Epipeda

By Walter Rice

Several hundred years in the future of Earth, humadroid Aaron Dunarc wants to fix one thing about his body. He’s on a mission to acquire a real human nose, not the flat thing above his mouth that humadroids normally have. Already a successful engineer at twenty-seven, he wants even more opportunities and a face that won’t bring ridicule.

A new nose seems like a simple surgical request to Dunarc, but he quickly learns that altering his humadroid body would be highly illegal. Undaunted, he searches for a medical underworld contact with a green scarf. In the process, he meets someone else with a green scarf, Sadie, a beautiful young human woman who doesn’t care that he’s a humadroid.
Love is in the air, but Sadie has no knowledge of the medical underworld. When Dunarc finally finds the other green scarf and learns the many difficulties of the nose surgery he seeks, his attention returns to Sadie and his work.

Dunarc and Sadie build a good life together, professionally and personally, and just when everything seems to be on cruise control, the highest authority on the planet hands him the invitation of his life, and Sadie’s life. The offer is gripping, yet totally disrupting. In a few short hours, he receives major recognition and learns the long-hidden secret of the humadroids. Now, his flat face and body type, along with his engineering prowess, have become huge assets and opened doors he never could have imagined.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Walter Rice
• Release date: Jan 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215098615

Walter Rice

WALTER RICE is the author of several works of crime fiction and is a former newspaper editor and reporter in the Pacific Northwest. He also paints, often digitally, and plays the piano and writes music. He lives near Seattle with his wife and pets.

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Epipeda

Walter Rice

Drum Roll

Copyright © 2023 Walter Rice

All rights reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.

Deepak Chopra

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

Epipeda

1. The Clinic

2. Happy Humadroid

3. Spaceport

4. Rising Tide

5. Clues

6. Green Scarf

7. The Botanist and the Slacker

8. Funny Business

9. Ostermann

10. Fathers

11. Husband and Wife

12. The Universe Calls

13. Oxygen

About the Author

More Fiction by Walter Rice                                

Epipeda

1. The Clinic

Aaron Dunarc worked up his courage and did a retinal sign-in at the local MedHealth clinic like a normal person. Of course, he wasn’t normal. Far from it. One glimpse of his face would make that clear.

It was late afternoon, and instead of kicking back with a Ceres lager after his engineering job, he was sitting in a sterile waiting room that seemed as rigid as his back muscles. Not wanting to be a statue, he made himself bend and stretch until his spine popped.

Then Dunarc tried to keep his nerves in check by focusing on the clinic’s wall art. A picture of a mystical off-world settlement caught his attention.

The pale orange buildings looked inviting in a way he couldn’t explain. Who would live in such vine-covered adobe? Even though he’d never been to this site, or even knew where it was, he wondered if someplace like that was where he really belonged.

No, relocation didn’t seem to be quite the answer. But change was needed. Why couldn’t he just be someone else?

At twenty-seven Dunarc was old enough to know what he wanted, which was why he was here at the clinic, but not at all confident that this was the place to start. With his position in life, the odds were against him. Still, he had to try.

Before long, a young female nurse came to take him back to an exam room. She barely spoke and seemed to want little to do with him. Dunarc thought she might be attractive if she ever smiled and didn’t talk like a robot. But that was not the case.

The actual robots he worked with had more personality. Of course, you could program them. Humans were another matter.

The nurse took his temperature and blood pressure and asked why he was there.

He silently rebuked himself for not expecting the question, but after a moment stammered, I’d rather talk privately with the doctor about that.

That’s not the way we usually do things here, she said.

Dunarc wanted to tell her he was a different case. But he held his tongue.

The nurse threw him a withering look and left the room without another word.

Dunarc took a deep breath and gathered himself. He’d have to give the doctor a real answer.

A few minutes later a knock came at the door. Then it swung open and a fortyish Dr. Evandisch appeared like a gust of