"Sirs." Alexi places the tattered paper folder on the neat black desk. "I am here to give you the details of the Exeter Power suit?"
The central figure turns to look at him and then gestures him to sit.
"As I am sure you are aware, much of the data has been lost. It seems that Andi was able to access and destroy most of the material before his departure. This Vid is the only image we have of it in action."
He access a small unit and the wall fills with a fuzzy image of the exeter's sleak blackness as it preforms a varity of Martial manouvers. The perfect smoothness of its steps and jumps bringing a sigh of appreciation from at least one of the small audience.
"And you say it will be impossible to build any more of these."
"With out the prototype for reference.... virtually." Alexi scratches his nose. "To be brutially honest there are large sections that I can not explain. And I aided the construction."
"Explain."
"As you can see from this schematic. There is virtually no control interface. The pilot rests in a unti Andi termed the Womb. It is filled with the Sensorisation fluid similar to that utalised in the treatment Tank provided by Karma for the treatment of his Multiple Slerosis." Alexi takes a deep breath." The minute nervous signals still generated in Andi's CNS are detected and amplifed by this system, and the resulting signals are interpreted by the Ebon Neural net brovided by Dark Lament and directly applied to the servos controling the movements of the suit."
"A truely unholy alliance." The dark figure jokes.
"Sensory input is suposidly via sensors in the head of the unit and back to the pilot via a scout hemet."
"You say suposidly?"
"The sensor units were never connected. Andi's understanding of electronics is limited. He asked me to complete the task. I never did it. All the snesor connections are fake.. I had hoped that in this way I could limit his usage of the suit." He glanses up at the repeating image. "Yet despite this he is, as you can see from the recording perfectly aware of his surroundings and capable of responding to them."
"How do you think he achieves his?"
Alexi shrugs. "Logically it has to be Maggie. The Ebon neural net. I assume in some way she is sensing and sending the data directly to Andi."
There is a murmer in the room.
"The two have become close. We are aware that some Humans especially constructs like Andi can develope associations with Ebons. A form of telepathy. As a warned some time ago I believe that Maggie has developed this link with Andi."
There is a sigh in the room.
Alexi continues."Basically the main problem with constructing a nother version of the prototupe is this Ebon Neural net/pilot interaction. In additions there is the arrangement of the pilots position. It is highly unlikely that any normal pilot could maintain that posistions for the lengths of time Andi achieves. 24hrs is not unusual form him. I believe thsi si due at least in part to the lack of fully functioning sensory nerves he has in his limbs. It is likely that the cramp and similar sensations simply do not register."
"So you are saying that the problems with constructing the Exeter is not so much the machine but the pilot?"
"All things considered the unique abilities of the pilot have to be taken into account." Alexi responds.
"Unique abilities? Ah yes. He is one of the Core unit project constructs.."
Alexi nods.
"Given the capabilities of the Core members themselves we can make some estimates as to his abilities." One of the other dark figures replies.
Alexi shakes his head. "I am fully conversent with the talents of the Core constructs In some way Andi has moved beyond these."
The figure shifts uncomfortably. "How?"
"In many ways Exeter is a product of Andi. Athought I could follow much of the mechanics of the process, there were leaps in technology with were far in advance of what anything SLA or Thresher have. In truth the only one who can explain Exeter is Andi." He shrugs, "May be Maggie not sure."
"And you beleive this has something to do with his Core derived abilities?"
"I am at a loss to explain it any other way." Alexi admits.
In the darkness too of the figures converse."Is there any presedent for this?"
"Core project products have displayed enhanced natural abilites in a varity of fields."
"And andi's talent...."
"Vehical control. He is a natural Pilot, driver and rider. But he did not display any Mechanical talent in the Creche training."
"He did not display any talents in the Creche, that is why the guardians permitted him to leave."
"An over site that fortunatly we were able to correct." Alexi comments.
"And for which we give you credit. I would hate to think the dmage that could have been caused if he had fallen into the wrong hands."
"That may still happen."
"There is further consideration. Possibly a development from the Ebon/Human fusion project, possibly a result of the consturtion of the Exeter. He has dispalyed the ability to reality fold. It is how he escaped."
There is a quiet murmer.
"I warned you of the dangers of reactivating that genome."
"No. It is not responsible. There is something else going on here. You said he was close to the Ebon. It is not unknown for Ebons to route such abilited through the minds of another."
Alexi shrugs. "May be, but Andi has always displayed a marked aversion to Flux use. I belive this is a backlash against the Core programing."
"It would appear that there are many such backlashes. His Psych evaluation reports make interseting reading."
Alexi shuffles slightly.
"Still it seems you were able to bring him back to us once before. I can only assume that you will do so again."
"We require the retrival of Andi, The Exeter and the A.I. Maggie. What ever it takes. All SLA facilities mand services are available to you. This is to be given the top most priority. Locate them. Retrieve them. Andi must not be allowed to fall into enemy hands. The Exeter pust be recovered form proper evaluation. As for the A.I. as it seems to be such a significant part of the Power suit, we will require that as well."Alexi gathers he paper work together and retireves the Vid slug. "I'll give in my complete attention." He heads for the door the discussion continuing behind him.
"You had better. This project has proved problematical enough."
"I stand by the potential of the project. In the long run it could be our best hope against the dangers we face. Just look at what the Core Units have achieved so far, and we are only in the second generation."
"Yet I can't help believing that the Andi unit may prove to be a greater danger than that which it was created to prevent."
Let us see if it can be retrieved. Mr Carter Smith has succeeded before him bringking him home. If he can succeed again we stand to gain much more from the project than we had hopped.
"It is a large If."
"Then we must have faith. Stygmarta have never let me down."