They were comfortably sitting in the couches of the lounge. Adam was actually more lying than anything else. He was looking straight up at the immaculate ceiling and focusing the soft voice of Eve. After the many words of reassurance, she was about to reach the hard part: the morning test and the reasons behind it.

'You remember Gabriel, the first born?' asked Eve. She didn't expect an answer and kept on. 'Well, he was just like us born aboard this ship and raised within the protocol designed back on Earth. The ship did not detect anything wrong or rather nothing outside the margins of error of the protocol. So Gabriel grew up as intended, despite an acute feeling of loneliness, which is understandable.

'Though this feeling turned into a more serious shape of psychological disease – paranoia. Gabriel soon thought the ship would want his death. He tried in vain to expulse the ship from all aspects of his life. He became obsessed with that. Curiously, he started a hunger strike in order to force the ship to let him alone. We think at this point Gabriel was obviously and seriously mad. He forbade the ship to stop him, and since he feared the ship would intervene during in his sleep, he actually stopped sleeping.

'Gabriel died of exhaustion on the third day without sleep, which was many days before he would have died without food but with proper sleep. There was nothing that could have saved him,' reassured Eve.

Adam had listened carefully to Eve who was narrating what she had patiently read in the archives of the ship.

'In a way, the same kind of insanity touched Jeremy and we lost both our sons, killed by the bird catcher. Nothing wrong on our part. Do you remember that?'

He ignored her question. Instead, he forced himself to calmly think about Gabriel. Couldn't the ship have saved Gabriel of either type of death? Did it let him die on purpose, because he was indeed weak? But then that meant Gabriel was right to distrust the ship. And then can I trust the ship now? How could I ask Eve without being noticed by the ship?

He couldn't ask a burning question aloud to Eve otherwise the ship would have heard them. Eve was anxiously staring at him during this long pause. She didn't dare to interrupt his thoughts, which she mistook as moaning for their lost sons.

Adam finally looked up at her and shyly asked, 'and what happened to you?'

Eve was surprised but glad at avoiding more sensitive questions. 'Nothing. I'm doing fine I guess. You were the only one to...' She hesitated at the word, 'undergo... You know,' waving her hand, 'the cloning stuff.'

Adam smiled. Bingo. I got my answer. She has witnessed nothing wrong from the ship's behaviour. That probably means I might trust the ship as much as I trust Eve. But do I trust her?

Eve smiled also but awkwardly, not understanding the reason for his sudden positive attitude. She kept silent.

Adam noticed her uneasiness and apologised. 'I guess I always wanted to be a gentleman and avoid you to clone yourself. I mean I couldn't have let you suffer from all this excruciating awaking procedure.'

This time, Eve frowned sharply, avoided his stare and pinched her lips as a distraction to avoid breaking down nervously. Realising she would fail, she looked up at the ceiling, gulped while tears came into her eyes. 'You know', she began with great difficulty. She bit her lips. 'The ship,' she tried again, 'that's a robot, you see.' She gulped again and glanced at his frightened face. 'Robots. You know, they can't harm people. It had to be done. You know.'

She starting crying for good and Adam immediately spread his arms to embrace her saying, 'it's ok. It's gonna be alright.'

'No, it's not going to be OK,' came the violent answer. 'I had to kill you. You know.' She broke free with anger, grabbed back his arms and just one foot away stared right at him with piercing eyes. She spat out viciously, 'actually I killed you twice. Do you understand that?'

Now she had said it, she turned away with relief and exclaimed nonchalantly, 'and thank God, I didn't have to do it with my bare hands.'

Still upset at herself, she walked a few paces around the room, settled on a high seat behind the American bar, crossed he arms and then her legs. She finally deigned to look at him but with tight jaws and a frown that were threatening to become permanent.

Adam was also obviously shaken at the idea. He was thunderstruck when he realised that surely she had the most difficult task of them two. His stupid and sexist comment had made things worse. He tried to find the words to sooth the pain, but could only ask more matter-of-fact questions.

'So, tell me, why wasn't I the one to supervise the operation?'

Quietly, Eve shrugged, 'there was no reason except maybe chance and also hazard. We just played dice. We were both ready, laying in a cryogenic sleep for a while like the embryo out there. In fact, there are clones of me in preparation as we speak, and we have still some for you. No choice for the first wave of clones; we had to wait for the clones to grow and teach them all the memories we could gather from the ship archives.'

'I'm sorry to hear that you were unlucky and that I let you down that way.'

'Oh, you didn't let me down that way. Don't worry,' she said trying in turn to comfort him. 'In fact, I won the dice roll. But when my first clone was ready for you to assess, the ship tried to wake you up, and it failed. Not so bad that you would be considered dead,' she added quickly, 'but the most positive term could be catatonic.'

'So in effect, I died three times, is that it?' He sighed, 'what a mess.'

'It could have happened the other way around. But then we had no real choice. The ship woke me up, and I did what I did. There's nothing more to say.'

Adam circumnavigated the table and gave her a hug tighter than she ever remembered, up to that point.

***

Adam sneaked cautiously out of the bed so as to let Eve sleep profoundly. He was still seeking answers and couldn't sleep at all. He walked up to the control room. Or was it down? He wouldn't remember.

He contemplated his surrounding and tried to get a sense of familiarity. He stared dubitatively at the seat which was his own despite the biological fact that he only ever sat in it in fake memories.

He wondered, 'am I the same Adam, or someone, something totally different?'

He decided to sit in it to feel the texture of the seat. What leather and mahogany were doing in a spaceship anyway?

The voice of the ship resonated, 'this is real. You are the real Adam.'

Adam was not deterred by this intrusion and he even welcomed it. 'Yeah, I guess it sums up to the old debate on whether we live in a dream or in a nightmare. Oops, I meant reality.'

The ship ignored the slip of the tongue, which could have been equally either voluntary or not.

'Well, you could say that. And if so I recommend you to choose reality. Do you remember the principle of Occam's razor? It suggests the simplest of the explanations is the actual one in the absolutely vast majority of the cases.'

'Did you teach that to all the clones just so you could reassure them afterwards?'

'No. I taught that to the original Adam. And everything he learned and most of his life and experience, I've tried to teach you, so you could behave exactly like Adam and effectively be the real Adam.'

'And how would the original behave in a situation like this?'

'He would probably strive to keep up above water. But I can't be sure, that's the magic of being a human.'

'Well, I guess you're right. That's what I would to do,' answered a thoughtful Adam. 'So, what's the status on board, I guess there are no emergency otherwise you would have thrown it at me to test me again.'

The ship issued a short laugh. 'Indeed, indeed.' He cleared his throat to announce they were back into business. 'There are no issues aboard the ship, except your arrival which you succeed splendidly. As for the outside of the ship, there are no sign of any immediate danger.'

'You mean, we are still being pursued but not under attack?'

'That could have been the case, 114 years ago. But in fact, I meant our pursuers succeed in catching up with us but they do not appear to want to destroy us for the moment.'

'Ship,' interrogated Adam, 'did the original Adam often complained about your utter inability to get to the point?'

'Absolutely...' smiled the ship. 'Very often indeed. But I'm glad I can say "Welcome back, Adam." '

Adam shook his head, sighed and finally shrugged.