Chapter 16: The Planet of The Clones

Linda introduced Gen. Matilda MacArthur from intelligence to Jason’s group. “Matilda is the brains of our Intelligence outfit. She has already met with Major Connie Ross. They have been hard at work together, which is why you didn’t meet her at lunch. She will update you on what we know and have been thinking.”

Matilda stood up to speak, “We have returned your senior intelligence assets back to the planet together 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. I think we have done about as much as we can do at this point. I’d suggest,” said General MacArthur, “that we meet half an hour before dinner and then have a working meal in the conference room with our wider senior team. Subsequently, we’ll consider our plans overnight, and meet after breakfast to discuss matters further.”

“I’ve already arranged a special meal for all of you. Let’s enjoy the food and then we talk as we need to,” said Jason. Matilda looked at the others and nodded.

“It appears that we have at least implicitly agreed that we’ll work together on this next step as speed is of the essence and inaction constitutes a bigger risk. I believe that this will be a useful exercise for us to see if and how we can form an alliance with common objectives, at least in the short term. Is that satisfactory, Dad? The family will still be together?” Matilda asked as the clones sniggered.

“Karen, Linda, and Andrea we go to the gym first thing in the morning, workout and spar, have a quick sauna and then go to breakfast. Why don’t you guys join us and your father? I’ll send one of my assistants to get you. We also need to discuss giving you the latest generation of implants and tie you guys into the security of the ship and the battle AIs,” suggested Colonel Janet Malone giggling.

Jason returned to his room. He felt completely exhausted after what was already feeling like a long day. Winston woke him after about an hour and suggested they talk about the day a bit more.

“Jason I’ve made sure that you are fully rested. I’ve a few matters that I want to discuss with you. I can see that there’s a very strong attraction between you and Linda and surprisingly to Andrea as well. You and Linda at least are an excellent match. I’ve detected that she has a very powerful crystal. She’s not the only one. Somehow the priests must have obtained the crystals of their ancestors, and found a way to hand them on. This is beyond current Empire technology. “Every single person that I’ve looked at has a superior crystal. A lot of work and planning has gone into this effort. The crystals are augmenting them as did yours.

“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 are feeling a strong bond. You and Linda are a very powerful combination. You’ve great instincts and she has the capacity to ensure that the job gets done. She was a great woman. Linda has not yet faced the life challenges that were the events that shaped the original.

“She has a great capacity for deception and a great interest in military intelligence techniques and methodology to deceive the enemy. She organized the group to carve out the grenades from packing foam and paint them. They only made a few each for the top layer and the rest was packing products. She fully intended to go along with all of you but wanted to show they’re no pushover and they deserve respect and a place at the table. I had the greatest difficulty in not laughing at the time. So, did she. She’s an excellent actress. She also has excellent telepathic blocks and that’s why the others didn’t suspect deception.

“Your gene purity surprised her. You are very close to the Emperor.

“You impressed her and you attract her strongly. You made a big impact on her when she saw you. Jason, you even look like the younger version of your family member that was so close to her original. She has seen the pictures.”

“There are very limited forces left on the surface of the planet. I’ve scanned at depth and there are a few hundred residual fanatical soldiers in deep bunkers. I’ve very little doubt that our General and Admiral will very shortly present plans based on deception as opposed to direct confrontation that will lead to the capture of the leadership.

“The history of groups with fanatics is interesting. They usually represent only 10 percent of any group but have the capacity to control and influence the remainder. As you go higher up the chain of command, you encounter a greater percentage of fanatics,” said Winston.

He heard Linda buzz him and heard her sexy voice. “Jason, I’ve a few things that I’d like to discuss with you on your own. I need your personal attention as a matter of some urgency. Are you available?” She said in a jocular, teasing, and flirty tone. There was no doubt about the topic of the meeting. She was not backward in coming forward! Jason smiled. Sometimes, it was fun to be the prey! She was already several steps ahead of him and he was squarely in her sights.

Jason informed his sentries it wouldn’t be necessary for them to remain with him in the room. They grinned at him knowingly.

She strode into the room confidently and gave him a peck on the lips.

She’d been dressed at lunch in a somewhat baggy military uniform. She was his height, if not fractionally taller. Her face was handsome as well as beautiful with the most intense gray-blue eyes he had ever seen. Her hair was brown and fell in waves around her head. Her eyes very much dominated her face. They were large and could look gentle and they could look dangerous. Her lips were naturally more reddish as was her skin than you would customarily see on Earth. She looked strong and walked in a determined way, unless she was swaying and teasing him. She had a husky voice and she smelled delightful. The dresser could provide a woman with her own blended scent that could be replicated by every dresser.

For this assignation, she had dressed in a blouse of the most intense blue, that flowed over her breasts and intriguingly twirled and rippled as she undulated towards him, and the Empire version of a very dark contrasting blue skirt with a fine pattern; very long on one side and much shorter on the other with filmy harem pants beneath. He didn’t notice her golden sandals until later. Her hair was shining. Her eyes seemed more pronounced. He lost concentration as he fell into her eyes and he smelt a gorgeous, enticing, and delicious perfume. She sauntered towards him.

“Consider yourself the mistress of seduction and me the innocent victim of your charms,” Jason said as he dramatically, wiped his brow.

“You may have your way with me madam. I can resist your seductive ways no longer!”

He moved towards her and kissed her gently and then gradually more passionately as she put her arms around his neck and pulled him more tightly towards her. Her skin was soft and her touch gentle. He luxuriated in the feel of her athletic, taught, but so womanly body

They made love tenderly. For the first-time Jason experienced the intensity and profound intimacy of making love with someone who opened her mind completely to another. He could feel her feelings and her emotions as well as his own. The experience was so concentrated and powerful that it was overwhelming. It was almost as if he had never made love before. He opened his mind as completely to her as she had to him.

It was an experience where there could be no deception. It was an intimacy beyond anything that he had ever known and he fell in love with her, knowing her deepest self. It was as if he experienced years of courtship in minutes. He loved her mind, the neat organization, the warmth, the intimacy, the passion and her values and loyal nature. He drew her in, to feel what he felt. They basked in each other’s minds and moved like a metronome in and out of each other’s mind while their bodies joined. He felt her every feeling, he felt her joy, and he felt her tenderness, and her love and her intrinsic nature. She was a woman of iron, of tenderness, of integrity, a woman of great substance, the woman he loved passionately and devotedly within a few short hours.

They held each other closely laughing and crying with the intensity of their feelings, before entering the cleanser together but were joined moments later by the dogs, who seemed happy to be part of such an important moment. They continued laughing and playing, touching, and caressing before dressing more formally for dinner.

She excused herself and said that she would shortly meet him at dinner but that she had some matters to attend to before she saw him again. He read for a while before making his way to his canteen.

The canteen was in an uproar when he arrived. There was a party going on. When they saw Jason, they did the Empire cheer which consisted of flapping their arms like a chicken and shouting Hoo – Hoo - Hoo.

Linda came up and hugged him and then shouted out to the whole canteen, “I’m pregnant and the medical pod has confirmed it,” she looked absolutely overjoyed and said, “I’m also pleased to say that the aging gene has been fixed and I can expect to live a normal life span. Four cheers for lord daddy, father to me, and father to us all.”

The cheering started again even louder.

“Come and sit at the table. You can fix some of the others as soon as possible. If you are going to sort out twenty million women you will have your work cut out for you!” This was met by universal cheers, hoots, and ribald laughter from the adjacent tables. She then whispered in Jason’s ear, “I want you to take care of my great friend Andrea tonight. Her original had a miserable life and she unfortunately has read about it. It’s beginning to poison her mind as it did to the original. She was a great Admiral but was not a pleasant person to be around and became horrid by the end of her life.

“This time she was cheerful and was quite happy until we all began to discover our histories and backgrounds. Please do it for me and especially think of helping her turn into a more fulfilled and happy person,” she kissed Jason on the cheek and guided him to a seat at the table with Andrea on his other side. She leaned over his back and told Andrea that after the meeting Jason would take care of her. She winked at Jason while on the other side Andrea was blushing.

Jason then heard the voice of Winston. “Jason, you do need to make a big effort with that woman. It’ll be well worth it. Her husband emotionally abused her for many hundreds of years and fathered two children by other women. He was constantly critical of her.

“Her own father was strict and critical and believed that nothing would become of her, despite her brilliant achievements in both academia and in sport. He still lives as does her husband.

“She joined the Navy to escape her family, but her first commander after she completed her training was a sadistic brutal woman who nearly broke her. She had no support from her family and her husband was a useless piece of baggage, correction he still is useless.

“She managed to continue to move on but turned out to be an embittered, sad woman, with a very poor capacity to relate to others. She was so brilliant, that despite everything, she had a stellar career and became chief admiral.

“She started off well on the planet and as Janet said she went well until she learned of her history. Her natural temperament is of a sweet woman, a bit shy, much as you are. I do hope you can get her back onto the right track. She’s beginning to ruminate and her self-esteem is declining as a consequence. She’s intensely loyal and I suspect she will see your relationship as long term. Her loyalty was strong in her marriage and that’s why she stuck at it.

“I can see the signs of a formidable but loving woman, that will flourish with the right support and cultivation.

“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 similarly have as many husbands as they wish. Group marriages are also possible. There are no arbitrary limits to any type of marital groups. In your case I shudder to think how many wives you could have but I doubt that you could survive more than a few women of this caliber.”

Jason was in a very good mood and thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the scintillating entertaining company. He understood that the clones during their generative process were extensively educated however they needed to apply what they learned for some time before the knowledge integrated itself. If a person had the training as an engineer, they needed to work on problems and be an engineer for some time, under supervision, before their level of judgment would approximate that of an engineer.

Linda explained that she had very detailed training as did all of them relevant to their specialties. She had received all the knowledge that was taught at a war college as well as a significant amount of information about society and its function, everything that was taught to a child and teenager at school as if she had been there. She was given memories of having lived with her family and siblings, but most of them shared similar sets of memories. A good proportion of the information was propaganda that was disseminated to them by the priests while they were growing and reinforced after activation.

The other information was from conventional learning system education as received through school or university. She and the others had spent considerable amounts of time in simulators to consolidate what they had learned.

What the priests had not realized was that this allowed them to gain access privately, within the simulator, to the diverse network of resources that was available to the priests and the wider network of systems analogous to the Internet.

Within their teams they had IT, cyber warfare and communications specialists who ensured full connectivity without their activities being exposed. As they gained a wider understanding of Imperial society, they realized quickly that they had been exposed to propaganda. The information that they read and disseminated to each other nullified the influence of the priests.

As far as they were able to establish, the propaganda efforts were very poorly constructed and were not effective. Most of the clones began to experience what they thought were memories of what their originals had experienced, as well as the values and beliefs that they had developed. They experienced a profound sense of loss. They felt that they were from the Empire, but couldn’t become part of it. They felt more loyalty to the Empire than they felt to the priests. They had discussed their hopes and dreams that somehow this could be reversed leaving them with fully normal family lives, rather than the stunted twenty to thirty-year lifespans. They had read that there had been rumors of Imperial cure, but regarded these as futile hopes. Now she was delighted that they had not only hope but an expectation. However, their role or future role in Imperial society was yet to be determined.

“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, a little more tentatively. Malone and Harris were there with Ross, the intelligence major, the intelligence general, Matilda MacArthur, an assistant, the Admiral, Andrea, and one of her senior staff. They were a team, blended from the clones and ship cyber warfare and communications groups.

“Matilda, can you provide an overview of the intelligence that has been collected to date and brief everyone on what we know from what we collected on the planet before we left,” Linda prompted.

Matilda stood up and started a hologram showing the planet. She enlarged the area near where Jason had landed and indicated where the clone facilities were to be found.

“It was quite easy to ask the priests for a map of the facilities. They were quite open with us fully believing that we were loyal and their propaganda had worked. We made sure to reinforce that opinion. The army commanders were less easy to convince. We invited them in one morning saying that we had constructed a scenario of how we would defend the planet and needed their opinion as to how we had done. 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 very impressed with what they had done and then asked if we could see how they had done it. They knew that we were not going to be on the planet that much longer and didn’t seem to be suspicious of our motives. We broke into groups to tour the defense facilities while mapping them and their coordinates.”

“Our medical team did a similar exercise as if they were preparing to make clones and then presented to the existing senior medical teams. They were then shown every aspect of the processes including the educational input system. They then asked if they could practice with some real clones to understand the processes prior to their removal from the tanks.

“They managed to establish an excellent rapport with the medical group and cultivated friendships with them. Many of them were quite lonely and communicated their issues and concerns without prompting.

“A very critical piece of information emerged. One of the senior medical people complained that she and her partner had been split up and her partner was growing clones on a nearby planet.

“There’s only one suitable planet in reasonable proximity to here where clones can be grown. My colleague’s opinion was that it was a similar level of activity to this one but we have been unable to confirm this.

“Our medical team persuaded them to allow us to manage one small clone facility where we awakened forty- thousand troops. We told them that we needed to see how we could prepare our troops and get an idea of their readiness. We chose a diverse group giving us a small army at our disposal. They represent three thousand officers and non-commissioned officers followed by engineers, tank, and other commanders. We have a force of nearly 1000 special forces. We also resuscitated nearly five thousand naval personnel particularly officers but nearly 2000 Marine Special Operations people and about 5000 other Marines. The rest are Army. We have groups of cyber warfare, communications, IT, and enough pilots to fly transport and provide protection. They are fully loaded now with all necessary IT and communications gear as we could persuade the Guild that they needed to be able to practice and that there was no risk. We were not able to arm them but the armory is nearby.

“We broke the codes for the armory. Within this armory are all the supplies and weapons, other than food, to supply a much bigger army including all armor and ammunition. There’s a very large amount of stored ammunition. We were not able to find out the plans of the priests. We don’t know how they intended to use us and we believe it’s because they have not been told. There’s a limited amount of food on the planet and none is grown here. It’s enough for two weeks for the full twenty-million once awakened.

“We removed the priests’ propaganda from our clones prior to resuscitation and revival and provided them with an understanding of who they were and the problems that were being faced. We could have resuscitated more but it was unrealistic from a logistical point of view as the resources for feeding the whole group are so limited. We felt that the force was more than sufficient to deal with the current perceived threats as we can unlock the armory.

We did find the hidden large underground food storage reserves that would feed the entire twenty-million but it’s limited as I’ve already said.

“Our combined team consisting of the clone and ship group have examined the battle statistics and have determined that there are somewhere between three and five thousand enemy troops remaining. We have captured the senior officers who were quartered with us. Notably, one of their best officers, a senior colonel, was not present at the time. He’s an intelligent man and could be a cunning adversary. We have had the greatest difficulty in obtaining consensus as to his level of loyalty. He became friendly with no one, no one in the priests group, no one in our group. He was superficially friendly but if one got on to any personal topic he became brusque and non-communicative. My impression is, he’s a man with a background or has some other agenda. Interestingly, like many males within the Guild, he appears to be strong and healthy.

“Nevertheless, it’s important to say that he was most helpful in ensuring that we did get to see all the facilities. We saw more than we expected. The two fighter facilities were identical but they insisted on showing us both. We were able to count all the fighters. We did wonder whether there were other hidden facilities. The colonel appeared quite open and he had a very good mind. We were not sure whether he was loyal to the priests or was a spy for the Imperium. We found him a puzzling man,” concluded Gen. MacArthur.

Jason was very impressed with Matilda. He did like the generals turn of phrase and the woman’s obvious intelligence. Jason delighted in spending company with such fine people, with outstanding minds. Gen. Matilda MacArthur had a slight build. Her hair was an auburn to light brown color and was much shorter than the others but still looked very feminine. She had hazel green eyes and plump lips. She had beautiful white teeth that were perfectly aligned in her mouth and smiled often despite her serious demeanor when talking. Her face was pixie like and quite tanned. Her mouth was small with red pouty lips. Her skin color was a little browner than many of the others but with the same red mix. She was beautiful. Her manner was relaxed but she was very charismatic. She appeared to have a very quick mind and sounded very sophisticated considering that she had only awakened six months ago. She continued with the discussion.

“The most economical and efficient way to proceed would be to attempt to pretend that the lines of command have continued and assemble the available military command for capture. We have a unique capacity to do this. The Guild members were of the belief that there was a rogue element within their group who were traitors. The defenses of the planet were motivated by their belief that this element was acting against their interest and would try and take over their assets. We were not able to obtain any more detailed information.

“There’s a reasonable chance that despite their casualties they can be led to believe that their defense was successful. I do believe that there’s a reasonable chance that such a ruse can be fruitful. This is on the basis that we have the communications encryption protocols and we have a person who can successfully impersonate the head of the Guild on the planet. Andrea our illustrious actor Admiral has successfully impersonated this person and in the current circumstances could do so for long enough to achieve our aims. There’s no risk to her in this.

“Simultaneously, a small force could take over the armory and supply our people there. We’ll need a reasonable sized force to keep control of the planet and prisoners. I don’t recommend taking more than a small number of the leadership into the ship as there’s little value in doing so, though we’ll keep them in stasis with the rest after interrogation.

“When we attack the armory, which the priests’ soldiers guard, we can block planetary communications.

“We have already blocked and intercepted all communications to and from the planet and are on route to find the second clone planet. We’ll do the same there. It’s vital that the Patriarch is kept in the dark,” said Maj. Constance Ross. “There’s only one probable viable planet in this vicinity.”

“Excellent! Well done and thank you, Connie,” said Matilda.