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Meerlinda, and the Meerlinda Nanodisaster |
There may be one thing worse than encountering an unregulated
nanite swarm left behind by an alien civilization, and that's
encountering
the devices that are meant to regulate them, and that is programmed to
attack
and destroy all nanotech, that has gone awry or mutated and
does not have the proper codes.
A well known historical instance of this was the Meerlinda nano-disaster
Meerlinda is the fourth planet of star B5C 2309 6753 [Mekelon
Astrographic Institute Standard Catalogue], colloquially known as
Darram's Star, a typical G4 corewards of NGC 6124. It was colonised in
3189 by the Shiftwranger clade of tweaks, a minor clade mainly known
for their sensory adaptability and fascination with fractals (due to
their very altered perceptual system). They were on the lookout for a
new world to settle, as they were under some political pressure back
home in the Kess-Utumu habitats of Alexandria due to their presumed
inefficiency.
The planet soon became an important trading colony with a high level of
tech and close Negentropy
Alliance affiliation.
In 3804 Meerlinda was attacked by "gremlins" which systematically
eliminated all technology and killed the local
ruling AIs...the effect was the exact opposite of the classic "Neutron
bomb" in that bionts were left standing while all fell apart around
them (of course this killed a lot of biologicals
too, in ships and vehicles and hospitals). The planet plunged into
the steam age for a while, isolated by force from other systems
(although no refugee ships lasted long enough to reach other
systems, one clue that the attack was not, as some had suspected, a
well-designed virus or nanoswarm...The disaster was enough
to frighten the AIs even more than the bionts, but eventually
a combined effort by various concerned clades and AIs revealed that the
"gremlins" had pursued a vec
freighter passing through an
unexplored system belonging to a 5.4 million year old civilization
HIE072CZE.
The ramifications of the incident were felt in several ways. Beside
added defensive and quarantine measures, there was also
increased cooperation between the different levels of Terran
life (some superior AIs now realizing that keeping the other
forms such as bioids around had a practical purpose when dealing
with certain alien threats). There were related examples of
AI support for Human-led Institutes,
and it is now thought by
some that the unnamed mid-level AI behind the scenes of the HIE
is motivated by more than just curiosity about the past or
philosophical questions about the lifespan of civilizations.
