Transplant – Sunday Photo Fiction

Written for Sunday Photo Fiction. A story, about a tour through a research lab and an unusual man, begins after the photo.

Genre: Science Fiction/Humor

Photo by: Alistair Forbes

Transplant

Air Force General, Barry Lund, led a team of military scientists and accountants into the lab. Waiting before a jar of some indiscriminate material floating in clear liquid, was chief development scientist, Timothy Szerny. Szerny gestured to the jar and said, “Here is the Piece de’ Resistance. A living brain grown in this vat right here in the lab. It’s the Mark III Bifurcated Linearly-Oriented Brain, or BLOB. It has ten times the processing power of a human brain and can easily be integrated into the latest military drone designs.”

“Excellent work,” said Lund. “I’m certain the Air Force would be interested in purchasing the design.”

“Thank you, General. I’d hoped you’d say that.” Szerny turned to the pale-skinned man beside him. “This is Maxwell Grimm, our company lawyer. He’ll be drawing up any contracts and has one ready for your perusal.”

Lund shook the man’s hand and noted the thin-lipped attorney’s hand was clammy. Unpleasant, but not unusual with lawyers in his experience. He turned back to Szerny and said. “You got this project off the ground awfully fast, Mr. Szerny. How did you do it?”

“Easy. We simply used lessons learned from growing living hearts for transplant.”

“Amazing!”

“Thank you. Yes, some of our employees have undergone transplant surgery with the new hearts and are doing rather well.” He gestured to the lawyer. “Mr. Grimm, here, will be receiving a new heart in about a week.”

“So quick?”

“Have to. He’s already had the old heart removed.”

Lund’s jaw fell open. “No heart? But…here he is standing, apparently alive.”

“Yes, well, as you may know, lawyers rarely use their hearts and thus, don’t technically need them.”
_______________________________
Each week, photographer Alistair Forbes presents an original photo as a writing prompt for flash fiction. This is my second writing challenge where the photo prompt is some amorphous blob. Are you guys coordinating your photos? 🙂 Look here for more exciting stories based upon the photo above: http://sundayphotofictioner.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/sunday-photo-fiction-august-24th-2014/