TADJ59

==Chapter 59 - The Adjudicator==
Royal Hospital, Toyama City
Taussen, Taussen Star System
Federated Suns Space
Mid 3160
----
"...you've definitely been through an experience, but.....You aren't compromised, Commander."  Corpsman Bao said, "I guess when they copied your thinking meat, they didn't do it intrusively."
"I don't remember any of it." Clarissa admitted.
"You wouldn't.  The 'you' they broadcast and this you are different people now." Bao explained, "The discussion of whether your copy has her own soul is more of a question for a Rabbinical synod to determine, or maybe some Christian deacons, but you are definitely still you.  As your caregiver, I need to ask if this was an accident?"
"I...we didn't make any hostile moves."
"Then you'll be fine in front of the board of inquiry, and aside from some healing trauma. I'm ready to testify you're mentally and emotionally fit for duty-on the other hand, physically...You've been in this therapy rig for the last thirty days. There has been some muscle degradation in spite of the forced exercise mechanics.  I'm going to prescribe a routine of physical therapy to help you get back in shape after so long in a comatose state."
"You're..you're with the Beagle's crew.  Is Aunt Sharon..?"
"She's here, she's discussing things with your hosts."  Bao reached out and pinched her.
"OW! what was that for?" demanded Clarissa.
"To reassure you this is real and not an hallucination."  the corpsman said, "Admiral Sharon Ngo is handling negotiations with these...'Terran Hegemony' holdouts for the release of you and your crew."
"How's she doing?"
"Better than expected.  She's no Bianh vu Dao, or Nicole Minh, or even Seether, but she's managing."  Bao sighed, "You can get dressed now, ma'am, we're done."
----
Clarissa-2 watched her prior self getting dressed.  "Different people?"  the city's Intelligence asked.
"We are, aren't we?  It's a simple separation. Two sets of shared memories, diverging."  the copy of Clarissa said.  "One thread will age, maybe meet someone will have kids, have a life, maybe grow old and die. While the other will have a life, but won't degrade with age.  Which Cameron were you originally?"
"I wasn't.  I was a staffer...the me-that-was was a staffer.  Not even a chief of staff really, just a bureau functionary. My specialist in urban growth and management."
"The other Intelligences were also staff?"
"Except for the central control? Yes."
"And Central is where they'er storing, what, a half dozen generations of Camerons?"  She asked.
"Perceptive.  Yes.  We initially only stored them on the intent of bringing them back."
"Back...to rule forever?" Clarissa-2 asked
"I didn't say it was a good plan.  To keep the bloodline pure, so we've been relying on clone-bank material."
"So Devlin is Simon, but without Simon's marbles. That's because he didn't record a copy, did he?"
"No, he didn't.  His wife did, and his cousins...but we only had the tissue samples for Simon.  Richard made a copy in his teens, of course."
"Your plan has so many holes in it even I can see them." she asked.
"Such as?" AI asked
"Such as expecting the world to remain in one place forever." She said, "They needed The Camerons three hundred years ago with a viable heir Kerensky wouldn't have left."
"You have access to our records now, and you still believe that?"
"I have a hard time believing that any military professional would do...that."  Clarissa-2 acknowledged.
''
"It's ingrained into your character." City Manager told her, "One of those 'changes' you were talking about a moment ago.  You can't wrap your mind around the idea that a military service could develop an ethos that only serves itself and remain functional."
"Is that what happened?" Clarissa asked.
"In part.  The civil war brought by Amaris wasn't as unexpected as we would like to pretend.  From the very beginning of the Hegemony, it has been 'might makes right'-that having might allows one to determine what 'right' is.  In that sense, and in the context of the kind of men and women that made up the SLDF in the League Civil War era. Nicholas Kerensky's writings as you remember them are absolutely correct, and your concepts of 'the rule of law' are quaint anachronisms, power is derived from loyalty, and loyalty is something bought with force and rewards."
"Were you forced or was this a reward?" Clarissa asked City Manager.
"It was a reward.  We used force for the warships."
"So why am I not being lobotomized?" she asked.
"That because the universe changes after all.  The Lyran Commonwealth just defeated...no, wrong term, Crushed a more powerful foe with more advanced technology using 'soft' means-the source of Power and Reward has shifted. We need to understand it if we are to restore House Cameron to their rightful place."
"What if this IS their rightful place?" she asked.
''
"That is not an option. Mankind must be forced into unity."  City Manager said, and Clarissa-2 felt the intrusions beginning, "It is for their own good."
----
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