“Cullen is sure this interface and translator will work but the problem is being able to test it.” Kaylee, with her now sea-foam coloured hair that sits just under the base of her skull, is talking in her lab. The holographic display is running the data they have of what they //think// the transfer will look like but as Jericho knows, that’s not always a guarantee of success.
“What I need is to be able to simulate what we’re about to do. That we’re messing with a living being and the only copy of them …” Well, Jericho knows all this and she’s not going to repeat it. “I know your processing power is limited, but will take a look at the code? Cullen thinks we might be able to use a modified Framework to buffer the transfer to let Anastasia’s body to assimilate the ‘code’ without overloading things. I’m … just not convinced.”
“Mmmm. I can try. What exactly has you not convinced?”
Jericho slips on over to one of the work stations, glancing up at Kaylee as he does. Green hair. She went with green hair. That’s almost worse than pink. Almost, but not quite, he suspects.
“The mechanical theory is sound but it’s not something I want to do untested either.” He’s sure they can try a simulation of some manner. He’d suggest using Kaylee as the test but getting her out of her own head would be more challenging than it’s worth, likely.
It might be more challenging than it’s worth getting Kaylee out of her head but it might be their only choice. It’s not like there’s spare LMD chassis around and they know a lot more about her problems right now – and really, they’re looking for ‘difficult’ to test.
Touching her hair, self consciously, as he glances at her “You don’t like it.” It’s a statement, but a slight question as well. “I though the cut was flattering …”
“It’s sound, yes but I’m not sure. What you’ve got running in your … systems … is a ‘real’ person, not a copy. A person who doesn’t understand what’s happening and we’re going to need her absolute cooperation. There are just too many variables.”
“It’s green.” It’s a statement and not really an answer. The hacker turns his gaze back to the readout that Kaylee has. “How were you thinking on testing this?” It’s not quite as simple as making sure the data transfer works. It’s a much more complicated question of moving a program while the program is running and making sure that everything stays where it needs to be. It’s not an easy thing to test.
It is a statement and Kaylee touches her hair again before turning back to the screen. “We need to see if Cullens theory work. We need a subject to test with and given that digital constructs and hardware are hard to come by, that only really leaves me to use, doesn’t it? I’m assuming you don’t want to involve Cullen in this.”
Of course it’s not that simple and it won’t test the transfer from Jericho’s hardware but it will test parts of the protocol and identify any issues with that. It’s not ideal and the green haired scientist knows it. But they can’t just transfer Anastasia willy nilly.
“Oh I’ll happily cut him up and test this on him.” Jericho says. “But I don’t think SHIELD would be happy with that so…” He glances over to the framework chair at the corner of the lab. “If you have the hardware ready we can give this a shot. Can’t promise that it will particularly be pleasant.” If it works everything should be fine. If it does not…
Well, they could lose Kaylee. Taking a backup of her first might be advisable but he can’t really baby her back into her shell either…
“I don’t think he’d like it much either.” Kaylee murmurs. “I have a chassis, it’s not a Simmons, just one of the ones we use for testing. We can test that part of the transfer – and we’ll have to take a backup first – but I’m willing to try it.” She makes her way to the bay and stares at it for a long time before stepping into it.
It will take a few moments for the backup to occur.
“I’ll want to check the hardware interface to your systems as well… at the very least we an see if you get a handshake.”
Still, they need to check Cullens modified Framework.
On the other side of the bay, there’s a ‘generic’ LMD. Blue eyes, blonde hair, pale skin. So very, very generic. “When you’re ready, Jericho.” The green haired scientist says quietly. He can tell how worried she is and he probably can’t blame her. “Try to get me back if something goes wrong?”
When he starts the transfer, he can see the biochem transferring, the eyes on her LMD, going … blank. Whilst Jericho can’t buffer her, he can see that ‘new’ chassis is having trouble buffering her but with Cullens Framework Jericho can control the rate of flow. Not //quite// like doing it in his head but close.
For the duration though, Kaylee is going to be at least two places at once.
“Okay… let me know… if there’s a problem.” Jericho isn’t sure Kaylee will be able to respond to him so he’s just monitoring the readouts and adjusting the flow rate. All of this is rather technical and he appreciates that it’s not a complete simulation of what they’ll be doing. Already he can see that the rate of transfer is going to have to be slow and they may have to create a ‘phantom’ of the consciousness before they push it over. Basically make a mirror of the ‘file structure’ before they fill it with data. They are going to only get one shot at this and he doesn’t doubt it’s going to be strange.
Kaylee can’t hear Jericho as the transfer begins and it is rather technical. He’s also correct. The consciousness, or at least part of it, is going to have to reside in the modified Framework as they transfer it. And Kaylee had left her programming running – she’s experiencing whatever that Framework is programmed with.
That might be something the need to consider for Anastasia. Even the short amount of time she’ll be in there.
It’s all manner of weird, really. The blonde LMD starts to blink before the program is fully transferred, words starting to form on her lips as its head turns to look at the Hacker. “What on earth do you think you are doing?”
This could be bad, the part of Kaylee that has transferred is the ‘core personality’ but the memories, particularly the latest ones are still downloading. What will it be like for Anastasia when that happens? What will she remember and how will she react during the process.
The download is still going on though – Jericho just has to keep the LMD … in place … for a little longer.
“Uh…” Jericho glances over. Memories. She doesn’t have memories yet. Right. “A test you asked me to do. Stay still, it’ll be okay.” Hopefully. Just don’t reach back and pull the plug. Neither Jericho nor Kaylee really thought to restrain or disable the transfer-test chassis. Why would they? That may be necessary for Anastasia. The last thing they’ll need is her reaching back and pulling the plug.
The download can’t be sped up either. Any more and this chassis will overload like her last one did.
Or worse – activating one of her portals to escape. Kaylee still isn’t quite aware of Nastya’s background and whilst she might have the slightest suspicion that it was her that damaged Jericho’s traces, has no idea how or why.
How they disable Nastya during the transfer is something they’re going to have to consider. Because if it goes bad – it will go really good.
As it is Jemma, or is this now Kaylee, isn’t a shoot first, ask questions later type of woman and the blonde in the bay frowns deeply. “I … don’….. oh … wait…” For a moment her features go blank and then she blinks, almost like a mini reboot. “Everything is jumbled up. You’re … Jericho right?”
The transfer completes and Kaylee’s chassis is dormant as the blonde starts to integrate her memories. “The last thing I remember was laying on a bank near the river in Devon …” there’s the faintest of blushes to the LMD’s cheeks. “Why were doing this again?”
“Yes, that’s my name.” What exactly she’s got going on in her head she isn’t sure. Right now he’s making sure that the checksum matches up.
“We’re testing a transfer method for use on a live human being. More or less. Emergency kind of thing.” It’s as much detail as he can give without giving her the whole story which he’s sure she’ll remember on her own at some point.
“Looking good so far. Try not to move around too much though. You’ve got a transfer cord plugged into the back of your neck. What were you doing on the Devon?”
This is going to be the difficulty they have with the transfer. As much as people have been able to copy the human mind and upload to a chassis, the understanding of how thoughts and memories are ordered is still … emerging. It shouldn’t be surprising that the ‘Kaylee-blonde’ is a little scattered.
The checksum checks out and Kaylee-blonde colours again, giving a little embarrased cough “Uh. I was … with a friend…” she doesn’t move, that seems to have got through to her.
The next things Kaylee says comes out as a twisty, slithering words – almost akin to fingernails down a chalkboard – and she looks at Jericho expectantly.
“Uh…” The hacker pauses and glances over. That’s… unexpected even with knowing what he knows. His hand drifts down toward his side where there is indeed a weapon. He’s not sure what it means that she just spoke in the tongue he hears Anastasia use sometimes but aside from that particular blonde he has never heard it mean anything good. “What did you say again, Kaylee?”
Maybe it was a glitch. A weird, creepy glitch but a glitch all the same.
“I asked what you discovered with the transfer.” The blonde LMD says, frowning as the Hackers hand slides to his weapon. “Is something wrong, Jericho?” That’s certainly Kaylee and she doesn’t seem to realise that she spoke … strangely.
“The transition through the Framework is unsettling at best.” She sounds so analytical “And the ordering of memories is disorienting. You, or we, are going to have to prepare Anastasia for this. Though… I’m not sure how much more unsettling things can be for her.”
“Well, the transition will have to be slow or we will glitch the framework buffer out. And I am probably going to have to ghost image Anastasia before the real transfer begins.” The hacker says slowly, watching Kaylee.
“You feeling okay? Everything seem to be where it should be?” Clearly something happened that made him uncomfortable. His hand is hovering around his weapon.
“Do you have enough resources to do that? She’s already taxing your systems.” Kaylee-blonde asks, blue eyes watching that hand over his weapon. “Maybe slowing it down will help with the ordering of memories, but if it doesn’t you … might want some precautions in place.”
Given that the chassis is held in the Framework ‘bay’, she can’t tilt her head like she’d normally do, as she tested her systems. “No, not really. I feel weird, that transfer was awful and it feels like I’ve woken from a very long deep sleep. I believe everything is where should be //now//, though.” She frowns “I can’t determine if there’s anything missing, though.”
Given this isn’t her chassis, how that missing, or locked, piece of memory translates might be a bit of a mystery.
“What’s … wrong?” Because, clearly something is.
“I’ll make it work. It’ll get easier when the transfer itself starts. I may need some outside assistance though for the first portions.” Jericho’s stance slowly relaxes as he watches the LMD not do anything particularly threatening. Which is nice for a change, to be sure.
“You were… speaking in a language that it simply is not possible for you to know. And you don’t seem to realize that you did it.”
“Hmmm. What type of assistance?” Kaylee-blonde asks, clearly not convinced by the answer. But then, Jericho knows the stakes here and it’s not likely he’ll risk Anastasia. She’s not threatening but then, Kaylee generally isn’t – that’s unless she’s in the field and her friends are being attacked.
She’s not attacked, Jericho. Rifled his memories, but not attacked him.
“I … was.” She thinks on that and goes to shake her head, remembering just in time that the probe is still connected. “I don’t recall, you’re correct. What language was I speaking? I’d ask you to run a diagnostic on this chassis but … ” He’s taxed as it is. “Maybe I’ll go blonde next time…” that’s almost to herself.
“Unless I’m mistaken, the language of the natives of Limbo.” Demonic in other words, or whatever the demons call their tongue if anything. They may not have a name for it. Who needs a name for language when there is only one?
“Processing assistance. I might need to hook into a mainframe to help handle some of the load.” SHIELD has those, so does the Institute. Either location would suit though the Institute is probably more ‘homey’. It’s at least a place that Anastasia is familiar with.
“Limbo?” That has blue blinking as the LMD chassis that’s housing Kaylee’s consciousness looks at Jericho. “The place that Anastasia mentioned? The place from Jemma’s journals?” It’s worrying on many levels. The most being that she can’t damn remember speaking it, let alone learning it. “Do you think something slipped in my transfer because I can’t say I know that language…”
As to extra processing power, she grows thoughtful. “That’s possible and there’s something I want to test around that when we’re done here. I want to make sure we can get at least a handshake with Cullen’s Framework – make sure you //can// connect to it at least. We can do a mainframe connection at the same time, I should be able to firewall a portion of the processing power.”
“Do you want to try and send me back? I’m sure this chassis is satisfactory, but I’m not feeling very Kaylee at the moment.”
“Sure.” She doesn’t look very Kaylee at the moment either. He idly wonders what that particular chassis was intended for but it’s not important right now. The conversation takes a pause while he pulls the digital consciousness back into its original housing. At least this time it goes a bit more smoothly.
“Anyway yes. Limbo. Same place. I don’t see, though, how words of an otherdimensional tongue could have just ‘slipped in’. Or why you wouldn’t remember saying them.”
Wonder he might but it’s likely SHIELD keeps chassis’ for testing – given everything that goes on. Kaylee’s chassis blinks slowly as the transfer takes place. This time there’s no strange language but the green haired scientist is confused until the memories all transfer. Poor Jericho must be feeling like it’s Groundhog Day. Finally though, she slips from the bay and stretches.
“Neither do I… ” She says on the matter of Limbo “Well… not remembering is likely because of those corrupted memories. Do you think they were corrupted on purpose?” but then, if they were corrupted, how did she remember?
“Shall try this handshake test?” They still have some work to do. Part of which includes deciding on how to ‘disable’ Nastya while the transfer takes place.
“Yeah, lets get started with that. Then you can help me figure out what having been in a coma for the last few weeks is going to have done to Anastasia’s body.” There is still work to do after all. And not all of it is computer work.
Kaylee and Jericho test part of the 'bridging protocol' that Cullen has helped create. With interesting results.
Date:
February 20, 2051
Location:
SHIELD Headquarters - Chicago
Plot:
Dramatis Personae
High Concept: Not-So-Quantum Brain In A Not-So-Titanium Jar
Digitally Empowered Hacker Vigilante
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