Filled with terror, Adam opened his eyes, inspired deeply and scanned around to see where the threat was coming from. When he realised that nothing was actually moving towards him, he let go his first expiration.

He then realised he could not see much, and could not move much either. For one thing, everything was white and/or shiny, and nothing could be distinguished. For the other, he felt his head could turn but not his legs and arms.

Wrong, he thought. He could move his fingers and now his arms. Just a bad dream then, I'm neither in jail nor in a laboratory about to be dissected alive for the uttermost interest of whatever mad doctors or aliens. Lab and Aliens were words in had still in his mind, when the obvious fact came to him that he had just fell out of his cryogenic sleep.

'Good morning, Adam,' said a voice he wanted to call Melody. 'How are you doing?'Pause. 'You look terrible in fact. Better not ask.' Pause again.' Anyway, you can't speak yet, I'm sure...'

'Gurh...' was the only attempt of a surprised Adam at cutting the offensive speech.

'Well, I might as well tell you right from the start. You still look better than some others... Much better indeed. I mean, in fact, the others look far worse. Far far worse...'

Adam hesitated between getting bored or upset, and was saved the trouble of gurgling again when Melody resumed the tale.

'If you do remember your wife, Eve, I warn you, that's the only thing you can do now. I mean, you'll never talk to her anymore.'

Adam heart accelerated, and he knew he would soon again feel the terror he had just experienced out of his sleep.

'Oh sure, you may want to see her and might be able to, but I strongly advised against it. It's already a terrible thing to stare at your dead soul mate, but to know on top that she was pregnant is clearly too much for a man in your condition.'

Adam shouted and tried to roll out of the bed but he fell down because his legs were still too weak to carry him. Slowly banging his closed fists and then his head on the impeccably white tiled floor, he was only able to sob.

'By the way, you still look terrible...'Pause. 'Since I'm afraid you might have a heart attack or something bad anyway if I don't reassure you now, I might as well tell you that the child, in fact your son, is alive.' Pause. 'Feeling better?'

Adam had instinctively looked up to check the truth in the eyes of Melody, but it was only a voice without a face. Now that I think of it, it is probably the robot nurse which I had called Melody, but if that was her, she had really changed and was now devoid of empathy.

'Where... is... the... child...' pronounced Adam with obvious difficulty, as well as anger.

'The boy is in the next room, but you'll have to wait a little bit. We haven't cut the umbilical cord yet. You see, she just died a little ago. Actually, that's why you been called out of your sleep via the emergency procedure. You should still feel dizzy by the way. It's a wonder you're now able to stand up.'

Adam painfully reached the closed door, which stayed closed. It refused to open despite Adam hammering on the emergency button.

'Open the door', requested Adam. But as nothing came, he shouted 'I said, open the fucking door, you brainless!'

'Congratulations,' answered Melody, 'you've passed the test. You have shown a concrete and purposeful reaction in less than 5 minutes after your awakening. That means that you are allowed to live on.'

Adam was open-jawed. He tried once again to pinpoint the direction or the wall feature from where the voice was coming. He desperately wanted to let his wrath explode on her face, or rather just explode her face, but he simply started with more insults.

'You, remorseless son of a bitch. You let me thought I lost my wife! You're just a bastard robotic mind who will never enjoy real life. You're nowhere close to human brain. You hear me, that's not human what you've just done.'

'Actually, I do understand human feelings, and in particular the subtle irony behind your last words. Because to tell you the truth, that test was conceived by a human being. Isn't that great? You uselessly shouting at my lack of humanity... I appreciate the joke anyway.'

'Don't tell me that,' sighed Adam, suddenly losing his fighting spirit. 'Who's behind it? Some mad doctors?'

'I love this game, really. Guess what... It was you!'

'What!' shouted the astonished Adam.

'Yes, it was you. Or rather your former you. I mean, the one which was not cloned.'

'Oh no,' sighed Adam who sat silently on the floor.

'Well, as you just guessed, you are a clone of Adam, actually the third but the first one to be allowed to survive. Congratulations again by the way.'

Adam was speechless and looked at nothing in particular.

'You probably want to know more. Well, your genitor, if I may say so, realised that raising a child was taking too long to be of any usefulness to the ship. So, he decided to take shortcuts, you know... Cloning is rather easy but placing back memories is totally hazardous, especially at such speed. That's why it is not recommended. But you were really in a hurry and willing to risk everything you know.'

'Enough,' suddenly imposed Adam. 'We'll talk later. Give me some food, and allow me to rest a little.'