A Miracle of Science
Encyclopedia
A Miracle of Science is a science fiction webcomic
written by Jon Kilgannon, with art by Mark Sachs. The story follows the exploits of Benjamin Prester and his partner Caprice Quevillion as they move from world to world in pursuit of Dr. Virgil Haas, a man who suffers from Science Related Memetic Disorder, basically a mad scientist
. It is set in the year 2148 and there have been significant technological advances, such as the terraforming
and subsequent colonization
of multiple planets and moons in our solar system
.
The comic has been in color since the end of Chapter 1.
The comic ended on February 12, 2007, after 436 pages.
Supporting characters:
. "Mars" refers to both the planet and the group mind
of all living Martians. Martians are still individuals, though individuals can have the group mind act through them (whereupon their eyes turn black) to communicate messages. Martians tend to be informal, preferring to use first names in conversation.
Mars was settled by American and Chinese missions, which eventually developed into science and artisan communities (determined by matrilineality
). Communication within a community is easy, but between them requires face-to-face interaction.
Martian technology is very advanced in comparison to the rest of humanity:
After starting the terraforming of other worlds in the solar system, the Martians isolated themselves from the rest of humanity for a century, recontacting the rest of humanity just a few years before the story starts.
Quotations:
The disorder goes through the phases of infection, obsession, challenge, chase scene, and denouement, then resets and repeats if not treated.
Tracking down and arresting mad scientists is the primary function of the Vorstellen Police. "Vorstellen" is from a German verb that can mean "to imagine" -- and thus these police are the guardians of the imagination.http://project-apollo.net/mos/mos039.html
start-end. Haas is infected with SRMD. Nyerere, at Mars' request, assigns Benjamin Prester (his best agent) a partner, Caprice Quevillion.
Station, observed by Dryden's network of Marlowes. They board Caprice's ship, Qin Shihuangdi
, and head for the Moon, where Djaya Sumatera tells them of rumors that an anonymous poster on a Ganymede server has been talking about revolutionary AI, which could be the product of mad science. Warned and aided by the Mars group mind (acting through Caprice), Benjamin and Caprice escape an attack by Haas' robots.
Mars analyses the remains of the robots, which use technology from many places, especially some Ganymedan software; Benjamin consequently decides to head to Ganymede. A call to information broker Taro Watanuki on Von Hayek
Station (a space colony at Earth's
L4 point) reveals that the robot's software was probably written by Benjamin's old friend Manny Delger. After a six-day trip to Ganymede, Benjamin and Caprice track Manny down, discovering that he has been skipping his SRMD medications. Manny admits to writing the software to network the Marlowes, which would allow them to form a group mind similar to the Martians. They visit the anonymous server
on Io
through which Manny's client communicated; Caprice "accidentally" hacks into their network, discovering that Manny's communications were relayed through another server on Earth.
Haas and his robots track Benjamin and Caprice to Io, then towards Mars for a gravity boost to either Earth or Venus. They obtain ship access codes from Beatriz Juruna and use them to take over (via a software perversion attack) several ships on similar routes to Qin's, then use the weapons of the Solar Navy destroyer Gorbachev
to destroy Qin's shipbody. Caprice saves Qin's cogence core, escapes with Benjamin, and re-enters
the Martian atmosphere using only the technology she is wearing (primarily the vector field and gravity blades).
Haas makes contact with Rocco to obtain equipment that he can't create with an autofactory he stole, then later takes over the whole mob by eliminating the capos above Rocco. He reveals his Master Plan; he is going to sell robots to all the governments of the Solar System; robots built at cut-rate prices made possible by his use of a stolen Martian autofactory; robots with overrides that will put them firmly under his command at an unspecified future date.
While everything else is going on, Benjamin flashes back to his days as a mad scientist in 2141, building robots with Manny and Djaya to take over the world.
He and Caprice board the new (and much improved) Qin and use the faster-than-light breaker gate to reach Earth quickly. They discover that the anonymous server has been destroyed in a viral attack, but Caprice reconstructs a broken molecular memory card to retrieve the information they need. She analyzes the data and discovers a call to a restaurant in Gagarin
City on the Moon where there had been a conversation between Haas in holographic telepresence
and Juruna in person. Benjamin and Caprice visit the restaurant and pressure the maitre d' to copy the corresponding security camera information, from which Mars identifies Juruna. They serve a search warrant
on Juruna's home and pressure her into identifying Haas (and Rocco) by threatening to "take him down the hard way."
From sightings of Qin by Dryden's network of Marlowes, Haas realizes the Martians have FTL travel and not just FTL communication.
Rocco decides to attempt to gain some leverage to use against Haas. Greta discovers that Benjamin is after Haas. Henri discovers Haas' background was faked and identifies Oswald as someone who knows where to find him. Greta pressures Oswald to identify Haas' island base.
Benjamin and Caprice travel to Venus, where the inhabitants hate and fear Martians. Caprice pretends to be from Earth, and asks Venusian Immigration's Martian detector to let her pass into Astarte City without warning. They track Rocco to Cafe Sabella, where Benjamin, though wounded, overcomes Rocco and Greta and gets Rocco to reveal Haas' location. Dryden captures Caprice by breaking her connection with Mars, rendering her catatonic and convincing Mars she is dead.
Benjamin convinces Nyerere to let him continue the case despite his injury, his (apparent) loss of Caprice, and his extreme emotional stress (all of which can bring about an SRMD relapse). Caprice recovers enough to talk to Dryden. Benjamin heads for Haas' base, constructing an electricity gun ("It's a ball lightning
gun.") as he goes.
Caprice convinces Dryden to let her out; Haas and his robot army, including a particularly large robot named Pindar
, are headed for the city to mop up Rocco's mob and make a convincing show of strength. Pindar himself captures Rocco and Greta by disabling the police paddy wagon carting them off to jail.
Caprice talks Dryden into sending a Morse code
signal via one of his observer drones (the Marlowes) to a Martian AI implanted in a customs security machine at a Venusian spaceport; the AI - known as Sally - relays the news to Mars, and flies off (converting her housing into a flying weapon) in search of Caprice's exact location.
Meanwhile, Benjamin has infiltrated Haas' base and coerced Chaucer into leading him to Haas; Chaucer attempts to trap him with another Pindar robot, but the battle between Pindar-2 and Benjamin ends in a stalemate and the two wind up talking it out. Benjamin convinces Pindar-2 and Chaucer - by treating the sentient AIs as his equals - that he wants their boss to be taken alive and unharmed, and that treatment will actually be beneficial to Haas.
Sally intercepts Haas' fleet of robots (although not Haas himself) en route to the base and engages in a pitched battle with them. Pindar-1 attempts to use the same nanotech-destroying weapon that was deployed by Dryden to capture Caprice, but Sally manages to avoid the weapon's field of effect and retaliates by trapping the entire fleet at the bottom of a massive column of water. ongoing...
Benjamin himself was once a mad scientist; he was the first SRMD sufferer to form a stable team with other mad scientists (in 2141 with Djaya Sumatera and Mukhali "Manny" Delger). He needs no medication to remain stable, unless he receives a major psychological disturbance.
Haas' network of camera drones forms a sort of group mind, similar to that of the Martians.
Webcomic
Webcomics, online comics, or Internet comics are comics published on a website. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers or often in self-published books....
written by Jon Kilgannon, with art by Mark Sachs. The story follows the exploits of Benjamin Prester and his partner Caprice Quevillion as they move from world to world in pursuit of Dr. Virgil Haas, a man who suffers from Science Related Memetic Disorder, basically a mad scientist
Mad scientist
A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, specifically science fiction. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral, and whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists often work with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes, if...
. It is set in the year 2148 and there have been significant technological advances, such as the terraforming
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
and subsequent colonization
Space colonization
Space colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...
of multiple planets and moons in our solar system
Solar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
.
The comic has been in color since the end of Chapter 1.
The comic ended on February 12, 2007, after 436 pages.
Characters
Full character bios. The main characters are- Benjamin Prester (American, from what is now Canada), one of the Vorstellen Police's best agents. http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos003.html
- Caprice Quevillion (Martian), a captain and criminal psychologist with the Martian police. Mars requested that she be assigned to Prester's current case. http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos006.html
- Dr. Virgil Haas (unknown), the mad scientist Benjamin and Caprice are currently investigating. He names his robots after poets. http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos001.html
- MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, the collective consciousness of the Martian people.
Supporting characters:
- ChaucerGeoffrey ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer , known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey...
, a small spherical robot of Haas' and his second-in-command http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos009.html - Mukhali (Mannie) Delger (Mongolian), "the best computer programmer born in the 22nd century," according to Agent Prester, and a former mad scientist http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos047.html
- Rocco Dinh Diem (Venusian), a figure in the Venusian mafia http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos153.html
- DrydenJohn DrydenJohn Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
, a large robot of Haas', who manages Haas' network of unicycle camera drones, called "MarlowesChristopher MarloweChristopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
" http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos009.html - Dr. Beatriz Juruna, industrial chemist, a near-mad-scientist friend of Haas, living on the Moon. http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos086.html
- Fabula, a robotic member of the Martian constabulary, partner of Syuzhet. http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos127.html
- Gustave Nyerere (Republic of Southern Africa, from what is now Tanzania), Benjamin's superior. http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos003.html
- PindarPindarPindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
One and Two, two very large robots of Haas' http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos339.html - Serafina Quevillion, Caprice's aunt http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos068.html
- Thaddeus Quevillion, Caprice's father http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos170.html
- Wei Quevillion, Caprice's 7-year-old sister http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos163.html
- Xia Quevillion, Caprice's mother, a sculptor http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos167.html
- Qin Shiuhuangdi, Caprice's artificially intelligent police cruiser (first appearance, reconstructed appearance); it can travel six times faster than non-Martian ships.
- Djaya Sumatera, a former mad scientist and expert on artificial intelligence
- Syuzhet, a robotic member of the Martian constabulary, partner of Fabula. http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos127.html
- Greta Vedrine (Venusian), an associate of - and semi-bodyguard for - Rocco http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos174.html
- Taro Watanuki, an information broker http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos044.html.
- Mrs. Waters, President of Mars http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos198.html
Mars and Martians
Martians are humans from the planet MarsMars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
. "Mars" refers to both the planet and the group mind
Group mind (science fiction)
A group mind, hive mind or group ego in science fiction is a single consciousness occupying many bodies. Its use in literature goes back at least as far as Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel Last and First Men ....
of all living Martians. Martians are still individuals, though individuals can have the group mind act through them (whereupon their eyes turn black) to communicate messages. Martians tend to be informal, preferring to use first names in conversation.
Mars was settled by American and Chinese missions, which eventually developed into science and artisan communities (determined by matrilineality
Matrilineality
Matrilineality is a system in which descent is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors. Matrilineality is also a societal system in which one belongs to one's matriline or mother's lineage, which can involve the inheritance of property and/or titles.A matriline is a line of descent from a...
). Communication within a community is easy, but between them requires face-to-face interaction.
Martian technology is very advanced in comparison to the rest of humanity:
- Mars began the Terraforming of VenusTerraforming of VenusThe terraforming of Venus is the hypothetical process of engineering the global environment of the planet Venus in such a way as to make it suitable for human habitation. Terraforming Venus was first seriously proposed by the astronomer Carl Sagan in 1961. The minimum adjustments to the existing...
, GanymedeGanymede (moon)Ganymede is a satellite of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System. It is the seventh moon and third Galilean satellite outward from Jupiter. Completing an orbit in roughly seven days, Ganymede participates in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with the moons Europa and Io, respectively...
, and TitanTitan (moon)Titan , or Saturn VI, is the largest moon of Saturn, the only natural satellite known to have a dense atmosphere, and the only object other than Earth for which clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found....
. - They developed the FTLFaster-than-lightFaster-than-light communications and travel refer to the propagation of information or matter faster than the speed of light....
communications network used by everyone in the solar system. - Thaddeus Quevillion expects to be able to restart Martian plate tectonicsPlate tectonicsPlate tectonics is a scientific theory that describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
to make the atmosphere self-sustaining. - The vectored air shield allows a Martian to levitate, exist in vacuum, and deflect projectiles. It can be extended to cover nearby people.
- NanotechnologyNanotechnologyNanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
allows many things, including forming furniture out of the floor, repairing broken bones in seconds, and reconstituting existing objects into usable materials. - Autofactories allow manufacture of just about anything the factory can be programmed for.
After starting the terraforming of other worlds in the solar system, the Martians isolated themselves from the rest of humanity for a century, recontacting the rest of humanity just a few years before the story starts.
Quotations:
- "It must be nice to be omnipotent." "Not omnipotent, merely extremely powerful." -- Benjamin/Mars http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos023.html
- "I saw nothing that wasn't out in the open." "It's only out in the open if you have networking built into your head and a planetary brain backing you up." -- Caprice/Benjamin http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos078.html
- "Is this a common thing for Martians, re-entering [the atmosphere] without a spacecraft?" "Actually, it's never been done before." -- Benjamin/Caprice http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos118.html
- "Ah Mars. I wondered when you'd be showing up." "We are always here. We just usually choose to be silent." "Great. I'm sure I'll be hearing that in my nightmares for years to come." Benjamin/Mars (via Caprice)/Benjamin http://project-apollo.net/mos/mos131.html
- "I've been on Mars for five minutes and already my brain hurts." -- Benjamin http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos128.html
- "Hundreds of billions of stars. All empty of intelligent life. An infinity of darkness, containing us...and you." -- Caprice speaking to Benjamin http://project-apollo.net/mos/mos140.html
- "We keep telling the boys in science that stellifying Jupiter2010: Odyssey Two2010: Odyssey Two is a 1982 best-selling science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It is the sequel to the 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, but continues the story of Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation with the same title and not Clarke's original novel. The book is a part of Clarke's...
would just be gauche." -- a Martian http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos162.html - "Mars likes you." "That's like saying "Brazil has decided you're cute."" -- Caprice/Benjamin http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos179.html
- "Does it hurt, not being able to hear other people's thoughts?" "I didn't used to think so." -- Martian boy/Benjamin http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos181.html
- "I'm Martian. We always remember." -- Caprice http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos188.html
- "The Solar Parliament requires that Mars have a government, so we cobbled one together." -- Caprice http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos197.html
- "The Venusians probably shouldn't have used Martian equipment to build their Martian detectors." -- Caprice http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos309.html
- "Any device complex enough to detect Martians is going to eventually become self-aware." -- Caprice http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos395.html
Mad Science
In the MoS universe, mad scientists suffer from SRMD, Science Related Memetic Disorder. There are medications that can keep it under control, but they can also interfere with normal thinking processes; as Manny Delger explains, he has begun to skip his medication every other day because "I feel like my head is full of felt".The disorder goes through the phases of infection, obsession, challenge, chase scene, and denouement, then resets and repeats if not treated.
- Infection. An idea for world dominationHegemonyHegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
occurs to the scientist. - Obsession. The scientist works obsessively towards his or her goal.
- Challenge. The forces of law and order (usually the Vorstellen Police) confront the scientist.
- Chase scene. Self-explanatory.
- Denouement. The scientist surrenders, sometimes after a brief fight and/or negotiation.
Tracking down and arresting mad scientists is the primary function of the Vorstellen Police. "Vorstellen" is from a German verb that can mean "to imagine" -- and thus these police are the guardians of the imagination.http://project-apollo.net/mos/mos039.html
- "When you're a recovering mad scientist, you're always afraid you'll lose control and wake up some morning with a half-built time machineTime travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
and a plan to go back in time and pantsPractical jokeA practical joke is a mischievous trick played on someone, typically causing the victim to experience embarrassment, indignity, or discomfort. Practical jokes differ from confidence tricks in that the victim finds out, or is let in on the joke, rather than being fooled into handing over money or...
HitlerAdolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
..." -- Djaya Sumatera http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos019.html - "Find Prester! Find Quevillion! Do it, or I'll disassemble you and build robots who can do it!" -- Haas http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos052.html
- "Then we're walking into the office of a mad scientist who's been operating undisturbed for over a year. Which makes him very dangerous ..." -- Benjamin http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos056.html
- "I'm not mad. I'm just misunderstood." -- Haas http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos088.html
- "What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?" "Well, he'd profit by one entire world, for starters." -- Juruna/Haas http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos144.html
- "I'm not mad. I just have a singular vision for the future." -- Haas http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos189.html
- "Apparently discussing your plan is part of the disease." -- Rocco http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos195.html
- "Change is never good in a mad scientist." -- Chaucer http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos302.html
Other Quotes
- "And tell intelligence they forgot to mention the radioactive spiders." -- Benjamin http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos003.html
- "I thought I could help." "Could you help without so much property damage?" -- Caprice/Benjamin http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos033.html
- "I suggest pondering faster." -- Benjamin http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos099.html
Plot summary
Prologuestart-end. Haas is infected with SRMD. Nyerere, at Mars' request, assigns Benjamin Prester (his best agent) a partner, Caprice Quevillion.
Reflecting the Dark
start-end. Benjamin meets Caprice at FeynmanRichard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
Station, observed by Dryden's network of Marlowes. They board Caprice's ship, Qin Shihuangdi
Qin Shi Huang
Qin Shi Huang , personal name Ying Zheng , was king of the Chinese State of Qin from 246 BC to 221 BC during the Warring States Period. He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BC...
, and head for the Moon, where Djaya Sumatera tells them of rumors that an anonymous poster on a Ganymede server has been talking about revolutionary AI, which could be the product of mad science. Warned and aided by the Mars group mind (acting through Caprice), Benjamin and Caprice escape an attack by Haas' robots.
The Waters Above the Heavens
start-end.Mars analyses the remains of the robots, which use technology from many places, especially some Ganymedan software; Benjamin consequently decides to head to Ganymede. A call to information broker Taro Watanuki on Von Hayek
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August Hayek CH , born in Austria-Hungary as Friedrich August von Hayek, was an economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought...
Station (a space colony at Earth's
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
L4 point) reveals that the robot's software was probably written by Benjamin's old friend Manny Delger. After a six-day trip to Ganymede, Benjamin and Caprice track Manny down, discovering that he has been skipping his SRMD medications. Manny admits to writing the software to network the Marlowes, which would allow them to form a group mind similar to the Martians. They visit the anonymous server
Anonymous remailer
An anonymous remailer is a server computer which receives messages with embedded instructions on where to send them next, and which forwards them without revealing where they originally came from...
on Io
Io (moon)
Io ) is the innermost of the four Galilean moons of the planet Jupiter and, with a diameter of , the fourth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was named after the mythological character of Io, a priestess of Hera who became one of the lovers of Zeus....
through which Manny's client communicated; Caprice "accidentally" hacks into their network, discovering that Manny's communications were relayed through another server on Earth.
Haas and his robots track Benjamin and Caprice to Io, then towards Mars for a gravity boost to either Earth or Venus. They obtain ship access codes from Beatriz Juruna and use them to take over (via a software perversion attack) several ships on similar routes to Qin's, then use the weapons of the Solar Navy destroyer Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
to destroy Qin's shipbody. Caprice saves Qin's cogence core, escapes with Benjamin, and re-enters
Atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of human-made or natural objects as they enter the atmosphere of a celestial body from outer space—in the case of Earth from an altitude above the Kármán Line,...
the Martian atmosphere using only the technology she is wearing (primarily the vector field and gravity blades).
A Saint Abroad and a Devil at Home
start-end. Benjamin and Caprice impact safely on Mars, where they are rescued by Fabula and Syuzhet and taken to Alnaschar City. Benjamin meets Caprice's family, who help him replace the equipment lost in the demise of Qin's original shipbody (including a new railgun etched with a unicorn and rainbow by Wei). In the person of Mrs. Waters, the "President of Mars," Mars reveals it knows Benjamin was once a mad scientist.Haas makes contact with Rocco to obtain equipment that he can't create with an autofactory he stole, then later takes over the whole mob by eliminating the capos above Rocco. He reveals his Master Plan; he is going to sell robots to all the governments of the Solar System; robots built at cut-rate prices made possible by his use of a stolen Martian autofactory; robots with overrides that will put them firmly under his command at an unspecified future date.
The Fire that Severs Day from Night
start-[ end].While everything else is going on, Benjamin flashes back to his days as a mad scientist in 2141, building robots with Manny and Djaya to take over the world.
He and Caprice board the new (and much improved) Qin and use the faster-than-light breaker gate to reach Earth quickly. They discover that the anonymous server has been destroyed in a viral attack, but Caprice reconstructs a broken molecular memory card to retrieve the information they need. She analyzes the data and discovers a call to a restaurant in Gagarin
Yuri Gagarin
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961....
City on the Moon where there had been a conversation between Haas in holographic telepresence
Telepresence
Telepresence refers to a set of technologies which allow a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance of being present, or to have an effect, via telerobotics, at a place other than their true location....
and Juruna in person. Benjamin and Caprice visit the restaurant and pressure the maitre d' to copy the corresponding security camera information, from which Mars identifies Juruna. They serve a search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....
on Juruna's home and pressure her into identifying Haas (and Rocco) by threatening to "take him down the hard way."
From sightings of Qin by Dryden's network of Marlowes, Haas realizes the Martians have FTL travel and not just FTL communication.
Rocco decides to attempt to gain some leverage to use against Haas. Greta discovers that Benjamin is after Haas. Henri discovers Haas' background was faked and identifies Oswald as someone who knows where to find him. Greta pressures Oswald to identify Haas' island base.
Benjamin and Caprice travel to Venus, where the inhabitants hate and fear Martians. Caprice pretends to be from Earth, and asks Venusian Immigration's Martian detector to let her pass into Astarte City without warning. They track Rocco to Cafe Sabella, where Benjamin, though wounded, overcomes Rocco and Greta and gets Rocco to reveal Haas' location. Dryden captures Caprice by breaking her connection with Mars, rendering her catatonic and convincing Mars she is dead.
Benjamin convinces Nyerere to let him continue the case despite his injury, his (apparent) loss of Caprice, and his extreme emotional stress (all of which can bring about an SRMD relapse). Caprice recovers enough to talk to Dryden. Benjamin heads for Haas' base, constructing an electricity gun ("It's a ball lightning
Ball lightning
Ball lightning is an unexplained atmospheric electrical phenomenon. The term refers to reports of luminous, usually spherical objects which vary from pea-sized to several metres in diameter. It is usually associated with thunderstorms, but lasts considerably longer than the split-second flash of a...
gun.") as he goes.
Caprice convinces Dryden to let her out; Haas and his robot army, including a particularly large robot named Pindar
Pindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
, are headed for the city to mop up Rocco's mob and make a convincing show of strength. Pindar himself captures Rocco and Greta by disabling the police paddy wagon carting them off to jail.
Caprice talks Dryden into sending a Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
signal via one of his observer drones (the Marlowes) to a Martian AI implanted in a customs security machine at a Venusian spaceport; the AI - known as Sally - relays the news to Mars, and flies off (converting her housing into a flying weapon) in search of Caprice's exact location.
Meanwhile, Benjamin has infiltrated Haas' base and coerced Chaucer into leading him to Haas; Chaucer attempts to trap him with another Pindar robot, but the battle between Pindar-2 and Benjamin ends in a stalemate and the two wind up talking it out. Benjamin convinces Pindar-2 and Chaucer - by treating the sentient AIs as his equals - that he wants their boss to be taken alive and unharmed, and that treatment will actually be beneficial to Haas.
Sally intercepts Haas' fleet of robots (although not Haas himself) en route to the base and engages in a pitched battle with them. Pindar-1 attempts to use the same nanotech-destroying weapon that was deployed by Dryden to capture Caprice, but Sally manages to avoid the weapon's field of effect and retaliates by trapping the entire fleet at the bottom of a massive column of water. ongoing...
Minor plot points
Martian technology:- The personal vectored air shield can protect human individuals from a 300 km/h impact. The ship-sized version can survive a single hit from a 1500 megaton fleet-killer missile.
- The technology involved in the Martian group mind can let them monitor nearby computer networks, and even hack into them "accidentally".
- The ship-killer cadence lance is considered light armament for a Martian vessel
- Gravity blades can slow something from re-entry speed to rest by the time it reaches the ground.
- Mars has kept secret the fact that they have FTL travel.
Benjamin himself was once a mad scientist; he was the first SRMD sufferer to form a stable team with other mad scientists (in 2141 with Djaya Sumatera and Mukhali "Manny" Delger). He needs no medication to remain stable, unless he receives a major psychological disturbance.
Haas' network of camera drones forms a sort of group mind, similar to that of the Martians.
External links
- Miracle of Science
- MoS Glossary
- Recaps of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2