Cubs

I don't pretend to understand Lily, or Blue, or AuroraBlue, for that matter. It's not just that they are each, in their way, a construct. Unlike everyone else I know, they developed without the normal psychological development the rest of us share. They lack the long term learning and perspective that we learn through trial and error from childhood.

None of them were ever really children.

They are each, in their way, a sociopath.

Not that that is really a surprise. I'm a sociopath on some levels myself. It's why I'm so effective at what I do. But it does make things difficult. I've often said I've faced trials no other mother in history has ever faced. How could they? My adopted daughter is a synthetic life form. Not even really organic, though fully sentient. Her daughter is purely organic, but she's been through physiological changes that she probably shouldn't have survived and her mind is that of a Mentat: a Human mind that can think like a computer.

The new cub though? What do I make of him? Lily described him as being made from Sand and Electricity, and visually I wouldn't doubt he's a Synthetic. How? No idea. Given the developments in nano-fabrication and the influence of Blue, it's possible K2, as she calls him, really is made of Sand. Sort of. From sand would be more appropriate. A good high grade multi-mineral base with all the appropriate metallic elements available, and it might be possible. Might. As in, I can't entirely rule it out, but I haven't seen anything to say it's so either.

Synthetic or not, he was well behaved when Lily left him with me to tend. Spent almost the entire time curled up more or less asleep on the small bed with Haley, where Lily put him. Which, all things considered, wasn't such a bad idea. Haley's always been good around children. Pretty much from the day we rescued her from the Reavers, she's shown an even greater than average, for a dog, affinity for Younguns.

Part of me wants to know more about him, and another part doesn't want to think too hard about it. Mechanoids, like the infamous KM series, all require serious infrastructure investment to manufacture. There's a reason menial labor is still performed by indentured servants and the poor, rather than by industrial mechanoids. Autonomous mechanicals are expensive and complex to make, require skilled maintenance to keep in operation, and still generate a fair amount of fear within the general population. In most circumstances, they're just not economical. Not when you compare them to cheap human labor.

A synthetic like my dear Mei Mei is, functionally, a curiosity. Created in a lab by a brilliant, if insane, inventor, for a specific purpose. She is unique. Unlike the KM series or any of the other mechanoid models, there will not be hundreds or thousands of her coming off an assembly line. She is the only one of her kind and may forever be the only one of her kind.

Using nanotech under AI control to manufacture synthetics is a game changer. Potentially a terrifying one. But I'm not going to judge. I don't know enough about him. I will. In time. But for now, I don't. And I won't judge.

The question though, is whether I'll need to protect him from AuroraBlue. Lily's convinced my little girl is going to end her, and K2. Why? She can't say. Or maybe won't say. While I have my suspicions, I don't know for sure. There was a time when I thought I understood where it was all leading, but now I'm not so sure. Too many variables. Too many unknowns.

And my own emotions coloring the picture.

Energy and Sand

Machines as small as microbes

What now have you wrought?

And then someone blew up x0x0...

There are dangers inherent in being highly placed in a large corporation. It goes with the territory. No mater how well liked a corporation is, someone out there will want to put some hurt on the top executives. Either for some imagined slight, or for kidnapping and ransom, or for political reasons, someone will want to do them harm. That's why most corporate executives have some sort of security force around them at all times. They need it. Even Grandfather has a couple of bodyguards.

When half the known 'Verse has a love/hate relationship with the company, like, say, Blue Sun, the problem is magnified. While x0x0's position in the company isn't as widely known as some, she is still functionally, vary, very, powerful. If they were a privately held concern, like KHI, with no shareholders to appease, her power would be unsurpassed. But x0x0's always been independent and, honestly, a badass in her own right. She's always taken a rather, mukanshin'na . . . unconcerned, view of her personal security. I've kept an eye on her, as I have on Lily and AuroraBlue. Unfortunately, I have been much less successful at protecting my girls than I'd like.

That being the case, it was really no surprise that someone would put some effort into hurting x0x0. While a package bomb seems like a crude, and, honestly, unsophisticated, way to attack, it can be effective. In this case, it was quite effective. The device made it through x0x0's usual checks on such things and the blast damn near killed her.

I wasn't in position to do anything about it at the time, but I've been following her situation ever since. Not entire sure I like the space she's in now, truth be known. But, for now, I will just watch. If someone tries to finish what they started, I'll hopefully be a step ahead of them. If someone tries to take advantage of x0x0's compromised situation, I'll have her moved beyond their reach. I've got substantial discretionary power in my Intel position. And, failing that, I'm still quite adept at performing extractions.

In the meantime though, I need to sift the data and find out who tried to hurt her.

It's there.

I know it is.

I just need to find it.

Bombs so very crude.

An amateur assassin.

Perhaps something more?

Web

There are points in a persons life when everything suddenly comes into focus. Places and times where they realize what road they are on. It doesn't matter what road they might think they are on, or which they were on. They see the road they are on. It is in those moments they can embrace the path as it lies, or make a conscious effort to alter course. For better or worse, the choice becomes obvious.

Unfortunately, it's oft impossible to tell whether the choice, any choice, is for better or worse. Even when the choice has been made, it may be hard to tell for a while whether the choice made was the right one.

I've recognized most of those moments in my life.

But this one crept up on me.

Pouring over Intel analysis as I have done so often for the last couple years I suddenly realized how large a web I'd spun - to borrow a euphemism. Dragon's don't spin webs. But still. I'd positioned myself at the focus of a vast web of information. Originally as a way to protect my girls from being exploited, then simply continued because of inertia.

As a district officer I'd been given a great deal of freedom over what to do with the intelligence I collected. Much of it was simply passed on for later analysis. Some I acted upon myself, using the resources at my disposal or, rarely, taking a direct hand myself. Some I squirreled away because passing it up the chain would have consequences best avoided.

And therein lay the realization. Information was power. Even more than wealth, of which I had a passable supply, Information - raw knowledge - was power. Whether it was used for good or ill, or simply was, was separate from the information itself.

That, in itself, was no real revelation. It was more of a truism. What was a realization was that I'd been consciously making judgments about what information should get passed on or not, and why I was making those judgments. And the realization of the direct effects some of the passed information had had, and what the omissions had meant.

I'd been using information to subtly manipulate the Intel community, knowing, as I had pretty much since I joined the Intel community, that the community had subtly been manipulating me. Manipulating everyone. And now, the conscious realization that I could use that manipulation to advantage. Not for personal gain, though that was an obvious avenue, but to subtly guide events towards the brighter future I'd always imagined.

It was a frightening realization.

But it illuminated my course.

I had information. Vast quantities of it. And, by skillfully disseminating that information, by trading it, guiding it into the proper hands, or away from other hands, I could do far more good in the 'Verse than I ever could behind a command desk or from a high floor in a corporate tower.

Most of the contacts were already in place. It was a matter of expanding the network, casting a wider net, and, above all, being very, very, careful with how I used the power at my disposal.

It would have to happen slowly. Carefully. But it would happen.

It was already happening.

Only now, it was time to consciously move on what I knew.

Buddha help us all.

Knowledge is power

Vast web of information

Who am I to judge?