to change a thing.
“Can I look them up? I mean, what happened to my boys? If this is the future, that means there must be a record of the past and their lives. I just…” Her voice broke, and she swallowed hard. “I need to know what happened to them.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t have access to Earth databases here. We can’t go somewhere that is still linked to that planet, Gemma. The authorities would kill us on sight.”
She felt anger building as she stared into his eyes. That was an emotion she could totally get on board with. “I have a right to know what happened to my sons! I didn’t ask for this bullshit to be done to me. Someone owes me answers, goddamn it!”
“I agree with you, but birthed beings won’t.” He paused. “Humans. They don’t care or acknowledge that we have feelings. Clones are banned from living on Earth. Humans are chipped with all their information and port authorities would scan us when we landed on the surface, because everyone must go through customs. We don’t have chips implanted. It’s standard procedure to terminate clones who attempt to return to Earth once we’re shipped from the manufacturing plant. They don’t even allow us to be woken until we’re off the planet.”
That confused her. “Why?”
“As I said, clones make humans uncomfortable. We look too much like them. I suspect they fear we might blend in and hide amongst them. That disturbs them for some reason.” He sighed. “They probably fear an attack. Regardless, no clones are permitted to live on Earth.”
“So lawmakers are still a bunch of assholes?” She wasn’t surprised to learn that. “I need to know what happened to my kids, if this is real, Big. I want to know what kind of lives they led. I never got to say goodbye.”
He stopped stroking her back. “Will this help you?”
She nodded. “Yes. I need to know how they lived, if they had kids.”
“You can’t visit any descendants if your sons had children, Gemma. Not only are clones banned on Earth, but you weren’t wiped of your memories. You’d be destroyed for both of those offenses. Not to mention, sneaking onto Earth’s surface would be impossible. Even if you managed to find a highly skilled smuggler, do you know what the punishment would be for a human to harbor a clone?”
“No.”
“Everything they own would be confiscated by the authorities and they’d be sentenced to death. You don’t want that to happen to your descendants, even if they were willing to hide you from the authorities.”
She bit her lip, horrified at the thought. “No. I wouldn’t want them to risk that.”
“It’s best if you let it go.”
Gemma wasn’t certain how that would be possible. She really wanted to learn how her boys had turned out. Did they get married? Do I have grandbabies? Great-grandbabies?
Big sighed, drawing her attention. “Two of the clones I escaped with are excellent hackers. I can ask one of them to see if he is able to get into an Earth database by going close to a station. It’s the best I can do. It might take a while for him to obtain that information.”
“Thank you. I’d really appreciate that. I just need to know what happened to my boys. I mean…” Her voice broke as emotion choked her again.
He nodded. “It’s understandable. I want you to be happy, Gemma. I’ll do whatever it takes to help you adjust to your new life.”
She stared down at her younger body. “Things could be a lot worse. That’s what I keep trying to tell myself. I’m alive and not burned over eighty percent of my body anymore. I’m trying to focus on that instead of completely freaking out.”
“You’re beautiful, and you’ll always remain young.”
“There’s that, too.”
He held her gaze. “And you have me. You’re never going to be alone.”
She studied his face. He was a handsome man with a gorgeous body…and a certain part of that body was stirring beneath her. “Things are looking…up. That certainly helps.”
Big chuckled. “Sorry. You make me hard.”
She was very aware of that. “So I feel.”
He got them both off the bed and held out his hand. “Let’s take a bath together.”
“You have a bathtub on a space shuttle?”
“Yes.”
She followed him into the bathroom. It wasn’t like one from her time, to say the least. It was just an empty space.
Big walked over to the wall and touched a panel, before backing away. The wall opened and a large tub slid