give it all you got, go

[alicornucopia]

At a booth in Milliways sits a woman in her thirties, stirring a cup of tea, watching the stars explode. There is a fat boring-looking lawbook under her elbow, and a barcode across the back of her right hand.

Mark (with kappa)

Ruth (with Maggie)

Comments

[unmarred]

From introductory biology and medicine down to much denser technical volumes on the exact mechanics of partial-body cloning. It's a pretty comprehensive set.

"You're welcome," he says. "Oh - I'm Mark, by the way."

[alicornucopia]

"Ashley."

[unmarred]

"Nice to meet you. Enjoy the books."

[alicornucopia]

"Nice to meet you too. I have no bio background, but I know some charity workers who might be able to think of something intelligent to do with them."

[unmarred]

He nods.

"Shouldn't be that hard. I'd think someone would have to fuck something up pretty royally before they'd utterly fail to help. Whoever gets that technology off the ground stands to make vast sums of money obviating the need for salvaging organs from whole organisms."

[alicornucopia]

"Since no other motives have helped," she sighs.

[unmarred]

"Have they not?"

[alicornucopia]

"At the source? No. Sometimes someone will have an attack of guilt, but the companies survive the loss of their employees, and by the time the commissioners have this problem they've already fronted the money."

[unmarred]

"Ugh," says Mark. "And I imagine it's not a problem that can be solved with assassination or espionage."

[alicornucopia]

"Not straightforwardly, unless you wanted to kill everyone who runs a vat corp and keep doing it until no one's willing to do it."

[unmarred]

"Tempting as that option is, I think the books have a better long-term benefit for your world."

[alicornucopia]

"Probably." She stacks them on top of her legal textbook.

[unmarred]

Mark smiles.

[alicornucopia]

"How much did they - I have some money, I can pay you for the books."

[unmarred]

"Oh - don't worry about it," he shrugs. "Consider it a donation to the cause."

[alicornucopia]

"You want a receipt for your taxes?" she wonders wryly.

[unmarred]

He laughs. "It'd be a little difficult to explain."

[alicornucopia]

"Just a bit. And I don't actually work for OOS."

[unmarred]

"So. It's really no trouble, anyway, I've got plenty of money. A 'sorry you were trained by my father's enemies to murder and replace me' present from my original."

[alicornucopia]

"I thought daisies were traditional for that occasion," she drawls.

[unmarred]

Mark giggles.

[alicornucopia]

"I hope all this biotech doesn't depend on things we don't have."

[unmarred]

"I tried to be as comprehensive as possible so if it's a matter of infrastructure you'll know what to aim for and if there are prohibitive differences in biology or physics you'll catch it sooner than later."

[alicornucopia]

Nod.

She picks up her teacup. There is no tea in it anymore. How sad. "I know a number of people at OOS and some from the Clone Legal Defense Fund, I'm sure someone knows where to send them once they've been digitized - and someone will know a clone with no job skills who'll delightedly take minimum wage to scan it all."

[unmarred]

"I could've come up with digital copies in the first place but I didn't want to take a chance on the conversions. I'd be worried about translation if you weren't an Earth, but the languages seem pretty solidly consistent between instances of that planet and I know my English and your English are still mutually intelligible."