Log:Aftermath (part 2)

Worlds Apart 2014/08/03 	 Dorian Paragon Ten Interface Wasp Anthony Quinn Paul van Sterran 4

Starguard - Reception Area The reception area has muted black tiled floor, with the walls and roof painted off-white. The secretarial desk enclosure is barely twenty feet from the double set of glass doors. To its left is a large double-hinged door ominously labeled 'Security'. A seating area full of soft couches is to the right. Down the hallway that leads deeper into the building is the office of the Director of Operations and the exit to the landing field outside.

Paul van Sterran had called a fifteen minute break before delving into the autopsy reports on the eight individuals who had been inside the spacecraft. Of course it seems to take about 20 minutes for people to start filing back in, which causes the military minded Van Sterran a certain degree of consternation. "If you will turn to the third section of the report," he begins, "I would like to go over the autopsy data. Dr. DelQuist," he gestures to Jackie, "was unfortunately unavailable to conduct the autopsies herself but I have asked her to join us and give use the benefit of her training and experience."

Jackie stands and nods acknowledging the introduction. Then sits again.

Ten is by this point seated stretched out and comfortable, being a bit too bored standing up attentively.

Dorian smiles and steps into the conference room quietly, having finished with whatever he was doing that kept him busy during the first part of the meeting.

An image comes up on one of the screens depicting one of the crew. For most of you it is the first opportunity you have had to actually see them as their features were hidden behind the darkened visors of their suits. The individual in question looks basically human though with certain subtle differences. Their eyes seem just slightly larger than you would think, their head is perhaps a bit elongated and their features a bit narrow. If you were to meet such an individual on the street you would not immediately believe them to be alien, though you might find their appearance slightly disconcerting.

Ten tilts her head, getting interested again.

Disconcerting... like you might be if you met someone who had their organic matter turned into nanomachines? Allison sits, studying data on a holographic display and when the images of the unmasked aliens are made available, she raises a brow and looks up from her display. She doesn't speak though, as that would involve interrupting whomever is planning to give the autopsy information.

"The individual in question is a human male of indeterminate age," Van Sterran says. "During the initial examination there was debate as to whether they were human or not, and to be honest there is still some disagreement within the medical staff, but current consensus based on genetic testing is that they are essentially human with certain modifications, both biological and mechanical."

Jackie sits up and studies the image with great interest.

Dorian leans against the wall and folds his arms, looking at the image curiously. "So...was there a 'kill-switch' in them? It certainly seemed like it."

Data appears on the screen showing various information that is of interest primarily to Jackie at the moment and which is a bit arcane to most of the rest of you. "The individuals show enhanced musculature consistent with what would be expected of individuals capable of undergoing a sustained 5 G acceleration. They are roughly four times as strong as a normal individual with heightened reflexes. These features do not appear to be modifications that were made to them post-natal but appear to be genetic in origin. Additionally you will notice that they have six sets of cone cells in their eyes as opposed to the standard three for human beings giving them a greater degree of color resolution that extends into both the ultraviolet and infrared range," Van Sterran says as he continues. He nods to Dorian and says, "There was, though that appears to be mechanical in nature."

Paragon stays near the back of the room, observing quietly with her arms folded over her chest.

"The individuals all possessed twenty four teeth rather than the normal human compliment of twenty eight to thirty two teeth," Van Sterran says. "This appears to be due to a combination of a lack of wisdom teeth and modification of the premolars." A closeup of the upper and lower premolars on one side of the subject's mouth appear. "In the case of these people the genes governing the premolars appear to have been modified fusing the upper premolars on each side together as well as the lower premolars on each side forming them into carnassials."

Jackie pays attention to the briefing but is also busy using her tablet. She extracts the genes from the mapping of the strangers that provide the enhanced physical abilities and then compares the remaining mapping with a normal human one, seeing if they were genetical modified humans or started as something non-human.

"And so, they were genetically modified before birth. Tell me, how similar are their DNA strands to each other?" asks Allison. "It seems to me that this would be easiest if they were from the same batch of protoplasm. I find myself wondering if they were ever actually -born- at all, or if they owe their existence to this genetic engineering." And of course, Ally is calling up related info on her own display.

"The DNA strands show a high degree of homogeneity," Paul van Sterran says. "While they are not genetic duplicates of one another they appear to have an immediate familial relationship to one another." He returns to the screen and indicates the teeth. "Here is where, according to our medical scientists, things start to become really interesting," he says. "After the discovery of the modified pre-molars a more thorough examination of the gut was conducted. An absence off the typical microflora which would usually be found was completely absent. This absence it turns out appears to extend to every part of their body, including skin. Simply speaking, they are completely devoid of any biological bateria."

Ten blinks. "*Any*? What sort of replacement systems are there?"

"Did their bones show signs of long term aging, slow growth and such?" asks Allison. She consults the data herself as she tries to determine whether these things were actually as old as they seemed, or if they had been basically vat grown in a shorter length of time. You know... clone stuff.

Jackie looks up sharply at Paul's comment. "That's... I would have said that was impossible." she says in surprise. "The human body depends on a vast array of biological interactions with bacterial colonies. I find it hard to believe they could have survived without a far greater degree of modification then evidenced."

An image appears on the screen of a lozenge shaped object. It has a certain superficial similarity to a bacteria except that it is clearly artificial, being both opaque and far too symmetrical in design for a living organism. "The bones show patterns consistent with accelerated growth," Van Sterran says. "It is somewhat difficult to determine age as the teeth show very light wear patterns but there is no deterioration of the enamel. At present the best guess is that the individuals appeared to be under five years old with the majority of them being under two."

Jackie says flatly with with disgust, "Cloned super-soldiers." She looks to Allison for her opinion.

Ten frowns. "Not all that super if they drop dead as soon as they start firing."

Nodding, Allison accepts that she was right about the age. "Okay, so.. what else can we determine from these reports and scans?" she asks, shrugging and nodding to Jackie, "It would appear as such, indeed. The only question is, whether we can tell where they were originated, or perhaps... who created them."

Van Sterran nods to Jackie and then turns to the image on the screen. "These machines, and ones like them, appear to have taken the place of any bacterial colonies that a human being would normally require," he says.

Ten says, "I take it that was their off switch?" The Director shakes his head to Ten. "No. That is another artificial enhancement," he says. "Microcharges that were implanted at the base of the skull. Very weak in power but enough to cause instant death when triggered." An image of a scan of one of the skulls appears showing a substantial portion of the brain being replaced with machinery. An arrow indicates the tiny charge near the base of the skull.

Ten says, "Oh. So an actual intended off-switch. Charming."

Dorian says, "Well, we have a rough idea where they launched from, correct? Perhaps we should go check out the site?"

Suddenly narrowing her eyes, Allison stands up and seperates out a new display, showing some of the workings in the brains of these bodies. "Julius..." she mutters, "Verify." and a second display showing schematics of tiny little nanomachine built linkups. She turns and -stares- daggers at the first display. "This.." she looks back to the second. "I am thinking that it is not alternate dimensions or alien in origin. I think this is... something temporal in nature." She calls up an analysis of anything that might assist in determining that. "This.. is -my- design. Not similar, not a knockoff. This is precisely what I have been developing for uploading neural information to the brain... but, with some refinements and advancements. I suppose..." she shrugs, "I should take this as confirmation that it works.."

The Director looks from the image over to Allison, frowning. "Are you certain?" he says. "This was one of our big questions. We weren't entirely sure what this machinery was doing."

Ten stares at Allison.

Swiping a hand, Allison sends data from one display to the large public viewing screen. "This is the patent application I submitted last month, which is being considered right now. Notice the details indicated here, and here..." she states, gesturing to the screen as the display zooms in and shows relevant tech-geek-details.

Then, she swipes a hand over the other display, and an overlay is placed on the main screen, a comparison of the designs taken from the bodies as opposed to her own design. All of the details she had in hers are present, with a few extra add-ons. "The differences you are seeing, are things I had considered adding to followup designs."

Dorian says, "So...either a temporal something-or-other, or a mind reader."

Ten says, "And I'm thinking a mind-reader still wouldn't have time to grow clones...."

"I find it difficult to believe that anyone could have stolen these designs from my mind and then -advanced- them this far already. And yes, I developed this technology in the last few months... as well as the entire field of science. And these bodies are as indicated, between two and five -years- old." says Allison.

Ten says, "So unless some parallel you came up with the same relatively early - time travel."

"What I would like to know," Quinn says, "Is why you would start building super soldiers and why you would send them to blow up my moon base." Quinn pauses to think for a minute. "And why they speak German," he adds.

"Correct. But.. five years ago, I was thirteen and didn't even have Julius yet, let alone this science or this tech. I am casting my vote for -some- sort of temporal matters, even if it isn't travel. Perhaps a glimpse is all that was required." says Allison. "It -is- my design. Not just something similar." She looks to Quinn and shrugs, "There, I can't help. I have no clue why that might happen, as for German... perhaps an alternate future?"

Quinn gives a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Whatever," he says, "but if I catch you with a copy of Mein Kampf I'm going to start getting real nervous, just so you know."

Oddly, despite her mechanical nature, Allison still manages to give a very pointed glare to Quinn. She shakes her head and mutters, "Gott in Himmel." before snorting... yeah, she doesn't breath and she snorts. "Let's not start screwing with cause and effect here."

Paul gives a slight sigh and rubs his eyes. It's like herding cats, sometimes. "Can we return to what we know?" he asks the group at large. "Perhaps that will help answer some of out questions."

Jackie says, "I'm not a physicist but I know the radiologists at the hospital have to allow for remnants of the 1950's nuclear bomb testing. Could a check of the isotropes give any information on whether they are current or future origin?"

Dorian shakes his head, "Using the half-life would give you the time from creation of the isotope in question. But if we're dealing with a temporal shift of some sort, there's no baseline."

Dorian says, "It would be like trying to measure how tall something is, without knowing where the ground was."

"We won't even know if there's new instances of isotope introduction in the future," Quinn says, "and we're not even sure these guys were born...or...built, I guess, on Earth."

"Okay, Julius.. I need everything in every database you can reach, about every theory or even remotely practical temporal physics data." says Allison as she begins opening holo-displays, one, three, nine, displays surrounding her here.

Jackie says, "Hi, Dorian. As I understand it, isotropes decay at different rates? Some faster than others? So if they come from the future some isotropes will be about the same and others will have decayed and be absent or reduced?"

Ten says, "Well, we could poison the environment *now* to set a baseline for measuring how far from the future they come."

Ten says, "But, you know, not the best idea."

Dorian nods to Jackie. "That's true. If it's a new isotope, we could make some estimates about it. But doing something like the equivalent of 'carbon dating' would be tough."

Dorian says, "I still think we should go investigate the site in question."

Quinn thinks for a moment. "I think we've already got an idea of the timeline," he says, "from the position of the planets. Didn't we figure that was 83 years from now?"

Yep, Allison has become oblivious to the chatter going on around her. Good thing Julius is recording it for playback. He knows how she gets. However, he begins loading data onto her screens, delving into any database in any university as well as other systems. She goes into rapid fire study mode, glancing from screen to screen to screen as she absorbs the information. She's not even speaking now. It's all s blur in her mind as calculations are performed and information is processed.

"Which site?" Van Sterran asks Dorian. "We can prep the jet but we should calculate out a flightplan before you guys launch."

Ten says, "Did they not *know* they're were in the past - or present, or whatever?"

And then.. Allison just stops. She opens one more screen and says, "Wait. Maybe we can use the devices... buffers. I need to connect to one of these bodies, to the implants I just described. Perhaps I can actually view the data that was uploaded into their brains."

Quinn looks a little skeptically at the image on the screen. "I'm not sure that's going to work," he says, gesturing to parts of the image. "It looks like these are the memory units and they sustained pretty heavy damage from the destruct charge."

Dorian says to Paul, "Didn't we pick up their trajectory? I was thinking of extrapolating where the source of teh launch was."

Ten says, "Doesn't help if it was in another time - or do we know otherwise?"

"Damage... keep in mind the brain itself is a supercomputer. I can repair the units or even install older models... and try to initiate download, but the longer we wait, the more the brains deteriorate. I will also need a way to generate a neural charge, even a minimal one... basically, a power supply for the neural computer." says Allison. "Now." she adds as she says, "I either need someone to go retrieve my prototype from the gym, or one of these bodies delivered there immediately. Which would be more practical? Either way, it needs to be -fast-."

Dorian nods and says to Ten, "I'm sure their rocket left an energy trail of trace amounts. We can probably find the entry point into this time or dimension or whatever."

Ten nods.

Van Sterran nods. "Sorry," he says, "I forgot you missed the first part of the briefing. Interface retrieved flight data from the ship which indicates that it was initially launched from orbit around Neptune. It flew to a place on Oberon and then seems to have translocated to Iapetus, where we first detected it."

Jackie says, "Do you know why they went to Oberon?"

Quinn shakes his head to Interface and points to the damaged areas of the brain tissue as well. "I think the charge was designed to keep someone from doing exactly what you're trying to do," he says. "And they've already been on ice for two weeks. I doubt that we are racing the clock here, now."

"No," the Director says to Jackie. "We've got no information on that."

"Listen to me. Damage can be rapaired. If I designed this, then I can fix it. I just need to figure out how -I- would have done it. Also, time is obviously of the essence here." Ally remarks. "Now, are you going to let me try? Or do we simply accept the the other me is smarter than me?"

Ten says, "What if someone else finished your work?"

Ten says, "Let's try the physical trail first - that might get cold. You can try fixing the damage later."

Quinn gives a slight shrug of his shoulders. "All right," he says. "I can probably grab it just as fast as anyone else. I'll be back in a few minutes." And with that he begins to head outside.

 Julius says to Allison. Ally just nods, whether to Julius or to Quinn... who knows? She shrugs though and looks to Ten. "We all have our areas of expertise. This is mine... if I can trigger the upload into a different storage medium... then I can read the data. I just need the prototype so that I have somewhere to start."

Ten says, "Hang on - if they're from the future we still haven't explained the primitive bit of the design..."

With Quinn dashing off to acquire the prototype, Allison calls up every little report of every angle of the tech that was used in all of this. Now that she knows her neural linkup design was used. She starts looking for anything else that might point towards her designs or at least her design -style-. Either this was stolen from her in the future, or it was done -by- her in the future...

There are more than a few aspects of the science involved that show elements of her designs. The nanotechnology that replaces the bacteria appears to be at least heavily influenced by your work. There are also nanomachines in the bloodstream that appear to enhance various aspects of healing as well as toxin and germ resistance. The nanomachines are not self replicating but appear to be generated by small implants in the bodies. Additional implants exist that enhance various physiological and endocrinology features which show at least a light touch of Allison's work.

Quinn returns just a few minutes later, now in armor. He probably spent more time changing and securing the prototype than he actually spent flying across the city, although he limited his top speed in order to avoid damaging windows. "Here you are," he says as he passes the prototype over to Allison. Having experience with temperamental geniuses he is use to those who think they know better than he does (which comes in handy during times like these where they actually do).

Meanwhile, Paul van Sterran waits for Dorian to confirm where he wants to take the group.

All of this data is being brought up on the big screens. Ally is mentally cursing up a storm right now, and Julius is putting up with it. Right now, she is trying to extrapolate -how- advanced these things are, how much has been evolved from or directly stolen from her work. "Okay.. the prototype. Thank you." she says to Quinn as she reaches a hand out and accepts the suitcase sized thing, her nano-muscles growing and adding bulk so that she can handle it. She immediately heads off to try to set up her thingamagoober, or perhaps it's a whizbang. Either way, she needs access to one or more of the bodies...

Dorian says, "Well...perhaps we should scout both Oberon and Iapetus, looking for anything odd."

One of the bodies is currently in the medical labs. Once the complete absence of pathogens was determined there was no reason to keep them in the heavy quarantine of Luna.

Van Sterran nods. "Which one first?" he asks.

Dorian says, "Let's backtrack. We can start with Iapetus."

Ten nods. "Let's get to it!"

Time to program the nanomachines to try to access the brain and to perhaps repair the implant and/or the implant(s). Oh, right, a bit of reverse engineering on the advanced model implants. Duh. Allison is perfectly capable of multitasking -that-.

Quinn nods. "All right," he says. "I can take us out there. Do we want to wait for Interface before we head out or what?"

Dorian says, "Depends on how long it will take, I guess."

Ten says, "She made it clear she's rather do this. And I'm guess it's best to follow the trail before it gets cold?"

Paul van Sterran punches up the intercom. "Interface," he says, "the team is going to head out to investigate the Iapetus and Oberon points. Do you have an ETA on how long you will be?"

Yep, tunnel vision. Road trip out to launch site? Allison is like... totally unaware that others have that in mind. She's focused and such.  "Right, so programming for autonomous mode." she says aloud. "Give me five minutes to install and doublecheck the programming and I'll be ready to go."

Ten thinks. o O (So she *does* want to come. So she was just ignoring me before....)

Quinn looks to Dorian. While Quinn isn't a member of SGG this is still Dorian's mission so he waits for him to make the call on waiting the extra five minutes.

Dorian says, "It'll take more than 5 minutes to prep. She can meet us out at the landing pad."

Quinn nods and heads out to the jet to begin prepping it.

Ten heads out to get one more cup of coffee before the flight.

Dorian heads out to the jet, getting ready.

Jackie goes with Dorian. She can't add to the technical discussion and wants to catch up with her friend.

Five minutes later and everyone is getting seated on Starguard's Quinnjet. While externally and mechanically similar to Quinn's own jet it lacks various amenities such as the kitchen which gives way to more utilitarian freeze dried food stores and the couches which are replaced with much more utilitarian seating. Quinn pilots the craft up and out of the atmosphere and begins prepping for the FTL jump. "Everyone strapped in?" he asks.

Dorian smiles to Jackie, "Good to see you back in action again." He straps himself in.

Ten straps in. Bouncing about the cabin may be fun for her but other people may be hurt.

Every second of the time until launch is used in a hurried attempt to program and set up alternative programming, backup plans and backup plans for the backup plans. Also... a strain of nanobots is set up whose only job is to analyze and reverse engineer the existing advanced implants. Yeah, Ally is using her own design, to... advance her own design. Causality? Bah! For SCIENCE! But as soon as folks are about to seal up the hatch and give up on her, she emerges from the building and boards the craft. "Sorry for any delays." she remarks as she straps herself in. "Check. Ready to go."

The jump to Iapetus is much like the earlier jump out to Enceladus. The Alcubierre-Quinn drive distorts space rather than transitioning to hyperspace causing the stars to swim across the front view and to change colors. It is only a few moments for it to make the relatively short, in interstellar terms, jump out to Iapetus where Quinn begins to set up an orbit to search for the spot from which the spacecraft launched.

Jackie smiles as she tells Dorian, "I'm not really back in action. But I couldn't resist this trip."

[To Jackie] Ten says, "What have you been doing with yourself?"

Dorian smiles to Jackie, "Bah. This counts." As the jet crosses over the projected point of departure for the spacecraft something is noticeable down on the frozen plane. Dorian is the first to spot it, a metallic blip on the radar that he is able to quickly resolve as a dark black dot, clearly different from the surrounding terrain of dirty ice.

Dorian points out the location. "Right over there in that area."

Ten peers that way.

"Can you enhance that area with visual sensors?" asks Interface as she cranes her neck, zooming in what little she can with her own optics.

Jackie says, "For the last year I've been engaged in my final residency before starting taking my consultancy exams at Barsoom Hospital on Mars. The settlement there is only small but they have big plans. I've enjoyed my time there and helped out a bit. Well, actually helped out a lot. I've moved over 20,000 tons of cargo to Barsoom city during my time there."

Ten says, "Wow. I'm hoping that's not part of the standard job description!"

Quinn takes the jet in for a landing and the dark dot begins to resolve itself into a sphere. As you draw closer it becomes possible to make out details across its surface, some sort of carving or fractal pattern. As the jet draws even nearer more and more of the object can be seen. It is actually a series of spheres, one nested inside the other like Matryoshka dolls. Each layer is covered in holes in an Apollonian fractal pattern until it is almost lace-like.

Ten admires the view.

"Spheres within spheres. They are the most stable construction shape." mutters Allison. "How far across is the widest sphere?" she asks, trying to get an idea for scale. One could look at a basketball in space, or a planet, and not really know the difference without scale in mind.

Quinn looks at the readout of the radar. "It's about thirty meters across," he says.

Jackie says, "Yes. 30m across. But WHAT is it?"

As Quinn brings in the jet for a landing it becomes apparent that the sphere is not simply sitting there. Instead it actually sits on a small raised platform made from the same matte-black material as the sphere.

Ten says, "A giant's bowling ball. Dun."

"Any idea what the material is?" asks Allison. "Can we get a metallurgical scan by any chance?" she asks.

Quinn shakes his head. "No idea," he says. "At first I thought it was metallic because of the radar signature, but now I'm not sure. It's returning too much of the radio signature."

"Well, I can go out there and try to sample it, or examine it up close." offers Allison. Yeah, not the most scientifically safe suggestion but... she's not really known for proper precautions...

Ten says, "I can go first? I'm not much on the science end, but if there are any dangers Im most indestructible."

"Maybe we can hold off on the race to see who gets to be blown up first by the strange alien device?" Quinn suggests. He looks to Dorian to see what he has to say.

Ten shrugs. "Being blown up first is what I'm good at."

"I'm not convinced it is Alien in origin. I think I may have had something to do with it. Either I am the mastermind behind all of this, someone somehow twisted my arm to make me do all this, or... I dunno, I am dead and it's a descendant of mine with all of my designs. I dunno... actually there are about three thousand one hundred and twelve ideas that I have which may be correct. I am sure I will come up with even more theories before we prove any one true or false." Ally just shakes her head and asks, "So, Quinn, Dorian, any suggestions as to where we go from here? I mean aside from just jumping right in feet first?"

Quinn shakes his head. "I've spent the last week looking at every part of that ship of theirs," Quinn says. "It's made out of nickel-iron. They've got some kind of molecular assembler that looks like a toaster over and they've got nanotechnology that we only sort of recognize. The do -not-" he says, stabbing a finger out the window at the sphere, "have anything that looks like that. I'm not even sure its made out of metal, much less what metal it might be."

Dorian says, "I suggest that we send someone out to take a closer look. Taking a sample of it is probably a mistake, though."

"Well, I happen to have made a thorough study of the science of metallurgy a few weeks back." offers Allison. "Which is why I suggested sampling the material." She shrugs, "I could try to analyze it."

Dorian says, "If it's containing something...removing a piece of it might destabilize it. Let's go with finding out as much as we can without taking any of it, for hte time being."

Ten nods. "Sounds good. Look first take second."

Quinn nods in agreement with Dorian. "It's radiating energy although I can't detect an energy source, seems completely radar reflective, though I'm having difficulty being completely sure about that, seems to absorb anything in the visible spectrum, and for some reason there's no snow on it."

Jackie says, "So it's alien and strange and you have no idea what it's doing? Mmm... That's how I feel about every item of advanced technology, alien or human."

Dorian says, "It's radiating energy. And it reflects radio waves...and absorbs light."

"Do we know what sort of energy it is radiating? That could be important to a metallurgical analysis." offers Allison. "Are we sending someone to examine up close?" she asks, looking around.

Ten says, "So - how dangerous? Lethal, give us interesting new powers, give us a light tan, would struggle to read by it?"

"It's...hard to say," Quinn replies. "I didn't put the right sensors on board for something like this. Near as I can tell it is a quasi-Harkovian radiation caused by an interruption in particle-anti-particle pairing."

"It shouldn't be harmful," Quinn say to Ten. "It seems to be a quantum fluctuation effect."

Ten says, "Ok. So. Closer look time?"

"Translation, it could be temporally shifted, but it is not going to damage your cells." offers Allison with a shrug. She stands up and asks, "Should we go in closer, or airlock one of us out there?"

Quinn nods to Allison. "Possibly," he says, "but temporal mechanics really isn't my bag so I can't be sure." He turns to Ten after that. "I'll stay in here and keep the engines running."