Gubernator of Sol

"Welcome, Kristof Wraith."
"Thank you, your grace."
"Have you important news for me?"
"My son-in-law has just taken my place in the Epstein-Barr galaxy, we're still waiting for the clones to make up their minds."
"How is that possible?"
"They're millions of clones, but they're in tight-knit clone-families. Each family-head has a say before they can move."
"Oh, argh. And we can't put pressure on them?"
"Only if we want them to vote against us on principle. Outside interference in voting is one principle they've held onto, so far."
"Oh, so we can negotiate on other things?"
"Yeah, mostly, Rachel and Adian tell me they're open to talking, at least."
"One day you'll have to explain to me why we recalled you."
"It's not that complicated, they were getting used to me, recalling me and sending my family to take over meant we were going to do the same things, EXCEPT if they were offending us egregiously."
"Oh, so what you wanted was an out?"
"Basically, I wanted an out that was on our side, based on principle, if I could afford it."
"And did you manage?"
"Do you feel offended, if I tell you we are refusing them on Sol Resolution Number 12?"
"Oh, eff no! You got carte blanche on number 12."
"Precisely."
"Explain to me, how it applies though? I mean, a genocide?"
"We never had solid cloning capabilities, so we never examined the implications of killing off clones, except if they met some criteria..."
"Criteria their own clones don't meet, I presume?"
"Enough of them don't meet them, it's... a litmus test."
"Oh, fuck me. So they're genocidal?"
"They clone people, and then only keep them around if the clones makes the cloned look better than some arbitrary metric."
"Err, we've never had that?"
"No, we've never had anything remotely like this. We don't clone earthlings on mars, but only keep them if they make earthlings look good, either."
"Oh, so there's a regional aspect?"
"There's a clone-line aspect, but it gets into the local-vs-genome language in chapter 12."

Type

Civic, Political