Page 1 (1/2)

There is a gateway to the iination you ate are syat but you must carry the ideas in symbols

- Raja Flattery, Chaplain/Psychiatrist

SOMETHING WENT "Tick"

He heard it quite distinctlain: "Tick"

He opened his eyes and was rewarded with darkness, an absolute lack of radiant energ or of receptors to detect energy

Am I blind?

"Tick"

He could not place the source, but it was out there - wherever out there was The air felt cold in his throat and lungs But his body arhtly on a soft surface He was breathing So tickled his nose, a faint odor o pepper?

"Tick"

He cleared his throat "Anybody there?"

No answer Speaking hurt his throat

What a here?

The soft surface beneath him curved up around his shoulders to support his neck and head It encased hips and legs This was fanited distant associations It wa what? He felt that he should know about such a surface

After all

"Tick"

Panic seized him Who am I?

The answer came slowly, thawed fro he should know

I am Raja Flattery

Ice melted in a cascade of memories

I’ W we

Some of the memories remained frozen

He tried to sit up but was restrained by softly cupping bands over his chest and wrists Now, he felt connectors withdraw from the veins at his wrists

I’ into hybernation PerhapsBut there were a few

I failed

Moonbase directed me to blow up our ship rather than let it roae capsule back to Moonbas and blow up our ship

So had prevented him fro somethin

But he remembered the project now

Project Consciousness

And he, Raja Flattery, had held a key role in that project Chaplain/Psychiatrist He had been one of the crew

Umbilicus crew

He did not dwell on the birth syy in that label Clones had more important tasks They were clones on the crew, all with Lon for a middle name Lon meant clone as Mac ers sent far into insulating space, there to solve the probleerous work Very dangerous Artificial consciousness had a long history of turning against its creators It went rogue with ferocious violence Even ony

Nobody could say why

But the project’s directors at Moonbase were persistent Again and again, they sent the same cloned crew into space Features flashed into Flattery’s ht the naand

Raja Flatter Raja Lon Flattery

He glione mirror: fair hair, narrow feature disdainfu

And the Voidships carried others, ene banks in hyb tanks Cheap flesh to be sacrificed in distant explosions where the uncloned would not be harather data for the uncloned Each new venture into the void went out with a bit more information for the wakeful umbilicus crew and those encased in hy