Ty, a shift manager with an alcoholic wife, creates a female replicant in a dystopia veering toward full mechanization. For Ty, the surreal drudgery of working in a retail environment is interrupted when robotic interfaces are installed at his job...
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Since he was late, Ty took to the car to work. It was Pen's day off, and no one else cared he was ten minutes tardy. Periodically, he excused himself to the bathroom, taking the time to message Jennifer.
-How's Helia?
-Are you awake?
-I hope you're sober when I get home.
She was the opposite of sober when Ty got home. As he pulled in the driveway to see Jennifer on the front porch, he knew who he was dealing with.
"Helia's asleep." The cigarette muffled her words.
"And how fucked up are you?" Ty's voice stayed casual. He was too tired from work to show his anger.
"I just had a few."
A few meant upwards of five beers or more.
"You're gonna be worthless tomorrow morning, too." Ty disappeared inside the house.
Behind him, Jennifer put out her cigarette. "I'll wake up, don't worry."
He was half-listening. He peeled off his work clothes, sticky from sweat. The thought of a scalding shower propelled him forward.
"I'll believe it when--"
"--when you see it," Jenn picked up the phrase. "Yeah, you say that all the time."
Suddenly, Ty whirled around. "If only I didn't have to! I'm sick of the drinking, the drugs, the late nights. Sick of you pretending to try for a few weeks, and then re-lapsing for a few months. Then, the process repeats itself." Tears choked him. "I'm fucking sick of it."
Jennifer had little to say. She refused to acknowledge him. Instead, she went back outside to smoke another half pack of cigarettes.
Worthless, Ty thought. She wasted her life, and didn't even care. Even through the disappointment, he still loved her. They had been together for ten years, and he couldn't imagine being apart. However, the idea of living the rest of his life in a miserable situation was not attractive either.
Short-term, he needed a babysitter for Helia. His parents had been dead for years, and Jenn's parents couldn't be trusted to supervise a child. With Damon always around, Ty hardly had to search around for another babysitter. He didn't know who he could get on short notice.
If only there were two of Damon, he thought as he fell into bed.
Or two of you, a voice whispered in his head.
The voice made Ty open his eyes. Two of me.
He immediately thought of the 3D printer. Damon had perfected live composite printing. It was possible.
Printing a human being was also unethical and dangerous, by Damon's standards. Well, he doesn't have a child to take care of, a job to work, or a crumbling marriage to repress. Spurred by self-validation, he snuck into Damon's bedroom. Printing a human wouldn't be unethical if he didn't tell anyone about it. The thing was gonna look like him, though that might be hard to explain. Or it could be an easy fix, as he could modify a composite per his own specifications. He knew any other questions about the process could be found in Damon's science journal. Thank God the boy had left it behind. Ty took the fact as a blessing from fate.
He turned on the computer (interface, not computer! He could hear Damon screaming in his ear) in preparation for his experiment. He opened the program file for the printer, and clicked on New Scan. In full view of the scanners, he stood naked and waited for the lasers to roam over the hills and planes of his body. If Jennifer walked into the room, he wouldn't know of an excuse to throw at her in his current state.
Once the computer collected his DNA information, he tweaked the measurements, using Damon's journal as a reference.
"Red hair, green eyes, white skin...fucker'll look nothing like me," Ty mumbled.
After another minute, he was done. Frankenstein, awaken.
He pressed Print.
And waited.
And waited.
Oh, forgot to turn on the printer.
Even after pressing Power, it failed to turn on. He checked the machine, and noticed a void where the power source should have been. Amid the dust, he found a sticky note:
I knew you'd try it once I left. Too bad I'm smarter than you, bro.
Ty crumpled the note . Damon had taken the power source with him. Without it, he couldn't turn on the printer. It's divine intervention, not a sign, you idiot, a voice told him. The voice was right. What he had been prepared do was insane. Create another human being, all because he needed a second caregiver?
Relief crashed in with his disappointment. A major mistake? Hell, disaster had been averted.
Damon's pre-emptive actions had saved Ty from doing something reckless, and he was grateful.
~*~
A/N: Dedicated to tamoja, who always offers up great comments. Her stories are even better than her comments, as evidenced by her 2017 Watty's short-listed status! When I'm not reading her drama/mystery/thriller, Killing Tink, I'm reading her sci-fi and horror stories. She was gracious enough to join my zombie team for the Zombie-palooza, and her z-tale is epic.
Check out Killing Tink: https://www.wattpad.com/story/102184563-killing-tink
And watch for the release of #TeamInsides&Entrails stories on the WalkingWithZombies profile:
