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| Fanfic by Bill Dungsroman 03/27/2003, 11:53am PST | ||||
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Senor Barborito wrote: Setting: 23 years ago. LifeCorp, a secret cloning facility catering only to the very elite. A man sits with his wife, both obviously of expansize wealth and social stature. The man occasionally self-consciously favors his lower right side. The senior VP of LifeCorp speaks to them in quiet, even tones. Veep: ...tistics definitely favor the possibility of inheriting the condition. Are you still in chemotherapy, Mr. Roberts? Mr: Elder, if you please. Yes, I am. The surgery went well, however. Veep: That's good, I've heard that bowel resection can be quite...difficult. Is the colostomy bag permanent? Mr: So it would seem. But we aren't here to discuss my condition, at least not primarily. Veep: Indeed. As I was saying, given your medical history, and the fact that your wife's father also suffered from bowel cancer, statistics definitely favor the possibilty of your children being affected. Your wife is pregnant, yes? Mr: Yes. Just recently, thus our concern. Veep: It's simple at this point. Soon after the child is born, we extract a small DNA sample from him or her. Mrs: We're hoping for a girl. Veep: How nice. After she is born, we take the sample, and then use it to generate the Facsimile Anatomomical Growth Unit, or F.A.G. Unit, if you prefer. Mrs: Is that what you call them? Aren't they just clones? Veep: We like to avoid using that term, and others like them. They have become such ominous and unsavory words for a process that provides so much hope and salvation, don't you think? Mrs: I have some questions, regardless. Mr: Now, Janice... Mrs: No, Thomas, I'm going to ask these questions. Veep: By all means. Mrs: How will...it...she...live? Floating in a tank? Veep: No, no, not at all. Since brain tissue development is as important as other tissues, a simulation lifestyle will be implemented. Mrs: Simulation lifestyle? Veep: Indeed. The F.A.G. will be raised using an elaborate simulation of normal childhood, a precise mixture of typical child experiences augmented by deep sleep suggestion imaging to round out the experience. Through adolescence and young adulthood, the F.A.G. will be encouraged - mostly through subliminal suggestion - to become uncommonly accustomed to staying inside, preferring the surroundings of its own home. Most experiences will be staged events or implanted through imaging in the sleep cycle. Imaging during sleep cycles will provide the illusion of leaving the house. At an appropriate age, it will be transferred to the young adult program, where it will be assigned a highly-paid, highly-trained assistant, preferably (but not exclusively) of the opposite sex. Mrs: How do you ensure the...uh...F.A.G. will prefer isolation? Veep: Encouraging an interest in computers and programming, fostering a dislike of most people (except the caregiver - that relationship will be cemented) - including and especially the fictitious "family." The Unit will be allowed to watch television and the like - we want brain connections to be as similar as possible to your child. However, we will further encourage isolationism by programming that discourages outside interaction. The Unit will be given games and other diversions. If all goes well, the Unit won't even want to leave the house, and it won't even think it's odd to not, regardless of what it reads or sees. It won't be unhappy, at least not anymore than anyone else. Mrs: Have you encountered any problems, side effects, I suppose? Veep: A few. Some of the other F.A.G.s have developed odd fixations, almost like suppressed memories of the artificial gestation. I have seen accounts of desires to become mechanical and transcend the flesh. On rare occasion, Units may develop a limited psychosis, but the caregiver will assure the Unit it has a fairly common affliction (with provident manufactured literature on the condition) and will appropriately assist. Mrs: So it won't have much contact with other people? Veep: None that aren't trained and monitored by LifeCorp. Perhaps, when it is older, and other nonphysical highly-limited means of communication are made available in the future, it may have extended contact with the outside world. Anything to improve verisimilitude without risking contamination. Mrs: And when harvesting is necessary? Veep: Mrs. Roberts, it will simply cease to be. It has no soul, after all. Mrs: (thinks) Does it? Mr: Do it. -Fin- |
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