OTU Only: Scenario Idea: A Horrible Crime

[Supplement Four]

I was reading the Micronauts comic about how Baron Karza captured Homeworld's Prince Argo and genetically mutated him, making him a centaur, half man, but horse from the waist down.

What a heinous crime. Can you imagine? The God Emperor of Dune bemoans his lost humanity.

Think of what that would mean. To your self esteem. To know that you would never be intimate with a woman again. To look at the way other people look back at you.

What and idea, I thought. The cost! What it would cost someone--their life as they know it--to be permanently transformed like that.

And, how would it change your personality? The chemicals in your body would react differently. Could your human lungs take it when you gallop? Would you wear clothes, or just look like a horse from the waist down?

Man...it boggles the mind.

What an idea, I thought, to be at the center of a Traveller adventure.

Like....human traffickers who also genetically alter their victims before selling them into slavery.

Maybe it would be Vargr in charge of something like this, or Droyne, who don't quite think of Humans as an equal intelligent race.

 

[FreeTrav]

I don't know that radical alterations like that are within the scope of bio/geneering in the Traveller universe, but something less radical might well be. Consider developing this idea a bit more and writing it up as an adventure for Freelance Traveller?

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

There was a Canadian SciFi show I caught a few episodes of on Netflix a few years back that had an episode with a plot hook very similar to this. Basically, the main characters had to break up a human trafficking operation which included the twist whereupon the trafficked people were physically and/or genetically altered to fit the whim of any customer that paid enough for it.

I have completely forgotten the name of the show, however, other than the fact that it apparently ran for a few seasons on Canadian TV about a decade ago. Anybody a few miles up-continent of me have any idea what it was?

I don't know that radical alterations like that are within the scope of bio/geneering in the Traveller universe, but something less radical might well be. Consider developing this idea a bit more and writing it up as an adventure for Freelance Traveller?

I don't think such radical bio-alterations are beyond the scope of OTU technology, considering what TL15 is capable of achieving. I believe the very first Nexxies, for example, were surgically altered bog-standard humans.

That said, something as radical as a human/centaur mutilation doesn't seem like what you'd find in Imperial space. I can certainly see the mad scientists of the Solomani Sphere goofing around with it, however. That's assuming, of course, that you could actually build something physiologically viable out of it. But I suppose finding that sort of thing out is what mad science is all about, right?

 

[CosmicGamer]

to be permanently transformed like that.

If the medical and genetic science exists... why is it permanent?

I'd think it harder to create a stable duel genetics man/horse than to reestablish a single genetic makeup?

 

[aramis]

There was a Canadian SciFi show I caught a few episodes of on Netflix a few years back that had an episode with a plot hook very similar to this. Basically, the main characters had to break up a human trafficking operation which included the twist whereupon the trafficked people were physically and/or genetically altered to fit the whim of any customer that paid enough for it.

I have completely forgotten the name of the show, however, other than the fact that it apparently ran for a few seasons on Canadian TV about a decade ago. Anybody a few miles up-continent of me have any idea what it was?

That sounds like a chunk of Starhunter...

 

[Murphy]

Our current group has a master geneticist character who uses retroviruses and other means to rewrite people's DNA and transform them into plant hybrids or symbionts. He likes mischief and sometimes experiments on people without them knowing, but sincerely believes that he's making everyone better.

Prototype for the character was Dr. Albrecht Ketzer from the EXO-Squad series.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

That sounds like a chunk of Starhunter...

Bingo, Aramis! Come on up and claim your coffee mug.

Apparently, it was episode 203 ('Biocrime'), from the second season. Interestingly, Wikipedia cites a report from only a few months ago that the series was a go for a third season; I cannot confirm this, though, as the website cited (Starfield Indie) is not up at the moment.

 

[G. Kashkanun Anderson]

Our current group has a master geneticist character who uses retroviruses and other means to rewrite people's DNA and transform them into plant hybrids or symbionts...

And THAT was an old 'Lost In Space' episode. In fact, I think it was the one that was on MeTV last night (there was mention of a 'carrot man' in the synopsis).

 

[Golan2072]

Wait, Starhunter had TWO seasons? I recall only the first, with the Raiders plot. Looked an awful lot like Firefly, but was not as good. Is considered a "crappy" series, and in some instances it is bad, but I do recall it as a cool series.

I'll have to get a hold of the DVDs... (no Netflix in Israel)

 

[aramis]

Wait, Starhunter had TWO seasons? I recall only the first, with the Raiders plot. Looked an awful lot like Firefly, but was not as good. Is considered a "crappy" series, and in some instances it is bad, but I do recall it as a cool series.

I'll have to get a hold of the DVDs... (no Netflix in Israel)

A DVD set of seasons 1 & 2 was released in (hang on, checking the case) 2011. I picked it up at Target, on sale, for $5...

It's actually not bad, tho' the FX were pretty much 1999-standard videogame quality.

Season 3 is contracted for, estimated to shoot next year... and hopefully, to resolve the cliffhanger issue from season 2.

Season 1 has a wonderful extended premise... that if you don't actually watch the whole season, you'll miss. (If nothing else, watch the first two and last two eps of the season.)

Also note: in Canada, Season 2 was "Starhunter: 2300"...

 

[Garnfellow]

The Inyx (GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 2) seem capable of this. They are slavers and adept at genetic modification -- and so alien that their mods might be horrifying.