grave robber, year 2038; one last chance at fame/ draft 1

grave robber, year 2038; one last chance at fame / draft 1

fiction
edward w pritchard

We get fifty US dollars for any dormant DNA over seventy years old. Occasionally but not often enough we get up to $500 if those wacky scientists we sell to get what they want, DNA from a dead person who was not a descendant of Genghis Khan. The Rosetta stone of DNA snatching is to find someone with no descendants of record, not related to Genghis Khan, and not codified on any pharmaceutical database. That's what keeps us going in what we do and why we push ourselves to find forgotten ephemerality.

We find our prospects in the old graveyards. They buried people in graveyards underground before the plagues. Sometimes there is a stone marking the site where someone waits. We sneak out with shovels in the middle of the night, but it's more technical than that. A devise called a calliperphate scopes the essence of someone long dead and memorializes them for the good of generations to come. It's the ancestor worship of the year 2038.

It's expensive to buy the necessary permits to legally "pan" for DNA. It's nearly impossible to turn a profit if you pay all the fees, taxes and follow the proper clean up. So we work in secret, under the radar of the regulators. Because of the scientific importance of our work and the critical need for unique DNA there are no criminal penalties if we get apprehended, just economic sanctions.

We are a silent army. We dig at night. No permits, no fuss. We have to evade the police, the over head drones, and we have to find Scientists desperate enough to deal with us underground grave diggers. Some folks in my line of work aren't above a little fraud to make a living. But not me, it's a useful task to society I perform, even if I cut a few corners in the execution of what I must do.

It's not just about the money with me. The DNA  helps save lives. Sometimes the lived saved are children. It can cure diseases and eliminate future suffering if unique DNA is apprehended.

I feel good about what I do. I am a grave robber. It's more than a living. We honor the memory of those long gone to our society here in the year 2038 by commemorating the residual value of those who would otherwise be ignored and forgotten.