Trinity
A Narrative by C. Nicholas Walker
THE ALREADY TENSE situation of the Clone Rights Movement was not prepared for much more tension. After the Cleric had come to Earth, teaching his ways of anti-cloning banks and pro-life, the world had not been the same place. Many did not wish to deviate from the ways they had so become accustomed to. To these people, the Clone Banks were perfect. They saved lives, millions of lives, and only at the cost of a few stem cells here and some DNA alterations there. Earth had already spanned its reaches to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and overpopulation was a thing of the past. Now, the only mission of the People of Earth was to save lives, as many lives as they could, in the least destructive way they could. They simply made extra humans.
At first there were only three. They were called the Trinity, a perfect balance of life and immortality. The first man to be cloned was Dr. Kyle Barton, and from his blood was spawned the first Trinity. He was the one who perfected the act of ageing a clone to any point in its life instantaneously, and his first human subject was himself. He made a child, and he named him Kyle Barton II. The child was perfect, just like the original in every neuro-electric impulse that drove through his brain, every cell of blood that swam through his veins, and every minute wrinkle in his hands that revealed his identity. It was the doctor’s belief that, if he could make a clone of a person at any age, then he could, in a way, manufacture parts for people. If you needed a heart transplant, why, what better replacement than your own? The boy’s purpose was spare parts, arms, hearts, lungs, legs, kidneys, skin grafts, hair transplants…anything. It was the perfect answer mankind had always been searching for, saving lives at the real cost of none but those extras he himself created.
However, with time, the boy began to ask questions. He wondered why he existed, what he was for, and what he was destined to do with his life, and so the doctor told him, believing the child, being a perfect match of himself, would understand. He did not. The boy became enraged, torn by the betrayal of his father, and in his wrath he tried to attack. Sadly, in the ensuing moments of chaos, the boy was killed.
Dr. Barton was heartbroken by the terrible loss, and began wondering how he could remedy the situation. Finally, the answer came to him: it was self-rule that drove the boy insane, and it was self-rule that set him to anger. And so, with this in mind, Dr. Barton created another boy, Kyle Barton III, and while the child laid in the artificial womb of the Birthing Matrix, still no more than strands of DNA and stem cells, he changed the boy…changed his very origins. When he was done, Kyle Barton III would not be able to think. He would not be able to argue. He would not be able to be afraid of himself. His body would have the inability to develop the brain beyond basic involuntary movement of the heart and lungs, and with that, self-rule would exist no longer.
The experiment was a success. Everything about the boy was perfect, just as perfect as the first, and he only floated, sustained forever in the Birthing Matrix from which it was unnecessary for him to come. In the following months came two more, KB IV and KB V. There was only one difference in them: KB IV was forty-five, the age of Dr. Barton himself, and KB V was old, late into his eighties, sleeping in preparation for a Dr. Barton that would come to be in due time, when age took over the body of the doctor.
And so was born the Trinity, KB IV the Father, KB III the Son, and KB V the Holy Ghost. In the following years, more and more people would have their own Trinity. After nearly a century, they were considered a household item; for every child that was born, so was born their auxiliaries, and eventually separate rooms were built into houses to hold their Trinities, which were affectionately re-baptized by the People of Earth as the “Clone Banks”. Dr. Kyle Barton had etched himself into the history books for all eternity, and centuries after his death the works of his life were considered mandatory reading for students in the High Council, which was renamed later as the “Science Council."
Just as had been imagined, countless lives were saved in the war against death and disease, and the only repercussion was that, below the floors of every home on Earth, floating in tubs of placenta and nourished by feeds of short, silent electricity, wait the Trinity of Life -- a father, a son, and a holy ghost -- who rage, rage against the dying of the light.
THE ALREADY TENSE situation of the Clone Rights Movement was not prepared for much more tension. After the Cleric had come to Earth, teaching his ways of anti-cloning banks and pro-life, the world had not been the same place. Many did not wish to deviate from the ways they had so become accustomed to. To these people, the Clone Banks were perfect. They saved lives, millions of lives, and only at the cost of a few stem cells here and some DNA alterations there. Earth had already spanned its reaches to the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and overpopulation was a thing of the past. Now, the only mission of the People of Earth was to save lives, as many lives as they could, in the least destructive way they could. They simply made extra humans.
At first there were only three. They were called the Trinity, a perfect balance of life and immortality. The first man to be cloned was Dr. Kyle Barton, and from his blood was spawned the first Trinity. He was the one who perfected the act of ageing a clone to any point in its life instantaneously, and his first human subject was himself. He made a child, and he named him Kyle Barton II. The child was perfect, just like the original in every neuro-electric impulse that drove through his brain, every cell of blood that swam through his veins, and every minute wrinkle in his hands that revealed his identity. It was the doctor’s belief that, if he could make a clone of a person at any age, then he could, in a way, manufacture parts for people. If you needed a heart transplant, why, what better replacement than your own? The boy’s purpose was spare parts, arms, hearts, lungs, legs, kidneys, skin grafts, hair transplants…anything. It was the perfect answer mankind had always been searching for, saving lives at the real cost of none but those extras he himself created.
However, with time, the boy began to ask questions. He wondered why he existed, what he was for, and what he was destined to do with his life, and so the doctor told him, believing the child, being a perfect match of himself, would understand. He did not. The boy became enraged, torn by the betrayal of his father, and in his wrath he tried to attack. Sadly, in the ensuing moments of chaos, the boy was killed.
Dr. Barton was heartbroken by the terrible loss, and began wondering how he could remedy the situation. Finally, the answer came to him: it was self-rule that drove the boy insane, and it was self-rule that set him to anger. And so, with this in mind, Dr. Barton created another boy, Kyle Barton III, and while the child laid in the artificial womb of the Birthing Matrix, still no more than strands of DNA and stem cells, he changed the boy…changed his very origins. When he was done, Kyle Barton III would not be able to think. He would not be able to argue. He would not be able to be afraid of himself. His body would have the inability to develop the brain beyond basic involuntary movement of the heart and lungs, and with that, self-rule would exist no longer.
The experiment was a success. Everything about the boy was perfect, just as perfect as the first, and he only floated, sustained forever in the Birthing Matrix from which it was unnecessary for him to come. In the following months came two more, KB IV and KB V. There was only one difference in them: KB IV was forty-five, the age of Dr. Barton himself, and KB V was old, late into his eighties, sleeping in preparation for a Dr. Barton that would come to be in due time, when age took over the body of the doctor.
And so was born the Trinity, KB IV the Father, KB III the Son, and KB V the Holy Ghost. In the following years, more and more people would have their own Trinity. After nearly a century, they were considered a household item; for every child that was born, so was born their auxiliaries, and eventually separate rooms were built into houses to hold their Trinities, which were affectionately re-baptized by the People of Earth as the “Clone Banks”. Dr. Kyle Barton had etched himself into the history books for all eternity, and centuries after his death the works of his life were considered mandatory reading for students in the High Council, which was renamed later as the “Science Council."
Just as had been imagined, countless lives were saved in the war against death and disease, and the only repercussion was that, below the floors of every home on Earth, floating in tubs of placenta and nourished by feeds of short, silent electricity, wait the Trinity of Life -- a father, a son, and a holy ghost -- who rage, rage against the dying of the light.
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