Absurd hypothetical time. Here’s the sitch:
Let’s say you’re on your way meet your dear friend Suzie Q – hypergenius technomage and former Rhymer Enterprises employee, fired for being insufficiently evil – for lunch. Just before you get to the restaurant you feel a sudden sharp pain, then pass out. The next thing you know you are back in your own house, with Suzie stnading before you. Oddly she’s entirely naked, making you glad she is a dead ringer for Helena Bonham Carter.
“What’s going on?” you ask. “Why are we naked? And how long was I unconscious?”
“You’re still unconscious,” Suzie replies. “Or rather in a sort of a coma. This is sort of a dream; we;re communicating through that telepathic gizmo I invented back in '11. You perceive me as naked because this is my projected self-image and I am not shy. Now stop looking at my boobs and listen. You may feel all right, but actually you’re dying, and you have a decisionto death.”
Suzie explains that, as you were about to enter the restaurant, youwere waylaid and abducted by minions of a billionaire who (a) was in desperate need of a liver transplant, (b) had discovered by devious means that you were the optimal donor, and © was an evil fuck. Running late for lunch and not carrying any of technomagic gizmos, Suzie saw only the tail end of the kidnapping and could not prevent it. By the time she tracked you down, the transplant had been finished and you were about to die. Prepared this time, she teleported you to safety, put you in a stasis field to keep you alive, then recruited some fellow ex-RhE agents to lay down the smack on the billionaire and his goons, and finally whisked the billionaire to her lab,.
“So what now?” you say then. “I know you can clone whole organs. Why haven’t you done that?”
“Not enough time,” she replies. “You’re in terrible shape. Growing a liver takes six weeks. That’s five weeks and four days longer than the stasis field can keep Thanatos from whisking you off. What I *can *do is take your orginal liver out of the billionaire, put it back in you, and run you through my Kirlian Restorer to restore you to full health. A partial transplant won’t work because–do you want the technobabble?”
“Hell no,” you say. “So what you’re saying is that you’ll have to kill the billionaire. Right?”
“Right,” she says. “To which, personally, I say big whoop. Fucker needs to go in the ground. But that’s me. I know I’m not your nbest friend. I’ve spoken with your bestie/spouse/SO, and they’re worried that you might not be be as sanguine about this as I am. So–” (and she starts to cry) “-- so I guess I have to ask you. I love you. I don’t want you to die. But I don’t want you to be consumed with guilt either, or hate me because I saved you by doing something you can’t live with. Tell me what you want me to do, and that is what I will do. But whatever you decide do it quick, or it won’t matter.”
What do you tell Suzie, and why?
Also, for anyone who says “Take my liver back and quick!” consider a slightly different scenario. The recipient of the liver stolen from is not the billionaire himself, but rather his teenage son, who had no knowledge of his father’s ruthless machinations. In other words, the person who’ll die to save you is an innocent, not a villain. Does that change your answer?
Poll in a moment, but don’t let that slow you down.