Death -- Fiction; Immortalism -- Fiction; Science fiction
"Well," Raymond said, "Counting the boy we reanimated when you were at
the labs, Senator, we've had 72 reanimations since the first success.
No, 73. In 62 of those cases, we've had c-complete success. In four
others, it was impossible for us to restore life at all. And in the
remaining seven"--_now it comes out_, Harker thought--"we achieved
reanimation with partial success."
"In what way partial?" Vorys pressed.
Raymond had run out of evasions. He said, "We restored the body to
functional activity. We were unable to achieve a similar restoration of
the mind, in those seven cases."
CHAPTER XVII
The newspapers had a field day with Raymond's unwilling revelation.
Even the traditionally sedate _Times_ devoted six of its eight columns
to a banner headline about it, and a story which began,
_Public faith in the Beller reanimation process was seriously shaken
today by the surprising revelation that reanimation sometimes produces
a mentally deficient individual._
_Dr. Martin Raymond, head of the Beller research organization, made the
statement in New York at the opening session of Senate reanimation
hearings. He declared that seven out of seventy-three experimental
reanimations had produced "mindless beings." In four other instances,
neither body nor mind was successfully recalled to life._
In the other papers, it was even worse. The _Star-Post_, which had been
growing more sympathetic each day, demanded atop its editorial column,
WHY HAVE THEY BEEN HIDING THIS? The Hearst papers, which had
_never_ been sympathetic to the cause of reanimation, grew almost
apoplectic now; their key slogan was the label, "The Zombie-Makers,"
which they used in reference to the Beller researchers not only in the
editorial (a vitriolic one) but even in several of the news columns.
At the Litchfield headquarters, the flood of abusive mail threatened to
overpower the local post-master. It was impossible to read it all, and
after Harker picked up a scrawled letter that threatened assassination
for him and his entire family unless reanimation experiments ceased,
he decided to read none of it at all. They stored it in one of the
supply-buildings in back, and Harker gave orders that any overflow was
to be destroyed unread.
On the second day of the hearing, a few new faces were in the
auditorium. They were faces Harker did not enjoy seeing. They
belonged to Cal Mitchison and David Klaus, and with them was their
lawyer, Gerhardt.
With Senator Thurman still not found, Brewster presided at the second
session--a heavy-set, slow-moving man with the ponderously tenacious
mind that went with those physical characteristics. With the opening
formalities out of the way, Brewster said, "We would like to hear from
Dr. David Klaus, formerly of the Beller Research Laboratories."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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