Chapter 22: The Planet of the Clones

“Tomorrow, you’re all going to wake up in a brave new world, where the Constitution gets trampled by an army of terrorist clones created in a stem-cell research lab run by homosexual doctors who sterilize their instruments over burning American flags. Tax-and-spend Democrats use all your hard-earned money to buy electric cars for National Public Radio and teach evolution to illegal immigrants. Oh, and everybody’s high!”

― Stephen Colbert, I Am America.

Linda re-introduced Gen. Matilda MacArthur to Jason’s extended group. “Some of you met Matilda, but I wanted to ensure you know and have met her. She is the brains of our Intelligence outfit. She has been working with Connie and her team. She will update you on what we know and have been thinking.”

Matilda stood up to speak, “We returned your senior intelligence assets to the planet with some of our people. We are attempting to assess if there are other hidden reserves of fighters and soldiers. We are also interrogating the senior priests. We have done about as much as we can at this point. I suggest meeting half an hour before dinner and then having a working meal with our wider senior team in the conference room. Then we will mull over the subsequent plans overnight and meet after breakfast to decide how we move on.”

“I’ve arranged a special meal tonight. Let’s enjoy the food and talk,” said Jason. “We may need longer than half an hour. Then we can talk.”

Matilda looked at the others and nodded. “We agreed we’ll work together on this next step as speed is of the essence, and inaction will increase our risks and the risk to the Empire. Tonight will be a useful exercise for us. We will get a feel for each other and see if we discover further other short-term objectives. Is that satisfactory, Dad? The family might remain together a little longer?” Matilda asked as the clones sniggered.

“Matilda, I want more respect and less cheek from you. I’ve been around a lot longer than you have, and I have much more experience in life,” said Jason. “Learn to listen to my advice, and you will be as successful as I am, girl!”

Everyone smiled or laughed.

“And if I don’t,” Matilda asked.

“Then I will put you over my knee and spank you!” Jason added.

The group snickered.

“Bring it on, Daddy; I’d like that,” said Matilda.

Jason slowly rose. He darted forward as Matilda dashed out the door.

“Karen, Linda, and Andrea, we go to the gym first thing in the morning, work out and spar, have a quick sauna, and then go to breakfast. Why don’t you guys join us?” Connie asked.

“What about you, Daddy?” Asked Andrea.

Jason nodded and waved.

“I’ll send one of my assistants to get you. Let’s go to medical; we need to give you the latest generation of implants and tie you guys into the security of the ship and the battle AIs,” Janet suggested looking at Jason and sniggering. “We’ll also see if the pod can fix you or if we must tweak the software.”

The clones nodded.

Jason returned to his room. He felt exhausted after his ordeal.

Winston woke him after about an hour and suggested they discuss the day.

“Jason, I’ve got a few matters to discuss with you. There’s a strong attraction developing between you, Linda, and Andrea. You and Linda are an excellent match. Andrea is more complicated, and I don’t know what you should do. I suggest you wait for them to pursue you. While they talk of independence, I get a different impression.”

“Winston, I am surprised they are so capable and socially competent.”

“Jason, both carry powerful crystals. The priests acquired and used the crystals of their ancestors. They did not realize the clones would access all the memories and experiences of the originals. The technology to implant the crystals is highly advanced and way beyond the Empire. Every clone I looked at had a fine crystal. Considerable planning has gone into this effort. The crystals are augmenting them, as did yours. The crystals are teaching them the skills of their originals. The priests made a monumental error giving them their original crystals.”

“That explains why they are far more advanced than I expected,” said Jason.

“Linda has prodigious organizational skills and is strongly telepathic. Her family and yours have a history. The same factors that led to the previous attraction are again operating. The two of you feel a strong bond. You and Linda are a powerful combination. You’ve great instincts, and she can ensure the job gets done. She was a great woman. Linda, however, has not yet faced the challenges that shaped the original.”

“I feel a powerful link and attraction to both,” said Jason.

“Linda organized the group to carve out ‘grenades’ from packing foam and paint them. She intended to go along with you but wanted to show they’re not pushovers and deserve respect and a place at the table. I had the greatest difficulty not laughing at the time. So did she. She’s an excellent actress. She also has excellent telepathic blocks. That’s why the others didn’t suspect deception.”

“I feel we will work together despite their protestations,” Jason said.

“I don’t know. Her group is untrusting and suspicious. You impressed her, attracted her strongly, and greatly impacted her. Yet, your arguments do not convince her.”

“Winston, how much opposition do you think we will face on the surface?”

“There are few capable soldiers left on the surface of the planet. There are a few hundred fanatics in deep bunkers and other scattered troops. Soldiers are guarding the pods. They know how to disable the pods and kill the clones.”

“What do you think will work?”

“The senior clone team has a plan. Our General and Admiral will present a plan based on deception instead of confrontation to capture the remaining leaders. If you are lucky, they will succeed, but the odds are not high. It is a low-risk strategy that also buys time.”

“Who are the fanatics?” Jason asked.

“They are the true believers who will do anything for Papa Zora. Fanatics usually represent only ten percent of a group but control and influence the others. As you go higher up the chain of command, you encounter more fanatics,” said Winston.

He heard Linda buzz him and heard her sexy voice. “Jason, I’ve got a few things I’d like to discuss with you. I need your attention as a matter of urgency. Are you available?” Linda asked in a jocular, teasing, and flirty tone.

She was not backward in coming forward! Jason smiled. Sometimes, it is fun to be the prey!

Jason informed his sentries he had a visitor, and they needed privacy. They grinned at him knowingly.

Linda strode into the room confidently and gave Jason a peck on the lips. The dogs welcomed her as if they knew her. She patted and stroked them before gliding her way to Jason.

Linda stood before Jason, her hands on her hips, her head to the side. She was his height, if not fractionally taller. Her face was delicate and beautiful. She had the most intense blue eyes he had ever seen. Linda’s hair was brown and fell in waves around her head. Her large eyes dominated her face and captured him in their depths. They looked gentle, but he remembered how dangerous her intense gaze had been in her room on the ground. Her skin was naturally a deeper shade of red than was usual on Earth. She was lithe and well-muscled. She had a husky voice and smelled delightful. The dresser gave a woman a unique blended scent that followed her as she moved dressers.

For this assignation, she wore an intense indigo top that matched her eyes. Her blouse flowed over her breasts and intriguingly twirled and rippled as she undulated, slowly away, then closer to him. He hardly noticed her dark contrasting, delicately patterned blue skirt, long on one side and much shorter on the other, with pale blue harem pants beneath. He didn’t notice her golden sandals. Her hair shone and glinted in the dim light. Jason lost concentration as he fell into her eyes and inhaled her gorgeous, enticing, and delicious perfume. She moved languidly to stand, touching him and looking into his eyes.

“Consider yourself the mistress of seduction and me the innocent victim of your charms,” said Jason, dramatically wiping his brow. “You may have your way with me, madam. I can resist your seductive ways no longer!”

Jason leaned towards Linda and kissed her lips gently, playing with them with his tongue and teeth. He moved his body forward and held her.

Linda sighed and pressed her body into his. He kissed her gently and passionately as she put her arms around his neck and pulled him tightly against her. Her skin was soft, and her touch gentle. He luxuriated in the feel of her athletic, taught, but a shapely womanly body.

Linda gently pushed Jason backward. He enlarged the bed before she pushed him back and climbed on top of him, kissing him on the bed. Jason undressed Linda then she slowly undressed him, kissing him as she removed each piece of clothing. They made love tenderly. Jason experienced the intensity and profound intimacy of making love with someone who opened her mind and drew him in telepathically. He felt what she felt, and her emotions were his. The experience overwhelmed Jason. It was as if he had never made love before. He opened his mind to her as she had to him. There was no deception. It was an intimacy beyond anything that he had ever known. As he moved in her, he felt it as he and she felt his movement. Each kiss was more intense, and each touch doubled.

Jason loved Sarah as a partner. It had been a wonderful and loving partnership, but he was never passionately in love with Sarah.

Jason felt himself fall in love with Linda. Had he not fallen for her soon after they met? It was as if they had always known each other, and the time apart had built up a vortex of emotion, and when they opened their minds to each other, tornadoes of emotions crashed through. When his mind meshed and then melded with hers, he was lost. They experienced years of courtship and intimacy in minutes. He loved her mind, the neat organization, the warmth, the intimacy, the passion, her values, and her loyalty. Jason drew Linda in to feel what he felt, know what he knew, and believe as he believed. They basked in each other’s minds while their bodies joined. He felt as if he felt her joy, her tenderness, love, and the fundamental nature of who she was. She was a woman of iron, passion, integrity, and remarkable substance, the woman he could and would love passionately and devotedly.

They held each other laughing and crying, before strolling to the refresher. The dogs joined them and frolicked excitedly in the cleaning particles. The dogs were happy to be part of the moment. Linda and Jason continued laughing, playing, touching, and caressing each other before dressing formally for dinner.

Linda excused herself and said she would meet him at dinner as she had some matters to address. He read for half an hour before making his way to the canteen.

The canteen was in an uproar when he arrived. There was a party going on. When they saw Jason, the clones and some crew did the Empire cheer, flapping their arms like a chicken and shouting,” Hoo—Hoo—Hoo, Jason’s monkey impersonation.

Linda dashed toward Jason when she saw him, hugged him tearfully, and then shouted to the whole canteen, “I’m pregnant, and the medical pod has confirmed it,” she was laughing and crying alternately and dancing around the canteen, hugging others. Jason watched her until she calmed a little and returned to the table.

“Jason, you fixed my aging gene; I can expect to live a normal life. Four cheers for Lord Daddy, father to us all.”

The diners cheered once more.

Robert and Marie stood nearby, flapping their arms excitedly.

“Come and sit at the table,” said Linda, gripping Jason’s arm tightly; you can fix some others as soon as possible,” Linda gripping Jason’s arm tightly. “If you agree to sort out twenty million women, your work will be cut out for you!”

Universal cheers, hoots, and ribald laughter from the adjacent tables met this announcement. Linda whispered to Jason, “I want you to care for Andrea tonight. Her original had a miserable life, and she knows all about it. It’s poisoning her mind as it did to the original. She was a great Admiral but was an unpleasant person to be around and later poisonous.”

“I know; I heard about her original from Robert.”

“She was cheerful and happy until we delved into our family histories and backgrounds. Our memories began to return recently, and those memories and emotions compounded the problem. Please do it for me and help her become a fulfilled and happy person,” said Linda, kissing Jason affectionately. Linda seated Jason next to Andrea and then sat on his other side. She leaned toward Andrea, “Andrea, Jason will take care of you after the meeting.” Linda winked at Jason when Andrea blushed.

Jason then heard the voice of Winston. “Jason, it’ll be well worthwhile. Her husband emotionally abused her for hundreds of years and fathered two children by other women. He was critical of her and mistreated her in public. He was far worse than she admitted. Her original father was strict and critical, believing nothing would become of her despite her brilliant academic and sports achievements. He lives as does her ex-husband in the Empire. Both are academics. Andrea struggles to block her pain as the memories slowly return. She needs something positive in her life.”

“Winston, I will do my duty!”

Winston sent Jason an image of his smiling face. “Andrea joined the Navy to escape her family, but after her training, her first Commander was a sadistic and brutal woman who nearly broke her. She had no support, and her husband was a useless piece of baggage. She moved on but became an embittered, sad woman with limited ability to relate to others.

Andrea was so brilliant that despite all her limitations, she had a stellar career and became Chief Admiral. Andrea, as she is now, is a sweet, shy woman. I do hope you can get her back on the right track. She’s beginning to lose her self-esteem. She’s intensely loyal and will be an excellent long-term partner. Get her on your side; she and Linda will make you less vulnerable. Andrea’s growing mistrust is driving the clones to go it alone.”

“Winston, I understand. I will do as you suggest. I am not ready to consider anyone to be a long-term partner. No, I confess, I am thinking of Linda that way. Linda is enough woman for me!”

“Andrea will be a formidable but loving woman. She will bask in the attention you give her and will flourish with cultivation and support. In Imperial society, it’s rare for a man to have more than one wife, but legally, he can have as many as he wishes and they wish. Women can also have as many husbands as they wish. Group marriages are also possible. There are no arbitrary limits to any marital group. In your case, I shudder to think how many wives you could have, but I doubt you could survive more than a few women of this caliber.”

“Yes, sir,” said Jason.

Jason was in a good mood and thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the scintillating company.

“You lovely man, you complete me, and I’ll have my revenge on you for thousands of years,” said Linda with a proprietary gleam in her eye and then smiled broadly and smugly.

They made their way to the conference room with Linda holding his hand on one side and Andrea holding his hand on the other—more tentatively. Janet and Phoebe were waiting with Connie, the intelligence major, the intelligence general, Matilda MacArthur, an assistant, one of Linda’s, and another of Andrea’s senior staff. There were several cyber warfare representatives.

“Matilda, can you provide an overview and brief everyone on what we know from what we collected on the planet before we left,” Linda prompted.

Matilda stood and opened a hologram showing the planet. She enlarged the area near Jason’s landing position and slowly shifted the hologram to show where the clone facilities were.

“It was easy to get a map of the facilities and the plans of the planetary defenses. One morning we invited the army commanders to visit, saying we had constructed a scenario of how we would defend the planet and requested their opinion on our plan. We deliberately didn’t do as well as we could, and they were happy to tell us what they would do and had done after they had warmed to us. We pretended we were impressed with what they had done and then asked if we could see how they had implemented the plans. They knew we were soon leaving and weren’t suspicious of our motives. We broke into groups to observe how they constructed and controlled the defenses.”

“That was a clever idea,” said Janet. “Those maps and plans will be of great help.”

“Our medical team did a similar exercise as if they were preparing to make clones and then presented their ideas to the priests’ senior medical teams. They were then shown every aspect of the processes, including the educational system. Our people then asked if they could practice with some real clones to understand the procedures before their removal from the tanks. They established an excellent rapport with the medical group and cultivated many friendships. Many medical team members were lonely as they were cut off from friends and family. They communicated their issues and concerns without prompting.”

“Were you preparing to wake critical troops?” Connie asked.

“Yes, that was the intention, but we also wanted to assess morale and loyalty and collect any other incidental background intelligence we could use. A critical piece of information emerged. One of the senior doctors complained that she and her partner were apart as her partner was growing clones on a nearby planet. There’s only one suitable planet nearby on which clones can be grown. My colleague thought it was a similar activity level to this one, but we cannot confirm this.”

Jason sat forward. “Matilda, that is an explosive finding. It may also explain the cargo shuttles we saw arriving with food. Perhaps that is where the priests grow the food that feeds you?”

“We couldn’t find any farms on your planet,” said Connie. “We didn’t detect any cargo ships, yet we saw fleets of cargo shuttles regularly delivering food. The clone sister planet can’t be more than thirty light-years away.”

“We couldn’t discover any further information on the other clone-growing planet. However, we pushed our plans forward. Our medical team persuaded the technicians to allow us to manage one small clone facility where we awakened forty-thousand troops.”

“How did you persuade them?” Connie asked.

“We told the doctors and technicians we needed to see how we could prepare our forces and get an idea of their readiness.”

“That was an excellent idea. You assembled an army to take the ships. How many did you awaken?”

“We created a small, versatile Army. We have three thousand officers, non-commissioned officers, engineers, and tank crew. We have a thousand army special forces troops. We then awakened five thousand naval personnel, including officers, two thousand Marine special operations military, and five thousand Marines. The remainder is army troops. We have groups of cyber-warfare, communications, IT, and enough pilots to fly transport craft, gunships, and fighters to protect us. The bishop was happy to give us equipment that would not threaten the priests. We could not arm our people but saw the inside of a colossal armory, one of twenty.”

“Can you get into the armory?” Janet asked.

“We found the lock codes for the facilities and reconnoitered the armory. The armory holds sufficient supplies, equipment, ammunition, and weapons for a million troops. It contains tanks, gunships, shuttles, fighters, ground-based cannons, missiles, and everything the planetary troops should have to protect them from atmospheric attack. There’s a vast reserve of stored ammunition. We could not discover how the priests intended to use us. We suspected Papa Zora didn’t tell the priests. There is only enough food for two weeks for twenty million after awakening,” said Matilda.

“How was the new clone batch after awakening?” Connie asked.

“Like us, they need months of orientation. We prepared a program for them to substitute, but it is no substitute for real training and experience. We replaced the priests’ propaganda with a briefing on who they were and the problems they would face after awakening.”

“So, you didn’t wake more due to food supply issues?” Jason asked.

“Yes, that is part of the story. We considered we had a sufficient force to deal with the troops on the planet as long as we could get to the armory and arm our key troops,” said Matilda. “We will be awakening the rest once the fleet arrives.”

“How many enemy troops remain?” Asked Connie.

“Our best estimate is of three to five thousand enemy troops. You captured the senior officers who were quartered with us. One of their best officers, a Senior Colonel, was absent during the attack. He’s an intelligent man and will be a cunning adversary. We don’t know if he is loyal to the priests or not. He remained distant. We couldn’t befriend him. No one knows him. He was superficially friendly but became brusque and dismissive if we probed him. Like most males within the Priest’s Guild, he is strong and healthy. He was helpful when we asked to see the facilities,” added Matilda.

Matilda impressed Jason. He liked the General’s thorough approach and her obvious intelligence.

Jason was delighted to spend time with such fine people. Gen. Matilda MacArthur had a slight build. Her hair was an auburn to light brown, and she was much shorter than the others. She had brown, green eyes and plump lips. She had beautiful white teeth aligned perfectly and often smiled despite her serious demeanor when briefing the others. Her face was pixie-like and tanned. Her mouth was small with red pouty lips. Matilda’s skin color was cafe au lait rather than the red of the others. Jason thought she was beautiful. Her manner was relaxed, but she was charismatic and charming. She had a quick mind and sounded sophisticated despite awakening six months ago.

“What do you suggest, Matilda?” Jason asked.

“The most economical and efficient way to proceed is to pretend that the command structure is in place.”

“How can you possibly do that now?” Jason asked. “Surely they know the leaders have gone?”

Matilda shook her head. “The priests believed they had traitors in their midst and traitors in the Guild. They designed the planet’s defenses to prevent a takeover by a rogue element. We believe there’s a reasonable chance we can lead them to believe they successfully defended their leaders. We stole the priest’s encryption keys and knew the protocols. Andrea has successfully impersonated the Cardinal and can confuse the defenders. We don’t want the defenders to kill the clones.”

“So, what do you propose?” Asked Janet. “And what is the condition of the clones you woke?”

“Our forces left the growing tanks a month ago. They are loyal to us and will act on our orders. We will mobilize a small force to take over the armory and supply our army. After interrogating our prisoners, we will put them in stasis.”

“It is a reasonable plan, but I don’t think you will fool anybody if you talk to them; too much time has passed,” said Janet.

“You might be right, but it is a low-risk strategy,” said Andrea.

Jason nodded.

Janet frowned. “There is another issue I would like to bring to your attention. I know what happens when you want to use equipment stored in an armory. If you leave shuttles, tanks, heavy weapons, and gunships in an armory, they need time and work to get them shipshape and usable. Your guys will need us to help. Without help, you can jeopardize the operation and increase casualties. I suggest we take weapons to your people we know work, and separate teams will help you commission your equipment.”