What Goes Around, Comes Around

Dr. Luke Vader lit a cigarette and said, “well, let’s rip him open and take a look at what makes him tick.”

The A.I. went right to work making an incision along Professor Daniel Angelus’ chest. The old man resembled a pale corpse with only his bright red nose veins displaying vitality as sickening as ever.

Luke’s scars ran deep because of his dismissal from medical school. He thought about his years of homelessness roaming the streets in Vienna before he found a peg legged lady named Sadie who taught him the art of forgery.

He then created the necessary medical school documentation so he could return to London, and his family.

His father, Lord Hampton Vader, Ph. D., had been appointed Director at the Royal Academy of Medicine. He instantly offered Luke a job upon their reunion.

He’d known enough to get by for a while. Advancements in A.I. had made things easier for Luke and proved him right in his argument with the professor that had ended his real medical training.

Young Luke Vader had been fit and healthy as he pushed the need for medical staff to be models of the ideal human physical appearance while computers and robots were the machines of the future for medicine.

Professor Angelus vehemently disagreed pushing forth that a good surgeon spent his time locked away with books deciphering the heavenly code of the human species in the hope of finding the miracle of everlasting life.

The man responsible for his departure from medical school now depended upon him to save his life. He, Dr. Vader, nearly crippled through this man’s guidance finding himself a sick man practicing medicine with the help of machines.

“Leave us.” Luke said to the nurses in the room as he took another puff of his cigarette.

Alone, he walked around Professor Angelus on the surgery table. The A.I. completed the dissection lifting one last layer of flesh to reveal the laboring rust colored heart of the aging Professor Angelus.

Luke took a drag from his cigarette thinking he could use the professor’s heart as an ashtray. He continued to examine the specimen with his hawk eyes and noticed odd formations where he could crush the butt of his cigarette.

Only he wouldn’t let himself lose this battle with the dark side. He honored the code and owed his father that much after a lucrative residency here in this hospital.

“A.I., what are these bumps along the cardiac infusion?”

“Dr. Vader, there are no known prior medical cases involving these types of bumps along the cardiac infusion.” Responded the A.I.

“I see. Well, give me a knife! I shall examine them for myself.”

Luke, with scalpel in hand, bent over the beating heart of Professor Angelus. He raised his eyebrows in a wild manic expression with ash building on the end of the cigarette and a cloud of smoke illuminated in the light above the operating table.

He made the cut, and a sort of puss oozed out of the acorn shaped protrusion along the cardiac infusion. Luke jumped back in fright as the legs of a spider became visible. The hairy coin sized spider crawled out from the hole he’d made with the knife all the while the thumping - beating - of the aging heart.

“Good God!” Luke exclaimed, letting the remains of the cigarette drop to the white tile floor. He’d never seen something so disagreeable in his life.

Luke turned and marched out of the surgery room. In the hallway, he announced to the waiting nurses, “see to it that man receives the best medical attention . . . I’m announcing my retirement!”

The end.