Heaven, As Built By Tackleby Ames
by Bart Meehan
• Word count: 540
• Page count: 2
"Heaven, As Built By Tackleby Ames" is a 2007 flash fiction story by Bart Meehan. It is about a rich old jerk who builds a computer in which he can spend eternity.
The story follows Tackleby Ames, a 115 year old business man who has lived a ruthless life and is not one bit sorry about it. He is certain that he is not going to Heaven, so in an effort to live forever he builds, or rather forces others to build, a virtual world where he can download his consciousness and spend eternity doing the things he loves. Aah, the perfect plan - except for one small detail.
Who hasn't wanted to live forever? Wouldn't it be nice if you were rich enough to buy an eternity in a perfect virtual world, complete with a great body and an environment that responded to your every wish? You'd think so, but this humorous little story with a great message, and a great ending, shows us otherwise.
He hired the best programmers in the country - or rather he shanghaied them, by buying their companies or having them fired from their government jobs and had them work non-stop in the Centre he built in the middle of a small country he'd bought.
"I don't have time for weekends - so neither do you," Mr Ames told the occasional nervous researcher who'd been picked by short straw to approach him, Oliver Twist like, about having some time off to visit their families.
So no one went home and 12 months from the day the project began - and just as the first of his black market organs gave out - his Heaven was ready.
Where you can find "Heaven, As Built By Tackleby Ames":
• "Heaven, As Built By Tackleby Ames" originally appeared in issue 114 (November/December 2007) of the online Australian magazine for flash fiction AntipodeanSF.
• You can read "Heaven, As Built By Tackleby Ames" online for free at Pandora: Australia's Web Archive.
For a nice review of each story in AntipodeanSF #114 you'll want to check out this blog posting at the excellent Variety SF website.
If you liked this story you may also enjoy "'Hello,' Said the Stick", the Hugo nominated short story by Michael Swanwick.
(This is a revised version of a post which was originally published on BestScienceFictionStories.com on Feb 27th, 2008.)
