Halfskin
(Halfskin #1)
by Tony Bertauski
Kindle Edition, 260 pages
Published: November 30th 2012
Summary from Goodreads:
Biomites are artificial stem cells that can replace any
cell in your body. No more kidney failure, no severed spines or blood disease.
No cancer. Pharmaceuticals become obsolete. With each dose of biomites, we
become stronger, we become smarter and prettier.
We become better.
At what point are we no longer human?
Nix Richards nearly died in a car accident when he was young. Biomites saved his life. Ten years later, he’s not so lucky. The Halfskin Laws decree a human composed of 50% biomites is no longer human. Halfskins have no legal rights and will have their biomites shutdown. It’s not called murder, merely deactivation.
Cali Richards has been Nix’s legal guardian since their parents died. She has lost far too many people in her life to let the government take Nix. She is a nanobiometric engineer and will discover how to hide him. But even brilliance can succumb to the pressure of suffering. And technology can’t cure insanity.
Cali and Nix keep a slippery grip on reality as they elude a maniacal federal agent dedicated to saving humanity from what he calls 'The Biomite Plague'.
EXCERPT OF HALFSKIN:
M0THER
Blogger’s Reaction to the Birth of M0ther
THE REAL AVENGER’S BLOG
Shooting Truth-Bullets Since Birth
Subscribers:
3,233
It's the end of time,
peeps.
Mark this date, put a
black X on your calendar because it's all over, starting today. It used to be
that if you didn't like the laws where you lived, you just moved to another
state or another country. Freedom existed somewhere in the world. We had a
choice. I mean, hell, if you were desperate enough you could live on the South
Pole with penguins and shit.
Not anymore.
Today, it's all over.
Today, M0ther was
born.
Who's M0ther? Our
M0ther. Already got a mother? Now you got two, only this one will know
everything about you. You can't hide from her, she'll know when you're full of
crap, know where you stash your porn, know when you pick your nose and when you
eat it.
You'll hate her, and
she'll know that, too.
Case you've been asleep
for the last 10 years, the Mitochondria Terraforming Hierarchy of Record is
what I'm talking about.
Let's just call her
M0ther.
A mother that doesn't
bake cookies or wash your underwear. She's not getting up to make you French
toast or wipe your nose. Nope. This bitch is going to spy on you until you’re
dead. Which may be sooner than you think.
M0ther is somewhere
in the frozen plains of Wyoming. No pictures of her exist because no one's
allowed to even flyover. But rumors say she's this massive dome, a computer the
size of a football stadium, like some artificial brain heaved out of the frozen
soil that's wirelessly connected with every biomite in existence.
Did you catch that?
EVERY BIOMITE IN EXISTENCE!
Hear that buzzing on
your phone? She's listening.
Feel that tickle on
your laptop? She knows you're tapping.
All that Do Not Covet Your Neighbor's Wife crap?
Yeah, that's the real deal, now. M0ther might tell your wife what you're
thinking about doing to Joe-Bob's wife mowing the lawn in a tube top.
George Orwell wasn't
even close, man. I mean, Big Brother was just a pea shooter compared to M0ther.
Big Brother was pissing on a forest fire; M0ther's bringing the goddamn ocean.
Here's the official
statement from Marcus Anderson, Chief of the Biomite Oversight Committee.
(BTW, he looks like a
gargoyle. Right?)
It is with great pleasure that, after
ten years of global effort, I present to you the greatest feat of humankind. I
present to you a regulatory system that will keep all people safer and
healthier for centuries to come. Bionanotechnolgy has put us on the brink of
greatness, but with that comes uncertainty and danger. The human species has
the potential to live forever. Or end tomorrow.
I prefer the former.
Mitochondria Terraforming Hierarchy of
Record is linked to every booted cellular-sized biomite living inside our
bodies. Its primary function will be to monitor individual levels of biomites
and take appropriate action if, or when, they cross a previously determined
threshold. This will keep us human.
This will keep us safe.
Forever.
I don't know about you,
but this is not a gross infringement on our freedom: it's raping it. I don't
want anything or anyone peeking into my biomites; that's none of your business,
none of my neighbor's, and it sure as hell ain't the government's.
Biomites aren’t evil,
dude. They’re artificial stem cells, that’s all. What’s the big deal? If you
want to be 100% artificial, be my guest, that's your business, bro. I don't
give a rat's pink sphincter what you do with your body. You want to boost your
brain with biomites to get smarter? Hey, as long as you got the cash, good for
you.
What the chief didn't
say in his official statement was what exactly the previously determined threshold is.
Want to know?
You should, before
you rebuild your kidney or tone those wrinkles, you should know that when your
body is 40% biomites, you're a redline. And redlines go to jail.
JAIL.
Think I'm joking?
They call it a
Detainment and Observation Center. You can't leave, you don't order takeout,
you shower with other redlines. That's jail. You get a federally funded cot and
three hots while they watch your biomite levels. On a side note, you’d think
the scientists could figure out how to keep biomites from reproducing and
slowly taking over our bodies once we get seeded. They are the geniuses, for Christ’s
sake. Doesn’t seem like it should be all that hard.
But all right,
whatever. So they continue dividing once they’re in our bodies. It’s worth the
trade off: they are the answer to every disease, every shortcoming, every
desire known to man. They’ll figure it out, give them some time.
But here’s the
kicker. Guess what happens when you hit 50%. Guess, no seriously. Take a stab.
When your body becomes halfskin, when it's 50% God-given, good ole' fashion
organic cells and 50% artificial biomite cells, guess what M0ther’s going to
do?
Bitch
is going to shut you off.
That’s right.
And when she does,
when she turns off all your biomites like a light switch, what do you think
happens to the other half? The living half?
Yeah. That's right.
It's real, peeps. Real
as it gets.
The death of human
liberty happened today and you probably didn't even feel it.
Well, I did.
An Interview With Tony Bertauski:
What inspired you to write Halfskin?
Most of what I write is inspired by consciousness, what
makes us human, what this is all about. Halfskin investigates the body image,
that if technology advances to the point that we can control everything about
the body—disease, emotions, talent—will we evolve into something greater or
devolve into self-destruction?
When or at what age did you know you wanted
to be a writer?
Early on, I enjoyed storytelling. It wasn’t until I was
in my 30s that I thought I could really do it.
What is the earliest age you remember reading
your first book?
I remember reading
What genre of books do you enjoy reading?
I’ve always like science fiction, especially those books
that explored a human element, in particular artificial intelligence.
What is your favorite book?
Dune is the winner. I was always amazed at how Herbert
invented an entire universe.
You know I think we all have a favorite
author. Who is your favorite author and why?
While there have been many that have impressed me with
such an authentic voice, Frank Herbert is my favorite. The extent of his
universe was breathtaking.
If you could travel back in time here on
earth to any place or time. Where would you go and why?
Honestly, this is has to be the most exciting time in
history. Technology is on the cusp of tremendous strides. If the human race can
survive its own self-obsession, there’s likely to be some amazing discoveries.
When writing a book do you find that writing
comes easy for you or is it a difficult task?
Sometimes it flows like butter. Or at least until I
reread what I wrote and it’s crap. Nonetheless, I love the challenge of writing
a good twist. The story arc, to me, is like putting together a massive jigsaw
puzzle, painting one piece at a time. What fun and frustration it can be!
Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a
dog or a cat? Or any pets?
Two dogs. Can’t imagine life without dogs.
What is your "to die for", favorite
food/foods to eat?
A gourmet hamburger cannot be beat.
Do you have any advice for anyone that would
like to be an author?
You have to enjoy the ride. I feel fortunate to feel so
connected to the stories I write. I’m not sure it’s really anything I did to
make that connection, really. Once I tried writing a romance novel and realized
I just didn’t care. So if you’re passionate about a particular genre, don’t let
it wither on the vine. Discipline yourself to write until it becomes second
nature.
Author Bio:
My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?
I'm a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I'd rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That's the sort of stuff I want to write, not the assigned reading we got in school. I want to create stories that kept you up late.
Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it's only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.
In 2008, I won the South Carolina Fiction Open with Four Letter Words, a short story inspired by my grandfather and Alzheimer's Disease. My first step as a novelist began when I developed a story to encourage my young son to read. This story became The Socket Greeny Saga. Socket tapped into my lifetime fascination with consciousness and identity, but this character does it from a young adult's struggle with his place in the world.
After Socket, I thought I was done with fiction. But then the ideas kept coming, and I kept writing. Most of my work investigates the human condition and the meaning of life, but not in ordinary fashion. About half of my work is Young Adult (Socket Greeny, Claus, Foreverland) because it speaks to that age of indecision and the struggle with identity. But I like to venture into adult fiction (Halfskin, Drayton) so I can cuss. Either way, I like to be entertaining.
And I'm a big fan of plot twists.
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