Intergalactic Summit

Uh-- also, usually I'd have some concerns about putting an experimental "cure" into widespread use without stuff like clinical trials, but ... well, I guess it's possible that the cure could be worse than the disease, but, really, in this case that would be really impressive.

Really. Really. Impressive.

(Maybe if the plague and cure turned out to be sapient, made common cause against us all, and struck a deal with Sansha Kuvakei to edit victims into True Slave plague vessels instead of killing them?)

As it is, any surviving plague victims may not mind if we skip a few steps and go straight to human, including capsuleer, trials. Actually even if they DO mind I don't know that I really have qualms.

I'm sure Jaret Victorian can let you know if I'm found drooling viscera beside the butchered remains of Ms. Priano in the next few hours?

In the meantime, the dizziness has worn off, the discomfort's long since passed, and I'm not dead. Did I mention not dead? Also not dying?

It's kind of nice!

And this isn't raiding red flags? You think it's nanites. Nanites that can spread to others. So they need to be self-replicating, which means they need to use resources from their environment. You know, there are terms that describe tiny, not-quite alive things that feed off their hosts in order to self-replicate so they can spread to other hosts. So we've now introduced an artificial virus that can either evade or overcome the hosts's immune system (otherwise, it would be eradicated). And the trasmission vector from person to person is... what? Skin contact? Exchange of bodily fluids/ Are these things airborne if you cough or sneeze or just, you know, exhale?

Let's all be amazingly grateful nothing ever goes wrong with nanotech programming, and that these aren't going to be infecting everyone in the cluster in a matter of years... or less.

Except, you know, that they are. If everyone in the quarantine zones has to be vaccinated, and these things persist (which they'd have to, in order to prevent re-infection), then all the people leaving those stations will be carrying them. Everyone coming to those stations to make deliveries will be picking them up, and carrying them off to their next port of call. Of course, we don't know how it will affect infants (or even pre-natal) or their biological and psychological development, do we? Well, sucks to be them, they'll all have these things from their mothers anyway.

Best case, nothing happens. Everyone's fine forever living with these things in their bodies. It's still creating a template for someone to do the exact same thing with their own nanites that are designed to wait until a specific date or condition, and then, I dunno, turn everyone into Sansha puppets. And how would we know? Everyone's already got nanites in 'em. Makes it a little hard to detect the new ones.

And we don't even know if these things spread to other life forms. Can you infect your cat? How does the cat's body respond? How would a slaver hound's? What effect would that have on the nanites?

You realize this idea of 'let's make a treatment that spreads unchecked on its own' isn't the way this crap is normally done, right? That there's a reason medical science doesn't just go willy-nilly introducing new infectious agents into the environment the way this inquest just did?

Seriously, that keepstar needs to be obliterated before this nano-plague gets out into the cluster.

I ... think maybe you (and we, and everybody) would be well-advised to read the data on this stuff before jumping to such conclusions, Ms.Culome. As far as I know, the treatment requires some actually kind of embarrassingly and painfully intrusive methods of administration, and I don't think I'm exactly a walking cure distributor; it's more that something in the blood of a cured person is useful for synthesizing more of the cure, I think?

Also has the quarantine been lifted already? It seems sensible to keep the keepstar and other quarantine areas as exactly that, and let those of us inside leave only by jump clone (after being treated, plus time for it to work; accidentally replicating a Koyonoke "basic" prion-type speck in a clone's brain while copying neurochemistry would be BAD). I wasn't exactly planning on walking my potentially biohazardous self over to the Holy Grape or anything-- more like jump out and contribute the scanner-scorched vessel to more cure production and go back for the implants after quarantine gets lifted?

It's a little odd, and the decision-making process was resricted in odd ways, but apparently the empires did delegate, I guess, some kind of tiebreaking authority to us. If someone gives you power, well, you have power. So....

(It's not like it's much weirder than the level of freedom they already give us anyway. This could maybe be described as the great powers leaving certain decisions to a bunch of smaller nation-states, really.)

Anyway, yeah, I had a little power here, and, per instructions, put such modest political influence as I secured behind ARC. SFRIM's been involved with the Consortium from the start, I think?

A few points:

A) So, you don't feel you can trust your judgment when it comes to your own life, but you're willing to exercise that judgment over the lives of others? Do you think that's a responsible view to take?

B) I took the 'spreads to others' bit from what you've said. If I've misread your statement and misunderstood, then I apologize for misunderstanding.

C) If I have not, and this is a persistent nanomachine presence that will be me introduced by mandatory vaccination to millions of space travelers on the affected outposts (including the Keepstar), then yes, this will be getting tested on everyone. Because if it's persistent, then it will outlast the quarantine. It would kind of have to, because if it doesn't outlast the quarantine, then you can't guarantee the quarantine's effectiveness. If it does outlast the quarantine, then it will still be there when these travelers arrive in other places, where it can be spread to others. Thus my question regarding vectors, because if this thing can be spread to others, then it will be spread to others, and what makes it persistent and effective is precisely the human immune system's inability to purge the body of the foreign agent (ie: the nanites). That is... inescapable.

As it is, if it's persistent but not communicable, well, it's a foreign body that will have to be able to get into every major system of the human body in order to 'cleanse' it, so we can throw that our right there. At the very least, it'll be communicable via sex. Hell, antibioties are, they just don't self-replicate and usually aren't present in large enough concentrations to be noticed by the recipient.

BUT... even if that's the only way its communicable, that still means every single child born to a vaccinated woman, or the descendents of those women, forever, will have this in their system.

By the way, since it does have to be self-replicating to be persistent over the long-term... what's the cut-off? How does it decide 'hey, there's enough of us here, let's stop consuming the body we're supposed to protect'? There has to be a mechanism for that, or you've basically introduced nano-cancer.

Alright. I've had a moment to discuss some matters with staff, and it appears we may be able to begin releasing more properly collated materials in the coming days. We're still doing a lot of clean-up and after the last several days' constant work I'm comfortable with giving the staff some time to breathe and recover. A formal briefing will come once we have had full time for analysis.

That said, from the intelligence we've seen, I'd say this as a provisional assessment:

There was no particular need for scientific work on the part of the Inquest attendees. However, we were instrumental in countering the saboteurs' work to prevent the scientific work from being acted upon, and in breaking a deadlock on action by the Empires. It's not unknown for small parties with relatively little impact in the grand scheme to serve as kingmakers; this was the role we played in an Inquest convened by the Society, but jointly supported by the Big Four. The Society had essentially been paralyzed by infiltration, and the Empires had been deadlocked in usual fashion.

We possess a cure. The science behind it is not something I'm well-briefed on, but we know this because it was tested, if in limited amounts. It does appear to work. Any preexisting damage will likely require significant treatment to address, and there is a likelihood that some cases will be too advanced for the infected to become a functioning member of society again.

The background situation is as such.

It appears that a group - represented by codenames Rook, Vulture - had growing intelligence on a planned operation by Ohmon Kasaras, Jaron Kasaras, and Odaka Pakera, among others, who were an as-yet-unknown group of nationalist extremists. They used this intelligence to coopt Akira Kasaras, who was unaware of the plans until intelligence provided to her caused her to investigate, and to use her position as a family member to join the terrorist plot as a double agent. Akira Kasaras was requested to bring a sample of the Kyonoke pathogen to Astral Mining by Rook.

This request appears to be pursuant to a weaponization study done by the intelligence agency Rook and Vulture were operating on behalf of, given their signals intelligence and other capabilities.

It seems likely that the sabotage aboard H4-RP4 structure may have been to restrict knowledge of operations relating to the weaponization study conducted by this intelligence organization, which may have been put to the test, to the detriment of a civilian population. The cure, being dependent on Akira Kasaras and intelligence relating to her, was seemingly viewed as an acceptable collateral casualty. This will also explain the unusual circumstances aboard the RP4 orbital, which notably differed from the initial infections at the three other quarantine zones.

I will refrain from theorizing on which intelligence agency or agencies were active in this incident.

I will theorize, however, on two key points.

It does seem increasingly likely that State forces, in possession of at least some intelligence pertaining to the plot, closed borders to prevent spread of the Kyonoke pathogen if the plot had not in fact been thwarted.

It also seems likely that the downing of the Quafe convoy may have been on the suspicion, well-founded or not, that the empty bottles might have been used as a vector widespread infection. Alternatively, it may simply be the product of an exceedingly jumpy commander who lacked complete information.

Whatever happens, now that a cure has been developed, it seems likely that at least two empires will need to bring a torch into those dark places, to shine a light, and perhaps to put it to fire.

That seems ... a little excessive. And not just because I'd feel obligated to leave someone a small mess to clean up so I could resume my duties.

To me this seems largely like "deal with that when we find out about it" stuff, Ms. Culome. And maybe some advisories, rather than "maintain watch for three generations to see if they just show a tendency toward anemia or do something more hoflick-worthy."

So, to break this down:

1. The Kasarases were part of an as-yet-undentified ultra-nationalistic group.
2. That group is still unidentified, which means it's still out there.
3. Rook and Vulture were operating on behalf of some intelligence agency, ie: state (small 's') actors.
4. They, in effect, hijacked Akira Kasaras to use as a speck-mule to bring the speck to them on the Astral Mining platform?
5. This may or may not have been some kind of test of a weaponsized speck?
6. The cure entered into their calculus, which means it was known to them weeks ago before they got Akira Kasaras to go to the Astral Mining platform?
7. Vulture was apprehended aboard the Keepstar attempting to... do something that doesn't seem in keeping with the 'these guys were working against the ultra-nationalists' angle?
8. None of this explains the other 3 outbreaks, is that correct?

I'm just trying to understand what the story here is, because... if I read you right, pieces don't add up.

Dat's cuz you don't get no re-speck 'round heah.

Also, a small addition: speaking personally as a member of the coordination team, I'd like to extend my deepest personal thanks to Naava Edios and Phoenix Naval Systems. As ARC is a loose-knit coalition and PNS operates as one of our independent security contractors, the depth of their drive and their focus during the Inquest may very well have made the difference between success and failure in our various objectives.

Thank you, Naava.