The Clones of Mawcett (18 page)

 Jenetta contemplated her next move carefully. When she'd previously touched the table about thirty-centimeters in from the edge, several tones had sounded and a dot of light came on. The tripod stand had been placed near the center of the table. Operating on the hypothesis that the designer wouldn't have put any key process controls near the very edge of the top surface, Jenetta decided to touch the surface there, to see if she could feel anything irregular. As soon as her index finger touched the top surface near the edge, the entire surface of the console began to glow. Startled, she jumped back a step, then approached the table again when she realized there wasn't any danger.

With the console fully illuminated, dozens of contact spots indicative of control switches were obvious. Digital displays that appeared to give readings of current processes showed fluctuating values. Everything was labeled using the same set of symbols that they had found elsewhere in the room. Still without a translation key, Jenetta didn't have a clue as to how she could deactivate the cloning machinery, and it would be too risky to simply key in commands randomly. She might do serious harm to the beings in gestation, or to the equipment itself.

A five-centimeter wide border around the console table remained black, leading to the speculation that the area had no function other than to illuminate the console. Touching the top edge again turned the console lights off, and another touch illuminated it again. She decided to leave it on so that no one would again assume it was merely a table and accidentally trip another function. Illuminated as it was, the roving Marine patrols wouldn't dare place anything on it, as they might an ordinary table.

With little to be accomplished above ground, Jenetta had her worktable moved down to the rotunda and placed against a wall just inside the door. Except for going up to the surface for meals and sleeping, she would spend the next few days working down in the lab on the translation of the symbols.

On the fifth day following their arrival on the planet, Lieutenant Crocker, the engineering officer left in charge of the power source investigation after Commander Cameron had left, reported to Jenetta that they had isolated the source.

“As Commander Cameron surmised, the source is thermal energy. We've located an access hatchway that leads to a small, underground power conversion station. The entrance is over two meters below the current surface level and we had to excavate down to the door. It seems that the power station was created expressly for this facility. The power generating unit is mounted against the outside wall of this building.”

“Can it be turned off?”

“There are no interruptible connections or controls in the power station, so they must be in a part of the complex that we haven't been able to access yet. Right now, the only way to interrupt the power flow is to destroy part of the equipment.”

“I'm not willing to do that just yet. Thank you, Lieutenant Crocker. That's all.”

“Yes ma'am.”

Jenetta wasn't willing to cut the power off while life forms were in the process of being born. She felt that she had to find a way to interrupt the process by canceling the clone command only at the end of a process cycle.  Since that required a translation of the ancient language, she returned to her study of the symbols in the room.

Two days later, Jenetta, Marine Captain Greene, and Doctor Rowans, along with two nurses, were on hand to greet the newest eleven clones as they emerged from the chambers. They were confused about their location but not their identities. As Doctor Peterson had said about the previous clones, each insisted vehemently that they were the original person. As Jenetta tried to explain the situation, they were given blankets with which to cover themselves. Once above ground, Doctor Rowans and the nurses performed a checkup on each, and they were given clothing before being escorted to Doctor Peterson's tent for introduction to their originals.

Jenetta had briefly considered blocking the chamber doors from closing, but feared that it might not interrupt the process, and cause damage to developing embryos during a critical stage. After the newest clones emerged from the incubators, Jenetta increased her efforts to solve the problem of canceling the process properly. She had extensive experience working on computer encryption techniques, so she tried to apply the same principles, but without success.

On the evening of the second day into the new clone cycle, a roving Marine patrol found Jenetta unconscious on the floor in the rotunda. They immediately summoned Doctor Rowans, who, having just turned in for the night, came running down the ramp in his pajamas and bathrobe. After a quick examination he called for an 'oh-gee' stretcher and had Jenetta removed to the hospital shelter.

Jenetta awoke in the pre-dawn darkness with a splitting headache. Doctor Rowans, the thin doctor with salt and pepper hair was dozing in a chair next to her bed and awoke when she stirred.

“Take it easy, Commander. Here, take this,” he said as he handed her a couple of tablets.

“Where am I?” she asked groggily.

“You're in the Hospital shelter. A Marine patrol found you unconscious in the lab. Do you remember what happened?”

“Uh, last I remember I was working on the translation of the symbols. I was having trouble focusing my eyes. I must have fallen asleep.”

“You were drugged. I found signs of a sedative in your coffee. I assume that you didn't put it there.”

“Of course not!”

“Well, someone did. It appears to be a commercially available sleeping sedative called 'Zelem', but the residue in the cup contained four times the recommended dosage.”

“Who would have access to something like that?”

“Oh, anyone who has trouble sleeping. It's commonly available in most pharmacies.”

“You examined all the scientists. Any of them using it?”

“I remember the Doctor Petersons telling me they used it to sleep.”

“Anyone else?”

“None that I can recall.”

“Thanks, doc. My head is feeling better already. I think I'll get up.”

“I can't believe you've recovered already. I expected you to be out for another six to eight hours.”

“I heal quickly since the Raiders messed with my DNA, remember?”

“Yes; but I'm constantly amazed by your recuperative powers.”

Leaving the hospital shelter, Jenetta walked to the command shelter, where she spotted Marine Lieutenant Taggert drinking a cup of coffee. She poured a cup for herself and sat down across from him.

“I'm glad to see you're okay, Commander.”

“Thanks, Lieutenant. The doctor says someone laced my coffee with an extra heavy dosage of a sleeping sedative. Have the patrols reported anything unusual?”

“Other than finding you unconscious, not a thing.”

“Hmm, I can't see any of our people drugging my coffee so it has to be someone from outside our camp. The question is, 'how did they get in?' Were any civilians in the camp after 2100 hours?”

“No, I already checked the entry logs. The last one in the camp was a laborer who sliced his hand on a digging tool. He was patched up by the doc and left the camp before 1500 hours.”

“That would seem to indicate that we have a hole in our security. After daybreak I'd like you to have your people cover every square centimeter of the camp. I want to know how my attacker got past our perimeter security alarms and into the facility.”

“Will do, Commander.”

Down in the lab, Jenetta saw that her computer and notes appeared to be untouched, so she wondered what the intruder could have been after. Then she noticed that the dot of light, shining on the console until now, was out. She stared at the console wondering if the circuit had failed, or been turned off, and then realized that the display was radically different. Someone must have been tampering with it, and that meant that someone had most likely figured out the symbols, or at least some of the cloning procedure steps. It was a further indication that the perpetrator was from outside the camp, and most obviously one of the eleven scientists, or a clone.

At the top of the new display was a symbol that Jenetta had seen on one of the empty clone chambers. Glancing across the room, she was shocked to see that the chamber was now operating, and although she couldn't discern anything except a flashing green light similar to those on the other chambers, the associated panel of gauges on the opposite wall showed the status of the new chamber to be similar to that of the original eleven.

She now knew the reason for the sleeping sedative. Someone wanted access to the room to begin another clone, and since Jenetta was spending all her time in the lab, her presence was preventing it. The new question was: Who was it a clone of? As soon as it emerged from the incubation chamber the culprit would be unmasked. Who wanted a duplicate of themselves so badly they would risk imprisonment for attacking a Space Command officer safeguarding seized contraband?

“I guess we'll know in six more days,” Jenetta said aloud to herself.

The Marines checked the perimeter sensors after daybreak and found them to be functioning perfectly, so every square meter of the camp was searched. No one was found hiding. Since no one had left the camp via the only gate, Jenetta had to face the hard fact that the attacker could be a member of the crew. Either that or someone had figured out how to open a sealed area down in the facility, and was down still there. It was a definite possibility, given that individual seemed to have figured out the cloning operation.

Unable to solve the riddle of the symbols, Jenetta turned her attention to the other conundrum; namely, what opened the doors in the facility. An unshakable hypothesis held that it occurred as a result of a verbal command, so she stood in front of one of the locked doors and shouted commands at it for hours, not taking a break until noon when she went up for lunch and to rest her throat. As she ate, she reviewed what she had been shouting at the door. She had tried every command that she could think of for telling a door to open, and even added a few expletives just for good measure, trying to simulate what Doctor Vlashsku might have said from weariness or frustration. She still believed that it would most likely be a simple phrase that sounded like the proper command in the original language of the planet, but might make no sense to an Amer speaking person trying to open a door. Then another thought suddenly occurred to Jenetta. As a Nordakian, Doctor Vlashsku's flashing skin might have accidentally hit on a proper combination of chromatic light values required to activate a photometric receptor trigger. Frustration, weariness, and anger would probably have caused him to flash hues of red, orange, and yellow. Suddenly, Jenetta put her fork down and hurried out of the mess shelter to questioning looks on the faces of other dining crewmembers.

Down in the facility, she stepped up to the door that she had been attempting to open and said, “Dwuthathsei,” and then quickly stepped off to the side of the doorway as the door first creaked, then began sliding open. While thinking about Doctor Vlashsku's appearance, Jenetta suddenly realized that, as an alien, he would probably revert to Dakis when angry or frustrated, although he normally spoke only Amer in the camp. 'Dwuthathsei' meant 'open' in Dakis. Jenetta next said “Hudaksei” meaning 'close'. This time the door moved noiselessly as it closed tightly.

Jenetta touched her Space Command ring and said, “Captain Greene.”

“Greene here, Commander,” she heard in her left ear, a second later.

“I need an armed squad down in the facility, on the double.”

“On our way, Commander.”

“Carver, out.”

Jenetta turned to the door and said, “Dwuthathsei.”

Within twenty-seconds she heard the loud sound of Space Marine boots in the tunnel, coming on strong. Greene, along with six Marines and their platoon sergeant, burst into the underground facility, taking up positions on either side of the now open doorway with weapons at the ready.