Vai

"You should have let our son remain dead 80 years ago," my mother's voice said. "How many clones did you experiment with before you discovered the correct formula for the Laumalie preserver? This clone was the only one you let out. The only one you introduced as your son. A new one won't be the same without the Laumalie preserver. It will only be the memories."

"He is my son," my father said. "He is."

I didn't have a body, but my spirit self felt like millions of electrical currents shocked through me over and over. I was a clone? I wasn't even the original? I was never there with Callie, Posha and Emilio. I wasn't there when my mother died, when my father put me to sleep. Wait...I never did sleep. The real Vai died. Maybe I - he - Vai - really did have an incurable disease like my father - Vai's father - said. I was confused.

"Is he a clone when only the physical body changed?" my father asked. "I preserved Vai's self - his spirit - his essence - his laumalie. It is still Vai. My son."

"How do you know?" my mother's voice asked. "How do you know the essence you preserved of Vai - and of me - was complete? I like to think I'm an incomplete copy and the real Langi is in a beautiful spirit world with the real Vai."

"No," my father shook his head violently. "You are both real. I can't live without you."

The computer went silent.

"Warpaint, how was this body destroyed?"

"The Corruption - the miasmids, sir."

"They were there? Planetside? The planet was supposed to be safe. The Starwatchers on Doussix have never shown signs of zek frenzy."

"My sensors don't pick up on them," Warpaint said. "They came up from under the ground right where Vai was standing. I think they were there for the Awakened One, but Vai was closer to them."

"Awakened One? What are you talking about?"

"The Awakened One. The alien who was teaching them about their light."

"Warpaint, what are you talking about?"

Warpaint told my father everything. All about Esther, the light, that we were responsible for the missing people, the Awakened One. My father accessed my vids from my volo as Warpaint spoke and played back many of the moments Warpaint spoke of - including when I killed Alessandra Garcia.

"All of these memories will have to go into my son's new body. I don't understand the light and I don't think Vai will have it with his new body, but in order for his friends to continue believing he is the same Vai, he will have to retain his memories about all this."

He hooked my okulus to the independent terminal after he finished uploading the information from my volo.

I called on the light. I still had it. It was the only thing that was still me. I tried to lift myself away from Warpaint. I wanted to see my friends. It had been easy to separate myself from my body down on Doussix. It wasn't easy with Warpaint. I didn't know why I was connected to him. I would have thought that it was because of the Laumalie preserver except I wasn't in the Laumalie preserver. It didn't seem to work. Or maybe it worked enough to connect me to Warpaint but not enough to preserve myself within it.

As the information from my okulus was uploaded to my father's computer, he bent over the table and the square crystal. He fiddled with the wires that came out of it. He opened up Warpaint and fiddled with the wires inside Warpaint.

"I just don't understand why this didn't work," he muttered. "Maybe I need to make the pull stronger." He worked on the wires inside Warpaint and then reconnected the Laumalie preserver. He closed Warpaint. "This will work. It has to."

I had always thought my father - was he my father? The thought disturbed me greatly. Did I even have a father? And what was my mother then? The ship's computer? I still remembered growing up with them. I felt the love for them.

I still had Vai's memories. I still had emotion. Even if Kapo Ma'amaloa wasn't physically my father - which he might be since I had the same genes even though I was a clone - he still created me. I would believe he was my father.

I always thought my father was strong, but seeing him pour desperately over the Laumalie preserver, my memories, my new body - seeing how he had placed my mother as the ship's computer - I wasn't sure he was actually sane anymore.

There was a knock on the outer door. My father got up from his seat and went out into the living room. Warpaint followed him. My father was careful to make sure his bedroom door was closed before he opened the front door.

Dr. Rags stood in the hallway with a medical kit. "I'm here to tend to Vai's wounds."

He tried to step passed my father, but my father was a very large man and Dr. Rags was a small Starwatcher.

"Did Captain Axa command you to come?" my father asked.

Dr. Rags frowned.

"Then no," my father said. "I am tending to Vai myself. He will be back to his old self in a few days." My father closed the door.

How could I be my old self when I was stuck inside Warpaint? I had to figure out how to get from Warpaint to my new body. When we were back in my father's room, I called on the green light and tried to separate myself from Warpaint again. I tried to lift up and out towards the body. I did stretch a little - like taffy, but then I was sprung back inside Warpaint's head.

My father connected the independent computer terminal to the cylinder with my body. He stretched his long arms above his head. "It will work again," he whispered. "It has to."

What if it did work and there was a new Vai walking around with my memories? What would become of me?

"It is late, sir," Warpaint said. "You should rest. Uploading the memories into the new body will take time anyway."

"Don't worry, son," my father said to the new body. "Everything will be okay. You'll be okay. You are my son."

That didn't work. I was extremely worried. And I wasn't in that body.

"Go ahead and incinerate this body," my father said to Warpaint. He touched one of my shredded arms, but didn't look at my body. "We can't leave evidence of two Vais."

"Yes, sir." Warpaint picked up my dead body and placed it inside himself. I couldn't feel the heat or smell the ash, but I could process it internally as Warpaint did. "Clean out the ash, Vai," Warpaint said. Did he know I was still here? "Sorry, sir," Warpaint said to my father. "Habit."

My father had pulled out a large pack. He nodded. "It's all right. You should be able to say it to him again soon. Although, I don't know why you just didn't use your self cleaning program."

He pulled out a sleeping bag. He spread it out under the table and crawled inside.

"I don't know why I never used my self cleaning program before either, sir," Warpaint said. Something whirled inside him. I could tell - only because of my weird connection with his internal mind - that the ash was cleaned out. He smiled.

Do you have emotions, Warpaint? Are you more than programming?

He didn't answer.

It was strange to see my father sleep. He was peaceful, calm. He wasn't his normal intimidating self. Warpaint grew still as he recharged himself.

I couldn't sleep. I wasn't tired. I didn't have a body to make me tired. I looked at Warpaint's internal clock when there was another knock on the outer door. It was 1:37 a.m.

My father came awake quickly. Warpaint moved with him when he went to the door. My father didn't seem surprised to see El standing at the door.

She looked down at the corridor floor. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I couldn't protect him."

"I trusted you," my father said. "You were the only one I would trust so completely with my son."

I thought I saw moisture in her eyes, but the next moment it was gone, so maybe it was just the gleam of the light.

"What should I tell my son and his friends?" El asked.

"Tell them, Vai will be ready to see them in a few days. Until then, he needs complete rest. They shouldn't disturb him."

El nodded. "You know everything now? About the light?"

"Yes. You shouldn't have kept it from me."

"You would have hidden him away. He was strong."

"No one even knew what his light did," my father said. "Why would you think he was strong? Because he could spar with you and the others? You should have told me. If you had, he would still be...He'll be fine in a few days."

"Will his new body have the light?"

So, she knew this entire time that I was a clone.

"I'm not sure. I don't think so. My son needs to be protected, El. He is important."

"Yes," she said.

"I will let him go back to his friends when he wakes if he wishes to, but don't put him in anymore danger. I will help you with the miasmids the best I can. You know that. I've proven that in the past."

"Yes."

"Then goodbye, El. I need my rest."

"Yes."

The door closed between them.