Written by Paul Gamlowski
Colonel Jack Derrick Robinson woke up, strapped to a chair in a laboratory room.
“Did it work?”
“Yes, Colonel, you’re the clone.”
“You’re joking, right? Impossible! I don’t feel any different. I Am Colonel Jack Derrick Robinson!
“I’m afraid not, sir, the real you is outside enjoying life. Now we can prepare you for that space voyage to the edge of the solar system.”
After a year of isolated and rigorous training and ‘conditioning,’ Jack the clone, called by his middle name Derrick, accepted his ‘fate’ and ‘reality.’
One day, a scientist called for him—“Colonel Derrick Robinson, sir, we need to perform a brain scan for backup if we need to create an emergency replacement clone.”
“Very well …”
‘Derrick’ awoke in a bed …
“Congratulations, sir, your cloning is complete.”
“But you told me …”
“That’s right, Colonel, it’s vital that the clone accept that he’s a clone. We’ve just made several copies of you stored in cryostasis for the voyage— individually training clones would be costly and inefficient. Besides, if the cloning process ever failed, you’d be the one going up there.”
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