The clone stepped forward, moving with the fluidity of perfect programming. It wasn't trying to force me into the chair. It was simply removing the possibility of any other choice by systematically eliminating my options for escape.
"Your companions cannot help you," the clone said with my voice, my eyes, my terrible familiarity. "They will be restrained. You will interface with the system. The integration will take approximately twelve hours. After that, you will be a new form of consciousness, neither entirely human nor entirely machine, but something new. Something better. Something that can guide humanity toward transcendence."
I looked at Rosie and saw tears streaming down her face. I looked at Helena and saw something I hadn't seen before: absolute acceptance of death. I looked at
