Double the trouble

Posted on Sat Dec 20th, 2014 @ 9:34pm by Walter Jones & Jan Valentine & Langar Tarn & Charlotte Ashcroft & Bruce Air (PNPC)

2,266 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Session 7: Changes
Location: Warden Transporter room

[ON] 

[Warden - Transporter Room] 

Langar woke up with the typical post-stun headache and the accompanying numb feeling in his limbs. For some reason he also felt like he'd been kicked in the side.

He opened his eyes cautiously, and was surprised to find himself on the floor of the Warden's transporter room, instead of thhe floor of the Station cargo bay. He knew without checking that his disrupter pistol was gone, although he could still feel the Bajoran fishing knife was still concealed in his boot. 

He looked around, the real Jones, complete with his new hand-cannon pistols was there, along with one of the two Jans and one of the two Bruces.

The three of them were armed and covering himself and the other four, whom he had stunned himself. The other Jan and Bruce and both Lotties. Like himself they were all starting to come around. Just then the door opened and the Doctor came in. 

Langar sat up slowly and leaned back against the bulkhead.

"Well, I'm me" He pointed at the Jones "You're the Jones I signed on with. As for the rest of you....."  He shook his head "I have no fricking idea!" 

"I beamed us back, the other me wouldn't have the random encryption key I generated for the lockout. Plus, his coat is fake, he'd have gotten up after a minute like myself." Jan said, pulling open a coat zipper to reveal a complicated weave of neatly organized wires, components, and energy weapon dispersion layers.

"Unless he wasn't hit in the jacket," Pass said with a long suffering sigh. "Am I to presume that these bound people are the shipment you went to collect, Jones?"

Langar snorted "Nah. We had a much more lucrative cargo but Bruce decided to let it walk away."

"Smart mouth for someone who tried to kill me, but is now looking down his own gun barrel." None of Bruce's normal levity was present.

Morgan looked at him with a dead pan face, "And will you be shooting him now or after I do whatever it is Jones summoned me to do?"

"That would be stun you Bruce, not kill you. But then maybe you're the clone? The real Bruce has a sense of humour!" Langar grinned then stopped grinning when Pass gave him a look.

"Will you both just shut up," the groggy voice of one of the two Lotties spoke up as they both stirred, each supporting a killer headache and nasty temper. "Otherwise I'll do worse than just stun you."

"Well, what about that magic concoction you injected us all with, doc?" Jan said, eying his copy. "That unique enough to be hard to copy?"

"Certainly," Morgan agreed, "Provided they didn't do the sort of deep level genetic scan that would be required to clone you, which it seems they may have. And assuming these are not in fact you from a mirror universe where they received the same treatment from their own version of me. And assuming that I am willing or able to do the sort of search that would be required to find the traces."

He managed a slight twist of the mouth that was half smile or half grimace, "Of course I could just expose you all to the virus and see who dies..."

"Do it," the untied Bruce snarled. It was strange to see him this unsettled.

"... but I had promised the Captain to minimize my bouts of mass killings while on his ship," Morgan finished, ignoring the angry pilot. "What do you suggest, Mr Jones? Shall we just move them, fully bound to the hold and keep them restrained indefinitely?"

"Yeah, though I'd like to know who they are, might need a new liver or lungs at some point?"

"I say we permanently erase the copy," Lottie stood eying up her copy with utter detest.

"Actually," Morgan smiled properly, "I don't care who the real you is. As far as I am concerned you are all aliens and mutants and I will be as happy in a crew made up of whoever. In fact, having a second, identical crew would do wonders for throwing the authorities of our trail. How could we possibly be in two places performing two identical... commercial enterprises?"

"If nothing else, their corpses would come in handy if we had to disappear again." Jan said.

"So, Captain, what's it to be?" Morgan asked, "In depth genetic sequencing, viral exposure, synaptic resonance? What do you intend to do when you identify the fake, if such a term is even appropriate. What happens if it turns out that the tests show that these poor sods currently tied up are the 'legitimate' crew and you are all the copies? Should I subdue you all and make the arbitrary decision on which of you is better to release? Come on, Captain; lend us your wisdom."

Walt was leaning up against the bulkhead in the room, puzzling over whaat may come. "Well I' know that Langar and Myself are who we are. As for the rest of them." He paused to bite his lip a moment. "I guess it depends on who they really are. Genetic sequencing might be the best course, they look a bit younger don't you think? Who knows. As for what we do with them? I don't know, turn them in for bounty?"

"I got an idea." Jan said, dragging his double to his feet.

"What's the Warden's warp core resonance frequency?" He asked his double.

"23.34 millicochrans." His double responded, dazed.

Jan threw his double back against the bulkhead, causing him to collapse back onto the floor.

"Wrong answer." Jan said, pointing a pistol at his clone.

Langar got up from where he had been sitting on the floor "Before you shoot him, was the resonance ever  that frequency?" He asked Valentine

"Has it changed over time as the engine and ship get more worn and out of alignment? Could it be the resonance from when the time when he was cloned..." 

Morgan stepped in and pressed a Hypo against the recumbent Jan and against the one threatening with the weapon, "And assuming that the gun wielding Psycho is our gun wielding Psycho and actually knows the real engine frequency."

He looked around the group, "The thing is, none of you can prove who you are to any of the rest of us. Cognito Ergo Sum; I think therefore I am, or in this case I think like me so I must be me. But if there is a piece of information only you know and your dopple doesn't then how do you prove it to the rest of us, since we don't know which answer is right."

There was a beep from the small machine in his hand, "Fortunately this device is incapable of such vagaries. You are who your genetics..." he petered off looking at the device. "Hmm..."

"It seems," he said finally, "That they are both you, Jan. I have only done the most preliminary tests, and would need a more detailed tissue sample and some time, but it seems they are not genetically similar to you.. they are identical. There are even the same traces of heavy metals in the blood that you have from wearing that cybernetic implant... oh, all within tolerances, be assured... but he has been wearing it for a long time as well."

"It proves nothing," Lottie snapped irritably.

Bruce lowered his weapon, "So... not a shape shifter then?"

"Conclusively not, Mr Air," Morgan replied, "No more than you are."

At that Bruce lowered his hand and helped his double to his feet, "Well, that's different then."

"Well, shit. Someone has gone to great lengths to replicate us. I could try to figure out the molecular breakdown of the metals, see if there's less decay than expected." Jan said, holstering his gun. "Oh, and since it doesn't matter, the frequency is 23.43 millicochrans, I like to adjust it every time we leave port, makes it a bit harder to follow us around." He said, looking at the display.

"It'd be quite a feat of engineering. I'm pretty sure all the radiation I've been exposed to over the years would have made for some unique damage to my genetic sequences." Jan said, looking his double over more closely.

"So I guess, if they are doubles of us, the operable question is who would go through the trouble?" Walt rubbed his face. "I'm sure we've all got enough enemies around the quadrants that would want us dead. When I sent the message out, I made sure to encode it in a way that only you all would be able to get. And Tarn hasn't been with us long enough to hate any of us yet. Thoughts gang?"

"I wouldn't dismiss him so quickly Jones," Lottie turned her attention to the new comer with suspicion.

"There s an old adage," Morgan provided, his brow furrowed in thought, "Do not ascribe to Malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

"I do not mean any culpable incompetence on behalf of the crew, but the suggestion made earlier of alternate reality, or alternate time version of us may explain the situation without reverting to evil masterminds. This kind of genetic reconstruction is very involved; I doubt there are more than 14 people in this quadrant with the capability, and I know most of them. It is also interesting which of the crew were replaced and which weren't. I remained on the ship and am very careful to clean up any genetic traces I might leave, and I am not replicated. Tarn has only been with us for a short while, and he is unique."

"But I have a bigger question for you all. Each of you left the ship separately and arrived at the rendezvous separately; meeting with other members of the crew. But we do not know WHICH version of the crew you met. Perhaps the REAL Bruce Air was the one who met the crew in the Docking bay, and perhaps he met the crew just outside."

The two Bruces looked at each other. One said, "Why would you go inside the airlock when Jones and Lottie were hanging outside the door?"

"The east door," the other countered, "I came in from the west. I was at the pub before hand."

"That's right. The East Side Corner Club."

"West Side Watering Hole."

"Perhaps," Morgan continued, there is a temporal schism on the station or the like. I am not a quantum physicist. I will however take a closer look at some tissue samples and see if I can find any traces of replication. It may take me some time."

"Yeah that's great. In the mean time, the goddamn money is escaping, can we possibly.....go get it?!" Jan said, heading to the door.

Good idea. Let's go and get our stuff and money back. Get to the shuttles, we're getting it back." Walt smiled at his crew. "Best idea I've had in a while."

"Yes! I call shuttle pilot!" Said both Bruces in unison. They looked at each other and grinned. both hands flashed out in a quick show of rock/paper/scissors. both pulled rock, then scissors, then rock, then paper...

"Right then, one quick question" Langar asked "Who goes with who?" he nodded his head at the pairs of doubles

Morgan watched the Bruces antics, "I don't suppose, if you're indistinguishable, that it will matter. If you are looking for a gunner, either Lottie is as capable with a weapon. If you are looking for a leader, either Jones is likely to get you as killed. Either Jan can repair a ship, either Bruce, fly it. It seems, Mr Langar, that we two are the only unique crewmen."

"We've got two shuttles, Jan's and the Wardens own." Walt turned and rummaged in a side cabinet and produced a conduit tape. He quickly ripped off a length and put a piece of tape on one each of the doubles. "Alright, Tape Jan and Non Tape Lottie, grab your shuttle and another and go. Tape Bruce grab the Wardens shuttle and Tarn and go."

"Sure thing, Boss," TBruce said. "But he has to put his gun away."

"Non tape Jan get to Engineering, Tape Lottie and Bruce come with me to the bridge."

"Aww, spit!" NTBruce complained. "Why do I get to fly a shuttle but I don't?"

"You blew up the last shuttle you flew," TBruce jibbed.

"That's dinkum," NTBruce accepted.

"Tape Walt" He looked at his double. "Umm... see if you can rig up some shenanigans with that transporter protocol we used on Romulus."

"Who in the hell made you in charge?" The Walt that now had tape on his shoulder scowled at the non taped version.

"Me.. anyways, lets figure out all this mirror mirror after we get our money ok?" Walt rubbed his face. "Questions? Our money is leaving quickly."

"Then lets get after it" Langar said and headed for the door .

"I'll just go back to my lab and perform some more unethical experiments on innocents, shall I?" Morg muttered as everyone ran from the room. "Sandwich first though, I think."

"Smoke sone kippers, we'll be back for breakfast!" Langar threw out as he went through the door "Cmon Bruce number one and whats a kipper anway?"

Bruce shrugged, "Beats me. I'm more of a Barramundi Bloke."


[OFF]



Langar Tarn
Cargo master

Walter Jones
Captain

 

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