by Lynn Crain
“I could spend my whole life doing that.” He smiled at me. “And we will. A lot more before my time on this ship is up. Aidan will never have you again. And there is no use denying it, I can tell. I will kill him for having you at all.”
I smiled, too, as my mind grimaced against the gesture. God, not only was this humiliating, it went against every fiber of my being. What had always been loving and pleasurable with Aidan was degrading in this situation. I didn’t want to have sex with this man, and wouldn’t if I could help it. But for some reason, I couldn’t help it at all. And I certainly didn’t want him to kill Aidan. I loved Aidan!
“But first we have something to accomplish. You and I are going to take over this ship.”
Devlin pulled me to my feet and handed me my clothes. “Only I can see you as you are now, my dear, naked in all your glory. Aidan will never again know the pleasures of your body,” he said arrogantly, as if reassuring himself of the fact. “You are mine, and mine alone.”
I slowly put on my clothes and forced my mind to take over my mouth. “Why do you want to take over this ship?” I finally forced out a question over clenched teeth.
The aqua gaze again scanned my face, as if searching for something that only he could see. “Did I give you permission to speak?”
“No,” I whispered, again humiliated and suddenly submissive.
“Then don’t.”
Again my mind screamed at a body that wouldn’t function. Why couldn’t my mind take over my body? Both were functioning, but it was as if they were resonating at different frequencies.
Devlin grabbed my arm and hurried me toward a part of the ship for which I had no recollection. Herding me into a long disused service elevator, he ignored me as if I were a plaything, to be tossed away if necessary, instead of a person. If I learned nothing else from this elevator ride, I learned that I had utter contempt for clonedroids, their creators and their masters. And somehow, my whole being was impersonating one right at this very moment. Finally, he glanced in my direction.
“Don’t stare at me with those doe-like eyes. I can’t stand it.” He sighed and leaned back against the wall. Blinking his eyes slowly, he looked me up and down as if to assure himself of his power over me and my supposedly clonedroid body. “All right, you may speak.”
Suddenly, my mind and tongue were released from their bondage. I knew I had to phrase my questions very carefully because I might not get a second chance. “How do you know so much about this ship?”
“There are a few clonedroids still providing information to my ship and the UFF in general. A lot of the time we have to piece together information and intelligence to get a clear picture of what is happening within our sphere of influence. What information we can use, we do, what we can’t, we discard. This ship is of vital importance to our operation. We haven’t yet captured a stellar class fighter. With you, we will.” He watched me, smug as if confident of my actions.
I just returned the gaze, not responding one way or the other, although my mind raced ahead to what had to be done. The elevator stopped and we got out. Devlin headed toward the Captain’s chambers. Henrietta would come through. She always did. She had to this time. But without the Primary Law that I had programmed into her system, who knew what she would have become.
And what of Aidan?
“Open it.”
I placed my hand against the plate, gaining immediate access. I smiled, knowing Henrietta had at least regained one of her old objectives. Normally, the access plate would have never allowed me into this room. If Devlin didn’t know that, he wouldn’t know a lot of things. Now, Aidan could have gotten in without a problem, being a poker-playing buddy of the captain.
Devlin shoved me in, using my body as a shield while he clung to my back and wedged himself against the wall. “Captain, I’ve brought the renegade clonedroid as promised.”
I sucked in a breath. I was apparently the bait. The captain walked around the desk, drawing his laser, a sick little smile on his face.
“Good work, Devlin. I’m glad you’ve brought a replacement for her. I knew you’d use your undeniable charm on the lady. It works every time.”
“Across space and time for me, huh?” I lifted my eyebrow in challenge to his previous speech.
“What difference does it make? You’re here.” He turned toward the Captain. “Just don’t forget your promise.”
Unexpectedly, I was pushed forward, slamming into the captain, who tried to jump back. I struck the floor and rolled to my feet in one fluid motion. I grabbed the laser and landed a chop squarely to his forearm. Pushing him away from me to stand with Devlin, I surveyed what I accomplished.
Devlin, with a sheepish grin on his face, applauded. “Bravo, my dear. Now let’s finish this.”
“Finish?” I echoed.
“Yes. Kill that machine.”
“Machine?” I stared at him blankly. The Captain didn’t act or sound like a machine.
“Quit being so stupid. The Captain is a machine.”
My arm involuntarily flinched, but I did not shoot the gun. Standing in front of me was another machine that the UFF wanted to kill. Just how many more were like him out there? It seemed as if everyone, clonedroids and humans alike, were losers in this sick game.
“My dear, I gave you an order. You can’t resist me.”
I stared at him, my mind groping. I was becoming frantic and could see the hand holding the gun starting to waver. What was it?
“What a damn fluke!” he screamed. “Give me the gun, I’ll kill him myself.”
Henrietta’s voice came over the com. “Did you say fluke, my dear?” she asked in her most seductive tone.
My mind slowly grasped the full meaning. “Yes, dammit. Fluke!” I screamed. “Do it now!”
I saw the captain slide to the floor out of the corner of my eye. I watched as the two laser blasts hit Devlin directly in the chest. Gripping the gun close to me, I walked over to hover above his pain-filled face. Turning slowly, I realized that I wasn’t the only one who had shot a laser. Aidan stood in the doorway, blaster now held at his side.
“You can’t do this,” he gurgled, blood welling out the side of his mouth, looking from one to another. “Aidan…I’m your brother.”
“You stopped being my brother a long time ago,” he murmured.
“Fallon.” Devlin turned his beautiful eyes toward me.
I sighed. “I don’t know why I shot you…but my mind obviously knows something more than I can remember.”
“You can’t do this to me, neither one of you,” he whispered again, starting to fade quickly.
“I can and I did.” Those eyes had no hold on me now. Aidan came and gripped my free hand, pulling me close.
“She was more mine than you will ever realize, brother,” he stated and bent to slowly take my lips. “You are beautiful.”
I relaxed in his arms, knowing that I belonged here with him.
The hiss of the door startled me. I quickly broke the embrace, jerking my weapon toward the intruder. I was so shocked I nearly lost the laser. Standing before me and Aidan was…well…me.
“Are you sure this is what you want to do?” A soft lilt was evident.
“What?” I stammered, moving closer to Aidan.
“I believe this is who we saw in the pod,” he whispered into my ear.
“No!” came the anguished cry from the piece of flesh lying on the floor. “You’re not human. Neither of you are human.” He looked from me to the other me. “Fallon1 was attuned only to me. You were special. Only I can be your master.”
He was looking straight at me. I chuckled and gripped Aidan’s hand a little harder. “Then you screwed up on this one, because all the while you had me all I could think of was Aidan. Maybe I am a little too special. I think the clonedroids which turned against UFF would be just as ruthless as you want me to be.” I brought my laser in line with his face.
“You can’t do this,” his repeated now with tears dripping down his c
heeks. “Please, Fallon2? Aidan?” He turned his face toward my other self and then looked at his brother.
I was happy to see that they both ignored him and continued to look at me as if I really were something special and different. “I can and I will. You see my microchips…oops…my gray matter tells me I’ve been left with a present…a very special present. Ever hear of a woman’s intuition? No? Or how about a she-cat protecting her young?” I saw his look of horror. “Funny, your eyes tell me everything. If I am a clonedroid, then I probably can’t reproduce. Obviously this woman is a little too human for your tastes.” I watched my laser blow his face to oblivion until Aidan’s hand stopped me from pulling the trigger.
I stared at the mess I’d made. Feeling disgusted with myself, but not enough to feel sorry that I had rid this universe of a vermin like Devlin, I sighed and turned to look at me. I could feel Aidan’s hands grip my shoulders through my clothes.
There I was, leaning casually against the wall in my blue government issues. God, I thought, I never looked that good in those.
“What are you thinking?” he whispered in my ear.
I turned to smile at him. “I never looked that good in the uniform,” I whispered back.
He chuckled. “That’s where you are wrong.” Aidan kissed the side of my neck and suddenly I realized that I wanted him very much. A throat cleared somewhere near me and brought me back to the situation at hand.
“I guess that answers my question.”
“What question?” I turned pulling the laser up toward her from its position against my leg, wondering if I’d really shoot myself.
“About which one of us is the original.”
“And your conclusion?” I slowly lowered the laser, yet I wouldn’t allow Aidan to take it from my grip. “Just what do I call you? Was he correct when he called you Fallon2?”
“He was correct. Fallon2 it is. I conclude you are the original. Clonedroids can’t reproduce.”
I stared at Fallon2, knowing this had to be some mistake. I could never have kids…it was the price one paid for going into space. I looked from her face to Aidan’s, knowing that it had to be his baby.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I had to know if you were real or not. It seemed like the most logical way to test you.”
I sighed heavily and moved away from him. “Just what did you do? And just what is going on?” But before I could get any answers, both Henrietta and Fallon2 demanded my attention.
“Fallon?” came Henrietta’s frantic voice. “Are you all right?”
Throwing the laser on the useless heap that had been a body, I answered, “Yeah, I think so.” I glared at Fallon2, now more confused than ever. Aidan obviously knew something that I didn’t.
“Good,” came the reply. “How did you know?”
“How did I know what?”
“That you’re pregnant, regardless of Earth’s mandatory sterilization for space marines.”
My legs buckled and I fell to the cold floor, bruising my backside as I landed. Aidan rushed to my side and I pushed his hands away. I slowly took in the bit of data that Henrietta had provided to my weary mind. “I didn’t know. A wild guess meant to shake him up,” I murmured weakly and glared at Aidan…this was something I wasn’t ready for at all.
Fallon2 rushed to my side, sinking to the floor next to me, totally ignoring the man crouched by my side. “Do you know what this means?” she whispered, touching me reverently as she waited for Henrietta to confirm.
“Well, for your information, you are. What’s next, boss?”
“Just a minute, I need to think about this—and talk it over with myself and Aidan, I guess. Make yourself scarce for a few.” I turned to look at a face that was a reflection of my own and the man that looked so much like Devlin. “What do you think it means? And why are you both looking at me like that?”
“None of us have ever met our original,” she stated, again touching me as if I were an icon, an enigma. “But then again, neither of us may be the original. Only the powers at UFF know who and where our originals are.” Her look of expectation still bothered me. It was if I were Moses, meant to lead them all to the promised land.
Aidan on the other hand watched me as if I would bolt like a fawn. Sighing, I reached up and grabbed his hand, pulling him down on the floor with me.
“I’m not so sure I’m the original, but I must be. Where you’re perfect, I have battle scars. And you’re much thinner. I don’t think I was ever that thin or looked that good in government blues.”
I looked to see a broad smile on Aidan’s face.
“Ah—you must be right. It explains your curiosity. I must be from when you were very young.” She smiled, letting her strength flow toward me. “Devlin was working on something so secret that all we ever heard was rumors. It must have been trying to get to you and having you help him with this ship.” She reached out and squeezed my hand.
“Fallon2, she is the original. Devlin couldn’t have been working on her at all. It was you he was working on,” Aidan said. “We had lost track of him a long time ago and only hoped that he would surface at one of the places we were watching.”
“We?” I questioned.
Aidan cleared his throat. “We…I belong to the Orchid group.”
“Black ops,” I stated in awe. No wonder he was so secretive about where he came from. “But that still doesn’t explain everything.”
“I know…but let’s deal with what is in front of us first.”
“Okay,” I said and turned back to Fallon2. “This doesn’t mean I feel different about computers controlling the universe.”
Fallon2 looked at me with grave concern. “We understand, and it is not what we want, either. But we have no one to convey that message. We would like you as our leader.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh…really?”
“Really. We are no good at fighting and logistics, but we certainly didn’t want to be controlled by the fanatics at UFF. I’m afraid that we will have to learn about humanity again.”
“Just what is it you want?”
“What does anyone want?” My own voice intoned back at me.
“Ah.”
“What does this ’ah’ mean?”
“Just that I’ll have to think about it.” I felt Aidan take my hand.
Fallon2 looked crestfallen. “You do not want us.”
“I didn’t say that,” I stated watching the emotions like waves roll across my much younger face.
“Then what is it?”
“It’s called being human and taking one’s time when making an important decision. And this may be one of the most important decisions in my life.” I saw Aidan’s head nod in agreement.
“Oh. Is that what it’s like being human?” Fallon2 cocked her head as if trying to understand.
I smiled then, knowing I had the answer to my unspoken question. My hand slid over my stomach. “Henrietta, I know where I want to go. Home. Just take us home. At least most of them have some humanity left in their hearts.” I turned to the man that I knew I loved with all my heart. “I hope that you don’t have a problem with this.
“No…I think that it is time we went there and prepared them for what may come.”
“We’re as good as there,” Henrietta’s smooth voice filled the room.
I felt the ship turn and slowly accelerate. Still I sat, watching Fallon2. I knew they, the other true humans, would come out when they knew it was safe. Henrietta could take us to our galaxy without any human intervention if necessary. I gripped my uniform over my belly as I tried to take it all in. “I hope you don’t mind that we’re going to Earth either…after all it is where all life started.”
“Mind? I’d love it. I hear the sky is blue. Why don’t I get something to clean up this mess? You just stay here and relax. We don’t want to take any chances with you or the baby.” She was almost out the door when I remembered something.
“Wait!” I said loudly.
A look of
apprehension crossed her face as she turned to look at me.
“Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong. I just want to know why you didn’t stop functioning when the subsonic neural net jam was sounded throughout the ship. Can you please tell me?”
She looked rather sheepish as she bent her head. “I do not want you to be upset with me. Promise?”
The clonedroids obviously wore their emotions on their sleeves. We’d have to teach them to have poker faces if they were going to be an asset we could use in this civil war. “Promise.”
She reached up and pulled something from her ears and held her palms out to me. A little blue barrel began to take shape. I chuckled to myself.
“Ear plugs? You found some ear plugs.” I stated. “But how did you know?”
“Remember, I am you. I only did what you would have in the same circumstances.” She smiled back at me. “Thank God I can hear you again—you sounded like you were in a tunnel.”
“Get out of here.” I smiled, shaking my head as she left.
I knew that she would find her way around this ship without my intervention because like she said, she was me. I also knew that I would need to watch her. But it would be interesting to see me grow up again but differently. Hopefully, I wouldn’t be making the same mistakes. I turned my thoughts toward Earth. The government could certainly benefit from her presence. Still—my mind drifted to other things.
“How did I know?” I whispered to myself. I gently patted my stomach and turned to Aidan. “Would you mind explaining just what is going on?”
“I don’t know where to start.” He reached up and gently brushed my face. “There is so much to tell.”
“The beginning would be nice,” I said dryly. I was tired of innuendo and lies. I needed…and wanted…the truth.
“We’ve been tracking Devlin for about six years now. We had a list of his targets, and you were one of them.” He contemplated me for a moment. “Matter of fact, you were number one on his list.”
“Why?”
“There were two reasons that we could figure out.” He began to rub his hand up my arm. “One is that you are the most brilliant ship’s engineer and space mechanic ever to have been trained at the academy. And he knew that.”