CHAPTER 1
An Unwelcome Surprise
“Your parents are being ridiculous,” Dar said as she stormed down the corridor.
“I know,” said Elsie Basker, running to keep up. “I’ll fix this, make them see reason.”
They shared a room on this level, the tenth and top floor in the north tower of the clone academy’s main building. All of the twelve-year-olds, otherwise known as B12s, had rooms there.
It was all Dar could do to keep her aura on. She had the zetta strong desire to scream.
Ever since Elsie and Everest Basker had shown up at the academy, they’d been nothing but trouble. Uterus-born twins had no business being here anyway. This was a clone academy, not one for utes.
Besides, their uncle, the former director of the academy, had already been outed as a bad guy. Why in galaxies did anyone think it was a good idea for their parents to take over where he had left off?
Flasers! Even the other clone kids here treated the Basker parents like gods. When the new directors had insisted that each clone should choose a last name rather than just be referred to by his or her original’s first name, way too many of the students had picked “Basker.” She was sick of hearing “Director George this” and “Director Justine that.” The Baskers weren’t anything special.
Now they had banned impromptu fight matches. Jeez, that was how kids solved conflicts at the academy. It was also one of their primary forms of exercise.
“Vlas and I have the right to a rematch,” Dar said.
“It’s not like it’s our choice,” Elsie said.
“Maybe not, but it is your fault. Your parents are doing this because they don’t want their precious little ute-babies hurt.”
Two months ago, Elsie and Everest somehow managed to win their first and only fight match against Dar and Vlas. How they won defied explanation—they were not the better fighters. Still, without a rematch, the Basker twins were the official B12 champs.
Elsie worried her lower lip. “Everest and I have competed in fight matches since we were young. I think they’re weirded out about the femto-boosters turning us into freakazoid superheroes.”
Dar shoved her cap lower on her head. “If they hadn’t, we wouldn’t have been able to save their lives. Your parents owe us.”
“Yeah, I know. They just need a little time to get over what happened. Parents don’t generally like being saved by their kids. It’s supposed to be the other way around.”
“Thank the Light, I don’t have parents,” Dar said.
Maybe the twins shouldn’t be blamed for their parents’ new rule, but Dar needed someone to be mad at, and they were a perfect target. They were the only non-clone kids here besides Larry, the dude they’d smuggled in from the twenty-first century. At least he pretended to be a clone, and he didn’t have blecky parents messing with their traditions.
“It’s not just the fight matches,” she said. “It’s everything! They’ve even shut down timed field trips.”
She wished she could shake her foul mood, but this date in June always made her crabby.
“That was Dr. Wei’s doing,” Elsie said. “You have to admit that there’s been a lot of abuse of time travel at the academy. Mom and Dad are just taking his advice. They’re being careful.”
“They’re being control-freakazoids.”
Dar could live without timed field trips, but she needed her fight matches. She was going to lose her aura if she didn’t kick the Basker twin keisters straight to the Xlexuri Galaxy—pronto. Ever since those two had come to the academy, they’d been a pain in her behind. It was only fair that she be able to cause them some pain in theirs.
“It’s not like they aren’t messing with me too,” Elsie said. “They still haven’t given Pooker her freedom.”
“I don’t see how your parents outlawing fight matches has anything to do with your pet bobcat being stuck in a pen.”
“Mom and Dad know how much Pooker means to me, but she’s still locked up outside, day and night. I shouldn’t have to sneak her in. I should be able to keep her with me all the time.”
“Uh, Elsie, what makes you think I’d agree to her being in our room twenty-four-seven?”
“You love Pooker. Don’t be such a vlem-wannabe.”
“If anyone’s the vlem, it’s you, ute-girl.”
Elsie fingered the locket that hung around her neck. It was empty now, but not long ago it had held femto-boosters. “All I’m saying is that they aren’t playing favorites. We all want fight matches, we all like timed field trips, and I want Pooker with me at night. My parents are just doing what directors do. Why don’t we go two-on-two in skyball instead?”
“Vlas doesn’t play skyball,” Dar said through gritted teeth.
“Then Everest and I will forfeit. You and Vlas win. Are you happy now?”
Dar screeched to a stop and swiveled around to poke Elsie in the chest. “Listen, ute-girl, either we win fair and square, or we don’t win at all. Jeez, enough with all this talking. I’m going to our room to power down. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll go somewhere else.”
“We promised to meet up with the others in the recreation room,” Elsie said. “Together, we should be able to come up with a good argument for why my parents should erase the new rule.”
Dar let out a long sigh. “I’m so over this topic.”
“If you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to, but at least show everyone you can be a good sport.”
Dar bit back a growl and stomped back the way they had come. She reached the recreation room first with Elsie close on her heels. The door shimmered, then disappeared, revealing a pitch-black chamber.
Great. They were first to arrive. More “Elsie time” for her. Dar clenched her hands into tight fists.
As she stepped over the threshold, the room erupted in sound and light. Strobes of red, blue, and yellow raced up and down the walls and across the chamber.
“Surprise!”
“Happy Birthday!”
From behind furniture, way too many classmates popped up, clapping and cheering.
Dar’s skin heated up. Flasers! Could the day get any worse?
In the far corner the Basker parents stood with a herd of instructors. Her eyes widened when she saw her sponsor, Adriatic Mink, lounging elegantly on one of the couches. Deng.
When she made to escape, Elsie blocked her way, grinning from ear to ear. “Happy Birthday! Happy Thirteenth!”
Molten fury tore through Dar making her feel like a human volcano. Why was it so hard to keep her aura on lately? She might have a reputation for being a tad grumpy, but she prided herself on keeping her emotions in check.
“I don’t do birthdays,” she said harshly, “and I really don’t like surprises. If you set this up, Elsie, you’re an even bigger vlem than I thought.”
She pushed the girl aside and stormed out. Jamming down the corridor, she broke into a jog. It was hard to ignore the racket Elsie made as she pounded after her.
“You can’t just leave your party. Everyone’s put a lot of effort into it. There’s cake!”
“Too bad. Maybe they should have asked me if I wanted a party.”
“What’s not to like about a birthday party?”
Dar did a one-eighty and shoved Elsie backward. “Plenty.”
The look on the ute’s face was nearly comical. “You’re kidding, right?”
Dar pushed her again. Flasers! She needed a fight match, an outlet for all her pent-up aggression, and Elsie’s yocto-brained parents had outlawed them.
“For twelve years this academy has ignored our birthdays. It doesn’t make sense to suddenly make a big deal out of something so random. You and your parents are screwing this place up.”
“Come on Dar. It’s the date of your birth!”
“No, it’s the date Adriatic Mink and Dr. Wei completed my cloning process. No excited parents waited for me to be born. No one made a big scene about it. It was just the day when two men finished cooking their miniature duplicate of Shadara.”
Being a clone was bad enough. Being a clone of Shadara, the most beautiful woman in the world, an iconic entertainer who had died too young and been mourned by an entire universe, was zetta worse. The fact that Shadara was the woman Adriatic Mink had loved was beyond blecky!
She didn’t matter in her own right. She was just a creepy tribute. And it really messed up her aura when she allowed herself to be jealous of Elsie for not being a clone.
“But you’re not Shadara. You’re Dar, and it matters that you were born thirteen years ago today. It’s about time someone made a big deal out of it.”
Dar sucked in her breath. “If you were a dupe instead of a ute, you’d understand. It doesn’t matter that I was born today. What really matters is that they didn’t pick a different day. No, my creator and sponsor decided to seal the deal by making me a full-fledged human on the same day that their precious Shadara was born. They used me to memorialize her birth. So excuse me for not being excited about the day they made me official.”
She shoved Elsie a third time, then swiveled back to march toward their room. Elsie followed her, blathering on about her parents having postponed their trip off-world for Dar. Blah, blah, blah.
When they reached the bedchamber, Dar waited impatiently while the door erased. Three paces inside, she came to an abrupt halt and stared blankly at her side of the room.
“Someone’s been here,” she said. “Someone’s searched our room.”
CHAPTER 2
Dar’s Intruder
Elsie gasped, then jammed past her, looking back and forth. When she turned back, her eyebrows were squished together like she was trying to solve a difficult puzzle.
“Uh, Dar,” she said, “the room’s exactly the same as when we left it.”
“Uh, Elsie, I think I know when my room’s been tossed.”
“But nothing’s been touched.”
Dar shoved past Elsie, congratulating herself for not slapping her on the way. “Jeez, ute-girl, look again. Someone searched my desk then meticulously put everything back the way it was.” She palmed the wall that hid her closet. A portion of it erased. After staring for a few minutes, she said, “See, they did a very thorough search of my snacks and my clothes. They knew what they were doing.” She stepped back from the storage unit. “Melista?”
Instantly the smell of sweet liligild flowers filled the air and the beautiful room avatar shimmered into being, lounging on Dar’s turquoise jellach bed. As usual, the creature wore a gown that sparkled with almost as much gold as her skin did. The horn on the top of Melista’s head was iridescent. Only the slight shimmer around her edges hinted that she was a holographic projection rather than a living creature. As the room’s avatar, it was her job to monitor and manage the chamber.
“My dear,” she said in a melodious voice.
“When someone breaks into my room, I expect you to tell me immediately.”
“Of course, my sweet,” Melista said.
“Then why didn’t you say anything?”
The way the woman tilted her head made Dar think she was as confused as Elsie, but that was impossible. Dar had personally made sure that the avatar was programmed to know if someone besides Dar or Elsie entered.
Melista surveyed the room before returning her soft gaze to Dar. “No one’s been here since you left.”
Flasers! The intruder was a real pro.
She’d heard of technology that could shut down a room avatar, but she’d never seen it in action. She made a mental note to put that technology on her list of things to request from Mink.
“See?” Elsie said. “Melista would know if someone rifled through your stuff.”
Dar whipped around. “Someone went through my things. Was it you, ute-girl?”
“Of course not.” Elsie was on the verge of tears.
Dar heaved a sigh.
Why were utes so emotional? Still Elsie wasn’t the only one who had to calm her aura. Dar was letting herself spiral out of control. She knew the ute-girl would never mess with her side of the room.
She breathed in deeply. “By the looks of it, the intruder was a professional, not some B12 in search of an extra skyball.”
“Is this your idea of a joke?” Elsie asked.
Dar strode over to her desk and crouched down to inspect it. Yeah, the tiny strand of fiber she’d stretched across now dangled straight down. There was a miniscule device attached to the underside of the desktop, and it had an almost invisible light that now flashed red. Red meant that she’d trapped the echo of an aura. Proof that someone had been here. Auras were the best unique identifiers of humanoids in the universe.
Gotcha! Her auratrap would provide the vlem’s identity.
She stood up abruptly. Maybe it was good that Elsie didn’t believe her. The last thing she needed was for the ute-baby to go running to her parents about this before Dar could figure out who was spying on her and why.
She grimaced. “Yeah, it’s my idea of a joke.”
“Let’s go back to your birthday party,” Elsie said, all buttery and cajoling.
Dar flopped onto her jellach bed. “I already told you, I don’t celebrate the day that Shadara was born.”
“But everyone went to a lot of trouble to be here. My parents skipped the first day of the cloning conference they’re attending, and Adriatic Mink blew off a United Nations of Earth assembly.”
“Tough luck. Mink, for one, should know how I feel.”
“But you get zeller gifts from him every year.”
“I’m not a yocto-brain. Of course, I accept his gifts, but I never actually celebrate with him.” There was no way she was going to get peace in this room as long as Elsie was there too. She shoved off her bed and stomped toward the door.
“It’s not polite to just leave everyone hanging,” Elsie said.
“When have I ever led you to believe that it’s my nature to be polite?” Dar pushed past her again, back into the corridor.
She wanted to check whose aura she had trapped, but she wasn’t going to do that with Elsie hovering.
Could it be Mr. Brown?
It had been a little over a month since he had kidnapped Elsie and Everest’s parents. Their B12 gang may have rescued the Basker parents and stopped Mr. Brown from stealing the formula for femto-boosters—technology that temporarily turned a person into a superhuman—but the vlem had still managed to escape. And before escaping, he’d accused Dar of stealing his stash of the boosters. Fortunately, no one had believed him.
So what if she’d tucked away a few? Okay, more than a few—two dozen to be exact.
Better her than Mr. Brown. Those superpower pills were going to come in handy in the future.
If he was the one rifling through Dar’s things, she had no doubt he was after the femto-boosters. The last thing Dar wanted was to have to explain why that vlem was still convinced she had them in her possession.
While Elsie, Lelita, and Borneo might be gullible enough to believe any story, the others might start getting suspicious. Sooner or later they would figure out that Mr. Brown’s tall tale might not be so tall after all.
Dar paused at the nanovator, her hands tucked into the pockets of her gray vlatex exercise pants. When the door erased, she stepped in and rocketed down to the ground floor. She left the building quickly, intent on avoiding everyone. She didn’t need more people trying to make her feel bad about ditching her party.
It was Shadara’s birthday, not hers, and she refused to cater to the world’s relentless pressure to have her mimic Shadara.
She stormed down the jewel-toned gravel path toward the meditation circle.
Maybe she shouldn’t have stolen the femto-boosters. Maybe she shouldn’t have lied to the others. It bothered her that she actually cared about what they might think if they knew the truth.
Why was she letting herself get so worked up? This wasn’t who she was. But she’d been feeling off for a while. Not only were her emotions zetta out of whack, but there was also the matter of her sparkling skin. It wasn’t that noticeable yet—she could still cover it with a light coat of makeup—but she swore it was getting worse. It didn’t help that Vlas and Larry teased her nonstop about it. What if others started to notice?
Why was her skin sparkling now when it had never sparkled before? Did she have some rare genetic disorder? The whole sparkly skin thing was really freaking her out.
Melista’s skin had a golden sparkle, but Melista was an avatar and a mythical creature. Dar was human, and humans didn’t sparkle. Besides, no one had ever accused Shadara of having sparkly skin. What if there was something zetta wrong with her? Could it have to do with being a clone?
As she passed the tevta cottages that housed the little dupe kiddies, she thought about ducking inside and playing with them for a while. That usually improved her spirits. She didn’t know what she would do without her evening job taking care of the littlest dupes. It was the only place where she felt necessary in her own right. Not because she carried Shadara’s genes, but because she gave the little tykes comfort and care.
But today she needed to be alone. Besides, in her current mood, she’d probably terrify them.
She scuffed her old skyboots as she walked, kicking up gravel. It was time to rein in her out-of-control emotions. She’d have a marathon meditation session, then sneak back to her room. Hopefully by then Elsie would have left the chamber, and she’d be able to use the auratrap to identify their unwanted visitor.
The sky was a clear blue, the planned rainfall from the previous night a distant memory. Only a slight dampness on the ground gave any indication that rain had come and gone.
Something rustled in the bushes to her left. She raised her head. Through a small break in the hedge, she could barely make out Dr. Wei’s mysterious cottage.
The doctor was the genius scientist responsible for the creation of nearly every clone at the academy, but the only time Dar had been inside his cottage was when she had been created. No one except Dr. Wei was allowed inside. The whole place was booby-trapped to ensure the doctor’s privacy.
Maybe she should ask Dr. Wei about her sparkling skin. If anyone could figure out what was wrong, it would be him.
As she ducked down to spy through another break in the hedge, she heard a snick and then a tiny pop. She looked up. Hundreds of white strands floated toward her like a strange new form of snow. She tucked and rolled as fast and as far from the strands as possible. Her gut told her they were dangerous.
One landed on her wrist.
And slithered into a shackle.
Her wrist went limp. Flasers! She couldn’t feel her fingers.
She leapt up into a full sprint. Her mind sped faster than her feet as she tried to make sense of what was happening.
She was afraid to touch the white substance now cuffing her. She slowed down just enough to break off a twig from a nearby bush. As she ran, she pushed the twig between the strange shackle and her wrist. With some effort, she managed to loosen the white goo enough to fling it off.
What in galaxies was going on?
When she heard a voice call out, she dived into the bushes on her left. She expected soft, slightly moist dirt, but her forehead cracked on something hard and unyielding. She saw an explosion of light.
Then nothing.
CHAPTER 3
Dr. Wei’s Sinister Lair
Dar’s forehead throbbed, which was zetta surprising. She had a high tolerance for pain. When she tried to open her eyes, they might as well have been glued shut. Breathing slowly in and out, she tried again. She managed to squint.
She was inside, lying on her back on a nanofiber couch. The walls surrounding her were pure white. The floor was pure white too. She thought it might be made out of J28, but that substance was mostly used in place of steelorq to build skyscrapers, not floors.
Was she in Googleopolis? Lots of those buildings were built from J28. But how would she have gotten there? Who would have brought her?
She touched her forehead. It was sticky with blood.
Her cap was missing, and her hair was a mess.
What in flasers had happened?
White strands.
She remembered white strands.
She rubbed her wrist. It felt so weak. She rotated it clockwise and then counterclockwise. Her fingers tingled. If she hadn’t ducked just when she did, her head and most of her upper body would have been covered in those strands. Instead she’d been able to roll away.
What would a hundred strands have done to her? Would they have killed her?
With a careful breath, she eased herself upright on the couch. The throbbing in her head intensified. For the first time ever, she had an inkling of what it might be like to feel nauseated.
She swallowed hard.
She surveyed the rest of the room. A couple of tables, a few lone chairs. Everything in pristine condition. No knick-knacks, no clutter. Despite the furniture, the room felt barren.
“I see you’ve regained consciousness.”
Slowly, Dar turned toward the voice.
Dr. Wei stood at the far end of the chamber, his posture perfect, his pointy beard trimmed with precision. Because she was seated, he seemed to loom. As usual, he wore all black. The long thin scar that traveled down his cheek always made him look sinister. Today he was more sinister than ever.
“Where am I?” she asked, more to stall for time than because she needed the answer.
“My cottage,” he said, confirming what she’d already figured out.
Still, no one was allowed to enter his cottage—ever—so why was she here?
She wasn’t someone who got spooked. She only experienced a racing heartbeat through extreme exertion. Her palms were never sweaty. But someone had shot at her with a new, possibly lethal substance directly in front of Dr. Wei’s cottage. That made the doctor the prime suspect, and as far as she could tell, she was alone with him.
But why would he want to harm her? He created her.
She was missing something.
She focused on the opposite wall and willed her brain to start working again. She zetta didn’t like this fuzzy feeling.
Gradually she noticed the wall teeming with pico-brownies, the pico-technology creatures designed to disinfect and clean. Typically, they were nighttime devices, but she refused to believe she’d been unconscious so long that it was already night.
It was easier to believe that Dr. Wei required their services twenty-four-seven. He was zetta fastidious.
She thought the tiny devices were white, though they were so small it was hard to tell. She’d never seen white ones before. Normally, they were metallic. Did white feel more sterile to him?
Weirdly, she’d been under the impression that Dr. Wei didn’t allow pico-brownies in his lair. Did he make his own?
“I don’t remember entering your cottage,” she said.
“You were unconscious when I carried you inside.”
She winced. He carried her? Bleck.
She attempted to rise from the couch, but her legs were like jellach. She sat back down abruptly.
“Why did you bring me here?” she asked.
The doctor’s facial muscles visibly cracked, as if they rarely got use.
“You were injured, and this was the closest location.” He sniffed loudly. “Your unfortunate accident could easily have been avoided. I do not appreciate disruptions.”
She didn’t appreciate being shot at with paralyzing strands of white goo.
If Dr. Wei was her attacker, he was putting on a zetta fine act. He could have done anything to her while she was unconscious, but he hadn’t.
He cleared his throat. “Shadara, I must admonish you to be more careful.” He handed her a moist towel. “That gash is seeping. Use this to mop up the blood.”
Her fists clenched at his use of her full name. She breathed in through her nose and slowly let the air out through her mouth. Why did he insist on calling her a name she despised? Was it really that hard to call her Dar?
She pressed the rag to her forehead and immediately sucked in her breath. The towel was soaked in an antiseptic that stung. She dabbed at the cut. When she looked at the towel it was stained red, but at least it didn’t show signs that the wound was gushing. Fortunately, she healed quickly. She put more pressure against the wound to stop the flow of blood.
Would she ever be able to break free from the long and oppressive shadow of her original—the iconic Shadara? Was it too much to ask to be treated like an individual? To be a human being in her own right?
Now it was her turn to clear her throat. “Thanks for the advice,” she said with false sincerity. “I’ll be more careful.”
“It’s unlike you to be so clumsy.”
She would have liked to have seen Dr. Wei try to dodge an evil strand shower. She bit her lip and attempted to stand once again. This time her legs supported her.
“Guess I’d better go,” she said. “I know you don’t, as a rule, have visitors. Thanks for your help.”
“Now that you are here, Shadara, I insist that you stay.”
There he was looming again. He always gave off a sinister aura.
“They’ll be looking for me. I’m supposed to be at my birthday party.”
“That is of no consequence.” He narrowed his eyes and glared with ferocious intensity. “We must discuss a matter of grave urgency.”
“Can it wait till I feel better?”
“No, it cannot,” he said. “We’re running out of time.”
Okay, zetta creepy.
“Can I at least have a glass of water?”
Dr. Wei’s brooding gaze sent a chill dancing down her spine. “Under no circumstances are you to move from that spot. If you do, I cannot answer for the consequences.”
He spun around and left the room. Dar held her breath.
As his footsteps receded, she eased toward the front door. At the threshold, she paused and took a deep breath. She exploded out of the cottage at a full sprint. Gravel flew as she put distance between herself, the doctor, and whatever other dangers lurked. She was determined to make it back to the main building.
When she was close enough, she yelled at the door to open. She fell inside as it erased. Once the door was solid again, she sagged against it.
She was not acting like a suzo-shrimp. It was only sensible to run fast when someone with a dangerous weapon was near. She pressed her hand over her heart. If you sprinted, sooner or later you’d end up with a racing heartbeat. That was science, not fear. She was never afraid.
Now that there was some distance between herself and Dr. Wei, she almost wished she had stayed to hear him out. He had no reason to harm her. What if his life-or-death matter had to do with her sparkling skin or her crazy emotions? What if she’d missed her chance to find out what was wrong with her? She wanted to kick herself for overreacting.
But he’d been acting creepy, and she’d been attacked right outside his cottage. She’d been right to flee. When had she ever been able to trust the sinister doctor?
“Ah, there you are, Dar. I thought I might miss you.”
Adriatic Mink.
She thrust her shoulders back. Another person she couldn’t trust. Was it too much to hope that he hadn’t witnessed her bolting inside like a scared rabbit?
The man stood before her in all his splendor. He wore black silk, a zetta rare material in the thirty-first century. Given how expensive it was to make, most factories had closed down centuries ago. Only someone with Mink’s vast wealth could afford the priceless fiber.
He raised one eyebrow. “My dear girl, what trouble have you gotten into now?”