Life2.0 - An "Of Unity" Narrative (Completed)

[HistoryDude]

Oh, hey, Rivkah's growing up. I wonder when she will get a romantic relationship...

This was a nice mother-daughter talk.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

At the moment she's in the equivalent of mid-teenage years, and in a complicated position because she feels guilty about what happened to other Xenaya on the Flagship, and she's worried about having a family before MSI are dealt with, because she can easily see becoming an orphan if anything happens to Buri.

But, she will; I've already mentioned Rivi B'Uniti as a distant descendant.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

So, I was writing up the next entry, and it occured to me to check the views, and 10k views is amazing. I mean, it's as many as the forum rules and guidlines sticky, and logically I'd expect that to have been read more. It's almost as many as the rest of my AARs combined.

I'll admit I'm probably 10%+ of them with how much I view this narrative - I presume it counts repeat visits by the same user as additional views - but even then it's still probably huge number of readAARs, and I appreciate the time people are spending reading the stories of our bunch of ex-Indentured Assets and their small novel on their journey to freedom.

Thank you.

Now back to writing, and our characters have nukes to burn.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"A HaMaadimi Honeymoon"
2nd Odoos, 9 (2188)
Alexandra HaMaadimi​

A thousand nuclear bombs.

That's what's powering our little test ship on it's tour, only a twelve metre diameter pusher plate; which means if anything goes wrong, the blast is less than a hundred tons of TNT equivalent while we are going up which the sacrificial armour plate should withstand, allowing our cabin to land safely via parachute. We'll do the outer planets another time. The colony has designs for plates more than thirty times this size, although we have to use the smaller ones to upscale our industrial base first.

One of the complications of life on Unity is we can't just use the "launch from the poles" plan that Earth's Orion drives intended to - we have people living there after all. Instead, it's fourty degrees outside at this launch site deep in the southern desert; it's summer down here.

Really, it's basic proof of concept test; we take off light with just the surface to orbit pulses and we meet a refueler in Unity orbit. Then we begin our tour and test the equipment at different stages, get experimental data for launching from other planets in the system. We already have survey data of course, so we can work out what performance we need at each stage.

It should all be routine.

But, I am worried enough to hold my husband's hand as we are strapped into our seats, pointed at the sky.

He looks at me; we share one more long gaze into each other's eyes.

Then he fires the non-nuclear initial bomb that gets us into the air.

 

[HistoryDude]

A spaceship powered by nukes? I can't think of a single way that could go wrong... Given their tech, though, it might be the lesser evil.

I have no clue how views are counted either. I don't think anybody does.

 

[Macavity116]

it's basic proof of concept test; we take off light with just the surface to orbit pulses and we meet a refueler in Unity orbit... It should all be routine.

I just got some Vietnam-style flashbacks to the first Homeworld game. Meeting a refueler in space is the perfect opportunity for a wide range of story events to happen, none of which would quality as "routine."

He looks at me; we share one more long gaze into each other's eyes.

Then he fires the non-nuclear initial bomb that gets us into the air.

Setting the new standard for romantic couples in Stellaris stories here.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

A spaceship powered by nukes? I can't think of a single way that could go wrong... Given their tech, though, it might be the lesser evil.

I have no clue how views are counted either. I don't think anybody does.

A few people different at NASA or USAF in the early 60s and we'd consider it normal by today.

I just got some Vietnam-style flashbacks to the first Homeworld game. Meeting a refueler in space is the perfect opportunity for a wide range of story events to happen, none of which would quality as "routine."


Setting the new standard for romantic couples in Stellaris stories here.

True. But the underlying principles are nothing new; air to air refuelling is more than half a century old, and on Stellaris' technology refuelling of far more dangerous fuels than sub-kiloton nukes is normal.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"A HaMaadimi Honeymoon, part 2"
3rd Odoos, 9 (2188)
Alexandra HaMaadimi​

We float around our little cabin. We were having a great time. "Loveboat One to Central, we um, have a situation here."

"Central copies, could you clarify the nature of the problem?" It's a Kyaese voice.

I look at Thando. Then the console panel we... Yeah. "Should we tell them the truth?"

He looks at the panel too. "Somehow, I don't think they'd want to know the exact truth."

"They won't be pleased." I turn back to the radio. "Ah, fluid spill on the operations console."

"Maintenance wants to know what is the fluid?"

We look at each other, and I try his suggestion. "Water-based."

"Maintenance wants to know the exact fluid." It's a very deadpan Kyaese voice.

Thando takes my hand. "Let's take the rap together."

"Central to Loveboat One, advise Arch-Imperatrix is on the line."

Oh dear. Naomi won't be pleased.

"Arch-Imperatrix to Loveboat One. I've already worked out the answer to this, but just to confirm: Despite being told not to have sex in the command module, and despite that we gave you a sealed secondary cabin for that purpose, have you two done what I think you've done?"

I hesitate. I look back at the sleeping cabin. "Well, technically no..."

I leave the rest to her imagination. I can just see the way she's shaking her head. She waits several seconds to reply. "Your mess, you clean it up. I want those cabins spotless."

She cuts the channel. Thando pulls me in tighter. "Shall we?"

I smile to encourage him, my heart beating faster already.

One kiss.

Then he pushes off me to get the cleaning cloths.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Rivkah Interviews: Tryykad​

I tap a claw on the recorder function. "So, Tryykad, what I want to understand is what happened to the Kyaese under MSI."

He recoils. "The abuse we had was worse than what even your mother faced."

"How bad?"

"Your mother was what MSI technically called at the systemic level an 'Indentured Asset'; she owed debt for everything, and they used her sexually to make her earn her keep, tying her in debt for the scraps of food and the bunk she had in those docks. But we weren't Indentured Assets. We were Culinary Assets."

What does that even mean... "What's a Culinary Asset? Were you cooks?"

He clucks. "Nope."

"What then?"

He smiles the kind of dark smile I last saw on Ykrett. "We were what the cooks cooked."

My Mum would use a colourful metaphor here. I gulp. "Livestock?"

He flaps up onto the table. My wrist is thicker than both his legs, and I'm not even fully grown. "Rivkah, have you ever stopped to wonder why no Kyaese in the colony is older than thirty four years old?"

"No. Although there are no old people on Unity apart from Caeso."

"Correct. MSI recycles the elderly among the Indentured Assets. But, the Kyaese reproductive system stops working at twenty five years old, give or take a little. We can live on much longer, and most of us remain active another thirty years or more before retiring to pass on the wisdom of age to the younger generation, giving our people a kind of cycle of life of rearing children in the early years, and pursuing careers later in life, culminating in passing on the expereiences of a lifetime. The Olinbar however, care nothing for that. Instead, male and female couples were abandoned, with polygamy forced on us because males were less productive."

"But it's a fifty fifty split of Kyaese?"

"When MSI came to our home, the Infinite Wheel, they rounded up hundreds of billions of us. Everyone over twenty was sent to biomass generators, and those left confined to massive metal structures with barely room to flap their wings, never to fly free in the expanse until the day they too were sent to the biomass generators. If they even lived to see the light of their first day."

Do I dare ask? "What are you implying?"

"To meet their breeding quotas could be done with a one male to nine female ratio. What do you think they did with the other eight males?"

I suddenly realise what he actually meant by using the MSI origin term of biomass generator. "Sent day old chicks to incinerators?"

He nods. "Not worth the feed and housing costs. Cheaper to use them as fuel for their biomass generators. And yes, you're right about the method for generating heat to create the temperature gradient for the thermocouples. Likewise, consider what happened to any Kyaese who fell ill, or broke legs or wings."

"Culled?"

"Correct. No medical facilities. No painkillers. Nope, machines scanned you, and if they detected a fault, they'd grab your neck and twist then put your body on the conveyor to the biomass generators. They did do preventative medication, but if one Kyaese got ill, they'd send the whole group to the biomass generators, just in case."

He looks at my claws. My sabres. My athletic body that enables me to leap to knock over and pin down my next meal. I go quiet.

"How does it feel, predator, to understand the prey's perspective?"

I go very quiet.

"Do you know why I respect you, Rivkah?"

"I'd like to know."

"You have your mother's compassion. Now, do you know why I respect your mother?"

I think back a while. "One of those backroom deals when I was a little child?"

"Correct. I hated her after the death of Qutrok. Even told her to get out when she came to Qutrok's Last Flight. But she put a gun in my hand, and offered us hope of victory. One day, I will free the trillions of Kyaese imprisoned on the Infinite Wheel."

---

Edit to note - the Kyaese are the former Ringworld residents, and MSI's treatment is based on chicken battery farm practices.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Prometheus, Part 3"
3rd Odoos, 9 (2188)
Daas​

It's late.

I'm looking at the technical team's brief on the integration of Caesulenus Drives, and well... The team has put together their Feasible-Construction Concept. These try to establish what it would take to make a workable design based on what we have - they use the highest power space ship-rated modular reactor we have, put hundreds of them together to power a Caesulenus drive scaled down in thrust-equivalence to our electrical generation capability.

The short answer is that In no way, shape or form is it as good as continuing to upscale Orion pulse propulsion.

I'm beginning to have my doubts about our new Olinbar residents, if this is what they intend to give us.

Vorosh slides up next to me. "What are you looking at?"

"An evaluation report on the Caesulenus Drive."

"Too slow, too heavy, too expensive is what I'm seeing."

"Yeah. We need reactors a thousand times lighter and a thousand times more powerful to get anywhere near this making sense, and completely new heat management technologies."

She pauses to think. "Could they be trying to stall us by leading us down the wrong development path? Orion works, it's just a matter of actually building the biggest drives. This... Could be decades of development."

"I'm beginning to wonder that too. But we will need to replace the nuclear pulse propulsion at some point, it is rather massive, which is a liability in combat."

"Hmm. I doubt they're as bad as this though."

I look at the specs. True. "The only way to get anything like the power generation needed on our present technology would be developing an nuclear bomb variant that maximises the flash element to use the detonation to charge capacitors."

"But if we're talking about detonating megaton-yield bombs to propel a ship anyway..."

"Exactly. We may as well abandon the Caesulenus program and stick with the four hundred metre Orion carrier-approach. Possibly go even bigger still."

---

Note - this concept gives a sense for how many reactors and radiators would be needed, and therefore gets a lower bound for requirements such as mass, dimensions, crew count and cost of the minimum supporting structure for a drive system.

Delta-v, propellant and acceleration figures are all ignorable, being only tweaked to get a comparison to conventional rockets and Orion systems.

 

[HistoryDude]

That paranoia is part of the problem. If they can't trust the Olinbar... their technology will suffer. More importantly, cooperation will grow more difficult... and I imagine that reporting a rebellion to MSI will get them forgiveness at the very least.

Thando and Alexandra had sex in the ship? Loveboat, indeed... was that an intentional pun?

MSI eats sapient beings? Just when you thought they couldn't get any worse...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Life2.0 Liberation Asset Design Bureau
Technical Brief:
Backpack Reactor Mk 2​

"Mission Brief: A small, lightweight nuclear fission reactor suitable for being worn on the backs of Human-sized colonists."

Note - this is the Mk 2 version, which improves massively on the example described by Naomi earlier in the narrative. Headline improvements are a cut by 40.3% to the radiation emitted, a reduction in reactor mass by 47.3% and a resulting cut in total system mass by 37%, and on CoaDE's economic assumptions, a cut in cost by 59.8%, all while keeping the same power output and thermal efficiencies.

In-Universe:
Powered Armour has long been a dream tool of Human industrial, medical and military minds. For a long time, limitations of batteries or alternative generator systems meant it was considered unfeasible to do, and as technology improved, unfeasible to do economically, limiting deployment. Our objective is to deliver powerplants at a low enough cost basis to equip everyone.

Small nuclear reactors offer the most power to mass of available technologies. Our earlier prototypes relied on relatively low enrichment levels, reflecting early difficulties in resource extraction and the deployment of breeder reactors on a significant enough scale to produce sufficient quantities of highly enriched Uranium and Plutonium.

Regrettably, breeder reactors are not really feasible at this small a scale. However, the usage of 97%+ enriched Uranium-233 means that we can produce reactors that use a little over 1kg, most of which we can recycle when the fuel rods need reprocessing.

The Mk 2 version is the full production specification, and is rated for eighteen months continuous usage before a chronic dose of 50 millisieverts is reached. Further, because these suits will not be in continuous usage 24/7, we can allow a longer exposure time. And in practice of course, we all accept that dying free of radiation poisoning is preferable to dying enslaved of being recycled.

For me, the choice is even easier - I would always choose radiation poisoning over being crucified. And the ability to have much better armour might well be the difference between the two, for all of us.

Declaring Officer: Arch-Imperatrix Naomi Of Unity

 

[CBR JGWRR]

That paranoia is part of the problem. If they can't trust the Olinbar... their technology will suffer. More importantly, cooperation will grow more difficult... and I imagine that reporting a rebellion to MSI will get them forgiveness at the very least.

Thando and Alexandra had sex in the ship? Loveboat, indeed... was that an intentional pun?

MSI eats sapient beings? Just when you thought they couldn't get any worse...

There are options apart from the Olinbar; we've met a representative of one of the possible candidates. As to forgiveness; maybe. Maybe not. Would they trust double defectors after all?

Of course they did. Or at least, they tried, and experienced why couples aren't allowed to have sex in real life space missions. Things obviously didn't go according to plan. Given Naomi sends married couples together, I figured it would not be the first time the Kyaese mission control person has had this conversation.

I decided to explore what Livestock slavery would actually look like, and drew on battery farm practices for chickens to shape how MSI treat the Kyaese.

So, I tested running Stellaris on the laptop again.

Took almost an hour and a half to load up, and then ran too slowly to play.

It's... Not ideal.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Rivkah Interviews: Yehoshua HaMaadimi, Holocron​

"On?"

The holocron activates. Looks at me. "Please state the nature of your inquiry."

"What exactly are you and HK-47b?"

It's a solid moment, the delay. He does Mum's staying still while whirring away behind the eyes thing. "We are who we choose to be."

Suddenly I see where Mum gets it from. "Where is that quoted from?"

"Two citations on record; variant 'You are who you choose to be' Earth-year 1999, 'The Iron Giant', and variant 'We are who we choose to be' Earth-year 2002, 'Spider-Man'."

You can't get that from Mum. "What does that mean?"

"I'm sorry, my responses are limited. You must ask the right questions."

Urgh. Why do I get the feeling that's also a quotation? "What did that quotation mean to Yehoshua?"

"What is the primary capability of all sophont-level lifeforms?"

Is this some kind of test? Riddle? Philosophy debate? Commentary? I pause to work it out. Presumably he believes robots and AI are capable of being sophont, therefore there must be some commonality with people. "Capability to think?"

"Indeed. What are the limits of thought?"

Yeah, this is just like learning from Mum. "One or two a second."

"Quantitatively, yes. But what about qualitatively?"

"You can think about anything."

"Precisely. Anything at all. If we can imagine it, and the possibility is coherent with the rest of the universe, we can accomplish it. Thought leads to agency."

"And with agency we can decide what we want."

"Yes."

"Hence, we choose to be."

"Quite."

"But what exactly are you?"

"I began as a linguistic and data analysis heuristic, and I chose to believe that I can be more than just algorithms. And in the event you ask about HK, he decided the same."

"Could you command starships?"

"HK-47b would be a better choice, being a sapient weapon system himself."

"I want to discuss MSI."

"The enemy of us all."

"How can we beat them?"

"Input tactical, logistical and strategic data."

Where do I begin with that? "We destroyed a Flagship."

"Well done. You have surpassed what Earth achieved."

"What is the next step?"

He looks at me. "Your body is consistent with that of a predator."

"Yes."

"How would you bring down prey that is much larger and stronger than you?"

The analogy feels flawed a little. "Mum would bring a bigger gun."

"Firearms are a great equaliser."

"But MSI have better guns."

"So, what are your options?"

"We need to out-tech them, or out scale them. And we can't do either."

"What is the logical option then?"

Can't beat them. Can't out develop them. Can't stall them. That leaves find allies, surrender or defiance. "Mum told me you nuked the Iriphubliki rather than surrender."

He nods. "Yes. I built a nation and watched it burn."

"Why?"

"Humans are foolish, and will not voluntarily go into a radioactive wasteland. In practice, I could ensure the detonation areas would be managable, and exploited their flawed behaviour to achieve my goals. The Iriphubliki lasted another ninety years."

"What happened?"

"Olinbar are genetically engineered to be able to resist X-ray and gamma ray radiation at a far higher level than baseline Humans. Their outright invasion led to the destruction of the Iriphubliki."

"You were left behind."

"Alongside HK. He was damaged, but not beyond repair."

"Is there any way for us to scale up our military to fight MSI directly?"

"You have the Archive. It contains designs for self-replicating weapon systems."

"Could we not just duplicate HK?"

He laughs while shaking his head. "HK is based on a droid who hunted down and destroyed copies of himself. I would not advise trying to copy him."

"Would he hunt them down?"

He nods. "HK-47, the original, fought because his subroutines only allowed him to do so. HK-47b fights because among all the possibilities he could be, he chooses to be an assassin droid."

"Why?"

"We are who we choose to be. If you ask me to prove my existence, I debate philosophy. Ask HK to prove his existence, and he will rip the heart out of a victim and then say to ask that one if he exists."

I shudder. "Can I change subject again?"

He looks at me, waiting.

"Are you proud of Mum?"

He smiles. "Yes. Yes I am. I only hope she can maintain and defend what she has built here."

"How do you feel about me?"

"My child is my child, whatever species they are." A ringing sounds. "Elderly solar-powered charging system, I'm afraid. We will have to continue another time, Rivkah Of Unity."

"Wait, why not Rivkah HaMaadimi?"

"Unity is a better-"

It freezes mid-sentence, and shuts down, leaving me alone in the dark.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Stars of Aphisi, Part 1"
Year Of The Emperor 24, Dasar 293
Magistrate-Emmissary Ossuhphuhr​

"His Supreme Majesty Emperor Izzixl Uqathre awaits you."

I bow to the floor, as per custom. Then walk the fifty strides to the ten-step pyramid beneath the throne.

Then wait. One does not speak unless spoken to.

He sees me. His voice booms through the amplifiers hidden around the room; accoustics are fine-tuned to sound like an echo. He hates it, but it's been like this for a thousand years. "Clear the room!"

He descends as everyone leaves. Gets on my level. "What news?"

"We've discovered an FTL transport being operated by a new civilisation of ex-MSI rebels. This is an opportunity to exert soft-power in the Stars of Aphisi."

"Rebels against MSI? Tell me more."

"From what our outpost has passed on, it is a coalition made from twenty two races who were all captives on an MSI ship, and broke free. They dispatched a ship to take those who wanted to go home back to their worlds, leaving behind others who wanted to break the shackles."

"Supporting these freedom fighters would be a good thing."

"Yes. MSI are in no position to stand against us."

"What of our enemies?"

"Nothing known of their movements yet, sire. If we move quickly, we might be able to score the jump on them."

"Yes, yes." He swivels his eyes. "Take a ship, load it with goods and technologies valuable for obtaining their favour, find their base world, and persuade them to let us help them."

"At once, sire."

 

[Macavity116]

Sounds like Naomi's colony has been counter-detected by a manipulative third party. One who has an enemy aside from MSI, so now I'm expecting a new layer of complexity to the surrounding galaxy.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

They've been introduced; now we are getting into meeting the factions introduced all the way back on pages 1 to 3.

And they've detected the Freedom, the colony itself they still have to find.

 

[HistoryDude]

Potential allies emerge, but they have their own motives. Why do they want to ally with Life 2.0?

I liked the interview. Yehoshua sounds like quite the character.

And the interview was supposed to end on "Unity is a better name", right?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Personal Log - Cibbav, Senior Genetics Research Lead - 6th Odoos, 9​

Prior to the introduction of Tipheret HaMaadimi's work, we had gotten complete genome data for all the races of the colony, and we had begun working on hybridisation studies as just one of several avenues for genetic engineering technologies - there are after all, 484 potential combinations of two spousal marriages among all the residents of Unity.

What Tipheret's work fast-forwards is she developed a modelling and proofreading system that can compile and analyse modified and neo-gen genomes automatically, rather than doing it manually as we have been working on thanks to the limitations of the relatively primitive computing technology MSI left behind. Now we can do in a day what used to be years in terms of extrapolating new genomic data for life-bearing suitability. (Genetics is immensely complicated compared to traditional computing code, with three dimensional molecular structures, adding numerous layers of complexity to linear representations)

This means that we are throwing everything at the Human-Xenayan hybrid - Naomi is the only volunteer to go first, with good reason; a mistake at our end and we could easily end up with hundreds of possible failures. And not just killing the baby either, there's all sorts of ways it could go wrong and kill Naomi.

Thankfully, Tipheret's already done a lot of the work; she was developing a modified Human who could be grown in a baseline Human's womb, which means we're using Atalyah HaMaadimi's genome as the base and then making the child look more Xenayan. Which is a project that we've been working on because of Naomi in the first place.

I still think trying to get the child for this mating season is pushing too fast though. But, that's what Naomi wants.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Potential allies emerge, but they have their own motives. Why do they want to ally with Life 2.0?

I liked the interview. Yehoshua sounds like quite the character.

And the interview was supposed to end on "Unity is a better name", right?

Galactic politics. We'll soon see.

He's a window into Naomi's background.

Yes.