Utopian/Dystopian Future

[ArlEammon]

Headquarters
All of our protagonists, even the less Human of them, are currently situated in an odd, almost empty husk of a space station, cloaked, far outside the Rims of the known Human Galaxy.

They came, suddenly, whether through a strange computer virus in some cases, or as shadowy assailants, through overwhelming stealth and power. Better weapons, higher skill. You are unsure who those assailants are, but you some how know without a doubt, these were not the enemy, yet who were they.

You all awaken in a massive, metal room. A few small rooms used for sanitary purposes have been provided, and ample food is also supplied through food replication devices. And also, wonder of wonders, even meager furniture has been provided. It's unlikely this is the Frontier many of you are familiar with.

[Space Lawyer]

Sen

For Sen, awakening, when he had not made a conscious decision to sleep hours earlier, was strange experience. This was the first time Sen could recall not having had complete and total control of his own body. It was disorienting, and more than a bit irksome.

Being overpowered by those assailants was an experience almost as strange. They clearly had access to technologies that simply should not have possessed. During the attack, Sen's field sensor had registered numerous unaccounted for fluctuations in gravity-mass and the underlying quantum field. As far as he was aware, most of the rest of humanity did not have the ability to create the effects he saw. He took the information he knew, and came up with differing solutions as to the identity of the assailants, though all returned low probabilities. Radical transhuman faction? Unlikley. Agents of a post-physical? Possible, though most post-physicals had better things to do, and wouldn't need physical agents. Radical primitivists? No, they couldn't work a starship, much less advanced tech. These people had proven resistant to field alterations, maser blasts, and even hunter-killer swarms, capable of dissolving anything they encountered to dust or goo. They had been faster than Sen, his combat programs unable to keep up, even when they had been shifted into primary. They had to have had some sort of high-level help from one of the factions; baseline humans were generally not even capable of existing by the same rules as Sen, much less superseding them. Whoever they were, they seem unconcerned by causing massive damage. And all out battle between users of such a high tech level tended to get out of control, and it certainly had this time.

Confounded as to the identity of his captors, he turns to the others in this cell. He initiates a field scan, enough to return some very thorough info on them.

Spoiler

Show

Subject 1: Female, base human, 24. Brain structures indicates some psychic ability, 44% chance of telepathy.
Subject 2: Male, human with significant mutations, 19, unable to determine cause of mutations with high certainty. Significant scar tissue in forearms. Deviated musculoskeletal structure.
Subject 3: Female, human with significant mutations, 21. Deviated musculoskeletal structure. Interesting structures on feet, likely for gripping (83% likely).
Subject 4: Female, base human (possible non-genefixed), 26. Cybernetic augmentations in hand, back, minor others. RF interference.

Sen regrets that the others would not let him bring any of the quantum manipulation device with him. They said the other humans would be frightened were the transhumans to start teleporting without wormholes or turning their quantum environment into computing structures. The ones that had attacked Sen certainly didn't seem to care about that. It would have been easy to escape with the least of those techs, but there was no use wishing. Such a thing was beneath Sen. It was something that irrational and primitive baseliners did.

He runs a full systems check. Nothing seems to be malfunctiong or missing, though nanostocks seemed to be a bit low. Likely the result of fighting off whatever the assailants had used, in itself concerning, there not being many things that could force a transhuman from consciousness. The system check couldn't identify what had been used either. For the first time in his life, Sen felt more than simple concern. Unwilling to let this new and unwelcome emotion loud his judgement, Sen releases a flood of neurachems and meditation programs. He is calmed.

All he can do now is release a distress call, which he does, on all energy spectrums. It may take a very long time to propagate through to someone that can help, but it is likely to do so eventually. He considers turning his systems against the cell, but it was probably shielded against such attacks, and it might be on the outer hull, where breaching it would expose the interior to vacuum. Not so much a problem for Sen, but he had no intention of killing these new companions.

Total time elapsed: 0.2 seconds

He turns to the assembled group. "Hello. I am Sen. Who are you?

[Deepfriedice]

Melissa woke up in panic.
She flailed around for a few moments, trying to get her bearings, trying to spot her attacker. She failed on both counts.

She then turned her attention to the pain in head. She always new she would get caught someday, but figured it would be at the end of a marvelous trap, outwitted by some detective then surrounded just before the end of an escape.... She rubbed the brick-shaped bruise on the back of her head again, then noticed the bright orange of her sleeves and her concealing gloves. If being Jannet was still on that table, it was worth a try - no point burning the only return ticket home she had just yet.

"Huuh" She resumed breathing again.

With her (metaphorical) mask back on, and slightly more composure, she looked around herself again. She must be in some kind of prison, judging by the obviously sealed door and bolted down furniture, but it didn't look like and official jail she knew of. She noticed there was a few pieces of utilitarian furniture around, and surprisingly a small server in the corner ("interesting...").

Weirdest of all were the four cell mates near her: three odd looking individuals in various stages of waking up and one very calm guy staring at her.

"Hello. I am Sen. Who are you?"
"Uhhh..."
"Jannet"

She managed to prop herself up, then weakly offered her hand.

[Bladehunter217]

Janelle wakes up and immediately bolts behind a piece of furniture. "Where are we?" She squeaks, eyes darting across the room before settling on the other awake beings. She stops again on Melissa. "You don't sound like a Jannet." She ducked behind the chair again, avoiding eye contact. "Where are we?" She asks again, looking around the room.

[Space Lawyer]

Sen

It took Sen a few nanoseconds to recognize the handshake, but ultimately he extends his hands and gives a shake of the appropriate firmness and duration as dictated by the etiquette programs. "Hello, Jannet. It is very nice to meet you." in his head, "Subject 4" becomes "Jannet". He captures an image of her face, straight-on, and adds it to the file. An overlay appears in his field of vision, tagging his cell mates.

He turns to the panicking Subject 1. A panicked state is not conducive to a positive development in our situation. I should attempt to calm her down. Sen walks toward Janelle, a friendly smile on his face, and his body language practically screaming "trustworthy". The pheromone systems kick in, backing up his message. "Please calm down. I am uncertain of our location right now. We seem to have all been brought here against our will."

[Bladehunter217]

"No, you are not coming near me. What are you anyway?" She bolts again, as far away as possible. "Are you human?" She shouts from the other end of the room, pressed against a wall.

[Space Lawyer]

Sen thinks on that question for a moment. "I consider myself human. Some bio-purists might disagree, but I hardly consider those people relevant to the question. I am transhuman."

Note
-Subject 1 appears to have had limited, if any, contact with transhumans.

[Deepfriedice]

Jannet shakes her head at the confusion, then walks to a quieter part of the room and pretends to examine a chair. - While actually passively scanning the radio spectrum for any kind of broadcast that might give useful info.

(@Armin: I'm not really sure what the policy is for this type of thing, but what can Melissa pick up, given she has a wideband SDR?)

[Bladehunter217]

"But your thoughts, where are they? Wait, what is subject 1 anyway? Transhuman, you mean modified people, your one of them, I guess that might make sense." She visibly calms down, but doesn't move any closer to Sen.

[balian arcanine]

Knowing he had been attacked, Malvyne stayed still when he first awoke. Listening, he knew there were three who had spoken, all seemed to be captured as he was. One mostly quite, one scared and asking unusual questions, and one who seemed like he was used to being in charge. He wondered what, if anything he might have in common with them.

He waits to here if any others speak and, hearing none, awakes. He turns to the the others and says
"My name is Malvyne, I don't know why I am here but I plan on figuring out why. Do any of you have any information that would be useful? All I can say is they have some form of superior military combat. "

He sizes up each opponent. A scared girl wit striking red hair. A woman looking at a chair, but doing something else, he didnt know. Another girl still asleep. and a transhuman. His training had taught him how to deal with them as best possible. The transhuman was the only one he needed to worry about beating him in combat, but he knew he could last long enough for the captors to arive, maybe longer. He looks at the room analyzing the size materials and exits, notices nothing useful.

[Space Lawyer]

"You are Subject 1. I did not know what else to call you. Yes, I suppose you could regard as modified people. As for my thoughts...they are superficially similar, though more organized, and utilizing optimized pathways."

As Subject 2, speaks, he is redesignated Malvynne. The man's posture would indicate military training. It is noted and added to the file.

[ArlEammon]

A voice opens in the atmosphere, speaking to the group inside the very large room. "Welcome to this Space Station. We offer our regrets in having to take you the way we did." The voice says apologetically. "We had no idea who you were with, so we were forced to take necessary precautions in apprehending you." The door slowly opens at the front of the room. A large group of men walk in their tight uniforms, all of them were hooded, and they withdrew their masks from their faces.

You recognize it. It's "President" Morris Chaucer. Any of you should be surprised. This is supposedly the Dictator, yet from what you know, this Station has to be outside the Frontier. What is the President doing outside the Frontier? It would be highly outside of policy for the President to be outside Earth, let alone the Outer Rim.

[balian arcanine]

Malvyne imeadiatly stands at attention and salutes

[Space Lawyer]

Sen regards the man with curiosity. Most of the factions regarded the politics of the rest of humanity with no small amount of derision, seeing them as a throwback to barbaric times when governments kept their citizens in line through economic oppression and a claim to be the only wielders of legitimate force in a given area. Some argued for breaking away all together, but most recognized the value in staying associated with the rest of humanity. For some, it was sentimentality , for others it was the pragmatic recognition of the occasional need for resources, and a few had other reasons they often kept to themselves. Still, this man, Morris Chaucer, represented the general will of humanity, and more importantly, he represented Terra.
"Greetings, President Morris Chaucer. I am Sen Lan. I accept your apologies. Why did you feel it necessary to capture us?"

[ArlEammon]

"Morris" Chaucer regards the salute with a smile and motions his hands for Malyvne to lower his. "I'm not Morris Chaucer" The man responded. "It's Deniss Chaucer for me. You don't need to remind me I'm that bastard's brother." The blonde, thirty five year old man grinned, but his tone was that of a furious man. His blue eyes accentuated the suits that the rest of the men, and him, were wearing.

[balian arcanine]

Standing at ease, Malvyne nods and says

"No problem Sir. Might I ask why we are here?"

He is somewhat surprised to see the President's brother out here, assuming they were still, 'out here'. How much power does this man have? Is he supposed to follow his orders?

[ArlEammon]

"No questions? No one knows that the President has a brother. Of course not." Mr. Chaucer said bitterly. "You've all been taken in for special reasons. We need to get rid of him, and those like him. I hope I won't have to do any special persuasion for any of you."

[balian arcanine]

"Get rid of him? He's the President... and your brother."

Slowly sliding a bone missile into place so that everyone may notice and aiming towards this Deniss.

"Explain yourself"

[ArlEammon]

"Are you mad?" Dennis asked. "Do you really think we haven't disarmed all your weapons? Your prisoners, not hotel guests." He said dismissively. "Don't make me laugh. Now why I decided to off the monster shouldn't be beyond any of you. You have honor, everyone else here may have honor or not but plenty of you know by now that this evil paradise is built on the blood of undesirables."

[balian arcanine]

"Are you taking down the genetic undesirable program? I'm in."

Very confused at how he can feel the start of his bone missile form but it won't finish, he stands down.

After a few years of military service on the rim Malvyne has grown to hate the system and believes its unjust. Largely satisfied with Deniss's explanation he withdraws back slightly from the conversation to listen. He wonders why the others are here and what part he might play.

[Bladehunter217]

"Your brother is an ass." Janelle called from her new spot directly behind Sen, using him as a wall to protect herself from the newest face. She focuses her attention entirely on the new, scarier people in the room, trying to catch a thought. "Why us?"

[Deepfriedice]

(I'm assuming that the room blocks any outside signals.)
The confusion the the room intensifies, but Melissa ignores it - She can argue with her waking cell mates later.

Suddenly a burst of encrypted network traffic catches Melissa off guard. She looks around for the source and spots a bunch of hooded men walking into the room, one of which begins to address her three awake cell mates.

Melissa gets off the chair, and ignoring her military cell mates threats approaches the man claiming to be Morris Chaucer's brother. ("remember, look more panicky - Jannet's never done anything like this")

"If you wanted to discuss politics with us, you would have done so in a coffee shop. What exactly do you want us to do?"

[Space Lawyer]

Sen

Sen runs a more thorough system check on his weapons does indeed find that while he can access the various systems, he seems to be unable to issue an order for them actually fire.

-Action Item 1: Determine how an outside group possess the capability to disable Level II combat implants without total removal.
-Action Item 2: Determine what method or agent was used to incapacitate self for a substantial period of time.
-Action Item 3: Develop counter-measures to the above.

"I am in agreement with Jannet. Capturing us, then threatening us, while asking us to do your bidding is an ineffective strategy. You have now engendered much greater hostile feelings against yourself than I have personally ever had against our present system. I can identify you as a personal enemy, rather than a nebulous wickedness. You have given us only an extrinsic motivation to do your work, and it is a negative reinforcement, known for a very long time to be less effective in motivating sentient beings than positive reinforcement. Furthermore, you have broken no less than six laws, at least fourteen memorandums and treaties, and generally behaved in a lawless manner. You, sir, have done a mos effective job in eliciting a non-cooperative attitude. Now, should you wish to conduct our discussion in a more civilized manner, I would be more than happy to hear you out, and from kinesic and pheremonal indications, I believe my cellmates would too."

[ArlEammon]

"Ah well. That's the gist of it, I guess." Dennis responded nonchalantly. He admitted everything the A.I said was completely true. But then again, he had a feeling that no one here would really mind working against the government.