SFS1 - Science Fiction Short Stories
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Authors: Krishna kumar Mani
Science Fiction Short Stories
Krishna kumar
Copyright © 2014 Krishna kumar
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Table of Contents
1 Rejected Patent
2 Robography
3 Useless Medicine
4 Honey Moon on the Moon
5 Ghost On Call
6 Two Robots
7 The Stupid Scientist
8 My Recorder
9 The Writer
10 Teleport 2.0
1 Rejected Patent
I sat in the courtroom waiting for a judgment
regarding a patent of mine.
FLASHBACK
I'm Bill Ambrosone. And I'm a scientist who
specializes in DNA. But more than that, I'm a
businessman. I own five different labs and our
primary service is analyzing DNA samples for
clients. The cost for our services is lower than
you'd
think.
We identify
hereditary
disease
markers for the most part, but it's not unheard
of to get a request for a paternity test. For the
past three years I've been working on a project
and once I have the patent for it, our business
will take off like never before. You might ask
what the advancement is, and I'll tell you. Just
bear with me. I've got to get this patent. If I go
to
the market
with my product
without
a
patent, the next guy will come in and swoop it
out from under my feet.
I waited for the mail that day for what seemed
like forever. When the mail carrier arrived, I
hurried down the steps and out to the mail
box. I sorted through the mail until I found an
envelope that was stamped with “USPTO,” the
acronym for the patent office. I ripped open the
letter and poured through the contents. “We're
sorry to inform you that your request for a
patent has been rejected.” Needless to say, I
was upset. Since I applied for the patent, it's
now public knowledge. Even though I hadn't
been able to get a patent, I also didn't need to
have given out my trade secrets to every upstart who wanted
to
run a DNA lab.
And
what's to say the next guy who tried to apply
for a patent with a slightly modified version of
my work wouldn't get one and put me out of
business altogether?
I sat
on my terrace and
mulled
over
the
situation.
My phone rang. It was an old friend
from school, a guy we used to kid that he'd
had mud in his head instead of a brain. He
ended up dropping out of college and worked
in real estate now. After catching up for a little
bit he invited me to a party. I agreed, needing a
change of scenery and also just wanted to get
my mind off the patent situation.
I arrived at dinner to have him greet me. No
one else was there yet, maybe they were late?
“Hi, I thought more people coming?” I asked.
“Nope, this is just for you,” he replied.
“Wait, why?” I asked, confused.
“Just hold on, Bill. It'll be clear in a second. It's
not some weird come on or anything like that. I
just wanted to introduce you to my friend.”
A 40 year old man entered the foyer from the
kitchen sporting a Rolex
and
a two button
Armani suit in pristine, pressed condition.
“Mr. Ambrosone, I presume? I'm the president
of development for Arlon Inc.. We do a bit of
everything, but mostly we develop software
programs, specifically for mobile devices. I've
heard a lot about you and I asked our mutual
friend
here if
he could
set
up
a meeting
regarding a business deal.”
”I am a DNA scientist and you work in
computers. What is it that you think we can do
together, exactly? ”
”I know that your patent got rejected today.
I've read all the details of your concept. They're
really interesting, I had to admit.”
”You've read my research?” I was shocked
that word had traveled this quickly. Who was
this man?
”Yes, I know and now it is ready for business,”
he said with a smile “Would you like me to
explain my understanding of your research?
I'd like to see if I've got it correct.”
“Yes, by all means.”
“The gist of the process is that your research
allows you to take a DNA sample and extract
data from a previous life. You can find their
date of
birth,
and
basically
their
entire life
history from birth to death. Hell, you say you
can find out what they were named based off
DNA. That alone might be worth millions if it
works. I've got the basics down, yes?”
I was still in shock about the speed that he'd
read it at. The research itself was somewhat
technical, but most people would understand
the basics of it. Perhaps he had a scientist read
it for him.
“So how do you plan to capitalize on this
research, Mr. Ambrosone?”
I stood there in silence and thought to myself. I
had some vague notions but I didn't want to
get my hopes up before I had a patent. After a
little while he spoke again.
“Bill, is it alright if I call you Bill? I really want
to help you make money with your idea. Not
since Watson and Crick first took credit for
discovering DNA has
there been such an
advancement in the field of biology.”
I was
happy with his
compliment,
I
start
explained:
“I will offer a service in the five DNA labs that
I own.,” I said, beaming since he had
complimented me. “Those that are interested
in knowing their previous lives can submit
DNA samples and
get
reports
about
their
previous lives. It won't be too expensive, but if
I'm the only one who can do it, I'll have all the
business.”
He laughed for a while. I felt my face getting
flushed with anger.
After a while he noticed my bright red face and
stifled his laughter. “Sorry... very sorry...” he
said after he had taken a sip of water. “Let's
talk
for
real
here,
Bill.
You're an excellent
scientist,
I'll
give
you
that.
But
as
a
businessman,
I'm not
convinced.
Sure,
you
have your five labs, but this idea is so much
bigger
than
that.
I want
to
maximize your
earnings. How much did you say you expected
to make off this idea again?”
I told him again how much I had expected to
make.
He either
coughed
or
stifled
back
a
laugh again and continued. “If you agree to my
plan, in the first month the revenue will be ten
thousand
times
higher
than
your
annual
revenue from your five labs. And that's the
first month. With your plan, you'd be lucky if a
rival competitor across town didn't offer the
service for cheaper after two weeks.”
“My patent was rejected though. I don't
understand.”
“Who want patents? Patents are a joke. No one
even respects them any more. Nowadays the
patent office is so backed up you have to wait
years
to
get
a patent.
In the mean
time,
someone else has done the same thing, taken it
to market and you won't be able to get a patent
anyways. That's how business works now”
“Alright. So tell me. How do you plan
to
increase the revenue? What would
you do,
open more labs? Sell the service to other DNA
labs?” I asked.
“I'll tell you, but before I do you have to sign a
non-disclosure agreement.”
He
shocked
me
by
pulling
out
a
legal
document right there and then. I had no idea
about this meeting and he must have been
planning it for weeks. How had he even gotten
wind of my patent?
“Listen, I'll take care of everything. Every
month your share will be deposited into a bank
account that you specify. You retain the rights
to the technology and you can count that as
your investment. Like I said, I'm the investor.
There's
no
risk
here to
you.
We'd
split
it
seventy-thirty. I get seventy percent and you
get thirty. Believe me, the difference between
seventy percent and thirty at the numbers I'm
talking won't even matter to you once you see
the paycheck.”
I was listening intently, still a bit rattled by the
whole
situation.
He
simply
smiled
and
continued his monologue. “Bill, this isn't a one
time sale.
In this
contract,
there's
a three
million dollar advance. I expect that we'll make
that
and
more within the
first
couple of
months. The check's already made out to you.
All you have to do is sign the contract.”
“You know, I'd like to have a lawyer read over
this to make sure everything is on the up and
up,” I said. “Let me call the one I have on
retainer for my labs. I don't care if he's in the
middle of dinner or lounging in the hot tub,
he'll get here within twenty minutes. It won't
be long.”
After the lawyer checked the document over, I
signed and was now a multi-millionaire.
“Great, Bill. That's great. Alright, so tomorrow
we'll get to work.”
“I'm still not clear, how exactly do you plan on
making so much money with my idea?”
“We're going to take your idea mobile.”
“What does that mean?”
“We can turn DNA samples into digital files. I
think you know that. What I'm going to do is
to make a website and a mobile application so
that users can upload their DNA samples and
we'll
tell
them
information
about
their
previous
lives.
We'll
give
out
some
free
information as a teaser, but they'll have to pay
to get the full report. It'll be fully automated.
We'll have maybe a few technical support guys
but it will all be taken care of through the
program. Billions of users with cell phones are
going to want to do this, Bill.
I thought he was done but had one last thing to
tell me. “Tomorrow you'll begin your work
with our computer engineers to help develop
the application. All you have to do is answer
questions
about
your
research.
Leave
the
computer stuff up to them and the business
side of things to me.”
SIX MONTHS LATER
I worked with them as best I could to make the
application ready for launch. It creates reports
in almost no time at all. They tried to explain
the server, mobile apps, something called 'the
cloud,'
SSL,
xcode
and
things
I've
since
forgotten. We launched and it took off like
wildfire. Most people had heard of us within
the first few weeks of launch.
FIVE MONTHS LATER
Now
the application is
one of
the the top
applications in both iOS and Android. It even
competes with Temple Run and Angry birds. I
thought this joint venture was the best decision
I'd ever made in my life. I had several million
dollars in my bank account and my name was
so
popular
that
press
people followed
me
around to various locations.
”Your idea seems really great,” started a
reporter in his early twenties, “but how do you
know
that
the previous
life information is
correct?”
“This is not magic,” I said with a smile. “This is
science.
reports?
How
else would
we generate our
Maybe a little
wizard
in a cloak
somewhere
knows
the
science.
There's
been
answers?
No,
it's
many
independent
verifications of data generated by our process.
We've yet to have a false positive.”
“But what is the use?” asked a female
interviewer from the back of the crowd.
“What stronger purpose can we have in life
than to know ourselves? On the Temple of
Apollo
at
Delphi,
inscribed
are the words
“know thyself.” It is that which I seek to allow
humanity to do. Of course each person will
find a different use for the application. Just
yesterday I read about a man who found out
his
previous
incarnation's
family
had
fallen
into poverty and helped them out. Another
man
helped
pay for
the education of
his
previous life's son. Now that some research
papers
have
been
submitted
about
my
invention, in specific how one's sins affect their
next
lives,
soon
the
whole
world
will
understand
that
and
the
crime
rate
will
decrease. There's many more examples on our
website. I believe we do good work. I think the
government knows that too, that's why we've
applied for a tax exemption.
“What about the future? Are you researching
anything else? Maybe contact with aliens?”
”No, no, nothing like that,” I laughed. “My
days are too filled with counting my piles of
gold! Really though, it's nice to have a few
moments to sit back and relax.”
“You're obviously a great researcher. Every
day the world seems more and more violent.
Couldn't you do some research into DNA so
that we could remove or change the violent
natures of some people?”
I laughed but understood it is a good idea and
told:
“You know, that's a good idea,” I said with a
laugh. “I will think on that. I guess I could
become a masked avenger in the mean time
though? Whatever help I can offer to our law
enforcement professionals, I'm all for it.”
The press took some photos and left. Early next
morning, my intercom rang. It was the security
guard.
“There are some detectives out here who want
to see you. They say it's urgent.”
“Tell them I was kidding when I said I'd
become a masked
superhero.
I'll
be right
down.”
After a few minutes I entered into the hallway.
Three police officers were there.
“Please, come in and have a seat. What can I do
for you?” I asked.
“Sorry, Mr. Ambrosone. There's a warrant out
for your arrest.”
“A warrant? What warrant? Do you know who
I am?
“Yes, we're well aware of who you are. Just
cooperate and this will go easily for both of
us.”
“I don't understand. What is this warrant for?”
“In the past five months, the murder rate has
increased dramatically. Usually we can say the
murders are related to drugs, or gang activity
but we've had fifteen murders that we just
couldn't figure out a motive for. Two days ago,
we arrested a guy that had tried to kill a taxi
driver but the taxi driver stopped him luckily.
You see, the thing of it is. The kid who tried to
kill the taxi driver was a college student from
another city. He came all the way out here to
kill this taxi driver, a man who was fifty six
and claimed he had never seen this college
student before in his life. Now why do you
think that was, Mr. Ambrosone?”
“What? Well what does this have to do with
me?”
“That college student. Well, he found some
information on from your App. It seems that
the taxi driver had killed him in his last life. An
accident, but that didn't seem to matter to him.
So the college student had tracked him down
and tried to get revenge.”
“Well, he shouldn't have.”
“Anyways, we started looking into the other
cases we couldn't solve. Guess what? Each and
every time it was related to that little App of
yours. They find out that some guy has killed
them or is somehow responsible in some way
for their previous death and they go to seek
revenge. It's happening in other cities. It's all
over the world, Bill. You're the reason these
crimes are being committed.”
I had never expected this. I remained silent and
went with them.