The Fractured (short story)

THE FRACTURED*

by Nathan Goldschot

(note: the chapter numbers are presented as intended)

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9

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"You abandoned your company, private," said Sergeant Danz, leaning over me. "It pains me to know I had a coward and deserter in one of my units."

"I didn't know any of this was going to happen, I swear," I stammered, trying not to show my fear.

Corporal Rowan slammed his fist on the table. "Master Sergeant, with all due respect, this little piss ant is just a waste of our time. Why bother interrogating him if we have The Eyes? Just hang the son of a bitch!"

Sergeant Danz turned away from me, his face contorting in quiet menace as he glared at Rowan. "Corporal, this is my command. One more outburst like that and you'll be Specialist Rowan."

"Yes, sir," said Rowan, stiffening his posture. He turned around and glared at the MPs guarding the door of the bunker. "Take your eyes off me and put them back on the prisoner!" The nervous guards gripped their rifles tighter.

Danz sighed and sat in front of me on a steel chair. "Don't think you're special, son. You're not the only Fracturist sympathizer we've picked up. You're here to give me some information. I recommend you stay useful."

"I understand," I said.

"Good." Danz stood up and walked behind me. I was expecting to be hit again, but instead he removed my handcuffs. "You seem harmless enough, which is a bit surprising, considering your clone."

"I'm not sure that's a good idea, sir," said Rowan through gritting teeth.

The sergeant looked over his shoulder at his subordinate. "I suggest you remain useful, too, Corporal."

Rowan said nothing as he retreated to the back of the bunker. He sat on top of the oak table and quietly seethed.

"Pretend he's not here," said Danz. "I just needed a witness to these informal proceedings."

"You want to know why I did it, right?" I blurted.

Danz pinched his brow and sighed. "Go ahead and start from the top."

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1

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Society thinks it can control technology, but it has a way of controlling us. I was sitting at a bus stop on a drizzly afternoon when my smartphone flashed with the news of An Incredible Scientific Breakthrough That Will Change The World. Although I was skeptical, the story proved so enthralling I missed my ride.

The article detailed a revolutionary new method of cloning known as Fracturing. Developed by an unorthodox team of geneticists and physicists at MIT, the process combined advanced genome mapping with an element of field theory known as quantum entanglement. In hundreds of successful trials, fully-formed doppelgangers of volunteer test subjects had been cloned instantaneously, each existing for only a fraction of a second before shifting to an invisible layer of reality known as The Sliver. Because the genetic duplicates no longer resided in our dimension, the researchers claimed their experiments were not in violation of federal laws banning human cloning.

The MIT team was lead by a physicist named Richard Henricks, whose subsequent experiments with Fracturing yielded almost miraculous results. The expanded procedure involved identifying a subject's genetic defects, which were then "tethered" to the same traits within their clone. When the doppelganger was shifted extradimensionally, the tethered DNA sequences it carried lost their quantum entanglement with the original test subject. Essentially, the unwanted genes simply ceased to exist. Hereditary disorders, predispositions to disease, damaged chromosomes, even cancerous cells--could all be banished to The Sliver along with the clone. This left the original subject with a healthy body, freshly implanted with pristine genes. No one could be sure of the clones' fate, but it hardly seemed to matter in the face of so much progress.