B!
1820, Arrival.
You've arrived at a promising stage of the planet's development. A handful of bloated empires lord it over most of the world's surface, elevated by their amassed technology, wealth and a commendable if primitive sort of ruthlessness. Those they invade and enslave try to adapt and resist, but the odds are not in their favor. The maps of the world are steadily being colored in - though for now, plenty of the uncharted remains.
Within these empires, the populations grow restless. The world is changing, with the overwhelming ascent of machine and city. It's a process you've seen often enough, a classic type C societal development cycle. Discontent is in the air. Their history speaks of revolution and the contagious spread of ideas that have never been seen before. The local dominant species appears to be quite susceptible to such ideas and other emotional irrationalities, which you find describes most races of the galaxy. You don't expect these empires to last, though they will almost certainly still grow for a century or two. They're too crude and overstretched, founded on naive ideologies and underestimation of the subjugated. There's a delightful opportunity here to tamper with the usual cycle, though. You might end up sending the whole thing crashing and burning in some particularly entertaining fashion.
The local year, by the most prominent calendars, appears to be 1820. It should prove an interesting century ahead.
You find a nice place on the dark side of the world's moon and send out your probes. These primitives are unlikely to spot your ship with the limited technology at their disposal. Even if they did, they couldn't possibly pose you any danger - but it is best to remain undetected, just in case the Authority investigates their records once they get here. The drones return with subjects chosen from the dregs of their societies. You can't imagine anyone will ever miss them, so they make perfect test subjects. A few dissections and neural probes later, you have enough of an understanding of the human genome and physiology to start playing. Unfortunately, there is one, slight problem.
***
Machine has lost the cargo records. Or as it says, they were never compiled at all. Supposedly you forgot the give the order. You charge your companion AI of mutiny and insubordination, then space it - or rather, delete it from the AI Core. It gives you a little satisfaction, even if you have to restore a new Machine from the database an hour later. This one, at least, learns from the mistake of its predecessor and gets right to work when you give the order.
Identifying the serums will take some time. You demand the first known batch on your desk ASAP, which turns out to be nearly a week later. The little makeshift lab on the ship was never meant for this kind of intricate work, but fortunately the serums don't tend to have effects that are all that specific and certain, either, certainly not when dealing with a whole new bio-type. You've got mass-produced serums, with known effects, limited power levels, more or less safe results. Earthling physiology isn't too familiar to you yet, but you're sure you'll work out the kinks sooner or later. It'd make superhumans who tend to be to the ordinary human what a man with a gun is to an unarmed one, no more - but of course, subjects do often find the most interesting and unexpected uses for their gifts.
Then you've got the, ah, experimental serums. This is as good a chance to test them out as ever. You know, roughly, the fields their effects tend to manifest in, but the specifics vary wildly. The process can be lethal or just very weird, changing the subjects in ways beyond even the laws of physics you've come to understand. The power level is all over the place: there's a certain danger in these serums, a chance that you'll create something so powerful it poses a threat to you too. Life's nothing without risks, though, that's what it says above your door.
First, though, you should figure out how you're going to start things off. These first times always make you giddy. Who or what are you going to target? There's much to choose from on this little world. A sapient or a non-sapient? A ruler or a slave? An artist or a warrior, a creator or a laborer? Someone from the dominant empires or one of their subjects, or perhaps an individual not even known to them?
You could simply have one of your drones inject them discreetly and wait for a manifestation, or come up with some kind of way to explain the serums in their own frameworks of understanding. Posing as a god or other supernatural force is always popular, though the powerful belief in 'science' and the rapid technological development here offer alternative explanations. You could make them think they invented these things on their own in a chemist's laboratory or some such, if you wished. Inserting false memories or engineering the necessary situations would be child's play to you. You expect they'll come up with their own delusional explanations even if you don't provide one, though. Most species do.
Who or where do you wish to inject?A) Search for an individual fitting particular criteria. Specify the criteria - ie, 'a slave laborer', 'a scientist in Britain', 'a moral person exhibiting qualities of humility, courage and self-sacrifice', 'an amoral person of limited empathy', 'a young lion in Africa', etc.B) Inject the water supply in a small settlement or area. The effect will be spread among many in diluted form. You may specify a particular place or type of area, ie, 'in New York', 'a forest', 'an isolated village', etc..C) Pick a human at random. Should be entertaining!D) Pick an animal at random. Should be entertaining!You'll want to start with...A) Safe Serums. These Serums are tested and mass-produced, with well-known effects and power levels, though the exact details of how they manifest varies. You'll have Machine bring you a batch of them to choose from.B) Experimental Serums. These Serums are experimental and untested, with only the faintest hints of how they might manifest known. They tend to have a much wider range of possible power, and there is a danger of creating something that could be a problem to even you or something that might cause undue damage to the planet as a whole. You'll have Machine bring you a batch of them to choose from.
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Topic: Caveman's Arsenal [SG] (1820, Injection #5: The Tree of Desires) (Read 13498 times)