I’m going to kill you, my Double shouts.

 

I’m running along the centrifuge. He’s only a few meters behind me. An axe is gripped firmly in his hands. It would be something to see him swinging it around like a madman, smashing it into ventilation and cooling systems. But I guess I’m not that lucky.

 

You can’t run forever, idiot, he says.

 

Everything out here is about the job. It’s always the job. Job. Job. Job. No significant portion of downtime. No nothing. At least that’s what is it to my Double.

 

Get back here, he screams.

 

To me this, place is now nothing but a one hundred meter in diameter circle spinning at 4.2295 rpm careening off course into the void. No more Scroll for me, no more job for him. If you could call it a job and not a life.

 

You did this, he yells.

 

Said job is simple. Surprisingly simple. At least on paper.

 

You pathetic addict, he says.

 

Planet B is having mass infertility rates. Lots of lead in air. Lead screws up human reproduction. They thought humans could adapt to it over time, but you can’t adapt if you die can you?

 

You’re life is one giant pleasure cruise and you ruined mine because of it, he calls.

 

So we come from Planet A with a giant bank of frozen embryos to deliver to Planet B. Simple, right?

 

I can’t believe you did this, he shouts.

 

The reality is the universe is not space travel friendly. Cosmic radiation to shield against, energy management, millions of things that go wrong every day. Instead of working on more advanced ships, they clone someone and raise to two kids to have their entire life’s purpose to be a glorified courier in a centrifuge that’s constantly breaking.

 

You ruined everything. Everything, he says.

 

Those two kids don’t get any life. They get engineering and physics lessons. Then when old enough, off to the stars they go. No friends, family, wives, lives, hobbies or interests.

 

I swear we didn’t come from the same guy because I’m not this stupid and arrogant, he shrieks.

 

So to compensate, they give us the Scroll.

 

I hate you, he yells.

 

The Scroll is simply a screen that creates whatever you like. It makes you real happy to get those dopamine levels up. Makes you feel like your life is not inside of a giant dimly lit circle in the middle of space. Or at least makes it worth it.

 

Do you ever think about anything at all? he screams.

 

So because every day is me fixing the millionth thing that has broken on this centrifuge, it’s nice to indulge in the Scroll.

 

You broke it on purpose, he shouts.

 

Indulging everyday. More and more. I can’t live life without it. My Double doesn’t care. Everything is the job for him.

 

You set us off course, all for this? Because you want your stupid precious entertainment system? he growls.

 

I spend all my free time on the Scroll. Even beyond my free time. Until a large part of the tungsten radiation shield around the embryo bank near the center of the spacecraft withered away. Warnings flashed to me and I ignored them. The Scroll was making me happy.

 

You could have just done your job or had even a shred of self awareness to know that the Scroll is dangerous, he says.

 

My Double gets mad because I’m not doing my job. It’s always the job. Job. Job. Job.

 

Idiot, he screams.

 

So he destroyed the Scroll. Took the fire axe and went to town on it. Now all that’s left to my life is the job. Always the job. Job. Job. Job.

 

Useless, lazy, pathetic- he yells.

 

Then while he was asleep, I changed the spacecraft’s trajectory because I couldn’t sleep. There was no going back when I hit the emergency override to release a good chunk of our nitrogen supply into the thrusters. Nitrogen and the coldness of space don’t mix. Inertia take the wheel.

 

You couldn’t live without it. You just couldn't live without it, my Double shouts.

 

No, I couldn’t I say.

 

So you ruined my life too. You ruined it too, he says.

 

I guess I did.

 

We’ll be legends. The lost embryo delivery. Mysteriously vanished out in space. Maybe the planet will die out because of us too. And one day, they could find this centrifuge. A vastly different and incomprehensibly advanced humanity finds our chilled corpses and reserves of embryo’s. They thaw and birth them and these kids, only for them to find themselves in a world they were never meant for. All because of me.

 

I hate the Scroll.