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Post by Raymond Stantz on Mar 12, 2012 18:39:36 GMT -5
M8W2D7, at night, deep in the bowels of a secret Kao-Nic laboratory, semi-private
"Speaking epidemiologically, bubonic plague doesn't make sense to me..." Raymond sings along with the entirely too cheery music emanating from his computer's speakers. It isn't on too loud, he's in his own office, and he has a very good reason why he listens to music at work. Music helps him ignore the sounds of human heartbeats all around him.
The data on this last batch are quite promising. He just wishes that he could reduce the utter infectiousness of the strain.
A few months ago, Ms. Raines would have received a set of herbes de Provence scented candles and a 'thank you' note for dinner, but otherwise, Raymond has been keeping to his work or assisting the Autobots when they have need of him. Now, however, he has at least something to show for his toil. Raymond is nervous about showing Ms. Raines his work, but she may have some insights he can use to improve the next iteration.
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Post by Victoria Raines on Mar 12, 2012 19:59:45 GMT -5
Victoria, for her part, has been content to allow Raymond to work uninterrupted, except for occasionally throwing other scientists in the room with him to break up the monotony. Even then, the scientists are merely sent to the labs; Victoria does not escort them. So far, they've all come out more or less intact.
She leans against the doorjamb and studies Raymond. He called her down here. Knowing Pincher, he must have something of import to share.
"That is exceptionally peppy instrumentation for such a dark subject matter, Raymond," she says.
"You have something you wish to show me?"
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Mar 12, 2012 20:14:56 GMT -5
Raymond does not like the snacks that Victoria sends him.
"...Yersinia pestis makes you dead, it's true - er, Ms. Raines! Yes, indeed I do, if I may be so bold," Raymond replies hastily.
He stands up and gestures off to the hallway down the laboratory proper. He directs, "Grab one of the isolation suits. That is not optional."
Raymond does so himself, meticulously suits up, and heads towards the airlock into the actual laboratory.
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Post by Perceptor on Mar 12, 2012 20:30:30 GMT -5
Persephone checks up on Raymond periodically during her occassional forays into the bowels of Kao-Nik. She is an employee, after all, and Raymond... requires the periodic check-up, though Persephone tries very, very hard to make it seem as if she is not checking up on him, but merely interested in his work, as well.
His work, as it has from the moment he'd first arrived on the Event Horizon, continues to concern her. And, yes, frighten. Just a little.
"A breakthrough?" she observes curiously from the doorway. Just her luck to have "popped by" as Victoria was visiting, as well, but if it's a project that Victoria is interested in, then Persephone needs to know about it as well.
Autobot scientist and spy now. A rather poor spy, since Victoria is quite well aware of just who Persephone is, but that can hardly be helped. Better to have Victoria know that she knows what is going on, than to be caught unawares entirely.
"A trade secret? Or may I join you?"
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Post by Victoria Raines on Mar 12, 2012 22:53:23 GMT -5
Victoria arches a brow as Raymond directs her to the isolation suits. She supposes this is not to be unexpected. Pincher's expertise is in chemical warfare, after all, even if he prefers not to use his abilities for such.
And of course, Persephone. Victoria smiles almost indulgently at the other woman. "Did you hear the siren call of SCIENCE! dear Persephone, and prove unable to resist its song?" she laughs softly, "Of course you did. That's why you're here. I've no objection to your viewing this project."
She puts on the suit as requested and makes to follow Raymond.
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Mar 12, 2012 23:10:27 GMT -5
Raymond is socially inept, but he's not stupid. He knows what he is doing is questionable; it only stands to reason that his commanding officer might want to look in on his work now and then. Raymond only wishes that he could be a bit prouder of what he has to present today.
He smiles weakly at Persephone, the expression still strange on his face. "Er, hello."
There is another benefit to the isolation suit, though. Raymond cannot smell just how delicious these two are when he's in an isolation suit.
Presuming that the two suit up and enter the air lock with him, the airlock shuts on one side and then opens on the other.
There are a series of enclosure that are isolated from the walls and floor. They just hover there. The first enclosure seems to have petri dishes that are full of metal and have been coated with metal themselves, and the metal has spread to cover the walls of the enclosure. The second enclosure appears to contain petri dishes of a strange metallic tissue, like muscle cells gone robotic. They twitch and contract in their dishes. The third enclosure contains a number of robotic hydroponic plants, which slowly writhe, as if in pain. The fourth enclosure contains a number of what appear to be robotic mice. They also appear to be completely insane, running in circles or rolling on their backs and batting their paws at nothing at all.
The fifth enclosure contains a cellphone. When Raymond approaches within an arm's distance, the cellphone transforms and screams a scream that has no coherence, no soul, no sapience, only pure, wordless madness and rage, and the strange little robot promptly starts clawing at the wall of the enclosure.
Raymond turns back to face the two ladies, and he does not look proud of himself in the slightest. He waits for the inevitable questions.
OOC: Mad science done with the permission of Rodimus-admin and Shockwave-admin.
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Post by Perceptor on Mar 14, 2012 21:38:46 GMT -5
Persephone quirks an eyebrow at Victoria's subtle (and not-so-subtle) jab, and offers Raymond a cheerful nod, but follows to don her own isolation suit. If nothing else, Kao-Nik has excellent facilities and equipment. She does, however, hope that whatever system is being utilized to maintain the isolation of those enclosures is not interruptable.
Or that the enclosures, themselves, can survive an impact with the floor, if it is.
"Bio-mechanical infiltration?" she observes peering within the series of enclosures. "Bacterial, viral, prion, or chemical?"
Her voice is calm, neutral edging on curious, without censure. Inwardly, she is afraid.
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Post by Victoria Raines on Mar 14, 2012 22:24:11 GMT -5
Victoria's lips purse in a frown as she surveys the series of experiments. She moves nearer the screaming phone and her frown deepens.
She flips through the notes Raymond provided. "Technically, you have been successful so far. The incorporation of the two organic-to-inorganic matter viruses seems to achieve the desired affect. However, the possibility of collateral damage is high."
Wait. Is Victoria actually worried about what this might do to Earth if it got out? Or about what it might do to the humanized Transformers alone?
"Walk us through the steps, if you please."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Mar 14, 2012 23:02:35 GMT -5
"Viral," Raymond replies. These aren't the questions he was expecting, but he can answer them well enough. No, Raymond was expecting to be chastised for the abominations of nature that he has created. The thing is, he has more than followed animal testing laws (and plant and tissue welfare protocols, for that matter). Those dishes of cells, plants, and animals are suffering, yes, but he has taken many, many steps to minimise that suffering.
Still, there is only one reason why Raymond considers himself justified, despite the care he has taken. Ruining the lives of these innocent beings is not something he can condone. However, if Unicron gets loose out of Rodney Pryor's chest, all of these dishes of cells, plants, and mice would have been dead, anyway. For the sake of the universe, Rodney Pryor must be returned to his proper robot form before Unicron can kill him via the process of human senescence.
Anyway, this whole system is immune to interruptions and so many times redundant that it makes triple-redundancy look unsafe, and yes, the enclosure could survive a crash with the floor.
The screaming phone does not seem to react to Victoria; all of its hatred is quite squarely focused on Raymond, who explains, "First, I recreated a simple cyber-virus. A cyber-virus is a cyberforming tool intended to be used upon barren worlds. It transforms terrain into metal and lays down a simple electrical grid to better facilitate later construction projects. Unfortunately, if it encounters organic life, it transforms it into dead statues, as you see with what were cells in that first enclosure." Raymond appears to believe what he is saying about the cyber-virus not being meant to be used on organic worlds. "Using some technomatter concepts, I altered it to instead perform a naïve conversion of organic cells into their mechanical equivalents." There is enclosure number two. "However, the effects on whole organisms are... less than optimal. The analogue to digital conversion causes unexpected behaviour." He gestures to the mechanical plants. "In animals, it causes irrevocable psychosis, I am afraid," which explains the mentally disturbed mice.
"In addition, it is touch-contagious with a 100% transmission rate." Raymond's face falls a bit. "I have tried to rectify these flaws to create a less-infectious strain that preserves the native mentality. In addition, I introduced the capacity for the virus to upload a set of schematics, which would then be executed."
A hologram appears from a wall mount and shows the process of humanely anaesthetising a laboratory mouse and then injecting it with a silvery fluid. Within seconds, the unconscious mouse transforms into a cellphone and then into a completely irate robot.
Raymond paces to a rack of syringes and points one out, "I could dose myself with that and transform back into my proper scorpion form - the extra required reaction mass is pulled from the air - matter to matter conversions are not particularly difficult, after all. Unfortunately, I would be completely psychotic, and any living being of sufficient initial mass that I touched would be transformed into a similarly mentally ill copy of me."
So, Raymond has explained the steps.
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Post by Perceptor on Mar 19, 2012 19:52:08 GMT -5
Persephone is unaware of these fears about Rodimus, though she has wondered what might happen if there is no one to carry the Matrix. If she did know of Raymond's specific fears, she might even agree with him. She would certainly offer to assist.
And, while yes, she does find his work here to be unsettling to the extreme, Raymond must be handled carefully to prevent alienating him. Also, though she is loathe to admit it, how much of science had it's birth in what had been, at the time it was done, looked upon as anathema or even disturbing? Cells and plants and even animals, while alive, are not sapient beings, and experimentation is the only sure way to pursue some lines of investigation.
The thought of this pathogen escaping onto the biological world, however, terrifies her, and so she examines the containments again, just to be certain.
"Not merly viral, but virulent, then," she muses, frowning as she commits everything she sees to memory. Xaaron and Rodimus need to be briefed with as much detail as she can recall.
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Post by Victoria Raines on Mar 21, 2012 10:50:07 GMT -5
"Hrm."
"It is impressive work. Under different circumstances, it would be even more impressive."
In other words, if Victoria ever wants to turn a planet and its inhabitants insane, it is just dandy.
"Conjecture about ways to make the process less torturous, and thereby possibly preserving more of the subject's sanity? The methodology behind your work is sound, after all. Tweaking may result in more acceptable results."
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Post by Raymond Stantz on Mar 21, 2012 11:40:41 GMT -5
It is probably fair to say that no one is more afraid of the cyber-virus, in any of its iterations, escaping than Raymond is. There are at least a few different protocols to initiate controlled fusion within the laboratory to completely purge the laboratory space, if required.
Raymond's eyes narrow when Victoria hints at other contexts for using his research here. Were it during the War again, and were there a planet solely held by veteran Decepticons, might Pincher unleash such a thing upon them?
He might. He'd sooner just kill them, though. Driving a planet of Decepticons completely psychotic and then allowing them to kill each other off would be rather inefficient.
Raymond brings up some of his notes on the holo and points out pertinent pieces as he speaks, "The tortuosity of the process, while unfortunate, actually does not cause the later mental illness as sequelae, which I may say with a confidence of [statistic]." He brings up the math to show that the factors are separate. There is correlation but not causation. "Instead, what appears to cause the mental aberrations, with a confidence of [other statistic], is the analogue to digital conversion of mental processes."
In other words, rounding error and truncation are what drives the test subjects insane. This finding may seem familiar to Perceptor. Transferring Spike's consciousness into an Autobot frame, after all, drove Spike to enhanced aggression and paranoia, which could have proved permanent had he not be transferred back to his own body in a timely fashion.
"The virus needs a tweak to auto-annihilate when the conversion process is complete, which I think should be manageable. I am more concerned about the analogue to digital conversion of mental processes, however. I do know that *master partners are able to interface a fully analogue mind with a fully digital mind without problems in the best of cases and even back up the digital mind onto the analogue mind without a lossy conversion in extreme cases, which makes me conjecture that if I could study the *master bond in more detail that I might be able to make some progress on that front."
Raymond keeps his eyes on his notes, neither looking at Persephone nor Victoria. He knows that they still have Nightbeat, one of the finest examples of a functional *master bond, but he is not going to venture that in front of Victoria. Does she have any *master partners to offer him? Will she? He doubts she will say.
"In fact, I am interested in the possibility of binary bonding an affected Transformer to an appropriate blank lasercore, brain module, or spark chamber ahead of time, before administering the virus, and then installing the 'filled' storage device into the converted body. However, binary bonding is not my area of expertise."
Raymond would have no reason to know about Clio, but Victoria would.
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