EXCERPT A wave of 'cyborg chic' hysteria quickly broke across the Swiss media.
Cyborgs were suddenly the thing to be. Leaders of Swiss business who had quietly
had brain implants to enhance their performance were suddenly fashion icons.
Pris was at the forefront of it all. Bleeding Edge Entertainment quickly
released more of her music videos: Love Me Like a Machine, then Drill Me Harder.
After that came Blade Runner in which she had metal arms as well as legs, and
danced whirling two Japanese swords with superhuman precision. And the media
were full of her wildness, the parties and the endless stream of young men whom
she used for momentary pleasure and then cast aside. Pris said that none of them
had what it took to satisfy her.
Then after a few weeks of media saturation came the shock exposé: Pris,
full name Priska Franck, was forty-eight years old and had been a middle level
executive in a manufacturing firm before starting her musical career. She had
had a brain implant years before, but her recent treatment from Idogba Biotech
had rebuilt her body. Pictures were published showing how she had looked before:
dumpy, unattractive and ageing. Now she looked like a stunning eighteen year old
beauty.
'In my dreams I always wanted to be a dancing girl,' Pris told the
press. 'But I never had the coordination. I couldn't dance to save my life. I
did pretty well in my career, so I could afford it, and the technology had
reached the point where they really could change me into what I wanted to be. So
I thought, well, why not? You only live once. And I've already made more money
back than the treatment cost me.'
The day after that article came out, Idogba Biotech launched a major
advertising campaign featuring Pris, offering rejuvenation and full body
transformation into a young beauty. The media frenzy grew more intense than
ever, and more people jumped on the bandwagon. Before Pris, people with implants
had wanted to stay normal-looking on the outside, and many had been embarrassed
to admit their machine components.
Now, suddenly, cyborg chic was everything. Metal in place of skin was
sexy. Rich old people took the Idogba treatments and were launched into a new
life with young-looking bodies, some all in natural skin but others with metal
showing like Pris. An old lady named Dorothea Frei underwent the rejuvenation
treatment and had the same treatment given to her dog, Samson, saying they had
grown old together so they should be rejuvenated together. Samson appeared in
the media, shown with gleaming artificial legs alongside his newly young and
metal-decorated owner. Meanwhile, young girls started to wear stick-on metallic
patches on their skin in imitation of Pris.
As the 'Cyborg King and Queen', Simon and Rachel's names were
frequently mentioned. Journalists were always calling them. Rachel did her best
to play it down, but Simon basked in the attention. He played to the audience,
constantly talking about his achievements and how implants in himself and his
soldiers had made them possible.
'Implantation is the next step in the development of our species,' he
said. 'Up till now, we've had to rely on the slow process of evolution. In
future, we will be designing our own bodies to please ourselves.' He spoke the
words as if this was the most wonderful thing in the world, but inwardly Rachel
cringed. All she wanted was to be a normal woman and have normal, healthy
children. Was that too much to ask?
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Children`s Fiction
Non-Adult Fiction
