The next 3 days were relatively uneventful. Mia had managed to get all the necessary parts from only 3 hearts, so that was a big win in my opinion. It was now just a matter of Mr. Walker surviving until the operation.

The upgrade of the fortress had progressed nicely. The industrial fabber was up and running and I had already used the foundry to feed the NADA.

Two of the new fusactors were in the last test phase before they could be activated.

The other two would be a bit harder as the old Wiltons had to be removed first. Unfortunately, fusactors could become radioactive over time. Nothing critical, and regular maintenance includes scrubbing the filter system before it becomes a problem, but our Wiltons had missed a few too many maintenance cycles, so the building crews had to be careful in dismantling them before they could install the new ones.

The diadems had arrived along with appropriate consoles and I offered everybody here training sims, especially on driving the cars and the skimmer.

It was a bit of a problem to get them to work for Kate and Darren, and my workaround would be replaced with custom nets in the future but I could get it to work for them, after a few hours and looking at the mapping data the slave controller had stored for the two of them.

Mia of course was absorbing the course material I have given her, but surprisingly Jacky was doing the same. I had no problem with that. This implant clinic would be more work than 5 implant surgeons could manage.

Both of them used the full compression the diadems offered them of course.

Natalie and Christine asked me for a training sim on computer work. Nothing spectacular like going on a combat dive, but more like bypassing a security system at one of their missions or general computer use. And Marc asked for a tutorial to create training sims.

Meanwhile, I investigated the changes Frankel had made to us, and more importantly how. Somehow he had managed to incorporate changes to our cells, on the genetic level even. He did not change the basic structure of our bodies, the bones remained as they were, but I noticed that my eyes had taken on a more emerald quality from the somewhat hazy grey-green I had seen in the mirror for 18 years, while my hair began to lighten to a more coppery tone.

What confused me about the hair color was that it crept slowly over the whole of my head hair. It was apparently a combination of a programmable retrovirus that delivered the change and a different virus that triggered some sort of rebuild.

The only thing he had done with nanobots was the change in hair color.

It was the second virus that stumped me. It was, in one word, brilliant. I did a few tests, and Jacky, Natalie, and Christine seemed to have gotten a bit younger. Not much, maybe a year on the extreme, but still. I spend some time having a friendly chat with Frankel about it, but after some vigorous encouragement from my side with the help of a couple of pain sticks, he confessed that this packet was a secret of an underground slaver society. He had gotten it when he was inducted but had no idea how or when it was developed.

It seemed any reversal of our modifications had to wait until either I found somebody who could research the virus or I found the time, will, and drive to learn microbiology and virology. As I was absolutely not interested in them that was a bit in the future. I was just glad that I had not lost any maturity. I had barely enough of it anyway.

My hip was finally well enough that I could walk again, the bruise on my neck had receded and my wrist was healing nicely.

I had replaced the 3rd gen nanos repairing my wrist with 12th gen ones that, though not tremendously faster than the 3rd gens, also worked on repairing the muscle and tendon damage, while simultaneously reducing involuntary muscle movements.

On the second day after I send Dr. Chalmers the information, I got an e-mail from her back.

Dear Seraphim,

The data you have sent is extremely interesting, and if it is accurate might be our first breakthrough in the fight against the curse.

Unfortunately, we can’t trust it until we manage to replicate it. We would need to know how you managed to record the event in this detail. We would also like to know the identity of the patient including the history if it is possible.

I hope you can help us in this endeavor.

Sincerely

Katherine Chalmers MD N NS

University of Washington, Seattle

I did of course not even consider telling her who the patient was, but the rest was easy to tell, hard to manage for her to replicate.

Without the cranial board and the Q-link connection to the cluster the cloud of nanobots could have recorded their tiny carbon hearts out without accomplishing anything and I would give them neither the cranial board, not that they would implant it into anybody anyway, nor the cluster, and especially not the Q-link. So I had to design a new method to transfer the data.

Another problem was that it would need at least 10th gen nanobots to get the resolution to even see the proteins. 12th gen would be strongly advised. So it took a bit to compose my answer.

Dear Dr. Chalmers

I am delighted that you choose to at least look at the data. Unfortunately, I can’t give you the identity of the patient.

The recording itself is in principle relatively easy, but I fear the practicality of it will be hard for you to manage.

You need a swarm of at least 800 million nanobots, if you use the specification I send with this message, that will infiltrate the brain of the patient and remain there to observe any event occurring. More are of course better. The problem though is that this design consists of 12th generation nanobots that need an 8th generation nano fabricator. I don’t know if your budget allows for the use of the nanofab. If not, you can get barely adequate results with the 10th generation nanobots I send as well, but you will need at least 2 billion of them.

I strongly advise you to employ the help of a nano engineer experienced in setting up a nano network in people. I know that Professor Nicolin of the cyberware department has some of these on his staff. If you can’t get somebody like that, have the nano engineer you get train on rats first.

The next step is a computer system with at least 300 EB very fast storage (the one I used was 16 256 TB/s in a RAID10 array but you can probably get away with 512 TB/s overall).

Next, you need to set up a specialized wireless network. While that sounds relatively easy, it depends on the amount of interference the environment gives you.

It will not work in the typical UWS building without heavy-duty EMF shielding in place. It would be better to place the whole endeavor in a bunker away from the urban environment.

Next, you need to fit the patient you will observe with the collar you make from the schematics I send you.

This collar will, sadly only over relatively short ranges, transfer the observation data to the storage. Unfortunately, the range can’t exceed 20 meters, and even that bears the risk of data corruption.

You can of course build a network of receivers connected via high-speed fiber to the storage system, but the patient still needs to remain in the place for any event to be recorded.

Be advised that to get the 20m range you can only have one collar in the area active.

Finally, after all that you have to wait until the patient experiences the curse, and then signal the storage within 5 minutes of the even if you use the software I send you. The signal saves the last 10 minutes of observation.

I have to warn you that the analysis of the data requires a relatively powerful Beowulf Cluster to get results within an acceptable time frame. A supercomputer would be what I would advise though.

I hope you can use the method. Otherwise, you would need to get a patient into a modern scanner within a couple of minutes of the start of the curse, and you still will miss the onset.

Maybe the preliminary changes begin earlier and can be identified before the damaged proteins reach the critical threshold but I would not depend on it.

Sincerely Seraphim

I truly hoped that she would be able to use the findings, as I was way out of my depth with what to do here. If she could beat the curse, we all would win. All Pures that is. Sure, not all Pures suffered under the curse equally, but even the greatest idiot with the lowest gamma among us would experience it sometimes.

On the third day after the meeting with Mr. Walker, he called me.

“Hello, Kitten. You were right. We paid Dunedain to check your work, and he more or less confirmed everything you said. His opinion on the fake compound was even harsher than yours. You were also right that I was not the worst case among us bosses. Kryemir Brozi, the patriarch of the Brozi clan, died yesterday from CRS. The situation is beginning to heat up so I called for a meeting of all the bosses. We will meet tomorrow at 10 am in the La Guardia Plaza hotel. I reserved one of their bigger conference rooms, enough for 250 people, so we should all fit. I will pick you up at 7:30. And I will provide security. Nothing against your friends but in this, the appearance is more important than normal.”

I was stunned.

“Wait, what? You pick me up? Why?”

He sounded reprehensive.

“Kitten, you should use that brilliant brain of yours. You are the one with the most information. If I don’t present you they will demand that you will be brought anyway, so we will simply have you there already.”

“But… but I don’t want to…” He cut me off.

“That, my dear Kitten is unfortunately irrelevant. You need to be there, so you will be there. You should prepare everything you need.”

I slumped down into my chair and refrained from cursing.

“Yes, Mr. Walker. What exactly do you intend to tell them?”

“Everything. The hack, the intentionally bungled implant, about the nano therapy, and of course what you found out. Then I let you present your proof. We will have the holographic system of the conference room, so you only need your data.”

Again I created new clothing for myself, but this time I used the carbon extruder in the industrial fabber.

The new business clothing held thin pockets of a non-Newtonian fluid in multilayer graphene sleeves, while the outer and inner layers consisted of finely woven carbon nanotubes.

The nice thing was that I could even change the color of the fabric by varying the thickness of the tubes and the density of the weave.

I had not known that that was possible, and the description of structural color sounded intriguing. I would have to research that later.

I copied all the information I had, including the analysis, onto a 4 EB thumb drive. No need to hump Precious if it was not necessary. I hated it every single time I had to take her out of the safety of the fortress.

I prepared my PDP before I realized that with my right hand in a cast I would not be able to use it anyway. Then I remembered that Mark was something of a weapon specialist.

I found him at the table with one of the diadems on, deeply in some sort of simulation.

I linked into it and found he was actually building a sim. I could not make out what exactly he was trying to do, but it was painful to watch him stumble through the manual controls. I had no idea why he used them.

“Hi, Mark.” He literally jumped up, and came down in a crouch while his hands grabbed for guns not there.

I lifted my hands up and took a step back.

“Sorry if I have startled you, that was not my intention.”

“Red? What are you doing in here? How did you get in here?”

I was confused.

“I linked to your VR. That is easy to do if you don’t lock it. Has nobody here figured that out yet?”

He looked equally confused.

“Lock it? How do you lock it? And how do you link it?”

Thank all the divines that we were at 4:1 compression, so I had time for this. A short command listed the others all in their own VR. Seriously, did nobody here know how to use VR?

“Ok, I call the others and link us together, to explain it to all of you. One moment please.”

I froze his VR, after saving it, and placed him into a schoolroom simulation.

After that, I did the same with all the others.

“All right, it seems that nobody has taught you the basics of VR. That is partially my fault, but in my defense, I am used to the Commonwealth where literally every school kid learns that.

So here is a very short explanation followed by a link to a tutorial. First, unless you lock your VR everybody can enter it. The only thing protecting you here was the firewall, which is frankly mostly obsolescent at this time, otherwise, some joydiver would have found you and messed around with you.

And yes, I looked; your VRs were wide open. Think about setup. You should see a window.

There chose the tab VR. Naturally, the options are all grayed out as this is my VR but you will see the options about compression, resolution, sensory feedback, and security.”

It was Jacky who interrupted me.

“Sorry, but how do I choose the VR tab?”

The others nodded at that question, and I was stumped for a moment before I understood what she wanted.

“You have no idea about the basic controls either?”

They all nodded again.

Damn, no wonder Mark had used the manual controls.

“Ok, sorry for that. You control it by thinking.

Think about pressing that tab. The VR is controlled by your mind.

Depending on the options selected by the VR or the sim you can use your mind to control everything. By the way, Mark, that is also the case with the sim builder you are using.

Simply think about what you want to happen. It is faster, easier, and much more precise than the manuals. But back to the setup, as I told you, everything is grayed out, but in your own VR, the first thing you should do is to change the security.

If you press the security option here, you get several options. The ones you should remember are under access open, local, invitation, and locked.

Open is the one you absolutely don’t want. Unfortunately, it is the standard option. It essentially invites anybody and everybody who can find your VR to come in and play havoc.

Local is what you should do if you want to work together in VR.

That means everybody in the same local net, aka the computer in this building, can connect to it, but everybody from outside is blocked.

If you want to have a girl's evening or boy talk or simply want a smaller group in your VR you should choose invitation. Then you have everybody you want to give access an invitation, but that can be somebody from outside of the local net, though for the moment I would advise against it.

Locked is locked. That is for when you want to be alone. But a short warning, don’t expect this to keep me, or somebody like me, out.

This type of lockouts, we have a hard time even noticing them, and in this local net I have super admin privileges as well so if I barge into your locked VR or sim, please don’t be mad, it was not in bad faith.

Next, you see the access level. There are guest, user, mod, admin, and super admin.

In your VRs you are automatically admins and should limit that to you. Super admin refers to the admin of the computer network here, and at the moment that is me. The important point though is that you should limit access to others in your VR or sim to guests, users, or mods.

Each level has all the privileges of the previous ones as well. Guest means that the person can view and get information, but not interact. User means interaction. Mod means elevating guests to users, or to drop users down to guests, as well as kicking persons out of the VR.

Lastly, they can temporarily ban people. Admin has complete control over the VR or sim, can elevate users to mods or admins, can permanently ban people, and is essentially a minor god in this VR. Super admin can do all that, in every VR and can’t be blocked.

A super admin also can delete VRs or kick people out of the local net.

That is unimportant for the moment but where the admin is a minor god, the super admin is GOD. As the super admin cannot be reduced in privileges by an admin the super admin could take over the VR at any moment.”

I let that sink in for a moment.

“Now the second thing you need to know is to link with the others. Think about closing the setup page and then think about the VR list.

You will see all your VRs there, along with the attributes of your VR, like passwords, that you did not set, access, which is open, so anybody that can see it can simply waltz in, creator, owner, and admin. That is the same person for every one of them. You can hide VRs from the general list, but that will not hide it from the super admins”

I created a new sim, called ‘Basic VR Tutorial’ set it to local, and displayed it for them, copying the VR tutorial from the UWS for foreign students, highlighting the entry.

“Here is the tutorial I mentioned. It should explain everything, but if you have any questions then please ask, or send me a message if we are all in cyberspace. Again, I am sorry that I took you out of your VRs but at the moment they are only protected against a joker or a casual joydiver. Anything with a bit of malice behind will get through and without the security set up you would be in a world of pain.”

They nodded at that and one after the other they vanished, first into their own VR. I was not surprised that they all changed to locked status. I followed Mark into his VR before he could vanish to the tutorial.

Again he jumped when he saw me.

“Damn, Red, I thought I had the VR locked now. What are you doing here?”

I had to suppress a chuckle.

“Sorry, Mark. I told you I am super admin here, so locked or open; it makes no difference for me. And I am here because you are the weapon specialist. I wanted to ask you if there is something we can do with my PDP.”

He mulled that over.

“A PDP is pretty old tech. What caliber are you using? And what size?”

I loaded a simulation of my PDP.

“A PDP 22 in .40. And yes, I know it is old, but you might have noticed I am on the smaller side of petite. And for some reason, they make no .40 guns anymore.”

He nodded slowly.

“Yeah, for a reason. Why do you want a .40 in the first place?”

“It is the biggest caliber I can control. I know it is not enough many modern armors but it is the best I can do.”

His look became intense.

“You carry a .40 for armor piercing?” His tone was unbelieving so I got the impression that something was not quite right.

“Uh, yes? I mean, you need the biggest projectile to do the most damage. I can’t use .45, even the .40 is hard to control for me.”

With a sad shake of his head, he answered me.

“Damn, Red, you got that wrong. So wrong.

Against unprotected targets, the caliber is a bit important.

The bigger the round, the more of the energy is used on the target, and the less is wasted by the round going through.

The problem for you is that in the case of armor, it is constructed in a way to use up all the energy without letting the round through, and with the bigger round you make that easier.

To defeat armor you need a small-caliber with a high velocity. In the best case a hardened penetrator. I think the best you can get is a 4.5x26mm Walther caliber.

It has roughly 2 and a half times the speed of your .40 if you have roughly the same barrel length of your PDP.

Depending on what type you use it has a quarter to half the energy and recoil.

If you have the money you should get APDS-X rounds; that is armor-piercing, discarding sabot, exploder.

They have a sub-caliber 2mm diameter tungsten-carbide penetrator surrounded by the sabot that will be discarded when you fired it.

The tip of the penetrator is extremely tough and goes through most armor like butter. 2mm do little damage, on the other hand, so they added a ceramic part to the back of the penetrator.

After it goes through the armor, the round will begin to tumble and the ceramic part will practically explode into an expanding cloud of small slivers.

Anything soft behind the armor will be shredded by hundreds of tiny little knives. But these things cost a lot, roughly 8 times what other armor-piercing rounds cost.

The next best option is the spoon tip APDS. Again, they have the penetrator, but the tip of the penetrator is asymmetric. It has a little spoon shape cut out of one side and is named for that.

They are a bit worse in armor penetration but after going through the armor the tip causes them to tumble violently so that they go through the soft things behind the armor mostly sideways.

Not as good as the exploders, but good enough for most cases. Then of course you need a new weapon. I will help you with that of course but you need to decide what you want.”

I could only stand there dumbfounded.

“I assume you know what you are talking about, but sorry, I barely understood what you said. The words, true, but not what you tried to express.”

He chuckled.

“Well, at least you don’t know everything. To make it short, to go through armor you need a small fast round, understood?”

“I understand what you say, but how can that be?”

He then progressed to explain to me in intimate detail how smaller, faster and harder bullets are better against armor, and why.

He also drew up diagrams of the two types of armor-piercing bullets he told me about, and how they worked in penetrating armor and then dumping the majority of their energy into the target.

After he told me about the various grades of material the spoon tips were manufactured and how it affected penetration power I was a bit confused and had to question him.

“Ok, I understand that the hardness is important, but why end with tungsten carbide. There are harder materials. Wouldn’t these go through the armor much easier?”

“You are right, there are harder materials, but you are also wrong. At some point the hardness becomes unimportant.

The tungsten carbide penetrator will be deflected not deformed so harder will just be deflected as well.

For the thicker harder armors you need more energy.

And for you, that is not possible I fear.

We others could soup up a 9x45mm gun for that, Kate could probably even use a 13x52mm. And against the heavier armors, even that is not enough. You would need a full-size anti-materiel round. 12x135mm comes to mind or the 8x122mm.

And sorry, but you couldn’t probably even lift the rifle you need to shoot these things, much less resist the recoil.”

I felt myself heat up and had to fight down my temper, and it seems that he was paying attention.

“That is no dig at your size, Natty and Chris can barely lift the rifles, and won’t even try to fire them. The 8x122mm has a muzzle energy of around 10000 feet-pound, and the 12x135mm has 13000. You are having problems with 400 feet-pound.

These guns are designed to punch full-sized bullets through heavy armor so they are big, strong, and heavy.

I hate to carry one of them around as they are so heavy, and only Kate can use them without hurting herself. So no, it is just a sign that these rounds are so fucking big and strong.”

Ok, I could understand that, but something else confused me.

“And there is nothing in between? I mean we are going from 400 feet-pound to 13 thousand feet-pound. There is a mighty big gap there.”

That seemed to amuse him as began to laugh out loud.

“Oh yeah. There is a whole line of weapons between that. The 400 pound-feet is for pistols. Sure, a big pistol caliber can reach nearly 3 thousand feet-pound, but these are barely controllable.

Most pistols hover around the 300-600 feet-pound range.

To get more with keeping it controllable you need a rifle.

With a rifle, you have the buttstock that helps you, and you have two grip points. The stronger rifle rounds still smart like hell, but they can be used.

If you want a rifle we can look for one for you, but seriously, you need a gun to defend yourself, not going on the offensive and a rifle is nothing one carries around casually without reason.

Hell, we can get you everything up to an anti-tank rifle if you really want to, it is your money, but I can tell you that you will never ever use it.

If you think the 12x135mm anti-materiel is bad, believe me, you get a new understanding of bad when you see the 30x220mm anti-tank rifle rounds, and the rifle for it has a length of a bit over 9 feet and it weighs more than 120 pounds.”

It took a moment for me to convert the units into metrics to get an understanding of his point. The rifle was around 2.75m long and weighed around 55kg. And he was right, I would never tote around a weapon that was bigger and heavier than me. He was also right about the rifle. I would not need it.

“Ok, I understand. So can we get a good gun for me? Or build one? I mean, we have this fancy new industrial fabber and something tells me that I would be happier with something a bit more tailored to my needs than one size fits all standard gun.”

He shrugged. “Sure, I wanted to try out that thing anyway.”