Sergei Lukyanenko - The Genome

“On the whole, I do, yes.”

“And what would cloning lead to? Do we want to end up like the Zzygou or the Bronins? At least the Zzygou clone naturally, and the Bronins have a very high death rate. Without cloning, they’d go extinct. But if we all start cloning ourselves, we’ll turn into a crowd of scum, living robots with serial numbers. One genotype for pilots, another for garbage collectors, the third one for rulers. Hell, we’ll get mass-produced on a conveyor belt!”

“Puck, you’re exaggerating! Clones in human society make up no more than five percent of the total population. And most of them are residents of far-flung, newly colonized planets. Cloning is essential there.”

“Hah!” Generalov laughed without mirth. “Those are the official numbers! Clones are actually much more numerous. And all the sympathizers, who no doubt would clone themselves at the first opportunity, only pour oil on the flames! Lots of people we consider normal humans are really clones who have changed their appearance and gotten their claws on good jobs! And where there’s a clone, no normal person has a chance! The clone will only have more of his own clones!”

Paul cleared his throat and shyly added:

“Captain, Puck has a point. I also think that giving clones full citizenship rights was a mistake. We had this one guy at the academy, Aristark Yosilidi, a good spesh… very talented. He was offered the chance to clone himself, and he agreed. In fourteen years, seven of his clones will be coming to the academy, can you imagine that? His abilities are very strong, so they’ll all be accepted, no doubt about it. And that means that seven ordinary speshes won’t be able to get in. See? And what if every one of the seven clones also cloned himself? In twenty-eight years, the entire department would be full of Aristarks-C. Yosilidi!”

“Exactly!” Generalov elbowed Paul’s side. “He knows what I’m talking about! He had a chance to see for himself!”

“That’s stupid!” Kim jumped up. “I have two clone friends! One of them wants to be an electronics engineer, like her matrix. But not the other one. She wants to be an assembly-spesh in an orbital shipyard. She wants to build spaceships!”

“If the girls’ specialization is not too narrowly defined, they’ll do just fine, too…” said Morrison without much certainty in his tone, then darted an anxious glance at Alex. It was high time to break up the argument.

“All right, thank you all for an interesting discussion.” Alex got up. “We’ll continue this later, okay? And now, some useful information. We all signed the contract. We all work for a company that pays us a lot of money.”

“That promises to pay us,” interjected Generalov. He probably didn’t really think that the company would risk a fight with the union by deceiving the crew. More likely, he just wanted to have the last word. Now it was plain to Alex why this uniquely qualified navigator never stayed at any one job for very long.

“We take off in thirty-six minutes.” Alex was looking only at Generalov, and the navigator reluctantly hushed. “I ask everyone to be at their posts in twenty minutes.”

“What’s the route?” hissed the navigator.

“It won’t be a problem for you. We’re flying first to Zodiac, and then to Edem. The honorable Zzygou wish to see the most beautiful planets of the human sector.”

Generalov furrowed his brow.

And Kim turned noticeably pale.

“Any special instructions for this flight?” inquired Morrison. “Gravity levels, inertia parameters, jump rhythms?”

“No, nothing. The Zzygou tolerate the human environment well. Any other questions?” No one had any questions. “You all are free to go.”

Generalov, murmuring something under his breath, was the first to leave the lounge. Then Paul followed him, obviously distressed by the conflict and his own participation in it. Morrison looked sidelong at Kim, but she remained sitting as before.

“I’ll go test the ship,” said the co-pilot, and left.

“What’s wrong, Kim?” Alex came closer to the girl.

“You…”

“Forgive me, Kim. I can explain…”

“I don’t want to fly to Edem!” cried Kim.

She seemed to have forgotten about the conversation between Alex and Xang.

“Kim, it’s unavoidable. You’re a spesh. You’re a member of the crew now, so you have to go by the contract.”

“Alex, don’t you get it!? I cannot show up on Edem! I simply can’t!” The girl’s eyes were bright with tears.

Alex gently took her by the shoulder. “Kim, for now, we’re flying to Zodiac. It’s a marvelous planet. The most beautiful one in the human sector, even though your home world might dispute the claim. Do you have anything against Zodiac?”

“No…” Kim leaned forward, pressed herself to Alex’s chest. A frightened little girl… it didn’t matter now that she was capable of killing off the entire crew. “Alex, friend-spesh, I don’t want to fly to Edem!”

“Kim, I have a lot of problems as it is. Janet hates the Others. Generalov hates clones. If you start…” He stopped short of finishing the phrase.

The girl was quiet, hugging him and hiding her face, wet with tears.

“Kim, we’re flying to Zodiac. You hear? We’ll have time to discuss all this. If push comes to shove, we’ll think of something. You could stay on Zodiac, for instance, you could take a few days off… sick leave, maybe?”

“Fighter-speshes never get sick,” Kim informed him. “Well… almost never.”

“We’ll ask Janet… surely she’ll understand your situation?”

“Probably…” Kim’s voice sounded a little calmer. “But I won’t return to Edem! I’d rather jump right out into open space!”

“Kim. We’ll think of something. But for now, please help me, okay? I need your support, friend-spesh.”

The look in Kim’s eyes, when she lifted her face to look at him, was triumphant.

“Will you ever again tell Xang that he can hit on me?”

“I said that knowing you would reject him,” said Alex, almost honestly.

“You better watch out, I might just be tempted. He’s a stud,” purred Kim.

Alex forced a laugh.

“Really? I thought you liked our engineer.”

Kim snorted. “That pink piglet? He’s still just a baby! No, he’s nice, but he’s still a kid. Generalov is much more interesting, but he isn’t interested in me… All right, friend-spesh, I’ll be going to my cabin. My stuff is all over the place. I have to anchor everything, right?”

“That’s the rule. Just in case.”

“But I won’t fly to Edem,” said Kim on her way out. Alex sat down. He wanted a drink, but in twenty minutes he had to be in charge of the ship. Besides, everything had already been cleared off the table.

He had never imagined that being a captain would entail these kinds of conversations. What a stupid tradition it was to appoint pilots to be captains! They should appoint psychologists. Or was it just his luck to have a whole crew of weirdos? Did problems like these ever come up on any other ships of the fleet?

Alex rolled up his sleeve to look at the Demon. The little devil was holding its head in its hands. It was wincing, as though it was suffering from a terrible headache.

And Alex realized that what bothered him was not so much the conversation that had just taken place, but the fact that he still had to talk to Janet. A woman who had almost become his friend and was now caught in the worst kind of trap—a conflict between her spesh duties and the program of behavior precoded into her subconscious mind.

“There’s no time,” said Alex. Got up and went to the sick bay.

The door was unlocked. Janet was sitting in a chair and holding her head in her hands, just like the little tattoo on his arm. As he entered, she looked at him and said in a quiet voice: