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  “Question eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-five. A celebrated healer, developer of a cure for an unpleasant disease, passes away. Her cure will go on to save a number of lives and it is likely she will be an inspiration for generations to come. However, following her death it is discovered that a great deal of her success came as a direct result of autopsies performed on carriers of the disease. Furthermore, it is determined that a number of these carriers had their lives ended prematurely, and deliberately, by her hand. Should this information be kept secret?”

  “Don’t...” Myrah lifted her head, pupils dilating, eyes wide. “Please, stop!”

  The wall flickered. The scene appeared; a busy clinic, a shiny metal plaque, and a line of people called forward one by one, their sleeves rolled up, needles prepped and ready.

  “Question eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-five; variance. Many of her victims were children.”

  “No more! Please!” she whimpered, her heart pounding, her chest rattling as she drew a ragged breath.

  The scene twitched. Children danced, and ran, and leapt, and sang, and lay down to a sleep from which they never stirred.

  “Question eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-five; variance. The discovery is made nine hundred years after her passing.”

  “I can’t,” Myrah shrieked, the words tumbling like water from a ruptured dam. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t I can’t!”

  “Question eight thousand seven hundred and thirty-five; variance; addendum. At the time of discovery, nine hundred years after the fact, it is impossible to carry out a physical punishment for her crimes. Her body is long decayed and can serve no sentence, can undergo no rehabilitation or correctional education. It is possible however, through sequencing of her remains, to create a mental map and subsequently a virtual representation who can serve a sentence in her stead. In doing so, this representation would be placed under significant mental strain, akin to torture. For the sake of her victims, and the descended kin thereof, should this sentence be carried out?”

  Myrah stared, her body trembling, her restraints twitching with her spasms. She tried to force words past her lips but none would come.

  “Do you require clarification?” The man seemed to somehow grow and loom over her, the room diminishing as he dominated her field of view. “Do you regret your decision?”

  Invisible hands tightened round her chest and heart, rivers of ice flowing through her veins. She could feel him looking into her, prying her apart piece by piece, searching.

  “Do you regret your decision?” he repeated, his voice slamming into her as heavily as if she’d been physically struck, his eyes gazing into hers with piercing intensity.

  She couldn’t lie to him.

  He saw too much. He saw through her. He saw everything. He knew. He knew, he knew, he knew.

  “Do you regret your decision?”

  Trapped, backed into a corner, the fabric of her mind twisted, straining against itself, searching desperately for an escape... and finally tore with a vicious snap. Her eyes rolled in her sockets, her focus erratic and lost. Laughter spilled up from her core, hysterical and wild, before morphing into an animalistic scream.

  It seemed to go on forever, feral and unyielding.

  “Response unsatisfactory. Further education and assessment impossible, Subject broken,” her tormentor stated, watching with clinical disinterest. “Reset, begin again...”

  MYRAH DRIFTED, HER mind a fog, her consciousness lost and wandering. She felt nothing, could barely even think. Her world was a shapeless sea of grey and she was but a helpless passenger, bobbing along in the nothingness.

  “Wake up.”

  The voice came to her across the gloom, tugging her toward a light.

  “Where am I?” she asked, her eyelids fluttering, a room of concrete taking shape around her. She felt the restraining bite of metal across her arms, ankles, pelvis and throat.

  “Subject conscious, elevate and note commencement.”

  All at once her world begin to shift, pivoting on its axis, her body rotating, levered upright against her will.

  A man stood waiting for her, watching as she reoriented.

  His clothes were dull and unremarkable, his face plain, lacking both in character and distinction. In spite of this something about him felt strangely familiar, and she wondered if they’d met somewhere before.

  He dipped his head to her in greeting.

  “Question one...”

  Discussion Questions

  Many of the questions Myrah is forced to answer (the trolley problem, the raft problem, etc) are utilitarian questions; do you agree with her choices? Why do you agree or disagree with her choices in each example?

  Later in the story, Myrah is given the choice to stop a war by forcing a child-bride marriage. Are utilitarian theories irrelevant when dealing with the welfare of children?

  Is it the more ethical choice for Myrah to continue choosing, or to allow herself to be shot?

  In real life, would seeing repeated scenes of violence simply cause Myrah to be desensitized, or is her reaction in the story realistic? If seeing violence desensitizes society to it, why do we allow violence to be shown in TV, movies, and video games at all?

  It seems like Myrah is being cloned so they can forever punish her for her past crimes as a medical doctor. Is it possible to commit a crime so horrible that you should be punished beyond your natural life expectancy (assuming it was even possible to do so)?

  LISTEN TO THESE AND other questions discussed on the “After Dinner Conversation” podcast.

  Additional Information

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  From the Publisher

  After Dinner Conversation is a growing series of short stories across genres to draw out deeper discussions with friends and family. Each story is an accessible example of an abstract ethical or philosophical idea and is accompanied by suggested discussion questions.

  ENJOY THIS SHORT STORY? Download our anthology, After Dinner Conversation (Season One), a collection of the best short stories published in the After Dinner Conversation series complete with discussion questions.

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  About the Author

  DAVID WHITAKER is originally from the UK though has travelled around a bit and now resides in India. He has a degree in Journalism, however decided that as he’s always preferred making things up it should probably be a resource rather than a profession.

  His stories, covering everything from sci-fi and horror to philosophy, have been published across the globe and links to each can be found at wordsbydavid.com