(no subject)
What is the most important decision you've made in your life and why?
I would say the decision to hide what I am and take up my template's life and identity would qualify.
I knew that my superiors would only see that I am a clone, and I would be sent to the front lines. Clones aren't given the kind of regard even conscripts get. And the Grand Admiral had already set me to working on the Chimaera, and my template had so recently died... I might not have thought of it if he hadn't hinted, in the wake of the Grand Admiral's death.
Altering the records to claim that he was wounded in action and had been recovered was not terribly difficult. I did have to give myself head trauma and some other wounds, both to back up the claim with some physical evidence and to explain any discrepancies between us - I have no memory of what he did after the flash memories were recorded, after he gave the technicians on Wayland that tissue sample. And Grodin Tierce was - he was less distant, I think. Much more of a people person. His secrets were small ones, borne without strain.
I found myself talking to his family and friends, from time to time. It's - strange, knowing who they are, what they're like, but through one remove. Knowing that they had no idea that I wasn't him. Oh, they knew he had changed, but they thought it was because of head trauma and losing someone so very important to the war effort - to the Empire.
My relationship to them was not, I think, as easy as his was. My interactions with them helped to teach me how to live a lie that has saved me. And like all lessons, I stumbled in the beginning.
I would say the decision to hide what I am and take up my template's life and identity would qualify.
I knew that my superiors would only see that I am a clone, and I would be sent to the front lines. Clones aren't given the kind of regard even conscripts get. And the Grand Admiral had already set me to working on the Chimaera, and my template had so recently died... I might not have thought of it if he hadn't hinted, in the wake of the Grand Admiral's death.
Altering the records to claim that he was wounded in action and had been recovered was not terribly difficult. I did have to give myself head trauma and some other wounds, both to back up the claim with some physical evidence and to explain any discrepancies between us - I have no memory of what he did after the flash memories were recorded, after he gave the technicians on Wayland that tissue sample. And Grodin Tierce was - he was less distant, I think. Much more of a people person. His secrets were small ones, borne without strain.
I found myself talking to his family and friends, from time to time. It's - strange, knowing who they are, what they're like, but through one remove. Knowing that they had no idea that I wasn't him. Oh, they knew he had changed, but they thought it was because of head trauma and losing someone so very important to the war effort - to the Empire.
My relationship to them was not, I think, as easy as his was. My interactions with them helped to teach me how to live a lie that has saved me. And like all lessons, I stumbled in the beginning.