Stan and Charlie
“There now, what do you think of that?” Theodore the scientist waved his arms like a showman, tried to look modest, but could not help beaming at the young man. “Stan and Charlie.” As if it was an introduction.
Derek tried to think of something intelligent to say. He was, actually, feeling somewhat nauseous. Before him were a couple of large sinks let into a very large bench. Just like a laundry fixture, he thought. Except that the sinks were full of bubbling foam-flecked water, in which floated two amorphous grey masses.
“You mean they are …”
“Oh yes, brains, just their brains. We’ve put a line between the two, but we’re not sure if they’re aware of each other at this stage.”
Derek looked at the various cables and lines that straddled the bench, along with the various connecting, incomprehensible gadgetry that sat on it. It was impossible to tell which was the ‘line between the two’. He leaned a little further over the guard rail.
“Charlie is the one nearest you. The other is Stan.”
“They’ve sort of got … tentacles under them.”
“We’ll be feeding them sensory data very soon, and that’s when things will get very interesting.”
Derek remained silent. He felt, in a curious way, threatened. He was still struggling to think of intelligent things to say.
“This is only the beginning. Eventually, we’ll get them into bodies. Permanent bodies, of course.”
“Bodies?” Derek had turned away from Stan and Charlie, and was looking, mainly, at his own reflection in the scientist’s glasses. He still couldn’t seem to get past gaping, and echoing the other’s words.
“Yes! Humans will become immortal.” The great scientist gestured once more to the tank. He looked like a magician pulling off his smartest trick.”It’s still under security of course, but since you’re coming on board …”
Derek stared again at the murky, grey, enigmatic creatures floating like jellyfish.
“We’ll be feeding them sensory data very soon, and that’s when things will get very interesting.”
“You say they are alive?”
“Yes, we’ve done some simple tests. For example, we plant an obstacle somewhere, intruding on their space, and the brains will rearrange themselves to avoid it. There is intelligence at work there.”
Derek frowned. He tried to imagine the kind of intelligence an isolated brain might have. These two, freed from the confines of their bone cages, had spread themselves out somewhat, and undulated gently as bubbles winked up around them.
“Are they conscious?”
“We’ll know more when we start feeding in sensory data, of course. For now, I’ll just say they respond to stimulus, and that’s the main thing. To me that constitutes life.” The great scientist smiled again. Another trick achieved.
Derek watched the brains moving gently as the bubbles coursed by.
“Just like fish in a tank.”
“Not quite,” said the scientist, “but it is true that they need a continuous supply of oxygen.”
Derek looked about the room. Much of it was in near darkness, with lights and cameras trained on the tank. He felt giddy, and curiously disconnected from himself.
“I must go.”
“I’m sorry I can’t show you out,” said the scientist. “Somebody has to be here at all times, since if something goes wrong it could undo many hours of work. But as I said, we’re going to do some serious testing, such as connecting up some sensory data. Oh, and connecting the two brains together. Now that will be interesting.”
###
“Derry, you won’t go again, will you?”
“Jess, I feel so strange, Those things – they’re haunting me.”
“I told you not to go in the first place, remember? You were always squeamish about body parts, remember. You were hopeless in biology class. You wouldn’t take part in the dissections. So, no more visits to that crazy lab.”
“Jess, I’d like not to go, but I feel as though there’s a ghost inside me. I need to exorcise it, if that’s the word. I need to go back.”
“Look at me, Derry. We’ve got our wedding in two weeks, and I don’t want anything to get in the way of that. I have a bad feeling about that place, so you must promise me, promise me …”
“Darling, I will. The shortest possible time. But for goodness sake, I’ve accepted the job.”
“You’ve agreed to manage their databases, and whatever other IT things you do. You haven’t agreed to go looking at messy body parts.”
“Yes, you’re right, Jess. I’ll just take the briefest look, so I can tell myself I’m fussing over nothing.
“That’s my silly, soft sausage. Now come here, big boy, on the couch. I want to snuggle you.”
Derek checked his watch. “I don’t have much time.”
“All the more reason for a quick snuggle, silly.”
“Jessy?”
“Mmm?”
“Do you remember when we were just kids, and we decided we’d stick together?”
“Oh yes. You said, ‘Jess and Derry, JD’. You were going to carve our initials somewhere.”
“And you said JD – juvenile delinquents.”
“We did do some silly things.”
“Gloriously silly. We’re wiser now.”
“I hope so, Derry.I hope so.”
###
The next day Jessica had news.
“Stanley and Charlie were brothers. Now, one day on a whim they left their brains along with all their other body parts to science; and then,just a week later, they were killed in a plane crash. Now wasn’t that strange? There was some argument over the ethics of what the company is doing with the brains, but apparently it’s all right.”
“Not all right by me, Jess. Like you, I don’t feel good in that place, but I’ve just got to go back.”
“Quick as you can, then, dearest, and good luck!”
Derek’s first shock was the crowd. A larger part of the lab around the tank had been cordoned off, and it seemed as though a good many of the staff were gathered around the perimeter. This time Derek was moved around, introduced here and there, and pleasantries were exchanged. The ordinariness of the scene was reassuring. Derek chatted about his previous experiences with databases, and how he looked forward to his new job. Then when the scientist began to speak he was for the moment astonished to find himself standing up against the barrier closest to the tank, in the very place that had given him so much concern just two days earlier. Not that there was any time for reflection about that.
“Thank you all for coming to bear witness,” said the great scientist. “We are going to officially start the experiment, and it is such a momentous one that, well, it needs to be marked as a special occasion. So, here we go. You’ll be pleased to know there will be drinks and snacks later. But as for now … Tommy, will you please pull the switch.”
Nobody could quite agree about what happened after that, or in what order things happened. Some things were certain, and at the inquiry an approximate narrative was sketched out by the investigating officer.
According to his report, the overhead lights were dimmed, and the tank, the centre of the experiment, came into bright focus. Then came the explosion, followed by complete darkness, a dull thud, and a cry of exasperation. The lights were turned back on. Someone was groaning, but most people were distracted by the tank, or rather, the place where the tank was. It was enveloped in a milky white fog. The groaning continued, and, as if coming from a distant place, someone sobbing. The room remained curiously dark. And after an interval of astonished silence everyone was talking at once. It took a while before Derek was discovered. He had climbed the barrier and was curled up against the tank, very pale, shaking, and incoherent.
By common consent, the experiment was over.
Derek was put into a coma and given complete privacy, but Jessica was with him at the hospital, days later, when he regained some semblance of consciousness. He was babbling.
“Where is he? Where is he?”
“Who, Derry, who?”
“My brother … I couldn’t keep us level … stay on the level … oh my God”
“Derry, Derry, wake up.”
“It’s no good! We’re going down!”
“Derry!”
Derek opened his eyes wide, and appeared to see Jessica for the first time.
“Who is Derry?”
“Darling, you are Derry.”
“I’m Stanley. Stanley Hopkirk. I want to know what happened to my brother Charles.”
###
There was only one brain in the tank, the other strewn over the floor below, but the scientist barely noticed such details. All his attention was on Jessica, who was leaning over the rim of the tank towards the remaining brain, and dripping blood into the now pink-stained saline solution. She made a satisfied grunt when she saw the newcomer.
“Ah! Good! Please help me take out my brain. You see, I need to be beside my Derry, who is right there. You see, today is our wedding day.”
It was not what she said, but rather her eyes that were to haunt the great scientist. They did not seem at all like the eyes of a human being.
The case attracted widespread publicity, and even wider interest. Every second person had a theory, but there was little agreement. One morning Bo, the company receptionist, and Jo, the office manager, got together to air their views.
“I gather the police lost interest?”
“Absolutely, Bo. Case closed.”
“Hmm. People were hurt of course, and that new chap was attacked. Struck on the head or something.”
“I was standing quite near him when the lights went out, and I sensed him move. I’m pretty sure he simply fell over the barrier.”
“But there were some who thought he shouldn’t have gotten that plum IT job. He was only a junior.”
“I’ve got a theory about him, Bo. He became obsessed with those pilots who owned the brains. He’d managed to get a lot of quite personal information about them, I gather. I think he just ended up thinking he was one of them.”
“What’s his prognosis, do you know?”
“Quite promising, I believe. Not so good for that poor girl he was
Engaged to.”
Stan and Charlie
/