Reformation
by Jack O'Donnell
Genre: Fantasy/Sci-Fi
Swearwords: None.
Description: Births and deaths will never be the same after this.
_____________________________________________________________________
Database: ‘Daily Record’:
One of Glasgow’s most infamous crime figures has again signalled his intention to return to the security business after his release from a three-year prison sentence for fraud charges.
George ‘Scooby’ Mellor became a household name following a winter of violence in Glasgow. The following year Mellor was prosecuted for the murder of Richard (Richie) Smillie, one of the Ashton Lane Mafia. In the so called ‘God’s DNA trial’ Mellor was sensationally acquitted when the High Court Jury found the case against him ‘not proven’. Although forensic evidence at the trial: bite marks on the victim, latent fingerprints on the gun and ballistic evidence all linked Mellor with the death of Smillie, Dr John Foster of the So-Mig Institute was able to convince the jury that technically Smillie was still alive.
Fears have been voiced that Mellor’s return to Glasgow could prompt former drug rivals to settle old scores. But Mellor stated, ‘I’m a changed man. I hope to be left in peace and not in pieces as some people hope. Most people forget that I was a successful entrepreneur before the trial and ran several successful companies. I hope to continue with that.’ Mellor laughed and added, ‘And pay my tax, on time.’
Today’s Programmes: Review of ‘In Life and Death’, BBC5 9 pm:
John McNiece celebrated his 21st birthday today. A database of 300,000 soul migrants worldwide has been well documented. Doctors say that social rather than medical factors are a limiting factor in increasing this database and in constraining research prospects. So-Mig scanners were invented by West of Scotland University’s Sir John Foster and rely on the way that particles below the sub atomic level tend to arrange themselves in novel, but pre-set patterns. Sir John Foster, using powerful laser computers and ‘hyperpolination seed-technique’, was able to pick out the pre sub atomic energy released by traumatic events, such as bodily death, and align it with ‘signature’ bursts of energy associated with post subatomic events, such as human birth.
Early research has been dogged by claims that embryonic signals have been contaminated in the laboratory. The process has also attracted concern because the scan results in a relatively weak association. It has famously been described by critics such as Dr James Molner, ‘as the equivalent of picking up the energy charge of a man combing his bald patch on the moon and trying to tell what he is doing’.
Sir John Foster, who later won the Noble Prize for Physics for his work on dichotomous signatures, has consistently refuted those claims. He had been able to consistently show a So-Mig signal, and follow its future ‘seed’ trajectory. It was these charts that led to George (Scooby) Mellor’s ‘Not Proven’ acquittal, which brought the verdict itself into dispute with claims that his celebrity, rather than academic credentials, had an overwhelming influence on the jurors. Sir John Foster was able to show the jury that his reading taken from the room of the alleged victim had, on average, a 1 in 12 chance of being picked up by the So-Mig scanner and mapped at birth. In the case of Richard Smillie, Sir John Foster accurately predicted where and when he would be physically reborn. Video footage of the birth was shown in the courtroom. More controversially, the court heard, the chance of following a backward trajectory (being born in the past) has increased in recent year from 1 in 50, to 1 in 20, for reasons that are not fully understood.
Recorded transcript from So-Mig archive: death of John McNiece:
“I watched my body from above the far corner of my room with the curiosity of a small child allowed to stay up late. My bowels, open to the taste of fear, spread a matted coating onto the sweaty sheen of my body, as it flung itself about my bed, wrestling, trying to suck in breath through a windpipe thinner than a cut blade of grass. As one cough replaced another, it tossed and turned, fighting on, with the harsh barks of a panting dog. Overwhelmed by exhaustion, my body became a churning cauldron of heat that cooked blood beyond the most brilliantine red; before it began to pool in the partitions of my body cavities: cooling from concealed pink to the drip, drip, drip of congealed purple.
“The imprint of my resting place, on the unswept linoleum floor, was stippled to my skin like a Turin Shroud and impregnated with noxious fumes. Flies came first to the feast, dancing gently into the corners of my eyes, sniffing out my nose and tasting my mouth for their offspring. A solitary maggot began to muscle out of the cosy cocaine laced pocket of its hideaway. Feathery tracks began to appear, like runways, on my skin that broadened and darkened to a picture made up of black smears. My eyes popped and lips swelled like two slices of puce watermelon in an exaggerated pout.
“Two men in heavy work boots shook me from my reveries. They were deep-sea divers, with their goggles and all in white paper hooded suits, breathing heavily through a charcoal filtered mask. Their snug yellow backpack looked out of place in a room and kitchen. I didn’t understand why they felt the need to pump and spray my room with a fine mist of ions. Everything was as it should be. The sight of my body being lifted, pushed and pulled, like so much rubbish, until it fitted into a gummy black zipped sack momentarily disorientated me. I felt like a child that puts its hands in front of its eyes, but needs to peek to see that the world is still there.
“I was anchored to my earth-bound body like a kite. I followed it from near or far, jostled by the voices of people’s prayers rising up and tear filled memories pulling me down. Before I was buried my body was anointed with oil, lest my soul lingered there for days, weeks or years, trying to keep open the gate to that life, like the shades of so many confused others. This finally closed off my ears, eyes nose and mouth to the temptation of earthly life. I felt sorrow to be finally cut free from my earthly life.
“My eyes were prised open by awareness of a sharp-shared brightness and for a time I could see again and understand. All around me was translucent light stretching and moving aside like a tunnel to let me pass through. Each part was alive. Their crystalline lattice structure floated and held me up, flickering, in the lightest of caresses as they passed me briefly to one after another, like photons holding up the sun. As I began to gather speed the gentle hum of nursery rhymes and bedtime stories began to awaken in me other memories.”
Database: ‘Daily Record’:
First ‘tracker baby’ born.
The birth of the world’s first ‘tracker baby’ has been announced in Glasgow.
John McNiece was born shortly before 3 am in Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow.
Weighing 5lb 12oz (2.61kg) the baby was delivered by caesarean section because his mother, Anne McNiece, was suffering from toxaemia.
The consultant in charge of the delivery team, Sir John Foster, said: ‘All preliminary examinations show that the baby is quite normal. The mother’s condition after delivery was also fine to good.’
Mrs McNiece, 20, said, ‘I expect to take my beautiful baby boy home with me soon and for us to live a normal life.’
Recorded transcript: John McNiece at 21:
“I do not bear George Mellor any malice. On the contrary I’d like to thank him. George Mellor’s eyes are open, but unseeing. I’ve already been there. He needs to be set free.”
Swearwords: None.
Description: Births and deaths will never be the same after this.
_____________________________________________________________________
Database: ‘Daily Record’:
One of Glasgow’s most infamous crime figures has again signalled his intention to return to the security business after his release from a three-year prison sentence for fraud charges.
George ‘Scooby’ Mellor became a household name following a winter of violence in Glasgow. The following year Mellor was prosecuted for the murder of Richard (Richie) Smillie, one of the Ashton Lane Mafia. In the so called ‘God’s DNA trial’ Mellor was sensationally acquitted when the High Court Jury found the case against him ‘not proven’. Although forensic evidence at the trial: bite marks on the victim, latent fingerprints on the gun and ballistic evidence all linked Mellor with the death of Smillie, Dr John Foster of the So-Mig Institute was able to convince the jury that technically Smillie was still alive.
Fears have been voiced that Mellor’s return to Glasgow could prompt former drug rivals to settle old scores. But Mellor stated, ‘I’m a changed man. I hope to be left in peace and not in pieces as some people hope. Most people forget that I was a successful entrepreneur before the trial and ran several successful companies. I hope to continue with that.’ Mellor laughed and added, ‘And pay my tax, on time.’
Today’s Programmes: Review of ‘In Life and Death’, BBC5 9 pm:
John McNiece celebrated his 21st birthday today. A database of 300,000 soul migrants worldwide has been well documented. Doctors say that social rather than medical factors are a limiting factor in increasing this database and in constraining research prospects. So-Mig scanners were invented by West of Scotland University’s Sir John Foster and rely on the way that particles below the sub atomic level tend to arrange themselves in novel, but pre-set patterns. Sir John Foster, using powerful laser computers and ‘hyperpolination seed-technique’, was able to pick out the pre sub atomic energy released by traumatic events, such as bodily death, and align it with ‘signature’ bursts of energy associated with post subatomic events, such as human birth.
Early research has been dogged by claims that embryonic signals have been contaminated in the laboratory. The process has also attracted concern because the scan results in a relatively weak association. It has famously been described by critics such as Dr James Molner, ‘as the equivalent of picking up the energy charge of a man combing his bald patch on the moon and trying to tell what he is doing’.
Sir John Foster, who later won the Noble Prize for Physics for his work on dichotomous signatures, has consistently refuted those claims. He had been able to consistently show a So-Mig signal, and follow its future ‘seed’ trajectory. It was these charts that led to George (Scooby) Mellor’s ‘Not Proven’ acquittal, which brought the verdict itself into dispute with claims that his celebrity, rather than academic credentials, had an overwhelming influence on the jurors. Sir John Foster was able to show the jury that his reading taken from the room of the alleged victim had, on average, a 1 in 12 chance of being picked up by the So-Mig scanner and mapped at birth. In the case of Richard Smillie, Sir John Foster accurately predicted where and when he would be physically reborn. Video footage of the birth was shown in the courtroom. More controversially, the court heard, the chance of following a backward trajectory (being born in the past) has increased in recent year from 1 in 50, to 1 in 20, for reasons that are not fully understood.
Recorded transcript from So-Mig archive: death of John McNiece:
“I watched my body from above the far corner of my room with the curiosity of a small child allowed to stay up late. My bowels, open to the taste of fear, spread a matted coating onto the sweaty sheen of my body, as it flung itself about my bed, wrestling, trying to suck in breath through a windpipe thinner than a cut blade of grass. As one cough replaced another, it tossed and turned, fighting on, with the harsh barks of a panting dog. Overwhelmed by exhaustion, my body became a churning cauldron of heat that cooked blood beyond the most brilliantine red; before it began to pool in the partitions of my body cavities: cooling from concealed pink to the drip, drip, drip of congealed purple.
“The imprint of my resting place, on the unswept linoleum floor, was stippled to my skin like a Turin Shroud and impregnated with noxious fumes. Flies came first to the feast, dancing gently into the corners of my eyes, sniffing out my nose and tasting my mouth for their offspring. A solitary maggot began to muscle out of the cosy cocaine laced pocket of its hideaway. Feathery tracks began to appear, like runways, on my skin that broadened and darkened to a picture made up of black smears. My eyes popped and lips swelled like two slices of puce watermelon in an exaggerated pout.
“Two men in heavy work boots shook me from my reveries. They were deep-sea divers, with their goggles and all in white paper hooded suits, breathing heavily through a charcoal filtered mask. Their snug yellow backpack looked out of place in a room and kitchen. I didn’t understand why they felt the need to pump and spray my room with a fine mist of ions. Everything was as it should be. The sight of my body being lifted, pushed and pulled, like so much rubbish, until it fitted into a gummy black zipped sack momentarily disorientated me. I felt like a child that puts its hands in front of its eyes, but needs to peek to see that the world is still there.
“I was anchored to my earth-bound body like a kite. I followed it from near or far, jostled by the voices of people’s prayers rising up and tear filled memories pulling me down. Before I was buried my body was anointed with oil, lest my soul lingered there for days, weeks or years, trying to keep open the gate to that life, like the shades of so many confused others. This finally closed off my ears, eyes nose and mouth to the temptation of earthly life. I felt sorrow to be finally cut free from my earthly life.
“My eyes were prised open by awareness of a sharp-shared brightness and for a time I could see again and understand. All around me was translucent light stretching and moving aside like a tunnel to let me pass through. Each part was alive. Their crystalline lattice structure floated and held me up, flickering, in the lightest of caresses as they passed me briefly to one after another, like photons holding up the sun. As I began to gather speed the gentle hum of nursery rhymes and bedtime stories began to awaken in me other memories.”
Database: ‘Daily Record’:
First ‘tracker baby’ born.
The birth of the world’s first ‘tracker baby’ has been announced in Glasgow.
John McNiece was born shortly before 3 am in Yorkhill Hospital, Glasgow.
Weighing 5lb 12oz (2.61kg) the baby was delivered by caesarean section because his mother, Anne McNiece, was suffering from toxaemia.
The consultant in charge of the delivery team, Sir John Foster, said: ‘All preliminary examinations show that the baby is quite normal. The mother’s condition after delivery was also fine to good.’
Mrs McNiece, 20, said, ‘I expect to take my beautiful baby boy home with me soon and for us to live a normal life.’
Recorded transcript: John McNiece at 21:
“I do not bear George Mellor any malice. On the contrary I’d like to thank him. George Mellor’s eyes are open, but unseeing. I’ve already been there. He needs to be set free.”
About the Author
Jack O'Donnell was born in Helensburgh and now lives in Clydebank with his partner, Mary. He claims to be fat, balding and middle-aged.
Jack writes for fun and has a blog at http://www.abctales.com/blog/celticman, which he also claims no-one ever reads.
Jack writes for fun and has a blog at http://www.abctales.com/blog/celticman, which he also claims no-one ever reads.