Duplicant War

The sky held that traditional golden shine that would shimmer through the pink ever-bright clouds which was always a sure sign of daybreak. On the lake below, the sky caused the clouds to extend, onward into eternity.

Alleck was surprised to discover a smile lifting his cheeks. The past week had been a good one. This morning was golden.

Alleck stared through his apartment window a hundred times before, yet he’d never thought much of the scenery until now. The planet, Nephen was simply a beautiful place. But only when not running for your life, or trying to conceal your life entirely... as he had done in the past. Despite these rough eccentricities, he had finally been able to construct a life for himself, a life he could call his own.

Ever since Alleck was constructed... yes -- I said constucted, not born. He’d been nothing more than an outcast... or the brunt of people’s sadistic senses of humor.

Duplicants had no place and definitely no title in society. Proof of this was seen on current News broadcasts reporting on Duplicants faking their identities. They’d quietly be climbing the social ladder until they gained some respectability. Of course whenever they openly shared their opinions on Duplicants being treated unjustly, it never took long for people to do their research and find out that they’re among the artificially created Humans.

I suppose it’s insulting to think that humans can be artificially constructed by simple germ cells. Alleck thought to himself. Germs are living organisms, and if they’re properly altered in a lab to construct the Haploid number of genes and a fertile egg it's obviouse how a completely artificial Human can be manufactured in somewhat of an assembly line.

Alleck turned his gaze from the scenery and took sight of whom he hoped would some day be his bride. She lay there, still, sleeping in the comfort of his bed. Though life was hard, being what he was, he found pleasurable by simply being with her, but could he truly say that he loved her if he could rist puttin her through a life of hiding and fear?

He was about to lay down with her once again until he heard sirens out in the distance. Alleck snapped out of his wish to fit in with the society that hated him and forced himself into the real world. He looked out the window and down the tall building to find law enforcement craft parking at the bottom entrance.

Most Duplicants in nature are made with gifts. Most scientists, when given the chance, search for ways to make the next generation healthier and less susceptible to disease. Duplicants were just one way Scientists went about conducting this kind of research. Alleck’s special gift was an acute sense of hearing. Though he was several stories above the officers, he could hear them.

Both officers were wearing blue, lightly armored, uniforms. As they approached Alleck’s apartment building. They had a calm demeanor, nothing like officers expecting a fight.

“So, what are we doing here?” One of the two officers asked.

“It appears that a Duplicant has been faking his identity and living in one of these apartments here.”

“Don’t they know that they’re not welcome?”

Alleck could feel his heart drumming faster and harder within his chest. How did they find me? He wondered. I haven’t been careless. I haven’t done anything to uncover my tracks. Quickly he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small container of Malligant pills, meant to suppress emotion and allow pure logic to flow through his mind.

Alleck had used them in the past, usually for emergencies such as this.

He popped a pill into his mouth and swallowed with a stiff jaw. He could hear both, his blood and heart beating like an arsenal of cannons. Though it was overwhelming they both slowed abruptly and all became tranquil. It was an amazing drug. It always started to work magic faster than expected.

For the past six years Alleck had lived a somewhat normal life. He faked his identity, lived in an apartment and stayed as far away from slavery as possible. He had eaten real food... not something out of a dumpster like most Duplicants that manage to roam free. He had finally acquired a job and insurance. He had finally met someone that he actually cared for. He had a variety of friends. Not a large one but big enough to feel a sense of gratification.

I’m not just about to let go of everything I have. I’ve worked too long and hard for this. The chances of me surviving past nightfall are slim now that I’ve been identified, but at least I’ll go down fighting in something I believe in. Not many people can say something like that.

“Jenna,” Alleck said facing the woman in his bed.

She slowly opened her eyes groggily, smiling, “Hey.” she held her arms out to hold him.

He hugged her tightly. He shifted her in his arms carried her out of bed and stood her on the cold floor. “Jenna, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Her smile faded into a memory, a good one, a memory he’d keep until the very end.

“Why?” She asked.

“There’s something about me that you don’t know about…” Alleck said, swallowing a throat suddenly dry.

“What is it?”

“The police are down stairs and they’re coming. I need you to leave, now.”

“You’re joking with me aren’t you?” She laughed as her smile returned full force. “There aren’t any Police!”

“Look out the window yourself.” Alleck commented seriously. “I need you to leave.”

“I don’t understand… Why would they be after you?”

“I can’t… can’t tell you that…”

“And why not?”

“Because you wouldn’t understand, you’d hate me.”

“Look, I wouldn’t hate you. Just be honest with me. Why can’t you be completely honest with me just this once?”

Alleck had chosen long ago to never trust another person ever again. Trust had never brought him justice. Trust never gave him food, work, or an apartment, yet despite all this, he decided he’d have faith one last time and trust again. The drug having almost taken absolute effect made what he had to say easier.

“I’m a Duplicant Jenna.” He said seriously with a solid tone. There was no doubt that he was absolutely serious.

It wasn’t immediate, but gradual. She held the same look as they all did when hearing the truth. A dark shadow cast itself upon her beautiful face. Other than that her face was undisturbed, but it was obvious now that he had no true place in her life.

To her, he wasn’t real; he was less than a clone. Clones were, at least, copies of something real. No, Alleck was only the product of an experiment in a lab. He was fathered and mothered by nothing more than mutated germ cells and birthed by a scientific tube in an outlandish laboratory. He was a man without a genealogy, and whose very existence was illegal and in some way wrong, wrong in a way that had no justification or reason, wrong without moral basis. So naturally, furthering a relationship with him would be too inconvenient. Never mind the good thoughts and times that were once interlinked together, for as far as anyone was concerned, he never even existed.

After that moment, she quietly picked up her clothes from the apartment floor, slipped them back onto her fine slender feminine frame and left the room.

Alleck just then realized how small his world truly was. Even his apartment was one solid room.

Under normal circumstances Alleck would have been crushed by the loss of such a memorable woman. He knew that behind the Malligant drug his subconscious-self was tearing at the confines of his scull, screaming with tear-filled memories of what they once had together. Were he still capable of emotion, all ambitions for survival would have been mere instinct with no true desire for it, but at that moment Malligant was in command and its demand was logic.

He opened a secret door in the wall. Inside this small compartment were weapons he kept for just such an occasion.

He tucked the rifle into a large pocket in custom-tailored pants that made it both out of sight and easily accessible if needed. It was a specially designed rifle, measured just as long as his leg. It would bend at the knee joint, which would act as the cocking mechanism when activated. The pocket was easy to see, but only those intentionally looking for special designs in the clothing would find that it was longer than it truly appeared.

He took the other two other guns and put them in more traditional hiding places. One pistol he placed into his boot, another in his inside coat pocket.

He took a chair from his dinner table and set it in the middle of the room facing the only entrance into his apartment.

He could hear the officers in the elevator continuing a conversation. When the elevator stopped Alleck could tell it was on his level. Jenna had stopped at that same elevator. Though the Malligant had finally taken its full effect, he still desired her safety.

He heard her take an inward gasp when she took sight of the two officers but they took no notice of it. They walked right past her without suspicion, and their footsteps led to his apartment door.

The electric chime rang and one officer pressed the intercom button. Jenna had just entered the elevator and it was on its way to the nearest exit.

“This is the police, open up!”

Alleck waited a bit longer, allowing the police to chime the door a few more times until he knew with a clear certainty that Jenna had exited the building and was going to be safe.

“Computer, open the door.” Alleck said calmly.

The police entered, not expecting to see their target sitting in the middle of the room, waiting calmly, and facing the entrance as if expecting company. The only window in his apartment above his bed was directly behind him. The pink clouds and bright light cast their radiance brightly behind him, making himself a dark silhouette for the Police.

Intimidation was a powerful tool.

“Please have a seat.” Alleck gestured emotionlessly.

One officer leaned closer to the other and whispered. “Do you think he’s on Malligant pills? He’s already showing symptoms.”

“Who knows?”

Alleck smiled. Everyone knew that Malligant users were dangerous. The effects it had on the modula oblongata was numbing. Pain could no longer exist for as long as the drug took effect. Where most people would surrender to the pain, Malligant users would continue relentlessly, and endlessly, to win. Though Malligant WAS NOT illegal or addictive, it was always difficult to get a hold of, but Alleck had always managed to have a cache in every place he went.

“I asked if you would have a seat.” Alleck said again, motioning to the chairs.

“Sorry…” One of the officers said hesitantly. “This isn’t a house call. You’re under arrest.”

“On what grounds?” Alleck asked as he picked at the dirt under his nails.

“We have substantial evidence that you’re a Duplicant. Now come with us.”

“What crime is there in being a Duplicant?”

“The practice of making them has been illegal for ten years. Now come with us.”

“I was made twenty four years ago. How can I be held accountable for that? No one chooses to be born a Duplicant, the same as you had no choice in the matter to become a natural Human.”

“We don’t write the law. We’d like you to come with us peacefully, but if you resist, we’ll have to do this by force.” The officers both started walking toward Alleck. One pulled out a set of handcuffs and a pain stick. The other pulled out a hand radio.

“This is Officers Leren and Dess. We’re about to arrest the Duplicant in the Southern Bay. We think he might be a Malligant user. We’re requesting back up.”

“I warn you,” Alleck said. The officers paused. Alleck heard their hearts beating fearfully and he took a diminished pleasure in this. “I am not an easy target.”

Officer Leren put the hand radio away and readied his gun.

Officer Dess came closer with his handcuffs and pain stick in hand. When in reach, Alleck immediately seized Dess’s pain stick and pulled hard.
Dess fell forward as Alleck simultaneously kicked him as hard as he could, pulled the gun from his inner coat pocket, and shot Leren’s head into a spray of blood before he could react and pull his own trigger…

Leren’s body fell to the floor with a dull thud. Dess flew through the room and collided with a wall and fell to the floor as well. By the sounds of it, Dess had broken three ribs.

Alleck rose from his chair and pulled the rifle from his large leg-pocket.

Alleck activated the rifle, cocked it, and pulled the trigger at Dess’s head.

He heard other people above and below him in the apartment building screaming in panic from the sound of gunfire, and already reinforcements could be heard in the far distance outside.

There was no chance Alleck would live through the night, but he wasn’t going to die without a fight. It wouldn’t have mattered if he had resisted the arrest or not. A Duplicant captured was as good as dead.

Alleck turned to face his apartment one last time. He had lived there for four years. Though it was small and filled with blood, it was the closest thing any Duplicant he had ever heard of that came close to a normal life. The last memory of Jenna may not have been a happy one, but he would forever hold that last smile she had left him.

Though emotionless, a tear streaked down his face. The subconscious can only be denied so much. He took a pill that would counter the effects of the Malligant drug.

If I die, I’m going to die with human emotion. I’m going to die human... regardless of my style of birth.

He then walked out of his apartment door calmly. Composure was all he had left. And composure would die with him.

Tomorrow, this would only be known as another News Broadcast of how one more Duplicant fought against law enforcement in a futile battle to stay alive. They would explain how the police brought peace back into the streets and the price was only the meaningless death of an illegal Duplicant.


Writers Notes: I didn't want to write a short story about racism and I sure as heck didn't want to echo the modern Liberal voices that are supporting illegal imigration. I actually wrote this a long time ago because it's an interesting concept... I know it's a FORM of racism... I suppose... and a BIT of Mc'Carthyism (in that, if you think about it. In a world like that, you could call anyone a Duplicant and who knows what would happen.) ... ... but I'm really not trrying to touch on current affairs.