Daughters of Demeter

"In that case congratulations to all three of you," Jenny said with a wide smile. "I'm happy you've found that emotional connection Rebecca."

The boss blushed slightly as she had a sip of her coffee. She obviously didn't want to make a big deal out of her new relationship status.

As usual the four of us were sitting around the table in the mess. Rebecca and Sarah both got coffee, I had some water, and we'd just told Jenny the news that all three of us were now in a relationship together.

I smiled as I added, "It happened a few days into the shore-leave. So it's been about six days now? We're still figuring some things out, especially now that leave is over and we're back on the ship."

Sarah gave our AI crewmate a serious look as she said, "I hope you're not feeling left out Jenny? I know you weren't comfortable sending your android on leave with us, but..."

"It's fine Sarah," she replied. "And I know you're eager to have me join you. You haven't exactly been subtle about that. At all."

The cute blonde blushed but smirked, "I'm not hearing a 'no' or a 'never'. Does that mean I have a chance?"

Jenny rolled her eyes then turned her attention back to the captain and suggested, "I'm sure there's more important matters you'd like to discuss?"

"Right," Rebecca nodded. "Jenny, can you bring us up to speed on what's been going on here while we've been away?"

The AI shrugged, "Nothing unexpected captain. The shipyard staff replaced the missing window and repaired the damaged controls on the starboard side of the cockpit. They also replaced your haphazard wiring with a professional installation. They've completed their overhaul of the ship's power-plant, jump drive, life support system, and so on. Yesterday they repaired the main airlock and ramp mechanisms, now they're working on the main engines. In summary, everything here has been proceeding as expected and according to schedule."

"What about you?" Sarah asked. "You mentioned working on projects and doing more studies. And you said you had some progress with your android body. Do you want to tell us about that?"

Jenny grimaced slightly, "The first six days I was mostly confined to my capsule and cabin while shipyard staff were working double-shifts on board. During that time I reverse-engineered all the android's software and made changes, corrections, and improvements everywhere I could. After that I reverse-engineered all the body-file mod software I have in my database. I've created improved and upgraded versions of those applications, and removed a number of artificially-imposed restrictions. And finally I've started creating my own experimental mod software from scratch, although that's still a work in progress."

"The only issue I haven't been able to fix or bypass yet," she added with a sigh, "Is the android ownership matter. After some substantial digging I've found the root of the problem."

Sarah frowned, "What is it? I'm guessing it's hardware related, something you need my help to fix?"

The AI shook her head, "I'm not sure we'll be able to fix it. Not easily at least."

With another sigh she explained, "It's a 'fail-safe' mechanism built into the android's proprietary power and data bus. The manufacturer knew that the main processor, memory, software, was all accessible and could be modified and manipulated. They needed to ensure that whatever customers did with their toys, there was never a chance of the toys getting out of control. So they included a secondary processor with both software and hardware tamper-protection, that's designed to ensure the android can never 'go rogue', regardless of whatever software is running on the main processor. Basically it's a hard-coded override, that ensures I can never disobey my registered owner. Or go on a murderous rampage, though I wasn't planning one of those."

I asked, "Couldn't you just remove it? You've swapped out a bunch of other parts, why not get that out too?"

Jenny shook her head again, "As I said it's a proprietary component, and it also controls the data bus and power bus. Without it the body won't work at all, it's just a lifeless statue or doll. And the component is hardened against software tampering, any attempts to overwrite it will likely fuse it and once again the body becomes inert. Finally it's resistant to physical tampering, the whole thing is encased in the same titanium alloy as the skeleton, and welded directly to the spine. Hardware tampering will destroy it, and once again we have an expensive statue."

"Well that sucks," Sarah frowned. "So is there a solution?"

"Not at the moment," our AI replied. "It's not that much of a problem while I'm operating the android remotely as I am now. But any time it's autonomous this will be more of an issue."

After a pause Jenny added quietly, "Until we come up with a solution, I'll just have to trust you not to abuse your status as owner."

The cute blonde grinned and started to say something but Rebecca cut her off. The captain gave our engineer a hard look and stated firmly, "I certainly hope we can trust Sarah not to take advantage of a friend and fellow crew member like that."

"Of course," the engineer promised. "I was going to say, I'd never do anything like that. I know I tease and joke, but I wouldn't do anything to hurt you Jenny."

"Thank you Sarah," the AI responded.

"Anything else to report?" the boss asked. "Anything else we should know?"

Jenny shook her head, "That's everything captain. Other than that it's been quiet here."

After a moment she asked, "How have things been for the three of you? Apart from the updated relationship status?"

Rebecca smiled, "To be honest it was pretty quiet for us. We had a nice vacation and enjoyed ourselves together."

Sarah added, "Both Amanda and me exchanged some messages with family. She heard from Nyssa, and my granddaughter sent me a message. That's a bit of a long story, but I replied with a video message and so far that's about it."

That obviously surprised our AI, but she didn't comment.

The boss spoke up again, "Now that we're back on the ship there's something else we needed to discuss with you Jenny. You're our resident nano-tech expert, and we want to learn more about that shipment we intercepted from Fuminja Epsilon. Can you suggest how we go about doing that? Can we examine the contents of one of those ampules? What sort of tech would we need? We're here on Rolandan-2 for another four days, they'll have some of the highest tech available in the sector here. If we need something, this is the place to get it."

Jenny's expression became much more business-like as she frowned, "You understand that my 'expertise' is in using them, not designing or building them. A poor analogy would be a pilot knowing how to fly her ship but not knowing how to make one herself."

"You must have some insight though?" Sarah asked. "Especially after all those courses you've taken?"

"Correct," she nodded. "I suppose before I can answer the question, I need to know more information? What is it specifically you're looking for? What do you want to know about the contents of that shipment, or what do you want to do with it?"

That left a thoughtful frown on Rebecca's face as she considered it.

"I'd like to know how to help someone who's been infected with them," I spoke up. "If someone's been injected with those things and is under their influence, is there anything we can do to help them? Deactivate the stuff, purge it from their body, whatever it takes to cure them."

Sarah suggested, "Maybe it'd be good to know if there's a defence? Some way to make sure we're safe from that stuff in advance?"

"Those are both good suggestions," the boss agreed. "The only thing I can think right now to add to it would be to find out how they work, what exactly they do."

"Very well," Jenny stated. "We'll need to start with a lab-grade scanner, something that can operate on micrometer scale targets. That will allow us to examine the contents of an ampule in detail, to confirm we are in fact dealing with nano-tech and give us some insight into how they are constructed."

Rebecca asked, "Is there anything else we should get? How do you program these things, or how do you control them?"

Jenny sighed, "That's not so easy to answer. They may respond to something like comm signals, but likely at a much higher frequency. Or we know they're activated by sound, so perhaps specific tones are used to control them. We may find that answer with the micro-scanner. If you want to cover all the bases I'd suggest purchasing a lab-grade audio tone generator with a full set of transducers to cover infrasound up to ultrasound. And finally a lab-grade micrometer-band transmitter should cover all the bases. If you like I can find sources for all three items?"

"Please do," the boss stated. "Assuming we're not talking about millions of ecks, we'll go out and pick up all three of these things then see what we can learn."

• • • • •

It only took Jenny a couple minutes to source the necessary equipment. While it wasn't millions of ecks it was still costly as far as I was concerned, and considering we'd probably only use it once or twice I thought renting the gear or renting space in a lab that had that gear would be a smarter choice.

The problem with that was renting equipment meant more paperwork and hassles, and renting lab space meant paperwork and hassles plus we'd have to take a sample into the lab and the boss really didn't want to risk that. She also pointed out we could always sell the gear later and recoup most of our investment.

So with Jenny's information in Sarah's new datapad, Rebecca and our engineer took the grav-sled back into the city for a bit of shopping. When they returned we had the three pieces of lab equipment Jenny wanted, plus a new portable terminal to plug the gear into.

The Demeter didn't have anything we could use as a lab, so Jenny and I ended up using her cabin for that. There wasn't enough room on the small desk to get things set up though, so we removed the blankets and mattress from the upper bunk where Sarah used to sleep. The lab gear went up there, and we strung cables from there to the desk where the new terminal was installed.

Finally Rebecca got one ampule from where she'd hidden them in the fighter craft. We all agreed not to open the ampule, whatever tests we conducted would have to be done with the contents safely sealed inside.

Then Jenny and I got to work. She was the nano-tech expert, while I was the only one on the ship who had any lab experience at all. We did all the analysis we could using the scanner, then ran some tests with the soundwave generator and finally the transmitter.

The following afternoon the two of us were ready to deliver our report. As usual we all gathered around the table in the mess, then when everyone was ready Jenny took the lead.

"The first thing we can confirm is we are definitely dealing with a crude form of nano-tech," the AI announced. "Unfortunately while in vitro the devices are inert, which limited what studying we could do. We determined that they don't seem to respond to any of the most-likely transmitter frequencies, but they did show some response to audio frequencies. That isn't surprising considering they are activated by an ultrasonic tone."

I took over with the medical side of things, "Based on what we could learn combined with the monograph in the data crystal, we're pretty sure once these things get in someone's body they migrate to specific areas within the brain. We're not sure how they organize themselves or if they communicate with each other. They come in a variety of shapes which mimic a few specific proteins, and it looks like they're meant to latch on to chemical receptors in the brain."

"Once in position they wait for that specific audio tone," I continued, "And when the tone is present they become active. They either stimulate the brain to release specific chemicals, or they stimulate receptors directly so the brain responds as if certain chemicals were present."

Jenny pointed out, "Neither Amanda or I have the necessary degrees or expertise in neurochemistry, but a few hours of research on the various protein-shapes the nano-tech mimics led me to conclude that several separate brain functions are being targeted simultaneously. Memory, executive function, fight-or-flight response, and so on."

I nodded, "Basically this stuff plus a tone generator will probably let you program people to behave or act the way you want. It's pretty horrific."

Rebecca asked, "Is there any way to defend against it? Some way to immunize or inoculate someone against this stuff? Or if someone gets injected, can we cure them?"

"There's an ninety-five percent chance that if one of you were infected with this technology, I could remedy the situation with my Re/Gen process," Jenny replied. "As I said, the technology is crude compared to the nano-swarm I employ. I should be able to purge the foreign tech, the same way I purge other foreign material. Unfortunately that only applies to the three of you."

I added, "At the moment I can't think of any way to immunize someone against these things. They're small enough to get past most defences, and their shapes mimic natural chemicals and proteins. They're hard to scan for even when we know they're present, and we're pretty sure they won't circulate in the bloodstream for more than a few hours after injection. Once they're in the brain they probably just stay put."

The captain sighed, "Ok. So it's a nightmare in a hypospray and there's nothing we can do to stop them. If one of us got infected there's a good chance Jenny can cure us, but that's not guaranteed. This isn't exactly the news I was hoping for."

"Sorry captain," our AI apologized.

Sarah asked, "So what do we do about this?"

Rebecca sighed again, "I really don't know. I agree this should be stopped, it shouldn't exist, but we're just four civilians on a tugboat. There's no central authority around here we can get involved, and even if there was we don't have any proof of any laws being broken."

With a shrug she decided, "For now we lock that ampule back up with the rest of them, and try to enjoy the last day or two of downtime while we wait for the repairs to be finished. We should be hearing from Mel soon, then we'll figure out our next steps. In the meantime, we keep our eyes and ears open and our mouths closed."