I'm not of the 'Aptom clone' or 'doppelganger' frame of mind. Just because when Aptom absorbed a load of biomass and split into multiples, one of those multiples was the one round whom the story revolved, is not to say that this is the 'original' Aptom and the others are duplicates. I'm not sure as if any of the Aptom bodies would desire to be independent; I think they are all Aptom, and remerging with other bodies of the Aptom entity does not mean they cease to exist.