CRYONICS UK

actThe Story of Sarah Locket

By Maria Camacho  

As Sarah Locket moved through the hospital entrance on her way to the foetal bureau, the frozen faces stared blankly at her. She paused in front of the tank of a middle-aged gentleman with his mouth half open as if he had gone to sleep in the middle of a sentence.
“They’re in suspended animation,” 768Erick said.
She looked at the cold faces with respect. Frozen people inspired fear in this world as they journeyed into another era in time and space.
“I want to see my child now,” she said.
He shrugged. “We can’t tell you where the infant is.”
She was upset at the latest revelation. She could try to get access to the planetary memory but the computer might do a check on her identity.
“Your child has been in suspended animation for twenty years. That gives him the right to choose his own future.”
“He’s only a foetus,” she said.
“Madam, foetuses also have feelings.”
“He’s my son.”
He shrugged. “He belongs to the whole planet and its people.”
As they entered the office, she was surprised at its opulence. Countless of pictures depicting the Sirius solar system and its planets adorned the walls while the desks were made of authentic Euran wood.
“You must go now,” he said. “I have to work.”
She felt utter despair when she left his office. The child was one hundred per cent her son but remained unreachable.
Sarah hated thirtieth century society. Tiny foetuses were taught how to think and reason as soon as they were conceived and could be turned into super humans. She put her mind into the telepathic mode and contacted the planet’s genetic services.
I want to find my son, she thought.
She heard a clear voice in her head. “Give us your details and we’ll try to locate him.”
She concentrated again and passed the details directly into their minds.
“Located,” said a voice. “It’s not lost but unavailable.”
“Would you inform me if the infant is ill or dies?”
“That might be permitted,” the voice replied.
She punched the walls in anger and disbelief. She had to sort out all of this bureaucratic mess. Feeling angry, she marched towards the child guidance pavilion and found it occupied by the social workers. They watched a holographic film called, ‘Good foetal upbringing under careful supervision.’
They didn’t hear her going through the window. It was dark as she headed towards the nursery and bashed her knee against one of the containers. She managed to switch a light on and found herself surrounded by hundreds of tanks with foetuses at different stages of their development.
She had only a short time to find her own offspring before the social workers became aware of her presence. The DNA coding for each baby lay on every tank. She rushed frantically around trying to find her child’s.
She compared her own DNA with the chromosomes of a hundred babies but none of them shared her genetic material. She found a cute infant in one of the last containers. He had her chubby face and turned up nose. Her heart beat fast as she read through the string of letters but their DNA was virtually identical.
It had to be her cloned baby. As she inserted the card into the slit in his neck, he came back to life and tried to find a nipple.
“Go away,” a voice whispered in her mind.
“He’s my son and I love him,” she shouted to the empty air.
She saw 768Erick standing at the door.
“Shouldn’t you put him back in his tank?” he asked.
She shook her head. “They’re stuck in these tanks day after day.”
“Social workers look after them.”
“They only care about themselves,” she said.
“What do you want me to do?”
“You must leave my baby alone. He has a right to grow up free.”
He shrugged. “Your baby’s free.”
“He can’t see me and just floats in the tank.”
“He’s supposed to do that.”
She sighed. “I want freedom for all the foetuses in the world. I’ll blow up the planet if you don’t release my son.”
He could see a device clutched in her hands. It was transparent and glowed with a pink light.
“It contains antimatter which will blow up in contact with any object,” she said.
“You’re holding it,” he said. “Why doesn’t it blow up?”
“It’s hovering on my hand.”
He saw it floating just above her palm. It was the way she held her hand that made him think she was holding it.
“Where did you find it?”
She shook her head. “That’s a secret.”
He could see the card on her neck and wondered how to snatch it. He forgot her mental powers and the fact that she could read his mind like an open book.
“You can’t disable me,” she said.
She ran out of the building into an empty street whilst holding the child with one arm and the antimatter with the other. The baby slept as she rushed along the road. She found the frozen people’s hall unguarded and managed to open the door.
Sarah moved along the dark corridor until she reached the tanks. She had to open the door to get inside one of them. She placed the antimatter on the floor and opened a tank. Then she put the child in its entrails.
He awoke and started to cry. She stroked his hair and he calmed down.
“Everything will be all right,” she muttered.
She activated the mechanism and crawled next to her baby. She hugged the child as liquid poured all around them. They would go to the far-off future where no one would bother them again.
 

The end