Preserving Will

by Alex Albrinck

  All three humans wanted to watch as their clones were placed into their beds, sound asleep. Archie and Ashley injected the sleeping potions directly into the bloodstream of the three clones, and expertly dressed the clones in the clothing worn during the collection process. They then split up to return the clones to their homes. Adam took the Genas, and Archie and Ashley took the MacLeans.

  Dana and Dash were directly teleported to their home, and the sleeping clones were placed in their beds. After a few minutes watching the clones sleeping soundly in the beds they’d never again use, the quartet teleported back to the house owned by Judith and Peter. The humans needed sleep as well. Though her trust of the strange men and women was still developing, Dana accepted a vial of the same sleeping potion her clone had taken. Dash needed no such help; he fell asleep the instant his head hit the new pillow.

  Adam and Gena had a more difficult challenge in placing the clone inside the apartment.

  “When we teleport, our bodies emit something called Energy,” Adam explained. “If too much Energy escapes, the people here to find Will Stark will be able to find us as well, and we don’t want that to happen. Archie and Ashley were able to plant a device in the MacLeans home that established something of a force field inside, a force field that prevents Energy from escaping. They can teleport between the MacLeans house and one of ours without issue. We got lucky with the two of them, at least to a degree. They weren’t home when Archie and Ashley first arrived, and they were able to plant the force field device ahead of time. They’d hoped the two would get to sleep at a reasonable hour, but they stayed up late.” He shrugged. “Archie activated another device that eats Energy, basically. Once that force field goes away—and it’s only a temporary device—the Energy that was inside the house would slip out. That Energy eating machine takes care of that problem.”

  “I’m guessing you couldn’t plant anything like that in my apartment,” Gena surmised, glancing around the cabin of the flying craft they’d entered. She tapped at the window. “Won’t this get a lot of attention?”

  “It’s invisible.”

  “Really?” She thought for a moment, and then nodded. “You followed me in this, before, didn’t you?”

  Adam nodded. “We’ll float close to your apartment in this, and then I’ll send the force field device into the bedroom of your apartment. Once it goes off, we’ll take your clone in, put her in bed, make sure nothing else needs doing, and then leave. The machines we’ll leave behind will ensure that none of the Hunters, the men out to get Will Stark and possibly you, will know someone like me was ever there.” He sighed. “I wish I’d been able to plant the machines ahead of time, especially since neither you nor Mark were home. We just didn’t realize that Mark’s address and yours were the same.”

  Gena shrugged, and then gave him a stern look. “I want you to know that I’m not accustomed to allowing strange men into my bedroom.” Her face softened, and took on a more thoughtful look. “But I can’t shake the feeling that you’re no stranger, that I’ve known you for a very long time.”

  Adam stiffened slightly. “I just have one of those faces that everyone thinks looks familiar.”

  “Perhaps,” Gena said. But her tone said she didn’t believe his explanation.

  Adam pulled a small box, roughly the size of a book of matches, from his pocket. “I need you to visualize your bedroom for me.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ll feed the image into this box, and it will crawl along the walls until it finds the room. Once the force field is set up, I can use that same image to teleport us inside.”

  Gena looked intrigued. She closed her eyes, and Adam was easily able to see her mental picture of the room and its simple furnishings. He floated the hovercraft directly over the roof of the apartment building, just above the unit where Gena and Mark lived, and tossed the box into the air. It passed directly through the permeable clear membrane that served as the top of the hovercraft, and then disappeared through the roof of the building below.

  “How… how did that just happen?”

  “We’ve made a lot of progress in the last few decades with what are being called nanoparticles or nanomachines, the same materials used to create the clothing you’re wearing,” Adam explained. “They now have enough intelligence to allow specific items to slide through as if the solid surfaces were permeable membranes. In this case, the box is allowed to pass through without breaking the airtight seal forming the clear top of this flying craft.” At Gena’s look of confusion, he shrugged. “It works like some kind of magic. That’s all I know.”

  To his relief, she chuckled.

  Ten minutes later, a light flashed on the control panel of the craft. “The shield is up and we’re ready to go,” Adam announced. He took Gena’s hand, and then the hand of her sleeping clone, and teleported them into her bedroom.

  Adam helped Gena move her clone into the bed and under the covers. Once satisfied everything looked normal, Gena put the work clothes she’d worn earlier into her hamper and collected the originals of her sleeping clothes; they didn’t want the clone wondering why she suddenly had two pairs of the same set of pajamas. They also ensured that her personal items—keys, purse, mobile phone—were on the kitchen table and nightstand where she normally kept them. With everything in order, Adam teleported both of them back to the hovercraft. He pressed a few buttons to tell the “force field” device to deactivate and the “Energy eating” device to activate, and sent the craft flying invisibly and noiselessly back to De Gray Estates.

  “Won’t my clone find that box?” Gena asked.

  Adam nodded. “She might. We can always go back and pick it up on Monday when your clone goes to work and the apartment’s empty.”

  “I won’t have a key to get in.”

  Adam chuckled. “We can handle that.”

  “What’s that place like?”

  “Which one?”

  “The place you said we’ll all go after everything happens.”

  “It’s amazing,” Adam told her. “All of it. The journey to get there, the history of the place, the people who live there… every aspect of the place is beyond words. We’ll talk more about it over the next few days, because I’m sure Dana and Dash both want to know about it as well. For now, though, you should sleep.”

  They returned to Peter and Judith’s home, where a small bedroom that hadn’t existed an hour earlier had been prepared for Gena. She was exhausted, having never slept after her long shift at The Diner and the emotional shocks of the past eight hours. Adam offered her a sleeping potion, but she waved it off. “I won’t need any help falling asleep.”

  He nodded and left.

  Adam wasn’t able to sleep, still too emotional from the events of the past twenty-four hours. He’d ensured that Gena would survive what he now suspected was an inevitable attack by the Hunters in the aftermath of the events coming on Monday evening, now less than thirty-six hours away. That had also had the benefit of ensuring the long-term survival of Deron’s family; he admired the protectiveness Dana had showed for Dash, and the very reasonable skepticism she’d displayed toward them and their admittedly unconventional introduction.

  The most important part, though, was that Gena was safe, and would be with them for a very long time.

  His mind wandered to her, able to watch and sense her dreams now that there was no risk of Energy detection by the Hunters. To his shock, she dreamed of life inside a glass dome, of the decade she’d spent just trying to survive while Adam worked to rebuild the body that kept failing, until she became viable.

  And she remembered him.

  Even as she slept, she remembered him. And his “sound.” His Energy sound.

  It shouldn’t be possible. She couldn’t have Energy, not yet, and thus she shouldn’t be able to sense it, let alone identify it. She’d not undergone any type of training, no zirple or morange treatments. But his eyes widened as he remembered the pink streaks in her clothing.

  And they w
idened further as her thoughts floated to him from her dream.

  I remember you, now. You’re the one who saved my life.

  XIX

  Fate

  January 7, 2030

  Gena Adams woke and stretched, feeling her limbs lengthen and muscles loosen, before rolling her head to the side to look at Mark. But Mark wasn’t there. The bed she rested upon wasn’t her bed, nor was it large enough to hold both of them. A momentary bout of panic set in, until she remembered why she was sleeping here, a strange bed in a stranger room in a stranger’s home.

  Alone.

  The understanding that memory brought did nothing to dispel her panic. It merely altered the reason for it.

  She’d slept fitfully until late Sunday afternoon, and spent the remainder of the day getting a very preliminary introduction to a group called the Alliance. The members of that group would become her new family, her new world, as she’d given up any chance of returning to her previous way of life when she’d agreed to the cloning arrangement. She’d never called them abductors, as Dana MacLean had. She had a lifetime of living ahead of her with this group, and holding a grudge would make the time spent with them unpleasant.

  Eva explained that their group, and a larger original group called the Aliomenti, had discovered how to unlock the innate human ability to manipulate something they called Energy, which sounded like either magic or quantum physics to her. It was something Adam had alluded to as they’d returned her clone to the apartment. As Gena unlocked that ability and grew the amount of Energy her body could produce and store at a given time, she’d gain new abilities. They could move objects with their minds, read minds, and move instantly from place to place. The Energy expended began to accumulate in the air, because she could hear and feel it buzzing around her. Perhaps it was just her growing excitement at the idea she’d be able to do the same things soon. Dana and Dash, the wife and son of the man Mark would work with today, didn’t seem to notice the sizzle in the air. They looked terrified every time Adam or Ashley or Archie or the others did something… unusual.

  Archie told them that most of the people living inside the De Gray Estates were in disguise, living a public life as aging business and media tycoons, while they privately worked to ensure Will Stark’s life proceeded exactly as they intended, minimizing “collateral damage” to others in the process through efforts like the cloning they’d just done with Gena and the MacLeans. She wasn’t a prisoner; they’d wanted to be certain she didn’t die in the crossfire of the war between the Aliomenti and the Alliance, and with her clone in place she could leave at any time she chose.

  Gena turned around and walked out the front door, waiting for someone to stop her, to chase her, to do that disappear-and-reappear thing they did. None of them had given chase. She truly was free to leave if she so chose.

  She’d gone back into the house, to the education session, in part because she was cold, in part because she didn’t know where her clone was, in part because she was genuinely curious about Energy and the Alliance and the secret base Adam had hinted at the night before. She also worried that Mark would see her and wonder how she’d gotten through the supposedly impenetrable security system… and why she’d done so and jeopardized his job as a security guard for the community.

  After reflecting on the previous day, Gena stretched again and rose from the bed. She’d developed a basic understanding of the layout of the house over the past day or so, and could always follow the humming Energy sounds that hung in the air. The trail of sounds now led her to the large, modern kitchen. The room was a hive of activity, full of anxious members of the Alliance, each waiting for the day to play out according to a plan they’d apparently had in place for some absurdly long period of time.

  Peter offered her breakfast, and she accepted a beverage that looked like slop but tasted like heaven. The drink left her feeling alert and energized. If this was her future, she was feeling happy about the decision to join them. So far.

  Ashley, who had started several high tech companies, including one recently bought by Will Stark, glanced over at Gena. “I’m going shopping today, and need to know your clothing size and style preferences.”

  Gena looked interested. “Can I go with you?”

  Ashley considered her response before answering. “Your clone is living life on the outside. If you go went with me, how would you explain to people the fact that you were in two places at once? What would happen if you encountered your clone?”

  Gena scowled. So much for being free to leave. But she realized Ashley hadn’t told her no, just reminded her of one of the challenges she’d face if she left the house. In effect, she’d made her choice to stay in this house when she’d agreed to undergo the cloning. Her scowl turned to a puzzled frown as a new thought entered her mind. “Ashley, what happens if my clone isn’t killed?”

  “The clone will die in the next few days, whether she is killed or not.”

  Gena winced. “But during the next few days, she’ll have experiences. A funny story from a friend, a meal shared with Mark, things like that. Things that she—I—should know. What if the clone isn’t murdered and I elect to go back to being the old me? How do I get those memories into my head?”

  Ashley turned and fixed Gena with a stern look. “I believe you said you were planning to come with us after all of this was over, didn’t you? Why are you worried about that?”

  Gena folded her arms and returned the glare. “The memories she’s experiencing and living are mine. They belong in my head, regardless of where I’m living a week from now.”

  Ashley looked taken aback and blinked several times. Clearly, the idea that Gena—or the MacLeans—were being deprived the memories their clones would experience was something she’d not considered. She opened her mouth several times as if to respond, but struggled to formulate an answer.

  At long last, she gave Gena a reply. “I honestly don’t know what to tell you. I’ll ask the others what we can do.”

  Gena nodded. “Thank you.” It was all she wanted, the knowledge that an effort would be made to determine if those memories could be salvaged. Ashley was correct on the other point, though. She’d truly made her choice to leave her current life when she’d agreed to the cloning; reneging now wouldn’t be wise.

  Eva and Aaron walked into the kitchen, and Eva glanced sharply at Ashley, fully aware that she’d been involved in an intense conversation. That didn’t surprise Gena; they’d told her that Energy sensitivity enabled a person to project and sense thoughts and emotions. Eva’s glance fell upon Gena, and the expression suggested that the “old” woman of the group was unsurprised as to the source of Ashley’s discomfort.

  Eva’s gaze returned to Ashley as Archie joined them. “We are moving to our positions. Graham has checked in; he is working to expedite Myra VanderPoole’s departure.”

  Gena glanced at each of them in turn. “Who is Graham?”

  Dana entered the kitchen as Aaron answered Gena’s question. “Graham is one of us. He drives Myra VanderPoole around town so the woman can shop and eat, and helps her carry her purchases to and from the car. Outside Will, Myra’s the only human here—meaning, she doesn’t know about or use Energy. We need as much time to work with Deron and Mark today as possible, but we can’t start until Will and Myra leave the community. Graham’s doing everything he can to get her out the door and the gate as soon as possible, and we expect Will is leaving even now. One they’ve left, Eva and I will handle bringing both Deron and Mark here for the cloning conversation.”

  Dana nodded. She’d mellowed somewhat over the past day, less because she agreed with the approach of the people who called themselves the Alliance, and more because she’d come to believe that these people truly did know the future. She’d come to accept the fact that they were acting to preserve the lives of her husband, Mark Arnold, Will Stark, and others. “I’m looking forward to talking with Deron.”

  Eva shook her head. “That will not be possible. Like you, Dero
n must make his decision on his own, without the input of others.”

  “But I didn’t make my decision on my own!” Dana snapped, her anger returning in an instant. “Dash, Gena, and I were all here, together, and—”

  “You made the decision for Dash, and Gena’s decision would have no impact on your own.” Eva’s words were like ice. “Nor would your decision impact Gena’s. Both of you attempted to divine what your loved one would choose to do, and made your choice accordingly. Both men will have that same chance. If Deron would normally choose not to be cloned, but knew you had made that choice, he would feel a sense of obligation to make the same choice. If he had preferred to live through our cloning option, but found that you had elected to decline our offer, would he still choose to live, or alter his decision and choose death rather than live without you and Dash?”

  Dana glared at Eva, but said nothing.

  “No, both men will have their options presented to them, just as we presented them to you. If they opt to choose cloning, they will join you here and we will return the clones to the station or tower. If either opts against cloning, they will lose their memories of our meeting and will return to work, none the wiser, to face their fate.”

  “And you’ll just let them die,” Dana added, her tone bitter.

  “Our group operates under the belief that information must be shared, but that each person must take on the responsibility of making their own decisions using that information. It would be counter to everything we stand for to force them to choose cloning… or to deny them that option if we are able to make it available.”