The Clone Conundrum: Forgotten Fodder, #2

By MJ Blehart

Infantry Clone Jace Rojas and CBI Marshal Onima Gwok have uncovered a sinister plot, but in the quest for more answers, all they find are new questions.

As they continue the investigation into the murder of the business executive, more evidence of a vast conspiracy to topple the government using clones emerges.

In addition to Jace, Onima relies heavily on her team. Specifically, brilliant cryptanalyst and former hacker Feroz Jones, medical examiner Dr. Maira Patel, and pilot Yael Amber. Onima has been warned that someone on her team is sharing information with CBI higher-ups potentially tied to the late executive's company...and the conspirators.

When Deputy Marshal Kara Martinez is assigned to the team by a suspect CBI director, Onima can't help but wonder if she will be a help - or a hindrance.

How do the conspirators intend to use the clones to overthrow the Confederation leadership? And what obstacles will the mole throw in the way of Onima, Jace, and the team as they attempt to solve the clone conundrum?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Argent Hedgehog Press
• Release date: Sep 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223467748

MJ Blehart

MJ BLEHART has been writing stories of high fantasy and sci-fi/space opera throughout his life - the first when he was nine years old. Star Wars and Star Trek were some major influences in his youth. He is a history aficionado. MJ has been a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA - a medieval re-enactment society) for over 30 years. In the SCA, he studies and teaches 16th century rapier combat (fencing) and court heraldry, enjoys archery, social interactions with people from all over the world, and spending time with friends. MJ blogs regularly, exploring mindfulness, conscious reality creation, positivity, the writing process/business, and creating an amazing life. He's a prolific reader as well. MJ currently resides in south New Jersey with his wife and two feline overlords (cats).

Book preview

1

IT HAD BEEN YEARS SINCE the last time she had visited Earth.

Generally, if you were not born on Earth, you had no reason to visit. There were several businesses across human space that still called Earth home, and there were always tourists interested in visiting the Cradle of Humankind. But for the most part, Earth was separate from the rest of space.

Before the war, Earth had not been part of the Near-Earth Colony Coalition (NECC), the New Earth Exoplanet Alliance (NEEA), nor the Independent Human Colonies Federation (IHCF). In fact, during the war, Earth had remained separated and uninvolved.

Technically, Earth was not part of the Alliance of Earth Colonies Confederation (AECC). Earth had always remained an independent, neutral party and stayed out of the colonies’ politics.

Historically, the United Earth Colonization Authority’s Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation had been Earth-based as a symbol of its neutrality. After the war, when it had been tied into the new, unified AECC and become the Confederation Bureau of Investigation (CBI), they’d maintained their headquarters on Earth.

Though still a wholly independent government, the Earth Confederation included the entirety of the Sol solar system. Earth, the moon bases, Mars, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and everything else in the solar system tied into the Earth Confederation. With the end of the previous three separate colonial governments, the Earth Confederation had been signatory to the AECC.

That was why the Bureau still retained its neutrality and did its job as intergalactic law enforcement.

The directors of the CBI were on Earth, though many of the deputy directors were spread across human space. Onima’s governor, Maxwell Samarin, was based on Earth.

CBI headquarters on Earth had their own spaceport. Onima found this unfortunate, since it meant less opportunity to explore the headquarters city, Dubai.

After everything Onima and her team had found, she’d decided that an in-person conversation with her governor was in order. Yes, she knew that communications were extremely secure—but there was too much to what they had found to take that chance.

Onima had traveled to Earth with only Special Agent Yael Amber, her usual pilot. The rest of her team remained aboard the CBI Aquila in space dock.

Onima and Yael were together, using the underground tunnel from the CBI spaceport to the campus. While it was perfectly fine to be on the surface, it was also presently mid-summer, and the ambient temperature was 42 degrees Celsius. Neither Onima nor Yael felt like working up a sweat.

Yael would go and visit with an old friend stationed at headquarters while Onima went to meet her governor.

It wasn’t long before they reached the lifts.

Good luck with your boss, boss, Yael said, getting off the lift at the tenth floor.

Thanks, Onima replied.

She stayed on the lift until it reached the sixtieth floor.

There was a reception desk across from the lift. The receptionist, who was non-binary, was flanked by a pair of agents in very basic protective gear with laser rifles.

How may I direct you? asked the receptionist.

Onima flashed her digital warrant card. Marshal Onima Gwok. I’ve an appointment with Deputy Director Samarin.

The receptionist checked things over, nodded, and said, Yes, he is expecting you. Please head to his office. To your right, third door on the outer wall.

Thank you, Agent. Onima turned and headed to the office.

The sixtieth floor, and nine above it, were the offices for the deputy directors. Even those not stationed on Earth had an office space in CBI headquarters. That way, it was able to serve as the ultimate center for the whole of the Bureau.

Onima reached Samarin’s office and tapped the pad on the jamb, just below his nameplate.

A second later, his voice said, Enter, from a hidden speaker, and the door slid open.

Deputy Director Maxwell Samarin was at his desk. The office was well appointed, with a view that faced the waters of the Persian Gulf. There were four chairs across from Samarin’s desk and a conference table with six chairs on the other side of the office.

Marshal Gwok, Samarin greeted her. Have a seat.

Thank you, Director, Onima replied. She sat down across from her governor.

I have read your report, he said, and agree that it raises more questions than it answers. Please take me through it all directly.

Very good, sir, Onima said, then launched into the complex, convoluted story.

An executive named Palmer Cadoret of the powerful Gray and Chuang Industries, as well as two clones, had been murdered in Garden Mesa on Planet Raven.

The unexpected witness of the murder had been an infantry clone who called himself Jace Rojas. He’d reported it had not simply been a murder, but an execution perpetrated by a sniper. When she’d taken him along with her to investigate the scene, Onima and Jace had been fired upon by the shooter, who was wearing a blue armored shell.

This had led them to the Gray and Chuang offices on New Terra where Palmer Cadoret had been based. But that had produced more questions than answers, though they’d been able to identify a possible connection between the company and the shooter.

Next, they’d paid a visit to Planet Tee-Erde and the abandoned cloning facilities there and discovered they were not so abandoned after all—they’d been attacked by yet another in a blue armored shell. But the shell and its occupant had vaporized before they could ask questions.

After that, following a hunch, they’d visited a local business that had likely once been part of the greater Gray and Chuang conglomerate. It was there that Onima and Jace had learned that clone DNA was still being experimented with.

That discovery had taken them to Dunia, where they’d met scientists from an interplanetary NGO still researching clones—but, more specifically, the odd malady that had not previously been proven to be viral and which had begun to kill clones about two years prior.

This had led to a search of a different Gray and Chuang office on Upsilon Gi, which had turned up a clearer connection between the massive company and the situation with the clones.

Though much remained a matter of circumstantial evidence, Onima and Jace had found indications that the company had been part of the production of this virus, which was intended not to kill clones, but to control them. Why, however, remained a mystery.

Finally, paying another visit to New Terra, the Gray and Chuang deputy director they’d met before had refused to assist them directly, but had confidentially shared information. Onima and her team had learned that Palmer Cadoret had become privy to what the company was doing.

Thus, Onima surmised, the dead deputy director had been intent on either blowing the whistle or otherwise acting against the company—which was likely why he had been executed.

And that’s where we are at, Onima finished. We haven’t much in the way of admissible evidence to take any sort of action against Gray and Chuang, but there is a lot here.

And you believe this is all tied to the virus? asked Samarin.

Yes, Onima agreed. The virus was designed by Gray and Chuang—or one of their affiliates or fronts—to activate dormant coding in the clones to control them. Mr. Cadoret discovered this and was gathering information, but to what end was lost with his murder.

So, because Mr. Cadoret was uncomfortable with what Gray and Chuang was doing, you believe they had him executed?

Exactly, Onima agreed.

You suspect something more is going on here, Samarin said.

I do, Onima said. Sir, this is huge. We don’t have the complete details, of course, because they were destroyed along with everything else tied to the clones—especially the programming that was placed into them, such as the inhibition of their ambition. There was, the scientists at Clones Remembered claim, coding originally created to control clones more directly, but it was abandoned because it ruined their overall effectiveness.

Why would someone want to reactivate that? asked Samarin.

Let’s be honest, sir, Onima started, the AECC military is not much in comparison to those of the defunct NEEA, NECC, or IHCF forces. A large number of mindless clones on the attack would probably seriously weaken AECC forces.

Samarin leaned back in his chair. That may not be a fair assessment, Onima.

Perhaps not, Onima said, but can you refute it?

Samarin sighed. Not entirely, no. An attack by multiple clones on multiple targets could certainly overwhelm the AECC forces. Or at least divide them rather drastically.

Either way, Onima said, it makes for a plausible problem.

What do you think the end goal is for this conspiracy, Marshal Gwok?

The only answer I can come up with is overthrowing the AECC, Onima replied.

Samarin folded his arms, but rubbed at his chin. That’s quite the conspiracy to suggest, especially based upon just one murder.

The problem, sir, is that it all ties in together. The two clones murdered alongside Palmer Cadoret were both infected. This is how we know what the virus is, and that it colonizes in the brain at a point that only exists in clones—the part of the brain, mind you, where the control input was placed.

In addition to the inhibitions programmed into the clones to prevent a rebellion? asked Samarin.

Yes, sir, Onima replied.

Samarin said nothing for a moment, obviously pondering Onima’s entire presentation. Finally, he leaned forward again, bringing his hands together on his desk before him.

As you have no conclusion to your investigation, where do you wish to take it from here?

Onima had expected this question. I want to look into the origin of this virus and see if I can use what I have to make a real, solid connection between Gray and Chuang and whoever instigated this operation. I believe Palmer Cadoret’s murder was to silence him before he could reveal what they were up to. I want to unravel this mystery to keep the government intact.

Samarin sighed. You recognize, of course, that you have already seriously upset Gray and Chuang’s directors? I have received several requests to pull you off this case and either reassign it or close it out.

That’s a blatant abuse of power on someone’s part, is it not? Onima queried.

Samarin shook his head. Dangerous ground, Marshal Gwok. The company, as you well know, has many connections on many different levels. Including government. They have been almost too aware of your investigation, as though someone on the inside is feeding them information.

You implied this previously as well, Onima remarked.

I did, Samarin agreed. We already have a lot of coincidental tie-ins between the company and Director Rand, as well as Deputy Directors Kitsune and Vance. I do not wish to have you in a bad position if they start to push back.

Will Director Tang not intervene?  Onima asked. Jordan Tang was the executive director of the CBI.

Samarin let out an exasperated breath. Normally they would quash this type of thing. But Director Rand has been inferring that Tang is taking the Bureau in the wrong direction. It is, of course, baseless—but it means Tang must tread carefully. And if, as we suspect, Rand is in the pockets of the company...that’s a whole other set of problems.

I understand the implications of continuing my investigation, Onima began, but, sir, if I am right about this conspiracy, the very existence of the AECC is at stake.

Agreed, Samarin said, though not without reluctance in his tone. I will allow it. Continue with your investigation, and I will do what I can here to shield you.

How long now have you been out to prove Gray and Chuang is dirty? Onima asked.

Too long to not find all this circumstantial evidence disturbing. But you are well aware of my beliefs on this matter, Samarin replied. He took a breath and, in a different tone, asked, Did you return the clone to Raven?

Onima had known this was coming. No, sir.

Why not?

Deputy Director, Jace has been invaluable to this investigation, Onima said. A great deal of the information we have is only because of Jace’s involvement.

He is a clone, Marshal Gwok, Samarin said. He does not belong on a CBI ship.

With all due respect, sir, aren’t clones still among the people of the AECC? Our mandate for investigation and law enforcement across all human space does not exclude clones. They are still human, sir. This matter has gone beyond a mere murder investigation, and clones are quite seriously at its center. Onima took a breath and changed her tone. Frankly, sir, I would like to request permission to add Jace to my staff. At the very least, he could become an official paid consultant.

Out of the question, Samarin said.

Because he’s a clone? Onima asked. Thus far, sir, he’s been an integral part of this investigation. And what’s more, the entire team has accepted his presence.

Samarin grunted. While you are correct that clones fall under our mandates, there are any number of people of considerable influence who would take issue with the CBI paying one to take part in an investigation.

Even one who has already been quite involved?

Even so, Samarin confirmed.

With all due respect, Onima said, I would hate to think that you have a prejudice against clones.

Samarin could not hide his disgust. Really, Onima? How long have you known me?

Prior to meeting Jace, I had certain expectations of clones. But, getting to know him, I learned that they are not so different from everyone else.

That’s not the problem, Onima, Samarin said. There are political concerns that cannot be ignored.

Then it’s a good thing I am not playing politics, sir, Onima concluded.

Samarin sighed and shook his head. I don’t like this, but you have made it abundantly clear you intend to keep this clone involved in the investigation. I will accede to this request. But you need to keep his involvement to a minimum.

Yes, sir, Onima said.

We also will not be paying him as a consultant, Samarin added. But given what most clones are accustomed to, I expect having a bed, food, and clothing is more than enough.

Perhaps, Onima said. For now, sir.

Why do I allow you such levity, Marshal Gwok? said Samarin, returning to his usual demeanor.

Onima smiled. Because I am your best, sir.

And so modest, Samarin chided. Carry on, Marshal Gwok.

2

EARTH WAS QUITE THE unique ball of blue, green, gray, and brown.

Jace had seen many planets before, but never Earth. It was hanging out there, calm and inviting, shuttles and personal craft ascending and descending at various points.

He could never visit Earth. Clones were banned from Earth.

The ban had gone into place during the war. While Earth, and the Earth Confederation, had not been part of the three colonial governments, they’d wanted to make certain they’d be kept completely out of the war. Thus, they’d banned clones from Earth.

But after the war, the ban had never been lifted. Jace had heard a story about a refugee ship full of clones being turned away. When they’d refused, they had been destroyed.

The message this sent was clear. No clones on Earth. No argument.

Hence, Jace remained aboard the Aquila. He wasn’t alone: as it turned out, more than half