Sub-Human Helpers

John Douglas Hoge

Description

By 2050 the multinational corporation BioGenAssist (BGA) uses genetic engineering and cloning techniques to create thousands of bonobo-based, cloned Helpers capable of doing the large variety of work that still requires a “human touch.”
Initially BGA only sells Helpers as personal companions. But over time people find Helpers are good workers in many settings, some of which are dangerous or even criminal. Trouble escalates when people learn that Helpers’ organs and other body parts are compatible with humans.
BGA hires former DEA Agent Jaye Jennings to lead its new Helper Authority Law Enforcement (HALE) division in an all-out effort to control these unintended illegal uses of Helpers.
In the final chapter Jennings discovers here-to-fore unknown Helper capacities that could dramatically reduce Helper neglect, misuse, abuse, and capture for use of their body parts.

Sujets

• Science Fiction
• Adventure
• Fiction
• Action

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 10 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669814757
• Langue: English

Extrait

Sub-Human Helpers
Because We Could
 
 
 
 
 
John Douglas Hoge
 
Copyright © 2022 by John Douglas Hoge.
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-1476-4

eBook
978-1-6698-1475-7

 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
Rev. date: 08/25/2022
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
840761
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE Meeting The Future
CHAPTER 1 First Creation
CHAPTER 2 Public Relations
CHAPTER 3 Getting Hired
CHAPTER 4 Meeting The Man
CHAPTER 5 HAPF-01 Facility Tour
PART TWO Companion Uses
CHAPTER 6 Mary & Kai’s First Days
CHAPTER 7 Beth, Will, & Sun
CHAPTER 8 Family Disharmony
CHAPTER 9 Sun’s Spin Down
PART 3 Commercial Uses
CHAPTER 10 Orchard Accident
CHAPTER 11 Returning To Orchard Work
CHAPTER 12 Orchard Work Improves
CHAPTER 13 Another Orchard Work Problem
CHAPTER 14 Growing Uses And Troubles
CHAPTER 15 First Outbreak
PART 4 Illegal Uses
CHAPTER 16 Miami Disappearance
CHAPTER 17 Double Troubles
CHAPTER 18 Killing Zep
CHAPTER 19 Taking Tia
PART 5 Future Pathways
CHAPTER 20 HALE Enforcement Decisions
EPILOGUE
APPENDIX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to acknowledge my family members, present and past, and the many hundreds of teachers, writers, and scientists who have helped me throughout my life journey. I also wish to thank Theresa Rice of Blue Lion Creative Arts for her editorial work. This book would not exist without your literary knowledge and experience. Special recognition is due to my wife, Gail Williamson Hoge, for her assistance, love and companionship over these many years. I couldn’t have done much without your assistance.

INTRODUCTION
Since the rise of our species, people have used animals, first to hunt, kill, and eat, then for many kinds of work, and eventually even for little more than companionship. We profited immensely from our efforts to domesticate wolves, turning them into hundreds of quite different looking and behaving dog breeds. From the plow horse to the Kentucky Derby winner, our relationship with animals has provided more than just food, shelter, work, and entertainment. It has also provided companionship and even a sense of love that defies clear explana tion.
But what would be our reaction to the creation of a new genetically engineered mass-produced service animal designed to love and help us? Could we accept such a creature? How would society adjust to this e vent?
PART ON E Meeting The Future
By 2050, sophisticated computers, drones, robots, and androids ran much of the world. Artificial Intelligence (AI), was everywhere, controlling transportation, manufacturing, and many services. Millions of jobs in business, manufacturing, agriculture, and service disappeared. There was simply no need for human truck drivers, salesclerks, bricklayers, mail carriers, taxi drivers and many other types of city and farm workers.
Computers kept getting faster, Information Technologies (IT), Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) kept advancing. Drones, robots, and androids were everywhere, performing millions of different tasks. Thankfully, some people were employed to design and maintain these technologies. But there has always been a downside to digital technologies other than people losing their jobs.
A dark side emerged in the never-ending hacking and cyberwarfare that did everything from stealing business information for ransom to shutting down essential infrastructure. Digital technologies also formed the backbone of intelligent weapons that made conventional warfare evermore destructive and impersonal. The only good part was that many thousands of people were employed to overcome or defeat these destructive activities. A smaller but significant number of people were criminals who made their living by hacking and cyberwarfare.
Genetic engineering, however, had yet to reach its full potential. What started as limited and beneficial editing of plant genes was soon applied to animals. Worldwide, people planted drought-resistant, high-yield seed and raised disease-resistant livestock that were better than anything before. These advances in genetic modifications for plants and animals rose along with the perfection of cloning techniques. BioGenAssist, often just called BGA, had become the world’s largest multinational genetic engineering corporation not just because of its genetic engineering expertise, but also by explicitly pursuing a humanitarian mission that benefitted people around the globe. Its products saved and improved the lives of many millions of people. So, when BGA called a press conference to announce a new product, many people around the world paid close attention.
On January 3, 2030, BGA’s CEO, Valencia Angelina Garcia, announced the immediate availability of 1,000 genetically engineered bonobo-based Helpers. BGA facilities in 5 more nations around the world were also ready to sell their first 1,000 Helpers. BGA made sure that their diminutive 4.5-foot-tall, hairless, genderless helpers, would perform many kinds of work, but more importantly, would love and obey their owners better than the most devoted dog.
Large multinational corporations such as BGA had been skirting around national and international laws for decades, so nothing could stop Dr. Garcia’s January 3, 2030, announcement. It was an unparalleled event that went surprisingly well—-at least from a scientific and technological point of view. For BGA and humanity, the upside was potentially huge: for about the cost of a typical service android, buyers could own a fully grown, educated, and loving Helper that lived for 20 years in great health.
BGA created Helpers, but could it control the many ways humans would use them? What moral, ethical, and legal responsibilities did BGA have for their creation of Helpers? And how long could its attorneys keep this prize product from being copied or modified with new genetic changes?
CHAPTER 1 First Creation
The thrup, thrup, thrup of helicopter blades mixed with the nasty high-pitched buzzing of a dozen small news drones hovering like a small dark cloud 100 yards below. Every news organization in the area had dispatched one of their remote coverage drones, attempting to capture footage of the protesters gathered outside the stainless-steel security gate of Helper Production Facility 01 (HAPF-01). The event? The creation of the first 6,000 Helpers world-wide. The date? Jan 4, 2029, exactly 1 year before Dr. Garcia’s historic, Jan 4, 2030, announcement.
Hovering in the helicopter 500 feet above the protest, 40-year-old Ryan Cooper, an engineer by training and now the HAPF-01 site manager, looked down on the scene, reading protesters’ signs saying JOBS FOR PEOPLE NOT THEIR PETS, TO HELL WITH HELPERS, NATURE HATES GEN-MODS, AND GOD WILL PUNISH YOU!
Ryan Cooper, his assistant Laura Blake, and their android protector, Alpha02, examined the scene as the chopper pilot struggled to maintain a steady hover in the 15 mile-per-hour easterly wind coming off the ice-cold north Atlantic Ocean. Cooper had been an Army helicopter pilot as a young American warrior, and he appreciated the skill it took to keep their aircraft in a stable hover. His post-service degree in mechanical engineering gave him new insights into helicopters, many other machines, and all sorts of production systems. His visibly graying thick black hair gave away his age more than his youthful body and face.
“I count 34 protesters,” yelled Cooper above the helicopter noise.
Laura responded, “It looks like more than that.”
“It’s 37,” responded Alpha02, “and there’s something strange about one of them.”
“What’s strange!? What do you mean?” asked Cooper.
Before Alpha02 could respond, a shooter sprayed bullets toward the two security guards who quickly crouched behind several large cement barriers that protected the two bullet proof glass doors at the visitor entrance. Seeing the commotion, the chopper pilot instinctively flared left, pulling up away as the huddle of news drones scrambled to better capture closeups of all the action. Alpha02, sitting behind the pilot spoke, “Control is sending law enforcement. Both guards are in danger. Take me down so I can help get them to safety inside the building.”
The pilot looked at Cooper as if requesting permission to land on the facility’s helipad, but Cooper said, “Do what Alpha says.” The helicopter pad wasn’t more than 300 yards away, and the profile of the building prevented the shooter from targeting the chopper as it quickly descended out of sight.
Several news drones rushed to cover this new action as the helicopter swiftly landed. Cooper and Blake ran toward the helipad doors as Alpha02 sprinted around the building toward the cowering, unarmed guards. The small size bullets from the AR-15 gunfire was no threat to her ¼ inch thick tit