Message of the story is how even if a minority in society is overall equal, if some basic human rights are denied to them then society still needs to fight for their equality.
Story line:
In the future, cloning technology has finally been applied to humans. Human clones can successfully be ‘grown’. Organ clones, artificial organs, etc. are not perfect replacements when the original dies. So, richer people have clones grown. When they need a replacement organ, they simply harvest it from the clone. These clones are well taken care of and live good lives, the one price they must pay is they are willing to die for their “master” at any time.
A gay man meets one of these clones and falls in love. They have some good times together. However, the time comes when the clone is needed to keep his original alive, and the gay man cannot accept what society says is fair.
The clone is a copy of Matthias Arec Koppel, a rich green energy baron, whose solar power windmills and bioenergy farms power over half the civilized world. His clone, Arec 4, lives in the clone community (name here). He has dark hair and deep brown eyes, swarthy complexion and large pouty lips. Just like his original, he always has a look of deep thought on his face, his brow slightly knitted.
Our main character, Jeremy, is tall and lean, blond hair and blue eyes. He works for a medical agency that is contracted to take care of the clones. Arec 4 slipped and hurt his hip. Jeremy is assigned to check on Arec’s healing and assess what valuable bones or organs were damaged in the fall.
Jeremy lives in a nice part of a large city and takes the tube system (a series of interconnected tubes where small computer controlled pods move people around like taxis) to see Arec 4 and is amazed at how clean and start of the art the clone community is.
Jeremy is immediately taken with Arec and can’t stop thinking of him. He goes out later with his fag hag and discusses him with her. She advises him that type of relationship will go nowhere, everyone knows what clones are for. She represents society’s view, that the clones are people, just not people with equal rights. Everyone will look down on them and the relationship can’t go anywhere.
The relationship will develop ok for a while, but eventually the original will need something from the clone