Chapter 026: Liquidation

Mentalsculpting is a general term for a number of medical procedures that together allow for a detailed alteration of memories and behaviour of a human being (or, in some cases, radical but fast alteration).

Modern mentalsculpting only to a small degree uses traditional pharmacotherapy. Instead it uses nanomachines (and some very detailed scans of brain activity) to directly alter biochemical reactions responsible for memories and behavioural patterns. While not fast, it is a relatively safe procedure, as the accidental changes can always be reverted.

What limits the usage of this technology are the ethical concerns, at least partially caused by the way mentalsculpting was used during the Unification Wars. A relatively low population of early colonies allowed sufficiently malevolent countries to mentalsculpt the conquered population (typically by ‘hard mentalsculpt’, which means full memory and personality wipe and replacement) into complete obedience.

As a result, mentalsculpting in the Confederation of Mankind is allowed only in a select number of Confederation-sanctioned places, under its permanent oversight.

Encyclopedia Galactica

Book 2, page 435

***

EGS Echo, Crew Deck

09:23 12.07.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

“Okay, so, the term ‘mixed feelings’ barely describes what I feel right now.” Christopher commented. “It’s all fine and dandy, but our choice of characters is just…”

“Oho, it’s starting.” Ryan commented, still busy fixing the straps that were trying to act like his sword’s sheath - to almost no avail. He seemed relieved that he started getting the spacesickness under control. “Those who didn’t expect that to happen, raise your hands.” Everyone’s arms remained as they were.

The corridor they were going through looked like a badly mismanaged and grimdark equivalent of the Echo. The cables were occasionally torn apart, some pipes were leaking. Christopher could see puddles of weirdly colored liquids every few meters.

“Hilarious.” Christopher sighed. “C’mon. We had HUNDREDS of species and subspecies to choose from. A similar number of character classes. And what did we all go for? The copies of ourselves. I mean, look at us!”

Besides Christopher and Ryan, there were also Tiriel and Tendrik. The rest of the Recovery Team Eight was busy working.

“Ryan decided to be a human engineer.” The small robotic spider on Ryan’s arm beeped with malicious intent. “Tendrik’s still a human techmaturgist. Which means running around and gunning people with a magic gun in his metal arm.” Plus other things, but he wasn’t in the mood to point these out as well. ”And Tiriel?”

“Yes, what about me?” The elf looked at him, with ‘watch your words’ written on her face.

“You are pretty much the elfiest elf that ever elfed.” Judging from one of her brows rising, he caught her off-guard. “Elven archer and white sorcerer hybrid? A princess of a faraway elven kingdom according to the background note? Each time I look at you I feel like I‘m about to get a call from Aragorn that he wants his Arwen back!” He was rewarded with Tendrik’s chuckle in the background… and the rare sight of Tiriel’s face suddenly reddening.

“Ok, so what did I do?” He stepped on some cultural landmine - it was obvious.

“Well, you might have not noticed, but the Beleriand’s founders were influenced by Tolkien a lot.” Tiriel quickly regained control over herself and answered.

“No kidding.” Christopher chuckled, wondering whom she took him for. He wasn’t an unwashed barbarian that never read Tolkien’s books. “Your ancestors took the name of their country from the 1st Era elven kingdom from the Silmarillion. I’m not dense enough to not notice it. And even if I were, nobody’s dense enough to not recognize you as a Variant based on Tolkien’s elves.” Once again in this talk, he surprised Tiriel.

“You read the Silmarillion?” Christopher nodded in answer. “Your normally two-dimensional character suddenly gained a third dimension in my eyes.” Christopher wasn’t going to take that bait.

“Well, back to the subject.” Tiriel continued. “Beleriand’s inhabitants are very, very Tolkien-centric in their culture. By comparing me to Arwen you compared me to my country’s cultural archetype of an ideal wife-material. How cheeky for a peasant.” Christopher sighed. At the very least she seemed pleased by the accidental compliment, so he decided to play along.

“Pardon this peasant, your highness.” Christopher replied while bowing a little. “For he did not know what he was saying.”

“Well, that just means that it was a genuine mental association rather than a fake compliment.” Tiriel winked at Christopher. “I, at the very least, applaud your efforts, however misguided they are.”

“Yeah, so… I guess.. let’s just forget about what just happened, ok?” Tiriel chuckled, Christopher already preparing himself for the elf’s frequent usage of his accidental slip in her pranks. After a short silence, he went back to their former subject. “What about those who didn’t join us today? Kivanna became a human necromancer, with an even more pronounced goth make-up. Nekia is a catgirl fire mage and transmuter hybrid, with plans of mastering both fire magic and explosives. And Rukh…“ He shook his head. Tiriel and Tendrik didn’t seem persuaded.

“No, wait, he has a point here.” Ryan interjected. “Rukh’s just… he is acting like a stereotypical edgy teenager, including borderline solipsism in his roleplaying and unspecified ‘mysterious past’ as his backstory.”

“Marine trainee with more bloodlust than the ability to think… AND an edgy asocial teenager.” Christopher sighed. “This might get him killed, you know? Also, he plays a wolfman warrior, imagine my shock.”

“As a human knight you have no right to criticize anyone.” Tiriel replied with a mocking smile. “Though I respect you for your vain attempt to become closer to nobility by playing a knight. At the very least you are trying. That means a lot. If you ask nicely, I might let you swear an oath of fealty to me and become my knight.”

“Thank you, my lady, for this kind offer. But I must decline.” Christopher raised his sword in the air. “My sword belongs to no one but me! Besides, I’m the leader of our team in Gates of Infinity, and being your servant would ruin my ability to issue orders to you.” He resolved himself to not admit that the reason he chose this class was because human melee fighters always made for leaders in 21st Century fantasy parties.

His idea of using the GoI as a sort of rehabilitation measure seemed to be a good one. It wasn’t really working yet, but even Rukh and Kivanna of all people seemed to enjoy playing it.

He had no doubts that even without it they would still have come out of it eventually. People aren’t breaking this easily. However, he had no idea when another ‘crisis’ would occur. It might as well be tomorrow. He needed them in a working condition as soon as possible (without using unethical methods). Because getting another traumatic experience while still recovering from the last one would worsen their situation.

“I don’t want to interrupt your little flirting, lovebirds.” Ryan included as much sarcasm in his tone as he could. “But I think we’ve reached our destination.”

They reached the GoI equivalent of the ship’s main engine room. The announcement about the dungeon in front of them (the Clockwork Halls, estimated time for completion, one and a half hours) showed up.

“Uh-oh.” Christopher commented. “Wasn’t it supposed to be forty-five minutes?”

“Yeah, I think the author expanded this dungeon ever since I cleared it last ti… wait.” The cyborg connected the dots. “You have that meeting that you are so mysterious about in one and a half hours, right?”

“Yes.” Christopher sighed. “Yes, I do. I’ll try to push forward with you for as long as I can. But we should hurry.”

***

EGS Echo, Crew Deck

10:57 12.07.2610 STT

Cadet Christopher Hall

Christopher wanted to keep this hidden from the others, because it was something strange, unexpected, and slightly embarrassing for him. In short, he (of all people) had received a love letter. From a Texian girl that had fought alongside Recovery Team Eight on the Hastati.

He had no idea why he had recently gotten so popular with the ladies. He didn’t even recognize the person in question. Elza Alzath was a bit of a strange name, but then again everyone was speaking in cryptonyms so perhaps it wasn’t all that surprising.

He resolved to go to the meeting location (near the place of the incident with the Plesjans) and end the matter once and for all. With a ‘no’. He could as well train before the day that Nekia confesses to him.

Christopher was almost there when he received a message from Lieutenant Commander Innocent. The priest wanted to have an online talk regarding the schedule of their next training session. Christopher replied that he is a bit busy, because he has to answer a love letter. While being surprised that he is so open with Innocent, despite him being an alien robot priest. And one of the highest ranked officers aboard.

Innocent asked if it’s someone he knows, because he isn’t sure if he should start making preparations for the wedding. Christopher replied with the name and surname of the person in question, while also telling that his answer will be negative, as he has no wedding plans.

Christopher walked around the corner, seeing a blonde-haired young woman twenty meters in front of him. She was standing in the middle of the corridor, her back leaning on the wall. He quickly checked the last message from Innocent.

‘Elza Alzath died during the Hastati batt…’ was all he had time to read before the woman in front of him pulled out a gun. He had nowhere to hide, so he conjured the strongest telekinetic barrier he could in front of him. She walked towards him, firing nine times and practically draining him entirely of his telekinesis. When she threw the empty gun away, he dropped the barrier and tried to run away.

Elza caught up to him after a short while, right next to the entrance to the dead-end corridor that the Plesjans cornered Nekia and Kivanna in. When she grabbed him by his left hand he was already prepared. He turned towards her and fired his gun right into her stomach.

She didn’t even notice it. She pulled his hand, forcing him to face her. Then she punched him in the chest with her free hand. Despite using every drop of telekinesis left in him to shield himself, she sent him flying. He landed three meters away, certain that she just broke some of his ribs.

The attack threw his gun away. He tried to stand up, but she was right next to him. He somehow dodged her kick by a desperate roll. He managed to conjure enough telekinesis to pull his pistol towards him. He tried to grab it, but she once again closed the distance too quickly. He tried to block her next punch - it probably saved his life, but at the cost of his right arm being broken under the elbow.

Before he managed to crawl away, she grabbed him by the neck and raised him up in front of him. She was about to give him a skull shattering punch to the face, but that’s where her arm suddenly froze in the air. It was still trembling there, as if she was struggling with some invisible force.

Christopher saw Innocent walking down the corridor behind her.

“Announcement: This will be enough.” Christopher was never more relieved to see someone.

It was also the first time that he got to experience just how strong - and how precise - the priest’s telekinesis was. The strangling grip on his throat was broken in an instant, all five of Elza’s fingers broken at once. Christopher fell to the ground, gasping for air.

The pressure alone was incredible. Elza was forced to drop to her knees. The floor under her was cracking under the strain. After some incredible fight she managed to almost stand up, so he simply broke her legs. No blood flowed from the wounds, instead there was only some sort of metallic liq…

Innocent ramped up his telekinesis beyond what Christopher thought was humanly possible. The floor broke, and Elza was sent flying with a big chunk of it towards the dead ended corridor.

That’s when Christopher finally lost consciousness.

***

EGS Echo, Command Deck

14:13 12.07.2610 STT

Commander Lena Drathari

The briefing room was silent. Lena wasn’t going to be the one to start the talk. The Captain was visibly furious. Lieutenant Commander Mendez was visibly emotionless. Lieutenant Commander Athalia was listening to the meeting through some antediluvian set of a camera and a microphone taking his place by the table. Innocent was as hard to read as always.

A few seconds of silence passed. Finally Keller had enough.

“So…” The Captain began. Lena braced herself for impact. “Can someone tell me what the flying fuck was that thing and how did it get aboard my ship?” She had nothing to contribute so she simply continued listening.

“Answer: Invasive nanoware.” Innocent announced. She had no idea what he meant. Weren’t all types of military employment of nanomachines an ‘invasive nanoware’?

“Seriously?” The Captain was taken back by this statement. “They managed to make it, after all? I thought it’s impossible.” He took a deep breath. “Yeah, of course they did. Who else if not the Seekers?”

“Uhm, invasive nanoware?” Lena decided to raise her hand. The Captain gazed sideways at the camera representing Lith Athalia.

“You know how the Guild’s nanoware loyalty enforcer implants work?” She had no time to be amazed with the medic actually speaking to her. She nodded, waiting for the lecture to continue. “Imagine something like that, but the resulting implant is an active one.”

She imagined it. She was abjectly terrified of the image she saw.

“Yeah.” Keller nodded. “Combat brainwashing tool. You shoot someone, nanomachines invade the bloodstream, lodge themselves in the brain and control the target to do your bidding. Of course, it’s just a hypothetical technology. I could spend a few hours listing all the reasons why it can’t work with our present technology. Too slow replication and installation speed, as it takes close to a day for our enforcers to settle up. The need to possess detailed brain scans and brain tomography of your victim to not mess something up seriously. And so on.”

“Addition: I believe they still didn’t reach this stage.” Innocent joined the explanations. “They picked a different method. They used a dead body lying in the morgue, infected it with nanoware and waited for one or two days for full crystallization of the implant network. The end result is something akin to the old Necrocracy’s drone - human remains made to move with a complicated network of implants providing electric stimulation to muscles. Naturally, unless you sterilize the environment and the body with extensive nanomachine cleansing, the body will soon rot into being useless. But you still have a day or two to use it as an assasination tool.”

Zombies. She suddenly regretted not showing up in her armor. Together with her sword and the robotic body underneath it would make her prepared for any type of zombie apocalypse aboard the Echo.

What a clustermess of genres this mission is. Space opera. Lovecraftian horror. Now, a zombie apocalypse. I dread to imagine what’s going to happen next.

“That’s just… great.” Keller sighed. “The Necrocracy is probably super happy that the Seekers stole their beloved technology and improved it beyond their own ability.” She decided to swallow the news that these genocidal madmen were still around. She thought that they were mauled to death during the Unification Wars, where absolutely everyone - from communists to nazis, from democrats to autocrats, from socialists to anarchocapitalists - allied against them.

To this day she wasn’t sure if that was due to trying to kill everything that lives out of their militant nihilism or due to them being an exhuman schismatic group. Both things probably contributed, but to what extent?

“Good News: This technology isn’t flawless.” Innocent decided to add. “There’s a limited range of movements that the reanimated body can perform. It only tried to shoot and punch Hall to death, because it couldn’t perform any more complicated moves than that. I suspect that the problem is the size of the core implant within the brain. If you want to make it before the rotting processes dismantle the body too much, you need to be fast. So by necessity, it is minimalistic. Small hard drive, low processing speed, no complicated tactics.”

“What about strength?” Captain asked. This time it was Athalia that replied.

“If you are using an expendable dead body, you don’t need to bother yourself with moderation.” The medic said. “When it started fighting, it simply used the muscles beyond their normal capacity. If Christopher managed to avoid it for a few more meters, it would start staying behind due to its muscle system being butchered by the strain.”

“What about the part where it lured Christopher to the ambush site?” Keller asked. “It sounds like a complicated tactic. How did it even avoid detection?” There was a brief silence. Enough for Lena to understand that they weren’t going to like the answer.

She also had no idea what was complicated in that tactic. Cadet Hall really walked himself right into that ambush. All of the Texian recruits got transferred to the other ships of the small fleet. Why didn’t he ask questions when she wanted to meet him aboard the Echo?

If Lena wanted to meet someone from for example the Hercules, she would have contacted the person before flying to the armed transport ship. What if the person in question was busy? Would she set up a tent in the ship’s mess hall and wait for them to finish work?

“Answer: The Corporation has someone aboard the Echo.” Innocent announced. Lieutenant Commander Mendez nodded. The Captain cursed quietly. “The perpetrator has hacked the task force’s network, signing Private Alzath as alive. Her body still carried her personal computer. Together with that hack, she was literally undetectable by the security systems, which considered her a normal part of the crew. The perpetrator didn’t get to my own memory data, which is the only reason why I managed to respond in time. ”

“How didn’t you notice that earlier?” Keller glared at Innocent. The robot didn’t seem to care.

“Answer: I couldn’t detect hostile intent through my meta-empathy, because it was just a dead body.” The priest stated the obvious. “I believe the same situation is with the perpetrator themself - they aren’t biological. The Seekers know about my skills, so this makes sense as a precaution.”

“Not biological?” Keller asked. “So what, a robot?”

“Answer: It might as well be a clump of nanites the size of your hand.” Innocent replied. “Small computer inside, with a Class One or Class Two AI capable of independent decision-making. Plus a few blocks of transcendental code. Enough to make plans and use the code to slice into our systems, leaving no signs of intrusion. It might as well be hidden inside one of thousands of supply crates, under a floor grating or in some pipe. How would you find that?”

Lena was aware of how the technology worked as a whole, but she had no idea how to find something like that. The ship was massive. Lots of hard to access crevices. The walls obviously weren’t completely solid - it could as well be tucked into some place that they could access only by dismantling part of the ship in a shipyard.

Maybe if it was the Confederation’ technology. But it was the Seekers tech. They probably secured it against the typically available detection methods.

On the other hand, unless the Seekers found a way to do literal space magic (she wouldn’t bet much against that, though), this infiltrator had to be extremely limited by its ability to replicate the nanomachines and power them up. It probably didn’t try to assassinate Christopher directly earlier because it was busy gathering materials for past weeks or even months.

“You think it is somehow capable of external communications?” Keller asked the real spooky question.

“Answer: I do not know.” Innocent shrugged. “Carmotia’s incident would suggest that it is. It contacted the local Seeker cell, told them to assassinate Christopher, they prepared it in a hurry and messed up. On the other hand, why didn’t it warn the late Rear Admiral that we were planning an ambush? It was a perfect moment to get us all killed, including Christopher.”

“I see an obvious explanation for that.” Lith Athalia suddenly interjected. “That’s because the Seekers wanted us to defeat Hao Yunqi. They employed us to do their dirty work, as they neither trusted him, nor wanted to rely on his abilities. However Christopher is for some reason making them anxious. Fun fact: I checked the Hastati plan, there was at least one shorter route between Colonel Nowak’s flank and the original placement of the unit that attacked Hall’s team.” There was a brief silence while everyone was busy digesting what they just heard.

Lena was doubly surprised by the medic actually making perfect sense and managing to outthink Innocent in terms of counterintelligence. The Captain made the priest look like some sort of genius on the field, so this was extremely surprising. Maybe Innocent was all about his meta-empathy and programming skills in the end?

“So the infiltrator contacted someone aboard the Hastati, and had him run marines through Christopher’s position.” Keller concluded. “That’s a twist I didn’t see coming. So it IS capable of external communication. Which means that the Seekers know what’s happening aboard the Echo, for as long as there is a ship with one of them aboard within the communication’s range. So within the same star system. Wonderful.” Lena had to admit, it wasn’t the best news to hear. “And we are right in the middle of their plan, as we didn’t manage to diverge a single step from it.”

Another silence. This time because nobody had anything good to add, and mentioning anything bad - like that one crew member that happened to be in the morgue when the zombie raised from its grave, and got killed in the struggle - would be salting a wound.

“How is he, Lith?’ Captain turned towards the medic.

“Seven broken ribs.” Medic replied. “Part of a bone hit the lung, causing a pneumothorax. Another one almost lodged itself into the aorta, it was a challenge to remove it. Broken arm. Oh, and the throat was crushed, resulting in him almost perishing due to asphyxiation. Honestly, I think I should just keep one bed reserved for him, he visits me every other day.”

By the standards of modern healthcare, it measured up to ‘serious damages but for as long as the medic got there in time, the wounded person will be healed in a few days’. The technology to accelerate healing of wounds was no joke, even if it made the person in question intake a lot of calories to power it up. The rest was some surgical corrections and probably a replacement organ or two.

“Wonderful.” Captain sighed. “I bet he is overjoyed to have almost died. Again. Few months and he had a brush with death for like the third time already? I bet this is the Guild’s record. “ Lena had serious suspicions that Christopher Hall was also approaching the record of survived assasination attempts. “Also, Innocent, did you really have to blow half of the corridor off? A bit excessive, won’t you agree?”

“Answer: If the liquid coming from the wound was a disassembling nano, you would have been asking me right now why I didn’t blow up the other half of the corridor too.” Innocent made a rather splendid riposte. The Captain decided to not come to blows with the priest and conceded his defeat in this battle.

“Very well, ideas?” Keller said. “Eva?”

“Chances of finding it in conventional search are close to zero.” She replied. “But if we announce that we have it aboard, we are just going to make the crew nervous. We should obfuscate the affair, and attempt to track its outgoing communications during another meeting with any foreign ship.”

“Comment: It makes sense.” Innocent added. “I now know what to look for. I cannot guarantee that, but I should manage to pinpoint its location. Of course, trying to corner it before it relocates might prove to be a challenge.”

There was also a chance that the Seekers had foreseen them finding out about the infiltrator, and programmed it to cease external comms unless it was an emergency. Besides, if it had a Class-Two AI onboard, it was practically sapient. It could naturally make such decisions on its own, without the Seekers even having to program such a decision.

She was really happy that she couldn’t feel headaches (aside from one caused by some debuffs in the GoI). On the other hand, she was on the way to develop a serious case of paranoia, simply by trying to figure out what the Seekers could be doing right now. They started feeling like some sort of omnipresent boogeyman.

Their recent victory felt bitter now. Was it really all just a part of the Seekers’ plot? But if yes, then why? Why would they spend time actually arming and strengthening their supposed victims (and enemies)? What did they need the Echo for?

Lena was certain that everyone in the room was asking themselves the same question. It made no sense. But their enemy was the Seekers. There had to be a sense in all of that, just hidden from them for now.