Date: Tue, 19 Oct 1999 13:05:32 -0600 From: Robyn Herrington Organization: University of Calgary Subject: [WRITERS] SUB:HALLOWEEN CONTEST: An Elliptical Ending An Elliptical Ending I opened my eyes. Or at least I tried to. But the pain shrieked across my forehead as I started the motion, and I squeezed my eyes shut in response. That hurt more, if possible, and my eyelids flicked open in astonishment. The light burned, and I blinked furiously, tears dripping from the corners of my eyes, across my cheeks, into my ears. I tried to lift my arm, to shield myself from the light, and felt the pressure on my arms. It felt like a warm damp towel laid over them, and over my chest, but as I pushed up on it, it stiffened so that my arm didn't really move at all. I started to lift my head and realized the same kind of towel laid over my forehead. After a moment, my eyes started to adjust. Then I realized the light wasn't bright, it was just barely enough light to see by, a night light of some kind. "Heyo. Don't move. Do you know who you are?" I couldn't see who was talking, but of course I... Who the hell was I? "Uh, no. Is this a hospital?" "Just relax. You're Mr. Danfield. What's the last thing you remember?" I thought about it. There was... "Oh! The Experiment! It worked! I'm going to live forever?" "Well, Mr. Danfield, you did volunteer to be an experimental subject in the Life Prolongation Experiment. And yes, we're working on it. But if you know anything about scientific research, we can't tell our subjects exactly which part of the study they are in. In fact, this is double-blind testing, so I really don't know what kind of treatment you are getting." "But I died, didn't I? And you've brought me back, so I must be going to live..." "Well, I do know a little bit about the current state of the art, and no one told me not to tell you. See, we've reached a point where we can re-start bodies if they've been stopped correctly and it hasn't been too long since they were put down." "Re-start? That sounds good. So I'll have a long second..." "Well, see, that's the problem. We aren't adding any longer life yet, we've just learned how to kick the body back into life for a little bit, and then it dies again. But we're still studying, and since your money went into the trust, we're re-starting your body to give us more time to study how to bring it back to life. But to give you the best chance, we don't want to waste time with you living now, so we'll put you down again soon." I thought about it. I'd died. I could remember it now. After what felt like years of pain and more legal documents to sign than I had known existed, I'd walked into the research center, laid down on a cold table, and they gave me the injection. Then I went to sleep. "We would like to ask one question, while we've got the opportunity. Do you remember anything from the time you were dead?" I blinked. Did I remember... Was there anything there? Did I remember anything between that life and now? They say if you try hard enough, staring into blackness, you'll see something. Or if you're listening to nothing, you'll make up something. But remembering nothing, it just came back nothing for me. "No, not really." "No gigo, Mr. Danfield. I've got the green, so we'll put you down again now." I felt something, and started to drift away. That's when I remembered the light and the questions. But it was too late. [The] "Ohiogozai,danufirudu-san." I heard one voice chatter, then another voice said, "Hello. Mr. Danfield." I started to open my eyes, but something held them shut. A long chatter in the other language was followed by what must be a computer talking. Could it have been that long since anyone talked English? "Relax, Mr. Danfield. We have you immobilized, but you won't be awake very long. We have improved the restart process so that we can leave you down longer, and just bring you up for a very short time to stabilize your cells." I licked my lips and got a little breath, then said, "What..." This time the computer voice chattered in the foreign language, then there was some discussion before the answer. "What? Ah, what about life prolongation? We are still working on that. So far, it is much more complex than expected. But the good news is that Prolong Corporation now owns significant parts of the economy, and all restart patients have been declared perpetual experimental subjects, with their upkeep and maintenance guaranteed as long as the Corporation continues. So you have an excellent chance of still being one of our experiments when life prolongation becomes available." I didn't answer. At least they were still bringing me back to life. There was a burst of talk in the other language, ending with "...oyasumi, ojisan." "Do you remember anything from the time when you were down? Please answer quickly, because we should put you down again as soon as possible. We have learned that there seems to be a maximum amount of time for restarts, and we don't like to waste any of your chances. If you don't remember anything, we'll put you back down immediately. Goodnight, old man." I thought about it. I could remember the light, and some of the questions, but if I talked about it, I'd have to spend time up. And if what he said about there being a limit on restart was right, I didn't want to waste it on helping solve religious questions. So I breathed in again, and managed to mutter, "no." The lights went out again. [dream] My eyelids blinked. It was slow, smooth, and I didn't do it. Tears started as soon as I realized that I wasn't blinking, my eyelids were doing it themselves. "Mr. Danfield? We won't waste any time. Do you remember anything from being down under?" I remembered. Oh, God, yes, I remembered. "No response. Put him down." The lights turned out. [seemed] Wake... [almost] Wa... [as] ... [real] .. [as] . [life] . [.] . =====================***********======================= Robyn Herrington rmherrin@ucalgary.ca Editor: New Currents in Teaching and Learning/InfoServe University of Calgary Ph: 220-2561 Leadership lifts a person's vision to higher sites, raises a person's performance to higher standards, and builds a personality beyond its normal limitations - Peter Drucker =====================************======================