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

[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."

[alicornucopia]

"Small mercies."

[unmarred]

"Yeah."

[alicornucopia]

"I suppose if most of your galaxy is civilized about clones you don't have dedicated charities about the subject."

[unmarred]

"No. Nor are we overflowing with dedicated charities about people being variously exploited on Jackson's Whole. Seems to be a regrettably common attitude that anybody who lives there deserves what they get."

[alicornucopia]

"Because didn't they think to read the fine print when checking the box for which planet they'd like to be born on?" says Ashley disgustedly.

[unmarred]

"Yeah, exactly. I mean, I'll be the first to admit Jacksonian culture has precious little to recommend it, but that's hardly the fault of the grubbers and clones and sex slaves and brainwashed bodyguards and bio-experiments."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, it gets worse than just clones slated for brain transplant, does it?"

[unmarred]

"And how."

[alicornucopia]

"Oh joy, I had been running out of faith in the bottomlessness of human capacity for evil."