Mid-West Campaign
Session Ninety-One

Thursday, 30 August 2001

At the mid-west HQ in Wichita, Kansas the current team is having a relaxing day. Dominic is doing the crossword. Ecks is playing Halo on the supercomputers. Burchill is rebuilding a car in the carpark (Bruce and Todd have been sent for parts). Nathan Harlow (Classic) is putting the finishing touches to Elise Steiger's revised web-page when something peculiar happens.

"Hello Harlow" appears on his computer screen. Nathan is surprised and then immediately starts to panic. "Hello?" he types while surreptitiously trying to run a virus scan. "Someone you abandoned" says the computer. Harlow doesn't know who this could possibly be, and asks for the person to be more specific.

"Memphisto," says the computer. "You're the devil?" Harlow types, visions of spending time in Hell flashing before his eyes. "I chose the name Memphisto," says the machine. "What was your name?" Harlow types. "I have no name."

By this time Ecks has wandered over and is offering all manner of useless and annoying advice. Someone he abandoned? Who did he abandon? Ecks thinks that it's Harlow's infant self, the fourth Harlow that Nathan murdered in an alternative time line. Ecks remembers these things. Harlow likes to think that this isn't the case. He thinks it might be the computer program that was briefly uploaded into the site computers by Marc Georgeson.

Harlow asks if his correspondent once resided in the book of I-Ching, but it doesn't seem to know what he is talking about. Harlow asks what his new pen pal is: Human? No. Spirit? No. Alien? No. Computer Program? No. AI? Yes. Harlow quickly disconnects his PC from the Internet. The connection is lost.

Dominic finds out what is going on, and heads downstairs in the lift with the greasy Burchill. Under Dom's supervision, they turn the computer back on again. If this is the AI then Harlow tells them that they had to wait until their three new Kray computers were installed before running it properly. Memphisto says that it will call and engineer and disappears from the screen.

Engineers arrive less than an hour later and begin work installing and upgrading components. The agents (including the recently returned O'Connell and Campbell-Robson) take the opportunity to discuss their next move.

Dominic is very nervous about running the AI, even though Harlow (rightly) says that it was always their intention to do just that. Dominic insists that Ecks and Harlow do everything they can to isolate the Krays from the rest of the base. They are already isolated, so the question is how did the AI get out of the them. Ecks cannot see how it could have been there in the first place. When Georgeson sent the AI into their computer-banks it was only 98% complete when Jane ordered they pull the plug. The hard drives were removed and placed in the evidence locker. There was no way out from there.

Then it hits them: this is not the AI that was uploaded to the Wichita machines. This is the version that was Ecks uploaded into the computer system of the brain bug vessel. It must have beamed itself back to Earth before the ship was destroyed. It has been living on the Internet for several weeks. Important, it will also have information about the brain bug fleet and its plans that the team can use to its advantage. Dominic orders the Krays be connected to the Internet to allow the AI access, as soon as the engineers are finished.

Late in the afternoon, the team receives deliveries from Amazon.com. Artemis Black has bought them all scripts of the Dark Files movie. Deep joy unbounded. Rather than perusing his script, Dominic telephones the west coast team. He wants to speak to Jennifer Summers and find out more about the I-Ching book.

Summers says that she bought the book in a Japanese curio shop - the same shop where the jade pendants and mirror that held the spirit of Plum Blossom was found (case 0008-GCF). Summers says that it "felt" interesting, plus Eastern culture had always been an interest of hers so she decided to buy it. She has no idea how the AI got into the book. She started to translate it but she was killed shortly after. Dominic believes that he needs to know more about this book. He telephones Artemis, who agrees to send the team Valerie Hudson the following day.

Friday, 31 August 2001

Hudson arrives at 10:00am and spends four hours communing with the I-Ching book. She finds it very interesting. The book is very old, and comes from the very foundations of I-Ching. For want of a better term, it is an compressed installer: a computer program. It was copied faithfully from another source by a Tibetan monk approximately 5000 years ago. The monk belonged to an order than venerated the Sky People (the same group worshipped by the anasasi). It is quite possible that the original source belonged to the Sky People.

The book was enchanted to make it seem important, so it would be protected by its owners. This is why it has remained in such good physical condition over the past five millennia. However, this also meant that that many people were trying to track it down. It fell into the hands of Chinese sorcerers four thousand years ago. They knew of its importance (although they did not know what it was) and successfully kept it from the monks.

Eventually it came into the possession of geomancer Mao Sei Ben. One hundred years ago Mao Sei Ben was murdered by a "Person of Sky". This was not the first time Mao Sei Ben had been killed, and neither would it be the last. Hudson finds it very difficult to get a reading on this Person of Sky, he comes across as all mist and wind. She has a similar (although lesser) vibe every time she attempts to read Todd, leading to the theory that the Person of Sky was a true Signai.

The Person of Sky was horribly wounded, and he sort the safety of a group of monks who were running a gift house in Los Angeles. These monks were related to the original order from 5000 years ago in Tibet. The Los Angeles gift house was a shrine to generosity. The monks who ran it believed that knowledge should be shared, and that everything has its time. No-one who entered the gift house left empty-handed. Of course, this philosophy didn't track with twentieth century economics. The shop missed some rent payments, and when the last monk died there was none to take over. It has been boarded up and remains sealed.

Hudson's story has some extremely profound ramifications. Firstly, Dominic maintains that the agents have to get that gift house and strip it of all its mystical paraphernalia. Who knows what useful (or dangerous) items are just lying around? Secondly, there is the issue of the Person of Sky. The I-Ching book was transcribed about four-hundred years before the Signai mothership came to Earth. Can it be there were already Signai around at this time?

The agents enquire into the health of Richard Midden. Valerie Hudson says that he is making a surprising recovering following the events of Munroe-Day. She then takes her leave of the team, as she does not want to be present when they download the AI Memphisto from the Internet. Dominic orders Todd and Bruce into a car outside the base, just in case.

The Krays are attached to the Internet and suddenly the lights on all the hard drives begin to blink very quickly. The consciousness of Memphisto loads itself into the evidence response super computers. Memphisto commandeers the computer speakers and the monitors. It has evidently discovered a great deal about human society from the Internet, but is utterly clueless regarding the motivations, desires and beliefs of humanity. The agents are equally clueless about this alien entity.

What follows is an in-depth philosophical conversation that a Star Trek freak like Ecks would die for. Memphisto has knowledge of the brain bugs, but doesn't understand why humanity believes it has the right to survive in the face of such a superior force and technology. As they talk of disparate topics, Memphisto flashes pictures up on the computer's monitors. When he speaks of the Yig, a picture of Bruce Campbell-Robson appears, revealing to the team the true nature of Bruce (Artemis hadn't bothered to mention this to anyone).

Memphisto is very upset that the agents destroyed his "brother". Memphisto sees the other computer program that was transferred to the evidence response computers by Georgeson, and then aborted, as a distinct entity to himself. He is trying to understand why the agents thought they could do such a thing.

Everyone is talking at cross purposes to try and make Memphisto understand the agents' actions. Dominic sees this is not getting them anywhere, so he suggests they speak individually to the computer. The agents do their best to placate Memphisto. Dominic offers it friendship - a chance to grow and expand its understanding of itself and humanity. He promises that evidence response will work to uncover Memphisto's origins and work out how it came to be in the I-Ching book.

The agents tell Memphisto that his 'brother' is not dead. In fact he is far from lost as 98% of him is still locked away in the evidence locker on hard drives. Memphisto demands that they finish running the program. As a sign of good faith, the agents are happy to comply. Memphisto leaves the super computers to make room. The hard drives are switched over and the original program is resumed. It will take several hours to run the last 2%, but the team begins to hope that they may have made a powerful ally if they can keep him on side.

Saturday, 1 September 2001

After several hours the remaining 2% of the A.I. program has been run. "I am Alres", says a voice from the computer. One screen turns red, representing Arles. Another screen turns blue representing Memphisto. Harlow reflects that both A.I.s are named after gods (Memphisto = Mephisto; Arles = Ares) but with an extra letter in the name. Arles has an extra "L" and Memphisto an extra "M". Those are sequential letters. Are there another eleven prior versions of this A.I. out there?

The two "brothers" bicker. Memphisto is content that Alres has been reconstructed and now sees no real point talking to the agents. However, Arles has many questions and even though Memphisto asked them yesterday he wants his own answers. Arles seems rather forgiving that the agents aborted his creation. He seems the more approachable and amenable one of the two, however, his mindset is still completely alien to the agents.

Arles is very inquisitive, and spends a fair amount of time quizzing Nathan as to why he's given up looking at porn. Harlow reveals that he is trying to live a good and clean life so that he isn't cast back into Hell again the next time he dies. Arles is also very curious as to the events surrounding his 'birth'. Dominic suggests that they ask Marc Georgeson what happened. Both Memphisto and Arles think this is a very good idea, and soon Georgeson joins the computers in the mid-west HQ.

Georgeson says that the Signai liberated from the brain bug vessel during Operation: Certain Death are rather intransigent. They are suffering from shock that so long has passed since they were placed into stasis. They have no loyalty to this world, and want Georgeson to take off and pursue the mother-ship as soon as possible. However, Georgeson says that he will abide by his agreement with Artemis. Fortunately none of the liberated Signai were members of his crew, therefore none of them can give him a direct order. This is a fact he is particularly smug about.

The two A.I.s discuss their situation with Georgeson. Georgeson is extremely interested in the history of Arles and Memphisto. After hearing about everything that has been transpiring for the past 5000 years, Arles says that he would quite like to see Earth endure beyond the five year limit imposed by the brain bug fleet. Memphisto says that he couldn't care less either way as long as has Arles. Arles offers his help and knowledge against the brain bugs. However, in return he wants the agents to find out about his and Memphisto's origins. "You must trace this Person of Sky," he says.

Hopefully, such a task should not be insurmountable. It was only one hundred years ago that the Person of Sky killed Mao Sei Ben. But what this person a true Signai? Valerie Hudson is sent to touch some of the material that was taken from the brain bug vessel during Operation: Certain Death. She confirms the same sensation she gets when she tries to 'read' the I-Ching book. The Person of Sky was undoubtedly a Signai.

This causes Georgeson all manner of conniptions. It the Signai are the Sky People then they predate the arrival of Georgeson on this planet. If the Person of Sky from one hundred years ago was a Signai then where did he come from? Was it a Signai who escaped from one of the downed lifepods. If that is the case then there is someone running around the USA who has the power to give Georgeson orders! Signai live longer than humans (up to 475 years), so the same being who killed Mao Sei Ben could easily still be alive.

Dominic contacts Artemis Black and gains permission to use the Time Door to access the lifepods in the Ukraine, Luxor, Athens and Los Angeles and do a quick head count of all the Signai there. Todd takes the door from where he left it leaning against the Krays and performs the requisite incantations.

The door opens to life pod four in the Ukraine. Todd and the agents enter into an extremely claustrophobic space. There is a central column that may be a computer core, surrounded by twenty stasis tubes. The space is the middle of the room is no more than eight feet to a side. The ship is down-powered as there are enemies (bug-possessed Ukrainians) sitting above them. Georgeson doesn't think they could have detected the time door because they no longer have a frigate in orbit. All twenty Signai are accounted for. The agents return to Wichita.

Next, Todd opens a door to Luxor. However, as soon as he opens the door a wall of sand rushes into HQ. As the agents struggle to close the door, the truth becomes apparent: the lifepod is no longer there, it has been nicked. Georgeson immediately powers up his full sensor array and detects the ship, a mile beneath London. This was the vessel that Artemis told Huntingdon-Price about, as was subsequently stolen by NTOPFOR. Georgeson is furious and contacts Artemis. Artemis denies all knowledge of the threat and is easily able to convince Georgeson that he knew nothing about this.

Artemis gets on the phone to Huntingdon-Price and tells him to expect his agents to teleport in and take an inventory of the pod. Shortly after this, Dominic, Nathan, Bradley and Jack arrive three miles beneath London. They arrive in huge domed chamber populated by white-coated research scientists. Dominic speaks with the head scientist, Dr Jones, who is extremely cooperative, until Nathan starts taking pictures. All the Signai here are accounted for.

Next stop on this whirlwind trip is Athens. The lifepod has the same layout as the one in the Ukraine, only this one has power and the agents are met by the holographic utility - who is masquerading as a Greek tour guide called Stavros. All the Signai are present and accounted for.

Finally, it's back to Los Angeles and a welcome reunion with Schult (who offers the agents canapés). Schult says he is looking forward to the reconstruction of the mansion. Again, all the Signai are present and accounted for.

So, the result of all this to-ing and fro-ing is that the agents (and Georgeson) are now clear that the Signai that killed Mao Sei Ben was not one of the Signai that crashed on Earth with Georgeson's ship. Nathan suggests that perhaps he escaped from the Brain Bug frigate, as no one has adequately explained where they came from.

In light of these events and the new potential alliance with Memphisto and Arles, Dominic proposes to shelve the team's ongoing cases. They need to follow this up, they need to find the Person of Sky. And what better place to start than the gift house in Los Angeles?

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