Jörg Sprave

The Resurrection Drug

I opened the email and eagerly scanned through the text.
 
“The analysis of your DNA allowed the precise definition of your resurrection likelihood. This percentage is 99.97 % in your case. Therefore, the requirements for your promotion to the Sublime status are met.
 
Please contact the Sublime Agency within the next few days. You will be given the appropriate documents and instructions to access your privileges.”
 
I dropped heavily into my armchair. This message meant eternal life! Not in the old religious paradise nonsense – no, this was to be real immortality, here on earth. Plus all the luxury and wealth that came with the Sublime status.
 
Of course, my 50-year-old body would continue to age, in spite of the excellent health care provided by the Sublime Agency. Some day soon I would choose to commit suicide, only to awaken minutes later in a new, perfect and young body. Then, everybody would recognize my status simply by looking at me – only the genetically designed clone bodies used by the Sublimes looked that fit and beautiful. 
 
I opened an electronic book about the history of the Sublimes. I had read it some years before, but now, from the perspective of a would-be Sublime, it would be a completely different read.
 
The first page contained the definition of the AIR-drug that made all this possible.
 
-----------------
 
AIR: (abbr.): Artificially Induced Resurrection
 
Chemically induced re-awakening of a deceased consciousness into a living body. Discovered in 2007 and published in 2015. Until 2067, bodies of living human beings had been used for temporary awakenings. From January 2068 on, specifically designed clone bodies were used exclusively.
 
AIR ultimately led to the foundation of the class of the Sublimes.
 
-----------------
 
Of course, the first to be resurrected did not use cloned bodies. They “borrowed“ bodies of real people. You simply injected AIR into a human being, who fell asleep and woke up with the consciousness of a deceased person. After a maximum of three days, the old soul prevailed again and the possession ceased.
 
The e-book offered a video of the first public release of the AIR drug in 2015. I played the file.
 
The podium of an event hall appeared. The speaker, a gray haired professor, was busy explaining the technology.
 
“Of course, not just any deceased person can be brought back to life with AIR. Our first tests show that only exceptionally talented and intelligent people can be re-awakened in a different body after death.”
 
A cynical question came up: “So are you saying you can resurrect dead geniuses?”
 
“I would like to pass this question to a famous guest speaker.” A heavy set, vaguely Asian looking man stepped up to the podium and took the microphone. “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am excited to be here.” The speaker possessed a cultivated voice, with a heavy British accent that sounded old fashioned. “Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Sir Isaac Newton”.
 
The audience was stunned. The speaker was not only well spoken and educated – he was also clearly suffering from Downs syndrome, which was now revealed by the floodlights.
 
“The biochemists of the Rizer Corporation have found the precise formula to activate my soul in any human body.  I will now live for three days, and then I have to go on a five-day break. I can assure you: It is simply fantastic to be alive again. My thanks go to the employees and management of Rizer. What an amazing discovery!”
 
Explanations followed. I knew the facts, of course. AIR was first discovered during tests for a new sleeping medication. That happened in 2007 – it took eight more years to understand and reproduce the drug, enough for a first public presentation.
 
Afterwards, development was swift. The world underwent dramatic changes. The profession of the “temporary body donator” evolved. A very easy job, people made money sleeping. The days of possession passed without consciousness, you just fell asleep and woke up again. The five days minimum break meant paid time off.
 
The resurrected geniuses had been leased out – much like employees of a temporary job agency – to businesses and governments that required the capabilities and had the money to pay for them. John Moses Browning enhanced firearms, Einstein optimized atomic power plants, and Thomas Edison was as versatile as in his first lifetime.
 
The publicity alone was worth the money. Everybody wanted a car designed by Carl Benz, rich doctors could boast about having original Marie Curie™ X-Ray devices.
 
Slight changes of the AIR-drug formula led to the resurrection of more geniuses. Over time, some rules crystallized:
 
-         Only geniuses could be brought back
-         People that died more than 400 years ago could not be resurrected
-         Each potentially resurrected person had an individual, very specific AIR-formula
-         All memories remained intact
-         The number of people that could be resurrected was limited
 
Religion, race and sex had no influence at all – catastrophic news for the big churches. Nobody really understood why and how these things really worked. Obviously, the souls of some geniuses stayed around a few hundred years, and could be “pulled” into the bodies of sleeping people when everything was just right, chemically.
 
I clicked through the pages of the e-book. The chapter “Union of the Resurrected” came up. Back then people would have called it a conspiracy. The dead geniuses hated being forced to work, only to be dead again for five days after their work was done. They wanted to be free, so they could enjoy life. Secret meetings took place, and slowly a network was formed.
 
The plan they finally put together was long-term oriented. They had plenty of time! In 2035, the Union of the Resurrected was officially recognized. It fought for the rights of the resurrected. A limit to the work hours, guaranteed wages, and the right to convene was won.
 
In reality, the geniuses used their spare time to enhance the AIR recipe and to design soulless clone bodies. In 2048, the first successful awakening of a soul in such an artificial body was accomplished. In 2056, the three-day-limit was abolished so the resurrected could stay alive permanently. In 2068, the procedure was perfected and every resurrected genius had a clone body. The leasing of the resurrected came to an end.
 
Within a few years, the union became immensely rich and powerful, its members being part of a sworn-in community. The only reason why they didn’t take over the global government was the relatively small number of members – about 14,000 resurrected, compared to 11 billion normal people.
 
In 2072, the union was renamed the “Sublime Agency“. This global organization had many tasks and purposes, all of them aimed at enhancing the wealth and well-being of the re-animated geniuses.
 
In 2080, it became possible to determine if a living person was likely to be resurrectable after death. The test was a specific genetic analysis. If the test was positive, then such people could be promoted to the Sublime status immediately. Now, even a living person could be a Sublime. I was among the first ten thousand people that had undergone the test. Due to the astronomical costs, the mere invitation to be analyzed was an amazing honor. But I was not just tested; I had achieved an unbelievably positive result.
 
Slowly, I realized the magnitude of the message. My research would never again be restrained by budget limitations. I was bound to live in palaces, with an army of servants. No disease, no accident would pose a threat to me. I would no longer have sorrows.
 
Was this the pinnacle of anthropology? Was I a part of the top of evolution? I decided to discuss this with Charles Darwin some day soon.
 
 

All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Jörg Sprave.
Published on e-Stories.org on 11/12/2007.

 
 

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