Personal Log 25: The Story Of Aoife Hohnlein
15 Sep 2016Jemine Caesar
22nd July, 3301Central Park, New York City, Earth, Sol
8am
I found Shakespeare Garden easily enough. It was bigger than I expected, but it wasn't long before a young woman, carrying a disposable coffee cup and a bagel, called out to me.
*****
Hey! Jemine! You are Jemine Caesar, aren't you? Thanks for coming. My name's Aoife Hohnlein. My mom's Irish, my dad's from Austria. Look, that's not important. Walk with me while I have breakfast. I need to tell you something.
I know about you and John. The man you used to know as Caz. He and I went to school together. I had a huge crush on him, we dated, nothing heavy. When I was 16 John got me an internship as a clerk with his father's company, JG Industries. John began having behavioural difficulties around that time. His dad sent him to a shrink for a psych-eval. He was diagnosed with Lothario Syndrome. When John told me about it, what it was doing to him, I was devastated. I was very much in love with him, you see. You do know about Lothario's, don't you? Good. Saves me going into all the gory detail.
I read up on everything I could find about Lothario Syndrome. Most of it was way above my head, but I learned that there was a research outfit called the Lothario NTUP Foundation. They've dropped the Lothario part of the name since then. I contacted them. They told me the syndrome was very, very rare, and that they were working towards a cure for it. They explained that they'd make faster progress if they had DNA from offspring infected with the NTUP virus. I guess you know what NTUP stands for, right? They said that they could then use the DNA to reverse genetically engineer a treatment, designed to target the part of the brain affected by the syndrome.
I thought if I could help the Foundation get this DNA, they'd be able to cure John, and we'd be able to live a normal life together. John had already told me he was going to leave Earth to satisfy the syndrome's demands on him, while at the same time distancing himself from causing any scandal for his father and the company.
So I hired an agent to follow John. Her mission was to collect DNA from the children of the women John got pregnant, and send it to the Foundation's labs as soon as possible afterwards. How she managed to do it, I don't know. It was one hell of a feat of organisation on her part.
John returned to Earth in December 3293. His Lothario Syndrome had lapsed into its dormant stage. I thought we'd be OK. John had no interest in sex at all, but that didn't matter to me. I was sure the NTUP Foundation would find a cure before too much longer, and I would have John to myself. By this time I had become his father's private secretary, so everything was looking good for our future together.
But that wasn't what John wanted. He started tracking the girls of his 'harem' as he called it. He had a network of contacts watching you all, reporting back on your movements. He paid them well for their trouble, too. It became his obsession. Then, when the children started dying of the NTUP virus, he began sending invitations to the bereaved girls he'd screwed, asking them to join him on Earth. I arranged the Sidewinders for him. The first one to be invited was in 3294, at 70 Ophiuchi. Her name was Bounty Brown. Her son, Marcus, had died aged just six.
John's callous attitude broke my heart. It was all just a game to him. The DNA harvesting went on, but any love I'd had for John turned to hatred. He didn't care about me at all. He was just happy to wait for one of his harem to turn up, and live happy ever after with her in some sham, meaningless marriage. So I decided that, if I couldn't have him, then no one else would. I was going to kill him, but then you turned up and did it for me. Out of all the girls he invited, you were the only one who came.
You had a lot of guts, I must say. Sticking the knife through his joystick was a nice touch. The Camilla has cameras fitted all over. John liked to keep little records of his boat parties, you see. It caught everything you did, and sent a live feed to my personal dataslate. But you're OK, don't worry. I deleted it straight after. The only other copy was on the skimmer's computer, but when I went to check, it had already been deleted. I have no clue who by. Now you know everything, so, if you'll excuse me, I have to get to the office...
What? What did you say? Clones? I really have no idea what you're talking about. How dare you! I wanted the DNA to help find a cure, not to create a bunch of abominations! Cloning's illegal, you know!
*****
Aoife left. She had answered a lot of questions, but seemed genuinely ignorant about the cloning of the harem children. I was inclined to believe her. But if she wasn't behind the clones, then who was?