Короткий фантастический рассказ Джастины Робсон, который NewScientist зачем-то спрятал за paywall.
One Shot by Justina Robson Letter from J. Yolanda Baron to The Crystal Corporation Dear Sirs, I am Janet Yolanda Baron, of the Riverside Barons, number eight in line. As the sole owner and keeper of the Baron germline deeds I am writing to formally request that you return all records and frozen clone materials to myself at your earliest convenience as I do not require further clones to extend the lifetime passage of our particular iteration of The Code. My lawyer informs me that you will require a witnessed authorisation of reasons for this decision before you consign the germline to me because our contracts specifically state that you may not release materials which might be subject to future lawsuits based upon their viability and the size of the estate to which any unliving individuals might have been entitled. I therefore enclose a legal document which confirms my intention to destroy the Yolanda Baron germline for reproductive and all other purposes. This indemnifies you against the so-called "death angel" action by which my surviving relatives might require you to create yet another monozygotic twin of the late Yolanda Baron. The laws governing "unfulfilled individual temporally extended clone experiences" are notoriously difficult, I understand. (I refer to Dwayne vs Crystal Corporation in which you were sued successfully for 'unpropagated actualisation leading to a permanent cessation of experience and evolutionary progress for the Dwayne Cortez germline'). I don't want that crap to follow another Yolanda Baron around like poor Dwayne Cortez. Look what happened to him. Whilst I myself have been protected by the law I must remark that my decision has been taken precisely because I have no faith that anything of my experience could be of use to any future "iterations" of the Baron line. Previous Barons: P. Yolanda, M. Yolanda, A. Yolanda and Z. Yolanda have all left exhaustively detailed records of their lifetime experiences and although I find some interesting notes and entertainment within them I have yet to discern anything that looks to me like a forward step of personal growth beyond the ordinary changes of a human span. Whilst they might have been sisters to me, I feel no sense of identity with them, despite our obvious and extensive physical resemblances and a few preferences for salty foods and hot climates. M. Yolanda Baron herself contemplated a similar action although she did not carry it out and passed it on for another four generations. I am grateful to her, but at the same time being a clone with so much expected of me has been a great burden. As I am shortly to succumb to the inevitable failures of the body that are the Baron lot (bronchitis, pneumonia, some kind of heart seizure no doubt) I feel that it is time to call it a day for the Yolanda Barons. It isn't as if there aren't plenty of one-shotters around to make up the numbers. Sincerely, J. Yolanda Baron (8)