“Where else would it be possible? Earth still hasn’t reached this level of technology. Besides, what safer spot to keep my next body than a place no one ever visits?”
“Except for you.”
“Except for me,” Ishtar agreed softly. She placed her hand on the tank. “Although, since my last transfer, I’ve been coming less and less. Skipping visits for years on end.”
“Why visit at all? Is it to keep the clone up to date with your memories?”
She shook her head. “No. I have ways of uploading my current consciousness, something I try to do daily, so that if something should happen to me, the next version is ready to go.”
“If you can do that, why come at all? It must be freaky to see this dormant version of yourself. To know it will awake when you die.”
“I don’t enjoy it, but it’s up to me to ensure nothing happens to her. Me.” Ishtar’s lips twisted. “Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to smash the tank and let the memories of what we once used to be die.”
“Has it never occurred to you that instead of constantly cloning yourself and passing on memories that maybe you could just write the important stuff down and have the next queen or king emerge more naturally?”
She stared at him as if he’d uttered the most blasphemous thing. “Are you implying I should have a child?”
“It’s not that shocking. Don’t tell me, in all your lifetimes, you’ve never met a guy and wanted to have a family.”
She shook her head. “I have a duty.”
“To who?” A harsh rebuke but he’d heard enough of her history to realize she protected nothing. “Everything you know, remember, is in the past. Mars is dead. What are you holding on to? Maybe, it’s time to forget what’s been lost and for you to live.”
“Ironic you should say that when you’ve been cajoling me about my history.”
“Which has been an exercise in futility. You won’t tell me anything about the weapon you used and don’t give me that bullshit about it destroying your world. I get it, I do. But here’s the thing, what you did allowed you to survive. Your people escaped.”
“Only because Earth was available. Where will humanity go if you destroy the Kukakk in the same manner and your planet loses its ability to foster life?”
“If I could study what you did, perhaps I could?—”
“No.” A flat and uncompromising refusal.
“So you’re willing to see Earth taken over by the Kukakk.”
“I…” She rubbed a hand across her face. “Maybe humanity will find a better way.”
“That a lot of faith in people ready to worship an alien just because he calls himself Jesus?”
“Not all will be seduced by the lies. Humans are resilient.”
“Great. The tough will survive, but what of the rest? The billions who will suffer?”
Her head dipped. “Better to suffer than go extinct.”
“What will it take for you to help?”
Her head snapped up, and her eyes, full of sorrow and anger, fixed him. “How about the impossible? I want Mars to thrive again.”
“Okay.”
She blinked. “Er, what?”
“If that’s what you want, then I’ll find a way.”
“It can’t be done. Without a magnetic field, there is no atmosphere. With no atmosphere, nothing can survive.”
“You have.”
