Page 73 of CHOICE Lover
He turns his angry gaze on her. A guilty pink blooms on her cheeks. “Chryl, what did you do?”
Tears well in the manupartner’s eyes. “The video on your website says to push the button when it turns green. I was just trying to help.”
Res6 buries his head in his hands, groaning. It’s not Chryl’s fault; it’s his fault. How can this day get any worse? He has a possibly failed trial lying on the bed next to him unconscious. An angry Electra that he’sfed more lies. And Chryl, a manupartner who has been around so long she may be gaining sentience. The lingering hope he felt while visiting Jerme’s memorial site with Electra fades to something gray.
He turns to the body double. “Will you please comfort her?”
Chryl nods, agreeing with the suggestion, crawling into the body double’s lap. When it pats her back, he goes back to ignoring them as usual.
He gets out the portable BioLume Gene Scanner. He quickly runs a scan, then waits. When the results populate on its screen, he shoots them over to himself and Lextr. A minute later, he has the other man on a call.
“Hold on, why did you activate it before you did the final scan?” Lextr asks.
Because the manupartner I got as a buffer from the woman I’m falling for is individuating and decided to be helpful and pressed the bright green button before I got the chancedoesn’t feel like the right answer. He says, “It’s not important.”
Lextr hums like he does when reviewing data. Res6 takes out his tablet and does the same. With each passing minute, his anxiety skyrockets. This is only one of ten—if it fails, they can isolate the issue and correct it. Still, his eyes are starting to blur, the data becoming a jumble.
Lextr hums again, and his patience snaps. “Lextr, did the trial fail?”Will I get my brother back?
“Did you see section B83c101?” Lextr asks.
He swipes to the section. “I see it.”
“It looks like there is hidden epileptiform activity that we couldn’t measure until activation.”
His throat constricts. “What does that mean? Are his memories viable?” They can stop the seizures.
“It would appear thecognitive load during the NAM activation caused a spike-wave. The subject’s memories might have expressed had the subthreshold activity been absent,” Lextr says.
“So it might have worked, if it weren’t for the spike?”
“My guess is the seizure it caused burned out any potential memory imprint, but you won’t be sure until it wakes up,” Lextr says.
As if summoned, Jerme—not Jerme, the trial—sits up. Oh Zorg. It looks just like him and the manupartner body double, but knowing it’s made from Jerme’s DNA makes it feel completely different. More significant. Real. Is he real? The faint glimmer in its eye feels like a sign of life, of memory. Like his brother. Is this it? Is he about to see Jerme after all this time?
Tentatively he asks, “Jerme?”
The trial grins, and it is just like his brother. Joy barrels through him. After six failed trials and a close call, he did it! He has Jerme back. This time he’s going to fix everything. Be the brother he needs. He shifts so quickly that he knocks the medical kit off the bed as he throws his arms around his twin. “Oh, Jerme, I’ve missed you so much. I’ve been so lost without you.”
But Jerme isn’t hugging him back. He leans away, holding his brother by the shoulders. It’s the same grin as a moment ago. Did he imagine Jerme’s signature quirk? Jerme blinks. “Hi!”
Please, Zorg, no. This can’t be happening.Terrified at the prospect, but desperate to know, he asks, “What’s your name?”
As its eyes glaze over, his stomach drops.
It says, “I think my name is Jerme!” Then it beams as if pleased with itself.
24 – Saturday Sirens
Res6
November 16, 2390.
Beside Res6, the bed dips as the body double sits down. On his opposite side, Chryl crawls across the blankets so they’ve effectively caged him in. He pulls the covers up over his head, making a mental note to tell Electra—if she ever speaks to him again—that he sees the appeal of wallowing, and he shouldn’t have judged her so harshly for it.
He didn’t sleep the night after the real Jerme trial woke up seizing. It was a nightmare with his look-alikes and Chryl all in the cramped room with him. Thankfully, the next morning, Chryl let Tommy in to collect it before Electra woke up. He’s been in bed ever since, with Chryl bringing him meals that she figuredout how to order.
When Jerme died, he got up and went to work the next day, and the day after, until he got proficient at going through the motions. But now, after what feels like a catastrophic failure where he’s not only disappointed himself, he’s letting Jerme down, going through the motions doesn’t seem to matter. The only thing that matters is the woman he keeps lying to. The point is, he’s fucked, so why get out of bed? To waste another precious DNA sample on a trial that will undoubtedly fail? He isn’t sure he can do that again. Though on a positive note, thinking it worked only to realize he was wrong has warned him off activating a future trialjust to see.
