Clone Girls

"Phew… That, was so good!"

Ticia just finished her meal, and her opinion was very positive! This was the best set of pasta she had ever eaten! This couldn’t be compared to the food that was served in the military. And she didn’t even want to talk about the military rations. 

"This must be what the higher ups always eat! Not that I know that anyway." She paused for a moment. "Which reminds me, how long did I sleep?"

She then looked at the drone. The AI had been quiet during all the meal, even though it was the one who served her.

"Answer: Owner Ticia slept for 2 days, 3 hours, 21 minutes and 14 seconds."

"That much?! Just how strong was that gas?" She sensed that the AI would answer her. "Wait. Stop. I don’t want to know." She scratched her head, then sighed and looked back at the three plates of pasta she just ate. "No  wonder I was so hungry…" She then looked back at the drone. "And you… I should probably give you a name…"

"This unit already has a denomination. Searching for a name would be a waste of-"

"Oh please, stop." Ticia interrupted the AI. "What you have isn’t a name. It’s your production number. Besides, it’s too long." She put one finger under her shin, thinking. "Let’s see… How about Blip?"

The drone just stared at Ticia.  After a moment it rejected the name to her surprise.

"This unit does not recognise this name as its new designation. Note: owner Ticia seems to be bad at naming people."

"You-" Ticia could only make big eyes, if she was the owner, the AI shouldn’t refuse her, right? It should even less point out this kind of default. Meanwhile, the AI continued on, as if nothing happened.

"Naming is not recognised as one of the rights of the owner, as such it is possible for this unit to reject it."

After some time of silence, Ticia sighed. "Alright, I get it, maybe it was a wrong idea to come up with something from scratch. How about I call you A-4? It’s still a part of your production number, and it’s easy to remember."

The drone stopped moving for a moment. Then it answered positively.

"This unit has acknowledged the nickname A-4 and shall respond to it."

"Good, good." Ticia nodded, in the end, she did not understand this AI completely. Even though it always had a neutral voice, it seemed to her that it had emotions, which in itself might not be a bad thing. After all, those kinds of things depended on the programming of the AI. It’s not like it was a rare thing to see emotional AIs, rather, a lot of them were present in the galaxy, most notably in the Techno-empire of Philio where AIs were considered full right citizens. Besides, if she had to live here for a while, she would prefer to have someone more “humane” to discuss with rather than a program that would just answer her every word.

"So, what's next now, A-4?" She asked.

A-4 responded in its usual non-gendered robotic voice.

"Advice: Owner Ticia should know more of the capacities of Cl installation 3. Generating a map of the complex for better visualization…"

In just a blink, a plan of the building appeared in front of her. Ticia was quite impressed.

"Wow, thanks, that will help." She paused for a moment before exclaiming. "Holy shit! That scientist was right, this place is enormous!"

What was projected in front of her was a 3D holographic render of the complex. It was a huge structure with six floors going underground!

Ticia noticed a blinking red dot on the 4th floor. She supposed it was made to tell where she was right now. "There is a lot of information…" Ticia murmured as she analyzed the structure. This entire building was hers now… For Ticia who never had property of anything, not even her own quarters in the military, this provoked a wave of emotion to wash over her face.

"...This place… There are a lot of facilities…"

Every room’s function was written. The facility was well planned. Multiple stairways and elevators made the link between floors, and one general purpose huge elevator linked all six floors from the center. The first floor essentially consisted of mostly empty rooms and storage, it had four entrances directed to the poles. Ticia remembered the AI saying she was found at entrance 4, which means it was the one in the North, corresponding to her memory.

When Ticia looked at the next floors, she understood the main orientation of the facility.

"This… Is this a military installation?"

"Answer: Cl installation 3 possesses all facilities to make it independent from the outside world except for the gathering of raw materials. Weapon creation and army related facilities are one of its main components."

"I can understand that logic, but why dedicate an entire floor to it? And one of the biggest at that..."

Ticia was talking about the second floor, there was a huge training ground inside. Not only that, there were shooting ranges, training and fitness facilities, and even simulators!

"Whatever the higher ups were thinking, it seems that Dr Fleinboug really found something amazing…" Her gaze continued down the other floors. The third floor had a lot of industrial capacity, and a very diverse one at that. From food, energy generation to small arms plants, everything was there. The fourth floor had the cafeteria, where she was right now. Beside that there was a humongous refectory and a kitchen. Smaller dinner rooms as well as smaller kitchens were also present. She also noticed a big medical bay was present on that floor. The fifth floor was composed only of private quarters for the personnel. This was where Ticia was when she woke up. In one of the multiple personnal bedrooms on that floor. Ticia did not know what civilization built this place, but its modernity made her think it had just been built. Fleinboug, though, had attested the structure to already be 1000 years old at the very least. This meant that the civilization that built this place was very advanced.

Then she stopped on the sixth floor. The sixth floor seemed to contain laboratories, but those only occupied a quarter of the space. The rest of the space was occupied by a factory, but the factory was only denominated as Cl production.

"What’s this… Cl?" Ticia turned to A-4.  "Hey, A-4, what is that part of the installation?"

"Answer: This part of the facility is attributed to all Cl creation processus."

"Ugh, that’s not what I mean…" She sighed again. Sometimes AIs were dumb. "What do the letters Cl stand for?" She pointed at the map. "I see those letters everywhere on the sixth floor. And now that I think about it, those letters are also in the denomination of the structure, right?"

A-4 just blinked its eyes.

"... Answer: The denomination Cl is an abbreviation for the word clone. This installation’s main purpose is the creation of clones."

Ticia stared at A-4 with big round eyes yet again, her face rapidly losing colors. She managed to speak. "... What… Did you just say?"

"Repeating: The denomination Cl is an abbreviation for the word clone. This installation’s main purpose is the creation of clones."

"Oh god… In just what kind of situation am I right now…" Ticia felt like she had a headache, and for a good reason.

"Why is this whole installation made for the purpose of something that has been banned throughout the whole known galaxy for years now?! And why did I decide to become its owner without even knowing this fact!?"

She blamed herself. Now she was sure she could not get to the outside world anymore.

Cloning was prohibited. This was a rule that everybody within the known galaxy was under. Ticia thought the main reason was ethical, but everyone she met had told her that it might have been banned because of past acts in which the whole known galaxy was thrown into an era of chaos known as 'The aftermath of the fall of the United Federal Government'. She did not know much about it. More than a thousand years had passed since then. Still, everybody feared to come back to that period. As for the banning of clones, from what she heard, it was mostly  because the original technology was lost to time. When the people in power tried to rediscover the technology, it always ended badly. Hence, to avoid a big disaster appearing, all governments had agreed on its banning. Yet, here she was, the new owner of an ancient clone facility which was probably the real deal.

The AI, not understanding Ticia’s state, was confused.

"This unit does not understand why owner Ticia is in such a state."

"Of course you don’t." Ticia sighed yet again. How many times did she sigh in just one day?

"Oh well, at least nothing is in production right now…" She said as she rested her exhausted head in her arms.

"Correction: Production of clones from owner Ticia’s collected genes has already begun."

A-4 threw yet another bombshell. Ticia stood up immediately and grabbed the small drone, furious.

"Alright, that’s it, it was a pleasure knowing you, tin can. Any last words?"

"Adice: the destruction of this drone will not destroy this unit. This unit inhabits the central computer of this installation. warning: Destroying said computer would cause an instant massive explosion."

Ticia just stared furiously into the eyes of the drone. Right now, she just wanted to shoot it down with her rifle. Unfortunately, she left it in the bedroom where she woke up. I messed up.  She thought. I should have kept it on myself. No, in the first place, I should never have agreed with becoming the owner of this place!

Silence followed as the two stared at one another. After a moment, Ticia finally released the small drone before sitting back on her chair, totally depressed.

"... How long has it been since you started cloning me?"

"Answer: After making sure of owner Ticia’s safety, gene samples were taken down to the clone laboratory in accordance with the protocol. After having checked the compatibility with the cloning method, the first batch of test clones is currently at the pre-infant stage."

"How fast." Ticia forced a laugh. "So from the beginning it was already planned, wasn’t it ?"

A-4 did not respond this time. But there was no need.  Ticia understood, it was part of the AI’s base program. She closed her eyes and asked. "Can it be stopped?"

A-4 answered rapidly.

"Answer: Clone creation process can still be stopped."

"Wait, it can!?" Ticia redressed herself, sitting more straightly in her chair. She did not expect to get a positive answer.

"Current phase of the project can still be stopped before further progress. Core data has already been collected."

"Hah… Haha" she laughed. "And here I thought everything was already over…" She stood up happily. "Alright, A-4, stop everything, this is an order from your owner."

A-4 blinked its eyes, passing to the color green for a brief moment.

"Order received. Requesting the owner to look over the report of the phase before giving a drop of blood to verify the order."

"... Alright." Ticia acquiesced. Although, to her, it seemed a bit of a hassle. She wanted to get this over with asap.

While A-4 was busy collecting the data for the report however, she noticed something. Ever since she had met A-4, it had strongly wanted her to become the owner of this installation. And now she knows why. A-4’s program made it adamant on launching the production of clones. Yet here it was saying everything could still be stopped. Something was not right.

Oh well, I’m probably imagining things. She rapidly gave up on the train of thought. Her mind was too tired because of the constant flow of information that she just received. If she could put an end to all of this, then it was fine.

A blue holographic screen appeared in front of her. A-4 had just finished treating the data for her. It was easy to read, but she did not want to read the fifty page long reports. She skimmed over it rapidly. Most of it was about the compatibility of her genetic code with the cloning method, which gene could be augmented to fully utilize its capability and what gene needed to be fiddled with to make the clones less rebellious against orders. It did not interest her. Rather, she was a bit disgusted and grimaced.

"Hm?" Near the end of the report however, something caught her attention. This part of the report was about a batch of one hundred test clones created to test the gene amplifications.

"Wait, wait, wait… This…"

She read the passage with utmost attention, and a sour taste appeared in her mouth. Out of the batch, only twelve embryos survived the gene amplifications. This was just… Sad.

After learning this, she felt sad all the way to the end of the report. But that was it, she wasn’t someone who would care for strangers, even if it were embryos. At least they didn’t have to see what a horrible world the outside is…

Then, she reached the last phrase of the report. She blinked, reread it. It was still the same line. Appalled, she looked at A-4.

"H-hey, uhm, can you repeat the last phrase of the report for me? I think I’m so tired that I can’t even read properly."

"Repeating: All surviving test clones will be terminated after the closure of this phase."

"B-but, uhm, that’s a bit…" Ticia now thought of those twelve embryos that were still alive. She thought she did not care about them, but when she became conscious that they would be killed, and that she would have a role in that. It made her uneasy. "No, as expected, killing new life is a bit too much…"

If it was of natural cause, she would be fine with it, such is the way of life after all. But knowing that she participated in killing twelve new lives, which had entered a stable growth period… It was a bit too much even for her…

"Advice: Terminating the life of the test clones is advised. Those entities, although stronger than the other cloning phase results, are unstable and unruly elements capable of reaching the limits of the genetic enhancement and reach a similar level to the genetic source."

"... If I decide to continue the cloning program, would you leave those embryos alive?"

"Negatory. Protocols strongly advise their termination as soon as the process is finished."

"..." Ticia thought for a bit. If she were to believe the words of A-4, the lives of those twelve girls would be terminated before even beginning! Was she ready to accept this for her own peace of mind and tranquility?

The answer was no.

"A-4, I order you to continue to nurture those embryos." She said with her most serious voice.

"Warning: It is strongly advised to terminate the life of the Null class clones."

"This is an order A-4, Do you understand?" Anger mounted in Ticia’s voice, she would not back down this time. Not when she could save new lives just within her reach. Even if those lives were clones of herself, she thought that in the end, they deserved a chance to live. Her actions led to their creation. She had to take her responsibilities.

"... Understood, order received. Prolongation of the Null class clones' nurturing until sufficient age to operate alone."

A-4 reluctantly agreed. Ticia sighed. The embryos would live.

For now, Ticia loosened her tensed muscles. She felt exhausted, but proud of herself somehow.  After giving a drop of blood to A-4 to confirm the freezing of all plans past the first phase of the cloning program, and verifying that A-4 would keep his words about the twelve Null class clones, she came back to the bedroom where she first woke up and fell asleep immediately.