CHAPTER 1

Like her father professor Michael Hill, my girlfriend Angela was highly intelligent. He was a prolific inventor, and with a degree in biochemistry she was an invaluable helper when he conducted his research. Not only was he talented in his work on the nature of the workings of the brain, but he had a good head for business, and had been astute enough to offer some of his remarkable findings to various companies on a commercial basis. Consequently, he’d accumulated enough wealth to provide himself with a first class private laboratory in the grounds of his large country house in Sussex, near Horsham. The laboratory was equipped with the very latest technology, and much of his instrumentation had been constructed by him specifically to satisfy his requirements.

Now I’m no dimwit myself, but not being a specialist in his field, I often had difficulty in completely understanding some of his work, no matter how patiently he and Angela tried to explain it to me. It wasn’t made any easier when they also carefully omitted certain crucial details of their work for security reasons, so that I was only given a hazy idea of how it worked. And so began a fantastic experience that I would come to regard with incredulity as well as extreme embarrassment. I was a pretty successful freelance journalist with a talent for breaking a story first, and had a talent for digging out sensational material and selling it to the highest bidder. On this occasion I’d taken a month’s holiday from work, and was staying with Angela and her father. Keen to see what his latest project was, I asked if I could see around his laboratory. Knowing that I wouldn’t really understand the nature of the work just by looking at the equipment, they agreed to give me the grand tour, and one afternoon, I found myself entering the lab with them.

It was certainly well equipped. Electronic equipment was everywhere, and I realised that a very large sum of money must have been spent on it. In the centre of the room were two medical examination couches a few feet apart, and lying on each one was a mass of wires with sensors on the end. They were all connected to a large metal box with an impressive array of switches and dials. I was both curious and impressed, and lost no time in asking what it was for.

‘Well’ said Michael, ‘It has to do with thought transference. As you know, all the thoughts in our brains can be considered as a series of electro magnetic patterns, and for the last three years I’ve been trying to convert them into a binary code that can be stored in a computer in much the same way as images and sound can be stored. But unlike something as simple as say, a video signal, this is vastly more complex and difficult to store. My system has to store every memory, physical sensation, and even the person’s emotion in the brain. In a word, their complete personality.’

‘But surely that’s not really possible’ I said. ‘I mean, I’ve heard of the idea in principle, but as I understand it, no computer in the world has that much storage space.’ Michael looked at me and smiled. ‘What you say was perfectly true up until six months ago’ he said proudly, ‘But due to a unique system of compressing information that I’ve developed, I’ve finally achieved it. I can not only download every piece of information stored in someone’s brain and store it indefinitely as a file in my computer, but I can also duplicate it perfectly without affecting their own faculties in any way whatsoever.’

I could hardly believe what I was hearing, but there was even more to come. ‘And not only that’ said Angela, ‘By downloading the memory banks of two people, we can switch them over and replace each original memory with the other. In a word, we can swap their minds over. We tried it with a cat and a dog to begin with, and it was strange seeing the cat trying to bark and the dog trying to miaow. But we didn’t leave them like that for more than a few minutes before we returned their minds to their original bodies. Afterwards they were none the worse for the experience. It wasn’t much, but it was our first step.’ ‘Later on we progressed to experimenting with one or two human volunteers, and I’m proud to say that to date we’ve achieved full mind exchange for over a month so far before restoring them, and so far have detected no deterioration at all. Three months ago, my brother Alan and his wife Susan agreed (after some persuasion) to undergo a mind swap, and they’ve certainly come to understand each other a lot better after occupying each other’s bodies for a week. And they felt so intrigued after our first attempt that they’ve actually been through it a couple more times. Apparently it’s a novel experience to say the least, and can become quite addictive.’

This was too much for my credulity. I’ve always been a sceptic, and this was more than I was prepared to swallow. ‘You are kidding me aren’t you?’ I retorted, ‘Oh come on Angela, for goodness’ sake, it’s impossible. This is science fiction stuff! Do you really expect me to believe that you can swap over people’s minds?

Surprised by my cynical reaction (I don’t suffer fools gladly), Angela looked at me with a look of disappointment on her face and said ‘Oh dear, I thought that might be the case. Well, what is there about the idea that you find so hard to believe?’ I was nonplussed for a moment. Was she serious? Did she really think it was possible? I tried to think of some fundamental objections to the idea so as not to bring her down to earth too harshly, and gathered my thoughts. Suddenly I realised that my knowledge of the field was so minimal that it would be impossible for me to argue against her claim. I decided to try another tack. ‘Well’ I said, ‘I suppose the only way you could convince me would be by a practical demonstration. Any chance of that?’ ‘I don’t know’ she said, ‘But in the meantime, Alan and Sue will be coming over next Tuesday. Perhaps a chat with them might convince you, so wait until you’ve spoken with them. In the meantime, let’s try and give you a better idea of how the idea works. You have no idea how long we’ve spent on the technique of preserving all the mental faculties of one person as a single file in the computer. Even though my father’s work on data compression has been far beyond anyone else, at this stage he can only store the minds of about eight people in our entire memory banks. You have absolutely no idea just how much space that takes up. You could run a country on it.’

‘Now the basic idea is that we can download someone’s mind into the computer, and then, if we wish, replace it in the body with someone else’s mind. That means to the person whose mind has been transferred into that body, they have transferred into another body. Then, the thought patterns stored in the computer can be downloaded into the other body, and so, in practical terms, the two people have swapped bodies. Or, if we wish, we can leave one mind in the computer, and take care of the vacated body as if it were somebody in a coma in hospital. All the bodily functions are taken care of, and as far as the body is concerned, it’s just one long sleep.’

‘We can store the entire thought patterns of any mind in the computer in a form of stasis, and we can even duplicate it and store it indefinitely. We can even adjust it, although we question the ethics of going that far. That means that we don’t have to put the displaced mind into an unpleasant environment. Instead, we can store it indefinitely in the computer, unchanged and unconscious, without any ill effects. The physical body of what we call the ‘vacated’ is kept in a state of unconsciousness, but we look after all the bodily functions that continue much like any unconscious person, and when we restore the original mind to its rightful owner, they simply wake as if from a deep sleep. As a matter of fact, Dad’s now able to insert a series of very pleasant dreams that actually make the subject reluctant to wake up. (He’s working on inserting artificially produced thought like that at the moment). So when they are restored to full consciousness, they literally continue from where they left off so to speak.’

‘The only problem we’ve found so far is helping people to adjust to their old body with the residual experience of being in the host body. We’ve already found that various people handle it very differently, and that’s why we’ve preferred to do it with a small select group of people that all seem to be able to handle it well. Susan and Alan have been excellent, and have done it several times with no ill effects at all. The best thing is that the more often they do it, the more easily they adapt to it. In fact they’re almost becoming casual about it.’

By now I couldn’t think of anything else to say, and although still not yet convinced that the whole idea really was possible, I realised that the others certainly did believe it. Out of good manners I decided not to argue the point any further for the moment, but I had a feeling that Angela, with her usual tenacity, wasn’t going to be satisfied until she’d convinced me, and she knew that it might need a practical demonstration to make that happen.

‘Well anyway’ she continued, ‘I really do want to find a way of proving it to you in due course, but I suspect that you might not like the experience of being proved wrong. You’re too proud. You have many fine qualities my love, but humility isn’t one of them.’ Sensing the way in which she seemed to be heading I said ‘Oh no you don’t. No way. If you think I’m going to let you experiment with my brain, forget it. You must be joking.’ Angela gave me a thoughtful look for a moment, smiled, and then said ‘Of course. It was a silly idea anyway.’ Looking at her watch she said ‘I’ve got to go and make a phone call, so I’ll leave you and Dad to chat for a while.’ She left her father to continue with my laboratory tour, and after dropping the subject of mind transference, we went back into the house for a cup of tea.

Thinking that was the end of the matter, I forgot about what seemed to me to be a harebrained scheme for the next few days. Then on the following Tuesday, Angela reminded me that Alan and Sue were arriving that afternoon, and would be staying overnight, so I would have plenty of opportunity to question them about their supposed mind swap experiences. That afternoon we were sitting in the garden when we heard the front door bell ring. ‘That’ll be Alan and Sue’ said Angela, getting up from her seat, ‘I’ll go and let them in.’ She went into the house, and I could hear her greeting her brother and his wife. A moment later I stood up as she returned with Alan and Sue. They were a friendly looking couple with a ready smile, but what unexpectedly caught my attention was that Sue was pushing a large rather old-fashioned pram. I didn’t realise they had a baby with them.

I walked across to them, and Angela introduced us as Sue removed the pram cover and lowered the hood to reveal a baby in a pink dress. Obviously it was a girl. ‘And this is Emily’ said Sue proudly, ‘She’s six months old. Isn’t she gorgeous?’ I had to agree that little Emily was the very essence of a sweet little baby girl, and she happily gurgled at us in the warm sunshine. The introductions over, we sat down in the garden and enjoyed some sandwiches and a cup of tea. I lost no time in asking the couple about their experience in each other’s bodies, and they seemed so well balanced and rational about it that doubt began to creep into my scepticism. Maybe it really was possible to exchange minds, but I was nowhere near convinced. Yet. I think they were disappointed with my doubt as if I almost questioned their intelligence, but were too polite to show it. But the afternoon passed pleasantly enough, and Angela took her little niece out of the pram and cradled her with pride.

Eventually it began to cloud over, and we all went indoors while Angela and Sue prepared dinner. I was looking forward to this opportunity to continue my questioning. As an experienced investigative journalist, I had a talent for getting at the truth. Dinner was a relaxed affair. Angela is an excellent cook, and the roast lamb was cooked to perfection. Her father was an avid wine collector, and we enjoyed a bottle of excellent Bordeaux.

I was careful not to appear too sceptical this time, and let the couple relate their experiences without interruption. They were obviously ken to convince me, and with the support of Angela and her father, they gradually brought me round to realising that they really had achieved what I’d thought was impossible.

‘It was really strange the first time’ said Susan, ‘It wasn’t just our obvious physical difference that was a novelty. Getting dressed resulted in some rather amusing situations, such as Alan trying to put on a bra and fasten it for the first time! But it was also the way in which other people treated us when we went out. We’d go out for a meal, and the waiter would ask me to choose the wine, and I was the one who would be given the bill.’

‘And I suddenly realised how intimidating some men can be to a woman’ added Alan, ‘I’ve certainly learnt to appreciate what women have to put up with sometimes, so I think that the experience has been a tremendous help in understanding each other. Mind you, I’m glad I wasn’t the one that had to have the baby! That was already behind us, thank goodness.’

As the conversation continued, I became more and more convinced that they really had done it, and with my instinctive journalistic mind, began to realise just how much money I could make if I could be the first to release the story to the world. Unfortunately, with the effect of an excellent glass or two of Michael’s brandy, I made the mistake of speaking my mind. ‘Well’ I said, ‘I think you’ve succeeded in convincing me. This is going to cause a sensation when it hits the headlines.’ Angela’s father looked at me with an expression of utter dismay.

‘Oh no!’ he said quickly, ‘Under no circumstances must this get out yet. Perhaps in a year or so, when my work is completed, but to release it prematurely would be a disaster. It could ruin everything! The one thing I don’t need is to be inundated by curious journalists while I’m still perfecting the project. Oh no David, you must promise me that you’ll keep this to yourself until I say you can release the story.’

‘But you just said that it could be another year before that happens’ I said, ‘Surely the world has a right to know. I’m a journalist, you can’t expect me to just sit on it for a year! Look Michael, I appreciate your concern, but if you really have already achieved mind transference, then it isn’t too early to at least let the world know how far you’ve got. This is a sensation!’

‘Yes, and will no doubt make you a great deal of money in selling the story’ he retorted. No David, I forbid you to tell anyone until I say you can.’

By now I was becoming unwisely stubborn. ‘Well how can you stop me?’ I said. ‘I’ve got enough information to put together a very nice little article, and I’ve no doubt there are quite a few editors I know who would absolutely lap it up.’ Suddenly, he looked at me and gave a slight grin. ‘Very well then David’ he said quietly, ‘Just when do you intend to release this article?’

‘As soon as I’ve written it. Probably tomorrow.’

‘I see. So I can’t change your mind?’

‘Afraid not Michael. I’m sorry, but this story is just too sensational to keep to yourself.’ Angela had been looking at me with growing concern on her face, and said ‘Oh David, how could you be so selfish? I wish we’d never told you. At least the secret would still be safe. I hate to think of you betraying a trust.’ ‘Don’t worry about it’ smiled her father suddenly, ‘What will be will be. Life can be full of surprises sometimes. Now let’s just drop the subject for now and have some coffee shall we. You sit there and I’ll go and make it.’ He rose from the table and went out into the kitchen. A few moments later, Angela went to help him, while Alan and I continued talking. Susan went upstairs to check on little Emily. She soon came down again, smiled, and said ‘Fast asleep. She really looks like a little angel.’ Angela and Michael returned with the coffee, and accompanied it with another glass of Michael’s excellent cognac. After dinner, we cleared the table, and after the dirty crockery had been put in the dishwasher, we went into the lounge, where we played cards for a couple of hours before retiring to bed. As I undressed I suddenly felt very tired, and put it down to the mental exertions of the day. I’d barely got into bed and switched off the light before I was instantly asleep.