UN: Senth; Video

[sergeant_slick]

[Hi everybody, it's your friendly neighborhood clone in a boat. He's on candle watch.]

Hey. Boredom's chewing holes in my brain right now, so let's play a stupid game I just made up: Just guess my age. Anybody who gets the year right on the first try wins bragging rights. If you get the month right too, you get to be fleet admiral. [That's something you can be for a bunch of dinghies, right?]

Also--anybody got any paint? Bonus points if it's waterproof. [He's got plans. Completely frivolous plans.]

Comments

[sergeant_slick]

Closer, but still too high.

You're catching on quicker than the rest, actually--I knew nobody would get it right the first try. The game would be over too fast if it was easy, yeah?

[binghua]

I'm catching on? I could have fooled myself.

[He laughs a little.]

Fourteen. That's the lowest I can go without having some serious questions.

[sergeant_slick]

Nah, fooling people's my job here--everybody's assuming I'm a standard-model human.

...And you're still overshooting.

[binghua]

Consider yourself successful, my friend. I am truly stumped.

[Ah! This man brought up the human qord before Xingchen had to, which makes him feel better. He didn't want to make any more assumptions.]

Then you're a...human, just not what everyone expects?

[sergeant_slick]

Guess I win this round. Good attempt, though.

Approximately human, yeah. I'm a clone--we're made to match a template, mostly. With some tweaks.

[binghua]

I humbly concede all admiralties to a more fitting commander.

[This kind of explanation makes no sense to him, though. How can someone make a matching human? He assumes this is more complicated than if he were simply a twin, and one can't predict those in the first place.]

I can't say I understand, but I am interested.

[sergeant_slick]

Actually you're third or fourth in line right now, if we get some abdications. Wanna be a Captain instead?

[Ah. Not surprising, most people here don't seem to know this stuff.]

I don't know the science side of it. But there's thousands of us, maybe millions. The Republic doesn't actually tell us. [That's too classified for them to know.] Each one of us gets grown in a jar. They take us out, train us for ten years, then send us out to fight so they don't have to. We age at double-speed so they can send us out faster.

I can't say I'm a fan of the system. [To put it mildly.]

[binghua]

I will have to respectfully decline that offer, as well, I'm afraid.

[All good nature disappears when that explanation comes up. Xingchen doesn't understand the half of it, or some of the details, but he thinks he gets the important parts.]

You are manufactured soldiers.

[In five words or less.]

That's horrific.

[sergeant_slick]

[Alright, no captain. ...he'll just put this guy down as Lieutenant Commander, then.]

And you're a decent person. [That reaction might not be totally novel anymore, but it's still really refreshing.] You'd be surprised how hard it was to find people who'd say that, back home. [Or as close to 'home' as he can get.]

[binghua]

Surely not. Even if you may not have been born like others, do you not still have your own feelings and opinions? Why should that make you less-deserving of basic respect?

[Thinking about this makes his blood heat when only moments before they were playing a silly guessing game.

Right. He was doing this for fun. Xingchen shouldn't spoil that.]

Ah, forgive this one. He does not like to see injustice in the world.

[sergeant_slick]

No, anger's fine. It's a good response. Once I get off-world, I'm going back to fighting against this stuff. [And he'll do it better, next time.]

But right now, I can't do anything about it, so... why not mess with people a bit. That was the thought. [And not much of one. Guard duty can make you go a bit weird, sometimes.]

Besides, it's woken people up a little.

[binghua]

I wish you well in your endeavors, then. It sounds like a worthy cause to me.

[A quiet little laugh can be heard.]

If nothing else, you have helped take our minds off of other thoughts. Thank you.