by Melissa Faye
“This doesn’t have to change anything, Yami,” Etta said. “We just keep going, ok? Do you know the latest about finding bio kids’ parents? We’re at around 40% right now. That’s incredible. More information comes in every day.”
It wasn’t enough. I could see the end of the staircase, but not the stairs. I could feel a change happening inside me. From protecting my friends to going after the Chancellor and his clones. I didn’t know if I could stop. I had to work harder. Longer hours. Push people to do more. I felt that familiar anxiety boiling up in my stomach. We had so much more to do.
I LAY IN JAVI’S BED with Charlie that night – all pretense that Alexis and Javi weren’t seeing each other had disappeared – but I couldn’t sleep. I closed my eyes and all I saw was the Chancellor.
So it wasn’t a surprise when our TekCasts buzzed in the morning. I felt like I was still half-asleep when I flipped mine open and saw the Chancellor’s face on the glowing holoscreen. Charlie jumped up out of bed when he saw it. So it’s not a dream, I thought.
The Chancellor sat behind a desk. I recognized a portrait of him that I saw in his office at Young Woods. But was this the same office? I didn’t even know if this was the same Chancellor. He cleared his voice and smiled at the camera before speaking.
“Greetings, citizens of the UCA, and good morning to you. I come to you with exciting news about recent developments in solving the fertility crisis.” His eyes glowed black; on the holoscreen, they looked to be the same color as his hair and suit.
“We’ve learned that there are people in our communities who have successfully conceived and given birth to children. While their numbers are few, the information we’ve been able to collect from biological parents and children has led us to better understand the crisis and how we might end it. We’ve identified over twenty different genetic mutations that create the right conditions for a couple to conceive. This leads me to two crucial points.”
Charlie rubbed his eyes and I leaned over onto his shoulder. Every word the Chancellor said reeked of danger and manipulation.
“First, let your council members and Chancellors know when someone around you may be pregnant. If you are found to know about a pregnancy but did not share that information, consequences will be severe.” His smile throughout that threat was terrifying. “What’s best for the community is for us to keep a registry of biological parents and children to ensure we are able to conduct more research and spread the cure across the globe. Thus we cannot allow our neighbors to keep secrets that will hurt the community.
“Second, within the next two weeks we will begin testing all children and adults across the UCA for these mutations. We will create a full list of fertile community members to create opportunities for them to pair off amongst themselves. This will create more biological children who inherit their parents’ fertility.
“Testing will happen throughout your communities. If you know of anyone who is living outside of a community, the same expectations apply as before. Those who know of any people living out of communities but do not let their leadership team know will be punished. Unauthorized community groups will be shut down and their citizens will be tested like everyone else.
“Finally, thank you all for your participation in this matter. We have an unprecedented opportunity to lead the world in advancements in a crisis that has plagued humanity for hundreds of years. With your cooperation, we will solve the crisis quickly and resolve any issues of insubordination without problems.”
He finished his speech with a broad smile so wide that his face probably hurt. The smile remained plastered to his face as the UCA motto was written across the screen and finally the broadcast ended. My jaw had dropped open. Charlie stared at me for guidance. I had no idea what we were going to do.
Chapter 26 – Charlie
The Chancellor’s video left us all in state of shock and disgust for the better part of the day. I spent most of my days in the Med, putting my training to use, and some afternoons with Teo. But that day, I joined Yami in the leadership team’s headquarters in the mansion to see people’s reactions. The place was a disaster. People ran around sending messages, reviewing maps as if everything was all wrong, arguing about the implications of the Chancellor hunting down “unauthorized communities,” and brainstorming how to keep all fertile adults and bio kids out of the hands of the government.
When the video finished that morning, Yami was in a state of panic I hadn’t seen since Etta’s pregnancy. But by the time we got to the mansion, she was still tense but was pretending to be the composed leader she needed to be. She answered questions and helped others stay calm. She was stoic, like Matana or Sven, and didn’t spend too much time engaging emotionally. She gave her honest opinion about why the message wasn’t as troubling as people feared, then left people to seek comfort from their friends.
“I don’t know what this means for us,” I whispered to Yami as we walked to get a quick bite after a long morning. “Where do we go? How do we help protect Hope?”
Yami just shook her head. She processed wordlessly.
“Is that our place anymore?” I asked. “If we’re tested, and we’re negative – which most of us will be – then how will we be ‘put to use’? Maybe we’re in more trouble at this point than Etta and Breck.”
“Maybe,” said Yami. “But I can’t leave any of them. It goes against everything I’ve done but...we need each other now. More than ever before. I can’t have kids, but others can. We have to find a way to protect ourselves from the Chancellor. Not just our friends, but everyone.”
I held her hand as we picked up protein bars and headed back to the mansion. There was a bigger flurry of people now that must have collected in the twenty minutes we were gone.
“What’s going on?” I asked one of the councilmen.
“The F-Lab. They say they’re ready to do some of their own testing.”
I looked at Yami, who was frowning.
“When will they start?” she asked.
“Right now,” the man said. “They’re going to send out a community notice. Get people tested. We’re just worried it will cause panic. Being positive, being negative. Either way, the Chancellor’s message scared us all.”
“Then we’ll go first,” Yami said to me. “We’ll show everyone it’s not a huge deal. We’ll be negative, and we’ll move on.”
The F-Lab was calmer than the mansion had been. Breck saw us enter and came to greet us.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “We hit our eighteenth mutation, and someone suggested we do it. Let’s start testing. It’s the one thing we can do to get ahead of the Chancellors. We can test our own citizens and go from there.”
Breck led us to the second floor where the researchers were setting up supplies for the tests. I felt my TekCast buzz; it was a communitywide message encouraging citizens to come for their tests. I felt a little shakey. I knew I wasn’t fertile, but having an actual definitive answer...I didn’t know how it would feel.
Yami volunteered to go first. A researcher did a quick cheek swab and entered it into a large machine with a set of small drawers that pulled out from the side. He wiped the sample against the top drawer and pushed a button on the screen. The drawer disappeared into the machine
I expected to wait a few minutes, but the answer came almost immediately. Yami’s karyotype popped onto the screen, and several rows of X’s appeared next to certain chromosomes. After a few more seconds, a box at the top right of the screen flashed red.
The researcher paused before looking at Yami.
“Not fertile,” he said. “No mutations present.”
“It doesn’t mean that much,” Breck jumped in. “We haven’t discovered all of the possible mutations. False negatives are more likely than false positives.”
“Not an issue,” Yami said. “This is what we’ve always known.” She stepped out of the way so the researcher could do my cheek swab. He wiped it into the next slot and pushed a button to draw it into the machin
e.
My karyotype popped onto the screen like Yami’s had. Several X’s appeared by some of the chromosomes along with one small green check mark. There was another short pause, and a box in the upper right of the screen flashed green.
No one spoke. Yami stared at the screen, ignoring me when I put my hand on her shoulder.
“That’s incredible,” the researcher said with awe. “Our first positive. I wasn’t sure we’d find one. My guess is there aren’t more than one in a thousand people with a mutation. Probably much fewer. Really, even within Gentle Acres, I expected all negatives. It’s astounding. Breck, Etta, now you. Charlie, right?”
I couldn’t listen to the man’s babbling. Yami was walking away. She sprinted down the stairs and I ran after her. I grabbed her arm as she stepped out of the building.
“What’s wrong? I don’t understand. Please, Yami – “
“You don’t get it?” she cried. “You can have children, Charlie.”
“Yeah, so what? It’s just random. It doesn’t change anything.”
Yami shook my hand off her arm and glared at me.
“You should be a father, and you can’t be a dad if you’re with me,” she snapped. “It’s over. We’re done.”
She hurried off towards Alexis’s house and I stood in the street, shocked. Breck appeared next to me. “Come back inside,” he said. “She’ll calm down.”
I went inside to find the researchers celebrating my results and testing each other. Everyone’s result was negative, but no one cared. One positive seemed to be enough to keep them going. Every time I turned to leave, someone pulled me back to be part of the festivities.
I begged them to let me run to the restroom, then sneaked out of the building. I couldn’t go to the mansion right now. There would be too many questions that I didn’t want to answer. I went to the Med; news of my results hadn’t spread there yet. I left before the work day ended so I could find Yami.
“Where are you? Let’s talk.” I messaged from an old TekCast someone had donated to me after I left mine at New Waves. No response.
I went to the mansion, but no one had seen or heard from Yami all afternoon. I ran back to Alexis’s house. It wasn’t like Yami to mope, but somehow this felt different to her. I just didn’t understand why.
“Yami!” I called from the door. “Please come talk to me?”
I ran up the steps two at a time and peeked into Javi’s room.
The bed was neatly made, like Yami liked it. My things were just how I left them.
All of Yami’s things were gone. Clothes, books, shoes, duffle bags. Her side of the closet was empty.
Yami was gone.
Thank you for reading Part 2 of the Clone Crisis trilogy!
Please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Your feedback means so much to me!
I can also be contacted at [email protected] or on my website at melissafayeauthor.com
Thank you for reading!
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed Clone Secrets: Book 2 of the Clone Crisis Trilogy. I’ve enjoyed envisioning a world hundreds of years in the future, where all research and developments focus on solving a biological crisis that has put society on hold. I particularly enjoy writing about Yami; she’s tough, loyal, and snarky. Just what I love in a female heroine!
When I wrote Book 1 of the Clone Crisis trilogy, I gave it to everyone I knew for feedback. People told me what they liked and didn’t like. They told me the characters they loved and the ones they loved to hate. They told me when the story dragged and when it kept them wanting to read more. I’d love to hear your feedback, too. You can email me at [email protected] at any time.
Finally, I have a favor to ask of you. Please consider posting a review of this book on Amazon. Whether you loved it or hated it, your feedback means everything to me. It’s how I can grow as an author and make sure my books meet you, the reader’s, expectations and needs. It also helps future readers see what others thought about the book. If you decide to write a review, here’s the link.
Thank you again for reading Clone Secrets. I hope you’ll read the conclusion of the trilogy, Clone Legacy.
Melissa
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About the Author
Melissa Faye is a former teacher who loves sci-fi stories so much, she decided to write some of her own! She lives in Colorado with her small dog and likes yoga, rock climbing, and thinking about weird dystopian futures and how feisty heroines can save the world.
