Perhaps he’d have some advice for setting up a nanotech based immune system to protect the cyborg brains against future prionic attack. Drake Novum is something of an infamous figure in the Mecha Galaxy though, some folks call him the Mad Cloner. He’s also designed a few mecha over the years and has an overall fondness for rail gun style projectile weaponry.
I wonder if he’d consider an upstart like me to be a pale imitation. Well, paler than your average human that is. I’m the transfected man. My skin was rendered a permanently gray sheen to it during an accident involving bacteria I’d hybridized with recovered Forerunner DNA. I know I’ve said a few choice words about him before but this time was different. I knew if anybody had a few insights into lab grown tissue it would be the man who grew entire humans from tubes and in tanks. I’m mycobacter dammit, and I do still consider myself a genetic engineer with some modicum of skill. Perhaps if he and I put our heads together, with my knowledge of recombinant DNA and his of cloning and robotics we could come up with a permanent patch to the problem that had taken out the Iota generation of Synthmen.
What had started as an attempt to compete with some of his inventions had become a desperate search for guidance in how to make my artificial minds more viable. If he wanted to… fine, I’d offer to let him share the patent. I did afterall use one of his cloning techniques to grow the organic part of the Synthmen.
As a bit of a peace offering I figured I should throw a cool hardware weaponry engineering question his way too just to have something to chew on in order to get the ball started.
“Dr. Novum I presume? Have you ever considered the sheer destructive potential of a magnetically accelerated missile?”
Drake smiles, “I have indeed and just Drake the other is so formal. I actually built one when I was just a wee lad but that was only to take out that dreadful school and its bullies. Not as sophisticated as my later weapons. I hope you don’t find my intellect too daunting compared to yours. Would you like some tea? ”
“Yes, I’m aware that there is a difference depending on if it’s just a “dumb” rocket or a shielded one with computer guidance. No, I don’t find that condescending at all.”
I cautiously sipped the tea that was offered.
“So how is the tea? I genetically engineered the plants for that particular flavor.”
“That’s some damned good tea. Bred the leaves yourself in a greenhouse? Well, I’ll be!”
Unimpeded, I continued.
“Listen Drake, I’ve got a bit of a problem. I’ll admit to knowing a lot more about mutations than cybernetics but I tried to make these secondary brain drives that function as a copilot and they were working swimmingly… until a saboteur planted a bio-weapon in my growth tanks. I’ll come clean, the way I’ve been culturing my artificial brains borrows heavily from some of your older cloning technology. I thought…” I set the teacup down “yes, that coming to you for some advice on protecting the Synthmen modules from future infections might be of some” I sat there searching for a word “merit. Yes.”
Drake leans forward, “Interesting, I rely on my AI’s for my copilots but I can see the potential to your approach.”
“Here is an artificial brain” I opened the valise I had placed on the table. Now here, and I must apologize for the smell, you may want to hold your nose” I added, unscrewing the lid to a jar “is a brain on prions.” The cerebral mush let out a squelch, as though embarrassed for itself and the sorry state it was in.
Drake stares in fascination, “Smell? Well already I can see that you need help with the brain.” Drake pulls out a pad and starts writing furiously.
“You see Doc Novum, the thing is, I found a way to solve the pesky free will problem inherent in full body clones. These cyborg brains are obedient, directly interface with a mecha, and… er, yes, you were already aware of that? I do apologize then.”
Drake still writes as he responds to the comments, “Yes pesky free will has been a problem at times, but I’ve managed to squash it in my clones because of my many experiments in mind altering fluids, particularly my Nemesis elixir and Helix 9. My Ragnarok formula just made them go berserk; useful but not quite what you would want in a copilot.” Drake hands over the pad, “You see with that formula the synthetic brain will be able to survive and hold its shape without all this squishiness that yours exhibits, then you can interface them better with the mechs. Now onto your initial dilemma you need to keep out viruses correct?”
“Yeah. I made a vaccine for the specific bug that got introduced but wasn’t sure quite how to give them a complete ‘immune system’ to resist other infections.”
“Well have you tried this?” Drake hands Myco over another pad full of equations.
“Nah, I haven’t. Not yet. I didn’t know that was possible” I said raising an eyebrow and scratching my chin. “In theory that should _work though. Do you think...” I pulled out some sheets that had lines of genetic code on them and began scratching out some sections then jotting notes in the margins “if I gave you a blood sample from one of those brains do you figure you could make some sort of reprogrammable nanite antibody?” I fumble in the case for a few things. “Their bloodtype is AO” I tell him, handing over a small phial of blood. I hand him a disk too that has the code I’d analyzed from the foreign virus on it. “Also don’t worry, there’s no way to catch the disease that turned me this way as a young man; It’s been a dormant symbiote ever since the initial transfection, and what’s further I kind of like how it makes my skin look under a blacklight. Check this out”
I switch a small lamp on at the desk and wave my hand under its glow. “You see how it’s iridescent like an oil puddle? Bacteria with Forerunner DNA; clanmates are betting on if a Gigus would spit me back out.”
Submitted by Mycobacter & Draske Novum Scientist ID#s 712744, 706289