Free Emergent (A Beta Novel) by Rachel Cohn

have so much to say to her, to ask her, but I feel mute. I just don’t know how to do this. Elysia breaks through the small talk. Did she steal my bravery, also? “There is so much
about you I would like to know,” she says. “How are you alive? Alex explained to me that your heart had stopped, but then you awoke again hours later. But—”
    “Alex?” I sputter. “Who’s Alex?”
    “Alexander Blackburn. I call him Alex.”
    “I call him Xander. ’Cuz that’s his name. Where is he now, anyway?”
    “Scouting materials to make our quarters in the Rave Caves more comfortable so we don’t have to sleep on the ground.” She pauses. “The Rave Caves are a huge
disappointment.”
    “Not comfortable enough for you?” And Aidan said
I
was spoiled. Ha. My clone is worse. “Those are
my
quarters you’re borrowing, by the way.”
    “The quarters are excellent,” she says. “I meant, the Rave Caves are a disappointment because I had been led to believe that human surfers lived there also. Why don’t
they?”
    “Why do you care?”
    “There was a surfer I knew on Demesne. He disappeared suddenly. I thought perhaps he’d come here.”
    “If he did come here, he’s gone now. When the Emergents started escaping here, the human surfers left. Either the Emergents kicked them out, or the surfers left to find another
island where they could live and only care about surfing, and not be bothered by a small army of clones training for Insurrection. Or both.”
    “Too bad,” says Elysia. “Please tell me about your family. What were your parents like? Would they be considered our parents?”
    Our
parents? “
My
father is in the Uni-Mil.
My
mother is dead.”
    “How did she die?” Elysia pauses, and her facial expression resets from
curious
to
sympathetic
.
    “
My
mom left us when I was eight. She said she had become a mother too young and didn’t want a family. She went to Humanitas, to experience it the way generations of
backpackers did when Humanitas was called Europe. She became obsessed with clone rights. I don’t know why. She was always a champion of lost causes. She went to Geneva to participate in a
huge protest against ReplicaPharm. The protest turned violent. She was trampled to death.”
    I think this is the most I’ve spoken about my mother, ever.
    Elysia’s eyes blink the way Aidan’s eyes often do when trying to access information on his knowledge chip. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she says, her voice
sincere
.
    She says the right words. I don’t think she really feels them.
    She’s not sorry. My mother’s abandonment and death are just data to her.
    Elysia’s expression turns to
quizzical
. “ReplicaPharm? Who are they?”
    I’d be shocked at her ignorance, but I’ve already experienced it with the other Emergents. I answer patiently. “ReplicaPharm is one of the biggest companies on the planet. They
make clones that are utilized throughout the rest of the world. The clones grown in laboratories, not made from Firsts.”
    She nods. “Alex had told me there were other brands of clones, but I didn’t realize they were produced by corporations, or without Firsts. I thought all clones came from Dr.
Lusardi’s engineering.”
    I feel irritation mixed with a strange sense of outrage. How could she survive out in the real world with such limited information, with such willfully preprogrammed ignorance?
    Elysia asks, “Your father. He was your diving coach?”
    “Who told you that?” Suddenly I feel proprietary about the basic facts of my own life. Any public records could reveal the simple details she requests, yet I feel like she is prying
into the darkest corners of my life.
    “Alex told me you were a diver,” Elysia says. “I felt that. From the moment I was near the water, I knew how to dive. It was like I sensed you when I was in the water. I…” She hesitates before continuing on. “I had memories of Alex, after I emerged. They were your memories. Perhaps because