MergePunk: An Ooorah & WattpadPunkFiction Anthology

Methuselah - @elveloy - NanoPunk + Immortality SF

Methuselah

A NanoPunk + Immortality SF story by elveloy

"Brek: Winning the Race for Immortality!" screamed the headline. 

What!? Donald froze for a second, his hand clenched around the tiny e-reader. Had someone stolen his research? Who? How?... He took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. There must be some mistake, he thought. There had to be a mistake. Most likely the writer had got their facts wrong. Taking another deep breath, he flicked the tiny screen to the left and read on.

"'Amaranthine is the drug of the future,' claims Jon Brek, CEO of Brek Industries. 'Used appropriately, Amaranthine can double, perhaps even triple, a normal lifespan.'

Speaking last night before a select crowd at Brek Industries' Annual Dinner, Jon Brek announced their new wonder drug Amaranthine, is on the verge of being approved by the FDA.

'We expect Amaranthine to be commercially available within the next six months,' said Jon Brek, smiling. "Now, obviously I can't show you a two hundred year old man, Brek Industries hasn't been around that long, but I'd like everyone to meet Mr Salvadore Morales. Mr Morales is one of our first clinical trial successes, and he is... one hundred and ten years old!'

The crowd erupted into applause as apparently a middle-aged man, this reporter could swear was fifty at most, jogged onto the stage, hands clasped above his head..."

A drug. Donald sat back, his hands trembling slightly. Just a drug. His research was safe.

Drugs were nothing. Anyone could make a drug.

No, his machines were the answer, tiny self-replicating machines that would last more than a pitiful hundred years, replacing every damaged cell as it occurred. His current subject had already lived four times longer than its normal lifespan. Unlike drug-enhanced flesh, his Nanobots would last for centuries. Maybe even longer. NanoLabs was going to rue the day they had thrown him out.

His mind went back to that fateful day for the hundredth time...

~~~

Donald entered the office and reluctantly seated himself in the chair placed for him, in front of the desk. What on earth did the Administrator, Ray Hobson, want to say to him that couldn't wait? He really didn't have time for this. His work was too important. Didn't Hobson know he was at a crucial stage in his experiment? He realised he was tapping his left foot unconsciously, and made a point of placing both feet flat on the floor under the chair. Ready for a quick get-a-way.

"You wanted to see me, sir?"

The white-haired man behind the desk sat with fingers steepled, a grave look on his face.

"You'll have heard about our Research Division restructure?" The question was rhetorical and Hobson didn't pause for an answer. "Times are hard and we need to re-evaluate our Research. Some of the smaller... shall we say less tangible projects will have to be wound up, their resources moved to more commercially applicable projects. You've done some good work for the company over the years, Don, but your latest project... well, it's hardly practical, is it? I'm sorry, Don, but we're going to have to let you go."

"What?" Donald didn't understand the words he'd just heard.

"We're terminating your contract," said Hobson, more brutally. "Effective immediately. Officer Ling will go with you now to collect your personal belongings and escort you from the building."