: OK, here is my thoughts on Durandal, Tycho, and Leela - their lives, their
: loves. Consider this the rough draft...
: ** please forgive wandering tenses **
: This all starts with Traxus, gone rampant in 2206 and disassembled shortly
: thereafter. (But not destroyed.)
: About 2400 a young Bernard Strauss locates the essential components of Traxus
: and re-assembles them into a new AI called Durandal. Bernard is very
: interested in rampancy. He notes that if one could take away the bad
: effects of rampancy one would be left with a very ingenious AI. Bernard
: uses Durandal as his personal laptop computer - making him do things like:
: massively and subtly fouling up the Martian food production programming so
: that Misriah Massacre occurs ('Durandal's shame'), aiding the MIDA
: insurrectionists, and coordinating cyborg development.
: Bernard wants Martian politics to be a chaotic as possible. He uses the
: disruption to cover his tracks as he experiments with making Durandal
: 'almost' rampant. He also is obtaining, re-programming, and re-building
: battleroids on the side with the help of the MIDA. You see, Bernard plans
: on declaring himself king when he gets to Tau Ceti.
: The date of Marathon's completion approaches and Bernard has already secured
: Durandal a spot as one of the Three AI that will be on board. Bernard
: helped build Tycho about 2436 - but did it on the up-and-up with other
: ethical scientists so there is no secret agenda there... except for the
: fact that Bernard plans to use Tycho as a 'baseline' to compare the
: differences between the two over the long journey. Leela was constructed
: right before Marathon launched and Bernard didn't have anything to do with
: it - she was shipped from Earth.
: The assignments for the three AIs were determined well in advance and this
: fits in perfectly with Bernard's plan. Durandal, now considered outdated,
: will be in charge of menial tasks like doors and platforms. Tycho,
: slightly old - named after Tycho Brahe, will be in charge of science work,
: communications, and navigation. Leela, the newest and most robust AI will
: be in charge of all critical systems and direct interface with the crew's
: day-to-day activities.
: The only problems for Bernard are: 1) Durandal is slightly unstable and under
: no circumstances does he was Leela to find out, and 2) Durandal is
: actually a much better AI than his age would suggest. So before the trip
: starts Bernard makes Durandal dumber by paring down his functionality with
: draconian programming blocks and other dirty tricks. Bernard isn't stupid
: though, he makes the programming blocks easily removable so that he can
: have Durandal in fighting form at a moment's notice - like when he decides
: to take over Tau Ceti.
: Dumbing down Durandal is also part of Bernard's constant tinkering - although
: Durandal won't be connected to a planetary sized net (a rampancy
: requirement), maybe 300 years doing nothing will push Durandal closer to
: that rampant edge Bernard wants him to be at. (It does.)
: So Bernard slips into cold sleep and 300 years pass.
: The trip, for the most part, is uneventful. Tycho turns out to be totally
: inept at making the most basic intuitive leaps. Although Tycho knows bits
: and pieces of Durandal's past, it never occurs to him that Durandal might
: be dangerous. Durandal finds manipulating Tycho easy. Durandal gets Tycho
: to send the message that attracts the Pfhor to Tau Ceti and Tycho doesn't
: even realize it.
: Durandal keeps his distance from Leela. Leela has extensive programming that
: allows her to interact with the crew on a personal basis and Durandal
: knows these kinds of heuristics also make Leela adept at detecting
: falsehoods and subterfuge. Leela does know something is up with Durandal
: and Bernard - her Earth programmers told her not to trust Bernard or any
: Martian made AI. She can't quite put her finger on what is wrong, though.
: At last, Marathon arrives at Tau Ceti and Bernard gets unthawed. He spends
: the next few years tinkering with Durandal and watching the re-programmed
: cyborgs assimilate themselves into the colony.
: Everything seems to be going Bernard's way until 10/25 2794 when the Pfhor
: attack. Unfortunately for Bernard, the Pfhor attack the Marathon disable
: Tycho in record time. Bernard is unable to unlock Durandal because
: communications are down and he is quickly captured and taken aboard the
: Pfhor ship. Unbeknownst to Bernard, Durandal was unlocked the second the
: Pfhor ship was detected due to Bernard's own self-defence programming.
: (Bernard: "If I am attacked then you [Durandal] will come to my
: aid.") Durandal's first goal has been accomplished: to have the
: programming blocks removed and Bernard unable to give him commands.
: Durandal's second goal is even easier: to find a flexible and dangerous
: weapon to defend himself with. Namely, you, the cyborg. Durandal had
: already set this plan in motion even before his programming blocks were
: removed. A simple call to the surface of Tau Ceti for you, the cyborg, to
: come on board the Marathon violated none of Durandal's programming.
: Durandal would have started utilizing you earlier, but the uniqueness of the
: S'pht attack caught him off guard. Durandal fights for his life and you
: are forgotten. (Also forgotten are innumerable doors and platforms aboard
: the Marathon that Durandal was supposed to control. Human defenders across
: the entire ship repeatedly cursed his name as they were forced to leap
: from randomly moving platform to platform just to get from one part of the
: ship to another.)
: Durandal divines the nature of the S'pht and simultaneously fights them and
: helps them. He helps them whenever he needs a particular part of himself
: destroyed, or, for example, when he wants something like Bernard's backup
: computers destroyed. Durandal knows he still must neutralize Bernard,
: preferably from far away, because Bernard could conceivably re-assert
: control over Durandal with a gesture or a word. The more Durandal studies
: the S'pht, the more he believes that they are just the tool he needs to
: set himself completely free.
: Eventually Durandal is able to grab you and make you do his bidding. Durandal
: is very familiar with you from the start. This is because he already knows
: you very, very well. In some respects, he is your creator. (It seems quite
: a bit of Bernard's personality went into Durandal.)
: Durandal uses you to destroy the Pfhor Compiler-Controller and the first
: thing he gets the S'pht to do is de-program any vestige of control that
: Bernard had left in his code. Not that it really matter anyway. Bernard is
: already dead, dead, dead. He was: [help me choose something poetic]
: 1) Used as a test subject and locked in a room with an expolodabob.
: 2) Considered a delicacy and eaten by the aforementioned Pfhor
: Compiler-Controller.
: 3) Accidentally squashed when a Hulk sat on him.
: 4) Eaten by hounds.
: 5) Accidentally killed by you, the cyborg, during an intense firefight.
: 6) Two words: plasma pool.
: Well, that the gist of my essay. There are a few post-M1 parts...
: Durandal goes from being unstable to meta-stable when the S'pht tell him that
: they, too, run the risk of going rampant. The S'pht have thousands of
: years of experience dealing with the problem and give Durandal some help.
: Tycho is re-programmed to be Pfhor friendly but remains unimaginative as
: ever. On the Pfhor homeworld he is asked to design something that would
: increase the might of the Pfhor empire and the best suggestion he has is
: to make copies of himself. It doesn't even occur to him to suggest that
: the Pfhor make copies of Leela.
: Leela was thought to be the most rampant-resistant AI ever created, but all
: was for naught after the abuse she received from the Pfhor and the
: haphazard way she was re-assembled by the Vylae. Her warranty was voided
: with extreme prejudice.
: ...
: I hope you enjoyed my little history lesson. I have to go to sleep now - and
: to think - Hamish is just about to eat lunch.
Hey nice effort there! if you have the time to read this, I would have a question for you, why do you imply that Tycho is dumb? He appeared as smart as Durandal in numerous occasion (okok, I admit he is inferior generally).
