Disclaimer: If you're under age to read stuff about guys having sex or if you find it offensive, your society finds it offensive or illegal then stop reading now! This story is completely fictional, as are all the characters.
By the same author: Previously I've written the multi part story "A Different World" which can be found under gay/science fiction at nifty. I've recently also started a spin off/sequel to that story, which is published in the same sub directory, i.e. the directory for "A Different World". The spin off/sequel is called "What Dreams May Come".
Written by Adam
"Watson! The actuall phrase is 'elementary, my dear Watson'. I know the memories of your life on Earth are a bit vague so I don't expect you to get such details right. I'm just pointing it out to you for future referense. Holmes is the guy who says the phrase. So you're saying that it was a simple matter of deduction?" Scott said as we were getting dressed.
"Yes, just before I died the last few pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Thanks for correcting me, by the way." I said.
"You know we should hurry, don't you? Actually we shouldn't even go up there in the stairwell at this time" Kenny said.
"I've made a promise... to two people even... that I should take Scott there. But it will be brief. I see everybody here has finished dressing so let's ge a move on" I said and then we hurried off to meet Steff in the stairwell. We went in silence.
Five floors up from the cloning plant and two floors below the court room the stairwell ended and Stef and his permanent assistant the former cab driver were stacking the bodies to the ceiling when we arrived.
"Alex!" Scott shouted suddenly and threw himself against the transparency where Steff was standing. Steff looked up in surprise and recognised the boy who had reacted so strangely to him before.
"Here, come this way" I said gently pulling Scott's shirt and gently lead him towards the the opening in the transparency.
But before we had a chance to get between the transparency and the wall Steff stepped out onto the stairwell landing. Scott ran forward and embraced Steff.
"Alex! Oh God, it is you! I thought I'd never see you again" Scott sobbed.
"Scott seems strangely sad to see his boyfriend again" Jim said.
"No, he's happy I think. Those are tears of joy" Kim said.
"Could somebody please explain to me what's going on?" Steff said.
"Don't you remember? We were... oh no, I did it again! I keep forgetting that I'm the only one who remembers my existence on Earth... apart from Jack, of course" Scott said.
"You seem vaguely familiar. I often see your face in dreams but I've never had any idea why or who you were... or who you are" Steff said to Scott.
"Steff, meet Scott. He's your boyfriend ... well, actually Scott's boyfriend was a young man on Earth whose name was Alexander, or Alex for short. Alex was later abducted by aliens and cloned and the original Alex was killed in the process like all of our originals and you, Steff are the latest in the series of clones of Alexander" I said.
"Okay. Well, that Alex guy were obviously a very lucky guy to have such a good looking boyfriend... I wouldn't mind being your boyfriend if you'd have me... But, how come I dream of him, I thought only Jack was the only one who remembered things through dreams" Steff said.
"I have vague memories that we, you and I, were abducted during the same night and strapped to a table each of the two tables in the cloning chambre on the space ship and they cloned you first while I were forced to watch and also, they tried the technique of extracting memories from an abductee to use as dreams for the clones on you, asking you to remember a person that was important to the original you, so naturally the original you, Alex, chose his boyfriend, Scott. Then, when they'd made sure that the cloning of you had been successfull they killed the test clone and discarded the body of the original you and picked up a new person to clone and that person was forced to watch as they killed and cloned me... and having tested the process of memory extraction on you they did the same with me but asked me to remember as many happy moments as I could" I said.
"Why haven't you told this before?" Kenny asked.
"I only just remembered it" I said.
"Why did they force one to watch while another person was killed?" Scott said.
"It was more than that, they also brought out the clone of him, naked but for the collar and scanned the clone to see that all vital signs were okay and then the chest on the clone errupted. ... the heart charge, except the original me didn't know about that device, so I was forced to watch you die twice and the next guy watched me die twice, first the original and then the clone" I said.
"But why?" Scott said.
"So you'd know what was about to happen to you" Kim said.
"Yeah, that's exactly how it was" I said.
"Right, but I thought Jack was the one who remembered the most of his existence on Earth, but I get the impression that Scott here remembers more, and not through dreams" Steff said.
"That's a bit complicated but I'll try to explain the best I can as far as I understand it" I said and then told the essential parts of Scott's story to Steff.
Well I started to but then I was cut short as Kenny's wrist communicator beeped and when he answered Brian's face appeared with Paul looking over his shoulder.
"Hey! You've gotta come down to the tram station quick! All Terrans except us working at the brothel are being shipped off now. The executions have stopped and the cloning plant is being shut down except for one new Terran they're making for some Master who commited a crime and admitted it. The brothel has rented a troop transport from the army, the type that contains military grade cloning machines and it's waiting for us at the tram station here to take us to the brothel while our DNA-patterns and memories are transfered to the military machines. There are some armed Masters heading your way and they said they'd better not find you still in the stair well when they come to pick up Steff and that former cab driver, so hurry now!" Brian said, looking very worried and seemed to take very few breaths while saying all that.
"Yes, you'd better go. I'll see you all tonight at the military base and gladiator arena on the secon moon. Since so many of my gold collar friends have volontarily switched to silver I've decided to do the same in order to join your quest for Earth. I already made the application before I knew about Scott here but now I have even more reason to do so. Though I've had to wait until I get to the base before they make the collar switch since they needed me working here until the executions stopped ... and I think, if Scott wants me to be his boyfriend again, that I might even change my name to... what was it? Alex?" Steff said.
"Yes Alex was the name of the original you, and I'm sure that Scott will want to have you as boyfriend again, even though he doesn't say so now. In fact he seems a bit distracted by something" I said looking at Scott who in turn was a landing down looking up at something and then my eyes focused on the transparency and saw what he was looking at.
"Oh dear, he's found his own corpse" Kenny exclaimed just before I was about to say the same thing.
We all rushed down to where he was standing.
"It's okay. It comes as a chock to everyone seeing themselves dead for the first time, but you'll get used to it" Kim said.
"Yeah, I remember I fainted the first time" I said.
"It's okay, and it isn't the first time. I saw my own corpse once before just after I was cloned for the first time... the corpse of the original me... It just feels a bit strange now seeing my own body up there with just a big hole there. And then I realised that that corpse up there is in better condition than the one I suspect I'm going to find when we return to the brothel, right... since my... has been cut off" Scott said.
"Yeah... that was a bit hard for me to see my body like that too... " I said.
"But speaking of the brothel, we really should get going now!" Kenny said.
"Yes, go now! I'll see you all later tonight! Right, Scott?" Steff said.
"Right Alex, see you later" Scott said.
"I'm definatly going to change my name to Alex" Steff said.
"Come on now, hurry" Kenny said as we waved goodbye to Steff... to Alex I mean, and then ran down the stairs.
Since it was the simplest and most direct route we decided, without discussing it, to go through the canteen. Being the first one down to that floor I opened the door and ran inside and found myself in pitch darkness. At first I thought I'd gone off on the wrong floor but then I bumped into something, the corner of a table hitting my thigh and then my chest got poked by the leg of a chair that was upside down on top of the table.
"Ouch!" I said.
"Shit, what happened? Are you seriously hurt? Are you bleeding? Can you make it to the tram station?" Kenny asked, genuinly worried.
"No, I'm not bleeding. I just bumped into this thing... a table and a chair it seems. It didn't even hurt that much, I just said 'ouch' out of reflex" I said.
Then our eyes became used to the darkness and we started to see the room the way it was now. Actually it wasn't totally dark, as there was a light behind the counter where Mark had worked and the light was filtering out into the rest of the room so we could see the sillhouettes of all the tables with all the chairs upside down on top of the tables.
"You know, I'm reminded of that song we listened to at the party last night at Mark's place, remember? It described something like this... at least the images I saw in my mind while I listened to it" Kim said and Kenny and I nodded agreement.
"Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" Scott said.
"Yeah, that was the name of the song, but how did you know that? You weren't there at the party last night" Kenny said.
"No, I didn't know that was the song you were talking about. But when you started talking about a song that reminded of this room now I came to think of one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite musicals, Les Misérables. I guess it was just coincidence that that happened to be the song you listened to last night like you say... or, maybe not... how many songs can there be about ... empty chairs at empty tables?" Scott said.
"Not many, I guess" I said.
"But we shouldn't linger here, let's move on, they're waiting for us" Kenny urged.
"Yeah" I said and we started walking again for the far door, leading to the tram station.
"Say, Scott... the way you talked about that song and the... musical ... just now it sounded like you'd done more than listened to it..." Jim said.
"Yes, I've seen it. When my family were on holiday in England we saw that musical in London ... and then when we moved to New York City I tried to pursade my parents to let me see the production but I never succeeded in that before ... the events that brought me here took place ... they were reluctant to let me see the New York production since they'd heard that all productions around the world were copied from the London production so they felt it would be a bit unnecessary to see it again and a waste of money" Scott said as we walked out onto the platform.
"I only understood about half of what you said, you know. But I trust you will explain it all later. Shit, that's one ugly ship!" Jim said.
I'm interested in your feedback and suggestions. Is there some story thread that you would like me to explore further or turn into a spin off? ... Write me at my_evil_twin47@yahoo.com and tell me what you think of this story!