PROLOGUE
VANGUARD FRONTIERS STATION, FADE REGION
PyjamaSam was a galactic anomaly. While brilliant in technical & engineering skills, he was almost inept at combat piloting & social grace. It was this perverse sense of cosmic balance that made him so very interesting to those whom knew him. He liked to consider himself as eclectic, but the deeper truth was that he suffered from several mental disorders, the least of which being obsessive compulsiveness.
Seven hours ago, his friend Roc Wieler, had dropped by with a most special package. It was a metallic box, obsidian in colour, small enough to carry, but heavy enough to be substantial. It was a Terran relic retrieved months ago on some high level Minmatar black op, and Sam, whom at the time, had only seen it through a brief video comm with Roc, never dreamt that he would actually be tinkering with it now.
The best of the Minmatar Republic were stumped. Their scientists were puzzled. Their engineers perplexed. They all knew what it was on a basic level, it was a DNA computer (DNAC). Deciphering what type of DNA it was, and extracting the untold amounts of data stored on this device was another challenge entirely. Who knew how old this was? Who knew what wonders lay inside of it?
Sam was simply delighted that Roc had thought of him, recommending to his superiors that the box be delivered to Sam, that if anyone could shed some light on this subject, it would be him. What Sam didn’t know was that they had outright refused the request, but Roc, knowing Sam was the one being in the galaxy whom could help, had “appropriated” the device and brought it to him anyway.
Forty One hours left. Roc was crystal clear when handing the device over that Sam had two days to figure it out. He hadn’t questioned it at the time, too enraptured by the DNAC to even have noticed at what point Roc had eventually left. He didn’t know what would happen when his alotted time had elapsed. Would the device cease to function? Would it blow up? Would Roc simply come back and retrieve it? Or was there something more sinister afoot that he hadn’t considered?
In the end, it didn’t matter. He had a job to do, a task to complete. He hadn’t moved from his workstation since commencing his examination of the device, yet sadly he wasn’t any closer to unravelling its mysteries. But he would. He could feel it in his soul. This machine was of great import, and it was his destiny to be a part of it.
Adjusting an overhanging halo lamp, Sam lowered his micro goggles back over his eyes, downed a Quafe soda, hunched over, and got to work.
ROC'S RAMBLINGS 
It would be awesome to have a life like Sam’s. A cool puzzle before him, awesome tools to mess around with, and friends who find him interesting.
I wonder if we’ll eventually be treated to a more detailed look at the machinations of Sam’s mind as he attempts to sort the puzzle of the DNAC. I wonder what the role of the DNAC is and why it’s part of the Evati chronicles. I wonder…I wonder…I wonder…
I think you mean mechanisms. Machinations has “evil” connotations.
Maybe a stream-of-thought post from inside Sam’s brain would be cool.
Great story so far. Looking forward to future installments.
@Psyche – I meant machinations.
FYI, PsycheDiver, I chose the word “machinations” in recognition of the context and circumstances in which Sam must solve the DNAC’s mysteries. Who’s to say what he will be forced to do if his need to solve the mystery conflicts with pressures from outside forces that might prevent him from doing so?
@Mynxee Are you basing that off his mental instability or malicious intent? IMHO Sam seems a little to benign for the latter.
@Roc You meant Machinations? When did you say it?
/emote turns on his neural backup…
1011101 0011100 0110011 0011001 0101101
0100101 0101011 1011001 1000111 0110101
1010011 0111100 1001100 0000001 1100000
1000101 0111001 0111000 0000101 1100010
0001011 1010110 1011100 0110100 0010110
1001001 1100001 0111000 0100011 1000111
1100010 1100010 1000011 1011100 0001010
0011101 1001010 1010101 0100000 0001110
0011001 1001101 0010100 0110110 0111100
0111001 1010001 0001101 0110111 0000110
1011111 1011101 0010111 0001001 0101111
0010000 0111001 1011101 0101011 0010010
1000011 1010101 0110101 0010001 1011101
0101111 0101000 1011001 1001010 0010010
1010110 1010001 0110010 0010001 1001101
0110111 1001010 1001000 0111111 1010001
0111011 0000111 0100110 0011110 1011000
0101100 1000011 0001010 0111101 1001100
0000110 0101111 1001111 1011001 1010110
0111011 0000010 0011001 1000101 1010101
…
See what I mean? He’s tricky…and obviously computing in a realm a bit different from the rest of us.
I get that, it’s just that I disagree with the assumption that such a thing is malicious. If he were to kill a person in the interests of science, he’d be doing it as a means to an end, and I don’t know if truly malicious intent would be involved.
What I’m trying to say is that even though his thought patterns are more advanced that a normal persons, we can’t defer malicious intent or even a negative disposition from that fact. We’ve seen nothing thus far of a lack or distortion of a moral core. As for the outside influences, I find it difficult to speak on the strength of his morals at this since we have yet to see him make a decision along those lines.
I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m saying that IMHO you may be jumping to conclusions.
As for the above binary, remember that as a capsuleer our thought patterns are regularly translated to computer code, and vise versa. I do find it odd that a capsuleer would deal with binary, as quantum computing is the norm in New Eden. Even now labs are experimenting with trinary code.
@Roc – stop putting your foot in your mouth. Machinations was used in 0.1, not 0.2, and now you look like an arse for jumping in on these comments.
@Psyche and Mynx – knock it off, children. There is only one hard truth in this universe. Aside from that, everything is subjective to our own experiences. Mynxee using the word machinations is perfectly acceptable, jumping to conclusions or not. That is her perogative, as what she takes away from the story is just as valid as what you do, Psyche. Disagreeing with an assumption is your right, as you obviously took away something different from the story, but it shouldn’t be at the cost of trying to interfere with another’s experience. Oh, and Psyche? Get a Gravatar already!
I hope every reader of my work gets something slightly different out of it, as it will make the experience uniquely theirs.
Binary, Trinary, Urinary, I don’t understand any of it myself. I just pew pew.
I was just debating the subject. I didn’t mean to suggest she didn’t have the right to use the word. I thought we were just having fun with the issue. I really do apologize if I came off any other way.
Thanks for telling me about this Gravatar thing. I’ll get on that today.
What can I say, I’m old school. I dig my Binary.
Its like a nice Vacumm tube amp.
Binary = Jazz in a smokey bar. Awesome.
@Psyche – Not sure if this is a forum for debate, thought we left that to beer and wings? Regardless, just don’t want anyone offending anyone else and not coming to my blog anymore!
@Sam – I have no idea what you just said, but you are teh secksay!
Yeah, just too bad Mynxee won’t be there. That would be awesome.
@PD, bit of a drive to your neck of the woods…but maybe one of these days 🙂
Gods-willing, we’ll all meet up at fanfest someday.
Though I have to wonder if your man-eating pirating tendencies extend to RL. 😉
There’s only one person who knows the answer to that and he won’t be at FanFest, sadly. 😉
Way to crush a man’s dreams, Myx! 😉