Chapter 117: (The War) (2/2)
In their field? Absolutely.
A plan was developed.
The Lanaktallan were nervous. All of them were scientists, researchers.
Not pirates.
Paul Townsend laughed.
The Terran told the Lanaktallan that he would help pack everything up. That he would help them get it ready. Once the ship arrived, Paul would handle the rest.
All the Lanaktallan had to do was come along.
When the ship arrived it held two Unified Trade Council pilots. Both of them sneeringly told the researchers that the corporations had already purchased the researcher's contracts.
Then Paul came out and started to speak to the two pilots. As agreed, he would offer them the chance to either come along or stay on the station and wait for rescue.
Both of them went for their neural pistols.
The researchers were terrified that Paul Townsend had killed both pilots, but he had just quickly disabled them before the researchers had even realized that the two pilots were drawing weapons.
They all quietly agreed it was a good thing that nobody had attempted to return Paul Townsend to his deceased status after he woke up.
The Lanaktallan researchers loaded up the ship with all of the frozen samples. Even with the automation it took nearly a week.
The pilots stayed locked up in a room.
Eventually the ship was loaded, the Lanaktallan researchers boarded it, nervous and asking questions.
They knew their nation was at war with the Confederacy, but the idea that they'd be warmly received was foreign to them. They asked him repeatedly if he was sure.
He was positive.
He knew where to go.
The Lanaktallan were nervous, but they knew their choice was debt-workers for major corporations, working on nothing new with nobody caring about what they researched...
...or abandoning everything they knew for the chance to be recognized, to have their research respected and intrigue others.
They were anxious. It was weeks in jumpspace. Three of them to be exact.
But they arrived.
Paul Townsend had been right. Everyone wanted to talk to them. About their research, about Lanaktallan genetic research and manipulation techniques, about their samples. They found themselves the center of attention that surpassed anything they'd ever dreamed of.
Paul Townsend became famous.
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
Oh. My. God.
DASS, CLONE WORLDS, are you guys paying attention?
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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
Yeah. Why?
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CLONE WORLDS CONSORTIUM - HIGH SECURITY
I'm here. What?
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
Get your best people over here, right now. I mean yesterday.
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CLONE WORLDS CONSORTIUM - HIGH SECURITY
I'm kind of busy with the whole genecracker fleet and the stuff JED took.
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
Trust me, guys. What just dropped in my lap is something you want to see.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS - HIGH SECURITY
What is it?
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
Only over eighteen trillion genetic samples from the last hundred million years of every world that the Lanaktallans have destroyed and reseeded and destroyed. Everything. From algae and moss up to, I mean, I've got the previous incarnations of the Telkans in this stuff.
There's even ancient Lanaktallan tissue samples.
And I've just run a few keyword searches.
It's everything. Their entire genetic domination system.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS - HIGH SECURITY
The what?
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
The whole system. It isn't described, but you can easily infer it from the data, from the samples.
And... other stuff.
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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
Define: Other stuff.
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
We're not even sure yet. Some Lanaktallan deserters, well, not really deserters, more like disaffected scientists, came in with a Terran and a shipload, and I mean a shitload shipload, of genetic samples, not just data, but millions of tons of samples.
Twenty researchers, their equipment, and one of the backup sample storage and research repositories for the Unified Genetics Council.
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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
I'm on my way.
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CLONE WORLDS CONSORTIUM - HIGH SECURITY
You aren't fooling us? I'll be right there.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS - HIGH SECURITY
Oh dear. This opens up some possibilities.
Some very ethical quandary possibilities.
I think...
...we're going to need to call a full quorum about this.
Our newest members are going to deserve to know what this means for them.
We're going to have to decide how we're going to tell them.
Did you run a search for... for..
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
Terran Descent Human structure?
First thing I did.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS - HIGH SECURITY
And?
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS - HIGH SECURITY
No. Nothing.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS - HIGH SECURITY
I'm not sure how I feel about that.
Random chance has kicked in the teeth of everything the universe had thrown at them.
I don't know if I feel better or cheated.
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