...the buzzing finally stopped.

Juliana could think again.  They must be finished with the 
UpLoading.  Brain and body had been totally shorted out by the 
process, but now she was in control again.  A final wave of 
dizziness passed, she shook her head, wiped her eyes, reached 
for the booth door.

It wasn't there, or rather, she wasn't in an UpLoad booth 
at all. 

She was somewhere else.  Inside a narrow steel cylinder, still 
standing on the pedestal, still naked.

"Where am I?"

Then the steel cylinder split into two halves and spread open. 
The scene revealed to her was utterly confusing, she 
recognized it from her training, but couldn't understand how 
she had been brought there.  She had just UpLoaded seconds ago.

This was the EnActivation Lab, not the UpLoad Lab.  It was two
floors up in the same building.  How did she get here?  Had 
she been unconscious?  That was certainly possible, since she 
had been stunned and confused.

Behind the glass partition she could see the same tall gaunt 
technician shutting down a system, but none of her friends 
were there waiting for her, as she had expected.  She looked 
for her towel, but there was none.

The technician's voice came in over a speaker.  "Please go lie
down on the couch to your left.  I'll be with you in a minute." 
He was not looking at her, seemed rather busy with some
instruments.

"What's going on?  Why am I here?" Juliana asked.

"Special testing," was the short answer, "go to the couch,
please.  Lie down, relax."

"Could I please have some clothes?" Juliana asked.  She didn't
like being naked alone with this man she didn't know.  
Something seemed wrong.

"When we're done, it won't be long."

She went over to the couch and sat on it.  She didn't want to 
lie back and relax at all.

"Lie down please."

"I want to know what's going on first."

"You've been selected for a special test.  If you don't lie 
down you might fall and hit your head."

"What is this?  What kind of test?  This is creepy, no one has
told me about any test, this is NOT standard procedure.  I 
don't know you, I'm not comfortable being naked under these
circumstances--if you don't tell me what you want I'm leaving
right now."

Juliana got up to push the open button for the sliding glass
door. The door remained closed, a indicator screen read code
required.  Then she tried to push the door aside, but it
held.

"Better sit on the floor then, within 5 seconds there will be 
an ultrasonic stunblast and you'll fall, better protect your 
head...3...2...1..."

The shrill silent sound hit her like an electric shock.  
Juliana felt as if she had been slapped hard everywhere at 
once, her ears hurt horribly, she screamed and passed out.

When she revived she was bound to the couch, on her back, legs
spread, arms up over her head, still naked.  The technician was
standing in front of her, undressing.  He had an erection.

"What are you doing?" Juliana challenged him, stupid question.

"I'm going to have you.  Several times.  Then I'm going to kill 
you.  I want you to know that.  I like it when you're afraid."

She screamed for help as loudly as she could, but the lab 
chamber was clearly soundproof.

"There's nobody else in the building," the technician said with
an evil smile, "save your voice so that you can let me hear it
when I make you come."

"You can't get away with this!"   

This time a grotesque smile.  He was much worse than Boris
Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster, especially now that he was
naked and moving towards her, toweringly tall and thin and
stoop-shouldered.

"Of course I can.  I always do.  It's quite perfect, really." 
He was lubricating his stiff penis with spit.  "I Enactivate 
you, rape you, murder you, then DeEnactivate you, recycling 
your molecules back to the element vats, and all evidence is 
gone along with you."

"My friends will report me missing, the police..."

"No, stupid girl, you're just a copy.  Your friends are with 
the real Juliana.  You don't officially exist, there is no 
record anywhere of your EnActivation."

"What...real Juliana?  You're saying that I'm a...ReGen 
Copy?  I don't believe you!"

He laughed and penetrated her, sliding in all the way with 
absurd ease.  She was almost too shocked by his revelation to 
even register being raped.  Until he started pumping.  But he 
kept talking, evidently enjoying to hear himself.

"That's right.  You girls never believe it.  It must be 
strange, being so perfect a copy that you don't even know it 
yourself. I've done this before, you know--it's become sort of 
a hobby."  He started running short of breath as he got more 
excited.

"I've had your friend Wenda, and three other girls.  But I 
like you the best.  I've had you twice before, you're really 
fun."

"Other copies of me..?" it was hard to talk rationally while 
being raped, "...twice before..?" him pounding away into her.

"Uh uh uh huh..." and he almost couldn't talk any more now
either, grunting and heaving like an animal as he ravaged her,
"and you DIED nicely both times too!"

Juliana was afraid, disgusted, shocked.  And then the worst of
all, she had a prodigious orgasm.  She couldn't help it, she 
just gushed.  She was even loud about it.  Which was awful, 
she didn't want to give this monster any positive feedback 
whatsoever.

And then he came too, groaning like a bear.  He spent himself
inside her, thrashing his body in almost spastic cramps, and 
then it was over.  He slid limply out of her and collapsed 
onto her body, breathing heavily.  

Juliana lay as if dead.  She refused to think or feel anything.  
Especially the shame of coming with him in her, that was more 
shocking and unacceptable than being raped was.  But then, none 
of this could really be happening.  It was all too absurd.

After a few minutes he began to talk again.  "That's what's fun
about you.  You come.  None of the other girls ever did, but 
you always do."

"You're lying.  About everything."  Her voice was very calm.  
"There were no other girls, you only want to scare me.  And I'm 
not a copy, you just want me to think that."

"Well, you're part right: I DO want you to be afraid.  So I'd 
better show you some proof," the technician said, pointing up 
to the large monitor screen on the wall, "some vidi recordings 
I made."

A cold dread passed through Juliana: she was certain this was
something that she didn't want to see.

The technician, however, seemed very eager to show off his 
production.  He went out into the control room and turned on 
the viewscreen, which flickered as a vidi began to run.
 
"Here's Lissa," he said, coming back in to Juliana, "she was 
the first one."

Juliana recognized Lissa in the viewscreen, and she also
recognized the scene: it was right here, the Lab, the couch;
but with Lissa bound and naked instead of Juliana.  She was 
struggling with the straps, a tall gaunt naked man walked into 
the picture, also recognizable.  He began to rape Lissa.

She was struggling and screaming.  To quiet her he started
strangling her with his hands, then stopped a while to put tape
over her mouth, and continued the raping in peace and
quiet.  But Lissa went into panic.  That seemed to excite the
technician even more and he went harder at her.  Finally he
stopped to put tape over her nose as well, so that she couldn't
breathe at all.  Lissa was now struggling wildly to breathe,
that really got him going and went on until he finished
enthusiastically.

Lissa had eventually stopped moving.  Juliana thought that she 
was dead, but the man quickly ripped the tape off her face and 
gave her mouth to mouth resuscitation.  Lissa revived, her eyes 
opened.  He smiled at her kindly--then taped her face again and 
watched her closely repeat the whole process until she finally 
did die.  His own face revealed only delight, like a child 
arriving at Disneyland. 

Juliana began to weep.  She knew Lissa well, she was a nice
girl, pretty but shy.  Like herself, Lissa had been faithful to
one boyfriend throughout the two years of the project.  But her
boyfriend had not been on the project, so she had been celibate
for the last year of isolation.  Saving herself.  For this?

"Why are you crying, Juliana?"

"Lissa was my friend.  She didn't deserve that, she was being 
true to someone!  O poor Lissa, boo hoo hoo!"

The technician smiled understandingly, put his hand on Juliana's 
hair as if to comfort her.  "There there, don't worry about 
Lissa, she's perfectly fine.  Probably fucking her boyfriend's 
brains out about now.  You have to remember that this wasn't 
Lissa at all-- just a copy of her."

"You sick bastard, you really consider yourself innocent of any 
wrongdoing just because she was a COPY?  Why did you have to 
kill her?"

"For the thrill of daring to do that wrong.  To experience that 
feeling of power over someone.  And it was great!"

"And you'll kill me next, even though I'm so much...fun?"

"Oh, I'll have to or I'll get caught.  And I want to kill
you, that's one of the best parts of all this.  But not yet, I
want to play with you some more first.  We have all weekend,
we're alone here until Monday.  Project Procyon closed down 
about six months ago, so the entire base is on minimum staff."

"You're a sick sick sadistic psychopath!" 

He laughed.  "Not really--well, okay, guess I am--but I've 
always suppressed these tendencies.  I've never done this to 
a real woman, you know, only to you ReGen Copies."

"But I AM a real woman!"

"Oh, I'm sure it seems that way to you right now, but actually
you're not."  

He hesitated, as if he had a secret he wanted to tell, but 
wasn't certain if he should, then decided to anyway.  "It's 
quite amusing, really: every time I Enactivate you, you say and 
do exactly the same things, in the same order.  You're not 
Juliana at all, but a recording of her." 

Juliana started to say something in her own defense, then shut
her mouth.  If what he said was true, she had better start 
coming up with some surprises or she was going to end up like 
her first two copies.  

Say anything to keep him interested, lead him along, get him to 
untie her...

"Look, if you like me so much, why don't you just hide me 
somewhere and keep me?  I'd rather be your sex slave than dead.  
I'll do anything you want." 

He broke out in a great guffaw of laughter.  "Oh!  I love it 
when you say that!  You see?  Every time!"

Juliana felt almost embarrassed, to be made such a fool of.  
The technician's laughter died away, then he shook his head 
and looked at her sternly.  

"No, little lady, you almost convinced me of that the first 
time.  Then you tried to kill me.  And all that martial arts 
training at Project Procyon made you a pretty dangerous 
opponent, I have to admit.  But you lost that fight--I have 
my defenses--so you didn't have a chance anyway."

He ran his hands over her body, squeezed her breasts hard
enough to hurt.  "I had to punish you for that.  I think I may 
again, even though you haven't done it yet this time.  I like 
to punish you.  You're a strong willed woman and it's fun to 
see you broken down to a pathetic weeping ruin.  

"But that comes later, I don't want to mess up your pretty face 
or body yet, and I want you to be able to come when I have you 
again.  That's something very precious to me, Juliana." 

Then he walked out of the chamber, the glass partition slid 
shut, and he turned out the lights as he left the lab, leaving 
Juliana bound and alone in the darkness.



She had dozed.  She was awakened by the flickering light of a 
vidi running on the monitor screen.  As far as she could tell 
she was alone, there was no sign of her captor, so the vidi 
must have been set on automatic play.  

She couldn't help looking.  Same place, same scene, this one 
featuring a woman named Cheryl.  Juliana didn't know her 
especially well, but still didn't want to watch her be raped 
and murdered.  Fortunately she had missed the beginning, but 
unfortunately she saw the ending.  The technician finally 
killed the woman with a dildo smeared in arsenic.  She died 
awfully, screaming in agony, vomiting, shitting and pissing, 
finally convulsing until it was over.

Then the screen went dark, and Juliana lay bound and helpless 
in the darkness again.  Sobbing for Cheryl.  For Lissa.  And 
for herself.



The technician returned several hours later.  He looked very
relaxed and content, had perhaps just eaten a good meal, 
Juliana could smell a whiff of wine.  She had neither eaten nor 
drunk anything and she had to urinate, her body hurt from 
being racked out on the couch with no way to change position.

"I have to pee!" she said.

"I know, you always have to pee about now.  I have a bedpan 
here, lift your hips, I'll slide it under you."

Juliana had hoped that he would release her to go to a toilet,
but she peed in the bedpan instead because she had to.  It was
humiliating the way the technician watched her do it, as if 
fascinated by her plumbing.

Then he was naked and on top of her again, inside her, not
hurrying at all, very controlled, even gentle.  She knew what 
he was trying to do, and she fought against it with all her 
will, but damned if she didn't come again, with all sorts of 
gasping and moaning.  Then he too finished.

Juliana had always been easy to come, she had been quite horny
with Vance, but she considered her orgasms as a part of the 
love in love-making.  This involuntary orgasm was betrayal by 
her own body.  And she hated the technician so much for it that 
she wanted to kill the man more than she wanted to escape him. 

He still lay atop her, almost like a lover admiring her beauty,
touching her softly here and there.  He did like her, she could
tell, and she had to use that somehow.  Talk to him...but 
you'll have to say things you don't want to say.

"You're so good at sex," she said, against her will, "it's a 
shame you can't have a normal relationship."

He looked slightly surprised, as if she actually might have 
said something new, out of pattern.  "Oh...I do, I do.  I'm 
married, you know.  But there's not much sex there, so this 
is very nice for me."

"If you torture your wife too I can understand there's not much
sex."  

"Well, I don't."  He laughed.  "Although maybe I should!  But
then, why bother?  She's not as much fun as you.  And anyway 
there's the police...so it's not such a good idea."

"So you're a respectable family man when you're not here?"

"Oh, yes.  But I've always yearned for this...dominating
helpless women like you.  Actually, you're doing society a 
favor, you know, by allowing me to release these destructive 
urges without really hurting anybody."

"Do you really consider me Not Anybody?"  Juliana looked him
deeply in the eyes.  She did know how to get to a man.

He got caught up in it, looked back.  Gulped, even.

"Right here and now, of course, you are somebody very special 
to me.  But as far as the rest of the world is concerned, 
you're a digital experiment I'm working on, you don't really 
exist.  Just a hard copy hologram." 

"Then actually, you don't even know if you could be
prosecuted for rape or murder if you were discovered.  As you
say, I don't exist, the real Juliana would be living proof 
that there had been no murder.  And society might insist that 
I be...returned to the vats, since no one is interested in TWO
Julianas running around."

"ReGen Copies have been around for a few years now, especially 
in military applications," the technician said, "so there have 
been laws written protecting them.  Remember the 5 Rickies, who 
got away with arresting their commanding officer on a plea of 
self-defense?  So I probably would get in trouble, I'm afraid, 
even though it would be rather unfair."

"I've been wondering," Juliana said, keeping him on, "how can I
be here at the project compound?  I'm first supposed to be
EnActivated on the Starship Zeus when it arrives at Procyon."

"Oh, we have backups of all the volunteer UpLoads here, of
course.  We can make as many backups as we want, send them to
other star colony projects if we need to.  And..."  Another
secret, he hesitated, but was too smug not to tell it.

"What?  Tell me."

"I may become very rich quite soon.  I've been negotiating with 
a dealer..."

"A dealer..." she gasped, "in ReGen Copies?"

He nodded, smiled.  "Future copies of you and your friends may 
be servicing a sheik in Saudi Arabia soon.  Several sheiks."

Juliana felt her entire being slipping into another level of
horror and disgust.  She HAD to stop this man.  Kill him.  Not
out of revenge, but out of necessity.

"Yeah, I guess you'll be rich all right.  But now, can you...
will you...make me come again?"

He looked at her with genuine surprise.

"Please?" she asked, "You do it better than anyone ever has. 
Give me that, at least."

His eyes became quite tender.  He gave her the kindest smile. 
"Of course, my dear, I'd love to.  Love to."

Juliana was desperately saying the extreme opposite of what 
she felt, deliberately out of her own character, to change 
the pattern of cause and effect that had ended up with him 
murdering her twice already.  

She was prepared to fake an orgasm this time.  But didn't need 
to, it just happened again.  She wondered if she was just as 
perverse as him deep inside.  Then said to herself, "I hope so, 
I may have to be."



"Time for another little vidi," he insisted, "this one of very 
special interest."

The next woman was--oh no, she really didn't want to see 
this--but couldn't take her eyes off her own image.

"There you are, my love," he said affectionately, "now you'll
see why I like you the best."

It was true what he'd told her, that Juliana onscreen was 
saying all the same things she herself had said.  And when he 
raped her, she came, the stupid bitch!  That was embarrassing, 
even through the horror of it all.  She didn't cry and scream 
as much as the others, offered very little resistance, was too 
polite, too accepting of her fate.  Juliana felt shame, she 
should have gone down fighting... somehow, even though she 
couldn't move.

"Here comes the good part," he said.

That earlier Juliana was begging for him to untie her so that 
she could use the toilet.  Promising to be good.  So he did 
release her, warning her that he had backup defenses online.  
She squatted over the bedpan provided.

Juliana suddenly realized why the technician was so thoughtful
as to provide a bedpan: if he was going to DeEnactivate these
women--return them to the vats as molecular elements--then he
also had to return all the shit and piss that had initially been
EnActivated along with them to keep mass/weight discrepancies
from showing up in the tanks.  He could be discovered if
someone noticed and began to investigate why the system was
losing mass.

Suddenly onscreen, the image of Juliana made a dash for the 
glass door. But it was locked.  She turned, a cat at bay.

"We were having such a nice time," the technician said, 
nuzzling her ear, "and then you spoiled it.  I really do 
love you, my dear, so of course I wanted to have you like a 
real lover, in other positions, without all those restraints.  
You see, all because you came for me every time, I really 
thought that you might actually like me...foolish me."

That image of Juliana attacked.  She was pretty good at martial
arts training (the 5 Rickies had spent extra time instructing 
and flirting with) her.  She charged, kicked, spun, elbow to
his cheek--and the image technician fell backwards.

The watching Juliana almost cheered--after a seemingly pathetic 
acceptance of being raped, the image Juliana totally redeemed 
herself with a decisiveness that revealed how she had been 
strategically biding her time all along (just as this Juliana 
was).  And now she was kicking the monster while he was down, 
aiming for the crotch, but he had curled himself up in a knot.  

He shouted a word: "Übermensch!"

The room speakers overloaded as an ultrasound blast knocked the 
image-Juliana out.  She fell down, and stayed down.  The image 
technician also winced, staggered, but did not fall.  Our actual 
Juliana looked closely and saw that the man onscreen was wearing 
ear protectors.  She turned to the actual man beside her, he had 
them in his ears now too, plastic white-sound filters.

The man in the viewscreen started to kick the unconscious 
Juliana. "I was angry," the present man explained, as if 
apologizing, "but you hurt me.  Especially my feelings, 
ha ha ha."

There was a fast-forward, to hours later.  The image-Juliana 
was conscious but bound again, and he raped her again, one 
final time.  Then when he was finished, he attached an electrode 
to each of her feet, and disappeared offscreen.  

Seconds later she jerked spasmodically to high-voltage electrocution, 
eyes bugging, tongue protruding, arms legs fingers spread out stiffly, 
hair undulating with the current...and then it was over.  The voltage 
and her life, that other Juliana was dead.

This Juliana too was in shock now.  Seeing that was almost 
like enduring it.  That was HERSELF he had done it to---and 
now, would do to her again.  She started to panic, to 
hyperventilate, to gag, to vomit.

"Hang on, my dear, and don't worry--I'm NOT going to electro-
cute you. I've done that.  No use repeating myself--after all 
I'M not a copy, ha ha ha!"

"So what...what WILL you do?"

"I don't know yet.  Let's just see what we can come up with
when the time comes, all right?  Now, pay attention, I have
more vidies..."

"I WON'T watch them, they're too horrible!"

"Oh, but that's the whole point!  Here's your friend
Wenda.  I really fancied her--she's just so bosomy and blonde
and oversexed--but actually she was a big disappointment..."

Juliana tried not to watch, but couldn't resist.  Especially
when she could hear Wenda cursing the technician.  She looked 
at the viewscreen and there was Wenda, naked and bound, like 
all the others.

But Wenda was trouble for him anyway, that was obvious.  She
was used to casual sex, but she wasn't having any of his.  She
cursed and writhed like a madwoman.  He couldn't even get into
her after several attempts, so he lost his patience and hit
her.  She just got madder, more verbally abusive, so he hit her 
harder, lots of times.  Finally her face was all bloody, puffy, 
blackened.   Juliana almost couldn't recognize her friend any 
more, especially through her own tears.  

Then the man simply started beating and kicking Wenda to death 
and didn't stop until she was dead.

"She wouldn't cooperate, so I had to punish her.  After that
she was so ugly I really didn't want to screw her anymore, so
I could just as well have fun finishing her off." 

Juliana collapsed, giving up.  She didn't even cry.  It didn't
matter what she did, resist or not resist, the result was the
same.  Indignity and death.  Wenda had died awfully, but at
least she had not surrendered.  However, the other Juliana had
led him along and at least HURT him back.  

"Next we have..."

"Enough!" Juliana cried, "I can't stand seeing any more!"

"Oh, all right, we'll take a little break.  They've made me 
rather horny anyway."

"They make me SICK!"

"Well, smile anyway," he said, as he started having her, 
"you're on camera."

Juliana thrashed against her bonds, as Wenda had done, but 
they were so tight, stretching and spreading her out so exactly 
that she could neither move arms nor legs.  There was nothing 
she could do to defend her sex from him, and he took her 
effortlessly once again. 



"There's one more I want you to see.  Look."

"I'm not interested.  These are boring.  Just kill me and get
it over with."

"Oh no, not yet!  I really like you, Juliana, I want to spend
some quality time with you.  See how much.  Look."

"No!"  She closed her eyes and turned her head away.  

He grabbed her face and roughly forced it back towards the
viewscreen, hissing in quick anger, "Yesss, or I'll hurt
you!" 

"You've already shown me that one."

"No.  This is the second time I Enactivated you."

"Oh, god, no.  I...I don't want to see this..."

"It doesn't matter what you want, only what I want.  Now
watch!" 

It was awful: she really DID act like a recording, saying the 
same things over again.  Any variations were from the 
technician's actions, but then, he was running the show.  He 
raped her several times, same old stuff, then she begged to 
use the toilet.  This time he didn't set her free, but put the 
bedpan under her.  There was never a chance to get free.

Then onscreen, he showed that 2nd copy of Juliana his vidies, 
just as he had with the present 3rd copy.  That Juliana cried, 
tried to throw up, had all the same reactions as this Juliana. 



"Isn't it risky for you to have these vidies?" the current
version of Juliana asked, "they're evidence of what you've 
been doing--what if someone finds them?"

The technician smiled.  "Oh, they're safe enough.  I have no
hard copies lying about, they're all stashed into my secret
site on the Overnet.  They can neither be found nor deciphered
without my chain of addresses and access codes."

Juliana's eyes sneaked up to the address line on the screen. 
There was an endlessly long line of characters.  

The man smiled smugly.  "Trying to memorize the address?  Well, 
there are 29 of them, each 13 characters long, good luck. And 
even if you did, you'd need the passwords for each of them."

"Can you remember all that?" she asked, as if impressed.

"Heavens no..." and then he didn't say any more.  They both
knew that meant the addresses and codes were programmed into
his lab computer in the control room.
 
Up on the viewscreen, the image-Technician was finished raping 
that Juliana.  He went offscreen, obviously leaving the room.  
Then an ultrasound shock wave hit and she went unconscious.  He 
came back and undid her bonds, then carried her limp form 
to the EnActivation chamber and put her inside.  

"Now we switch to the camera inside the EnActivation chamber, 
about a quarter of an hour later," the technician explained.  

The image Juliana was conscious now.  She struggled to her feet
in the narrow tube-shaped chamber.  "What are you doing to me 
now?" she cried out.

The technician's screen voice came from off-screen.  "I'm 
DeEnactivating you, Juliana.  You see, I won't even kill you--isn't 
that nice of me?  I don't think this will hurt, but then I don't 
know--no one has ever sent a living and conscious ReGen Copy 
back to the vaults before..."

That Juliana didn't scream or make a fuss, she had given up. 
She just stood there with head hanging as the stroboscoping light
ran down her body--which was suddenly a whirlwind of particles
and light, a sandstorm swirling around the chamber as the
individual molecules were sorted and returned to their
positions in the vats, until there were none left and the
chamber was empty.  That Juliana no longer existed.

"No muss, no fuss," said the technician in a jolly voice. "And
now, a special treat for you....ta-daaa!"

The EnActivation chamber was onscreen again.  As if playing the 
last scene backwards, there was another swirl of particles and 
strobe-light, and a new Juliana materialized.  

"That's you," he told her, "this you," cupping her breast
fondly.  

Juliana recognized the small details of her own experience with
the technician.  She looked around the room, but saw no
cameras hiding.  How was this vidi going to end?

It was time to engage the enemy, Juliana decided, no matter
what she had to say or do.  So she said, "You're right, we're
just copies.  You can do whatever you want to us.  But is that 
really enough for you?"

"Very astute, Juliana.  I'd like more.  It is becoming rather
repetitious.  But what?"

"If you promise not to murder me, but just send me back to the
vats when you're done, I could be a little more horny, give
back a little..." 

"Oh, ha ha, you're horny enough!  And I've felt what you can 
give back--you hit hard!  You're not especially trustworthy."

"But now I've seen how you can drop me at any time with that 
ultrasound.  What could I do?"

"Hmm.  Well, I might consider it, we'll see..."



Except for the rapings he hadn't actually harmed her physically 
yet, although he kept promising that he would.  He just left 
her alone in the dark for what must have been overnight.  She 
struggled with her handcuffs and leg bonds, but they were 
too well designed to slip out of and too strong to break.  

She was getting hungry and very thirsty.  The last time she 
had eaten was breakfast before she and Vance had walked to 
the UpLoad Lab...then she realized that that had to be at 
least six months ago.  But that was what she remembered, 
and that was the food she had in her belly, copied along 
with her.

Some of which she would have to defecate soon.  And she had 
to urinate again.  That was the only way she could keep track 
of time.  She would have just pissed on the couch, to screw the 
mass/weight cover-up, as well as letting the technician clean 
it up, but he had plugged her into a bedpan.

When he finally came back she was weeping. "I hurt everywhere,"
she told him, "my shoulders, my legs...can't I change position
somehow?"

"I want to have you first, maybe afterward," he said.  

She was surprised, said, "Oh, yes, please, thank you.  I won't 
try anything."

"If you do the ultrasonics will knock you out, so it's up to
you."

He removed the bedpan, putting it in another room for storage, 
and returned with a shoulder bag, from which he took out 
tissues and water to clean her up with, very carefully, very
reverently.

"Can...can I have some of that water?  I'm..."

"Oh, yes, my dear, of course!"

He took a jar of cold water from the bag and held it to her
mouth.  She drank all of it, half a liter.  Then he cut an 
apple up in quarters and fed it to her.  He was being very 
nice.  She found herself feeling impossibly grateful.

Then he was ready for sex.  Juliana knew that he wanted her to
like it, so she said, "Wait, I hurt so much in this position--if
you let me roll over you can take me from behind.  I'd like
that."

She could see from his face that he'd like that too.  A little
variation never hurt anyone.  "All right.  But remember the
ultrasonics."

"Sure.  As if I could attack you after being stretched out like 
this for so long. I can't even move." This was obviously true.   

The technician went out to the control room and threw some
switches, put on his ear protectors against ultrasound.  When 
he returned he touched a lever beside the couch and her 
shackles were released at last.

"I can't...oh, my shoulders!"   She wept a little again from 
the pain.  Tried to sit up, but couldn't.  He rolled her limp 
body over on the couch so that she lay face down, legs over 
the side.  He took the shackles to set them on her again. 

"Oh, please no," she begged, "let me enjoy it without them, 
just this time.  I can't move anyway."

"Über..." he threatened.  She recognized the command word 
that could set off the ultrasonics, nodded her understanding.

"Please," she said in a helpless little-girl voice. 

He considered, then decided she looked too good the way she 
was to spoil it.  He dropped the shackles and put his hands 
on her bottom instead.  Then, almost compassionately, began 
to massage her back.

"Oh!  That's so good!" she told him.

He kneaded her shoulders, her back, her arms.  That got him
excited and he was pressed up against her buttocks, so he
slipped inside her as he rubbed.  As she began to moan with
pleasure, so did he.

"This will be the last time, my love," he said, "the weekend 
is almost over.  I wish we could go on like this, but I'll 
have to start the torture or there won't be enough time to  
do it right...I'm sorry, I really am."

"Just make me come this one last time," Juliana begged, "you 
can do that--you're good..."

"Yes!  Yes, for you my love, oh oh oh..."  

"Oh, turn me over, turn me over, I want to see you!" she 
insisted as they were both almost climaxing.  Franticly, he 
pulled out and turned her limp helpless body over so that he 
could quickly enter her from in front.

With deft speed Juliana jabbed two fingers directly into his
eyes--a maneuver she had been trained in but would probably 
never have used on any other opponent.  He screamed and fell 
back, blinded.

"Thanks for the massage, asshole!" she shrieked, even as she
ripped the ear protectors from his head.  He was already 
shouting the command word triggering the voice-controlled 
ultrasound, "Übermensch!"

She jammed the protectors into her ears even as the stunblast 
of silent sound rang through the room like a gigantic gong 
which could be felt but not heard.  The impact of the 
ultrasound waves stung her unprotected naked body like twenty 
fire hoses all around her, but she maintained consciousness.  

The technician could not, he crashed to the floor like a dead 
man.

The ultrasound had come as a single surge, then was done.  But
Juliana took no chances; she kept the ear protectors on.  Then
she was trying to sit up, but couldn't, her muscles were too
stiff from being immobilized an entire weekend, and then being
hit by the ultrasound wave was like bruising a bruise.

But she knew that the technician was not a dead man,
ultrasound didn't kill, he would revive eventually, no telling
how long.  She had to get up first or she was dead.  So she 
did, grunting with pain and staggered from the couch as if on 
wooden stilts, toward the sliding door.  She fell, crawled the 
rest of the way.

Juliana pushed the open button, hoping the glass door was
unlocked this time, but it wasn't.  The door glass was the 
kind that can withstand ultrasound, she could never break it.  
She was still locked in.

Behind her the technician groaned.

She turned; she had to deal with him before it was too late.  
Her eyes scanned the chamber for any kind of weapon.  It was a
containment room, the only thing loose was the technician's
shoulder bag in the middle of the floor.  She crawled back to 
it as fast as she could. 

With groaning muscles that almost wouldn't obey her she dumped
the bag out on the floor.  Two apples, mini towels, water:
kindnesses for her.  And a leather folder with surgical
instruments: to torture her with.  She chose a scalpel.

Then she crawled towards the technician, who lay still but
groaned again.  There wasn't much time.  She didn't even know
what she was going to do.
 
Just as she reached her he coughed, gave a cry of pain, turned
his head toward her and opened his eyes.  She was too late.

"I'm blind!" he cried, "help!"

Juliana saw that his open eyes were both ruptured--from her 
fingernails.  She had put everything she had into it.  There 
was a second of horrid indecision trying to think of what 
to do.

"Let me help you," she said in the sweetest voice she 
could manage.

"Yes, help me, help me..." he was like a baby, turning his 
face toward her voice, lifting his chin.

She sliced the scalpel through his throat and both jugular 
veins in one neat sweep.  He gagged when he tried to cry out.  
But he reached blindly out for her and caught her forearm by 
chance.  So with her free hand she cut through the tendons 
in his wrist.  

None of this was in panic or hate, she was as cold tempered 
and in control as could be.  This was science, a solution to a 
problem.  This had to be done.  Then she rolled away from the 
technician and let him die.  It was messy and it took much 
longer than she thought it would, but she didn't care.  She 
didn't bother to watch but used the time to get some motion 
back into her muscles.

Later she ate the two apples.  Monday morning a man came to 
the EnActivation Lab to see why the technician wasn't answering 
the phone.  Within minutes the compound police arrived to 
investigate the homicide.

Juliana told her story: who she was, what the technician had 
done to her and other woman ReGen Copies, about the sex-slaves 
deal with Saudi Arabia.  The compound police called in the 
military.  The military wanted to keep it quiet.

For a while Juliana was afraid that they actually were just 
going to "return her to the vats", it would have been the 
neatest solution to a nasty scandal.  They were ostensibly 
holding her under suspicion of murdering the technician.  But 
one of the investigating officers was in fact a ReGen copy 
himself--one of the famous 5 Rickies.  They recognized each 
other from the Procyon Project and he was immediately on her 
side.  He was also quite interested in her, so she forgot 
about Vance and concentrated on him--this was survival.  

He got her off when he finally found the technician's vidies, 
evidence clearing her and proving that the technician was 
guilty of multiple murders.  Then he set up an identity change 
program for her with his official connections and she was flown 
off to Seattle with a new last name and PRN.  That officer came 
to visit her so often that they finally got married, if you want 
a happy ending to a horror story, but that was later, another 
story.

As for her original identity, that was of course being 
occupied by the original Juliana, who had married Vance and 
had two kids.  This Juliana copy kept tabs on her via the 
Overnet, but had not yet decided to make contact.  She didn't 
want her other self to know what her UpLoad had been--and 
could be--used for.

The real happy ending is that she could finally resolve the 
experience she had had with the technician, overcoming the 
trauma and nightmares, because of three things: 

Although he had EnActivated her for his own perverse reasons, 
she would never have existed otherwise;

She had proved that she was NOT just a recording; 

And she had stopped the bastard from doing it any 
more copies of her or anyone else.