Note:
This and part 1 form the prequel to part 3, which
will be set in the post OAV 1 timeframe. Part 3
exists only as a sketch at present, but I thought
that it would be useful to get some feedback on
these two parts.
Alchemy, Part 2: Telum populi
El-Hazard characters and situations are copyright 1995 by
AIC / Pioneer LDC, Inc. This work is not intended to
infringe those rights.
an El-Hazard fanfiction by Alfred Correira
http://fireantranch.com/alfred/
Based on OAV I (Nights 1-7) only.
$Date: 2004/05/08 23:14:06 $
~~~~~
Personal Log, Day 1023: The press is full of the exploits
of Ifurita. A great deal of this can be attributed to the
impact that she is having on the war itself. The images
that are downloaded from her video sensors after she
returns from a mission are certainly vivid and terrifying.
But I think some of it is due to the very creature that she
is: a weapon in the shape of a beautiful woman, who
destroys with the wave of her "power key staff" (which is
what the press is calling it now).
However, we have not yet been sent any of her internal
monitoring data. I'd like to see how she's holding together
under actual combat conditions and compare that data with
our test data. I don't understand why they aren't sending
it to us: if anyone has a "need to know" it would be those
of us in the lab since, after all, she IS still our
prototype.
Personal Log, Day 1026: We finished testing the monitoring
circuitry for her nano-tech componentry. I asked Director
Hamadiah to petition the higher-ups to let us have her for
a couple of days to install it and also to review her
monitoring data.
Personal Log, Day 1031: Today we finally discovered what
the enemy had been working on that had our government so
eager for a new weapon. And, not surprisingly given the
history of this war, the new enemy weapon also turns out to
be a weapons advancement integrated into their battle
androids. Three of them came swooping down upon Ifurita,
and each one was fitted with a long cylindrical hump on its
back, with a small opening to the rear and a larger opening
at the front. The purpose of that hump became apparent very
quickly.
We watched the Palace News broadcast from the large monitor
in the conference room. It's clear that the enemy still
doesn't completely understand how she works, because the
enemy androids permitted her to maneuver one of them in
front of the other two so that she only had to take the
initial blast from a single android. It emitted an intense,
fiery substance. The stream was like nothing I had seen
before: swirls of violet and purple hues. Fortunately, she
managed to partially deflect the stream around her, but the
force of it still sent her hurtling backwards about a dozen
feet. However, by then the assimilation nano-tech had done
its thing, not only assimilating the technique but
amplifying it as well based on what we saw next. She fired
a much more intense stream at the second rapidly
approaching android that had swooped down under and around
the first one. Too bad for their android: it wasn't as
adaptable to its new attack capability as she had proven to
be, and it blew apart as her pulse impacted and penetrated
the hump on its back. Two quick additional shots and the
air around her was filled with pieces of the other androids
plummeting to earth.
The Palace News station showed the footage of the enemy
android fragments raining down from the sky over and over
again. They ended the segment with a shot of the little
"ritual" that the government began holding each time she
returns from a mission: Prince Ruritan stands next to some
private citizen who "winds her up." Supposedly, this is
supposed to dramatize the link between Ifurita and the
people she is fighting for. She doesn't need power ups that
frequently: it's just another part of the Palace campaign
to paint her as the "people's weapon." She IS very
photogenic after all, so it didn't surprise me that the
Palace's public relations department decided to capitalize
on it.
I could see from the faces around me in the conference room
that there was a tremendous sense of pride in our
accomplishment. But, for me, I felt proud of *her* and what
she had accomplished.
There were only three of the enemy androids -- were they
prototypes or the first production batch? Ifurita handled
three of them easily enough, but dozens of them could
possibly overwhelm her. And we are still many weeks away
from having the first assembly line converted to produce
Ifuritas instead of Omegas.
Personal Log, Day 1032: Even in war, the horror sometimes
takes a break for a little humor. It turns out that there
was a practical reason as well for the news footage to only
show android fragments at the end of the battle yesterday:
the blast from the first android destroyed most of her
clothing. I guess that it's one thing to serve up blood and
gore to the people at their dinners, and quite another to
serve up a semi-naked artificial woman.
The military knows better than to mess with the image they
have developed for her, so they're having another outfit
constructed. They'd better make more than one of them,
however, as she is likely to be hard on her outfits.
This same factory is also the selected manufacturing site
for the Ifurita model. They're going to make them look like
her, not like the standard Omegas. They expect to have the
first production line in place within two months, and they
will send us their first production unit to test out
against the real Ifurita's numbers before committing to
full-scale production.
~~~~~
Personal Log, Day 1046: We were called into what we thought
would be a routine meeting. But, as soon as we got into the
conference room, it became clear that something was up:
Prince Ruritan was there and that neither he nor Director
Hamadiah looked very happy. The Prince's aide, Stellnor,
began showing us video snippets from Ifurita's most recent
missions, shots from both before and after she executed her
mission. There were hand-drawn circles around the blast
damage areas. Towards the end of the video sequences, it
became clear why the circles were there: Ifurita's attacks
appear to be getting a little less powerful over time as
the destruction she inflicts with each blast from her staff
covered a slightly smaller area with each sequence. You
needed the circles to tell this.
I was about to point out that we could have discovered this
a lot sooner if we had been permitted access to her
internal monitoring data until I remembered something else:
she has a built-in power-charge monitoring circuit. Which
means that she must have known that she wasn't charging to
the same capacity each time. It should have been within her
standard operating parameters to report this: why didn't
she?
Stellnor also brought data disks containing her full
internal monitoring data. Finally. There will be no sleep
in the Lab tonight: there's a lot of data to analyze.
Personal Log, Day 1047: The data proves it -- she is no
longer reaching her maximum safe power storage level in
comparison to the baseline we established during testing.
After reviewing all the data, there's only one possible
location for the problem: the cause has to be located
somewhere in her nano-tech. But, since we were not
permitted access to her to install the nanoid monitoring
circuitry after it was completed, we have no data from her
nano-tech to use to attempt pinpoint the cause.
We laid out the analysis for Hamadiah and Stellnor (who
appears now to be joined at the hip with Hamadiah). We
lobbied hard to have her brought to the Lab for a full
diagnosis on her nano-tech and to give us the opportunity
to install the rest of her monitoring circuitry. I couldn't
read Stellnor's face to see if we convinced him, but he did
agree to relay our recommendations to Prince Ruritan along
with our analysis.
An interesting side note: we downloaded and briefly
reviewed her database of attack techniques: she had added a
number of entries to the collection that she had
assimilated during testing. The one used by the three
androids two weeks ago she had filed as "Technique, North
Capital." It is based on a relatively simple algorithm of
molecular manipulation. I spent some time before calling it
a day comparing the basic technique against the enhanced
version she had retaliated with: she had made some
significant enhancements to the algorithm. When I have some
time, I need to analyze her improvements, for this
technique as well as for her other new technique entries.
Personal Log, Day 1048: What a day for revelations this has
been! Prince Ruritan himself came in person and called a
meeting for a small group of us in the secure conference
room. He told us that he had reviewed our findings with his
staff, that they had agreed to our recommendations and that
we would be granted the opportunity to thoroughly analyze
and retrofit Ifurita. That was a small surprise in itself
but nothing compared to what he told us next: he revealed
the existence of a research effort none of us had ever
heard about before. This project has been doing research
for some time in the general field of time displacement.
Stellnor told us that they had been given the final
go-ahead to build a prototype about the same time as we had
been.
The other project is code-named "Eye of God"; fortunately,
no one in the room laughed. The Prince was not exactly
forthcoming on any details for the project, but the
implication of why he had revealed even this much
information to us was very clear: we were being told that
we'd better find the problem with Ifurita and fix it
quickly or risk becoming a "prototype only" project.
Perhaps the government was hedging its bets in the case
that we came up empty? Or was it the other way around? I
can't tell.
Personal Log, Day 1049: I was called in for a private
audience with Prince Ruritan today. Apparently, the little
"wind up" rituals over which he presides has given him the
idea to formalize the control arrangement with Ifurita. She
already has a lock switch in her Obedience circuitry that
is currently not active. He wants it activated and have
bio-scanners added to her staff to read data from whoever
holds the staff. Upon a successful match, an unlock code
will be sent to the lock switch circuitry, enabling that
person to issue her direct orders. The sensors will be
programmed with DNA data from specific residents in the
Palace and certain other trusted individuals. The Prince
will supply the data when I am ready for it.
This is not the simplest way to meet his real requirements,
but I'm not going to argue with a prince about his design
ideas.
Personal Log, Day 1050: The order has come down to move the
Lab's equipment being used for the ongoing analysis of
Ifurita. Director Hamadiah didn't go into details, but it
is clear that he knows why we are moving and he doesn't
seem too happy about it.
The new location is the R&D lab for the Eye of God project.
Our new home will be a small island somewhere in one of the
stormy regions out in mid-ocean, well away from established
trade routes. The site was was obviously selected to be as
far out of the way as possible to avoid detection. I can't
be certain without more to go on, but I'm guessing that the
prototype for the Eye of God weapon is BIG.
Access to this island is forbidden to all but those with a
need-to-know; at this point, apparently all we need-to-know
is that we are going there soon.
Personal Log, Day 1053: I don't think anyone got more than
a few hours sleep the past couple of days, but we managed
to crate up all the equipment and send the transport hovers
on their way to port. We will be following them in the
morning.
We caught the evening Palace News broadcast over dinner:
the story they are peddling is that Ifurita is off in a
secret location being equipped with additional weaponry and
will be back in business soon. I was wondering what they
would say about her disappearance.
~~~~~
Personal Log, Day 1061: We arrived today at the island. We
were permitted a brief view of our destination from the
periscope monitor in the stateroom. I've never seen such a
dismal piece of real estate in my life. Gloomy and
mountainous, and there was a storm rumbling overhead as we
approached. One of the crew mentioned that this is typical
weather for this area and that we should get used to it. I
wish that he had not smiled so much as he said that.
There was no evidence of any construction on the surface of
the island, and I don't know where we are exactly on the
island (the monitor was switched off about an hour before
it was announced that we had docked), except that it is
underground.
The entire journey was made in a subsurface transport; I
think we were escorted by one of the new subsurface armed
cruisers, but no mention of this was made by the crew. It
must be a real chore to supply this facility, since it
appears to be entirely supported through subsurface
transports.
Personal Log, Day 1062: We were summoned to a small
conference room where we were introduced to the director of
this facility (a middle-aged woman named Sacha-Tor). She
also appears to have her own personal aide from Prince
Ruritan permanently attached to her side; his name is
Andal.
Andal cut right to the point: work on the Eye has
progressed to the point of construction: once construction
has begun, it will simply be impossible to hide the Eye
forever from the enemy (I was right -- it IS big). Our
primary task is to do whatever it takes to address
Ifurita's power problem, but within the constraints of her
new mission: she will be used to defend the Eye from attack
once the enemy discovers that it exists.
Personal Log, Day 1063: There's only one cafeteria here and
they are not isolating us from the team working on the Eye,
so I was able to gather some details about the project from
one of the researchers. I selected well -- his name is Zev
and he is one of the two theoreticians on the project. The
theory that he sketched out for me is impressive indeed:
it's going to take a number of conversations before I will
be able to fully grasp all its implications. But, even more
interesting was the little nugget that he dropped part way
through our lunch: that he had been working on the project
for over twenty years! Twenty years and I had no inkling of
its existence! I wonder now if there are other projects out
there as well that I know nothing about?
He sketched out on a napkin what the Eye will look like and
its general dimensions. It's going to be gigantic and I can
understand why the government is concerned about its
security during construction. Once assembly has begun in
the skies above the island, discovery is only a matter of
time no matter how storm-tossed this place is, and it will
be very vulnerable until it can defend itself.
He also mentioned one other very interesting tidbit -- the
Eye is already under construction and has been for some
time (not the story that we had been given, of course):
it's being built in sections, some on the island, some on
the mainland. The central power core and the primary weapon
system are being constructed here, and most of the
remainder of the Eye is being constructed on the mainland.
The mainland sections are transported to the island as they
are completed. The construction team plans to start fitting
the sections together around the central power core once
the core is capable of being brought online and placed in
stationary orbit above the island.
The majority of the team consists of Vulcan construction
androids, and apparently more of them come to the island
with each new section of the Eye transported here.
It sounds like they are just days away from launching the
power core.
Considering the magnitude of this project, it is clear now
that WE were the contingency plan. Well, we showed them:
Ifurita isn't a contingency to anything.
Personal Log, Day 1065: We are now set up in our new lab
here and testing and analysis on Ifurita is proceeding
again. In the interests of time, we have her hooked up to
the original patchboard nano-tech analyzer. Once we have
determined the nature of the problem with her nanoids, we
will probably have to modify her nano-tech (and its
monitoring circuitry), so it doesn't make sense right now
to integrate the new circuitry as we originally petitioned
to do.
As I suspected, she already knows that something is wrong
with her technology. And she shows no interest in the
efforts we are making to resolve the issue. Her eyes are a
cipher: I can't read anything in them at all. If I had to
guess, I'd say she is acting as if failure on our part will
be a perfectly acceptable outcome to her. I can't help but
think back to her test days and the feeling that I had back
then that what she was being made to do horrified her. Is
her attitude a reflection of those feelings?
Will I ever know what's REALLY going on in her mind?
Personal Log, Day 1066: I installed the new bio-scanners in
her staff today. Stellnor will be by tomorrow with a data
chip.
Personal Log, Day 1067: Stellnor brought the data chip as
promised. We went down to the lab and he watched as I
enabled the lock switch in her obedience circuitry and
loaded the bio-scanners in her staff with his data. I had
half-expected to see just the Prince's data on chip, but
there was also data for a couple of other members of the
Royal House, a few senior counselors, several senior
military leaders, and Stellnor. I assume Stellnor is on the
list because he is here the most and the Prince appears to
trust him a lot.
No-one from our lab was on the list, of course.
~~~~~
Personal Log, Day 1069: The Eye was launched today. Or
rather, the core of the Eye was launched. It was an
impressive thing to watch, even through the intermittent
rain: the camouflage doors rolled back, the moorings were
uncoupled, and the power core moved slowly and silently
upwards like some great gray moon, halting at a stationary
position less than a thousand feet above us. After some
initial tests were run, several hover transports containing
the first sections to be integrated with the power core,
along with their android construction crews, rose to dock
with it. Of course, Vulcans can work around-the-clock for
weeks at a time, so I expect to see the Eye begin to "open"
very quickly.
Ifurita is now on around-the-clock standby status -- we
actually have to petition Director Sacha-Tor to grant us
specific times to have access to her. Although I suspect
that Andal or Stellnor actually make the decisions.
Personal Log, Day 1071: Today's tests confirmed what I
already suspected: there is an instability in the power
function in her nanoids at the heart of her nano-tech. For
some reason, when she takes a charge from her staff, the
nanoids do not charge up to the same level as the previous
time. It has to be something in either the design or the
manufacture of the nanoids themselves, because the original
power function unit she came with still takes a full charge
each time and her non-armament functions test the same as
the day she first came to us.
The nanoids are crucial to her assimilative capabilities,
but they are also used to boost her power outputs during
attacks. So, even if she isn't "assimilating", she's still
tapping into the power function in the nanoids every time
she uses her staff. And, of course, as long as she is
powered up, the nanoids continue to draw power as well,
even if at a much lower rate.
Unless we can find a way to stabilize the power function,
eventually the nanoids will reach the point of not being
able to be charged to even a minimum operational level. At
that point, she will no longer have any offensive
capabilities whatsoever: she'll be just an ordinary android
again.
Personal Log, Day 1074: We been on our own around-the-clock
schedule of testing, experimentation, and endless
white-board exercises trying to isolate the problem. We've
eliminated manufacture as the culprit, so it has got to be
a flaw, either in the assimilation principle or in the
original theory itself.
Personal Log, Day 1075: More bad news and, of course,
Stellnor felt obligated to deliver it in person: we were
told in today's status meeting that she would be
"moth-balled" if we had not fixed her (they actually said
"moth-balled", as if she is some inanimate hunk of
machinery) by the time that the Eye is capable of providing
for its own defense. And we won't be permitted to
re-activate her until we came up with a fix. They also put
a hold on the conversion program at the factory that is
designated to begin manufacturing the Ifurita model in case
major modifications to the conversion are required based on
the fix we come up with; in the meantime, it will continue
to produce Omegas.
We have been ordered to proceed with the construction of a
stasis unit for her in case it is needed.
I don't believe that they would have made this decision
unless they still don't fully trust that the Eye is going
to work, and they are hedging their bets again by
preserving as much of Ifurita offensive capabilities as
they can.
This is a poor plan. They really ought to push ahead and
build the new model anyway. Even with the power function
problem, a sufficient number of Ifuritas can win this war
unless the enemy finds countermeasures quickly. But I said
nothing. In truth, I really don't want to see a number of
Ifuritas: I've grown used to there being only one.
~~~~~
Personal Log, Day 1083: Construction on the Eye is
proceeding quickly. It is rapidly expanding outwards as new
sections are integrated into the framework. Zev stated that
it is about one-third complete now. I wonder when enough of
the Eye will be in place for them to dispense with using
Ifurita to defend it? I need to remember to ask Zev the
next time I have lunch with him.
No resolution yet on her power function problem. What am I
overlooking? I don't like the idea of having to put her in
stasis.
Personal Log, Day 1085: We were notified today that
Intelligence thinks that the enemy knows about the Eye, and
that we should expect attacks to begin any time now.
Security status has been elevated and Ifurita has been
ordered to relocate full-time to the Eye.
Personal Log, Day 1086: The first enemy assault occurred
early this morning, but it consisted entirely of
conventional aircraft. Apparently, the enemy did not expect
Ifurita to be here. She destroyed the attacking aircraft
easily.
Personal Log, Day 1087: Several air force squadrons arrived
this morning to reinforce our defenses. Clearly, secrecy is
no longer an issue given yesterday's attack. The aircraft
are being sheltered in a makeshift airfield on the other
side of the island.
Personal Log, Day 1091: The enemy must have thrown
everything they could spare at us today, including a dozen
of their newest androids. The weather was awful and you
could hardly see any of the action except for flashes of
light that were not lightning and explosions that were not
thunder. I think that played in our favor, especially for
Ifurita. We lost a lot of aircraft but the other side lost
everything, including all their androids. And, this time,
she managed to keep her clothing intact (grin).
The Eye came through it all unscathed.
The Palace News did a special broadcast about it this
evening, although they had to use footage from her first
encounter with the new enemy androids due to the poor
visibility of today's battle. They described the engagement
as occurring over the "Forbidden Island" so I guess we have
an official name now, even if the location was not
disclosed. I don't understand why they bother -- the enemy
clearly knows where we are -- what harm if our own people
know, too?
Personal Log, Day 1092: Two more attack squadrons showed up
today to replace our losses from yesterday. Considering the
energy she expended in yesterday's assault, Ifurita needs a
power boost, but the military is holding back on giving her
one until it is absolutely necessary in order to defend the
Eye. I think they're concerned that the boost itself
hastens the deterioration in the nanoids. I cannot prove
(yet) that it doesn't.
~~~~~
Personal Log, Day 1099: We had to abandon our third lead in
the search for the answer to her power function problem. I
cannot recall a time when I have felt so frustrated, so ...
inadequate?
No new enemy attacks this week. They can't have given up so
quickly. Even if they haven't figured out what the Eye is
about, the fact that we are willing to hold back Ifurita to
defend it must tell them that it might be catastrophic for
them to permit it to be completed.
Or, are they preparing something of their own to spring
upon us in turn? Something as terrible as the Eye, perhaps?
I think perhaps the military thinks so, as work on the Eye
continues at a feverish pace.
Personal Log, Day 1100: Time has run out for our search for
an answer that will keep her from being sealed by the
military. Andal and Stellnor both came to today's status
meeting. Andal reviewed the current construction status of
the Eye (on track, of course, Praise Be To The Prince) and
revealed that enough of the secondary weapons systems in
the Eye have come online that it is now capable of
participating in its own defense.
Then Stellnor took over and demanded to know if we had a
solution to Ifurita's power problem. When we told him that
we did not, he ordered us to prepare to seal her for the
duration. And he doesn't want her to have another power
boost until HE thinks that it is safe to do so. He
suspended our status meetings and told us not to bother him
anymore until we were ready to present a fix for her
problem.
The hibernation unit will be ready in a couple of days. The
unit won't be effective with her new nano-tech since we
haven't had time to investigate that aspect of their
design, but their quiescent power needs are very minimal.
I'm beginning to run out of hope at this point that I'll be
able to keep her from being sealed.
Personal Log, Day 1101: Ifurita returned from the Eye today
and will be sealed tomorrow. We ran a final set of
diagnostics to make sure that she was prepared for sealing.
While this was going on, I took a moment when no-one was
looking to reset her bio-scanners. This basically leaves
her open to commands from anyone wielding the staff and
connecting to her Obedience circuit through her power
socket. In particular, this will leave her open to MY
commands if the day ever comes that I need to do something
to protect her.
They'll have my head if anyone discovers this.
Personal Log, Day 1102: We sealed her into the hibernation
unit today. She showed no reaction to the preparations.
When the time came, she simply lowered herself into the bed
of the unit, placing her staff next to the bed on the unit
as she did so. This, without a word or glance at anybody.
She went offline almost immediately and the monitors
recorded no activites other than the heartbeat current used
to prevent brain function decay.
I WILL solve this problem. Partly to irritate Stellnor (I
don't know why in particular, but I know it will irritate
him) but mostly for her. It is not right to shut her down
like that.
~~~~~
Personal Log, Day 1123: The installation of the primary
weapon system of the Eye was completed today and they
started testing. The Eye itself is nearly complete.
An interesting fact I learned at lunch today: the Eye has
an Obedience Circuit of its own: this one only responds to
biological imprints from the Royal Family. That doesn't
surprise me -- who else would the Royals trust with this
power?
We have also begun to hear rumors of peace negotiations. If
that is true, I suppose it would account for the absence of
enemy attacks against the Eye. But, is it for real or a
play to buy time (and for whom: us or them?).
Personal Log, Day 1127: The Palace News did a big broadcast
on the Eye to coincide with the Eye's moving to the
mainland to be positioned over its new primary control
station near the Royal Court. We are still tracking and
monitoring its status remotely as final testing continues.
Personal Log, Day 1128: I paid her a visit today to her
hibernation unit. I know what's wrong with her now. I've
known for a week, but I haven't even been willing to write
it down here -- I will have to fully confront it once I
have done so. But I cannot delay forever.
There was no else in the chamber, so I sat by her side and
told her what was going on. I wanted to tell her about it,
even though she can't hear me and probably wouldn't care
anyway if she could.
It's a mistake in one of my earliest equations. The nanoids
behave as they do, not because of an instability (bad
diagnosis on my part), but because they must: their power
function has to decay over time because it's inherently
unstable. We can build more Ifuritas and deploy them, but
they will have a built-in shelf life as weapons, and they
will have to be replaced when their power function decays
below acceptable levels for their missions. We can
re-awaken HER at any time and return her to duty and have
her execute operations until she can no longer function as
a weapon. But, at that point, she will no longer be of use
to the government, and I fear what that will mean for her.
I still don't know how or when I will break this news to
the team.
Personal Log, Day 1129: The air-raid warning monitors just
sounded, which means that the tracking stations located on
the mainland with the Eye have detected an incoming enemy
attack. I guess that they have decided to take another shot
at destroying it after all. This is the first time they
have tried a night attack -- I wonder if they have
something new to throw at it?
The all-stations siren just sounded as well, calling all
personnel to their tracking consoles. I guess the
government has decided to use the Eye's primary weapons
system this time -- I wasn't aware that testing was
complete.
Does the enemy actually have some new weapon, or some
counter-weapon that will nullify the Eye? After all this
work, are we just going to enter yet another round of
escalation? Will the slaughter and horror of this war just
go on and on? Although I feel nothing but contempt for this
government, I still want to see an end to the suffering and
horror. I hope that this time we really have found the key
and that the Eye will live up to its promise and bring an
end to
~~~~~ end Alchemy, Part 2 ~~~~~
Thanks to Vince Seifert for performing sterling prereading
duties as well as for the many convivial conversations
during the writing.