Scholars Home | Sophomore Projects
86 Days After Dawn
a novella for the future
by Allyson Kohlmann '03
Table of Contents
Abstract
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Turbulent Beginnings
Chapter 2: The Front Moves Closer
Chapter 3: Exploration
Chapter 4: The Return
Abstract
The genre of science fiction is perhaps one of the most diverse and complex in writing. It encompasses both the normal aspects of writing, plot, characterization, setting, and the high tech world of science as well. Often set in the future, these literary works are able to make predictions and judgments about our current world. They read as scientific satires, pointing out the flaw in society using inflation and deflation of certain characteristics. This novella sought to follow in the tradition of these great authors and attempt to provide a means by which we can view our society and culture. As technology advances as a neck-breaking pace, our society must also race to keep up with it. Moral and ethical concerns arise as we ask ourselves, yes we can, but should we? The cloning of humans is one such topic where moral dilemmas are highly controversial. The characters in this work experience first hand some of the ramifications that cloning will have on our society. It challenges us to not only look at our society and where technology will fit into it, but to look deep into ourselves and ask the question if cloning is playing God?
Table of Contents | Sophomore Projects
Acknowledgments
Great thanks go to Jordan Smith
who got this project off the ground and saw it through.
Mom and Dad
for believing in me and my education
Louisa Matthew
for starting the idea and the visual creation
Thank you Beca for the title, Jen for letting me print rough drafts at 2am, Emily, Amy, and Becky for creative ideas, and everyone who listened to me.
Table of Contents | Sophomore Projects
1957, the first probe is launched into outer space by the Soviets, a satellite named Sputnick. 1996, A sheep named Dollie is cloned in Ireland. 2000, The human genome project is completed and the genome is mapped. 2073, The first human clone is "born."
Chapter 1
Turbulent BeginningsSonya was an orphan from the time the umbilical cord was cut. Her mother, an orphan herself, didn't even know the father. Instead of allowing her daughter to grow up in shame and poverty, Sonya's mother reluctantly decided to give her to a state run facility for children, just north of St. Petersburg. In the spring of 2037, Sonya's mother signed the final papers and Sonya was brought to the already overcrowded orphanage.
Life was not easy for Sonya; the constant noise and mess of the orphanage gave her little time for herself. She was constantly doing chores and caring for the younger children, when she did have time for herself, however, she spent it in the shabby library devouring moth eaten books and maps. With a natural ability to understand new concepts and ideas, and a wonderful imagination, Sonya could all but make the orphanage disappear.
Sonya's teachers couldn't keep up with her questions and the rate at which she devoured books. Because of this she was often bored at class time and would help the other students with their work. The only thing that seemed to be able to keep her interest was current events. One day, when Sonya was only seven, an old hunched over woman by the name of Miss Dretchel was explaining to some of the older orphans what was happening in the cities.
"War is something happens when adults have trouble solving their problems with words," Miss Dretchel over-simplified to the children. She continued over the course of the next few weeks to explain to the orphans why political relations had become so bad in Russia and what might happen next to their country.
"Although the United Nations dissolved most of the nuclear weapons in Germany after the Second World War, the threat of nuclear war was real, and it was stronger than ever. But it wasn't the Germans that the we Russians were afraid of, it was civil war that we feared the most. Since the dissolve of the Soviet Union in the 1990's, our main priority had been to rebuild and strengthen itself as a nation," the teacher stated. She then began to explain that, "the best thought way to do this was through democracy," but she was soon interrupted and had to explain what democracy was.
The kids learned from Miss Dretchel that whenever there is a power shift in a nation, there is tension from the inevitable loss of power that the former government feels. This tension was escalating in Russia and was coming to a head. The outcome of the battle between the old and the new power in Russia was thought to be in a nuclear war, since both sides were heavily arming themselves; a cold war within the former cold war country. This nuclear war would lead to certain disaster for a large part of the population, and cloning might be the only way to save them.
Sonya's mind was racing, even though she didn't understand all of the words that were spoken to her. Even when she was supposed to be doing chores or napping, she would creep to the kitchen to listen to her teacher and the other adults that ran the orphanage discuss world and local current events. The adults discussed that St. Petersburg had become the new scientific capital of the world. With more money and resources invested in technology than ever before, the world is standing at attention to study and learn what is being done there. Since their defeat in the space race one hundred years prior, the Russians have increased funding and staff on their scientific and technological programs. Not only is it important to this nation to stay ahead of the United States, but to gain information about science and technology, specifically in the areas of weaponry and medicine, to improve the quality of life in Russia. Natural resource prices have been through the roof as the amount of available fossil fuels decreases. As a result, emphasis is being placed on conservation and alternative sources of energy. After all, without energy, what good are all of these new technologies.
While the United States led the revolutionary information age at the beginning of the century, the Russians have surpassed the Americans in many areas, most notably in medical science and cloning-cloning a human being. This was not a process that happened quickly, and there was a lot of sacrifice in other areas to allow this to happen. It was felt, however, that at the time it was the most important priority for the country. Government has many functions, but in the face of a threat or war, then it is the responsibility of that government to act in its citizens' best interests and protect its people. During the middle of the 21st century, something happened to the Russian people that made the government feel cloning was their only salvation. It was one of mankind's most terrible threats, and like many global killers, it came from human's themselves: war.
Having grown up without a mother of her own, Sonya often found herself taking on the role of mother to many of the younger children at the orphanage. The employees of the home didn't mind in the least, since they were understaffed as it was. One young boy in particular caught Sonya's eye, and eventually her heart. His name was Christopher, and although Sonya was 10 years his senior, there was something about his curly gold hair and pale blue eyes tat made Sonya feel she could deny him nothing. They talked often, mostly about the happenings at the orphanage, but sometimes about larger issues, such as religion and the outside world. One night, Sonya found herself talking with Christopher about God, rather than the usual bedtime stories that the other children were listening to. Christopher had asked Sonya the time old question of where babies come from. Sonya, straightening herself up in her chair, replied, "Why Christopher, babies come from other people." Not being satisfied, and perhaps not understanding, Christopher asked again, "Do they come from a Mommy and a Daddy?" Sonya answered him, "No, silly. You don't need a Mommy and a Daddy. Why in fact, I don't even have either a Mommy or a Daddy, but I am still here. And neither do you." Christopher replied, "Then does God decide who is born?" Sonya, never having believed in their religion class at the home, and therefore never attending very much, informed him that, "Some people believe that God decides. But some people don't believe in him at all. Maybe he does exist and maybe he doesn't. All I know is that I've never seen him. So I believe that other people, like the grownups and our teachers, decide who is born. If they need a little girl, they make one. That's what keeps all these people in Russia." Satisfied for now, Christopher replied, "Well, then they must have needed a cute little boy when they made me."
When she was seventeen, the orphanage mandated that she begin working. For Sonya, this was devastating news; she loved to read and learn about the world around her. Elementary education was mandatory for all children at High Hill Institution, however, the exceptional students would be channeled into graduate and trade schools. Although Sonya was not officially enrolled into any of these programs; she had studied many of the subjects and with a talent for learning and an amazing intellect, she taught herself several languages natural sciences, and proficient math skills. Since she didn't want to work in a factory, where most children went, she decided her only option was to run away. So, without a fear in her heart or a penny in her pocket, Sonya set off, away from the orphanage and into the world.
Russia was not a peaceful place in the late 21st century. Years of political turmoil finally flared into a nasty nuclear war. After the fist one, the United Nations called for the disarmament of all nuclear weapons, however, Russia illegally held onto many of theirs and, these weapons were now being turned on each other by rival political groups. St. Petersburg, the new capital since the destruction of Moscow, has become not only the political center of the country, but the technological one as well.
After the second nuclear war, World War IV, many smaller countries became assimilated into larger and more powerful ones. Almost all of South America now belongs to the United States, Russia has engulfed all of Asia, South Africa controls most of the southern hemisphere, and the only two powerful nations left in Europe are England and Italy. Most of the intelligent scientists in Europe, and throughout the world, have been bought by the Russians and added to their massive cloning research projects. It took nearly six decades for the human race to make the transition from cloning farm animals to humans.
The effects of a second nuclear war were devastating to the topography and climate of the Earth. The bombs and warfare destroyed many governmental and civilian buildings, agricultural sites, and cities. These bombs also created an atmosphere of dust and soot, making it difficult to breathe or dwell outdoors. Nuclear radiation slowly began to contaminate every form of life from drinking water to wildlife. The effects of radiation were also beginning to surface in humans, particularly severe birth defects in infants. While the dust blocked some of the sun's light, at certain times of the day, it magnified its rays and created strong, cancer causing UV rays. The radiation and after effects of the wars led to increased global warming and the partial melting of the polar ice caps. This increased the amount of oceans on Earth from 70 to 85% and added to the decrease of the number of countries in the world. While the melting of the ice caps warmed the Earth's climate, it also sustained plant and animal life on Earth, despite the dust. By 2040, large portions of the rain forest had been cut down and cleared to be used as farm land to feed and building sites to house the Earth's growing population.
The increased temperatures across the globe allowed plants to grow in previously inhospitable lands, such as the tundra of Russia. The great tundra began to grow coniferous forests and become inhabited by small animals. Despite the nuclear radiation and dust, the countryside of Russia did not look unpleasant. In fact, the dust created beautiful sunsets full of vibrant pinks, yellows, and blues. Whenever it would rain, which was becoming less frequent, rainbows would linger in the sky for hours. The days became shorter as less sunlight was permeated through the atmosphere and the temperature of the Earth was slowly increasing.
Russia began to revive farming and agriculture, and in combination with her increased technological advances, Russia became a more desirable place to live. As the countryside became more popular and the population grew, Russia began to urbanize. The only way to house their growing population was to build cities and metropolises. Cities were forming and developing across Russia, leading to a more urban country. The countryside of this giant nation became urban, crowded, and noisy. Changes in architecture were occurring to meet these new housing needs, switching from houses and apartments to tall skyscrapers and high rises. Population shifts occurred from the middle of the planet to either the north or south, since global warming made the equator area too hot to live in. Due to these problems of sustaining life on Earth, an emphasis was being placed on technology more now than ever before. Countries were trying to develop was to travel space, live in all areas of Earth, and clone.
Much of this research came from the need to maintain the human population rather than the pursuit of science and knowledge. As nuclear radiation spread across the globe, for the second time, many side effects occurred that no one had been able to foresee. Radiation began to cripple the human life cycle, most notably in the areas of reproduction. To the horror of many men and women, the radiation left over from nuclear warfare destroyed the most vulnerable and unstable cells in the human body: male sperm cells. Panic struck the population of the world; how would the human race survive? The only possible way would be to clone the existing males in order to maintain a somewhat familiar population and environment.
While the nation had larger concerns, Sonya made her way into the city of St. Petersburg. Smelling of industrial grime, fresh off the railroad, she realized the potential that it held for her. Although she was alone, and had no money of her own, Sonya felt that all her hard work at the orphanage got her here, and there was a reason for that. She knew she had a purpose here, in this city, now all she had to do was figure it out.
Despite a very grueling first few months of sleeping outside, working odd jobs for food, and avoiding the military police that made routine intracountry patrols, she was, at last, independent. What Sonya didn't count on was all the responsibilities that went along with her independence. The strict rules of her country would not be happy to learn that a citizen was living vagrantly and without paying taxes. So while she spent much of her time trying to find food, she also had to avoid the police, who would no doubt throw her in a prison or poor house, loosing her independence. When she wasn't running around looking for food and shelter or dodging the police, Sonya found that she had a lot of time to herself. Oddly enough, she didn't like the quiet. She missed the noise of the orphanage, the warmth of its rooms and the laughter of its children. She missed her books and teachers, but most of all she missed Christopher. She missed having someone to talk to. It was hard, especially at night to be alone. It was almost ten months gone by that she had been in the city, and she didn't have a single friend.
Frustrated with the way her life was going, Sonya began answering ads in the local paper for lab assistants and technicians. While very intelligent and hard working, Sonya had not received formal education and therefore held no degrees. This did not stop her, however, she simply created fake ones. She also gave herself the identity of someone other than herself. Not wanting to be tainted with the scar of orphanhood, Sonya created names for the parents she did not have, and a fake PO Box to go with it. And, she figured that while she was at it, it wouldn't hurt to make herself a little older.
The first job offer she got was at Nucleics Laboratories International, but it was not as assistant or technician, but rather as a janitor. Sonya didn't care at this point what the job was, she was just happy to be getting any job. Although the pay was lousy and the hours were long and only during the night, Sonya loved it. In fact, the part that she liked best of all was working during the night. Without any other staff around, besides the sleeping guard here and there, Sonya was free to look about the labs. Although she was only 18, she had seen enough, and read enough, in her school books, that she knew a lot about how this lab worked.
One night, she came across a lab with the light left on. Instinctively, she entered the room to clean up and shut it off, however, much to her surprise, there, inside the room, was a man. He was tall, with dark hair and a mustache, making him appear older than he was. She guessed he was in his late twenties or early thirties but he looked so tired, perhaps from putting long hours in at the lab. He was poised over a lab bench, like a cunning intellect, no doubt working on some importantÉ "Hand me that vile of saline, Anya." Her thoughts were jerked back into the present as he made his request, without even looking up from his work. Sonya looked around, saw what he was referring to and handed it to him. "Thank you," he said. Never once had Sonya encountered a Russian scientist to be so polite. Many of them thought very highly of themselves and would not bother addressing some one like her with such respect.
He looked up from his microscope and pulled his glasses off his face with one hand. As he looked up at her, their eyes met and she finally began to feel warm in this cold city. "Oh!" he was startled. "You're not who I thought you were. I'm sorry." Again, he was being so polite to her. It made her feel nice, special even, human. "It's no trouble at all. I don't mind helping," she stammered. There was something about him, she couldn't quite catch her breath. "Well, since you are here, Miss É I'm sorry I didn't quite catch your name." "Oh, please call me Sonya." "All right then, Sonya, I am Miles Urikov, and I would be delighted if you could help me a little more tonight," he said with a grin and how could she refuse that.
So for the rest of that night, and many more that followed Sonya played the role of assistant in Dr. Urikov's laboratory. And although she wasn't quite certified to be in that position, he didn't ask and she didn't tell. As their research progressed, however, Sonya found it hard not to become aware of what he was no doing, not to mention the good doctor himself. Since it was just the two of them most nights, they would talk. Their conversations centralized around his work and other research projects. Sonya found out that he was not happy with some of his assignments, but since they were government funded and mandated, he didn't have a choice. One night, he told her how all the pieces of his research were going to fit together. "Sonya, I've noticed that you are quite a curious little helper, but I have been too absorbed and perhaps too rude to fully explain this project to you. Perhaps you would like me to go over it now?" Blushing slightly, Sonya nodded her head in agreement. "Well," Miles cleared his throat, "the government feels that we need to be ahead of the United States in many aspects. But this lab's job is to maintain the advantage in the area of science, and my lab is in charge of cloning."
"But I don't understand," Sonya started, "how does the cloning of animals help Russia stay ahead of the United States? And do they really think that we will be able to keep this research and information from them?" Miles smiled at her and chuckled a little, "Sonya, the Russians have been keeping lots of things from the Americans for decades. So that isn't really a problem. And our government feels there is a way that cloning can greatly advance our people." Sonya couldn't help but gasp a little, because although he didn't say it, she realized that the doctor wasn't referring to any cloning, but the cloning of humans. Scared to learn further about the subject just then, Sonya dropped talked about it, but it was all she could do to stop thinking about it every day.
Several weeks later, she dared to bring it up again. She didn't know if it would anger Miles, or get either of them in trouble, but she had to know more about it. "But why are they so interested in cloning humans? It can't just be to beat the Americans to it?" Sonya wondered aloud. Miles explained that the government wanted to ensure the survival of the Russian people, namely against the threat, and reality, of nuclear war. "You know how harmful radiation is to people," she nodded, and he continued, "well if we could create a race of people that we no longer affected, or no longer adversely affected, by radiation then we would not only be years ahead of the Americans, but essentially stronger than them as well. This is the goal. But it's not something that we are going to start with right away. First we need to help the people now who are affected by, or will be affected by, radiation. I believe that after that is taken care of, then we can begin to worry about the 'super race', but not everyone has the same priorities as me." Although Miles didn't say it, Sonya could hear the fear in his voice, and she could see it in his beautiful blue eyes.
At first, she was also worried, but as the months went on, she realized that they were no where near on schedule, and long off from finding a successful way to do all of this. While funding was available in a constant supply, it was no where near what they needed to complete the project. Funding was not the only hindrance, but it was one of the largest. And as the months turned into years, and Sonya changed jobs to be Miles' official lab assistant, they came to know each other in a way that closer than Sonya had ever been to anyone. Miles had a very gentle way about him. His mannerisms made it easy to open up to him, and Sonya had been longing for that kind of companionship. From their conversations, Sonya gathered that although they came from very different backgrounds, they shared a lot of the same thoughts and perceptions. Miles' family was wealthy and he brought up through the best schools in Europe. However, he didn't talk about them very much, and when he did there wasn't fond nostalgia in his voice. Sonya assumed that he either wasn't close with his family or that he didn't like them. This fascinated her, having no family of her own to compare to, she was very interested with the dynamics of his family.
Assimilating Sonya into the lab and a higher class of society wasn't as hard as they thought it was going to be. Miles' connections and respect around the lab carried enough weight that others didn't question Sonya's presence. She had been accepted by him, and that was good enough for now. The ID's and the retinal scans, and her DNA identification were all created according to the process of a normal citizen. Since she was from the country, not all of this "citizen-tagging" would have been done for her anyway. Everything was falling into place for Sonya.
Even though the two got along very well, there were a lot of things about Miles and Sonya that were exact opposites. "I can't believe you have 3 siblings!" Sonya exclaimed one day over lunch. "It's no a big deal," Miles began, but Sonya wouldn't hear anything of the sort. "Why that's one of the best things that a person could have. There's always someone to talk to and play with and," "First of all," Miles cut her off, "my sisters did all of the talking and I was never really interested in playing with their dolls," he declared, while taking another bite of his sandwich. "Fine. Have it your way. But I am still jealous," Sonya said.
Although she mostly avoided questions about her past, she still believed that he loved her, and against all odds, and thoroughly surprising herself, Sonya came to love Miles. So, in the early fall of 2066, Sonya Hemminger and Miles Urikov were married by a justice of the peace in a small, quiet ceremony on a bright morning.
Table of Contents | Sophomore Projects
Chapter 2
The Front Moves Closer
They never thought it would be like this.
When the first atomic bomb was dropped in the 1940's, it's creators' could have never fathomed the implications that their technology would be having now. And atomic bombs were just the beginning.
As Sonya rode the MagLev home from work one day, she sighed as she looked outside the window. The city was a mess of smog and garbage, and the countryside wasn't much better. The posters that lined the inside of the train car were littered with Russian propaganda. Sonya laughed to herself on the nearly empty car while she read the conflicting slogans of several posters. "Nucelics International, taking Russia into the twenty second century," one read, while another urged youngsters to join the national army. War was what bothered Sonya the most. She could deal with the filth and economic poverty of her nation, but to have to watch young men and women die because of clashing egos and too many weapons.
Sonya thought that chaotic nuclear war was the only way to describe what was going on in the world during the late 2070's after watching all the sensationalized news programs. Angry political factions in Russia had been fighting for decades, but it wasn't until recently that the rest of the world began to take notice, and that's when it began to get ugly. The United States, Japan, and other super powers realized there was money and power to be gained from either side. Essentially the world became divided by who was supporting whom. Tremendous amounts of money and military supplies were being used on either side, while the Russian people watched helplessly in silent horror as their country side was being used as an international battlefield. Of course the United States wanted to support the new power, those in favor of a democracy. While Japan has not historically supported many nation in need, they broke from tradition because they feared not only for Russia, but for their own country. If a democracy were to take place in Russia, they feared that with the United States' help they would become very powerful; perhaps even stronger than Japan. If this were to happen, the Japan would certainly be pushed out of the world power arena, somewhere they felt they deserved to be. So Japan illegally smuggled hundreds of millions of dollars worth of nuclear weapons to the old group in Russia.
New weapons, artillery, and strategies were being tested by many countries. The most horrific of these, however, was the nuclear weapons that were not only deployed by both sides, but in large quantities. While the destruction from these weapons was significant, it was the radiation and other chemical residues that hurt people more than anything else. WWIII was a smaller, shorter war, but it had also involved nucs. Some of those documented side affects included hair and memory loss, all kinds of birth defects, and perhaps worst of all, only affecting men was sterility, weakened immune systems, and/or death.
As the train slowed and approached Sonya's stop, her head was spinning with thoughts of war and the world around her. She was overwhelmed. Normally, she would have ran home and burst in the door, bubbling with a thousand questions for her husband. But in the past few weeks she was no longer able to do so. Miles' condition was worsening, and she knew it, despite his best efforts to hide it from her.
While Miles' health was failing, the technique of cloning was becoming better and better. Sonya had immersed herself in long hours at the lab, to both compensate for Miles' absences and to deal with her pain. But when she was home, Sonya had noticed that for the past few weeks he had a deep cough and wheeze that he was ignoring. After begging, and finally a few threats, he went to the doctor and Miles was diagnosed with pneumonia and emphysema. "How can this be?!" Sonya asked him when he came home that night looking tired as usual. "It's nothing to worry about, darling. The doctors just want me to rest and recover at home, so I will probably take some time off work," Miles said it with a calm steady voice, but he was unable to look Sonya in the eyes. Miles hadn't taken time off from work once in the three years that Sonya had known him, and probably never before then as well. Sonya knew this was more serious that he was letting on.
The next few weeks Sonya lay awake in bed as Miles paced the apartment, coughing and wheezing. He was hiding the blood that he was coughing up from her. Miles would never admit it, mostly because he didn't want to alarm Sonya, but he too was frightened by his worsening condition. They had also never talked about children until recently. Since they were both very involved in their careers, Sonya had become a lead scientist at the lab since their marriage, they never had time for children. Recently, however, they mourned the loss of the family that they would never have. As the war drew closer to St. Petersburg, not only had Miles' condition worsened, but like many men of the time affected by the war, he was unable to have children as well.
Sonya was planning on staying home from work herself these past months to help care for her husband, they certainly had the money, but the government was mandating that all able people must work double during the war. Eerily enough, this remaining work force was made up almost entirely of women. Despite the decreased numbers of workers, progress was being made at the lab. Sonya proved to be a brilliant scientist, picking up where Miles left off, she was no longer working with him, but rather on her own, and she had some great ideas. Her theories quickly led to the first successful clone of a large primate, an African sliver back ape. The next great step forward was the cloning of a chimpanzee, whose DNA is closer to humans than any other living organism and vice versa. This caused a great stir at the lab, and it would have in the outside world as well if the lab weren't so secretive about their research. The Russian government was very worried that American and other scientists would steal their ideas and ultimately beat them in the race for clones. The secrecy worked both ways, as Sonya was also unaware of what other scientists around the world were doing. She constantly fought with the heads at the Lab to allow her to communicate ideas and findings with the rest of the scientific community as it was not only ethical but could help further her own research by benefiting from others ideas, but they refused.
The cloning of monkeys and apes was a different from other cloning for a few reasons. When cloning began in the 1990's it was done through the replication of an organism's DNA, creation of an embryo and development and birth of a fetus. This new organism was molecularly and structurally identical to the original. Feeling that this process was too slow, Nucelics developed the technique of simultaneous cloning, a process in which the finished clone would be the same age as the original species. It was not only a new approach to science, but to society as well. Sonya cringed when she thought about the ramifications of such a procedure on humans. With the first process, even if a human was cloned, the subject would be an adult and the clone would be an infant, when finished, leaving no threat of identity problems. This new technique, however, was a whole different story.
Another problem with this technique was the risk to the subject. Before it was nothing more than a prick in the arm, but now it meant weeks, possibly months, of the slow painful process of cloning each cell, tissue, and organ. Basically, subjects were not lining up out the door. Realizing this, the lab enlisted the help of the military police to seize and sentence criminals to the lab rather than a jail. While many would have thought this to be cruel and unusual punishment, like most things the Russian government did, the general public was not aware that such a practice existed.
But cloning was a different story all together, and there were many questions surrounding its existence that were yet to be answered. In the eyes of the church, does a clone have a soul? Is the clone an independent entity or the legal property of the original or even the company who manufactured it? Would the clone know things about the world and its environment or would it need to be taught like an infant? It was soon understood that the clones were able to retain all of the thoughts, memories, and intelligence of their originals. This made the clone even more similar to the original than had been anticipated and the effects of this were only being speculated.
The government would also play a role in the legal and moral standings of a clone. Inside the great halls and mahogany walls of court houses and government buildings, these questions would debated and argued. The old boys club of the world, or what was left of them, would worry about the future of not only clones, but of the male gender as well. Radiation was sterilizing, if not killing, the world's men and leaving the human race with serious concerns. Many bureaucratic committees were established and funded to research options for the environmental, social, moral, and legal questions that desperately needed answers. These committees were established by the United Nations in conjunction with Russia and met in the buildings St. Petersburg. Arriving in hover-cars, these delegates of the world met inside beautiful buildings and sometimes even restaurants and churches. Many people were beginning to turn to God for some of these difficult questions and found the aroma of incense and light reflected through stained glass to be comforting.
The issue of the relationship between a clone and its original had not yet been established because no original was yet to live through the procedure of DNA extraction. It was a painful, long lasting and quite possibly an inhumane process that left the original so weak and scarred that the only outcomes had been death or coma. There are approximately six billion cells in the human body, which meant that the scientist needed to successfully extract six billion sets of chromosomes from a subject. In South Africa, many doctors and scientists developed the practice of sectioning the subject into many divisions so many scientists could work on the subject at once. Ironically, it took nine months to complete this process. This meant that the subject would die before cloning even began.
The Russians, however, did not approve of this procedure because they wanted not only the clones to live, but their original subjects as well. In the dead of winter, 2073, both Richard Karpov and his clone CS86 survived the experience of cloning. Sonya Hemminger was the first scientist in the world to accomplish such a feat and gave rise to the possibility of repopulating the Earth with men. It was her wish to eventually create a fertile clone, one that could reproduce children and CS86 was a large step in that direction.
Richard had not volunteered for this experiment. He knew, as well as many others, that the process of creating a clone was painful and laborious and was unwilling to subject his body to that experience. When the Russian police, however, caught him committing bank fraud and tax evasion, something at which Richard was very skilled, he became the next cloning subject. In 2072, the Russian government was so interested in cloning that instead of usual prison sentences for criminals, they were often sentenced to become subjects of scientific research. As far as the Russians were concerned, there was no better way to dispose of criminals and improve science all at the same time. The United Nations, however, felt that this was cruel and unusual punishment but was powerless to stop it.
Richard had been under the watch of the Russian government for several years and while they were well aware of him and his activities, he was oblivious to the fact that he was being monitored. He was a tall, well built and dignified looking man. He was intelligent, soft spoken, and had the ability to talk his way in or out of every situation. He worked in St. Petersburg as a free lance computer hacker, helping many people, for the right price, avoid paying astronomical taxes to the government. As a hobby Richard enjoyed obtaining medical and scientific supplies and selling them on the black market. The police could have caught Richard years ago, however, they waited for him to become a successful criminal in hopes of cloning him and using his intelligence to their advantage.
Sonya had recently finished successfully cloning the internal digestive organs of a sixty year old man. The experiment was going well, when the man began to undergo congestive heart failure. Without a live subject to work from the cloning would have to be stopped and months of work, along with tens of thousands of dollars would be lost. Sonya could not afford to lose either of these, especially her commission on the project. Since her husband died a few years ago, it was very difficult for her to afford to live in this city. Sonya loved her husband so much that she stored away several strands of his DNA in hopes of cloning him once the technique had been perfected or at least being able to carry his child some day.
Not only was Sonya intelligent, but she was recently appointed to the head scientist position at the largest scientific research company in Russia: Nucleics International. Her position was previously held by Stephen Drekofsky, however, the radiation not only left him sterile, but cost him his life as well. In recent years, hospitals were reporting a huge increase in the numbers of male deaths each day. Something had to be done about the radiation and its effects on the male population. Not everyone was distressed about these problems, in fact many women saw this as opportunity to gain power and wealth and equal the playing fields of sexism. Sonya was not one of these women. While her professional life had benefited from this crisis, her love life had not. Miles took a turn for the worse these past few weeks and died in his sleep one rainy night in September. It would have been Miles and Sonya's 4 year anniversary.
Sonya wasn't even allowed time to grieve for her loss. Two days after Miles' death, she was literally dragged back to work. Miles couldn't have died at a worse time, the war was becoming a full blown show for the entire world now, complete with nuclear fireworks. The Russians believed that now more than ever they were in need of their best scientists and doctors to find a way to protect Russia from the radiation. Sonya didn't care about all of this, all she had ever truly cared about was gone. When Miles died, he took the best piece of Sonya with him.
"How will I be able to do this?" Sonya thought to herself in the lab. "Miles was the one who knew everything. Damn it! I just can't do this, not now." Through her pain, Sonya found that she was strangely comforted in the lab, a place where she and Miles had spent so much time. And now, alone, without her husband and partner, Sonya would have to continue the research that the two of them had started. She didn't care about the war anymore, or helping her people or her country, all Sonya wanted to do now was finish the dream that her husband has begun so many years ago, she would continue until a human was cloned.
When the police brought Richard Karpov to her lab, Sonya merely looked at him as her next assignment. Life seemed to have changed its meaning these past few months and she didn't always care anymore if what she and cloning was doing was tight or moral. To begin her work, she needed to ask Richard a series of questions about his life. She could find a vast amount of information from his chromosomes, which genes he carried, the condition of his health, and IQ tests filled in a lot of the rest. But physical feats and street smarts, common knowledge, had still not been mastered by the machines and Sonya needed to perform an old fashioned interview to find out the rest. Despite the smell of formaldehyde, the harsh bright lights, and white tiled rooms, Sonya found herself comfortably at home in the lab and tried her best to do the same for Richard. Physically, he was bandaged, wired to machines, and constantly in pain, yet he also took comfort and solace in their companionship. Throughout their conversations and research, Richard became Sonya's second friend.
"How is it that you know so little about science?" Sonya asked Richard one afternoon after several weeks of explaining, what she thought were, even the simplest of operations. She was up to her elbows in test tubes and culture dishes. They were scattered everywhere, labeled, all part of Richard, or at least they were.
"I guess that I never really needed to know any of this stuff. Truth is, I wasn't in school for very long," Richard confided, as he looked around they lab nervously. Although he was accustomed to the sight of the lab, the thought of his cells being scattered about the room was still daunting. "But everyone has to go to school," Sonya objected as she looked up from her microscope. And with a smile, Richard answered, "Yeah, well, they also want everyone to pay taxes." They both laughed.
"How is it that you know so much about science?" Richard asked as he shifted his weight on the bench. "I paid a lot of attention in school. Anything in a book fascinated me. I mean, I would lie there, in my bed, not reading the books, but putting myself in them. They could take me places. And for me, anything was better thÉ" but Richard interrupted her with a start.
"That's a great idea!" he exclaimed. "What is?" Sonya put down her pipette, slid her goggles down her nose, and looked at him thoroughly confused. "You don't need a book. I can take you some place right now! Let's get out of here!" Sonya knew this was a bad idea, "Richard, you don't understand. You're not free to come and go here as you please. The guards, well, they're everywhere and they just won't allow it."
"Sonya, please, I'm not trying to escape or anything, I know that won't happen. But I've been in here for weeks. Damn it, I haven't seen sky in weeks!" He did have a point. "Believe me, they won't even know we are missing," he said with a smile.
It was beautiful outside. There was a strong wind from the north, and although it chilled the early autumn air, it cleared the sky of any dust or ash residue. The two had crept out of the lab, surprisingly security wasn't as tight as they first anticipated, a combination of low budgets and large lunch breaks. Although Sonya didn't want to take this little hideous, fearing for the repercussions, she somehow didn't care as much about breaking the rules when she was with Richard. Perhaps his lawlessness was rubbing off on her.
"This is great!" Richard exclaimed as he took his first deep breath of fresh air in weeks. "Being bottled up in that stuffy lab is no way to live. God, I mean, you stay in there long enough and you forget what we're fighting a for."
Sonya nodded in agreement. For her, however, it had been months since she had taken the time to slow down and enjoy a day, to actually stop and feel the sunshine on her face. Why, she hadn't felt this good since MilesÉ
"Oh, no. The good doctor is getting serious already. I have you out of that lab for ten minutes and already you are thinking about work. I can see it in your face, wondering where to stick the next pin in this cushion ass of mine!" Richard laughed at his own joke. "Why do you have to do that to me anyway? Haven't I been a good subject? Couldn't you just bend the rules and let me go?" And he was right. Sonya didn't want to stick Richard full of drugs and needles than she did to anyone, especially now because they were friends.
"Richard, we've been over this. And you know that I would let you out of here in a second if I could. Hell, I would let myself out of here. But I can't. The best thing for us is just to finish the experiment. That way you can sneak off when we are done and no one will notice," Sonya actually believed that this would work. But Richard did not share in Sonya's optimism,
"I'm not so sure that the big and powerful Russian government is going to let their favorite guinea pig just stroll out of the lab."
"Look, the reason that I am so sure about all of this, is that it's not you the lab wants. It's your clone. If I can get everything right, then it's going to be your clone that they want. He will, or at least your genes will, be unaffected or resistant to the radiation once we clone them," Sonya began to explain.
"You could at least tell me what it is that you are doing to me," he implored. Sonya explained to him the cloning process. "first, you need to understand the map of the human genome. Many scientists, before me, were able to map the genes of human DNA. Then, they cracked the code of how they interact with each other, however, this is not an exact science and we are still unsure about their interactions."
This seemed to worry Richard, "Are you telling me that although you can clone all of my genes, you don't know what how they will function in the clone?" Sonya told him that he was right, "and worse than that, we won't know how the clone will function at all until he does it." Richard responded, "Well, I would rather not try to speculate about that. So why don't you tell me more about those stomach cells."
Sonya laughed, and her dark eyes sparkled, "They aren't stomach cells silly! Human somatic cells, the cells involved in growth and normal life functions, but not reproduction, go through 5 cycles in order to replicate, allowing the organism to grow. It was theorized by Italian scientists that the genetic material involved in this replication, DNA, could be studied during anaphase. Anaphase, the fourth step in this complicated process, occurs after the DNA has replicated itself and is pulling away to form two identical cells. At this time, the DNA is unwound from its usual double helix structure and exposed to scientists under the electron microscope. It was in this condition that scientists removed the newly replicated DNA, about to become part of a new cell, and placed it into a glucose based petri-dish and allowed it to grow. Through a tedious process of extracting the DNA from every type of cell in the human body, from skin to organs to the brain, scientists were able to create an exact replica of the original human whose DNA was used: a clone was born. These newly formed clones are made entirely of somatic cells not gamete cells, those involved in reproduction. The belief behind cloning was that scientists would be able to clone human men in order to populate the earth. However, scientists we unable to extract replicated gamete cells and therefore all clones were sterile."
By this point, Richard was beginning to fall asleep. While Sonya knew that he needed his sleep and it would be selfish of her to keep him awake, she wanted to be able to talk to someone, Richard, and interact with a human. To keep him awake, she tried to make her story more interesting.
"It was in a dreary lab, under the constant supervision and bark of the Russian police, that these methods were slowly developed and perfected. It was a very difficult process, but someone had to do it," Sonya laughed to herself. "Many scientists were also working on these techniques, and while it was becoming increasingly easy to remove the replicated DNA, the ability to maintain the life of such an experiment had not been accomplished. Constantly surrounded by bright florescent lights, test tubes, bubbling beakers, and bunsen burners, I found a way to arrange and cultivate these cells so that they would adapt the shape and life functions of a human. These humans, clones, and the start of clones, were kept in gigantic warehouse-style labs and kept alive on respirators, incubators, and other machines." Sonya stopped here because she didn't want to scare Richard any more than she needed to about the long, painful process he was going through. Sonya shut off the lights in the lab, and went home for the day, to let both Richard and herself get some well deserved sleep.
CS86 was completed in the following nine months of 2073. And On May 3, 2034 this clone took his first steps into the world. It shocked the scientific world that both clone and original were alive and well at the end of the experiment. As expected, 86 was "born" with all of the qualities that Richard had, not only physical but mental as well. Their brains operated on the same wavelength and 86 had the ability to do anything that Richard could, including swindle the government. In the summer of 2074, 86 escaped from the laboratories of Nucleics International.
Once outside the white tiled walls of the lab, CS86 began to pick up where Richard left off, bringing a new kind of crime wave with him. Very few people were aware of the existence of a clone, no less a criminal one, and CS86 was able to commit fraud of all kind in Richard's name, including murder.
Table of Contents | Sophomore Projects
Chapter 3
Exploration
86 took a deep breath in his nose, let it fill his lungs, and noisily let it out his mouth. He had just climbed out the 5th floor window of Nucelics labs when he realized that he felt what was called sun on his arms and wind on his face. Although he was quite aware that he was naked and shouldn't be on the window ledge, he was also knew that he couldn't stand another moment in that stuffy laboratory. While he was standing outside, high up, naked on a ledge, in the brisk air, thoughts of safety and clothing did not cross 86's mind. He was far too busy looking at the skyline of the city. It was late morning and the sun was almost in its full glory. All around him, on the streets below, people were acting out the routine tasks of their day, hurrying to work or getting their morning coffee. One scene showed a mother struggling with her child to get him to cross the street and go to school. This small child greatly interested 86, so he decided to climb down the building for a closer look.
Once at street level he was able to see that the young boy was actually on the sidewalk crying. Although it was obvious that he was not in any pain or real danger, besides the first grade that it, 86 couldn't help but be frightened. He took one look at the tears from the boy's face and ran in the other direction. Midway through his flight toward safety, however, a police officer stopped him.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing!" she shouted. 86 was thoroughly confused by the uniformed duo and didn't know what to do. He considered running again, but that didn't get him very far with the scary little boy. Before he had time to think, however, the police officer and her partner put him in the back of their squad car. Once they arrived at the station, the officers went to find him some clothes before they could ID him. The first police officer teased her partner, "Maybe you should go check and see if he has his wallet on him."
Sitting on a bench, covered by a blanket, in the main lobby of the station, 86 was able to sit and observe the happenings around him. Half the people all seemed to be dressed in the same thing, dark blue bottom and light blue top. But the other half of the people in the station had on the same bracelets as him and wore all sorts of interesting, bright outfits. By the time his officers returned, 86 had gotten up to take a closer look around. He was standing near the door talking with an interesting young woman about why she was in the 9th precinct.
"Then those bums had the nerve to come into my home and pull me right out, right there in from of me kids. And Robbie wasn't no help. He just laid there on the couch, he didn't even want to get up. And I kept telling them that I wasn't the one who has the problem, I quit that stuff years ago, but Wanda, well, she's a whole 'nother story."
The officers interrupted their conversation to bring 86 into the processing room. Once he put on the dark green jumpsuit they found for him, he was scanned, prodded, and questioned. It was fairly late in the evening by the time they identified Richard Karpov. He didn't answer any of their questions, but he didn't need to because the retina scan and blood test to check his DNA were all that they needed. The county had access to the blood samples of every citizen in their jurisdiction and the computer had the DNA on file of everyone who was not. Although they were confused why he had been running down the street naked, the officers decided to let the morning shift sort it out and put 86 a cell for the night. A few hours later, curiosity got the better of him and 86 decided to explore a bit.
Meanwhile, inside the lab, Sonya had helped Richard escape from the control of the government and the lab. She was overcome with thoughts of worry and guilt. Perhaps it was because Sonya never had children of her own, but she couldn't help worrying about 86. "I hope he isn't hurt or in any kind of danger," she worried. Sonya didn't know what kind of social skills and abilities CS86 had. Although he had the exact DNA of Richard, he may have all the mental and social capacity of an actual newborn. She hadn't even inspected him yet, the lab had been so excited about his "birth" that he was whisked away from her before she could even determine if his vital signs were normal. Sonya was also very angry with herself. "Why had I been so cooperative?" she thought, "if I had just refused, or sabotaged the project, or worked slower none of this would have happened." And she was also angry for putting Richard through all of this. Who gave her the right to do this to him anyway. She used to accept the government as the answer to that, but not anymore. She didn't have time to worry about all of this now. All she wanted to do was get Richard to safety and find CS86. If anyone could find him, it was Sonya, she had after all, created him.
Richard was also full of questions as they began to leave the building, but Sonya had to keep him quiet until they were outside of the building, and away from the guards. Although Sonya didn't initially care if Richard was allowed to leave, she did begin to fear that he would not be able to go. The procedure had lasted for several months and left him quite weak. "Do you think he's dangerous?" Richard asked Sonya as the two were headed for her car in the damp parking garage. "I mean, he's not going to hurt anyone is he?"
"Why would you think that?" Sonya challenged, "he's just like any other person. I mean, he is a person. Well, actually, he's you."
Getting out of a county jail cell would have been no problem for the skills of Richard Karpov, and 86 was able to break out just as fast. He picked the lock with the aid of his show lace and proceeded to walk out. He was frightened by the guard who came running over to him to stop his escape. "You there! Halt! Halt where you are or I will fire!" Panicking, 86 ran at the guard, instead of away from her and shoved her into the adjacent wall. The guard slammed into the wall and her head hit the corner of the cement wall, fracturing her skull. 86 didn't realize she was dead, he didn't even see the blood splatter, before her body even hit the floor he was out the window and on street level.
Sonya knew that it would be easy to find 86, all she had to do was look for Richard. She did not want to, however, alarm the lab that Richard was missing, even though they would soon figure out that all three were gone. Using the alias that Richard was her ex-husband and she needed to track him down for alimony and child support, Sonya knew that she would gain the sympathy and help of an almost all female police force. Richard waited in the car as Sonya checked in at every local precinct until she found out that 86 had visited one of them.
"Yeah he was here all right," the desk sergeant informed Sonya, "but he has bigger problems to worry about than paying money to you. He escaped from here a few days ago after we picked him up, and he killed out night guard on his way out."
Sonya let out a small gasp of shock.
Sonya and Richard alike were both stunned to learn that 86 was capable of something like this. "Either he is very strong or he is very hostile," Richard noted, as the two discussed their plan of attack over greasy food in the car.
"It's not so much that he is hostile, Richard, but more that he is unaware of himself and his abilities," Sonya informed him. "Are you telling me that he has super human strength?" Richard gasped.
"Something like that. God, this is exactly what I was afraid of. I told them his would be a bad ideaÉthey wouldn't listen to me!" Sonya was getting hysterical, "this is all my fault," she sobbed. Richard told her to calm down and explain to him what she meant.
"Well, this is exactly what the government wanted. You know that they were the ones started the project, and kept it going with enormous funds. Richard, when I cloned you, we thought the final product would be an exact replica of you. However, to keep the fragile clone alive during the process, we had to inject it with hormones and steroids. This worked, however, it worked a little too well and now 86 has abnormal strength. The government wanted to make the clones in this way to produce strong soldiers for their army, ones that would could even be strong enough to withstand all the recent radiation. I never dreamed that this would happen; I didn't think that it would get out of control like this."
Richard leaned over from where he was in the drivers seat, and with his eyes still on the road he wiped the fresh tears off Sonya's face. "This isn't your fault," he started, "you said it yourself that once the technology became available anyone could clone. You weren't the only one working on this and others would have done it if you didn't. Let's not worry about what could have been done differently. Right now we need to find this thing and stop it before he hurts someone else."
"Stop calling him that. He isn't a thing, he is you! He is human in every way that you are, with feelings and emotions, the only difference is that he doesn't have his own unique set of DNA." Sonya exclaimed, almost mad at Richard. Richard began to disagree, "I know that you think this thing is alive, I'm not disputing that, it's just that I don't think its human. I mean, Sonya, do you really think it has a soul?"
But before Sonya could answer his question, a character that looked just like Richard ran into an adjacent alley. Sonya threw the car in gear and tore after him. Once the route became too narrow they abandoned the car and chased him on foot. Sensing capture, 86 became fearful and began to run even faster. He ran into a large shopping market. The sun was low on the horizon, creating a silhouette of the hundreds of busy shoppers and a shroud of protection for the fleeing fugitive.
"How are we supposed to find him?" shouted Richard to Sonya over the noise of the crowd.
"I don't know! We'll have to split up and look for him," and Sonya was off before Richard could even reply to her.
Afraid of the noise and crowds, 86 ran out of the plaza before the others even had a chance to find him. Before he existed, however, he managed to knock over several shop stands and plow through enough people to grab the attention of the guards. Noticing the commotion, several peace guards searched for the cause of the scene. However, the ones that they saw running were Richard and Sonya. The two were grabbed by the officers and handcuffed, despite their best efforts to escape.
All Sonya could think about was how guilty she felt. She thought to herself, "I started all of this. CS is in danger now. Richard will have to face incredible charges, and all of this is my fault."
Table of Contents | Sophomore Projects
Chapter 4
The Return
Reunited again inside the squad car, the two bandits were driven to the station. There, Richard was identified as a former tax criminal and recently wanted for murder in a local county. Richard was throw in jail to await a trial and sentencing, and while Sonya assumed that she would face similar consequences for helping him, much to her surprise she did not. Thanks to a massive DNA data base of all Russian citizens, the same data base that would soon convict Richard, Sonya was identified and grabbed up by the government. The police quietly destroyed her file and she was subsequently put back into Nucleics lab to continue cloning.
War and tensions were not the only thing that fueled the world at this point, as usual money also played an important role. In this high-tech world of computer run everything, fuel and resources were becoming increasingly expensive. In an effort to be safe, every citizen had to have not only their fingerprints on file with the police, but a sample of their blood, a retina scan, and a voice vibration recording. Most people didn't even know that all of this information had been recorded from them, no less what it could be used for.
Every day, as Sonya came into work at the lab, her routine in the morning was somewhat more sophisticated than punching a time card. From the moment she entered the dark parking garage with her classic model car, still running on gasoline, to the eye scan at the first door of the building, Sonya was being monitored.
"Sonya Hemminger, class D," she said into the microphone at the elevator buttons. "Thank you," came the mechanical reply of an automated computer, "what floor please?" it continued. Sonya replied, "Five."
The machine whizzed up the five floors in record time, and without the effects of dizziness from such a smooth ride. "Have a nice day Dr. Hemminger," clanked the machine. Sonya sighed, "I miss people."
And although Sonya did miss people, it was hard for her to miss what she barely had. Sonya had only ever had two friends, she didn't even truly know a handful of people. Most rushed through the day without bothering with anyone else. "You can't make money making friends," she could still hear one of her colleagues saying to her, this was of course after he declined to have lunch with her. But Sonya knew that from old books the world wasn't always like this. People used to interact with each other all the time, even at work. The office water cooler, morning meetings, and social drinks in the local bar after work hours were daily practices and very much an integral part of daily life. Husbands and wives used to rush home from work just to make love to each other. She wondered what happened to all of that.
As far as Sonya's life went, she need not look to old books to pine for the days of human interaction and friendships. When she was little there was Christopher and years later there was Miles, and then Richard. But one by one, she lost them all, and now she was alone again.
As the days rolled on and the soot filled clouds too, Sonya grew more and more depressed. While her days were filled with electrodes and test tubes, her thoughts were filled with longing, regret, and guilt.
One dreary day, Sonya heard a noise at the window of her lab. She brushed her auburn hair out of her face and looked up from the lab bench. Seeing nothing, she continued charting the growth of a liver tissue sample, but soon heard the noise again. This time someone stared back at her when she looked up. Startled, Sonya let out a small gasp but could not find her breath.
She found herself looking at the face of a ghost, a face that she knew well, but a face that was gone all the same, or at least she had thought so. Someone at the lab had confirmed her fears about Richard last week. He had told Sonya that Richard was tried for several crimes, including tax fraud, violating parole, resisting arrest, and murder. Sonya's heart dropped when she heard the news about his sentence: life in prison. Although she knew all along that this would probably be the outcome, but Sonya had secretly hoped otherwise.
Then he entered the room, through the window, and stood before her, a young strong man with a confused look on his face. It was also visible from his mannerisms and smell that he hadn't showered or eaten in several days.
Sonya searched his face for recognition but could find none. "Doesn't he know who I am?" she thought to herself, "why won't he say anything?"
He didn't seem nervous to her, he coolly walked in, picked up lab instruments, and inspected everything with the curiosity of a child and the intelligence of a man. Initially, Sonya looked at him and saw Richard, as anyone would, the two were mirror images. Although identical in looks, Sonya knew, or more she felt, that this was not Richard. This was him, the clone, her clone, her creation, her childÉ
The silence of her thoughts and the still room were interrupted by the small popping of breaking glass against the cool tile floor. 86 had dropped the test tube her was examining, causing both of them to jump a little. Feeling the tension in the room that wasn't just coming from the broken glass, Sonya reached down to pick up the pieces and help him clean it up. As she bent down to scoop up the larger pieces of glass, CS did the same and they almost bumped heads. Sonya allowed her own nervousness to come to the surface in a surprised short giggle. She began to laugh even harder when CS began laughing. She paused to watch him touching the glass, worried that he might cut himself. The instinct came so quickly she wondered if it was maternal. He stood up and looked at her, guilt streamed across his face; her heart went out to him.
"Don't worry," she assured him, not speaking just about the glassware, "I have dozens more just like this one." He blinked at her, and Sonya thought, "My God, he has no idea what I am saying." Yet he almost seemed to try to listen as she spoke, and as soon as he did Sonya felt guilt. "I can't believe that I abandoned you," she told him, half apologizing and half rationalizing to herself. As more and more emotions swelled through her, Sonya found that she needed to sit down. 86 did the same on an adjacent lab stool.
Suddenly Sonya was worried about someone coming into the lab and finding them here, finding CS. Since he was legally lab property of Nucleics, they would probably want him back, to return him to his lab table for more research. Sonya visibly cringed at the thought. CS cringed as well, and Sonya laughed nervously again. She got up, crossed the room to the door, her heels clicking on the hospital white tile floor. Sonya closed the door and turned around again to face him, being careful to move slowly as not to startle him.
She also, became aware that his dark probing eyes were watching her, almost studying her. Despite the fact that she didn't know if he could understand her, Sonya spoke, "How did you get back here? I wonder why you would come back here. I mean, there are some days that I consider escaping myself, but I never really knew how to do it." Secretly, Sonya knew that it wasn't a matter of knowing how, but rather being too afraid to leave. While the lab was harsh, and the people in it even more mean, it had become her home. "Perhaps you feel the same way too," she thought, looking at CS.
"I wish Richard were here," she pined aloud, "he would know what to do. But maybe it is better that the two of you should never meet." CS stood up off his chair and stretched, then sat back down again. Sonya continued, "I wish I could tell you that I was sorry, I know that life outside is not easy for you. I wish you could stay here with me," but she knew that this was selfish, "I'm so alone, and you are too I suppose. You could stay with me and I could teach you things about the world. Oh, how I wish Richard was here." Or maybe I really miss Miles.
Her eyes began to water, and CS looked at her with confusion. Sonya wondered what of the world he had seen, and where he had been, even more than that, she wished he could tell her. All she knew was that he had killed a guard, he committed murder. But somehow, sitting peacefully in front of her, he didn't seem like he was capable of that. He seemed more like an innocent child than a calculating killer. "Maybe this is what comes of my research," Sonya told him. "I spend years of my life working on this, and for what? So you can be alone and so innocent people can die," guilt swelled through her.
With tears in her eyes, Sonya stood to turn and look out the window. The grimy city lay stretched out before her. The soft wail of sirens could be heard in the distance. A man stood on the corner below, trying to read a newspaper in the wind. His blonde hair reminded her even more of the ache she felt for her dead husband. Sonya wished he were here now. She wished that the war had never started and that the bombs were never deployed. She began to cry for Miles, and herself, for Richard sitting in jail, and for poor, confused CS. She was so angry with herself for having been a part of the cloning program, although seeing CS again made her feel more guilty than angry. By now she was crying so hard that she didn't even hear CS get up and walk to the door. He turned and looked at her, then walked through the door and left as quietly as he came in.