“We’ll have to make a few stretchers,” Jonah observed to Ray. “If it comes to a fight we don’t want to lose four every time someone gets hurt.”
The reminder of their situation lowered Ray’s mood and apprehension stalked back into her conscious turning the shadows between the trees into enemies.
They wound their way a short distance to an area of the forest characterized by deep cuts and gullies in the terrain. The bushes here were dense and Ray received a number of scratches while pushing her way through in just Jonah’s T-shirt.
They crested a bluff and slithered down a steep muddy path onto the valley floor. Ray saw Sparks waiting for them further along the trail with Dane. Ray remembered this place. She and Sparks had played here as children. Further up the gully there was a network of caves that tunneled into the hills. Perfect for hiding from thermal cameras.
Sparks had tears in his eyes as Ray approached but was doing his best to appear stoic.
“You look like shit,” he observed as they approached.
“At least I’ll heal, you are stuck that way,” Ray retorted. Dane grinned and waited while Sparks and Ray hugged each other. Sparks turned to Jonah and transferred his hug over to him, much to Jonah’s surprise. Jonah’s lopsided smile appeared over Sparks’ shoulder as he awkwardly returned the hug and Ray winked at him.
“Let’s get you inside,” Dane suggested.
Dane led them back into one of the larger caves, a particular favorite of theirs from childhood.
Where most of the caves were simple large rooms, hollowed out over time by the wind, this one had been carved out further by an ancient river and delved deeply into the gully side. It had side passages and places that widened out, almost like rooms. Deep in the cave there was even an area where stalactites and stalagmites reached out to touch one another. As a young girl, Ray had kept a fragment of a stalactite on a shelf by her bed. She briefly wondered what had become of the keepsake. They walked into the welcoming cool and shade on soft sand deposited by the long-forgotten river.
Where before the cave had been dark and spooky, it now appeared light and was crowded with people. Ray recognized a mix of marines and Dianians.
Jonah began shaking hands and talking quietly with his colleagues. He found Pham quickly and they sat talking animatedly, their faces taut and serious. Sparks took Ray to see Bones, but she was sleeping soundly so they decided to let her rest for the time being. Aymes was hauled into one of the side caves where the marines had erected a make shift surgical suite. Ray felt like she should help but she was guided around the corner by Sparks.
“You need to eat,” he asserted, “and I want all those wounds checked.”
Feeling relieved Ray relented, happily in the end, and followed Sparks to a communal eating area. She sat down to a simple bowl of vegetable soup and tried to let her mind and body relax a little. The warmth of the soup and the company of Sparks helped but the tension in her shoulders would not abate completely.
Sparks let her eat in silence, watching her with a concerned frown. Ray made to sign something to him, but he stopped her. “Eat now, then we will get you checked out and you can fill us all in together. I have a feeling you will only want to tell this story once.”
Ray’s head dropped, and she nodded, acknowledging the truth of Sparks’ sentiment.
Once Ray dropped her bowl back into the communal wash bucket they paid a visit to Late, a woman Ray knew well from her days working in the hospital. Bones had told Ray that Late got her name during school because she was always late, and it had stuck. She checked over Ray’s suture work and palpated her abdomen feeling for any signs of infection.
After a follow-up shot of antibacterials, she sent Ray on her way. She asked Ray no questions about her journey to the Darklands, but Ray could see by the set of her chin that she was upset and possibly angry at Ray’s injuries. Ray held Late’s hand briefly in thanks and their eyes met.
“I’d say be careful,” Late signed, “but it’s not the time for that really, is it?”
Ray smiled, “It’s not, no.”
Twenty minutes later Sparks, Nettle, Dane, Gift and Jonah gathered in one of the smaller caves radiating out from the long central cavern that snaked back into the hillside. Ray started proceedings by handing over her HHI containing the Net map. Nettle grabbed it eagerly and Ray had to remind her not to turn it on lest it somehow managed to login to the network and give away their location through the meters of dirt and rock between them and the forest above.
“So, you said there are no ships over the Darklands.” Nettle summarized for the group. “Maybe start there.”
“That’s correct,” Ray began. “This is going to sound completely unbelievable but I’m just going to lay it out.” She looked around the circle trying to think of a way of telling the story, so it didn’t sound like madness. In the end she simply shook her head and dove in.
“The life2s do not travel to Diana, they are born here… Cloned embryos are G-Ported in and the clones are gestated and grown in a hidden CDSE facility in the Darklands. It’s been there for decades. When the clones reach a certain age the consciousness of their human counterparts, the ones paying the bills, are copied into them. The narcissistic bastards are paying to live two parallel lives. One on earth and one here.
Ray paused and looked around the group. She could see from the frowns on their faces that the magnitude of the info dump was simply too much. Most were still processing the concept of cloned embryos and G-Port. Undeterred, she forged on.
The mind behind the whole scheme is none other than Astrid Copeland and the crazy thing is she’s living in the facility. Well one of her is anyway.”
Deeper confused frowns met this last revelation.
“We know that cloning has been possible for centuries, right? Albeit illegal.” Ray continued. “Well, Astrid added another dimension. She genetically engineered the clones so that they have a rewritable brain. The brains can be reformed to match that of the clone’s parent, transferring their memories.
She did it to herself. She told me that she is one of five clones, all born at the same time. The other four work on projects on Earth. She made another five clones of herself when she first arrived here, using kidnapped Dianian women to gestate them because she can’t have her own children. It appears that Bones was one of the kidnapped women, but she escaped.”
Ray let the last statement hang in the air while the group caught up. Sparks’ face shifted through a range of expressions as the implications hit him in sequence.
“Holy shit,” Jonah said out loud and Ray could see the realizations dawning on Sparks’ and Nettles’ face at the same time.
“What?” signed Dane. Still looking utterly confused.
Nettle signed at Dane still looking at Ray, “Ray thinks she is a clone of Astrid Copeland.”
They all stared at Ray, mouths hanging open in disbelief. Ray gave them a moment to recover.
“Bullshit,” Dane signed. “That’s ridiculous.” Ray simply ignored him. Frankly they would see for themselves soon enough and it changed nothing if they didn’t believe her yet.
“There’s good news though,” Ray continued, “You all know that the original Astrid pretty much created us Dianians two hundred years ago. Well she finished her work here it seems. She discovered how to fix the genetic mistake that means we are born without lungs. She can fix Dianian children in vitro and implant healthy embryos into our mothers. We can solve our dependence on CDSE using her expertise. She told me that it would only need to be done with one generation. The genetic fix will carry to naturally conceived children from then on.”
“Would she do it?” Sparks asked after a long pause, still looking utterly shell-shocked.
“I think so,” Ray answered. “She seems OK. Totally devoid of morals and completely mad but OK. It’s my sister clones that we need to worry about.” Ray held up her bandaged hand. “This is their doing. They were not too happy that I had turned up out of the blue. Astri
d said that when she made me, all of the ducks lined up. She had never been able to fix all her genetic faults in one person…ahh, clone before. Like not being able to carry children for instance. She treated me like some sort of miracle. I suspect she wants to rewrite herself over into me at some point. I guess the other clones didn’t like that very much. They seem to think that is their birthright.”
“So how did you escape?” Gift asked.
Ray looked at her hands. “I got lucky basically. Pritchard is dead though. That’s a sad story in itself. I got out into the forest and by some miracle Jonah found me after stealing a truck to transport Aymes. If he hadn’t arrived, I’d be dead for sure.”
The group sat in silence contemplating the story. Finally Nettle shuddered.
“Creepy!” she signed.
“Sure is, “Ray agreed. There’s worse things there too which I won’t go into now. If we win this thing, I suspect you are all going to see the place anyway. Speaking of winning…the game has changed now hasn’t it? “
Sparks nodded. CDSE hit us hard a couple of days after you left. They attacked the marines during the night when most were asleep. The ones you see here are the lucky ones that managed to get out. They completely took out the marine compound and destroyed all their interplanetary comms gear.
Then we heard they were coming for us and we ran. The stragglers that we found in the bush reported that CDSE arrested many and herded the rest into the barracks. We have no idea what happened to the ones that they took but the majority are still being held. They have Town Hall of course.
Jonah nodded. “We have to fight. I suspect CDSE sees you all as too much of a problem to accommodate now. The marines too it appears. The fact that they have cut off all our means to communicate with Earth is ominous. We can get one message out using Sparks’ hidden transmitter but then they will be on us.”
“We really need control of Town Hall,” Nettle interjected. “If we can get into Town Hall I can use the Net map to reposition the nets above the shuttle port. Half of our training as tug pilots is how to avoid crashing tugs into the nets so I assume it’s not good when you do. If we are successful, then we can close ourselves off. Nobody gets out and nobody comes in unless we let them.”
Jonah nodded, “Good plan, I heard a few years ago that a military jet crashed into a net that had drifted out of position. Just rumors. The air force never admitted to it but I heard there was not much left.”
Gift was thinking hard, “Given enough time we might even be able to use the tugs to tow in recycling nets that are fairly close. If our fuel doesn’t run out, we might be able to surround the whole planet. “
“Even if we don’t manage to get more nets, just the uncertainty of not knowing where they are should be enough, at least, to stop CDSE right now.” Gift offered. “And maybe when Earth hears what has been happening they will be on our side. The fact that CDSE don’t want us talking to them suggests that they don’t know.”
“I have a thought,” Jonah offered after a pause. “We need to take, or at least get into, Town Hall which means we need to know how heavily guarded it is. The main CDSE force resides in the compound and they are not far away so I suggest we need some sort of diversion to draw them out. Occupy them somehow. Using Sparks’ communicator could be that diversion.
They will likely send forces to intercept and destroy it as soon as they detect it being used. How many they send will give us a good idea of how much Earth knows and how much CDSE want to keep their secrets. At the same time, we strike town hall and try to hold it until Nettle has done her work. How much time will you need and how about encryption? What will stop CDSE logging straight back in?”
“Sparks and I can handle that” Ray offered. Someone here must have an offline data console. Sparks and I will write an encryption algorithm. Nettle can program a sequence of moves for the nets and then we encrypt the maps, hopefully locking anybody else out. It won’t add any extra time in Town Hall. After that we can reroute the local comms towers so that Earth has no access to our network and cannot control Diana airspace. There’s one problem though. We will need pass codes to log into the network once we break into town hall. It’s highly unlikely that CDSE has not withdrawn all our access by now. Mine still worked a couple of days ago, but now that I’ve gone rogue I’m sure they will have canceled it.”
“Correct,” Nettle agreed, “I will only need about thirty minutes once I have access. I only need to reposition a few of the closest nets at first, to create confusion. But Ray’s right. Without access codes, we have no chance of hacking in.”
“Rose,” Dane signed, “Maybe this is where Rose can help.”
The group looked at each other nervously.
“Risky,” Jonah offered. “Has anybody spoken to her recently?”
Dane’s head drooped a little. “I met her a few days before we hid out here. She looked bad. Tired and there was an old bruise on her cheek. The reason I suggested her is because she said she is seeing one of the engineering managers. Maybe she can get a pass code.”
Jonah shook his head, “Still too risky, what if she tells? We would be better to just grab someone.”
“Difficult,” Nettle responded. “CDSE have moved all their core staff into the compound and they all travel in groups of five with guards. Besides if one went missing wouldn’t that raise an alarm?”
Jonah thought for a while.
“Maybe you are right Dane, you guys should call this one. You know her best. Who will she side with when it comes to the crunch?”
Ray shrugged, “I think it’s worth the risk.”
“Me too,” Gift agreed.
A movement in the cave entrance caught Ray’s eye and she glanced around to see Bones peeking around the corner.
“What’s worth the risk?” she signed.
Ray jumped up and grabbed her in a hug. Her ribs and gut hurt like crazy, but she didn’t care. She had spun Bones around with the force of the hug and could now see Sparks over her shoulder. He shook a warning at Ray and tapped his head where she knew the memory blocker implant was located. Bones still had the implant in.
“Bones pushed Ray out to arm’s length. “How come you are back already? I thought your tour was supposed to be two weeks.”
Ray hesitated for a second wondering how much Bones remembered. She couldn’t tell her anything about what had happened for fear that the memory would trigger her implant again.
She decided to play it safe. “They ended up cutting us short. Probably all the problems that have been happening here. And besides, I had an accident.” Ray held up her bandaged hand.
Bones nodded. “You and me both it seems. I had some sort of…turn is what Late is calling it. She thinks I might be losing my marbles I suspect. Feeling good now though. What happened to the hand? Is it bad?”
“Not great but I’ll survive.”
Bones nodded satisfied. “I’ll check it later but I’m sure Late has had a look already huh?”
Ray nodded affirmation. “We can talk about it later. Right now, we are trying to figure out what to do about this CDSE situation. Ray caught Sparks again shaking his head behind Bones. Ray hesitated before continuing lamely.
“We ahhh… haven’t really decided anything though.”
Bones looked skeptical and half turned her head to see where Sparks was sitting. Looking suspicious she turned back to Ray.
“Alright, keep your secrets then,” she signed after an uncomfortable pause. Ray grimaced. She never could keep anything from her mother. They knew each other too well.
Bones hugged Ray and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Come and see me when you are done here. I’d like to hear about your adventures. Ray nodded, and Bones exited in her usual businesslike manner.
Ray looked at Nettle and Sparks with an accusatory look.
“We can’t tell her,” Nettle asserted. She still has that thing in her head. Thinking about it will only damage her brain more.
“I hate lying to Bones,” Ra
y signed looking uncomfortable, “It never works anyway.”
“Let’s get back to business shall we,” Jonah offered out loud. “We can deal with your Mother’s issues as soon as we get control of the nets. Once we get that, CDSE will have to make a deal with us. We will hold all the power then. “
Nettle looked at Ray, “Bossy one isn’t he…good for you Ray.”
Ray grinned and made to punch Nettle in the arm but the sudden movement made her painful abdominal muscles cramp, stopping her short.
“….no response huh,” Nettle teased. Then danced around in a boxer’s pose flicking jabs at Ray’s face.
Jonah threw his hands up in exasperation. “I think I’ll go talk to Pham, organize some reconnaissance with someone who behaves like a professional. Do you think you toddlers can work on getting a message to Rose?”
Nettle spun to face Jonah, “Come here and say that,” she threw at him, continuing her shadow boxing routine for his benefit this time.
“I’ll catch up with you later,” Ray signed to Jonah. She watched him leave before turning back to the group. They briefly argued about the message they should send to Rose and where the safest place to meet would be. They settled on a plan and the group dissipated leaving only Nettle and Ray in the dimly lit cave.
Nettle looked carefully at Ray, briefly assessing the cut above her eye. The dressing had fallen away but the small wound was healing nicely.
“Are you OK?” Nettle asked.
“Not really…but I will be. Being with Jonah is helping. Gives me something to think about other than that horrible place. I just want this to be over now.”
“I know what you mean. I’m so pleased you are here. We can finally do something. It’s been doing my head in just sitting here with my thumb up my ass…” Nettle’s hard features softened slightly. Just enough for Ray to notice,” I’m glad you’re alive. I’d started to … you know … worry…even if you are a clone.”
This time Ray swung a punch at her despite the pain. Nettle turned slightly letting it hit her in the arm. She feigned outrage but tears in the corners of her eyes reflected the light of the lamp.
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