Anonymous Lepers
03-06-2004, 02:46
The underground complexes on the island of the Anonymous Lepers were vast, and widely scattered. Like the underground tunnels of some daylight-shunning vermin, they intersected and wandered and clustered, with numerous and well-disguised exits to the surface. But the largest and furthest-reaching of the clusters was organized around the lair of Him, the center of the web, from which He exercised the absolute control that bent all of the island’s accumulating resources to His will: The Durance of Command.
He had His own laboratory complex there, and communications, and logistics command. All were bent to the slow but inexorable process of preparing all that would be needed for Him to execute the Great Plan. It might take a century or two, perhaps three—but what was that to one who had spent millions of years traveling in the void of space; and millions more buried in oblivion, a mere fragment of existence? If it took a millennium—or a dozen millennia—He would accomplish what was necessary, and return to Kastria to accomplish His revenge on the traitors who had doomed Him to such a fate.
His main advantage, of course, was the incomparably more advanced bioengineering abilities of Kastrian technology—far beyond anything the species in this part of the galaxy had yet developed. The downside was the nature of the material and resources He had to work with. Carbon-based life was almost endlessly mutable, but it was fragile. Radical modifications drastically affected its useful lifespan, and the incident local radiation, not to mention the general solar radiation, adversely affected the stability of the mutagens.
Still, He was getting the hang of it. He’d salvaged enough organic material to build up a large corps of working material: Drone Lepers at first, and now, as His techniques became more sophisticated and better-adapted to the carbon-based matrix, more advanced units—units capable of both major imprinting and sophisticated, multilevel function.
It was one of these units that approached Him now, to inform Him that the ODSA report on the Gillson’s project was complete. High-level staff were awaiting His presence to review the material.
“Supreme One, the Adjuncts are assembled,” the Leper’s voice was deferential.
Eldrad the Supreme glanced up from the work console. “Very well.” He deactivated the direct biolink with the lobe of ODSA that performed most of His more advanced operations, and rose from the couch to follow the Leper to the assembly. In appearance, Eldrad the Supreme was superficially not an impressive figure, although He was unaware of that. Had He been aware of it, it would not have concerned Him. Appearances, so important to the odd carbon-based life of this world, were of no importance to Him. Thus, the fact that He had reconstituted His physical being based on the template of a shortish, balding, rather potbellied janitor who had unfortunately wandered into the wrong laboratory more than twenty years ago was irrelevant.
However, an observer looking more closely at the figure that followed the cloaked, hooded Leper through the dim twisting passages of the Durance would have found several anomalous—and disturbing—aspects to his appearance. The subtle bluish sheen to his skin, for instance, reflecting the bonding of his own silicon-life matrix to the carbon-template. The unusual rhythm of His movements, an indication of a vastly more powerful and efficient endoskeleton and musculature than the original template was designed to support. The oddly edged appearance of His body contours. The heaviness of His tread, a product of the silicon matrix that gave His body the mass of a similar-sized chunk of solid rock.
The Adjuncts, highly sophisticated Lepers who were fully infused with the Plan and responsible for enabling key preparation activities, were indeed assembled: So many hooded, silent figures facing a multimorph presentation stage. As He entered, they stood, virtually as one, and bowed deeply. He took no notice—would have taken notice only had one failed to render obeisance, which would have resulted in its instant destruction, since such a failure would be a clear indicator of malfunction. He strode to the massive couch near the rear of the chamber, and seated Himself.
“Begin.”
With a click, ODSA—the Organic Data Storage and Analysis computing unit—engaged playback for the report:
“Phase Two Project S-8146.”
“The specified project has come to be known as ‘The Gillson’s Project,’ a name adopted based on the designation assigned to its effects among the test target populations, where it is known as ‘The Gillson’s Viral Plague.’ Gillson was the human researcher who first identified and characterized the effects of the relevant pathogen.”
“The pathogen itself is relatively unimportant, and comparatively benign; thus far mortality rates have averaged at only thirty-six percent among targeted populations. The purpose of the test was, rather, to test the viability of the pathogenic transmittal vector series, and the reliability of the mutagen sequence.”
“The pathogen was initially vectored in birds of a subspecies of Eopsaltridae or Australasian robins, common in the Pacific region. In its root form the pathogen transmitted in saliva, which resulted in generational transmission as infected adult individuals fed their young. This form was stable for a period of three years, with a mortality rate of 13% in the hosts and a transmission rate of 73%.”
“The first mutagen engaged on schedule, converting the vector to airborne transmission via pulmonary transfer. Transmission rates dropped to approximately 60%, plus or minus four percent. Mortality rates remained stable. By this time the spread of the pathogen had achieved a dilation of 300 diametrical units.”
At this point, the stage display showed a map of a dozen or so Pacific island groups and nations, with the saturation level of infected birds indicated by colored overlays.
“The second mutagen engaged slightly behind schedule, but the results were satisfactory. The vector converted to the bird feces. It took approximately seven months for the pathogen to enter the water supply, based on natural runoff and accumulation. In this form, the pathogen remained nearly inert as it encountered human hosts, who generally remained asymptomatic. Epidemiological studies in the affected areas indicate that in this phase the pathogen achieved maximum dispersion, based on the travel patterns of human hosts.”
Another map showed a wider pattern of distribution, with the heaviest saturation now moved from wild areas to human population centers.
“The third mutagen engaged on the revised schedule, converting the vector to airborne transmission and engaging symptomatic features with an overall etiology of three to nine weeks, and mortality rates rapidly reached planned thresholds in excess of thirty percent. As planned, transmission rates dropped to twenty-four percent at optimum conditions, to maintain the experimental parameters dictated by the test populations’ ability to support the organism.”
“As can be seen from this World Health Organization epidemiology report, the transmission rates and mortality rates have remained stable over the past three years. Researchers among the test populations are, we estimate, approximately a year from a treatment regimen which will reduce the mortality rate to below five percent. Attempts to create a moderately effective immunization protocol are approximately four years from fruition, by which time the final mutagen will engage and the pathogen will self-destruct.”
“Anomalous incidents in the mortality patterns during the test have implied immunity factors in the test populations, and it is suggested that tissue samples be obtained for further analysis to provide data on additional variation factors for future tests.”
The playback went silent.
None of the Lepers spoke. Eldrad the Supreme was peering thoughtfully at the now-inert presentation stage. Finally He spoke.
“Assign priority level 3/C to proposed action.”
This was in line with the overall priority of human population experiments, which was moderate and ongoing, but not high.
The highest priorities were still reserved for avenues of experimentation which might reveal a way to obliterate the elves.
He had His own laboratory complex there, and communications, and logistics command. All were bent to the slow but inexorable process of preparing all that would be needed for Him to execute the Great Plan. It might take a century or two, perhaps three—but what was that to one who had spent millions of years traveling in the void of space; and millions more buried in oblivion, a mere fragment of existence? If it took a millennium—or a dozen millennia—He would accomplish what was necessary, and return to Kastria to accomplish His revenge on the traitors who had doomed Him to such a fate.
His main advantage, of course, was the incomparably more advanced bioengineering abilities of Kastrian technology—far beyond anything the species in this part of the galaxy had yet developed. The downside was the nature of the material and resources He had to work with. Carbon-based life was almost endlessly mutable, but it was fragile. Radical modifications drastically affected its useful lifespan, and the incident local radiation, not to mention the general solar radiation, adversely affected the stability of the mutagens.
Still, He was getting the hang of it. He’d salvaged enough organic material to build up a large corps of working material: Drone Lepers at first, and now, as His techniques became more sophisticated and better-adapted to the carbon-based matrix, more advanced units—units capable of both major imprinting and sophisticated, multilevel function.
It was one of these units that approached Him now, to inform Him that the ODSA report on the Gillson’s project was complete. High-level staff were awaiting His presence to review the material.
“Supreme One, the Adjuncts are assembled,” the Leper’s voice was deferential.
Eldrad the Supreme glanced up from the work console. “Very well.” He deactivated the direct biolink with the lobe of ODSA that performed most of His more advanced operations, and rose from the couch to follow the Leper to the assembly. In appearance, Eldrad the Supreme was superficially not an impressive figure, although He was unaware of that. Had He been aware of it, it would not have concerned Him. Appearances, so important to the odd carbon-based life of this world, were of no importance to Him. Thus, the fact that He had reconstituted His physical being based on the template of a shortish, balding, rather potbellied janitor who had unfortunately wandered into the wrong laboratory more than twenty years ago was irrelevant.
However, an observer looking more closely at the figure that followed the cloaked, hooded Leper through the dim twisting passages of the Durance would have found several anomalous—and disturbing—aspects to his appearance. The subtle bluish sheen to his skin, for instance, reflecting the bonding of his own silicon-life matrix to the carbon-template. The unusual rhythm of His movements, an indication of a vastly more powerful and efficient endoskeleton and musculature than the original template was designed to support. The oddly edged appearance of His body contours. The heaviness of His tread, a product of the silicon matrix that gave His body the mass of a similar-sized chunk of solid rock.
The Adjuncts, highly sophisticated Lepers who were fully infused with the Plan and responsible for enabling key preparation activities, were indeed assembled: So many hooded, silent figures facing a multimorph presentation stage. As He entered, they stood, virtually as one, and bowed deeply. He took no notice—would have taken notice only had one failed to render obeisance, which would have resulted in its instant destruction, since such a failure would be a clear indicator of malfunction. He strode to the massive couch near the rear of the chamber, and seated Himself.
“Begin.”
With a click, ODSA—the Organic Data Storage and Analysis computing unit—engaged playback for the report:
“Phase Two Project S-8146.”
“The specified project has come to be known as ‘The Gillson’s Project,’ a name adopted based on the designation assigned to its effects among the test target populations, where it is known as ‘The Gillson’s Viral Plague.’ Gillson was the human researcher who first identified and characterized the effects of the relevant pathogen.”
“The pathogen itself is relatively unimportant, and comparatively benign; thus far mortality rates have averaged at only thirty-six percent among targeted populations. The purpose of the test was, rather, to test the viability of the pathogenic transmittal vector series, and the reliability of the mutagen sequence.”
“The pathogen was initially vectored in birds of a subspecies of Eopsaltridae or Australasian robins, common in the Pacific region. In its root form the pathogen transmitted in saliva, which resulted in generational transmission as infected adult individuals fed their young. This form was stable for a period of three years, with a mortality rate of 13% in the hosts and a transmission rate of 73%.”
“The first mutagen engaged on schedule, converting the vector to airborne transmission via pulmonary transfer. Transmission rates dropped to approximately 60%, plus or minus four percent. Mortality rates remained stable. By this time the spread of the pathogen had achieved a dilation of 300 diametrical units.”
At this point, the stage display showed a map of a dozen or so Pacific island groups and nations, with the saturation level of infected birds indicated by colored overlays.
“The second mutagen engaged slightly behind schedule, but the results were satisfactory. The vector converted to the bird feces. It took approximately seven months for the pathogen to enter the water supply, based on natural runoff and accumulation. In this form, the pathogen remained nearly inert as it encountered human hosts, who generally remained asymptomatic. Epidemiological studies in the affected areas indicate that in this phase the pathogen achieved maximum dispersion, based on the travel patterns of human hosts.”
Another map showed a wider pattern of distribution, with the heaviest saturation now moved from wild areas to human population centers.
“The third mutagen engaged on the revised schedule, converting the vector to airborne transmission and engaging symptomatic features with an overall etiology of three to nine weeks, and mortality rates rapidly reached planned thresholds in excess of thirty percent. As planned, transmission rates dropped to twenty-four percent at optimum conditions, to maintain the experimental parameters dictated by the test populations’ ability to support the organism.”
“As can be seen from this World Health Organization epidemiology report, the transmission rates and mortality rates have remained stable over the past three years. Researchers among the test populations are, we estimate, approximately a year from a treatment regimen which will reduce the mortality rate to below five percent. Attempts to create a moderately effective immunization protocol are approximately four years from fruition, by which time the final mutagen will engage and the pathogen will self-destruct.”
“Anomalous incidents in the mortality patterns during the test have implied immunity factors in the test populations, and it is suggested that tissue samples be obtained for further analysis to provide data on additional variation factors for future tests.”
The playback went silent.
None of the Lepers spoke. Eldrad the Supreme was peering thoughtfully at the now-inert presentation stage. Finally He spoke.
“Assign priority level 3/C to proposed action.”
This was in line with the overall priority of human population experiments, which was moderate and ongoing, but not high.
The highest priorities were still reserved for avenues of experimentation which might reveal a way to obliterate the elves.