BETA
(started from the mind of JoLyn)
(JoLyn)
Beta sat obediently with her arms folded upon the desk just as the rest of her classmates did. She was used to school; in fact she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t had some kind of formal education. But this Pathways class was definitely the one she had been both anticipating and dreading for as long as she could remember too. Professor Emil’s face suddenly flickered on the screen set inside Beta’s desk. “Students,” the Professor announced warmly, “please begin the following assignment. When you are finished, you may review the coding sequences from last term’s course. I will join you shortly.”
Beta and the other clones got to work immediately. Beta didn’t have any firsthand knowledge, but she believed her teachers when they said the children’s colonies were much better behaved than the natural-born schools. Choosing exactly who should be cloned led to a very subservient and intelligent community.
The new assignment quickly behind her, Beta looked around the room before starting in on the review work. Her classmates all had their heads studiously bowed over the screens. Beta had great affection for the others. Not only were they fellow students, but they were the only constant family she had. Teachers and caregivers came in and out of their lives but this cohort had been together for fifteen years. They had been raised together in the dormitories, learned to walk and talk and read and calculate and exercise and cook and clean and care for themselves and each other together.
And now, this class was going to determine their futures. Because society told them that they were soon going to need to specialize and give back to the communities that had supported and raised them for so long. Supposedly, Beta and everyone else’s abilities and talents had been analyzed for their entire lives and would help determine their assignments. Beta, however, suspected that science and statistics had determined what her career would be long before she was born; that she had been cloned with the intention of filling a projected position in twenty years.
A large proportion of Beta’s cohort would be trained for human care—either within the children’s colonies or with the geriatric class. With modern medicine, the elderly were living longer and longer and the group was always expanding. And to provide adequate touch, mental stimulation, nutrition and education to the children, a huge corps of caregivers was needed. The world had learned over the years from dismal orphanages how not to care for parentless children. The children’s colonies were actually a warm and wonderful place to grow up in. Society funded and knew how to take care of the people it created. But it took an awful lot of work. No wonder so many humans were opting out of parenting. The toll on two people to provide for a single child was enormous both financially and emotionally. And really, what was the payoff? So much invested and so little return for the parents. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on a single child and then that child was sent out into the world and provided for him or herself and paid taxes and contributed to society, but it never trickled back to the parents in any concrete form to repay them for their childrearing efforts.
At one time, everyone had been so worried about overpopulation. When the birthrate dipped below the replacement levels of 2.1 and kept falling and falling, people were thrilled for a while. Environmentally, a decreased population was excellent news. But, it didn’t take too long to realize that a falling population equaled economic disaster. There were simply not enough workers to support the aging class. New support systems were in place now, but Social Security in the United States and other programs like it had gone under before people could understand how to deal with the upside down demographics. It was the first time in the history of the world that sustained underpopulation had wreaked havoc on economic systems—systems that had been created with the supposition that the human race would never cease to expand. The government had created the cloning systems to prop up what everyday humans were failing to deliver—human capital in the form of workers.
People could opt in to the cloning program upon their death, much like they could choose to be an organ donor. Beta had heard that most people chose to be included in the selection pool. A lot of people liked the idea of giving their genes another lifetime of opportunity even if it was for a clone. But, not many people were actually chosen to be replicated. There was always a careful balance between natural reproduction and the cloning program. Governments aimed for a very slight population growth to sustain their economies. Governments could afford to be choosy about which characteristics they gave second life to.
The advantage to natural conception is that sometime genetics deals an amazing hand and society ends up with a genius. Of course, most naturals are just ordinary folks. And the harsh reality of random conception is the unintentional creation of a psychopath. But society had been dealing with evil for millennia. And society would continue to deal with the whole range of human variation, because for whatever reason—religion, biological drive, hubris—some people still decided to go natural and create and raise their own children. The cloning program was a safeguard to keep society running steadily while humans constantly introduced surprises to it.
Beta looked up as Professor Emil and three members of the board entered the room. This was it. This is where Beta would receive her Pathways assignment. She had imagined that there would somehow be more ceremony when she found out what her future held. “Students,” Professor Emil began, “as you well know, this Pathways class is where your futures will begin to divide, where you will begin to specialize in the career that has been chosen for you. We believe that each pathway will be well suited to your unique talents and abilities. This will be an opportunity for you to give back to the society that has raised and nurtured you. We thank you in advance for your humility in accepting your assignments. Please stand when your name is called.”
(Heather)
“Kyros,” Professor Emil called out, and the boy sitting in the front row stood up solemnly. “Please join Professor Standish.” Kyros pushed in his chair and stood next to the elderly professor with gray whiskers.
“Zeta,” Professor Emil continued, and the girl who had sat next to Beta ever since primary school, stood up. They had been together as long as Beta could remember. Were they going to finally go their separate ways now? Beta could see Zeta’s hands shaking slightly as she clasped them together. “Please join Professor Ramirez.”
“Theta,” Professor Emil said. “Please join Professor Whitley.”
The names continued until all twenty-nine students were grouped with one of the three professors at the front of the room. All except Beta.
“Students, you will go with your assigned professors, where your detailed assignments will be distributed,” Professor Emil said evenly. Several of the students were looking questioningly at Beta, who was still seated at her desk. Panic began to well up inside Beta’s chest. Where was she supposed to go? Why hadn’t Professor Emil given her an assignment?
The three teachers filed out of the room, their students following obediently and quietly behind. Zeta gave Beta a questioning glance as she left. Beta shrugged her shoulders slightly, indicating she did not know what was happening.
Finally the room was empty, except for Professor Emil who was still standing at the front examining his pocket screen. Beta waited for several minutes, but he did not look up.
“Professor?” she said timidly.
He looked up, saw Beta still sitting in her seat, and looked down at his screen again.
“Yes, Beta,” he finally said. “I am sure you are wondering where you are to go.”
Professor Emil pocketed his screen and continued. “Follow me, please,” he said, and began walking out of the room.
Beta scurried from behind her desk and followed the professor down the hall. They entered the transportation tube and Professor Emil stepped forward, pressing the flat button which read “236.” Beta had never been past level 75 in The Training Center’s building. There was a woosh in her stomach as the tube shot upward silently to level 236.
When the doors to the tube slid open Beta let out a small gasp. The walls of level 236 appeared to be all made of crystal clear glass. She could look out across at the tall blocks of glass structures which surrounded The Training Center, each one glowing with the reflected light of the sun, nearly blinding her with their brightness. Beta spent very little time outdoors. Her training was mostly done within the walls of The Training Center, with occasional breaks out on the Green Space, a covered patio outside their dorm rooms surrounded by trees growing in pots. But the view from their patio only faced an ancient brick wall, supposedly built back in the twenty-first century. Beta had hardly ever seen true sunlight. Her world had consisted mostly of the artificially simulated sunlight of The Training Center, meant to mimic the effect of natural sunlight’s rays on the body without the harmful side effects. After looking out the window at the burst of light catching her eyes, Beta decided that no matter how perfect science was at recreating the elements of some things, they weren’t necessarily able to capture the true essence of what sunlight really was. This world, the real world, looked different.
Professor Emil was already half way down the hall. Beta spun and hurried to catch up, but couldn’t help staring down at the world outside as she ran to follow him.
At the end of the hall there was a white door with the word “PROHIBITED” on the panel next to it in faintly glowing letters. Professor Emil swiped his fingers across the side panel, illuminating a key pad, into which he typed a long code of twenty three numbers and letters. Beta wasn’t trying to remember these details, it was just how her brain operated, but the sequence stayed in her mind anyway. She had always been able to calculate long series of numbers or lists of sequences word for word. She assumed it was part of her genetic makeup.
The door slid to the side and Beta followed the professor into the brightly lit room. The room was surrounded on two sides by the same floor to ceiling glass windows, evidently being in the corner of the building. In the center there was a large round table with twenty people sitting around it. They were working on screens which were housed within the white surface of the table. Upon their entering, however, they each looked up. Their screens went blank and it looked like a bare round table. Beta stopped at the door.
Professor Emil went around toward the head of the table directly facing the door, where a large black chair was situated between two other workers. He stood behind the chair, resting his hands on its back, and looked at her for a few moments.
It seemed as if time had stopped and was standing still. There was the professor, along with all twenty other people dressed in their crisp white uniforms staring blank-faced at her. Their faces held no expression, neither approving or disapproving. More like appraising, Beta thought.
Beta wondered if she had done something wrong. She couldn’t remember ever disobeying any rules of The Learning Center, not even once. She always did her work, and quite efficiently she thought, usually finishing way ahead of her peers. There must be some sort of misunderstanding.
But then she thought of the psychological tests. The students underwent psychiatric evaluations at frequent intervals to help determine how they were coping with the training program, or if they were exhibiting any signs of rebellion, or what they termed “atrophy.” Although cloning had been around for over one hundred years now, the first few generations had a higher risk of subjects reverting to primitive forms of violent behavior or even collapsing into a sudden catatonic state. Science had been efficient at weeding out the abnormal genes which would malfunction under the stress of cloning. The odds of an Atrophy was almost nonexistent by this point.
Beta’s psych tests had always been strange, however. As the technician would administer different visual stimuli she would occasionally have bizarre visions within her mind. Once, three years ago, she had mistakenly verbalized the image that she saw in her mind. Due to the instantaneous reaction of her technician, Beta realized that what she was experiencing was not considered “normal.” She was evaluated by the head psychologist after that, and was put under constant watch for the following month. Beta learned to keep her mouth shut. But the visions kept coming, creeping into her thoughts when she would least expect it. She almost wondered if the evaluation test had triggered the reaction in her mind, since she did not remember having any issues of visions prior to that, but there was no one that she could trust to ask. She could be labeled an Atrophy and kicked out of the program, presumably sent to a special concentration-type camp, since the atrophied clones could not be trusted among the normal humans.
What if her suspicious psych exam from three years before was enough of a black mark on her record for her to not be eligible for an assignment? No one spoke of these things, since no one remained who could tell of it.
Finally Professor Emil spoke. “Beta. I am sure you are wondering why I have brought you here,” he paused long enough for her to nod a slight affirmative to his assumption. “Your test results have been inconclusive. We have monitored your advancement through the program, and although your academic marks are continually stellar, there are some testing results which raise some concerns.”
Beta looked down at the floor. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear what was coming next.
“I submitted my concerns to the Federation of Cloning Control. Their response was surprising, to say the least.”
Was this the part where she would be labeled as an Atrophy?
“It appears that the FCC is already aware of your status. They will be here shortly to take you. I hate to see such a valuable clone, one who has exhibited such remarkable traits, go to waste at a pointless camp so I voiced my concern. They then divulged some classified information about your past. I cannot say why this information was not given to me from the start, but they insisted that secrecy and seclusion was their top priority.”
Beta looked up at Professor Emil, a confused expression on her face.
“What are you trying to tell me, Professor?” she asked, her voice quavering slightly.
“Beta, the girl whose DNA, which you share and are identical to, is still alive.”
(Frances)
“How is that possible?” the words were out of Beta’s mouth before she even realized she was talking and not thinking the words. The people around the table shifted uncomfortably in their seats and she realized it was very forward of her to question one of her professors. especially Professor Emil but the words were said so she waited quietly, with her hands held in front of her, for an answer.
“Beta, please come here and sit down,” was Professor Emil’s answer. She walked calmly to the table even though she was shaking slightly. She was fearful, not just worried or concerned, and it was a new sensation in her life. Professor Emil turned to the rest of the clones at the table, “Everyone else is dismissed. Please meet Professor Green on level 201 as there will be no further work here until after the federation has come and collected Beta.” The clones rose and left as a group. There were no backward glances at Beta, no looks of sympathy for her plight, nothing. They just left. Beta hoped her friend Zeta wouldn’t turn into someone like that.
Professor Emil sat down. “Beta, I don’t know how this happened and I don’t know why it happened and I don’t really know what is going to happen. I am especially perturbed that I was not informed of this earlier but the fact is that the Federation is on their way to collect you. You are not an atrophy but I assume you will be going to a camp to live out your life in whatever useful way they deem appropriate, probably in hard labor. I am telling you this because I want you to be prepared for what lies ahead. We have not trained you for such things but you are a capable clone, one of the best in your class, and I know you can make the most of it.”
They sat in silence. She was not an atrophy but something far worse, a clone of someone alive. What would they do with her? She looked around the room and thought about what was to come. She had a fleeting thought of escape but realized she did not know how to leave the building let alone live anywhere outside of this building. She had spent her entire existence here. She was to be here until her Pathway was chosen but she had not expected this. She heard the whirling of the helicopter before she saw it landing on the pad outside her glass cell. As soon as the helicopter landed, two men dressed in black jumped out and moved toward the glass room she was in. This was it, they would be taking her to her future.
Professor Emil stood up, “Don’t forget the skills we taught you here. I hope they may be of some use to you in your future.”
Beta looked at him in confusion. She did not know how anything she had learned would help her in the atrophy camps. When the doors opened the room was filled with the noise of the helicopter and she turned back toward the men entering the room. One was carrying a clipboard and he consulted it as the doors closed and the room was left in relative silence. “Professor Emil?” asked the man with the clipboard.
“Yes.”
“Beta?” asked the man again, looking in her direction.
“Yes,” responded Professor Emil.
The man without the clipboard took Beta’s arm and led her to the doors.
“Thank-you Professor Emil. That will be all.”
All three of them left through the doors. The man holding Beta tipped down her head and led her to the helicopter. She was helped in by another man who was in the helicopter and he strapped her in. As soon as straps locked, the helicopter started to take off. The men scrambled to get their straps on. It seemed like a hasty departure. As they were leaving, she saw another helicopter in the distance. She had never seen one helicopter and now she had seen two in the same day.
As they flew through the air, she contemplated her simple Pathways ceremony and how it had taken a turn she couldn’t have conceived that morning. She was in a helicopter, flying to an uncertain destiny. She realized as she looked around at the buildings, the sky and the sun that the world was exactly like her computers depicted. She wished she was back with Zeta working in the children colonies or the geriatric class. She did not want to be on her way to the atrophy camps.
They had been flying through the air for awhile when Beta noticed a helicopter in the distance. She could not help but wonder if there was another clone as confused and befuddled as she was in that helicopter who was headed to an atrophy camp as well, perhaps the same camp as she since they seemed to be travelling in the same direction. Beta closed her eyes and rested. She had not slept well last night. She had been nervous about receiving her assignment today. Nothing she had thought possible last night had come true today. She sighed and eventually she slept.
Beta opened her eyes and felt very confused. At first she could not remember where she was but then the entire day’s events came rushing back at her. She was still in the helicopter but the scenery had changed. There were mountains and trees now where before there had been only buildings and cement. This fascinated her. Perhaps the atrophy camp wouldn’t be so bad if it was in the mountains.
She felt the descension of the helicopter and was glad they were in the mountains but there did not seem to be anywhere to land let alone a camp below them. They gradually came to a flat area and the helicopter landed. Men jumped out from behind the trees and started putting brush and small bushes around the bottom of the helicopter before the blades had even stopped. The man with the clipboard undid her straps for her and jumped down out of the helicopter. He reached for her hand and helped her out of the helicopter.
“Beta, please follow me,” he said. Beta followed him into the woods where there appeared to be a small opening into a cave in the ground. He lowered himself into the cave and then one of the men from the helicopter assisted her as she shimmied through the hole. It was very dark with only a small light coming from the cave opening. She moved forward to allow the other men to enter behind her. The man with the clipboard turned on a powerful flashlight and indicated she should follow him. The men behind her also had flashlights so the way was lit very well. Beta was glad for the light. They wound through many tunnels that branched off in different directions. She saw people who seemed to be working in different parts of the tunnels and wondered if that was what she would be doing soon. They came to a small room that was lit by a lamp overhead and which had a table set up in the middle. Men and women were seated all around it. They seemed to be having a heated discussion until she entered the room and then everyone grew quiet.
“Sir,” said the man with the clipboard, “this is Beta.”
“Ahh, Beta,”said the man at the head of the table, “we have been waiting for you. Gam, get your sister. Beta, you can be seated over there by the wall.”
Gam, the man with the clipboard, left the room and Beta sat quietly against the wall. The discussion continued and Beta tried not to listen overly much. She could not understand what they were talking about anyway. Beta waited patiently in her chair and after a few minutes Gam came in, followed by a girl. They moved to the head of the table. Gam’s sister was in his shadow on the far side of him so Beta could not see her very well.
The man at the head of the table beckoned to her. “Beta, come here please. I’d like you to meet Zenith.”
Beta moved to the head of the table where the man was standing. She looked over to greet Zenith and got the shock of her life. She started to shake and her knees got wobbly. She felt like she was looking in a mirror at herself only it wasn’t herself she was looking at, it was Zenith, Gam’s sister.
(Thelma)
The girl, Zenith, who was the mirror image of Beta, stared at her clone with the same look of confusion and wonder that Beta had on her face. Everyone around them was silent for a few minutes then Gam spoke, “This is exactly what we needed.” The heated discussion began again. It was too much for Beta. She was used to order and quiet and things that made sense. This day had been one where nothing made sense. She had been uprooted from the only life she’d ever known, she’d been told that she was different from every other clone and now she met a girl that was her replica. It was too much. The edges of Beta’s vision darkened and then she slipped to the ground and all was black.
When Beta awakened, she was on a cot under a scratchy blanket. A woman with shiny black hair and smiling eyes was standing nearby, seemingly watching over her. Beta tried to sit up, “Who--”
“Shh,” the woman said with a kind smile, “Relax, dear. You’ve had quite a day and I’m not sure what they were thinking giving you a shock like that. Please, let me explain. You just lay back and rest.”
Beta settled back onto the cot but she didn’t relax. Her insides felt coiled in a tight spring. “I’m Min,” the woman said, extending her hand for Beta to shake.
“I’m Beta.”
“Oh yes,” Min said, “we all know you. You’ve become something of a mascot around here. A reason why we are fighting for our cause.”
“Fighting?”
“Yes,” Min said, “we have all escaped in some way or another. We don’t like the Society. We don’t like the idea of cloning and assigning pathways. We are about freedom.”
“Freedom?” Beta asked.
“An antiquated idea,” Min said with a laugh, “call us old-fashioned.”
“But--” Beta began.
“Let me just begin at the beginning,” Min said, “I’m terrible at getting ahead of myself.” Min pulled a stool up to the side of the bed and with her chin in her hand, started her story. “There have always been those that didn’t like the cloning. We have tried our best to keep clear of it and we’ve encouraged others not to donate their DNA. There’s something very appealing about living on after you die though. Few people listen. It’s also difficult because we have to work in secret. The Society wouldn’t like us persuading others to have more children. We have a few influential helpers though that further our cause. Emil for example.”
“Professor Emil?” Beta asked.
“Why yes,” Min said, “Since he is inside The Training Center, he can keep us abreast of any comings and goings. He lets us know when someone has been taken to an Atrophy Camp and we try to intercept the transport. We want as many clones that are too rebellious to be useful to the Society on our side as we can get. Unfortunately Atrophies are few and far between. Recently, Emil let us know about you. The Society made a mistake with you.” Min looked up at Beta and could see the girl’s forehead furrow. “No, I don’t mean YOU are a mistake. The Society is a mistake. They clone like there’s no meaning in life, like people are nothing more than the sum of their DNA. They weren’t supposed to clone someone still living though.”
“Zenith?” Beta asked.
“Yes,” Min said. “It’s helpful to our cause that we have you now. Together you and Zenith will be a very obvious reason why the Society must be stopped. Of course, there’s also something very unsettling in all of this.” Min suddenly looked very uncomfortable.
“What is it?” Beta asked. To her the whole thing was unsettling, she may as well know all of the truth.
“It’s a question of how the Society got the DNA.”
“Which DNA?” Beta asked. “The DNA is provided by donors,” she recited. Every clone knew that fact.
“Your DNA,” Min said. “How did they get Zenith’s DNA? Zenith is the daughter of Diana Palmer who is the daughter of our founder and leader, Faxon Swindon.”
“I’ve never heard of any of these people,” Beta said. None of this made any sense to her and she wanted to go back to the Learning Center and get an assignment like all of her friends.
“Of course you haven’t,” Min said. “Some of us are worried though. If they got a sample of Zenith’s DNA, who else have they taken DNA from? Also, they must have someone inside our ranks. How else could they have taken Zenith’s DNA?”
There was a knock on the door and then the door opened. In walked Zenith followed by a woman that looked just like her. Min stood. “Diana, Zenith,” she said deferentially. Min ducked her head and took several steps back. Beta stared up into another face that mirrored her own.
(JoLyn)
Or on closer inspection, mirrored her own as she might look in 20 years. Beta felt off balance and had to drop her gaze before Diana did. Although they were officially discouraged from speculating, Beta had often sat up at night with the girls in the dormitories, wondering whose DNA she might have inherited. Diana cleared her throat causing Beta to look at her again. Diana smiled, but the warmth didn’t quite reach her eyes. She extended a hand. “Welcome, Beta.” Zenith stood to the back, her arms folded. “You will be well cared for here.” Diana nodded once and then checking her clipboard, practically marched out of the room. Beta had been dismissed.
Beta looked around uncertainly and saw that Zenith was appraising her from the far side of the room, her forehead furrowed. Beta recognized that face. It was the same one she made when she was working on a particularly tricky data set at school. Despite drastically different environments, the two girls were genetic equals. Perhaps in a world where nothing was making sense, Beta might discover a little predictability after all. Would knowing herself make knowing Zenith and possibly Diana inevitable? How different could they be after all?
Beta found herself standing a little taller, aping Zenith’s stance. Unlike her encounter with Diana, her realization made her feel bold and she stared back at Zenith, assessing her in the same way her twin did her. Zenith met her gaze and the two locked eyes. Beta knew she could win any staring contest. And she was sure Zenith thought she could too. How long would this last before one of them finally flinched? Just as Beta’s eyes began to burn, Zenith broke the tension by laughing and walking forward toward Beta. She grabbed her by the arm. “Come on, I don’t want to see what we would do to ourselves in order to win that game. There’s no losers today. I’ll show you around the place. You can share my room.”
Adjusting to life in a cave wasn’t hard--Beta was used to the confines of the Training Center after all. But it was disappointing to be stuck inside again after receiving one of her first glimpses of the great outdoors on the helicopter ride in. Zenith took Beta under her wing and introduced her to life on the compound. Zenith was probably a year older than Beta. She was more muscular too with a no-nonsense, sleek haircut. She strode about the compound with a power that Beta found difficult to emulate. Beta retained her long ponytail and deferential demeanor that had been been a way of life at the Training Center. People deferred to Zenith. No one deferred to Beta. Beta couldn’t help thinking that Zenith was a much better version of herself.
Beta wondered what she might have become if she had been raised by a family. All her life, she’d been told the natural-born world was so risky--that it had none of the controls that assured a quality upbringing. Now Beta was jealous of the life she had never had. Beta felt disappointed that Diana remained aloof. Beta knew that Zenith and her mother interacted quite frequently, but Diana never had more than a few words for Beta when they ran into each other.
Despite Zenith’s guidance, Beta felt at loose ends. Everyone was busy doing something--bringing down the Society undoubtedly, but the details of how that was happening were not disclosed to Beta. No one asked for her help. She knew her way around the cave and had memorized its myriad passageways with ease once the initial shock of being there wore off. But she was not invited in anywhere unless she was accompanying Zenith.
Beta tried to keep herself busy while she awaited Zenith’s return to the room. Once again, Beta had been stymied from hacking into the compound’s system. The encryption protecting the system was complex, but she was getting closer each time she tried. No one had provided a password to her and she thought if she could just hack in and find some game to play or something she wouldn’t go crazy. Or she might discover some of the things that no one was bothering to tell her about.
Beta jumped up from the table and its screen as she heard Zenith begin to open the bedroom door. She jumped on the cot she’d been sleeping on for the last week and tried to look calm.
“Don’t try to look all innocent,” Zenith said as soon as she caught sight of Beta. “I know exactly what you’re doing. It’s the same thing I would be doing if left to my own devices in your situation.” Beta had discovered already that she and Zenith could practically read each other’s thoughts. Even with different upbringings, there was so much DNA prewired in their brains that there wasn’t much they could hide from each other. There were too many tells.
“Can’t you just enlighten me a little bit?” Beta implored.
Zenith sighed and checked the lock on the door before she turned to Beta. “I don’t know why they don’t want you to know things, but as long as you’re here, I think it’s only fair for you to know what’s going on.” Zenith took a deep breath and considered her words before continuing. “As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I’m actually Diana’s clone. I’m an experiment. Our cause wanted to see what it could do with a clone that grew up in a natural-born world.” Beta wasn’t shocked. Even though 20 or more years separated Diana and Zenith, it was obvious that there was much more to their similarity than the normal mother/daughter resemblance. Zenith continued. “Gam is a clone too. Of our father. He died when we were both young so I never really knew him. But I know Gam of course and people say it’s pretty much the same thing.”
“Are there more clones here?” Beta asked, hoping there might be someone who had shared her upbringing.
“Gam and I are the only non-society clones. Our cause decided to take a different direction after we were born. There are a couple atrophies though--ones that we were able to intercept before the camps. Like we did with you.” Zenith paused here and Beta knew intrinsically that she was holding something back.
Beta didn’t even speak. She just raised her eyebrows questioningly.
“It’s just the atrophies can be a little off sometimes,” Zenith finished.
Nobody had ever really been off that Beta could remember. All her life, her cohort had developed as expected. Except, of course, for her.
“Speaking of things being a little off . . .” Zenith’s voice trailed away and Beta knew what was coming next. She glared at Zenith who recognized Beta’s annoyance, but chose to ignore it. “So the problem with you, obviously, is that we don’t know how you got created.” Beta suspected that was why she wasn’t trusted here yet. She gained some respect by hanging with Zenith, but everyone was still standoffish. “We’re not sure if you’re my clone or Diana’s. Either way, your existence is frightening to a lot of people.”
Talking about this made Beta feel sick to her stomach. It was the elephant in the room that no one discussed with her, but kept her up at night. One of the tenets of cloning was to never clone a clone. Science had progressed enough that if the original DNA remained uncontaminated, then an indefinite number of clones could be made from the source material. But, to clone a clone? Beta’s felt her heart thud. Every time a clone is made, a little information gets dropped. The telomerase buffering the ends of the gene sequence drop off with each successive cloning, leaving the resulting individual vulnerable to premature aging and cancers. You should always work with source material. Beta hadn’t felt any effects yet, but if she was a clone of a clone, maybe her time was limited. She had spent time in the ramshackle medical unit where her blood was analyzed, but no one had determined exactly whether Diana or Zenith was her original source material.
Beta wished she could rewind to a week ago when life was more predictable and precise. She would take the uncertainty of her Pathways class anytime to what she was facing now. She used to know who she was--just Beta. Not Zenith or Diana’s freakish twin. Not possibly a clone of a clone.
Beta was tired of being the compound’s mascot. Most people were friendly enough. They gave nice smiles and fleeting hellos as they rushed past her on their way to something more important. And for some reason, people seemed rather cheered by her presence, but it all seemed superficial. No one but Zenith was taking the time to get to know her. Beta was surprised no one patted her on the head as they rushed by. Beta was realizing that mascots have no voice and she knew she wanted one.
Finally, Beta was called to appear before the council.
“Don’t worry,” Zenith reassured her as Beta readied herself in front of Zenith’s mirror. She was borrowing some of Zenith’s clothes--nothing too dramatic, but everything felt like a big change after her drab training school uniform that she had worn some version of her whole life. “Everyone wants you to be here. That’s why we risked so much to get our helicopter in first before the FCC could nab you.”
Zenith led Beta to the assembly room and gave her one last smile. She opened the door and directed Beta to stand at the front, while she found an empty stretch of wall and leaned against it. Beta looked levelly at the room. A dozen leaders occupied comfortable chairs around a trapezoid shaped table. Diana sat alone at the smaller base of the table. Other members of the Cause crowded around the perimeter of the room. Beta felt as though she were on trial.
“Beta,” Diana began. “We are happy you are here. We have rescued you from the Society and from a life of toil in the Atrophy camps. As you might surmise, there is danger involved with what we do and the Society would like to bring us down in any way possible. We cannot risk Zenith’s life and frankly, I am invaluable too. I’m sure you will agree that the Society must not be successful in thwarting us. We invite you to join us. To . . .” And here Diana paused and uncharacteristically fidgeted with her papers, “. . .to essentially work as a decoy in case a mission calls for it.”
One of Beta’s eyebrows arched upward of its own accord. “Really? You want me as a body double?”
Beta glanced around the room. Zenith stared at the ground and her body language indicated to Beta that she didn’t know this was coming. She finally looked up and met Beta’s gaze and then almost imperceptibly shook her head no.
It was bad enough that almost everyone expected Beta to jump right in with the kind of zeal only a lifelong member of the Cause could muster. They were trying to take down the Society and stop cloning. What was so wrong with cloning anyway? If cloning was so wrong, what must they all think of her?
And it didn’t even make sense. The Society knew what she looked like already. Surely they knew Diana existed and possibly Zenith too. Certainly if she was Zenith’s clone--which was still a question that needled Beta’s every waking moment like a stubborn sliver--they knew she existed. What did she really know about the Cause?
Beta again looked around the room. At the eager, open faces. Would she join?
“Beta?” Diana asked in a tone that demanded an answer to the invitation, but also went beyond that, to inquire about Beta herself.
Beta continued her frozen stance. Had her life as a clone been so bad? She had the esteem of her cohort family. She had always known that she had been created to fulfill an express need in the community. The whole room was aware of Zenith and Diana’s intelligence and yet, they didn’t want to put Beta’s formidable mind to work. They only wanted her because she could protect Zenith by playing the part of imposter. She knew she could serve them so much better by putting her intellect to use. Did they doubt her intelligence? Were they prejudiced because she was possibly a clone of a clone raised by the Society? Was her life worth less than Zenith’s because she wasn’t raised by a family?
And could she even trust these people? What would the FCC have really done if it had gotten its hands on her? Who’s to say she would have even ended up in an Atrophy camp?
All these questions zapped through Beta’s neurons as she stood like a statue at the base of the trapezoid table.
“I decline.” Beta’s voice was low in volume, but strong in conviction.
The assembly was audibly surprised. The whole room squirmed. “I urge you to reconsider,” Diana intoned.
Beta gave no verbal response.
“What will you do Beta?”
Beta needed to discover who she was. Who was her unwilling donor? Diana or Zenith? What was Beta’s life story? Her origin? How did she come to live in the training center? There wasn’t even a term for a clone of a clone, if that was indeed what she was. Beta would have to make up her own term: c-squared maybe. Beta suspected that a lot of clones of clones never made it out of the petri dish--that it was generally incompatible with life. However she had gotten here, she was indeed alive and wanted to stay that way. Beta needed time to research who she was and she didn’t think that spending time risking her life for a cause she found suspect was a good way to accomplish that.
“I appreciate your hospitality and your kindness, but I cannot commit to your cause.”
Diana looked furious. “You are dismissed until further notice.”
Beta was escorted from the room, but was called back in shortly. She faced Diana and the assembly. “We are prepared to relocate you. But you should remember that you’re not set up to live life as a natural born,” Diana spoke, her words clipped, her tone disapproving. “Your training didn’t prepare you to fake yourself through life as anything but a clone. You’ll stick out. Your neighbors might not figure it out right away, but they’ll know there’s something different about you. We’ll take you to your home city and set you up in a housing arrangement, but if you refuse to work for the Cause, we will wash our hands of you. You will be responsible for getting a job and providing for yourself.”
Beta believed Diana’s words to be a lie. She was positive they would continue to monitor her as long as they were able. Maybe they were just trying to lull her into a false sense of security. She almost couldn’t believe they would let her go. She suspected she was of real worth to the Cause.
Zenith looked rather stricken. The two had become close over the few weeks Beta had stayed here. Beta felt bereft too. She had never lacked close friends within the self-containment of the training center, but her relationship with Zenith was different; the two had begun to feel like family.
“You are making a terrible mistake. And you are dismissed,” Diana announced pushing her chair back.
***************************
Beta shuffled the duffel bag between her feet, stuffed with clothes and toiletries that they had scrounged up at the compound. The helicopter whirred and Beta knew they would be entering the city soon. They were already starting to fly over habitation with the farms looking like patchwork down below. She squeezed Zenith’s hand. “Come with me! We could pose as twins,” she whisper/shouted into Zenith’s ear. The helicopter was full. There were other missions to run that day besides setting up Beta with a new life. No one turned to them. The chop chop of the helicopter disguised their conversation.
“The two of us together? Someone would figure out we were clones in no time. Besides, I’ve grown up here. The Cause is part of who I am. I can’t just abandon it. My mother would never forgive me,” Zenith lamented.
Beta wondered why Diana had never seemed to take more than a passing interest in her. Beta could certainly get inside Zenith’s head, but, for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why Diana did the things she did.
The helicopter landed on a skyscraper that bore practically no distinction from its neighbors. Beta knew she would remember--she always did, but wondered how most people found their way around. A leader that Beta had only met that morning led her from the helicopter. They hunch walked until they reached the safety of a doorway and beyond that an elevator. The leader tossed her tousled hair behind her and handed Beta a small device. Beta switched her duffel bag to the other hand and tried to scan through the device as the elevator quickly descended.
“You have all your info here. The address to the apartment. The rent is paid for the next two months. You’ll need to find work immediately if you want to keep your housing beyond that.” The floors sped by. “Your thumbprint will get you into the apartment.” The leader broke off from her monologue and waited until Beta looked her in the eye. “If you change your mind about working with us, there are instruction for how to contact Diana. It’s encoded in case you lose the device, but rumor has it you’ll be able to figure out the encryption and remember it.” The leader gave a brief smile and the elevator bounced slightly as it reached the main floor. “Good luck,” the leader instructed as she put her hand on Beta’s shoulder and gently pushed her out the metal doors. The elevator was gone again almost before Beta realized she was now alone. She walked across the abandoned lobby and peered out the great double doors. In all her life, Beta had never been alone. She considered the device and felt the weight of it in her hand. Her fist closed around it. She would keep it for now. She wasn’t quite ready to rid herself of the Cause for good.
Beta squared her shoulders and stepped out into the bustling sidewalk. She had chosen her new pathway.
Beta sat obediently with her arms folded upon the desk just as the rest of her classmates did. She was used to school; in fact she couldn’t remember a time when she hadn’t had some kind of formal education. But this Pathways class was definitely the one she had been both anticipating and dreading for as long as she could remember too. Professor Emil’s face suddenly flickered on the screen set inside Beta’s desk. “Students,” the Professor announced warmly, “please begin the following assignment. When you are finished, you may review the coding sequences from last term’s course. I will join you shortly.”
Beta and the other clones got to work immediately. Beta didn’t have any firsthand knowledge, but she believed her teachers when they said the children’s colonies were much better behaved than the natural-born schools. Choosing exactly who should be cloned led to a very subservient and intelligent community.
The new assignment quickly behind her, Beta looked around the room before starting in on the review work. Her classmates all had their heads studiously bowed over the screens. Beta had great affection for the others. Not only were they fellow students, but they were the only constant family she had. Teachers and caregivers came in and out of their lives but this cohort had been together for fifteen years. They had been raised together in the dormitories, learned to walk and talk and read and calculate and exercise and cook and clean and care for themselves and each other together.
And now, this class was going to determine their futures. Because society told them that they were soon going to need to specialize and give back to the communities that had supported and raised them for so long. Supposedly, Beta and everyone else’s abilities and talents had been analyzed for their entire lives and would help determine their assignments. Beta, however, suspected that science and statistics had determined what her career would be long before she was born; that she had been cloned with the intention of filling a projected position in twenty years.
A large proportion of Beta’s cohort would be trained for human care—either within the children’s colonies or with the geriatric class. With modern medicine, the elderly were living longer and longer and the group was always expanding. And to provide adequate touch, mental stimulation, nutrition and education to the children, a huge corps of caregivers was needed. The world had learned over the years from dismal orphanages how not to care for parentless children. The children’s colonies were actually a warm and wonderful place to grow up in. Society funded and knew how to take care of the people it created. But it took an awful lot of work. No wonder so many humans were opting out of parenting. The toll on two people to provide for a single child was enormous both financially and emotionally. And really, what was the payoff? So much invested and so little return for the parents. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on a single child and then that child was sent out into the world and provided for him or herself and paid taxes and contributed to society, but it never trickled back to the parents in any concrete form to repay them for their childrearing efforts.
At one time, everyone had been so worried about overpopulation. When the birthrate dipped below the replacement levels of 2.1 and kept falling and falling, people were thrilled for a while. Environmentally, a decreased population was excellent news. But, it didn’t take too long to realize that a falling population equaled economic disaster. There were simply not enough workers to support the aging class. New support systems were in place now, but Social Security in the United States and other programs like it had gone under before people could understand how to deal with the upside down demographics. It was the first time in the history of the world that sustained underpopulation had wreaked havoc on economic systems—systems that had been created with the supposition that the human race would never cease to expand. The government had created the cloning systems to prop up what everyday humans were failing to deliver—human capital in the form of workers.
People could opt in to the cloning program upon their death, much like they could choose to be an organ donor. Beta had heard that most people chose to be included in the selection pool. A lot of people liked the idea of giving their genes another lifetime of opportunity even if it was for a clone. But, not many people were actually chosen to be replicated. There was always a careful balance between natural reproduction and the cloning program. Governments aimed for a very slight population growth to sustain their economies. Governments could afford to be choosy about which characteristics they gave second life to.
The advantage to natural conception is that sometime genetics deals an amazing hand and society ends up with a genius. Of course, most naturals are just ordinary folks. And the harsh reality of random conception is the unintentional creation of a psychopath. But society had been dealing with evil for millennia. And society would continue to deal with the whole range of human variation, because for whatever reason—religion, biological drive, hubris—some people still decided to go natural and create and raise their own children. The cloning program was a safeguard to keep society running steadily while humans constantly introduced surprises to it.
Beta looked up as Professor Emil and three members of the board entered the room. This was it. This is where Beta would receive her Pathways assignment. She had imagined that there would somehow be more ceremony when she found out what her future held. “Students,” Professor Emil began, “as you well know, this Pathways class is where your futures will begin to divide, where you will begin to specialize in the career that has been chosen for you. We believe that each pathway will be well suited to your unique talents and abilities. This will be an opportunity for you to give back to the society that has raised and nurtured you. We thank you in advance for your humility in accepting your assignments. Please stand when your name is called.”
(Heather)
“Kyros,” Professor Emil called out, and the boy sitting in the front row stood up solemnly. “Please join Professor Standish.” Kyros pushed in his chair and stood next to the elderly professor with gray whiskers.
“Zeta,” Professor Emil continued, and the girl who had sat next to Beta ever since primary school, stood up. They had been together as long as Beta could remember. Were they going to finally go their separate ways now? Beta could see Zeta’s hands shaking slightly as she clasped them together. “Please join Professor Ramirez.”
“Theta,” Professor Emil said. “Please join Professor Whitley.”
The names continued until all twenty-nine students were grouped with one of the three professors at the front of the room. All except Beta.
“Students, you will go with your assigned professors, where your detailed assignments will be distributed,” Professor Emil said evenly. Several of the students were looking questioningly at Beta, who was still seated at her desk. Panic began to well up inside Beta’s chest. Where was she supposed to go? Why hadn’t Professor Emil given her an assignment?
The three teachers filed out of the room, their students following obediently and quietly behind. Zeta gave Beta a questioning glance as she left. Beta shrugged her shoulders slightly, indicating she did not know what was happening.
Finally the room was empty, except for Professor Emil who was still standing at the front examining his pocket screen. Beta waited for several minutes, but he did not look up.
“Professor?” she said timidly.
He looked up, saw Beta still sitting in her seat, and looked down at his screen again.
“Yes, Beta,” he finally said. “I am sure you are wondering where you are to go.”
Professor Emil pocketed his screen and continued. “Follow me, please,” he said, and began walking out of the room.
Beta scurried from behind her desk and followed the professor down the hall. They entered the transportation tube and Professor Emil stepped forward, pressing the flat button which read “236.” Beta had never been past level 75 in The Training Center’s building. There was a woosh in her stomach as the tube shot upward silently to level 236.
When the doors to the tube slid open Beta let out a small gasp. The walls of level 236 appeared to be all made of crystal clear glass. She could look out across at the tall blocks of glass structures which surrounded The Training Center, each one glowing with the reflected light of the sun, nearly blinding her with their brightness. Beta spent very little time outdoors. Her training was mostly done within the walls of The Training Center, with occasional breaks out on the Green Space, a covered patio outside their dorm rooms surrounded by trees growing in pots. But the view from their patio only faced an ancient brick wall, supposedly built back in the twenty-first century. Beta had hardly ever seen true sunlight. Her world had consisted mostly of the artificially simulated sunlight of The Training Center, meant to mimic the effect of natural sunlight’s rays on the body without the harmful side effects. After looking out the window at the burst of light catching her eyes, Beta decided that no matter how perfect science was at recreating the elements of some things, they weren’t necessarily able to capture the true essence of what sunlight really was. This world, the real world, looked different.
Professor Emil was already half way down the hall. Beta spun and hurried to catch up, but couldn’t help staring down at the world outside as she ran to follow him.
At the end of the hall there was a white door with the word “PROHIBITED” on the panel next to it in faintly glowing letters. Professor Emil swiped his fingers across the side panel, illuminating a key pad, into which he typed a long code of twenty three numbers and letters. Beta wasn’t trying to remember these details, it was just how her brain operated, but the sequence stayed in her mind anyway. She had always been able to calculate long series of numbers or lists of sequences word for word. She assumed it was part of her genetic makeup.
The door slid to the side and Beta followed the professor into the brightly lit room. The room was surrounded on two sides by the same floor to ceiling glass windows, evidently being in the corner of the building. In the center there was a large round table with twenty people sitting around it. They were working on screens which were housed within the white surface of the table. Upon their entering, however, they each looked up. Their screens went blank and it looked like a bare round table. Beta stopped at the door.
Professor Emil went around toward the head of the table directly facing the door, where a large black chair was situated between two other workers. He stood behind the chair, resting his hands on its back, and looked at her for a few moments.
It seemed as if time had stopped and was standing still. There was the professor, along with all twenty other people dressed in their crisp white uniforms staring blank-faced at her. Their faces held no expression, neither approving or disapproving. More like appraising, Beta thought.
Beta wondered if she had done something wrong. She couldn’t remember ever disobeying any rules of The Learning Center, not even once. She always did her work, and quite efficiently she thought, usually finishing way ahead of her peers. There must be some sort of misunderstanding.
But then she thought of the psychological tests. The students underwent psychiatric evaluations at frequent intervals to help determine how they were coping with the training program, or if they were exhibiting any signs of rebellion, or what they termed “atrophy.” Although cloning had been around for over one hundred years now, the first few generations had a higher risk of subjects reverting to primitive forms of violent behavior or even collapsing into a sudden catatonic state. Science had been efficient at weeding out the abnormal genes which would malfunction under the stress of cloning. The odds of an Atrophy was almost nonexistent by this point.
Beta’s psych tests had always been strange, however. As the technician would administer different visual stimuli she would occasionally have bizarre visions within her mind. Once, three years ago, she had mistakenly verbalized the image that she saw in her mind. Due to the instantaneous reaction of her technician, Beta realized that what she was experiencing was not considered “normal.” She was evaluated by the head psychologist after that, and was put under constant watch for the following month. Beta learned to keep her mouth shut. But the visions kept coming, creeping into her thoughts when she would least expect it. She almost wondered if the evaluation test had triggered the reaction in her mind, since she did not remember having any issues of visions prior to that, but there was no one that she could trust to ask. She could be labeled an Atrophy and kicked out of the program, presumably sent to a special concentration-type camp, since the atrophied clones could not be trusted among the normal humans.
What if her suspicious psych exam from three years before was enough of a black mark on her record for her to not be eligible for an assignment? No one spoke of these things, since no one remained who could tell of it.
Finally Professor Emil spoke. “Beta. I am sure you are wondering why I have brought you here,” he paused long enough for her to nod a slight affirmative to his assumption. “Your test results have been inconclusive. We have monitored your advancement through the program, and although your academic marks are continually stellar, there are some testing results which raise some concerns.”
Beta looked down at the floor. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear what was coming next.
“I submitted my concerns to the Federation of Cloning Control. Their response was surprising, to say the least.”
Was this the part where she would be labeled as an Atrophy?
“It appears that the FCC is already aware of your status. They will be here shortly to take you. I hate to see such a valuable clone, one who has exhibited such remarkable traits, go to waste at a pointless camp so I voiced my concern. They then divulged some classified information about your past. I cannot say why this information was not given to me from the start, but they insisted that secrecy and seclusion was their top priority.”
Beta looked up at Professor Emil, a confused expression on her face.
“What are you trying to tell me, Professor?” she asked, her voice quavering slightly.
“Beta, the girl whose DNA, which you share and are identical to, is still alive.”
(Frances)
“How is that possible?” the words were out of Beta’s mouth before she even realized she was talking and not thinking the words. The people around the table shifted uncomfortably in their seats and she realized it was very forward of her to question one of her professors. especially Professor Emil but the words were said so she waited quietly, with her hands held in front of her, for an answer.
“Beta, please come here and sit down,” was Professor Emil’s answer. She walked calmly to the table even though she was shaking slightly. She was fearful, not just worried or concerned, and it was a new sensation in her life. Professor Emil turned to the rest of the clones at the table, “Everyone else is dismissed. Please meet Professor Green on level 201 as there will be no further work here until after the federation has come and collected Beta.” The clones rose and left as a group. There were no backward glances at Beta, no looks of sympathy for her plight, nothing. They just left. Beta hoped her friend Zeta wouldn’t turn into someone like that.
Professor Emil sat down. “Beta, I don’t know how this happened and I don’t know why it happened and I don’t really know what is going to happen. I am especially perturbed that I was not informed of this earlier but the fact is that the Federation is on their way to collect you. You are not an atrophy but I assume you will be going to a camp to live out your life in whatever useful way they deem appropriate, probably in hard labor. I am telling you this because I want you to be prepared for what lies ahead. We have not trained you for such things but you are a capable clone, one of the best in your class, and I know you can make the most of it.”
They sat in silence. She was not an atrophy but something far worse, a clone of someone alive. What would they do with her? She looked around the room and thought about what was to come. She had a fleeting thought of escape but realized she did not know how to leave the building let alone live anywhere outside of this building. She had spent her entire existence here. She was to be here until her Pathway was chosen but she had not expected this. She heard the whirling of the helicopter before she saw it landing on the pad outside her glass cell. As soon as the helicopter landed, two men dressed in black jumped out and moved toward the glass room she was in. This was it, they would be taking her to her future.
Professor Emil stood up, “Don’t forget the skills we taught you here. I hope they may be of some use to you in your future.”
Beta looked at him in confusion. She did not know how anything she had learned would help her in the atrophy camps. When the doors opened the room was filled with the noise of the helicopter and she turned back toward the men entering the room. One was carrying a clipboard and he consulted it as the doors closed and the room was left in relative silence. “Professor Emil?” asked the man with the clipboard.
“Yes.”
“Beta?” asked the man again, looking in her direction.
“Yes,” responded Professor Emil.
The man without the clipboard took Beta’s arm and led her to the doors.
“Thank-you Professor Emil. That will be all.”
All three of them left through the doors. The man holding Beta tipped down her head and led her to the helicopter. She was helped in by another man who was in the helicopter and he strapped her in. As soon as straps locked, the helicopter started to take off. The men scrambled to get their straps on. It seemed like a hasty departure. As they were leaving, she saw another helicopter in the distance. She had never seen one helicopter and now she had seen two in the same day.
As they flew through the air, she contemplated her simple Pathways ceremony and how it had taken a turn she couldn’t have conceived that morning. She was in a helicopter, flying to an uncertain destiny. She realized as she looked around at the buildings, the sky and the sun that the world was exactly like her computers depicted. She wished she was back with Zeta working in the children colonies or the geriatric class. She did not want to be on her way to the atrophy camps.
They had been flying through the air for awhile when Beta noticed a helicopter in the distance. She could not help but wonder if there was another clone as confused and befuddled as she was in that helicopter who was headed to an atrophy camp as well, perhaps the same camp as she since they seemed to be travelling in the same direction. Beta closed her eyes and rested. She had not slept well last night. She had been nervous about receiving her assignment today. Nothing she had thought possible last night had come true today. She sighed and eventually she slept.
Beta opened her eyes and felt very confused. At first she could not remember where she was but then the entire day’s events came rushing back at her. She was still in the helicopter but the scenery had changed. There were mountains and trees now where before there had been only buildings and cement. This fascinated her. Perhaps the atrophy camp wouldn’t be so bad if it was in the mountains.
She felt the descension of the helicopter and was glad they were in the mountains but there did not seem to be anywhere to land let alone a camp below them. They gradually came to a flat area and the helicopter landed. Men jumped out from behind the trees and started putting brush and small bushes around the bottom of the helicopter before the blades had even stopped. The man with the clipboard undid her straps for her and jumped down out of the helicopter. He reached for her hand and helped her out of the helicopter.
“Beta, please follow me,” he said. Beta followed him into the woods where there appeared to be a small opening into a cave in the ground. He lowered himself into the cave and then one of the men from the helicopter assisted her as she shimmied through the hole. It was very dark with only a small light coming from the cave opening. She moved forward to allow the other men to enter behind her. The man with the clipboard turned on a powerful flashlight and indicated she should follow him. The men behind her also had flashlights so the way was lit very well. Beta was glad for the light. They wound through many tunnels that branched off in different directions. She saw people who seemed to be working in different parts of the tunnels and wondered if that was what she would be doing soon. They came to a small room that was lit by a lamp overhead and which had a table set up in the middle. Men and women were seated all around it. They seemed to be having a heated discussion until she entered the room and then everyone grew quiet.
“Sir,” said the man with the clipboard, “this is Beta.”
“Ahh, Beta,”said the man at the head of the table, “we have been waiting for you. Gam, get your sister. Beta, you can be seated over there by the wall.”
Gam, the man with the clipboard, left the room and Beta sat quietly against the wall. The discussion continued and Beta tried not to listen overly much. She could not understand what they were talking about anyway. Beta waited patiently in her chair and after a few minutes Gam came in, followed by a girl. They moved to the head of the table. Gam’s sister was in his shadow on the far side of him so Beta could not see her very well.
The man at the head of the table beckoned to her. “Beta, come here please. I’d like you to meet Zenith.”
Beta moved to the head of the table where the man was standing. She looked over to greet Zenith and got the shock of her life. She started to shake and her knees got wobbly. She felt like she was looking in a mirror at herself only it wasn’t herself she was looking at, it was Zenith, Gam’s sister.
(Thelma)
The girl, Zenith, who was the mirror image of Beta, stared at her clone with the same look of confusion and wonder that Beta had on her face. Everyone around them was silent for a few minutes then Gam spoke, “This is exactly what we needed.” The heated discussion began again. It was too much for Beta. She was used to order and quiet and things that made sense. This day had been one where nothing made sense. She had been uprooted from the only life she’d ever known, she’d been told that she was different from every other clone and now she met a girl that was her replica. It was too much. The edges of Beta’s vision darkened and then she slipped to the ground and all was black.
When Beta awakened, she was on a cot under a scratchy blanket. A woman with shiny black hair and smiling eyes was standing nearby, seemingly watching over her. Beta tried to sit up, “Who--”
“Shh,” the woman said with a kind smile, “Relax, dear. You’ve had quite a day and I’m not sure what they were thinking giving you a shock like that. Please, let me explain. You just lay back and rest.”
Beta settled back onto the cot but she didn’t relax. Her insides felt coiled in a tight spring. “I’m Min,” the woman said, extending her hand for Beta to shake.
“I’m Beta.”
“Oh yes,” Min said, “we all know you. You’ve become something of a mascot around here. A reason why we are fighting for our cause.”
“Fighting?”
“Yes,” Min said, “we have all escaped in some way or another. We don’t like the Society. We don’t like the idea of cloning and assigning pathways. We are about freedom.”
“Freedom?” Beta asked.
“An antiquated idea,” Min said with a laugh, “call us old-fashioned.”
“But--” Beta began.
“Let me just begin at the beginning,” Min said, “I’m terrible at getting ahead of myself.” Min pulled a stool up to the side of the bed and with her chin in her hand, started her story. “There have always been those that didn’t like the cloning. We have tried our best to keep clear of it and we’ve encouraged others not to donate their DNA. There’s something very appealing about living on after you die though. Few people listen. It’s also difficult because we have to work in secret. The Society wouldn’t like us persuading others to have more children. We have a few influential helpers though that further our cause. Emil for example.”
“Professor Emil?” Beta asked.
“Why yes,” Min said, “Since he is inside The Training Center, he can keep us abreast of any comings and goings. He lets us know when someone has been taken to an Atrophy Camp and we try to intercept the transport. We want as many clones that are too rebellious to be useful to the Society on our side as we can get. Unfortunately Atrophies are few and far between. Recently, Emil let us know about you. The Society made a mistake with you.” Min looked up at Beta and could see the girl’s forehead furrow. “No, I don’t mean YOU are a mistake. The Society is a mistake. They clone like there’s no meaning in life, like people are nothing more than the sum of their DNA. They weren’t supposed to clone someone still living though.”
“Zenith?” Beta asked.
“Yes,” Min said. “It’s helpful to our cause that we have you now. Together you and Zenith will be a very obvious reason why the Society must be stopped. Of course, there’s also something very unsettling in all of this.” Min suddenly looked very uncomfortable.
“What is it?” Beta asked. To her the whole thing was unsettling, she may as well know all of the truth.
“It’s a question of how the Society got the DNA.”
“Which DNA?” Beta asked. “The DNA is provided by donors,” she recited. Every clone knew that fact.
“Your DNA,” Min said. “How did they get Zenith’s DNA? Zenith is the daughter of Diana Palmer who is the daughter of our founder and leader, Faxon Swindon.”
“I’ve never heard of any of these people,” Beta said. None of this made any sense to her and she wanted to go back to the Learning Center and get an assignment like all of her friends.
“Of course you haven’t,” Min said. “Some of us are worried though. If they got a sample of Zenith’s DNA, who else have they taken DNA from? Also, they must have someone inside our ranks. How else could they have taken Zenith’s DNA?”
There was a knock on the door and then the door opened. In walked Zenith followed by a woman that looked just like her. Min stood. “Diana, Zenith,” she said deferentially. Min ducked her head and took several steps back. Beta stared up into another face that mirrored her own.
(JoLyn)
Or on closer inspection, mirrored her own as she might look in 20 years. Beta felt off balance and had to drop her gaze before Diana did. Although they were officially discouraged from speculating, Beta had often sat up at night with the girls in the dormitories, wondering whose DNA she might have inherited. Diana cleared her throat causing Beta to look at her again. Diana smiled, but the warmth didn’t quite reach her eyes. She extended a hand. “Welcome, Beta.” Zenith stood to the back, her arms folded. “You will be well cared for here.” Diana nodded once and then checking her clipboard, practically marched out of the room. Beta had been dismissed.
Beta looked around uncertainly and saw that Zenith was appraising her from the far side of the room, her forehead furrowed. Beta recognized that face. It was the same one she made when she was working on a particularly tricky data set at school. Despite drastically different environments, the two girls were genetic equals. Perhaps in a world where nothing was making sense, Beta might discover a little predictability after all. Would knowing herself make knowing Zenith and possibly Diana inevitable? How different could they be after all?
Beta found herself standing a little taller, aping Zenith’s stance. Unlike her encounter with Diana, her realization made her feel bold and she stared back at Zenith, assessing her in the same way her twin did her. Zenith met her gaze and the two locked eyes. Beta knew she could win any staring contest. And she was sure Zenith thought she could too. How long would this last before one of them finally flinched? Just as Beta’s eyes began to burn, Zenith broke the tension by laughing and walking forward toward Beta. She grabbed her by the arm. “Come on, I don’t want to see what we would do to ourselves in order to win that game. There’s no losers today. I’ll show you around the place. You can share my room.”
Adjusting to life in a cave wasn’t hard--Beta was used to the confines of the Training Center after all. But it was disappointing to be stuck inside again after receiving one of her first glimpses of the great outdoors on the helicopter ride in. Zenith took Beta under her wing and introduced her to life on the compound. Zenith was probably a year older than Beta. She was more muscular too with a no-nonsense, sleek haircut. She strode about the compound with a power that Beta found difficult to emulate. Beta retained her long ponytail and deferential demeanor that had been been a way of life at the Training Center. People deferred to Zenith. No one deferred to Beta. Beta couldn’t help thinking that Zenith was a much better version of herself.
Beta wondered what she might have become if she had been raised by a family. All her life, she’d been told the natural-born world was so risky--that it had none of the controls that assured a quality upbringing. Now Beta was jealous of the life she had never had. Beta felt disappointed that Diana remained aloof. Beta knew that Zenith and her mother interacted quite frequently, but Diana never had more than a few words for Beta when they ran into each other.
Despite Zenith’s guidance, Beta felt at loose ends. Everyone was busy doing something--bringing down the Society undoubtedly, but the details of how that was happening were not disclosed to Beta. No one asked for her help. She knew her way around the cave and had memorized its myriad passageways with ease once the initial shock of being there wore off. But she was not invited in anywhere unless she was accompanying Zenith.
Beta tried to keep herself busy while she awaited Zenith’s return to the room. Once again, Beta had been stymied from hacking into the compound’s system. The encryption protecting the system was complex, but she was getting closer each time she tried. No one had provided a password to her and she thought if she could just hack in and find some game to play or something she wouldn’t go crazy. Or she might discover some of the things that no one was bothering to tell her about.
Beta jumped up from the table and its screen as she heard Zenith begin to open the bedroom door. She jumped on the cot she’d been sleeping on for the last week and tried to look calm.
“Don’t try to look all innocent,” Zenith said as soon as she caught sight of Beta. “I know exactly what you’re doing. It’s the same thing I would be doing if left to my own devices in your situation.” Beta had discovered already that she and Zenith could practically read each other’s thoughts. Even with different upbringings, there was so much DNA prewired in their brains that there wasn’t much they could hide from each other. There were too many tells.
“Can’t you just enlighten me a little bit?” Beta implored.
Zenith sighed and checked the lock on the door before she turned to Beta. “I don’t know why they don’t want you to know things, but as long as you’re here, I think it’s only fair for you to know what’s going on.” Zenith took a deep breath and considered her words before continuing. “As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I’m actually Diana’s clone. I’m an experiment. Our cause wanted to see what it could do with a clone that grew up in a natural-born world.” Beta wasn’t shocked. Even though 20 or more years separated Diana and Zenith, it was obvious that there was much more to their similarity than the normal mother/daughter resemblance. Zenith continued. “Gam is a clone too. Of our father. He died when we were both young so I never really knew him. But I know Gam of course and people say it’s pretty much the same thing.”
“Are there more clones here?” Beta asked, hoping there might be someone who had shared her upbringing.
“Gam and I are the only non-society clones. Our cause decided to take a different direction after we were born. There are a couple atrophies though--ones that we were able to intercept before the camps. Like we did with you.” Zenith paused here and Beta knew intrinsically that she was holding something back.
Beta didn’t even speak. She just raised her eyebrows questioningly.
“It’s just the atrophies can be a little off sometimes,” Zenith finished.
Nobody had ever really been off that Beta could remember. All her life, her cohort had developed as expected. Except, of course, for her.
“Speaking of things being a little off . . .” Zenith’s voice trailed away and Beta knew what was coming next. She glared at Zenith who recognized Beta’s annoyance, but chose to ignore it. “So the problem with you, obviously, is that we don’t know how you got created.” Beta suspected that was why she wasn’t trusted here yet. She gained some respect by hanging with Zenith, but everyone was still standoffish. “We’re not sure if you’re my clone or Diana’s. Either way, your existence is frightening to a lot of people.”
Talking about this made Beta feel sick to her stomach. It was the elephant in the room that no one discussed with her, but kept her up at night. One of the tenets of cloning was to never clone a clone. Science had progressed enough that if the original DNA remained uncontaminated, then an indefinite number of clones could be made from the source material. But, to clone a clone? Beta’s felt her heart thud. Every time a clone is made, a little information gets dropped. The telomerase buffering the ends of the gene sequence drop off with each successive cloning, leaving the resulting individual vulnerable to premature aging and cancers. You should always work with source material. Beta hadn’t felt any effects yet, but if she was a clone of a clone, maybe her time was limited. She had spent time in the ramshackle medical unit where her blood was analyzed, but no one had determined exactly whether Diana or Zenith was her original source material.
Beta wished she could rewind to a week ago when life was more predictable and precise. She would take the uncertainty of her Pathways class anytime to what she was facing now. She used to know who she was--just Beta. Not Zenith or Diana’s freakish twin. Not possibly a clone of a clone.
Beta was tired of being the compound’s mascot. Most people were friendly enough. They gave nice smiles and fleeting hellos as they rushed past her on their way to something more important. And for some reason, people seemed rather cheered by her presence, but it all seemed superficial. No one but Zenith was taking the time to get to know her. Beta was surprised no one patted her on the head as they rushed by. Beta was realizing that mascots have no voice and she knew she wanted one.
Finally, Beta was called to appear before the council.
“Don’t worry,” Zenith reassured her as Beta readied herself in front of Zenith’s mirror. She was borrowing some of Zenith’s clothes--nothing too dramatic, but everything felt like a big change after her drab training school uniform that she had worn some version of her whole life. “Everyone wants you to be here. That’s why we risked so much to get our helicopter in first before the FCC could nab you.”
Zenith led Beta to the assembly room and gave her one last smile. She opened the door and directed Beta to stand at the front, while she found an empty stretch of wall and leaned against it. Beta looked levelly at the room. A dozen leaders occupied comfortable chairs around a trapezoid shaped table. Diana sat alone at the smaller base of the table. Other members of the Cause crowded around the perimeter of the room. Beta felt as though she were on trial.
“Beta,” Diana began. “We are happy you are here. We have rescued you from the Society and from a life of toil in the Atrophy camps. As you might surmise, there is danger involved with what we do and the Society would like to bring us down in any way possible. We cannot risk Zenith’s life and frankly, I am invaluable too. I’m sure you will agree that the Society must not be successful in thwarting us. We invite you to join us. To . . .” And here Diana paused and uncharacteristically fidgeted with her papers, “. . .to essentially work as a decoy in case a mission calls for it.”
One of Beta’s eyebrows arched upward of its own accord. “Really? You want me as a body double?”
Beta glanced around the room. Zenith stared at the ground and her body language indicated to Beta that she didn’t know this was coming. She finally looked up and met Beta’s gaze and then almost imperceptibly shook her head no.
It was bad enough that almost everyone expected Beta to jump right in with the kind of zeal only a lifelong member of the Cause could muster. They were trying to take down the Society and stop cloning. What was so wrong with cloning anyway? If cloning was so wrong, what must they all think of her?
And it didn’t even make sense. The Society knew what she looked like already. Surely they knew Diana existed and possibly Zenith too. Certainly if she was Zenith’s clone--which was still a question that needled Beta’s every waking moment like a stubborn sliver--they knew she existed. What did she really know about the Cause?
Beta again looked around the room. At the eager, open faces. Would she join?
“Beta?” Diana asked in a tone that demanded an answer to the invitation, but also went beyond that, to inquire about Beta herself.
Beta continued her frozen stance. Had her life as a clone been so bad? She had the esteem of her cohort family. She had always known that she had been created to fulfill an express need in the community. The whole room was aware of Zenith and Diana’s intelligence and yet, they didn’t want to put Beta’s formidable mind to work. They only wanted her because she could protect Zenith by playing the part of imposter. She knew she could serve them so much better by putting her intellect to use. Did they doubt her intelligence? Were they prejudiced because she was possibly a clone of a clone raised by the Society? Was her life worth less than Zenith’s because she wasn’t raised by a family?
And could she even trust these people? What would the FCC have really done if it had gotten its hands on her? Who’s to say she would have even ended up in an Atrophy camp?
All these questions zapped through Beta’s neurons as she stood like a statue at the base of the trapezoid table.
“I decline.” Beta’s voice was low in volume, but strong in conviction.
The assembly was audibly surprised. The whole room squirmed. “I urge you to reconsider,” Diana intoned.
Beta gave no verbal response.
“What will you do Beta?”
Beta needed to discover who she was. Who was her unwilling donor? Diana or Zenith? What was Beta’s life story? Her origin? How did she come to live in the training center? There wasn’t even a term for a clone of a clone, if that was indeed what she was. Beta would have to make up her own term: c-squared maybe. Beta suspected that a lot of clones of clones never made it out of the petri dish--that it was generally incompatible with life. However she had gotten here, she was indeed alive and wanted to stay that way. Beta needed time to research who she was and she didn’t think that spending time risking her life for a cause she found suspect was a good way to accomplish that.
“I appreciate your hospitality and your kindness, but I cannot commit to your cause.”
Diana looked furious. “You are dismissed until further notice.”
Beta was escorted from the room, but was called back in shortly. She faced Diana and the assembly. “We are prepared to relocate you. But you should remember that you’re not set up to live life as a natural born,” Diana spoke, her words clipped, her tone disapproving. “Your training didn’t prepare you to fake yourself through life as anything but a clone. You’ll stick out. Your neighbors might not figure it out right away, but they’ll know there’s something different about you. We’ll take you to your home city and set you up in a housing arrangement, but if you refuse to work for the Cause, we will wash our hands of you. You will be responsible for getting a job and providing for yourself.”
Beta believed Diana’s words to be a lie. She was positive they would continue to monitor her as long as they were able. Maybe they were just trying to lull her into a false sense of security. She almost couldn’t believe they would let her go. She suspected she was of real worth to the Cause.
Zenith looked rather stricken. The two had become close over the few weeks Beta had stayed here. Beta felt bereft too. She had never lacked close friends within the self-containment of the training center, but her relationship with Zenith was different; the two had begun to feel like family.
“You are making a terrible mistake. And you are dismissed,” Diana announced pushing her chair back.
***************************
Beta shuffled the duffel bag between her feet, stuffed with clothes and toiletries that they had scrounged up at the compound. The helicopter whirred and Beta knew they would be entering the city soon. They were already starting to fly over habitation with the farms looking like patchwork down below. She squeezed Zenith’s hand. “Come with me! We could pose as twins,” she whisper/shouted into Zenith’s ear. The helicopter was full. There were other missions to run that day besides setting up Beta with a new life. No one turned to them. The chop chop of the helicopter disguised their conversation.
“The two of us together? Someone would figure out we were clones in no time. Besides, I’ve grown up here. The Cause is part of who I am. I can’t just abandon it. My mother would never forgive me,” Zenith lamented.
Beta wondered why Diana had never seemed to take more than a passing interest in her. Beta could certainly get inside Zenith’s head, but, for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why Diana did the things she did.
The helicopter landed on a skyscraper that bore practically no distinction from its neighbors. Beta knew she would remember--she always did, but wondered how most people found their way around. A leader that Beta had only met that morning led her from the helicopter. They hunch walked until they reached the safety of a doorway and beyond that an elevator. The leader tossed her tousled hair behind her and handed Beta a small device. Beta switched her duffel bag to the other hand and tried to scan through the device as the elevator quickly descended.
“You have all your info here. The address to the apartment. The rent is paid for the next two months. You’ll need to find work immediately if you want to keep your housing beyond that.” The floors sped by. “Your thumbprint will get you into the apartment.” The leader broke off from her monologue and waited until Beta looked her in the eye. “If you change your mind about working with us, there are instruction for how to contact Diana. It’s encoded in case you lose the device, but rumor has it you’ll be able to figure out the encryption and remember it.” The leader gave a brief smile and the elevator bounced slightly as it reached the main floor. “Good luck,” the leader instructed as she put her hand on Beta’s shoulder and gently pushed her out the metal doors. The elevator was gone again almost before Beta realized she was now alone. She walked across the abandoned lobby and peered out the great double doors. In all her life, Beta had never been alone. She considered the device and felt the weight of it in her hand. Her fist closed around it. She would keep it for now. She wasn’t quite ready to rid herself of the Cause for good.
Beta squared her shoulders and stepped out into the bustling sidewalk. She had chosen her new pathway.
