James Halperin - The First Immortal

“And how many have they killed? This we do not know. Someday, should we have the technology to reanimate the potentially living, we will learn either that the Prometheus Protocol works, or that the human race has been sold a trillion ECUs’ worth of snake oil. But the real issue is this: All clients who purchased the Protocol had every right to conclude that they were doing so on the basis of proven science. We now know that the defendants committed a scientific fraud, and that over the past twenty-five years almost a third of a billion people have made their biostasis decisions based upon that fraud.

“Every person in this room, perhaps every person watching the broadcast of this trial, awaits the revival of loved ones in biostasis; loved ones legally entitled to receive the best possible science upon which to have their suspensions designed. The magnitude of this fraud, unprecedented in history, is tantamount to mass murder. We seek the only justifiable sentence, the maximum penalty: Final Death for both defendants.”

Defense attorney Pierre Villard scanned his notes.

“Tough case for the defense,” Father Steve said to his friend.

“Do you think they’ll really get Final Death?” Gary asked. Like most world citizens, some hidden part of him hoped not. Final Death, in a way, would be like a declaration that brain vitrification had no merit, an intolerable concept.

Father Steve shrugged.

Predictably, in the two weeks since Nobine et Cie’s fraud was exposed, acceptance of cryonics had barely diminished. Although Prometheus Inc.’s stock price had lost eighty-three percent of its value, sales of the Protocol itself had fallen by less than ten percent. Some refused even to believe that the French mouse revivification had really been fraudulent—in spite of the defendants’ public confessions that it was. Throughout the world, people had come to depend upon the scientifically assured viability of cryonics. It would be at least as difficult to rectify this misperception as it had been initially to create it.

Gary considered all of this a fascinating lesson in human psychology. And while he felt less certain of vitrification today than he had two weeks earlier, cryonics remained to him the only rational choice.

Defense attorney Villard began: “Does cryonics not give you a better chance for life than conflagration, or feeding your body to the worms? My friends, do any of you really believe there’s a better method of brain preservation than the Prometheus Protocol? In 2005, before Drs. Binette and Noire perpetrated their so-called fraud, there were approximately 39,400 suspensions performed worldwide. Almost everyone who died was cremated or buried. Cremated or buried! This year, there will be over thirty million suspensions.

“Certainly my clients profited from a fraud. So take the money back. All of it! But did they intend harm by their actions? Dr. Binette has proven, through his own ACIP testimony, that his primary purpose in conducting the deception was to help popularize cryonic suspension. I remind you again that in 2006 most perfectly rational human beings were happily incinerating or interring their deceased loved ones. How many of those unfortunate dead will ever be resurrected?

“Dr. Noire, like Dr. Binette, has voluntarily taken a full series of Truth Machine scips. He admits his motives were mostly financial, but still believes that brain vitrification under the Prometheus Protocol offers the best chance for identity and memory preservation upon revivification.

“My own view is that someday my clients will be remembered as heroic scoundrels, two men who managed, through duplicitous means, to change for the better the world’s perception of the science of cryonics. Ultimately, their actions will have saved most of an entire human generation…”

“Amazing,” Father Steve said. “He’s arguing that these crooks are heroes! I admire his creativity.”

Gary understood that in essence they were both. “But think back to what trials were like before the ACIP Talk about creative! Villard’s argument is downright boring in comparison to most pre-Truth Machine trials.”

Father Steve laughed.

“A long time ago Toby and I used to talk about deciphering the laws of nature,” Gary said. “Deciphering, then overcoming them. We’d sit there and try to describe future technologies, each trying to top the other. I don’t think either of us ever came up with anything like the Truth Machine.”

“It sure changed everything.”

“Yeah,” Gary agreed, “and this is just the beginning. That device might be our greatest weapon against entropy. It brings simplicity and order to every interaction. Just look at its application here: exposing a scientific fraud that nobody would’ve otherwise discovered.”

“I know it’s caused sleepless nights for a lot of people in my line of work,” Father Steve deadpanned. Startled, Gary looked at him, then laughed.

Judge Benat LeCagot announced, “Since there are no fact issues in dispute, prosecution and defense have waived jury participation. Therefore the AI machine will render sentence.” He addressed the defendants: “Please rise.” Binette and Noire almost jumped from their seats, trembling as they awaited the verdict. LeCagot read to the defendants from the screen of his IBM Solomon-4 justice AI:

“Both defendants will forfeit their entire estates including all future Prometheus royalties, such funds to be used for future cryonics research. They will immediately undergo suspended animation under the Prometheus Protocol. Should the Protocol work, they will someday rejoin the living. If not, may God have mercy on their souls.”

Gary noticed that Noire appeared considerably more worried than did Binette.

April 17, 2033

—A computer designed by a team of Intel engineers scores 97 on a randomly configured human IQ test. Many pundits consider the team likely to win a Nobel science prize.—The American Real Estate Association projects that the present glut of office and retail properties will continue to worsen through the end of 2044, when cyber-commuting and cyber-shopping are expected to peak at 96% and 94% respectively. Currently, almost 20% of shopping and office work is still performed on premises. The AREA predicts further massive conversion of commercial space into residential and indoor farming usage.

Fazli Azambai shoved the ancient timing pencil into the last of the aged cakes of Sem-tex, and whispered an incantation to himself: “Verily, when Allah seeks the downfall of a culture, He first corrupts it with vanity.”

The plastique explosive had been passed down to him from his father’s father, a Mujahadeen freedom fighter against the atheist Russian invaders. The fifty-four-year-old Sem-tex had been purchased in dollars supplied by the American government during the Carter administration, and manufactured in Czechoslovakia, a long-defunct former Soviet satellite. Fazli found himself amused by the irony that his homeland’s two greatest enemies had thus helped enable today’s glorious endeavor. Now these fruits of Satan’s wealth would be used, Allah be praised, to help stop the infidel madman, U.S. President David West, from erasing the Czech and Slovak’s chosen borders—along with every other sovereign national border—to create a single World Government. With World Government in force, how could the independent state of Peshwar, with its huge ethnic Afghani majority, fully separate itself from Pakistan, that degenerate nation of westward-leaning sycophants?

Fazli molded the substance to the last of the carefully selected overhead lighting fixtures, set the final timer, collapsed the folding ladder, and returned it to its storage closet. Then, still wearing his stolen cleaning services uniform, he left the hotel.