HardClone: Chaps II & III
#2 of HardClone
All chars/story/ies are mine...The term "uplift" is from David Brin as far as I know...surely it's come into common usage in the furry community at least...
Gretchen is a favorite character...A dream girl if you will ...
She is an Uplifted Critter...only partially gen-alted by humans...Mostly guided evolution basically...And still considered a second class citizen...
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II.
The clone woke to the lolling tongued panting snore of a huge rottweiller's face next to his.
"Jeez, Gretch, Your breath stinks."
"An'a hearty good mornin' t'you, Jack." She said without moving or opening her eyes.
He sat up and fell back suddenly, a sharp breath forced its way through his clenched teeth.
"Lay still y'fool," she said still in her sleep posture, "The n'anites only hold your guts t'gether. T'ey still have t'grow back from scratch. You t'ook some major damage."
"How long?" He asked quietly.
"Oh, the rest t'month o'course." She licked her chops and allowed her lips to curl up to the best imitation of a smile that her canine face could perform.
"Of course," he snorted out in with a sneer.
He slowly pulled back the cover sheet that they lay under. They were both naked. His belly showed streaks of silver with fresh scabs forming over that. He tenderly touched the raw skin that was slowly growing back. He hissed.
"T'ol' ya," Gretchen said quietly.
He turned his head to her. His face twisted into a glare that she didn't see.
He relaxed and took a deep breath. He allowed his mind to drift off just a bit. The slight trance automatically brought up the AI interface in his mind. He could feal a bit of euphoria and deja-vu as the Alpha Coder at the base of his skull scanned his brain.
The machine was basically a "black box" of the soul. Or so folks said. The thing was virtually indestructable. It meassured and recorded his brain and all his brain activities. If he was killed, the Alpha Coder could be retrieved. Every thing that he was or had ever been could be downloaded to another exact clone of him. The new clone wouldn't even know he had ever been dead. Or, at least, that's what folks said.
As soon as the Alpha Coder was done, it allowed him to interface directly with the nanites in his body. He dialed up a light flush of endorphins. Not enough to excite him or put him into a stupor; just a nice light buzz.
The Clone let out a soft sigh as the pain eased and his body relaxed. Now he could begin to think. Now he could go back to being...human?
"So", He breathed out gently, "What's the plan for today?"
Gretchen let out a rumbling sigh.
"T'Plan is you t'shut up and rest so I can get some sleep."
His eyes narrowed and his lips cocked to one side. She still hadn't moved or opened her eyes. He carefully shifted over to his left side supported on his elbow and let his eyes linger over her four small breasts and gazed at the tan furred cleft between her legs.
"Don' even t'ink about'it, loverboy." She let the words roll out lazily.
He frowned.
"And why not?"
"'Cause you need t'rest and I don' come in t'heat for a few more days."
He scowled down at her. He reached out and gently laid his hand upon her taut, muscular belly. She let out a deep growl without moving. He let out a snort and pulled back his hand. Her lips turned up a bit. His eyes tightened. He reached out quickly and flicked her closest nipple as hard as he could.
She yelped an unseemly high pitched wail and jerked back, eyes wide, arms covering her breasts. He laughed out loud.
"You Bastard!" She growled and lept at him.
He rolled off the bed still laughing as she tumbled on top of him. She grabbed his arms and wrestled him over onto his back. She held his hands down by his wrists straddling his waist.
"Now whatcha gonna do?" She growled, a smile on her long lips.
"You think you got me?" He smiled back.
"Hell, I'always got'you."
A wicked smile grew on his lips. He threw his legs up wrapping them around her and throwing them back down, landed her on her back with him on top of her between her legs. He smiled down at her.
"Now, who's got who?" And he shifted his weight with a leer in his eye.
She cocked her head at him. She smiled as she felt him.
"You got me 'xactly where I want you."
He let out a quick 'Ha!' and leaned down to kiss her. She quickly brought her short jack legs under him and rammed her thick clawed foot paws into his gut. He let out an 'Umppht!' as she shoved him a metre into the air and nearly three metres against the far wall. He slammed hard, his head making a loud thump. He clutched his belly and groaned as he slid down the wall and fell over onto his side.
"Baby!" She yelled and lept to his side, "Le'me see! You 'K!?"
He groaned but managed a smile up at her as she tried to see his gut wounds.
"You called me 'Baby'," he smiled, "I knew you cared"
Her face quickly snapped up to a scowl.
"No. I was callin' you baby 'cause you can't t'ake what'you dish out. Hell, it's y'own fault anyway. I tol'you."
He just sat smiling up at her.
She frowned suddenly.
"Idio't." she snapped, and slapped him on top of his head with just enough force to make his teeth clack together. She stood up, turned around, and walked to the closet. Jack watched her stubby cut off tail twitching between her tight black and tan furred butt cheeks.
"Get'shower'd an ge't t'med lab for your breakfast shot." She called over her shoulder as she donned a light grey long tunic and belted it, hanging her com/beeper and wallet from it.
"Shot!?" He yelped. "Not that again!"
"Hey, t'ry keeping your in-t'est'ines in-side next t'ime." Gretchen smiled at him as she stepped out into the corridor.
Jack hung his head and growled.
*Wemen!*
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Man this 8k char craps really wearin me out...How do some of thje shorter things even get in?
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III.
The clone staggered into the Medical center, shoulders hunched. T'Chall lifted her eyebrows.
"Why with you is it like this every time? You know you will receive no sympathy."
The clone frowned but didn't straiten his stance. T'Chall frowned.
"Are you truely in pain this time?"
"What do you mean 'This time'?"
T'Chall's head leaned toward him. Her eyes tightened a bit.
"If you try to kiss me this time I will do you a grave disservice."
The clone's right corner of his mouth twitched up, then down. His thick chest rose as if to heave a sigh. His eyes slapped shut and he let the breath out slowly. T'Chall nodded curtly.
"On the table"
The clone shifted his buttocks up on the exam table carefully wiggling back.
T'Chall deftly grabbed the front of the clone's tee shirt and with two quick moves passed a pair of shears through the shirt. It fell down hanging off of his left arm. He scowled at her.
"I could have taken that off you know."
"I did not want you to cause yourself further damage." Her eyes met his calmly.
He frowned down at his feet.
"Now I know what happened to my Mickey Mouse shirt" He mumbled.
"What?" She inclined her head towards him.
"I said that if you want to rip me out of my clothes you should at least take me to your room."
She backed away from him a step. She planted her feet firmly shoulder width apart and folded her arms decidedly over, not under, her breasts.
"Why with you it is always the same thing.?"
He frowned at her.
"Why with you it is always the same resistance?"
She leaned her head back to look down her nose at him.
"Because it is wrong."
He crossed his arms across his chest and scowled.
"And why is it wrong?"
Her face twisted a bit and her nose wrinkled.
"Because you are un-natural."
The clone allowed a dirty chuckle to escape his lips.
"So, you're saying that in all the years you have been, ah, mature, that you've never once done anything even slightly unnatural?"
Her nostrils flared and her porcelain shin deepened to a soft peach shade. The clone smiled slowly.
*Points scored old boy.*
"Intimacy with a clone is only one step removed from bestiality."
The clone shrugged.
"Hey, don't knock it 'till you've tried it. I can even set you up. Gretchen says the rhino is sweet on you."
Her eyes opened wider.
*That's two kid. Shall we go for three? Sure. Third time's the charm.*
The clone's lips slithered up at the corners.
"Yeah," he said looking deeply into her eyes, "Ol' Gabe can show you a good time. You have to be careful though. A rhino's vision isn't the greatest. He might, ah, miss the mark, so to speak. That'd be something really unnatural. I don't know though, I'm betting you'd come to like the unnatural." He smiled; his eyes steady with hers.
T'Chall's face deepened to a slight pink shade. The clone smiled. T'Chall's lips suddenly compressed to thin white lines. She reached into her smock pocket and pulled out a pair of rubber gloves and pulled them on. Her eyes had become hard stones.
"Take off the rest of the shirt." Her voice was the ice of the professional.
The clone's smile broadened.
"Hit a nerve did we?" He said as he took off the remainder of the shirt.
"It is now time to begin nutritional and nanite infusion. Give me your left arm."
She took his arm and swabbed the crook of his elbow with iodine. She reached into the prep tray and got the hardened industrial ceramic scalpel.
"Hey, you don't- Ow!" The clone yelped as she dug deep into his genetically hardened and thickened skin.
T'Chall wiped the blood away from the small cut she had made and spread the wound open with the fingers of one hand. She got the magnetic resonator from the tray.
"Hey! You know that thing stings. Give me a second to- Eeech!"
T'Chall moved the resonator in a small circle causing the nanites that formed the under skin armour mesh to temporarily move aside exposing the meat and muscle underneath.
"Ouch! You know I can do that without the resonator! If you'd just give me a minute to concentrate, I'll- Ouch!"
T'Chall calmly put an IV needle into his exposed artery and plugged the other end into the machine that would pump nutrients, extra nanites, and fluids into him. He frowned as she turned to the door.
"Where're you going?"
She turned and blinked at him.
"I'm going to eat breakfast. You enjoy your meal." She said nodding at the machine. "It shouldn't take more than an hour. Who knows, perhaps in a month you too may be able to eat solid food. Good morning." She turned and was gone.
The clone scratched idly at the tape that held the IV tube in place.
*Oh, yeah,*
He frowned.
*Third time's the charm.*