AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m pretty certain my gramps will try to cover this up. He’ll hire mercenaries to seek us out rather than go through legal channels. He’d be terrified of Earth finding out what I really am. That would blow back on him big time if someone started an investigation. Gramps can’t afford to risk that.”
MC-3 didn’t look convinced that she was correct.
“He didn’t report the escaped clones to the authorities. He just figured they’d die when they needed their next plasma infusions. As you know, these bodies break down and decay without it. That was the beauty of planning their escape. We bought a large supply of plasma for them, separate from what was on the books. None was missing from our stock on Clone World.”
MC-3 opened her mouth to ask questions, but Marsol cut her off.
“They’ll have audited the amount of missing plasma on Clone World this time to figure out we took enough for a year. Gramps will assume we’ll die three months after our supply runs out. Hell, maybe he figures I took off in a fit of rage after learning the truth since I took you four with me and didn’t have them check to see if any plasma was missing. I’m hoping that’s where his mind goes.”
“Why?”
“Why the rage? He made me into a clone without telling me. I’m hoping that he assumes I’ll return when my clone body starts to deteriorate rather than die. I am a Florigo. We’re survivors. It might delay him from ordering a replacement clone of me to be made. He’s probably gleefully contemplating me begging at his feet for him to forgive me when I’m forced to come back. Which won’t happen.”
“Would he kill you if you’re captured and returned? I mean, if you disappoint his expectations?”
Marisol didn’t have to think about the answer. “Yes. He’s got zero tolerance for betrayal. If you ever thought I was anything like him, I hope you’re learning that I’m not. He really is a bastard.”
“We thought birthed beings loved their families.”
“You said you were programmed with the history of what happened to my parents. Rico Florigo literally blew his own son out of the sky. Gramps had to have known my dad’s body would be too damaged to clone or salvage memories from. But he acted in anger. Gramps always did have a hair-trigger temper. There was no way some clones were going to get the best of him, even if it meant losing his only son. His ego wouldn’t allow it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault. I think opening Clone World and having that much power over the lives of so many people made him utterly heartless. He stopped being a decent person. I’m?”
A beep interrupted her speech, and Marisol spun the chair back, taking the shuttle off autopilot. The transport on the edge of her sensors came to a halt. Marisol reversed the engines to do the same.
“What is it?”
Marisol felt her heart race. “The transport is under attack. The autopilot flying it is sending out a distress hail and requesting authority assistance.”
“Will they come?”
“The authority patrol ships are too far out to arrive any time soon, and I doubt they’ll care because it is a low-priority transport. Their job is to protect Vista planet residents and everyone living on the station orbiting it. Those kinds of transport aren’t supposed to be carrying any life forms. The cargo isn’t even for them, so they don’t have a reason to get involved.”
“Can we go closer to see what’s happening?”
“Not without that other ship spotting us on long-range sensors. I don’t want to spook them until they rescue that unblanked clone first.”
“Understood. I’ll inform the others of what is happening.” The clone medic fled toward the back.
Marisol felt super excited and nauseatingly nervous at the same time. She was about to make contact with whoever had attacked the transport. Hopefully, it would be Free. If it wasn’t, it had to be Figures. Then again, they could have shared the account information from Clone World with the B and R model Clones that had escaped with them.
That last possibility wasn’t something Marisol wanted to think about. Whatever she found, whoever had survived, they were the only hope she and her medic team had of finding a safe place to live.
It was possible to stay on the shuttle for long periods of time, but they’d have to dock with a station or land on a planet at some point to restock their food and water. Even to gain mechanical parts if something broke down on the shuttle. Not that any of them had the knowledge to do repairs. Losing life support would be deadly.
It would be too risky to pay someone to do the repairs. Her grandfather would never tell anyone she was a clone, but he would have her arrested on false charges and returned to Clone World.
She wouldn’t dare tell the authorities the truth either. They’d immediately kill her. Marisol stared at her hand. The chip implanted there would fool everyone into thinking she was human, but it would also get her caught the first time it was scanned.
The idea of being trapped inside the confined shuttle with the four other clones long-term wasn’t exactly safe either. So far, the medics had taken her orders and let her be their leader. That could change in the future. Especially if her plan failed and they were doomed to die with certainty. The other clones would have no reason to want her alive anymore.
“It’s going to be okay,” she muttered aloud.
Time seemed to crawl by, but after fifteen minutes, she feared that she might not get a lock on the attacking shuttle. It could fly far enough away for her to lose sight of it on long-range sensors.
Marisol gripped the controls and flew toward the transport, still transmitting hails for assistance. She picked both ships up on her sensors within seconds. A privately owned shuttle was currently docked with the transport.
