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Categories:Fictional Worlds and Universes Created by: Elrod W First Appeared:
Description
The Morphic Adaptation Unit (MAU)
Usually one of many demonstration units, lost centuries ago from a
fleeing and damaged alien freighter. The little alien device can
impart nearly any change or alteration to a lifeform that the
imagination can dream up, with certain exceptions.
Permissions
Open for new stories: yes
Permission required: RESTRICTED Permissions: Danni and her band of MAU-created Trekkies are ABSOLUTELY and
TOTALLY off-limits to any author who wishes to write in my MAU
universe.
Permissions contact: Questions contact:
Rules
Retrieved from BigCloset:
http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/4714/elrods-mau-morphic-adaptation-unit-universe-rules
Formatted for easier reading here by cj on 2015 Aug 12
Revised Rules for the Morphic Adaptation Unit, Mark 5
Foreward:
Some may consider these rules and notes to be extreme. Some may
find them offensive. I have been told that I should write "minimal"
rules and let people play, like has happened in other universes. I tried
that; even with reasonable guidelines, my universes have been radically
altered by adventurous authors. If the story universe is to stay open, it
is with some stronger guidelines to help keep things in line with my original creation. So if you consider these notes and guidelines to
be extreme, invent your own universe and don't muck up mine. Thank
you.
Below is the background story on the units, the rules, some
additional information in the form of the MAU Company's FAQs, and my final
notes on characters I've created.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prologue
First Tm'skor was having a bad day. This had started as a very
routine day on another routine freight run on just one more routine
Fwirthian freight ship. He was looking forward to a peaceful retirement after
84 cycles of dutiful, if boring, service on the Fwirthian merchant
fleet, including the past 12 cycles as First, commander of a vessel. Of
course, as a member of the merchant caste of Fwirthi, he lacked the
imagination to see how dull and boring his job really was.
Dull, that was, until this morning, when his ship was suddenly
surrounded by warp holes, each one spitting forth a M'Platwiri attack cruiser.
Even as the bells rang the alarm of the pirate attack, bolts of energy splashed against his hull plates. The ship groaned in protest as
his pitiful crew, soft and helpless, shrieked their terror, dashing
about in confusion and abandoning their duty stations. Even Tm'skor was frightened and confused. Fwirthian merchant ships were not crewed
by the military caste; as such, they were easy prey for the M'Platwiri
pirates.
Rather, they should have been. The fates stepped in, and spared
Tm'skor the fate of being captured by the pirates. As he stumbled about his bridge, confused and frightened like the other Fwirthian
crewmembers, he collided with his navigator, and the pair smashed into the
navigation controls. Of the buttons depressed randomly by the flailing
captain, one commanded the engines to engage and the warp generator to activate.
The ship, still drawing fire, vanished into a warp hole.
Wounded, spewing freight containers from the ugly gashes in the
hull, the ship popped out of its warp hole in a backwater of the galaxy, an uninteresting, backward system with one nondescript yellow star and
only one reasonably habitable planet. First Tm'skor and his crew ignored
the system. It wasn't on their route, and as such it held no interest
to their unimaginative minds. And because their orders said nothing
about recovering cargo lost from battle damage (such conditions couldn't
have been imagined by the traders commissioning the cargo!), they
ignored the countless canisters trailing their ship like a ribbon of confetti,
each carrying nearly three thousand cubic meters of cargo . As soon as
the essential systems had been repaired, they swung around the sun, set
a new course, and dropped into another artificial warp hole. Behind the
ship, a trail of cargo canisters, not having a warp hole as a
destination, felt the tug and pull of the tiny sun and its tiny planets. Many fell
almost immediately into the sun. Others were smashed against moons or
planets. For centuries to come, though, most of the cargo canisters would
drift through the system, lost forever to the shipping company and its customers. Occasionally, one would end up falling into the sun.
Other times, a rare collision with other astral debris would rip open a
cargo canister, freeing more cargo items to join the lengthening trail of flotsam and jetsam in a cometary orbit around the small star.
Eventually, bits and pieces of the cargo and canisters, some still bearing the legend of the Gamalfi Company, skimmed the atmosphere
of the third planet. Most of the debris broke up quickly, disintegrating
in the awful heat, but some of the smaller pieces of cargo was made of
sterner stuff.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
General information about the MAU
The unit comes packaged for shipping in a seamless metal box, about
9 inches by 15 inches by four inches thick. It is incredibly light,
and also resistant to virtually anything a normal person could find to
attack it. (This includes blowtorches, hammers, pick-axes, drills, being
run over, etc. You get the picture. This is one tough little box!) The only thing visible on the box are some alien symbols, which if translated, would read: Gamalfi Corp. Morphic Adaptation Unit, Mark 5 To activate evaluation unit, press HERE
HERE happens to be anywhere on the symbols. When activated, it
stretches itself to a box about the size of a telephone booth. (For those
younger readers who have never encountered such a strange contraption, a
phone booth is about 1 meter x 1 meter, with a height of 2.1 meters.) The device will self-right, and move itself to a stable and level
position to complete opening. Three sides are bare; the fourth is covered by a
door on half, with controls on the other half. The door has a purplish crystal, which causes the door to be opened. When the door 'opens',
part of the side simply disappears, and reappears to 'close'.
The controls are the picture of perfection in a user interface.
There is a ruby control plate looking like a 3-fingered hand (or bird- or dinosaur-paw print), and above it, a rectangular display surface. Touching the ruby control plate causes it to read the mind of the
user; thereafter, the system displays the form as directed by the user's thought patterns. After thinking about a body or change, the
display shows the effects. When a user removes his or her hand, the display freezes in the last configuration.
On first use, the display will scroll through alien characters;
these are the Gamalfi Corp's standard disclosure, license agreement, and
disclaimer from damage. It also says, very clearly, in perfect Fwirthian
script, that the unit has been activated for a 4-day evaluation period, and
that changes subsequent to that period would require electronic payment
to the Gamalfi corporation. Pressing on the crystal plate indicates that
the user accepts the terms of the license agreement, including the time limitation.
Note - despite advanced technologies in the galaxy (many of which
make Earth-bound humans look like neolithic cavemen in comparison),
no-one has been successful in decoding the extremely eccentric Fwirthian
language, let alone the wacky script writing. It is impossible for a human- manufactured computer to decode the script.
Changes are limited only by the imagination of the user, but with a couple of safeguards. Intelligence cannot be reduced, nor can the
unit alter a body to a less-fit state. In other words, it can't
deliberately inflict damage or harm to a user. An MAU can easily be used for
cosmetic surgery, sex change, and with thought, to repair damage (such as
broken or missing limbs, damaged heart, or even mental damage). This fits perfectly with the purpose of the MAU to enhance the user.
The change is limited by rules of physics, chemistry, etc. If a
user thinks of a magic-using Merlin, for example, the device will create
the costume perfectly, but cannot alter physics to make 'magic'
possible. The more detail a user knows about a complex or advanced
technology, the greater the accuracy of the changes. For example, if a user is an
expert in nanotechnology, a reasonable facsimile of a Borg could be
created. If, however, the user knows diddly-squat about nanotechnology, the
change would be cosmetic appearance only. The device is able to accurately
work with genomes; altering sex is a simple genetic manipulation. The
result will be genetically accurate - if two users were to transform into
a male/female pair of centaurs, for example, any offspring would be centaurs. Attempting to make money would result in copier-quality
money unless the user was an expert in currency technology and details of
the currency. An average user attempting to create diamonds would
probably get rhinestones, whereas someone who knows that a diamond is a pure carbon crystal would get pure diamonds. To restate the principle,
with advanced technologies or materials, one has to know something of
the desired item in order to get accurate results.
The MAU will 'scavenge' materials from the neighboring region if
required to make the changes; making diamonds, for example, would scavenge
carbon from CO2, etc. The scavenging function will not harm a nearby
living creature. The device will attempt to use materials from an
unrefined source. In other words, if someone were to create a Mr. T with lots
of gold chains and jewelry, the device would attempt to find unrefined
gold within the operating radius rather than pulling the gold from
nearby jewelry, coins, etc. Taking refined materials from someone else
without permission would be a major ethical violation to the Fwirthians,
and as such, they provided protection against the device engaging in
theft, even inadvertently.
The MAU contains a quantum computer which cannot only perform
incredible (by human standards) feats of genetic manipulation, but has a
built-in library of Fwirthian technology. Some of these technologies include gravity manipulation (e.g. artificial gravity in spacecraft,
gravity- neutralizing units such as would be used in a 'Back to the Future'
flying DeLorean), warp-hole creation for FTL travel, advanced spacecraft propulsion, etc. The user has to, however, have some idea of what
to ask for in order to achieve the accurate results in a transformation.
Trying to create a flying superhero (e.g. Superman) would result in a
cosmetic change, whereas trying to create a hero with an 'Iron Man' suit
with anti-grav propulsion and strength-enhancing mechanics would
possibly result in the desired transformation - especially if the user knew
more details about the expected result and if the expected results
meshed with Fwirthian technology. Some weapons may be created, provided source material is available. Again, the results need to be consistent
with physics. A 2.2 TW laser that runs on a pair of rechargable AAA batteries, for example, would be impossible, and thus not created.
(One would, however, probably get a good Hollywood stage-prop mockup of
such a futuristic, if impossible, laser.)
When the evaluation period expires, any and all changes are
basically permanent unless and until either payment is made or an unexpired
unit is found.
The unit will NOT work on a pregnant woman, even for a cosmetic
change.
After the time expires, the following message is displayed, albeit
in Fwirthian.
We are sorry, but your thirty-eight Febulon evaluation license has expired. To continue using the Mark 5 Morphic Adaptation Unit,
please remit 52,495 Fwirthi Rakburs to the Gemalfi Corporation within
eight Febulons. Thank you for trying the Mark 5 Morphic Adaptation Unit.
The message continues for about 20 hours (8 Febulons), after which
the box restows itself. It will be capable of being reactivated if 3 conditions occur: 1)
the device must have moved at least 300 miles from the point of its activation, 2)
at least 3 months of time must have passed, and 3)
it can never be reactivated by the original user.
MAUs are rare. Repeat, MAUs are RARE! One might consider that
dozens or hundreds of shipping containers were lost, but if one considers the
size of the solar system, the density of MAUs is infinitesimally small.
It is highly unlikely that a person would encounter one in a lifetime. Encountering more than one is quadrillions-to-one odds.
No one really knows when the MAUs began to fall to Earth. Some of
the past date suggests some of the enigmas of history could be
attributed to MAUs. Current estimates place the first reliable MAU use
corresponds to the giant Goliath of biblical history.
The US Government has a secret agency which is attempting to solve
the riddle of the MAUs. The agency has not directly figured out how the devices work, but through interviews with victims, have deduced the
basic operating parameters. The agency has recovered many expired MAUs,
but so far, has either not moved them far enough, or has not allowed
sufficient time to be able to reactivate the devices, or quit fiddling with
the devices before the requisite time has passed. The government's
primary concern is to attempt to understand the MAUs so that they can
counter any attempt by a hostile power to use them as weapons. Scientists are attempting to decipher the Fwirthian script. Users of the MAU may
be contacted by a special set of secret agents who investigate
anything that sounds like MAU use. The government agency is NOT an evil
X-files-like cabal.
The agency as it exists now was founded in the early 1980s. The
original Director was named Chuck Danielson or CD. He's the only named
person with the agency. Everyone by a code name, somewhat like the MIB series. CD's first encounter with the MAUs was during the Vietnam War, and
a further Cold War incident with the MAUs led to the creation of the agency. Its work, of course, is classified at the highest level possible. Not even the President or the National Security Advisor
know details of the MAUs or the Agency.
Of course, the government had some 'prior knowledge' of the MAUs
before the 80's. Much of this 'lore' was lost due to the extremely high classification level of the data, which has never been
declassified. Some past secrets have probably been lost.
The agency strongly suspects that other governments (both friendly
and hostile) are aware of the MAUs, and have reason to believe that
some plots by foreign hostiles center around finding an active MAU. This
is a driving factor for the agency's obsession with finding a working
MAU and unraveling all of its secrets - to understand how the MAU could
be used against the US. The agency has headquarters in DC and a secret lab in an undisclosed location that
is studying the MAUs. To date, it is not confirmed that the agency has
been able to reactivate a unit, despite the passage of both time and (in
many cases) distance. It is strongly suspected that the agency has so
many collected units that they simply study the new ones, leaving the
old (and potentially reactivatable) units in their storage facility.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FAQ from the Gamalfi Customer Service Department:
Q.
How many units were lost? A.
Hundreds of freight containers were lost; only a few of these
burned up in the sun or smashed into planets or moons. Most are left
circling the sun in cometary orbits. A dozen or so containers burned up in
the Earth's atmosphere, spewing the units all across the Earth.
Q.
How many units were in each container? A.
Given the shipping size and the volume of a container, it is
assumed that each container held over twenty thousand MAUs. Some of the containers were mixed-cargo, so the total number is much smaller.
Q.
Why does the unit leave changes permanent? A.
It takes energy to make a change, along with massive computer
power to direct and focus that energy. A 'temporary' change would imply that
the MAU would instill the user with sufficient energy and computer
power to undo the changes without the aid of the MAU. Containing this much energy would be harmful to the end user. Besides, for how long
would one need an enhancement to perform a basic task before using the MAU to change back?
Q.
How much can the MAU alter thought processes? A.
The MAU can alter the thought processes only to the extent
necessary to make the user comfortable with the change and to behave in
accordance with what is expected. For example, if a creature were changed from
male to female, the MAU couldn't change his mind to that of a bimbo. It could, however, make his libido high - assuming that was what his
thought pattern directed. It cannot make the male comfortable mentally
being female, nor change sexual orientation.
Q.
Can an MAU cause damaging changes? A.
No.
Q.
Can a person reuse a MAU after a suitable wait? A.
No. The MAU recognizes the brain waves of repeat users, and will
not open, let alone function. Anti-theft protection for the Gamalfi
Corp's intellectual property, you know.
Q.
How long is an MAU dormant after a use? A.
At least three months. It also has to be moved, although that part hasn't been figured out by anyone yet. The minimum distance is
80,000 Small Keflecs, which is roughly four hundred miles. (Remember, this
is Small Keflecs, not Great Keflecs. Otherwise, the unit would have to
be transported interplanetary distances to reactivate!)
Q.
When you say that the unit deactivates in 4 days, does that mean
that the transformation wears off in 4 days, or that the unit's ability
to work deactivates, leaving the character stuck in a transformed
state? A.
The device deactivates, precluding further use. The user is stuck with the last transformation. We _do_ provide a warning that the
demo license is about to expire!
Q.
Can the booths be used an unlimited number of times or with
multiple people? A.
The booth can be used an unlimited number of times within the
4-day time span. Other people can use the booth as well, so long as the
time from first use to last use is no longer than 4-days. As an example,
say Bob find the booth on day 1. He does some transforms, and on day 2, shows Phil. Day 3, he shows Rita. On day 4, they show Brad. All 4
are using the MAU, but at the end of day 4, it doesn't work anymore for
any of them, since the unit was activated by Bob, and his license has expired.
Q.
How could a user possibly figure out how to decipher the symbols,
if they are truly alien symbols? A.
The symbols aren't deciphered by the people. That's the conundrum
- they use the device, despite lack of directions, because of
curiosity, and the lack of directions ensures that they get stuck because they
can't read!
Q.
Does it have a countdown sequence like in Independence Day that
sounds like it's counting down - even though the symbols are unreadable to
the protagonists. Or maybe when they get altered, they remember bits
and pieces of the information, translated to their language, from what
would have been the ingrained instruction manual? And as the story
progresses, they have to piece it together, and see if they can figure it out
before the deadline is met, whenever that is. A.
Good suggestions. Maybe in the Mark 6. Gamalfi Customer Service appreciates your suggestions for improving the Morphic Adaptation
Unit. As a way of thanking our customers, you are entitled to use a
Morphic Adapation Unit, Mark 5, for twice the standard demonstration period
with no additional fees. Please enter the supplied key code in the user interface when you first activate your MAU demonstration unit.
Q.
Isn't the idea of the unit is to let a potential customer try something in the hopes that they'll buy it. Isn't it more likely
that, at the end of the demonstration period, the customer would change
back? A.
Remember that this is a limited-time demo shareware. Everything
works just fine - until the time expires. Then one has to pay to continue using it, especially to undo changes which are currently in place. Please note that it is not practical to change a user to be self- correcting without great risk to the user (see question above). We Fwirthians use the MAU as a tool to adapt to a task, and no more. Borrowing a tool allows the user to see how useful it is, with the
hope that the user will be convinced to purchase the device. It has
proven to be a very successful marketing strategy.
Q.
Maybe this could be what happens. The system has failsafes so the users don't mess things up when they initially transform. But if
the system isn't paid in that alien currency, the failsafes deactivate,
e.g. A human turns into a furry. Intelligence decreases by 50% 36 C-cups go to 48 EE Libido triples A woman in her early 20s reverts to a 12-year old. Does the subject get a warning of what will happen? A.
The Gamalfi Company appreciates your suggestions. This was tried
with the Mark 2 and 3 MAUs. Negative feedback from the customers,
coupled with an extremely high rate of purchase of demo units, has caused
us to delete this feature. (The numerous lawsuits were also persuasive.)
As to warnings, the unit clearly displays the End User License
Agreement at the time the unit is unpacked, and an additional warning is given
the first time the unit is used with less than 24 hours remaining on
the demo license. What more do you want?
Q.
What is meant by 'less-fit-state'? A. 1)
The device uses the mind and genome of the user to extract parameters of how the bodies of user's species normally operate.
This information is then used to 'bound' the alterations. Age cannot be significantly increased or decreased, as age-related issues might
cause the subject harm. The normal parameters allow a + or - 30% change
in age, again bounded. An 80 year old person would not be permitted to
add years, as the initial age is frail. The 80 year-old would, however,
be able to reduce the physical age. Repeated use would allow an enterprising 80 year-old to reduce his or her age to around 20
years. 2)
Pregnancy cannot be either created or destroyed by the unit. The unit will not work on a pregnant woman, even for cosmetic changes,
due to risk to the unborn. 3)
The mental image being used as a model for the new form generally conforms to some purpose, e.g. lingerie model or linebacker. That purpose defines some limits to the system to assist in deciding
what is and is not suitable for transformation. 4)
It might be less of a bother to just refine that to say the MAU
can't introduce disease or decrease intellectual capability. It can,
however, be curative; a person with serious illness or injury could be
relieved of that affliction through the MAU.
Q.
Is it the case that the device designs the new form at the genetic level for fitness of design, e.g. it doesn't allow a form that
contains a genetic disease or malfunctioning organs. A. This is correct. The device, by scanning the user, can interpret
the normal parameters of bodily function, and will not allow changes
that are outside the normal functioning.
Q.
What about things like breasts? A.
What about them? The unit knows, from the user's knowledge and decoding the genome, that breasts are mostly ornamental, and
increases in breast size are merely decorative, unless the user wishes the
breasts to be lactating, in which case the device will comply. If too large an increase is sought, the MAU will make corresponding changes in
other body structures, such as muscles and skeleton, to accommodate the extra
load.
Q.
Are there any other restrictions? A.
The device will scan the mind for moral restrictions inherent in
the user's species. These moral restrictions will be adhered to
strictly. Say, for example, a user wished to turn a pre-teen girl into a
woman of major age for the purposes of copulation. Such changes are not
within the bounds of moral behavior and would (attempt to be) screened.
Note that if the user is psychopathic, morally deficient, or amoral,
change limitations would be difficult to apply. As a safeguard, all MAU
devices within 2.5 Great Keflecs communicate via a proprietary data
interlink, thus allowing sharing of basic parameters of a species and
civilization. This safety feature was added after the disastrous lawsuits that
resulted when the MAU Mark 4 device was introduced to the YYthrillio race
and a few deviants used the devices to violate many significant taboos.
Q.
Anything else? A.
Nothing that Gamalfi Customer Service can think of right now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Final notes:
Danni is the ONE and ONLY person to have ever re-used an MAU. This
was accomplished after she accidentally turned herself into a very
accurate replica of the Borg Seven of Nine (from Star Trek: Voyager),
complete down to highly-detailed Borg nanoprobes and human-machine
cybernetic interfaces. This was possible through Danni's PhD-level knowledge
of nanotechnology as well as the vast Star Trek lore which had been
created. The Borg interfaces, coupled with massive work on the part of the
nascent Borg hive (which she also accidentally started), allowed her to
interpret the MAU binary programming language.
Danni and her band of MAU-created Trekkies are ABSOLUTELY and
TOTALLY off-limits to any author who wishes to write in my MAU universe.
C & D are the most common investigators of the agency. Others may be
created, but the authors should treat them as MIB, but without the fancy
toys. They are investigators only; they are not X-files sinister agents.
originally posted by cj on 2015-08-02, 3 edits, entryid=9286
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