One Small Hole

The surge burned. Energy equivalent to a thousand suns passed through their living conduit. Although only theirs for a moment, it was more than enough time for them to shape and manipulate the energy to do as they wanted. Time slowed to a crawl as the purple beam shot from the tip of the Station. From its emitter, it extended nearly one hundred metres before it hit something in the dark nothingness of space. From the collision site, a chip formed; then, like a damaged car window screen, the cracks spread. Soon the area directly above the Station was a web of purple cracks and, at its centre, a small hole. The beam itself had only been a metre in diameter, the same as the hole but the cracks spread out for miles. The Reaper fell apart as the room expanded. Only Lore remained in the harness which, once they had regained consciousness, rescinded too. It had thrown them for a loop but nothing was broken and nothing was on fire so they counted that as a victory.
“My head.” Lore groaned as they nursed their forehead. “Really not looking forward to the full power test.”
“That wasn’t full power?” Charrlene, like most present, was also rubbing her aching head.
“If that wasn’t full power, what was it?” Juror was lifting herself from the floor while trying to keep pressure on her head.
“That was five percent.” Lore scoffed. “But don’t worry, when we go for the real thing, we’ll have more than enough of us to share the load. I mean, at least eight Cornerstones and who knows how many Reapers and clones.” Lore stopped themselves and gasped. “I totally forgot.”
Varkral looked to them in realisation. “So did I.”
“What?” Juror was beginning to get concerned.
“We came here for your cloning labs.” Lore nodded along with Char and Piper. “Varkral said he had heard rumours of your labs so we came here to see if you could make us some more clones.”
“Should be easy. How many do you want and what do you want them to do?” Juror spoke as if this were a common occurrence.
“As many as you can make. They’ll need a Reaper Matrix so they can help share the load when we have to do the thing.” Lore thought for a moment to make sure they weren’t forgetting anything. “I think that’s everything. We’ve got a few soldiers from other universes for the more general stuff.” Lore shrugged.
“So, you mean that you came here to ask me to make you an army that you were going to use as batteries only for you to complain about then use my planet that is powered by cloned batteries. Hypocrisy much?”
“There’s a difference though. After I’m finished with them, they’ll be able to go on and live full lives whereas you have condemned every clone on this Station to an eternal life of nothingness. I may be using them as batteries but at least it’s a temporary position.” Char had to hold Lore back. “Just because your Station’s useful at the moment doesn’t mean I agree with your methods.”
“Those clones knew what they were getting themselves into. Well, the first ones did. Generation one all consented. I extrapolated for the rest of them. And of the ones that I assumed consent for, they’re little more than meat. Clones with just enough to work in the systems but not enough to cause human rights issues. If I had cloned them as full beings then it would be but since they never had fully functioning bodies, they were never technically alive.” Jurors words burned Lore as they left her mouth but they were going to have to do more than a few things that they hated before the fight was over if they wanted what was best for reality.
“Can you do it though?” Lore wanted to change the topic but needed to make sure they didn’t have to search for an alternative clone provider.
“We should be able to. We’ve gotten pretty good at whipping up obedient soldiers. To give them a proper body for once will be a nice change of pace.”
“We?” Char wasn’t alone in her confusion.
Juror held her Breacher to her face. “Tolan, it’s J. I’ve got an order for you.”
“You haven’t depleted another column have you? You know how fiddly it is to replace them…” Tolan grumbled.
“Actually, I was looking for something a little more retro. I need as many clones as you can make, fully trained, full Reaper Matrix and here’s the exciting part, they need working, humanoid bodies.” Juror seemed equally excited to be relaying the strangest takeaway order in the history of this universe.
“You actually want classic clones? Like the ones from the old days? With bodies and all that?” Tolan’s confusion carried well through their tone. “I’m coming up to check on you. You’re long overdue a visit from medical.” The line disconnected and a white flash filled the silence. “My gods…” Their voice sounded a lot more synthetic when not heard over a speaker. They knew it had been over two hundred years for Juror but they hadn’t considered that Tolan would even be alive at this point; if the being before them could be described as alive. Floating a foot from the floor with spindly metal arms emerging from either side of its chassis, what remained of Dr. Tolan had joined them. Even with the additional foot of height given to them by their thruster, Tolan was barely taller than Lore. Their new body was similar to a humans, minus the legs and head which had been replaced with a single thruster and a monitor respectively. Tolan moved in closer to get a better look at Lore and the rest of the newcomers to their domain. “Interesting, you look nothing like how I pictured you would. I always imagined that you would resemble the Lore of my universe.” Tolan reversed, seeming almost disappointed. “I assume the clones are for you then.” Their face was blanketed by a series of pop-ups displaying their cloning tanks. “How many?”
“As many as you can give us. We don’t really know how many allies we’ll have so we aren’t sure how best to prepare.” Char was beginning to look nervous. The screen before her flashed with the once green pods darkening to red.
“Tell me when you have to go and I’ll stop.” Tolan chuckled, did their best to nod then vanished in a similar flash of white.
“Their body died before we got all of this started. I replaced them with what humanity left for us. Best I could do. They seem to like it now though.” Juror spoke softly. “What’s next then?” One Giant Flash.