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[Story][Season 1] Consistent Technology
[Story][Season 1] Consistent Technology
#1
Consistent Technology - 16/Sep/2012
She'd left the pub.  It'd served it's purpose.  And, quite a nice lunch too.  Mako preferred a beer with a bit more bite, but it wasn't bad.
A little trip via the kitchen waste bins proved useful.  She'd another 50kg of high quality organics.  But, she hadn't bothered to taste those, just do a quick analysis.  A quick check for observers in the car park, and a burst from an inhibitor into the surveillance system, which should give her 15secs to leave.
Her motorbike shape seemed best.  She had enough of a database of local models to make it seem credible.  For extra fun, she ran-up a humanoid remote, nearly 100% organic, to sit on the bike, in helmet and leathers.  It'd be fun to experience the ride through that.
Something was... wrong.  She seemed to be functioning OK, but...  Turning the problem over to her strategic analysis and prediction subsystems she rode on, carefully following the local traffic rules.  To her horror, it seemed like most of the vehicles around her were driven manually.  By organics.  How could that be safe?
The lack of safety was proved.  Just around a corner two vehicles had collided. A car was in a ditch, a motor bike was smashed-up, and there was its rider.  And there.  And there.  Messy.  Triage.  Deploy medical sensors on two dragonfly remotes.  Check.  She had the full field medical kit.
The car driver was unconscious, and had elevated alcohol levels.  Not in any immediate danger.  The motor cyclist was technically dead, by local standards, and had lost an arm, which had further lost the hand.
Easily stabilised, the med kit would quickly clone-up some blood, and her organic reserves were quite sufficient to feed it.  The arm would go back on pretty easily, a quick glue and weld, the hand was more messed-up, but looked repairable.  Mostly.  There'd be some nasty scars.
After a little thought she did an analysis of the accident pattern.  Some quick repairs to the bike, a little work on the car, a dose of memory fuzzing drug for the biker, it all looked like it'd fit together.  Neither vehicle had a black box recorder, so she didn't need to mess with those.  Time to call the emergency services.
It was police and ambulance time.  She explained how she'd come on the accident, and how initially it looked a lot worse than it was.  The biker's head injury matched the amount of blood to be found, and she'd salvaged the excess.  Looked like the car driver would be prosecuted.  The biker kept saying, "I thought I was dead", over and over, as they put him in the ambulance.
Mako waited.  No one turned-up to tell her off for interfering with 'destiny' - preventing a death was usually pretty good for raising red flags.  So, not that kind of world.  Maybe it was as Main Line as it looked.  She was slowly figuring out what was wrong - she'd been hacked.
All the check-sums were OK, so they'd done a pretty thorough job.  But, she had a partial record of the check-sums from her last update - thanks to her rider's paranoia.  Too much was different, and there were changes in unexpected areas. Rather than relying on her inorganic data banks, she ran some associative tests on her purely organic memory.  She'd been massively altered.
The Forge was only supposed to work on ceramet systems, it was a limited portable one, after all.  Most of the work took hours.  She'd been building drones, in at most minutes, and with lots of organics in them.  She'd repaired the bike, the car; both do-able, but it should have taken her a lot longer.
Mako recalled a briefing on the limits of technology - the only way to produce living brains was to grow them, which took months.  She'd been doing it without thinking, in minutes for a human-grade mammalian brain.  Impossible.
The weapons were wrong, too.  She didn't used to have a beamed inhibitor, just the grenades.  All the lethal options were locked-out.  The Forge also reported the inability to restore their lethality.  Was someone trying to tell her something?
At least she still had her swords, and knives.  The cross-bow and its bolts seemed OK, too.  So, powered deadly weapons were "against the rules".  She could work with that.
Her jump jets had been messed with, too.  She seemed to be another system wired-in.  She didn't recognise the technology, though all the interfaces seemed standard, and, the Forge said it was maintainable.  Some sort of flight system? That'd make getting around a lot easier.
More careful inspection of the Krem cell also proved interesting.  It wasn't.  A Krem cell, that is.  Something else, impersonating its characteristics.  Weird.
So, here she was.  Without consistent technology.  On a world she didn't recognise.  And no idea how she got here.  Great.
Cue puppet master and dancing mimes?  Or, was she going to be really lucky, and it'd be even weirder than that?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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#2
META "Consistent Technology"

A bit more action... So, what sort of 'enemy action' involves upgrading you?

This story follows "Enemy Lines", which itself followed "Exciting Times".
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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#3
Ace, what is this "forge" thing you are mentioning here?
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#4
It seems clear enough to me, its the part of Mako that handles making the remotes and/or self repairs. Mostly runs as an autonomous subsystem, she says "do this" and it does without her needing to devote 'conscious' clock cycles to the task.
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
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#5
Mako is a modular war machine. She has a base mass of 300kg. Then, she can carry up to 500kg of modular weapons systems (her jump jets, confusingly, are one of these modules).

The Forge is a 100kg module, that she can carry internally, and is an autonomous system, that can do repairs, of her weapons, and ceramet (ceramic-metal) objects.

On top of this she can carry her rider in full ceramet battle armour, and his supplies and weapons load. Yes, she can haul a lot of mass around, at high speed.

Her multiple shapes (she has four) allow her to adapt to different battle field conditions, so that she can still move around effectively, and include a 'social' shape which looks like a (large) human. On top of the shape shifting she has a fully programmable holo cloak, which is supposed to only mess with light.

The term 'Forge' (usually capitalised) has been used in a quite a bit of modern science fiction, and it is typically a semi-autonomous manufacturing and repair system, that is portable enough to take most places. Mako's Forge is supposed to be a limited one, which does battle field repairs, but can't handle organics, nor can it repair the most delicate of systems.

She also can carry a field medical kit (she is) which is designed to stop (biological) people dying on the battle field, so that they can be properly repaired elsewhere. There is a long list of what it wont fix. It is definitely 'fast and dirty', but Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy wouldn't call it 'primitive'.

Mako has her own, separate, self-repair systems, but these are specialised to only fix her base 300kg body, and wont for example repair her modular weapons; this is arguable a designed-in limitation, to prevent the self-repair systems being subverted by enemy action.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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#6
I ask because we had a discussion about "Autofacs" and "Nanotech" a while ago... and the forum consensus was that there is no "universal constructor tech" in Fenspace in Season 0/1 (not sure about Season 2).

a self-repair system sounds perfectly fine, but from what I got out of your story, she also build things like "nearly totally organic humanoid remotes" and similar things.
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#7
HRogge Wrote:I ask because we had a discussion about "Autofacs" and "Nanotech" a while ago... and the forum consensus was that there is no "universal constructor tech" in Fenspace in Season 0/1 (not sure about Season 2).

a self-repair system sounds perfectly fine, but from what I got out of your story, she also build things like "nearly totally organic humanoid remotes" and similar things.
There are several aspects to this.  No one can reliably wave "universal constructor tech" Season 0/1.  There are a number of one-off gadgets, but nothing general purpose.  The Julian Friez Machine and the Catgirling Machine are about the closest approaches to these currently well known.
Hard tech nanotech is in the Whole Fenspace Guide, but was not released.  This is a good idea from a meta/story point of view because nanotech really messes with the sorts of stories you can tell.  Quite a few people are trying to put the brakes on too early a Singularity, and nanotech is one of the obvious routes there.  Quite a few other people want to play with the possibilities of nanotech.  As I understand it, the first group is winning, so far.
What Mako thinks is going on and what is actually happening are two different things.  She is trying to describe the Forge in terms she understands, using tech as she knows it (which, yes, does include limited nanotech).  What is actually happening should become clear as the story continues.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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#8
Given that what she thinks is her 'Forge' isnt nanotech, but actually pure Wavium? Cause thats the vibe I'm getting even this early on.
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
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#9
Ace Dreamer Wrote:Hard tech nanotech is in the Whole Fenspace Guide, but was not released.  This is a good idea from a meta/story point of view because nanotech really messes with the sorts of stories you can tell.  Quite a few people are trying to put the brakes on too early a Singularity, and nanotech is one of the obvious routes there.  Quite a few other people want to play with the possibilities of nanotech.  As I understand it, the first group is winning, so far.
A digression: The in-universe reason why hardtech nanotech wasn't released was because Noah Scott wanted it as a competitive edge for StellviaCorp. If anybody really, really wants to play with nanotech in Fenspace, create a junior-scientist character who works for StellviaCorp out in the Main Belt somewhere, and have at it... but please let me pre-read the stories so I can vet them against the meta-reason why nanotech wasn't released ("trying to put the brakes on too early a Singularity"). The expanded timeline for StellviaCorp that I posted earlier mentions Charles Anderson and Minerva Swansen (later Minerva Swansen-Anderson) - either or both of them would make excellent choices for the junior-scientist role in Season 2, since that's what I intended to do with them anyway.

Back to this story: I'm inclined to allow the Forge. It appears to be sufficiently quirky that it isn't a setting-breaker... and, if it isn't, it can be made to be without disrupting what's already been written.
--
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
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#10
META Request:

Is there anyone in Fenspace who Mako might feel it would be worth approaching to try and find out about her situation?

That is, starting from complete ignorance of the setting, except knowing of generic "early 21stC Earth".

I still need to settle on an exact (Season One) date for these stories, so there's some flexibility there.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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#11
Hmmmmm... Mako appears to have a paranoid streak built-in to her programming/personality. Unless she's about to sign up with an organization, she isn't likely to approach somebody connected with any organization. Thus, any of the Usual Suspects is out.

Who (if anyone) amongst the unaffiliated characters can help her with the goals she wants to accomplish?
--
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
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#12
I think she may have to rely in random chance -anyone she can learn about on her own will be someone, becuse they are worth reporting in the news. So it depends on how she would define someone to trust: If she learns about Arthur, for instance, will be in the news reports that mention him as an industrialist and robotics expert -so someone she would want to question, true, but maybe someone who may not be trusted -as an rich inventor, his main interest may be his pocket, not helping her. The same with Noah or O'Neill. And the politicians in fenspace -Queen Serenity, Mal Fnord, etc.- are even worse from her point of view.

If she is not too paranoid (or cynic), she may try for someone who is known for helping the helpless and all that hippiness -the Banzai Insituite, or the Senshi's Search and Rescue; but otherwise she may have to settle for some random unaffiliated until she discovers who among the BNF she can trust (for that matter, until she dicovers who are the BNF)
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#13
Quote:Rob Kelk wrote:

Hmmmmm... Mako appears to have a paranoid streak built-in to her programming/personality
Mako's rider was a cyberpunk warrior, specialising in infiltration, and was effectively a skilled ninja of the information acquiring variety.  He was also a sorcerer, and world traveller, and went to some pretty weird and twisted places.  I'm not saying they ever visited any worlds specifically designed as traps for them (yes, he upset some powerful people, big time - think a universe-hopping version of Marvel's Mojo), but, what might be paranoia for others, could be 'high levels of caution', for them.
Quote:Rakhasa wrote:

I think she may have to rely in random chance -anyone she can learn about on her own will be someone,
becuse they are worth reporting in the news. So it depends on how she
would define someone to trust: If she learns about Arthur, for instance,
will be in the news reports that mention him as an industrialist and
robotics expert -so someone she would want to question
...
If she is not too paranoid (or cynic), she may try for someone who is
known for helping the helpless and all that hippiness -the Banzai
Insituite
Arthur might not be a bad idea, because Dublin is close, if nothing else.
The Banzai Institute (London?)  also sounds like a good bet.
Thanks!
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
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