Free Eternal Life Inc. by James Burkard Page A

say no, that I’d even jump at the chance, because you could give me the one thing I wanted most. You could bring back Susan. You could wipe away all the pain and guilt and bring back the dream.
    “All I had to do was sign a five-year contract with Eternal Life, and I’d get Susan back and everything would be like it was before, and we’d live happily ever after. Only it didn’t work out that way, did it? There were a couple of things you neglected to tell me.”
    In the beginning, though, it really was like a dream come true, Harry thought. A clone was prepared for Susan, and she was taken off life support. A short time later, she died, only to be resurrected again in the amino acid vats of Eternal Life; Susan, alive and whole, with all her memories and love intact.
    The media boys spun it into the love story of the century. It was irresistible, a living fairytale. Sleeping Beauty revived by her Prince Charming, a love that transcended death. Their faces were on the front pages of every newspaper, magazine, and holo screen in the country. They became icons of the new age, as familiar as the first pictures of the earth taken from space.
    And when Roger’s media circus had milked that story for all it was worth, there came the final revelation, the price Harry had been willing to pay to bring back his love. Of course, no one was so crass as to talk about five-year legal contracts. No, this was the noble lover, who only wanted to pay his debt of gratitude to Eternal Life by allowing himself to be killed and resurrected again and again, so that everyone could see the wonderful benefits and dependability of this new technology.
    The reality was far from the glitzy, media hype. The first year of Harry’s contract was sheer hell. He died twenty times thatyear, in car crashes, fires, muggings, even a malignant brain tumor. In every case the pain was excruciating, the death trauma worse, and rebirth a nightmare without end.
    Somehow, Roger had forgotten to mention these little details when they were signing the contract. Harry would wake up in the amino acid vats in the cellars beneath Eternal Life begging Jericho to let him die for real. But the old man just shook his head, his eyes full of pity because there was nothing he could do, he said, because he didn’t make the decisions anymore.
    Later, Harry learned that Jericho had gone to Roger, demanding that he release Harry from his contract or, at the very least, that he not be made to die so often. It was in no one’s interest, he argued, if Harry went insane.
    But Roger dismissed Jericho’s concerns. Eternal Life was fighting for its life, he insisted, and Harry was all they had. Major political, financial, and religious interests all over the empire felt threatened by this new technology. Why save or invest for your old age, when you knew there wasn’t going to be an old age? Why insure yourself against accidents, disability, or death when you knew you could just jump out of this old, broken body and into a new, healthy one? Savings banks, pension funds, insurance, medical, and drug companies all saw their profit margins collapse, and they fought back trying to discredit Eternal life, break its monopoly on resurrection technology, and get a piece of the action for themselves.
    In the halls of the imperial parliament they used their political influence to lobby and buy votes while in the news media and the talk shows they thundered against the socially destabilizing effect of this new technology in the hands of one company, controlled by one individual.
    But the churches were the worst, the most ruthless and vicious of all. Those old snake oil salesmen had been selling their particular brands of eternal life for centuries. Now suddenly, they were being put out of business, and they didn’t like it. Religiouscommunities all over the Empire put aside their differences and closed ranks. They thundered against Eternal Life from the pulpits of thousands of churches and