Part V(a)

I sat upright with a violent jerk. I knew I had just been cloned. My lungs always had a wet feeling to them… 

I clutched my chest. I had just been shot, I was bleeding—my mind echoed the pain. I had trouble breathing.  I sobbed. Jodie died and I was dying. Or I had just been. 

It was dark and dank. So dark and dank it seemed to have a physical presence. It certainly wasn’t my clone lab. I don’t think that antibiotics would have made much of difference. I rolled to my side and hacked viciously. 

Continue reading “Clone Insurance Part V”

I sat upright with a violent jerk. I knew I had just been cloned. My lungs always had a wet feeling to them… I clutched my chest. I had been shot, I was bleeding—my mind echoed the pain.  I couldn’t breathe. I shook with emotion, remembering my own death. Jodie died in the explosion and someone shot me on the oilrig. 

I had been dying just a moment ago; I looked down at my finger, hooked still trying to carry out the last order given to it. Pull the pin. 

Continue reading “Clone Insurance part IV”

I placed the electrodes on my scalp and gave myself a sedative.  I would sleep and the computer would map out the memories.  It took several hours so it was best to do it overnight.  I’d wake up in the morning snug in my own bed and I’d have a current backup.  No worries.  I wanted to make sure I had it up to date, the Yakuza job was tomorrow night.

Continue reading “Clone Insurance Part III”

I.

I have never doubted God’s Wisdom in that He knew what He was doing when He didn’t give babies the ability to remember being sustained in liquid (that they don’t actually breathe) and transitioning to air. They go through this horrible trauma without any lasting memory. The experience of using lungs the first time is akin to the panic of drowning in air, like a goldfish that has been dropped while cleaning it’s bowl. It works out for us, not undo much for the goldfish. I certainly understand why babies cry during this transition. I was in warm liquid and suddenly not. I hacked up the nastiest stuff imaginable. I convulsed and hacked… and twitched… trying in vain to expel the remaining liquid. God spared me this memory when I was born a couple lifetimes ago. Technology did not.

Continue reading “Clone Insurance”