Alan Dean Foster by pandor

Author:pandor [pandor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Maybe he was too tired to be frightened. Maybe it was a good thing he was so exhausted. Certainly it was a good thing that in the past hours he'd seen so many marvels and impossibilities that one more couldn't shock him any worse than anything he'd already seen.

He did not run gibbering from the room. His reaction was more matter-of-fact than anything else.

"Hey, you look like me!"

The perfect double made shushing sounds while glancing up and back to make sure their little brother was still locked fast in sleep.

"Of course I look like you. I'd be worthless if I didn't. I'm the Beta Unit."

"What the hell's a Beta Unit? I know what a Be-tamax is, but not a Beta Unit."

"I recognize the reference, but there is only the most tenuous of relations. Centauri didn't tell you?"

"No, Centauri didn't tell me. Centauri doesn't tell people things," Alex murmured angrily. "Why did I think that you had something to do with Centauri?"

The double hesitated a moment. "You're being sarcastic now, aren't you? Sarcasm is difficult to recognize."

"It shouldn't be. Not when Centauri's involved. You still haven't explained what you are, besides me."

"I am a BS-RS."

"I'll buy the first half of that. What about the rest?"

"I don't think you buy any of it, unless you're being sarcastic again. I am a brain-scan regenerated simulacrum. An exact duplicate of you. Only not as loud."

The noise made Louis turn lazily in his bed, the dangling arm rolling to flop against the far wall. Alex fought to keep his voice down. It would not do his younger brother's development any good at all if he awoke in the middle of the night to confront two Alexes sitting on the bunk beneath his, staring anxiously up at him.

"We met before," the alien said. "Don't you recall?"

Alex shook his head slowly, thinking. "Somehow I think I'd remember you."

"I was in the car, Centauri's vehicle. Remember now? In the back. We touched hands, I took a fast impulse and retina scan, the final impression was complete, and then I got out fast. After which I became you . . . unfortunately."

"Unfortunately for whom?" Alex frowned. "A brain-scan regranulated . . . can't you put that in plain English?"

"All English is plain; a scientifically unsophisticated language."

"That's okay. I'm a scientifically unsophisticated guy. Lemme give it a try, though. You're a robot?"

His double looked offended. "I beg your pardon! I am a state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line Beta Unit, fully programmable on short notice with slipsoidal epidermis and complete self-adapting internal cultural acclimatization features designed specifically for work on backward planets."

"Which means?"

"Which means that to you morons I'm a robot."

Alex pondered this a moment, brightened. "I didn't remember promising to help Otis fix his antenna. So you're the one who made that promise."

"That's what I liked the first time I was told I was going to be working among you humans. You're so quick on the uptake. Of course it was me. Who else?"

"What else have you been doing while I was stuck chasing Centauri through a cave on Rylos?"

"Oh, wonderful things.

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