March
21st, 2037
1305
Dear
Space Diary
Mary is
working hard at deactivating the cloning facility.
I’m
sitting around doing nothing.
1315
Starting
to feel guilty about not helping.
1320
Guilt
increasing.
1325
Guilt’s
getting pretty uncomfortable now.
1327
I
really should be helping. Surely there’s something I can do to help her.
I
should go check.
1329
Hey,
Mary –
“What
are you doing here? Get out of the way!”
CRASH
“Oh.
Fantastic. Thanks for that.”
1336
Mary is
working hard at deactivating the cloning facility.
I’m
sitting around doing nothing.
1400
My
boredom intensifies.
“Well
you should be doing something then.”
That’s
an understatement… Mary 2.0? What brings you here?
“Thought
you could use some company, so I decided to come out and say hi. You looked
pretty bored.”
No, I
mean, WHAT brings you here? And, for that matter, your tank?
“Oh
yeah! Mary fitted it with wheels and refitted a lightdog into an engine. Cool
isn’t it!”
It’s
impressive, I’ll give her that, but why did she go the trouble?
“Regrowth
is a lot slower than we were expecting. Gonna be in here for at least another
few days, and frankly we want the facility off before then. So she made me
mobile! Wanna race?”
What’s
your top speed?
“5
miles an hour.”
That’s
not very fast.
“faster
than 0.”
I still
think I’d win.
“Fine,
then can you find me a jump? I’m itching to see what this can do.”
I think
you might have slightly high levels of faith in the abilities of your engine.
It’s very low horsepower. In fact I’m pretty sure less than a full horse would
still win.
“Yeah,
but I’d still pay to see that.”
You’re
in a good mood at least.
“Plenty
of reasons to be. Don’t have to hate Mary any more. Got my clonesistsers back.
And there’s the whole not-actually-dead thing. That’s a good feeling.”
I
guess.
“What,
you don’t have reasons to feel good? You’re going home soon! You won’t be at
NASA’s whim anymore. You’ll get to see all your friends. Your family.”
My fiancé.
“YOU
have a fiancé?”
You
seem surprised.
“Has
she actually met you? Or seen what you look like?”
Hey!
“Is she a threat?”
Yes,
Mary! My fiancé is a threat! Stop eavesdropping!
“Damnit!”
1430
“Um…”
Can you
think of anything?
“Give
me a moment.”
Take
your time.
“…So it
begins with a C?”
Yup.
“And it’s
one word?”
That’s
right.
“And
you can… spy it?”
With my
little eye.
“As
opposed to your regular sized one?”
Just
play the stupid game.
“Cliff?”
No.
“Craftmanship?”
What?
No.
“Damn,
thought I was being clever. Ok, I give up.”
Clone.
“Which
one?”
Eh?
“Which
clone? You’ve a fair few to choose from.”
Oh, um,
I hadn’t picked one.
“So,
what, all of them?”
Well,
yes.
“But
that’s massive. Not difficult to spy at all. I don’t think you’re very good at
this game.”
Oh
forget it. I give up.
“Yay! I
win!”
…
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