Chapter Eight - The Clone
A bright yellowish orange sun rises in the west to start a new day on the planet Zerron. A small beeping sound can be heard in the bedrooms of Joice, Tom, Kyle, Joe and Miles. This is their wake-up call. As each individual hits the alarm, a message is played, “Good morning, I hope all of you had a good night’s rest. I will be by in an hour to take you to the main library at the UPC.”
Kyle snickers and rolls out of bed. Out of the group, he slept the least, about three hours. He knows that something is going on and being stuck on a planet with tight security isn’t helping.
After a nice warm shower Kyle, not wanting to wear the smelly clothes he has been wearing, Kyle tries his luck and opens the tan wooden closet.
Thankfully the closet is filled with different types of clothes. From suites and jeans and it seems this place is well prepared for anything or anyone. All the clothes in the closet lack a designer label but they do look very similar to clothes found on Earth. Wouldn’t a planet millions of light years away have a different style of clothing?
Joice, Joe and Kyle all shrug this idea off as they begin to dress. Joice finds a nice blue and yellow sundress, Joe reaches for a pair of kakis and a green collared shirt and Kyle grabs a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt.
Tom and Miles both pause as they wonder about the selection of clothes that are available.
Joe breaks the silence as he calls out to Miles, “You almost ready?”
“Yea,” Miles calls back. “Give me a few more minutes.”
Still puzzled, Miles reaches for a pair of jean shorts and a plain white t-shirt and walks out into the living room.
“Do we just wait here for Dr. Anzak?” Miles asks.
“Guess so. He should be here in about ten minutes,” Joe says.
“Have you noticed that everything here is the same as back home?” Miles wonders.
“Yea, I noticed that too. You would think an alien world would be totally different from our own. In some respects it is but so far the food, future, clothes, all the same. I wonder why.”
Tom is the last one to get ready, wearing jeans and a blue shirt; he walks over to the front door just as another beeping sound rings off. This one is from an intercom to the left of the door; Tom notices a white button and presses it.
A lady’s voice is heard, “Dr. Anzak is down in the lobby for you.”
There is a click and the door unlocks. Each person reaches for the door and walks out into the hallway.
“Morning guys,” Joice is the first to speak. “I take it we meet Anzak down in the lobby?”
“Yep.”
The group takes the teleporter to the lobby level to meet Anzak.
“Hello everyone,” he says, the light from the sum seems to make his red hair that much brighter. “Let’s head to the main library and I can answer any questions that you guys have.”
“What about Jen?” Kyle asks.
“Once I get you guys to the library, I’m going to get her.”
The blood that Zar-Q had taken from me the night before was sent to a lab. Ozma and Anzak are the only two people that have been in and out of this lab. After pouring my blood into some sort of machine, it seems the results that Ozma is waiting for are not coming to pass.
She calls for Zar-Q to retrieve me from the medical area. He passes the receptionist and walks into my room.
“Are you here to bring me my breakfast? I’m a bit hungry.” is the first thing that I say.
I’ve been up for an hour or so and I can hear my stomach rumbling and it’s actually starting to hurt.
“Soon, but I need to move you to the lab to finish some work and then we’ll be finished, hopefully,” Zar-Q tells me.
He starts to pull out the IV and I wince a bit. Having needles stuck in me isn’t something that I like.
“Are you okay to walk?”
“Yea, I haven’t felt sick since late yesterday. You guys are really cautious here.”
“Yep.”
We walk in silence until we get to a strange looking object at the end of the hall.
“You might feel a bit woozy after you walk through this, but this is the only way to the lab.”
Zar-Q swipes his card and the teleporter becomes active.
“You have to be kidding me, don’t you have stairs here?” I ask. Last thing I need is to feel sick again.
“We use teleports to get to our destination. It’s easier and it’s a great way to keep track of everyone that works and visits here.” Zar-Q tells me. “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it.”
“Great.” I close my eyes as I walk into the portal. On the other side, I slowly open them and in front of me is a lady, looks to be in her thirties or maybe early forties, with black hair and eyes to match. There are two guards in blue on either side of her. I turn around to see if Zar-Q is behind me but the portal had already been turned off.
“Put her in the chair,” the lady says.
The guards approach me and grab my by my arms, tightly.
“What’s going on?” I ask as I’m pushed into a black recliner-like chair.
One of the guards, with tan skin and black hair grabs a helmet, with circuitry and wires showing, and places it on my head. Then wires are stuck to both my temples.
Puzzled and my heart beating rapidly, I try to pull the helmet off but my hands are grab and tied to the chair. My legs are also tied and the lady with black hair walks over to me.
“I will be blunt with you. This is the first time we’ve made a clone but for this situation, it’s needed. I can’t tell you that it won’t hurt.”
“Wha—-?”
In the middle of the room is a tub, looks like a bathtub but I doubt that’s what it is used for.
The lady walks to a computer and starts typing at the keyboard. There is a pause and then suddenly I feel a sharp pain on my temples. The pain shoots to my head and I can feel my heart beating rapidly.
There is green goo in the bathtub and it begins to boil. Seconds later, the pain stops and I slowly open my eyes. My vision is unfocused but I start to see a head coming from the goo. The second guard, this one with blond hair walks over with a towel and helps the person out of the goo.
“Clean her off and prep the clone to join the others,” the lady says as she walks over to me.
Clone? Is that me? Why would this person need to make a clone of me? Of all people why me? I knew I had to find a way out of here to reach the others.
“My name is Ozma,” the lady says to me. “And you’re going to be here for a while.”
The main library sits on the eighty-first floor and has a spectacular view of the city. How could anyone get any reading done with such a beautiful view outside? Tall skyscrapers seem to reach the edges of the sky and between the buildings; patches of yellow sand can be seen.
The group waits in a large conference room while Anazk retrieves me. In the middle of this room is a long shiny brown table with chairs around it. Shelves of random books line the walls and there is a large window in the back of the room.
“I’m glad that Jen’s going to be here with us,” Miles says.
Kyle looks out the window, not one hundred percent that things are as they seem.
“Kyle, are you okay?” Miles notices Kyle’s awkward silence.
“Huh, yea, I’m fine,” he says dryly.
Anzak walks into the lab and I remember him straight away.
“What’s going on? Where are my friends?”
He ignores me and heads to the room where my clone was taken. Ozma follows.
“Is the clone ready?” Anzak asks.
“She’s looking over video of the girl to get an idea of how to act. She should be ready in a few minutes,” Ozma says. “You need to find out who used that man-made portal.”
“I will.”
The girl sitting at the computer screen stands and turns around. She looks exactly like me save for having shorter hair than I.
“The clone isn’t 100% like the original, but she’ll do. Come up with a cover story as to why her hair is shorter. Beside that, this will work.” Laughing, Ozma adds, “This might even draw out who was trying to hide the girl from us.”
“This had better work,” Anzak says.
“It will. The clone is programmed to follow our orders and to act exactly like the girl. Now go before the others start asking questions.”
Anzak takes the clone with him back to the main library. As they walk, they talk about a cover story and he makes sure that the clone knows her orders.
The doors to the conference room opens and Anzak and my clone enter.
“Jen!” Miles exclaims as he walks over.
“Hey Miles,” Jen says.
“What happened to your hair?” he asks.
“I started to feel better late yesterday so they allowed me to take a look around the city as compensation for me getting so ill. Of course I had to have an escort but they paid for a make-over and some new clothes. Didn’t feel right getting made-over but it was nice.”
“We were stuck in our rooms last night,” Miles tells Jen.
“I don’t know why they wouldn’t let me see you guys until now, but I guess it’s some sort of security precaution.”
“Now that everyone is here, let’s take a seat and you guys can ask me anything and hopefully I can answer your questions.”
Kyle sits across from Jen and Miles, who are also sitting next to Joe and Joice. Tom takes a seat next to Kyle as Anzak sits at the end of the table, the window behind him.
Kyle knows that this could be a trap set for him so he keeps his current thoughts to himself.
