"I'm only detecting one life form," Arwen said. "The readings are. . .odd."

"Odd?" Captain Cook asked.

"I'll give you a visual now."

The screen in front of Captain Cook changed to the view of a hallway. Standing in the middle of the hallway was a person, female. She was naked and crouched on the floor. She had her back arced high and she was vomiting on the ground. The female was young, her skin smooth and unblemished. The angle from the camera was from the top and when she looked up her full face was in view.

Captain Cook gasped when she saw the face. "Arwen, what are your readings telling you?"

"Captain, according to my analysis that person is you."

The doppelganger looked at the camera and winked before being surrounded by security.

Chapter thirty-nine.

Captain Cook paced outside the brig with her hands behind her back and her head pointing to the floor. They had just brought her look alike down and placed her in a cell moments before she arrived. She was thankful for that; she needed a few minutes to compose herself before the meeting.

"Arwen, can you give me any more information as to what that thing is."

"My scans tell me she's an almost exact duplicate of you. If I were to guess I'd guess she was a clone."

"That makes sense," Captain Cook replied. She had suspected a long time ago they may have cloned her, maybe even implanted some memories into that clone. She never thought she would ever meet one of her clones selves, now it seems that was inevitable. "Arwen, can you tell the difference between the two of us? I don't want her to fool you, or anyone else on this ship for that matter."

"She will not fool me, I will keep track of her while she's on the ship. Also, there seems to be some differences in her physiology which will help me determine who is giving me an order as well. She seems younger and as a result has a slightly higher voice. Also, you must have picked up some sort of virus at some point in your life because your vocal cords have been slightly damaged and, as a result, your voice is slightly different than hers. Others would never notice the difference but I can detect it very easily."

"Thank you, Arwen. What is she doing now?"

"She's sitting on her bed looking at the door. I believe she's waiting for you. As of right now she doesn't seem to be a threat."

"Except she came to us through a wormhole created by the Handlers. I'm sure there's an interesting story behind that."

"Indeed," Arwen replied. "Whenever you're ready, Captain. I'll record everything said and done in that room but I will not interfere unless you give me an order."

Captain Cook took a deep breath, adjusted her uniform, opened the door and walked in.

Her duplicate, or clone, or whatever they were calling her, stood from the small bench she was sitting and walked up to the glimmering force fielded wall. The room had several holding cells which lined the walls. It could hold as many as 200 people, which was the extreme. Mostly it was used to hold crew members who had gotten into a fight and only held them until they had calmed down. It was rare to get a prisoner of war since ships were hardly ever boarded in space combat.

There were eight guards standing at attention when they saw her walk in. "How is she?" Captain Cook asked the head security chief.

"She's been quiet. I wouldn't lower the force field. We don't know what kind of combat training she might have."

"I don't plan on it, but thanks for the advice. I'd like a few minutes alone with her but I want you all to stay close by. Arwen will monitor everything and if there is even a hint of a problem she'll let you know."

He seemed reluctant but he gave the order for his to team to leave. He leaned down to the Captain and said, "We'll be outside. If there is any problem I will not hesitate to do what needs to be done to make sure this ship is safe."

Captain Cook grinned, "Man after my own heart."

He nodded and walked out.

She was now alone, there wasn't anything else the Captain could do to delay this meeting. Her clone was quiet, as if waiting for Marjorie to make the first move. Marjorie had to remind herself that this wasn't a mirrored reflection of her, a clone sure but it was a totally different person, an individual with the same rights as any other prisoner of war.

Captain Cook walked up to the force field slowly, her hands behind her back. The clone smiled, "Oh, so that's why I do that." She said.

"Pardon?" Captain Cook asked.

The clone placed her hands behind her back and walked the small length of the room, her head looking down to the floor. "That, I do that anytime I'm nervous or if I'm thinking hard."

"Well, my mom did it too. Figured I picked it up from watching her, didn't know it was genetic."

"Oh, it's not. I remember watching mom. . .er, your mom doing it."

"You have my memories? Guess I'm not too surprised."

"You shouldn't be. You saw how they could recreate memories from a simple brain scan."

"Right, Captain Newman." She replied. "They forced him to remember all the times he killed himself."

"I don't recall that," the clone said. "My memories end around the time I. . .darn, I mean you, entered the academy. They aged me to the maturity level of an 18, the brain can't accept any memories later than the age of the person."

"Oh, that's interesting," Captain Cook replied. So, this girl didn't know about Payton, about the Arwen, about any of her missions. She was a baby really, just starting out into the world. "Did the Handlers give you a name?"

"Sort of," she replied. "I can try to pronounce it but you won't understand."

"You can speak Handlers?"

The clone nodded. "It's not easy, normally I need to be on the ground slapping it with my hands and feet. I can understand what they say most of the time. The hardest part is displaying emotion, there is no human equivalent for the way they express emotion."

"They do it through scent. Our scientists have been categorizing the different scents from captured Handlers. They think they got most of them figured out but it seems to be very complex."

"Oh, it is, they produce smells the human nose can't comprehend."

"So, what is your name then?"

"Translates to human, female clone 483."

"You're the 483rd clone of me?"

She nodded. "They can't seem to get you right. They age you to about thirty and you die, even after repairing your DNA as best as they can. It's a mystery to them."

Must be the Fullerton, Marjorie thought. She knew it damaged the DNA of those who had it. The Handlers might not ever be able to clone her past 30 unless they had a sample of her DNA before she got sick. "So, what are we going to call you then?"

"Well, I seem to remember you had an Aunt Ann that you loved. You named some dolls and even a cat after her, correct?"

Aunt Ann was a wonderful person and someone Marjorie hadn't thought about for a while. "Yes."

"Well, I was hoping you'd just call me Ann, in memory of her."

"Fine, Ann, but you had better respect her memory."

"I will, Captain, I'm here to help."

"Help? Help how?"

"I'll tell you all I know but I need to make sure that you use the information wisely. This is an important first step toward peace."

"Are you trying to negotiate a peace?"

"Yes, we want to end this war. There is a group of Handler's who don't follow the pack. They believe we should co-exist with the aliens we find, that other cultures and ideas could help them when the universe is ending. They don't want to kill all living beings they want to become friends with them. Those are the Handlers' who have sent me; those are the ones I represent."

So, she's a clone. Juliet thought. She was sitting in her own office watching Captain Cook and Ann talk. This was something Professor Ricter should know.

She hesitated to send him a message. It had been a long time since she and her ex-husband had talked, and even then it was mostly about the business of the divorce. She wasn't really surprised the marriage hadn't worked out, the simple fact she was able to get him to marry her seemed to be a minor miracle. Getting divorced was a distraction from his real work and he seemed to like the fact he was free of her and any obligation he might have had to make the marriage work. That hurt her to the bone. He gave it a try but when he failed he simply pushed her aside like an unsuccessful experiment. Not for the first time she thought maybe that's what she was, his experiment in marriage.

She shook her head, being angry was easier than forgiving him and she swore he wouldn't make her angry for too long. He didn't deserve her rage.

She composed the message and sent it out. He wouldn't' get it for a few months, it took that long for any message to reach him to where he was at. She had to admit, she loved that nebula and probably missed it more than she missed him. The colors were more beautiful that she could ever imagine. Watching the gas swirl and converge reminded her of the days she and her brother would look at the clouds and try to name what they saw. If this war were to end soon she would have to go back, maybe even move there if they continued to staff the base.

"Arwen, what do you think of all this?" Over the years she had gotten used to the Arwen voicing her opinion. Even if the Captain didn't believe she had actually critical thought her insight helped Juliet formulate her own views topics.

"I don't think I trust her," Arwen said. "But, I don't know enough to make that an informed choice. She doesn't seem like the Captain, she seems more girlish, not as mature."

"At 18 no human is really that mature."

"Kind of like when I first met the Captain?"

"Something like that, yes. You didn't mean to make a bad impression but some of your mistakes still affect the Captain's view of you. Keep that in mind as you get to know Ann, first impressions aren't really meant to last that long."

"I will remember that, thank you."

"No problem. I'm heading to the bridge to see how the retreat is going."

Juliet walked out of her office and down the hallway. She found it hard to believe she was now the Second in command of the Arwen. When she returned she never thought she'd be able to retain her rank, it had been two years since she had left the Arwen to spend time with Professor Ricter. But Captain Cook insisted she not only be reinstated but that she be assigned to the Arwen and that she took over as her second. Captain Cook explained it simply, she didn't trust Arwen, she trusted Juliet and she trusted Juliet with Arwen since, for all intents and purposes, she was the Arwen's babysitter.

She walked onto the bridge to see the crew working hard at their stations. The Arwen was still one of the only ships to keep a bridge crew, the other relayed on their computers. If it were anyone else other than Captain Cook the corps wouldn't have agreed to any of her terms. Captain Cook was a hero and because of that she had more power than some admirals.

"Report," Juliet asked walking over to her station.

"The fleet is in Wormhole space and we're heading to the rendezvous point," Arwen said. "We should arrive there in about two weeks."

"How much damage did we do?"

"Not as much as we would have had the Gyssyc engaged, but we did manage to destroy that asteroid base which was sending troops to the ships. I don't have any data on how much damage the missiles did."

"Order the Jane to run a quick recon, the Corps will want to know if this mission was worth the cost."

"The order has been given," Arwen replied. "I'm sure Captain Cook will agree with your decision."

"Not that hard," Juliet laughed. "She always does it after a battle."

"Commander, I hope you don't mind but I sent that message to the Professor as a high priority."

"That's fine," Juliet replied. She felt happy, almost chipper now. Professor Ricter was going to be contacted by her in a cold, formal fashion. She didn't feel any pain or remorse. The arrival of a Captain Cook clone was going to make things very interesting on the Arwen, so interesting the Professor would have loved to be here. Instead he was so far away he'd never be able to add his opinion on what was happening here. That was the way to hurt the Professor, tease him with a mystery he couldn't solve. It was petty but it made Juliet feel good to know she was going to cause him some pain, even if it was just a little bit.

Chapter forty.

Captain Cook looked in on Ann and found she had changed. She looked older, maybe it was the new cloths she wore, or maybe it was the stress of the situation. She commented on this to Juliet who simply nodded, "I noticed it too. She looks more filled out."

"She must be my clone, I didn't fill out till I was 22 or so." She laughed at herself, "I didn't exactly exercise as often as I should have back then."

"I don't mean fill out that way, I mean fill out, mature. Her body looks more mature than yesterday."

"They did accelerate her aging, do you think that's still happening?"

"I hope not," Juliet replied. "Remember she said they couldn't get a body past the age of 30 before it died. If she's aging faster then she won't have much time here with us."

Captain Cook nodded in agreement. "Arwen, can you scan her, tell me if there's any difference between her body from yesterday?"

"As soon as this conversation started I ran a scan and yes, Captain, her body seems to have aged rapidly. I'd say about two years over night. She has the body of a 20 year old."

A pang of regret gripped Marjorie's heart. "Does that mean she only has 5 days to live?"

"If what she said is true and if her body continues to age two years a night then yes, she has only 5 days to live."

"We'll never get her back to the Corps before then," Juliet said. "We'll need to start asking her questions right now."

"I'll do it," Captain Cook replied. "I wonder if she even knows."

"If not she will soon," Juliet said. She started to walk away then turned quickly, "Captain, I almost forgot." She pulled out from her pocket a small silver disk, it was no larger than a thumbnail. "We found this near the wormhole she came out of. We think it's some sort of data device, maybe something they wanted us to read."

"Can we read it?"