I had a cervical injection today to help with the pain i have. also I learned that the stenosis in my neck is worse than it was before. yay ... deadpan.
I was totally worried about the injection but it wasn't that bad the worse was the IV sedation. they blew a vein in my left arm and thankfully got it right in the .. right.. ha ha ha...
Okay i'm out for now.. take care my wonderful readers!!!
I have this feeling that the comms glitches and the golden thingies are connected... Just that the hairs on the back of my neck are getting frantic...!
You may not realize it, but sat comm communication can be laggy for multiple reasons like how many sats its going through and how far from the surface the signal needs to travel.
when you see the news, and they are talking to someone on a live sat feed, it may seem like the in station announcer andvthe reporter sometimes step on each other. This is because to keep the semblance of a normal conversation for the viewers', the remote person starts talking before the person in the station stops talking to fill in a gap that would ordinarily exist there. They actively work to fill dead air. If the remote is on a terrestrial fiber link, the delay is tiny instead of the 5-10 seconds on a sat call.
Lunacomm has to get the response that centcom approves before they can link in the communication around all of the other calls they are processing.
Yeah, but, but, in context *something* is out there... And New Troy would be a mega bonanza for golden thingies without much present knowledge, if they care about that at all! Just saying, I reckon CC/TR have a lot of surprises coming our way.
Thank you CC/TR.
I suspect Aeneas is tapping the connection and just might pull a signal hijack at suitably dramatic moment. He is the AIS of New Rome after all and such stunt should very much be within his capabilities...
Maxus' appearance reminds me that there's a huge mess yet to be cleaned up in NR, and by extension, has me wondering how Aeneas is reintegrating into Nova Roman society. Good to hear Irene's doing OK.
Now we're about to learn how Ophelia is doing. Apparently, she has given her consent. My guess would be that she's fine although the traumatic experience she's had might have left her a little rattled.
The fact that Aeneas isn't in on this conversation is a bad indication. It's been three generations since Nova Roma had a functioning AI - I imagine that many of his control circuits have been removed and replaced with manual controls. In addition, the people of NR just aren't used to taking his input into account. I imagine he's being ignored a lot, and that he doesn't like it.
Tokyo Rose is already on the call. The question is, will she make her presence known. The answer depends entirely on how the call goes and how vital she feels her input is.
Oddly enough, I was playing around on radio.garden last night and ended up listening to a station in Denmark
Zoomed in on the map and I'm pretty sure I saw your house...
It looks nice but the one next door's lawn looks like it's been mortared with all the holes dug in it ;)
Remember that their last contact with him was the wholesale merciless slaughter of every last person inside his exclusion zone - one kilometer, IIRC?
That included a whole lot of Nova Roman Citizens, Centurions, etc. Many hundreds or possibly a few thousands, considering that Grandpa Livius was using his army to try to destroy Aeneas so he could get his grubby hands on that weapons cache.
That's the kind of experience that leaves scars, and a healthy fear.
And then ever since, Aeneas or the automatics left in place by Aeneas - the population isn't likely to make much distinction when they discover that Aeneas is actually alive - have been destroying anything that comes into that zone, with the notable exception of Acantha Livius. And that builds the fear and dread; it's a shadow that the population lives under, a forbidden and deadly place.
Short version of the story is that the Nova Roma population is probably scared SHITLESS of Aeneas, and that any public announcement of his survival is likely to be met with widespread fear and panic, with the wealthy and powerful bolting for the exits and taking as much of Nova Roma's wealth and infrastructure with them as they possibly can.
Very gently letting it be known, in a quiet moment, that Aeneas is still alive, and not out to kill everybody, is going to be a delicate and difficult process.
Let's see how well I remember this. Decimus attempted to have Maxus assassinated, and sent Malati, and Hrist to kill him. Maxus and Irene were having a quiet evening in their quarters.
Malati had Irene held back, as Maxus bested Hrist. Hrist became incapacitated. If I remember correctly, Irene stabbed Malati in the hand and Malati tried to end the attack by saying she, too, had been incapacitated. Her inhibitor tried to "correct" her, and began giving punishing shocks through her MACCS, so Malati slashed her own MACCS rather than betray Maxus.
Malti died after sticking an integrated spike/knife from her wrist into her brain. Otherwise yes, that.
At the initial briefing she rightfully said the orders were BS, and in a way she found a creative way to both follow and disobey the orders she had been given.
This leads to an interesting speculation: What governs the numbers and identities of the Cassians?
They don't have a Glen, so we cannot explain away their individuality that way. Is there a maximum number of Cassians? A minimum? Do they just build new ones any time the Senate appropriates funds, Or any time one is destroyed? Cassians have specialities and skill mixes, so if they lose a particular specialist (say infiltration) how do they make sure they don't get (for example) an interrogator instead? Will there be a replacement for Kali? For Malati? Will they be named 'Kali' and 'Malati', because the roll of Cassians was laid down by the founders of Nova Roma and there will always be a Kali and a Malati (and a Nox and a Noctis and a Samanta)?
And how would Noctis react to a new Android walking up to her and saying "Hello, Princeps Noctis. I am the new Malati and I am to report to you for assignment."
They have lost at least three recently (Nox, Kali, Malati -- plus however many others fell during the recent revolt), and I can't believe they have so many that this is inconsequential. Will we see Acantha become involved in the recruitment of replacements?
Tip of the hat for knowing the difference between 'roll' and 'role' and using it in a sentence ;)
The only thing that irritates me more is the recent interchangeability between 'lose' and 'loose'.
hmmm rereading that, either word could have been used and still make sense...
The 'roll' of Cassians as in the list of their names
or the 'role' as pertaining to their duties.
Now I've confused myself again..I'll be in my bunk
“Roll” (list of names) was used advisedly, and thank you for the tip of the hat. I share your pain with regard to certain vocabulary ‘flaws” that seem to be getting ‘institutionalized’ without much justification (in my admittedly biased opinion.)
Don't they have back-ups in case something happens? Malti returns but doesn't remember her last day or 2. or however long between back-ups. Her shell was destroyed but Malti lives on.
Near as I can tell, each android persona is an irreplaceable individual. Going by how they saved Ada and TeeDee, they have to have the original persona, and they can "move" the persona out to a Q- drive, and then upload to a new body. Ophelia was saved by removing and transplanting her entire brain case. I don't recall ever seeing any instance of multiple copies of any individual. Bodies can be duplicated, personas cannot, it seems.
I suppose a crude analogy would be that an Android body is an aircraft and the unique persona is the pilot.
They can switch between bodies with minimal difficulty, although it seems to be a lot more compicated given 'reload fever', etc. but they can still pilot the new craft and with upgrades in the new body do an even better job, like switching from a MK I Spitfire to a MK XIX, it's generally the same but a lot different too.
If Malati could be restored, I think we would have seen evidence of that from Noctis by now. For that matter there is also Columbina to recall. So, I suspect personalities (Cassian, at least) are not being preserved in Q-Drive equivalents.
See, this is odd. On the one hand, if you send Minx in her current chassis out into the world, able to interact with people as a regular android, I would bet on her being able to extract information from her assigned mark, provided they are gynosexual*, as effectively as Noctis.
But if you put her in a recognizable Cassian Chassis, and her identity is known to everyone the way Cassians' identities are, then there are fifteen kinds of 'nope' written across her from the perspective of everyone in Nova Roma, gynosexual or not, and she becomes much less effective at extracting information.
*Gynosexual - ie, straight or bi male, or lesbian or bi female. Someone whose sexual orientation includes women.
Looks like 'dead is dead' for New Troy Androids too...
Unless someone is nearby with a Q-drive or the braincase survives and they bought an 'extender' ;)
[meta[meta]] real-world/comic world interpenetrations:
ObShelleyBerman: Relative to what? (anyone old enough to remember seeing him live and at the top of his game, like I did?) Sonic internet's fiber is available here - the owner is a supporter of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, a promoter of strong security, and offers full network neutrality to one and all; AT&T's local offering is over copper, and AT&T (actually Southwest Bell) in comparison is like fast low-earth orbit satellite - bursty at best and not good enough for ZOOMing or other streaming services.
A bizarre question: If *DataChasers* is set on Earth, which planet’s geography is portrayed on the Nova Roma flag, and why? It doesn’t look like any Earth projection I recall seeing, and I didn’t think sea level had changed **that** much.
Was Nova Roma founded by Ancient Astronauts? *_^
(On further consideration, I found it. It is apparently an Azimuthal Equidistant Projection centered on Earth’s North Pole. Well done, @CentComm.)
Following along with my habit of asking awkward questions, consider the following conundrum:
In a break with previous decades of tradition, based on the newfound amicable relations between Nova Roma and New Troy, Princess Acantha attempts to legitimately barter for synth-brains, instead of acquiring them via the gray (or black) markets. New Troy Councillors object on ethical grounds, citing the poor treatment of androids in general in Nova Roma. Princess Acantha counters by citing the privileged status of Cassian's in particular and asks 'Is it really worse to be a Cassian than it is to be a Black Angel? And, if you tolerate the use of synthbrains in Black Angels, why would you not willingly supply them for Cassians?"
Taking the scenario as presented, I would find myself agreeing with Acantha. Of course, the New Troy Councillors could be expected to counter with "The general android population in New Rome enjoys no such status, and are considered second-class citizens, if considered at all."
and to counter that,, New Troy is no better.! a golden leash is still a leash.. you have the "you must have a Android look (segregation)." and the big one,, all androids MUST limit to a 100 year life cycle.!
IF that don't scream "Second Class" I don't what does.!!!
“These brains are specifically being acquired to serve as Cassians, so your objections in the general case do not apply. If necessary we can include an end use certificate attesting to that fact.”
"In addition to end-user verification, you will need to submit a proposal for a secure and verifiable chain of custody. We certainly wouldn't want anything to be . . . misplaced, you understand, since the objective is to reduce black-marketeering."
"We are a sovereign nation. Auditing the certificate of end use for compliance is one thing, requiring a custody chain is quite another. The notion is somewhat silly, in fact. Three brains, Three Cassians. As long as the brains end up in the Cassians, how they get there is irrelevant. Or are you suggesting we would swap in a brain-substitute for our Cassians so we could resell the synth-brains? If you are trying not to make the deal and just maintain the status quo, you are free to say so."
We suggest nothing of the sort, and we recognize Nova Roma's sovereignty. Apologies, if we have given the wrong impression. It might be a reasonable assumption, that since we are having this discussion, there may be some dissatisfaction with your current means of procurement. Whether it's sporadic supply, quality issues, or its sometimes quasi legal nature, we don't know. We can supply to spec, and in reliable quantity. These procedures, we feel are necessary to the integrity of the transaction, and they protect you as well as they do us. They provide a means of tracking on a granular level, so that individual quality issues are addressed quickly and effectively, as well as providing a measure of transparency. It is my hope that this will allay your concerns.
Dropping back to third person, @Megados, chain of custody would only be warranted if there was some ongoing relationship or liability attaching NewTroy to the product. In this case, once delivery has been made and accepted there is no real need for a verifiable chain of custody. This is going into military hardware exclusively under the authority of Nova Roma. Product quality and warranty (if any) could be tracked by a simple serial number, and acceptance testing prior to accepting delivery. What purpose would be served beyond that? Also, although ongoing arrangements in the case of a supply stream might warrant a more mutual involvement in assembly after delivery, I doubt Nova Roma will be cranking up the assembly lines to turn out one or two Cassians a month. So, in all likelihood, each purchase would probably be negotiated as a standalone transaction
(Of course, who knows what the creatrices have in mind. We could be looking at mass-production of Cassians starting up in expectations of losses for the new battle against the unknowns. If there were going to be some kind of joint defense program, then a chain of custody for the synthbrains to ensure none of them get ‘misplaced’ would be much more appropriate.)
Ah, I should explain. Mara's reaction on the last page suggested that New Troy is/was concerned that some synth brains were getting out into the "wrong hands". The QC chain of custody explanation was to be a ruse, and the actual reason would be to try to track and determine where or when they were being diverted. The "New Troy negotiator" was trying to ofuscate the real reason for the request. Both New Rome, and New Troy saw an opportunity to gain.
Give New Troy businessmen a chance to profit from selling synthbrains and get a chance to slip a few 'extras' in them as Pinky did with Ceci's ?
Can't go wrong there....
Yup. An obvious ruse. And I suspect that, because of their deplorable record on Android rights, it isn’t some mysterious third-party that Mara considers ‘the wrong hands’, but Nova Roma itself. In which case there is no mystery about where the brains would be going and she would just be looking for any grounds to spike the trade at all. Just my conjecture, of course.
And as long as there is a general suspicion, Acantha is at a disadvantage, since she is acting in good faith, but it would take only one bad actor in the system to render it moot. Mara's position would be vindicated.
In the first place, Nova Roma would recognize a security risk in acquiring synthbrains directly from New Troy giving Centcomm certain knowledge that these three exact synthbrains were to become Cassians.
Centcomm would be expected to suborn their security in some way; providing a 'backdoor' for information extraction or even command that New Troy could exploit in the event of vital national interests or in the event of conflict.
Secondly, relations between New Troy and Nova Roma are thawing, not warm. If not providing such 'special' synthbrains to serve the New Troy state interests, we would expect a trade agreement, but not trading in weapons of war or instruments of population oppression. Even when relations are warm and trade in weapons of war can occur in good faith, New Troy is still not likely to knowingly sell Nova Roma instruments of oppression. Acantha will have to demonstrate that the Cassians are *NOT* being used as such before such a sale could go forward.
That is actually a fascinating commentary on CentComm's ethics (or lack thereof), @Morituri. If CentComm's argument that the way she treats Black Angels is justified by the fact that they are not people, but weapons, and she then intends to treat nascent Cassians in the same way by compromising their free-will in construction, it makes the statement that she does not consider Cassians people, but only weapons.
Technically (and programmers love technicalities) we have been told Centcomm has a special exception for Black Angels. Since these would be Synthbrains intended to go on and become Cassians, and never to be Black Angels, the exception would not apply and CentComm would be defying the New Troy Council to act in such a way -- which Agammemnon would presumably detect at the next monitoring opportunity. There would be (in my opinion) opportunities for a whole lot of Lost In Translation-quality drama. But I wouldn't expect CentComm to act in such a blatantly unethical manner unless the expected reward more than offset the potential human cost.
I would like to point out that Black Angels are TopSecret, and information in regards to how they are constructed and that they even exist is on a need to know baisis.
It is apparent from the final panel of Comic 1723 - Welcoming Party that the existence of Black Angels is known to Samanta, with the implication that she also knows them to be, at least generally, of android construction. So, it may be a military secret, but obviously not a closely held one and something that could be addressed during negotiations if necessary. The specific details of just how 'inhuman' they are may, of course, not be known to Nova Roma Intelligence.
It also seems likely that Kyle knows about Black Angels, or else why not just call them 'Angels', rather than the more specific 'White Angels'.
Acantha knew what Ceci was the first time she laid eyes on her. By the same name, even - Black Angel - implying that the intel came from somewhere inside New Troy.
http://datachasers.thecomicseries.com/comics/1267
In practice there are several different kinds of top secret material. It looks like Black Angels are in the "Everybody knows it, and everybody is pretty sure everybody else knows it, but it's officially a secret so out of respect for New Troy and to preserve our diplomatic relations we try not to talk about it in public" category.
Considering that Acantha is not just anyone, I'd not jump to the conclusion that *everybody* knows about them. That said, I'd wager people flagged as conspiracy nuts are the primary reason they're not technically known by everybody. So the knowledge is available, but not everyone has it.
It's likely they're far better known outside of New Troy than they are inside it. I'm a white male gynosexual American who passes for cis, so I know something about the amount of home grown ignorance that one can be totally unaware of, because the existence of that home grown ignorance is part of the home grown ignorance.
True. In context, "everybody" was in reference to national powers. IE, Nova Roma knows about them, so New Sparta probably knows about them, and Shinedo probably knows about them, etc....
Acantha in this context is someone who's been privy to intel briefs in New Rome, and her knowledge is an indication that New Rome knows about it.
Of course, at the time Acantha recognized CeCi as a Black Angel, Decimus was running the show and keeping Acantha very cut off and isolated, so it isn’t clear how much access to intelligence briefings she was granted.
We do know she had access to Decimus’ foaming and rantings, though — as did most of the Black Palace contingent — so who knows how many ‘state secrets’ and ‘top secret tidbits’ were common knowledge. I imagine Prince Decimus was a security and counter-intelligence division’s nightmare
@Centcomm, don't worry about the page. What medical thing has you worried? (It's OK if you don't wanna talk about it) I hope it goes well for you though! Stay safe!
I sympathize with Cent, every morning it's 'spin the wheel and see what's mucked up today' ;)
After 40 it's all maintenance and after 50 it's patch, patch, patch...
The first ten minutes of the day are spent just lying still, taking inventory
The next ten minutes are spent trying to convince myself I really don't have to pee, just to stay in bed
Seriously considering renovations/moving just to get a bathroom on the ground floor for when I do get up...
Different people are different. My ex has EDS, so she started her frequent patch cycle at 30. (Some people with EDS have it worse - we've met someone who started that cycle at 16. Ow.)
My brain surgeon was 85 when he operated on me, and as far as I can tell, he's still just at the high maintenance state. Admittedly, I only see him every other year for maybe half an hour at this point, so there's a lot that might not be apparent. But he doesn't *move* like he's 90 and looks about as young as I do.
Another one of my pet peeves, along with bare/bare as in 'to bare arms'
Except for the cat that ate the cheese and sat in front of the mousehole with baited breath ;)
On the one hand, it's good to know that the thing you were worried about wasn't so bad. It sounds like the stenosis in your neck could contribute to your other pain, as well as being (and I apologize in advance) a pain in the neck.
We're pulling for you. Take care, and stay safe, Cent!
Yeah, I've got a couple of pretty crunchy cervical vertebrae and they affect everything from my chest to my hand but oddly enough my neck rarely bothers me.
I had several stays in a cardiac unit, even if they couldn't find anything really wrong (except a 'get down, get funky' heart rate that switches time signatures from 4/4 to 3/4 to 9/8 to 2/2 that they say doesn't mean anything) until they decided it was the nerves in the neck causing the pain in my chest.
I really sympathize with you Cent, reflected pain is particularly aggravating because there isn't much you can do to the site that's hurting to stop it :(
Really rather amazing that she's apparently healthy.
"Dad, how's mom?" "She's okay. Not now for more."
It often sucks to wear the crown...
when you see the news, and they are talking to someone on a live sat feed, it may seem like the in station announcer andvthe reporter sometimes step on each other. This is because to keep the semblance of a normal conversation for the viewers', the remote person starts talking before the person in the station stops talking to fill in a gap that would ordinarily exist there. They actively work to fill dead air. If the remote is on a terrestrial fiber link, the delay is tiny instead of the 5-10 seconds on a sat call.
Lunacomm has to get the response that centcom approves before they can link in the communication around all of the other calls they are processing.
Thank you CC/TR.
The image looks vaguely Russian/German/Eastern European
Now we're about to learn how Ophelia is doing. Apparently, she has given her consent. My guess would be that she's fine although the traumatic experience she's had might have left her a little rattled.
What’s that? You say she wasn’t invited? What’s your point?
Tokyo Rose is already on the call. The question is, will she make her presence known. The answer depends entirely on how the call goes and how vital she feels her input is.
Zoomed in on the map and I'm pretty sure I saw your house...
It looks nice but the one next door's lawn looks like it's been mortared with all the holes dug in it ;)
OK, now **THAT** is funny to contemplate...
That included a whole lot of Nova Roman Citizens, Centurions, etc. Many hundreds or possibly a few thousands, considering that Grandpa Livius was using his army to try to destroy Aeneas so he could get his grubby hands on that weapons cache.
That's the kind of experience that leaves scars, and a healthy fear.
And then ever since, Aeneas or the automatics left in place by Aeneas - the population isn't likely to make much distinction when they discover that Aeneas is actually alive - have been destroying anything that comes into that zone, with the notable exception of Acantha Livius. And that builds the fear and dread; it's a shadow that the population lives under, a forbidden and deadly place.
Short version of the story is that the Nova Roma population is probably scared SHITLESS of Aeneas, and that any public announcement of his survival is likely to be met with widespread fear and panic, with the wealthy and powerful bolting for the exits and taking as much of Nova Roma's wealth and infrastructure with them as they possibly can.
Very gently letting it be known, in a quiet moment, that Aeneas is still alive, and not out to kill everybody, is going to be a delicate and difficult process.
Malati had Irene held back, as Maxus bested Hrist. Hrist became incapacitated. If I remember correctly, Irene stabbed Malati in the hand and Malati tried to end the attack by saying she, too, had been incapacitated. Her inhibitor tried to "correct" her, and began giving punishing shocks through her MACCS, so Malati slashed her own MACCS rather than betray Maxus.
At the initial briefing she rightfully said the orders were BS, and in a way she found a creative way to both follow and disobey the orders she had been given.
They don't have a Glen, so we cannot explain away their individuality that way. Is there a maximum number of Cassians? A minimum? Do they just build new ones any time the Senate appropriates funds, Or any time one is destroyed? Cassians have specialities and skill mixes, so if they lose a particular specialist (say infiltration) how do they make sure they don't get (for example) an interrogator instead? Will there be a replacement for Kali? For Malati? Will they be named 'Kali' and 'Malati', because the roll of Cassians was laid down by the founders of Nova Roma and there will always be a Kali and a Malati (and a Nox and a Noctis and a Samanta)?
And how would Noctis react to a new Android walking up to her and saying "Hello, Princeps Noctis. I am the new Malati and I am to report to you for assignment."
They have lost at least three recently (Nox, Kali, Malati -- plus however many others fell during the recent revolt), and I can't believe they have so many that this is inconsequential. Will we see Acantha become involved in the recruitment of replacements?
<raises hand>
What could possibly go wrong?
The only thing that irritates me more is the recent interchangeability between 'lose' and 'loose'.
The 'roll' of Cassians as in the list of their names
or the 'role' as pertaining to their duties.
Now I've confused myself again..I'll be in my bunk
They can switch between bodies with minimal difficulty, although it seems to be a lot more compicated given 'reload fever', etc. but they can still pilot the new craft and with upgrades in the new body do an even better job, like switching from a MK I Spitfire to a MK XIX, it's generally the same but a lot different too.
What would her special abilities be, apart from seduction, I mean.
Start a party ?
But if you put her in a recognizable Cassian Chassis, and her identity is known to everyone the way Cassians' identities are, then there are fifteen kinds of 'nope' written across her from the perspective of everyone in Nova Roma, gynosexual or not, and she becomes much less effective at extracting information.
*Gynosexual - ie, straight or bi male, or lesbian or bi female. Someone whose sexual orientation includes women.
I'm not sure if she would be sneaky enough for that.
Well, unless it's a bed that needs infiltrating. 🤣
Maybe a Go-Go-dancer in Breakers bar ?
Unless someone is nearby with a Q-drive or the braincase survives and they bought an 'extender' ;)
ObShelleyBerman: Relative to what? (anyone old enough to remember seeing him live and at the top of his game, like I did?) Sonic internet's fiber is available here - the owner is a supporter of the Electronic Freedom Foundation, a promoter of strong security, and offers full network neutrality to one and all; AT&T's local offering is over copper, and AT&T (actually Southwest Bell) in comparison is like fast low-earth orbit satellite - bursty at best and not good enough for ZOOMing or other streaming services.
Was Nova Roma founded by Ancient Astronauts? *_^
(On further consideration, I found it. It is apparently an Azimuthal Equidistant Projection centered on Earth’s North Pole. Well done, @CentComm.)
I wonder if Ophie gets that bill...
In a break with previous decades of tradition, based on the newfound amicable relations between Nova Roma and New Troy, Princess Acantha attempts to legitimately barter for synth-brains, instead of acquiring them via the gray (or black) markets. New Troy Councillors object on ethical grounds, citing the poor treatment of androids in general in Nova Roma. Princess Acantha counters by citing the privileged status of Cassian's in particular and asks 'Is it really worse to be a Cassian than it is to be a Black Angel? And, if you tolerate the use of synthbrains in Black Angels, why would you not willingly supply them for Cassians?"
On which side of the debate do you find yourself?
IF that don't scream "Second Class" I don't what does.!!!
(Of course, who knows what the creatrices have in mind. We could be looking at mass-production of Cassians starting up in expectations of losses for the new battle against the unknowns. If there were going to be some kind of joint defense program, then a chain of custody for the synthbrains to ensure none of them get ‘misplaced’ would be much more appropriate.)
Can't go wrong there....
Centcomm would be expected to suborn their security in some way; providing a 'backdoor' for information extraction or even command that New Troy could exploit in the event of vital national interests or in the event of conflict.
Secondly, relations between New Troy and Nova Roma are thawing, not warm. If not providing such 'special' synthbrains to serve the New Troy state interests, we would expect a trade agreement, but not trading in weapons of war or instruments of population oppression. Even when relations are warm and trade in weapons of war can occur in good faith, New Troy is still not likely to knowingly sell Nova Roma instruments of oppression. Acantha will have to demonstrate that the Cassians are *NOT* being used as such before such a sale could go forward.
Technically (and programmers love technicalities) we have been told Centcomm has a special exception for Black Angels. Since these would be Synthbrains intended to go on and become Cassians, and never to be Black Angels, the exception would not apply and CentComm would be defying the New Troy Council to act in such a way -- which Agammemnon would presumably detect at the next monitoring opportunity. There would be (in my opinion) opportunities for a whole lot of Lost In Translation-quality drama. But I wouldn't expect CentComm to act in such a blatantly unethical manner unless the expected reward more than offset the potential human cost.
It also seems likely that Kyle knows about Black Angels, or else why not just call them 'Angels', rather than the more specific 'White Angels'.
http://datachasers.thecomicseries.com/comics/1267
In practice there are several different kinds of top secret material. It looks like Black Angels are in the "Everybody knows it, and everybody is pretty sure everybody else knows it, but it's officially a secret so out of respect for New Troy and to preserve our diplomatic relations we try not to talk about it in public" category.
It's likely they're far better known outside of New Troy than they are inside it. I'm a white male gynosexual American who passes for cis, so I know something about the amount of home grown ignorance that one can be totally unaware of, because the existence of that home grown ignorance is part of the home grown ignorance.
Acantha in this context is someone who's been privy to intel briefs in New Rome, and her knowledge is an indication that New Rome knows about it.
We do know she had access to Decimus’ foaming and rantings, though — as did most of the Black Palace contingent — so who knows how many ‘state secrets’ and ‘top secret tidbits’ were common knowledge. I imagine Prince Decimus was a security and counter-intelligence division’s nightmare
*Hugs*
After 40 it's all maintenance and after 50 it's patch, patch, patch...
The next ten minutes are spent trying to convince myself I really don't have to pee, just to stay in bed
Seriously considering renovations/moving just to get a bathroom on the ground floor for when I do get up...
My brain surgeon was 85 when he operated on me, and as far as I can tell, he's still just at the high maintenance state. Admittedly, I only see him every other year for maybe half an hour at this point, so there's a lot that might not be apparent. But he doesn't *move* like he's 90 and looks about as young as I do.
In any case, I hope all goes well.
Except for the cat that ate the cheese and sat in front of the mousehole with baited breath ;)
Cats normally have bare arms, but it would look pretty silly with bear arms. Now if it were bearing arms, that would be different.
...and take care of yourself!!!
(first and foremost - and for the comic later)
We're pulling for you. Take care, and stay safe, Cent!
*Hugs*
I had several stays in a cardiac unit, even if they couldn't find anything really wrong (except a 'get down, get funky' heart rate that switches time signatures from 4/4 to 3/4 to 9/8 to 2/2 that they say doesn't mean anything) until they decided it was the nerves in the neck causing the pain in my chest.
I really sympathize with you Cent, reflected pain is particularly aggravating because there isn't much you can do to the site that's hurting to stop it :(