K Gillenwater: The Man in 14C: A Collection of Science Fiction Stories

Subdermal implants? What next?

The genetic treatment center was full of babies and young children robed in shiny, silk-like gowns that floated around them like gossamer butterfly wings. I saw no one in the treatment area over the age of four or five. The nurse had no gown for me to wear, so she ushered me into a treatment room and told me to wait.

A doctor, younger than me, entered the room. He held another of the thin metallic things, but this one was larger, about the size of a clipboard. “You are an unusual case, Mr. Pasquale.” He looked up from the 3-D image of DNA twisting on the clipboard. “We haven’t used clone DNA before to craft a course of treatment.”

“Anthony’s DNA is my DNA, isn’t it?” I knew we weren’t identical, but I assumed my DNA had been the building blocks for the Anthony who replaced me.

“Yes. During the cloning process, your wife made a few requests and one of them was to ensure your clone would be cancer free.” The doctor brought up a new 3-D image that showed two strands of DNA one labeled ‘Pasquale, Anthony’ and the other ‘Pasquale clone.’ “So, although your DNA was used as the base for creating the clone, his DNA is slightly different from yours. However, the simulations we’ve been running since your wife contacted us show that we should be able to cure your cancer. It might take a few treatments, since your original pancreatic cancer seems to have spread, but it shouldn’t pose much of a problem.”

“That’s it?” I couldn’t believe my ears. “You give me some injections, and it’s over?”

“It’s over.” The doctor smiled.

A nurse entered the room with tray. “Your patch is all ready, Mr. Pasquale. Could you roll up your sleeve please?” She put on a pair of gloves.

“A patch?” I had imagined an IV drip or at least a serious-looking needle.

She removed the patch from its petri dish container using a pair of tweezers. “Yes, a patch.” She placed the damp patch on my upper arm and smoothed it out until it stuck firmly to my skin. “You can shower in this and do everything you normally would do. The patch will fall off on its own once the treatment has been delivered. Usually a few days.” She pressed the patch a few more times. “The doctor will schedule your next appointment with us and explain the side effects.”

“Thank you, Pamela.” The doctor pressed a button on the wall, and what once was a bare white wall transformed into a screen, much like the screen back at the spaceport displaying the picture of Mount Fuji. An appointment calendar appeared with highlighted dates and times. “We are looking at you returning to us in about a month’s time. What days work best for you?”

I touched the patch on my upper arm and marveled at the simple treatment for such a deadly disease. When I’d flown to Tokyo, it had been a last ditch effort. I was months from death. My cancer had metastasized. It had been a shot in the dark. No one had any real help for me. Chemo had done nothing except extend my life by a few months. And now I was to believe everything was over? I no longer needed to think about the number of days I had left, but could think in terms of years and decades.

I agreed to a date and a time, not knowing what I’d be doing. But I didn’t care. Did it matter that I didn’t know how I was going to make a living? That my daughter had grown up without me? That my wife had married my clone? All of these changes paled in comparison to the gift of life I’d received. The world around me had changed, and now I had the luxury of playing catch up. A life I never thought I’d lead. A future I never thought I’d see.

The doctor led me back to the waiting room. My wife, Judith, turned from the conversation she was having with a tall, pretty lady with brown hair.

“Mandy, go give your dad a hug.”

Mandy, tears in her eyes, ran to me, folded her arms around me. I took in the smell of her hair, her skin, her clothes – sweet and fruity. My daughter had grown up into a lovely young woman. I hugged her tight. The same hug I used to give her every day before I left for work.

“Daddy, is it really you?” she whispered in my ear.

“Yes,” I whispered back. Although my child had changed, my paternal instincts instantly felt the connection.

A young boy of about eight or nine stepped shyly toward me.

Mandy let me go and welcomed the boy into our tight circle. “This is Noah, your grandson.”

2037 was a land of marvels. Technology and medical science had moved ahead leaps and bounds, but what hadn’t changed in all that time was the importance of family, the bonds of love, and the meaning of fatherhood.

I’d made it home.

K. J. Gillenwater survived life as a military linguist and a technical writer before pursuing her dreams to become the novelist she’d wanted to be since grade school. She writes what she loves: suspense, romance and science fiction. When she isn’t writing, K. J. loves to watch way too much T.V., bake, hang out with her family and enjoy the view from her front porch.

If you enjoyed this book, K. J. Gillenwater is the author of three paranormal suspense books, one romance, and three additional anthologies which are available in print and in ebook format through Amazon. Please visit her website for more information about her and her books: http://kjgillenwater.com

His blood for a cure. It’s a cruel and deadly bargain…

Nine curses. Nine weeks to live. Joel Hatcher has inherited more than a family legacy. It’s a time bomb that’s ticking down to the inevitable: his own death. But the curse won’t die with him. Unless he can find a way to break the cycle, his younger brother becomes the next victim.

In the throes of the third curse, the Painful Pox, Joel makes a last-ditch decision to seek the help of a young spiritualist.

One look into Joel’s suffering eyes, and “Madame Eugenie” finds herself torn between doing the right thing and fulfilling her most secret wish—bring her husband Adam back from the dead. Joel’s cursed blood is the missing ingredient in her resurrection rituals, and Adam’s spirit whispers seductively that there’s only one way to get it: steal it.

As Gen and Joel unearth his family’s past to track down a cure, they come closer to each other, and to a horrible truth. To live, Joel must lose everything. Up to and including the woman he has grown to love.

Warning: This book contains curses, sacrifices, a ghostly husband, a crazy cat and a love that defies all odds.

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/yawslrst

After the suspicious suicides of several student test subjects, Paula Crenshaw, research assistant and budding telekinetic in Paranormal Sciences at Blackridge University, suspects they may be connected to a little black box designed to read auras. Professor Jonas Pritchard, the head of the department, doesn’t believe his precious experiment could be causing students to drop like flies. But when her best friend almost dies after her encounter with the black box, Paula is certain there is a connection. She pulls her cute, but sloppy, office buddy, Will Littlejohn, into the mystery, and they get closer to the truth behind who might be financially backing the project and why. Haunted by memories of a childhood accident, which she believes she caused with her untamed psychic abilities, Paula finds herself lured to the black box and its mysteries.

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/c2zb938

Werewolves are roaming Northeast High, and Savannah Black is determined to hunt them down.