Dratone Stonem

She lay on the operating table. A panel of glaring bright lights. "Here, relax, everything will be alright". The nurse had just injected her a dose of anxiolytic and was pulling the sleeve of her pajamas back into place. Single-use, sterile and unfashionable piece of cloth.

"Boot sequence completed. No warning in the logs, pulse and respiration normal. We're set for the transfer". She touched the hand of the young woman lying close, linked to herself by a bio-electronic tube. Warm, smooth human skin. Sleeping calmly, she looked just like her twin. A bit better, even; the last year of hard work had provided enough for aesthetic enhancements. Soon she would be like in her dreams --

A numb pain. Gnawing slowly its way from the fingers and toes towards her vital core. Fear. Her heart sank as cold took hold of her. Did she shrivel, or shout? Vision faded into the black spiral sucking her down the tube.

She woke up later next to her dead self.

"Happy birthday" said the surgeon.