perfect atmospheres. By now I’m sure she has told you she cannot be cloned in a straightforward manner, and it may not be possible with the tools you have on Gambler. The night vision is easy to recreate, however, so you should ask her about that.
I would like to hear updates from you. The communications with Gambler have been sparse. I’m sure we could learn from each other. I believe you have experience that would be helpful for our imminent launch.
With Regards,
Chiara
Chapter 21
November 13, 2830
I could hear Commander Leonidas Verga slamming his fists on his desk before I entered. Ironically, I was assigned to police surveillance. Maybe ruling the way he did prevented crime, but judging from what I have read from Isla, that is not the case.
My ambition to work for the Commander had been realized, but now that it had happened, I feared he would one day discover my misplaced ambition. He had read all of the imposter receptions, the ones created by me, and now the one that someone else had authored. I no longer desired a position with this much visibility, but it was too late. What I really wanted was to meet my mother, learn my history, and discover what destiny I was supposed to fulfill, if any.
The commander’s office was small like most rooms on the ship, attached to another small room with a table where I entered. A low wall with an opening separated me from him. The combination of these spaces gave him more area to work than anyone else had outside the labs. His bedroom was attached to the other side of the room with the table, and his bed was visible through the open door and neatly made.
“Dammit, which is it – are the transceivers working or not? And you… I learned more from a paragraph than I have from your months of research!” Leonidas yelled over the communicator to some poor soul on the other end. He terminated the link.
“The cloning won’t work,” he whispered to himself as I approached the Commander’s office. It gave me chills as I recalled the phony note from the same room in level seven as Isla’s logs, probably written by her impersonating the person she called Chiara. He mumbled some things he had in mind for Isla, something about pregnancy.
I stood in silence waiting for Leonidas to address me. He finally spoke after a few seconds of awkward silence, still looking down at his hands, “You are the new one from the Ward. August Green, is it?”
“Yes, Commander Verga, I was instructed to come here.”
“You may call me Leonidas, young man, please. I don’t feel the need to mandate respect through unnecessary prefixes on my Earth surname.” He seemed surprisingly calm someone who was in a fit of rage only moments earlier.
“As you wish Leonidas.”
“Good! I like you already,” he said. “I have four questions for you.”
I stood in front of him making no attempt to hide the inevitable. I knew my eyes were different. I was worried the obvious relation to Isla would trigger some unpredictable consequence. He looked astonished at the sight of my face moving into the light. I braced myself for his reaction.
“Make that five,” he said. “Do you know Isla Wington?”
“No, sir,” I answered. It wasn’t technically a lie.
“Interesting. Your eyes are unmistakably hers. I have seen pictures of the girl I somehow never met on the Islands. Do you know your pedigree?” His gaze was unwavering.
“No, they don’t always tell us our lineage, especially those of us who are synthesized.”
“I have become more interested in meeting her,” Leonidas said quietly as he looked down and began to speak as if he were no longer addressing me, but some other entity. “Funny thing, mutations. All the bleeding hearts on board used to think our key to survival was in numbers. I think it’s in smaller, superior numbers.”
Leonidas drew a small knife and slid the blade lightly up and down his
I would like to hear updates from you. The communications with Gambler have been sparse. I’m sure we could learn from each other. I believe you have experience that would be helpful for our imminent launch.
With Regards,
Chiara
Chapter 21
November 13, 2830
I could hear Commander Leonidas Verga slamming his fists on his desk before I entered. Ironically, I was assigned to police surveillance. Maybe ruling the way he did prevented crime, but judging from what I have read from Isla, that is not the case.
My ambition to work for the Commander had been realized, but now that it had happened, I feared he would one day discover my misplaced ambition. He had read all of the imposter receptions, the ones created by me, and now the one that someone else had authored. I no longer desired a position with this much visibility, but it was too late. What I really wanted was to meet my mother, learn my history, and discover what destiny I was supposed to fulfill, if any.
The commander’s office was small like most rooms on the ship, attached to another small room with a table where I entered. A low wall with an opening separated me from him. The combination of these spaces gave him more area to work than anyone else had outside the labs. His bedroom was attached to the other side of the room with the table, and his bed was visible through the open door and neatly made.
“Dammit, which is it – are the transceivers working or not? And you… I learned more from a paragraph than I have from your months of research!” Leonidas yelled over the communicator to some poor soul on the other end. He terminated the link.
“The cloning won’t work,” he whispered to himself as I approached the Commander’s office. It gave me chills as I recalled the phony note from the same room in level seven as Isla’s logs, probably written by her impersonating the person she called Chiara. He mumbled some things he had in mind for Isla, something about pregnancy.
I stood in silence waiting for Leonidas to address me. He finally spoke after a few seconds of awkward silence, still looking down at his hands, “You are the new one from the Ward. August Green, is it?”
“Yes, Commander Verga, I was instructed to come here.”
“You may call me Leonidas, young man, please. I don’t feel the need to mandate respect through unnecessary prefixes on my Earth surname.” He seemed surprisingly calm someone who was in a fit of rage only moments earlier.
“As you wish Leonidas.”
“Good! I like you already,” he said. “I have four questions for you.”
I stood in front of him making no attempt to hide the inevitable. I knew my eyes were different. I was worried the obvious relation to Isla would trigger some unpredictable consequence. He looked astonished at the sight of my face moving into the light. I braced myself for his reaction.
“Make that five,” he said. “Do you know Isla Wington?”
“No, sir,” I answered. It wasn’t technically a lie.
“Interesting. Your eyes are unmistakably hers. I have seen pictures of the girl I somehow never met on the Islands. Do you know your pedigree?” His gaze was unwavering.
“No, they don’t always tell us our lineage, especially those of us who are synthesized.”
“I have become more interested in meeting her,” Leonidas said quietly as he looked down and began to speak as if he were no longer addressing me, but some other entity. “Funny thing, mutations. All the bleeding hearts on board used to think our key to survival was in numbers. I think it’s in smaller, superior numbers.”
Leonidas drew a small knife and slid the blade lightly up and down his
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