Echo- First Pulse

by C Scott Frank

  “I can see where the call is coming from, genius. What makes you think I care about what you have to say?”

  “I can’t trust anyone else in this lab,” Holden said, voice bitter. “Because the doctors are clones.”

  ∆∆∆

  “So it’s true,” Avani said. “He’s a clone.”

  Kubitz nodded slowly. Even staring at the X-Ray negative in front of him, as he and Avani had been doing for the last hour, it was hard to accept.

  “Now what?”

  Kubitz wanted to throw something. Wanted to break something. He toyed with taking another shift in the gym, but there were more important things. He couldn’t hide from this problem.

  “We have to tell him,” he said. His voice came out hoarse. He hadn’t expected that. “He should be in his quarters waiting for the results.”

  “I think we should remotely lock his room.”

  Kubitz looked Avani in the eyes. “Are you sure that’s necessary?”

  “I hope to God it isn’t, but we can’t take chances.”

  “Okay, call him. I’ll login to the control system.”

  Avani clicked the comm as Kubitz navigated his own datapad. After a half a minute, the tone continued to buzz.

  “Is he in his room?”

  “I don’t know. The door was closed. It’s locked now.”

  Avani switched the comm to station-wide intercom. “Holden, please see us in the radio lab.”

  Kubitz leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers on top of his head. “Now we wait.”

  “Wait for him to come here? Do you have a plan for when that happens?”

  “I honestly can’t say. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what he’s thinking. What would I do if everything I knew was turned upside down? I would lose it.”

  Avani nodded. “That doesn’t scare you?”

  “Honestly, it scares the fire out of me. That’s why I have this.” He pulled the compact pistol out of his pocket. If the weapon shocked Avani, she didn’t show it. Kubitz continued, “I have to call the man in the black suit, obviously. But I don’t think he’ll have the kid’s best interest in mind.”

  “You really care about him.”

  “Of course I do.” Kubitz chuckled and folded his arms across his chest. “I remember picking him up as a pimply teenager. I thought I was doing him a favor. Saving him from that group home and my worthless sister. Closest thing to a dad he ever had, probably. But now…” Kubitz trailed off.

  Avani put a hand on Kubitz’ arm. “This must be hard for you, then.”

  “I just can’t believe it. The evidence is staring me right in the face, but… I mean, if he’s been a clone all this time, then—” He cut himself off and jumped from his chair, startling Avani. “Oh no. If he’s a clone… Stay here. Lock the door. If Holden comes, call me. Don’t open that hatch.”

  “Where are you going?”

  Kubitz barely heard the question as he shut the door behind him, sprinting for the control room.

  Escalation

  The intercom in the control room buzzed. “Still no sign of him.” Avani’s voice crackled over the speaker.

  “I will lock every bulkhead except the path from the radio room to the control center,” Kubitz said.

  “You want me to come to you? What are you doing in there? You’ve diverted every ounce of processing power. What are you up to?”

  “I thought about how long I’ve known Holden and how I could’ve missed who he really is. There’s really only one explanation. And if I’m being honest, Avani, it scares the—oh, there we go. First batch populating now.” He paused for a few moments to read the results. “It’s worse than I could ever have imagined.”

  “Is it safe for me to come?” Avani asked, her voice shuddering.

  “I think it might be a good idea. I’ve sealed everything off now. Just hurry.”

  ∆∆∆

  “Mendel, what am I looking at?” Avani stood behind Kubitz as they studied the screens.

  Kubitz looked up at Avani with a raised eyebrow. She rarely used his first name. “This is a branch of the armed forces. Well, part of a branch. I have to process the data in chunks.”

  Avani shook her head. “I have no idea what you’re on about.”

  “Sorry, I’ll back up. When the world militaries combined into larger factions, and we expanded into new systems, it became standard practice to take and log a DNA sample for anyone who enlists. We didn’t want to send anyone out here that might be prone to certain neurological or biological setbacks. We can’t afford those kinds of mistakes in space flight.”

  “Right, I knew all of this.”

  “Sure. I realized, if Holden could be a clone… well…” Kubitz punched a command and some of the names on the screen turned red. “These names tested positive for the same gene.”

  Avani fell into a chair, hand over her mouth. She shook her head. “This is the Code? That cannot be.”

  “Ah, batch two is ready.” Kubitz pulled up the results and swore. “So far, it’s consistently about one percent positive.”

  “Margin for error?” Avani’s voice crept out, barely above a whisper.

  “Minimal.”

  “There must be hundreds.”

  “Thousands. Tens of thousands, possibly. In human colonies all over the galaxy.” Kubitz shivered, feeling the warmth leave him. “On Earth.”

  He met Avani’s watery eyes and realized his own eyes had grown misty. This would change everything.

  Avani shook her head again. “We’ve been wrong about a great many things. They’re here. They—they’re on Earth already. The war did not begin a few years ago at the Charon outpost. We have been fighting the invasion every day of our lives.”

  “We need to find out what Holden has been up to. Not to sound too cliché, but I have a bad feeling about this.” Kubitz checked his pistol for the thousandth time.

  “One step ahead of you. You will not like this,” Avani said. “It looks like he placed two calls. One to—wait. My screens just went dead.”

  Kubitz looked up from his gun. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean dead,” Avani fairly shouted. “Machine is unresponsive.”

  “What’s happening here? What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything. Wait, look.” She pointed to the bottom right screen, where small words had appeared.

  [DATA UPLOAD IN PROGRESS…]

  “I don’t suppose you did that?” Kubitz asked.

  “Do you think it’s them again?”

  “Oh no.” He grabbed the comm and keyed the main station. “If this news gets out there…” He tapped a few keys on the comm. “Nothing. Everything is dead.”

  ∆∆∆

  Holden stalked the corridors of the research facility deciding what to do next. He’d turned the intercom off in his room when he made his off-station call, so he figured he’d missed the notice about his X-Ray results. He considered visiting the radio lab to see what they had, but he knew what they would say, anyway.

  There was no doubt the X-Ray results had long been completed. Now he simply waited for the doctors to show their hand. But he’d been waiting for two hours and heard nothing. He arrived back at his room. He punched the door control and nothing happened. Locked. What were they doing?

  Holden decided it was time to make a move. Fuming, he stormed back toward the center of the facility. He stopped at a junction: living quarters behind him, control center ahead, radiology to the right. He punched the switch for the radio lab and nothing happened. The hatch stayed shut. He tried again and again to no avail.

  His frustration was getting the better of him. He cried out, voice echoing off the metal walls of the corridor. He pounded on the hatch with a fist. How could they do this to him? The force of each impact helped to satisfy his anger, while simultaneously stoking the flames. Just once in his life, he wanted to not passively take whatever he could get. In that moment, he realized his counselors had been right: he needed control. And
now he was being confined.

  He lashed out against the door, gulping in the pain of each strike. With a howl, he launched a kick at the door. The corridor lights flickered, and the hatch snapped open. Had he done that? He found it implausible. He didn’t linger on the notion long.

  Holden set off at a sprint toward the control room. He was unsure if he would find the doctors there, but it was a good place to start. He slowed to a walk as he neared the room. Voices drifted out into the hallway. They sounded panicked. He curled his hands into fists and realized he had somehow always known it would come to this.

  ∆∆∆

  “They’ve locked us out of everything. Isn’t there something you can do?” Avani said.

  Kubitz wracked his brain. “I could kill power. It’d get stuffy in here, but it would stop the transfer. I can’t leave it off for long, though. They’ll be back.”

  “Do it. You don’t have another choice.”

  Kubitz nodded and turned toward the door, nearly running into Holden.

  “Hey, doc,” Holden said. His face was flushed and sucked on his teeth.

  “Holden, how’d you—”

  “Break out? I dunno. Could have something to do with that.” He pointed at the screen where Avani was frantically trying to get something to work.

  “I understand your frustration. I think we can talk about this, but first I have to stop the hackers. They’re—”

  “I’m sure you do,” Holden scoffed and stepped further into the room.

  “Look, I don’t expect any of this to be easy for you to understand, let alone process.” Avani turned from the station, her tone soothing.

  “Don’t worry,” Holden said. “I’ve worked it out.”

  “What exactly do you think is going on here?” Kubitz asked.

  “I’m tired of it. Tired of who I am. Tired of wondering what could have been. Just waiting for whatever scraps I can get.” Holden took a step closer to the doctors.

  Kubitz took a step back. “Let’s talk this out. Tell me what’s going on. But please, can I stop the transfer, first?”

  “Perhaps it’s better that way. No more secrets. I’m tired of everyone’s secrets. You’re just trying to get me out of the way. I won’t let you. You won’t sabotage everything. I’ve already seen to that.”

  “Holden, what have you done?” Avani asked. She tried a few commands on her datapad. “Doctor, I can’t get to the logs from here either.”

  “You’ll find out soon enough,” Holden said, and then met Kubitz’ eyes. “It’s you I’m most disappointed in.”

  “I know,” Kubitz said. “But I want to help.”

  Holden laughed and took a step toward Kubitz. “That time is long past. You took me in. Why? Just to see what it would be like? I might’ve been better off in the streets.”

  “I know I may not have been the best guardian.” Kubitz held his hands up. “I did care for you. I did my best.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t good enough.” Holden took another step.

  “You don’t have to give in to your anger, Holden.” Avani turned to face Holden. “Remember: nothing can take away your humanity. Not even if you’re a clone.”

  “Bull,” Holden said and pushed Kubitz.

  Kubitz kept his balance and backed away. He’d left his pistol on the desktop to his right. If he could just get there. He sidestepped. Holden advanced.

  “Let me guess, your X-Rays show that I’m a clone?”

  “Well, yes,” Avani confirmed.

  “A thought struck me. How do I know you wouldn’t fake the result just to pin me? Why don’t we all get scanned?” Holden took another step.

  “Why would I do that to you?” Kubitz stepped toward his gun. “I helped raise you. I—”

  “Save it man, I don’t buy it.”

  Holden lunged for Kubitz. Kubitz dove for his gun, but Holden was faster. He caught Kubitz in the side and pushed him with more force than Kubitz had expected. He crashed into part of the monitor wall and shattered two of the screens there. Holden was on him before he could recover, landing a barrage of blows to his body.

  Avani screamed and kicked wildly at Holden. He turned and punched her in the jaw, knocking her small body to the floor. Kubitz saw an opportunity and kicked Holden in his exposed chest, then pounced on him. They both crashed into the heavy glass windows at the far end of the lab.

  Holden howled and pulled Kubitz into a headlock. Kubitz felt the wind leave him as Holden kneed him hard in the stomach. He doubled over, threatening to vomit on the floor as Holden pushed him aside. He gulped for air against the protests of his diaphragm.

  Avani had risen to a kneel, holding her jaw. It looked broken. Tears streamed down her face as she backed away from Holden.

  “Holden, no!” Kubitz tried to shout, but his voice came out a strained whisper.

  Holden grabbed Avani by the hair and pulled her up. He punched her in the side of her head. Once. Twice. The third time, he let go. Her eyes rolled back into her head and her body crumpled at his feet.

  Kubitz managed to stand as Holden turned to him, wild malice in his eyes.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Kubitz croaked. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

  Holden tapped the side of his head. “Actually, it does.”

  Kubitz deflected a wild haymaker aimed at his jaw, but the strike knocked him off balance. He wasn’t lucky enough to block the next one. Another hit to his battered ribs. He braced himself for another crushing blow and—

  A gunshot rang out in the small room. Holden stumbled away.

  Kubitz looked for his gun on the desktop—it hadn’t moved.

  “Are we done, now?” The voice came from the doorway. Kubitz turned to look at a tall, slender man with sharp features and blue eyes set under jet black hair. The man stared at them from behind the iron sights of a micro-ballistic pistol. “I don’t enjoy getting called away from my job. But here I am. Two calls in one day.”

  “That was fast.” Kubitz said, barely above a growling whisper.

  Holden slumped to the floor and groaned, holding his arm. Blood seeped from a wound in his shoulder.

  “I was in the neighborhood.” Black Suit’s chilly blue eyes turned on Holden. “Red, what are you doing, man?”

  “I’m trying,” he said weakly, “to stop them. My… only chance…”

  “Don’t be stupid.”

  Holden looked puzzled. “What?”

  “What I said was: you are an absolute freaking idiot.”

  “I—”

  “Yeah, whatever. You finally had a chance to be something. Yada yada. Here’s the problem: you already are something. Something I’m very interested in.” Black Suit raised his eyebrows. “Can you stand?”

  Holden grimaced as he sat up. Then nodded and stood the rest of the way. “Go wait in the hall. I’ve got some boys coming to pick you up and take you somewhere real nice. Just have a few questions, is all. Don’t worry, I’ll stay here and make sure all this is sorted out.”

  Holden squared on Black Suit, bowing up as if he was looking for a way to strike. Black Suit steadied the gun, aimed right at Holden’s forehead.

  “That’s a very, very stupid idea.”

  Holden hesitated. Kubitz looked back and forth from Holden to Black Suit during a pregnant pause. Finally, Holden’s shoulders slumped, and he shuffled out of the room, giving one last menacing scowl to Kubitz. As soon as he crossed the threshold into the corridor, two pairs of muscular arms grabbed him and held him in submission. Two large men in gray fatigues hauled him deeper into the corridor. Holden screamed as they gripped his shoulders. Once the sounds of protest faded, Black Suit broke the silence.

  “You’re welcome,” Black Suit said flatly. “How did you lose control?”

  “I… I’m not entirely sure. As you’ve no doubt surmised, Holden appears to be a clone. I think he was activated. But I don’t know.”

  “Activated?”

  Kubitz shrugged and tapped his head. “The implant.”


  “I see.” Black Suit paced around the room. “Explains why he wanted to kill you. At least at the end. You know he called me, too?”

  “What?”

  “Oh yeah.” Black Suit picked a piece of glass out of a keyboard on the desk. “Mumbo jumbo about you two being clones. Ready to turn you both in, easy. So tell me your side, Fritz. What did you call me for?”

  “You’re just in time, actually. We were waiting for the results, but then the hackers—Oh no!” Kubitz rushed to the terminal, but the status changed.

  [UPLOAD TERMINATED. (1) NEW QUERY RESULT]

  “Hey, looks like they stopped early.”

  “Very astute. When I arrived, we noticed the cyberattack in progress and shut it down. Pays to have resources. Not sure how much they got, but we injected a worm, anyway. Shouldn’t cause much trouble.”

  “Well that’s something at least.”

  Black Suit nodded. He looked bored, like he was late for a dinner reservation. “So what is it?” He gestured at the screen with his weapon.

  “That,” Kubitz said, swiveling his chair around toward the large screen. He was acutely aware of the weapon still pointed toward him, and his neck tingled. “Is what I planned to tell you. I have good reason to believe the clones have infiltrated our entire military. At all levels.” He pulled up a screen that scrolled through a table of names and service numbers. He turned to face Black Suit. “If this word gets out, it would be chaos on a scale we’ve never seen. This alone could end the war from the inside out. We don’t win that war.”

  “Is that so?” Black Suit seemed to be thinking of something distant, like an old memory that was missing some important pieces. “You’re right, of course. We mustn’t allow this news to leave. Here, upload everything to my datapad. Thank you for finding this. I’m sure it will prove most invaluable.”

  Kubitz linked his terminal to Black Suit’s datapad and began the data transfer.

  “I’m sending you the names of everyone whose DNA shows positive for the Code. I’m including the Code itself, so you can widen the search. You want my suggestion? Don’t waste any time.” Kubitz shook his head. “I’m worried what might happen if we do.”