Chapter 8

She came to it in a sage green room, floodlights that tortured her eyes, and beeps competing with each other. She lay back in a squishy mat. She looked down. This sleeping pod wasn't anchored, and it hovered inches above the steel flooring. A semicircle dresser hovered at the same level as her bed. She flipped over on her side and stared at the translucent grid between her and the next bed over. She straightened the thin disposable garments that covered her body. Her heart palpitated a moment. Where is my cloak? She wondered as she peeked under the bed. She yanked open the drawer and unfolded her cloak.

Murmurs rose from a corridor outside the sleeping pod bays.

"Are the implantations complete, Doctor Trak?" A baritone voice questioned.

"Complete for the identical persons," Dr. Trak replied, "and the brown-skinned person."

"And the beige one and blue female?" The other individual asked.

"Neither eligible," Trak said. "The blue woman has one of our implants. An older model. Likely implanted when she was a child. The man has a foreign implant. His body would reject it. An implantations upgrade for the woman is possible, but dangerous since her brain has developed. I've uploaded it to the cloud database. It will be synchronized with the master memory chip shortly."

A pattering of footsteps hushed the doctors' conversation. Bria leaned against the partition.

"Mama," she said. "I'm having the same memories."

"We all have those, my dear," Relda assured her.

"No," Bria said. "I don't think they belong to me. I just see those creatures--the ones that captured us. I'm not in them. No one we know is in them."

Relda opened her mouth, and a response formed, but the rest of the youngest clones joined Bria and spoke over Relda's thoughts.

"We're having the memories too," Tayla said.

Ty towered over them.

"It's true," he affirmed.

Relda thrust her legs over her bedside and scooted off.

"I knew them," she said. "I'll get to the bottom of this. Don't worry."