I cringed at the thought of having to justify such an action. It was logical, a step in the progression of the war that was coming. But it was no less painful. I had never had to deal with one of the victim’s families, and it was something I had been dreading for a long time.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly.
“What? What did you say? Did you say you’re sorry? Well you don’t get to be sorry. You don’t get to apologize. There is no apology for what you’ve done. No redemption.”
“I wasn’t asking for any.”
He strode up to me and shoved the image in my face. “Look at my son. What did he ever do to a clone? What did he do to any clone that he deserved to watch his mother die before he was blown to pieces?”
I turned away. I couldn’t look at the boy. “Please stop.”
“Stop what? Stop what? You can’t look at your victims? Did you just think you would be killing soldiers, huh? Look at me, damn you. Did you think it would just be soldiers?”
“It was a military target during a retreat.”
“Does he look military?” he shouted.
“No, he doesn’t.”
“No,” he scoffed, “he doesn’t. He was all I had in this damnable galaxy and you ripped him away from me and I just want to know one thing, clone. Just one.” He bent over me so our faces were nearly touching. “Why? Why did my boy have to die?”
I felt the warmth of tears and turned away from his gaze. The image of the boy playing in the grass ran through my mind over and over. I don’t know how long I lay there but when I opened my eyes he was sitting against the wall across from me.
He was staring at the image in front of him.
“He wanted to be an engineer. He was always working with his hands. He was only six when he passed but he had this ability to take things apart and put them back together. He got that from his mother. She was a physicist. Much smarter than me. I was never good at math.” He swallowed and turned the image off. “Kooney, the man that hired me to find you, says he can clone them. He can bring them back to me. Is that true?”
I was quiet a moment. “Physically they will be identical. But they won’t have the emotions or the memories or the connections to others that your wife and son had. That’s what you’ve never understood about us. That’s the entire center of this fight. We have souls. Just because you replicate us doesn’t mean we’re replicas. You’re asking me if he can bring your wife and son back. No, he can’t. They’re gone. I’m sorry.”
He stared at the floor. “Why would you do this?”
“Do you know what happens when a clone has a child?”
“They’re inseminated. I assume the children are wards of the state.”
“We’re not inseminated every time. There are male clones we can mate with. The children are taken and killed in front of us. They are ripped out of our arms and murdered to show us that we are property and that our children are too. How long can you treat an entire race this way and expect us to simply take it?” I looked up to the ceiling. “War is coming. And people die in war.”
He nodded sadly and rose. “My son never killed one of your children. You have already lost your war because you’ve become what you hate. You lost the moral high ground. You’re now down in the muck with us and the only thing that will lead to is more death.” He tossed the small ball over to me and I caught it, agony shooting through me as my arm went up. “Keep it.”
3
I was sedated for a long time. I knew this because I’d have periods of consciousness where I’d awaken and one of the med-bots that was now permanently in my room would glide over and inject me and I’d lose consciousness again.
But I woke now and there was no one in my room. Healing bandages were wrapped around my stomach and chest, and on the edges I could see the charred remnants of skin that were flaking off. I pushed myself up with my arms, groaning from the pain, and sat up in the bunk. A viewport was in the room and I looked out to the pinpoints of light that made up the spacescape and watched the ships silently come and go from Goshin.
A light hum reverberated in the room as the door slid open. A short man stood there in a bureaucrat’s suit. He smiled widely as he stepped inside and looked me up and down.
“Amazing. Your beauty is even more stunning in person.” He put his hands behind his back. “I am Administrator Kooney, and I’ve gone to quite a great length to find you, Ava. That is what you call yourself, yes?”
I didn’t respond.
“Yes, well, regardless, we are going to be spending quite some time together, you and I.”
“And why is that?”
He chuckled. “You do know why I’ve been chasing you, do you not?”
“Yes, I know.”
“Why?” I heard another voice say. I looked up to see Larso in the doorway.
“Mr. Moore,” Kooney said, “I thought you had already left. Charges were dropped.”
“I know. I came to say goodbye. Why is she so important that you had to send an army after her?”
“She didn’t tell you?”
He looked to me and then back to Kooney. “No.”
“Ava, would you like to tell him or should I?”
I hesitated, unsure exactly how much Kooney knew.
He grinned. “Mr. Moore, Ava is a genetic anomaly. Even for a fine specimen of clone as she is. It lies in her reproductive abilities. Chromosomally, clones are sequenced to only be able to reproduce with the semen of other clones, either artificially or naturally. But Ava is unique. She has the ability to become inseminated with human sperm. She has the ability to have a half clone, half human child.”
Larso looked to me, his eyes wide.
“You can imagine,” Kooney continued, “what that means. What if the populace began viewing clones as human? It would be much more difficult to use them as slaves. Administrator Keynes understood this about her; that is why Ava killed him.” He took a deep breath, glancing around the room. “Anyway, please let us know if there is anything you need for the time being.”
Kooney began to walk out and Larso said, “What will happen to her?”
“Dissection and analysis, Mr. Moore. We must understand her to ensure she never happens again. I’ll give you a minute to say your goodbyes.”
The doors slid closed and Larso sat on the bunk next to me. He looked tired and had bags under his eyes.
“How long have you been working with Kooney?” I said.
He looked to me without surprise. “How did you know?”
“They wouldn’t drop charges against you.”
“I’ve been with the bureau as a contractor about seven years. I was after you for six months before I went to Helron on a hunch. My objective was to have you lead me back to other epicenters of rebellion.”
“My father….”
“No, Ava, look at me. This started with me following you but it turned into … something else. I never once called in our coordinates. Especially not the coordinates of your family. I have no idea who that woman was and neither does Kooney.”
We were quiet a long while.
“So what now? Do you move to another assignment?”
He looked to me. “No, we get you out of here.”
“How?”
“Leave that to me. Just wait for—”
An alarm blared through the walls and in the corridor. Lights began to flash and I could hear men shouting and the stomp of boots against the floors.
Larso stood and went outside. He ran back in a moment later and said, “We’re leaving. Now.”
NEPHI
I watched the clone through a viewscreen in Kooney’s office. He wasn’t there so I sat in his massive chair and looked at the several screens that were set up. Goshin was a remote facility he never visited and yet they maintained several offices for administrators’ visits. I could tell from the state of the furniture that the office was unused.
The doors opened and Kooney walked in.
“Marshal? What a surprise. I’m
glad I caught you.”
“It won’t be them, will it?” I said without turning around.
“Won’t be who?”
I turned in the chair and looked at him. “My wife and son. It won’t be them. Not really. Not in the sense that you promised me.”
“I promised you that I could clone them. I said nothing as to their mental capacities.”
“And what would be their mental capacities?”
“Well, after the incubation period, we can accelerate their growth so they would reach the ages you remember rather quickly, perhaps no more than three years. We will be working with them in the meantime, teaching them language and motor skills. But they will be little more than children.”
“Will my wife even know who I am?”
“No. She will have to acquaint herself with you again. So there’s two ways to look at it: it’s a challenge and a privilege, or it’s a burden that’s not worth it. Up to you.”
I exhaled. “It’s not really them. Not in the sense that I thought when you talked to me in Egypt. Not in the sense I’ve been dreaming about every night since their deaths.”
He walked over and sat down across from me. “If you’re asking can they be brought back exactly as you remember them, then the answer is no. They cannot. Those people you knew are dead.”
I nodded and stood up. “You can keep your prize. I’m leaving.”
“So soon? We have much to discuss. The Bureau can use a man like you. Imagine the good you could do.”
I grabbed him by his collar and lifted him up outta his chair. “Don’t ever contact me again.”
Just then an alarm went off. I dropped Kooney and listened. Security was mobilizing and I could hear men shouting orders. I went to the viewscreens behind the desk and flipped on the feeds to the docking bay.
It was her.
“We need to get off this station, now.”
“Who is that woman?” Kooney said.
I ran outta the room and headed for the flight deck just one level below the docking bays. I realized I was still wearing my wristband and punched in a few numbers. Monica glimmered to life next to me.
“Get Eight and have him meet us on the flight deck.”
She didn’t ask any questions but just disappeared as I ran to the elevator. I went down and stepped off on my level and could hear the sounds of men screaming and dying. Blaster fire sizzled into the walls but the screaming didn’t stop. They couldn’t stop her.
I ran into the flight deck and had to wait for another ship that was taking off. It drifted out of the station on the tractor beam and then shot into space. The doors opened and I ran in. Eight was behind me and we sprinted for the first available ship when something hit my feet. I looked down. It was Kooney’s severed head.
I looked back to see the woman covered in blood, black and red stains following her on the white floor to where she stood. Her blade ignited at her side.
“Who are you?”
“Where is the clone?”
“Tell me who you are,” I said.
“I am no concern of yours.”
She flipped into the air and spun several times around. I jumped outta the way as the plasma blade bit into the hemlight steel of the flight deck.
“Eight! Take her out.”
Eight jumped to life. He spun in a ball around her and the woman sliced and then shot a bolt of energy and missed with both. Eight fired a shower of red and the woman flipped backward behind a ship, letting the hull absorb most of the damage. I took out my blaster and swung around the opposite side as Eight. We both came around and were facing each other. I didn’t see her.
The ship suddenly roared to life and the engines thrust it forward. It knocked me so hard I flew off my feet and onto my back. The afterburn caught Eight, catching it on fire.
“Monica, get—”
The woman flew out of the ship like some damnable bird. She came down with her shimmering sword and sliced through Eight like he was made of sand. He fell in two halves before the woman turned to me.
My back was broken, the smell of burnt flesh in my nostrils. My arms still moved and I held the blaster up. I fired and she casually stepped to the side and then knocked it out of my hands.
I took in a deep breath. “They’re sending clones after clones now? I didn’t know clones could be traitors.”
“It’s not traitorous for the strong to kill the weak.”
She sliced through my midsection with her blade. The last thing I remember is looking up at Monica who was standing over me, watching me. I wondered if she felt saddened. I was about to ask her as the world went black, and Monica disappeared.
AVA
We were out in the corridor and Larso had to hold me up. The pain was so intense I felt I would black out several times and had to lean on him. Guards were running and we went the opposite way. Larso stopped at an information portal and checked the map for the facility.
“There’s another flight deck on the bottom level. I bet used for cargo.”
He pulled on my arm before I could respond and we darted for the elevators on the other end of the corridor. We heard guards shouting into comms and none of them seemed to notice or care that we were heading past them.
We jumped on the elevators and waited as it went down. Larso was holding me up. I looked to him and he grinned. He kissed me and I let him.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I should’ve told you.”
“Secrets ran both ways.”
The doors opened and we got off. Several vessels were there. All were small and worn down, freighters and cargo ships. Larso ran behind to the controls on the flight deck and then ran back out and we went to the first ship there, a little gray ship called the Bountiful. Larso had to strap me in; sitting in an upright position radiated pain up and down my body.
He got in and sent the liftoff commands to the control center. The flight deck was cleared and checked with a motion detector and then depressurized. The bay doors opened and we lifted and flew out.
We rode in silence a moment before Larso put in FTL coordinates and leaned back in his seat. As we waited for the drive to charge up, I stared out the viewports to the stars. So many planets, so many people, how was it that we were utterly alone in the universe?
“I’ve never seen anyone fight like her,” he said. “Except you.”
“She’s a hunter.”
“Hunter of what?”
“She’s a war-clone that hunts other war-clones. They’re bred to assassinate their own kind. Before Prator found me, I was a hunter. She’s deadlier than any I’ve seen though, new modifications and a new weapon. Upgrades since my model.” I looked to him. “Larso … the bomb. Why didn’t you tell them about it?”
“Because they would have tortured you to get the information.”
“You were going to let a planet die to save me pain?”
He glanced to me and then back out the viewport. “I don’t know. I made a call.”
“When we started … this, we were so confident in what we were doing. We were the oppressed fighting monsters. It’s what gave me the energy to keep going. But now I think we’ve become the monsters. I’m no better than Kooney. He did what he had to do to achieve his ends and so did I. And the only thing killing seems to achieve is more killing. It took me decades and thousands of deaths to realize that.” I hesitated. “We have to stop that bomb.”
He smiled. “Buckle up. We’re heading to Earth.
2
Normally FTL travel didn’t affect me but I was so weakened that I slept through the entire thing. When I woke, a gleaming blue gem was taking up the entire viewscreen. Earth had been a solid gray for many centuries until the advent of deconstructionist machines, breaking down the toxins in the atmosphere and turning them to pure oxygen, Earth was back to its youth. I’d been here a hundred times. It was beautiful and I wondered why I’d never noticed before.
Larso was waking too and he rubbed his eyes.
“Will you go back?” I sa
id.
“Back to what?”
“Clones.”
He looked to me. “No, I’m done with that.”
I nodded. “Would you have killed me?”
“No. I was just a tracker, Ava. I tracked fugitives for bounties. Technically, I wasn’t even part of the Bureau, and didn’t work for Kooney. I would get bounties and go out and collect them the best I could. They told me you were a terrorist and that you’d killed thousands. But the moment I met you … I knew I wouldn’t be collecting that bounty.”
“I have killed thousands. I’m a monster, Larso.”
“No. You have the chance to be so much more. And if what Kooney said was true … that you can create a new race or maybe even a new species … I don’t even know what to say to that. Your child could free your entire race just by existing.”
We were quiet a moment, then I said, “The bomb’s on a diplomatic transport ship. The Red Stripe. It was sent the moment Prator heard of Keynes’ death. It’s awaiting a signal from Prator. If that signal isn’t received in ten SGD’s, the bomb will automatically detonate.”
“Do you know where the ship is?”
“No, only the pilot and Prator knew.”
“Where’s the pilot?”
“Still here somewhere. A man named Atticus. I would guess he’d be waiting for the signal before leaving.”
He punched in some numbers on the console. “Any clues at all on where we can look?”
“He would probably want to be somewhere near the equator. The electron bomb works in expanding concentric circles.”
“Well that would give twelve provinces we can start in … wait, you said the ship was named The Red Stripe?”
“I caught a glimpse of it on King’s Grace once. That was the name it had then.”
He thought a moment and then pulled the ship downward into the Earth’s atmosphere, heading toward Australasia.
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