• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Doing Humanity's Duty - DHP

Ray of Meep

Ray of Meep

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Gulfia, Atlantica, Atlantica System

The Atlantica Colonial Institute was an old school, founded in the early years of American colonization on the oceanic world. Today, its campus was crowded in by tall skyscrapers, the walkways flanked by soil-retaining trees, bushes, and concrete waterways that carried away the near constant rain that dominated Gulfia's annual climate.

Students and professors in rain jackets watched with curiosity and concern when a dark blue van with the Department of Human Protection, DHP's, emblem on it, rolled up and stopped next to a glassy dome with a concrete base: the Grumann Robotics and Computing Building. Four men and women in tinted glasses, gloves, ballcaps, ballistic vests, and sidearms jumped out the back, marching to the entrance, followed by two men who looked like officers, lacking the ballcaps, and wearing collared shirts and trench coats.

The Asian looking officer, Henry Bak, watched grimly as the men secured the glass door entrance, blocking any students and faculty from entering. "Alright, Handlin," He remarked with a hushed tone, out of recording range of the datapads bystanders were pointing at them. "Let's get this over with. Let's go fuck up some eggheads' day."
 
"Do you ever think of his death as one of your cases, Cherish?" Cherish Handlin's therapist was wearing a burgundy blazer over a black top. Simple, unassuming clothing. Nonthreatening. Her face was similar; she wore no gaudy jewelry and hadn't received any garish augmentation, cybernetic or surgical. Either that, or she had some exceptionally high-quality work. Cherish thought this was unlikely, given the salaries of staff counselors at federal agencies. "Cherish?" she asked. He realized that she had been waiting for an answer. "Sometimes people think of suicide as a mystery. They feel as though they cannot get closure until they've solved the 'why.' As a detective, I worry that you may be especially prone to this sort of questioning."

"He's not a puzzle to solve." Cherish finally said defiantly. And then, weaker, "He wasn't a puzzle to solve. I know why Aaron chose to kill himself."

"And do you give him ownership of that decision?" Cherish noted her change to the present tense, as if to appease his earlier slip-up. He fidgeted with his vaporizer, which his therapist was kind enough to allow him to use indoors, even though it was against local ordinance. He took a long draw from it before speaking again.

"I do. But I still can't forgive him." His therapist shook her head, and spoke back in a hushed voice.

"Alright, Handlin," she said. Cherish squinted his eyes, confused. The edges of his vision began to blur, and his therapist's voice seemed to come from the edges of the room as she spoke. "Let's get this over with. Let's go fuck up some eggheads' day."

---

Cherish shivered, realization pressing against him like the weight of an FTL leap. He had been in a sort of waking dream, walking alongside his new partner without realizing what he had been doing. He hoped Bak didn't notice. The Gulfia division had undoubtedly heard all manner of rumors about him before his arrival, though they were kind enough not to share what they had heard. He didn't want Bak's first impression of him to ruin his fresh start in Atlantica. He walked with Bak through the crowd of bystanders until they reached the GRC building entrance. Cherish took a moment to look up, his glasses running with thin streams in the rain. Above him, the dome extended ominously into the overcast sky, its glass panels reflecting the glittering rain droplets like a light show. He breathed in, deeply. The rain on Atlantica didn't smell like rain, he thought. It was a stupid thought to have, he realized, but it was true. To a native Atlantican, maybe, you could notice the subtle differences. But even when it wasn't raining, the sky was full to bursting, at least around Gulfia. It always smelled like rain here, so it wasn't special. Not like on Earth. Cherish realized this was the first time he had thought about Earth since he left over a month ago.

As the two detectives entered, two of the special agents remained at the door, blocking the curious bystanders, and soon the inevitable reporters. The other two agents (Guile and Smith? It was something like that, they had met during the morning brief but Cherish's mind was elsewhere then, too) flanked Cherish and Henry Bak. The lobby of the Grumann Robotics and Computing Building sported a massive concrete floor into which was carved the letters "G R C", accented with the Grumann logo cast in green-streaked marble. The lobby was an open design, and Cherish could see the circular concrete balconies above them. Seven floors, accessible by stairs or elevators on the far side of the lobby. From a central desk, a human man in his mid-fifties approached them. He was wearing a plain collared shirt with the Grumann logo emblazoned where a pocket would be. Cherish noticed his stungun and realized he must be the building's security. Before the man could speak, Cherish produced a digital badge on his datapad, which bore a QR code that could be scanned to authenticate. The man didn't bother.

"I'm Detective Handlin, this is my partner Detective Henry Bak." Cherish said loudly, neglecting to introduce the other agents for fear of getting their names wrong. Inside, the sound of the rain bouncing off the glass dome filled the building like static, drowning out the subtleties of conversation and forcing Cherish to speak up. "We're with the Department of Human Protection. We have a few questions for a Doctor..." Cherish trailed off, realizing he had forgotten the name of the man they were looking for.

"Doctor Wei Xiao." Bak interrupted. Cherish pursed his lips, embarassment filling him. He almost reached for his vaporizer out of habit, but stopped himself.

"Doctor Wei Xiao," Cherish repeated. "Would you happen to know where we can find him?" The man nodded wordlessly, seemingly stunned by the developments of the past few moments. He whipped out a datapad and scrolled through it before flicking his index finger forward off the pad, toward Cherish. A grainy and unflattering image of Wei Xiao resembling a driver's license photo appeared on Cherish's glasses, followed by an employee ID number and his office number, 304. Cherish nodded and turned to Bak, who was also parsing the same information on his glasses. "Before we speak to Doctor Xiao," he said toward the security guard, "can you tell us if there are any exits to the building beside the front? A building this size must have multiple fire exits, I imagine."

"Most of the fire exits are flush with the walls," the guard answered, pointing to the twelve-foot high concrete ring that wrapped around the lobby. "You can't see them until the fire suppression system activates, in which case they open. The only other way to get out would be through the back service exit, where the maintenance employees and conference catering comes through." The guard spent a few seconds hurriedly working through his datapad, sweating nervously as though delaying the detectives would be considered aiding and abetting. He flicked a 2D map of the building's ground floor to Cherish and Bak. "Some employees use that exit to get to their cars after work because it's closer to the employee parking lot, but we sent an email..." the guard trailed off, likely realizing how silly it would be for a rogue employee to be paying attention to company memos. Cherish pointed to one of the agents, careful to avoid eye contact with them for fear of having to use their actual name, then flicked his hand in the direction of the maintenance exit.

"One of you get to that side exit, don't let anyone in or out. The other comes with us to the third floor, but stay near the stairs so you don't spook him. He can't run up, so he'll have to come down to one of us." We hope, Cherish thought, looking up at the dome from underneath.
 
"Sir." One of Bak's men, a stern, square faced woman with a black ponytail, walked up to the pair of officers, escorting a man in front of her. He was an Asian man resembling that in the image presented to Cherish, short and a tad overweight, short, pragmatically cut, unattractive hair. A collared, long-sleeved shirt was tucked into a pair of black office pants, a checkerboard tie completing the outfit. He stood in front of the pair, looking defiant, annoyed.

"Dr. Wei." Bak addressed the short man.

"I assume you have a warrant?" Dr. Wei replied in a Chinese-Boston accent.

Bak nodded, drawing a folder from his trench coat, opening up to a laminated paper, showing it to the academic. "By the order of the American Union Department of Human Protection, we are here to confiscate all work on and including the ACI Sapient Robot Unit 004, "Joey". You and all supporting personnel are to cooperate in the delivery of all records, and the unit. Should you have any concerns, bring them up with the DHP after this collection's completion."

Dr. Wei squinted at the warrant, growling under his breath. "Follow me."

The professor led the two leading officers along with two others down into the basement. With his ID card, he opened a secured door, revealing an empty work lab, bathed in harsh, white light, with white walls, ceiling, and floor, completely sanitized. Several computer work stations lined the walls, a 3D fabricator and a machine shop tool cabinet in one corner, a couple of electronics workbenches in another. At the backwall stood a mechanical harness, heavy cords running from it to ports in the wall. Presumably, it was to hold "Joey".

"Servers are in the room down the hall." Dr. Wei remarked, then pointed to the computers. "You can also access any information here."

Bak scanned the work lab. "Where's Unit 004?"

Dr. Wei knit his eyebrows, sniffled and rubbed his nose. With a sigh, he replied with a repressed disdain. "As he is sapient, thinking and feeling being, we gave Joey a choice: remain and work with us until the inevitable, or follow his conscience. He did the latter."
 
Cherish stood in the corner of the bare laboratory, facing Unit 004's empty harness and examining it closely. Bak approached him, speaking softly to keep Dr. Wei from overhearing.

"Forensics will take weeks to rip apart all the data on these machines, figuring out what is and what ain't legal and all that." Bak reached his hand past Cherish's and fingered one of the nylon straps designed to keep the robot secured. They were impressively thick and wrapped over themselves multiple times. They could probably hold a few steel construction beams from a crane, Cherish figured. He wondered if the robot had the ability to break the straps. If Bak was thinking the same thing, he didn't say it. "Who knows how much damage that thing will be able to do before we can locate it?" he finally said. Cherish nodded, and strode over to the doctor, who was surrounded by DHP agents.

"Dr. Wei," Cherish said. "releasing an unsecured, high-functioning robot such as Unit 004-"

"-Joey." the doctor interrupted.

"-Joey. Releasing Joey into American Union territory means I can charge you with public endangerment. We'll fine you, take your machines, and you'll spend four months on administrative leave. The alternative is that I don't charge you with anything, but instead label you an insurrectionist under the Transhumanist Restriction Act. In that case, you'll have to sit in a detention center until we can get around to bringing charges against you. And I hate to admit this, but the DHP isn't particularly efficient when it comes to bureaucratic details like that." Cherish said this last part slowly, watching the doctor's eyes, his fingertips, and the corners of his lips looking for a reaction. The doctor was stoic. "What Detective Bak and I charge you with will depend on whether or not you help us find Unit 004." For a moment, everyone in the room remained quiet. Dr. Wei looked at the agents flanking him, then out into the hallway, where his colleagues had begun to gather. Cherish looked over his shoulder to Bak and raised his eyebrows. Bak picked up on the signal and broke the silence.

"Guys, please, give us a minute." He said, waving off the agents. "And get them the hell out of the hallway! Call Sonja and the ground team, get the entire basement cleared. Forensics is going to be here any second." Bak walked to the doorframe with the agents and then stood in it, blocking the eyes of the curious bystanders.

With the room partially emptied, Cherish noticed Dr. Wei begin to break. His fingertips twitched, and he noticed a bead of sweat drip down his wrist. While the doctor's face may not have changed, his hands betrayed him. It was time to press.

"Dr. Wei, I'm not an unreasonable man. I understand the bond you must feel with Joey," he said, careful to use the doctor's preferred name for the robot. "You were responsible for building him. You couldn't trust your colleagues to keep the details of his sentience a secret, so you had to put in the hours yourself. I imagine you two shared many late nights here, in this laboratory. He must feel like a son to you. I know you don't have a son, Dr. Wei." Cherish reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his datapad. He flicked through some saved images for a moment before settling on an image of an Asian girl, no more than six or seven years old, smiling wide with a missing front tooth. "But you do have a daughter. And if you're labeled an insurrectionist-"

"-then she may be deported from the American Union, under TRA Provision 6.2.1." Dr. Wei interrupted. He had a habit of interrupting people when they were talking, Cherish noticed. He wondered if that was why he was divorced, another detail he had learned during their morning briefing in between his distracting flashbacks. “I am extremely familiar with the risks associated with my work, Detective Handlin. As is every scientist in the Union. I’ve made my choices. You can take my work, my data, as was laid out in your warrant. But I don’t have to help you track down Joey. And I won’t.” Cherish nodded slowly, sharing a moment of unspoken understanding with the doctor. He knew he could probably bring him down to a DHP processing station and have the information extracted from him forcibly. But Dr. Wei's colleagues would see him carried off in handcuffs and know he had talked. He'd be ostracized in his small community. If they ever needed Wei again, even just to arrange a call between himself and whoever might be holding the robot, he would be useless. Besides, Cherish felt some measure of respect for the man, as well as pity. He reached into his jacket again, this time pulling out a different datapad. It was smaller and thinner, with a low-resolution display and only very basic features: no holographic projector, no compatibility with AR or VR displays, and more importantly, no GPS tracking. They cost about a fifth of what his department-issued datapad cost, and were commonly called “chits” by members of organized crime. He placed the chit into Dr. Wei’s damp hands.

“I understand, Dr. Wei.” Cherish said. He then turned to Henry Bak, standing in the doorway. “Detective Bak, Dr. Wei has complied with the extent of the warrant. He’s free to go.” Bak looked at Cherish quizzically, no doubt thinking that his new partner had left his brain back on Earth. He approached the two slowly.

“You…don’t want me to arrest him?” Bak said.

“Our warrant was for the contents of this laboratory. Until we can determine that Dr. Wei or his subordinates have committed a crime, he walks.” The next three hours were a blur of people and machines; DHP crime scene teams wearing respirators and gloves, expertly removing server cables and harness bolts out of the walls and floor of the basement lab, while uniformed street cops arrived in droves to keep the peace as the bystanders outside transformed into an impromptu protest. Mask-wearing individuals (“professional agitators,” Bak asserted) threw empty drink cups and balled up shirts dipped in paint or oil at the police, who responded by tackling a half-dozen of the protestors, shoving them face-first into the wet cement surrounding the building. Meanwhile, Dr. Wei was escorted out of the maintenance exit by the remaining DHP agents, all of whom were likely cursing Cherish and Bak under their breath while they tried unsuccessfully to hide the doctor from the dozens of recording devices pointed at him. They placed him in one of the DHP vans before driving him back to his home.

Standing in the destroyed lab, Cherish waited. His eyes were closed, and he was breathing deeply. It was a technique his therapist had discussed with him. Absorb the moment.

Henry Bak approached him, pushing through a crowd of people boxing up the evidence. “Hey asshole,” he said in an angry whisper. “I just spent the last hour deflecting questions about why we didn’t arrest the fucking doctor, and the next person I have to answer to happens to be our boss.” He pointed a finger at Cherish and then back at himself, emphasizing their shared predicament. “Mind explaining what the fuck is going on in your head?”

“I met a man when I was still at Homeland,” Cherish started. Bak let out an exasperated breath and shook his head, but didn’t interrupt. “that reminded me a lot of Dr. Wei. He had to choose between his best friend and his child. One would stay in the Union, and the other…” Cherish finally opened his eyes, but it didn’t change what he saw. In front of him stood his former partner, Aaron Friar. He was standing on the other side of granite countertop. They were in the kitchen of his condo, back on Earth.

---

“He’s not going to roll over on Mensah,” Cherish heard himself say. “He doesn’t have a relationship with his son anymore. He hasn’t seen him in two years, and if he gets within ten miles, DHS will-”

“He’ll talk,” Aaron’s voice echoed around the kitchen, confident even in its echo. “Love is the only thing you can count on, Cherish.” Cherish shook his head and wiped his eye with the back of his thumb.

---

“I gave him a chit. The only number in it is mine.” Cherish said. Bak put his hands on his hips and leaned forward.

“He just told you he wouldn’t work with you. What makes you so certain he will-”

As he spoke, he was interrupted by the sound of Cherish’s datapad ringing. Cherish looked down at the number, which he had already saved in his contacts. Chit 1 – Atlantica. Bak and Cherish both looked down at the screen for a moment, listening to the shrill beeping.

“Love is the only thing you can count on, Detective Bak.”
 
Last edited:
Sometime in the Evening

Dr. Wei's apartment was located in one of the gated apartment complexes in downtown Gulfia, above the wet and noisy streets, looking over pleasantly planted vegetation that brought natural color to the cramped, coastline city.

It was easy enough getting past the gates with Cherish's security clearance and government position. As he traveled up the elevator and walked through the hallways, other civilians were keen on avoiding him by getting off the elevator early and quickly moving past him: his appearance made it abundantly clear trouble was in the air.

The Asian academic opened up the door to greet the Detective. "Hello, Mr. Handlin." He remarked with a frown. His collared shirt was wrinkled, sleeves rolled up, his eyes bloodshot.

"Ba? Who are you talking to?" An innocent voice of a child came from behind a corner. Peeking out was a small girl, a head of black hair, staring at Cherish with wide, curious eyes.

"Limi, go back to playing your video game." Dr. Wei sweetly remarked to his daughter, then stepped outside, closing the door behind him.

"I'd invite you in as a guest, but I'm afraid you'll scare her." He continued to Cherish. "If you were expecting me to tell you where Joey is, you'd be mistaken."

He sighed, then changed his tone to anger, pointing up at the man. "You and your men stole my work. Two decades of it. My faith in the Union. I was a proud citizen once, Detective. I immigrated to this wet planet to help expand its industries, just as my ancestors were forced to do when the arrived on the American continent centuries ago."

The academic threw up his hands. "I have nothing to lose now. You killed my career, you forced me to let go of one of the last two loves of my life, and you threatened to take away the other. You want to deport my daughter? Fine, I'm leaving with her."

"I already contacted the Magnetic Assembly embassy in the city. They'll be here to escort me and Limi back to their headquarters in a few minutes. Enjoy your victory Detective. You're contributing to driving out the brightest minds from the Union."
 
Cherish stood in front of Dr. Wei's door for a while after the researcher slammed the door in his face. So much for that plan, he thought. Thinking quickly, he whipped out his datapad and called Henry Bak, while walking briskly toward the elevator doors.

"Handlin, tell me good news." Bak replied curtly. "I've been trying to play damage control on what happened today, but until you get back to headquarters-"

"Bak, listen." Cherish interrupted. "I need you to forward me a jurisdictional overlay for my datapad. It's still keyed to Earth, so I can't tell where the AU jurisdiction area ends." There was quiet on the other end for a moment.

"Handlin, if you're about to tell me you're planning on crossing international borders-"

"The whole point of having the overlay is so I don't do exactly that." Cherish interjected again. He noticed he was starting to become more like Dr. Wei as the day wore on. "Wei's claiming political asylum with the Magnetic Assembly. They're sending a car now, and regardless of the charges we put on him, the robots won't extradite. But if he hid Unit 004 somewhere between here and the Magnetic Assembly's border-"

"-we can secure the robot before they flee the Union." This time, it was Bak interrupting. "It's a decent idea, but how are you going to know if they..." Bak's voice drifted as realization set in. He responded in an animated whisper, obviously trying to keep the details of the conversation from swirling around headquarters."...Handlin, you crazy bastard. We're already in deep shit for what you pulled today, you think they're going to let you tail a Magnetic Assembly diplomatic vehicle without authorization? I don't even know who the fuck would have the authority to approve that."

Cherish wasn't listening by the time Bak finished his sentence. "Just send me the overlay." He said before hanging up. He hadn't had time to buy a car yet on Atlantica, and he and Bak had used an operations van to get to the GRC building earlier, so he had taken a squad car from one of the officers to drive to Dr. Wei's apartment. For what he was planning, it would be too conspicuous. Cherish instead hailed a sharecab from his datapad, which pulled up quickly. Inside was a man in his fifties with olive skin and a thick, salt-and-pepper beard.

"You're Cherish Handlin?" The man said. His voice was raspy and low.

"I am." He responded, flashing his datapad to reveal his badge. The words "DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN PROTECTION" flashed over the car's windshield AR display. The man recoiled and then looked around nervously.

"Hey, I didn't do anything, I swear!" He said.

"You're fine." Cherish responded, getting into the passenger seat. "You're not in any trouble. I just need you to follow a vehicle for me. The DHP will reimburse you for your time." The man continued to stare at Cherish in bewilderment.

"You're...you're not going to take my car?" Cherish pulled out his vaporizer and took a long drag while scanning the rainy street in front of Wei's apartment complex.

"You drive for a living. I don't." He replied without making eye contact. "Besides, I'm new to Gulfia. I need someone who knows the roads." The sharecabbie thought about this for a moment, then slowly reached his hand toward a red button on his dashboard. Cherish noticed this and began to sweat. Don't call the police, he begged internally. The man pressed the button, and the words "SURGE PRICING" popped up on the AR display.

"I'm going to have to charge extra," the driver said, with some confidence returning to his voice. Cherish smiled and nodded.

---

Cherish and the driver sat in the car, unmoving for about ten minutes. Cherish learned that the man's name was Hafilus. His parents were marine biologists who had come to Atlantica to study the planet's wildlife, but he had no such academic talent. Instead, he drove sharecabs when he wasn't working at a fish & chips shop (or as the locals called them, a "chip bin"). The whole time Hafilus spoke, Cherish kept scanning the street until his datapad buzzed. Bak had finally sent him the overlay, which he downloaded to his pad, as well as a message that simply read delete this msg. if anyone asks, i didnt know what u were up to.

Finally, Cherish saw Dr. Wei and his daughter emerge from their gated community and enter a large, unmarked black van.

"That's the car," Cherish said, pointing to the van. "I need to you to follow it." Meanwhile, he tapped away a message to Bak: turning on my tracker. will ping if i find something. find a reason to leave HQ.
 
The sharecab quietly followed the van through downtown Gulfia, across tight, wet streets, passing by neon lights and rumbling music that gave life to the Atlantican night. Men and women dressed in colorful waterproof jackets danced to the beats, enjoying themselves with a cocktail of drugs, grouping around open barrel fires that sizzled under the drizzling rain.

Cherish's datapad lit up, informing him that the cab just passed the boundary between Magnetic Assembly and American Union jurisdiction in the city. Here, the mood was drastically different. Very few people on the streets. Instead, construction vehicles and machines dominated. Entire blocks and streets were torn apart and in the process of reconstruction to the machine minds' liking. Drones flew over streets, looking for trouble makers.

The van stopped in front of a blocky, utilitarian building, its windows shuttered at the base, the walls covered in graffiti, the remnants of a protest littering the sidewalk. The Magnetic Assembly Embassy, the de facto seat of government in this jurisdiction. Dr. Wei emerged with his daughter, a woman coming out of the building. Keeping distance across the street, Cherish would note that the Asian man and the Caucasian woman exchange words for a few minutes. The professor then patted his daughter along to head into the building with the woman. He then returned to the van, which rolled along again.

The van headed back into AU jurisdiction, stopping a few minutes later at the city park, taking up several blocks, surrounded by high-rises, like the university. Dr. Wei emerged again, this time with a tall, slender, metallic figure from the van, a red eye at its head steady scanning the surroundings. Its gaze dwelled in the direction of Cherish's cab for a few uncomfortable seconds, then walked along with the professor, four rotor-drones coming out of the van as well, forming a square perimeter around the two.
 
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