“Okay, best of luck then, hopefully we’ll see you back at the meeting point safe and sound,” Susan said before Echo and her began making their way down the hallway they had been instructed to follow by the elderly Sapphire. Their part of the plan was rather simple, as according to Sapphire, there were no human or clone scientists working on discovering the secret to making clones live forever, but rather a super-computer. As such, all they had to do was stop the machine, and then to destroy whatever clones they had so that they couldn’t be studied to try and manually figure out the cure.

    The pair walked through the hallways in silence, the only sound being Susan’s footsteps and the squelch of Echo’s tentacles on the ground. Eventually, they came to the room that Sapphire had told them about: ‘Main Computer Access’. They opened the door, and shut it silently behind them. The room was rather cramped, the only two things being in it were the massive black sheen of the super computer’s casing, and a simple monitor and keyboard that was sitting patiently at the command line. As Echo approached the computer, Susan commented, “Wow, that was surprisingly easy. We didn’t even encounter a single guard.”
    “Yeah,” Echo responded, her fingers fast at work typing on the keyboard and trying to see what she could access through the computer after she had typed in the password Sapphire had given them (‘admin’, which just goes to show you to make sure you’ve changed your default password). “It’s almost like they wanted us to ruin their plans.”
    “You don’t think it’s a trap do you?” Susan ask.
    “I’m not sure, but if I were an evil megacorporation, I certainly wouldn’t just let the people I’m trying to capture see how close my plans were to being done,” with a couple more keystrokes, Echo produced a file that were long strings of letters A,C,G, and T, followed by the expected life span of a clone with a matching genome, which was followed by a percent listing how many combinations had been tested. Shockingly, nearly 80% of all possible clone genomes had been tested, the current max life stream being about two months long still.
   “Oh wow. They were so close to trying all combinations, yet the maximum life span was still only two months?”
   “Who knows, maybe there isn’t a way to make clones live forever,” Echo said slightly dejectedly. She hadn’t really through about it up to this point, but as soon as this was all over, there was a really large possibility that everyone in their group was just going to disappear without even remembering the trials and growth they made throughout the day. However, equally as soon she thought of this, she realized that this meant that there were only going to be temporary repercussions if she did something out of the ordinary…
   “So, did you figure out how to delete the data?”
   “Huh? Oh yeah,” Echo said, her mind had wandered slightly, but she quickly reoriented it as she ordered the computer to delete the files, prompting several more confirmations before the computer got to work deleting the data, a loading bar appearing on the screen as it worked quickly through scrubbing its entire memory. “Hey Susan…”
   “Yes?”
   “Do you think- And this is completely hypothetical, of course. But have you ever thought… about dating a girl before.”
   “Hmm… I don’t think that I have,” Susan lied, her cheeks turning red, “why do you ask?”
   “Well. No reason really,” Echo said, her cheeks becoming even more red. “I was just curious… since it’s unlikely that the real us’s are going to remember any of this once today’s over. If you would want to… I don’t know. Maybe try experimenting a bit with me?”
    “Um… Sure!” Susan said, hoping she didn’t sound too enthusiastic to scare Echo away.
    “Oh!… Okay then,” Echo said. The two awkwardly approached one another, unsure of who should make the first move. Echo, exasperated with all of the tension, finally broke through, jumping forward and kissing Susan, wrapping her tentacles around Susan’s legs.

    After kissing for a while, Echo broke the kiss, finally speaking through her heart, “Susan, I think I love you.”
    “I love you too!” The kissing continued, moving to slightly past it as Susan began to rub Echo’s four plump breasts, even pulling on a couple of her udders, some milk spilling out onto the floor.
    Just as they were about to go past second base, the computer beeped, indicating the end of the deletion. Echo and Sapphire stepped back from each other, a little embarrassed at their momentary outburst of romance, but ultimately happy to have their feelings for one another confirmed. “Well, let’s not waste anymore time, let’s go free them,” Susan said, walking out of the door, her cheeks still rosy red, Echo quickly following behind her.

    Luckily for them, the clone storage room was only a couple doors down from the computer room. As they entered the large room, they were greeted to a sight very similar to the one Heather and Lindsay were probably seeing, various aisles of large metal pods. Approaching the first pod, Echo found a copy of herself, floating in a green liquid and completely in the nude. Both girls blushed, as Susan pressed a touchscreen on the pod, a thumb print appearing. Thankfully, Echo had the foresight to trade a thumb with the extra Sapphire body before entering the cave. Pressing the thumb, the touchscreen moved on to a second screen with a variety of options, such as ‘Release contents’, ‘Destroy contents’, ‘Memory access’, ‘Transform contents’, ‘Change password’, ‘Search pods’, and ‘Exit Menu’. Echo began a motion to press the ‘Destroy contents’ button-

   “Wait Echo! Stop!” Susan said, pushing her hand out of the way.
   “What! Why? Is there someone coming?” Echo asked, frantically looking around the room.”
   “No. I was just thinking about how we love each other.”
   “Yes, so?”
   “So, doesn’t that fact that we show love indicate that we are inherently human?”
   “I guess so, but where are you going with this?”
   “Well… if we’re practically humans, and they’re practically humans, by destroying them, we’re literally committing mass genocide.”
   Echo stared silently at the pod for a long while, staring back at her resting face, before saying, “but if we don’t destroy them, what’s to prevent them from using them for nefarious purposes.”
   “Well, looking at the menu, there seems to be a way to change the password of the pods. If we do that, then they wouldn’t be able to get them out!”
    “Okay, but then what’s to stop them from brainwashing us and getting the changed password from us?”
    “Well… If we went and destroyed the Re-Education Center, then they wouldn’t be able to get it out of us!”
    “That puts an awful lot to chance though. If even one thing goes wrong, then we’re even more screwed.”
   “Honey…” Susan looked at her with puppy-dog eyes.

   As the one with the Sapphire thumb, Echo ultimately had the final say in what they decided to do, and what she thought would be a simple decision at first has expanded to handling the live of hundreds of clones.

     Make a decision:
     1.) Better Safe than Sorry (Destroy the Clones)
     2.) A Life’s a Life (Destroy the Re-Education Center)