"Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating..." (Part 4: The Best-Laid Plans)

[meat_mooks]

At some time during the night, while some were still sleeping, and some were awake and wandering around the hotel common rooms--a massive explosion rocked the hotel the group was staying in

Comments

Group 1 - To the Clonebanks - With Councilman Kanner Drayan [Ishfe]

[galilee_npcs]

The next day, the Councilors have made themselves available to help provide information and their services to the crew who survived the attack. Kanner leads one group to the clonebanks, to familiarize them with what there is to be seen there, and field all related questions.

[Posting order: Kanner, Brainiac 5, Daniel, Ildraniath, Lex, Kanner, etc. If your character wouldn't say anything for their post, either let the next person know to go instead, or post with something like "Brainiac 5 stood there and simply listened."]

[galilee_npcs]

Kanner greeted them all near the entrance

[level12headache]

Querl was silent as he followed the Councilor. He paid attention to everything Kanner had said but at the same time he was busy with a dozen mental calculations. He hadn't the patience to exchange pleasantries, that would be a job for the others.

[hi_there_aliens]

The fact that they hadn't found any remains had to be a good sign. At least, it corroborated with what he'd found last night, which was basically nothing: Daniel hadn't found any trace of the Doctor last night, not even teeth. He'd searched the wreck inside and out before moving onto the other rooms. Daniel didn't think the blast was nearly hot enough to vaporize bone completely, but then again, what did he know about off-world explosives? Maybe it could, but according to the Councillor, none of their crew had been killed in the explosion

[futureisclear]

Ildraniath had opted for full armor today. If there was another attack, she wanted to be prepared. Besides, the armor itself looked rather impressive. She listened to the questions, but asked none herself. She was going to observe for the moment.

[imperious_lex]

Lex had been turning over the attack in the head for some time. The CLF were the obvious suspects, but if they had been monitoring them, they'd know that the negotiations hadn't exactly gone well thus far. So, them attacking wouldn't make much sense, and they had to know that killing any of them wouldn't scare them off.

Bombing as a cover for a kidnapping? Possible, but still unlikely.

The government setting up the CLF was a possibility, but negotiations were south, but not beyond repair. Framing the CLF for murder would've helped their case, but not garanteed the crew's assistance. Plus they'd know the bombs wouldn't kill Kon. That stunt reeked of desperation, yet they wouldn't be in a desperate situation thus far

[galilee_npcs]

Kanner nodded to Daniel, accepting his answer as one for the group. The councilor wasn't going to press a needless point.

Out of respect for Lex's request, he answered his questions first, a slight nod of his head to Daniel in order to let the other man know he wasn't forgetting what he'd said in the least. "A few, after a fashion," Kanner admitted, not particularly perturbed. "If by problems you mean been attracting media attention. People have been protesting rates and revisitation of older stories in the Feelies lately. I hear they were quite inconvenienced when watching the news in theatre was more exciting than any of the current releases

[level12headache]

"I would very much like to see those files. I'm sure they will be enlightening. I assume a large part of your advances in medical technology comes from the use of cloning? Do you clone the whole person and then remove parts as needed or do you clone one organ at a time? Further, since you have cloned for 5,000 years, how do you compensate for the inevitable mutations and loss of data over time?"

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel frowned slightly at Lex. Daniel could get being interrupted by someone like Jack, since he was team lead, and a Colonel, (somehow team lead had gotten more weight than Colonel to him along the way) but Lex, as far as he knew, was another diplomat: Dick was the team lead. Daniel kept his mouth shut, because arguing and turning it into a pissing match in front of Kanner wasn't going to do anyone any favors, especially those missing. And if he was going to start something, it was going to be over something more important, like not pitting both sides on each other while they snuck off in the night.

They had split up into other groups, some of which had gone with law enforcement instead. They would be investigating the very same thing, and Daniel would be surprised if Lex's question hadn't occurred to them either. Which left them doing the same thing or traveling the same line. It didn't make sense to do it like that. It was like three people trying to open a locked door the same way and failing each time.... which also happened

[futureisclear]

"Social movements can take some time to develop or come to a head," Ildraniath commented. She knew that the Eldar had taken quite a long time to rise - and then fall. She folded her hands, storing the information away for later. It was all very interesting, but how much of this was actually going to be useful? Exploring this technology would be useful. Was it actually worth taking?

"I'm more interested in your technology than your history, however."

Let this Daniel fellow interpret that as he would. She didn't care if she rode over his petty interest in culture. Who needed to understand mon-keigh culture? It was virtually the same, no matter where you were.

"How do you provide replacement organs and so forth?"

[imperious_lex]

So, no other major third party. Still, while they were trying to play both ends off the middle, it was fairly clear that someone was trying to play them.

But who?

"Not to mention that all of your clones have a rather limited life span. Is this also true for the replacement organs you grow?" Planned obsolescence was something implemented by many manufacturers. You want to build something that would last for a while, but not for forever, because you want your customers to come back and buy another one eventually.

Having an organ that worked perfectly, but needed to be replaced once every several years or so? That would be a rather shrewd way of ensuring customer loyalty. Not to mention controlling the population, if one were so inclined. He had to admire that.

[galilee_npcs]

Kanner waited for eveyone to be seated, tapping a sequence into his own personal data interface before he handing it to Querl. "This is a virtual copy of most of them. The rest I can access when we return to the new Hotel, later in the afternoon

[level12headache]

Querl immediately began reading through the information. At the same time he was paying attention to everything that was being said. He trusted the others to ask further questions.

[hi_there_aliens]

Daniel's eyes started to glaze over despite himself once Luthor, Querl and Kanner started going into the finer details of the technology, such as mutations and data loss, but after a moment, he forced himself to pay attention. While the hard science wasn't something he had an easy time getting into (give him five thousand years or more of history, that he could get behind), the details regarding the medical applications and replacement organs, which really were pertinent questions, was. At least they just cloned individual organs instead of farming an individual. Granted, he supposed it was just more efficient to make what you needed. Still, he'd been worried

[futureisclear]

Ildraniath thumbed through her own copy of the information, glancing over it. At the same time, she tried a small little probe in Kanner's direction - what was he thinking? What was he feeling? Was he being truthful? All useful information to have and understand. She set her data reader aside with a little nod, voice still filtered through her helmet.

"Impressive."

Not quite as impressive as the Eldar's ability to use psychic power to stimulate healing and regrowth, of course, but better than some of what passed for medical science among the mon-keigh.

"Whatever does the most good for the most people, I suppose. A rather standard view of large societal change. Not uncommon. However... it would seem the bulk of the populace simply haven't bothered to protest before now. And if they have, it is not evident. I cannot particularly blame them, if they all enjoy high standards of living.... Although decadence and excess have their own prices."

She knew that too well. Like most humans, this culture was to undisciplined in many areas.

[imperious_lex]

"As long as most people are well fed, well clothed, and sufficiently distracted by entertainment, they won't complain. Most dictatorships rise to power on that promise, and fall when they fail to live up to it." Which did bring up an interesting question.

"How did you end up becoming a Councilor, if you don't mind my asking?"