The Methuselarity Transformation (2 page)

Once home, Marcus stripped off his clothes and stepped into the cleansing pod. The short blast of water stung his skin, followed by the viscous sanitizing wash that oozed over every inch of his body. The second blast of water was mixed with air and blew off the excess chemical, leaving the surface of his body slick and dry like the membranes swimmers wore to eliminate drag. The whole process used only two ounces of water and left his body with a breathable coating that would repel contaminants for days.

Marcus remembered the times as a small child when his mother would let him play in the bathtub and then lather his hair and body. He remembered the sweet sensation of warm water dribbling over the top of his head and down his face,
neck and shoulders and the snug warmth of her wrapping him in a fluffy towel when the bath was over. Bathing became illegal when he was six. The high efficiency sanitizers and surfactants that he’d just used weren’t perfected until he was in his teens. Hygiene had been a dicey issue during the intervening decade.

He stood naked in front of the mirror and looked approvingly at the definition of his musculature. The detail was worthy of the image he once saw of Michelangelo’s David. And like the statue, his body was hairless and smooth. Like most of his contemporaries, every bit of body hair had been permanently removed in order to optimize the power of the chemical membrane to repel pathogens and prevent contamination. Which made Terra’s lush red hair all the more striking.

Still naked, he moved to the all-purpose room of his small abode and stood in front of a blank wall. When he waved both hands upward and apart over the surface of the wall, it became transparent and images began to form behind it. He stepped back and the images followed him into the room. He waved his right hand in a circle and the images changed until a series of women appeared in front of him, one at a time, each as exposed and as hairless as he was. He moved his left hand over the length of one of the figures and suddenly she had blond hair on her head and wisps of flaxen hair between her legs. Marcus smiled.

He could barely afford the the ten-year-old holotron when he bought it despite it already being obsolete. The newer models allowed for more fluid interactivity without the need for ancillary devices. For the very wealthy, holotrons had been completely replaced by the functionality of the MELD chips, which provided virtual experiences at will without any external device. but Marcus was grateful for the pleasure that even this primitive device was about to provide.

He took the transparent package from the platform on which he’d placed it when he got home and carefully removed the outer wrapper. Inside were several delicate membranes that he carefully separated and unfolded. He applied one around each of his arms and legs, one to each palm, one to his torso, and one like an invisible mask over his face and lips. They clung with static force to his slick body. The last one he wrapped carefully around his half-erect penis. Then he turned back to the figure standing before him and scrolled further through the images of women, each now adorned with luxurious hair covering her head and enticing curls peeking from between her legs.

Each of the women standing before him was also viewing him among other men as a potential partner for this experience. Some of the images blinked out of view as they ruled him out on their side of the selection process, but a handful or more remained available. In the virtual world, Marcus’s physical attributes were all that counted. In the world of real relationships, intellectual prowess trumped physical attributes every time. And in the real world, casual sex was more than ever a risky business. Sexually transmitted organisms continued to evolve beyond the capacity of medicines to contain them. And they had become increasingly virulent and fast-acting. One such pathogen was as devastating as Ebola.

So virtual encounters were the only opportunity for loners like Marcus to get laid. And these were expensive, requiring the disposable transduction membranes that Marcus, and whoever he wound up choosing, each now wore. There were some perks to this approach, including total safety and the capacity to embellish the image of one’s partner according to personal taste. While hair was particularly important to Marcus, he had no idea how his image would be enhanced by the woman he was about to embrace.

Marcus pointed the fingers of his left hand at one of the women and held it steady. The parade stopped abruptly. The woman standing before him was his ideal combination of fitness and sensuality. Her waist was slender and her abdominal muscles well-defined, while the curve of her hips was pleasing and her breasts were round and full. Her skin was the color of almonds, very similar to his, and her hair was jet black. He moved his left hand over the length of her body and her skin turned an almost porcelain white. He passed his right hand past her head and genitals and her hair turned the same fiery red as Terra’s. Now she was perfect.

He held his hands out palms up and she placed hers in his. He could feel their softness as he pulled her into his arms. She felt warm in his embrace as their lips touched and he could feel her touching and squeezing his now rigid penis. It had been so long since he’d been with any woman that he had to struggle to keep from coming in response to her touch. When she finally guided him inside her, he was overwhelmed with the fidelity of the sensations he was feeling, which intensified as she responded to his thrusts. He closed his eyes, felt her contracting and he came. And then it was over.

He opened his eyes and she was gone. There was only the plain wall in front of him and streaks of semen on the floor. His breathing slowed to normal and he found himself struggling to hold back tears. He was grateful for the long overdue release, but now the loneliness enveloped him again like a dark fog that threatened to smother him.

The following afternoon, Marcus returned to the Endless Park and began his daily run. At the beginning of the seventh mile, he sensed a presence behind him and felt his pulse quicken a few beats beyond the usual effects of his exertion.

“So have you considered our offer, Mr. Takana?”

He stepped off the moving turf and turned to find his gaze once again captured by those exquisite green eyes. He’d found them almost hypnotizing on their first encounter and had to keep their effect upon him from influencing his decision. Terra was even more captivating than the woman he’d concocted from his imagination the night before. He’d spent most of the morning and afternoon considering the proposition before risking another meeting.

“I’m in.”

“Brilliant,” she responded. “So now you must have lots of questions.”

“I have no idea at all how this would work.”

Terra explained that he would first be injected with a fluid containing millions of nano scale transducers attached to molecules of delta PNA. This was an advanced version of a technology developed thirty years earlier in which synthetic nucleic acids were custom designed to bind to native RNA and DNA. This infusion contained PNA that specifically bound to neuronal DNA. The molecular vehicle would deliver transducers throughout the brain to create a detailed brain map. His benefactor, or more accurately buyer, would get a similar infusion, mapping his brain. The networks of transducers could communicate with one another and information could be exchanged. In this way, the buyer’s brain would be mapped precisely to his.

“As your counterpart approaches death, chemical signals will initiate the exchange of the maps. If death is too sudden to provide the automatic trigger, the exchange will be initiated by controllers at a central processing station that will continually monitor the biological processes of you both.”

“Exchange of the maps? That sounds like my mind will wind up in his body.”

“Yes, that’s exactly how it works. but by the time you get there, his brain will likely be sufficiently shut down that you’ll never be aware of dying.”

“Is there anything else I should know.”

“Yes, Mr. Takana, there are a lot of rules. The first and most important I told you yesterday: total secrecy. You must not ever tell anyone about this arrangement, not even your wife, should you ever marry, or your children. You will not be told the identity of your benefactor and he will not be aware of yours.”

“Buyers...property. I guess that’s me. It sounds pretty horrible when you put it that way.”

“It all depends on how you look at it. You will also be asked to take care of your body while it’s still yours. Our capacity to monitor your activities with the transducer system is extensive. We can tell if you use alcohol or other substances of abuse or if you engage in dangerous activities. We’ll be monitoring your location and can determine the speed and acceleration of your body in real time. We will ask that you use alcohol sparingly or not at all, avoid other toxic substances, and not engage in deliberately risky behavior.”

Marcus had already planned a series of extreme adventures with the first of the money he would get. He’d become accustomed to breaking up his boredom with the thrill of high risk sports. This requirement could be a deal-breaker.

“What about the bike?”

“That will definitely have to go, starting now. Look,” Terra said, “This is a lot to take in. I can understand your doubts, but the opportunity we’re talking about can bring monumental changes in your life. The things that will become important to you months from now are likely to be entirely different from the things that have been important to you so far within the limited scope of your experience.”

“Like what?”

“Like unprecedented knowledge and all the power that comes with it. And opportunities for real and enduring relationships.”

Marcus wondered whether Terra had any idea what he’d done the night before. She seemed to know so much about him. He felt the sadness that had overwhelmed him the night before closing back in on him, underscored by the proximity of the enticing woman bringing him this preposterous opportunity. He wanted more than anything not to be alone.

“So...still in?” she asked, the words almost floating on her breath.

“Yes.”

“Good. Then we can proceed.”

2

RAY METTLER SETTLED
back in the soft leather recliner and watched the sparkling solution swirl in the bottle hanging above him. He felt a hint of warmth as the liquid flowed into his vein and found its way toward the right ventricle of his heart while the tiny particles it carried diffused into his blood and throughout his circulation. They would eventually find their way across the blood-brain barrier and bind to their targets in the neurons within his brain.

The plushness of the leather felt pleasantly odd. Ray’s home was spartanly furnished, covered only in materials that could easily be wiped clean. There was little fabric anywhere. Even his bed covering was a smooth sheet of insulating polymer. Microbes were his enemies. Frequent antiseptic washes and laminar flow circulation kept his home swept as free of them as possible. Anyone entering passed first through a decontamination chamber and observed a strict dress code in keeping with the sterile milieu.

Another unfamiliar sensation played across the small muscles of his lower jaw and the nasal folds above his mouth. It was a smile, his first in recent memory in a life beset by disappointment and failure and the ever present worry about when
he would die, a worry that no longer needed to concern him. His imagination was now racing through a future that promised him immortality within a strong, eternally young body. He wondered what that body might look like, but especially what it would feel like to have physical prowess beyond anything he’d ever experienced even in his youth.

Whose body would he eventually occupy? How will they have lived their life between now and that uncertain day in the future when the exchange would take place? The unknown partner in this transaction would have the benefit of the Methuselarity Transformation as well as the use of the fifty million dollars that Ray had paid for the privilege of the exchange. Ray hoped that he would use his newfound wealth wisely to build a worthwhile life. Sudden wealth proves fleeting for so many. Ray didn’t want to begin his new life destitute.

So much had changed in the few days since the stunning redhead with the emerald eyes had first approached him. He’d been on a rare excursion beyond the safe confines of his home in order to conduct business that could only be done in person. She’d waited for such an opportunity so that their meeting could remain secret from Ray’s wife Lena. Absolute secrecy was an essential ingredient of the bargain that they were about to strike. She’d been watching the entrance to his home when he returned and had approached him quickly as he emerged from the car.

“Mr. Mettler,” Terra began, “I have a proposition for you that will change your life. I need about an hour of your time.”

“Not interested,” Ray replied, waving her away and charging for the door. “I don’t like solicitations.”

“This isn’t an ordinary offer, Mr. Mettler,” she persisted, keeping pace. “You’ve been carefully selected for this opportunity. I’m sure you’ll find it worth your while.”

“Then message me later when I’m back inside. I’ve spent too much time out here already.”

“Not possible. I can only discuss this offer face-to-face. It requires utmost confidentiality. Not even your wife can know about it. We can have the conversation now or I’ll move on to the next candidate. My car is waiting over there.” She laid one hand on his shoulder and pointed to a red hovercar parked fifty feet away.

Ray stopped short of the door and turned to face her. Whether it was her extraordinary beauty or her direct approach, she had his attention. His guard was for the moment down.

“Would you at least give me some idea what it’s about?”

“It’s about your life, Mr. Mettler. You’ve spent most of it doing everything you can to avoid dying.” She paused to let her words sink in. “We can change that.”

“You mean cure my fear? You provide some sort of treatment?”

“Better...much better.” She held out a hand. “Let’s go for a ride.”

Ray was hooked. The man who trusted nobody and made every decision in his life with meticulous caution was about to get into a car with a complete stranger without any idea what was going to happen next. For all he knew, he was about to be kidnapped or murdered. He took her hand and let her lead him to the car. She let him in on the passenger side, then took her seat behind the wheel. The car lifted off the ground and glided down the road.