Death and Rebirth: Neon Genesis ab Chriss Harris

Ok soldiers, Ptl. Officer Cdt. Lansdell here, stand to attention and
appreciate this lucioush Jay-Pee by Myself and the nipper Chris
Harris. Respect.
<clip>
"Well.. tomorrows the day... don't ask me how.. but he managed to fix
it already..."
Chris jumped up and punched the air.
"Woah there sparky... your gonna have to play it cool. Im pretty sure
that its against company policy to bring back the dead"
"Name on directive that says so"
Keats shrugged.
<end clip>
It was still mid-morning, and Keats and Harris were enjoying a quiet
pint down in the shady bootleg bar down in the engineering deck. It
was a clandestine affair, with cheap drink, talk and dirty glasses,
but it was a good place to lay low during work hours. Keats was lying
back with an unlit roll up pressed in his lips, whilst Harris was
talking excitedly to him.
"And the food! I tell you, i havent eaten for ages. Im buying me...
and you.. hell, il buy EVERYONE a steak afterwards"
"Look, i told you, no-one will know your alive, dont you think they
may get suspish when you start gorging yourself? Its gonna hard
enough to fool Holly into believing your a stiff. And we still need
your D/RNA"
"Hell, Keats, i really don't care what anyone says, they can give me
community service if they want or whatever, and if they come onto you
or Severn, just say that i forced you to, simple" Smiled Chris
Keats mused over Having Alotta coming onto him...
"Hehe.... look, all im saying is dont go crazy, for one i got no idea
hhow they'l bring you back, but whatever happens, it'l take time and
your body and mind will need to readjust to being alive"
"Eh?"
"look.. remember the first time you were in zero-G?"
"Yeah. So?"
"Well, felt sick didnt you? Inertia and all. But seeming your dead n
all, and then suddenly youl have all your senses back, youl feel
blood pumping again, basically, it'l mess your head around"
"I supopose" muttered Chris, "When are we gonna get it done and over
with anyway?"
"Look. Severn said it would be done by tomorrow. So lets just sit
back and take in the atmosphere for a while, ok?"
"Sure... when tomorrow d you think it'l be ready tho?"
"Look, being alive has its downsides to"
"Such as?"
"Well, you get to die again, and hey, your a veteran at it!"
"Once is hardly a vetran John. Ive had Paella once, im ahrdly a
veteran coinaseur"
"Died mroe times than.. ohh... all bar about three people onboard"
Chris mused this and gave up.
***A Day passes and The two end up sleeping on some mattreses in
Cargobay 23 ***
Chris woke up he rolled over, he lifted his arm up and looked at his
watch, "five am" he thought to himself," as soon as im alive again,
im gonna go and see Emma", Right, lets wake Keats up...
As Chris rolled over and stood up, he saw that Keats was already
awake. He was deep in thought chewing on a small wooden tooth pick.
He turned it around in his mouth over and over.
"Keats?"
It snapped. Keats closed his eyes and withdrew the two splinterd
pieces from his mouth.
"What?"
"You awake"
"........"
"Me to. Think Severn wil be ready"
Keats closed his eyes. Images flashed through his head quickly.
"I can quite honestly say yes, yes he has"
"You what Keats?", said Chris as he stared down at the pack of
cigarretes by Keats bed,
"bloody hell, i dunno what your smoking, but it is sure as hell not
ordinary tobacco"
"Heh.. no, it aint normal... i got some mates in the science
department to make em... Amber dont like me smoking, so i only have
one rolie a day. The rest are like nicotine patches absorbed through
your lips, instead of smoke, i inhale breath freshener"
He breathed deeply on Chris who promptly made an impressed face and
nodded.
"Anyway, shall we go see how our friends doing? He'l be up in the
science rooms waiting"
"How d'ya know?"
"Nano-tech augmentations, sends sub-vocalised messages to others over
tight or widebeam"
"Eh?"
"Just go"
"Ok, that sounds cool, anyway, yeah, im up for it, er...shall we go
now?"
Keats shook his head and walked off. After a short walk, they found
Severnlying back chewing some gum manically.
"This the one?"
"Yeah, hes the stiff... we managed to half-inch his Implied D/RNA
from the computer system and run a dummy program through Holly. Lets
just hope he doesnt find out where the spare energys going"
"Ok.. well... im gonna need something from you Pilgrim"
He looked at Chris, who gulped.
"What is it?"
"This.."
He fired a dart into, and through Chris, whos hardlight body
polarised, shifted into a two dimensional form and dissapeard. His
light-bee was caught by Severn who took a small chip out of it.
"Memory.. from when he was a hologram. He might be a lil
disorientated without it"
"Can i... can i see it?"
Keats gulped, it had been almost a year. He hated the machine. It had
been rebuilt, the same green liquid fermented inside and bubbled
slowly. Inside was a clone-blank, lifeless.
"How long will it take?"
"A day for the Implied D/RNA to introduce and a day for the
accelerated growth program to run"
Severn injected the D/RNA into a tube and downloaded the chip data to
the machine. The body twitched.
"Is this right... it... it dodnt work before, how could you remake
it?"
"I had help.."
Keats knew what this meant. He walked over to it and pressed his hand
to the glass screen and ontoa small control panel. It gave him a
small shock, and made him feel dizzy.
"Dont touch that.. please... its part of the brain-shunt"
As he said that he put a wire into it. Keats started to feel sick.
I.. I hate this machine.... i can't stay.. sorry. He left, checked
his watch and walked into the corridor. His vision blurred slightly
as he stepped, then fell into a limping shuffle.
"whaa... the....."
He fell to his knees and whited out.
<End>
Well, thats done. A story waiting to happen is this, you wait, when
you least suspect it, BOOM!