Revelations

CHAPTER NINETEEN

History Lesson on the Rogue Kurtherian Faction

It took half an hour for everyone to gather in the computer room. Gyada was still rather listless, and her arm hadn’t changed back to a typical human’s yet, either. Paul was watching her with concern. Curiosity glistened in Janna’s eyes, and Alecta had a mixture of curiosity, with sporadic concerned glances at Paul. Danislav had a mild look of curiosity on his face but was displaying traces of guilt. He kept glancing at Gyada and Paul, with pain in his eyes.

“You already have most of the dry facts of the early history of the group that ended up landing, and dying, on this planet. But none of it would have come to pass until Chaos is in Limited Options brought us together.”

“I believe you should go back to calling him CILO, for the speed of reference if nothing else, “ADAM interjected.

“Very well. You have to understand that we all held unpopular views of one sort or another before CILO approached us. Kurtherians, even of that age, regularly lived more than two hundred and fifty of your solar years. So setting aside two and a half decades of our lives so we could progress our disparate views of the inevitable outcome of the Shepherd project was perfectly reasonable. Especially since he promised to train those of us who are able to learn how to tap into the Etheric.”

“It was rare for people who knew how, in those days, to teach others. There was always a worry that a warmonger would be amongst those who learned the talent. The lure of a substantially extended life was irresistibly tempting to many of us. Beyond that, he had an aura… A charisma about him that made those of us who had been shunned by so many of our own kind want to follow him.”

“I beg you to remember, I now realize after eight hundred years in constant contact with Gyada, knowing every day what caused her to be trapped in these caves, that much of what I did was wrong.”

“We should have realized, I should have realized, when he disabled the guards on the ship with one of his disrupting devices, that he was exactly the kind of person that the council feared would learn how to control the Etheric someday. They went down quietly and quickly, and he assured us that they would have felt no pain. We even delayed the launch until they were stirring, and had a chance to move away. None of us knew what he was really capable of.”

“For the first several planets all we did was insert genetic improvements and additional mutation sites to speed up the evolution of the races we encountered. Then we started finding technology beyond what the ship had been equipped with. The first such technology we encountered was a rather bulky version of the nanites that those you call Weres are infused with. Larger, somewhat less capable, but still a vast improvement on the viral insertions we had been using. We reverse engineered them and their production, managing to reduce their size by adding a tiny Etheric draw on them. That version was not Bio-compatible with Kurtherians.”

“Wait, how could something like that be incompatible with anyone? “Shen asked

“It interfered with how our nerves functioned. I was a genome specialist. Expert at breaking down the genetic code. That generation of nanite, once modified to have any draw on the Etheric, damaged our bodies more than it helped. May I please continue?”

“Of course, “Boris responded, tossing a quelling glance at Shen.

“Eventually, I noticed he was meddling with sections of genetics that the group had agreed should remain static. Increasing aggression sometimes, intelligence other times, curiosity, things like that. Also adding recessive genes for far greater size and strength, speed, spacial awareness or reaction time. He was looking for something.”

“I foolishly confronted him alone, as we were lovers at this time. He laughed and admitted what he was doing and asked me how else he was to find the factors for physical perfection? Perfection hadn’t been our goal. Perfection is a myth. But he had hidden from us that which he was truly seeking — a way of finding what created physical perfection. He set no limits on the risks he would take to accomplish this project. I shudder to think how many races we stunted with the methods he used. Not every planet landed on had a single sentient race after all.”

“When I threatened to reveal his actions to the others, he laughed and pulled one of the neural stunners on me. I learned he lied about them. I had never felt such pain before in my existence. Soon enough, I was unconscious. I don’t know how long I was senseless for at this time. Long enough for him to not only put my brain in a box, using a modified method with nanite support, but also put programming locks around me. I was unable to tell them what had happened at this time. ”

“He told them I had requested cryogenic sleep. That I was troubled by some of the changes we’d been making. That using a device he’d made they’d still be able to access my expertise. And since they were able to, they didn’t question him. I was unable to tell them who or what I was when they asked if I… who I had been all they got was that damned riddle. They didn’t even question him. They didn’t want to question him. I realized then, far too late, that CILO was completely mad.”

“So eventually, we came to this planet. Disaster struck as the Etheric generators and the ship failed. I’m still not sure if the rest of the crew would have survived if he had thrown his effort into maintaining the drive for long enough to land safely. What he saw as his mission drove him to instead shield the lab. I suppose I can’t complain too much about that, as it’s only because the lab was shielded that I survived. If CILO had instead tried to maintain power to the engines and failed, I would also have died.”

“He built this safe-hold over a decade of time. It took two years to get the replacement Etheric reactor fully online. Creating that cave, arranging the equipment how he wanted it, all these things took time with the limited resources he had after the crash. On his first excursion exploring the surroundings he encountered a pair of modified humans, what you call Weres. The nanites they had in their bodies were far superior to the ones we were still using. I’m the one who designed the modifications to make them more… determined. I had no choice, but it is still my fault. At that point, I wasn’t just his slave. I was his willing slave.”

“Over the centuries I’d been in the box, I managed to convince myself that he had loved me. I couldn’t see him saving any of the others if they crossed him. I came to enjoy the work, I wasn’t creating monsters, but the wave of the future. The pain I caused them was only a necessary side-effect to the benefit of their race and the galaxy as a whole.”

“It was only after he died, from something he could have stopped so easily, that I realized how mad he had become. Even then, for over a century, I felt superior to Gyada. But a combination of her grief at the loss of her children, and the speed with which she had learned so much of the knowledge I was willing to impart to her cracked through that. It not only enabled me to change but made me want to change.”

“The abilities he planned to give her required that the nanites to have an enormous, and constant Etheric draw. They kept her body young, without the training on how to draw from the Etheric I had received from CILO. Those nanites allowed her to survive without food or water with minimal subconscious nudges from me. They can produce anything her body needs. In time she can learn herself, but she now has food and care enough from those around her.”

“But I was needed to satisfy her mind. I was still restricted in what I could do, but without CILO present to order me to cease and with the available time, she has an education hard to match in the galaxy.”

Boris asked, rather confused, “But how could you teach Gyada things outside your specialty? Why does she not know genetics?”

“For the first, I have access to an enormous database in the components attached to the core of my box. Every scrap of knowledge that the ship gained before and after leaving my home world is at my disposal. For the second, it took me a century to give her a solid grounding in all fields. By that time, I felt genetics had an incredible potential to corrupt an individual as a specialty. The arrogance I had even before he killed who I had been was not something I wanted to inflict on her. I wanted her to avoid the trap I’d fallen in. So I chose to teach her the physical sciences, even though I had little practical knowledge in them. This was a far kinder way to give her a chance at the stars.”

Gyada looked up sharply, “You don’t wish to travel to the stars again?”

The personality responded, “I had my chance. The damage I have done… I owe you, for saving me, any aid I can give your home world. I owe you the stars. But I don’t belong there now. When I have atoned for my wrongs… If I can… Maybe.”

Shen’s eyes narrowed speculatively. “So how can we access that database without your assistance?”

The computer responded, somewhat smugly “You can’t. If I am destroyed, or made incapable, there are measures in place that would compromise the accuracy of the database. Although I didn’t set them up, there is nothing I can do to neutralize them either. It was CILO’s last resort threat if the others found out about my nature. It is what had me convinced for so long that he did still love me. If I went, so did all the data.”

There was silence in the room as that piece of information settled into the forebrains of Boris’ top people. “Crap,” Paul said, “Bethany Anne is not going to be happy with a partially compliant AI that has information we desperately need.”

“She’ll say that while the information would be undoubtedly useful, we can get by without it. Especially considering how out of date it might be,” Boris suggested.

“That would be possible, although I have been independently expanding theoretical and application basis from my original database. I am willing to provide several prototype designs in exchange for the database I request. Although some may have flaws in real world development, I am sure some will be useful,” the personality responded.

There she was, dangling the carrot. For Boris, it wasn’t what those weapons might be able to do for him, but what they might be able to do for Bethany Anne. He didn’t really want any weapons more destructive than those that were already available on Earth. The pucks were bad enough.

Even if he still wanted a MotherPucker. Just one.

Boris shrugged, “I will see what we can arrange. Sending some of the data as an act of good faith might help. At least ADAM or TOM could check the theoretical viability, so we know you’re operating in good faith,” he agreed in a conversational tone.

“I’ll consider it.” She answered.

It was twelve hours later when Boris came back to the computer, or the technology room. It was the moment of truth for a certain machine…err disembodied brain… whatever. If she’d decided to do something funky, then she needed to be put back in the Faraday cage at least.

“I am here, Boris,” ADAM said through one of the speakers. Boris wasn’t sure why ADAM had insisted on being ‘present’ when the massive healing station was opened. Maybe it was because Bethany Anne wanted a report.

The final decision on her fate was really not up to Boris, anyway. Instead, it would be TOM and ADAM speaking to Bethany Anne who would then make the final judgement.

“He should be ready for viewing. It takes around half an hour after the process is finished for a subject to wake up. Due to the rushed nature of the effort, I was only able to fix so many of his physical problems, and some of those fixes will take days or weeks to fully manifest.” The computer said in a regretful tone.

“What, exactly do you mean by you fixed his physical problems?” Boris asked cautiously.

“Other than the gross physical damage to his body, I have removed several concerning cell clusters that could have become cancerous, fixed a mild heart defect, and improved his lung capacity. Also, I have corrected some imbalances and nutritional deficiencies.”

Boris felt pleasantly surprised, “Two modifications are not complete. I have triggered increased body hair growth to aid in his survival in the conditions that exist in the near vicinity,” she continued. Okay, that one was a little strange, but Boris would let it pass. “I have also enabled his fingernails to grow significantly thicker and sharper by activating dormant genes to give him a natural weapon of self-defense.”

That one was almost unintelligible to him. Dormant genes for knife like fingernails?

“Explain the physical appearance the last change will cause, and your reasons for implementing it.” ADAM request before Boris could object to the last change.

Boris interrupted, screaming in rage “I ASKED you to keep him human! I can’t see how that last one applies.”

“Let her explain first, Boris,” ADAM stated calmly.

“I was ordered to ‘fix’ the subject. The subject had received significant wounds from some kind of weapon. He lacked a natural defensive weapon, though one was clearly present in the genome. I provided encouragement within his genes for that feature to express itself. He will have no residual nanites, nor will he be able to take another form. The natural defenses were provided to reduce the chances of a repeat event causing the same damage. As I was ordered he is still completely human, not a Were or something as you requested,” she said in a calm tone.

Boris was still angry. He flipped the switch to turn the Faraday cage back on.

“What? Why have you caged me again? I was fulfilled your request! I have done nothing wrong.” she paused and then a playback of Boris’ original order came over the speaker in the Faraday cage, crackling but recognizable.

‘Very well, but fix him as a normal human. We have no idea if he’d want to be changed into a Were or something so we will not inflict that on him.’

ADAM asked, “Where has she strayed from your request, Boris? She has fixed him per your request. Personality, intelligence, what would you have done if you had been asked to heal the patient?”

“I would have done the first section. I would have considered the final two changes and may have asked for permission to implement them.” She said firmly.

“Boris, you gave her a broad request. I admit that what she has done is not what I would have expected, but she took the initiative to fill what she perceived as a gap in your orders. Isn’t initiative a trait both you and Bethany Anne value? If so, why punish her?”

Boris ground his teeth. Yes, initiative was something he valued. Finally, he settled down and said through gritted teeth, “Can you change at least the nails back to what they were?”

“I can. He would be in here for days longer, and it is unnecessary, so I will not without substantial reasons. I did not act outside the boundaries you set. I consider what I did a bare fix. I only marginally improved his chances of receiving less injury if he encounters the same situation. If you want my best help, giving me imprecise orders and locking me in when I follow them is not the optimal solution.” She finished with a huff.

ADAM saw Boris’ neck muscles stand out in anger through a camera.

When ADAM saw him move to rise, he answered “Boris, stop and think for a moment. She has effectively been imprisoned for at least a millennia. She makes a mistake, and you imprison her again before she can explain. How would a reasonable human react to that?”

Boris’ anger slowly cooled as he paced around the room, keeping well clear of the Faraday cage and its contents. Finally, he drew in a deep breath. He had tolerated similar and worse from Paul for decades. Why was he reacting so violently to this? A little voice in his head answered, because you only saw her as a tool, an interchangeable piece. Not as an individual being, who has been abused, who deserves rights.

Taking in another breath, he flicked the switch back off.

The computer said “Thank you. But you have now abused my goodwill. I refuse to give you anything until I get a large database of myths, legends, and religions to peruse. Take it or leave it.” There was an edge to the final statement, making it clear that she would not be moved.

Now Boris had two problems. Getting Bethany Anne to agree to give over the part of the database he least wanted to. Then he had to try and calm down a petulant computer with a personality.

He was felt completely out of his depth.

It was with some relief when later he received ADAM’s assurance that the database was on the way.