Trafford Publishing: The Dead Years

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The Dead Years

by Michael O. Gregory

374 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-1330; ISBN 1-55395-614-1; US$29.09, C$33.45, EUR23.90, £16.73

Karl Boyd, a quadriplegic, is given a chance at a normal life through a brain transplant. They finally get a donor body but it's female. To have a normal life it will have to be as a woman.

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about the book about the author sample excerpts or Table of Contents catalogue info

About the Book

Karl Boyle, a seventeen-year-old, had a tragic diving accident that left him a quadriplegic. Years later he was given a second chance. However he had to answer two questions. What would he be willing to do to get out of his wheelchair? What sacrifices would he be willing to make to have a normal life again? The only way he could have a normal life again was to have a new body. He would have to have a brain transplant. He accepted.

When they got a donor body for him it wasn't what he expected. To have a normal life again it would have to be as a woman. He decided it was an acceptable trade off and became Catherine White. After a period of adjustment she met a man and started to fall in love.

When everything was going so well a friend of the donor's family recognized her. This led to contact with the donor's family, and a crisis of conscience. She learned of her former life. However, there were the dead years, the years from the time that she left home at eighteen until she woke up as Catherine White at twenty-four. She has no knowledge of these critical six years. Her life was complete, or so she thought, until events made it imperative that she uncover what happened during the dead years.

She marries and is soon expecting her first child. During her first examination by her OBGYN she learns that this isn't her first pregnancy, that she has given birth before. She has a child out there somewhere. She doesn't know it's age, sex, where it was born, or where it is now. All she knows is that she must find it. The quest leads through New Orleans and Lexington to Mexico. To get her child back she must kidnap it from a drug lord that then comes looking for her, to kill her.

About the Author

Born 1939 Ft. Worth, Texas. Raised at Cal Farley's Boy's Ranch in the Canadian River Valley 40 miles northwest of Amarillo, Texas. Entered military service December 1956. Served mostly in parachute or light infantry. Served first tour in Vietnam with the Parachute Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, 1956-66. Served second tour as an infantry heavy weapons advisor on a Mobile Advisor Team, 1970-71. Have been awarded Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal, Cross-of-Gallantry (Republic of Vietnam), Combat Infantryman's Badge, Parachute badge, Commando Badge (French Army). Retired from military service July 1977.

Sample Excerpts

CHAPTER 3

Dr. Weston got up from the sofa and went to the coffee maker on a corner table, made herself a fresh cup of coffee and returned to the sofa. Taking a sip of coffee, looked into Karl's eyes, and put her cup on the table. "Karl, I'd like to asks you a couple of questions. Don't answer me. Answer to yourself. What would you do to get out of that wheelchair? What sacrifices would you be willing to make to have a normal life? Now, before we go on you must swear that every word spoken in this room from now on will stay in this room. You will confide in no one." Karl was really perplexed. Dr. Weston repeated. "Karl, promise me, not one word." Karl nodded. "Ok, I promise. Not one word." Dr. Weston smiled. "Thank you. Now let's first review the prognosis of your current condition. Your heart is only forty- percent effective now, and despite our best efforts will continue to decline. You have five years, but not ten. Is that about what your doctors told you?" Karl nodded. "Pretty close. Actually they gave me three to five years." Dr. Weston said. "Then the only way for you to overcome your problem is if you had a new body." Karl's mouth fell open. His ears must be deceiving him. "What did you say?" Dr. Weston continues to look directly into Karl's eyes. "The only way out of your predicament is that you're given a new body." Karl shook his head. "You're kidding! This is some hind of a joke!" Dr. Weston kept looking at Karl. "No, I'm not kidding, and this is no joke." Karl said sarcastically. "Then what am I going to be, the six-million- dollar man, robo cop? No thanks!" Dr. Weston tried to be reassuring. "I know it sounds incredible." Karl bit out the words. "You're damn right it sounds incredible. It sounds impossible." Dr. Weston raised her hand to have his attention before she spoke again. "Please, even if you find this hard to believe, just hear me out." Karl looked back at her and thought. This is bazaar, but what the hell, I'll go along with her. He said. "Ok, why not? I don't have anyplace to go right now."

Dr. Weston got up from the sofa, went to her desk, and picked up a thick folder setting on the corner. She took it back to the sofa and dropped it on the coffee table. She then faced Karl. "We've developed a treatment that is injected in and around the damaged nerve or spinal cord. We can even repair nerves or spinal cords that have been completely severed. What is injected is what you may call an exotic medical cocktail. It's a pinkish gel consisting of a nerve cell stimulator, and a growth medium, along with nanobots that are tiny molecule-size biological you do have my interest, but it all sounds risky. What are my chances?" Dr. Weston felt that Karl was starting to come around. "I'll be straight with you. All surgery is a risk, and there are no guarantees, but if I didn't believe we have an excellent chance for success we wouldn't be willing to go through with it. If you decide to go through with the surgery it will go like this. You'll be put under. Then you and the donor body will be cooled down. Then we'll open up both brain cases and remove the dead brain from the donor body, and transplant your's in it's place. We'll then make all the connections, close up, and bring the body temperature back up to normal. We'll keep you in a chemical-induced coma for twelve days to two weeks until good neurological connections are forged. Then we'll wake you up. Well, that's about it. Take as much time as you need to think about it and let us know if you're with us or not." Karl still thought that these people were crazy. What they were talking about sounded like something out of a science-fiction novel. He couldn't see how it would ever work, but if they killed him, what the hell, he would finally be rid of this miserable life. "Ok, Doc, I don't need any time to think about it. Let's do it. One way or the other I'll be out of this wheelchair." Dr. Weston smiled. She had expected Karl to want to take some time to think about it, but it didn't matter that he had already made up his mind.

Dr. Weston said. "Good. Now I've some questions for you, but first let me explain. We can't just sit around waiting for your brain-dead twin to show up. It just won't happen. You must take what you can get. The donor must have the right size brain case, be medically fit, and a good match. The donor will most likely be an unidentified transient who won't be claimed. Now I have two questions for you. First, would you be willing to accept a donor of another race? Second, would you be willing to accept a donor of the other gender?" Karl took a few seconds to think about it before he answered. "Well, Doc, I hadn't thought of that." Dr. Weston continued. "I'm asking you now. What do you think of it?" Karl thought for a few seconds. "I don't know. That's quite a leap to make. I don't know how or if it would work out for me." Dr. Weston knew that this could be one of the hard points. She tried to be reassuring. "I know your misgivings, but I wouldn't ask this of you without a good reason. Any donor is going to be hard to come by, and to limit us to just a white male who is a good match for you may make it impossible for us to help you. Listen, Karl, I know there are profound differences between the races and sexes, but they aren't as great as you may think. There can be profound differences between religious beliefs or politics. I assure you regardless of what donor we use, whatever values or beliefs you have when we put you to sleep will still be your same values and beliefs when you wake up. If you're a jerk when you go to sleep, you'll still be a jerk when you wake up." Dr. Weston's humor got a laugh from Karl and broke the tension. "Look, Karl, If you're thinking that if you end up with a donor of the other gender you'll end up a man trapped in a woman's body, that won't happen. In order to keep the cranial nerves intact, and also the pituitary gland, we keep the donor's hypothalamus and pituitary gland. They control reproduction, fight or flight, self-preservation, appetite, sleep, body temperature, regulation of sexual function, and control of water balance. In other words you'll be the same between the ears as you are between the legs. So, Karl, what's your answer to the question? You'll still have the final say on the use of any donor." Karl had already made up his mind. After all, what difference did it make? This crazy thing wouldn't work anyway. "Ok, Doc, the answer to questions one and two is yes." Dr. Weston smiled. They had their candidate.

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