Disclaimer: See Chapter 1

Word Count: 3,180 (9 of 18)

"Explain this to me again," Rachel said, asking questions in another planning meeting. "Where are we getting our army and Santana's space people."

"We take genetic material from each of you," Artie said. "We then use your material to create descendants."

"Clones?" Rachel asked. "Will they have souls?"

"Clones?"

"Exact duplicates," Quinn said.

"I don't think I could take more of her running around," Santana said. "Let's just use the three of us." She pointed at herself, Brittany, and Quinn.

"No, not exact duplicates. That is prohibited," Artie said. "There are multiple combinations of offspring that can be created in this manner without this cloning."

"So, they will be our children?" Rachel asked.

"That is a social construct," Artie said. "We can produce children for you to nurture, in this manner, but that is not how it is normally done in the Clans."

"We can get back to that later," Rachel said faintly. "So, once you have the 'genetic material' what happens?"

"The genetic material is charted and suitable combinations are selected for different tasks. And then grown in sufficient quantities," Artie said. "The entities that survive the accelerated growth process are trained in the desired occupations."

"That sounds a bit cold hearted," Rachel said, frowning.

"It is not done often," Artie said. "But has proven successful in most cases."

"And what about souls?" Rachel asked. "You create people, but are they really people or just organic robots?"

"They have free will and have independent thought," Artie said. "This concept of soul is not one I'm familiar with."

"Rachel, let's just skip that one," Quinn said. "There's no way to know. This isn't Buffy."

"I don't want soulless clones of myself running around," Rachel protested, "doing evil things."

"Just drop it," Santana added, almost growling at her. "Is this going to create perfect soldiers and pilots?" she asked.

"Perfect? Meaning without flaws? No," Artie said. "There are rules. We can arrange combinations of traits to give extra weight to desired skills but we cannot improve on the original material."

"For example?" Quinn asked, curious.

"We can arrange for the traits of good vision and fast reflexes, by taking the best of these from the material we are given. But we cannot give the resulting descendants enhanced vision or speed beyond what you are capable of."

"I think I understand that," Rachel said. "Human, not super-human."

"How mentally stable will they be?" Brittany asked. "The human mind takes time to develop. If you're forcing them to grow faster than normal, don't you risk them being unstable?"

"No," Artie said. "They will grow and become fully aware in special learning pods."

"Oh, that temporal learning thing you did to us," Brittany said, nodding.

"There is nothing to worry about," Artie said. "We will use your recorded memories and the memories of the Clans as templates."

"Welcome to the Matrix," Santana said, sotto voce. "So these not-clones will live lives in some virtual world until they are fully grown and ready to go?"

"Correct," Artie said.

"If we must," Rachel said, frowning. "How do you know they'll follow orders afterward? Won't they be angry at us?"

"Do we get to see this world you'll create for them?" Brittany asked.

"If you wish," Artie said, sounding puzzled.

"Why do you want to do that?" Santana asked softly, out of habit since she suspected the AI could hear the faintest whisper.

"They need to know we care about them," Brittany said. "That they are family, even if they will seem like 'instant people' to us."

"Family, yes," Rachel said. "Definitely. Not children, but nieces and nephews."

"Female only," Artie said.

"Really? Why?" Rachel asked, the first one to get past their surprise at that pronouncement.

"The process only works reliably on female genes," Artie said.

"Why?" Brittany asked.

"Forced growth is not compatible with male genetic material," Artie said.

"Not a problem," Santana said. 'We don't need 'em."

"Fine for you," Rachel grumbled. "You have Brittany."

"So, is incest a thing for you?" Santana asked her. "Cause, even if the mix-n-match was from all four of us, that person would still be a quarter your genetic material."

"Yikes..." Brittany said. "That's so not a good idea, Rachel. Sex with relatives is not something we want to encourage, even if they can't get each other pregnant. Non-clan wouldn't understand. Maybe we should have some kind of identification for genetic relationships?"

"We will consider that," Artie said.

"How many will there be?" Quinn asked. "I'll need at least a regiment to secure the area. And Santana will need enough for her crews."

"And we'll need more than that," Brittany said, "Isn't the average ratio ten to one for supporting people in the field?"

"So, if Quinn needs a thousand soldier, we need ten thousand people in our family?" Rachel asked.

"It won't be that bad," Brittany said. "Some of those in Support will be part of Santana's Navy. And Quinn won't have a huge army, to start off with anyway. And eventually we'll have trained Lost Clan available."

"Your people shall become available in waves," Artie said. "As their roles and training dictate."

"Meaning?" Quinn asked.

"Officers first?" Brittany suggested. "Not everyone is going to be at the bottom of the pyramid. And it'll be total chaos if everyone shows up to work at once."

"What about my ships?" Santana asked. "Now that we've discussed crew, what about the ships."

"You're an impatient, annoying person, aren't you?" Quinn said, leaning back in her chair. "What's the rush?"

"She's just suffering flying withdrawals," Brittany said, sympathetically rubbing Santana's back.

"That's not it," Santana said. "Well, maybe a little bit. As soon as we have pilots I want them out there." She waved vaguely at the walls. "Learning how to fly the real thing."

"Construction on your flagship will begin soon," Artie said. "Infrastructure needed to be created first."

"You are following my plans," Santana said. "We need to be self sufficient once we leave here."

"Yes."

"What does that mean?" Rachel asked.

"The nanobots can create some amazing things," Santana said. "But we can't take them with us, they're a little too advanced to risk getting loose on Earth. So everything has to be repairable by my crews without their help. At least for the first couple years."

"Oh," Rachel said. "How are your preparations going, Quinn?"

"The mobile armor for my regiment is custom fitted so that can't start until I actually have people who can wear it. But we're stockpiling things we can make, like personal weapons. And several tanks and other small vehicles."

As they waited, impatiently in Santana's case, for the first of their grown clanswomen to complete their training, they spent time working on the next stage of their plans, trying to think of, down to the last detail, everything they would need to prepare for. None of them had planned a real operation like this before, just training simulations, so they wanted to get every detail right, to be ready for anything.

But now, what they really needed were their people, Clanswomen, doing their jobs.

"When will the first of them be ready," Rachel asked, worriedly. "I mean our Clan people. And where will they live?"

"They aren't redshirts, if that's whats got your panties in a twist," Santana said.

"Redshirts?"

"You know, from Star Trek?"

"Never watched it," Rachel said. "What's a redshirt?"

"That's right, there's no singing on Star Trek," Santana said dismissively.

"Expendable characters," Quinn said. "They were there so they could kill someone every week but not one of the regulars. Usually some security guard or ensign."

"Oh! No, none of our people are expendable, no matter where they came from," Rachel said. "We really need a better name for them."

"Hey You?" Santana said.

"San! That isn't very nice," Brittany said, poking her.

"Something. Houses? The Clans used to have family groups before they became the clans, based on the head of a Household," Rachel suggested.

"I can agree to that," Quinn said. "But how will we decide which House someone belongs to? There are millions of possible gene combinations."

"Keep it simple," Brittany said. "One for each of us. Even a sorting hat."

"Brittany," Santana said. "We aren't running Hogwarts."

"No, but we can still do it that way," Brittany said. "Artie can figure out a way to sort them and it'll all happen in the learning pods. Right Artie?"

"If you can explain the Sorting Hat concept, I will attempt to apply it," Artie said.

"Yeah!" Brittany said, jumping up and dancing around the room.

"So, when will we meet the first ones? And where will they all live?" Rachel asked again.

"The first three cohorts will be ready in thirty days," Artie said. "Temporary living quarters are provided in the base until they are assigned."

"Temporary?" Rachel asked.

"We'll be living in my ships," Santana said. "All of my people have berths assigned to them. All of Quinn's troopers will also have their own berths on the troopships they are assigned to when they aren't on duty."

"What about the rest?" Rachel asked.

"Some will live dirt-side," Santana said. "The rest will live here. Someday we'll have a real base for them."

"Oh," Rachel said. "It doesn't sound simple. Who's keeping track of who lives where?"

"We have a fleet," Santana said.

"And?"

"It's like a government run city. It runs on paperwork," she said. "Once we have enough people in place, we'll take over those kinds of tasks from Artie."

"In triplicate," Quinn added, grimacing. "Everything we do is documented."

"That's the way the AI's work," Brittany said. "Our brains aren't hooked into their net so they make us shuffle paper to keep track of things."

"And now I've got a splitting headache just thinking about this," Santana said, standing up. "I'm going to go work off some of this stress. Coming Brit?"

"Do we get to go to their graduation?" Brittany said, nodding at Santana in agreement, taking her hand to pull herself up.

"If you wish," Artie said.

"Let's do it San. It'll be fun," Brittany said. "Like bonding."

"And an easy way to meet them before they start working for us," Rachel said. "This is going to be so exciting."

And then Graduation day came, and they prepared to drop back into the virtual reality created by the Learning Pods, something most of them hadn't done in months.

"I'd forgotten how much I hate using the Learning Pods," Rachel said, grumbling to herself, lying back in her pod, and waiting for it to fill with the oily goop.

She opened her eyes and found herself standing with the others in a large reception room. Brittany nudged her and pointed towards a large balcony.

"Come on Rach, let's check things out," she said.

"Where are Quinn and your better half?" Rachel asked.

"They're taking part in the ceremony," Brittany said. "A bunch of their officers are being commissioned."

"Don't you have people graduating today?" Rachel asked.

"A few but they don't know they'll be working for me, yet," Brittany said with a wink.

"Oh. So there wasn't any direct spy training?" Rachel asked.

"There are a few candidates I've been keeping an eye on," Brittany said. "Just like Quinn and Santana have been kept up-to-date on other candidates."

"I thought we weren't going to interfere in their growth," Rachel asked, stopping in front of the large glass doors.

"We haven't, but Artie has been keeping us in the loop on the more promising candidates. The ones that are at the top of their classes," Brittany said. "Let's go look at our family." Pushing open the large doors, she pulled Rachel out into the sunshine.

Looking out, Rachel saw an amazing sight. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of people, all women, here for this event. She wasn't sure of the numbers but it looked like the rows of people on the field were dwarfed by the audience in the stands.

"Who are these people?" she asked. "Are they real?"

"We have our graduating cohorts," Brittany said, waving at the uniformed rows on the field. "And the younger cohort members in the later classes." She waved at the stands.

"Wait, I thought they were all going to be the same age?" Rachel asked.

"No, we've discussed this. Remember? The learning matrix is generating our people in a staggered fashion. It's more efficient that way. And leads to visibly different ages."

"I wasn't expecting them to all be together. It's like a big virtual school," Rachel said.

"Yup," Brittany said. "Look, there's Santana," she added, pointing to a small group off to one side. "She's been waiting for her ship crews to finish school so she can put them to work and get her ships out there, doing their jobs."

"I find this whole temporal learning, Matrix environment very confusing as times," Rachel said. "It's only been months for us but they've gone from test tube to adult in that time."

"I try not to think about it myself," Brittany said. "It might make things easier, but trying to keep track of where everyone is in their timeline gives me a migraine. Fortunately, once all of our people are grown up and done with their pod training, we'll all be living in the same time stream. And no more confusion."

"Good," Rachel said. "Whatever happened to the Sorting Hat idea?"

"We'll see it today," Brittany said. "It's part of the graduation ceremony."

"Do you know how it works?" Rachel asked. "I asked Artie to explain it once and I didn't get it. Too much mumbo-jumbo."

"It's very scientific," Brittany said. "Based on all sorts of tests they take as they grow up. Personality, fitness, and intelligence. I'm using a variation to pick out the women I want for field agents."

"So, they've already been assigned to their Houses," Rachel said, trying not to sound too disappointed.

"But they don't know it," her companion said.

"Do all the girls who make good soldiers go into Quinn's House? And all the space people in Santana's?" Rachel asked.

"No," Brittany said, to her surprise. "They really aren't clones. Don't forget that. They have different skills and abilities. Someone in your House can be a good warrior just like someone in Quinn's House could have the skills that make a good Memory."

"I understand that," Rachel said. "But sometimes I find it hard to grasp the idea that we started out with just the four of us and now we have our own clan and Houses."

"Don't forget, we will be rebuilding the Lost Clan. Eventually, they will be merged into ours."

"But different Houses," Rachel said firmly.

"Definitely," Brittany said. "Look! It's starting!"

"Where did they get their names?" Rachel asked in a low voice, even though they were too far away on their balcony for anyone to hear them. "Some of the names were exotic sounding and others fairly ordinary."

"I'm not sure. I think Artie assigned them. Or let them choose their own names. Let's ask. Artie?"

"Yes, Brittany," Artie said.

"Who named the children? I don't remember anything being discussed."

"Names are an important part of identity," Artie said. "They were given random names when they were old enough to communicate. Each has a unique name. When they are sorted into their Houses they are given the choice of picking a new name that has some meaning to them, though they are discourage from using certain names."

"Like what?" Rachel asked, listening as the new House affiliation was announced for each graduate as they crossed the stage, to great cheering.

"Lucy, Quinn, Fabray, Rachel, Barbra, Berry, Brittany, Pierce, Santana, and Lopez," Artie said.

"Really? They aren't allowed to use one of our names?" Rachel said. "Why?"

"Policy."

"Which means you don't know," Brittany said.

"I'm sure there's some good reason for the policy," Rachel told her.

"It's a millennia old organization. If there was a reason for that policy, they've forgotten it," Brittany said.

"We never forget anything," Artie said huffily. "In the Clans the Nine are expected to be unique. No others shall have their names."

"I can accept that," Rachel said. "Brittany?"

"I still think they don't know, but points for quick thinking," she said.

"Do they know who we are?" Rachel asked.

"They know you are the Nine, and what that means in the Clans."

"No, I meant do they know their relationships to us? That we're sort of their parents, not just their leaders."

"They know they are all descended from their Nine," Artie said.

"I can hear a 'but' in there," Rachel said. "What's the catch?"

"They are not aware of the closeness of the genetic relationship," Artie said.

"We're the Nine. They're descended from the Nine. What's there to not know?" Rachel asked, giving Brittany a puzzled look.

"They all have memories of parents," Artie said.

"And where are these parents?" Rachel asked. "Won't that cause problems when they want to write home about their great adventures?"

"They all think they are orphans," Artie said.

"All of them? How does that even make sense, unless you've messed with their minds," Rachel asked.

"Epidemic."

"Which means?" Rachel asked.

"They all died in an epidemic? Isn't that just cruel," Brittany asked.

"Would you rather we tell them?" Artie asked.

"Umm..." Brittany turned to Rachel.

Rachel frowned. "I don't know!" she shouted, stomping back into the room. "How am I supposed to know what to do? They should have been told up front."

"Are you sure?" Brittany asked.

"No," Rachel grumbled. "We never talked about this. We never talked about what we wanted all of these people to think about us."

"Hmm..." Brittany murmured. "Hey Rach, they want us out there."

"For what? I didn't hear anything?"

"We get to welcome them into our Houses," Brittany said. "Come on."

"I didn't know I'd have to make a speech!" Rachel said.

"Not a speech, just say hello," Brittany said, pulling her out of the room.

"I can do that, I think," Rachel said.

Rachel stared, wide eyed, at the rows of women. They looked older than she felt. And extremely athletic. She knew she was in the greatest shape of her life but some of them made her feel positively dowdy.

She wondered what kind of experiences they'd had, living in this virtual reality world. She hoped they wouldn't be too disappointed by the boring real world. Assuming they knew they'd been living in a fake world. Which was something to ask Artie. Later.

"Ladies, here are the heads of House Berry, and House Pierce," Quinn said, her voice carrying across the field. "As we told you, we are new to the idea of having our own houses but we are looking forward to working and living with all of you."

"Hi!" Rachel said, cheerfully. "Welcome to those of you in House Berry and everyone else. I hope to get to know all of you."

"Hey guys!" Brittany said. "The next couple of years are going to require a lot of work, so I hope you find your Houses to be places where you can unwind, take a load off, and be yourselves away from all prying eyes. Except mine," she added, to laughter.

Important Note: Since the ladies ( Rachel, Quinn, Santana, and Brittany) can't be everywhere or do everything in this space opera, a large number of OC's (original characters) will begin to be introduced starting in the next chapter.

Most will have minor roles/bit parts but some will play important roles throughout the rest of the story. But, none of them will be main characters. None of them will 'take over' or become Mary Sues. I know a lot of fan fiction readers don't like original characters but it is unavoidable here. Also, I'm not going to turn this into a crossover just to include existing characters from other fandoms to fill minor roles.

"What? You in the back? Speak up!"

"No, I'm not going to go rummaging around for canon Glee characters to use instead of OC's. It just wouldn't work. Several minor Glee characters will show up soon, but as themselves in a way that makes sense storywise. Other Glee characters (Gleeks even) will join the story, as themselves, in Books II and III (We're only half way thru Book I so it'll be a while. A long while, since I probably won't start Book II until next NaNoWriMo in November 2013.)"

Next: Rachel has some questions and gets some answers.