The Two Jasons (novel)

 was the ninth full length novel published by Big Finish Productions as part of their Big Finish Bernice Summerfield series. It was written by Dave Stone.

Publisher's summary
"Oh bloody hell," she snapped. "Listen: me no wantee good time jig-jig all same, okay?"

When Bernice Summerfield first met Jason Kane, she failed to spot his many fine qualities and assets. Over the course of many subsequent adventures, including marriage and divorce, she continued not to see them...

"You're not Jason," she said. "Who the hell are you?"

When Bernice Summerfield first met Jason Kane 2, he was disguised as a critic of the work of Jason Kane. Benny saw through his false moustache and literary pretensions, and had him and his other clones expelled into space, there to make their own fortunes. One Jason Kane was, she felt, rather more than enough.

Now something is astir in the universe, a plot that threatens Benny and all she holds dear. If she stands any chance at all, she needs all the Jason Kanes she can get...

Plot
Receiving a call for help from Jason and believing that she has tracked him with her psionix, Mira travels to a space station in the Catan Nebula and instead finds two of his three short-term clones created as part of a scam. The third died after attempting to access memories which the original had not granted to them and the surviving clones, 2Jason and 3Jason, have gone ahead with purchasing permanent bodies for themselves, although 3Jason's mind has been deliberately frozen at the mental age of eleven. The Church of the Righteously Ascended Pure, who have religious objections to genetic manipulation, attack the station and the Jasons escape with Mira to the shuttle bay.

3Jason collapses due to a rush of memories of stabbing his father, going to a remand centre where he attacked a gay man and physically abusing his girlfriend before going to the women's shelter that she had moved to and beating her until she miscarried their child. After flying to Mira's ship in her shuttle, Mira and 2Jason help him realise that these memories contradict the fact that Jason left Earth and that they must have been implanted with a memory bomb to make him a compliant slave. Mira gives him her data-pad for him to write down his memories of meeting Benny, believing that it will keep the false memories at bay. At 2Jason's request, she leaves the two Jasons in the Proximan Chain before heading to the Braxiatel Collection to help the original Jason.

Whilst 3Jason writes down his memories in a storage locker, 2Jason meets Ophelia Cholmoldly-Shrike, a fan of Jason's books, and goes home with her. He is forced to flee, however, when her mother and gangster father return home and, finding him with their leather-clad daughter, attempt to kill him. He returns to 3Jason and accesses the files on Mira's data-pad, learning that she has been under the control of Jason's enemy. The two Jasons use stasis emitters to keep Mira from moving when she arrives and 2Jason reveals that his mind was split between himself and the only other available body, that being the body of a clone which did not survive the process. Her mind starts to burn out as she denies being under anybody's control, but 2Jason has a device which replaces the affected part of her brain with new tissue.

Jason created the clones in part to have backups as he had suspicions that something might happen to him and 2Jason has been investigating Mira the whole time, distinctly remembering her dying during the Fifth Axis occupation of the Braxiatel Collection and deducing that time has been altered so that she could serve as an unwitting spy. 3Jason merges with 2Jason who, after attempting to contact the Collection and finding that Benny and Jason are no longer listed as residents, decides to live his life to honour the original Jason. He and Mira enter into an asexual relationship and use the reputation of the fictional Plague Dogs to lead a comfortable life, having several children together with the help of a turkey baster.

Decades after the two Jasons merged, 2Jason is summoned to Earth by the President, a clone of Benny whom he has sex with. In the morning, he asks her why she has summoned him, assuming that she wants him to help contact Benny, but she informs him that what is left of the original Benny has already been found.

Characters

 * 2Jason
 * 3Jason
 * Mira
 * Jason Kane
 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Shug
 * Chris Cwej
 * Roz Forrester
 * Ophelia Cholmoldly-Shrike
 * Jasper Cholmoldly-Shrike
 * Mrs Cholmoldly-Shrike
 * Daniel
 * Callum
 * Lucy
 * The President

Worldbuilding

 * Jason read war comics about Union Jack Jackson fighting the Japanese.
 * Jason had a Sega games console.
 * Jason receives a wave from an arachnid woman whom he believes would purée his internal organs with gastric acids before sucking them out through his urethra.
 * Jason can speak Galactic Standard Basic.
 * The Church of the Righteously Ascended Pure believe that the human genome is the ultimate expression of God's perfection. Any attempt to modify them is considered desecration.
 * The Jasons have forgotten the offside rule and the taste of Stilton.
 * 3Jason remembers "some bloody cat or other" and "a little man with a plan and a panama hat".

Continuity

 * Takes place concurrently with The End of the World and The Final Amendment.