Defending the Frontier

Chapter 20: Impossible with a Chance of Clones

(Michael's POV)

I was walking towards my sister's quarters, having just interrogated Graves, not getting the results I was hoping for. All that I learned was that when she was younger, Sarah was fascinated by technology, and wanted to become an engineer for the IMC. Obviously, that never happened. There was a bigger reason that I sas going to talk to my sister, however. As soon as Bish had told me that Sarah had to go into surgery, I knew that I needed to find a way to kill time, and this is how I was going to do it.
I came up to her door and knocked, politely folding my hands behind my back as I waited for her.
When she opened the door, she was obviously shocked to see me. "M-Michael! I, uh, wasn't expecting you, or, um, any other visitors for that matter. So, uh, my room is a bit messy, so be careful," she said as she opened her door, letting me in.
I went in, careful to watch my step, as there were various papers and folders scattered across the floor. "Wow. Um, what's the deal with all these papers?"
Lauren sighed. "To be honest, I have a theory, but I know that no one is going to believe that it's even possible."
I slightly tilted my head, intrigued. "Oh? A theory? C'mon. Tell me. You know how much I love theories."
She sighed and sat next to me. "Are you sure you want to know, Michael? If this information gets leaked out, and it's true, I have a pretty good feeling that the IMC and the Militia will fall back into a full-out war, and I know you don't want to happen."
I then gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Lauren. You know I can keep a secret. Please tell me."
She adjusted her glasses, which is a rare sight, as she usually wears contacts, as they were oddly sitting on her face. "Alright. If you say so... My theory is that MacAllan is still alive.
I gave her a very incredulous look. "Um. How is that even possible? He went down on Demeter, and even if his body is, uh, still a thing, he's dead. He didn't have the Psyclonyx-given abilities that Sarah has. There's no way he's still alive. Not even one."
Lauren bent over and picked up a dark blue folder off of the fooor. "Here. Look at this. I found it while I was searching through some hardcopy files we have for information on Sarah that I didn't already know."
I took the folder from her, and the first thing that I noticed waa that the Militia Insignia was on the folder. "Wait. Did you get this from the-"
"Militia Database? Yes," she said, finishing my sentence. "Now, please open the folder, Michael. You can trust me. I'm your sister, after all."
Eh. Technically that's a reason that I shouldn't trust her, but that's just a sibling thing, I thought Ro myself, chuckling a bit.
I then sighed and opened the folder. The first document was about the whole idea of cloning, something that I knew the Militia was working on. The next few were about various trials, and according to the files, they successfully cloned a rat, a house cat, and a mid-seized dog, and some type of bird I've never heard of, a Wyvern (Weave-ren).
I continued to flip through the files, and briefly paused as I looked up at Lauren. "Are you sure this has anything at all to do with MacAllan?"
Lauren nodded. "Yes. Just continue looking. I know that file is in there."
With a sigh I continued flipping, and froze when a certain one caught my eye. The title almost made me drop the folder. "Test Subject Number 32852: Former IMC Commander- James Thesian MacAllan." The date also caught me off guard. 4/27/2184. That was only a few weeks before the battle on Demeter.
Lauren sighed. "I assume that you've found the file, yes? Well, to be honest, I was just as shocked as you are when I found this. Quickly read over it."
I noddwd and did so, and I was met with yet another shock. The file talked about how the Militia had a gut feeling that MacAllan was going to, or at least try to do something on Demeter that would end up with him sacrificing himself. The Militia didn't want MacAllan to die, so they made a clone, and kept the real MacAllan locked up at a secret location, in a stasis, so he'd be "good as bre" if they ever needed him again.
I looked at Lauren. Do you know where they're keeping him?"
She nodded. "Yeah. I was actually going to ask you if you'd come with me to help, being a science know-it-all and such."
I chuckled a bit. "Of course. I need to kill some time, so why not."