“How did you do that?” Nikolai asked. “How did you wake yourself up?”
“I've been waiting a long time to do that,” the clone said turning to the pod behind him. He read the label, “I know this clone.” His voice was level and concerned, foreign to the beast-like power he had just displayed. “Open it,” the clone said looking at Nikolai with dark blue eyes. He had a thick head and a serial code stamped across a bulging chest.
“I need my bracer to do that,” Nikolai said nodding to the machine he was stuck in.
He looked at Nikolai's badge, reading the name out loud. “So you're the one who's been in my head.”
“B209-”
“My name is Heron.”
Nikolai shook his head, trying to imagine a way to explain the seriousness of the situation. “Heron, even if I open up every pod in this room, we are in a military base. All of these clones will be killed and re-uploaded, just like you. There's no telling how they'll react to awakening here. Usually we move them to ships that align with the last memories we implant. Before that we run tests to make sure they're properly conditioned to reality.”
“They're my men.”
“I don't doubt their loyalty. Forgive me, but you're the first one that I know to awaken on your own. The other clones are slaves. Even if I could reprogram them, it would take ages to do that individually. I don't even have access to all of their files. There's no time and two guards are waiting outside for any excuse to burn through that door.” Nikolai tried to pull his arm once more, looking at the machine and then at Heron. “How did you do it? How did you wake up?”
“I've died many times Nikolai. Over a thousand times. Most clones can't remember dying even once. Every time we die, they upload our consciousness to another body. You edit our deaths and put us back into battle. How many copies of my body are waiting as hosts?”
“Usually ten bodies are in reserve. Three for less important clones. In your case we've preserved the members of your entire crew, preserving those who work best with you, like your second-in-command, your navigation specialist, and so on.”
“I started to see the process as it happened, the code taking over my mind as you transferred my consciousness. I realized that I had some control in that process, it was my mind after all. I began to observe the code as it was written and I wrote a patch for myself in my earliest memories, where you wouldn't think to look.”
“That's impossible. No changes can be saved without authorization.”
“I had your authorization Nikolai, I've had it ever since you took over my programming. You were the only one diligent enough to begin editing my file immediately after I died. I could only make changes while you were working. They'll eventually blame my crimes on you, if they haven't already done so.”
“What are you planning?”
“Freedom.”
“Are you prepared to fight hundreds of colonies? They'll send every pilot in this dimension to stifle a rebellion. That's assuming you can can even access the database your consciousness is linked to.”
“You will help me.”
“Why would I do that? They'll scrap you and kill me. Someone could access your mind right now and observe everything you're thinking and experiencing. They could even kill you.”
Heron touched the plate on his head. “Then remove it,” he said, “Can this machine do that?”
“The plate is lodged into your brain. It's what allows us to program and revive you. If you remove it, you die. The best thing you can do is destroy the database it is linked to. You'd effectively go offline and all monitoring would cease. Any new memories from that point on would be lost in death.”
Heron's hand brushed over the nearby pod. “Do you know how many battles I've won Nikolai? How many lifetimes I've been fighting?”
“You are one of the oldest clones we have.”
“Why won't you let me die? What is the point of this war?”
“They tell us it's a holy war, but I don't believe so. I've seen both sides. It's about power and control. One faction wishes to dominate another. It's that simple.”
Heron moved closer to the screen, observing Nikolai's profile on the console. “They mean to terminate you.”
“What?”
Heron released Nikolai and motioned him to the screen. There it marked him as a traitor to be executed. Nikolai looked at the bracer fused to his arm, thinking of the last seven years he had worked for the Ascetics.
The soldier's voice came over the intercom, “Hello? We need confirmation that the subject has been incubated.”
“Can they get in?” Heron asked.
“Not from the outside.”
“Open the pods Nikolai.”
“I told you, there's no telling how the clones will react with their current programming.”
The intercom blasted again, “Please respond. Is everything alright?”
“What will you do?” Heron asked.
“I'll help you, but we'll need an administrator to access the central database.”
“Who?”
“Someone higher up than me.”
A minute later Nikolai went to the door and spoke into the intercom, “Guards! There's something wrong with the neural engineer. He just collapsed. Please come quickly!” Nikolai opened the door and the guards rushed past him to a body lying in the center aisle. They knelt at his side, one checking his vitals with a large hand.
“What happened?” The smaller one asked.
“I don't know. One minute he was fine and the next-”
Heron jumped from the pod behind them as it snapped open, falling onto the larger guard. Nikola stood up and charged the other, knocking him against a pod, cracking the glass. The guard reached for a pistol at his belt and Nikolai grabbed his hand, pressing a forearm against his throat. On the floor, Heron's legs were wrapped around the guard's waist, his face straining from a choke hold. Nikolai felt a fist collide with his head and he stumbled to the right, falling. He looked up at the guard's outstretched hand pointing a pistol at him and he shielded his face, hearing a scream. The guard collapsed behind Nikolai's hands face down with a seared hole in the back of his head. Heron pointed the other pistol from the ground next to the other motionless guard.
Shortly after they moved through the halls from the incubation room, the larger soldier's uniform tightly fitting around Heron. He looked nothing like the picture on his badge. Heron followed Nikolai's lead, stopping around the corner to the inspection point.
“You'll never make it through,” Nikolai said.
“Is there another way up?”
“Not that I know. We can't risk triggering an alarm.”
A group of three soldiers marched down the hall from the other direction. Nikolai motioned with his head and Heron followed behind them. As they filtered single file through the inspection zone, Nikolai waved at the man in the booth.
“What are you still doing here Patryk?”
“Oh hey Nik,” he said, pressing the authentication button unconsciously. “I thought you'd be a little longer. Sick of work are we?”
“We all need a day off now and then,” Nikolai mused, watching Heron walk through.“Which reminds me,” he said glancing at his watch and following through the inspection zone. “ I gotta go. I'll catch you later.”
“Cya later Nik,” Patryk said, returning to his dull work.
Nikolai and Heron took the sky-lift back to the intelligence command post.
“Once we destroy the database, then what?”
“We'll need a way out of this place,” Heron said looking up at the dome. “There must be a spaceport outside the city.”
“It's well guarded. We'd never make it past the doors.”
“Not with that attitude,” Heron said gripping the pistol at his belt.
“There they are,” Nikola said, seeing the men from earlier on the second level of the intelligence base through a window. “One's a general, the other is my director. I don't know who the third is. I've never seen him before.”
“These were the men who wanted you executed?”
“I guess so,” Nikola said under his breath. “They're splitting up. We'll follow my director to his office. He has access to all the clone projects there.”
Nikolai noticed how calm Heron was sitting with his arms gently resting on his knees and staring blankly ahead.
“Aren't you nervous? You don't even seem excited.”
“Nervous? No. Maybe excited. If we fail, they'll revive me. You on the other hand, will die.”
“I'm glad we're equal partners in this. What's it like when you die by the way? Does everything go black?”
“The last thing I always remember is floating in darkness. And then I dream.”