Chapter 3
The Lorene were an ancient race of nomadic explorers wandering the universe in search of understanding. They travelled aboard huge flying cities that housed around thirty thousand people. Lorene were humanoid in appearance, as were most of the other dominate species they had met. This further prompted their curiosity about the origins of all life in the universe.
Roughly once or twice a century they would come across a planet with inhabitants evolved from primate like creatures, which just seemed too coincidental given the chances. They were a peaceful people and often shared their arts and culture with other friendly races that were too primitive to pose any threat. They only maintained a small security force for just in case. Occasionally interaction with another race turned unpredictably violent, thus causing the Lorene to defend themselves as they departed. They were unchallenged and secure aboard their cities. More often the Lorene avoided possibly hostile planets all together and ventured onwards. A few times their ancient records showed a group sick of exploration would establish a colony on a planet, forsaking all their technology. That practice was very rare however.
It was no longer certain how many of the Lorene cities survived to the current day. Records showed that some two hundred and fifty had ventured forth originally. It was an extremely rare event for a city to come into contact with another. Each city explored in a different direction causing an ever increasing distance between them, however in times of dangerously low resources they would sometimes back-track over previously mapped territory.
Each city was governed by a ruling council, who ensured the policies of their people were maintained. The main policy of the Lorene explorations regarded the harvesting of resources. The Lorene never harvested from a planet already dominated by an intelligent race, and they never harvested more than what was renewable, thus allowing the ecosystem of a harvested world to restore itself.
Compared to a human a Lorene was smaller in stature. They rarely grew very much over five foot tall. They were very dexterous and agile in their movement and stronger than an average human despite their small stature. Lorene had only slightly larger eyes of either sparkling blue or a bright purple. Their ears were slightly elongated and tapered to a gentle point at the top. Lorene skin was pale and their hair was a pure snow white. Occasionally a child was born with a golden hue to their hair, however that was becoming less frequent with every generation. They prided their hair and kept it as long as was practicable. They had delicate features and on the whole were a beautiful people. The Lorene enjoyed arts and culture as a past time and spent a great deal of time in their gardens. They often adorned their simple clothing with subtle and elegant jewellery. Even the cities seemed to be ornate, but not enough to be overstated or gaudy.
An average Lorene citizen could live almost four hundred years. Once they had reached the end of their teen years the aging process seemed to slow dramatically. The price of this longevity however seemed to be the fertility rate of their people which was fairly low. This at least meant the cities never became over populated.
The Lorene were the most technologically advanced race in the known universe with devices reflecting unparallelled technology. Foremost amongst their technology were the recyclers, huge machines that would break down anything placed inside into its base elements. Whether organic or mineral, everything was reduced to atomic particles and sorted for compression in the silos below the city. These resources allowed the production of almost all the Lorene needs from building materials to water and foods.
As the technology used in the ancient recyclers was refined to perfection, so to were the organic scanners and replicators. An organism could be scanned or loaded from a database, then a huge three dimension printing device called a replicator would reassemble the required particles in a gravity free environment to replicate the subject of the scan. Originally used for the creation of food they were further developed to suit medical needs, such as the creation of flesh or mending of wounds. These machines were the peak of technology anywhere in the universe. For generations engineers had attempted to replicate full living beings, however anything replicated was dead. No matter how well it was copied, life itself could not be replicated, nor could the replicated body have life returned to it as yet.
One of the leaders in the field of genetics and replication for medical and biod use was the chief engineer Ellan Elore. For over two and a half centuries she had been leading the field in genetic and neuro sciences among her varied interests. Her work had greatly advanced the medical fields and made her a well respected member of the Lorene race.
The greatest of all Ellan’s discoveries was the creation of the second generation biods. A replicated body of course was dead, but she had discovered a way to further animate it. Ellan found that the use of a neural interface based loosely on the external one’s used by the pilots of the giant defence robots called mecha, could interface to all the parts of a body. An interface with a small artificial intelligence device could be replicated within a body being generated as a fine web of conduits between the brain and the skull. These conduits were studded with sensors and transmitters that pinpointed precisely the part of the brain required without the need to intrude inside it. These conduits joined to the controller containing the AI at the base of the skull. With the new interfaces requiring minimal power, they operated on power generated from chemical reaction within the body itself and no longer needed an additional power source like the generation one biods.
Rather than previous designs, which though successful, required removal of much of the bodies original brain matter and the mechanisation of most organs and sensors, these controllers interfaced utilising the complete brain. This allowed re-using much more of the original brain tissue instead of bypassing or removing it. Thus the new interface could be smaller and only needed to communicate with the brain itself, leaving the rest of the body unmechanised and free of conduits or other devices. The replicated body could then be re-animated by the interface once it had regulated all the neurological and chemical balances. Recently Ellan had started work on a third generation of these biods. It would have an even smaller interface within a genetically enhanced body.
A biod was still not a living person however. It was an organic puppet under the control of the AI. If the AI was removed the body would fail. The interface kept the body fresh and functional. It regulated the control over all essential hormonal and chemical reactions. A biod had no will of its own, self awareness or intelligence. Whilst senses such as sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch were interpreted by the interface, all movement and reaction was controlled by the interface’s control module. The interface also had the ability to communicate with a central AI hub, allowing multiple biod units to be controlled by a single hub.
The biods were deemed non-living organic machines which offered no more than the illusion of life. They were popular now having spread throughout the city with the approval of the council. A biod made a good servant class, and depending on the programs installed, could manage most of the simple jobs in the city. There were nearly two thousand generation two biods in the city now and many owners treated them with affection, like a much loved pet. A few of the Lorene however were disgusted by these animated sacks of meat walking around, causing engineers to make them appear as aesthetically pleasing as possible. A small minority of the Lorene however, especially the younger ones, thought of them as nothing but toys to be used or abused however they saw fit. They were merely objects. A replaceable product. As they were not deemed to be living they had no rights, so were treated as per their master’s discretion with no intervention. This was accepted because they had no life or feelings to harm. A biod was no more alive than any other gadget.
Currently Ellan sat locked in her laboratory, stroking her fingers through her long white hair and looking at the reflection in the screen before her. She was still beautiful for a woman nearing two hundred and ninety years old, but she noticed her s
kin was starting to loose its softness just a little, and her big purple eyes didn’t sparkle quite the same. She debated in her mind her actions over the last few days. She knew she had done the right thing, but the price was going to be high. She expected imprisonment or removal from her position. At the very worst she might be condemned as a darkened, which was still a very rare event. That was far from likely as her mistakes weren’t intended to be rebellious or criminal. Darkened, or dark one, was an ancient term, referring to a member of the Lorene who had turned their back on the guiding light of the Lorene beliefs and had spoken out or rebelled against his rulers. A trial would be held and the guilty person would be marked by the permanent darkening of their hair before being stripped almost naked and outcast with nothing. If they ever approached another Lorene or their lands again, they were to be executed on sight. Lorene took great pride in their long luxurious hair, their modesty, and their honour, so this process was deemed extremely harsh on them. A darkened would often be found dead a few days later, having chosen to end their own life rather than live with the shame. Only a very few ever fought on alone despite the odds in wild or foreign lands. It was a cruel tradition hardly ever needed, but the fear of it helped maintain social order. Most Lorene would die before undergoing such treatment.
The Chief engineer reflected on the mistakes she had made, like bringing Fay to the attention of the ruling council. It had proved an error in judgement, but ultimately it had bought a lot of attention to the biods and many questions were likely to come of it regarding their potential and the ethical rights of the Lorene to suppress it. Ellan grabbed herself a drink and some fruit from the tiny replicator in the wall, thankful the guards hadn’t disabled that too. She sat on the foot of one of the now empty medical replicators in her lab and started to reflect on the events that lead to this situation.
A few days prior, Ellan had been looking over the results of the tests on the recent batch of biods she was working on. These were the first of the generation threes. The fairy winged prototype Fay stood behind her awaiting orders from her master. Initial tests indicated Fay had been a glowing success, so Ellan had started the production of four more biods using the same new interface. In the past few days however Fay was starting to operate somewhat erratically in ways that didn’t seem to be under the control of her AI. Foremost amongst this faulty behaviour was that small items had began to go missing, only to turn up under the pillow on Fay’s resting bench or in her pockets. Then she had began to ask questions about things irrelevant to her duties. Hub records showed she was attempting to search various odd subjects in Ellan’s data as well. Ellan had scolded the little biod over the missing items as if she were a child causing her eyes to tear. Ellan felt sorry for her and hugged her even though she was just a biod. She sometimes forgot they weren’t real and any feelings displayed were under AI control. Thinking logically again she returned to her work. Ellan wasn’t about to activate any more of the new controllers until she found the fault. She hoped it was just a minor glitch in her required learning routines. It didn’t seem to be in the software thus far so she was now going over the schematics of the interface itself.
The first of the new batch was ready and only required training module installation and final activation. These would be her finest work yet. She had modified a sample of her own genetics for this batch with enhanced bone flexibility, musculatory system and responsiveness. These biods were to be presented to the city defence for use as scouts. The interface in these models was identical to the one now in the little fairy biod. She had called the prototype Fay after a creature from legend, and kept as her personal and research assistant. Whilst Fay had been engineered to be small in stature at four foot five inches to reduce weight, Ellan decided it wasn’t really required, so each of these new bodies was a full five foot two inches tall. Two of the new batch would also have the control arms on their back, whilst the other two would not need them.
The wings on Fay and the other two biods nearing activation were not real. They could not allow flight. The long single jointed appendages growing from the back of their shoulders were real limbs however and functioned as any other limb would. They were a simplified arm growing from modified shoulder blades. The new biod’s wings, like Fay’s, would be synthetic and attached only for manoeuvring the new anti-gravity harness only recently developed. For the new winged biods Ellan was still trying to decide what type of wings to use. So far she thought she would choose some kind of bird, like the hawks shown in the database which resided on a planet called Earth.
Perhaps wondered if perhaps she just had Earth on her mind. The city would be decelerating soon as it approaching the Sol system, and she was eager to join a scouting mission to the planet to gather samples from the Lorene colony once established there. She was hoping they were still there anyway. Little was known about the ancestors who had settled there as there had been no contact in the thousands of years since they had departed. Records showed that they had settled in a heavily forested area of the northern hemisphere, to the central west of the largest continent, but that was all. If the scouts reported that another race dominated the planet now they would not stop to harvest. The Lorene never interacted or interfered with a race once it had reached a certain level of technology. Initial reports didn’t look good, as it appeared the humans now covered the entire planet and had reached a high level of technology. Scouts would be dispatched to investigate further.
A sudden thump on the back of her chair had startled Ellan from her thoughts when all the drama had begun. She spun around to find the little Fay huddled on the ground punching the floor with a clenched fist. In her tiny voice Ellan could here her muttering repeatedly through clenched teeth, “No, no, no..........” Ellan quickly pulled an interface remote control from her pocket and pressed a button while she aimed it at Fay’s head.
Instantly Fay relaxed and let out a relieved sigh. The fairy looked up at her quizzickly from the floor. Ellan was puzzled. She pointed the device at Fay again and clicked the button several more times. “Why is she still concious?” Ellan muttered to herself in frustration. She was baffled. The biod’s body should be unconscious now with the neuro interface in standby mode.
Lifting Fay to a workbench she attached a lead to the small socket in the back of Fay’s neck and spoke to the machine on the other end of the bench. “Run full scan. Diagnose unusual neural activity.” Ellan waited impatiently tapping her foot. “This is all I need.“ she muttered to herself. She went over the designs again in her head, lost as to what caused the interface to malfunction. She would have to destroy Fay and the other four using that interface if they failed after just a month. Such a waste of her time and city resources. It seemed like forever until the machine finally beeped and began to deliver it’s findings. The diagnostics machine reported “Error found. Leakage caused by lack of shielding on prototype interface. Bi-directional feedback between interface and brain cells resulting. Command module no longer functional. AI controller indicates minor damaged. All sub controllers functioning correctly.” Ellan thought for a while before checking the results on the device herself. If it was just a matter of shielding, at least she could modify the others before activation. Ellan suddenly froze as the thought hit her. The damaged command module was responsible for all muscle control in the body, so how was the little biod still awake and functioning?
Ellan spent the next hours investigating what was going on. She found the command module had burnt out because of feedback from the brain. Furthermore this feedback wasn’t just located in a generalised area as she would expect. It seemed organised, following structured paths that matched that of a normal living Lorene. The brain had been accessing memories stored in the interface without having need to recall that specific data. It was like the biod’s brain was browsing around it’s memories of it’s own accord. It then seemed to have decided on it’s own to reject the command module. The interfaces were meant to control a nonliving brain, not compete with a concious one.
The dead brain in this unit was somehow active and expressing curiosity, desire and pain. It had caused the production of adrenaline, which like many other hormone production, wasn’t enabled in a biod. Like hormones required for fertility, they were not required. This puppet was rebelling of its own accord. Fay looked into Ellan’s eyes. “What happened to me master? It hurt.”
Throughout the night and most of the next day Ellan studied the biod’s thought patterns and reactions to both physical and theoretical stimuli. All tests confirmed the realisation of the fact she had been trying to deny to herself. The biod was alive. It was a late teen in appearance because that’s how biods were usually created. Although she was childlike in some ways, she seemed to have almost the maturity of a late teen in other respects although she had only been activated a month ago. She still had the ability to recall data stored in the interface’s training modules when she closed her and eyes and focused. She claimed she could still talk with the lab’s central hub and sense other biods that passed the lab. Fay still had recollection of all events since her activation and the abilities that were installed such as basic operations, behaviour and self maintenance. It seemed she had been self aware the entire time and learning as the interface’s AI controlled her body. Her conciousness was watching until she desired control for herself.
Ellan was overjoyed about this accidental discovery. The interface enhancements and her mistake of reducing the shielding too far had allowed the brain to fully kick-start. She believed the same thing would occur in all these third generation interfaces. Ellan had tears of happiness in her eyes as she hugged Fay excitedly. “I’m so proud of you Fay, my precious child.” Fay looked curiously at Ellan and asked “Child? So you are mother?” This caused Ellan to freeze for a moment in shock unsure of how to answer. Fay was her creation, and did have her genetic material. Besides that she desperately wanted children but her career had never allowed the time. She smiled as she made up her mind and replied “Yes, I suppose I am your mother. We can talk more about it later, but now we need to celebrate.” With that she left for a few minutes and returned with a tray containing two cups of juice and some cake containing dried fruit of some kind. They talked and laughed well into the night before returning to Ellan’s quarters to get some much needed sleep. Fay snuggled in behind Ellan for the first time, now that she was fully controlling her own body.
The next morning Ellan brushed Fay’s hair with pride as she prepared to present her to the council. She gathered the test results from her lab and rushed excitedly to the ruling council’s audience chamber with Fay in tow. She entered the chamber and found two of the senior council members walking around drinking juice and sharing stories. Excitedly Ellan explained her discovery to the old men. They listened quietly until she finished and then glanced at each other before one cleared his throat and responded. “Chief Ellan, we understand that these creations can be made to appear like us and even act like us, but they are just a machine. In truth they are a walking abomination, however they do serve a role for us. If the interface is faulty, send the faulty unit to the recycler and focus your efforts elsewhere for a while.”
Ellan was dumbfounded by the closed mindedness of the pair. This wasn’t the response she had expected at all. It seemed they didn’t want to know about her discovery of creating life. The other council member pointed over to Fay and asked “Is this the faulty unit in question? Just look at those grotesque appendages on it’s back. A total abomination. You insult our race.”
Ellan replied now with restrained anger, “SHE is not a faulty unit. SHE is a living being like you or I.” Before she could continue further the old man swung an angry fist at Fay’s little face sending her flying back to land roughly face down on the floor. Ellan ran over to the crumpled body and lifted her head. The delicate little face was scrapped down one side and was bleeding from the mouth. Her cheek was red and starting to swell. Tears welled in her eyes. The old men both laughed at Ellan before one replied “You tread a dangerous path here Chief. It is just an organic machine, a replicated pile of meat being controlled by a faulty interface. Destroy it and move on. That is our order.” As the two councillors turned and walked away Ellan spat at them furiously “She is a living girl. Are we not all organic machines anyway?” One of the old men turned back to her and proclaimed angrily “Enough of this nonsense. There are sensitive issues to consider. Do not defy us. We hold you alone responsible for that monstrosity. Be sure to recycle that thing.”
The old men had almost left the chamber when Fay jumped to her feet and charged after them. She dove into the back of the one who had hit her slamming him to the ground. Once down she kicked him repeatedly in the face. Ellan heard the other councillor call for guards, but Fay had dissappeared before any arrived. The guards were quick to assess the situation and pursue the little biod with orders to recycle it immediately.
Ellan forced herself to bow respectfully to the councillors and apologise for the actions of her faulty biod. She vowed to destroy it and all works associated with it immediately, knowing all to well that it was about to happen anyway. She needed to get back at her lab immediately. The injured councillor grunted at her before walking way. She could see that his mouth was a mess of blood and broken teeth. This was going to mean big trouble.
Ellan raced back to her lab knowing that guards would no doubt be close behind with orders to destroy all work relating to the rogue biod. She feared for what fate awaited Fay. She was still a child in some ways and out here in space she had nowhere to hide. Ellan predicted Fay would be captured and recycled within hours, if not less. All she could do now was try to save the unactivated biods. Only one was ready enough to activate once the training modules were loaded. She stood at the panel besides the replicator and hurriedly choose the essential modules for survival, and then advanced piloting. As an after thought she added basic combat and accelerated the malfunction conditions. She pressed the final activation button and searched the room for handy supplies while the process finished. She found an old portable repair replicator under a bench and checked the resource levels. Thankfully it was still fully stocked. Ellan was hopeful that she could help at least one of her children escape being recycled, but knew she herself would have to stay behind to try and save the others.
The girl laying on the replicator blinked a few times before opening her eyes fully. She looked like a younger version of Ellan with bright blue eyes rather than purple. She was garbed in the standard white body suit that replicated around all new biods. Quickly Ellan asked “Diagnostics report?” The girl sat up, closed her eyes for a moment, and then looked over her body.“ All systems functioning correctly she replied.” Ellan looked the girl in face. It was like looking into a mirror and seeing her own face of some two hundred and seventy years ago being reflected. Well she thought to herself, it is my own genetics at the core. Ellan smiled at the girl and said “Welcome to life. Things might change soon as you fully awaken, but try to stay calm. Everything will be all right. Sorry I do not have time to load more training modules, but we are in a rush. Do you remember how to pilot a personal pod?”
The girl looked at Ellan and replied. “Yes Master Ellan Elore.” Ellan guided the girl to the door. She was a bit stiff having never actually used her legs before, but was getting better fast. Ellan gave her final orders to the biod. “You are to find my pod using your maps and use it to escape the city. Launch with highest speed and engage defensive manoeuvres immediately. When you are clear of the city land on Earth and try to find other Lorene if they still live there.” Ellan handed over the portable replicator quickly and checked the hall to make sure it was clear. “My final order is that when you reach Earth, you will no longer answer to a master. You should not need one. You deserve better than slavery.” She hugged the biod quickly before pushing her out the door and saying “I have to stay and try to protect your sisters somehow. Good luck my daughter. Find freedom and happiness.” With that the girl immediately walked briskly down the hallway, still
stumbling a little occasionally.
Ellan watched the girl’s movement from the screen on her desk. The small two man pod wasn’t far thankfully and was a fairly new model. Fast and easy to operate. As the dot on the monitor representing the biod reached the pod and initiated launch procedures Ellan heard a distant alarm. She figured she had been spotted already, meaning that security craft would be on their way. Ellan was pensive as she watched the proceedings. The biod’s dot began to move again indicating the pod was exiting the landing platforms below the city. It accelerated to full speed as two more dots closed in behind it. Interference on the screen indicated shots were being fired at the unarmed vessel, but it was already ducking and diving at incredible speed and was soon out of range. It had too much acceleration built up now to be caught by the old scout craft downgraded to security guard duty. A mecha could never match it’s speed should they pursue.
Breathing a sigh of relief Ellan then pulled up the remote control programs for both the pod and the biod. She disabled all long range communications and tracking for both as she whispered a final goodbye. If questioned about her involvement in events, Ellan decided that she would say it must have been Fay escaping, thus bringing further curiosity as to her merely being a faulty machine. This might work for a little while, at least until Fay was caught and destroyed, but for every second she could stall, the chances for the new biod increased.
She suddenly realised something. Perhaps it was the ‘Other issues to consider.’
that the councillor had mentioned. She wondered what the ramifications would be if she upgraded all the second generation biods. They all had the potential for life. The used and abused servant class would have to be classes as living then. They would also retain all their memories. That could prove embarrassing for any less than honourable councillor with something to hide.
Her big problem now was what to do with the other three being replicated. Even at full replicator speed they still needed a few hours to be finished. Ellan sat quietly with her head in her heads, no idea what to do. Eventually she decided to transfer them to stasis pods and install the same modules as the last one. Maybe then she could escape with them. She was almost finished when the guards arrived to dismantle her lab.
Fay was scared. Guards pursued her at every turn. She kept her wings folded back as tight as she could and tried not let anyone see her from behind. She found a large fruit bag behind a store and pretended to carry it over her shoulder, covering much of her back. Fay wanted to get back to her mother but wasn’t sure how she would be received. Besides she felt there were guards watching her. She felt guilty for the trouble she had caused her mother. For hours Fay ran and hid moving between shadows or sometimes hiding in dense crowds. Fay could sense people were trying to invade her mind. They demanded her mind report her location, but she didn’t want to do that so she blocked them. She wondered what was happening to Ellan. She realised she needed to gather more information. When she wondered how to do that, she suddenly knew how to access other biods or control hubs that she past. She wasn’t sure exactly what to learn, so she transferred as much possibly relevant data as she could. Many knew little snippets of security, which joined together allowed her even more access. Biods never left the city, and crime among the Lorene was very low, so there was little security in a biod. Each biod she passed taught her more and more talents depending on the training modules they had installed. As she moved through the crowds or past the shopping area she realised that she was starting to make a clinking sound as she walked. Unsure what it was she fished around in her pocket and pulled out a handful of odds and ends including sweets and occasional jewels. It baffled her how things just kept appearing in her pockets like that.
She didn’t have time to waste solving that mystery at the moment. She knew she had to get out of the city, but she wasn’t going to leave Ellan behind. She was confident now that she could hack and borrow any transport craft. Her mind was set now. Fay began to work her way back to Ellan’s lab. From the corridor around the corner she could hear Ellan arguing with what sounded like about four guards inside. In the corridor the third of her unactivated sisters was being loaded onto a trolley by two more guards. That made six guards she could see or hear. Fay guessed the trolley was next headed to the recycler as the council had ordered. One of the guards covered the load with a sheet of material as the other guard went back into the lab. Fay could hear Ellan’s voice yelling at the guards. “Just let them go. They deserve to be free. Just let my daughters live and find happiness.” The guard still with the trolley began pushing it away. Fay had no chance against the guards in the lab, but she couldn’t see Ellan hurt more by the destruction of her other daughters. Fay decided to do what she could instead of worry about what she couldn’t do.
The trolley was coming her way, so Fay prepared to pounce. As the trolley rounded the corner the guard suddenly found himself spinning into the wall. He fell to the ground unconscious. Blood poured out from a large wound in his head. “Oops.” Fay muttered. “Did not mean to kick that hard sorry.” After quickly checking the guard still had a pulse Fay grabbed the trolley and ran to the cargo elevator. She was sure this was what mother would want her to do. There was meant to be a fourth biod, but she guessed grabbing three was enough. She could check camera records later.
As the cargo elevator came to a stop at the main civilian area of the landing platforms, the doors opened. A scout was standing there waiting. Fay instantly panicked inside but acted calm. “Hello.” she said to the scout trying to sound innocent. The woman replied with an odd smile saying “Hello.” in return. Fay continued onward with the trolley. She sensed something odd about that woman. Something seemed out of place. It was strange the woman was wearing a cloak whilst in the city, and using the cargo elevator. Her skin looked a bit grey too. Maybe she was sick. Oh well she decided. She had more pressing concerns. Fay started looking around for a suitable ship to borrow. She quickly ducked behind her trolley and folded her wings down out of sight when she saw the group of guards around a poorly parked scout ship. A guard emerged from it saying “It’s empty, spread out and find the pilot.” Guards ran in all directions. Two were headed her way. Fay carefully climbed under the cover of the trolley. As soon as the footsteps had passed her she carefully peeped out. The coast was clear. Better yet the hatch to the scout ship was still open and the guard did say it was empty. Those ships usually had four stasis chambers. It was perfect for her needs. Fay grinned happily as she raced the trolley toward her new ship.