James Halperin - The First Immortal

Gary Franklin Smith and Kimber Chevalier had been married two months when they hosted a New Year’s Eve celebration at their luxurious new home, inviting only relatives, plus Toby and Father Steve. Almost every member of her family attended, and Kimber had insisted upon inviting Gary’s entire family as well, especially her new father-in-law.

To his delight, she embraced Ben at the door and escorted him inside.

“My dear girl,” he said. “Of all my son’s extraordinary successes, winning your heart was to me his most gratifying.”

She giggled with unembarrassed mirth. “Come. I want you to meet my parents and grandparents…”

While he chatted with his son’s new in-laws, Ben Smith made up his mind about something he’d been mulling for a long time. It wasn’t the perfect answer, but it was the best he could do.

Ben knew his daughter-in-law would be the perfect ally. Thus, later that evening, with Kimber present as a buffer, he told his son: “I’ve decided to clone your mother.”

Gary ceased all motion and speech, as if disconnected from a power source.

“I have a lock of her hair,” Ben added. “Trip tells me that’s enough.”

“But she won’t be… Mom,” Gary finally said. “She’ll only be a stranger who looks like Mom.”

“Not exactly,” Ben explained. “Every person clones differently, and even every identical clone is raised in a unique way. So she’ll be an entirely different person, genetically the same as your mother, only without life-experience. She’ll know us soon enough, though, and love us, just like Alice does.”

“Who else have you told?” Gary asked.

“Your sisters, moments ago. And Brandon.”

“What do they think?”

“Didn’t ask for their opinions. I’m pretty sure Rebecca’s for it. The others, well, I can’t really tell yet.”

“Do you propose to bring her back as an infant or an adult?” Gary’s voice was now evenly modulated. But a tiny muscle danced at a corner of his mouth.

“Haven’t decided yet. Either way, I need your support, because I have to do it.”

“Dad, I’m not—”

“Ben,” Kimber interrupted, pulling Gary’s right arm, “will you excuse us for just a few minutes?”

“Of course.”

When the couple returned six minutes later, Ben was chatting with Brandon, Jan, Katie, and me. Kimber spoke. “If you decide to bring your wife back as an infant, Gary and I would like to raise her.”

Ben stared at her. Now it was his turn to feel profoundly disoriented. “That’s a wonderful offer. But a mother raised from infancy by her own son?”

“Actually,” Brandon volunteered, “it’s quite common now for people to raise clones of their parents from infancy. There’ve been at least five million PCI parenting licenses issued over the last few years. In fact I’ve never heard of anyone being turned down—other than multiple requests, of course.”

Ben marveled at how quickly the latest revivs seemed to assimilate. Sure, Brandon had been studying to become a eugenics counselor, but barely ten months ago, he was still in suspension. Now he was talking about this stuff as though it had been common practice his entire life.

“That’s quite an interesting statistic, honey,” Jan said. “But what’s your opinion about it?”

“I think it’s normal for orphans to want to resurrect their parents,” Brandon said. “I mean, if you’ve decided to have a child anyway, why not have one with the exact genetics of a lost loved one?”

“Are there many clones of currently living people?” Katie asked.

“Uncommon,” Brandon said. “Not too many of us want exact duplicates of ourselves around, and of course nobody can clone a living person without that person’s permission.”

“Sure you want to do this, Kimber?” Ben asked. “It’s much harder to raise someone from infancy…”

“And more satisfying, too,” Kimber said. “In a way, it would be Gary’s tribute to his mother. Besides, it should be less traumatic for the new Marge to be raised as a normal child than to become conscious as an adult with only generic, impersonal knowledge and no experiential memory. Besides, the AIs say clones raised from infancy are less likely to get lost in, or overuse, modern addictions. I know how important that is to you, Ben.”

“Not only that,” Brandon added, “an infancy cloning would give you both more time to decide if you really want to spend the rest of your lives together.”

“Oh. I just kind of assumed we would. But I guess…”

“It usually does work out that way, Ben,” Brandon said, “simply because the same qualities that attracted the original couple to each other would still exist. But not always. At least it hasn’t always happened with adult clonings. Too soon to compile meaningful statistics on infants, though, since most clonings of deceased spouses have occurred within the last decade.”

“Boy,” Katie said, “this stuff makes my head spin. Back when I was suspended, I thought I was taking a risk donating my corneas. But now I know at least a dozen people who’ve been revived from just their frozen heads.”

“I interviewed a married couple last week,” Brandon said, “both revived from their brains alone. The amazing thing is that he had killed her, almost seventy-five years ago. Set her afire in a fit of rage, and received the death penalty for it.”

“Then what happened?” Katie asked.

“I offered to have his brain frozen for revivification research, and he accepted. Six decades later, the state revives him by cloning his body to house his brain, and cures his mental illness. He starts a successful business, builds a new life, and revives his wife; his own murder victim! Now they’re married again, happily, this time.”

“Amazing,” Jan said, “especially to anyone from our generation. During the twentieth century, if you’d predicted anything like that would happen, I’d’ve called for the men in the white coats!”

Kimber turned toward Gary. “Shows the healing power of time.”

Ben smiled to himself. Gary must have understood her point, he decided. It wasn’t subtle.

“When I viewed the AudioVid record soon after the crime itself,” Brandon said, “I could never have foreseen this outcome. But I guess a lot of people reconcile after a divorce. Well, this was a divorce, albeit by the ultimate means. Plus, he did arrange for her reviv, and he’s fixed in the sanity department. She loved him once, so maybe it’s not that shocking.”

“Sure it is,” Gary said with a playful smile.

Brandon laughed. “Yeah, come to think of it…”

“But the fact that it could happen at all,” Gary said, “shows that the information in your brain is what really matters. Too bad Mom’s brain wasn’t frozen.”

Ben nodded sadly, as guilt over a 104-year-old lapse bubbled to his consciousness.

“Anyway, what do you say, Dad?” Gary asked. “You want us to raise her?”

“Bringing her back as an adult would be easier,” Ben said. “And two decades is a long time to wait…”

“Nothing like it used to be,” Katie said. “I once thought two would be my whole life, and now I hope to have at least a hundred more!”

Ben stood silently, distracted by thoughts of the real Margaret Callahan Smith. Forever lost. “Okay,” he finally said. “For the next twenty years Marge’s clone will be your daughter. Then I hope she’ll become your mother, too. Or is it stepmother?”

Brandon shrugged.

Ben turned toward Gary. “Just don’t go telling her I’m not good enough for her!”

Gary barked a laugh and wondered if it sounded as forced to the others as it did to him. “I’ll try not to influence her either way.”