SOLVED. Adult Sci Fi Short Story about space travel using clones. [s]

[Hayley]

Hello, I'm looking for a short story I was assigned to read by my Sci Fi & Fantasy Lit professor in college. He provided the story to us as a PDF we printed out that I don't have anymore. I read it between 2008-2011.

This sci fi short story was focused on a woman who needed to travel through space, I forget why, and had to report to the space travel service/building. There was a male operator who set her up in the space travel machine, but it didn't work. She comes out of the machine and talks to the male operator while she waits.

[SPOILERS]

(view spoiler)[Turns out space travel is actually done by cloning the original person, and the service at the other location creates an exact copy of the original. This is a secret, because the original is required to be killed so both copies don't exist. The operator finds out that her clone was in fact created in the other location, and he then has to ask the original to go back into the machine so he can kill her.

The purpose of the short story was to discuss how the two copies of this woman have different experiences in life for a few hours and are now essentially two separate beings, and the ethics of killing the original copy, etc. (hide spoiler)]

Thank you for your help!

[Username]

Think like a dinosaur?

[Hayley]

Thank you, that was definitely it!

FOUND: Think Like a Dinosaur
Novelette by James Patrick Kelly

[Kris]

Glad you found your short story. Link for Username's find - Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories by James Patrick Kelly.