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CEPHON 3 8000 suns entry
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Madouc d'Gamdis
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#1 - 2012-11-28 09:49:22 UTC  |  Edited by: Madouc d'Gamdis
The insistent pulse drags him reluctantly from sleep. He rolls over in the bed, drawing the covers around him. The twins must have slipped out earlier as they are gone. He groans. Audience Day.

“Lights half” he mutters and soft illumination pervades his chambers. A hiss announces the arrival of the hot, spiced cider on the table beside him. He reaches out for the delicate porcelain mug and sips. The bed moves him gently to a sitting position. As he rises up he makes eye contact with the screen. A chime sounds.

“Good morning, your Highness,”

“Good morning to you Jacqot.” he replies to his chef, “I feel like some of those smoked fish with cream pastries and perhaps one or two bacon potato cakes.”

“Certainly, your Highness and something sweet to follow?”

“Hmmm ..” he glances down at his figure. He is definitely putting on weight. But if he has to get through Audience Day he is entitled to some comforts,” Yes .. why not? A few of those raspberry custard tarts will be fine.”

“It shall be as you wish, your Highness,” the chef bows and fades from view. Moments later a shelf projects from the wall to rest in front of him. A hatch opens. A laden tray, smelling of good things arrives. He sighs and ponders. Where to start? A bacon cake .. yes .. a bacon cake.

Breakfast finished, he attends to his ablutions and gets back into bed. When he had been Chamberlain the Emperor had demanded servants assist the bathing process. Dochuta shakes his head. He likes some privacy. He settles back on the pillows and makes eye contact with another part of the screen. The Audience Hall comes into view.

The little people are already arriving. As he looks a pair of fleet admirals are ushered in and move to the refreshment table. A justiciar joins them briefly and then moves on to chat with a deacon. To one side the vermin of the press are assembling. Amarr Certified News he has no quarrel with. After all, in the end, it is he who certifies their news. Scope and some of the minor press need careful watching though.

He flicks the screen off and signals for more cider. When it arrives he draws the coverlets around him once more, says aloud, “Send her in” and activates the scrambler. Nothing said while it is on can be in any way be made intelligible to those outside his chambers.

The doorway slides open and Lady Sisastra Likoyn enters, bowing gracefully. A tall, angular woman dressed in black and silver with dark red hair cut unfashionably short she heads Project Cephon. He gestures her to a chair. Once she is seated he nods.
“Your Highness,” she begins, “I am pleased to report that Cephon 1 and 2 are complete. Cephon Phase 3 can be initiated on your command.”

Dochuta smiles, “Excellent... truly excellent, and on today of all days. Bring me up to date with Cephon 2 if you will, my lady.”

Sisastra returns his smile briefly, “Your Highness, Imperial intelligence took note of the memory implants available to those like capsuleers, justiciars, military and police personnel and others. Indeed since their inception they have become more generally distributed, even being offered to expectant mothers prior to birthing. Intelligence conducted research into the accessibility of the information in these implants. Unfortunately His Imperial Highness, Doriam II forbad its continuation and all overt research ended.”

“On your Highness becoming Regent, your intelligence briefing made reference to this line of inquiry. Your Highness required its revival. Project Cephon 1 – a scoping and desk top study which was nearly complete – set out the basis of what needed to be done. We also had a good supply of clean implants. Cephon 2 was live experimentation on adult slaves. Those experiments have proved successful and we can now access the memory implants of selected targets with a 97.6% probability of success.”

Dochuta frowns, “And the slaves?”

“Sent to medical research, your Highness. By now they should have been terminated.”

“Hmmmm ... you’d better make sure of that.”

“Indeed your Highness.”

“Continue my lady, how do you manage such a rate of success?”

“Your Highness, its a two stage process. As you know all implants have to be checked annually. The subject is rendered unconscious for this and his or her head tightly constrained to avoid adverse movement. If the technician concerned is one of ours it is a matter of moments to remove the subject’s memory implant, copy its contents, download them into our adapted implant and insert that implant into the subject. There is always some nausea on regaining consciousness and we accentuate that in order to blur over any temporary disruption the adapted implant may cause.”

Dochuta adjusts his position slightly, takes another sip of cider and strokes his chin thoughtfully, “I see. So you now have the subject’s memories. What happens to them?”

“First we redact them, your Highness, to filter out unnecessary material.” Sisastra pauses, “Perhaps I should explain. Your Highness takes a walk in the Imperial gardens. You smell the roses and freshly cut grasses. You hear insects and birds. You see the beauty of the flowers and ponds. You feel the sun on your face or droplets from the fountains. You may be sipping a fine wine as you walk. These sensations are generally lost in ordinary memory. With a memory implant, depending on its grade, they are retained and can be replayed to recreate that walk. If your Highness has a perception implant as well the memory is more acute.”

“So you destroy the redactions...” Dochuta stops, “You shake your head.”
Madouc d'Gamdis
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#2 - 2012-11-28 10:09:17 UTC  |  Edited by: Madouc d'Gamdis
No indeed, your Highness, but it is a an example of what can be achieved. While we do not have a gene analysis of everyone the subject has encountered, we have everything but that.”

“Most impressive.”

“With the unredacted material – the basic memory, clear of irrelevant clutter – your Highness, we construct a timeline and then have access to the subject’s thoughts at any particular time.”

“Thoughts? Not memories?”

“The two are much the same. Particularly at higher grade implants the subject has memories of its thoughts.”

“ I see, and the adapted implant we have inserted into the subject? What does that do?”

“That provides access to memory since insertion. An operative need only be twenty metres away in direct line of sight to be able to download a copy of what the subject has memorised since the last download. It takes but a nanosecond and the chances of signal interception are virtually nil.”

Dochuta frowns again, “Virtually?”

“Your Highness its always possible that even a brief signal can be intercepted. However if a transmission from an adapted implant goes to the wrong receiver it is programmed to instantly delete. Even if the receiver automatically copies anything received, the copy would delete as well.”

“But suppose one of your adapted implants is returned to Imphal. Wouldn’t their people notice the difference?”

“Your Highness, by Privy Council Edict 493/YC101 all memory implants must be destroyed on the death of the person implanted. That also applies if he or she becomes unable to pay maintenance charges. Its a privacy issue, your Highness.”

“I see. Who were the scientists that put this together? I would like to congratulate them.”

Sisastra heaves a sigh, “Your Highness following their hard work on phase 2 we gave them passage to a resort station in Gamdis. Unfortunately the luxury yacht they were on malfunctioned. All the airlocks opened simultaneously and every passenger on board was killed. The Ministry of Internal Order is investigating.”

“A tragedy.”

“Not entirely, your Highness. It seems that the airlocks were manufactured by an off shoot of Carthum. I understand they will be found at fault. Carthum have been somewhat difficult over military procurement recently. It may be that in pre-trial negotiation those difficulties will be eased.”

Dochuta represses a grin, “I’m not entirely sure that any difficulties in equipment costs would not be overwhelmed at the thought of the Carthum directors labouring in a penal colony.” He sips at his cider again, “So. Cephon 3?”

“Cephon 3 is field trials on a maximum of ten subjects. Once the adapted implants are inserted it is intended to run surveys for a year to ensure correct operation. At the end of that period the subject will be due their annual implant check. They will be carried out by technicians with no connection to us. Our scientists are ... were .. confident that no discrepancies would be noted. If they are,” she shrugs, “There are a number of ways of dealing with the situation.”

“We need subjects then, “Dochuta smiles. “I have just the idea.” His eyes flicker to the screen that once again comes to life to show the Audience Hall, now half full. “Let me see... let me see.” He notes the justiciar he had glimpsed earlier leaning back in his seat to converse with what seemed to be a holder behind him. “That’s Justiciar Vanyk there. He’s close to Falek Grange, Chief Justiciar. Would he be suitable?”

Sisastra draws a datapad from her sash and enters some codes. She nods, “Yes, your Highness. His implant check is due in five week’s time. They have them done in the Court Buildings but it shouldn’t be difficult to have one of our technicians in there by then.”

“Good. Let him be one of your subjects,” He coughs, “Have your technician there permanently I think. I sense trouble coming from the Courts and it may be wise to have most if not all the senior Justiciars on tap.”

He continues to scan the Hall, “Ambassador Hyrnn?” He shakes his head, “No. That would be a little too risky for a development stage operation. Later perhaps. How about one of the Fleet Admirals, it doesn’t matter which one and that loud mouthed reporter for Scope you see there by the vid set up?”

Sisastra looks up from the datapad, “His check is not due for nine months, your Highness, his assistant is due soon though.”

“Good, let it be her.” He looks through the crowd and points out some more subjects, including the CEO of Carthum” Then he pauses “And a couple of capsuleers.”

“Capsuleers, your Highness?”

“Yes. They’re of no account individually but they could become a threat. It would be useful to know what they’re thinking and ....”

A soft chime interrupts them. Dochuta sighs. “My dressers are getting anxious. I’m supposed to make my grand entrance in an hour or so’s time. I’d better let them in.”

“Yes, your Highness,” She coughs, “If I might quickly raise the matter of funding.”

“Hah! Everyone wants money from me. You may have five million isk. That should cover your expenses and phase 1 of project Garnor.”

Sisastra stands looking confused, “Project Garnor 1, your Highness?”

“Indeed .. if we can take memory out of a subject’s memory implant ,can we put memory in?”

The chime sounds again more insistently.

“Ahh .. yes your Highness. I’ll start work on that. Have I your leave to go?”

Dochuta waves a languid hand, “Yes and know I value your efforts in this, my lady.”

As the door slides closed behind her Dochuta switches the scrambler off. He finishes the last of the cider and reluctantly calls in his dressers. Its going to be a long, boring day.

WORDS 1905