Thorn said, “That looks organic.”
“Dead organic,” Mack added. “And only part of it. Is that what you saw before?”
“No. This looks pretty dead.”
“Let’s get a closer look at it.” They spiked, chipped, and worked sideways across the ice to it. It appeared more and more gruesome the closer they got.
Thorn said, “It’s got three insect style arms and several smaller ones fanning out from them. What is it?”
Mack cursed at the large gray withered things, looking like they belonged to a creature as large as a kitchen table. “What am I looking at?”
“And it’s not all here. It looks torn off.”
Mack nodded. “Why would there just be legs here? Or whatever they are.”
Thorn shrugged. “Must have stuck onto the ice and torn itself away. But who knows. Let’s drop down and find the bottom of this place and see if the rest of it’s down there.”
Mack shuddered. “I’m really scared now. Worse than I was before.”
“Why?”
Mack took a step back. “Weren’t you taught to be scared of monsters as a child? Oh. I guess not. There’s not much room for monsters in a fishtank.”
“The rest of it is probably wounded.”
“It’s probably hungry for protein!”
Thorn poked at it. “It only has half its legs.”
Mack said, “You saw something earlier. It’s probably regenerative! Or it has a lot of brothers. I’ll have specialists come here and deal with this later. Let’s get out of here now. ”
“Let’s at least bring the union scientists a sample of this dead part.”
“The robber scientists probably made it.”
Thorn said, “Maybe the grad schoolers did. Maybe it escaped.”
“I hope it ate them all, first. I hope it ate them and puked. I can’t believe something like this would be out here.”
“You said you liked wilderness.” Thorn elbowed him.
“But I don’t like wilderness to be wild!”
After chipping off a piece and bagging it, Thorn pulled aside a pocket of skin on the top of it. “What’s this?” He jumped. “An ear!”
“What?”
“That’s a human ear! Bitten off! A human ear is in this… stomach?”
Mack pulled on Thorn’s arm. “Let’s get out of here!” They went to the very bottom of the fissure where the surface was so uneven it was a balancing act to walk along. They shone their lights nervously in each direction. “So, it didn’t just fall and die,” Mack stated. “You saw it running around and it’s hungry for protein. You have a lot more protein on you than me. You should be scared more than me.”
Thorn became alert again. “What’s that?”
Mack said, “The union, I hope!”
“No! Listen!” Thorn put his hand up.
“What?”
“Shhh!” Thorn heard the sound of shell scraping against rock, coming louder and closer.
“It’s alive!” Mack cried. “It’s coming for us! Oh shit! We’re dead meat!”
“Hush, don’t make it easy for it.” Thorn throttled his climbing pick in his hand. Mack did the same with his. A shadow caught Thorn’s eye as several long gray bug legs spun out at them from above, the creature’s arms reaching out as wide as their own. Thorn pushed Mack out of its path and as the creature rebounded up off the floor, Thorn leapt forward and spiked the thing deep in the back. Its shell split open loudly. The creature plopped to the ground as gray ooze fell from its wound.
“I can’t believe it! Aren’t you brave!” Mack praised him, getting up from where he’d rolled into a shallow trench.
Thorn shrugged. “It was just a big thing.”
“It didn’t scare the piss out of you?”
“I’m far more afraid of what’s already inside my head, I guess,” Thorn admitted. “My own mind is scarier to me than any big ugly bug.”
“Damn, you’re brave. We could use some more of you around here.”
“I had no choice. You were so scared. Are you all right? Hey,” Thorn pointed. “Look at that.”
“What.”
“That! There! Isn’t that a human face?”
“Where?” Mack asked, now acting even more frightened. “Where?”
“Right there in front,” he pointed urgently. “This thing has a human face!”
“Where? A What?”
“Right there!” He put his finger right on it.
“No,” Mack said after a close inspection. “That’s not quite face enough to be a real human face.” He looked at both ends of the crab-like creature. “I think you’re looking at its seat. Look up here, see, here there are all the sensory organs. More bug like. No face.”
“I’m looking at its seat?” Thorn was puzzled. “But look. Eye shapes. Nose. It kind of looks like a nose shape… right there. Sort of.”
“Coincidence,” Mack said.
“How can it? That’s too much.”
Mack explained, “It’s easy for people to make out faces in all kinds of things. It’s human nature. People have always made out faces in cave rocks and moons and clouds and trees and even on Mars. It’s just in our nature. And you made out a face in a big bug butt. It’s just your imagination. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
“It seems this asteroid is crawling with life. All kinds. New kinds.”
“It’s a research place,” Mack said, “but the union didn’t sign on to being bug food. There was rules we all agreed on with the robber scientists on what we grew and handled. I bet this is the grad schoolers’ mess.”
“You think so?”
Mack nodded, disgusted. “Look at it! A mess. Sloppy immature work.”
“I wonder if there’s a whole colony of them back there somewhere.”
“It’s too big,” Mack said. “Look how big it is. The pond chain isn’t that great to support that much. I don’t think it could support anything half that size. Unless it doesn’t have a stomach.”
“Maybe they somehow scavenged off the frozen clones stored away. I bet that ear I saw earlier was a clone ear.”
Mack considered that, with a frown. “There’s enough misfiled clone meat around here to start off all kinds of food chains, if they can get through the ice to them.”
Thorn said, “This creature sure was weak. And fragile.”
“It’s way too big for an exoskeleton but has one anyway. Sloppy work for a science project, I’d say, but who am I to comment. I just work here.” Mack took out his pen. “Dial up. The union. We got a big bug. We need a… a buganist? Who’s there on this help line? Help! We’ve got a really big bug!”
The next day, a handful of the union members finally agreed to gather at the official union hall for a real meeting. The people sat in rows and yelled as Mack tried to enforce order from behind his imposing black podium. Then the people rose in unison, headed for the doors, singing their traditional union theme song, leaving Thorn and his few immediate friends behind.
“Humanity above beast,” Venus sang with them, while sitting back down and twisting at a decorative button on the cuff of her sleeve, “humanity above their motors, humanity to sing with the stars and meadows…”
“Shut up,” Lady Hatchet chided her. “And if you twist that stupid button all the way off I’ll make you choke on it.”
“It’s my matter what I rip apart or don’t,” Venus coolly responded.
“Why do they hate me?” Mack asked, staying behind the podium. “Is it because I’m a man?”
Lady Hatchet headed for the door. “I’m going to go out with that rabble and see what they’re up to. Come on, Venus. Let’s put our spy ears on and spy.”
Venus shook her head. “I don’t like them anymore. I don’t care what they say. You go if you want.”
“Don’t you want to protest something? Burn your buttons? Phhh!” Lady Hatchet hurried out the door as a man walked in.
It was Chrysalis Joy except he had long hair to his shoulders and
was wearing more than just a poncho. Thorn floated out of his seat in amazement, realizing this Chrysalis Joy was older. He wasn’t pouched or wrinkled, but certainly older. The contours around his eyes were more pronounced. His jaw and cheekbones were more angular. “Chrysalis Joy!” Thorn ran to him and hugged him.
The man did not reciprocate the gesture. “Don’t touch me. I’m not that clone.”
Thorn said, “Huh? Well, it sounds like you. It sounds just like Chrysalis Joy!”
“Because I am me. But not who you think. I’m Christopher Goi.”
Thorn backed away. “A clone? Well, yeah, I suppose, considering the source. Sure. But. Who are you, anyway? Who was the alpha? You are a clone of the alpha? Right? You’re the same as the one I knew in that other place? Right? The same difference? The same?”
Christopher Goi made a bitter face. “Oh. Is that what happens?”
Thorn shook. “Don’t be insolent.”
“What’s going on around here? Who are you?” Mack interrupted them, “I’m the union leader and I’m trying to have a meeting that damn went on parade to the bar. Who are you?”
“I’m a dissenting scientist. I’ve lived away from them for years, now.”
“You’re a grad schooler?” Mack asked.
Christopher Goi shook his head. “No, I’m from one of the original scientists.”
“A damn robber!” Venus scowled. “A robber scientist in our very midst! We hate you! We hate you! We all hate you all!”
Mack narrowed his eyes. “You’re too young! You only look forty or so.”
“I’m a clone of him.”
Venus moaned. “It’s getting weirder. I thought they just iced all clones at twenty.”
Thorn insisted, “You’re Chrysalis Joy’s clone!”
“There was no alpha of him in the way you think.” Christopher Goi pushed away from Thorn again. “Not like you and the others in Subco Gibeah.”
“Who are you?” Venus asked. “You’re not a damn twentyer.”
“If you’ll let me explain, I’m from one of the team of the original scientists.”
Venus squinted at him. “Damn we hate you!”
Mack made a doubting expression. “No robber scientist ever visited a meeting, before.”
“Or even looked at us,” Venus added. “Not ever since we went on strike about having to buy food. That must have made them damn mad. We haven’t seen their faces since. Good! Who wants to look at you! We all hate you!”
“That was bitter,” Mack agreed, nodding to her.
A dozen rebel union members came back into the union hall angrily pounding large drums. Talking was impossible. Mack went to a back door and gestured for the others to follow. Walking down a narrow dark hallway, he asked Christopher Goi, “Well then who are you and why are you here?”
“I’ve left the scientist’s project long ago,” Christopher Goi explained.
He asked, “You’re a rebel?”
“I suppose you could say that but I’m not with any other group here. I haven’t seen the official scientist group in years. And the other union members, the rebel ones who didn’t even bother show up here at all for your meeting, have long decided to leave for Earth. I assume you’ll join them. I want to leave with you.”
“Wha-wha-what? They’re doing what?” Mack gasped. “My union is leaving?”
Christopher Goi nodded. “They’re not happy here in this asteroid.”
“Who are you to question my union?”
Christopher Goi stopped walking and dialed up on his pen. Finally a faint ghost of Eleven Jane flickered to a bright image, the lines of her hair having a digital gloss it wouldn’t have had in person. She asked in a huff, her green eyes narrow with impatience, “What do you want? Is that you Chrissy? Do you want to do it again? You slut.” She looked around and then put her hand over her mouth.
“Yes it’s Christopher Goi but I’m calling about the union. Tell them about the status of the union.”
“You do it, I’m busy, I’m sooo behind in all my chores thanks to you, and I don’t care what they think.” She snottily flipped her ruby hair and then the image went away.
Thorn called out to her, “Wait! Don’t go so fast! Talk to us some more!”
Venus yelled at her, “Yeah! Explain yourself!”
Mack looked confounded. “Eleven Jane is behind the rebel union members?”
Thorn frowned. “What did she mean do it again?”
“I’ll wring her pretty little neck,” Venus grumbled. “She was always making trouble where she could find it, and finding it where it hadn’t even been cloned yet. Damn.”
Mack said to Christopher Goi, “What’s going on. Explain yourself.”
Christopher Goi explained, “I’m disappointed with what’s developed here in the labs, to say the least. I don’t like the results of my own cloning. So, finally, I secretly sent Chrysalis Joy out to live in Subco Gibeah as an alpha to complicate the project and to elevate it even beyond their official agenda.”
Thorn said, “You sent him on purpose? Was he really my friend, for real? Of course he was. He was real! But you make everything that has ever happened here sound completely illegal.”
Christopher Goi nodded to agree. “Breaking the laws of nature.”
Mack clenched his fists. “Eleven Jane has split this union? She took a funeral and let it come to this? She exploited our funeral!” In a huff he started to proceed down the dark hallway again. The others followed him.
Christopher Goi said, “It was before then that many people talked about wanting to strike. The strike would be by leaving the asteroid belt altogether. Madam Wintermirror’s death simply was their final excuse. You’re a union boss, but just by the books. She was very loved.”
“I know she…” Mack started to say, then shut up, feeling hurt.
“Even though you’re the alpha?” Thorn said to Christopher Goi, stuck in his own one desperate train of thought. “And who should be disgusted? We should be disgusted with you! You had more than a single version of the same person out at the very same time, you and him, and he was my very best friend! That’s utterly depraved of you! That’s so illegal! So very very illegal! So immoral! Such a wild thought! Two of you out at once! I feel sick!”
Christopher Goi asked, “You haven’t seen your own clone walking around?”
“W-what?” Thorn stammered. “Walking?”
“You’re a clone,” Venus reminded him. “Get over it. The place is full of them. And sometimes you bump into one that looks just like you from head to toe.” They all stepped out onto a balcony overlooking a back wall of the city’s cave. She turned angrily to Christopher Goi. “What was this clone project protest you were talking about? And what was it you don’t like about being cloned? What’s wrong with the cloning! Tell me what’s wrong, damn you and dammit! I want to be next. I have to be next! I’ve already gotten too old!” She sat on a concrete slab that jutted out of the wall.
“I’m not really the person I was cloned from,” he said.
“What?” Venus asked. “Damn! You robber scientists are messing up and not even cloning yourselves?”
Christopher Goi explained, “No. We goofed. The first me is dead and now this me is a whole new person.”
Mack asked, “How can you have died and still be right here?”
“It’s a matter of consciousness, I guess. We assumed that so much of what makes up who we are is our memories. But there’s apparently more to it than that. Some other je ne sais qua. Something called consciousness, we guess.”
“What?” Venus asked. “What else is there that makes us us?”
He looked down at himself. “My new body is the same. And my memories have been dubbed over, methodically of course, dot to dot, but now I’m actually a new person with another man’s memories. A dead man’s memories—of someone who looked exactly like me. But I’m still a whole new person.”
Thorn rubbed his face, feeling confusion. He leaned against the railing. “My mem
ories come at me in such horrible blasts. But they’re not my memories? They’re somebody else’s?”
Christopher Goi nodded. “You’re different. Your body isn’t even the same down to the dot.”
“So.”
“Your body was improved from clone to clone. The scientists thought it would be nice to improve their own bodies over time, so they tested that out. But that really changes everything. The limitations and abilities of our bodies help define who we are.”
Thorn asked, “So the person I thought I was, who was sent to this asteroid jail, is dead? And I mean not the body, I know that, but the person? I’m not that same person? I’m not me?”
“You know you’re not,” Christopher Goi said. “You can just tell. That’s why your memories confuse you and come at you as if they’re so detached. Today you have absolutely nothing to do with that man once on Earth. Every inch of your body has been enhanced. You felt inferior on Earth, you were humiliated and that helped make you a bully and then a criminal. That has nothing to do with the cop you’ve been. You are a new person with a new life.”
“I’m not a criminal?”
Christopher Goi patiently shook his head. “No, you’re not a criminal. You’re a completely new thing. Born again but just cluttered with all of a dead man’s old memories chattering in your head.”
Thorn slowly nodded. “Yes. Yes, that’s how I feel all the time. You described it perfectly, sort of. A dead man is in my head. Somebody else from a long time ago. And I’m somebody new in spite of that.”
Venus asked Christopher Goi, “Is that why you aren’t the same person as you were before? Is this body you’re wearing now an improvement? What in particular did you think you should change about yourself?”
“No,” Christopher Goi answered. “My body is all the same, down to the dot, without enhancements. But my consciousness is not the same. I’m a perfect copy, in body and memories, but I’m still a different individual from who was before. I just have all his looks and old memories. But I’m a new person.”
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