8
After a break for Holly and Simon to eat, they, the two Coppélias, and Franz (who was now designated as Franz 1, principally for the benefit of the rest of the crew) returned to sick-bay. Franz 1 reactivated Paul.
Holly began her interrogation.
“We need to sort this out now. I need to know why you keep calling yourself Paul when you are so obviously an alternate version of Franz. And I need to know exactly what happened down there on the planet.”
Paul could tell that, despite his pleas, she was in no mood to permanently deactivate him or throw him out of an airlock, so he resigned himself to telling her the whole story. But where to begin? He sat up on the bed.
“My name is Paul. I’m a sophont. But this isn’t my body. It’s actually the body of another sophont called Franz.”
He looke
