Do Clones Dream of Altered Sheep?

*Story by Sophie Starsparrow - 2009.01.22 *



His synapses fired. Blue sky. The feeling of...bubbles. Bubbles? Clouds. Wisps and eddies flowing past. The feeling of...feeling...He pondered the word. He tried to remember the feeling of...what? He couldn't think of a single thing. Try to remember...

His synapses fired. Winds, whisking past, lightness, soaring. He knew he was flying. Did he know it more than feel it? He tried to focus his awarenes but...felt...nothing. He had nothing to compare it to. He considered this for a minute, the wind flowing past. Nothing to compare it to? He seemed to know nothing but flying. An awareness of nothingness. A tiny flame in a deep vast cave.

His synapses fired. He was floating, not weightless but, light, so light. Feelings of motion, fast motion, like...he was...he couldn't think. Flying? Swimming? What was the difference? He tried to find a frame of reference and found himself lacking any. He...could feel..but...couldn't think. He couldn't describe it. Words. He needed words...and...didn't have any. He was getting frustrated.

The engineers saw the board, blinking red lights monitoring the higher levels of brain function. "3 hits in five minutes" said the shorter one. This was not good. They made their way down the aisle of vats and paused, watching one clone who seemed to be...concentrating.

"Um, should they do that?"

"No"

His synapses fired. A ship. He was flying a ship! His awareness went out out, through wires and cables that were not there connecting him to a large ship. Making him one with the ship. looping, darting, soaring, and spinning under his touch. He smiled.

They jumped when the light blinked again, and a cold chill ran through them when they saw the clone smile.

"Okay, thats it, I need a new line of work"

"Fair enough, but flush this one first, I flushed the last defective one."

His synapses fired. The tiny flame extinguished. Black.