Zombies
Mike Omelanuk
We know if a head injury (severed head) is put into a med tube quickly enough, the individual can be saved. What if the brain is dead but the body is kept alive by nanites? Would we have a zombie? Could the body be reanimated? Could it breed? Would necrophilia raise or lower a CAP score? Would the Darjee AIs consider the 'corpse' a good and less troubling resource?
It has been a long time since I read Brave New World, but doesn't Huxley posit machine baby factories something like this?
What a horror story. Concubines not punished by execution, but hooked up to become human replicators - brain dead or not. Seems exactly in line with a Darjee AI perception of conservation of resources. But how would you get a brain-dead body? AIs couldn’t do it. Drugs?
It would probably have to be a non canon story or one in an isolated colony, maybe the failed Chinese colony. I'm not considering writing it.
The first one was an accident. She’d managed to get her head crushed – kind of the opposite to the proven maxim. If a severed head is put into a med tube quick enough, a body could be grown to save the individual. Private Lena Krone was a Fleet Auxiliary repair specialist who had been looking up into a jammed bulkhead hatch. When a gravity shift freed the jam, a ton of reinforced steel dropped on her head. Lena’s crew had rushed her into a med tube. Within hours, her repaired body worked just fine, but weeks later, the newly replicated replacement for her pulped brain held no remnant of her personality.
The ship’s AI approached Captain Bernie Marks, <You’ve been lecturing me when I recommend recycling excess concubines – ‘a waste of hard won resources’ you say. Here we have a fully functioning body, capable of bearing many potential volunteers, and you want to space her?>
<And where are we going to find a citizen willing to fuck a corpse?> the scandalized Marks demanded, <especially the corpse of one of their buddies!>
<There’s always her concubine, Helm,> the AI told him. < Private Lena Krone bragged to her buddies that he would ‘fuck her to death’ and then ‘he would fuck her some more’. Tell Helm she is asleep and that ‘Sleeping Beauty’ needs a good fuck to wake up.>
<I thought AIs couldn’t lie.> Marks stated, rhetorically it seemed.
<I won’t by lying, you will.> the AI’s reply appeared to be a smug rebuke to its humans rejecting its former suggestion to recycle excess concubines.
<But won’t you need a med tube to keep her body functioning? And a pod? That would be an excessive use of resources.> the captain argued.
<Nanites will do most of the work.> the AI informed him, <and a pod could be reconfigured to hold several pregnant ‘sleeping beauties’ and a male concubine.>
<You’re serious,> decided the now concerned captain, <but we’re a colony transport ship. Using a pod that way is truly a waste of needed resources.>
<A valid observation,> the AI agreed <but that pod would not be used for anything else until we return to base, and we could transfer the reconfigured pod and replace it when we replace Private Lena Krone. A hospital ship could make excellent use of the concept and the reconfigured pod.>
<It might work and raise morale if the crew thought it was a way to keep Krone alive,> Marks pondered.
<When we departed Earthat, the _CSS Walt Whitman_ was expected at the Jupiter refueling station,> the AI told him. <Hospital ships typically stay in system for a month or more to replace and train medical staff siphoned off to colony hospitals. As the oldest ship remaining in the human Confederacy, I’m certain that its AI and staff will know how to respectfully use the breeding pod.>
<You almost have me convinced,> the worried captain responded. <If _Walt_ is still there, I’d expect our crew to be pleased that Lena will receive care and consideration beyond that of a fuck toy. And some of her friends will probably hope against hope that she will recover…>
***
“You want me to screw Lena’s corpse?” screamed her visibly shaking, sort of ex-concubine, Helm Krone. “That’s my sister’s body you’re talking about. Absolutely no fucking way!”
“The AI and Captain Marks have a proposition err proposal they think you might want to consider,” the private’s flustered division head offered hopefully. “Your CAP score was 6.3 and the AI is prepared to add an additional point one for loyalty and another for sexual proficiency. You could become a sponsor!”
“Wait! The AI and the Captain are bribing me to fuck her corpse?” Helm choked back a laugh. “ Always knew the AIs and senior officers were batshit crazy, but _this_!”
Ensign Jon Savage hadn’t wanted this fucking ‘recruiting’ job. The young butterbar stopped, gathered his thoughts, and proceeded. “I don’t know what Lena would think of all this, but I do know she wanted the child that now she won’t have.”
“BASTARD!”
Savage kept out of reach to avoid tempting a swing that could get the distraught concubine recycled. “I also know that she loved you and her friend that she had to leave because she could only bring one concubine along. If not you, who will take care of Linda? Your child? You? Lena?” He stopped, and then stepped forward to put his arm around the sobbing man.
Time passed.
“You know,” Helm finally murmured, “Lena would have wanted me to have this opportunity and for me to take care of our family. She wouldn’t have wished herself as a burden to me and Linda, though.” He paced back and forth in the pod’s small living area. “There’s got to be some conditions, stipulations. First, her body is not to be recycled even after the baby is born, and Linda and I are to receive medical training. We’ll need another concubine – two babies are a lot to add to caring for Lena. I’m to be assigned to a colony with a good medical facility – one that will appreciate what we are trying to determine with this experiment.”
“Concubine Helm Krone, do you volunteer for service with the Confederacy Civil Service with the provisional rank signifer, subject to the stipulations you just made?” the AI inquired through all the speakers in the living space.
Separating from Ensign Savage, Helm straightened and stated his acceptance.
“Signifer Helm Krone, don your uniform that is in the replicator. You are to report immediately to medical bay number one for your implant. While there your strength and endurance will be upgraded, but any optional body modifications must be scheduled later. You will then return to your pod where you will enter the sleep trainer for instructions on the care and maintenance of your former master Lena Krone.”
Ensign Savage saluted the newly made officer and commented, “I’ll walk with you to the med bay. I think you made a good decision, and I’ll explain to the team that Lena will be cared for. You may find that some will allow their concubine to assist you. BUT you make sure you keep your hands off!”
They turned and exited the pod. After a few steps, Helm sighed and began to open up, “Lena and I were lovers since I turned fourteen and she snuck into my bed. She was thirteen, but Confederacy rules didn’t apply to us back then, you know. Of course we broke all kinds of local and national laws, but that stuff happens all the time – happened I should say. Then her best friend spent most nights of a sleepover in my bed. When only Lena tested high enough to volunteer, we decided to never be out in public unless we were a trio. Everyone at school thought I was the volunteer, but it was Lena. You need not worry about me and anyone’s concubines, during my four years of high school, I turned down a heckuva lot of stray pussy on offer. Lena and Linda were enough. Help with Lena would be appreciated though.”