8FOLD: Daylighters # 9, "Robot Duplicate"

[Scott Eiler]

I liked this passage from the issue the best.  I have some comments 
after, though.

On 2020-06-18 06:46, Tom Russell wrote:

> Once she's settled in, she calls Derek, using her own voice. She asks
> him about his day, and he tells her about Pam, and about Flintlock
> attacking Shimmer and Darkhorse, and she feigns interest. He asks her
> when he'll see her again.
>     The answer is never and she knows that; she knew that the minute
> she put Kate in the mirror. It didn't bother her then. She's not sure
> why it bothers her now. "Probably not for awhile," she says. "I've got
> a lot on my plate."
>     "I miss you," he says.
>     "Do you?"
>     He seems surprised by the question. "Yes. I do."
>     "Why do you miss me? Why do you love me?"
>     "Claire?"
>     "You know I don't love you."
>     "I know." He sighs. "Even when you've said you love me, I know that
> you don't. That's okay. I still love you."
>     "Then you're an idiot."
>     "Probably."
>     "What do you get out of it?"
>     "I don't know," he says. "You make me the best version of myself.
> You make me want to be good enough for you. Maybe that's all love is.
> When someone makes you want to be better."
>     Claire looks in the mirror, at the face she stole from Kate. "Even
> when they can't love you back."
>     "Maybe that's why you don't love me." She can hear his smile
> through the phone. "I can't make you want to be better. You're already
> perfect."
>     "Maybe," says Claire.

... Well, crap, Claire has made herself the *center* of a romantic 
*quadrangle".  Claire, Derek, Jonah, and Kate, right?  And Claire has 
Kate in *captivity*.

A storyline like this, makes me think of the original Dark Phoenix 
solution.  Can Claire ever redeem herself for her offenses, or must she 
die (or go into bondage herself) to save the Earth from Dread Venus?

I suspect you already have the answer to this.  I look forward to it.

-- 
-- (signed) Scott Eiler  8{D> ------ http://www.eilertech.com/ -------

The soldiers presented a pathetic but inspiring spectacle. The
hospitals were crowded with sick and wounded; the walls were
gradually crumbling under incessant shell fire, yet that garrison
of heroes remained undaunted.

It was as Buck said, "just as if they had been Americans."

- from "The Airship Boys in the Great War", De Lysle F. Cass, 1915.
Coming soon to Project Gutenberg.  gutenberg.org