Haruna Biolabs Solomons

This corporation deals in medical services, drugs and genetic treatments. Haruna previously did some bio-weapons designs for the Japanese Self Defence Force but this was stopped when the viral agent Delta-2 contaminated food supplies, water and some areas back in the early 23rd century. Many deaths ensued, but no-one was ever certain who was actually responsible. The government blamed a radical terrorist group called the Imperial Restoration League. Haruna, for its part, suspects Makita Genetics of trying (in vain) to discredit Haruna and win the military contract for itself. In mutual fear, both corporations are at virtual full-scale war. The people of Tokyo and the Asia Pacific Partnership are bracing themselves for further violence. Haruna’s network of clinics and hospitals are run by a subsidiary called Life Corp.

Haruna has spent almost a century at the forefront of human genetics research, perfecting vat-grown organs tailored for a specific donor, and specialising in genetic treatments. In the last two years, however, Los Angeles-based Haruna has become known for its high-end human cloning program. Immortality has been discovered through the perpetual cloning of one’s own body and the transfer of one’s own living memories into a new, virile body. It is quite legal to purchase a Clone Insurance Policy of $20,000 per month. It involves visiting one of Haruna’s high-end clinics and providing a tissue sample ready for cloning when the customer dies. The customer also provides an initial memory recording which costs an additional $50,000 and which is kept in a Superconducting Memory Unit (SMU). These are bulky machines kept in sub-zero basements that always self-erase whenever they play someone’s memories into their clone body. Updates are free.

When a Haruna customer dies, the company picks up his body (or head at the very least) and takes a last recording of the corpse’s memories if possible, for implanting into the clone that is being force-grown. Growing a clone to full maturity (around 30 years-old) takes one month and requires a valid death certificate in order to prevent cloning someone still alive – which is a gross criminal act in international law. The new clone is the original person in international law. A force-grown clone that does not have a memory transferred into it is illegal. The clone has no memories at all, no emotions, and is psychologically unstable. It creates its own emotional reactions that can be very dangerous. In 2209, activists broke into the Munich headquarters of the company and exposed the fact that memory-less clones were being created purely to supply replacement organs for their VIP donors. Several hundred memory-less clones escaped and most of those have not yet been recaptured or terminated. This Munich Uprising is described later in the section (see Lebkuchen). Since that embarrassing fiasco in 2209, Haruna has developed the Superconducting Memory Unit and perfected its legitimate, legal and potentially very profitable clone replacement program. Policy holders are few at the moment, mainly due to cost and the stigma that still surrounds the Munich Uprising.

Parent MegaCorp

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