Mindscan by Robert J. Sawyer Read Free Book Online

various medical tests, filled out legal forms, and had my body — but not yet my brain — scanned.
    "Are you ready to see it?" asked Porter.
    I swallowed, then nodded.
    "Good, good." There was another door to the room, and Porter opened it with a theatrical flourish. "Jake Sullivan," he declared, "welcome to your new home!"
    In the next room, lying on a gurney, was a synthetic body, wearing a white terry-cloth robe.
    I felt my jaw dropping as I looked down at it. The resemblance was remarkable.
    Although there was a touch of department-store mannequin to the general appearance, it still was, without a doubt, me. The eyes were open, unblinking and unmoving. The mouth was closed. The arms lay limply at the sides.
    "The boys and girls in Physiognomy tell me you were a cinch," said Porter, grinning.
    "Usually, we're trying to roll back the clock several decades, recreating what a person had looked like when they were in their prime; after all, no one wants to upload into a body that looks like it's on its last legs. You're the youngest person they've ever had to do."
    It was my face, all right — the same long shape; the same cleft chin; the same thin lips; the same wide mouth; the same close-together eyes, the same dark eyebrows above them. Crowning it all was thick dark hair. All the gray had been removed, and — I craned to look — the duplicate had no bald spot.
    "A few minor touch-ups," said Porter, grinning. "Hope you don't mind."
    I'm sure I was grinning, too. "Not at all. It's — it's quite amazing."
    "We're pleased. Of course, the underlying synthetic skull is identical in shape to yours — it was made with 3D-prototyping equipment from the stereo x-rays we took; it even has the same pattern of sutures, marking where the separate skull bones fused together."
    I'd had to sign a release for the extensive x-rays used to produce the artificial skeleton. I'd received a big enough dose in one day to increase my future likelihood of cancer — but, then again, most Immortex clients were going to die soon, long before any cancers could pose a problem.
    Porter touched the side of the simulated head; the jaw opened, revealing the highly detailed mouth within.
    "The teeth are exact copies of your own layout — we've even embedded a denser ceramic composite at the right points to match the two fillings you have: dental biometrics would identify this head as being yours. Now, you can see there's a tongue, but, of course, we don't actually use the tongue for speech; that's all done with voice-synthesizer chips. But it should do a pretty good job of faking it. The opening and closing of the jaw will match the sounds being produced perfectly — kind of like Supermarionation."
    "Like what?" I said.
    "
Thunderbirds
?
Captain Scarlet
?"
    I shook my head.
    Porter sighed. "Well, anyway, the tongue is very complex — the most complex part of the recreation, actually. It doesn't have taste buds, since you won't need to eat, but it is pressure sensitive and, as I said, it will make the appropriate movements to match what your voice chip is saying."
    "It's really … uncanny," I said, and then I smiled. "I think that's the first time I've ever actually used that word."
    Porter laughed, but then pointed at me. "Now, sadly we haven't been able to replicate that: when you smile, you've got a great dimple in your left cheek. The artificial head doesn't do that. We've noted it in your file, though — I'm sure we'll be able to add it in a future upgrade."
    "That's okay," I said. "You've done a terrific job as is."
    "Thanks. We like people to become familiar with the appearance before we transfer them into an artificial body — it's good that you know what to expect. Are there any particular activities you're looking forward to?"
    "Baseball," I said at once.
    "That will take a lot of eye-hand coordination, but it will come."
    "I want to be as good as Singh-Samagh."
    "Who?" asked Porter.
    "He's a starting pitcher for the Blue Jays."
    "Oh. I