My head swims as I slowly come to, the lack of sensation leaving me dazed as my thought struggle to bubble to the surface of my mind. Everything feels muddled and dulled beyond the point of recognition, each of my limbs becoming lost in some sort of buzzing static along with even the most basic of automated actions.
From breathing to my heart beat, everything is lost in the feeling of electric noise that mutes each and every one of my nerves. Next it hits me, the complete lack of sound and faint flickering light sending my mind into a panic. However, despite the building fear I find myself remaining oddly calm physically as the void of sensation seems to contain all the way to my ability to raise my heart rate or hyperventilate.
As my vision begins to clear I find it obscured slightly by a thick vaseline-like ooze, the clear viscous liquid covering my open eyes and keeping them hydrated as I find myself without any ability to do so much as blink. Some monitor nearby flickers with green LEDs forming strange and seemingly random numbers, a main monitor fluctuating with what appears to be a graph of something that's lost on my addled mind.
Suddenly, a shadow passes over as some towering figure paces past. The monstrously large and looming figure pauses for a moment before reaching down, their gloved hands inching towards me and consuming my vision before pausing mere inches from my exposed eyes. I'm forced to watch as the goo surrounding me is jostled slightly, the massive creature helping the goop to settle as my vision begins to thankfully clear.
With no small amount of care I'm slowly place back down, the looming figure staring down at me from behind a set of green scrubs and the accompanying cap and mask. The young woman looks almost remorseful, her bright pale green eyes struggling to look at me as she slowly turns the vessel I am suspended in away from her. With each inch I find the image of the monitor and the woman shifting away, my gaze slowly falling on the image of a surgical room with a figure laying motionless on the table.
My mind hazily shifts as I soon find myself recognizing the form on the table despite the immense amount of tubes and cables running into it in order to keep the brainless husk alive. My body lays perfectly still, the top of it's head and skull having been removed and it's eye-sockets taped shut to hide the distinct lack of eye-balls within.
Despite developments rapid advancements in organ transplants, brain transplants had really lacked any broad application beyond extreme life or death scenarios or allowing multi-billionaires to sneak their way into a somewhat younger form.
Most people loathed the idea despite the relative safety, the extreme nature of the procedure and the high price people put on their person making these types of transplants few and far between.
However, as more and more Government debts held by individuals started to restart their payments the number of people actually making payments diminished with each adjustment to the cost of living a new application for the technology was thought of. Thanks to the help of various lobbying groups and private donor interest a new form of mortgage was formed, a literal 'death pledge' with a very specific type of collateral.
Should a person fail to repay their Government debt it would do up for sale on an open market, allowing a benefactor to pay back the Government in exchange for special type of guarantee for repayment at a later date. Once the debt to the Government was paid the new mortgagee could secure the mortgagors most important asset as soon as the same day if necessary, their body and in some cases even their life.
Over the course of a day the brain, along with the eyes, of the mortgagor would be removed and sealed inside a sac to prevent any unwanted damage in transit or from the immune system once housed in its new skull. The mortgagee would then take position, their brain and eyes soon finding a home in their investment before their debtor is placed into the new empty and lifeless husk left behind. While the swap could be done without the need to swap the eyes it quickly became a requirement, the eyes acting as a simple way to show the change to the familiar outside observer.
Along with the simple exchange, other less common procedures could be done. Often only done by foreign nationals or immigrants purchasing the debt, section of the brain could be exchanged wholesale before regenerating the neurons in order to allow broad tasks like language or coordination to be exchanged along with the body.
Once the swap had been executed the mortgagee would quickly set some terms, with the debtor having little room to negotiate from their swapped state. An interest rate would immediately be set, within reasonable limits, along with a period where payments can not be paid lasting anywhere from six months to ten years. Along with these terms another decision needed to be made, whether the mortgagor would take their new body and return to their old life or whether they wanted to assume the life of their debtor for the duration of the loan. Most simply wanted to return to their old life, those with enough money to buy a new body rarely wanting to give up that wealth and lifestyle. However, more than a few relished the change and are more than eager to leave their old life behind potentially forever.
Of course, should the life swap occur it would be all too easy for a newly wealthy debtor to simply pay off their debt and swap back immediately once the prohibition on payments ended. To fight this, or simply to make their new lives easier, some of the more savvy mortgagees would sneakily leave their job behind while arranging for their new body to be hired into that old position. In a matter of months after the scheme was implemented there was a suspiciously noticeable shift in the management staff of some major corporations as well establish partners and directors were let go in favor of seemingly experienceless youngsters with oddly familiar eyes.
It all comes back to me in waves.
The taking on of massive amounts of debt to pay for my various degrees and post-graduate study.
The losing of my job and my ability to make repayments.
The burning through most of my saving to try and hold out, only to slowly come to the end of that rope.
The complaining to my neighbors, even going so far as to ask for money.
And finally the day I received two notices, one announcing that due to a missed payment my debt was up for sale and one stating that my debt had been repaid along with instructions on where I needed to attend for my 'asset seizure'.
In truth, it wasn't even that much debt. I, along with many others in the economic downturn, had been caught in a rough market as our debts had been relatively low by the time we failed to make a repayment. It had been a fire sale for body buyers, with many not even lasting a full day after their debt had gone up on the market.
The doctors pace around my body, checking vitals and testing the stability of the various tubes keeping me alive. Suddenly, one of the surgeons paces over to the large window at the back and towards the small speaker beside it. I watch as his mask shifts along with his mouth, a short nod soon following as the large double door on the other side of the window open wide.
I watch as nurse walks in through the doors, her slender arms struggling slightly as she navigates a large metal surgical bed in along with a loose surgical gown dangling along the edge. I'm forced to stare as the person who purchase my debt walks in behind them, my gaze falling on...
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