Clone Girls

The battle wrapped up only three hours after it had begun. 

Thanks to Ticia and her daughter's quick intervention, the boarding pirates had been neutralized with no casualties from the Faithful Vow, and around a quarter of the people on the civilian ship had been saved.

When the pirates realized things were not going their way, they tried to get away. Two frigates, the ones that were not stuck to the passenger ship, made maneuvers in order to retreat, leaving the other one behind, but Nathalia did not let them escape. She focused all her ship's fire on the two enemy ships, ignoring the last one. Their shields gave up under the pressure, and this resulted in one of them getting ammo racked, exploding into multiple parts, and the other getting pummeled down until it could not move anymore. 

As for the last one, ECG-001 and her group boarded the ship once reinforcements had arrived from the Faithful Vow and after sending the request to her mother, leading to a complete capture of the pirate ship.

Ticia had acknowledged her daughter's request this time because she knew that ECG-001 was a good commander who valued her sisters and would not disobey her commands, and Rebot-ia had declared she would assist her, which lessened Ticia’s worries somehow. But she still lamented at the fact that she could not join them.

And the reason why stood right in front of her.

“...”

“...”

She stared at the middle aged woman who sat neatly on the bed, facing Ticia. She herself sat on a chair for her part, arms and legs crossed, and still in armor (minus the helmet). Meiko made eye contact with her from time to time before looking down, either from fear or just timidity. Ticia did not know which it was, nor did she care. She was just pissed off.

Why the hell did I end up having to keep watch on her? She asked herself as she made eye contact with Meiko again. The woman flinched and turned her face immediately.

Despite those reactions, Meiko was actually the one that forced Ticia to be by her side…

After Ticia met Meiko, the woman clung to Ticia as if her very own life depended on it, asking where her daughter was every once in a while. Ticia, after recovering from her initial shock, changed demeanor quickly and became cold towards Meiko. She had heard more than one time from Rika how she had become a military officer. Yet despite that, the middle aged woman was persistent, following her everywhere, which prevented Ticia from joining her daughters in the assault.

She could have used force, but the civilians she had rescued were worried about what would happen to them next despite their relief. If Ticia made a forceful move there, she would only induce mistrust and fear into those poor people, which she did not want to do.

This is so bothersome, I still have so much to do yet I’m stuck here like I’m some kind of warder… She sighed in her head. The civilians had been moved to the Faithful Vow for their own security and relieving them from any trauma, leaving behind on the transporter ship a skeleton crew as the destroyer would tow it back to the nearest planet for reparations. The last frigate would also be towed back as spoils of war, the two others being nothing but piles of scrap with no more value. Ticia remembered how excited Nathalia sounded on the coms, saying it would give her a promotion, before lamenting that she could not get all of them.

As for what Ticia wanted to do the most right now, it was to have a good chat with ECG-023.

That girl has done something reckless today, and I think I know why. No, rather, it’s obvious if you think about it.

Ticia had noticed one particular trait of this daughter of hers. ECG-023 wanted to prove her worth.

It’s probably because of her disease. She must feel inferior compared to her sisters. She concluded. From what Nicia had told her, ECG-023 had strong nausea and headaches when she woke up for the first time. She already had lost the sight in her left eye since the time she was born, and her eyesight was unstable at first. Thankfully, Nicia took great care of her, and with the help of A-4, they managed to create a medication that would momentarily stop her disease for a while, but not eliminate it. So basically, ECG-023 could be losing sight at any moment…

ECG-023 might have become insecure as a result, hence why she wanted to gain achievements in front of Ticia to show she was still worthy of trust despite her handicap.

But Ticia did not see things that way.

023’s one of my precious daughters. Even if she loses sight completely, I won’t give up on her.

She had already made plans on how to help her daughter continue on together with Rika and a particularly motivated Nicia. They came up with multiple options that all had their pros and cons, with two of them coming out as the most possible…

The first one would be to create a drug strong enough that it would stop the progress of the disease for good, but Nicia had already declared the task to be extremely hard and nearly unachievable because it was a genetic disease. Something that motivated her to achieve it even more.

The second plan was to just remove ECG-023’s eyes and replace them with cybernetic ones, but Ticia did not feel safe leaving it all to the Borkians. She felt like they would do something behind her back like taking some genetic samples from ECG-023 or tamper the cybernetic eyes.

Either way, I need to come up with something to make my statement clear. Ticia thought, an idea already in her mind. I know what my girls want the most, and what’s the best reward for them, and that’s giving them a name.

A name. Ticia would be lying if she said she had not thought about it before, but Licia was the one who actually stopped her from giving names willy nilly.

‘Mom, I’m sure my sisters all appreciate the thought, but please don’t do that. Names are something very important for us, so we don’t want them to be given without a sense behind them.’

Ticia still had a hard time understanding the logic behind it, but she decided to follow her favorite daughter’s words, totally not because she lacked name ideas for the hundred ECGs…

But I think now is the time to seriously ponder on it. She thought seriously. To her, right now, giving a name to ECG-023 would give the girl the recognition she wanted.

There were two other girls she wanted to grant names to though, and those were ECG-001 and ECG-099. The former was because of her hard work as the second in command, making her easier to recognize, while the latter was more of a selfish wish from Ticia, who had a great fondness for ECG-099.

Still, what could be good names? Ticia struggled a bit, and although she had an idea for ECG-099, it was harder for the other two.

“U-uhm…” A weak voice called out, breaking Ticia out of her thoughts. When she looked in front of her, Meiko was looking at her.

“C-can I meet Rika now?” The woman asked once she noticed that Ticia had all her attention, but flinched once Ticia’s look became sharp.

“That's Brigadier-General Rika for you, and no, you cannot.” Ticia replied. She did not know how many times this question had been asked in the last three hours…

“Oh… I-I see…” Meiko replied sadly, fiddling with her fingers as she looked down before looking at Ticia straight in the eyes again. “Then, when can I-”

“The question would rather be if she wants, madam.” Ticia cut short, having enough of this continuous back and forth. “My general has broken ties with your family for a reason.”

“I-I know but…” Meiko seemed adamant despite her timidity. She sent a desperate look at Ticia. “Could you at least tell her I want to see her?”

“...” Ticia did not answer each time Meiko asked her this question, leaving the woman to let out a sad sigh in understanding.

“…Is it impossible after all?”

“...”

“Not even a small message?”

“...”

Again, Ticia stayed silent. Why do I have to be the one in between the two of them? Rika probably doesn’t wish to talk to her anyway.

The look on her face might have told Meiko what she thought, because the woman only gave a sad smile.

“I know it’s already too late… But I want to talk one last time with my daughter… Please…”

Ticia could tell as the woman bowed her head. Meiko was truly desperate to meet Rika. She did not know why though, which got her curious.

“Why do you want to meet her so much?” She asked out loud before even realizing it.

Meiko looked surprised at first because this was the first time Ticia asked a question, but she soon smiled sadly before looking at the screen on the wall that was displaying a view into space.

“...I have a lot of regrets.” She began. “When Rika needed me the most, I did not support her, and now I pay the price for that.”

Meiko then sent a serious look towards Ticia, surprising her a little. “How much do you know about my relationship with my daughter?”

“...Enough to say that my general’s choice made sense to me, ma’am.” Ticia replied honestly. Rika repeated that story once in a while, mostly when she was drunk and had a depressed phase.

The story would mostly be the same each time, but letting this story out of her heart had a calming effect on her friend, so she listened to it in silence.

When Rika was ordered by the family head to go to the military academy, the spoiled child that she was threw a tantrum, refusing to go, and yet she had no choice. The young Rika hated war, and just wanted to become a spoiled housewife just like her mother. No one supported her however. Not even her closest family members. What broke Rika’s relationship with her mother at the time was the guilt filled look Meiko, the mother she admired and loved the most, gave her, not even capable of letting out a sorry or hug warmly her daughter before she departed. It left a deep mental scar in Rika’s heart, as she at least expected to receive consoling words from her mother.

After that, Rika met her mother and family when she had vacations, but she could not help but direct hate towards them.

Things changed again after she got her injuries. Rika slowly drifted further and further from her family as time passed, and right now, she considered them strangers.

At the time, Ticia was sympathetic to Rika, so she did not comment on her former superior's backstory, it was not her life anyway. But she did notice that despite all that, Rika continued to hum the songs her mother sang to her in the past… Perhaps, unlike how Rika said she had gone over it a long time ago, the matter still haunted her…

This is all messed up honestly…

Ticia had a hard time understanding what a mother-daughter relationship was at the time, but she now felt like she knew what kind of relationship it was, having daughters of her own, and that she had realized a similar mistake herself. That is why Ticia disliked Meiko, yet at the same time was a bit sympathetic to the woman as a mother herself.

“Well, if you know, then I won’t have to explain. It’s not like I have any right to defend myself anyway…” Meiko replied. “What you heard is probably true. We- no, I abandoned Rika in her time of need.”

There was clear guilt and regret in her voice, Ticia could somehow tell. Meiko lowered her head and squeezed the fabric of her long skirt, trembling.

“I know I have no right to tell Rika what’s right or wrong anymore.” She muttered. “I know she doesn’t consider me as part of her family anymore. But still, I…” She raised her head, looking straight at Ticia again with a mix of determination and desperation while shouting with all she had. “I still want to talk to her!”

There was another small silence as Ticia kept her poker face. Meiko bit her lower lip, before lowering her head again.

Not good. Ticia thought. I am feeling more and more sympathetic…

“...You left her alone all this time. Why this sudden change?” She asked after a while. Meiko hugged herself while looking at the screen with the space projection.

“I was scared. I still am, to be honest.” She said honestly, before looking at Ticia again.  “B-but when I saw my daughter at the victory parade through the screen, when I heard her renounce her name in front of the whole confederation, I-I just-”

“You felt at a loss.” Ticia finished her phrase.

“Yes...” Meiko nodded, and another awkward silence emerged. Only to be broken again by Meiko.

“You’re the Clone Mother, right?” She asked, and Ticia nodded. “I’ve seen the smile my daughter gave you during the parade. She seems to trust you a lot.” Meiko smiled again, but there was a bit of envy in her next words.

“...” Ticia stayed quiet again, feeling that Meiko had more to say, and indeed she had.

“I’m not going to ask you to plead for me to my daughter anymore. I’ll try to meet her by myself.” The woman began, before bowing her head. “Please. Take care of her.”

Ticia looked at the woman that was probably twice her age and more, still with her poker face, but inside, she had mixed feelings about all of this.

The more she talked with Meiko, the more she felt sympathy as a fellow mother who made a similar mistake (albeit unconsciously). She had the chance, or rather the courage, to act immediately, but Meiko had neither, or rather, as she recognised, did not act.

The fact that she regrets it is a good thing, but it’s too late already…

That was a fact. Ticia was sure about it. She knew Rika well. Her friend had already moved on, Meiko’s attempts would go to deaf ears if she even managed to meet Rika, and Meiko probably knew that already. Rika’s stubbornness once she made a decision was probably the only trait she kept from her time as a spoiled young lady.

I know that, and this story has nothing to do with me, but… Ticia struggled with herself just by looking at Meiko. She imagined herself in the same situation. What if she failed to resolve the misunderstanding with Licia? What if she could not save Mia and Nia? What would have happened if she… never realized she loved the clone girls as her daughters?

“…She's not here.” She uttered in a weak voice before she knew it.

“Eh?” Meiko, who still had her head lowered, raised her head in bewilderment. “B-but aren't you-”

“I was just sent on a mission by her.” Ticia admitted, her face still expressionless, but there was no more hostility in her tone.

Meiko blinked, still processing the answer, but a sad smile soon formed on her face. “…So she's not here…”

She probably felt sad because she thought she had reached her daughter by chance, but unfortunately, that was not the case.

“Thank you for telling me.” Meiko bowed her head towards Ticia again. “I won't bother you further. Thank you for rescuing me and being honest…”

Ticia nodded, still feeling complicated. Meiko was lowering her head again despite the fact that Ticia was hostile towards her all this time.

But then again, this is not my life. I shouldn’t meddle in Rika’s affairs. She thought as she stood up.

“Then, I shall be going. You may rest in this room until our next stop.” She said as she went for the door. As the door opened, she heard a weak trembling voice.

“Thank you…”

The door closed behind Ticia, leaving her in the hallway where three ECGs were standing there on guard.

“Phuuuu…” Ticia let out an audible, long sigh, trying to keep herself neutral. She then looked at the two daughters who were standing guard on each side of the door. “Keep watch over the room. If she asks for anything, give it to her.”

““Understood.”” The two ECGs, saluted. Ticia nodded before making a serious look directed at ECG-023, who had her mother’s helmet in her hands and was in her uniform, just like the other two ECGs

“023, follow me.”

“Yes, Mother.”

Her next destination was Nathalia’s private quarters. She had been notified by the ambitious captain that they needed to talk in private. ECG-001 was already there since she had reported directly to Nathalia, so she had told her daughter to wait with Nathalia.

As for ECG-023’s case, she would deal with it once this was over. As much as she wanted to prioritize her daughter, military matters came first in the end.

She took her helmet from ECG-023’s hands and put it on. The emoji face on the HUD immediately began to talk.

“That woman sure is sad to look at.” Rebot-ia commented.

“Don’t add another layer.” Ticia sighed. “I’ve already gone through enough.”

“I know, I mean, I was there the entire time you know?” The AI said, before giggling a bit. “It sounds like I’m peeping, but well, that's kind of what I excel at in the end?”

“So you’re admitting you’re listening to conversations you shouldn’t?” Ticia asked, and Rebot-ia blushed in response.

“You wouldn’t believe how many ‘intimate’ moments I’ve recorded on the small time I’ve been on this ship.”

“...” Ticia felt like another headache had popped up in her head. “We aren’t enemies, Rebot-ia, I don’t need blackmailing content.”

“Aww~...” The AI sulked, but relented. “I understand your logic, Owner. Bye bye, peeping data…”

“Wait.” Ticia stopped the AI. “If you have proof that there are some enemies or misconduct within the crew, keep it. I’m sure Nath would be more than happy to know.”

Rebot-ia’s emoji brightened with life. “Yay! Hehe… Baddies will get punished!”

“Uh, yeah, right.”

Although she asked Rebot-ia to keep those data, she was not sure how she was going to proceed with announcing it to Nathalia while keeping Rebot-ia’s identity a secret.

An anonymous report might work, but then again, it might also make her think her internal security has been breached, which is not good either… I need to find a solution to this too…

As she pondered on this, she reached Nathlia’s private quarters. She removed her helmet and pushed a button on the side and waited for about three seconds before the door opened. She entered, and was surprised by the scene in front of her.

Nathalia was laying on a couch with only light, disheveled clothes. She also had a glass of wine in hand, which told Ticia that she was drinking.

Another surprising fact was that ECG-001, the ever so straight daughter that she was, was sitting all fidgety with a red face in a comfy armchair, a drink also in her hand. She reacted immediately once she saw Ticia enter the room, all flustered.

“M-mother!” She stood up in a hurry to salute her mother, nearly falling in the process. She got caught by Nathalia’s hand, who pushed her back into her seat.

“There you are, Ticia, care to join us for a drink?” Nathalia said with a bewitching smile that might have made Andrew fall if he was not so dense.

“...Are you making my daughter accompany you for a drink right now?” Ticia asked with a frown on her face, coldness in her voice.

“Yes, what’s wrong with that?” Nathalia asked, which made Ticia sigh.

“...How many drinks did you have, 001?” Ticia asked her daughter who clearly had more than one drink.

“...Ten, or twenty, I-I don’t know anymore…” ECG-001 admitted while avoiding eye contact like she had committed a crime. It was a new cute side of her daughter for Ticia, but even if she wanted to fawn over it, she could not.

“Oh for god’s sake…” She facepalmed.

“What? What’s wrong with her drinking?” Nathalia raised herself, sitting straight.

“How old do you think my girls are, Nath?” Ticia asked, glaring at Nathalia.

“Uhm, let’s see… You told me clones grew faster, so I would say around fifteen?” Nathalia pondered, still not understanding why Ticia was angry.

“Wrong.” Ticia shook her head.

“Is that so? Then they’re fourteen?” Nathalia tried again.

“...” Ticia shook her head again.

“T-twelve?” Nathalia grew more and more pale as she realized the numbers were going under the legal drinking age set by Borkian law.

“...They’re only about a month old, Nath.” Ticia revealed, a cold, judging look on her face.

“W-what?!” Nathalia was so surprised that the glass of wine slipped from her hand. “B-but they look-”

“Yeah, they’re a bit of a special case compared to my other twelve darlings, but you can understand why I’m angry, right?” Ticia continued, not letting Nathalia out of that one. Nathalia nodded in understanding, she knew she had messed up.

Seeing that, Ticia sighed again.

“While I’m fine with them drinking a bit thanks to their current appearances, they’re too young to drink heavy quantities. They basically have no resistance to alcohol.”

Besides, if they all become heavy drinkers, the bill is gonna rise exponentially. She said to herself as a second justification, basing it on her own experience. Truly, she and Rika drank enough, so if every ECGs joined them, perhaps Borkian Prime city would experience a shortage of alcohol for about thirty minutes, which was already amazing enough to make her shiver, imagining the total price…

“...This is my fault too, I should have been more clear with those details...” Ticia said out loud, forgiving Nathalia before going straight for the drunk ECG-001.

“You alright dear?” She asked, crouching next to her drunk daughter.

“M-mommy, it’s spinning… I-I see two of you.” ECG-001 said weakly, on the verge of tears and even addressing Ticia in a term no ECGs had ever dared use before.

“Shhh… It’s alright, just close your eyes, and everything will come back to normal.” Ticia smiled as she warmly hugged her daughter. ECG-001 nodded weakly in response, and fell asleep rapidly as Ticia stroked her hair.

“Wow, you really are a mother huh?” Nathalia said in wonder, looking at the complete change in personality of ECG-001 and the motherly love Ticia was letting out..

“The hell is that supposed to mean? I’ve made it clear enough already, no?” Ticia shot back with a small glare, which made the ambitious captain laugh awkwardly while scratching her cheek.

“I mean, yes, but seeing is believing, you know? Even if you talk about your daughters and go around with them, you keep soldiers' standards, so it’s kinda hard to picture.” She admitted. “But I kind of understand now. Haaaa~... You make me want to have a child of my own with Andrew.”

Then just hurry up and marry Andrew, for god’s sake! Ticia thought in her head as Nathalia closed herself in her own world, but held herself back.

“Anyway, can you tell me what you found?” She asked as she sat in the nearest armchair, ECG-023 standing at guard behind her while keeping a watchful eye on Nathalia. There was a reason why Nathalia had brought her here other than for a drink after all.

“Yes, sorry about that.” Nathalia straightened herself, rearranging her clothes with an embarrassed blush before turning on a hologram device on the table. Various folders appeared as Nathalia searched for the good one, some serious and some… private stuff that Ticia would rather not know about.

Geez, what’s up with that ‘Andrew’s most coolest sides’ folder? Keep that out of your job please!

“There.” Nathalia stopped on an unnamed folder and opened it, she then displayed it. It was a report on Meiko Doesson. “I did some small research and asked some contacts, and look at what I got!”

Ticia’s eyes went wide as she saw the picture of Meiko displayed. But the information under was even more surprising.

Meiko left without the agreement of her family?

“Surprised?” Nathalia smirked as Ticia nodded. “I get it, the Doesson are strict about the movement of their family members, but that’s not what caught my attention...”

She then highlighted a small mail she had received.

“...I got a bad feeling…” Ticia muttered when she read that. Sure, Meiko left without the agreement of the family, but why was she removed from the family entirely?

“Ah, right, I forgot you’re a clone, you wouldn’t understand how the Doesson family works.” Nathalia remarqued, before highlighting another set of information.

“Meiko Doesson… Birth name… Eiko?”

“That’s right, the Eiko family.” Nathalia continued. “It was an emigrant  family from the Nichibotsu State that, after generations had passed, managed to get a strong part of the raw resource extraction market under their hand. Madam Meiko’s the last member of that family still alive, so you can guess who’s got all the shares now.

“Yeah.” Ticia said, anger rising in her voice. Meiko was just a pawn from the beginning huh? Since she has no use now, the Doesson simply doesn't care about what happens to her.

She did not know the details of the deal that was made, nor how Meiko became the last Eiko family member to survive, nor where Rika was in all of this, but she could tell that something was fishy.

“Well, enough with that, there’s actually something more grave I wanted to show you.” Nathalia said, closing the folder and opening another. What she had just displayed before was because she knew of the conflict Rika, and by extension Ticia, had with the Doesson family.

Ticia immediately frowned after reading the first lines of this new folder, it was all about the pirates. 

“Are you sure about that?” She asked, pointing at one piece of information.

“I’m pretty sure.” Nathalia affirmed. “It was too strange anyway for pirates to suddenly appear in the Nolam system.”

“But still, if it’s true…” Ticia pondered how to benefit from this, the emblem she saw pretty much confirmed the veracity of the claim.

“But what’s the empress doing, really?” Nathalia sighed. “For her to let one of her siblings go rogue in her ally’s territory, it’ll only end in a mess, you know?”

“...Hey, Nath?” Ticia suddenly looked at Nathalia with a serious look.

“What is it?”

“Don’t send this report to the higher ups.”

“Oh?” Nathalia’s frown turned into curiosity. “You want to hide this piece of information? What for?”

“Of course, it’s because I can get a better deal.” Ticia replied with a somewhat evil smile, a certain ambassador passing through her mind.

“Is that so?” Nathalia added, a similar smile creeping on her face. “Alright then. Fufu…”

“Hehe…”

“...” ECG-023 looked at the two women laughing creepily while wondering whether she should run or not. Finally, after a while, both Ticia and Nathalia declared at the same time.

““Time to get back to Borkian Prime.””