It's a family curse.

[Cannonshop]

"Your prognosis...

...isn't good, Duchess, you're not getting better."  Dr. Huyn stated, "maybe a decade and you'll be unfit to serve in any role in society."

"a Decade."  Elizabeth sighed, "a decade, that's it?"

"ten, maybe twenty years before what happened to your great uncle, and your great aunt, happens to you..."

"How do I slow it down?" Liz asked.

"You know how.  The real question you're asking, is if there's any alternatives.  Answer's no."

"Human Blood."

"or flesh. Yeah, that's how you hold it off.  You can hunt live victims, which is what got your great-grandmother killed, or you can dine at the all-you-can-eat Mortuary deli, it'll maybe slow the progression for up to thirty years, but you're going to end up a beast before you hit seventy.  Push past that, and you'll be fit to rest in the Archives."

There'd been a chance, dammit.  Dad even married a foreigner to thin the bloodline!

"how do we hide it?" Liz asked.  "for as long as we can hide it, doc?"

"one way you're NOT going to hide it, is if you release what you did to Colonel Stonecipher."  Dr. Huyn stated.

True, tearing a man's throat out with your teeth and drinking his lifeblood isn't exactly something you want to advertise to the Steiner-Davions. 

Hell, it doesn't make good politics with the people here.  "I need an heir...and I'm a ****** monster."

"You'll still look human for most of that time, if you keep up your feeding." Huyn told her, "Your grandfather lasted seventy years..."

if only Pat lived...  she sighed, "Okay, I guess I should visit the old family and we can talk it out, then, start making prep, get advice..."

"Shuttle to Spider Moon's on the pad.  Did Evelynn see?"

"She was there, Doc, she got it in tridee video."

"Complication."

"not really.  I don't think, anyway. Pat loved her, she's not on the menu.  But it means I need to bring her with me so Colonel Ngo can make the final call on it."

"Wise."

"The Clans." Liz said, "They're the Star League's descendants, did they keep records? do they know?"

Huyn shrugged, "My contacts at Heimdall don't think so, Ms. Whyte's people concur-it's likely only DeChevalier, Gilmour, and McEvedy knew about it...is Henry confirmed?"

"He's still considered KIA, at least, so far as anyone's been willing to tell me.  Pat was confirmed on Tamar by the Wolves." Liz said, "I doubt there's a vector of info from either of them-both of them were clear of the markers, as far as the rest of the Commonwealth knows, I've got a degenerative, fatal disease that nobody's gotten a cure for, and I'm the last Ngo...unless I can figure out how to have a kid who won't get the thirst when they hit puberty, maybe The Colonel will have some ideas, he lived in those times, after all."

"If you want him rational when he wakes up, you're going to need something to give him..."

"We've got some of Stonecipher's ****** in holding still, right?  I'll take a few prisoners.  we'll have a nice dinner date, and I'll hopefully get useful answers."  Elizabeth tried to keep he tone light, but the words made her wince, the idea of what she was going to do, feeding men and women to ancient monsters for a few hours of rational discussion? even worse.

but it has to be done...

[Ajax_Wolf]

So ... werebeast this time around?

[Lone-Wolf]

I d

So ... werebeast this time around?

I dont think so.

She eats people and drinks their blood.
More like a Zombie - an intelligent, self aware zombie.
Now thats a scary thought.

[Luciora]

Sounds like Bathory.

[Euphonium]

Well that's an interesting new take on an "incurable"

[Brother Jim]

My guess is...

Vampire of some sort.

[Daryk]

I was just about to guess that myself... :)

[mikecj]

Nice change up this time!

[Cannonshop]

Spider Moon Archive, lower level...

"...You're early."  Tranh Truk Ngo's picture is in most of the old buildings, his memoir on the Amaris Conflict is still a local best-seller.  That's been well over two hundred years.  "This wasn't supposed to happen for another decade, what happened, did you get killed?"

"maybe." Liz admitted, "mom got the word on Pat, and lost it-she shot me."

"let's have a look."

she carefully opened her skinsuit.

"Yep. You died." he said, "Lucky thing is, most of your body didn't follow suit.  even with a heart shot, there's still plenty of live cells for hours, the doctors at...where?"

"Arc Royal, they got me to a trauma surgeon." she admitted.

"Right, They did good work.  You're not going to recover, Liz.  The disease kills, then alters and reignites the cells.  Dumb bastards really didn't know what they were doing, whoever came up with it.  The good news, is that you won't need to hide from UV light sources for a while yet...still, this is troubling, you're early, Pat's dead...and you brought sacrifices, which means at least some of your moral compass is already compromised by the trauma."

His face now, doesn't really look like it did back then.  The sallow, inhuman thing that is still Kowloon's greatest native hero, ran a finger alog the cheek of Leutnant Alan Fouchard, who'd been collecting illegal payments from the farms and ranches in the rural country with a firestarter two weeks ago.

Colonel Ngo hadn't eaten him yet,  the man flinched in horror-he'd seen the colonel eat two of his comrades this morning.

"What do I do, sir?" she asked.

"Suicide's still an option...a little more complicated if you don't want to be a mindless ghoul forever, but it's doable.  Qua did it, after 'doing' the last of the Amaris kids on Kerensky's order-I think it was that they were kids."

"I have a lot to do." she told her ancestor.

"Then suicide's out until you've done it." he agreed.  "Catch me up, Last time I woke up it was 3046, and Dinh was introducing you and Patrick.  I've gotten a look at some of the reports since, but you've been out in the world.  How completely have they ****** up?"

"The Clans."  Elizabeth said, "They're the descendants of Kerensky's deserters, and they came on a carpet of blood and conquest."

"OH DAMMIT!! I warned him!!"  He met her eyes, "How bad?"

"They're kicking eight kinds of dogsnot out of everyone, but Comstar got them to stop in a formal challenge for fifteen years.  They have superior technology, some human alterations..."

He nodded thoughtfully.  "changed their SOP??" he asked.

she presented him Focht's released information on the Clans.  "So it's complex.  yeah, I guess it would be." he shook his head.

then the ancient thing stepped forward, and laid a cold hand on her shoulder. "You wanted me to tell you what you should do, so here you go-be the duchess, and start finding..." he gestured at the man strapped to a surgery couch, "more of those.  because we're going to need a lot of them."

"are you sure?"

"No. I'm going to need you, the Duchess, to gather information, get a real read on the threat.  once we know if they can't be lived with, then we'll know...but declaring themselves 'Clan' and using animal totems? not a good sign.  Civilization's only going to stay civilized with work...and I might have to wake up the Regiment."

"Yes sir.  what about long term?"

"Long term? I don't know." Tranh Truk Ngo told her, "it gets easier to sleep through a few decades as you become less...human.  but that doesn't stop anyone from slipping into the habits of humanity-usually the worst ones.  We're predators and we're parasites, but if we manage it, we can be symbiotes instead.  Long term, you need to do a job you weren't prepared for and keep what you're becoming hidden, Liz.  You're still mostly human, they can still kill you with regular weapons, if they put some real effort into it."  He tapped her nose, "Don't get sloppy.  I can smell it, you're still safe to recharge of the mortuary truck, so do that until the hunger gets so sharp only warm struggling flesh can feed it...and sharpen your discipline so you don't partake until all of you has died."

"Yes sir."

[Cannonshop]

Blackjack...two years ago

"...have never seen anything like this." Medtech John declared, the warrior restrained on the surgical table was shouting incoherent gibberish and thrashing against restraints, straining connectors designed to hold Elementals.

Cadet Henry Ngo had not surrendered.  His capture had come with severe injuries.  Those injuries had knitted a bit too quickly.

Teh little son of a bitch refused to surrender...and he evidently also refused to die.

or at least, refused to stay dead after being killed.

"This is a puzzle for the Scientist Caste."

[Giovanni Blasini]

Ruh roh, Rhaggy.

[croaker]

So, instead of Cholmans, they stuck her with an off-brand T-virus? Fun.

[Daryk]

Fun indeed!  I'm just waiting for Henry to break those restraints... ;D

[Cannonshop]

3053, Clan Homeworlds...

"That thing used to be a human being.  He had a name."

"AND??"

"and I think it might still have some ability to reason left, despite the tortures you've put it through...put him through."  Scientist Wendi was a biologist specializing in weaponised disease, the Clan Watch knew her 'labname' as one of the darker jokes among the criminals in the Society.

Mengele, because her specialty was horrifying and she did not seek employment in less horrifying fields, even when openings were available.

Etienne found the woman to be appropriately humble with her betters, and a little bit disturbing on a personal level.

"I have known  you for over a decade, and this is the first time you have volunteered to look into something that was not a weaponized virus, prion, or fungus, Wendi." Etienne said, "Why?? why this case?"

"because the better doctors are losing their minds trying to grasp what is happening to this man and why he continues to refuse to die." she said.  "Locked box, first decent one in decades.  The first puzzle anyone has brought us that is not boring."

"what is your direction of investigation, remember, we have to report to the warrior caste on this..."

"first, to find out if there's still a man in there after all." she said, "then find a way to bring the man out, and put the beast back...barring that, figure out how to put both out of their misery permanently and efficiently."

"and what makes you think you can do this, where better scientists have not?" Etienne asked in an oily tone.

"because I remembered to do enough due diligence to identify some of the symptoms.  There are records of ancient projects that had...similar...outcomes.  Banned researches from before the Amaris Coup, work in fields of human augmentation and lifespan extension, I think I know where to start looking, and it is not in a gas chamber filled with cyanide."

"Why should I stick my neck out for you on this?" He demanded.

"Because the warriors would have dropped this man in the nearest sun if they didn't want some of what he has, without the drawbacks." she asserted.  "What we do not know, yet, is whether that is even a remote possibility."

"Do you think it is?"

"I don't know.  what I 'think' is worthless, only what I can demonstrate and prove has meaning, the first question hs to be working out if there is even a man in that mutating shell to save, if not, then the answer must be 'no'...but if there is,.?"

[paulobrito]

So, monster/truly nightmare variant of the Ngo's? Call me interested.

[monbvol]

hehe.

[Tegyrius]

Well, then.

I'm just going to flag something for further consideration:

"No. I'm going to need you, the Duchess, to gather information, get a real read on the threat.  once we know if they can't be lived with, then we'll know...but declaring themselves 'Clan' and using animal totems? not a good sign.  Civilization's only going to stay civilized with work...and I might have to wake up the Regiment."

The bolded throwaway line implies that whatever we're seeing in place of Cholmann's (engineered vampirism, or a kissing cousin thereof) is either (A) far more prevalent than Cholmann's, (B) transmissible, or (C) A+B.  Whichever the case, if you have a large population of infected individuals, keeping the majority of them in torpor is about the only way to keep your planet from going full frontal I Am Legend when they get peckish.

In the case of an infected regiment, this also gives you a ready supply of "break glass in case of apocalypse" troops who are already trained and experienced, and who enjoy certain... contextual advantages... over their baseline counterparts.  And keeping them fed in wartime may be a self-solving logistics problem.

(There's also the question of exactly which regiment Ngo the Elder has under lock and key.  The smart money rides on the One-Seven-One... but there's a tiny fringe chance that the regiment on ice somewhere in the outer system is a sleeping tiger.)

[eriktheviking]

Another great beginning.

My tuppence worth on 'The Regiment' composition is that it could be those from 171st that would have been offered a mercy death. Those soldiers that weren't immediate kills but those the medics could not save.

[R4360]

I remember you doing a short version of this some time back. Glad to see you revisiting it for expansion.

[croaker]

"Because the warriors would have dropped this man in the nearest sun if they didn't want some of what he has, without the drawbacks."

Welp. This does not bode well. Countdown to Clan Jade Ghoul starting at t-minus ten... nine...

[Daryk]

I'm going to guess Brujah before anyone else does... ;D

[Cannonshop]

"My answer's...

...wrong." It's 3054 now, and the Duchess of Kowloon has been summoned to Tharkad to answer questions from the Royal Family.

"Wrong?" Her Majesty the Archon inquired, "It's a simple enough question-are you healthy enough to even consider actually taking your full inheritance or not?  You're already too sick to wear a uniform, Liz.  I won't suspend the waiver and neither will Victor, and you know this."

"I've been much better with the new treatments, Highness."  Liz argued.  "The Leukemia seems to be in remission."

"Seems."  Her Majesty stated coldly.  "You might not know this, but my mother, the Previous Archon, knew about your family's hereditary syndromes.  I know about your Grandfather's treatments, and some of the extremes that poor man went through late in his life.  If you're trying to emulate that-"

Elizabeth sat silently while Her Majesty tried to find words.

"I can get it back on track, Highness." Elizabeth said, "My prognosis, is ten years, with help and work, I can make that longer-but the work has to be done now for when I can't do it anymore."

"What really happened in that meeting with James?"  Melissa asked.  "Tell me the truth elizabeth, we're confidential here, no recorders, I'll even dismiss the guards, but tell me what happened!!"

"He attacked me first." Liz said.  "I came, with my writ, and he tried to take me hostage-to protect his men, I think, he wasn't a bad person, he was weak and tempted and a little bigoted and blind to the damage he was doing in your name."

"That was not in your original filing, Liz."

"I thought 'heroically saving the girl duchess from an assassin' looked better across the board, than 'had to be killed to be stopped'." Elizabeth asserted.  "The realm can't afford for any officers of the realm to be seen as the kind who would threaten the life of a child they were nominally supposed to take charge of. It would undermine the authority of the Royal Family, and I can't afford to spend five years in Blackgate until it's forgotten about.  I thought my writing was flattering to the late Regent, despite his obvious and well documented corruption."

"You tore his throat out, you ate parts."  Melissa scolded, "Don't ask how I know, just understand I know."

"So what happens now?"

"Your Grandfather supported my mother against Alessandro, and sacrificed a lot for the Realm, while being...what you are."

"A monster." Liz finished for her.

"A sick person." Melissa countered, "With a deadly syndrome, but your family has been loyal even when it made no sense to do so.  can you control it?"

"How much do you know?" Liz asked.

"I know that it took a battlemech to kill your great aunt when she lost control of it.  WE have files Elizabeth, incidents and investigations and testimony, going back centuries.  what we don't have, is a cure, so I want to know you'll do the honorable thing if you lose control, like your Grandfather did."

"That's a given." Liz said, "I have no desire to go through eternity as a mindless ghoul."

"Nobody wants to be a Monster, Elizabeth...You will submit to study."

"I can't leave Kowloon, not in the shape it's in-"

"I will have my Husband assign a medical research branch from NAIS, with CMC help.  We'll put the hospital in whatever city you're actually going to visit for more than a few days at a time."

"How about a university?" Liz asked.

Melissa inclined her head. "a university?"

"More likely to have the kind of creatives who actually solve problems like mine, and it would be a major benefit to that end of the Realm." Liz suggested, "of course, it would require 'enhanced protection'..."

"What is the political leverage for that?"

"Showing the worlds above the Truce Line that they're not staked out for the Clans, Your Majesty."  Liz suggested, "and a research university would be a sign of digging our way out of this age of darkness."

Melissa motioned for a steward, who brought a chiller.  "Drink up, Elizabeth, you're looking pale."

Liz tasted what was in the cooler.  blood?  the grating irritation in her throat sharpened, and she drank.

"There we go..."

"Blood."

"I told you, we kept records, Duchess Ngo.  Your grandfather's stay at Blackgate under Alessandro was...educational.  Nobody wants to be a monster, but you're mine.  Understand?"

Liz nodded.

"Good.  I am lifting the Marsden Act and the Militia Act's restrictions for your system, raise forces, for the Realm.  You will be told where to send them. Am I understood?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"good. good talk, enjoy your...refreshments, I expect to see some pink in those cheeks tonight at your swearing in, that is all."

[qc mech3]

Who's the worst monster here: the literal or the enabler/handler? 

I'm having memories of a scene from ''the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' reading Liz tales.

This one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBybuhDN-0k

[Cannonshop]

Ironhold, Clan Homeworlds...

"it is...horrifying."

"it" was currently contained in a sealed chamber, with ferrocrete walls and a reinforced blast door.

"isn't it?" Scientist Wendi asked casually, "What does Clan Coyote know about this kind of biological weapon?"

"Nothing-we have no record-"

"Yet, you see nothing familiar in there?"

"nothing."

"How odd." she commented, "I would think a scientist from Clan Coyote, the Clan that created so many of our innovations, would see something familiar in the final outcome of a Star League research programme."

"Which series?"

"Series Twenty One." Wendi said, "The same series that contained the secrets necessary to overcome square-cubed-law considerations in the Elemental Breed.  without that research, the Eugenics programs would have created fragile giants instead of superior infantrymen.  so...how about we try again.  is any of this familiar to you?"

"You already know the answers, or you would not ask the question."

"Humor me.  which one is it I'm looking at? which of the Twenty Ones has turned that man into...that?"

"There were some of that series that did not make it on the Exodus.  we know of 21B only from after reports and General Kerensky's order to destroy all materials and research, twenty one Echo is outright missing, the skip from Delta to Foxtrot leaves nary a trace, but it is implied to have existed.  Twenty One Hotel's work never progressed because the base theory was disproven, shall I go on?"

she mused silently as the thing in the containment room finished the guards sent to try to tame it.

"We need a historian, and a reliable means to make it...to make him...compliant, or dead." she finally admitted.  "The Warrior caste wants that regenerative ability and the enhanced strength and speed for a future sibko."

"good luck!"

"heh.  Luck is for amatuers." she told her companion.  "An historian...hmmm."

[worktroll]

Ooooooooooohhh ...tagged!

[paulobrito]

The Clan Research is not going to create a horrible disaster. No, sir.

[Cannonshop]

"She made me...

...attend Arthur's birthday celebrations before she was willing to let me leave."  Elizabeth groused.

Her revered ancestor slid a block from his tower, and placed it on top.  "Makes sense, Liz." he told her, "You're a noble, something I wasn't even when I was officially alive, but part of that, is the social duties."  he peered at her with yellowed, hardened eyes, "How was the party?"

she sat down across from him.  "Dull." she said, "some of it was fun-Arthur picked a good holomovie, and I got to see Penny and Daffy and Danny."

"Your school friends?"

"Daniel Brewer was one of the few friends I had at Groningen, I met Penny and Daphne in drug rehab."

the dead man chuckled a raspy chuckle.

"What?"

"I met Jimmy Qua in a military prison." He told her.  "We ended up closer than brothers.  It's good to have friends, even for things like us."

"Military Prison? but-"

"I enlisted in the SLDF, Lilbit, right out of Holmeyer Prep in Dinh Diep, it was twenty-seven twenty eight." he explained, "about a year before teh rising.  I got busted, they sent me with a few hundred other guys after the rising, to a prison complex on the far side of the Sphere."

"That's not in your bio."

"Of course it isn't." he told her.  "Just like officially, SLDF records showed we didn't exist.  we were test subjects. the kind they couldn't admit managed to escape custody during the Kerensky Regency."

"What were you in for?" she asked in morbid curiosity.

"suspicion of sympathy with the rebels." He told her, "They grabbed a bunch of us who enlisted back when we believed in the Star League, as possible rebels and sympathizers.  Administratively, they made us disappear, because even civilian prisoners have rights that soldiers don't, even back then."

"So...it's not genetic, is it?"

"It is for you." he told her, "We didn't realize the bad parts would carry over to our descendants.  Not sure what I'd have done differently, except maybe wore a rubber with Marjie."

"when did the hunger start?" she asked.

"Well...twenty seven forty? about then." he allowed, "We were hiding with Free Stars activists, running freedom ops against Rimjob slavers, and I guess I took one too many hits, made the dormant parts active.  WE did some testing of our own, most of us agreed to help free Kowloon, hence being here for the 'sixty nine revolution."

"and the deal?" she asked.

"Aaron DeChevalier was the officer who sent me to prison, the deal was the least the bastard could do once he figured out who I had been." Tranh Truk Ngo asserted.  "Kerensky needed shock troops, there were about a battalion of us who'd been...altered, most of the men were still asymptomatic, still 'alive'."

"how does that go from a battalion to you having a regiment in torpor?" Liz asked.

"blood transfusions." he said, "Medical exposure, and Amaris was trying to recreate the Twenty-one-Charlie experiment that created us at Running Deer, some of his test subjects joined our side.  They turned a lot faster than we did."

"is there a cure?" she asked.

"Nope....and we kind of ate the scientists who might've figured out one." he told her, "a mistake, but you get a few hundred blood maddened ghouls in a confined space and the human staffers they can identify aren't going to be in real great shape after."

"and the impalements?"

"Seeing how long the fat-man's proposed supersoldiers could last." he said, "We worked out how to force torpor doing it, and how to kill one of us and make them stay dead."  He tapped a block on the table, "we stopped them from recreating it, Liz, we stopped them from re-creating monsters.  There's a price for that."

"Yeah, i know, I'm living it..."

"Not what I mean, liz, we could've all gotten off the merry go round like Jimmy did...but once something's been discovered, once it's been done?" he paused, "Someone..." he slid his block into the tower, and it swayed, "...someone is going to do it again.  we take rotations awake, you know this, it's because sooner or later some demented phekktard is going to replicate the result, and something has to be there to stop it, put it down, or bring it under control."

"and if that happens?"

He took hold of a block, "then we have to be there, or..." the tower toppled onto the table, scattering blocks, "...everything is screwed, lil'bit.  Now you're part of it.  Dinh didn't want the burden, once he really digested what it means, that's why he went sunward."

[Euphonium]

Who's the worst monster here: the literal or the enabler/handler? 

I'm having memories of a scene from ''the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' reading Liz tales.

This one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBybuhDN-0k

"Intelligence is knowing that Frankenstein was the scientist and the creation was the monster.
Wisdom is knowing that Frakenstein was the real monster."

[Daryk]

The clanners really have NO idea... ::)

[Cannonshop]

"How do you...

...think we can do this, without-" Liz hesitated.

Colonel Ngo shrugged. "easy way." he said, "she wants troops, she wants them for shock operations, or for other operations, or just to fill holes in losses.  Her Majesty tasked you with providing soldiers for the military.  we can sustain a small training cadre, the 'star league' methods used with the Blackhearts should work.  Remember, if you can't afford to lose it-"

"-you can't afford to use it." Liz finished.

"Exactly." he told her.  "truth is, nobody in their right ****** mind wants what the Regiment represents to get loose, but we can still do cadre and some special forces work. It's not contagious unless you kill someone's immune system, give them a blood transfusion, and hook them on anti-rejection drugs until a lot of their tissues are infected, which takes time.  Healthy people can reject it pretty  easily, but somebody with something like cancer or leukemia might succumb if they're also on heavy-duty Chemotherapy or radiation treatments."

Elizabeth's mind put something together.  "Oh ****** me..."

"No, you're a relative." he said, "also WAY too young."

"No...one of the things Her Majesty insisted on was a series of medical tests, they drew blood."

"Curing it is a good idea." he said, "you're not completely dead yet, you could still end up human if they-"

"The heir of the free Worlds League is at NAIS, for treatment...for Leukemia." her eyes widened.

"If he has a miraculous recovery, that could represnt a problem, Liz, but it's a long-shot.  I doubt they're that desperate.  the political fallout would be horrendous, especialy if he develops a taste for human flesh.  don't worry about it for now, everything you've shown me about the current crop of Steiners says Melissa's smarter than that."

"She knows what I am...or what I"m becoming and she let me in a room with her youngest son!"

"And you didn't do anything but choke down fizzy drinks and cake and be politely you, did you?" he countered.  "So, don't worry about it.  worry about how you're going to assemble a facsimile of the 171st for now, and I'd recommend also worrying about how you're going to move them, because one of the best ways to make sure nothing slips out of control, is to be able to control where it goes."

"I'm going to run out of death row inmates if we don't figure something out, Colonel." Liz said.

"Yeah, that occurred to me.  maybe we should arrange some shopping trips."

"Shopping trips?"

"There's a group called 'Morrison's Extractors' in your daily briefings, Liz, they're a major Bandit organization, engage in slave taking, trading and god only knows what else...might be they're better as rations, than as men."

"I don't know how to find them-neither does anyone else, or they'd be found." Liz expressed frustration.

her dead ancestor chuckled, "Tells me I need to wake up Annie Cu'ong first then, and she needs to work with your current Coast Guard leadership to set up a means to both find these ******, and put them out of business."