Fourth Nail

By Mur Lafferty

Regina Phillips’ job on the orbital station God's Eye was that of a nighttime systems engineer. She had to warm her desk chair and make sure nothing broke. It was the highest paying, most boring job around. So she sat in shocked silence for a good minute when the red alert hit.

She didn't even know the cloning lab had an alert system. It was hard to have an emergency involving minds that were backed up and bodies that were ultimately renewable. Still, there it was, a red glow around her monitor as the words "UNAUTHORIZED TRANSMISSION" blinked over and over again.

Around her, cloning vats filled the lab, each waiting for the command to start growing a new body for a dying clone. One clone in the far end vat was nearly done, but Regina didn't recognize the face. She wasn't a tech responsible for dealing with the actual vats, just the computer systems.