“You won’t let her kill her predecessor,” Wolfgang reminded her.
“Fair enough.” She put her key card against the medbay door sensor and the door slid open for them. Hiro, the new captain, and the old captain lay unchanged. Joanna took their vitals and nodded, satisfied.
Their next stop was the cloning bay to drop the body bags, waving to let Maria know they were there. She waved halfheartedly at them.
They trudged to the theater, a recreation room they hadn’t had a chance to even consider enjoying since they woke up. They sank into the soft chairs and sat in silence.
Joanna was wondering if he had fallen asleep when he spoke, his eyes closed. “How many lives have you had?”
“I am on my sixth life,” Joanna said. “I was born in 2147 and went to med school as my first line of study.”
“Did you never want to get your legs hacked for your next clone?”
Joanna sighed. This always came up. “I was born with a rare form of tetra-amelia, which causes babies to be born with missing or deformed limbs. Sometimes it’s caused by trauma during pregnancy, but mine is genetic. Before the Codicils passed, I had one life with modified legs, but my next clone reverted to my original one.”
“Why?”
“The Codicils had passed. And the legs didn’t feel like they were mine.” she said. “What’s with the questions?”
“I realized I don’t know much about you,” he said. “You’re older than I thought. Older than me, even. Did you ever learn any hacking yourself in your dupliactric studies?”
“No,” she said.
“So six lives of living, and you were a doctor the whole time?” Wolfgang said.
She sat back. “Well, as far as I know, number five was a doctor, but I’ve lost most of her life. I have only had this one for a few days, but it’s safe to say, yes. Off and on.” Joanna was relieved to be free of one uncomfortable line of questioning, but unhappy to go straight into another one.
“And when you were off? What did you do?”
“I did some public service, some volunteer work, took cloning technology to some poorer countries. Traveled a bit.”
“Did you ever spend any time on Luna?” Wolfgang asked, opening his eyes.
Joanna frowned. “Er, no, the trip to board the Dormire was the first time I had been there.”
“Before you became a clone, did you have any reason to dislike, or resent, them?”
Joanna smiled slightly. “You’re not paying attention to your dates. I was born in 2147—cloning humans was still new and exciting when I was a young woman. No riots, no excommunication, none of that had come yet.”
He stared at her. “You’re from the first years? I thought those had all gone to the hills to live as wealthy hermits, bored with the relative children of Earth.”
“Not all of us. Some of us wanted to help.”
“So you knew all the famous clones of that era? The doctors Grindstaff and Kelly, and Sallie Mignon?”
Joanna laughed. “It wasn’t like I was buddies with Nobel Prize–winning cloning scientists in high school. I met Dr. Grindstaff once, at a conference. She was speaking, so she didn’t have a lot of time to chat. Kelly I never got a chance to meet before she went underground. Mignon, I knew.”
“Did you know any of the Dormire crew before this mission?”
“This is starting to sound a little less like you’re getting to know me and more like an interrogation,” she said. “I didn’t know the crew.”
Something dawned on her. “You want to know what my crime was,” she said. “You’re trying to piece together all of our pasts.”
“Can you blame me?”
“After I patched up half the crew, you’re wondering if I killed us all?”
He remained silent. She sighed. “My crimes are political, not violent. I’ve harmed no one. Like you all, this post is my way out. As a favor, Sallie Mignon helped me get this job.”
“Really. Sallie Mignon.” It wasn’t a question. He was thoughtful.
“Is it my turn?” she asked.
“For what?”
“Questions. It’s only fair.”
He sighed and leaned back in the chair. “Go ahead. The captain says I’m an open book.”
“Start with your first life, your experiences as a clone, and where you stand politically. Let’s expedite this.”
“That’s to the point,” said Wolfgang. “All right. As you know I was born on Luna. Became a clone as an old man.”
“Several generations of the family were on Luna, correct?”
“How did you know?”
“The fact that you wake up needing lunar gravity. Also your height and skin tone. But your story skips a bit,” she said. “If your records are right, you became a clone in 2282, right in the middle of the clone riots in the days before the Codicils. What made you decide to become a clone during that time specifically?”
Wolfgang looked past her, unfocused. “I didn’t decide. The decision was made for me. I was cloned against my will, and then escaped my captors. I joined the Luna military, piloting crew shuttled between the Earth and Luna.” He shrugged. “I did some stints as a personal guard, some more as a pilot, studied when I could, made it to head of a private security firm on Luna, and then got hired for the Dormire. Is that what you wanted to know?”
“You’re leaving something out. Something big?” she asked, rubbing her chin. “You’re officially on, what, five lifetimes?”
“I’ve had many more than five,” he said softly. “Most of them during the first day of my cloned life.”
Wolfgang’s Story
211 Years Ago
September 25, 2282
My children, we have come so far within God’s world. We have taken the Earth He has given us. We have taken Luna and made her our home. Through science, He has given us multiple gifts.
Unfortunately, the Adversary gives us temptations through science as well. The snake is the one who developed medicines to stop pregnancy and kill the Lord’s unborn. The snake lies, and the snake whispers. And the snake is the one who gave us cloning. Because who else better to spread the word of the Adversary than an army of soulless?
People have asked me. The Luna News Network has asked me. On Earth, CNN has asked me. Some of you, bless you, have asked me. And I will tell anyone the same thing I have told all of you: When a man dies, his soul goes to be with God, or the Adversary. If the man returns, do you think God gives the soul back? Of course not. And the snake is not likely to give up his ill-gotten gains. Those who return as clones are without souls, without the guidance of God.
Countless challenge me! Debate rages! Are they legally human? Can they inherit from themselves? Is killing one murder? And it’s an unpopular stance, but I believe it is not murder to remove from this world a man or woman who is not a child of God, whose soul cannot ascend.
[Pause for protests to die down]