Brilliant Short Stories

by Stan Mason

  ‘The lives of the clones are terminated by law when they reach the age of sixteen. I’m talking about a real human-being. One who will live on for two or three hundred years... maybe even longer.’

  ‘Well I suppose we could find some people who would volunteer for the project but as soon as the Press got wind of the story there’d be a hell of a lot of smoke.’

  ‘That’s why we have to keep it in-house,’ she told him. ‘I think I’m the one who should volunteer.’

  ‘You?’ he challenged sharply. ‘You’re out of your mind. If something went wrong who’d be able to continue the project? No, it’s out of the question!’

  ‘I’ve already been changing some of my DNA,’ she admitted frankly as he reeled back slightly in shock. ‘We’ve advanced so much on the project that over the past six months I’ve been changing it, a little at a time. I’m not certain but I believe my body is now able to resist most of the three thousand diseases affecting mankind.’

  ‘You’re kidding!’ he spluttered.

  ‘No, it’s true. And there are no side effects either.’

  He wiped his brow as he thought of the ramifications of the development. ‘So where do you go from here?’ he asked curtly.

  ‘I go where Mitzi has gone,’ she replied easily, smiling at the chimpanzee. ‘We need to get a good surgeon to install a mechanical heart and mechanical organs in my body. Not all at once, of course, but over a period of say one year or so. It’s worked with Mitzi so it should work with my body.’

  ‘It’s crazy!’ he spat in confusion. ‘You don’t have to put yourself through it! You really don’t! We have a laboratory of animals and clones. Prove it works with them first!’

  ‘I’m trying to shorten the time to prove that my theory is correct,’ she went on. ‘If we continue on our present time schedule, it may take many many years before we can release information that we’ve succeeded in our quest. If I can take part in it myself, it will shorten that period by decades.’

  His forehead rippled with a frown. ‘But what if it doesn’t work? What if you fail and perhaps die in the attempt?’

  ‘Then it will prove that the theory was premature,’ she replied simply, indicating that her success in her field was far more important than her life. ‘Many successful scientists experimented on themselves.’

  ‘And some of them died doing it!’ he reacted curtly.

  ‘I think our modern technology has done away with the crude practice of initial drug testing. We’re far more advanced these days. That’s why I can submit myself more readily.’ She paused and put out her hand to hold his arm as though she understood his concern for her welfare. ‘Don’t worry,’ she told him. ‘All I need for you to do is to help me to improve my DNA. I reckon it will take about two years to perfect it. You see, I’m hoping to be able to extend life without the use of drugs. DNA alteration appears to be the only way to do it.’

  ‘You’ll have to advise me on what to do in that case,’ he said, moving away to look at the chimpanzee. ‘How did you come to realise that changing DNA would bring the right result.’

  ‘It was the test on the clones. By comparing two of them with the other two, I was able to make deductions in a fraction of the time it would have taken by experimenting on animals. Perhaps someone ought to express those facts to the protesters outside. Clones are extremely useful to say the least.’

  ‘How can you be certain that the evidence from the tests is absolutely correct?’ he questioned, doubting her sanity for an instant. Brilliant people sometimes appeared to be totally insane. Presumably that was how they gained their inspiration.

  ‘Absolutely. I kept two of the clones in one room and the other two in a different room. It took three months to discover what I needed to know.’

  ‘But you said you’d been experimenting on yourself for six months. Are you telling me that you were being tested in advance of the clones?’

  ‘That’s right. I had to know whether I was on the right track so I started on myself three months earlier. When I was sure, I began to use the tests on them. It all worked out very satisfactorily, I assure you.’

  ‘You don’t have to assure me,’ he riposted tiredly. ‘It’s on your head and don’t you forget it. Before you go any further, I’d like you to sign a statement declaring your intent.’

  ‘Why’s that?’ she asked rather puzzled.

  ‘It’s my guarantee if anything goes wrong,’ he riposted. ‘I don’t want to be held responsible for your misgivings.’

  ‘No problem,’ she returned easily. ‘I’ll identify all that I intend to do, in general terms of course, and that’ll let you off the hook. You’ll be in the clear. Now, how about arranging for the same surgeon who installed the mechanical heart in Mitzi to come along and do the same for me?’

  ‘If that’s what you really want,’ he replied uncertainly. ‘But you do know the danger with such surgery. And what about the stainless steel arteries reaching up to the brain.’

  ‘What’s good enough for a chimpanzee is good enough for me.’ She burst into laughter as she saw the funny side of her remark and he joined in with her, although he still felt somewhat uncomfortable by the new development.

  Two months later, unknown to anyone else except Brendan Towers and the surgeon, she underwent the operation. At first, it had a deleterious effect on her health. Coupled with the change in DNA structure, her body struggled to cope with the new heart and the metal arteries. Monique knew exactly what was going to happen. She had seen it occur in Mitzi and recognised the discomfort and problems the chimpanzee had suffered during the three-week period of recovery. Then, nearly four weeks later, the Frenchwoman rose from her bed feeling absolutely fit and well. The first stage of the experiment was over and she had come through it well. However, there was a long way to go before she could be certain of longevity of life let alone immortality.

  Over the next three months, she changed more of her DNA structure deleting a whole host of characteristic disease and ailments gained through the hereditary process, checking her the progress of her activities and the outcome by using the four clones at her disposal. Then, one bright morning, she explained the next step to her assistant.

  ‘Brendan,’ she began seriously, ‘I want you to contact that surgeon again. It’s time I had my liver replaced.’

  ‘I’m already ahead of you,’ he advised her. ‘And there’s even better news. The manufacturers have devised a completely new mechanism that’s far better than the existing one. The last one was supposed to last a lifetime but there have been problems. The new one operates on a different technique and it’s guaranteed to last for ever.’

  ‘Wonderful!’ she responded at the news. ‘Well let’s say it’s time I had a new liver.’

  A month later, the surgeon arrived but, before he carried out the operation, he had some advice to offer his patient. ‘You realise that the liver secretes bile and acts in the formation of blood and in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals and vitamins. I have no idea how you intend to cope with these issues in view of changing your DNA structure. As such, I am loathe to perform this operation.’

  She calmed his fears quickly. ‘Please don’t concern yourself, doctor,’ she told him. ‘I’ve designed my DNA to cope with all matters affecting my new liver, albeit for the first three weeks I’ll need to inject bile into the new mechanism. Thereafter, it’ll induce bile developed in my body and carry out the task on its own.’

  On that assurance, the surgeon operated on the woman and replaced the old organ with the new one successfully. This time, Monique suffered far more than the chimpanzee after it had undergone the same operation. There was a definite problem relating to high blood-pressure and a feeling of malaise which stayed with her for over three weeks. Just at the time when she thought she had made a terrible error in judgement, her health began to imp
rove and her body started to make the bile through the new mechanism. She continued with her research into DNA, making corrections daily to her body, realising that she hadn’t suffered a cold for nearly nine months. This was a revelation and a relief to her because her mother suffered from hay fever and colds and Monique tended to get three colds every year which debilitated her for a period of four or five days. At that time, she became extremely concerned when two of the clones began to malfunction unexpectedly but she soon learned of the alteration in DNA which had caused it, thereby saving her a great deal of trouble regarding later personal conflict in the experiment.

  Four months later, she asked Towers to contact the surgeon once again. A similar mechanism used as a replacement liver had been designed to work efficiently as her kidneys and she was ready for the operation. When the surgeon arrived, he became quite concerned for his patient. She already had a heart and liver replacement as well as flexible stainless steel arteries fitted practically up to her brain. Now she insisted on having her kidneys replaced. Knowing that she was experimenting with herself, it was becoming too much for him to risk. It seemed to him that the woman was never going to stop! Apart from a few minor organs in her body there was just the lungs and the brain left. Surely she wouldn’t ask him to replace the brain! It was far beyond his resolve to do so. However, he was most interested in the subject of longevity of life and concluded that he had become part of the project.

  He carried out her wishes with two operations undertaken over a period of two months. First he replaced the right kidney, giving her time to recover and allowing the left kidney to take the strain. Then, when the right kidney began to function normally, he replaced the left kidney. Once again, it took nearly a full month before she felt fit and well again. She continued working on her DNA structure using RNA facilities which changed the state of her body and her personality. Suddenly, she began to feel invulnerable, able to withstand pressures within her body and without.

  It was almost a year later when she asked to have her lungs replaced. She was forced to wait until the company which manufactured the product was certain they would work properly and efficiently. Everything else about her seemed to be perfectly normal and she was in good health. However, the lungs were one of the most important organs in the body. They were significant structures housed in the chest cavity designed to absorb oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Any error of judgement causing the mechanical lungs to fail would mean instant death for her. Therefore it was a necessity for them to be perfect! On this occasion, her personal surgeon refused to undertake the operation. He considered that the Frenchwoman had had enough changes made to her body and he was unwilling to do any more. Although he agreed with experimentation on animals and clones with regard to the research on the longevity of life, he felt that he could not operate any more on a human-being in connection with the work. Ultimately, Brendan Towers managed to contact another surgeon living in Switzerland to undertake the operation. Normally, any operation on the lungs would be carried out in two parts. Hence, like the kidneys, one lung would be replaced, allowing the other to work independently until the mechanical lung cut in. However, the manufacturers were unable to make them work separately which meant that both lungs had to be replaced at the same time. There was definitely no room for error and Monique was taking the ultimate risk. However, there were procedures which gave the new lungs time to work. She was placed in an iron lung so that her body could take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide without any effort on her behalf. The risk occurred if the new mechanism failed entirely as the lungs removed could not be replaced. Nonetheless, the surgeon was very skilled and he carried out the operation successfully.

  This time, it took more than three months before the Frenchwoman was able to breathe properly. Finally, she became a complete woman in terms of being able to live for two or three hundred years... or probably much longer. It was her main intention to outlive Methuselah with his recorded nine hundred and sixty-nine years although he didn’t really live that long in real annual terms. More DNA structure adjustments were made as time went on but she now felt fit and well... and there were no colds, no ailments, no diseases.

  ‘I think we’ve cracked it,’ she told her assistant one morning, handing him a computer printout some two feet thick. ‘Here are details of all the DNA changes and everything involved in the experiment.’

  He took the sheets from her, placing them on the bench before him. He had watched over her carefully all the time safeguarding her secret from anyone else. ‘Have you checked these details with the animals and the clones?’ he asked pointlessly because he knew that she had carried out all the main elements of the research on herself.

  ‘I may live for a thousand years,’ she boasted triumphantly. ‘Who knows? With the advancement of technology and a greater understanding of DNA and the human structure, it might even be possible for someone like myself, who has dealt with most of the DNA problems, even to the extent of stimulating the brain at all times, to have gained immortality. The only thing left is for me to discover is how to establish retention of the tissues of the body so that they don’t stiffen, weaken or reduce. Perhaps special chords could be inserted in certain parts of the body to act as major muscles for that purpose. Other than that, with a few minor details to research, I suggest that I’m immortal. What do you think?’

  ‘It’s wonderful but how are you going to release the information? To the Press or to medical journals?’

  ‘I’m not certain yet. If I release it to the public, they’ll more than likely misunderstand. Some people will hate me for it decrying that I’ve done something to offend God, most of the others will beat a path to my door hoping to become immortal by taking a simple tablet. I’m going to think about it for a while before coming to a conclusion.’

  ‘Yes,’ returned her assistant quietly, ‘it’s going to turn the world upside down, isn’t it? The promise of living for hundreds of years or even for ever.’

  ‘Even for ever,’ she repeated. ‘I’m going to get some fresh air. I think I deserve it, don’t you?’

  Monique took off her white coat and left the laboratory, blowing a distant kiss to Mitzi in her cage. She felt jubilant at having practically completed such an impossible project in so short a time. Even better was the fact that she was its beneficiary in terms of success, having experimented successfully on herself. She walked across the car park with delight showing on her face.

  ‘I’m immortal!’ she shouted, throwing her arms in the air excitedly. ‘Immortal! I’m going to live for ever!’

  Suddenly, without warning, a car sped towards her. The driver had just entered the car park to discover that the throttle on his vehicle had malfunctioned. Instead of trying to use the hand-brake to stop the car, he kept pressing his foot on the useless accelerator. Monique saw the vehicle speeding towards her but she stood still in her tracks as though hypnotised, seemingly powerless to move out of the way. It struck her travelling at sixty-five miles an hour before ploughing into a row of cars parked neatly causing considerable damage to the first five in line.

  The Frenchwoman travelled much further. On impact, her body vaulted over twelve vehicles, landing with an almighty crash on the black tarmac. Most of the bones in her body were broken while blood poured out all over the ground.

  During the autopsy, the medical examiner was stunned to find so many mechanical mechanisms in her body. ‘I really don’t know how she survived in the first place with all that stuff inside her,’ he muttered to himself. At the foot of the table, Monique’s spirit stared down at the wreck of her physical body.

  ‘Well, where I am now I have immortality,’ she whispered quietly. ‘It’s simply a matter of waiting until one dies!’

  Quackers

  They were all to blame for the accident... all three of them... and nasty it was too, causing three men to go to their death so suddenly, so unnecessarily, so pointlessly. In hindsigh
t, the facts were that they were relatively young, all in their early twenties, newly-married and, without a doubt, they should have known better. However, human nature being so indifferent in its capacity, nothing was ever likely to change their character, their destiny in life, or their end in life regardless of how influential it might have been. It was an accident waiting to happen. The three young men had staggered unceremoniously through the car park, staggering and falling about from an excess of alcohol, hushing each other to keep quiet as they pretended to be searching for their vehicle. In truth, although each of them owned a motor car, none of them had been parked there that evening, and they were about to commit the criminal act of stealing a motor vehicle as well as driving when they had had far too much to drink.

  The evening had started out quite cheerfully. It was their regular Thursday evening binge at an inn on the other side of town. It was great fun; a night out with the lads once every week. As usual, one of their wives had driven them to the public house so that they could drink as much as they could afford. Ultimately, in order to avoid being caught driving under the influence of alcohol if stopped by the police, they would contact her later that evening, when they were legless and totally inebriated, and she would arrive at the inn to drive them home. The arrangement worked extremely well especially as the three men lived in houses fairly close to each other. However, life never runs on an even keel, there is always change. On this particular evening, there had been a tremendously violent storm which had blown in over the Atlantic Ocean. It had brought with it a great deal of thunder and lightning and possibly even a tornado. Subsequently, a number of trees had been felled, crashing across telegraph poles, which caused total disruption in telephone communication. When the three young men were ready to be collected, they went to the telephone box in the inn and rang for the wife who had brought them only to discover they were unable to get a ringing tone. They tried to ring the other two wives with the same result. The lines had been brought down so it was impossible to make contact. This caused them a severe problem as they found themselves on the other side of town, miles away from home. The distance they needed to travel was quite considerable... far further than any of them could possibly walk in their present fractious condition.