Imitation of death

A power-hungry faction plots to secure political control by replacing a dissenting council member with an indistinguishable simulacrum. They enlist a solitary technician who constructs mechanical likenesses by recording and replaying mental patterns at his remote workshop. The process demands vast, precise recordings and delicate apparatus, and degraded source material and imperfect machines threaten to reveal the deception. As the conspirators contest tactics and risk, the technician proposes direct neural recording to achieve a convincing copy, forcing all involved to confront the practical limits and ethical implications of perfect imitation.