Criminals -- Fiction; Identity -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
He was no copy, but there were copies of Baker, dozens of them, all
helping the downtrodden aliens from terrestrial exploitation and making
fortunes for themselves. There were fat ones, thin ones, tall ones,
short ones, all kinds of Bakers, thanks to the refinement of Gentle's
distortion factors in matter-duplicating to an exact science, a desired
result, not an accident like the duplication itself. Unfortunately, in
a few, physical distortion meant mental disorientation. These no longer
had to merely pretend to be other people than Baker.
It was too bad about them--and about all the other Bakers who had
died. He really had died in all those ways on all those worlds in all
those bodies, despite "Street's" clever excuses. Still it wasn't a bad
life--helping the helpless and himself to all they could get.
Yes, Baker decided, dying was a good way to make a living.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Baker's Dozens, by Jim Harmon
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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