K swept a restless finger back and forth across his tablet.  He wasn't looking for anything, it was just an excuse to keep his hands moving, to give himself something idle to do that wasn't twiddling his thumbs.  It was a habit of his, one he was seriously attempting to break, for he felt he looked even more like a geriatric whenever he did that.

He studied the round table where the entire team sat patiently.  Every chair was filled, every member was present- which made K wonder why they still hadn't gotten started.

They were all gathered in the secret meeting room, the second largest area within Preus Hall's underground compound, after Stuart's laboratory, of course.  In the center of this enormous table was a huge, spherical, 360-degree projector designed by one of George's international colleagues specifically for Stuart.  It projected three-dimensional, full-color, interactive holograms which could be manipulated by multiple people at once, which made it perfect for use here in the "War Room," as K liked to call it. 

Although this hall did bear a striking resemblance to the War Room in Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, that's not why he called it that.  This meeting room was truly basically a bunker.  It was situated the furthest underground, equipped with its own generator, and entirely self-contained.  The walls were insulated, soundproofed, and under twenty-four hour surveillance.  On the rare occasion meetings were held down here, every person present had walk through a TSA-style full body scanner, and unauthorized electronics such as personal phones were checked and subsequently erased- something poor Madelyn had learned the hard way. 

All we need is a Defcon System, and we're set, K thought to himself, half-smiling.  He glanced at his watch.  8:28 in the morning.  In another thirty minutes or so, K would have to think up a good excuse for leaving the meeting early- and pray to high heaven that no one followed him. 

"Who are we waiting on?" he whispered to Stuart, who was sitting at his left.  At first, Dr. Preus did not seem to have heard him- understandable, since the room, having fantastic acoustics, scattered everyone's voice in all directions, drowning out K's weaker tones. 

But then he held up his finger at K, kept his nose stuck in the worn-out paperback he had been reading on and off since he sat down.  A few seconds later, he snickered, pulled out a red pen, and laid the book flat in front of him while he underlined an entire paragraph.

"What's so funny?" K asked.

"Nothing's funny," Stuart replied, dog-earing the wrinkled and already quite ink-riddled page for later.  "I just love useful research, that's all."

K blinked.  "Researching what?"

Stuart slid the book toward him.  K turned it over, and felt his heart sink inside him as he saw the picture of Freddie on the front- but the other man holding the cat, he didn't recognize right off.

"I picked that up at the used bookstore yesterday," Stuart said.  "Dollar ninety-nine.  I'm only twenty pages in but I feel I've gotten more than my money's worth already."

"Mercury and Me, by Jim Hutton," K droned.  "I guess that's Jim then.  Who is he?"

"Bucky's apparent boyfriend from the eighties."

K swallowed, thoughts flying to Julia.  "Oh." 

Good Lord. I should have known.

C reached out his hand.  "Now, this, I gotta see.  Pass it over, would you, Steve?  Oh, that actually reminds me," he added while K pushed the book his way.  "Dr. Preus, you must be aware by now of all the postings on the socials, right?  Concerning #Freddiestwin?- oh, wow.  Yep.  There they are.  Woof woof."

"Which one?"

"The one who looks dead inside." 

And as much as K hated to agree with anything C said, it was true; in that picture, Freddie's expression seemed bland at best, and at worst, full of thinly veiled misery.  K wondered when that picture was taken.  Was it before or after 1985? His trademark mustache made gauging for time a bit difficult.

One thing was for certain, however: Freddie did not look happy.

Stuart didn't notice, he was having too much fun. "Again, I ask you, which one?"

"The one who's dressed.  I think that's our Bucky, hard to tell, they look too similar to know for sure."  C laughed.  "You know, for a guy who never had any kids, he sure dresses like somebody's dad. Look at that shirt!"

"Top of a wedding cake, those two," Stuart quipped with a smirk.  "Yeah, I saw the postings.  Honestly, though, Tim, I'm not too concerned about the Facebook pictures.  Anyone can doctor a photo, anyone can start a hoax - and any hoax will spread if there's enough gullibles out there to spread it, especially an Internet hoax.  We have the jaded culture in our favor, Tim. We'll be fine. Pictures aren't enough to bring him back from the dead; neither are audio recordings."

C's eyes narrowed.  "Speaking of audio recordings-"

"What do you intend to do with this info, Dr. Preus?" K interrupted.

"File it away," Stu said simply.  "Keep it close, it may come in handy later on.  Knowledge is power, they say." 

K nodded, bit back the remarks simmering dangerously on his halting tongue: If you're so confident that Julia and Freddie have, and had, nothing between them, why all this battle talk, all this quiet suspicion?  If your bird is so firmly in the hand, why so much insecurity, why so much worry? 

But K didn't need answers.  He knew Julia too well for that.  Well enough that Stuart had every reason in the world to be worried. 

And when Freddie came by in a little while for his required dose of microwaves, K would find, much to his quiet amusement, that Stuart wasn't the only one feeling a little nervous about the situation.

Suddenly the projector in the center of the table let out a single straight pitch.  Stuart nodded.  "There he is," he murmured. 

K squinted while Stuart pushed back his chair, rose to address the team.  "Who?  Dr. Ma?"

"It's about time," C sniffed.  "He's certainly made us wait long enough."

True, Speck as a whole was indeed Stuart's brainchild.  Its conception, its design, its working constructed model, and everything in between- all these stemmed from Dr. Preus.  However, the unique version of artificial intelligence installed into Speck's mainframe was a contribution of one Dr. Ma, a world-class A.I. genius based out of Singapore.  In the past few years, he and Stuart had worked side by side as partners, and thanks to various joint projects (including Speck, obviously), had become fairly close - as close as two people living on opposite ends of the earth from each other can be, that is. 

Stuart clapped his hands.  "Okay, everyone, let's get started."

The room went radio silent.  A few taps, a few clicks, passwords, and security questions, and the hologram projector hummed to life- but the person who greeted them once Stuart accepted the "call" was not Dr. Ma.

Instead, a very professional-looking woman greeted the group.  "Good day, all," she said demurely.  She looked to be in her late thirties to early forties; the woman was of Chinese descent, so in K's eyes, it was hard to tell for certain.

"Hello," Stuart said, blinking.  "Um- this is the line for Dr. Ma's office, isn't it?"

She nodded.  "Yes.  Unfortunately, Dr. Ma is currently unavailable for this kind of communication," she explained.  "He asked that I take his place, answer your questions for you- unless you would rather use email to discuss this?  You do have his secure address, don't you?"

"I do- but Dr. Ma doesn't check his email, ever- and time is of the essence, so I'd rather take it from you," Stuart said.  "And what's more, we as a team need to know firsthand.  Now, what's your name?"

She smiled.  "Very well.  I am Dr. Siang Ling.  I gather you must be the great Dr. Preus- and what an honor it is to meet you finally."

"A pleasure to meet you as well."

K craned his neck, tried to see what expression was attached to that tone- a tone that almost sounded flirtatious.  But in the next sentence, Stuart's voice leveled out, and he remembered the gravity of the situation.  "Are you familiar with Dr. Ma's artificial intelligence as applies to Project SPEK-2998?"

Her smile grew wider.  "I am.  In fact, he incorporated various aspects of my own breakthrough research in the physiological and psychological aspects of consciousness, which I have made my life's work and study in addition to-"

"That's really terrific, Dr. Ling," C cut in.  "But we're in a bit of a bind right now, so- has Dr. Ma read you into the details?"

With a slightly irritated glance at C, she nodded.  "He has provided me with the basics, but the full report itself, I have yet to look over."

So Stuart and various members of the team recapped the complete story- or what they thought was the complete story- of what had happened with Speck, and how.  Every time they referred to Freddie, they used the term "B-13".  K had read the report only yesterday, and noted the same was true there.  It was odd, how Stuart kept choosing to mask Freddie's identity.  Was it that Stuart saw him only as a soulless experiment, the way they had once chosen to look at Julia years ago?

Or was Stuart simply embarrassed that of all the people they could have dragged into the future, albeit by accident, it had to be someone whose contributions to the world included prancing around on stage in ballet slippers and singing about fat-bottomed girls?

"Just a moment," Dr. Ling interrupted at last.  By this point, her smile was nowhere to be found.  "Just how was this boy able to enter into SPEK-2998's holding room?"

Stuart sighed, rubbed his eyes.  "Honestly, we have no way of knowing yet."

"Are there not surveillance systems set up in the vicinity?"

"There are- and we've checked them time and time again, and there's nothing.  It's like someone went in and erased it before we could get to it, or the cameras just froze in time for ten to twenty seconds, because there's a strange skip in the footage."

"Foolish man.  Why would you allow a child access to your work space at all?"

Stuart's cheeks reddened.  "Because he's the son of my girlfriend- and, I, uh- look, it was a careless moment which could have been handled much better in retrospect.  As to how, I've yet to ask him- the only one who possibly knows is the kid, and I'll be with the two of them tonight."

K began, "What about Fred-"

"B-13, Steve," C hissed.

"Fine.  What about him?  What's he going to-"

"I don't know yet, it's not really a priority of mine to see that he's entertained at all times," Stuart scoffed.  "He's a grown man- supposed to be, anyway.  I'll figure something out, it's not important right now.  Point is," he continued, facing Dr. Ling again, "I intend to find out at least by tonight- and will send that information to you and Dr. Ma right away."

Gabe raised his hand.  "Uh- so, what exactly is going on here, Dr. Ling?"

She frowned harder.  "I thought the response spoke for itself, it said the organic mass was duplicated."

C gulped silently.  "Yes- but... does that mean-"

"In so many words," Dr. Ling explained patiently, "when your so-called B-13's hand made contact with Ms. Samuels, the artificial intelligence made a copy of his organic mass by mistake, and transported the copied shell, and only the shell."

"So that's why he showed up stark naked," K mused. "Just the shell."

Madelyn smiled to herself.

C blinked.  "So B-13's a clone?"

"Genetically speaking, yes," she confirmed, eyes scanning the report she had apparently pulled up on her computer.  "And a living shell at that, correct?  You say here the shell was brought over with the organs still functioning properly, which indeed defies all our expectations."

"Yes," Stuart sighed.  "He's alive and kicking."

She frowned.  "Wait- are you suggesting that the duplicate shell is sentient?"

"Sentient?"

"I mean- is it awake?"

"He's so awake it's nauseating," Stuart mumbled.  "B-13's duplicate walks, talks, looks just like the real thing."

She blinked.  "What?"

"It's the weirdest situation; he might as well have just been transported like Julia, instead of duplicated."

"He's awake- and he's the same?  I mean, mentally?  Emotionally?"

"You better believe it."

Dr. Ling fell silent.  Her eyes focused squarely on Stuart.

K shot a quick glance at his watch. He would have to be stepping out in another few minutes for Freddie's appointment- assuming he even remembered.

" Wǒ cào," she whispered, then blushed and covered her mouth.

She tapped her fingernails against an invisible hard surface, sending a clacking noise to reverberate around the War Room.  After a second, Dr. Ling took a deep breath, and leaned in toward the camera.

"First answer me this, it is very important," she murmured. "Is the link still present? Or as you prefer to call it, the bridge?"

"Oh, yeah, it's only a quarter of the way depleted by this point, maybe even less than that.  We're still in good shape."

"That would explain it," she exclaimed.  "Perhaps my theory was right after all.  Oh, wait till he hears, he won't believe it!"

"What theory?"

"My theory of consciousness."

"Dr. Ling, what does this have to d-"

"Ladies and gentlemen," she cut in before C could make another smarmy comment.  "Don't you realize what has happened?  B-13's mass was duplicated, perhaps.  And everything in his physical form- flesh, blood, brain, bone- was indeed copied- and it's for that reason he cannot be returned, first."

"But secondly," she went on, "there is the matter of his consciousness."

C was confused.  "Wasn't that duplicated too?"

"There's still so much we do not understand," Dr. Ling sighed.  "The mind is too intricate a thing to understand even its smallest part fully. Maybe its location, its concrete location, we may have discovered- the part we can harness.  And we can map a neuron, perform surgery, identify what parts of the brain correspond to what stimuli.  But we've only explored the tip of the iceberg;  everything else- is still a mystery.

"Now, it's widely enough accepted that all people, all individuals, possess a consciousness, a special something that makes them different from anyone or anything that has come before them, or will follow after them.  A- soul, if you will."

K watched Stuart quietly roll his eyes.  "Dr. Ling, I respectfully disagree.  We are conscious organisms, yes, but souls?  I think that's reaching too far out of our field, and into something a little less credible."

"Very well, Dr. Preus, but for the sake of argument, let us pretend that souls are scientific phenomena.  Shall we?"

"Be my guest."

She swallowed, sat up straighter, then said something very curious indeed: "Did you know it is thoroughly impossible to clone a soul?"

Stuart squinted. "Clone a soul?"

"Because our scientists have tried, and continue to try. And it fails every single time."

"Why would you even want to clone a soul?"

"To see if it can be done." Dr. Ling coughed. "And it cannot, from what we have seen.  Look at twins.  Genetic material is identical to the last- and though they may have similar interests, share a deep emotional bond in many cases, they are still two individuals.  Separate people with their own minds and desires."

"What does this have to do with B-13?"

"I'm getting there," she hissed. "Patience. This B-13, you see- his shell is an exact copy, because that is possible, and in another time, it can exist- but souls can't be copied.  By all rights, he shouldn't have even come over alive in the first place.  And yet, he's the exact same person- with the exact same spirit."

A hush fell over the War Room- gradually, but it happened, as people began slowly putting the pieces together, seeing if they fit.  K quietly slipped out of his chair; his ears were still listening intently, but now, while everyone was distracted, was the best time to slip away.

"But the other part of B-13's consciousness- his spirit, the thing that makes him the unique individual that he is.  It's trapped on the bridge."

"What?"

"His one soul is currently straddling the bridge- and for as long as that bridge exists, and the moment is in your grasp, so it shall continue."

For a moment the room went absolutely quiet once more. Two bodies, one mind, K realized. Oh, Freddie, this is not good...

"And if we break the bridge, or lose it, what happens?" Stuart asked after a moment.

"The body cannot live without the mind," she said- a direct quote from one of Danny's favorite films, incidentally.

Madelyn spoke.  "Does that mean, that- they'll both die?"

"In theory, without the proper technology," she replied slowly, "Yes.  Or, more ideally, the soul will simply return to its point of origin.  But as for the duplicate..." She trailed off.

And then, they exploded into loud, frightened questions.

"How the hell does that even work?"  C demanded. 

"What do we do?" Stuart cried.

"What do you mean, proper technology?" someone shouted.

"Will all you people stop yelling?" another person yelled.

But K didn't hear the answers; he was already out the door.