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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/jpitha on 2025-11-27 21:44:42+00:00.
Riposte was in a large cargo hold next to the room with Alia’s pod. Before, she had wondered why her pod was removed before waking her, but when she saw her ship, she knew why.
A little bit less than a third of the deep interceptor Riposte, her home for five years, the seat of her insurgency, was in a disorganized pile on the floor of the cargo hold. The edges of the pieces were burnt and ragged, and what few large pieces there were had holes completely though the hull. The name Riposte was smudged and burnt above the only airlock door still on the wreck. People dressed in elaborate white robes were moving about the wreck, scanning and recording things while wearing a mask over their faces, obscuring their identities. One person in the same robe-uniform stood nearby chanting while they worked. He and everyone else stopped when they entered the hold and stood silent.
“This was where you found me?” Alia asked, not taking her eyes off the ship. She reached out and touched the dark entry pad on the airlock. The mystics' masked faces turned towards Major Tonnlier questioningly, but she glared at them and they turned back to their work.
One of the advantages to being one of 133 duplicates is that unless you tell people your number, they don’t know who you are. Alia remembered how nervous and giddy she was when she stole Riposte out from under her sisters, ordering it prepared and stocked early. Trying not to grin as everyone hurried around here trying to follow her orders. Originally a deep interceptor, it was small, powerful, and stealthy. A perfect place to begin an opposition.
“Yes, Eternity.” The Major said, snapping Alia back to the present. “The derelict was reported as debris, and we were assigned cleanup duty.” She frowned briefly. “I shouldn’t have been upset at the orders; it brought you to me. I truly have been blessed by her. You must have been working through me, giving me the feeling that made me order Sensors to scan the ship.”
As she half paid attention to the Major, Alia’s jaw to tighten. Between her phrasing, and the beating of her crew, and the mysterious masked and robed figured around what was left of Riposte, Alia realized what her sisters had done. A religion. They had made Alia and her sisters into religious figures, subjects of worship.
The last night Alia and her sisters were all together was filled with electric tension. After the Grand Ball, her sisters were all in groups in deep discussion, but she and 104 were being left out. Nobody was impolite as such, but also didn’t invite them into any of the conversations they were having with quiet, furtive voices. Alia and 104 sat together at a table and nursed a bourbon, wondering what was going on. That night 55 came into her room, climbed into her bed, and explained that she and her sisters had decided that the Spear Initiative was the wrong use for them and their skills. She sounded excited, and was hurt that Alia was horrified.
“What would we do instead?” Alia asked, confused. “We’re made to expand humanity, to protect and grow them.”
“We’re made to rule humanity.” 55 countered. “They gave us these bodies, these skills, this training. They gave us all this and then have the gall to say that once our colonies are set up we’re to step down? No. I refuse. We refuse.”
“So what? We’re going to just-” she gestured “-take over?”
55’s grin was manic. “It’ll be easy 27, you’ll see. 101 thinks that we could make ourselves into gods or something and everyone will fall in line with barely any fighting.” She got up from Alia’s bed. “It’s already been decided, sorry for keeping you and 104 out of it.”
“Why did you leave us out?”
“Because you would have said no.” 55 said as she walked out of the room.
Alia stared at the Major for slightly longer than was comfortable, and said, “Then I have you to thank for saving me Major Tonnlier. Your diligence about keeping your crew’s skills sharp is a credit to your command.”
The Major made the circle gesture again and tilted her head down. Alia had been trained at reading body language, and the Major was nearly bursting with pride, but trying to hide it. “We exist to serve you, Eternity. If it is too forward, please forgive me, but I must ask again. What number are you?”
“27.” Alia said. She, along with 132 of her sisters were cloned to be leaders for a vast colonization effort, the Spear of Humanity. They were all to be shipped out in sleeper ships to systems with potential for colonization. Once there, they’d set up beachhead colonies and expand the borders of human space. If they met resistance, they were to eliminate it, though as far as Alia knew, that had never happened. The rebellion had come first.
“You’re an Original?” The Major gasped. She got to one knee again and supplicated.
“No, don’t do that, stand up.” Alia sighed and tried not to roll her eyes. She heard the proper noun, and that worried her. “I don’t understand what you mean by original. I’m not the original Alia. None of us know who was used as the baseline for us, that was by design.” Actually, what Alia and her sisters decided early on was that there was no “original” Alia. They assumed they were made up of pieces and traits of dozens, if not hundreds of people.
“You haven’t been told…” The Major said as recognition dawned. “Something else that he’s kept from you.” She turned at barked something at a solider by the door - Alia hadn’t even noticed he was standing there - and a moment later returned with Dr. Janez. Alia couldn’t tell what she was saying, but she could understand her tone as clear as anything.
“Major Tonnlier, please.” Alia said. “What are you saying to the doctor? He has been nothing but helpful.”
“This doctor,” Major Tonnlier hissed, saying his title like an epithet, “did not properly debrief you, Eternity. For you to be uninformed is unacceptable. Mystics, he didn’t even tell you how long it’s been.” She raised her hand and backhanded Dr. Janez across his face. He turned with the slap as much as he could and without so much as a wince returned to his standing position as before.
“What are you doing?” Alia shrieked, “Don’t hit him, he helped me!”
“Eternity, it’s all right.” Dr Janez said, his cheek red and swelling. “The Major is just-” He stopped speaking as she slapped him again.
“Stop that at once!” Alia said.
“You are right, Eternity.” Major Tonnlier said, unclipping her sidearm. “This trash isn’t worth the effort.” She reached her hand under her arm and brought forth her pistol.
Alia felt herself bunch up like before, but this time she let it happen and activated Tartarus. She dialed her perception of time high enough that everything came nearly to a stop. Sounds deepened and became more muffled as she watched the Major pull her pistol with glacial slowness. With the time afforded to her by speeding her perception, she was able to formulate a plan, such as it was. Reaching out, she grabbed the pistol before the Major could bring it to bear. Alia wrenched the pistol away, pulling it towards herself.
Once she was sure she held the weapon, she returned her perception to normal. Things resumed their proper speed and sounds rushed back. It had been so fast that Major Tonnlier stared down at her empty hand and then over towards Alia in shock. From their perspective, Alia reached out faster than either of them could blink and plucked the pistol from her hands.
Tartarus still works. Alia thought, though her vision swam from the effort. She looked down so that they couldn’t see her face as she checked the pistol, made it safe, and silently thanked Colonel Matiz for the hours of weapon drills that she put them through.
Drills. Hours upon hours of drills. Ordered to slice time finer and finer until she was perceiving things one hundred times faster than baseline. A second of per perception was 10 milliseconds. She couldn’t snatch a bullet out of the air - while she could ratchet her perception of time, physics still applied - but she would have valuable time to formulate responses, counterattacks, regain the element of surprise. While connected to a ship, she could slice time one thousand times. The Colonel demanded that they all learn how to operate weapons while using Tartarus, from knives all the way up to heavy battle rifles. Alia smiles at the recollection of slicing time so finely she could read the text printed on the shell casings as they flew around her.
“We are not going to be shooting anyone for helping me, is that understood Major?” Alia said as she examined the pistol. Interestingly, the model was similar to the pistols they trained on. She quickly worked the action, ejected the round, caught it in air and pocketed it, placing the pistol in the waistband of her pants.
“But, he-” Major Tonnlier whined. How quickly the steel falls away, Alia thought.
“Did an excellent job, given the circumstances.” Alia said firmly, “You will not be beating anyone else in my name. Now then,” She crossed her arms and glared at the Major and had a small moment of satisfaction when she winced. “Debrief me.”
Three thousand years.
It had been *thr...
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