Travels With a Timelord ~Doctor Who fan fiction~

Chapter Six: Twice Over

It was impossible. Surely, completely, utterly impossible. There was no way that it could be real.

All those thoughts echoed around my head as I stared into the eyes of a person who looked identical to me.

A clone, surely, but it was impossibly similar. Same height, same build, same complexion. Looking the form up and down, I noted a few differences; the lack of glasses, a few missing acne scars on the cheeks, the hair was a little shorter pulled into a ponytail rather than my ragged plaits, not to mention her posture was so much better than my own. It was as if I was looking in a mirror whilst drunk and without the aid of my glasses; recognisably me, but just nicer and easier on the eyes.

"We've been working on project Re-Pro for almost two years now," the head scientist, Jorey, the one who had separated the Doctor and I, spoke, pacing the space in the room between the test subjects and the guests, one of whom was the Doctor, his eyes locked on me as if making sure I was alright. "It's been a long and bumpy road for this, but I hope you all agree the results are a grand success. We've managed to produce perfect clones from one vial of blood!"

I looked past him, attempting to study the Doctor's expression, his face caught in a frown that mimicked mine. All the things he'd seen, and yet he was having the exact same reaction to me. Our eyes locked together, I could tell he thought something was going to go wrong, or he knew something suspicious was surrounding this whole thing, and he was planning an escape route. He cocked his head to the side, gesturing for the door nearest to me and I nodded, knowing that if an emergency arose, I'd have to run as fast as possible to that door; and I hated running.

"What's their purpose?" I heard the Doctor speak up, and it hit me then that he signalled an escape route to me, not because he sensed trouble, but because he was going to cause it; I guess that was one way to find out what this was all about. "Why bother creating such advanced science?"

"I'm sorry I don't think I follow?" the scientist, Jorey, said with a smarmy smile.

"I think he's asking why you feel the need to create such realistic clones, when, one vial of blood, you said? That's not enough to create a being that's going to live out a long and fulfilled life, right? I'm not the best at science, but I do know that there's no way that's possible," I spoke up, my gaze flicking from Jorey to the Doctor, one man looking furious that I'd question his authority, the other looking almost proud.

"I don't think you're in any position to – "

"Yes I am, considering you took my blood and made a copy of me without my consent!" I snapped, my frown turning to a glare.

"Well, if you must know," he began, though after shooting daggers at me with his stare, he turned back to the guests. "This tech has been developed through the increasing crisis of war. You all know the terrible loss of life that comes with battle, so in the anticipation of the next war, we've developed the Reproduction Concept, or Re-Pro for short, so we will never run out of troops. A soldier dies? It doesn't matter, we have a sample of his blood, we just make a new one! Basic memory capability, shortened lifespan, it no longer matters if they fall in battle! We will have access to an infinite army!"

"That's disgusting!" I gasped. "How dare you say that it doesn't matter? Is that what you'd say to the real person's family? That they didn't matter because you cloned them so they could just keep on fighting, version after version of them forced to die in the same horrific way?"

"You!" he snarled, storming over to me. "What is your name?"

"Laura Eleanor-Brian Tyler," I heard a voice say from behind me, and I spun around to see the Re-Pro version of myself had answered him.