.

Invisibility feels a lot like death.




8. Ten Million


I am on the way to the office after a month of sick leave. I’m still not fully recovered though. Physically I’m alright, but not mentally. I lost ten million dollars. Whether someone would call it an accident or an incident, I don’t know. Whatever it was, a month of sick leave is not nearly long enough to get over the problem. And yet I’m going back in to the office today.

You’re probably wondering how I lost ten million dollars. Maybe you’re wondering how I earned ten million in the first place so you can do the same. Well I’m not a politician or a celebrity those things are for certain. To know how this happened, you’ll have to listen to my story.

I don’t want to share my name or anyone else’s name involved because that’s confidential and I value my privacy. What I will share with you though is that I’m in my early thirties and I completed university at a world famous business school. In university they taught me that creativity and hard work were the two key factors to success.

After I graduated I landed my first job in a VC firm. VC firms, or venture capital firms are companies that identify startup companies and fund them. After the startups grow, the VC firms are benefited by revenue from the startup or maybe even buyout the company.

The first thing I realized after joining the job was that there was a large difference between business school and the business world. Creativity, hard work, whatever. Those were nothing without one thing: luck. Maybe luck is 50%, maybe it’s 99%. But when it comes down to luck, business school has nothing to offer.

Luck plays a major role in funding, mergers, acquisitions, all types of business. I know that because I worked for eight years in funding companies similar to my first job. During my experience we funded hundreds of companies. Some promising and useful projects failed. Some funny and useless projects succeeded. The reasons for failure were varied, no two were exactly alike. But every success could be attributed to luck. Every single one.

During my time I came across a lot of founders who had ground breaking ideas. Some had excellent business plans. Some were environmental initiatives as well. But venture capital firms are only ready to fund based off of return on investment (ROI). So unfortunately I rejected a lot of great projects over time.

Even if they were going to invent a time machine, venture capitalists couldn’t care less. We’re not about advancing science. We’re about making money. If you don’t have a way to monetize it, you aren’t getting funded by us.

So you understand how funding works. Soon I forgot all my business school lessons. I understood that the new lessons from every day business were more important. I was a fast learner and I hardly made any mistakes until just recently.

After my eighth year with a stellar record, I got an offer from one of the top three internet companies. The benefits package and potential for bonuses were amazing. The salary wasn’t shabby either.

The position I was hired for is Product Acquisition Manager. Our average target is to acquire three potential companies per month. While some months we acquired only two, other months we would get four or even five. Finally at the end of the year we had acquired thirty-five companies. I was completely satisfied with my job. I’d changed the future of not only our company, but of every internet and mobile user as well.

After my first year, I got an attractive offer from a competitor company. They were only in the top ten, not the top three like my previous company but the salary and year-end bonus were almost double what I was making. I took it as a challenging task. I worked hard for six months and we acquired twenty companies. I was big competition to my previous company. Unfortunately, the money was drying up. My new company had poor brand management and the decisions of management were even worse.

Then without my involvement at all, management made a billion dollar deal. I looked at it and I could tell that it was a billion dollar mistake. But it wasn’t for the company’s growth. It was for the board member’s bank account’s growth. They cheated everyone who had invested. I’ve felt bad knowing that. And I’ve tried to do my best regardless of their corruption. Companies have contacted me for background on that acquisition deal since I had a decade of good deals behind me, but I simply tell them I wasn’t consulted.

One day I declined buying a mobile application startup that they valued at two million dollars. I didn’t think it was worth buying. It was a personalized mobile home screen application which shows related applications based on current time and place. Maybe it saves a few seconds or a minute worth of time per day. That is, if you were well organized and didn’t have many applications. I thought it was pretty useless to tell the truth.

Well, up until now I was the golden boy. But I wouldn’t be for much longer. After a couple days, my friend of a friend who works for another venture firm called and told me that the mobile application company was ready to pay 10% in cash if they were acquired. This is the first decision I made against my morals. But I figured if the management were in on the take, I was going to get my share as well. I talked up the mobile application company to management and they bought it. I got $200,000 in cash and immediately opened a foreign bank account to hold it.

After that, I started to do it more often. The friend of a friend got his cut and I got my larger share. He acted as my underground agent and I’ve made over $600,000 in the last four months alone. I wasn’t sure why I liked it. Maybe it was because management was so poor or there was little job satisfaction. I tried to reason with myself for whatever reason. I reasoned that the startups needed money and I was helping them. And that my company needed startups and I was helping them. But at the end of the day it was all to make me a little bit richer.

As I said before, luck plays a major role. All the talented people are not the winners. And all the winners are not talented people.

But I used my talent to fund some companies that I liked and also myself. I knew I was doing wrong, but my company was doing the same. If I don’t sound moral any more it’s because I’m not really the hero of the story. My focus is to get a few million and then retire. Well, maybe get a few million and then a few more million and then retire.

It came to a point where I was working on an acquisition deal for a virtual reality gaming setup. I gave an estimation of the maximum offer for seventy-five million dollars to my bosses, but opened the talks around forty-five million dollars. Management was ready to acquire. I knew the deal was genuine and worth acquiring so I didn’t think of a background deal. I only used background deals for non-potential companies.

Surprisingly I got a call from my friend of a friend. He said the virtual reality company is ready to talk business for one-hundred million and to give me ten percent. I thought that it was an amazing deal and that I would get ten million dollars in just one deal. I agreed with their offer and told management that I’d heard Microsoft planned to buy the company and that we should up our bid to a hundred million. Like always, management bit. The deal was completed but the VR company said that they’d give me cash only after the deal. Other than my first deal, all other deals I got were wire transferred to my Swiss bank account. I knew ten million was a huge amount so I hired a private detective agency to secure myself and monitor my home for a few days for safety reasons.

After the deal was completed, the Virtual Reality company invited me to a farm house. I went there with my handgun for safety. They first gave the commission to my agent. A suitcase. He opened it up and inside was a million dollars. They gave him the key, he locked it and took it and followed me into the next room when they brought me there. They gave me a key and a locked cart. They told me to open it, which I did.

That was the first time I had seen so much money. I randomly picked up a few bundles of cash and checked. I multiplied rows, columns and made sure the denominations were right. I concluded the trolley contained ten million dollars or so close that it wouldn’t make a difference. They helped me put the trolley into the backseat of my car and bid me good luck.

I drove away carefully. A few miles down the road I came upon a police checkpoint. They shined the light into my window and asked for my driver’s license, which I gave them without hesitation. They looked in the back and shined their light on the trolley but didn’t ask any questions. It seems like they were checking for drunk drivers. After running my license plate they let me go on my way.

I went to my house and pulled the trolley out of the car. The trolley was so heavy, but that was the weight of luxury. My security came with me and offered to help lift it but I rejected and wheeled it to my bedroom. I locked the house and even the bedroom. I then opened the trolley and took out the stacks of money. I set it on my bed and laid on it like I’d seen done in the movies. It wasn’t very comfortable but I felt like a millionaire. I saw myself in the mirror surrounded by money, money and money. I wanted to snap a picture and upload it to Facebook but I controlled that emotion really quickly. That would be the most dangerous thing I could do. So I packed it, locked it and put it beneath my bed. I didn’t fall asleep as I was watching TV and checking the trolley every ten minutes. I don’t know when I fell asleep but I woke up at 8 AM and panicked. I checked the trolley. It was in exactly the same place it had been.

I finished eating breakfast and once again wanted to see the money. This time in the daylight. I went to pull the heavy trolley from below the bed. It was weightless. I was shocked and checked the lock. It was locked as well. I searched for the key throughout the house to find it in my pocket. I opened the trolley. Empty. How? I felt crazy. I checked the locks on the house. Locked. Checked the security cameras, the detective agency, my agent, even the virtual reality company were no use. It seemed to be magic how I missed the ten million. My agent didn’t lose his money, it was only me.

Now like me, you might guess that the agent, detective agency or even the virtual reality company may have stolen my money. But there’s no clue to be found, there’s no proof to be had. I went to another detective agency but they said they couldn’t help. It wasn’t who stole it, but how? Read over the story again or recall the details. How was it stolen? I ran my own story back in my mind.

After that night I was upset to say the least. I was sleepless. I couldn’t go to the police. I felt sick. So I stayed home the first day. And then the next day I stayed home and took sick leave. I moved to a different place to stay. When I go anywhere I search for that money, my ten million. It’s like I was blind and saw for a second and then became blind again immediately. But it’s nowhere to be found. I have to make that money once again. I know I can do it.

Today our company is giving a demonstration of a new gaming console. The gaming console teamed up with the virtual reality start up. They produced a virtual glass which has had a good response. They announced that it was the future of gaming. I don’t really care for games and I had lost the ten million so I didn’t want to watch. But I sat in the front row regardless.

In the beginning they rambled on with a big boring introduction without a demonstration. For a long time I didn’t see a gaming console on the stage or on the screen. For a demonstration they wanted a volunteer from the audience. Many were interested by they picked a college student. He eagerly approached the stage.

The demonstrator gave him a watch as a gift before he began participating. He asked him to put it on which he did. The demonstrated had another volunteer from the audience, a woman whom he gave a bracelet. She put the bracelet on as had the college student the watch. The demonstrator asked the college student if he could catch the rabbit and pointed to a spot on the stage. He ran and ran around the stage chasing what seemed to be nothing. The demonstrator then had the woman join in the chase for the rabbit. They ran around the stage but couldn’t catch it.

The demonstrator turned to the audience and explained that what they were wearing was the gaming console. This was the future of gaming. You will feel it and you will believe it. The audience burst into applause which seemed to bother the volunteers who were still trying to catch the rabbit.

Now I understood. The virtual reality company cheated me. They gave me an empty trolley and the key chain. The key chain had to be the gaming console.

But I didn’t have any proof. Did I throw away the key chain? Even if I had it, could I get my money? No of course not. Now I knew how they stole the money but I couldn’t do anything. There never was any money, only an illusion.




9. Custom Kids


This story is based on a pre-approved patent, soon we may see some advertisements related to this patent.

Place: FuturZ Kids Clinic

Time: Near future

Stephen looked at the visitor’s area and confirmed that no one was watching him.

“I’m not convinced, Mary. Can we reconsider?” he asked his wife.

She looked at him silently.

“Test tube babies were used in the last century for couples were incapable of giving birth. Now though… this is a business. They’re taking advantage of everyone. What I’m saying is—”

“I know what you’re saying. You’ve already said it hundreds of times,” she replied. “I know we’re both capable of having a child on our own. But you know why we have to get some other person’s DNA to give birth to a baby. I’ve also told you that a hundred times. It’s because-”

“Excuse me,” said the receptionist. “Our kid design consultant is ready for you.”

Mary smiled at the woman and she pulled Stephen into the room. A forty year old woman sat in an executive chair. An assistant stood nearby with a tablet for note taking. Mary and Stephen sat across from the well-dressed woman.

“My name is Jennifer and I’ll be your kid’s design consultant,” she said looking at Mary. “I checked your records and I see that you’re able to give birth to a custom child. So let’s design your dream kid!”

Jennifer touched corner of the glass table and it began to display images. Only now did Stephen and Mary realize that it was a large computer display that was between them and the design consultant. The screen asked:

“What gender do you prefer?”

“Male,” replied Mary.

Jennifer touched the male option and now it showed various appearance based options. Based on Mary’s suggestions, Jennifer chose skin complexion, hair type, eye color and many more traits. Finally when she believed she had designed Mary’s dream baby, she showed him to her in various angles as it was rendered in 3D. Mary touched emotions options to see him crying, smiling and laughing.

“Is this the design you’d like?” asked Jennifer.

Mary had some more critiques and asked if he’d have freckles. She wasn’t a big fan of freckles.

“I can show you how he’ll look when he’s 5, 10 and 25 or any age in between.”

“Really?” asked Mary. Her face brightened as they touched the kid’s age. He grew from a child to a boy and from a boy to a man.

“This is, of course, provided that he gets adequate nutrition and exercise. His weight could vary, but this is set up for an average look at him during these ages.”

“I think this is great. But perhaps we could go more similar to the actor Tom Cruise?”

Jennifer selected the appearance option again and changed the appearance. After about half an hour of customization, Mary was delighted with the kid’s appearance.

“Alright, so let’s customize his behavior and his attitude. I’m sure you don’t want him to be angry or mean, so let’s cross those out!”

“My son should become a tennis player. He should like painting as a hobby as well.”

“Both great choices,” replied Jennifer. “Is there any special characteristic that you want him to inherit from your husband?”

She looked at her husband and thought for a while before she said, “No.”

After they completed the behavior and attitude section, Jennifer once again confirmed the kid’s settings and then they started to discuss price. After that, she told them about the warranty and gave them the terms and conditions agreement. The terms and condition agreement was over one-hundred pages. Stephen was surprised by the length.

“Don’t worry, Stephen,” said Jennifer. “This is customary procedure for all kid design clinical labs. It is a favor to you really. It even includes 24 months warranty.”

Stephen browsed the document quickly and asked, “What does warranty mean for a kid?”

“Nowadays it’s a common thing for test tube babies in medical procedures. Basically the warranty means that in case of a miscarriage or if there is some kind of accident with our process that we will help you to conceive again without an additional fee. Most only cover until the birth, but our warranty is extended as it covers after the birth until the age of two.”

“Well what-”

“When do we start the process?” asked Mary.

“It takes about a week to process the paper work. After that we will implant the child into your body. It’s perfectly safe. Afterwards, we will regularly monitor your health and tell you about the growth of the baby.”

“That sounds great. Can I get a print out of what my baby will look like and his features?”

“Why not? But not a print out. We have something better.” Jennifer touched the print button on the glass display and informed them that it’d be just a few minutes. After they had returned to the waiting room and fifteen minutes had passed, the receptionist brought out the doll which looked exactly like her baby would. Mary took it and hugged it with a big grin. Her eyes shone with excitement and forgot her surroundings, pretending that she was holding her actual baby.

AFTER NINE MONTHS


Stephen waited outside the delivery room. He couldn’t bear to see his wife in pain and she understood. As he stood there, praying his words were interrupted by a baby’s cry. He smiled and thought about his wife. The doctor came out and said to him, “both are going to be fine.”

When Stephen saw the child it looked exactly like the 3D printed baby toy.

Soon they knew the meaning of parenting. Days ran faster. Today was the baby’s first birthday. The kid didn’t even care about his birthday. He simply lay on the bed playing with an iPad, drawing something.

“He’s not playing the tennis game on the iPad, all he does is draw,” said Mary.

Stephen laughed and thought to himself that the child was only one year old. She was too worried about the tennis game. The doorbell rang and broke him out of his thoughts.

A man and lady smiled and showed their ID cards to Stephen. They introduced themselves as being from Futurz Kids clinic. Stephen recognized the woman as he had met her previously.

“Welcome,” said Stephen. “We expect Jennifer will be here also. But the birthday party doesn’t start until later tonight. You’ve shown up a bit early.”

“This morning,” began the lady, “Jennifer noticed the birthday invitation and wanted to give the best gift she could so she checked on your baby’s statistics. The problem though is that she found an issue and she asked us to come here to you.”

“What issue? What’s wrong with my child?” asked Mary.

“She didn’t say exactly, but she did say that it was urgent and she wanted us here with you when you spoke to her,” said the man.

Stephen dialed Jennifer’s cell phone. She asked them to go with the man and the woman from the clinic back to the clinic and she’d explain there. The baby began to cry and the lady from the clinic began to soothe him.

When they were at the clinic, Jennifer greeted them and brought them into her office.

“I’m sorry. Just today we found that the baby was not designed per your requirement.”

“The appearance is exactly the same. How can that be?” asked Mary

“Is there a health issue?” asked Stephen. “Why is this urgent?”

“No. There’s no health issues. It’s a behavior and attitude issue only,” replied Jennifer. “It’s not what you wanted.”

“Yes, perhaps I can see that. He only draws. He isn’t playing the tennis game I got for him on the iPad. Is it possible to change this behavior?”

“It’s not possible. The behavior is hard coded into his DNA.”

“We’ve paid you too much! You weren’t careful. I want to change my baby’s behavior. He needs to play tennis!”

Stephen calmed his wife down and turned to Jennifer.

“We’re alright with how our kid turned out. The appearance is the same expected and that’s more than we can ask for. We’re going to go now. We don’t need your service any longer.”

He walked over to the lady he had left their baby with for the meeting but their baby was nowhere to be found.

“Where is our baby? We have to go”

“Sorry Stephen,” replied Jennifer. “We can’t give the baby back to you. Per our terms and conditions if anything is wrong in the baby’s specification we have to help you again to get the right specifications. It’s not optional.”

“What the hell are you talking about? This isn’t a mobile phone or an electronic gadget that you can just replace with a warranty. We need our baby. We love him. We’ve lived with him and can’t live without him. We don’t care about the behavior specification. Either gives us our child or we will call the police and have you crooks arrested.”

“Please calm down, sir,” replied Jennifer. “Let me explain first. The terms and conditions are binding. The police and the law could not help you in this. As per our terms, we have to give you a baby per your specifications. I already informed you that any issue in the first twenty four months was covered as per our warranty. We have to give you a replacement. But before the replacement, we have to collect the wrongfully delivered item. It’s on the 79th page.”

Mary suddenly started to cry. Stephen tried to calm her down. He called their lawyer on the phone and explained the situation and told him to arrive here urgently.

Once the lawyer arrived at the clinic, he took Stephen aside and said, “Listen, the police and the court cannot help us. I’ve seen these kinds of cases and maybe we might get a damage settlement, but we can’t get the baby that way.”

Mary joined in the conversation and said loudly, “We don’t need the money. We need our baby. I’ll pay whatever it takes to get that baby back.”

The lawyer was silent for a while. “Okay. You both wait in the visitor’s area. I will try to talk with a senior representative for the company. Maybe they know what happened exactly and we can get a settlement outside of any court proceedings. That’s our best bet.”

The lawyer went in and talked to Jennifer and asked to meet the person who had originally ordered the baby’s characteristics. Because although the baby looked like Mary and Stephen’s order, the behavior and attitude had come from another person’s order. Jennifer said that she couldn’t share the other party’s confidential information.

“While designing babies, you’re using behavior from your characteristic library, right?” asked the lawyer. “So what is the problem? If both parties are ready to agree, then the problem is solved, right? Otherwise just give us the baby back. It’s not a problem. Why are you so adamant about this?”

“No, this baby was built using special characteristic specifications which was provided to us from sample DNA. That’s why we cannot give the baby back. It will create problems in the future. This baby must be claimed as the son of the other customer.”

The lawyer thought for a second. “Listen, I understand your point but if the other customer agrees, we can do paperwork to solve the future problem. The root cause of the problem is yours but you’re not taking any steps to solve it. At least talk to the other customer on behalf of us.”

“Give me a few minutes. I will talk to them and get back to you,” replied Jennifer.

She left the room and the lawyer called Stephen and Mary in to the room. He told them, “I will definitely get the baby. If she says the customer will not give the baby I can find their contact information and I’ll meet them and explain the situation. They can always make another.”

“We need the baby now though. It’s time to feed him. I want to see him,” she said as tears filled her eyes. Stephen also looked distraught.

“Have patience. I will get your baby back for you permanently.”

The woman assistant came into the room and told them, “The customer wants to talk to one of you over the phone now.”All of them stood up, but the lawyer told them, “you’re too emotional. I will talk to them and bring you back the news.”

After the lawyer had left the room, Mary turned towards Stephen. “I don’t think we will get the baby. We need to ask for him temporarily and escape. We can leave the city. We don’t need anything other than our son.”

Stephen wiped away a tear that was rolling down his cheek. “Law and order are against us. We cannot run. Our lawyer will get our child back for us. I promise.”

When the lawyer entered the room again he was alone. His face was dull. Upon seeing his face, Mary understood completely.

“They’re not ready to give the baby. Let me talk to them. I will explain the pain of a mother. They must be moved by that. They will be parents or are going to be parents right? They will understand.” She started to get up and leave the room.

“Hold on, Mary. Listen. They aren’t the parents. The problem isn’t even that they’re not ready to give up the baby. It’s just that once you know the truth, you won’t want him.”

“That’s not true! Whatever the reason is, it makes no difference! Is it a serious health issue? That’s no problem. We have insurance. I need my baby.”

The lawyer motioned to Stephen and asked him to follow him into the hallway and to talk about the fee for the visit to the clinic. Afterwards, Stephen came back into the room and spoke to Mary.

“We don’t need this baby,” he told his wife.

“How can you say that? He’s our son!” Mary screamed. “Please, I want my baby. I want my baby.”

“The baby we got was ordered by a research lab. Maybe a loving environment could change him but the DNA is based on a bad personality.”

“It doesn’t matter! No matter what he’ll grow up to be good. We’ll raise him right.”

Stephen interrupted her and began to shout. “Stop! Listen to me. I told you a lot of times that custom kids are not required for us we can have our own. You didn’t listen and now you are crying. Pretend this was all a dream.”

“How can you say that? It’s not a dream. I gave birth to him. He’s my son.”

“It’s not your dream baby though. You know who they took the personality from? God help us, they took it from Adolf Hitler.

Mary still cried for months afterwards but she never uttered the sentence, “I want that baby” again. In a few months they conceived naturally.




10. Meat Store


This story is based off of a real invention. It was invented for a benevolent purpose but if it falls into the hands of an evil man it might be used for terrible purposes.

Scientists had invented artificial meat which was created entirely in a lab using a very small amount of actual meat tissue. For example, from a small piece of meat they were able to produce more meat. And then from the artificial meat they could continue producing more artificial meat.

NEAR FUTURE


Due to the increased population and higher demand for food products, only rich people have been able to afford grains and vegetables. Fortunately, scientists have created artificial meat for the rest of the people to eat. This invention has saved the world from war and has kept the people eating. If not for this invention, surely there would have been a third world war. The whole world consumes artificial meat now. Even vegetarians who used to be against meat for cruelty reasons have started to eat it. Since no animal is killed, they believe this artificial meat is ethical.

To limit poverty, the government has instituted a price ceiling on meat prices at $5 per pound. It may be mutton, beef, chicken, pork or another type of meat. Five dollars per pound is the highest it can be sold for.

Soft drinks have long been dominated by Coke and Pepsi. The artificial meat market is dominated now by Fleshd and Meatu. Food is no longer a problem since anyone can get a pound of meat for $5.

First, Fleshd introduced ten new varieties of meat including rabbit, camel, horse and others. And then Meatu answered Fleshd by introducing wild animals such as deer, tiger, elephant and more.

Australia banned kangaroo meat and India banned tiger because they were the national animals. Meatu has added even more animals to engage buyers. Fleshd has concentrated on new bird meat as of late. Both brands have more than a hundred varieties of meat so far.

No one eats chicken or beef any longer. Those are boring tastes compared to tiger and emu. The World Health Organization has noted a rise in obesity and has urged both brands to do research on their meat before they market it, but little research has occurred for dieting. As both companies try to add rarer and rarer animals to their product lines, the fatter people become as they rush out to try the new types of meat. And both companies love this because they make extensive profits.

Fleshd just announced that they will soon release some types of dinosaur meat. Research has been completed and it’s under testing. They’ve started accepting pre-orders.

Their television ads have run. “Dinosaur meat: it’s a million years old, but it’s still hot.”

Meatu’s Board Meeting.

“In the last few months we’ve been simply copying Fleshd’s ideas,” began the CEO. “We need to introduce new products. Our revenue was lower than their’s last year. I want fresh ideas. Now they are going to add dinosaur meat to their product line. How can we answer them?”

“We will also add dinosaur meat,” said a senior board member.

“Excellent answer,” said the CEO

“Not dinosaurs, but some other ancient animal, perhaps?” said another board member.

“Alright, can you tell me the name of this ancient animal?”

“Let me google it and I will come back to you.”

“Let me ask you. Why are people pre-ordering dinosaur meats? It’s because they know what a dinosaur is. If you go and Google some ancient animal that no one has heard of, it will be a mere oddity. Some might try it, but if they have no idea what it is, it’s not going to cause a commotion like dinosaur meat has. Another issue is where would you get the meat from this animal? Fleshd got their dinosaur eggs in the Southern part of India and worked a miracle to get the meat from them.”

“What if we introduced flavored meat? Perhaps with different seasonings?”

“Once again, I have to teach the basics. The price of the meat is fixed by the government. We cannot go above $5 per lb. If we add flavors, that will increase our production cost. We want the highest profit margin possible. How can we add good flavor at a cheap price?”

For a long time no one spoke.

“I have an idea. We can introduce a new variety of meat.”

“Yes?”

“Human meat.”

“What?!” yelled nearly all of the board members.

“Sure. Why not?” said the young board member who stood up and started to walk around. “Listen, we’re not killing anyone . No one’s dying like they would be if you were a cannibal. Remember? We simply collect a small amount of tissue from someone perhaps with a needle and we can produce it in the lab. This will be a game changer. I guarantee it.”

Most of the board was against it. They thought it would be a press relations nightmare. No one would buy it. Who would want to eat a person?

“Alright. Do you think anyone would give their tissue to be eaten? I don’t think so.”

“Why not? It’s not that much different than donating blood for cash. In our case they have to provide a small piece of tissue. It’s not hard. But would anyone eat it? It depends on whose meat it is. If it were a sexy model, we could use that as marketing. Sexiness sells, guys. And a model is a lot sexier than a dinosaur.”

“I can’t believe I’m considering this. What if it doesn’t work?” asked the CEO. “How can we recover?”

“Well we’ll announce it on April 1st or what known as April Fool’s day. People will think maybe it’s a prank and they’ll warm up to it once they find out it’s real. Then we’ll have a pre-order. If we get a really bad vibe about it, we can just say we took the joke too far and of course there’s no such thing as artificial human meat.”

Finally they settled on the idea and secretly got to work. Based on a recent survey they had a shortlist of the three sexiest actresses and paid a few million to take tissue and choose one of them anonymously for the new meat product.

They consulted with their legal team and confirmed that there wouldn’t be any legal problems. But based on different countries and leaders, they may find that the meat would be banned. But other meats had been banned before which wasn’t such a big deal.

Once people realized that the announcement was for real, the pre-orders broke records. They were pre-ordered more than iPhones. Meatu had an expected growth of more than 50% in the next quarter’s revenue.

They started shipping on the promised date. Since there was a high volume of orders, Meatu faced a lot of shipping delays. Many countries banned the product and didn’t allow pre-orders.






Urgent Board meeting in Fleshd





“How did we miss this. We have to remedy this. We need to introduce human meat as well, but what will be the difference maker for us?”

An analyst for the company spoke up. “We underestimated them as simple copycats because they never introduced new things before. Some fresh people gave them this idea. Maybe we need fresh minds to compete with them?”

“Well, we can also book a famous actress or model and introduce human meat,” suggestion a couple of board members.“No, that won’t do. We don’t simply copy our competition. Who has another idea?” asked the CEO.

Silence.

“Listen. I invited a new person. He’s joining us as the Vice President of Creative Endeavors. Let’s give him some time to analyze this problem and bring a great idea to our desk that we can discuss at the next meeting.”

After a few minutes of conversation a guy in his thirties entered the room.

“This is Robert Maxwell, the new VP of Creative Endeavors.”

The board didn’t expect him to be so young. They weren’t impressed with his appearance and most were wondering where he came from. Why was he important enough to give a top role in the company to?

He introduced himself

“Hi. As he said, I am Robert Maxwell. I worked for Meatu for five years. During that time I gave them a lot of valuable ideas but they were content with copying your company. I’m here because I know that Fleshd can destroy Meatu in the marketplace. This is where we will form the new ideas that bring us into global dominance of the artificial meat market.”

“Thanks, Robert. Alright everyone, let’s meet again in a few days. Cathy will let you know more tonight about the schedule. I think big things are happening and we’re going to come out on top, especially with the help of Robert.”

“How about now?” asked Robert.

“What do you mean, now?” said the CEO.

“I have an idea now. Is it alright if I pose it to the group?”

“Sure, why not?” replied the CEO

The board was surprised that he already had an idea.

“Listen, we can’t go buying up every actress or celebrity like Meatu has. And there’s not enough rare animals in the world to supplant human meat in the marketplace. It’s a big seller, there’s no doubt. The only meat that can compete with human meat is, well, human meat. If we were to go get a celebrity, they’re going to want a lot of money because now they realize how big their endorsement would be. Then Meatu buys someone, then we buy someone and celebrities make a ton of money off of us. Are we here to make celebrities richer?”

“Certainly not!” shouted an older member of the board.

“Exactly. We’re here to make ourselves richer. The only solution left is crowd sourcing.”

A few of the board members nodded in agreement but the rest looked lost.

“Let me explain. In crowd sourcing, we get ideas, a product or a service from people in a crowd. For example Apple has the Appstore with more than a million apps. Apple could never develop this many apps on their own. It’s all developed by the Apple developer crowd. The AppStore revenue is a billion dollars every year. It’s not because they sell hardware. It’s not because they develop software, it’s simply a facilitation mechanism. Apple took a lion’s share of the profits and shared some with the developers as well. It’s a win-win situation. Apple doesn’t need to buy the apps or develop the apps and they still get paid.

“Similarly, we will launch the “Meat Store,” so anyone can sell their meat. Before they can list that meat they have to send their tissue and get medical clearance from us. We keep all the tissue in the storage center and they can upload details for it. Whoever is interested in buying the meat can order it through the website, mobile app or by phone. We will grow the tissue and fulfill the order. On demand processing. We share some royalty with the person who gave the tissue and we’re good to go.

“In this model, people who sell their tissue get a recurring income for a one time tissue collection. They market themselves. We don’t need to pay any upfront cost. Celebrities will come to us. Actresses will come to us. They’ll all want a piece of the action.”

The board members were very excited with this. They immediately set the plan into motion.

Six months later, Fleshd’s revenue increased by 200% and thousands of celebrities were part of the Meat Store. And they were rapidly adding more people. Human meat was now the trend. And food habits were categorized not as vegetarian, or vegan, but by whether or not someone ate human meat. Humanitarians and non-humanitarians.

PRESIDENT’S OFFICE


The President and Home Minister sat on opposite sides.

“What did you want to discuss so badly?” asked the President.

“It’s about the Fleshd Meat Store.”

“Yes. I know about it. I ordered some. Shipping is somewhat slow, but the product is exciting, isn’t it?”

The Home Minister was surprised because he thought the president was a non-Humanitarian.

“Do you eat human meat, Mr. President?”

“Sure, why not? The whole country eats it nowadays.”

“There’s concerns though. A lot of college kids are on the Meat Store. It seems like we’re going back to the old stone age days. Humans eating humans. This is the reality of the situation.”

“Who’s dying from it? It’s only artificial meat. It’s not real. You can donate your hair to Locks of Love. You can donate your blood. When you die you can even be an organ donor. Or heck, you can donate a kidney when you’re alive. It’s their own choice to be part of the Meat Store,” replied the President.

“Sure, sure. It seems to be under control now, but the future will not be good. Or Future Prediction software predicts that there will be alterations to that. Things will go badly.”

The Home Minister opened up his laptop and logged in to the government’s Future Prediction Application. He selected hot trends and chose the future of the Meat Store. It displayed the following report:

People may start to see other people as food.

Some may feed human meat to animals and the animals will develop a taste for it.

It encourages racism. No longer does Chinese food come from China, it is Chinese people. Some say that certain people are dark meat or white meat and argue about who tastes better. There’s already been tension.

Over 80% of the world will consume human meat.

Human meat will illegally spread to countries in which it is banned.

If someone doesn’t have their meat in the store, someone might forcibly take a tissue sample from them to see what they taste like.

“As you know, our Future Prediction software is 80% correct. It may not predict every possibility but most of those will come to pass. We need to ban human meat immediately and recommend other nations to follow suit.”

“It’s only 80% likely to happen,” said the President. “Other than the last point, there’s not much danger in the situation I think. If they happen, they happen. Also, human meat will be taxed at a higher rate so that we can bring in more money for the government. That should help fix some of the problems, right?”

The President decided that he wasn’t going to ban human meat. The Meat Store saw a lot of business. The government allowed flexible pricing for human meat and celebrities earned even more money from the Meat Store. When a new celebrity launched their meat in the Meat Store, sometimes the price exceeded $100 per lb. Humans eat humans and the government got revenue.

However, three months later, the President decided to ban human meat. No one knew why. Not even the Home Minister.

Turns out, the President learned that his daughter was planning to sell her tissue to the Meat Store. He found out by accident. As a father he wasn’t ready to hear how many pounds of his daughter’s meat were being sold every day.




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS


Family Members

Thanking all my family members.

Editor

Thanks to Editor Kyle Sharpe who did a great editing job and point out issues.




OTHER BOOKS BY AUTHOR


SFS1 - Science Fiction Short Stories $1.99




ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Krishna Kumar resides in India and is a new author who writes mainly in the science fiction genre. He is currently working on a novella and above everything else puts his readers first when writing stories.

He is a techie with twelve years of experience in the IT industry and currently works for an IT product startup as their Senior Technology Architect. Writing is his passion and he’s been writing since he was ten years old. This is his second publication after the SFS1. He hopes you’ve enjoyed reading his work.




Reach him at www.writerkrish.com

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Twitter @writerkrish




Copyright


Copyright © 2014 Krishna kumar

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher.