Uploaded, a Hc Svnt Dracones fanfic
A short story I wrote to justify temporarily retiring my Hc Svnt Dracones character. Before now only me and my GM have read this.
It kind of addresses the questions I have about the ramifications of brain uploading technology in the game's universe. For instance, I don't understand why they make such an effort to synchronize the euthanasia of the original with the initiation of bio-construction of the clone. Eclipse Phase and the Takeshi Kovacs novels they ripped off have some hours of lag time between mind-wipe of the original and resleeving of the new body for most cases of farcasting. Though, at least one of the "Transcendent Tech" implants can give the user an out-of-body experience, a fourth cuil activation of an Excitation implant causes your mind to leave your body in the form of a entity of white-hot plasma, which has a chance of incinerating your body when you try to return. Which kind of makes me think that one of the "soft" sci-fi elements of the universe is dualism, which would make Digitrans and Body Replacement surgery some form of guided reincarnation. Also TTI implants have a chance of carrying over into the new body during Replacement, whether the user wants them to or not, and Digitrans is said to purge all diseases but Whisper (which TTI might have reverse engineered their tech from) infection.
I also don't quite get why Body Replacement costs 3000 credits and the procedure takes three days while rehabilitation requires another four weeks, whereas Digitrans costs only 1000 credits for a "round trip" and the new body is fully functional in ten hours. I think Pierce Fraser, the game's creator, once said that Body Replacement costs more because of capitalism "people are willing to pay more to bring a friend back from the dead than to travel to another planet quickly", and I suppose that makes sense, but what about the time frame? I suppose that part of it could be that Body Replacement is often used to change a patient's species and morphism, it would definitely take a long time for someone who grew up with two legs to adjust to four or vice-versa. And it wouldn't do the client much good to get to their destination faster than by ship (2-3 weeks with 28th century tech) if it took them longer to learn how to use their new body. But why does the procedure take so much more time? Is it a gradual upload that wouldn't be possible with the time lag involved with interplanetary distances and takes a long time but reassures the patient that they're the same person?
Incidentally, my personal view of brain uploading is that anything but gradual uploading would just be copying.
Hc Svnt Dracones can be found at this site: http://hsdroleplayinggame.com/
"So, you see ma'am." The orderly told her as she just laid there, her body broken and mostly paralyzed. "It will take no less than a full Body Replacement to get you moving again."
Cal'pso, trained Progenitus medic and Spyglass agent, felt insulted by the simplistic manner in which the orderly had explained how badly damaged she was. The black vixen could tell just by the pain she'd felt before they had pumped her full of anaesthetics that her spine was shattered, her radii, ulnae, tibiae, fibulae, half her phalanges, ribs, and shoulders were broken in so many places they were still finding the pieces, and her lungs and alimentary canal were perforated. Her attempt to crawl away after the fall hadn't helped. They could probably clone replacements for the organs and ruined limbs, but the bone fragments would be hard to remove and her spine would need a rod up her ass to hold her up for extended periods. At minimum it would be weeks before she could leave.
"As you are no doubt aware, Progenitus does not cover Body Replacement, Pulse has not yet shared the details to the procedure, so we will need to arrange a transfer to one of their secure facilities once a payment plan has been agreed upon. I have a basic form on this tablet here, if you could just sign..." He held out a small tablet showing the end of a long form of legalese and a stylus.
Cal'pso reached out with her mind through the Pushframe the hospital had so graciously provided her in her infirm state to grasp the stylus. And thrust it straight up. When the wannabe nurse looked at her confused she floated it as close to her nearest hand as possible and laid it on the joint of her middle finger.
"Ah, I'll send someone else later." The nurse turned and left. What had happened to Progenitus? They had gotten their start literally stealing from other medical corporations, but now they were scared to tread on their competition's toes? It was even the more galling since she knew that their former parent company, Spyglass, had stolen the blueprints and procedures to brain uploading technology decades ago and used the "Digitrans" method fairly routinely to move agents around discretely.
She looked around the room, fortunately her eyes, both the biological one and the Utilit-i she had saved up for, were intact and functional. She noticed that someone had left both her toggle cases out on the desk next to her. With practice, she could use the suspended stylus and her UI to operate them. Her normal case had a few messages from the rest of the team, Kane was going in for a new implant, probably that Neural Connectivity Suite he wanted, Gunther was recovering from his injuries and was expected to be out within the week. Maybe she should look into some heavier armor when she got out, a HardCase at the very least, maybe even something active if she had the funds. The other case had one message, from him.
She opened the message from Reynard suspiciously, she still did not trust that coyote. "Hello, my dear," it stated in simple text, "I heard about the incident, that hospital you checked into has a deal with Pulse, they get a significant bonus for every patient who goes in for major surgery. Probably sabotaged your central nervous system themselves so that you'd have no choice but to go to them."
Cal'pso wished that she couldn't believe him but from what she'd seen her last couple years at college she had little trouble believing how corrupt Progenitus had become.
"Now, if you're willing to listen this time, I have a new deal for you. I could use your expertise on this next operation, and I'm willing to pay for your Digital Transmission into a fresh clone. All you need to do is accept and my men will transfer you to a clinic on my payroll and you'll wake up able to walk again on my ship."
She had trouble believing that even the likes of him had managed to own a Digitrans franchise. Sure, he used a dreadnaught as his personal yacht, and apparently used to own his own shipyard, and probably ran that ACME news service, but this was too much. And anyways she had some doubts about the procedure. She knew that her current body would be killed in the process, but would the clone that woke up on the other end still be her or just a copy? The light-speed lag alone made that even more uncertain. Cal'pso struggled to speak. "Who will be on that ship?" she asked, hoping the case would pick it up, and then used the stylus to send the recorded message.
A minute later she had a response. "You, and me, a couple hundred marines, engineers, and other specialists."
That was quick, she checked the time stamp to make sure the drugs hadn't made her slip off. But if he was able to send off a reply that fast he was likely within Mars orbit, there might not even be any lag when she was transmitted. She pulled up a virtual keyboard and tapped a response in quick succession. "I accept."
A couple hours later she was being carted into a Digitrans clinic on the far side of the megastructure. The doctor was a polite and courteous border collie who explained in explicit detail, using the proper medical terminology for once, how the procedure worked. They scanned her all over, took samples of her skin, fur, cheek cells, and even bone marrow. And finally they wrapped her head in a skullcap of electrodes and hooked up a quick injection hypodermic to her neck. "We've just sent the biometric data and the majority of your neurological activity, we're just waiting for the signal to synchronize the euthanasia and growth process. Then we will sedate you and transmit your most recent thoughts, as soon as they are received at the other end your old body will be terminated."
After five minutes Cal'pso started to feel paranoid about this procedure. "What's taking so-" the doctor pressed the injector before she could finish her sentence. A fast-acting tranquilizer flooded her synapses, knocking her out instantly. After another ten minutes the "ready to grow" signal arrived and the apparatus automatically applied a localized electrical shock that stopped her circulatory system dead.
"-long". Cal'pso suddenly realized that the covers of the bed had changed, they were now the type of stiff and rigid sheets they used on spaceships, and she could feel them properly. She lifted her right arm above her face to look at it, smooth as a newborn pup and fully responsive. She looked around, she was back in the medbay she had raided a few weeks ago. And a certain coyote was sitting over in a corner.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." Reynard said simply. "You've been out for ten hours, as you no doubt realize. But I kept up my side of the bargain."
She sat up quickly, dislodging the sheets covering her. "You, where are we?"
He waved a hand and the nearby Smartglass wall showed a video stream of their present location.
"But, that's at least eight light-minutes away. How did you reply so quickly?"
Reynard grinned. "I have my secrets still. Maybe I use Digitrans myself and only just arrived here. Perhaps I have a way to communicate faster than the speed of light. Or maybe I set an automated response from a local server. What do you think, sea witch?"
Cal'pso thought about that. Either option was possible, though that last seemed likeliest. She knew that the "old her" would have died as close to the creation of her new self as possible, but at that distance there could have been any number of factors preventing perfect synchronization, and ten hours plus a few minutes between the original's last experience and this body's first one. How could she be sure she was the same?
"My name," she replied. "Is Priscilla Long-Rico-Howard O'Kelly-Weatherall tres duo..." she paused, thinking, "secundus."
Reynard's brow perked up on hearing her long name. "Heinlein City?" She nods. "I figured, I'm guessing five parental units too. Why the numbers though?"
"Child three," she counts off on her fingers, "daughter two, and second iteration."
"If you get to my age, you'll probably stop bothering to change that last part." He stands up, and pulls a robe out of the closet and throws it to her. "So, feeling ready to start?"