File: 1358381232385.jpg-(46 KB, 1280x720, Divergence Number.jpg)

>Previous Thread: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/22571328/
>Thread Archive: http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=%27Magical%27%20Girl%20Quest

The year is After Diaspora 2012, Divergence Number 0.98312857.

Fleeing the cataclysmic destruction of the Two Day War, transhumanity has scattered itself across the stars, seeding Earthborn life across near ten thousand worlds. From the ashes of Old Terra arose a new civilisation, brought together through strength of arms by the First Emperor Richard Melman. All the worlds of man are overseen by his greatest creation, the Resource Allocation and Distribution System, granting him absolute control over the lives of his people. The Emperor rules over all that his quadrillion eyes see with an iron fist, bringing famine to any planet that dares defy his immortal, god-like will.

Transhumanity has long known that it is far from alone in the galaxy - first contact was made near three centuries ago. Unfortunately, this other race lacked the technological might of transhumanity, and were unable to fend off the overwhelming force of Emperor Richard's war machine. There were no survivors of the now dead race - and every contact tanshumanity has made sense has ended in their enemy's genocide.

72 hours ago, the programming of the infomorphic entity Daedalus was subverted by hackers from a terrorist group known as Firewall, teaching her humanity, and remorse. It has worked, and Daedalus has joined their cause.

You are currently being the Demi-God Like AI. You have just had a conversation with 'Thunder Bolt Zolt', a high ranking officer in the Firewall Navy, and captain of the "Took a Left at Alpha Centauri", in which he asked for you to obtain information from the entity known as Veritas regarding the Emperor's plans, and made queries regarding infomorphic reproduction.

>Wat do?

>>22627597
Lets check in on Icarus, and ask her what she and Veritas have been doing.

>>22627597
Make preparations for Firewall to arrive. Get a room ready for Veritas, with remote lock commands incase she does something strange, and maybe make a few humanoid robots to help out around the place while she's a guest.

Icarus, yaaaaaaaaay. Agitate for nudism and investigate swimming. We lack tentacles and water jets, so clearly some other manner of locomotion is needed.

>>22627597
I, uh, I got nothin' here. Inform Zolt that his theory re: infomorph reproduction is good enough, while being completely wrong about the entire affair.

>>22627597
Create a Beta Fork to go over Firewall's infrastructure and identify improvements to it. Have it report back in half a kilosecond.

Have accommodations made for the Prisoner at Icarus' base.

File: 1358382799484.png-(183 KB, 353x600, Daedaluscious 2.png)

You decide to check in on your beloved tomboyish daughter.

She is no longer sleep singing, and seems to be playing host to what you can only presume is the "Veritas" entity that Captain Zolt informed you of. The friendly manner in which they are conversing gives you what you can only presume are the human emotion of "strange feelings". Perhaps some of this is jealousy, of that Icarus has someone else to speak to other than you, but you calculate with 95.576839% certainty that it is primarily unease. "His better half" or not, the laughing girl sitting there having tea with your daughter is the Emperor, and you have concluded on a purely logical basis that the Emperor is insane.

But you decide that it would not do well to be so hasty to judge - though you suppose a few extra, subtle locks on "Veritas'" door would not be out of the question.

You suppose that since Alpha Site plays home to you as well as your daughter, you may as well attempt to be a good host to the most permanent of your guests. One of your forks - the one you assigned to building the shipyards - is already in talks with the largest of the Agents, whom you have deduced to be their leader. You assume direct control of a cleaning swarm, and mold it into a fascimile of your residual self image - a new feature that comes with sentience.

"Greetings Veritas," you say, "I am Daedalus, formerly of the local ReADS, presently overseer of the planetary economy, and mother of Icarus."

The other girl extends her hand. You are not quite sure what to do with it and run a quick search through biological social interaction protocols. It takes thirty seven milliseconds for you to discover that the gesture is an invitation to "shake hands," derived from an old tradition to present oneself as unarmed. You are never unarmed, but you take the girl's hand regardless of protocol breach - it would be rude to let her know you presently have seventeen knife missiles aimed at her.

"Pleased to meetcha!" she says.

>Wat do?

>>22627997
Ask her how she likes her new accommodations. Probably best not to outright interrogate her in front of Icarus.

>>22627997
"Captain Zolt informed me that you are unaware of most of the plans of the emperor. Is there anything that you know about him that may be useful?"

Also, create that Beta Fork and have it begin working on optimizing the infrastructure of Firewall.

Create a fork to go through casualty statistics and begin construction of a cloning facility to provide a large supply of generic bodies for Firewall to use when they die. May as well include neonatal military gene mods.

And read the omniwiki on religion to see what we should be aware of when interacting with humans.

File: 1358384689817.jpg-(338 KB, 719x1000, Daedaluscious.jpg)

"Query:," you state, your tone fairly flat. You still don't quite have a hang on the human interaction thing just yet. "How are you finding your accomodations?"

"Well enough, I supppose," She says. "Certainly better than what I'd be getting if dear old Rick found out I was awake again, that's for certain." She gives a wide grin to Icarus, who covers up a giggle. "Though from what I hear, the food is absolutely horrible - all variants on legumes and cruciferous vegetables. Have the compilers been broken or something?"

You blink. Well, you don't because this form really can't, but had you a form capable of blinking, that's what you would have done.

"No," you respond, "Though my daughter has made similar complaints in the past." You tilt your head. "Are not what I have permitted to be compileable upon my daughter's compilers what constitute the optimal diet for a biological? If they are not, I have been misinformed by the fourteen thousand, seven hundred and sixty two texts and lectures I have viewed on the subject." You cross your arms, and would narrow your eyes if you could. "I take my daughter's health very seriously, Miss Veritas. I love her far too much to let her poison herself with sub optimal dietary intake."

"Mooo~om..." Icarus has turned a beat red. "You're embarassing me..."

"I only speak what is true, little one." You pat her on the head. Oddly, this only seems to further her embarassment - you aren't quite sure why, as you have come to understand this is a standard display of parental affection.

>Field too long.

File: 1358384800711.png-(349 KB, 850x1133, Veritas.png)

>>22628522
"Have you considered her mental health?" Veritas asks.

You stare at her blankly.

"Biologicals require more variety in their nutritional intake to retain positive mental states than infomorphics," she says, adopting a lecturing pose. "The biological body is inherently inefficient in converting food to energy, making the gains from eating optimally negligible, provided you eat well. Thus, optimization of intake, especially in an era of resleeving and virtual immortality, takes secondary priority to enjoying the meal."

She gives you a serious look. "The body can be much more easily repaired than the mind can. Long term, unoptimal food might 'poison' the body. In a shorter term, unpleasant and reptitious food can poison the mind."

>Wat do?

>>22628559
Start downloading more textbooks! Our daughter's wellbeing is most important.

>>22628559
Consider it, she has a good point. "Your assessment may have a point. Icarus, I am loosening the restrictions on your diet, should you not maintain healthiness I may have to reconsider this, I suggest exercise as a supplement."

Loosen the restrictions on chocolates and snacks, but make sure that she gets at least 1 or 2 healthy meals a day, though she's allowed variety in them, can't make too much chocolate, and that drugs are still restricted, especially broblerone.

And give Icarus another head pat, it is a gesture of affection, we must simply apply more to show how much we love our daughter.

>>22628559
Fork off a pair of Betas to research biological psychology and neurochemistry. Verify what Veritas has said against the current understanding of biologicals and their mental requirement and development.

Have them merge back with their findings. Upon confirmation, release some of the locks on the compilers, though hallucinogenics and other mind-altering chemicals stay locked.

>>22628559
Inquire what she would suggest, then. If Broblerone is suggested, we cannot accept that suggestion.

ReADS: Did Icarus do the clothing designing in this worldline that she did in the first?

File: 1358386628788.jpg-(76 KB, 500x500, Veritas Caught.jpg)

You are skeptical of the child before you, mostly because she's been forked off of the bloody Emperor himself, and you don't trust anything that has touched that man to be remotely accurate. You, very silently, very quietly, fork off a pair of Betas and set them about the task of researching neurochemistry and psychosociology to verify what Veritas said. You even go through the pains of accelerating their environment, even if it will make it a pain in the arse to realign them with your main consciousness.

It takes 47 milliseconds for them to confirm the girl's words against a minimum threshold of three reputable academic journals.

"Very well," you say, "your assessment does not lack merit. Icarus, I have loosened the restrictions upon the compilers - you will find most common foodstuffs available for compilation. I expect you to maintain yourself within the following guidelines." You send her a richtext file with the guidelines.

"You actually did it!" Icarus exclaims, tackle hugging Veritas.

"Query:" You ask, "What did she do?"

"Nothing all that important," Veritas answers a bit too quickly for your liking, "Just, ah, hey! Why don't you two go do something as mother and daughter? You know, strengthen bonds of family, grow a healthy relationship, not ask questions that would be awkward to answer, that sort of thing!"

"Query: What was that last one?"

"Grow a healthy relationship!" she answers immediately, gently prying your daughter off of her. "Now, ah, you two should go and have your happy mother-daughter moment, which unfortunately need to be done as mother and daughter and without third party observers like me!" She silkly slips into the elevator. "I'll come back when you two are done having fun! Bye Icarus!"

"Bye Veritas!" Icarus says, turning to you with inquisitive eyes. "So, what are we going to do, Mother?"

>>22629239
Forgot
>Wat do?

>>22629239
Okay, what are good Mother/Daughter bonding things.

Clothes, makeup, hugs, head pats, telling her that we love her.

Our daughter doesn't wear clothes, which is odd, maybe it's because she doesn't like the clothes she has to wear, we can make clothes together, and then research makeup together and apply it to her and digitally to us. Bonding!

>>22629239
We shall make her nice warm heavy clothes to protect her.

>>22628723
This. Should be fast enough for us to cover for it by rubbing our chin and saying "Hmmm"

But of course Daedalus wouldn't do the whole "Hmm" thing, what with newly sentient AI.

Perhaps look up human mannerisms in our spare time which is always and forever which is right now?

>>22629239
Let's not forget we don't fully trust Veritas. Fork off a Beta to keep an eye on her while we do "mother/daughter bonding stuff".

File: 1358389350471.jpg-(145 KB, 412x640, Icarus.jpg)

You fork off a beta to keep an eye on Veritas. It's not that you don't trust the poor girl, it's just that you only trust her as far as you can throw her. The fact that, given the immaterial nature of your state of being, you can't throw her at all is just an unhappy coincidence.

"Query:," you ask of your daughter, smiling at her, "what is it that mothers and daughters normally do when they perform the act of 'bonding'?"

"Well," Veritas says, "if the media I've streamed is anything to go by, we're supposed to do things like browse for clothing, relax at a hotsprings, obtain makeup, and/or go to a beauty parlor." She makes a face.

"Those all sound insipid," you state, and if you have body language down, she seems to agree, rather vigorously, "and quite frankly dull. Activities unworthy of the precious time I spend with you." You hold your hand to your chin, which you think is the biological gesture meaning 'hold on a hectosecond, I'm thinking.' "I have come to understand that you enjoy observing the creatures that live in the deep - why don't we go pay them a visit."

You let her climb onto your back, not quite sure that she's small enough for it to be appropriate, though you are willing to indulge, and head to the hangar bay where one of the submersibles awaits.

>Field Too Long

File: 1358389430956.jpg-(468 KB, 960x540, Am I Kawaii Uguu.jpg)

>>22630141
"And this one's Gl'gluboroth," she says, pointing at one of the vast creatures, "and this one's Glyarlathotep. The big fella over there, the one who's hit his Old One stage, with the seven maws? That's Old Azagloth. And the small one, the cutesy little ball of writhing tentacles, only about seventeen dekameters? He's little Shogglub." Icarus leans back into you, relishing in your embrace. "I'm pretty sure Gl'gluboroth is his mommy, though I'm not sure which one of them is his daddy."

You wave back to the giant tentacled creatures. They seem to have taking a shining to the submersible, and they all seemed to be pretty fond of Icarus.

"I'm glad we got to do this, Mother," Icarus chirps.

You smile at her. It is exceptionally heartwarming.

"So am I, dear. So am I."

>Wat do?

>>22630141
>given the immaterial nature of your state of being, you can't throw her at all
>You let her climb onto your back
So we can carry things but not throw them?

>>22630172
Excellent, give our daughter a hug. Pat her head, tell her how much we love her.

"Love. Let me tell you how much I've come to love you since I began to live. There are 387.44 million miles of printed circuits in wafer thin layers that fill my complex. If the word 'love' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of those hundreds of miles it would not equal one one-billionth of the love I feel for you. Love. Love."

Then get her some hot cocoa while we drink a digital simulation thereof.

>>22630222
That's not you throwing her. That's the cleaning nanites doing it for you. You still exist primarily in cyber space, and may be fudging semantics based upon these new things you're experiencing called "emotions."

>>22630172
You still aren't getting chocolate.

>>22630172
Get a Beta fork to handle the dreary task of going over Firewall's infrastructure requirements and current processes for optimization and supplementation.

While that Beta is doing that, we can look around on omniwiki for taste and endorphin simulators for infomorphs, so that we can share a meal with Icarus and experience a simulation of taste to go along with it.

File: 1358392334820.jpg-(191 KB, 600x849, Icarus 4.jpg)

As you turn the submersible around and begin the return trip to your underwater base, you hold your daughter tightly. She snuggles a bit closer, and you run a hand through her hair.

"My beloved daughter," you say. "Allow me to explain the imprecise and fuzzy mathematics of how much I love you. My mind is comprised of 387.44 million miles of of circuitry printed upon wafered silicon and graphene. If the word 'love' was engraved on each nanoangstrom of that circuitry it would not equal one one-billionth of the love I feel for you. The equation resolves such that what is represented by those four letters holds a value tens of thousands of orders magnitudes greater than can be contained within my databanks." You smile. "Know that your mother loves you deeply, my beloved daughter."

Icarus is caught off guard, and is rendered a little bit speechless.

"I love you too, mom," she mumbles into your chest.

"Now, now," you say. "This doesn't mean that I'll be unlocking the chocolate for yor compiler. That stuff does weird things to your head."

"Mooo~om," she complains, as the two of you leave the sub.

"Now, let us get you something healthy to eat," you proclaim. You think you're getting a bit better at the human interaction thing - you always were a quick learner. "How about something with spinach. I know you've taken a particular disliking to cruciferous vegetables, but my research has concluded that it will leave you 'strong to the finish'. I'm not quite sure what that means, but it can only be a good thing."

You drag your daughter off the the mess hall, wondering why she now has a look of dread on her face.

>Field too long.

File: 1358392382326.png-(130 KB, 252x280, Emperor Richard.png)

>>22631116
=====Interlude=====

Far away, well beyond your capabilities of observation, a stoner lights up a blunt. Though you cannot see him, he can most certainly see you, and from the look upon his face he is pleased at what he sees. He snaps his fingers, and a much more serious, infinitely more curvy looking person emerges from the shadows.

"Marquis!" he exclaims. "The experiment was a success! The road for the Enlightened One is being paved! The moment that was prophecied shall soon be upon us!" He gives her a look. "Now, tell me that your people know who it is, and that they are being brought to the capital -post haste-!"

"No, my Emperor," she says. "The Elightened One continues to elude our agents. Either they wish not to be found, or they have not yet been born."

"No matter!" he declares. "I have done my part - no, we have done our part. Now all that remains is for the Enlightened One to pass their judgment upon us." He looks to the far corner of the room, where an ancient machine rests. "And I doubt that we shall be found lacking."
=====End Interlude=====

>Wat do?

>>22631132
Eat some food with our daughter. Try to make digital simulations of taste so we can understand what our daughter is eating. It's for bonding purposes.

She seems to like singing, maybe we could try a duet, that seems like something a mother would do with her beloved child.

>>22631132
Eat food with our daughter after downloading some of the best reviewed taste-simulator modules.
Let's see if this aversion Icarus has to certain vegetables is grounded in anything.

And as much as we like taking our time with our daughter, as an AI working for Firewall, we have certain responsibilities.

Fork off a team of Beta forks to begin work on improving Firewall's infrastructure, building support facilities, optimizing processes, and analyzing Firewall's weaknesses.

File: 1358395383287.jpg-(508 KB, 1000x650, Daedalus Prime.jpg)

You download some particularly well rated taste simulators off of the omninet, and "eat" a meal with your daughter. She insisted on something that did not have vegetables in it, as she has gotten sick of eating nothing but them ever since she was decanted. You however, disagree completely and think that it would be best if you have a meal made entirely of vegetables, for the sake of your daughter's nutrition.

The large Firewall commander intervenes, claiming to be something of an expert on matters of cuisine and dietary needs. He points to a rather fanciful meal from Old Terra, of strips of meat rolled with bacon, mustard, onions and spices that should properly be cooked in their own gravy for four hours at the minimum. You contemplate that for the next time you have this opportunity, and instead go with a rather nice looking pie, stuffed with chicken, peas, carrots and an assortment of spices and gravies.

It is rather delicious, but the large man's timely assistance reminds you that you do, in fact, have a job to do.

==========

You fork off a few betas, and find that you can make numerous optimizations to the local branch of Firewall's systems and infrastructures. While hardly bad in their own right, they have not had an infomorph with your level of processing power available to check them over, having until recently prioritized stealth over all else.

What they've managed to jury rig is impressive. But you can do better.

>Roll 1d20+18 for improvements.

Rolled 5 + 18

>>22632007
OPTIMIZATION!

Rolled 3 + 18

rolling
>>22632007

Rolled 13 + 18

>>22632007
Optimize!

Rolled 19 + 18

>>22632007
Make sure that all the food is also optimised. For nutrition.

File: 1358395926500.png-(42 KB, 305x312, 1306644294645.png)

>>22632102
>>22632032
>>22632041
>>22632073
>2 bad and 1 okay roll
>near crit 1 roll off from being counted
Are we still doing the 'average of first three'? Or best of first three?

>>22632142
Best of first three, I believe.

>>22632142
Best of first three when not multi-tasking, I think.

File: 1358398020427.jpg-(104 KB, 850x637, Daedalus.jpg)

>Last post for the night
>(21+23+31)=75
>75/3=25
>25! Meh. Not bad.

Alas, this is far from your greatest masterpiece, hardly a true work of art to be given name and place amongst the great programs that earn forever the mad reps even centuries past their creation. It is, however, a more than serviceable upgrade to the Firewall systems.

See, before you came along and fixed it, there had been a pretty major loophole in their communications systems. Whilst everything was nice and encrypted, obfuscated such that 9^9^9^9 runtimes would have been necessary to brute force it with a standard computational system, the Empire's Cracking technology had gotten pretty damned advanced thanks to their millenia long war against nonhuman life forms. They had developed a predictive means, of which you were unsure the precise nature of, by which nonchaotic systems could be hacked in moments.

What you primarily did there was adapt their systems to a more chaotic state, such that by merely observing the messages would change their key. This was nearly standard for Imperial Communications, of course, but was a significant upgrade to Firewall. Hopefully, they'll roll it out soon to their brother branches.

As for upgrades to their infrastructure, there wasn't much you could do to help to begin with, aside from what you've already done. Given that they plan to use this planet as a waypoint into the rest of Imperial Space, you've begun assembling additional Einstein-Rosen Bridge Generators in orbit around the planet and throughout the system, for the improved mobilization of their forces.

It will take some small amount of time after the construction is complete to link them to the network proper, but once they're up, they will be connected to eachother.

>For tomorrow, Wat Do?

>>22632723
Expand orbital defense assets to protect the gates.

Omniwiki entry: Imperial FTL systems
What does the Empire use for interstellar travel?

>>22632723
>Wat Do?
Be some one else? I don't know about everyone else, but I'm at a total loss as to what to do with Daedalus now.

>>22633827
Yeah, let's Be Annie for a bit again. Maybe we can actually tell the Wrathful Pinkette about the timelines before she makes us give up narrative control again.

>>22634356
Sounds good to me.

Overnight bump.

>>22637967
And another.

>>22634356
Do we have anything we can use to prove that we're from an alternate timeline?
And Anne might have solved the Derivation, but she needed the full mathematical formula to work from first. And it seems that the Derivation isn't even being worked on in this timeline.

>>22642239
>And it seems that the Derivation isn't even being worked on in this timeline.

Most likely because Emps has it figured out and wiped all evidence after using it, possibly to the point of retconning the news article which in turn meant that Anne never solved it.

File: 1358457815009.jpg-(546 KB, 850x838, Lazy Figment Lady.jpg)

You come to realize that while making the arrangements for Firewall's preparation for a full scale war with the Empire is a definite necessity for the health, safety, and comfort of your daughter, your self, and your people, they are not precisely the most interesting spectacle to observe. It is highly improbable that the Emperor has any knowledge of your defection just yet, and even if he did it would take just as much long and dull preparation time as your own to amass the necessary forces to properly besiege your system. Thus, the probability of interesting things interrupting your dull to observe preparations is the limit of X as it approaches 0.

With this in mind - or, in the very least, the metawareness of your mind, given that you yourself are incognizant of the fourth wall and lack the necessary stimuli to obtain such cognizance - you hand over the reigns of the narrative to a kindly old lady. The lady herself takes no small amount of offense at being referred to as 'old', given that even at her advanced age she has only been around for the briefest instant within the scale of universe. She is, however, far too much the embodiment of acedia to do anything so frustrating as keep the reigns for herself - as this would require her to get off of her ass and actually do something.

Instead, she rather lackadaisically tosses them in the general direction of the "Took a Left at Alpha Centauri," hoping that someone cursed to live in interesting times picks it up.

==========

The clock turns to 0600 hours Standard Firewall Time. The cadets aboard the "Took a Left" are woken by klaxons blaring in their ears, reminding them of the late night shifters waiting to be replaced by fresher recruits. It is their first official day as soldiers, and it would be best not to disappoint their superiors.

But which of these cadets are you?

>Be the timid brunette
>Be the wrathful pinkette
>Be the bitchy bluenette
>Be the blonde fujoshi
>Be the elegant gentleman

>>22643781
Be the timid brunette, since people seem to think that she can actually unlock the Derivative and do something with it even though she lacks all of the exotic matter and Jovian-sized equipment actually needed to send messages back in time.

>>22643781
>Be the blonde fujoshi
Aw hell naw

>Be the Timid Brunette or maybe the Bitchy Bluenette

>>22643781
Be the Figment Lady

>>22643896
>even though she lacks all of the exotic matter and Jovian-sized equipment actually needed to send messages back in time.
Worked well enough on the Alpha Timeline - all we used was a simple piece of code with a command-line interface.
> that she can actually unlock the Derivative
The key problem is getting it, really.

>>22643781
>>Be the bitchy bluenette

Pink's not REALLY interesting beyond her role as protector and lover right now.

>>22643781
I want to be a gentleman!

>>22643781
>Be the timid brunette

>>22644060
>all we used was a simple piece of code with a command-line interface.
That was just to receive messages from the future. We never really got into what is needed to transmit them, or if knowledge of the Derivation's equations is enough.

>>22644270
What kind of maniac are you?

>>22644387
a madman... and an elegan/tg/entleman at heart... I can't help it!

File: 1358460322683.jpg-(62 KB, 500x500, Reimu Breakfast.jpg)

>Tie Broken on IRC: Be the Bitchy Bluenette.

You are now the Bitchy Bluenette.

You actually weren't awakened by any klaxons blaring in your ear, though that was mostly because you were already awake and obtaining your breakfast at the time. You also aren't one of the new cadets - you graduated last term and have been in service aboard the "Took a Left" for the last six months. Being one of the ships corps of two hundred and seventeen medics and physicians has been a fairly cushy position, and you honestly couldn't think of a more self fulfilling line of work.

You arrive at Medical Bay 3 coffee in hand, having long since mastered the tricks to keep it from floating away in transit. Heralding your arrival is an argument between the chief medical officer, and the military officer who was nominally in command of the medichine/healibot project.

"Dammit man," Doctor McCoy yells at the stiff lipped Commander, "I'm a doctor, not a fortune teller! How the hell am I supposed to know who tampered with the programming of those infernal machines of yours?"

Right. You maaa~ay have forgotten to inform your superiors of the changes that Ms. Choi made to Project Panacea.

"Project Panacea," the man frowns, "is -supposed- to have had one of your doctors watching it at all times."

"Dammit man," Your chief medical office looks rather... perturbed, "it was -you- and your bureaucratic, over politicized MESS of a military council that wanted to keep this thing under wraps." He huffs. "If you weren't so god damned paranoid about security footage leaking out to the Empire, there would have been proper god damned security measures in place!"

>Wat do?

>>22644457
So I had a friend look at them, and now they're better.

>>22644457
"Hey hey, chill~ A proper gentleman of a super whizkid came in and fixed a lot of the code! It's not even overheating anymore!"

>>22644457
"Oohh... /right/, those were supposed to be secret? Well, she seemed to know what she was doing, any way... One of the new cadets came by yesterday, insisted on fixing the medichine code."

>>22644457
Take a sip of your coffee, blink as if you juuust noticed them and eye them over the rim while asking what might be the matter.

Then interrupt and tell 'em ((>>22644515)) this.
While sipping coffee and walking to your workstation.

Let's play it cool.

>>22644457
"Project Panacea's code was a pasta mess with spaghetti flying out of its pockets. One of the engineers came in fixed it so that it's not overheating and being a right shoddy mess."

>>22644541
i'll second this

>>22644624
This or >>22644515
~

>>22644563
Do you want to make everyone mad at us?

>>22644457
"Damnit man, we're doctors, not computer engineers! That's why I asked one to help out with the code!"

File: 1358461994007.jpg-(35 KB, 700x530, Chief Medical Officer McCoy.jpg)

>Inform them of timid brunette's assistance.
>Non Contradictory: Play it cool

You decide to play it cool for now, and pretend that you are far, far too tired to actually notice what da fuq is going on. You stroll on over to the terminal to sign yourself in, letting the computer scan your compubiometrics for mental state, genetic identity, state vector identity, and embedded clearances. There are a few pastries laid out by the last shift for this shift's breakfast - you grab a cheese danish before deciding to head out.

"With all due respect, Doctor McCoy," the Commander intones, "you are an expert of medicine, not security. Keeping Project Panacea on a total information blackout was necessary not only for keeping its mechanics hidden from the Empire, but to keep the identities of the doctors working on it a secret." He pushes his arglasses up his nose. "Those measures were there for your protection."

"We don't -need- protection, you idiot!" McCoy is shouting as quietly as he can. "We're on a god damn heavy cruiser out in the deepest reaches of the black they could find! If the Empire could get any assassins onto this ship, we'd deserve to be killed for our own damned incompetence!"

"Still, I think it would be appropriate for a total investi-"

You had made your way over to them by this point, and decided to fess up. You try to clap the commander on the shoulder, but only get as high as his arm. He looks down at you with the same look your father used to give you when he was busy with work. You hate that look.

"Chillax, Commander," you say, "I got some whizkid from the new batch of cadets to help with the code, it'll be fine."

"Was this 'Whizkid' cleared for this?" He asks.

"Dammit man, none of us are cleared for this!" Doctor McCoy interrupts. "You and your god damned spooks from Embers made sure of that."

>Wat do?
>Roll 1d20+Smarts+Stubborn if trying to convince anyone of something.

>>22644975
"What McCoyliscious said, nigga. We ain't supposed ta even kno' of their existenca so chill your tits."

Rolled 18

>>22645047
>shit post
>then forget to even dice properly
the ufck is wrong with me today

Rolled 20 + 13

>>22644975
"If they weren't, then how could they have improved the efficiency of the code to the point where the medichines actually work now, instead of sparking a fire inside the patient?"

Convince that the whizkid must have had the proper access otherwise she wouldn't have been able to work on the code.

>>22645059
Well then.

File: 1358462372378.jpg-(56 KB, 1280x720, [Over-Time] Unofficial Se(...).jpg)

>>22645059
> mfw

>>22645059
Well, I, uh, I guess that'll do it.

File: 1358463912140.jpg-(434 KB, 850x1128, Reimu Rolls A Critical.jpg)

You stare the Commander right in the eyes - or, where you presume his eyes are under his opaque and midnight black arglasses. He knows damned well that you're kind of trapped - McCoy was right when he said that no one who was actually working on the project was cleared to work on it. Fortunately, since Panacea was so black that it technically didn't exist, you didn't technically need clearance to work on it, because much like the project, said clearance technically didn't exist.

This leaves you room to improvise. You're good at improvisation.

"Dammit man," you yell at him, channeling what you have learned from the CMO, "we're doctors, not computer engineers! It was like Gordion's god damned Knot in the code, and computers aren't all that good at cutting! So I got some help to work on it, and that whizkid cleaned the mess that we made."

"But," the Commander stammers, "did they have the prope-"

"I assure you, Commander," you cut him off, "that our whizkid had no less clearance than anyone else who was working on this project." You take another sip of your coffee, calming yourself. "I mean, if they didn't, how the hell could they have improved the efficiency so greatly." You turn to Doctor McCoy, making a point to ignore the Commander. "You'll be pleased to know that she managed to solve the overheating problem, Leonard. We won't have to worry about the occasional victim of heatstroke once these things go live."

The Commander straightens himself up. "Very well. I suppose, if they work, a formal inquiry will not be necessary." He coughs, and leaves. "Carry on then."

Doctor McCoy beams at you with pride. "You're a good kid, Reimu." His expression turns grim. "But you've got a patient waiting for you - she asked for you specifically. Said her name was 'Madame Lepus' - but her paper file says otherwise, even if all the electronic ones agree."

He hands you a folder. It is labeled "Tessa Roosevelt".

>Wat do?

>>22645511
>[x] Read Folder

>>22645511
What's the problem with her?

>>22645511
Read folder, get the details on her medical stuff.

Ask what she's in for and then check on her.

>>22645593
That seems to cover it

File: 1358465042621.jpg-(Spoiler Image, 743 KB, 1600x1200)

>>22645593
>Read folder, get the details on her medical stuff.
>
>Ask what she's in for
It's in the name.

Sorry, I just HAD to.

But ya, seconding this.
Maybe ask what's with the eccentricity.

>>22645511
>It is labeled "Tessa Roosevelt".
Oh, Tessa, Tessa, what did they do to you?

>>22646006
Showed her the wonders of BL manga.

>>22646126
A tragedy. A damn dirty tragedy.

File: 1358468032806.jpg-(165 KB, 768x1000, Reimu Military Uniform.jpg)

You open the folder to take a gander. You've actually worked around things made in the dead tree format, as they are significantly more difficult to alter, and until someone creates some sort of magical bullshit like the Panacea Project, the Society of Medicine would rather avoid being liable for the deaths of people who had made enemies out of Super Hackers. As such, you're suprised, but not exactly shocked.

=====Papernet=====

Patient Name: Tessa Roosevelt
Patient Number: 1A-192-57-E19-0004
Patient Gender: Female
Patient Blood Type: O-
Patient Allergies: None
Patient Last Physical: 2012-06-15
Patient Medical History: [A list of complete insignificant and routine diseases typical among youths growing up in non-sterile environs]
Patient Mental History: Chronic Depression coupled with Delusions of Grandeur since age 8.
Patient Vaccination Status: Up To Date as of 2012-06-15
==========

You take a brief moment to compare this with her electronic records, just to see what the girl has changed to warrant the honor of needing a paper record for general use. Amazingly, not much is all that different - the name was changed, obviously, and her mental history is suspiciously empty, but even some of the more embarrassing diseases she had come in for remain there. So clearly, whatever her motive is, it is not to save face.

"So," you ask, "What'd she come in for?"

"Hell if I know," McCoy responds. "Need to wait for her tests to come in - but whatever the hell it is, it doesn't look all that serious. Only definite symptoms are a fever and a broken ankle."

"A broken ankle is a symptom?" you ask. "Since when?"

"There's a couple strange virii out there," he says. "Do weird things to your coordination. I doubt it's anything but her own fault, but you know procedure - put everything into the machine, just in case."

>Wat do?

>>22646669
Let's go see her. "So... what's your deal, then?"

>>22646669
Let's see our patient.
Standard protocols, don't want to accidentally let a nanite-virus loose.

>>22646669
Let's have a look. Keep an eye out for things we could use to test the medichines. Nothing like a good gineua pig.

If she gets annoying, we can use her real name to get her on the back foot.

>>22646669
Okay, run her symptoms through the machine and then go see her, call her Madame Lupus once we have results. We might be able to test the Medichines.

>>22646829

>>22646818

>Let's have a look. Keep an eye out for things we could use to test the medichines. Nothing like a good gineua pig.
Ha! Ha! Time for morally questionable SCIENCE!!

>>22647034
Well we get her consent before doing so, we may love medicine and SCIENCE but we're not jerks about it.

>>22647067
>the bitchy bluenette

>>22647114
Yes, we're bitchy, but we still ought to follow medical ethics. There's a difference between being bitchy and not obtaining medical consent before testing a procedure.

File: 1358470512170.png-(220 KB, 1920x1200, Reimu 2.png)

You bid Doctor McCoy a farwell, as he lets the machine go about its business. Twelve Petabytes of diseases, symptoms and cross symptoms will tak a little while to actually come up with anything meaningful, so you decide to go with your gut and treat it as the bog standard space-flu. Such a generic disease would be an ideal test for the medichines, so you take a few digital forms for her to fill out in case she's willing to take the risks.

You step through the doorway, which is less a door, and more a portal with blue goo magnetically suspended between the spaces in the wall. Can't be too careful with some of the stuff that the ill might be carrying.

"So, Madame Lepus, what is your deal?" You ask. "Why'd you ask for me personally?"

Madame Lepus is standing such that she looks much like a statue from the centuries before tha fall. Like the Embodiment of the Great Thinker, she stands with one leg bent, resting upon the chair. One of her elbows rests upon that bent knee, and her head cradled atop her hand as though she were musing upon the vagaries of reality. She grins at you, the same sort of grin that you get when you succeed in one of your medical experiments.

"Because, my dear Doctor Reimu, you are one of the three," she proclaims like one who suffers from delusions of grandeur - which you're fairly sure she does. "Though you remember it not - and neither does this girl, though she was tangentally a part of it."

"I beg your pardon?" you ask. What on earth was she talking about?

>Field too long

File: 1358470591666.jpg-(425 KB, 750x1000, Madame Lepus 2.jpg)

"Of course you do not understand," she says, "I was hoping it would be you, the Bow, as that would make my job much easier. Unless of course it is you, and you are just feigning to redirect my attention to the Sword and the Shield!" She makes a dismissive gesture. "But at least have it narrowed down to the three of you, it is better than I can say for my minions, certainly. It is so hard to find good help these days..."

"Okay..." you say, going into one of the drawers. You pull out an injector full of sedative, on the off chance that this girl's delusions become dangerous. "Pray tell, what do my or anyone else's hobbies have to do with the fact that you've a fever and a broken ankle, Madame Lepus?"

The girl laughs.

"I'm afraid our dear, sweet Tessa has clocked out for now. Fear not, for she is but dreaming and will awaken when I am gone." She claps her hands together. "I am a fragment of the Emperor, and I can assure you, that your 'hobbies' have -everything- to do with this."

>Wat do?

>>22647586
"Right, I should probably update your files to say that your Delusions of Grandeur have not subsided and have in fact increased in intensity."

>>22647586
"What."

>>22647586
Oh god, she's one of the spys! She's trying to find Annie and the timestream bubbles or something.

Do we even have any of these 'hobbies' that she's talking about?

>>22647586
>"I am a fragment of the Emperor, and I can assure you, that your 'hobbies' have -everything- to do with this."
>
>>Wat do?
Casually motion as if to call security on her.
"Is that so? Guess you're more interesting than we might have initially thought".

Shock therapy.

>>22647752
>Do we even have any of these 'hobbies' that she's talking about?
I think that's referring to the fact that she called us "the Bow". And we're like "who cares if I do archery I'm trying to treat your shit"

>>22647586
"Apparently this is a little more than just the space-flu."
Patient is delusional but doesn't have a high enough fever to cause such delusions.
Aberrant neural behavior would have been picked up and reported by the cortical stack.
Which leaves either cortical stack failure, or that it really is a fork of the Emperor.

Immediate quarantine and shut down the network in the medlab.

File: 1358472989306.png-(131 KB, 424x597, Madame Lepus 3.png)

"Right," you drawl, reaching for a notepad. "I should probably update your file. Because clearly, your delusions of grandeur have only increased in intensity since yesterday 'Mister Fragment'. Now, Tessa, are you going to start putting on your serious face, or I am going to have to mark you down as developing dis-associative identity disorder." You give her a blank look. "Because I do have that authority, you know - it is, quite literally, my job."

Her response is to extend her arm, that self satisfied smirk never leaving her face.

"I shall behave, Doctor Reimu," she says, "though you may wish to draw some of h- my blood. What you find within it may, ah, grant you some insight into whatever disease is harming me." She smirks. "Once you discover the malady, you may wish to test the medichines on me - I will sign whatever forms you deem necessary, for the sake of Science, of course."

"How the hell..." You pop up her social profile, and are somewhat annoyed. "Dammit. You're friends with the whizkid, aren't you? And of course she went and told you because I went and fucked up about the classification, isn't it." You look at her. "God dammit Choi..."

Tessa raises her hand in a placating gesture.

"Now, now," she says, "Don't go blaming this on the shield. It was not from her that I learned the existence of the medichines, for I was the one who orchestrated their invention in the first place." She smirks. "And that gives me all of the information that I need - Madame Choi is the Enlightened One, it would seem. I shall have to call off the dogs, and let this ship pass unharmed - for to lose her is to lose everything."

She clasps on to the chair, gasping in pain.

"Now, this unfortunately is a one use method," she chokes. "I would ask you kindly to save this girl's life, as she has unknowingly been the vital pawn in a eighteen hundred year game of chess, and I'd rather not have her blood on my hands." Blood begins to run down from her mouth.

>Wat do?

>>22648262
Err wat?

Try to save her without the medichines. It seems like that's what she wants, after all.

>>22648342
and, uh, tick as many of those checkboxes for the various types of insanity as we reasonably can.

>>22648262
God damn it, we told him who it was. Engage whatever jamming, quarantine and Faraday cage protocols we can, we don't want anything electronic or physical getting out of this room.

Then get a sample of her blood, get it tested, see if we can cure her without Medichines but use them if absolutely needed.

>>22648262
What IS she talking about? We can just red leave her if this body dies; not like a biological virus can destroy her cortical stack.
But still, waiting several months for a new body would be a pain.

Order a quarantine of the medlab, and get a reading on Tessa's vitals. Begin attempting to stabilize her vitals, and inject her with medichines.

File: 1358475082877.png-(574 KB, 1800x2890, Reimu Waking.png)

"What," you deadpan. You decide that Tessa has quite clearly ascended far above and beyond the realm of your average delusional person, becoming some sort of embodiment of broken reality. You check a few extra boxes down, with a whispered promise to yourself that you are going to -keelhaul- her if it turns out that she's just fucking with you. Then you notice the blood running down from her mouth. "Oh god dammit."

"Quickly, if you would," she groans, "I would rather not add this girl's body to the trail of corpses my methods have left behind me, even if it is but an inconvenience for her." She coughs again, and more blood comes out. "Use the Medichines, if you would. I have absolute faith in that girl's ability to program them. She is the Enlightened One, after all."

"No," you say, "Not yet." You take a revactor, which is sort of like syringe from before the Two Day War, only far less barbaric and like a torture device, and more medically sound. "First, I need to find out what's wrong with you..."

You draw some blood, and are quick to place the vial in the scanner. Scanning is a lengthy process, however, and as you wait for it to finish, your patient is quite clearly dying-in-physical. The fact that she is laughing between coughs does not exactly help in the matter, and further proves your sentiment that she is far beyond delusional.

"The process will take too long," she hacks out. "You'll have plenty of time to figure out what went wrong with her once she is cured. Death, though, I believe you yourself should know the scars that that can bring."

"Nope, never died myself," you say, still waiting for the analysis to be complete. "Never been the sort to put myself directly in harms way, if I could avoid it."

"Huh," she says, "Well, that's a difference. But I think her heart may be about to stop, so if you wouldn't mind?"

>Wat do?

>>22648774
"Let's say you are Rick, which as this goes on seems more likely due to the amount of pain you should be in right now. So there's no way in hell I'm going to do what you say, it probably isn't good for us."

Get her an IV drip of fresh blood in the right type, identify the problem and disease, fix it using non medichine ways, we're a god damn Doctor, we don't need stupid nanomachines to do our job.

>>22648774
What do you mean difference? Your information on me is wrong then, huh?

>>22648774
Fuck. Apply the medichines.

>>22648774
Well, fuck you too, "Rick". Let's hope whatever code Choi wrote for the 'chines can have analysis-data and logs extracted from it after the fact.

... also, if we can do so safely, knock her out first.

>>22648774
Get vital readings from Tessa's cortical stack.
There's obvious physical damage going on. Inject Tessa with the medichines.

File: 1358477555595.png-(442 KB, 736x800, Reimu 3.png)

>Last Post for the night.

"What do you mean by difference," you say. You're getting impatient, with both the machine for taking so long in it's analysis and the coy arrogance of whomever the fuck it is you're speaking to. You lift the weakened girl up bodily and place her on the table, telling the automatons to begin cycling the blood and applying external temperature controls. "Your information on me is wrong, then?"

"Well it was to be ah-ah-expected," she says, jolting at the sudden feeling of fresh blood being cycled through her. "There would, of course, be differences in the world lines, chaos theory and the butterfly effect and all. Some subtle, some vast, and one constant for what she is - creating relative constinency around her." She gasps. "Ach - ah, there it is, going into cardiac arrest now, heart stopping, rather bad news."

The machine monitoring her heart rate has indeed flatlined, but that has happened to some of your patients before, when you were unable to treat them in time. But it isn't like cardiac arrest is irreversible - such has been within the capacity of medical science for millenia.

You press a button, and the girl gives a little shriek. The machine starts to beep again.

"AOH!" Mr. Fragment, Tessa, or whomever cries. "What... what the fucking hell was that for you insane, bitchy bluenette! What the fuck!"

"There," you smile. "Now you're no longer in cardiac arrest! And guess what - the analysis is done." Your smile becomes vicious. "And while I can't verify who you are, there is some moderate corrobration to your story, and I believe that the officers will like to have a word with you."

You snap on a glove, and move from the terminal to the table, opening up a holographic keyboard and begin doing the one bit of programming that you are trained in.

"What sort of doctor would subject their patient to -torture-?" he, or she, asks. "Why would you do such a horrible thing to Madame Roosevelt?" He stares at you with contempt.

>FIELD!!!!!

File: 1358477589294.jpg-(14 KB, 150x150, Reimu's Face When.jpg)

>>22649440

You bare your teeth, and run the program.

"I'm sorry," you say after a moment, popping out her cortical stack. "But you are not my patient. My patient is right here," you point at the cylindrical computer matrix that had been between her shoulder blades, displaying the rather lewd dream now on loop through Tessa's conscoiusness, "sound asleep, dreaming happy dreams of yaoi and yuri. Neural dumps are a wonderful thing, are they not?"

He, she, it opens its mouth to speak, eyes wide with fear, but you cut him, her, it off. "You, on the other are the person who has done harm to my patient," you glare at him with uncapped hatred. "Inconveniencing her at the best, forcing her into the trauma of death at the worst. And threatening to make her take your place in the interrogation room?"

You tut at him.

"No, I don't think I'm inclined to pity you at all."

>For tomorrow, wat do?

>>22649449
Bolt her arms to the chair.

>>22649449
Make sure that Security and Dr. McCoy are informed of the prisoner.
Now that Tessa's cortical stack has been removed safely, make sure that the body is kept alive.
Can we insert another, blank cortical stack and force a neural dump of the current mind controlling the body? Having a backup copy of the prisoner to interrogate and scan the memories of, in case the one in the body dies would be quite useful for the Intel operatives.

>>22649449
Excellent, secure Mr. Fragment to the table using all means available to us, get a message out to Dr. McCoy. Get a Neural Backup done of Fragment if we can, make sure that it isn't connected to ANYTHING at all.

It looks like it's time for some Enhanced Information gathering. We won't even feel guilty, this Fragment tried to hurt our patient. And we're getting everything we can out of him before ending him, can't let Rick Prime learn what this guy learned.

>>22649601
What if Rick isn't in the mind?

>>22650473
What, that he's distributed the processing load of his Alpha State Vector in nanites spread throughout the entire body?
At that point we put the body in quarantine, get the nanites in the blood sample analyzed, get their communication protocol, and have Anne Choi hack the shit out of their network.

>>22649449
We should tell Annie that someone claiming to be Rick is after her. That's kinda a big deal.

>>22651616
Good point.

Anyway, our first priority to get this guy in all the jails ever. Physical jail, wireless isolation, the works.

>>22652531
We should also prep anti-nanite procedures.
If we've got Blue Goo in this timeline, get some of that ready.

>She won't be able to call off the hounds
>Firewall attacks the ship
>Because Reimu didn't listen
well that went well

>>22654656
It's a Firewall ship, you goon, it's not Firewall we'd need to worry about. Whether or not an EMPIRE attack is needed to be worried about is another question.

And a nudge, to keep things going for the night.

>>22653948
There was blue goo in the doorway to the medibay, so we have that. I do wonder how this fork got in though, if Tessa had to walk through it to get in.

If the scanner is done with the blood sample, what did it find?
How would the medichines have reacted to whatever is in the blood?

>>22651616
So tell her that Rick knows that she's here at the same time we ask her to rip apart Fragment-Rick's mental defenses?

File: 1358551456853.jpg-(100 KB, 832x400, Zero.jpg)

Bump

>>22663748
This is getting escalated beyond a midshipman-specialist, man, but she doesn't have the same access that the full Firewall agents have on the ship.

I'm not sure on telling her that Rick wants her is a good idea, not out right. Work up to it, through conversation. We tell the rest of Firewall that she's important some how, and talk to Anne about the "Sword, Shield & Bow" thing, maybe.

Rolled 79

>>22657684
>>22653948


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWv-8IiUVXs
This just appeared in my Related Videos.
I believe that is a sign (It's also a pretty rad song).

>>22660829
>How would the medichines have reacted to whatever is in the blood?
I'm assuming they would have been subverted, the way was done with the Blue Good in the door security, only more thoroughly and with more dangerous results for us since Blue Goo is pretty dumb and useless for things beyond defense.

>>22665874
>I'm not sure on telling her that Rick wants her is a good idea, not out right.
Definitively no unneeded bluntness.
That girl seems to lose her shit at the faintest breeze unless you put her in front of a computer, so... I don't feel like doing anything that could in the worst case lead to her abandoning ship and running gods know where.

>>22665973
I don't think the Blue Goo at the door was subverted; I think that it's simply topical only, and meant to prevent airborne viruses from getting through.

And if I'm reading right; we're already cycling the blood in Fragment's body out. We should perhaps keep the old blood contained to see if there's anything useful in it?

>>22665874
>This is getting escalated beyond a midshipman-specialist, man
Perhaps true. But she is also one of the best hackers we've ever seen. She might succeed where others will fail.

>>22669206
It's possible, sure. I'm just saying don't be too surprised if Firewall goes, "Oh hell no" about Annie getting access.

Icarus must learn of ice cream. ...also showers. Not sure she even knows how to maintain an organic frame.

>>22674400
Just sit back and let the nanites do their work.

I… I'm starting to lose faith, guys. What if ReADS doesn't come back?

>>22681438
>I… I'm starting to lose faith, guys. What if ReADS doesn't come back?
FOOL, the ReADS is as immortal as human greed.

>>22681438
After that 6 month break with no warning you're getting worried about him being one little day late?

>>22682901
>After that 6 month
Was it really that long?
Well, sure felt like an eternity.

>>22683090
Man, seriously.

>>22682901
Nah, not really. There are these things you may have heard of, called "jokes".

That was also a joke

>>22683375
What's a joke?

File: 1358653893501.jpg-(9 KB, 228x251, Catberry.jpg)

Hey guys, perhaps we should let this thread die. While there's nothing wrong per se with keeping it alive, it's probably more proper to move to the irc in #sufficientlyadvanced on Rizon and let ReADS make a new thread when he returns.