“So, what do you think?” I asked Technica, the day after Sophia had accepted her Guild-Membership.

“I think we need to talk.” Technica announced, her voice slightly strained. I could understand why, what she was looking at was something to be concerned about. During the early hours of the day, when sleep eluded me, I had contemplated things with Galatea and dug up something I had considered before but discarded as impractical. Or rather, practical but not for purposes I wanted to consider.

Back then, I had thought about ways to improve my equipment, right after I had burned the bridges to my old life, and one of those ideas had been a Gunship. I had discarded it, because the amount of firepower it would have had would only be truly useful against Scourge-incursions and when I wanted to threaten cities. Neither had been high on my priority-list back then, but now, with the scourge the primary cause for going out and fighting? That meant that my priorities would shift and while the original Gunship was solely that, reconfiguring it into a Command&Control Centre, complete with its own power-generation was manageable.

And that was what Technica was looking at, a massive, roughly aircraft-shaped behemoth, carrying obvious gun-batteries and rail-cannons. In addition, I had added the additional load-out to the presentation and while a carrying capacity of ten adults was rather meager for a thirty-five meters long craft, the rest of its load-out made up for it. The craft would be able to deploy drones while still in flight, allowing to quickly cover an area of about a hundred square kilometers before performing a vertical landing, if needed after securing the landing zone with overwhelming firepower, and turning into an self-sustained outpost capable of operating for four weeks without outside supplies. The limit on those four weeks was not the craft itself but the crew, mainly the amount of freshwater. If it was only me and Galatea, the time increased but by how much, I was unable to calculate without testing, it depended on wear and tear of the various parts.

Maintenance could mostly be done internally, the craft was designed with full consideration of the capabilities of my nanites and as such had energy emitters installed and thin tubes that would allow the nanites to move quickly by acting as a liquid. It was a curious ability of the nanites, by clustering together, they could act as either a true solid, a liquid or motes riding on a gas-stream. As such, they could move through tubes in liquid state and once they were at the right spot, they split into the individual motes and diffused through the tubing and get to work.

But they key of the craft was the power-generation, which only worked once landed and sufficiently stabilized, otherwise it had to run on energy crystals. It was a slightly improved version of my fusion generator, putting out enough power to charge the crystals and run the rest of the equipment, including the plasma-cannons, I had a feeling that it was also what caused Technica to look like she was developing a headache.

Hiding my smile, I asked for clarification what she wanted to talk about.

“You know that damn well.” she grumbled, “The performance data, I think I know you better than to ask if you are serious, you wouldn’t put down the numbers without some certainty. That means you have some sort of advanced power-generation and remembering your reaction to our fusion-plant, I’m almost willing to bet that it’s a fusion-plant.”

She closed her eyes, taking deep breath. “Judging by the fact that there is no global upheaval, you either developed it very recently or that you kept it to yourself. Which is it? And if it is the second, please explain your reasoning.” she continued, her easygoing, friendly demeanor gone. Looking at me was the Guild Councillor Technica, with all her responsibilities.

“Indeed, it is the latter. As for why I kept it to myself, that is easy to explain.” closing my eyes, I thought back to my Father and the topic of the few things he had insisted I learn. It was on the collected works of Niccolo Machiavelli.

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.” I quoted, with a slight assist from Galatea so I got the words right.

“I know full well that, if I simply released a fusion-generator, all countries whose economy largely depends on exporting energy would do whatever necessary to suppress implementation and the various large energy-companies would help them. On the other hand, nobody would want to be the first to support me and the implementation, in case it does not work as advertised, simply because of the potential backlash of those energy-exporting countries.” I explained my first reason, causing Technica to frown. It was an easy guess why she did, so I continued.

“And that is before we go into the economic and political upheaval, I have no desire to push the world into a potential new world war. The only way to keep such changes at bay would be to severely limit the distribution of fusion-power, essentially inflating the costs to be on par with other energy-sources and partnering with an established supplier. But if such a conspiracy was uncovered…” I shuddered, the image was not a pretty one. “It might be even worse, people would feel cheated. No, the upheaval caused by releasing the generator is too unpredictable for me to consider it.”

At that, Technica nodded in approval. “I agree. It might be possible if, say, the permanent members of the UN Security Council join together to exploit something like that, but even then, it would be risky. Which really is a shame, a lot of good could be done with essentially unlimited electric power.” she added with a sad smile.

“Are there any more ideas hidden in your head that would cause global upheaval?” she asked, with a wry smile.

When I took a second to consider my answer, the smile faded. I did not need to consider what technology could cause trouble, but what I wanted to disclose. Galatea gave me a little poke, suggesting to trust Technica, reminding me that she had done nothing but support us, since we met on Accord Island.

After a deep breath, I decided to do just that.

“I have yet to flesh it out, but consider this. Inject a solution of nanites into a person and give them a day or three to fully map the person’s body. That would give you imaging with a resolution down to individual cells and the ability to essentially operate on individual cells. With a permanent nanite-swarm running in your body, and the appropriate programming, you can target individual viruses and bacteria. There are some limits but with some work, it could be a panacea.” I explained. When I was finished, Technica walked to her desk and opened a drawer, taking out a bottle filled with amber liquid and wordlessly poured some of it into her coffee mug.

“Want some?” she asked, making me blink in surprise. Curious, I emptied my own mug and asked for a small sip, which I received. Trying it, I failed to see why people wanted to drink such vile stuff, I would stick to coffee and told Technica that. She just laughed, telling me it was an acquired taste but I failed to see why one would want to acquire it.

“And widespread distribution would be a blessing and a curse. Longevity would spike, especially the average lifespan when less younger people die. I have to look at the mechanisms with which old age actually kills, quite a few of those could be solved as well.” I could see that her mind was abuzz.

“Everyone would want them but you never quite explained how you control them. I’ll assume Galatea but I doubt that even she could control them in every human, could she? Or even if she could, people would riot if someone suggested that you, as they wouldn’t differentiate between the two of you, would control their immune system.” she continued and looked like she had a sudden headache. I was sure it was because of the vile stuff she had just drunk, it was a known trigger for migraines after all.

“I also discarded an idea, I was working on something else, back in New Brunsburg. The idea was to stimulate individual cell growth, maybe to the point of permanent cell-renewal. Sadly, back then it was almost impossible to control, as using it would essentially guarantee that you would get cancer. But with the nanite swarm, you could eliminate that problem, allowing you to retard aging.” I added, in the spirit of disclosure.

“A panacea and eternal youth. With you as the Gatekeeper. Oh dear…” she took another deep drink from her mug, before pouring herself another and emptying that as well.