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 Prologue: The Grand Experiment

    Alone in his study, Ben Dawson was staring off into space¡ªbut despite outside appearances he was not being idle, he was in his ¡°mind¡¯s eye¡±¡ªa term commonly used to refer to the cybernetic realm in which trans-humans like Dawson


    manipulated their internal ¡°settings.¡±


    Ben was furiously scrolling through options, making adjustments, and creating bits of new code, he was on the verge of a major breakthrough, the likes of which he hadn¡¯t seen since he first invented the ¡°Setter¡±¡ªthe physical interphase inserted at the back of every so-called Grinder, Grinders are those who have inserted the Setter at the back of their neck.


    As incredible as the trans-human revolution he began all those years ago, what he embarked upon now was even greater, he was on the cusp of discovering how to control life and death itself. He called it the ¡°Immortality App¡±. This app would allow its user to harness their internal essence¡ªtheir very life


    force if they will, and redirect it with quite astonishing results.Through the use of this app, he believed that he would eventually learn how to manipulate the undercurrent of vitality that powered all living organisms.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    After finishing his configuration of the Immortality App, Dawson Looked down at his hands¡ªhe could feel the energy crossing through his fingertips. Turning toward a vase of flowers that had just begun to droop over the sides of their container, he placed his outstretched palm before it as he


    began to concentrate. He felt the subtle pull of energy as his life force connected with the plant. He gave more focus to the sagging flowers, as their bent stems stiffen and then straighten themselves out.


    The flower, already at this point is returning to a state of full health.


    He was impressed with what he was seeing not until things got weird, he started feeling a burning sensation run up his arm, and he


    felt like he was losing control of the process. Suddenly the flowers that had been blooming started shriveling up until it was


    completely dead.


    Dawson sighed, ¡°Damn it¡­no¡­not again.¡± His dismay was interrupted however, when a quick knock on the door, followed by his wife Carrie poking her head in, to remind him


    of their prior engagement, ¡°Honey¡ªwe¡¯ve only got couple hours before the concert starts.¡± She noticed the dead plant and asked, ¡°What happened to the flowers?¡± Dawson glanced at them as if he hadn¡¯t noticed, ¡°Hmm¡ªI don¡¯t know. I guess I forgot to water them,¡± He replied innocently.

 Chapter 1: Pulling the plug

    Frozen in time, the digital hologram on the desk of his study reminded Ben of happier times¡ª His father with his arm around his mother¡ª and his 12-year-old self, standing in front of the two of them at a beach in Thailand.


    His father, a major businessman and entrepreneur traveled for his work, and on this rare occasion he opted to take his family along. This happy image would soon be replaced with sorrow however¡ª moments after it had been capture¡ªhis father would be dead.


    Waylaid by the thieves and bandits that roved the beach to target tourists, his father lost his life protecting his family. Ben could still hear him screaming to his mother, ¡°Take Ben and Run!! Run!!¡± just before he was gunned down. It was his father¡¯s steadfast defiance, and self-sacrifice that saved him and his mother that day, enabling them to escape and flag down the police for help. At the cost of his father¡¯s life, he and his mother would survive.


    It was only seven years later when Ben was just a freshman in college that his mother developed an aggressive form of cancer, and perish as well. Orphaned and disillusioned with life, all Ben could think about was his failure to save first his father, and then his mother. No matter how irrational everyone told him such thinking was¡ªa 12 years old after all, couldn¡¯t take down a pair of armed gunmen any more than a 19-year-old could singlehandedly cure the world of cancer¡ªhe continued to blame himself. He became obsessed with finding a way¡ªas he put it¡ªto cheat death.


    Shortly after his mother¡¯s death Dawson founded the BioDepth corporation from which the biotechnological culture known as the ¡°Settlers¡± was derived. The best innovation since the wheel. Dawson couldn¡¯t help but wonder what his mother might think about it. In the first few years of his enterprise he believed that she would be rather proud of him and his accomplishments, but now he was not so sure. As he muddled through these thoughts, he felt the subtle vibrations of his ear chip, informing him that someone was wishing to speak with him.


    Not wishing to be disturbed, Dawson impatiently snapped, ¡°Yes! What is it!¡± The onboard AI voice coldly informed him, ¡°It¡¯s your wife Mr. Dawson, she would like to speak with you in the other room.¡± Dawson irritably smirked to himself wondering just what this latest disturbance was, asking his AI, ¡°What does she want? Why doesn¡¯t she just call or text?¡± The AI then droned on in its cold monotone, ¡°She says its urgent sir, and she needs to speak to you face to face.¡± Sighing in resignation, Dawson finally acquiesced, ¡°Very well¡±.


    The five feet that Dawson walked from his study, down the hall and to the living room seemed like an eternity, but as soon as he poked his head around the corner there was his wife waiting for him. With a quizzical look on her face she immediately asked, ¡°Aren¡¯t you forgetting something?¡± Dawson drawing a complete blank, starred at her before echoing back, ¡°Forgetting something?¡± His wife then lifted up a pair of concert tickets as she angrily informed him, ¡°Tonight¡¯s concert!¡±This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Shaking her head in disgust and disappointment she complained, ¡°Oh please¡ªplease don¡¯t tell me you forgot!¡± In reality, Ben had indeed completely forgotten all about the engagement, but as any husband might, not wanting to admit his fault, he pretended as if he knew all about it. Dawson intoned, ¡°Oh, no way Carrie¡ªthere¡¯s no way I would forget that.¡± Carrie raising an eyebrow at him, then accusingly asked, ¡°Really? Then what time is the show?¡±


    Now Dawson knew he had a problem, because at this point, he had forgotten who was even performing, let alone what time they would be on. His irises instantly glowed red as he began to shuffle through that day¡¯s schedule, but even Ben Dawson¡¯s lighting fast apps weren¡¯t quick enough for his wife who immediately shouted, ¡°And don¡¯t even try to look it up! Just admit you forgot Ben!¡± Ben muttered awkwardly, ¡°Uh¡­um¡­ I¡¯m just refreshing my memory that¡¯s all.¡±


    But before Ben could find the event in question on his calendar, Carrie informed him, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, Ben. It¡¯s over.¡± Ben stopped his shuffling now and looked at his wife with a hint of concern. She had quite a way with smattering her words with dramatic finality, and for a moment he wasn¡¯t sure what she meant by ¡°its over¡±¡ªshe almost made it sound like their entire relationship was over. But Carrie mercifully clarified, ¡°The concert is already over Ben.¡±


    Ben then stuttered, ¡°B¡ªb¡ªbut it can¡¯t be.¡± Causing Carrie to angrily snap, ¡°Well¡ªfor someone who spends hours in the other room staring at old holographic family photos! Yes, it can!¡± Knowing how much trauma her husband still held in him from his tragic childhood, she instantly regretting her harsh words. Carrie hopped up from the couch where she was seated, and walked over to her troubled husband. Placing a hand on his shoulder she whispered in his ear, ¡°I¡¯m sorry baby. I didn¡¯t mean it.¡±


    Ben then sighed, ¡°No¡ªno you did mean it. And you have every right to have said it.¡± Carrie let out a surprised, ¡°I do?¡± and becoming increasingly concerned asked him, ¡°What do you mean?¡± Ben then sighed, ¡°You and I have been married for 15 years now, and for every one of those 15 years you have put up with my petulant displays of grief and drama all throughout.¡± Carrie now switching gears completely into the role of comfort, hugged her husband by the waist as she informed him, ¡°No baby, it¡¯s alright. I know how much your mother meant to you. You don¡¯t have to apologize for that.¡±


    Ben sighed, ¡°No, I realize now that this has gone on for far too long.¡± Ben then looked down at his wife as she rested her head on his chest and continued, ¡°I think its time I finally pulled the plug on Bio-Origins.¡± Even though she never cared much for it, Dawson suddenly stating that he was canceling the crown jewel, flag ship vessel of BioDepth industries, ¡°Bio-Origins¡± came as a shock all the same. Carrie pulled away from him surprised, ¡°But that¡¯s your life¡¯s work!¡±


    Dawson nodded, ¡°Yes, it is rather ironic. It was my vision of somehow bringing my poor dead mother back to life that kicked off the setter revolution in the first place. But in actuality the development of the setter was just a consequence of my main goal to understand life and death in the first place.¡± Ben sighed, ¡°Yet we¡¯ve achieved so much in augmenting and improving the human condition¡ª¡± Dawson trailed off, as if the words had caught in his throat. Finally, shaking his head as if shaking himself out of a fugue, he acknowledged, ¡°Yes, I have done things previously believed impossible but perhaps some things just aren¡¯t meant to be after all.¡±

 Chapter 2: Itching App

    As Michael sat in the lobby at BioDepth Cybernetics his spirits went from bad to worse, usually he was able to let most things roll right off of his broad shoulders, but this time it was different. He now had an implacable foe in the form of degenerative bio-ware, and this monkey on his back he could not shake so easily.


    As was evidenced after the receptionist called his name, ¡°Michael Smirnov?¡± Michael had attempted to respond but his twitching lip had morphed into a pronounced stutter as he stammered, ¡°Ye-ye- y-es! That¡¯s m-m-m-me!¡±


    Sighing heavily, Michael then stood up and walked over to the reception area, where the young lady manning the desk glanced up at him before staring at the holographic display projecting from her desktop, quantum computer. After a few moments of looking at his file, she looked up, and her eyes again met his as she confirmed, ¡°Our records indicate that you have a complaint with the app design management? Is that correct?¡± Michael hoping and praying he could keep it together long enough to form a coherent sentence nodded, ¡°Yes ma¡¯am. That¡¯s right.¡±


    Leaning a little closer over the reception desk as if he were revealing a shameful secret he then quietly explained, ¡°My apps¡ªthey won¡¯t update.¡± The receptionist let out a small gasp of surprise, before quickly clearing her throat and responding in her best sublimely professional intonation, ¡°I see.¡± She then pointed toward the door on the adjoining side of the reception desk and informed him, ¡°Straight through that door you will find reps for the development team behind the second door to the right.¡± She then forced a smile and added, ¡°Hopefully they will be able to help you there.¡±


    Michael then attempted to nod in acknowledgement but something went a bit haywire in between the gesture. Inexplicably, in mid-nod his head became stuck staring at the ceiling. Completely bewildered and dumbfounded that his faulty apps were rendering such an innocuous gesture so difficult. Michael still staring way up high over the watching receptionists head, tried with all his might simply to lower his star gazing face back to sea level. He seemed to be straining every muscle, but there was some kind of block.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Again, he tried but all he did was cause his face to turn beet red from the strain as he let out an audible grunt, groaning, ¡°Ughhh!!¡± as his head remained completely immobile. At this point every single person who had previously been patiently waiting in the lobby took notice and began looking at the strange sight of Michael as he stared skyward to the rafters. Partially restraining her dismay, and partially holding back a laugh at the ridiculous sight, the flustered receptionist let out another careful, ¡°Sir?¡±


    Michael feeling his blood boiling, out of desperation placed his hand on the back of his head and finally was able to manually push his head back to the proper position, as he anxiously mumbled, ¡°I¡¯m fine¡ªI¡¯m fine.¡± The woman behind the desk out of either routine pleasantry or sincere sympathy shoved a temperature-controlled metal tray filled with cups of fresh coffee in front of him, as she cheerfully chirped, ¡°But before you go¡ªyou might as well have some hot SunBox coffee, courtesy of BioDepth Cybernetics. Just a token of thanks from us to you for your loyal customer service.¡±


    Guessing from the hackneyed pitch she gave him, he figured it was mostly the latter. Nevertheless, Michael grabbing a cup managed to force a smile before he turned around, and headed down the hall toward the engineering department. Upon approaching the second door on the right Michael heard the sound of frantic whirring and buzzing. He figured was either hearing the inner machinations of the engineering wing of BioDepth Cybernetics or the drill from a dental office.


    To be absolutely certain of what he was walking into, he used his ear apps to run a quick sound analysis. A split second later, his apps resonated their query right onto the surface of his tympanic ear drum, telling him in a knowing, soft whisper, ¡°You are hearing the sound of several hard drives and cooling fans from a wall bank of Quantum Computers. The unique sound signature of the equipment indicates that they belong to developers of the BioStore¡±. As he turned the door knob to go in, he let out a sigh of relief, mumbling to himself, ¡°At least my ear apps still work.¡±

 Chapter 3: Willing to Negotiate

    Dawson sat alongside with the audience of the latest BioDepth conference, waiting for his turn to speak, he began to feel a palpable and powerful sense of unease. He used to be able to enjoy the simple things in life but lately, it''s  becoming harder. By the measure of any other man, he should be an extremely happy and contented  individual. The first trillionaire in human history¡ª Ben Dawson had no shortage of material wealth¡ªAnd when it came to personal achievement; no one had achieved quite as much as he   in such a short span.


    It was Dawson after all that pioneered the combined revolution of the AI singularity and quantum computing like no other, with the creation of his cybernetic apps and the BioStore. He''s more like the modern day Moses¡ª led his people through the dessert of their stagnant, evolutionary wilderness¡ªbut even with all of these, he was not satisfied. The one thing that he had really set out to do, had evaded him, and no matter what else he had achieved, it made it all somehow seemed mediocre. Just a few months prior to the conference he had put on a brave face, and scrapped the resource hungry behemoth that was Bio-Origins. He thought he finally could move on, but now he wasn¡¯t so sure.


    And soon he would have to stand up in front of all these people who lived and breathed his products, telling them just how grand everything was. Softly groaning to himself, he subtly moved his eye to the corner of his eye socket, and toggled the menu projected onto his cornea. Selecting ¡°emotions¡± he selected a combination of, ¡°confident, happy, and content¡±. He immediately felt the tension leave his face as a slight, self-assured smile began to develop, leaving his resting disposition a touchtone of proud, relaxed, self-confidence.


    This change from his more natural facial grimace was just in time, because seconds later he heard the announcement from the stage, ¡°And now ladies and gentlemen, I have the true pleasure of inviting to this platform the founder of everything we are¡ªBen Dawson!¡± Maintaining his best bio-designed smile, Dawson stood from his front row seat, slightly turned, and waved to the audience before ascending the stage. Standing before the podium, Dawson stared down at the microphone in front of him and inwardly smirked.


    Since all the Settlers have internal, built-in microphone apps, there was really no need for it, but it somehow just looked good for aesthetics to have an old-fashioned microphone in place. Getting ready to make his remarks, he cleared his throat¡ªalso for aesthetics¡ªand addressed the audience with a booming voice, ¡°Welcome Settlers!!¡± Upon hearing the casual moniker that cybernetic humanity was known by, these so-called Settlers erupted into cheers and loud applause. Dawson stepped back from the podium laughing softly to himself as he looked from side to side at the throng of excited Settlers cheering him on. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    After a few moments the applause finally died down, allowing Dawson to step back to the podium as he continued, ¡°Because it is you who are the brave pioneers of the future¡ªit is you who are settling the final frontier of humanity!!¡± Again, the crowd erupted into applause, with several standing and cheering their cybernetic guru on¡ªhis words honey to their itching ear apps. Impatient to wait for his standing ovation to end, Dawson motioned with his hands for his admirers to tone it down as he chuckled, ¡°Please¡­ please¡­ save your applause for the next upgrade.¡±


    Right after Dawson mentioned the word ¡°upgrade¡± it was as if the end of his sentence was punctuated with something quite unexpected, not by applause¡ªbut by a gunshot. Dawson turned as the sound reverberated through his ear drum apps just in time to see one of his security guards fall to the ground with a loud thud. His other body guard who had been standing on the sidelines, completely eschewing his own safety then rushed headlong for the stage, in a vain attempt to cover Dawson, but yet another shot rang out, as the powerful projectile struck the guard in the back of the head causing his entire cranium to explode like an eggshell, with bits of bone, blood, and brain flying in every direction.


    That¡¯s when Dawson finally saw the source of the gunfire as three men in military fatigues stormed down the center aisle of the audience with high powered rifles raised and ready for business. As Dawson stood staring at the approaching assailants his feet seemed glued to the floor¡ªhe was truly paralyzed. They say that when threatened most mammalian life on planet earth has a flight or fight response, and must pick one of the two¡ªDawson seemed to opt for a third however as he became frozen in place like a statue.


    As his mind flashed back to the day that his father was murdered, he felt just as frozen and fearful as he did back then. At least then he had his mother to urge him on to run to safety. But now once again facing a pair of gunmen he found himself at a complete standstill. What could he really do anyway? Duck down and hide behind the podium? There was nowhere to run either as the assailants were blocking the only exit. Could he fight them? Even as the very thought of resistance occurred to him, in his mind¡¯s eye he toggled his Immortality App, getting ready to unleash the life force energy he was still learning to channel.


    But after one of the gunmen approached and addressed him directly, ¡°Mr. Dawson, come with us and no one else has to get hurt.¡± He made the decision to comply. The Immortality App was his greatest secret after all, and as soon as he made use of it in the public domain, everyone would want a piece of it. This was something he wanted desperately to avoid. As such, he decided to take his chances with the gunmen. Realizing that this was not some sort of targeted assassination, he figured it was probably all just a shakedown for money.


    And money was something that he had a lot of. So, what if they held him for ransom for a billion dollars? That would have been just a drop in the bucket for a man like Dawson, so he convinced himself to become pliable and obedient to whatever was demanded of him by the intruders. Even though BioDepth¡¯s charter explicitly stated that the company would never bargain with kidnappers  and terrorists as the masked gunmen trudged forward, Ben Dawson was willing to negotiate.