Hope and Happiness

"Well Evan if I can drop the consultation act for this one answer. The answer is simple, I consider you a friend. We've known each other for a few years now, and after all the weekend golf trips, I would consider you one of my best friends. With my research I've never been a social person and you've always been there for me. On the business side of things to be frank, the board doesn't want anything to happen to you. The investments you have made for us makes it possible to retire right now and never have to work again. To be honest, if I didn't love my work so much, I probably would have. We can't lose an asset such as yourself, and we have the ability to do something about it. With this procedure you won't just get 2 years, you will live a full life." Jeremy sounded fully honest in his response. He answered in this way trying to solidify the good intentions to Evan, to set his decision in stone.

"Wow, I never realized you thought of me as a friend. To be honest, I didn't even realize we had become that close over the years." Evan was touched. He still had trouble letting anyone get close to him. After his childhood, trust was something he didn't hand out easily. This caused him to feel guilty for never even thinking of the possibility of them being friends. He did realize that when they played, the topic of work never came up. It was usually just small talk about what was going on in their personal life. It didn't hit him before, but to someone like Jeremy, who never left the lab, this was probably the only social interaction the guy had.

"Well, that's the truth Evan, I would hate to lose the only friend I have." Jeremy was a great actor. It helped that he actually meant what he said about Evan being his friend. The problem was, Jeremy considered everyone expendable in the pursuit of science. Everything he said was perfect, he knew he had gotten to Evan. The emotion in his voice to the look on his face conveyed everything. He knew he had won at that moment.

"Okay then, second question. Realistically, what are the chances of this working?" Evan had to know what he was really getting into. "I don't want to get my hopes up here. My mother is really on my ass about fighting this, but to be honest. If I have any more setbacks, I don't see myself making it. I think I'm done fighting to live in a world that keeps screwing me."

"Realistically? As long as there is no infection, I would give this a 98% chance of success. Every test we have done with the brain mapping and physical transplanting have been a success. Even the small trial run on humans, just the mapping of course, into simulated programs have been 100%. I only say 98% because life happens and sometimes there are unforeseen consequences." Jeremy still gave all facts to Evan, but with facts like these why wouldn't he tell the truth.

"When do we start?" Evan asked. The chance of actually living a full life was enough for Evan to try it, but he still wanted to know everything first. Hearing the 98% chance of success completely blew his mind and no longer cared about anything else. He had done exactly what he didn't want. He got his hopes up. They weren't just up, but sky high, he didn't see a way this could fail.

"We can start now if you don't mind. All we would do is attach a small probe into the spinal column with a nano device that would map your brain. It would just be a very painful shot today, and back in 2 months for extraction." Jeremy was ecstatic right now. Everything went perfectly to his plan, and if this worked, Omega Industries would be the first ones to create a product that can literally replace parts of the brain. This could win a Nobel Prize easily.

"Let's do this then." Evan was just as excited. This is his life that they are talking about. He just went from a death sentence to a new lease on life. He would be crazy if he wasn't.

They got Evan into a room and a doctor was quickly ushered into the room with a massive needle. They had to strap him down, to make sure he couldn't move and injure himself. They knew this would be painful but didn't know how bad it would actually hurt.

They gave him a few shots to numb everything.

Next thing Evan knew, he felt the most severe pain of his life in the middle of his neck. Burning, sharp, crackling pain was felt shooting into every part of his body. He was screaming until his face turned blue, completely out of breath, he couldn't breathe in because of the pain and constant screaming. Shortly after, he passed out.

He woke up an hour later, in a medical bed with a few I.V.s hooked up to him. He had passed out from the pain, so they gave him fluids while he slept and monitored him. After he woke up the pain was gone, due to pain killers. He got a few more to take home but felt fine otherwise.

The 2 months just flew by for Evan. He felt 100 times better just knowing that there is a chance that he will live. He had more energy than he had every had in his life. He felt stronger, faster, and smarter. It's a new lease on life, everyone felt like this when the survived a near death experience. He told himself that this was how he felt before the cancer. It just felt odd after having such a severe difference in his personality.

After extracting the nano chip, which was done with a signal emitter, magnet, and a couple small incisions, he was told that it would take about 2 weeks before the neuron processor was finished. He was ecstatic once again. For one, the extraction was pretty painless compared to the insertion. And for two, they told him that the mapping process was much more successful than they thought which should make integration even easier than they first thought.

Two and a half weeks went by, and Evan got the call. He set the surgery up for the following Monday.

He finally called his parents and told them it was time. They were nervous, yet excited. His mother more so than his father. His father was closer and cared than when he was on drugs but was still a selfish person more invested into his life moving forward than his son surviving. Edward was basically a parasite on Anne's hip. Evan couldn't have one without the other. When Evan tried to rekindle the relationship with his parents, it came easy with Anne. Edward on the other hand wasn't much different off the drugs than he was on. The big difference was that he wouldn't try to beat Evan, then again Evan was quite a bit larger than his father these days.

Monday came quickly, quicker than any of them had expected. They said their possible last farewells and crossed their fingers everything would go well. Anne was biting her nails frantically in fear of what would happen.

They wheeled Evan in on a typical hospital bed. Jeremy was personally going to install the device as he was by far the most qualified. This also put Evan at ease, knowing that a friend was going to be the one taking care of him.

Surgery went perfectly. He was out within 18 hours, about 4 ahead of schedule, and had full cognition before they put him to sleep to help recover. He would have a 12-week rehabilitation period and should be perfectly fine to resume his life.

It was all over.