The Clones of Mawcett

by DePrima, Thomas

  "You'll have to speak to the base commander about that. We're not really set up to re-provision ships yet."

  "Are you short on supplies?"

  "No, not as far as I know. There were over eight thousand Raiders operating from this base so the supply inventory is enormous. It's simply that I'm not authorized to dispense them. As I said, your ship is the first to stop here and we're still getting things set up. The Base Commander will have to handle all requests until such time as an operational procedure is established."

  "I understand. And where might I find the Commander?"

  "Computer, where's the Commander?" Sayars said, after touching the face of his Space Command ring with his left forefinger.

  Via the CT implanted behind his left ear, he heard the computer respond with, "The Commander is in her office."

  "Sayars, out. The Commander is in her office, sir. Would you like to be taken there?"

  "Yes, thank you."

  Sayars motioned to an aide who then arranged for a Marine to show the Captain and his party the way.

  When Captain Werner's group reached the Commanding Officer's outer office, Jenetta's aide notified her that a freighter captain was requesting an audience. She had him admitted to her inner office and stood to greet him. Captain Jeffrey Werner, at five-foot eight-inches, was shorter than Jenetta, but he appeared fit and intelligent. His brown hair was closely cropped in a military style haircut.

  "Welcome, Captain," Jenetta said. "I was notified that a freighter had arrived in orbit."

  "Thank you, Commander. I'm sorry to bother you but I understand that you have to approve the sale of any food supplies, personally."

  "Oh? Well, I'm sure that we can accommodate you. You were probably sent here because we haven't established a procedure for the sale of supplies yet. We're still getting things organized."

  "So I understand. Then it would be possible to get supplies?"

  "Surely, if we have what you want. Prepare a list of items that you'd like and we'll see what we have in inventory."

  "My first officer has a list. She's in the outer office."

  Jenetta said aloud, "Computer, have my aide send in Captain Warner's first officer."

  A few seconds later the door opened and the first officer entered the office.

  "Gloria!" Jenetta immediately exclaimed loudly with obvious delight.

  "Jen!" Lt. Commander Gloria Sabella responded.

  In seconds, the two women were hugging and laughing.

  "How have you been?" Jenetta asked as they separated.

  "Wonderful, how are you? When did you get the extra stripe? Are you really the Base Commander here? How did that happen? You're so tall! You're taller than I am."

  Both women suddenly remembered the Captain, who was watching with an amused smile on his face. "Don't mind me, ladies. You're obviously old friends."

  "Captain," Gloria said, "this is my very good friend, Jenetta Alicia Carver. I'm sure that you're familiar with the name."

  The Captain stood a little straighter at hearing the name. "Indeed I am. I didn't realize you were that Carver, Commander. I should have expected to find you at the middle of this latest victory. It's an honor to meet the person who has made so much of the galaxy safe for us freight jockeys."

  "And I didn't realize that your ship was the Vordoth. It was my first command, you know. I hope that you and Gloria can join me for dinner tonight?"

  "I'm sure that you have other friends aboard the Vordoth from the way they always speak of you when your name comes up in the news. Perhaps you'd like to join us?"

  "Thank you, Captain. I'd love to visit the ship again."

  "Fine. 1800 hours?"

  "I'll be there. I could use a little break. Since the battle, all I've done is work. Leave me your list and I'll let you know tonight what we have."

  Gloria handed Jenetta a data wafer containing the list and the two women hugged again before she and the captain left the office.

  * * *

  Chapter Nineteen

  ~ November 24th, 2270 ~

  The shuttle arrived at the Vordoth fifteen minutes early. As soon as the small ship had moved to its designated parking location and shut down its engines, crewmembers flooded into the bay. A huge crowd was waiting when Jenetta emerged from the small craft. They cheered wildly and surged forward to greet her as she walked down the ramp.

  Jenetta smiled and greeted most of the crewmembers by name. She had gotten to know them when she was asked to take command of the vessel after a Raider attack had left the freighter without a captain. Although essentially just a passenger on that trip, she'd been the only Space Command officer on board.

  Gloria came to her rescue and cleared a path for her, leading her to a shipping carton from which she could address the group. Jenetta knew that she wasn't going to get out of the bay until she said something, so she stepped up and turned to face the group.

  "Thank you for that very warm reception. It's wonderful to see all of you again. A lot has happened in the three and a half years since we worked together to begin ridding the galaxy of Raiders. As you know, our latest engagement has denied them another base of operations. We destroyed twenty-six warships here, and further reduced their personnel numbers by some eight thousand." Jenetta had to pause as a cheer went up, then continued with, "Almost a third of which are in custody on board the space station. This area of space should now be as safe as the area where Raider-One was located. Space Command has appropriated the asteroid and designated it a permanent base, so it will remain a safe haven in this part of space for travelers. We're happy to welcome the Vordoth as the first visiting ship, and I'm delighted to be back among all of you, even if my visit will be a short one. Thank you."

  Stepping down from the shipping carton amid loud applause and cheers, Jenetta was pulled towards the corridor door by Gloria as she waved to her admirers. A lift delivered them to the deck where the officer's lounge was located, and they were met by the Captain and Jenetta's closest friends aboard the ship. Lt. Commander Rebecca Erikson - the ship's doctor, Lieutenant Charley Moresby - the ship's chief engineer, Senior Freight Operations Chief 'Gunny' Rondell - the retired Space Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant, and Leah Brewster – a former slave that Jenetta had rescued from a detention cell in Raider-One, greeted her every bit as enthusiastically as had the crew in the flight bay. After completing therapy to remove the conditioning performed by the Raider jailers, Leah had been offered a position on the Vordoth as a traffic specialist. She now coordinates cargo shipments and deliveries. Jenetta smiled and hugged each of them.

  "Jen, you've grown so tall," Rebecca said, "that I might never have recognized you."

  "It appears that I've finally stopped growing now that I've slightly exceeded the predicted five-foot eleven-inches, doc. I still eat like a teenager, but the hunger pangs aren't as bad as they were between meals before, unless I've been working out."

  "Congratulations on your promotion, Commander; and for becoming the Base Commander of this brand new Space Station."

  "Thanks, doc, but I'm only an interim Base Commander, here until relieved by the permanent administrator; probably in three or four more months."

  "Is that good or bad?"

  "Definitely good! You know me; I want to be out in space, not meeting and greeting dignitaries or negotiating with vendors for concourse space. I'll leave that to the administrative types who've never developed proper space-legs."

  "Where will you go after you leave the station?" Charley asked.

  "Back to the Prometheus, I hope. Captain Gavin told me that this is just a temporary reassignment."

  "Maybe you'll get your own ship now," Leah offered.

  "No, I don't think so. Only officers with the rank of Captain get command of the kind of ship that I want. A Commander can become captain of a quartermaster ship, troop transport, outpost barque, research craft, hydrogen harvester or tanker, diplomatic corps yacht, or other non-combat vessel, but never a warship. I'd rather be the second
officer aboard the Prometheus, than the captain of any one of those vessels."

  "They should just make you a Captain and put you where you deserve to be," Gunny Rondell said, "in command of a battleship." Gunny Rondell had been one of Jenetta's most loyal and ardent supporters since she had captained the Vordoth.

  "Thanks, Gunny, but you know they can't just promote that way. As it is, I was surprised to find I was on the Promotion Selection List for Commander. I was a year short on time for the minimum 'three years in grade' as a Lieutenant Commander qualification, so they obviously included me with the ten percent that are allowed to be considered for early promotion."

  "Jen," Gloria said, "tell us about Mawcett. We heard you were one of the ones that were cloned."

  "Yes, I was. I have two sisters now. Both look exactly like me and have all my memories. If they were here with us now, you couldn't tell us apart."

  "Where are they?"

  "Eliza is on Higgins SCB. I don't know where Christa is. The last we knew, she was a prisoner of Tsgardis working for the Raiders. One of the reasons, as if we needed any more, for our taking this station was our search for her. We know that she was aboard the Boshdyte when it left orbit around Mawcett. We intercepted it on its way here but Christa wasn't aboard, thank heavens!"

  "Why 'thank heavens'?" Rebecca said in a surprised voice. "I thought you wanted to find her."

  "I do, but the Boshdyte captain chose to fight instead of surrendering. Our gunners targeted the engines, but the ship swerved and the hull was breached. All aboard died of asphyxiation. If Christa was in their brig, she would have perished."

  "Oh."

  "How could they both have all of your memories," Charley asked. "I don't understand."

  "The cloning equipment makes identical, full-sized replicas, and since the human mind is essentially a chemical computer, the cloning machinery duplicates it. They don't have all my new memories, just the memories that I had at the time that I was 'recorded' by the equipment. Christa is seven days older than Eliza, so she has seven more days of newer memories than Eliza."

  "How did it feel to be cloned?" Leah asked.

  "It didn't hurt or anything— and I don't even remember it. At first I was upset that it happened, but then I came to consider them as my twin sisters. Because they both came from me, we think alike and can even finish each other's sentences. Now that we're apart though, we're developing unique memories from our new experiences."

  "Where do you think Christa is now?" Gloria asked.

  "I really expected her to be on the Boshdyte. But it arrived here weeks later than expected, so it might have stopped somewhere to drop her off, or perhaps she was transferred to another ship when they met up in space. I just don't know."

  The group moved to the officer's dining room when the officer's mess attendant, Anthony, came into the lounge to announce that dinner was ready.

  Over a delicious meal, they continued to talk about Jenetta's adventures during the past three and a half years, and the Vordoth crew eventually drifted into telling her of their travels since then. Of course their travel had been comparatively dull thanks to the improved situation with the Raiders, but they had some amusing anecdotes of things that had happened aboard ship during the recent voyage or while loading and unloading. The Vordoth had picked up a full cargo assembled at Vinnia and taken it to the cargo hub at Eprikal, a planet located just inside the Frontier Zone. There they had dropped the cargo and picked up another to be taken back to Vinnia. Except for a two-week layover at Eprikal, they had been on the ship the entire time. Taking more than two years, the run was one of the longest round trips that the freight company asked of their regular employees. Longer trips were performed by employees who either brought their immediate families along, or who had no family ties and slept much of the trip away in stasis sleep.

  After dinner, the group returned to the lounge for a few more hours of conversation before Jenetta had to return to the base. She gave Captain Werner a data wafer that contained a list of the supplies the base could provide and then said goodbye to everyone. As with all close friends, hugs and kisses were the only way to convey the feelings of sadness at parting. Gloria walked with her to the flight bay.

  "See you at Higgins, I guess," Gloria said.

  "I hope so. I'm not sure how long I'll be here. It depends upon how long it takes for my replacement to arrive and then what transportation I can get to Higgins. How long will you be there?"

  "We'll have at least a month layover after we drop cargo. Then no more roundtrip runs of over twenty months for three years."

  "Look up Eliza when you get to Higgins. She'll be as happy to see you as I am, and she'll love having company."

  "But I don't know her."

  "Yes you do. She's me, remember. Don't think of her as just my sibling, but as a twin who was with us every single time we were together."

  Gloria shook her head. "It's all so strange. How do you do it?"

  "I was dismayed at first also, but you'll be amazed at how quickly you'll adapt to the situation. It'll seem like you're with me. You'll only have to keep track of which twin you're with. For example, she'll obviously remember none of what we talked about today since she wasn't here, but she'll remember every other conversation we've ever had before today. And if you're the least bit slow in dropping your cargo, you might find her pestering you to take a few rides on the maglev sleds."

  Gloria grinned at the reference to Jenetta's infamous early morning sled rides through the freighter's cargo spine at top speed. She shook her head again a couple of times, then wrinkled her brow. "It's difficult to imagine, but I'll look her up as soon as I have a chance."

  "Good. Will you be coming to the station tomorrow?"

  "I doubt it. If I know the Captain, he'll want to get underway just as soon as we get the supplies. We'd better say goodbye here."

  After they hugged and said their goodbyes, Jenetta boarded the shuttle. Gravity was decreased in the airlock as soon as it was depressurized, and the shuttle backed out slowly, then turned and headed for the base. The evening with friends had been a tonic, wiping away all the stress that she had been feeling for the past few months. Tomorrow, much of it would return, but for now Jenetta felt wonderful.

  The Vordoth left its stationary orbit around the asteroid after picking up its supplies early in the morning. Jenetta knew when the ship was leaving but problems elsewhere prevented her from going to the control center to watch its departure on the screens. With each new day came new problems, but the people that Captain Gavin had sent were a great help, and they enabled her to keep a handle on everything. She wondered what would happen when they had to leave, but she didn't have time to dwell on that problem just then.

  * * *

  "The new base, which we've named Dixon, is now fully operational," Admiral Burke said to the other nine admirals seated at the large horseshoe shaped table in the Admiralty Board Meeting Hall at Supreme Headquarters on Earth. "Commander Carver, by all accounts, is doing an exceptional job as base commander, despite the problems of personnel shortages."

  "They're on their way, Raymond," Admiral Ressler said. "She'll just have to make do until they can get there."

  "She hasn't complained, Shana," Admiral Burke said, "and I'm sure that she knows we'll be sending the people as quickly as possible."

  "Carver can't remain as base commander once the base is re-designated as StratCom-Three," Admiral Hubera stated, "because regulations require an officer with the rank of captain. I can't understand why the Officer Selection Board even named her to the early promotion list for Commander."

  "Captain is a recommended rank, Donald, not a required rank," Admiral Hillaire said. "Commander Carver already meets the 'minimum rank' qualification for command of a Space Command Base. You know full well that we didn't have any experienced base commanders among the task force crews; someone who could jump in and assume command of Dixon. We didn't expect to take this base intact and weren't prepared with a waiting staff.
Carver was the only experienced commanding officer available for the assignment. We can't delay the StratCom designation change."

  "The reports from Captain Gavin have been filled with glowing praise for the job that Commander Carver is doing," Admiral Platt said, "so there's no need to rush the appointment until we find the right individual. The reports from Captain Kanes and the ship captains in the task force have also praised the job that Carver is doing."

  "Carver is far too young, and far too inexperienced, to hold such a responsible position," Admiral Hubera grumbled. "Just because she's gotten lucky during a few engagements with Raiders, doesn't mean that she can handle the responsibilities of running a major Space Command base, and a StratCom-Three base at that. It's a miracle that we haven't had a major incident occur at Dixon."

  "She's been outstanding at every post she's held," Admiral Platt said. "As commanding officer of the heavy cruiser Song for more than a year, she consistently proved herself to be an excellent leader and administrator. I have no reservations whatsoever about her being the base commander of our newest base."

  "Nor do I," Admiral Moore said. "This officer may be quite a bit younger than our other base commanders, Donald, but I'm confident that she can do the job. And it'll be excellent experience for her. She'll continue on as base commander until we find the right person to replace her. Perhaps we should even consider letting her remain as base commander for a full five-year duty tour? Does anyone, except Donald, have any thoughts on that?"

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty

  ~ February 19th, 2271 ~

  As always happens in life, the hours turned into days, and the days into weeks. With the arrival of every Space Command ship at Dixon, Jenetta eagerly looked for her replacement, but was continually disappointed.

  The Prometheus departed eight days after the Vordoth. Her engineers had done a good job of preparing the ship for normal FTL travel, but only a fully equipped ship yard could restore the ship to full fighting effectiveness. An enclosed repair berth would be waiting for it when it arrived at the Mars shipyard. Jenetta made the time to go to the port operations control room so she could watch her ship back away from the docking ramp and then slowly leave the dimly illuminated interior of the station. Workers attempting to remount the enormous, newly-constructed entrance doors stopped work and vacated the tunnel so that the Prometheus would have an unimpeded path out of the asteroid.