Swans and Klons by Nora Olsen Read Free Book Online Page A

the alteration is done after they’re decanted from the tanks. Since you can’t figure out when or what happens, that makes sense. They just inject some of the Hatchlings with something, and presto, they turn into Klons.”
    Salmon Jo looked troubled. “No process like that could exist. By the time the Hatchling humans are decanted, they are as developed as a human newborn can be and are therefore human. Even if there was a way to reverse development and stunt a human into a Klon, that would be totally unethical. Anyway, Klons are specially engineered to have certain strengths, like the ability to work harder than a human, and weaknesses, like not being as intelligent or emotionally evolved as humans. You can’t do all that with a shot. It has to be done while they’re fetuses in tanks.”
    Rubric threw up her hands. “You just showed me how the fetuses in the tanks are all the same, and now you’re saying they can’t be the same. And you’re supposed to be the logical one! You’re as thicko as a Klon.”
    Salmon Jo licked her lips. “Your theory, veruckt as it seems to be, is the only one that fits the facts.” She went into the biggest hexagonal area. After a moment, Rubric followed her. Salmon Jo was rooting through a desk, pulling out handheld screens.
    “Is this your desk?” Rubric asked. It seemed too big and with too much equipment for just an academy student being mentored.
    “No, it’s Panna Tensility’s. As far as I can tell, she’s the smartest one here and knows the most about everything.”
    Now Rubric was truly shocked. Salmon Jo ought not to go through other people’s property. “The Golden Rule—” she said helplessly.
    “The cause of science is a higher rule,” Salmon Jo muttered. She was looking at a handheld screen, paging through its documents.
    Higher rule, rubbish, Rubric thought. Salmon Jo was just a snoop.
    “No, I can’t understand it,” Salmon Jo said. Her voice cracked in the middle of the sentence. “This doesn’t make sense.”
    “Let me see,” Rubric said. Salmon Jo showed it to her. But the screen only showed a spreadsheet that was a meaningless jumble to her. How could a spreadsheet make anyone so upset?
    “This shows when the fetuses are designated Klon or human,” Salmon Jo said. “According to this, it’s not any time when they’re in the tank. The Doctors designate the freshly decanted Hatchlings to be human or Klon when they examine them, in their first minutes of life.”
    “So what’s the secret process that makes some of them Klon?” Rubric asked. She didn’t have a good feeling about this.
    Salmon Jo clicked through other documents for a long time. Finally, she said, “It seems to be that the Doctors put either a blue tag or white tag on the Hatchling’s toe. If they get a white tag, they’re human. Blue tags are for Klons.”
    Her words felt like a slap. Rubric gasped.
    “So there’s no difference between humans and Klons?” Rubric asked. She had a curious feeling, as if she were floating just above her own skin.
    “Except for the tag,” Salmon Jo said.
    Rubric stared into Salmon Jo’s amber eyes. Salmon Jo looked as troubled as Rubric felt.
    “There must be another explanation,” Salmon Jo said. “Something we’re not thinking of.”
    But she couldn’t come up with one.
    After a while, Rubric said, “We better get back to the dorms. I don’t want to get caught in here.”
    On the way back to the dorm, Rubric had a funny feeling. She didn’t even know how to name it. It was something akin to unease. Disquiet. Rubric felt as if all her trustfulness had been washed away. Their nighttime adventure now seemed much worse than just sneaking into the Hatchery.

Chapter Eight
     
    Rubric stayed over in Salmon Jo’s room in Maroon Dorm. Rubric thought she would never fall asleep. But she must have, at some point, because she woke up to Salmon Jo shaking her.
    “I’m going to the refectory,” Salmon Jo was telling her. “Do you want