From the personal notes of Doctor Anna Klein

Candidate #44: Iris Florence Platt

It wasn't hard to convince Jack to bring #44 on board; I think he was probably glad to have anyone at all. However, the unconventional nature of her recruitment has left us with a bit of a gap in the data regarding her exact potential. We were able to gather enough data to finish the construction of her unit, but further improvements will have to be made on the fly as we learn more about her capabilities.

As far as I've been able to determine, #44 does not know how she was able to survive the Aberrant attack. The limited psychological examination we've been able to make so far reveals a degree of subtle dissociation, albeit one that is incredibly well-masked. The façade she puts on is… perky, and I have to admit, rubs me the wrong way sometimes, but it is a useful construct for our purposes.

It remains to be seen how much of #44's potential can be harnessed. I wish we were running a bit less close to the bone — it doesn't thrill me that we're having to collect so much of our data via active deployments — but we're still very much on the back foot at the moment, so needs must.

Honestly, I'd rather have #44 in a lab than out in the thick of it. Nevertheless, her abilities in the field and her quick thinking have made her an invaluable asset.

Candidate #17: Amanita Virosa Gill

#17 is, in many ways, the ideal pilot. She is passive and compliant, but effective in the field, and takes modifications to her unit incredibly well. She works better solo than in a team, but until recently that was a non-issue.

#17 has had extensive levels of psychological examination. She displays a high degree of dissociation, but that is perhaps to be expected as a coping strategy for dysphoria. She has been diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder, which actually serves our purposes, as the diazepam she has been prescribed synergises well with Thanatos.

I am of mixed feelings around #17's relationship to #44. On the one hand, a closeness between pilots working together is perhaps an operational necessity. On the other, if that closeness upsets the delicate balance of #17's mental state and her unit, there could well be further implications for her safety and effectiveness in the field.

Damages to unit #17

Unit #17 was damaged in the field during #44's first sortie. The bulk of the damage is confined to the lower left arm of the unit, which was torn off; we have repaired the unit enough so that it can now function in the field again, but the arm has yet to be replaced.

According to records from before my time, #17's unit has undergone a number of modifications, some major and some minor. Initially, the unit was fully humanoid, with two arms and two legs, much like #30's. However, #17 did not initially take strongly to the humanoid form, and Kelly took the opportunity to experiment with a number of alternatives, including a quadrupedal design, before landing on the final three-armed configuration largely by happy accident. I was initially quite surprised to find this story in the operational records; I suspect it has something to do with her anomalous nature.

How can #17 pilot Thanatos?

I don't know why Kelly brought #17 on board, as the details of his selection algorithm still elude me. Certainly #17's identity makes her an anomaly among both candidates and test subjects: the Thanatos technology was designed and tested for female pilots, and relies on their natural potential to function. I would not have expected a transgender female to have such potential.

Further research is required to discover if #17's capacity exists in other transgender individuals, or if she truly is an anomaly. Unfortunately, we've turned up a dearth of candidates matching that profile, and I am loath to modify Kelly's algorithm until I understand it better. Kelly left behind about a dozen boxes full of notes on his algorithm — the old-fashioned git used paper — along with dozens of hours of voice recording, so it may take me some time until I have a satisfactory answer. In the mean time, I'll just have to continue examining the data that I do have, i.e. candidate #17 herself.

Potential improvements to Thanatos units

• Applying a smoothing operator to the P-matrix may result in better output — affective tensor could be used here?

• Need a better way to calculate flux — by pushing the surface integral inward, we may be able to estimate it more directly — tradeoff between speed and accuracy of calculation

• S-inductor currently too striated

• Do we need to reconsider faciality?

• New modalities of subjectivity could be constrained by an overcoding object matrix

• Current models structurally-closed — can we open them?

• Identity and identification-as-machine

My best attempt at conceptualising a smoothing-tensor improvement to the current configuration. I'm going to have to read more of Kelly's notes to work out the finer details, a prospect I don't exactly relish. The man was an abject hoarder.

Absolute deterritorialisation

A.D. exists at the limit of Thanatos' capacity. It is the ultimate product of the resonance created between the S-inductor and the pilot, where potentials escape the containment of the P-matrix and become uncontrollable, undirectable, and ultimately useless. If Thanatos is a match, and the pilot is a canister of petroleum, then A.D. occurs when the flame leaps up the stream and into the canister; the result is explosive, dangerous, and just as destructive as the Aberrants we're trying to contain.

Any deployment of Thanatos incurs a risk of A.D. However, more intense, more stressful and/or longer deployments increase that risk exponentially; the faster you pour from the canister, the more likely an explosion. We are able to monitor the levels of intensity of the pilot so as to head off A.D. at the pass, but there is always a tradeoff between risk and effectiveness.

The metaphor of a canister of fuel is not perfect. The potential contained within the pilot is not a finite resource to be depleted; rather, it is an infinite well of energy that flows in all directions, constrained only by the psychic-economical-social forces that act on a free body in space.

Deep in the bowels of the base, Anna Klein sat at her desk, poring over her notes. She'd been working for hours designing a new improvement to the Thanatos units, her mind fuelled mostly by Earl Grey tea and nicotine gum. The speaker in the corner piped a gentle classical sonata — not the jazz, not tonight when she needed the space to think — while the rest of the base was wrapping up for the day. Klein had made it quite clear to anyone who would listen that she didn't want to be disturbed.

The phone ringing was not a welcome distraction.

On the fourth ring, Klein broke from her work, muted the music and picked up the phone. "What is it?"

"Hello, Anna."

The voice on the other end of the line was calm and measured. Male.

"Martin," she replied flatly. That was just what she needed: a call from her ex.

"Not interrupting anything, am I?"

Klein cast a baleful eye on the papers littered across her desk, at the computer terminal, at the half-open filing cabinet in the corner. "Not at all."

"That's good."

Mobile phones still worked down here thanks to several miles of relays and network tunnels. You were supposed to turn them off when on duty, but most people didn't, and the top brass tended to turn a blind eye so long as there were no security breaches. Everyone had family. Even if they didn't want to.

"Listen," Martin said. "I was wondering if you'd like to spend some time with Robert next month. I've got a business trip to the Confed coming up and—"

"I don't really have the time," she replied.

Silence fell on the phone line for a moment, and Klein found her eyes drifting back to the papers on her desk. Maybe if she repolarised the—

"He misses you, you know. He misses you a lot."

"I..." Klein sighed. "I miss him too. But I really am busy."

"His birthday's coming up. You've barely seen him since—"

"I'm sorry," she said firmly. "I will make time. But not right now."

Martin sighed. But he was, for all his faults, able to take "no" for an answer.

"All right," he said. "You're keeping well, I hope? Not missing meals?"

Klein bristled. "No more than necessary."

"Anna..."

"And you're well, too?"

"Can't complain," he allowed.

"I will let you know when I have time for Robert." She sighed. "Please tell him... that I love him. Very much."

"I will," Martin replied. "I hope you have a good evening; please take care of yourself."

"I will." With that, she hung up the phone. She stood there, in the silence, for a minute or two, staring at the work in front of her.

She wasn't in the mood any more.

From the personal notes of Doctor Anna Klein

Introspection

I'm not a good mother.

No, that's an understatement. I am a piss-poor failure of a mother, just as I was a failure as a wife. I can't even tell my son that I love him without stuttering. I want to be nurturing, to be kind, but I can't. I have few friends, and my abortive attempts at marriage were a disaster.

But if I am a failed mother, it's because I never had a very good example of success in that field. I can't imagine that I was a very easy child to parent — I was the obsessive little girl with autistic traits, more in love with my laptop and bookshelf than any of my teddies or dolls — but that does little to excuse the distance my mother consistently put between us. I never understood her, and she never understood me.

I could visit her in the home, but I don't know if she'd want me to.

But I'm not a total failure. I have a highly analytical mind, and I wouldn't have gotten to where I am now if I were not able to put that to good use. I may not know what to do in my personal life, but I know what to do here: I am going to finish what Kelly started, what he probably didn't even realise he'd started. The Thanatos programme is my child now, one I do know how to mother, and I will nurture it until it reaches its full potential. Thanatos will save our society.

That's the best gift I can give to Robert: a world to thrive in.

Candidate #30: Willow Daphne Reynolds

#30 was recruited about six months before my tenure. According to records, Kelly based the initial design for her unit on #17's initial designs, with some internal modifications he apparently felt would increase effectiveness. Unlike #17, #30's unit has changed very little from its original construction.

Unfortunately, it was quickly revealed that #30's personality was a far cry from #17's passive compliance. #30 is often combative, and does not trust easily. Psychological examination has revealed a consistent paranoid-schizoid modality, with a strong tendency towards splitting. Our first psychiatrist suggested a diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, but having read his notes, I think that would overstate her capacity for manipulation.

Despite these deficiencies, #30 was an effective pilot for quite some time, participating in over twenty deployments. She rarely worked with #17 directly; at the time, we were typically deploying units one at a time, rather than in teams, and the form of Aberrant activity rarely required anything more than one unit and some limited artillery support. I realise that keeping them separate was useful from a scientific perspective, but I can't help but wonder if it contributed to her eventual breakdown.

#30's unit is almost entirely humanoid. I think this was an error in design on my predecessor's part; Kelly had a certain rigid regressive tendency when it came to form, bordering on a Pygmalion complex. To Kelly, the function of Thanatos as a restraint usually outweighed its inciting potential. I wonder if he'd have been as willing to modify #17's unit if she had not been transgender.

That being said, #30, having a much less outwardly-dissociative affect, has never shown any of the symptoms that led to #17's unit being redesigned.

A more humanoid form for Thanatos entails a much stronger P-matrix, and a correspondingly weaker S-inductor. While this reduces the chances of A.D. significantly, the added restraining force placed upon the psychic energy of the subject create a buildup of pressure that cannot be released via Thanatos itself. I suspect this is what has led to some of #30's more extreme outbursts.

I don't like #30. I think she's a liability, and I wish my predecessor had left her where he found her. But we don't have a great deal of options when it comes to candidates, so I'll work with her for now. Perhaps, through participating in the Thanatos project, she'll somehow work through whatever her damage is. But I won't hold my breath.

I haven't met her parents, but I understand that they are rather distant. I can't entirely blame them.

"What's the matter with you today, Anna?"

Jack Adler stood at the door to the office, two mugs of tea in hand, his tone and posture apparently contradicting the accusation in his words.

"What do you mean?"

The Colonel sighed, stepped into the room, and set down one of the mugs on Klein's desk. "Searl said you were in a mood."

Klein sighed, but took the mug gratefully. Breakfast tea, from the smell of it, but she wasn't feeling that picky; she took a swig, lightly scorching her lips. "Searl should mind his own business."

Lieutenant Harry Searl was, as usual, terminally helpful. They'd run into each other in the cafeteria about an hour ago — Klein had been eating alone, but Searl wanted to join her, the usual dance — but today, Anna Klein was in no mood for him. She'd given him a harsh rebuke, even by her usual standards. The sad thing is, she'd initially been trying to be nice to him.

Unfortunately, nice wasn't really in her skill set.

"How are the repairs coming along?" she asked, hoping to head this particular conversational cul-de-sac off at the pass.

"Could be worse," Adler replied. "Still waiting on that last part needed for the replacement arm. Unless… you had something else in mind?"

He gestured at the desk, and Klein followed his gesture to the piles of notes in front of her.

She sighed. "No, no… not yet, at least. Maybe tomorrow."

The Colonel nodded slowly, looking thoughtful but remaining silent.

"Anna," he said at last, "if there's anything I can do…"

Klein shook her head. "I'd rather be alone, right now."

Adler nodded, and left the room. Klein turned the music on once more.

From the personal notes of Doctor Anna Klein

Aberrants

Kelly didn't concern himself much with Aberration as a phenomenon. He was more psychologist than sociologist, so the question of why Aberrants were becoming more and more common was not in the scope of his thinking. To him, the existence of Aberrants were simply proof of some of his theories, and an opportunity to test others.

How short-sighted.

Thanatos and Aberration cannot be properly analysed in isolation. Medicine is incomplete without epidemiology. Aberrants occur in close symbiosis with their ecosocial environs, with each different expression of Aberration being the direct result of human practice and custom. The bellringer-cantor Aberrant on the cathedral, the amorphous Aberrant of the shopping district, the swarm coming from the residential district... the pattern is clear. Wherever humans do something together, an Aberrant will arise, its form dictated by the situation. It's no wonder that Aberrants arose in this century; as a species humanity has never been more urbanised or industrialised, especially in places like Britain, Germany, China and the Confederate States. New Gloucester in particular stands as a monument to Neo-urbanism, a wholly artificial community built upon strata of human empires dating back at least to the Roman occupation, in defiance of the ocean itself.

At least the Japanese had the sense to relocate regularly.

Dream log 16th April

I'm standing in the middle of a library. I think it's the library from when I was in secondary school; the posters feel kind of school-like and I feel as though I recognise the librarian. But there aren't any chairs or tables, just bookshelves arranged concentrically around a central circle, which is where I am. I'm looking over the bookshelves, trying to find a way out. I don't know why I need to leave, but the urge to do so is overwhelming me, like something terrible will happen if I don't go.

I hear a voice: I think it's Robert, which is odd, because I'm definitely still a teenager in the dream. I start walking through the bookshelves, but they're taller now, blocking my view of the exit, and I wander through them like a sort of labyrinth. The voice continues to call, and I try to use it as a sort of guiding light, but I feel incredibly lost within the shelves, and the fluorescent lights above me are getting darker and darker.

I find myself in another open space. I'm not alone there; there's another girl, also a teenager, reading a book. I look at the book and notice that it's my diary, the one I had when I was in university. The girl, I recognise now, is Alice Hart, a classmate of mine from secondary school.

I grab the diary from her and she shouts something at me, something vicious. I don't remember what, exactly, just that it was the kind of catty thing she'd say to me in school whenever we ended up sat next to each other. I try to tell her that I don't have time for this, I have to get to my son, and she just laughs.

"You don't have a son," she says. "You have a […]"

I don't remember how she ended that sentence.

Supplementary notes re: candidate #44

#44 is smart. Perhaps too smart. I'm increasingly of the opinion that I'll need to bring her in on a few more operational details before she works them out herself; the potential for damaged trust is high. But at the same time, we're keeping those details back for a reason, and I can't be sure whether, when she learns the true nature of Aberration and of Thanatos, she'll still be willing to work with us. I can't take the risk that she'd leave, and then we'd lose ourselves a prime subject for our studies.

Perhaps I should put some feelers out. Start drip-feeding her information, take control of the narrative and ease her into it. I think that could be the best way forward for the programme.

I'll have to clear it with Jack first.

Next time:

With the support of Willow and Amanita, Iris finds herself stronger than ever. The Aberrants don't stand a chance. But what's Harry Searl up to?

Find out in the next exciting episode. Episode Seven: Reterritorialised!