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    In Our Own Image
    In Our Own Image
    In Our Own Image
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    In Our Own Image

    By Samuel Duffy

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    About this ebook

    When Dr. Marcus Tao created CAAN to reverse aging and store both a person's genetic code and unique neuronal pattern, he knew his invention would relegate death to a choice for every human being to make in his own time, and that he would one day have to make that choice for himself.

    In Our Own Image, a novella, is a glimpse into the lives of nine characters--the scholar, the father, the daughter, the lovers, the faithful, the sociopath, and the savior--as they deal with the effects of living in a world where both life and death are a choice, redefining human relationships with one another and with self, as they search for meaning and a reason to remain.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSamuel Duffy
    Release dateSep 1, 2017
    ISBN9780988817227
    In Our Own Image
    Author

    Samuel Duffy

    Samuel Duffy was born and raised on the prairie of Oklahoma. He currently lives in the midst of the pine and hardwood forests of the river-broken Kiamichi Mountains.

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      Book preview

      In Our Own Image - Samuel Duffy

      In Our Own Image

      By Samuel Duffy

      Copyright 2017 Samuel Duffy

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Acknowledgments

      Thanks to Dillon, Michala, and Alex for helping me stage the cover image I kept imagining for this novella.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1: Prometheus

      Chapter 2: Pygmalion

      Chapter 3: Aurora and Tithonus

      Chapter 4: Prometheus

      Chapter 5: Phoebus and Phaeton

      Chapter 6: Chimera

      Chapter 7: Eros

      Chapter 8: Pygmalion

      Chapter 9: Chimera

      Chapter 10: Prometheus

      Chapter 11: Phoebus and Phaeton

      Chapter 12: Chimera

      Chapter 13: Aurora and Tithonus

      Chapter 14: Phaeton and Phoebus

      Chapter 15: Chimera

      Chapter 16: Eros

      Chapter 17: Pygmalion

      Chapter 18: Prometheus

      About the Author

      Other Books by Author

      Prometheus

      The moment after the aged man’s heart seized, sending his right hand clutching at a button-up cola-colored shirt and contorting his once assertive face, Marcus Tao calmly reached into his t-shirt pocket and removed his vox, snapping a photo he captioned Who knows this man? before posting it to the collective conscious. With the information traversing human civilization in a matter of seconds, Marcus sat across from the cyanotic corpse at the wrought-iron, patio table of the Providence Café, recalling the conversation he had begun with the white-haired man before the sun had breached the horizon to set the city aglow with intensifying white light.

      Approaching the Providence Café beneath LED streetlamps, Marcus had watched his loafers touching terra firma, unaware of the starship in the distance that created the sole migrating spark in the dark city sky. When he did look up, he slowed his morning constitutional to verify what his occipital lobe had already accepted as far more alien. Beneath the amber glow of the café lights sat a white-haired man: the black, wrought-iron table holding the man up by his right elbow, his left penny-loafer hooked on his right knee, as if he were on display. As the man raised his porcelain mug to his pallid lips and stared into the east over the thin cloud of steam that wisped from his hot chocolate, Marcus tried to remember the last time he had seen an aging man. Certain it had been decades, but less than a century, Marcus stepped over: sun-yellowed, serene blue eyes greeting him.

      Excuse me, sir. You wouldn’t by chance be looking for me? Marcus asked, noting the man’s thinning hair and spotted, wrinkled façade.

      The man chuckled, his amused eyes revealing conviction. I’m afraid not.

      Perhaps you don’t know who I am? Marcus squinted his youthful chocolate eyes, running his left hand through his thick, dark hair, as he eyed the man’s melanin-deficient follicles.

      The man chuckled, his grin pulling the wrinkles up about his eyes and the translucent skin in his cheeks tight. I know who you are, Dr. Marcus Tao. Humanity’s Prometheus, baring fire from the gods. The man chuckled. I know why you think I should be looking for you. But I shouldn’t be, and I’m not. The aging man turned his attention back to the east.

      Marcus smiled and nodded. Ah, you are a member of the Eternity Church.

      Watching a few red rays break over the horizon and work their way down Milton Avenue pushing aside the morning twilight, the man spoke over his shoulder. I assure you I am not. I have no religious qualms with the work you do, Marcus.

      Marcus shook his head, perplexed. How long?

      The man sighed as the red light touched him and gave way to orange light washing over the asphaltum. I would guess twenty-four hours at best. One of the automated clinics said if I took care of myself I could live to see a hundred twenty years and sixty-five days. This is day sixty-five coming down the street now. The man raised his feeble arm, cup tilted toward the waking sun. Thank you, if there is something to thank.

      Marcus sat in the chair across from the man, uninvited, but overtaken with curiosity. You don’t find it immoral, but you’ve never taken the shot?

      The man continued to stare ahead, taking another sip of his thick, sweet beverage.

      Marcus blurted, Why die?

      The question bringing the man back, enough reason to tether his soul to the table and the man-made earth the table cut into, he turned to Marcus, his blue eyes catching the corners of his grin. After more than three-hundred years, you don’t know?

      Marcus’s eyes darted across the man’s face, back and forth like a scanner. I knew…once. But I got over it.

      The man’s grin dropped slightly, a sudden heaviness pulling his eyes down with pity. To know, Marcus. To know.

      It had been some time since Marcus had seen an aging man, but it had been even longer since he had sensed another pity him. Many believed he had single-handedly created this world, and he now felt this man, though old in body, still young in years, had slighted him with his patronizing pity. His muscles set, Marcus’s eyes hung on the man’s snowy eyebrows: turned down with concern. To know what, exactly? I like to believe I know a great deal.

      The man leaned in. What’s next…. You know a great deal about this world. What do you know about the next? I had a hundred-twenty years of this life. I experienced the world ten times over. I want to know what’s next. ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns.’

      Apprehension hung Marcus’s eyes on the man’s as his chest tightened, and Marcus shrugged the old fear off with a chuckle. What if nothing comes after this?

      The man’s grin rose once more before beginning to fall, his eyes drooping as he pulled his right arm to his chest, his breath caught, unable

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