CLOX Von Darian
Von Darian Executive Actions Group
3
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Posted - 2015.04.29 16:47:00 -
[1] - Quote
I don't remember exactly when I had seen my first clone. Make that human clone. I just remember how it made me feel; uneasy. Maybe I knew then that one day, that is what I'd become... Immortal.
My family had been moving almost all the time, as my father kept going from one system to another in an attempt to make a name and huge profits for himself. He did have some success, but the cost was high, he lost a son...
The first time I had seen a clone was when I was around nine. The faceless helmets, I wondered if they were really human after all behind the masks. They were gathered together for a drop and all us "non-combat personnel" were ordered to the aft deck. I remembered thinking that these clones were going to fight for our freedom; well, at least our freedom to stay in this system and make money anyway, and I wondered why. It wasn't until a few days later that I actually seen one of their faces, and I'll never forget it.
My father and I had gone down to the maintenance deck to look at a fleet of sightly used Vipers. One of the clones had met us near the lift to the hanger. I'll never forget the look on his face, like he was looking at us from a thousand yards away, it was like he was looking right through us at something that frightened him. His cold blue eyes, perfect skin, and absolute perfect physical fitness all gave me that uneasy feeling. It was the same feeling you get when you see someone after they have been injured, almost like you feel their pain. The other thing I remember was how he smelled, like a newborn baby.
I asked my father why that guy had became a clone. The answer I got was not what I expected, my father said it was about "the thrill." When I asked what he meant he told me not to concern myself with such things. I wondered aloud if the clone was actually the same person as the original. My father did not answer that question.
Ten years later I met the same clone. I had grown and changed, he did not. He looked exactly as he did on the first day that I had met him. He still had the same cold blue eyes and perfect skin. I knew then that they were immortal. This time I took the time to try and get to know him. He was less interested in me, but for some reason he relented to my questions.
The clone talked about the battles that he had won, the systems he had been to, and the good feeling he had when running into harm's way, as opposed to away from it. He had rescued colonists on distant planets, provided food to thousands of starving people, and influenced the outcome of corporate and interplanetary elections. He had even been part of the faction wars. He was most proud of how he had helped save his friends. We had talked for hours, but I never got his name.
The next day I signed up. My father freaked out. He could not understand why I wanted to be cloned. From then until the day I shipped out, he showered me with attention, gifts, and activities. I did not understand why. That is until my first clone died. It just seems that after every death I lose something, something of me. Yes, it hurts; sometimes more than others, but that's not it. What I've lost I just can't put my finger on. It's like a copy of a copy, after a while it just all seems fuzzy. My father worried that he had lost the real me.
It was some time long after that day that I realized... why we clones are needed. We preserve humanity by our actions, even if we are not actually a mortal part of humanity. It wasn't until I had been replicated nearly five thousand times that I realized that the only real me is that body in cryogenic storage that my mother had given birth to; the one that I feel reaches out to me from time to time. These copies of humanity die, so that humanity doesn't. I live and die, so that humanity doesn't. That is what being a clone is all about. I only hope that when all this is over, that all that I've learned and become can go back into that body and that I remain me. As more and more legions of us are released I wonder when or if that will ever happen.
Death is but a Painful Moment compared to Immortality
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