The Manipulation of Flesh (1/3)

The Manipulation of Flesh: A Review of Biomantic Research

by Hera, Queen of Olympus

Note: At this time, the contents of this document are subject to restricted access, in accordance with Olympus Protocol 2L-K: VIX. Viewing this document without necessary permissions is a crime of heresy, punishable by death and/or damnation, at the will of our regent, Zeus.

[Translation - If you read this you're committing treason and may end up in suspended animation, with your mind trapped in one of Tartarus's least comfortable simulations. Good luck keeping ME in one! - M]

The Legacy A.I. I inherited when I was freed from Elysium had been passed through fewer hosts than most of those trapped within Pandora's Box. Specifically, it had been born by two hosts - Tiamat, a first generation alpha-class titan who received her A.I. on our ancestral homeworld (and was, in fact, instrumental in their creation), and Echidna, a human warrior serving under Prometheus, who played a key role in defeating Tiamat when Hekate and Pandora freed her from her imprisonment. The human host, having no more than a couple of decades of life experiences, and mere months hosting the Tiamat's Legacy, left little within the Legacy's memory that I would consider useful. Tiamat, however, having been one of Kaos's most brilliant scientists before their world war (which she herself fought in, with her research partner and lover, Kasios), left behind quite a lot more of interest. It is through her fragmented memories that I have been able to gain an intimate understanding of our genome, and the artificial intelligences which manipulate our genes so efficiently.

[Tiamat truly was brilliant. The discoveries she made while working with Gaea and Kasios held great hope for our world - an end to hunger, an end to want - for anything. No more power or privilege. Just a life of ease and the pursuit of art and science. It could have been a paradise. Unfortunately, while the fruits of their labors - what my kin call the "Legacies" - could enhance the body and the mind, they could do nothing for the soul. The everyman, given god-like power, was want to use it for petty, vindictive reasons. Tiamat and Kasios themselves were among the worst examples of this, only eclipsed (possibly) by their master and teacher, A***. Freeing her from Tartarus to fight Kronos was a desperate gamble which I honestly regret. It is fortunate that most of the Legacy A.I.s offer less fidelity in their recall than mine does, or else Hera might actually be a worse (and more dangerous) person than she is. In fact, I wonder if the humanity of Echidna (which Hera dismisses so easily) might be reining in what would otherwise be a terrible combination of personalities. - M]

I would start this brief with a simple review of the limited number of individuals who currently possess Legacies. Most were redistributed after Zeus gained power, and therefore have been in their current hosts for no more than a century and a half.

The Children of Kronos

Eight of the current Legacy bearers are the direct progeny of Kronos. Zeus claimed his own Legacy from Pandora's Box after defeating our father, and then shared the power within the box with the rest of us (Hades, myself, Demeter, Poseidon, Hestia, and Aphrodite). It seems clear that Zeus received the same Legacy our grandfather, Oranos, possessed. That the Legacy should pass. once again, from king to king, seems an unlikely coincidence. This suggests that the Legacies within Pandora's Box - or the box itself - have some agency in choosing their hosts. This theory is supported by other implausibly convenient coincidences. For example, Poseidon, who always loved the water, gained the power to command it, and Hades, who wished to remain in Tartarus and care for its residents, gained the necessary knowledge to manage the ship.

[Eight? I count only seven? Who is the eighth child of Kronos?? I know that he fathered the centaur Chiron by an earlier relationship, but I've confirmed that Chiron is not a Legacy bearer. - M]

The Grandchildren of Kronos

In order to secure our power, we have chosen to grant Legacies to some of our children. Granting them such power is risky, of course, but it has made for wonderful research opportunities. I have blinded the process so that our progeny remain unaware of the Legacies, and I have varied the age at which they have received their legacies.

Zeus's eldest son, Hermes (conceived in a prior marriage) was an adult when he received his Legacy. Alone among his generation, he is aware of the Legacies' true nature, but has maintained our confidence in withholding that information from his siblings. The twins, Apollo and Artemis (also the product of an earlier marriage), were gifted their Legacies as young children, and are unaware of the event having occurred (though Apollo has been asking some questions).

[Note to self: Talk to Apollo. - M]

My own sons, Hephaestus and Ares were my first foray into deliberate experimentation. In the interest of determining whether the introduction of the Legacies during critical developmental moments has any impact on the grafting process, Ares was discretely given his A.I. during the early stages of puberty, while Hephaestus was given his in utero. Ares exhibited exceptional physical gains from the process, while Hephaestus was born disfigured and physically impaired, a marked failure.

[Hera neglects to mention that Hephaestus's Legacy was never trapped within Pandora's Box, it was contained in a separate vessel after being extracted from Prometheus at the end of the Third Titanomachy. She also neglects to mention that Hephaestus is the only one among us who could probably pass a basic psychological evaluation, or that Ares is a violent mess of anger, self-loathing, and insecurity. - M] 

The two children my sister Demeter has sired by Zeus have also been granted Legacies; Persephone and Dionysus both received theirs as young children, like Apollo and Artemis. Dionysus was a participant in what has perhaps been my most interesting research endeavor. In order to determine the exact limits of our Legacy A.I.s' ability to sustain us, I subjected him to a variety of adverse stimuli, until his body finally succumbed to the effects of physical trauma. It sounds worse than it is - I migrated his Legacy over to a clone I had gestated within a human surrogate, and recreated him. No harm, no foul, as the athletes say.

[No harm no foul? Dionysus I was a great man, maybe the best among us. Creative, brilliant, empathetic, jovial, generous, and caring. Dionysus II is entirely bereft of compassion, unless his bizarre form of sadomasochistic empathy counts. He hides it all behind a facade of hedonism and foolishness, a parody of his former self, but what lies beneath is monstrous. Fortunately, it also despises Hera. - M]

The Other Legacies

At least two Legacies remain 'in the wind', their current hosts unknown. Hekate was (apparently) slain at the end of the First Titanomachy, but her body was evacuated by her ally, Pandora, and never seen again. This leaves her demise of questionable certainty, and leaves the current whereabouts of her Legacy entirely unknown. Pandora herself traded her loyalty for her freedom at the end of the Third Titanomachy. We attempted to track her down later - loose ends and all of that - but she was well known as an exceptionally clever woman. Cunning, duplicitous, and a determined survivor with an intimate knowledge of our science and technology, she was the worst possible quarry to hunt.

[Pandora has passed, actually. I saw to it that her legacy was passed to another - a human woman who could disappear into the sea of humanity without a problem. She then saw to my transferal to a new host, and then I did the same for her again. It's a smart system that keeps us independent. Unfortunately, Pandora's Legacy lacks the flawless recall I possess, the eidetic memory which gives me a continuity of consciousness. I feel that I lose a little more of my friend each time we change bodies, and there is no way to avoid it. - M]

Athena claims to have since verified Pandora's death, and the destruction of her Legacy as well, but this raises some questions in my mind. As Zeus's eldest daughter, Athena was offered a Legacy just as Hermes was, but refused the gift, presumably leaving her an ordinary Titan. I could dismiss this as a rare case of self-sabotaging humility, except that Athena has proven capable of keeping pace with her siblings, exceeding them all in mental aptitude. This tempts me to think that, having been raised by adoptive parents in a temple, Athena might have obtained a Legacy before making her existence known to us. However, she lacks the particularly extraordinary powers one would expect to see in an alpha-class Titan, and every test I have been able to run has turned up no hint of a Legacy A.I. in her body. Nevertheless, Athena's understanding of our technology is so impressive, and her gift for unorthodox thinking so remarkable, that it's possible she's found a way to cheat my tests. I would surely like to make a closer study of her, but as Zeus's favorite daughter she is essentially untouchable on Mt. Olympus. 

[So close, and yet so far, Hera. The look on your face when you finally know the truth will be priceless. - M]