Ever since Ty had squashed Damon's experiments, his brother had given him the silent treatment. Ty heard no more complaints about school, girlfriends, or inappropriate jokes. No more pulling Ty into his room to show off his latest technological updates. Ty was less concerned with Damon because he had Wallace to talk to. Though, he couldn't talk to Wallace about everything. His friend was unaware of his problems with Jennifer. Each time Ty smelled his wife's boozy breath, he wanted to talk it out with Damon, but Damon wasn't up for even saying hello.

At least he's still watching Helia for me, Ty thought on his bike ride home.

The traffic coming from work was backed up for miles, and it gave him time to think. Ty maneuvered his bike easily around the stopped cars, but it took him a long time to get home. He rode past a familiar convenience store. Four tarp-covered logs took up space on the sidewalk. A hand here and a foot there poked out from beneath the tarp.

Before he moved on, Ty spied two black State cars parked at the scene. Two officials were questioning witnesses, no doubt getting answers as they touted the State Standard on their shoulder straps. It was the first time he'd seen a Statie, and he'd been unaware of the heavy artillery they carried.

When he got to his house, Ty tried to shake off the implications of the new State authority. Prominents had given the public great technology, like 3D printers, interfaces, and prototypes for auto-piloted vehicles. Such a generous political group wouldn't be interested in complete control of the populace, Ty reasoned. Freedom of technological advance was synonymous with civil freedom, if he remembered his school readings correctly.

At work, he had noticed the up-tick in customer support for the composite kiosk. People praised the efficiency of the machine, prompting emails from Good Time's corporate office. They wanted to send a second kiosk, to better cope with the customer demand for "automated assistance".

Soon it won't be assistance, it'll all be automated, Ty had insisted to a disbelieving Wallace. Like Damon, Wallace didn't view technology as a threat.

Like Damon. How had he not seen how alike Damon and Wallace were? Thoughts of his brother and friend held his attention while he put Helia to bed. Jennifer was at work, so Ty had the opportunity to speak privately with his brother. A simple apology would fix their rift, but Ty didn't think he could do it. Given another chance, he would kill the duplicate insects all over again. It's not as if they had been composite human beings.

He wondered if composite human beings were even possible.

It was a good question to get his conversation with Damon started. And he was right. Damon couldn't resist answering, even though he didn't look at Ty when he spoke.

"Size doesn't matter for a composite, as you know, but I still don't think it'd be possible. Human beings are too complex, too much data, and there's too much info that could get jumbled up in the composite."

What Damon was saying made sense. Humans were too much for a small piece of technology to perfect. Ty imagined mismatched humans printing out of the machine, eyes in the wrong spot, hands where they didn't belong. Another thought occurred to him.

"Any living creature is complex, right?"

Damon stopped typing. The conversation went from minimal to intriguing. "Yeah."

"So why not try to make a human composite?" Ty heard himself asking.

Damon stood up. "From a fly, to a human, just like that? When I make a human, are you going to kill that too?"

Ty backed out of the room with his hands up. "C'mon man. I didn't mean it like that. Just genuinely curious."

He really was. Ty didn't know what had made him think about human composites, but the idea stuck in his head. The technology involved didn't appeal to him at all, but he wondered all sorts of things about the composite itself, like would it think? Would it feel? Would it have a soul?

"Curious?" Damon broke into Ty's existential thought. "Do you realize how unethical it'd be, printing a human?"

Ty hadn't anticipated the angry shift in conversation. His brother's animosity herded him into the hallway.

Damon wasn't finished. "Who would we print, huh? Me? Jennifer? Helia?"

Finally, Ty understood Damon's disgust. Printing a composite might be easy, though it would be less than easy deciding whom to copy. The printer couldn't print an entirely new human, only a composite of an original. Ty's question had been impulsive, insensitive.

Which was what Damon implied when he slammed his bedroom door in Ty's face.

~*~

A/N: Dedicated to an Ooorah buddy and a great writer: MadMikeMarsbergen

He hosts many an Ooorah Smackdown, all while writing shorts, and all while editing for Tevun Krus, Wattpad's longest running sci-fi mag. Visit his profile to read his mystery novel, Learning Curve: Joseph Tugger #1. 

https://www.wattpad.com/story/99205796-learning-curve-joseph-tugger-1-sample