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"I don't get it, didn't you tell me our test subjects are clones?" An anthro
tiger in a business suit asked the other wearing an ordinary  lab coat.  They
were standing in one of the laboratories, clean tables covered with a few
sheets, data terminals displaying diagrams, formulas and lots of text, some
items of lab equipment neatly ordered. The rats had made sure the weapons lab
was proper before the visit.

The other one answered promptly. "No sir, they are genetically engineered, and
pre-educated, but not exact clones. They share the same body mass and
features, but some experiments need a certain variation. For certain projects
the variations are deliberately designed, but we have a standard variation
multi purpose set to have lemmings available on short notice. The one we are
talking about was from the standard variation, though a rather interesting
setup. From the sheets I had not thought she'd show that sort of
individualism."

"So basically we can make exact copies of her, even with her memories?"
"Almost. Not the memories she acquired in her 4 weeks live, but with the same
automated preset, identical to her up to the day when she was born."

"Can we alter that education, to add some extra skills? What about basic
military training?"

"Well... technically sure. But that would violate facility safety policies, if
a subject had a behavioral defect or showed effects of a drug given in
experiment.  Any additional aggressiveness could make them dangerous to
personnel, if they had any fighting or weapon training."

"Who made that policy?"

"I believe the safety procedures are old, Sir. They were in effect even before
we took over the lab."

"Its hereby revoked. I do believe our enterprise may have a future in
production of battle drones, and that lemming in that video feed is exactly
the type we want. I can't believe the ending had been edited away when I got
this. Who is responsible for that?"

"Sir, I am sure I can find out who edited that video and take necessary
measures."

The tiger made a questioning, slightly angry face, then continued.

"Excellent. Prepare a production line for those lemmings, and give me a test
batch evaluation by next week. I want that to proceed with top priority."

"Sir, there might be issues with tests that early, their body functions are
unstable when used before their third week."

"I am sure you can find out how to make it work and take necessary measures,
too." The suit tiger answered in a slightly sadistic tone, smiling a
victorious smile. "I will be back next Monday." Then he left the laboratory. A
press of a button later the lab filled with busy looking anthro rats in lab
coats, to whom he gave angry orders to, transforming the neatly tidied
laboratory into an organized mess of activity in no time.

---

The two female lemmings were busy cleaning an old laboratory room in a part of
the facility that looked like it wasn't really used in years. Few rats ever
came here, and most only seemed to use the main corridor as a shortcut between
other parts. The rooms were filled with old equipment in crates, archived
and stacked data pads and machines, too old  or too damaged to use, too
precious or special to throw them away altogether. Somehow E811-3712-21-7
thought she fit well in here. Outlived her designed life cycle, yet not thrown
away either. Her friend E277-3712-23-7 shared the same fate. The incinerator,
supposed to dispose them, had malfunctioned, though in case of E277 that
friendly rat had helped quite a bit in her opinion. She had survived the hard
way, the healing burns still itching. But in the end she was alive, somehow
that was what matters. To the system it was the same.  Their files deleted they
didn't officially exist. The system had forgotten about them, like it seemed to
have forgotten about all the stuff in those crates.

The rat was a bit enigmatic in her orders, sometimes the lemming wondered if
she didn't even know herself what she planned, at least not for sure. She
hadn't told them what their actual purpose was to be, just that they'd be
working in this old lab, and therefore had to get it tidied up and cleaned
first. A weird task, considering as far as she knew cleaning was only done by
the cleaning team, regularly replaced lemmings with the sole task of disposing
the waste. E277 had been part of that group and seemed to have no objections,
she was just happy to have a task to do. It was better than the uncertainty
that came when they had nothing to do.

The rat just arrived, carrying another box of equipment. "This is for you two.
It's a rapid-learning course we developed almost ten years ago. Its was meant
for children's education and teaches a lot of basic stuff about history and
people, that they never bothered telling you. They also put some advertising
info in, so it will tell you about what this facility used to be back then. If
you like it, I have loads of these old rapid learning tapes from my own
studying. I kept them all.

She showed the two lemmings how to set the system up. It was basically a
helmet, not well fit for their heads though, but with some stuffing here and
an additional strap there it got halfway comfortable. "I put on test screens,
is the video OK?" E811 nodded. Wearing the helmet she had two screens in front
of her, that displayed a test pattern. After a while it seemed to become
three dimensional, appear right within her head somehow. "I am calibrating the
neuron interface, its still set up for rats, but adaptable enough. There. Now
just sit there comfortably and watch the show, I'll set up the second one."

Rapid learning courses projected information directly into the brain, creating
the maximal stimulus to make that information processed and kept. For E811 it
was a constant stream of pictures, words, sounds and smells, that were hard to
comprehend as she saw them. Instead they seemed to create memories directly,
as the stuff she had seen a moment ago seemed to make perfect sense.

It was not like her pre-education, those memories, though fake, always seemed
to be her own experience in a distant past. With these new images she knew at
every point that it was being taught to her, had the ability to doubt and
question as she saw it, put it into context. And there was quite a number of
concepts she decided to ask the rat later. But somehow it also made her
doubt her pre-learned artificial memories more and more. There were
contradictions where she now had to choose which to believe. And considering
she already had started to doubt what she was supposed to accept as the
universal truth, she felt a weird thrill at the thought, that this history,
this world she was shown, was actually more real. That what she knew before
was a to be a lie. It was tempting but confusing at the same time.

At the end, the tape fed her with info on the facility itself, its great
endeavours, the visions and philosophy of its owners, and it was here that she
stopped believing in what she saw. It was a clear lie, the tape told of
benevolent scientists, trying to help everyone in the world. And in many other
worlds as the tape had told her about space colonisation before. Yet she had
seen the weapons and what they did, being forced to kill her fellow test
subjects with it. She had endured enough in the dreadful incinerator. The
system behind all that might have been her law. An ultimate instance, a deity.
But it was certainly not kind to anyone. It commanded cruelty..

E277 was still hooked up, having started later. Also her program, self
adapting to the users ability to process information, was running a bit
slower. Even the rat was surprised E811 was done already. "Finished that
early? I'm impressed." But asked about the discrepancies she just shrugged and
smiled sadly.  "You are right, that tape was always one-sided, leaving out the
bad things, especially when it comes to the facility. But back then it still
was not lying - that much. That changed later, when we got new owners. First
they switched to lab clones for scientific work, who didn't ask questions,
later the installed the automated system to let the computer boss everyone
around.  They didn't start with you 'expendables' until last year.  But you
are right, even back then they did weapon development. They don't mention that
in a schooling tape for kids. From the same year there used to be a tape
teaching military training." E811 looked questioning  "It would teach you how
to kill."

E811 was slightly trembling, like on a caffeine overdose. All that new
information was still hard to comprehend. As glad she was to find out more
about the world, so far her own live had been simple, the small world she was
in, had been understandable, made sense, even if she had started to have her
doubts. But taking all these information into account, it all shattered to
pieces.

"This - information, is for children you said." E811 more thought loudly than
asking. "Yes?" the rat asked.  Children grew up into adults, that was clear
from the tape. But E811 couldn't remember being a child, she wasn't sure she
grasped the concept.

"What are children?"

There was a reason the expendables were all used during their first month of
living. The way they were bred it was unsure what maximum age they could
reach. The lab was doing some long term experiments on some lemmings.  A few
of which were still ongoing, but most of those lemmings were neutered to
prevent certain hormonal effects that would otherwise be common to adults. The
one in front of her would certainly be able to reproduce, and that would mess
with the programming her brain had originally gotten, and even more so with
the behaviour of any male lemming, and maybe even male rat, the smell would be
driving them nuts when she got in season. The rat didn't the exact
regulations, she wasn't involved in that project, but someone had decided it
was better to not have the lemmings around that long.  It was also cheaper to
produce them on demand. They did however need three weeks to overcome side
effects of the rapid growing that would otherwise mess up with experiment
results. Their bones were too weak, as was their immune system. It was the
same with new rats. Therefore the lab had such harsh containment restrictions
on them, everything guarded by airlocks.  A common cold could wipe out the
entire batch in their first week.

"That is complicated. I would call it 'the true reason of life'. I will
explain, when your friend is done with her education." She pointed at E277.


The night after, none of the lemmings could sleep well. It was just too much.
Yet while E811 was fascinated by the concept, the possibilities, E277 was
frightened, her world order destroyed. Sobbing she crouched over into E811s
arms, seeking comfort. And even that was wrong, as the rules forbid close body
contact. Contamination rules. It was just all so confusing, nothing seemed to
make sense anymore.

The rat had told them something else. 'Names', were a sort of IDs that mothers
gave their children, much like the system had given them their numbers. The
rat had both a number and a name, to the system she was "scientist 3681-SB",
given on employment. But to her friends she was "Sonia". That's what they were
now supposed to call her. And she had told them both a primary assignment.
which once again was simply "stay alive" - weird, but while to E811 it felt
like having a deeper sense to it that she just couldn't grasp yet, E277 was
confused and frightened by all the new things and seemed reluctant to learn
anything new.

All three of them slept in Sonias lab, next to the testing grounds, with the
observation window to the outsides. But they didn't get to sleep long. The sun
hadn't risen over the wall of the other side of the court yet, when a loud
announcement was heard over speakers in the whole facility.

"All scientific personnel on site, this is the head of facility speaking.
Please come to the meeting room of lab 1 immediately. Ongoing experiments are
to be put on hold until later unless endangering safety of the facility. I
repeat, get to the meeting immediately."

Sonia went up startled, and quickly slipped into shoes and a lab coat. "This
means me. You stay here. If anyone moves you out of here, your assignment is
to find me so I can tell you what to do. OK?"

Then she went of. E811 took a few moments to adopt to the new situation.
Wondering what this was about she looked out the window, while E277 was just
sitting where they had slept. A sort of bench with a mattress on it. Staring
into no particular direction.

A while later there was a second announcement.

"Because of concerns for the safety of the facility, security personnel will
arrive on site shortly. Orders by security personnel have to be followed. If
problems arise, please contact your responsible supervisor."

A weird sound was audible, like distant drums, coming closer fast, combined
with a whistling sound was rising. And then the first rays of the rising sun
that fell through the window were cut by whirling blades on top of a flying
monster. It had lots of teeth and approached hovering over the wall, then
slowly came to a stop over the middle of the training court. Its wings causing
a vortex of dust and fallen leaves on the ground under it, blowing dust clouds
against the window that E811 looked through fascinated. The thing lowered
itself gently, until it touched ground, crouching on its legs a bit like to
brace for its weight. How could anything that big and heavy fly through the
air? The now thundering drums went slower and turned into breathing noises,
while the whistling decreased in pitch, until it was no longer audible. The
blades stopped, the dust settled.

Then the monster opened its maw, and someone came out of it. Dozens of
figures actually, clad in green and brown armored suits, holding weapons.
Those E811 recognized, it was the same model she had shot with on that very
ground in front of her. They were made for killing she realised. All of them.
Was that this 'security personnel' ?

Sure enough the soldiers entered the facility. The chopper took of later, then
came again, bringing more soldiers and equipment in crates. E811 wondered
whether it was the same or another one. Some of the crates were opened on the
spot, and a weird machine was build outside. It looked like long horns or
teeth on a machines head, pointing at the sky, turning its in all directions.
It looked threatening. Those teeth looked a lot like the barrel of the guns
she had seen. It must be the same thing. But not for shooting at people, those
she realised, were for shooting at the sky. Maybe it was to kill those flying
monsters? It was frightening.

E277 was still sitting where she had woken up, not seeming to care much about
what was going on, if at all, then frightened. The world was just going
insane, it stopped making any sense. E811 was worried, and eventually asked.
"Are you fine?" She repeated, walking closer, as E277 didn't answer at first,
but then she turned her head, tears in her eyes. "I don't know. I don't know
what to think anymore. Its all wrong. Whatever I do, I violate orders. I know
I was supposed to go to the incinerator, but I couldn't. And now I can't
anymore, I have orders not to. But , but, I don't know what to do!"

"Shh. Its all fine, just stay here with me and wait." E811 said, putting her
arm around E277s shoulders. "I am confused too, but I think we are of better.
We are alive. Aren't you glad? You can do things now, have a purpose."

"I don't know. I don't know a purpose what for. If I had gotten in that
incinerator, I'd have at least followed the rules. But now the rules are
making no sense anymore. They are saying two things at the same time. I know I
need to do what the rat says, but she tells us to do stuff we aren't allowed.
How can I do thing right?"

"I know. But I think its the rules fault and not yours. Don't blame yourself
if you have no choice. Maybe that's part of our assignment? Find out which
rules to follow? I'm sure we will figure it out."

For the moment E277 calmed down, seemed better. A moment later the door opened.

Two of the soldiers came in, looking at the window. The two lemmings could see
now what was under their armored uniforms. They were wolves, threatening
canine teeth in their face, and their voices always a harsh barking as they
gave commands to each other or gave reports. E811 didn't like them. They were
threatening. So she was glad to see Sonja following them in.

The leading soldier spoke first. "You have to leave this laboratory and move
to at least one story below. This is to exposed, with that window here. We
need to set up a defense post here to prevent entry. Get squad two to set that
up." The last words were directed to his companion who responded with a barked
"Yes Sir!" Sonja waved at the two lemmings. "Follow me. We need to get more
equipment from your new lab."

The soldiers gave them weird looks, obviously not sure what to think of the
lemmings.

E811 studied the uniforms. They were different. The commanding one had more
stripes. So stripes meant having the say? Interesting concept. She'd ask Sonia
later. In the other lab they just retrieved the box with the learning tapes
and the helmets, then went on to a staircase. Two stories down in a bare
corridor with pipes and rough looking walls they went on until they found a
door to another room, seemingly a lab, too. Some barrels stood there with
weird signs on them, and a couple of crates. Sonia told them to pile all of it
up in a corner to get room.

E811 was bothered by the recent events. Unasked for she spoke up,
surprised both by her own courage and by the fact that Sonia actually
smiled as she did. All she had asked was "Can I ask something?"

"But of course you can. You just did. Ask whenever you have a question." Why
was the rat happy? She had just violated another rule. Obviously another rule
that didn't apply anymore. And unlike E277, who didn't seem to be happy about
that, judging by her face, E811 was. She didn't like those rules anymore, it
was almost tempting now to test which ones she could dare to break.

"Those with the weapons, the 'security personnel'. Why are they here?"

"They are here because we are at war. The masters of this facility against
others, wanting to take it or destroy it."

"Are those with the yellow and black fur those masters?"

Sonia laughed.

"Those would wish to be the masters, yes. But they aren't. There are masters
above them.  Even the tigers are just pawns in this game. I'm surprised you
know about them, did one come into the containment facility?"

"Yes, one with a black lab coat that looks weird."

Sonja laughed again, but then stopped as something in E811s face bothered her.
Whatever the suit had done in containment obviously hadn't been funny. So
instead she continued her answer.

"They are fearing an attack on this facility, trying to conquer it, or steal
our secrets. So they got the wolf soldiers here."

"And they will kill?" E811 added, more like a statement than as a question.

"Yes. And so will whoever the others send. And they would likely kill everyone
here who isn't important enough to capture, that's why they send us these
soldiers. For protection."

E811 thought about that. The tape had mentioned wars, as part of history,
described the effects of an invading army, though not in detail, but enough to
make up to imagine the rest. Was this the same?

The concept was frightening and real, overthrowing once more the rules of her
simple, earlier life.

Frightening yes, but somehow thrilling. She couldn't explain why, but for
some reason, the openness of the future was exciting. All that she learned
opened new perspectives, showed her new concepts, gave her new ideas. Even new
prospects what to live for. There was so much more to learn, so much more to
do, so much more to be.

She knew she wanted to know more.