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Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.
He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -
Cam on Barrayar
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from_scratch
from_scratch
"Okay, then I can't do it in any obvious, sane way, although it might matter if that's because it's encrypted or because it counts as a mind - if it's encrypted, but I can make one with perfect fidelity, then somebody could still read it if they actually put it in their head and inter-brain compatibility was high enough."
thisvorlunatic
Miles extricates himself from the helmet.
"I doubt inter-brain compatibility is high enough. The reason Illyan's the only surviving user is because the rest of them succumbed to a slew of truly alarming side effects within the first decade or so after the initial run, and the whole project was scrapped. I can only imagine how much worse it would get if you tried to stuff a chip full of somebody else's memories into your head. Well, this has been a very heartening start. On to the long and boring list."
"I doubt inter-brain compatibility is high enough. The reason Illyan's the only surviving user is because the rest of them succumbed to a slew of truly alarming side effects within the first decade or so after the initial run, and the whole project was scrapped. I can only imagine how much worse it would get if you tried to stuff a chip full of somebody else's memories into your head. Well, this has been a very heartening start. On to the long and boring list."
from_scratch
"If somebody was very interested in getting his memories and had a lot of sacrificial lambs, it still might matter. But if you are satisfied do let's have the list."
thisvorlunatic
Miles produces the list.
The results are mostly very heartening indeed. A file does not count as having been set to unencrypted material record unless it is actually saved that way at some point; composing and viewing documents on a properly secured comconsole poses no risk. If ImpSec eliminates the habit of ever writing anything to hard copy, they'll be just about fine, and tightening up existing procedures will carry them the rest of the way.
He is very cheerful by the time he trots off to deliver his (appropriately secured) report to Illyan.
The results are mostly very heartening indeed. A file does not count as having been set to unencrypted material record unless it is actually saved that way at some point; composing and viewing documents on a properly secured comconsole poses no risk. If ImpSec eliminates the habit of ever writing anything to hard copy, they'll be just about fine, and tightening up existing procedures will carry them the rest of the way.
He is very cheerful by the time he trots off to deliver his (appropriately secured) report to Illyan.
from_scratch
And Cam loiters in the sitting room, reading. The inhabitants of the house have been briefed on the wings; he lets them sprawl.
thisvorlunatic
Miles pokes his head in after an hour or two.
"Gregor's coming for dinner tonight," he says. "He wants to hear all about Komarr and talk to you about what you want to do next. I brought up the jump pilot thing and he says he'll have somebody look into it."
"Gregor's coming for dinner tonight," he says. "He wants to hear all about Komarr and talk to you about what you want to do next. I brought up the jump pilot thing and he says he'll have somebody look into it."
thisvorlunatic
"And his security will have been briefed about your extra limbs, so no one will become startled and try to shoot you. I mean, they probably wouldn't try to shoot you even if they were totally unprepared, but no sense taking chances."
thisvorlunatic
They're very fetching.
Miles does not say this.
He smiles acknowledgment, waves, and goes off to play with Legos.
Miles does not say this.
He smiles acknowledgment, waves, and goes off to play with Legos.
seewhathappens
Gregor arrives for dinner.
As promised, no one tries to shoot Cam. Although the security team does make some disturbed faces the first time they spot him. Still, they escort Gregor to the dinner table and leave him there without fuss.
As promised, no one tries to shoot Cam. Although the security team does make some disturbed faces the first time they spot him. Still, they escort Gregor to the dinner table and leave him there without fuss.
from_scratch
And Cam also sits at the dinner table. "Hullo! Thanks for letting me terraform your planet. It was fun." Wag wag.
seewhathappens
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Hello, Miles. Hello, Cordelia."
thisvorlunatic
"I got to make the announcement," chirps Miles. "I'm proud of that announcement."
from_scratch
"It was a nice announcement. Didn't contain hardly any 'we have unleashed a demon on your hapless planet', very nicely done."
seewhathappens
"I understand Miles chose to be maximally mysterious about the exact source of the free terraforming, yes. That suits me fine. I have all the reports on projected economic impact and so on; I'm interested in hearing what people seemed to think of it. Any terraformers upset at being abruptly put out of a job?"
middlingalong
"They all seemed pretty happy about it to me. Moving into maintenance instead of long-term planning ahead of schedule."
from_scratch
"If anybody was upset about your new terraforming mechanism, they did not choose to take it out on your new terraforming mechanism."
thisvorlunatic
"The infighting was surprisingly minimal," Miles contributes. "A couple of the ecosystem people almost came to blows over algae, but they achieved a peaceful resolution eventually."
seewhathappens
"Glad to hear it," says Gregor. "Hopefully the wider population will handle the change with similar grace. Before Miles does any experiments with dismissing and resummoning you, Cam, how do you feel about making some inroads on Barrayar's topsoil problems? I have a list of Districts whose Counts were willing to let the imperial terraforming consultant do some landscaping. And another, somewhat less urgent list of miscellaneous items you could conjure - mostly things we would ordinarily have to import, or that we couldn't justify spending large amounts of money on but would be very grateful to get effectively for free."
from_scratch
"I did a little topsoil kind of haphazardly before I remodeled ImpSec, I am happy to do more of it less haphazardly and attack your shopping list."
seewhathappens
"Thank you," he says. "And, speaking of 'effectively for free' - granted that you don't have nearly as much use for money as we mere mortals, how would you like to be legitimately employed by the government of Barrayar anyway? Assuming the resummoning experiment is successful."