Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
[Story][Season 0] Secure Allies
[Story][Season 0] Secure Allies
#1
Secure Allies - 04/Aug/2012
Late December 2001, Kandor City.
Trust.  Society depends on it.  Finance requires it.  We trust people all around us, every day of our lives.  But, how much can you trust someone who tried to kill you?  Who is a 'rogue AI'?
His name was, had been, Erwin Merkin.  A Super, one of those fascinated by Nicola Tesla.  In his case, the phenomena of the Electro Magnetic Pulse.  Now he called himself 'EMPath'.  And, if you wanted an expert on EMP, he was it.
As a process of getting the biomod he wanted, giant Tesla Coils and handwavium with a wide range of (computer-free) electrical goods dissolved in it might make sense.  He got what he wanted - he also permanently burned-out his higher brain functions.  And, acquired an EMP aura that effected any medical or other hardware, particularly that which got really close-up and personal.
Dr Asmodeus Grey had apparently been involved in his case, before he fell from grace.  Erwin was one of the things he took with him when he fled.  Later, surgery implanted an AI link, which drove Erwin and created 'EMPath'.
Janet spent a week in Kandor, sorting out her 'pirate collection' situation - the police weren't happy, but accepted jurisdiction, and most of the pirates ended up in The Vault, for safe keeping.  EMPath spent some time in hospital, and fortunately his biomod seemed to give him enough regeneration that his broken neck, with suitable (manual) treatment, quickly recovered.
One of EMPath's problems was that he couldn't afford to get too close to his AI core without risking burning-out his own brain.  The Boskone had used this issue to make it quite clear he'd no chance of changing employ.  Janet commissioned a heavily-shielded R2 astro-navigation unit, and installed the AI core, so that mobility would be far less of a problem.
The Kandor police seemed unsure what to do about EMPath.  He'd obviously been involved in crimes, but effectively with a gun held to his head.  For the moment they decided not to press charges, but kept the option open in future - a clean record for a few years and they'd likely close his case.  They did pride themselves on their fairness.
Janet knew she had deadlines.  Even if Boskone didn't directly know what happened to the latest group of pirates that she'd captured, it was very likely that information would seep from Kandor City.  Even if the police themselves didn't have any leaks.  She had intel, and needed to make use of it, fast.
EMPath had proved a little reluctant, to start with.  Then, when it became clearer he wouldn't be imprisoned, and the R2 unit was delivered, he started to talk less about how much danger he was in, and more about Boskone.  They appeared to be bigger than many had feared, but were more like a loose federation, which combined cooperation with turf wars, than a solid enemy.
Dr. Asmodeus Grey had a presence which hung over a lot of Boskone.  He had clear objectives, to do with producing catgirls, but smart people suspected as a step towards total control of The Wave.  He also wanted power and influence, which Boskone gave him.  Fortunately, he was only one man, and didn't appear to have a lot in the way of trusted lieutenants.  Yet, anyway.
Opinions in the Kandor police were mixed.  Some thought she was a hero, a superhero, even.  Others a trouble-maker, someone wasting Kandor City resources, filling-up the prison system with those not a direct threat to the city.  Neither view was dominant, and there was only a small on-line flame war about what she'd done.  Some BNFs seemed to have smoothed things over.
She just hoped she'd got the right sort of attention, quickly enough.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#2
META "Secure Allies"

This story has a biomod, which is arguably a Black Queen - someone has got super powers out of it (an EMP aura), but they are not a conscious being afterwards. And, they get good enough regeneration that fixes them in that state. Maybe had self-destructive impulses? Wanted to be a Super or go out in a blaze of glory? Hard to say.

Question: Is this a legitimate biomod?

This story follows "Consolidated Failure", and comes before "Covert Loses".
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#3
It's very powerful, but you set it up in a believable manner and it's got an incredibly bad downside.

I'll allow it in this case...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Reply
 
#4
I could imagine him wearing a tin foil helmet, just to protect his brain...

I'm told this can concentrate effects rather than protect you from them, rather like a dish-shaped antenna...
http://berkeley.intel-research.net/arahimi/helmet/
(Because, we need more deliberate attempts to win an Ig Nobel Prize. [grin]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ig_Nobel_Prize
http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/ )
I'd put this Fen down as a Darwin Awards winner, except, he's (just about) alive...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#5
Actually, he qualifies, as the original 'brain' behind him has clearly managed to remove himself from the gene pool quite permanently.

It seems pretty clear to me that there is NOTHING left of the original mind there; the AI is effectively running a meat based remote drone.
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-

NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children
Reply
 
#6
If Arthur made EMPath's AI. And, if Arthur put a drop of Erwin's blood into the handwavium used to make the AI. And, if the new AI tried to learn as much as possible about Erwin, and, all about EMP, as that was what fascinated Erwin...

You might wonder...

Yes, this is an AI running a meat-based remote drone.

If Erwin's got any surviving relatives, or close friends (maybe he was married, or even had children), they could get a trifle upset.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#7
*reading the wiki entry*

He likes cats/catgirls? Good that its only EMP and not also static electricity... otherwise his chance to get close to a cat or a catgirl would be... low. Wink
Reply
 
#8
HRogge Wrote:*reading the wiki entry*
He likes cats/catgirls? Good that its only EMP and not also static electricity... otherwise his chance to get close to a cat or a catgirl would be... low. Wink
Both he and Catgils are 'wave products... there is an high chance there are static discharges at the most comedic/dramatic moments, no matter how impossible such a discharge would be under physical laws...
Reply
 
#9
Rakhasa Wrote:
HRogge Wrote:*reading the wiki entry*
He likes cats/catgirls? Good that its only EMP and not also static electricity... otherwise his chance to get close to a cat or a catgirl would be... low. Wink
Both he and Catgils are 'wave products... there is an high chance there are static discharges at the most comedic/dramatic moments, no matter how impossible such a discharge would be under physical laws...
I think most people would agree that his quirks are nasty enough that "piling insult on top of injury" would be a bit much.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#10
Ace Dreamer Wrote:
Rakhasa Wrote:
HRogge Wrote:*reading the wiki entry*
He likes cats/catgirls? Good that its only EMP and not also static electricity... otherwise his chance to get close to a cat or a catgirl would be... low. Wink
Both he and Catgils are 'wave products... there is an high chance there are static discharges at the most comedic/dramatic moments, no matter how impossible such a discharge would be under physical laws...
I think most people would agree that his quirks are nasty enough that "piling insult on top of injury" would be a bit much.

And the Mass Effect engines produced by CI already have the quirk to produce static charges (mostly during FTL flight)... Wink
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)