You Signed Up for This (Fanfic from Boughene PbP ATU)

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Speaking as one of the audience, I'm already bothered about what's happening to Olga. I think that you are raising some important ethical questions about how people would react to clones and especially clones that appeared to have the personality and memories of the person they resembled. Initially, when Mike thought that Olga was "just" a rather simple-minded artificial interface to a few expert systems he was still outraged at the thought of her being activated to take a bullet so that Melissa could safely disappear. He treated her as a person, if a slightly strange one. However, the moment Melissa's personality appeared he forgot that "Melissa Mk 1" is still alive out there somewhere and Olga was immediately relegated to a mechanism to be used as needed and then switched off. Given that AI systems are being created that can sweep up all the information about a dead person and create an avatar that can hold a reasonably convincing conversation with their relatives, these are definitely questions worth prodding the audience into thinking about. Who knows where that may go?

"Olga" is kind of a mechanism, actually. She's (for the most part, aside from the knowledge of the peculiar drives technology) a technologically-imposed, almost airtight (she can't break character, and it's solid enough to thwart psionic snooping) alias for Melissa. That said, she wasn't supposed to be that!

The original objective (of the ANNIC NOVA AI) was to get Melissa's body on board the Pegasus as the equivalent of a "'Guest' Clone" -- installing an identity into a clone other than the prime body's original one -- a personality that is either generally compliant, modified, or completely generated from scratch. Legally, such individuals are viewed in a range from legally incompetetent to indentured servants (Remember, in the Third Imperium, slavery is illegal... except, yeah.). The problem was that the clone body already had a complete copy of the actual Melissa's identity already installed, and you can't do a permanent identity install into a body that already has an identity in it, due to limits on how the identity wafer game mechanic works.

So, as it stood then, Melissa was a "'Relict' Clone" -- essentially, a complete "spare Melissa on ice" rather than just a "spare Melissa's body on ice". Legally, a full person... except that she hadn't been logged as such, and the techs were supposed to turn the body into a guest clone technician for the Pegasus and they had a deadline to meet. Thus, they went the Personality Overlay Device route: re-mapping Melissa's memories so she was convinced she was actually Olga (and adding the peculiar variant of Engineering skill for good measure). Not particularly ethical, but it got the job done.

Now, the Annic Ai didn't really understand all these details, but had hijacked the authority/credentials that had been used to get Melissa Prime through her extraction from Feri/Regina, body mods to disguise her, and then get her onto the crew of the Silver Streak. It used them to revive the Melissa clone -- since it recognized her as a crew member -- and get her reprogrammed for use as crew for the Pegasus. (As I said, it's kind of sentimental like that).

Annic Ai thought Olga was "close enough" to being Melissa for its purposes, and didn't care otherwise. Two or so clone medical/psych techs realize that Olga is an overlay onto Melissa, but ain't going to say nothin. Everyone else (Mike, Director Kehoe, and so forth) thought it was some anonymous but powerful official, repurposing Melissa's vacant clone body as a walking decoy while the real, modified Melissa left on the Silver Streak. Mike thought Olga was "real enough" to respect as an individual (which, objectively, she was -- albeit, very un-self-aware by conditioning) and not just a meat robot.

The thing I hadn't covered, due to the limited space available in the short story format, was the reason Melissa's personality had already been installed in the clone.

 

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I want to re-attack this:

I close the motel room’s bathroom door, leaving our piled-up clothes behind, the ventilation fan running loudly. Melissa’s on the bed, looking quite serious. Her well-toned youthful figure is much more suited to our mutual nudity than mine is.

“Well, Mike,” she inquires, “shouldn’t we be getting down to business now that we’re alone?”

I wink and grin, breaking her facade – there’s her contagious laughter, and I’m doubled over as well for a minute.. “Lissa, playing this off like lovestruck teenagers was the most fun I’ve had since we did the ‘squabbling married couple’ routine to get through that border checkpoint on Feri. And I’m sorry I didn’t take a peek earlier.”

She takes a breath to compose herself. “I get that, though. You weren’t supposed to peek at the starship’s engines – when I was Olga, I was conditioned try to keep you out of the drive bay and away from the nav displays.”

And this:

It’s a day later, and I’m standing under the Oganesson Pegasus. Look up the ladder past the nosegear door to watch the hatch spin open, climb into the cozy airlock to swap Efate’s smog-choked atmosphere for sterile starship air, then step out into the central corridor. Cockpit’s off to the left, wardroom’s down the hall to the right past the living quarters. Nobody’s there. It’s quiet, but not the “too quiet” of foreboding. At least not yet.

“Olga? Olga Nixon?” I call out. It’s either going to be her, or Melissa pretending to be her – though that’s not likely, knowing the hypno-drug dosages the overlay device shot into her to turn her back into Olga. Or... something could have gone terribly wrong.

“Hello!” Olga answers cheerfully from out of sight in the wardroom. “Who are you, and where are we? I’m just curious though -- it’s not a big deal.”

Nothing’s gone wrong, but my throat tightens nonetheless. Melissa’s really gone again.

That is, I'm looking at writing up the first few minutes after Mike and Melissa (acting as if she were the Olga personality overlay) get back to the ship after the shootout and debreifings and start prepping for departure. (That's the setup for the first quote block.) Melissa's going to accidentally break character the moment she walks into the engine bay because those drives are just plain wrong WTF!? (Olga knows about the weirdness but considers it normal.) And then she'll need Mike to help recover/validate her alias -- to outside observers including the ship itself* -- in the "Olga" role by reacting as though it is her and not someone else (Melissa).

Except they won't be playing love-struck teenagers. Well, ok, Olga will be doing that, but Mike is going to be... um... conflicted. Melissa's going to milk that for all it's worth, both because their lives may depend on it and because she's got a twisted sense of humor.

Then there'll be a follow-up for Mike's second return to the ship (as per the second quote block) to demonstrate Melissa's having set up a "safe word" to let some memories from the Olga overlay pass through to Melissa's core identity (and vice versa) without breaking the whole overlay.

The rest flows into the subsequent narrative (which I'll also probably revise to provide in-narative time to characterize Annic Ai and give it a few "pet the dog" moments to motivate the PCs to defend it from the IISS when they find out who/what it is).

Comments/suggestions before I start writing?

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*They don't yet know that the ship has an anomalous AI aboard, but they have reason to be suspicious because the ship and the Olga overlay were hiding the weird drives setup from Mike and any outside observers.

 

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Re-attack. This is the return to the Pegasus after the restaurant shoot-up. Melissa broke character (from her role as Olga) because the ship's drives are all wrong for what it's supposed to be capable of. (This will be discussed later in the narrative, so don't worry about it yet.)

Content warning: language, discussion of sexual activity (but no actual activity). If this is problematic for the board, let me know and I'll delete it (or if a mod takes it down, that's cool and I'll take the hit, with my apologies in advance.)

Author Note: Melissa's "Send Thoughts" talent works as having the sent message manifest as a memory of having been spoken to, but appearing in real time.


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We’d breezed through the post-incident depositions. I left out the part about Melissa being back, and the authorities decided they didn’t need to hear from her as Olga the guest clone technician. Easy. A copy of the deposition with links to the case files went to the Scouts as my World Reconnaissance Report for Efate, so that chore is out of the way too.

Melissa – oh right, Olga not Melissa – is back there in the washroom. I check myself in the mirror (I'll do) before stepping out of my cabin into the main corridor and head for the cockpit.

Systems on standby idle, all green. The Oganaesson Pegasus is ready to go, once the reactor lights off to power up the lifters. Outside the windshield, it’s Scout Base Efate with the usual rows of Scout/Couriers and landing craft from the big explorers. The skies are grey with smog, but that’s Efate for you. I initiate the pre-flight self-tests, no problems –

Melissa calls out from the far aft end of the ship by the engine room, “Mike, you need to come back here.” Melissa, not Olga -- and she sounds shaken. I’m out of my seat and down the corridor. “Olga,” I ask at a dead run, “what’s wrong?

“I’m scared. We could have been killed back there!” she cries as Olga again. As she runs to me in tears, I remember Melissa saying anxiously, I broke character badly. Need you to play along to save this alias and get us out of here. Remember, I’m Olga not Melissa.

I answer as she rushes into my arms, “Yes, but we weren’t killed! You did well. And we’re safe here now.”

“I know that, but I don’t know it. Mike, I’m twenty-two and I’ve never…” she says, hesitantly, trailing off. Never what? Oh! Of course they wouldn’t have given her that experience. I pause. Wait, Melissa wants me to do what now?!

“It’s ok,” I reassure her.

“No, it’s not. I really need to be a woman with you while we have time,” she declares.

“Um… what?”

Melissa once told me, Oh, you know perfectly well what she wants. But she needs you to be the adult here – and you’re going to fail her.

“Mike,” Olga says, frustrated and then almost angry, “I don’t want to die a virgin, and I need you to take me right now. There -- I said it. Happy now?” I embrace her as her tears flow. “Please?” she asks.

Melissa’s too good at this.

Thank you, I remember her saying. And you’re going to make her first time truly special – you know I’ll make it worth your while to take advantage of her. You weak-willed monster.

She’s also kind of a jerk about it, honestly.

She once told me, you have to hate yourself for this, to show I’m really Olga. Then she added cheerfully, I’m just trying to help.

And in my arms right now, sweet little Olga -- sensing my hesitation -- takes a half-step back, looks up to me and still weeping asks, “Aren’t I pretty enough?”

Damnit Melisssa, I think. Screw you!

And then I remember her telling me, No, screwing Olga is the goal here, not me. And when you do, you are doomed to the special hell. The one for people who talk in theaters, and for people like you.

“Olga,” I sigh, out of options, “you’re beautiful. Let’s go.” Her distraught face lights up as she embraces me again with completely out-of-character talent.

 

[yallambie]

Re-attack. This is the return to the Pegasus after the restaurant shoot-up. Melissa broke character (from her role as Olga) because the ship's drives are all wrong for what it's supposed to be capable of. (This will be discussed later in the narrative, so don't worry about it yet.)

I regret that I don't like the way this is going. First, it feels unnecessary to the story and gratuitous. Second, it seems totally irrational - why on Earth would Melissa think that a good way to cover up or distract from (distract a computer?) a break in Olga's character is to break character even more? Olga is supposed to regard Mike as an uncle, not a romantic interest. Upsetting Mike in the process, which she appears to be doing, is stupid and not a good survival trait in a secret agent. Even accepting that Melissa was in the clone first and can use it as she sees fit, even accepting that Olga won't know about it and won't be hurt by it, she is coercing Mike and in our society that is a BIG no-no (even that way around).

Finally, on a slightly different note, Melissa's psionic talent is the worst possible. Not from a utility point of view but from the point of view of other people's reaction if they find out about it. We ARE our memories and, despite the fact that memory is actually inconsistent and malleable, we all think of our own memory as at least accurate, even if it is incomplete. We have to, otherwise we cannot trust that we know who we actually are. Finding out that someone can insert manufactured memories into our minds would be absolutely terrifying and in a society that is already prejudiced against psionics that is a very unfortunate talent to have.

 

[Spinward Flow]

We ARE our memories and, despite the fact that memory is actually inconsistent and malleable, we all think of our own memory as at least accurate, even if it is incomplete. We have to, otherwise we cannot trust that we know who we actually are. Finding out that someone can insert manufactured memories into our minds would be absolutely terrifying and in a society that is already prejudiced against psionics that is a very unfortunate talent to have.

"A man is the sum of his memories, you know, a Time Lord even moreso."

"I have to find- to find ..."
"To find what?"
"My other selves ..."

 

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I regret that I don't like the way this is going

Fair enough, and I appreciate the response.

The point was to demonstrate to observers (whether that meant ones watching remotely in realtime, or delayed watchers of the video logs -- or maybe the ship itself but they hadn't quite gotten that far down the rabbit hole) that the overlay hadn't entirely broken (it had, back during the shooting) and that what did break was her "vow of chastity" (so, there's drama but no threat) rather than a break in her compulsion to pretend that the drives were ordinary (a threat to whatever had arranged for the overlay, and the ship as its agent).

It then became necessary to make Mike go along -- with very visible unease -- because that very obvious self-loathing would make it clear that he believed that the occupant of the body was Olga and not some other person -- especially not Melissa -- with whom a fling would pose him no internal conflict whatsoever.

Yes, it's awkward, and as I've just pointed out, it has to be to perpetuate the ruse. It gets worse -- at least in this phase, they both know it's Melissa pretending to be Olga. But she's going to become Olga again, and he's going to have to deal with her as her, not with someone pretending to be her.

[Spoiler: they don't actually have to have sex, and probably won't. They just need to seem to have done so.]

The telepathy reception as remembering having heard the sender speak, rather than "sender says [message] .... but silently" is a message-format issue. It's putting the message into a memory space instead of feeding the message into the recipient's auditory center. Memory in this narrative is already malleable, so you've given me yet another theme I can develop that I hadn't really gotten into!

I don't know if this is a satisfactory response, but in any case I really do appreciate the feedback!

 

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Yes, it's awkward, and as I've just pointed out, it has to be to perpetuate the ruse. It gets worse -- at least in this phase, they both know it's Melissa pretending to be Olga.

So, from an in-universe perspective, it's a role-play scenario that's only coercive in that participation is necessary to trick observers into thinking Olga just slipped a little rather than having lapsed into Melissa or some other underlying personality. (In-universe, it's also improvisational and method acting, if that helps.)

Edit to add: Olga is competent to consent, legally though perhaps she might not have the emotional development and experience appropriate to her nominal biologial age that would provide that qualification (we're excluding from consideration her force-grown body's elapsed-calendar age because that gets downright creepy). There's a power differential and in loco parentis issue, which contraindicates involvement and makes Mike the bad guy here, from an outside perspective. In reality, it's presently Melissa he's messing with and none of these issues apply.

 

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I regret that I don't like the way this is going.

I'm working on a twist that's less gratuitous (and possibly even actually funny).