“Can’t cup our way out of this.”

Morgan rubbed her eyes and took out the transcribe. It was an incoming call request. She pressed the little button, and even though it was tinny and the connection could be better, it was still delightful to hear that woman’s voice. “Hello, Morgan. Em.”

 

“Hello, Mikhaila,” both of them said at the exact time. There was a moment of silence, and then they heard her laughing softly to herself on the other end of the line. 

 

“You two are… certainly something,” Mikhaila said. “I wanted to talk, Morgan. Well, I wanted to talk to both of you.” Morgan and Em looked at each other. “I think all three of us know something should be talked about.” There was another pause. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed both of you avoiding me. More than usual, I mean.”

 

“I’m sorry,” both of them said, Em smirked, and then took a step back, nodding at Morgan. “I’m sorry,” Morgan tried again. “There’s… a lot. A lot to think about. A lot to deal with.” She sighed. “I promise I — we haven’t forgotten you. Not again.”

 

“We’ll talk soon,” Em said. “I promise. There’s just… a few things we have to figure out, first.” Well, that was certainly true. Sure, they weren’t going to figure out how to save the world overnight, but they did want to strike the iron while it was hot. And there were some other feelings that needed to be worked out. Em and Morgan worked well as a unit. They communicated better with each other than they ever had with anyone else. But they also knew there were still some strange and messy feelings that needed to be worked out, and they had no idea where to even get started on working those out. Well, they had one. 

 

“I know that, Em,” Mikhaila said, “but I don’t appreciate being kept in the dark. But… I trust you. Both of you.” Morgan smiled, and then, after a moment, looked at Em.

 

“How did you know that was me?” Em asked, the confusion Morgan felt clear on her face. Mikhaila laughed again on the other side of the line. 

 

“Both of you are so clever,” Mikhaila said, “but you’re also very, very silly sometimes. You sound different, Em.” Both Morgan and Em cocked their heads. Their voices were the exact same, weren’t they? “I’m sure you’re both thinking ‘but our voices are entirely the same, how can that be possible?’ I swear, you Yu siblings are incorrigible. How about this: you come here, you talk to me, and I’ll tell you how I can tell. How does that sound?”

 

“That sounds fair,” Morgan said. “But we do really have one thing we want to get out of the way first. Something that I don’t think can wait.” Em nodded at her in confirmation. 

 

“What is it? If I can ask, of course.” 

 

“We have to speak to Alex,” Em said. “We’re overdue a conversation with our brother now that we know ourselves. We’re overdue an explanation.”

 

“Wait, an explanation from you or to you?”

 

“Still working on that,” Morgan said. “I’ll call you.” 

 

“You better. Try not to kill him. Ilyushin out.”

 

“See you Mikhaila,” they both said, and Morgan put the transcribe away. “Well,” Morgan said, “let’s go talk to Alex.” Em nodded, and they made their way out the cabin and through the station. 

 

“What do you want to say to him?” Em asked. “I know I have some choice words, but I don’t want to repeat myself. Or you.”

 

“A great many things,” Morgan said, “not a lot of it very nice. But I want to start with some acknowledgements. A proper heart-to-heart. I don’t think I’ve ever really acknowledged who we are to each other since we escaped Talos I.”

 

“That’s fair. And I think my own relationship with him is different enough that my focusing on that wouldn’t detract from the conversation.”

 

“Or retread the same ground.” Morgan smirked at her as they rounded the corner, and got the exact same cocky, attractive smirk right back. It was really good to have someone like her back at her side the entire time. She wondered what the Talos I incident would have been like if there had been two of her. What they would have been up to. How many people they could have saved. Instead, they would be saving people together anyway. 

 

“Exactly. I think we’ll have this figured out. Em Yu. Five five three two.” The sentries at the entrance to Alex’s lab powered themselves down, and the doors slid open. 

 

“Ah, Morgan. And… Em,” Alex said pointing at Em first, and then at Morgan. 

 

“Got it in one,” Em said, and the two of them shared a moment of eye contact so short Alex didn’t even notice it. They were able to communicate a small smile in that glance, too. 

 

“Good to see you both here,” Alex said, readjusting his glasses. “How’s the work coming along?” It was very much to immediately switch to business, but then, Morgan hadn’t exactly given him any indication that she was ever in the mood to talk to him for any reason other than business. That one was on her. 

 

“It’s coming along well,” Em said, still pretending to be Morgan, while Morgan stood a step behind and to the right of her, hands behind her back. “We think we have a way to transfer coral consciousness to a more easily-transferable state, and from there we might be able to convert it to actionable data. We’re still trying to cut out the middle-man though, dump memories straight into Typhon, but that’s taking a while. We’re still running simulations.”

 

“Good,” Alex said. “Good. It’s good to see you like this again, Morgan. Like old times.”

 

“No,” Morgan said. “Not like old times.”

 

“What do you mean, Em?” Alex asked, frowning. They’d noticed that, while he treated Em with the kind of reverence he’d always reserved for his own experiments, he didn’t consider her an equal like he did Morgan. And it was clear he was annoyed, if not outright offended at her interruption.

 

“I’m Morgan,” Morgan said. “That’s Em.” Before Alex could sputter a protest, she took a step forward. “And I think it’s time we talked, Alex.”

 

“About what might that be, exactly?”

 

“About us,” Morgan said, motioning to herself and Em, “and about us”. She pointed at Alex, and then herself. “Sit down, brother.” Alex sat down on a chair and crossed his arms. Em leaned against a table. 

 

“What is this about, Morgan?”

 

“We’re never going back to ‘old times’, Alex. Neither of us remembers our childhood. We don’t remember Morgan, not before the Talos I incident. Not really. Bits and pieces, sometimes. Nothing concrete.” Morgan put her hands on her hips. “But we remember you. Sort of. You’re our brother.”

 

“I know that,” Alex said. “Bu—”

 

“I’m not finished,” Morgan said. “You’ve been a shit brother, Alex. But, for what it’s worth, according to what you’ve told me and what I picked up over time, so was I. For, well… various reasons. Our parents chief among them.”

 

“I always wanted us to change the world together, Morgan,” Alex said, relaxing but also deflating a bit now that he could tell where the conversation was headed. “I never wanted to—”

 

“I know, Alex,” Morgan said. “I know. But you were still a sadistic egomaniac who approved the serialized ego-death of your sibling, and you and that sibling are responsible for the deaths of a lot of people.”

 

“I know,” Alex said. And then, a little quieter, “I know.” He took a deep breath.

 

“So what I need you to know is that I’m not that sibling. Not anymore. I’m your other sibling, the one who could have been. That’s who I am. Your sister. And you need to stop conflating me with your brother. I’m not him.”

 

“That’s fair,” Alex said. “I’ll… I’ll do better. I promise.”

 

“And then there’s another thing,” Em said. “This bit’s going to take you a moment.”

 

“Oh yeah?” Alex asked defiantly. “What’s that?” 

 

“I’m your sister too, Alex,” Em said. “Both of us are tired of you treating me like an uppity experiment.”

 

“I… I suppose…”

 

“Stop supposing, Alex,” Morgan said, “and listen to her.”

 

“If you can accept Morgan as your sister — which I recommend you do, because if you don’t, we’re going to have words — then you can accept me as my own person too. I’m not a Typhon with delusions of consciousness.” She put her hands on her hips and stared him down. The little lights in her eyes flashed, causing him to flinch.

 

“All right, fine,” Alex said. “Jesus, I thought one of you was a lot to deal with.” He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I’m sorry for everything I put you through. Both of you. I… don’t take credit for the person you became, but for what it’s worth, you do seem… happier.”

 

“On the contrary, Alex,” Morgan said. “I think you deserve to take some credit for that. If you hadn’t created Em, I might still miserably be trying to be your brother.”

 

“God forbid,” Em said. “So, that said, we forgive you.”

 

“Just like that?” Alex said. 

 

“Just like that,” Morgan said. “Just… one thing?”

 

“What’s that?”

 

“Stand up straight. You might want to take off your glasses.”

 

He did as he was told. “You’re going to hit me, aren’t you?”

 

Morgan’s fist hit him in the eye with a satisfying ‘thwack’, although she didn’t put nearly the amount of strength in it as she could. She wanted to vent her frustration and give him just a bit of a payback, not put him through a wall. “Yes,” she said. 

 

“That’s… I deserved that,” Alex said as he put his glasses back on. “Are we square now?” 

 

“Yes,” Morgan said. “We are.”

 

“Oh no.”

 

“Sorry Alex,” Em said with a fiendish grin. “There’s two of us now.”

 

Alex sighed and took his glasses back off. “Very well. Let’s get this over w—”

 

Thwack.