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A Real Bargain

Johnny was afraid of death. Thinking about the nothingness of his own consciousness sent chills down his spine every time. He knew that as a mortal creature death was inevitable but he didn’t care.

When an opportunity arose to cheat death for nearly forever, Johnny jumped at it. Anything would be better than nothing at all. He didn’t hesitate; the first day the ISA (Interstellar Alliance) opened their local office, he was first in line to sign up. He would live thousands of times longer than any inhabitant of Earth.

However his aptitude tests failed to show any needed skills for the work out in space. They did have one position for him, though. Every ship needed a human brain as its CPU , and they were willing to use him for this. He would be forever stuck on the ship, his body mingled with semi-organic circuitry. He didn’t care that he would still only live a personal lifetime of an average human, the space-time bending around him. He would live forever, traveling between the stars while the Earth sped on.

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