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In hindsight, maybe James had been too optimistic about how much progress he would be able to make once Wilhelm’s research was in his hands. The man had had some decent ideas, but he was nowhere near a great scientist. In fact, the further along James ventured into the research papers, the more he doubted Wilhelm had ever been a competent scientist to begin with. Too much room for error. Too much emotional involvement. And yet, somehow, too little ambition. There was no vision of a greater picture. Just a regrettable fixation with reviving a life gone by.
You see, James was thrilled to have complete ownership of this project. But instead of getting right into experimenting and refining, he finds himself picking at the seams of Wilhelm’s work. There’s too many gaps, too many assumptions, and too many failed attempts. He’s gonna have to unravel it all and start again, from the beginning.
Currently, the main issue he has is that the test subjects are practically useless. Only a handful of them are capable of living outside the tanks, and even fewer have the level of sentience to be conversational. And even then, he has no framework to refer to when it comes to the late Mrs. Wilhelm. The information you can get on a person, regardless of your level of clearance, is useless when it comes to evaluating memories. He could tell you her entire DNA sequence, or list you every transaction she had made in her life, but it’s impossible for James to know what her happiest memory is without knowing her. At best, he can try to make an informed guess. What he needs is a blank canvas. Someone whose memories are accessible but not overwhelmingly extensive. And ideally, if he’s allowed to be picky, also someone who’s not a child, as they tend to lack focus. Thankfully, he has someone in mind.
It takes some convincing for Ember to let him ask Jet to come over. It seems the boy is not incredibly keen on the idea, but if there’s something James is good at, it’s getting people to like him, one way or another. He’s glad at least that he was willing enough to agree to a meeting.
James waits for Jet outside of the Evolved Biotics HQ. He arrives right on time, standing out from the crowd due to his striking alien features. There’s not too many Rach left in this corner of the galaxy, especially this far out from the colonies. If all goes well, this venture could further James’ research in more than one front. He waves over at Jet, making sure to catch his attention.
“This way!” James gestures, and starts walking towards the underground parking. It’s not until they arrive at James’ ride that Jet speaks up.
“Are we not going to meet here?” he asks.
“In the company building? Oh not at all! Too many curious ears and eyes you see. I’m sure you’re aware but these matters are of utmost secrecy, and even just having you here is going to give the secretaries something to gossip about for days. Hop on in!” he gestures to the passenger door. “Unless,” he says, dangling the keys in front of Jet’s eyes “you would like to drive?”
“I.. what? Wait-“
James tosses the keys to Jet, and slides to the passenger seat. Frankly, he doesn’t really enjoy driving, and this allows him to get a bit extra time of initial observation before they can really get into specifics, or Jet decides he can’t stomach going through the process. After all, the more information he gains at the beginning, the smoother things will be in the long run.
Jet looks at ease behind the steering wheel. It’s a sports-car model, the type which his parents would have called ridiculous and overpriced (or maybe even ridiculously overpriced). But here in the city it was already a few months old, rendering it virtually obsolete.
“So, uh, where to now, Doc?” Jet asks.
“My apartment. The GPS will tell you where to go” James replies, scribbling into his pad.
“Will you be doing that the entire time?”
“Care to be a bit more specific?”
“Y’know. The whole staring at me and taking notes every time I move a muscle.”
“Oh. Of course. All part of the research - the sooner you get used to it the better”
Jet sighs, and focuses on the road.
—
The drive back to his apartment is mostly uneventful. Jet is the quiet type, but so far James isn’t totally sure if it’s because he’s trying not to give away too much, or if he has nothing to say. His gut tells him it’s probably not the latter.
Jet speaks up again once they’re in the elevator.
“Aren’t you like, at all concerned with government surveillance?” he asks. “I mean, considering you’d go as far as to avoid the company building and all”
“Not particularly. You see, when you are the government surveillance, they usually ask you to keep any... side hustles if that’s what you wanna call them, as secret as possible. If this all goes well, we’ll fill in the gaps with some lab reports and go with a more official route”
The elevator dings and the doors open. James makes his way across his entrance.
“If, however, it doesn’t go well” he continues “then it’ll stay a secret between us.” he winks at Jet.
“So...” Jet pauses, considering his words. “What exactly would you need from me?”
“For now, I just need to get to know you. Eventually, I’d need your consent to make a digital copy of your memories, and to make a clone. But that all comes later, so for today at least I just need you to keep an open mind”.
Jet seems to consider it for a moment.
“Can I take some time to decide?”
“Of course. I would never hold you here against your will. And if at any moment it gets too much for you, we can stop. I won’t pressure you too much.”
Jet looks up towards him.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why me?”
“Ah, a good question. For the most part, it’s because you have a limited amount of memories. According to your file your creation date was just over five years ago. And, as your brain is fully formed, it’s more likely that you remember most of them. I would be lying if I said that I had no personal interest in you specifically though. You could say I find you fascinating?”
“Fascinating?”
“A synthetic human who has made it for over half a decade? Part alien at that? It’s incredible work. Revolutionary even”.
“Ah.”
“It would be unfair of me to ask you to give me all your memories for free though, so in return for every memory I will give you one of mine. Information is, after all, the most valuable thing I own. Take your time deciding.”
“Uh, thanks”
“For today I’ll just need to complete some quick physical tests. Nothing too extreme - just quick measurements and a DNA profile. Even if you decide not to go through with the experiment it’ll be valuable data for our research. Do you mind needles?”
“Depends on how many”
“Glad to see you still have a sense of humour” he grins.
James runs a quick physical evaluation. He doesn’t really care about the results. After all, this information is readily available if you know where to look for it. But Jet doesn’t seem to know that, and it's a great opportunity to see how well he follows orders and keeps his calm under pressure. Every second is precious when it comes to experiments like these. He finishes the test and guides Jet back down the elevator.
“All good to go for today, kid. You have my number so just let me know once you decide. I’ll be looking forward to it”
“I wouldn’t have high expectations if I were you Doc”
James just grins. He doesn’t have high expectations. The boy looked so uncomfortable throughout the testing that it would take a miracle for him to agree to return. But stranger things had happened in the last few weeks, and James always tried to hold out hope.6
It’s a whole week before he hears back from Jet again. He doesn’t call, but instead sends a quick email that reads:
“Doc,
The clone thing is definitely off the table. But, if you just want someone to talk to then I guess there’s no harm.
Jet”
James smiles at the screen of his comms. He’d count this as his first win.
———
It’s a few weeks before they see each other again. Between SFC missions that require their ace pilot and the amount of overtime that the end of financial year brings, their calendars just haven’t matched up.
Jet stands in his entryway, looking a bit hesitant. He’s wearing more casual clothes than usual. “That’s good” James thinks “It’ll hopefully keep him relaxed for longer”
“Come on in! Don’t be shy, I promise I don't bite,” James says, making eye contact “unless you’d like me to, in which case it could be arranged”
Jet’s cheeks tint a little bit.
“Don’t make it weird” he replies, but steps in anyways.
“So, Jet, where do you want to do this?”
“I have options?”
“Well, sure. I noticed last time the lab makes you... a bit jittery perhaps? And since today we’re only talking I don’t mind if we go to the living room or the kitchen instead.”
“I suppose we can take the couch”.
James' apartment is pretty spacious. It’s not one of the largest buildings in the city, but it does encompass the whole floor. Calling it a living room felt a bit like an understatement. There were sofas, of course, but also a large array of coffee tables, lounge chairs, and rugs. He sits on his favourite chair by the windows and gestures for Jet to sit closer. He still looks a bit stiff, but it seems like he’s slowly relaxing.
“Let me start by explaining the parameters of this experiment. You remember Mr. Wilhelm’s research, right?”
Jet shudders instinctively. James assumes it’s probably not been an easy thing to stomach.
“Well,” he continues “I’ve been focusing on refining his materials to turn it into something that we can actually use in modern day research. Unfortunately, everything has met a dead end so I’m branching out and starting from scratch. I need a test subject. That’s where you come in.”
“What about the wife?”
“The wife?”
“Mrs. Wilhelm? Weren’t there like, fifteen copies of her?”
“Oh. Unfortunately none of them were viable options. They had to be disposed of'' James notices Jet starting to look more defensive again, so he offers more information, in the hopes it’s an olive branch “I mentioned before how Wilhelm was barely a competent scientist, yes? Most of those women wouldn’t have been able to survive more than ten minutes outside the tanks. Some of them were struggling to even within them. It was kinder this way”
It’s not the whole truth, but it seemed to have worked regardless.
“Oh.” Jet sounds slightly saddened by this fact. “Makes sense. They did look a bit off.”
“Indeed. So, as I was saying, this is where you come in! Even if Mrs. Wilhelm’s clones had been able to be conscious enough to be tested, they would’ve been useless to me. After all, I know nothing about the late Mrs. Wilhelm’s memories, so it’d be impossible to test for accuracy. But you,” he looks towards Jet “you’re a fully developed, conscious person, with only five years of memories. I fully believe that if we work smart we can catalogue your memories in a way that will let us test whether the memory transfer is at all viable”
“If the less memories the better. wouldn’t it have been easier to just make a new clone then?”
“Not necessarily. Developing a sense of identity can sometimes take years. Besides, building a full clone is incredibly rare these days. The biggest clients used to be hospitals, but they have since realised that they can just clone individual organs instead. Much faster and a lot less leftovers if you know what I mean. Only the super rich get them made nowadays and then they keep them on very tight leashes. Quite frankly I’m surprised your family has let you possess this level of freedom”.
“I don’t have a family”
“Rocky relationship then, huh. I guess that explains some things”
“No, I mean, I’m a clone? I’m just a copy of someone else. Just because they have a family it doesn’t mean that it’s mine.”
“Ah. So it’s like that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Do you regret being a clone, Jet?”
He doesn’t answer, so James tries a different approach.
“I meant, have you ever considered that being a clone has benefits? It’s not necessarily a burden”
“Of course it’s a burden. Imagine living all your life without the opportunity of being a person. Imagine living all your life, just as a copy of someone else. What benefits could there be?”
“Your immune system is more resilient”
“What?”
“Like, as a clone, your immune system is already fully formed. With that plus standard vaccinations, the chances of you getting sick are close to none. Most would say that is an incredible achievement for a five year old.”
“I guess?”
“And, you do know you’re your own person right?”
Jet stares at him blankly. He looks like he has a lot say, but also like he’s not quite sure where to begin.
“You’re like, a twin”
“A twin?”
“Genetically you might be the same, but you’ve been different people from the moment you were born. Similarities will exist of course, but I assure you if you look closely enough you’ll find that you have similarities with everyone else in your life.”
“So you’re saying that I’m not a copy? Isn’t that what a clone is meant to be?”
“Physically, perhaps, but it’d be preposterous to think that mentally and psychologically you’d be the same. The second you came to life you had thoughts and ideas and experiences that your source has never had. And you’ve continued to have these ever since.”
“I guess that’s one way of looking at it”
“Even if I was to make a clone of you right now, the second it took its first breath it’d be a different person than who you are now. It’s one of science’s greatest discoveries! Life at our fingertips!”
“You said what you wanted were my memories. Am I meant to just give you a report of what my life has been like?”
“Oh no, not at all. That would be too drab for both of us and frankly not too much help. I;m much more interested in finding out conversationally. See what comes back to you easily, and what kind of memories need a bit more prompting. If all goes well, we can even try and record the process of making new memories. After all, five years isn’t a long time and I’m sure there’s plenty of things you have yet to do”
“Just conversation, then?”
“For now” he smiles.
———
Most of their meetings go in a similar way. They meet for two or three hours every couple of weeks, and just trade stories. Likes and dislikes.
“You mean to tell me you don’t like sweets?” James asks from his seat, holding the bowl of ice cream in hands.
“Not particularly, no”
“Have you tried the sea salt flavour before?”
Before Jet has a chance to respond, James is already offering him a spoonful.
“I haven’t” he responds, but James seems undeterred. “Do I really have to?”
“I don’t see what’s the harm. Besides, that’s what we’re here for right? Taste is a form of memory. And who knows, you might even enjoy it.”
Jet takes the spoon and tries the ice cream.
“I guess it’s tolerable”
“See! You learn something new about yourself every day” James beams, and Jet’s cheeks tint a slightly red colour. They seem to be doing that more frequently with every meeting.
The months pass by in a blur.
———
It’s been close to a year since they began the experiment, and while James has made numerous breakthroughs, none of them have been particularly major. That is, until today. He paces in front of his entrance, waiting for Jet to arrive. He also tries to organise his thoughts, in order to maximise his chances of convincing the lad.
The second Jet opens the door, James turns to him, eyes sparkling.
“I found a solution to our dilemma!”
“You mean you settled on whether we were ordering today’s pizza with or without cheese?”
“Of course not, don’t be daft. I haven’t had the time to think about such frivolous matters. I mean the clone dilemma”
“As in, you finally realised that I won’t ever consent to making one of myself so you’ll finally drop the issue?”
“As in I realised it doesn’t have to be a clone in order for it to solve our problems. Not in the way you are a clone, at least.”
Jet’s interest seems piqued at that, so James takes it as an opportunity to continue.
“How much do you know about folklore from Sol 3?”
“Earth? Not much. Only scattered bits and pieces from Pearlie’s ramblings at the base. She’s built up quite a collection.”
“Have you heard about Homunculus, or Golems?”
“Can’t say that I have, no.”
“It’s all based on the concept of the concept of artificial life. They were sometimes called ‘unfinished humans’ as they were not quite living but not quite dead. Records from this time are hard to come by, and I severely doubt they even had the technology for something like this back then unless they had access to magic.”
“So they’re not real?”
“It’s not about them being real or not. It’s about the concept. You see, all this time I’ve been thinking that I need to make a clone of you to implant memories in, and then be able to test how accurately the memory transfer is. But the thing is, I know I can make a clone. At this point in time, clones aren’t a novelty. So instead, we can just focus on the memory transfer. I can make an artificial recipient. More akin to a doll, or a puppet. A robot even. If memories are data then there should be no problem in transferring and testing and you don’t need to worry about your moral hang ups because it won’t be a living thing.”
Jet seems to consider it for a moment. Surely, he must realise that this is the most viable option and they’ve both invested too much time on this to back out now. At the very least, James hopes he feels that way. Jet just needs a push in the right direction is all.
“You know. Ancient people believed that what made us humans was our soul. A self beyond our physical bodies. The idea that who we are isn’t tied to our presence in this world but that it continues to exist even after our time is over.” He pauses for a bit to stare into Jet’s eyes. “I don’t have enough hubris to consider myself an authority on who gets to have a soul, but I have never for a single moment doubted the existence of yours. This thing, it won’t have one. It will have to be switched on and off like any appliance, and if at any moment it looks like too much, we can just delete it and try to find other options. Or, even pretend that the last ten months haven’t happened. I just ask that you give me a chance. Please?”
James has never been above begging, especially if he knows it’s what it takes to convince someone. Jet has proved himself to be an unpredictable variable in many occasions though, so he still waits with bated breath.
“I’ll take your offer on one condition,” Jet says after an excruciating bout of silence. “If I ask you to stop, I’m gonna need you to do so. No questions asked, no explanations required.”
In that moment, James feels more relieved than in the past 26 years of his life.
———
The process of growing the homunculus, or Jet Jr. as James has taken to calling him, is a lot less exciting than it sounded. It’s a lot less pzazz and a lot more just sculpting and editing and minor tweaks. It’s shaping up though, bearing more resemblance to Jet with each passing day. Even Jet seems intrigued by the process, as he now finds himself in James’ apartment a couple of days a week.
“So how exactly is this meant to work then?” Jet asks one day, staring at his reflection floating in the tank.
“Have you heard of the Turing test?”
“Vaguely, in school. It’s what the ancients used to test the levels of artificial intelligence, right?”
“Right on. A very outdated and not really nuanced test, but for an initial experiment it will do. I will run a series of interviews and it’ll have to convince me that it is you. I expect it’ll be a bit challenging since by now I think I have a fairly decent grasp of who you are as a person, but I’m looking forward to being pleasantly surprised.”
“Have you figured out how to upload my consciousness yet?”
“Not your consciousness, your memories . As a matter of fact, I have! I figured you wouldn’t be incredibly keen on a permanent implant, so I had exterior versions made as well. It’ll look sort of like a headband? It doesn’t quite have the distance range that the implant does, but as we’ll be running this out of my apartment I don’t see that as being a problem.”
“Cool.”
There’s a pause, but James can hear Jet overthinking.
“It’ll be ready sometime next week or so.” he tells him.
“Thanks”
———
The day testing begins, James hopes it ends up being fairly uneventful. He has the data, he has the copy of Jet’s memories, he has Jet and Jet Jr. There’s no real reason for anything to go terribly wrong. But still, he falters.
“You know, you don’t have to be here when I power it on.” he tells Jet, who is currently lounging in one of the chairs he brought from the living room.
“I know,” Jet replies “but if the memories are working then it’ll remember that it’s a thing, right? It’ll know. So I don’t think it matters as much if it can see it’s source.”
“Fair enough. Today we’ll just be testing the first function - just the general transfer. We’ll be seeing how well it remembers, and how easily it can access your memories.”
The tests go well, nothing out of the ordinary. Lots of small adjustments. Reuploading data, and asking questions again. Rinse and repeat.
———
They’ve been testing over a week now and James has run out of things to ask, and things to tweak. He knows it works. The memory transfer is impeccable at this point, and were he not keenly aware that this was not Jet, he thinks even someone of his caliber could’ve been fooled. He’ll move onto testing with different subjects now, whom he doesn’t need to know as much, and who can have more memories. After all, the grunt work has laid out and he’s finally at where he hoped he’d be almost a year ago.
“ Now he just needs to find the time to break up with Jet. ” he thinks, immediately followed by his brain trying to backtrack into less loaded language “ break the partnership up? Break the news? ” Maybe he’s in it deeper than he thought.
———
“Well that’s about it. Thanks for all your efforts so far Jet. See you whenever our paths cross next.”
“What?”
“It’s over. I’ve gotten all the information I can from you and as valuable and essential to my research it all was, and how thankful I am, there’s no need for any more of it. So there’s no reason for me to keep you here. You’re free to go.”
“Free to go? I’ve been free to go this entire time you imbecile. I’m here because I care. I’m here because we both got this far together. You can’t just say it’s finished and kick me out on a whim!”
“I can. It is quite literally what I’m doing right now”
“Doc you can’t just-” Jet’s sentence is cut midway as the door closes in his face. There’s a muffled sound of yelling for a bit.
It’s not until it’s silence that the ache hits James’ chest. Maybe he should have approached this in a slightly more amicable way, but he’s never been the type of person for open, vulnerable relationships with other people. And in the past year, Jet had ventured past more of his walls than he was comfortable with. No, it had to be this way. The ache would fade eventually and he’d be on his way towards a new patent. All would be well.
Or at least, it would be, if he had the hindsight to take Jet’s key pass to the apartment before kicking him out.
It’s been less than twenty minutes before the doors open up again and Jet storms inside.
“Jet, what are you-”
“You’re infuriating , you know. You can’t just expect people to open up their hearts to you for a year and then just chase them off because you’re too emotionally stunted to deal with it. You can’t just get people to care and then do this. You-”
Jet looks up at James, pausing his rambling because he just has too many things to say and his brain apparently can’t sort them out any longer. However, Jet has always been more action oriented. It all happens in a blur: he grabs the lapels of his coat and pulls James into a kiss. It surprises him for a moment, and then he kisses back.
“Feisty one, aren’t you?” James says, not really pulling back.
“Shut up,” Jet replies, but without any real malice. “I hate you”. His cheeks burn.
———
“Y’know Doc. Whenever you ran those memory experiments, you always specified that we were testing the first function. But we never tested any other functions”
James doesn’t reply.
“Doc” Jet says, more firmly this time “what were the other functions”
“Well, uh, you see,” James replies, sounding slightly unsure, and maybe a bit embarrassed? “I didn’t bring it up before because it might have seemed a bit less… reasonable? I equipped the system not just with the ability to transfer memories to one being to another, but, if multiple beings have the same source, it could function as a sort of hivemind.”
“Hivemind?”
“As in, all your memories would be shared. Theoretically one mind could control more than one body, and move in tandem.”
“So you’re saying that I could move the homunculus as if it were my own body?”
“Perhaps. Honestly I wouldn’t have suggested it but considering you’re part Rach I wouldn’t be surprised if you could make it. They’re rumoured to have non-contact telepathic abilities so something like this wouldn’t be too far out of the question.”
“Huh”
“You don’t seem surprised by this. I’ll admit I expected you to be more against the idea”.
He turns to look at Jet, whose cheeks have started to colour again slightly, and awaits his reply.
“I was just thinking that it’s almost our anniversary.”
“Anniversary?” James prompts
“You know, a year since all this started.” He pauses, and the silence stretches for a bit. Jet gulps before continuing. “And, if you wanted to test the double Jet theory, I suppose I wouldn’t be opposed.” His face is nearly crimson now.
James laughs.
“I’m sure that something could be arranged”.