- A man illegally clones himself to quietly hunt down a pregnant predatory alien monster he illegally brought to Earth, hoping a second wrong will make things right.
- When a dangerous alien creature called a Megasoid escapes, the scientist who smuggled it to Earth creates an illegal clone of himself to hunt it down, but his plan is complicated when his neglected wife begins to fall in love with his duplicate.—Gazhack
- Somewhere in a future city lurks an alien monster with murder on his mind. It's the Megasoid, a man-sized creature with comparable intelligence to man but murderous in intent and with a drive to procreate. Henderson James was supposed to have this creature under lock and key, but alas it has escaped and will require that he clone himself in order to find and kill the creature he was intent on studying. The only problem is how to find and kill it discreetly as the creature is outlawed on Earth. Then there is the issue of whether or not the creature will be so easily subdued.
- Prologue: The Control Voice says that Man's foremost question when looking up at the stars is "What (alien life) will we find there?" Will it be like us or will we find it an unimaginable horror?
At the Space Zoological Gardens, a tour guide leads six students through the Cygnus IV Division exhibit, established circa 2011 A.D., displaying reproductions of alien creatures that couldn't survive the "hostile environment" of Earth - the tentacled Imwarf, which crumbled under the lack of intense gravimetric pressure; the lobster-like Puudly, unable to maintain its physical shape in Earth's methane-poor atmosphere; and, the Megasoid, the highest form of life ever discovered in space, able to communicate but mercilessly driven to kill Man. As the group exists, the Megasoid on the display opens its eyes and growls, revealing that it is alive, only pretending to be an exhibit.
Henderson James arrives home and immediately notices his basement door standing open. Alarmed, he summons Murdock the aged grounds keeper, berating him for disobeying his directive NEVER to open the basement door. How dare he think!
Inside, ignoring his wife Laura's presence (though she's dressed in a stunning gown), Henderson immediately telephones Basil Jerichau at the Federal Duplication Bureau. Unfortunately, Mr. Jerichau was dismissed nearly eight months earlier. There's no phone number to share but there is an address, which Henderson jots down. Laura reminds him of their dinner date at the Merivailes, which Henderson forgot and, under the circumstances, may have to miss. She wonders if it has something to do with "that awful creature." It does. It's gone. He has to find and destroy it. If found by anyone else, Henderson will have to answer to the capital offense of smuggling it to Earth - "a calculated risk with enormous scientific potential." It would be on a normal killer rampage except that it's entered its reproductive cycle, thereby threatening a global catastrophe. Henderson suggests that, under the circumstances, she oughtn't leave the house.
Henderson enters the home of Basil Jerichau, finding the old man sitting groggily in his cobweb-covered workshop with an uncapped bottle of booze nearby. Basil remembers meeting him a year earlier, aware of his brilliant work on universal communication at a symposium on Cygnian psychology. Henderson asks if he has access to the Duplication Center. Basil smirks as he was the one who helped to originate the duplication process. Henderson needs a bootleg duplicate. Basil smirks at the irony of a brilliant scientific brain needing an illegal clone, which is a prime felony with an automatic life sentence. Henderson has money, and $100,000 is agreed upon to restart Mr. Jerichau's career. Henderson shares his need for a clone to hunt down a Megasoid. He has an idea of the one place where it can hide unnoticed.
Henderson next visits the Federal Duplication Bureau, asking Miss Thorsen the receptionist a few "elementary" questions about cloning, ostensibly in connection with his universal communication studies. She'll help, even though tight federal regulations discourage inquiries by the general public about duplications. Duplicates are only permitted to live for five hours at most. Beyond that, they tend to acquire full reconstitution of memory and may want to live. Several cases ended with the original, not the duplicate, being destroyed.
It's after hours at the zoological gardens, and it looks like Henderson is napping on one of the benches, but it's the duplicate. He opens his eyes and begins a rundown of information about the Megasoid: telepathic, lightning mind, no hesitation in killing, one must neither listen to nor talk to it. The tour guide finds and rouses him. They're about to close up and the man can't be sleeping on the bench. The clone's responses are sluggish, so the guide asks if he's been drinking. The clone says he's thirty and takes a sip from the drinking fountain pointed out by the guide.
The guide thinks they ought to call someone to take him home and asks for his name. The clone recalls that his name is Henderson James and gives it but can't recall how he got to the gardens. The guide asks him to check if he's been rob. The closes searches himself. He finds no billfold, nor keys, nor money, but finds a gun tucked into his pants, about which he does not tell the guide. The clone says he's all right and leaves. The guide steps into the employee office. The clone returns, pulls out his gun, and recalls that it's for killing the Megasoid. He heads for the exhibition room.
The guide, changed into his civvies, leaves. The clone, in the exhibition room, isn't fooled by the Megazoid pretending to be just an exhibition. The Megasoid leaps from the exhibit and (in a female voice) asks not to be harmed, but the clone shoots anyway. The beast admits to the clone's assessment that it's been in telepathic contact with Henderson James ever since it escaped - but the man it's talking to now is a shadow, a temporary, a duplicate, created only for one special job and then to be disposed of. As the clone absorbs this, the beast lashes out before another shot can be fired, throws the clone to the ground, and runs out of the building. The clone get up with a lot to think about.
Cops deliver the clone to the space age, hillside home of Karl Emmet (to whose address the clone told them to take him). The cops linger, watching the clone take the funicular up the hillside and be let in by Karl with an all's okay wave. The clone says he should go, but Karl says to wait until the cops drive off, which they shortly thereafter do.
The duplicate says he has to kill the Megasoid, which Karl thinks is crazy talk since they were all eradicated from Earth back in 1986. The clone reminds him that one could be smuggled in by a space captain if the price was right, "Couldn't he, Captain Emmet?" Karl remembers and touches the partial cap that masks most of his head and the left side of his suggestively disfigured face. Karl finds this talk to be strange, with Henderson regarding a Megasoid at liberty on Earth far too lightly. Yes, indeed, it's got to be killed before it can kill half the city or lead to hundreds of murderous offspring at large. Karl starts telephoning the police, but the clone knocks him unconscious.
Using Karl's video-phone, the clone calls his residence. Laura answers, and the clone remembers her lovingly. Henderson himself walks up behind Laura and asks who she's talking to. Laura, confused, hands over the phone. Henderson identifies himself, and the clone hangs up.
Henderson suggests it was a fraud who called and identified himself as Henderson, but Laura says he called her "Princess" - a name Henderson used to call her in his younger days. Seeing no way out of it, Henderson admits to having bootlegged a clone of himself.. Henderson concludes that the clone called because he completed his mission, but Laura points out that he only said he THOUGHT he killed the Megasoid. The clone may have instead discovered he's a clone and doesn't want to die. Laura thinks the clone sounds just as Henderson did years ago (before life experiences made him hard, cold and distant).
As Henderson drives away through his electronic gate, his clone comes along, serendipitously, and slips inside. Watching from behind a tree is the wounded Megasoid. As the clone, with fresh eyes as it were, drinks in the sights and smells of the property his original accrued over time, the Megasoid lurks by the swimming pool.
Henderson arrives at Karl's house, and Karl allows him in, asking if he's returned to apologize for the crack on the head or to report that he's killed the Megasoid. Henderson asks how he knew the Megasoid escaped, and Karl says he told him himself. Henderson immediately tries to cover himself, recognizing that his clone must have been there earlier. Kurt puts two and two together as well, figuring out that a clone must have been involved, which would explain Henderson's apparent mental lapses. Smiling cunningly he asks, "Where is your other self, Mr. James? Where is your duplicate?"
The clone enters the James house, pleased at how well his original has done for himself, but nothing pleases him more than seeing a photograph of Laura on a side table. Laura enters. "Hello, Princess," greets the clone warmly, and Laura instantly knows this isn't her husband. She is still dressed up for dinner, and the clone tells her he liked her hair better worn longer, which she hasn't done in five years. She asks if he'll be working now, and he replies that there are a few details to clean up. She leaves him, pondering over the situation before her.
Back at Kurt's house, Henderson asks how Kurt figured out he had a clone made. Kurt has gotten to know Henderson pretty well over the years; he has enough money for a good laugh but not nearly enough courage to tackle the killing of a Megasoid alone. Kurt asks how he got past getting a permit for a clone, and Henderson admits to knowing a scientist at the center. "Ah," says Kurt, "He won't have to worry about his future, will he? When it comes to bribes, you were never cheap." Knowing this latest secret, Kurt feels he should be compensated for the crack on the back of his head. With the clone approaching a full reconstitution of memory (and programmed to return to his home at midnight - forty-five minutes away), Henderson fears he may be in a struggle for survival. Kurt deduces that Henderson's visit is to hire him to kill his duplicate - something he has no stomach for doing himself. Kurt names his price, asking Henderson if he recalls how much he paid for the Megasoid smuggling job. Henderson does. Oh, yes, indeed he does.
Henderson returns home with Kurt. They have twenty minutes before the expected return of the clone. Henderson leaves the gate open for the clone's arrival and easy entry. Kurt hides behind a tree and waits for the clone, unaware that the Megasoid watches from behind another tree.
inside, the duplicate hears Henderson's car door shut. When Henderson enters his den, he senses he's not alone. "You're here, aren't you?" The clone steps out from the shadows, holding Henderson at gunpoint. Henderson figures he's lost, but the clone also lacks the stomach for murder. He does not know if he's fulfilled his purpose in killing the Megasoid, but "A man has to be responsible for what he does," and in a surprising move, he lays his gun on Henderson's desk. Despite his mind becoming clouded with Henderson's memories, the clone asks why he shouldn't have the right to live too. Henderson pities the clone. In time he'd catch up to where Henderson is right now. Would he find that (his eventual callousness) attractive? The clone, in turn, asks, "Would I despise myself then?"
Outside, while still laying in wait for the clone's arrival, Kurt encounters the Megasoid and is killed.
Inside, while Henderson debates whether the clone should die or live on, Laura enters. She asks if she's supposed to guess which is husband and which is duplicate. The clone says that he is a ghost of how Henderson used to be. With a wry smile, Laura finds it strange and sad to stand before both the man she married and the man she loves, who should be one and the same person (but aren't).
Murdock phones. There's a thing on the grounds and a body lying in the bushes. The clone understands: Captain Emmet was on hand to return the clone to nothingness. Just then the Megasoid crashes through the window. Henderson shoots it twice, and the beast runs off. The clone retrieves his gun from the desk and says he'd better go out and accomplish his purpose. He exits. Laura asks Henderson how he could allow the clone to tackle the job alone. Henderson thinks it over and joins him.
Now both men together hunt the Megasoid (which waits for them, hiding in the bushes).
The telephone rings. It's Basil Jerichau with a message for Mr. James. He's still drunk - and a little surprised that Laura knows about the clone - but says not to fear. He took an extra precaution by injecting the clone with a time-released poison that'll eliminate him at midnight. Laura hangs up and looks at the grandfather clock, two minutes away from the stroke of midnight.
Outside, one of the men finds the Megasoid and shoots; the Megasoid attacks and kills him; the other man comes upon them and empties his gun into the Megasoid. He's now defenseless as the Megasoid approaches, but it is finally enough, and, with one last final but futile lunge, the Megasoid dies.
As Laura stares at the clock, one man returns looking exhausted (or worse). Is it Henderson or his clone? He reports that both are dead, "The Megasoid and the other one." He asks if it's really too late (for the two of them), "Princess." As she relays Basil's message, the clock chimes, and the man collapses in a chair. He's not dying. It is the original Henderson after all, and the experience has awakened him to the fact that he loves his wife dearly.
Epilogue: The Control Voice asks: Can there be any more curious a creature than Man, who creates and falters but can learn from his mistakes?
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