Cold Copy

Chapter 6

Genevieve goes down the hall and into the room where she makes her tests, she sees the researcher who was there when she had left. She instructs a few guards to stay outside, stopping their rounds, and the two with her raise their guns, ready to fight. Genevieve types in a number to the panel, and a capsule is summoned to the room.

Capsule 455,077 arrives in the room, and Genevieve hesitantly steps up to it. She clicks a lever on the side to manually open it, then she retreats behind the guards, raising her own gun towards the door. The room is silent and the lights remain a dimmed red for the lockdown. Each nervous gulp from Genevieve and the guards can be heard, only accompanied by the hiss of steam as the capsule empties. The door remains cracked open, the clone not moving an inch.

"How long does the stasis last after release?" A guard asks.

"I'm not sure, it's not supposed to last more than 10 seconds" Genevieve says, starting to feel nervous.

She approaches the capsule and opens the door. She looks at the clone, her body slumped against the side. She puts her fingers to her wrist to check for a pulse, pausing slightly with some confusion when she finds it, consistent and steady.

Genevieve looks up, finding the clone's eyes staring down at her. Before Genevieve can react she's grabbed onto, her gun taken from her hand before she's thrown aside. The clone shoots the other guards, the door opens as the others enter. They're also killed. The clone runs out of the room and starts making its way to freedom.

As Genevieve was thrown, her head hit the side of a work desk. With the force she was thrown with, her head hurts pretty bad as she stands up a little wobbly. Taking out her phone she calls Abby and the captains, warning them about the clone. She joins up with them a little later, and they chase her around the facility. Turn after turn they try to force the clone into a dead end. They find themselves successful, cornering her near the back entrance which is only a few turns away.

"There's nowhere to run, clone, drop the gun and return to your capsule" one of the captains tells her.

"Please, do as he says" Genevieve adds, taking a step past the others. "I don't want to kill you, I'd rather keep you alive for as long as possible."

"Only to test me, right? To turn me into an experiment and dissect me? Who knows how many like me you've thrown away to the fire because you found one small imperfection? Is that what you're looking for? A perfect sample? I may have all your memories and looks, but I also carry your imperfections" the clone responds, moving away from her until her back hits the wall. "It's not like you'll let me live if I surrender. You'll only kill me like the others."

"That's not true, please, just put the gun down and we can talk about this, work something out" Genevieve offers, holding her hand out to her.

"I'm sorry, but I can't live a life of being an experiment to you...heh, for the briefest time I've been alive I thought that maybe I could enjoy some of the things you had in life. Like visiting your home where you grew up, seeing the family that you have" the clone says, mostly to herself. "My name's Sara. You asked earlier if I could think of a name for myself...even if you doubted my ability to do so. It's Sara."

Before Genevieve can respond, a split second later she sees the gun being lifted to her head, and before she can stop her or the guards at her side, gunshots ring out in the hallway. The clone's, whose chest is riddled with bullet holes, drops to the floor. All Genevieve could remember as her ears started to ring was her extending her hand out to tell the guards to hold their fire, those words still on her mind but only a second too late. The gun falls from the clone's hand, and Genevieve rushes over to her side.

"Hang on, just breathe and we'll get you to a hospital" Genevieve tells her, her hands on her chest to try and stop the bleeding.

"You can't stop it, Gen," Sara says before coughing. "This is how I want it to be. I'd rather go out by my own hands than be killed the same way as countless others."

"But you don't have to die today, don't you still want to see what life could be like for you?" Genevieve asks.

"I already have," Sara answers. "Each time you put me in stasis, I had dreams. They would last for hours until I was woken up. But every time it was the same dream, about your family and childhood. I saw it all, and it was beautiful."

"Is that why you tried to escape, you wanted to live that life?" Genevieve asks.

"No...I wanted to escape and be free because I hated seeing so many like us trapped. Keeping your memories as dreams, this life and this...building of horrors, it contradicts the happy life you had, and the one we would want" Sara tells her. "Please, for the future, be kind to the others as you would be to yourself, and don't make life painful for them even if all you see them as is an object."

"I will Sara, I will," Genevieve promises.

Sara takes her last breath, and her body goes limp. A couple paramedics from the med-bay arrive, and they take Sara away. Genevieve only tells them to bury the body opposed to burning it. She stands up and goes to a washroom, cleaning the blood off her hands and arms.

The lockdown is lifted, the blast doors open and the facility returns to how it was before, but this time, with some changes to the rules. About a week after the incident, Abby, Dan, Genevieve, and the other lead researchers were brought into a conference room, mostly to meet with someone who had been funding the facility's work. That funder, a well known business woman on the planet, leads the meeting.

"With the death of Dr Zephyr, the facility is left without management. And your recent incident has left some with doubts about how we do things around here. To start, we've looked at your performances and have decided who should take his place" she says. "That person will be the donor, Genevieve. She's worked under Zephyr since day one, much like you have. But he made her to be someone with the most authority here, only under himself. Zephyr was always a strange researcher, focused on doing things his own way. From now on, Genevieve will be in charge of this place, and with that I'll turn the meeting over to her."

Genevieve slowly stands up from her seat, which is near the opposite end of the long table. "It's an honor to be put in charge here, even though I think there are others who are better qualified. Zephyr always said that what I was doing was for the betterment of humanity, he always believed that cloning was a huge leap ahead for society, claiming that we'll be a jumpstart to the rest of the galaxy. Because he viewed this as something good, he only focused on progressing the work. But from today on, I'm changing the rules of how we handle our...my, clones. No more painful tests, no more cruel exterminations. Construction will begin in this facility to build more levels further into the planet, they will be where the clones live. As for termination processes, if it is necessary then we will do it in a humane way. I know lethal injection is the best way to go, most prisons use it over other methods. These are but a few changes I'm making, and there will most likely be more at a later date."

"Thank you Genevieve" the funder says. "Does anyone have any questions?...No? You may return to work then. The funeral for Dr Zephyr will be held a week from now."

Genevieve leaves ahead of the others, and she goes to her office. After cleaning it out, her things are moved up into Zephyr's old office. As she enters she watches as a few workers finish installing the new window before leaving. Genevieve sets her large box onto the desk, which is brand new along with the chair and everything else inside. She gets everything set up and sits down, looking out the window to the large columns.

Throughout her time leading the facility, Genevieve strives to make improvements to their work. She personally tends to the care of each clone that is tested, giving great treatment and care as any hospital would. She doesn't hurt them, or let anyone else do so, and she slowly opens her heart again to the emotions she locked away. Leaving behind a cruel arrangement, Genevieve restarts one of warmth and compassion.