</PRE>
<BR><A HREF="index.html">Back to the index for this section</A><BR>
<A HREF="../index.html">Back to the Tea Bowl</A><P>
</BODY>
</HTML>>From: eaiu146@orion.oac.uci.edu (Lawrence Robert Mann)
Subject: Experiment 101-E > Prologue
Date: 11 Oct 91 07:22:05 GMT
Anyone familiar with Adam Warren & Toren Smith's version of
the Dirty Pair will recognize several of the characters contained
herein. I had the opportunity to discuss the writing of this story
with Toren himself, and he informed me that such use of the
characters was okay, so long as the story was distributed ONLY on a
NON-PROFIT basis. In other words, this is safe.
That aside, enjoy the story!
===================================================================
E X P E R I M E N T 1 0 1 - E
A Story of the WWWA
by
Larry Mann
===================================================================
Based on characters and situations created by
Haruka Takachiho, Toren Smith, and Adam Warren
Original characters and situations
Copyright (c) 1975, 1991 Haruka Takachiho
and (c) 1991 Toren Smith and Adam Warren
===================================================================
CAUTION:: This material may be freely distributed, on the
condition that such distribution occurs ONLY on a
NON-PROFIT basis. Any other form of distribution
may result in a (large) lawsuit from Studio Proteus!!
===================================================================
--------
PROLOGUE
--------
> A.D. 2135xx.xx (month and day classified)
> Planet Elenore, WWWA Central Headquarters, Sciences Wing
"I don't know, Jeff, I just don't know about this."
"What don't you know about?!" shot back Jeff Ayoob, WWWA
Director of Operations. "For God's sake, Malsen! Don't start this
again!"
"I'm sorry!" Malsen retorted, now also upset. "But I'm the
one who's had to explain to Administration why this project has
been so damned expensive, and I've never really had solid ground to
stand on! Admin is getting really impatient for some answers,
Jeff!"
"Relax, Ted," Ayoob said. "Operations has followed regular
procedure for a classified project, and you know it. We haven't
omitted any data from our reports. Admin was free to come in and
inspect what we were doing at any time. If they wanted to stop
this they would have done it a long time ago. So what is your
problem?"
"Credits," Malsen fumed. "This 'little' project took one hell
of a bite out of our accounts!"
"True, this is expensive," Ayoob said. "But if it works, the
benefits will be astronomical."
"Yeah, yeah. I've heard the spiel about how this is going to
change the face of security and law enforcement throughout the
United Galactica. But I question whether a tetrad A/P system will
provide the safest method of enforcement."
"Operations thinks it will," Ayoob said, speaking for his
department. "And I think Administration agrees as well. If we
pull this off, the WWWA could become the number one security
corporation in the UG. I'd estimate we could cut crime by 65% at
the very least. That's what we all want, isn't it?"
Malsen said nothing. He had to agree with what Ayoob had
just said, but deep down he still had misgivings. What they were
about to create was, according to Operations, unlike anything ever
designed by any security corporation galaxy-wide. But if anything
went wrong, Malsen could easily become one of those "expendables",
and for this reason he was extremely wary of any project which might
jeopardize his standing in the WWWA...
"Good morning, Mr. Ayoob."
The security guards stepped aside as Ayoob entered the access
code for the room they were guarding, and he and Malsen stepped
inside.
Malsen felt confined because of the high concentration of
machinery present in the room. Most of the machinery was
biotechnical in nature, and it all centered around a human-sized
BioSculpt tank close to the room's center, the contents of which
were partially obscured by the dark reddish oxygen-rich fluid
filling the tank.
"Morning, Jeff," said one of the technicians.
"What's our status?" Ayoob asked.
"All anatomical structures are completely formed," the tech
answered. "We injected dermal stabilizers about an hour ago, and
all the pre-activation programs are functioning perfectly."
"How's the neural net?"
"As far as we can see -- and we've triple-checked this -- the
entire tetrad brain complex is fully operational and functioning
normally. All of the A/P subroutines are fully online, and the
core metaprogram is passing all its diagnostics with flying colors.
No error compensation subroutines were ever invoked."
Ayoob asked for the databoards and looked them over. He
seemed to grow even more confident as his cyberoptic extended
slightly from his head to read the glowing boards.
Malsen began walking around the room, making sure his eyes
passed over every square inch of machinery; he had a small CamCord
cyber-A/V construct implant in his head, which was why Administration
had him conduct a lot of interdepartmental business. Today was the
day for Admin to receive an update on the experiment's progress.
He activated the RECORD subroutine, and started walking around the
room. Provided this affair did not take more than an hour, the
150 Megabyte RAMchip wouldn't miss a detail.
Most of what he was recording was not wholly new. Admin had
seen most of this machinery in previous recordings. What made the
scene different was the amount of activity going on now. The
technicians had been supervising the experiment much more closely
since Malsen's last visit.
"Jeff?"
"Yeah, Ted?"
"I want to look at everything today."
He was referring to the fact that Ayoob had requested that
certain parts of the experiment, particularly the contents of the
BioSculpt tank, not be exposed to cameras, even for interoffice
transactions. Hence, Malsen had been denied close access to these
areas on more than one occasion. He was free to look at them from
a distance, of course, but that wasn't what he wanted.
"Does Ted Malsen want to look, or does Admin want to look?"
Glaring, Malsen produced a memo from Admin which verified that
Administration was requesting full access as of this visit. Ayoob
looked the paper over and shrugged: "Good enough for me. Help
yourself."
Malsen went directly to the area he was wanting to see.
Whatever they were making was obviously biomechanical in nature --
that was all Operations had really revealed. Malsen had figured
it was some kind of warbeast, and he was anxious to see what kind
of improvements were being made in this model. It would be nice to
get rid of the heavy demand the WWWA had for Kuan Yin cymechs. He
rested his hand on the BioSculpt tank and peered into the reddish
fluid.
"What the---?!?" he said, jumping back in surprise.
"What's the problem, Ted?" Ayoob asked, sounding unconcerned.
"I don't recall your mentioning anything to me about THIS kind
of bioroid!!" Malsen cried, very angry.
"You're right. I didn't."
"Admin's gonna have a FIT when they see THIS!!!" Malsen shouted,
preparing to storm out of the room.
"They already know, Ted."
Malsen stopped in mid-stride, and stared at Ayoob in disbelief.
"They've known about it for quite some time," he continued.
"That was the secret part. We agreed from the start that it'd be
kept under wraps until it was almost time to run the exodus programs.
I was going to tell you earlier, but Admin advised *me* not to tell
anyone outside of Operations about it. It was their idea, not mine."
Ayoob walked over to one of the techs and said something which
even Malsen's CamCord couldn't pick up. A couple minutes later he
approached Malsen with a small stack of databoards.
"Up to now, only the people in this room and a couple people in
Admin are the only ones who've seen this. But we're ready to
disseminate internally now, so here's the data."
Malsen accepted the databoards. He activated them one at a
time, reading the glowing characters shining through the black
surface. As he read, his face seemed to grow more expressionless,
the result of a mixture of awe and fear.
He walked slowly over to the BioSculpt Tank and rested his hand
on the transparent covering, looking at the object within. "My God,
what have we created here?" he mumbled.
"Very simple, my friend," said Ayoob, who sounded extremely
proud at the moment. "We have created the *perfect* Trouble
Consultant!!"
-- END PROLOGUE --
=========================================================================
Comments, etc., are appreciated...
Send all replies to:
If that fails, try:
=========================================================================