Free SFS2 - Science Fiction Short Stories: 10 Science Fiction Short Stories by Krishna kumar Mani Page B

Remember? We simply collect a small amount of tissue from someone perhaps with a needle and we can produce it in the lab. This will be a game changer. I guarantee it.”
    Most of the board was against it. They thought it would be a press relations nightmare. No one would buy it. Who would want to eat a person?
    “Alright. Do you think anyone would give their tissue to be eaten? I don't think so.”
    “Why not? It's not that much different than donating blood for cash. In our case they have to provide a small piece of tissue. It's not hard. But would anyone eat it? It depends on whose meat it is. If it were a sexy model, we could use that as marketing. Sexiness sells, guys. And a model is a lot sexier than a dinosaur.”
    “I can't believe I'm considering this. What if it doesn't work?” asked the CEO. “How can we recover?”
    “Well we'll announce it on April 1st or what known as April Fool's day. People will think maybe it's a prank and they'll warm up to it once they find out it's real. Then we'll have a pre-order. If we get a really bad vibe about it, we can just say we took the joke too far and of course there's no such thing as artificial human meat.”
    Finally they settled on the idea and secretly got to work. Based on a recent survey they had a shortlist of the three sexiest actresses and paid a few million to take tissue and choose one of them anonymously for the new meat product.
    They consulted with their legal team and confirmed that there wouldn't be any legal problems. But based on different countries and leaders, they may find that the meat would be banned. But other meats had been banned before which wasn't such a big deal.
    Once people realized that the announcement was for real, the pre-orders broke records. They were pre-ordered more than iPhones. Meatu had an expected growth of more than 50% in the next quarter's revenue.
    They started shipping on the promised date. Since there was a high volume of orders, Meatu faced a lot of shipping delays. Many countries banned the product and didn't allow pre-orders.
    Urgent Board meeting in Fleshd
    “How did we miss this. We have to remedy this. We need to introduce human meat as well, but what will be the difference maker for us?”
    An analyst for the company spoke up. “We underestimated them as simple copycats because they never introduced new things before. Some fresh people gave them this idea. Maybe we need fresh minds to compete with them?”
    “Well, we can also book a famous actress or model and introduce human meat,” suggestion a couple of board members.“No, that won't do. We don't simply copy our competition. Who has another idea?” asked the CEO.
    Silence.
    “Listen. I invited a new person. He's joining us as the Vice President of Creative Endeavors. Let's give him some time to analyze this problem and bring a great idea to our desk that we can discuss at the next meeting.”
    After a few minutes of conversation a guy in his thirties entered the room.
    “This is Robert Maxwell, the new VP of Creative Endeavors.”
    The board didn't expect him to be so young. They weren't impressed with his appearance and most were wondering where he came from. Why was he important enough to give a top role in the company to?
    He introduced himself
    “Hi. As he said, I am Robert Maxwell. I worked for Meatu for five years. During that time I gave them a lot of valuable ideas but they were content with copying your company. I'm here because I know that Fleshd can destroy Meatu in the marketplace. This is where we will form the new ideas that bring us into global dominance of the artificial meat market.”
    “Thanks, Robert. Alright everyone, let's meet again in a few days. Cathy will let you know more tonight about the schedule. I think big things are happening and we're going to come out on top, especially with the help of Robert.”
    “How about now?” asked Robert.
    “What do you mean, now?” said the CEO.
    “I have an idea now. Is it alright if I