And Irene have definately noticed something is odd about Malati's behavior.
Maxus, not so much, ah well, Irene will just have to shield Malati from Maxus.
Maxus : "Quickly Irene, get behind me, I'll protect you."
Malati : "Come Hrist, *picks up Hrist* let us awaaay!"
Maxus : "If you think I'm just gonna let you ... uhh ... walk out of here ?"
Hrist : "Where are we going?"
Malati : "Well, damaged as we are, we should recover - I was thinking the gladiatorial baths."
Irene : "Uhm, don't attack her Maxus."
Maxus : ".. but .."
Irene : "Please ?"
Maxus : "What the HELL is going on here ?"
Noctis pointed out the "avoid serious personal harm" clause in her orders as a means of a loophole she could work with.
and the diabolical duo here have gone to great pains to show us that Malati does have a keen sense of duty that has been stretched to the breaking point by Decimus.
This order was bad enough that she was willing to fight Kali over it, which not only goes against her programming, but is crime that would get her de-commissioned.
The thing about an AI, and we've only really seen it in full bloom with Dolly and Malati, is that in order for it to be true sentience, it has to have the ability to learn from it's mistakes, grow, and mature on it's own. In computerese, it is constantly writing new code for itself and debugging earlier code.
Unfortunately for Malati, she could do with a debugging session from someone like Doc Silver, but in the meantime, this has GOT to feel good for her to be able to disregard this particular order!
She is not disregarding her programming, merely bending it a bit.
If an AI is not allowed selfpreservation, it could end up breaking it's core programming, so part of the core programming will have to allow for it, or you could suddenly stand with a rogue cassian on the loose. Kinda like what happened with Amy over in Luna Star, where she broke her directives because of compassion and empathy. But in the case of a cassian, it would be survival over directives/orders.
Not something any person in power would like to have.
Better to have a bungled mission, than a rogue cassian.
Those are good points, Sheela, and "Disregard" was probably a poor choice of words on my part. My big concern about Malati at this point though, is as she seems to be the "weapon of choice" against people that the prince doesn't like cause they have sweaty palms, or because they refuse to sell a particular Vinyard they own to the crown, She is already "damaged goods", as it were. evidenced by her willing to fight Kali over this one.
It's 2:30 in the morning, and I have to be up as 6:00, and I can't sleep because of this particular installment. I don't know whether to congratulate Cent and Rose for that, or Yell at them!
Well ... maybe a little snark.
Especially if it's snark directed at Decimus.
Then she might even encourage it!
Meanwhile, ALL of Decimus' heartbeats are being counted and tallied up ... there's a very definite deadline coming up. :)
Recently, I did an archive dive over at Luna Star. And I had a thought:
In Luna Star, Galina had severe spinal cord damage, which they were able to repair. After a bit of therapy after surgery, she was back on her feet as good as new.
Keep in mind: Luna Star took place several hundred years earlier. (Over 800?) And Nova Roma is quite backwards technologically, especially in terms of surgery (as evidenced by the faulty autodoc that hurt Lynn). Does the technology exist at this point in the story - somewhere - to fix Irene's spinal injury? If not, why?
xpace - The problem with Gali was she is/was a clone/android. He android parts were very delicately put into a Human Clone. ETA ETA-
xpace I misread your comment, I thought you were referring to Hrist's spine. It was explained in an earlier post that not even Luna Medical Technology could repair Irene's spine.
Hrist is a Pure Android. She can actually be repaired quite easily compared to what ahppened to Gali.
He was asking about Irene, not Hrist. and that's a really good question. Nova Roma may be backwards as far as Tech goes, but they are actually probably more advanced than New Troy when it comes to Biosciences.
Sometimes I've been known to say something that makes me sound like a complete idiot (we won't mention who the authors of "Good Omens" were again), and the only excuse I have is that I am so smart I sometimes do a full circle back to stupid!
gonna do a catch all here. Galina's "biology and Injury" was mechanical failure of parts and those parts were replaceable ( once they got ahold of scans/ blueprints )
Irene.. is a different matter There is also the Nova Roma Ideal of " Human first and culling the weak. " and thats one of the main tenets of the Church of genetic purity is to weed out weakness.. remember when Irene felt ashamed of her injury and that she couldn't just "walk it off" Sure the Epiphytes might be able to fix her - but THEY ARENT HUMAN - the nano frame is a acceptable "crutch" that allows Irene to perform almost everything she did before. The Tech in Luna is New Troy and Higher .. and Roma sits between Luna Star tech( OLD ) and New Troy. ( current ) now the issue is that Irene has lived with the issue for so long that it would be a major issue to repair it completely .. again the Lunas and the Epips "could do it" but wont even suggest it because they know Roma's "Customs" Roma has learned not to trust above a certain level of High tech. and its another reason they hate / envy New troy .
Though, now I'm wondering: If a Luna citizen suffered spinal injuries like Irene's, how would they treat it? I seem to recall the Major (forgot his name) from AmCom (in Luna Star) had a cybernetic spine. Would Luna treat such an injury by replacing the damaged parts with cybernetic implants (assuming they had wealth or good insurance)?
Differing from Cent's notes above I'd probably say not. If any enhancements would be made it might only go to the military. Granted they too probably only do the human aspect so that might be a bust. I'm more than positive though that if all goes down well I can see medical advances in NR to get Irene the spine she needs.
In CURRENT DC .. Cybernetics and Bio implants are very common. esp in Luna. Roma and a few others have a " my body is a temple " and they try to keep themselves pure as possible. in contrast even Lynn has a implant for her ID and a Info net interface .. they are just very well hidden and very 'passive' technology..
I could imagine Dolly taking her line dancing when Decimus is finally dead and buried and they've built the dancefloor on top of his tomb to accomodate everyone.
Malati just found a loophole in her assassination orders ... or would that be a puncture hole? Anyway, the threat to Maxus and Irene is mitigated, for the moment anyway.
Is that blood running from Malati's wound or some form of lubrication fluid? I'd imagine the Cardassians have something resembling Kevlar strength articulation joints which wouldn't need lubrication, but some of their innards might.
Working fluid? So, uh, which of the following does it do: Hydraulic transfer fluid, mass shifting (balance/locomotion support), part transport, chemical resupply, gas transfer medium, and emergency damage mitigation/filler? What else does it do?
Wonder if that was a phone spell checker gone bad, Rose. I don't use mine that often, because it does some of the DAMNEDEST things. I have to continually fight with it, it wants to replace Maxus with Macys all the time. =O Somehow I can't equate those two. :-D
That should be easy to fix, open up your autocorrect dictionary and delete Cardassians. Then turn off automatic correction, and live with those squiggly lines under those proper nouns like there should be because they're not properly words in the English language. Autocorrect should never be allowed to correct automatically because then it will 'correct' words into the wrong word. Four inn stance dose many whored en these sen tense trig gore spell cheque? (Okay, the last one maybe but that's because I'm using a perfectly valid Canadian/French spelling that American spelling dictionaries won't accept.)
Actually this Question is covered in the "tech pages" on androids. The fluid is also a o2 carrier and cleans and lubricates internal parts losing fluid can be dangerous although Cassians are more compartmentalized more than a human. So they have more or less separate circulatory systems for Brain and critical system. and one that is separate that serves the limbs and voluntary motive systems. this back up within back up is why Hrist isnt dead.
I thought the first two panels showed Irene's expressions very well too, Thomas. I mean, it is OBVIOUS from those expressions she expected a great deal of pain, if not outright death, from her actions. But she wasn't about to NOT fight back this time.
Malati's actions have certainly confused Irene. Maxus on the other hand seems unwilling to leave Irene near Malati, in case she is suddenly 'compelled' to complete her mission.
Yes Irene fully expected Malati to kill her .. she was just hoping it wouldn't be too painful or long and would free Maxus to do whatever he had to - even Irene realized how futile her actions were in her continued survival.
*slowly swivels chair to face Sheela* Have you ever considered that the fall of many great villains has been voicing their plans out loud?
However, I shall do you a turn since you did me one. My plan to survive is to race away as fast as humanly possible on my rolly chair!
Weeee!
(Yes, in case you were wondering, I am in a really good mood today and feel like being a total goofball.)
He he, yeah, Irene is a bit confused, that's for sure.
But I think she's also catching on that something important just happened.
Here's hoping she will stop Maxus from attacking the cassians further, and let them live.
Maybe he could use them as hostages and evidence aghainst Decimus, I bet Malati would love to be evidence against Decimus. :D
(gets soda and popcorn)
*Opens 5 cans of albacore tuna and put's them in Sheela's bowl*
And Irene have definately noticed something is odd about Malati's behavior.
Maxus, not so much, ah well, Irene will just have to shield Malati from Maxus.
"Gleeee ... tuna *and* mackarel!"
You can have both if you want, or you could forgo the tuna this time and go wholly mackerel!
Malati : "Come Hrist, *picks up Hrist* let us awaaay!"
Maxus : "If you think I'm just gonna let you ... uhh ... walk out of here ?"
Hrist : "Where are we going?"
Malati : "Well, damaged as we are, we should recover - I was thinking the gladiatorial baths."
Irene : "Uhm, don't attack her Maxus."
Maxus : ".. but .."
Irene : "Please ?"
Maxus : "What the HELL is going on here ?"
Is Malati's programming restrictions special in some way? Or are all the Cassians able to bend the rules this much?
and the diabolical duo here have gone to great pains to show us that Malati does have a keen sense of duty that has been stretched to the breaking point by Decimus.
This order was bad enough that she was willing to fight Kali over it, which not only goes against her programming, but is crime that would get her de-commissioned.
The thing about an AI, and we've only really seen it in full bloom with Dolly and Malati, is that in order for it to be true sentience, it has to have the ability to learn from it's mistakes, grow, and mature on it's own. In computerese, it is constantly writing new code for itself and debugging earlier code.
Unfortunately for Malati, she could do with a debugging session from someone like Doc Silver, but in the meantime, this has GOT to feel good for her to be able to disregard this particular order!
If an AI is not allowed selfpreservation, it could end up breaking it's core programming, so part of the core programming will have to allow for it, or you could suddenly stand with a rogue cassian on the loose. Kinda like what happened with Amy over in Luna Star, where she broke her directives because of compassion and empathy. But in the case of a cassian, it would be survival over directives/orders.
Not something any person in power would like to have.
Better to have a bungled mission, than a rogue cassian.
It's 2:30 in the morning, and I have to be up as 6:00, and I can't sleep because of this particular installment. I don't know whether to congratulate Cent and Rose for that, or Yell at them!
Technically Hrist should have been sent after Acantha and Lynn .. And Nox would not have held back like Hrist did.
and yes Malati was ready to throw down right then and there with Kali ..
FTFY
Especially if it's snark directed at Decimus.
Then she might even encourage it!
Meanwhile, ALL of Decimus' heartbeats are being counted and tallied up ... there's a very definite deadline coming up. :)
In Luna Star, Galina had severe spinal cord damage, which they were able to repair. After a bit of therapy after surgery, she was back on her feet as good as new.
Keep in mind: Luna Star took place several hundred years earlier. (Over 800?) And Nova Roma is quite backwards technologically, especially in terms of surgery (as evidenced by the faulty autodoc that hurt Lynn). Does the technology exist at this point in the story - somewhere - to fix Irene's spinal injury? If not, why?
xpace I misread your comment, I thought you were referring to Hrist's spine. It was explained in an earlier post that not even Luna Medical Technology could repair Irene's spine.
Hrist is a Pure Android. She can actually be repaired quite easily compared to what ahppened to Gali.
And Cent, Just how perceptive am I now? ;)
ETA - And was that a WINK?
When I"m really tired or in pain or both like now, my dyslexia kicks in really bad.
Sometimes I've been known to say something that makes me sound like a complete idiot (we won't mention who the authors of "Good Omens" were again), and the only excuse I have is that I am so smart I sometimes do a full circle back to stupid!
Irene.. is a different matter There is also the Nova Roma Ideal of " Human first and culling the weak. " and thats one of the main tenets of the Church of genetic purity is to weed out weakness.. remember when Irene felt ashamed of her injury and that she couldn't just "walk it off" Sure the Epiphytes might be able to fix her - but THEY ARENT HUMAN - the nano frame is a acceptable "crutch" that allows Irene to perform almost everything she did before. The Tech in Luna is New Troy and Higher .. and Roma sits between Luna Star tech( OLD ) and New Troy. ( current ) now the issue is that Irene has lived with the issue for so long that it would be a major issue to repair it completely .. again the Lunas and the Epips "could do it" but wont even suggest it because they know Roma's "Customs" Roma has learned not to trust above a certain level of High tech. and its another reason they hate / envy New troy .
Though, now I'm wondering: If a Luna citizen suffered spinal injuries like Irene's, how would they treat it? I seem to recall the Major (forgot his name) from AmCom (in Luna Star) had a cybernetic spine. Would Luna treat such an injury by replacing the damaged parts with cybernetic implants (assuming they had wealth or good insurance)?
Is that blood running from Malati's wound or some form of lubrication fluid? I'd imagine the Cardassians have something resembling Kevlar strength articulation joints which wouldn't need lubrication, but some of their innards might.
It's the same blood-ish working fluid that's common to androids. Serves the same general purpose, just not made of the same stuff.
It's one of the first things I turn off when acquiring a device.
B-but ... I don't like hard work! :(
* begins slow clap *
Malati's actions have certainly confused Irene. Maxus on the other hand seems unwilling to leave Irene near Malati, in case she is suddenly 'compelled' to complete her mission.
After all, Irene is no longer in danger. :)
You clever clever cassian.
She just got promoted to Maxus level favorite
"who's a good lil Psychopathic Killer Android? You are, yes you are!!"
I thought the not blinking thing was for the Weeping Angels :D
... and then they blame the Cassians!
I am like, *SO* sneaky right now, ke ke ke.
However, I shall do you a turn since you did me one. My plan to survive is to race away as fast as humanly possible on my rolly chair!
Weeee!
(Yes, in case you were wondering, I am in a really good mood today and feel like being a total goofball.)
No haunting, no haunting !
EEEWWWWWWWW!!
ooooOOOOOOOOOooooooooo
Yeah, it really did.
It was pretty imaginative though. :)
Sort of an 'Eureka' moment there.
Yeah, that's how I read it too.
...halp, halp, oh, noes...
...abort mission, I repeat: abort...
The surprised look of Irene - priceless...
...and Maxus does not trust Malati's statement...
...if only poor Hrist had thought the same: my back is hurt, serious damage, I must discontinue, she would not be in two pieces...
But I think she's also catching on that something important just happened.
Here's hoping she will stop Maxus from attacking the cassians further, and let them live.
Maybe he could use them as hostages and evidence aghainst Decimus, I bet Malati would love to be evidence against Decimus. :D
dum dum dum, dum dum dum, dum dum dum da-dum dum dum...as the Cassians go rolling along...
<ducking so as not to be smacked by TR>
Run from Max, and Irene, as we flee a losing scene, and the Cassians go rolling along...
<ducking twice>
Brave Sir Robin ran away,
bravely ran away away!
When danger reared it's ugly head,
he bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes brave Sir Robin turned about,
and gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet,
he beat a very brave retreat.
Bravest of the brave, Sir Robin!