Chapter 9

Throughout the month leading up to my first egg release, I found out what kind of woman I was going to be. It was a journey of discovery where I had to be very honest with myself and I knew the journey wasn't over with lots more to find out. Along with skirts, dresses, bikinis, thong underwear, sexy lingerie bras, garters and tights, Talia also insisted I wear high heels. We started off with two-inch and worked up to five, but after the first week, I put my foot down, pun intended. High heels are not comfortable no matter what shape your foot is and I know because I changed my feet several times with minimal difference.

Women came in all shapes and sizes as well as likes and dislikes and after a week I felt I was allowed a few non-feminine traits without feeling less of a woman. I didn't like shopping and although I wanted to look good, I was not willing to wear anything uncomfortable which didn't just refer to high heels but bras that scratched my nipples or tops that felt like sandpaper. I wore skinny jeans once before I was determined to never bother again. Yes, they made my butt look great, but it took me ten minutes to put them on. Likewise, with the heels, I didn't care if it made me look sexier if that effort caused me pain.

The only compromise I made on this stance was about my long hair. After a week my hair was almost down to my bottom and I stopped the growth. What I wanted to do was cut it short because I felt that would still look good, but also be far more practical. However, Talia begged me not to and promised to help me cope with it. Every second day I would wash my hair and condition it. Talia would brush it out, dry it for me and then try out different styles, teaching me at the same time. It was a bonding moment for us that echoed back to when I would brush her hair when she was a child. So, despite my occasional sigh and irritable grimace when I was dealing with long hair, I couldn't bring myself to cut it. I think it would have hurt Talia deeply. Some of her caring nature, which had always been a strong part of her character, had transferred to me while Kalie was out of action.

By the time my first egg was released, I think we were both confident that I made an acceptable woman. Very young looking and sometimes my real age peeked through with either my words or the look in my eyes, but clearly female albeit a cheeky one. We were also running out of time before we moved to the Gold Coast with our belongings either sold, given away or packed. We had arranged a long term rental of a two-bed apartment in Surfer's Paradise. My change of birth certificate and updated driver's licence had come through which meant we could book a flight whenever we were ready.

When my egg finally arrived and I was ready to try some of my ideas for how to clone Kalie, my power suggested visiting her and getting a fresh sample.

It was determined fairly early on in our world's superhero experiment, that our powers were fairly instinctive and connected to our subconscious. Those who could fly, wouldn't need to practice for months or years and those with super-strength wouldn't break everything they touched. My ability to read DNA and the job I had made for myself using it, required listening to the hints my power was telling me and I had been doing that for years. It wasn't direct conversation but it sometimes felt like talking to someone who was mute. They could understand what you were asking and nod or shake their head, or even gesture with their hands but rarely grabbed your attention unless you were asking them something. This time my power knew what I intended and prodded me that it would need to be with Kalie involved. I took that to mean I needed a fresh sample, but that was not what my power was telling me.

I explained what I was doing to Talia and we both went to visit Kalie. Talia was the only person I had told everything about my power. Being able to make a clone of someone could make some powerful people very interested in me so I didn't want it to get out. I sat next to Kalie on a chair and waited for the nurse who had shown us in to leave before reaching for Kalie's hand and closing my eyes to concentrate.

The first step was fairly easy to accomplish, I removed my DNA from the egg. Then I added Kalie's full DNA. I had various theories about how I would be able to clone her, unsure which method would work. The simplest way was to replace my DNA with Kalie's and then hope my power would allow me to activate the egg. I believed in the KISS principle, so that is what I tried first.

Once the egg had Kalie's DNA, my power seemed to gather itself for activation, so I released the trigger and all hell broke loose. I felt a rush of energy, like wind, pass up from the hand that was holding Kalie's through my body to settle in the egg followed by the monitor on Kalie flat-lining and alarms blaring. I was pulled away from the bed by one of the nurses rushing in.

I was confused and alarmed, but my subconscious was clearly satisfied and happy. Talia was crying and clutching me in a corner of the room while staff tried to bring Kalie back to life. Kalie had long been removed from her original hospital and placed in long care ward. One of the people in charge ordered us out of the room as they used a defib to restart her heart. Talia was reluctant, but with my encouragement, we got her out of there.

I was trying to comfort Talia while looking inside myself to see what was going on. The egg was moving quite quickly from the fallopian tube to my uterus while rapidly dividing. When it was firmly implanted I felt a lot more secure. I was pretty sure that was much more rapid than I had read as usual.

Something from Kalie had joined the egg. My best guess was her soul was now in my womb along with her clone. I wanted to tell Talia, but we weren't left alone until after Kalie was confirmed deceased. I drove us home since I now had a valid licence. I did worry about being pulled over, but we managed to return home without problems.

“She didn't die.” I said.

“What?”

“She didn't die, my power pulled her soul to her clone growing inside me. I'll be honest and say I don't know if that will include any memories, but I have no doubts Kalie is alive inside me and I don't think it will be nine months gestation. I'm already feeling hungry from the energy she is taking from me.”

Talia looked at me with wide eyes. After the crying and running makeup that had been inexpertly wiped, she looked so vulnerable. I think it took a minute for what I said to sink in.

“Seriously?”

“I felt her enter my body and go straight to my now fertilised egg,” I answered honestly.

“Hungry... do you have a craving, shall I make you a sandwich? We can order...”

“Slow down. A sandwich would be great,” I responded.

Talia shuffled away to the kitchen muttering 'Kalie's alive' as if by repeating it she could convince herself.

Chapter 10

While Talia was occupied in the kitchen, I did a bit of research confirming that my baby was going to be ready much sooner than nine months. Emotionally I already felt a bit defensive and protective with an urge to rub my belly.

“You are sure?” Talia asked me again.

I nodded my head. “But I don't know what it means. Will she remember anything, will my power provide a way to rapidly grow her to her real age? When I quiz myself I get the impression that I can. All I can get regarding memory is that Kalie will be Kalie if that makes sense.”

Talia sighed. “That is such a relief. I trust you, I do, it's just that it is hard to believe. I guess I had better start the telephone conversations.”

“I'm not sure that is a good idea. The Dr's will provide a death certificate and you are supposed to use that to register her death and arrange a funeral, sort out her belongings and so on, but what if in a month or two we have an eight-year-old Kalie that everyone believes is dead. No one but us visits her anymore. If we handle this right, she can keep her identity,” I suggested.

We had been through the process relatively recently with her husband's death.

“We can rush the funeral and keep it to ourselves but the funeral directors will require the death certificate,” Talia argued.

“Yes, but if we have the real one, I don't think it would be that difficult to use it to make a fake one. If we have her cremated with no service and I change my looks to a fake non-existent person to deal with it, if anyone questions that she is still alive they will find a fake certificate and a signature that isn't yours. If the body is cremated they can't dig it up and the cloned Kalie will have a DNA match to show that she is your daughter and clearly alive. We'll still need to go to the Gold Coast for a while and lay low. We want anyone investigating to do so from a distance, not going to the hospital and quizzing Drs.”

“What if mum finds out?” Talia asked.

“All she will find out is that Kalie is no longer there. I don't think they are allowed to tell anyone details and if you change your phone number and forget to give her your new one until everything is settled, she never will. If this works as I think it will, I don't want anyone to ever find out that I can do this. Theoretically, I can restore someone who is about to die of old age to the prime of their life and do that repeatedly.”

“Are you sure I'm getting my Kalie back?” Talia asked again.

“Yes. I'm not sure if it will be as a baby or eight-year-old. In either case, that body in the hospital is soulless. What is inside me is the real Kalie. Same DNA and the same soul. That I am sure of,” I responded.

That night I went over Kalie's DNA carefully. I didn't want to make any changes. I knew if I kept the read-only files unaltered I should be able to alter other aspects without changing who she was, but I didn't want to take any chances. Kalie was originally born with a tongue tie. A fairly common condition that made it difficult for her to breastfeed. I checked to see if it was genetic or a developmental abnormality. I could find no evidence in her DNA so I hoped that this time it wouldn't occur, but at least I knew to look out for it.

Interestingly, I now had greater knowledge about her DNA. Having live cells that I had access to enabled me to see much deeper into her DNA including her read-only files. I could see, for example, that she would have an altered form of my power. She would be instinctively attracted to men whose DNA could combine with hers to create powerful children. She would also automatically choose the correct egg and sperm to create the best pairing. She would do most of this subconsciously, choosing what powers she wanted them to have and what sex they were going to be.

I had hoped that if I was ever able to decode other read-only files and superpowers, I would be able to add them to my DNA to give me extra abilities. However, in Kalie's case, some of the DNA I would have to replace on myself would be in my read-only files and that meant it was not possible. Not that I wanted to be attracted to men and I had most of that ability anyway. She was genetically my granddaughter, so it was not surprising.

I was sure that if Kalie, when she was older, realised that I could have altered her DNA so that she would never need to shave or some of my other alterations, she will be upset that I didn't do it. This was, however, my first attempt at cloning and I didn't want to take any chances with my granddaughter's life. Plus I wanted Talia to know this was exactly the same Kalie as she had given birth to.

Talia was in a bit of a state of shock the next day, but we still progressed with our plan. Creating the fake death certificate was easy, all that was required was a scanner, editing software and the correct or very similar paper. All we did was change the signature from the Dr to an actors signature that we found on the internet.

We used the cheapest and fastest funeral director possible and I altered my face to that from the DNA of a random old lady I passed in the supermarket. The funeral director was clearly not happy with me. I got the feeling that they felt I was disrespecting the dead and not giving the proper send-off that everybody deserved. Either that or they were unhappy that I was choosing the cheapest options. I ignored their pressure with confidence.

At the end of the week, we had a jar of ashes that I buried in our garden and planted a rose bush on top. The next day we flew to our new life in the Gold Coast. I didn't know how to measure it, but I was already beginning to show a bump and was eating every couple of hours to keep up with the nutritional demands. I had also bought various nutritional supplements to help the rapidly growing fetus and Talia was treating me like a princess.