Elza nodded when she heard Aurelia's plan. "I think it will work, though the skin graft won't last forever."

"I know," said Aurelia. "But we'll deal with that when it happens. Possibly graft more synth skin over when the numbers appear again."

"Can't," said Elza. "You can't graft synth more than once. You can try again with real skin, but the scarring will probably be even more suspicious than the original numbers. Nicholas will need a new plan before long."

"By which point Jonathon will hopefully be leading the empire, and we won't need to worry about Nicholas," said Aurelia. "That's the best we can hope for."

"Mmm," said Elza in agreement. "Alright, I'll arrange for a uniform; that shouldn't be too hard to get hold of. You'll have to do the graft yourself. Have you done one before?"

"A few times," Aurelia said. "It shouldn't be a problem. And I can get everything I need from trauma. I can't bring Nicholas here, so I'll do it in situ."

"Fine. Make sure the synth stays in its sterile packaging until you're ready to put it on. There'll still be a little contamination, but it's unavoidable outside of the surgery vacuum. Give him a couple of anti-infect shots, and he should be fine."

"There is one thing," Aurelia said slowly.

"I know," Elza interrupted. "You'll need a second code to access the materials. I'd give you mine, but in all honesty, I'm not going to be up and around for a couple of days yet. I can barely walk to the bathroom at the moment. I suggest you ask Jason."

Aurelia had hoped to avoid involving Jason, but she had no choice. It would take two med Workers to enter a code to open the cupboard containing the skin grafts. Generally a trauma doctor and a surgeon performed the graft, but in this case there was no surgeon, so Jason it would have to be. She hoped he was willing to ask as few questions as he had with Elza.

***

As it turned out, Jason asked no questions at all. She asked for his code during a busy period the next morning, and he plugged it into the cupboard without a word before going back to his own patient. Aurelia guessed he was simply too busy to worry about it, as she was too busy to worry about performing the graft that evening. It had to be done, and it had to be done soon; Nicholas would need at least twenty-four hours to recuperate before he could travel.

Jonathon was to be her assistant, a role he accepted with alacrity.

"I like watching you work," he said when she asked.

"You might not when you see what's going to happen," she said, but she was grateful for his help.

She'd brought sterile sheets from the hospital, and Nicholas was ready and waiting when they got downstairs. She gave him a sedative shot, but she couldn't risk putting him under completely, so Jonathon talked calmly with him while Aurelia prepared what she needed. Then, there was nothing left to prepare, and she had to start. Taking a deep breath, she approached the bed.

"Okay, I'm going to have to tell you what's going to happen. You're going to see it anyway, and I don't want you panicking," she said, as calmly as she could.

Nicholas swallowed but nodded.

"The grafting of the synth skin itself is fairly easy and will take a few moments. It may sting during the sealing process, but other than that it should not be painful. What has to happen before, on the other hand, isn't going to be pleasant."

"Why?" asked Jonathon. "Can't you graft the skin and be done with it?"

Aurelia shook her head. "It doesn't work like that. Synth skin needs a surface to bind to, and it won't adhere to the smoothness of regular skin. Usually we use synth skin to cover burns or large areas where the skin has been scraped away. Those kinds of uneven surfaces are perfect for binding."

The sedative was certainly keeping Nicholas calm, and his voice was thick when he spoke. "Which I guess means you've got to mess my wrists up some so you can graft, right?"

"Pretty much," admitted Aurelia. "Although 'mess up' isn't necessarily the medical term I'd have used."

"Seems to sum it up, though," said Jonathon.

"I need you to be prepared. It's not going to be pretty, and you might not want to watch. But you do both need to keep very still, okay?"

Both men nodded. Aurelia brought her equipment and told Jonathon to hold Nicholas's right arm. Then, she began.

Scouring the skin of his arm was more difficult than she had imagined. Hurting someone went against everything that she'd been trained to do, and even though she knew what she was doing was necessary, she found it incredibly difficult to put enough pressure onto the instrument to create damage. On the other hand, she needed to avoid damaging the number itself in case it set off some kind of alarm. Instead she scraped away the skin around the number so the graft would have an edge to bind to. Eventually, she judged the skin was rough enough, and she prepared to lay the graft over the wound.

"Why is it packaged the way it is?" Jonathon asked, as she peeled back the wrappings. He had shown great interest in everything she'd done so far, and he hadn't flinched when she had scraped at Nicholas's wrist.

"Historically, the biggest problems with grafting skin were acceptability and hygiene," she explained, still concentrating on her work. "With synth skin, we no longer have to worry about grafts not being accepted by the body. Hygiene is another issue, though. We have to keep the grafts completely sterile to avoid any contamination getting into the wound itself; otherwise, infections set in. In a surgical vacuum that's not a problem, but here it is."

"Won't the skin be contaminated as soon as it's exposed to air?" he asked.

"Yes, but I've minimized the amount of time that it's exposed. If you look, the back of the graft, the part that will bind to the skin, is still covered. I can't eliminate the threat of contamination completely, but I'll give a couple of anti-infect shots when I'm done, and things should be fine."

She laid the graft over the wound and grabbed the tool used to seal the new skin. When she was satisfied, she turned to Nicholas.

"Ready for the other arm?" she asked gently.

He bit his lip but nodded. She couldn't help his pain; she daren't give him more sedative. He had yet to cry out or utter a word, though, and she appreciated his bravery.

It took a further half hour before she was done. She stuck two needles into Nicholas's arm, then began to bundle up all the equipment.

"What now?" asked Jonathon.

"I'll stick around for a little while to make sure nothing immediate happens when the sedatives wear off, maybe give a small pain shot if necessary. Other than that, we wait. He'll need around twenty-four hours before he can move the grafted skin naturally, at which point the binding will have begun and there'll be less chance of infection. He shouldn't move until then. By this time tomorrow, he should be good to go."

Jonathon nodded. He looked where Nicholas was lying with his wrists upturned and his eyes closed. Aurelia saw a new respect for the clone in Jonathon's eyes, and she was glad for Nicholas that he'd been so courageous.

"I'll let you guys talk for a while, if you want," Jonathon said.

Aurelia smiled. "Sure. I'll be up later."

"Can you stay?" His face was hopeful.

She sighed. I shouldn't. She should be at the hospital in case she was needed. On the other hand, Jason had sixth and seventh days off, so she could call him to cover for her. In the end she nodded, and Jonathon smiled, bade Nicholas goodbye, and left.

Aurelia went to the bed. "How are you feeling?" Nicholas was white, but his pulse and breathing were fine. Just a little in shock, Aurelia guessed.

"I'm good. Don't worry," he said.

Then Aurelia had an idea. "Can I borrow your screen to order something from the hospitality Worker?"

Nicholas nodded to where his screen lay on the desk. Aurelia quickly found the appropriate icon and ordered hot tea with sugar. Excellent for shock, despite not being a pharmaceutical. Nicholas was obviously in pain and needed something to take his mind off things, so Aurelia grabbed the chess box from the bookshelf.

"Wanna play?" she asked.

Of course he did. She set the board up on a side table, which she dragged next to the bed. She was about to make the first move when she heard footsteps in the corridor. The tea. She managed to prop Nicholas up on pillows and give him some of the liquid, which quickly gave him some color back. Then, they proceeded to play, Aurelia moving both her pieces and Nicholas's, so he didn't have to use his hands.

The clone didn't speak much, and she could see his arms were painful and the pain was beginning to tire him.

"Wanna quit?" she asked after a while.

"And let you beat me by default? No way!"

She admired his tenacity and allowed him to continue playing. "Are you afraid to go to Earth?" she asked him.

He gave a small smile. "Not afraid—more frustrated, I guess. I mean, I see the sense of it, but the thought of being away from Lunar, away from the heart of things, bothers me."

As she picked up her bishop to move, she asked him something that had occurred to her before. "Are there other clones who feel as you do?" she asked. "I mean, others backing your particular cause?"

He watched her move carefully. "Yes, some. We're a little disorganized; it's tough. But there are people I can trust, even in the military class."

"Like who?" she asked sharply.

Nicholas raised a questioning eyebrow.

"What I mean," she elaborated, "if something should happen to you, is there someone else I can talk to, or someone I should tell?"

He moved a knight before leaning his head back on the pillow to think. After a moment, he said: "If you need someone and I'm not here or you can't contact me, then try to find Zak. He will help you if I can't."

Aurelia accepted this without comment, but she repeated the name to herself a few times. She wanted to make sure there was someone to talk to, and for Nicholas's sake, should something happen to him, should he be captured, she wanted to know that the clone fight would continue. Whether I'll help them without Nicholas, I'm not sure. But that wasn't something she was willing to think about now.

"Checkmate," said Nicholas, breaking her out of her thoughts.

She looked at the board. Crap. I should have been paying attention to the game rather than being lost in thought. Definitely checkmate. She gave Nicholas a sheepish grin and shrugged. "Sorry."

"I've had more practice than you," he said.

His eyelids looked heavy; he really needed some rest. "Should I give you another sedative before I leave?" she asked.

Surprisingly, he shook his head. "No, thanks. I'll be fine."

His wrists had to be burning. "You sure?"

"Definite. I don't like being drugged. I don't like my mind being clouded," he explained.

She couldn't argue with that; she felt exactly the same way.

Before she left, she put a package on the desk. "This is your new uniform," she said.

He smiled his thanks, looking almost asleep. On impulse, Aurelia bent and dropped a soft kiss on his forehead, then let herself out.

***

Jonathon was waiting for her in the living room, and when she arrived, he held out a small glass with a half-inch of tawny brown liquid in it.

"I know you don't drink," he said. "But I thought you might need this after this evening."

She took the glass and sniffed it; the liquid smelled deep and autumny. A small sip burned her throat, but the warmth as it slid down gave her comfort.

"Whiskey," Jonathon said.

The word meant little to her, but the drink was draining the aches and stresses from her bones, so she swallowed it all in a gulp and winced. "This will take some getting used to."

Jonathon laughed. "Another?"

"No." Somehow the world felt a little light, and her head began to spin. "I think I better go back." Aurelia tried to stand up but fell into Jonathon's arms.

Jonathon scooped her up like a baby and carried her to his bedroom. In the half-darkness, she could see little of the chamber. He placed her on a soft, comfortable bed and said, "Sleep."

She felt his hands patting her head as the darkness took over.

***

They were both drowsing when a soft beeping began. Jonathon groaned and leaned to the intercom.

"What is it?" he inquired in a husky voice.

"Sorry to disturb you, sir," said a polite male voice. "But there's been a security breach. The outside perimeter has been broken, and we assume someone is in the house."