This choice: Flip to another part of the book • Go Back...Chapter #26Double Double (1) by: Seuzz   You pinch off a few pages and turn them all at once.
Again, it looks like someone has cut the pages out of a paperback and glued them inside this folio, two to a sheet. You flip around until you find the beginning, which in this case comes with a cover.
It's a Star Trek-brand paperback, and the cover shows two identical figures, wearing a gold tunic and black pants, confronting each other. The title is Double, Double but the bottom of the cover has been ripped away so that there is no author's name. You begin to read ...
Chapter 1
BROWN HAD BEEN AWAY A LONG TIME.
It had begun as a simple exploratory mission along the Lower Rim, a search for additional ruins, holding additional machines. "Wonders," said the Creator, "beyond those we've already seen."
So Brown had set out, alone, with what seemed like an ample supply of equipment. An ample supply, indeed, but unavailing in the collapse of an unstable cavern wall, and ineffectual at the arduous job of digging out from under it. And the supply had proved much less than ample with the original path buried, and a new path back had to be found. Most of his journey had been passed in darkness after the last of the batteries had expended their power.
But now he was finally home.
He pressed the wall-mounted plate, and with a hiss the sliding door opened. Brown stepped into the antechamber and glanced around.
Usually, work was being done here. Ruk or the other Brown would be repairing pieces of the old machines, or fashioning new ones. But now the room was empty.
They must be in the main chamber. Perhaps Doctor Korby was creating somebody new. Yet another Brown? Another Andrea? Or someone else entirely?
The inner door, like the outer, opened with a sharp rush of air as he pressed the control plate.
The circular duplication platform filled half the chamber, and in the glare of the overhead lights it shone a bluish gray. But the indicator lights on its control console were dormant, and behind the windows of the control room lay only darkness.
Brown felt a pang he did not recognize, for disorientation had not been programmed into him. But he brushed it aside as an illogical reaction.
Beyond the main chamber was the parlor, where the Creator had spent much of his time. Here, the lighting was more subtle. There were wooden tables and chairs, a small computer, rugs on the floor, tapestries on the walls. Ornamentation in which Doctor Korby had found some sort of stimulation.
"Doctor Korby?" called Brown, though he could see that there was no one here either.
He had not heard his own voice in quite some time. It sounded alien as it echoed in his ears.
Crossing the room, he placed his hand against the control plate, and the door slid aside, revealing the small storage chamber behind. It was dark, but not so dark that Brown could miss the form on the ground. He reached out, found the light plate.
And he saw, in the ruddy glow of the single overhead light, the body of the other Brown. Half his abdomen was torn away, revealing the fused ruin of his internal systems. There was no sign of function in him.
Brown knelt by the body, giving the ruined area careful scrutiny. He ran his fingers along the ragged edges of the opening and felt his own lower torso tighten involuntarily.
This had not been an accident, the result of an explosion in one of the machines. Only a tightly concentrated force of energy could have had this effect.
Was there a connection between what had happened to his counterpart and the disappearance of the others? It seemed likely.
That feeling of disorientation began to deepen.
Perhaps if he had more information ...
And then he remembered the close-circuit monitor. He had installed it himself, although it had been Andrea's job to maintain it. It would have kept a record of all that transpired here. All he needed to do was play it back.
Leaving the other Brown, he returned to the parlor and sat in the chair that had been Doctor Korby's. It took some time to scrub through the visual records, for there were many months to review, and also certain segments that he rewatched over and over again, scrutinizing them and fitting them together into a coherent understanding.
When he had arrived at a satisfactory analysis, he switched the unit off. For a very long time he sat very still in Doctor Korby's chair.
So.
They were gone, all of them. Ruk, created by the Old Ones, who had seemed indestructible. Andrea.
Even Doctor Korby himself.
And all because of this ... human. This ... Captain Kirk.
It was he who had disabled the other Brown. He was the one who had forced the Creator to obliterate Ruk—and then destroy Andrea along with himself.
All gone.
Brown strained to comprehend the enormity of it all.
If his purpose was to serve the Creator, and the Creator was no more ... then what purpose was left to him? Should he tend the machines as Ruk had, for time immeasurable, until another Creator came to give him instructions?
No. He was not like Ruk. He could not serve another Creator.
Then what? What could he do?
What would Doctor Korby have wanted him him to do?
That is where he found his answer. It had been recorded in his memory bank when he'd heard it on the playback unit.
Can you understand that a human converted into an android can be programmed for the better? Can you imagine how life could be improved if we could do away with jealousy ... greed ... hate?
They were the words of the Creator himself.
No one need ever die again. No disease, no deformities. Why, even fear can be programmed away and replaced with joy. I'm offering you a practical heaven, a new paradise!
Indirectly, Doctor Korby had given him a plan to carry it out.
Brown leaned back in the chair.
But could he do it by himself? No, even the Creator would have needed someone to help him—a Ruk, or an Andrea. So at the very least, Brown needed to make more androids before he could even begin.
But would he even be able to create another android? He did not know enough about the programming process—he had not been programmed with an aptitude for it.
He thought of the other Brown, but that one was beyond salvaging. Even if his internal organs could have been rendered workable again, his programming would have been wiped clean.
Brown ran the recorded sequences over again in his mind, searching for an answer.
He found one, and he rose and padded down the corridor to the duplication chamber.
* * * * *
To continue investigating the room: "Disposing of Lucy"    indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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