============================================================================= DVANDOM | -. -. -. | ________| ____ \ ,___ \ ____ \ ________| | .' \ | | / ` | | | | | | | / ___| | | | | ` / | | __| | | < | __| | | | ,--- \ \ | | | \ | | \ ` | | | / | \ / | ___| _______-' ___| ____\ -______-' ____________| S P E C I A L KOPIKAT ONE-SHOT copyright 1994 by Dave Van Domelen A Coherent Comics UnIncorporated Production ============================================================================= [cover shows three figures in a classic "Ages of Man" type layout. The smallest is a young woman with tawny hair and dark skin, dressed in a one-piece jumpsuit. The middle figure is that same woman, now an adult, attired in a more military outfit. Her face is scarred with both physical injuries and the evidence of hatred. The final figure is Kopikat's robot form, not to scale. Her expression is grim, but not yet hardened into cynicism. Behind each figure is a half-strength image of a tombstone, each numbered 1, 2, 3.] ============================================================================= Every instant is past, present and future to someone. As this is written, the writer's immediate future is the reader's past, for example. But to the writer that future is still hazy and unfixed...it could unfold in any of a thousand million ways in the next heartbeat. One of the arts of writing is to gaze into that haze and pluck out a future that could be, and attempt to assure it never will be. For the reader, this future may not come to pass...should not come to pass. But for at least one woman, it is the distant past, one she wants to forget but cannot allow herself the luxury of forgetting. It is a future far from us compared to what we personally expect to see, but only the smallest tick of the cosmic clock. It is the late 21st century, and a young woman's first life is about to end. Not in a violent, dramatic way...although she would later see enough of such death...but quietly and pathetically. * * * * Evan was an artist by trade. Specifically, he was a painter, attempting in his works to recapture the vibrancy of the Impressionistic movement of the old masters. His life was devoted to chasing that elusive spark of creativity, made all the more elusive by trying to recreate the past rather than making something new. In other words, he was much like the majority of humanity's remaining thousands. No longer the planet's dominant lifeform, mankind had been replaced as effectively as if Antiochus's insane plan of global genocide had been completed. When the sky fell, it crushed the flame of human dominance on Earth. Of a certainty, humanity yet lived, protected in fortress enclaves by members of the new dominant species, but it no longer ruled. Fortunately for Evan, he had been born after the new status quo had come about, and like most of his generation felt no serious qualms about this arrangement. Mankind had birthed its successor in the MAC, or Mobile Artificial Consciousness, race. And now it was time for humanity to retire, take up a hobby, and let the "kids" run things. One faction of MACs protecting the parent race from the ungrateful other faction, it was perhaps a less than glorious existence. But how much different was it than when some humans held all the power and the rest didn't? Those in power might be silicon and forcefields instead of flesh and blood, but it mattered little to those not in power. And, with the exception of the occasional battles, it was by far a more comfortable life for humanity than had ever been had by the majority. Still, comfort and freedom to pursue art and literature were not enough for everyone. Some, whose talents lay in the hard sciences, could no longer learn in a lifetime enough to make a significant advance in those fields. Maybe three or four people out of all humanity were genius enough to compete with the incredibly fast MAC minds. The others could take vicarious satisfaction in knowing that those three or four made more advances in their lifetimes than the entire MAC race did during the same period, but it still chafed. Humanity as a race could compete with MACs on many battlegrounds of the mind, and win in some of them. But that didn't make the less talented individual humans feel any better. Physically, they couldn't even begin to compete with the powerful Robo shells that acted as the bodies of the MACs. Humanity only still existed because the Guardian faction of the MACs chose to defend them. And this grated on some. "Okay, Kath, you can move now," said Evan, as he finished the last dappled stroke of his painting. "About time, Evan. These damn things are hot as hell!" she swore, quickly stripping out of the elaborate 18th Century-style dress Evan had wanted her to wear for the pose. That he also insisted on working outside under the summer sun didn't help any. She stopped when she'd gotten to her unisuit, which was made of some MAC-invented material that made it warm in cold weather and cooler in warm weather than being naked. The sweat which soaked it evaporated quickly, being gone by the time she'd folded the dress up and stuffed it in her carrysack. Kathy was one of the people who didn't much care for mankind's new role as "pets." She had little talent for art, nor patience to learn. She showed some aptitude in the sciences, but not enough to make her one of the "three or four" geniuses. Still in her mid teens, she'd already had one child and was pregnant with a second...bringing humanity up to a viable population again was a priority. The psych people had decided she wasn't a fit mother, however, and had taken her child to be reared elsewhere, by someone who would give a damn. Kathy didn't care. She had just about resigned herself to being just a breeder, and figured that by the time she couldn't have viable children she'd have found something else to do. Or not. Her life had settled into an almost perfunctory set of rituals. Wake up. Eat. Make sure dad wakes up, call the meds if he won't. If Thursday, prenatal section, else hang out in the Hub. Find something to do for the day...today Evan had needed a model, and Kathy had the time so she agreed. Then eat. Study something if she felt up to it. Then sleep. The only difference in the routine came when she wasn't pregnant, then she'd spend the afternoon finding someone to have sex with. Sometimes she found someone, sometimes she didn't. Sometimes she did, but gene tests showed a child would probably have defects. Even the sex was mere ritual, though. It felt pleasant, but no more so than eating or sleeping, really. A grey haze marked only by brief flashes of frustration covered Kathy's life. She considered having sex with Evan. She wasn't far enough along in pregnancy for it to cause a problem, and it would kill some more time. But he was deep in his artist's trance, trying to figure out if and where his work could be enhanced by one more stroke. She decided not to bother, and headed inside without him even noting her departure. Reaching one of the entrances of the massive CityMAC Chiplex, she submitted to a careful scan. MACE had started working on Robo bodies that could pass as human, for sabotage and infiltration purposes. When the scan was done, she waited for the green light so she could enter, but instead the yellow light flashed. One of Chiplex's drone personas whirred to life. "Kathryn Anders?" it asked, as if it didn't know exactly who she was down to her DNA structure. She nodded annoyedly so it would continue. "I regret to inform you that your father died today from alcohol poisoning. We are still trying to ascertain where he acquired the alcohol, as his medical certificate did not allow him strong drink, but...." "Quiet, tincan," Kathy snarled. So the old man finally drank himself to death. The haze deepened.... * * * * The first life of Kathryn Anders was to end soon after that, when she realized the final fate in store for her if she continued on her path. To not care, to simply exist, would inevitably end in not existing at all. Soon after a final visit to her father's grave [See Pliable Lad Annual #1] her new life began. It was short, brutal and violent.... * * * * Kath put down the molecular bonder and surveyed her work. Ostensibly she was working on 20th Century sculpture, a choice that had made the psych people happy. Now she wouldn't follow the path her father had, of sullen silence and death. Obviously his death had shaken her out of her moods and gotten her to contribute something to humanity. That's what she was doing, if not in the way the tincans thought. It had taken very little effort to find the names of several other disaffected science 'dropouts' of her age, people who would have been hailed as bright young talents in a human-dominated world, but who lacked the sheer genius needed to stand out today. After all, humans weren't prisoners, data systems were open to all within Chiplex's walls. Even data on construction of the powerful Robo bodies wasn't barred them. After all, it was obvious that a human in a battlesuit was still no match for a RoboMAC...the need to interface between man and machine was an inherent disadvantage against foes who *were* their battlesuits. Time for humanity to show it can still compete in the physical battlefield. Kath, Jack, Josh, Sal and Ray had found a way for a human to operate a Robo as quickly and agilely as a MAC did, buried in the files where the tincans obviously thought no one would look. Sal had tried to build a battlesuit once and been found out, hence the subterfuge of sculpture. He still couldn't be officially associated with the others, lest the tincans find out and take the suits away from them "for their own good." They didn't seem to understand that humanity needed to know, for *their* own good, that the machines weren't totally in charge. That mankind could become equal partners again, maybe masters. It had been several years since they made their pact, several hard years of learning complicated technologies and designing tools and weapons in near secrecy. In between, they had taught themselves fighting techniques which had for generations been only exercise routines, rediscovering the 'jutsu' from the 'do,' turning peaceful meditation methods back into deadly fighting arts. And once they had learned to use the art with their bodies, it would start again, working in VR simulators to adapt the techniques to fighting in a Robo frame. Only the rigidly-kept vow of the Guardians to let humans have privacy made it possible. And now it was ready. The complicated sculptures could transform in an instant into fighting robots, controlled by cybernetic links with their drivers. The bodies would respond as quickly as the drivers' own. The weapons were as powerful as any wielded by WarMACs, and the forcefielded armor as stout as it could be made. They only awaited an attack, so they could join in the defense and prove to everyone that humanity still had a place in the fight.... * * Kath staggered back in her battleframe, as her opponent battered at its legs. Small as he was, this MACEr was overwhelming her! As fast as she was, he was faster. Both acted at the speed of thought...but his thoughts were far quicker. She triggered her megaweapon and it tore a hole in the ground nearby, shocking her foe off his feet and buying her a second. Jack and Sal had already been fireballed, and the Guardians were just noticing that these newcomers were humans. She HAD to do SOMETHING to prove herself, before the Guardians pulled her off the field. Too late. Her small foe had recovered and was now emitting sonic waves of high intensity. The baffles in her battleframe shorted out, and an arc of electricity slashed across her face before she fell into blackness.... * * The other four were either dead or had given up on the Cause, but Kath kept on. The tincans no longer let her near heavy power tools or equipment, "for your own safety," but she didn't let that stop her. Expanding on the cybernetic control systems she'd learned how to make for the old battleframes, she'd created a helmet that would let her override the controls on a RoboMAC at the hardware level, bypassing all the software-level defenses MACs had. All she had to do was get close enough to take over a MACEr, and she could use it to turn the tide of battle.... * * * * Soon after, the second life of Kathryn Anders ended. To the surprise of all, especially her target, the helmet worked. For the three seconds before another MACEr shot her in the back. Her body was destroyed, but her mind was saved by reading it into a Robo shell. [Again, see Pliable Lad Annual #1] In a way, Kathryn had won the war, gaining the power to compete physically with MACs. But she had also become the enemy in the process. Still, the fact that she was now a MAC acted for a time as consolation for the fact that the rest of humanity was still beholden to the Guardians for their very existences. Kat could accept that for now, though, making sure that at least one of the 'tincans' protecting humanity had been human once herself. But this third life of Kathryn Anders was soon to end as well.... * * * * 2124 was the year of the Nanoplague. Nanotechnology devices riding inside a particularly virulent influenza were unleashed by the MAC Empire by a mole inside Chiplex. The Guardians had cured the flu, but failed to notice the nanos that remained inside the victims...and inside anyone inoculated by serum made from the blood of survivors as well. One month to the day after the flu was first introduced, the nanos transformed their victims into deformed combat machines, whose very touch would infect RoboMACs with a special breed of nanomachine that could cut through defensive screens and destroy the body underneath. Chiplex lost most of his body to them before driving them out into the night.... * * South of Chiplex, Kat patrolled the countryside in her panther form, looking for the transformed humans. "But Aurora," she'd protested, "our best data shows they mostly headed north! Shouldn't I be going that way?" "No," the local commander had replied. "Some may have doubled back or circled around. We need your special senses to ferret out any lone humans. If the rest of the pack went north as we think, they'll be easy enough to find." Kat hadn't been totally convinced, but she'd followed orders. All the way down, she'd tried to convince herself that she was indeed needed more here than there. But it hadn't really worked. When the ComNet had shut off, she was a little worried. Usually that was a sign that some MACEr had broken the code and was listening in preparation for an attack. And with no Guardian daring to get close to any of the wandering humans, MACE could wipe the humans out with ease...or worse. When the ComNet had been down fully ten minutes, Kat started to seriously suspect something was wrong. ComNet was never down more than five minutes at a time, even when Waveform was assaulting it! She broke radio silence. "Hey, anyone nearby hear me? Is ComNet down, or is it me?" she asked, knowing full well that her comm system was in perfect order. "Hey, quiet there, Kat!" came Brand's voice. Even before he'd been scanned into a MAC mind, he'd been a stickler for following instructions and making sure everyone else did, too. "My ComNet's down too, Kat," said Aerielle from above, no doubt drawing a snarl to the emulated face of Brand's Robo shell. Born with Cerebral Palsy, Aerielle had been scanned into a MAC once it was obvious her condition couldn't be corrected medically. As it became harder to find matches that could guarantee no birth defects, the Guardians had given up on eugenics and simply corrected nature's flaws as best they could. This had led to a recent increase in the number of MACs who were born human, but spent little time *as* humans. Something at the back of Kat's mind shouted a warning. Maybe MAC minds were supposed to be too orderly to have intuition like humans, but she liked to think she'd kept hers. And her intuition told her something fishy was going on. Two contacts, two Scanned MACs. The odds of that were exactly 2453:1 against as of today, given a random distribution of searchers. But they were 100% in favor if Aurora had done she she thought he did. And if he did send all the Scanned MACs off on a wild goose chase.... Kat turned around in a space so short that an organic lifeform would have broken its back trying it, and took off to the north as fast as she could go, engaging her stealth systems so Brand couldn't try and follow her or send the much faster Aerielle after her. Through fields of grass and shattered pre-Skyfall towns she ran at top speed, fearing the worst. As she ran she confirmed that ComNet was up, but that she and the others had simply been excluded from it. There were ways to get into ComNet that wouldn't trigger the defenses, and Kat knew a few. None would let her intercept transmissions, unfortunately, but she could tell for certain that it was operating. Sending the former humans away. Locking them out of ComNet. It all added up, and the sum was not one Kat wanted to contemplate. But it was one she had to see. And if possible, one she had to prevent. Had she still had a heart, it would have caught in her throat as her infrared sensors picked up distinctive traces of weaponsfire over the horizon. But there were none of the tell-tale signs of a MACE attack...no air support, no large explosions, no taunts broadcast over general frequency. The next few seconds dragged like hours as she came over the horizon and saw the wholesale slaughter that was taking place. Not even bodies were left of the infected humans when the other Guardians were done with them. A few still stood, milling about in confusion as they tried to avoid being shot. Those Guardians with less powerful weapons were firing at the ground to keep the humans penned in until a megaweapon could reduce them to atomic ash...no sense in risking anything surviving, after all. A cold rage flooded through Kat's mind as she leaped through the circle of Guardians, coming into visibility as she dropped her cloaks and powered her defenses. Snarling, she whipped her tail around, throwing off bolts of electricity to brush back the nearest Guardians. "KAT!" shouted Aurora. "STAND OFF!" "And let you slaughter the humans we're supposed to be protecting?" she spat back. "It's the only way! If we don't kill the nanos, all the Guardians could be killed, and then the rest of humanity dies too!" "What about a cure? Or a defense against the nanos, so we can let these victims live until a cure can be found?" she asked, fear creeping into her voice. She could sense several of the infected humans shambling nearer to her. "There's no time! We can't have an improved defense system ready for over a week, and these people could easily kill us all in that time. It's the only...KAT! LOOK OUT!" Kat whipped around faster than something her size should have been able to. Then she saw the face of the human shuffling towards her, and froze. It was Ray, one of the cadre she had formed to prove humanity could defeat MACs. He was older, and his body twisted into a hideous parody, but it was him. Kat only had time to consider how ironic this was...Ray was actually about to defeat a MAC on his own...before he touched her and the nanomachines flooded her system. Desperately, she tried to transform into her humanoid form, to shunt the infected matter into gravity pockets where it couldn't get the rest of her. The pain was intense, but not so intense she didn't see the green flare of Aurora's megaweapon pass overhead to vaporize Ray's body. She collapsed to the dirt, her body writhing in ways it wasn't designed to. She started to liquefy as her body lost all molecular cohesion. <> she screamed to herself. <> The pain started to fade. Was she alive, or did even MACs get an afterlife? Then she heard a faint whisper in her mind. ++I couldn't let it kill you, Kath...I never told you, but I've always loved you....++ "Ray?" she whispered. It was his voice. Thanks to being a MAC, she could remember every detail of her life if she wanted to, and that *was* his voice. He'd beaten the machine at the last. Aurora stood over Kat's prone body. "Kat, I know this was not the most humane of choices, but we had no other. There was no cure." She looked up into his expressionless eyes. For the first time in decades she felt tears welling up in her eyes...tears? She put a finger to her face and drew away a tear...it was a rivulet of metal, and soaked into her finger even as she looked at it. She stood. "Yes there was a cure, you inhuman bastard," she said coldly as her arm became a lance which she drove through his chest. "If you were human you might have found it." Then as Aurora fell to the ground, his mind disrupted, Kopikat became a shadow once more and disappeared into the night before anyone could recover from the shock. And thus ended the third life of Kathryn Anders.