Ultimate Marty Stu
Version 1.1
Character list
How the World Will End
Okay, probably not. This is the outline for Ultimate Marty Stu version 1.1. The end of the world is based on rumors floating around the more paranoid portions of the Internet. The "aliens & Mac save the world" part is based on wishful thinking.
LiveJournal entry
===
Removed:
Surviving humans who don't want to live under the rule of his clones are allowed to emigrate to a few other colony worlds set aside by the aliens. Eventually most of them do. [Changed 10/28/09: human emigration limited to a few other worlds.]
Dying on the Vine
Are humans just too stupid to manage the civilization they've built? Judging from the way the company he works for is being run (into the ground), Mac concludes the answer is yes, and prepares for the inevitable.
April Fools
War! What's it good for? Destabilizing a superpower, apparently. The US military is basically lured into a trap, and much of it is destroyed.
The Final Breakdown
Mac knows the pieces fit, because he watched them fall away. The US falls apart. Mac has bad experiences with street gangs and "Federal Police" that cause him to start avoiding human contact. Famine and pestilence spread around the globe. Just before the Internet goes down for good, there are rumors of "zombie uprisings." Mac realizes that the "zombies" are mobs of starving people, driven to cannibalism because they have nothing else to eat.
Music: Tool, "Schism"
The Sound of Silence
Mac locks himself in his apartment after the utilities go off. Eventually, all he hears is...nothing.
Music: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"
Wikipedia
Soft Rains
Mac overcomes his budding agoraphobia when he must venture out to get drinking water. No one's around.
"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Sara Teasdale
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly;
And none would miss the inline ads
Cluttering up my poetry.
Misanthrope
Mac realizes he doesn't want to meet any other people, because he blames them for the collapse of civilization. "It's not capitalism that failed. It's not democracy that failed. It's humanity that failed."
Fading Away
Mac realizes he's losing his grip on sanity. He becomes detached, watching his own body go through its daily routine, seemingly without his direction. His surroundings start to seem unreal, dreamlike.
Depersonalization disorder
Sparks
I decided the collapse of human civilization wasn't that interesting, so I'm skipping ahead to when the aliens contact Mac.
===
The utilities were off, and had been for weeks. The area where Mac lived seemed to be deserted. He hadn't seen or heard anyone for weeks. He had enough food and water to survive for a while, but he was afraid he was losing his mind.
Whenever Mac closed his eyes, he didn't just see darkness. He saw points of light, like the stars in the sky, only swirling around, like a swarm of fireflies. This had been true ever since he'd been a child. As a child, he'd named them the Sparks.
Since the power had gone off, Mac had been going to bed as soon as it got dark, simply because there wasn't much else he could do. He generally didn't go to sleep right away, but lay staring up into the darkness, sometimes for hours. One night, he realized he was seeing the Sparks with his eyes open. He wasn't too worried about this, because it was so dark there was little difference between having his eyes open or closed.
But then he started seeing the Sparks in the daytime.
Ah, good, I'm going insane, Mac thought. Well, why not? It's not like there's any point in staying sane anymore. Maybe I'll go look for a pond that thinks it's a martini.
"You are perfectly sane," said a voice. The voice seemed to exist primarily inside Mac's head. It seemed to come from the swirling Sparks.
LiveJournal entry
Music: Alanis Morissette, "Ironic" (or not)
lyrics
Wizard of Ooze
Alien nanotech can duplicate anything, clean, make the utilities run, and is generally useful.
===
"So, where's this technology you're talking about?" said Mac.
"It will be easier to show you outside," said the Sparks.
"Okay," said Mac. He went out the front door, looked around, didn't see anything. "Um..."
"You're about to step in it," said the Sparks.
"Waaagh!" said Mac, starting backward. Some silvery goop was oozing out of the ground, and Mac had indeed almost put his foot in it. "That's it?" he said. As far as alien technology went, it was extremely unimpressive.
"That's it," said the Sparks.
"What does it do?" said Mac.
"What do you want it to do?" said the Sparks.
LiveJournal entry
Mac was the only one who'd been using the trash bin for weeks, but it hadn't been emptied in all that time, and it was getting pretty ripe. "You can go ahead and recycle whatever's in there," he said. "Uh, you won't use that to make food out of, will you?"
"We've already had this discussion with other humans," said the Sparks. "Organic waste will be used to produce fertilizer, as it is in your natural recycling system."
Ah, yes. Other humans. To tell the truth, Mac hadn't really missed them. His most recent encounters with other people had all been unpleasant. First watching the company he worked for die while the people in charge lied about it. Then being harassed by street gangs. Then, later, being stopped and searched by "Federal Police," who'd failed to get the gangs under control but had no problem making life difficult for innocent civilians.
And then most of them had died. Mac had mixed feelings about that, which, admittedly, meant that his feelings about it weren't all bad. He'd spent the last few weeks trying not to think about other people, and succeeding pretty well, actually.
But sooner or later they'd be getting in his face again, and he realized he'd better find out what to expect.
Statistics
Dupe cohorts
| N |
24N |
Total Dupes |
Phase of Expansion |
| 0 |
1 |
1 |
Original Mac |
| 1 |
24 |
25 |
Apartment building |
| 2 |
576 |
601 |
1/2 mile radius |
| 3 |
13,824 |
14,425 |
Oceanfront |
| 4 |
331,776 |
346,201 |
Interstates 264 to 464 |
| 5 |
7,962,624 |
8,308,825 |
Virginia Beach to Cleveland |
| 6 |
191,102,976 |
199,411,801 |
North America |
| 7 |
4,586,471,424 |
4,785,883,225 |
The World |
Greek alphabet
| Αα |
Alpha |
Νν |
Nu |
| Ββ |
Beta |
Ξξ |
Xi |
| Γγ |
Gamma |
Οο |
Omicron |
| Δδ |
Delta |
Ππ |
Pi |
| Εε |
Epsilon |
Ρρ |
Rho |
| Ζζ |
Zeta |
Σσ |
Sigma |
| Ηη |
Eta |
Ττ |
Tau |
| Θθ |
Theta |
Υυ |
Upsilon |
| Ιι |
Iota |
Φφ |
Phi |
| Κκ |
Kappa |
Χχ |
Chi |
| Λλ |
Lambda |
Ψψ |
Psi |
| Μμ |
Mu |
Ωω |
Omega |
Organizational structure
Previous cohort (Mac at top, same initial string for lower cohorts)
"Al, Bet, Gam, Del, Ep, Zet, Et, Thet, Io, Kap, Lam, Mu, Nu, Xi, Mic, Pi, Rho, Sig, Tau, Up, Phi, Chi, Psi, Meg," said Mac.
===
"So, how many humans are left, anyway?" said Mac, re-entering his apartment. He washed his hands very thoroughly.
"Overall, about ten percent," said the Sparks. "Densely-populated urban areas were the hardest hit. In some, less than one percent survived. Rural area seem to have gotten off the lightest. As many as one in three survived in the countryside."
LiveJournal entry
===
"Occupant rights" is something I think might come up in a situation like this. With most of the population dead, it may be impossible to determine who actually owns a given piece of property, especially if banks and other corporations are involved.
It's been a long time since I've seen any evidence that anyone cares about what I'm posting here, but if you do, I may owe you an apology. I am aware that the version of the Ultimate Marty Stu story that I'm posting now is not the version I posted about a few months ago. The other version is actually somewhat cooler, as Mac invents all the technology himself, rather than borrowing it from aliens. However, when I actually went to write the story, the version that came out is the I'm posting now. So, if anybody cares, I apologize for how little control I seem to have over my own creative processes.
Duped
Mac duplicates himself. Using a ladder to put up short wave radio antenna. Wind blows ladder over -- he's trapped on the roof. All Mac can think of is to make a copy of himself to put the ladder back up. First one is on the roof with him because he wasn't specific enough. The second one, manufactured on the ground, gets them down.
===
LiveJournal entry
---
We're cheating! the Sparks accused.
Oh, come on, cajoled the Sparks. We'll achieve our goals much faster this way.
===
I figure if the other senses can be fooled, telepathy would occasionally give misleading results, too.
Lurking
More exposition. Alpha mans the shortwave and the radio modem while Beta catches up on housework and original Mac starts on the long-neglected yard work. Basically a FAQ for the current state of the world.
Aleph Society -- claim to support technocracy, which Mac is interested in. Actually they are a secret cabal of quasi-fascists who have seized control of the US executive bureaucracy and military while pretending the president is still in charge.
LiveJournal entry
Strange Interlude
Alpha reflects on being a duplicate. Beta acts goofy. They are family.
LiveJournal entry
Energy Accounting and other interesting subjects
Technocracy (bureaucratic) proposal for system which uses energy accounting instead of money.
Energy accounting The Sparks could actually implement a system similar to this. Their ability to produce material goods limited mainly by available energy.
Urbanate Mac's living arrangement will tend to evolve in this direction. Duplicates will live where they work.
Just-in-time (business) I wonder if a superintelligent entity like the Sparks or the Minds of Iain Banks' Culture novels could use "Just-in-time" techniques on an economy-wide scale to decide what to manufacture and when. Would this make moneyless economies possible?
Thermoeconomics Putting economics on a physical basis
Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt Maybe the problem with the banks is that they have too many negative pigs on their balance sheets.
Dead Letters
This occurs circa 8/12/10. "Sparks" through "Lurking" take place circa 8/8/10. Town meeting is next Tuesday, 8/17/10
===
Mac meets the Postman from the temporary? Virginia Beach postal service. Postman's name is Bob. He tells Mac about the town meetings at the civic center. The mailbox was stuffed to overflowing because mail wasn't picked up for a couple of months. Rainwater got in, and now the mail is soggy and moldy. Mac demonstrates his control of the Sparks' technology by cleaning and drying out the mail. Noted that most of the mail is probably from dead people, being sent to dead people.
Mac has Beta bring the bills that Mac tried to mail out a few weeks ago. Bob notes that the companies they're addressed to may not be in business, or even exist, any more. Mac tells Bob that Beta is a "robot" that the Sparks manufactured for him, and that he has "others."
Bob notes that there don't seem to be many people left in the Oceanfront area. He also mentions that some people are "trading up," moving to better housing, exploiting "occupant rights" to take over some of the many recently-abandoned buildings.
Occupancy
The rest of the alphabet. Mac and his dupes are the only ones living in his apartment building. He decides he wants the whole thing to himselves.
Mac and Beta return to their apartment. Beta complains about being called a "robot" while Alpha listens in. Mac explains that the robots in the play by Karel Capek were biological constructs, and that is an accurate description. Mac has the Sparks make 22 more duplicates, naming them after the rest of the letters in the Greek alphabet. They move into the other apartments. There are six apartments in the small building Mac lives in, they move in four to an apartment (five in Mac's apartment including himself).
Rossum's Universal Robots
Town Meeting
Mac goes to the municipal center with a couple of dupes. Mac hears more about "trading up" and worries more people will move to the Oceanfront area. Alpha meets someone from the Aleph Society and gets invited to an meeting.
Mayor Lanphil opens the meeting. Mac finds out he's already famous, as the Sparks have told people about "one who is being trained to use our technology." He introduces his "robots" and explains they're "biological constructs." He says they have human intelligence and he'd like them to be recognized as persons. Replies are vague. The mayor asks Mac how many robots he's going to make and he's also vague, saying "as many as I need." Mac asks the people what they need from him. Gasoline and other fuels are mentioned, because the Sparks won't manufacture those in quantity. Mac says he'll have some of his "robots" man some gas stations, where the Sparks agree to provide fuel as long as Mac or his "robots" are supervising.
Aleph Society
That Thursday (8/19/10), Alpha goes to a meeting of the Aleph Society. (at the Bow Creek Country Club) They present themselves as harmless intellectuals interested in technocracy. They butter Alpha up to make him sympathetic. Should suggest that the Aleph society is into a lot of word games, head games, and general mumbo jumbo.
Density
List of countries by population density
600/sq mi = Germany
===
Basically, Mac is getting ready to duplicate his duplicates. He explains the naming convention. Each dupe-dupe will have the Greek letter of his "parent" dupe plus a second Greek letter. They will have nicknames based on the first syllable of each letter, except they'll use "Mic" for Omicron and "Meg" for Omega (and "Io" -- two syllables -- for Iota). Omega objects to "Meg" and they settle on "Omeg" if the first letter is Omega. Mac explains he's filling up the surrounding area with his duplicates to keep other humans from running down the property values.
Not really talked about, but subtly shown: the dupes are developing slight differences in their personalities. Beta is becoming clownish (okay, Mac actually notices and reflects upon this), Pi is particularly concerned with rationality (guess why).
"Al, Bet, Gam, Del, Ep, Zet, Et, Thet, Io, Kap, Lam, Mu, Nu, Xi, Mic, Pi, Rho, Sig, Tau, Up, Phi, Chi, Psi, Meg," said Mac. "Is that acceptable to everybody?"
Gasoline
Some of Mac's dupes man the gas pumps, as agreed at the town meeting. Military vehicles come to gas up. Dupes hear about Admiral Atlas, who's in command of the Navy Base in Norfolk.
Warlord
One of the dupes of the first cohort (Pi) meets with the Admiral. The Admiral wants fuel, Pi is not sure whether to give it to him. Questions whether the Admiral wants to use it to force Patriotism (see below) down people's throats. Admiral gives him a lot of BS that doesn't reassure him.
===
Patriotism (with a capital P) is the philosophy the maintenance of social order is more important than the exercise of human rights, which may be "temporarily" suspended in cases of social disorder. Patriotism was used to justify for the extreme "anti-dissident" measures taken in response of civil disorder in the US a couple of months ago in the story.
Oceanfront
Mac, nervous about the Admiral's intentions, creates a third cohort of duplicates. 13,824 duplicates occupy the Oceanfront area. They take over the Oceanfront hotels, leaving one in ten for the tourists. Mac also has the dupes occupy Oceana Naval Air Station and Camp Pendleton, both abandoned between the war and the plagues.
Less Lethal
3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate
Microwave weapons
Stun (flash-bang) grenades
Non-lethal rounds
Electroshock weapons
Mac assigns dupes to defense, study the use of nonlethal weapons. Noting that dupes are replaceable while other surviving humans are not, Mac wants them to be able to defend themselves, but to avoid taking human life whenever possible.
Duple Agent
Alpha keeps the Aleph Society informed of Mac's doings.
Mac and the Mayor
The Mayor travels to the Oceanfront, meets with Mac. Notes Mac dupes are messing with city property -- the Boardwalk, etc. The dupes status as possible slaves is brought up. Mac claims they're free, working for him under their own free will. Mac offers the services of his dupes to maintain city property in lieu of paying taxes. (What are they using for money? Cash and gold can be manufactured by Breadboxes. Debit cards?) The mayor agrees, but notes their work will have to pass inspection.
Ominous Dominance
Alpha meets with the Aleph Society again. They question Mac's occupation of "valuable oceanfront property," suggest "occupant rights" may be legally challenged, particularly in Mac's case. "He's on shaky ground. Ground that arguably does not belong to him."
Admiral Atlas' forces move into Fort Story. Based on what Alpha has been told, he suspects Atlas is working with the Aleph society.
Nits
The first inspection does not go well. Mac suspects he's being set up.
Old Tomato
Alpha receives an ultimatum from the Aleph Society. It is suggested they have ties with the mayor, and the results of the next inspection depend on Alpha's answer. Alpha gets an actual old tomato before receiving the ultimatum. Should suggest before this that the Aleph society is into a lot of word games, head games, and general mumbo jumbo.
Fleet Footed
A former US fleet under the control of Admiral Atlas appears off the Oceanfront. Mac makes plans for defense. Alpha listens in.
Alpha's Choice
Alpha meets with the Aleph Society one last time. Spill the beans on Mac's defenses, or die. Alpha chooses death.
Only Human
Mac finds out Alpha's been murdered, calls the police. (Alal in charge of the Alphas) The coroner determines that the deceased was fully human, and that therefore a murder was committed. Question whether Sparks' testimony is admissible evidence.
Falling Out
Mac's contacts with the police (those working on the Alpha case) are reassigned and forbidden contact with Mac and the dupes. Their families are under threat if they do. Second city inspection is a failure. Mac ordered to move out of the Oceanfront buildings.
Final Countdown
Mac refuses to be a victim of politics, so he and the dupes hunker down instead of leaving. Given a deadline by the Admiral. Ships open fire. Amphibious assault on Camp Pendleton. Airborne Special Ops take Oceana.
Orange Night
Aftermath of the attack on the Oceanfront. Mac has survivors take pictures/video of the casualties and damage and post them online. PackNet can't be censored. Mac has dead buried in mausoleum that runs along the Boardwalk. Has the Sparks put the Oceanfront back the way it was before. Asks Sparks to cripple the ships offshore -- they do.
Counterattack
Mac has Sparks create part of fourth cohort, uses them to retake Oceana, Camp Pendleton. Also takes Fort Story.
Trash Less
[[After the oceanfront gets bombed.]] Mount Trashmore has collapsed. City Seal stands alone. Roots lead to Oceanfront. (Sparks have used the trash under Mount Trashmore as raw material to rebuild the Oceanfront) Mac meets the Mayor there. Mac tells the Mayor that further inspections of Oceanfront property are unnecessary -- they meet Mac needs just fine. Hints at further expansion. Mayor asks how much. "As much as I need. I'll let you know."
"So are you getting an idea of just what you're dealing with yet?" said Mac.
"A monster?" said the mayor.
"Something very dangerous, anyway," said Mac. "Dangerous and angry."
Blue Zone
Mac completes the fourth cohort. He occupies an area running along 264 to Norfolk, then down 464 into Chesapeake. Holds the Shore Drive bridge over Lynnhaven river in case of attack from Little Creek. "Blue Zone" denotes area under Mac's control, contrast "Green Zone" under Aleph Society control.
Nuked
Original Mac asked to meet with Aleph Society. Mac's original apartment building is nuked. Whole oceanfront area is destroyed. Mac is shot in the head.
"Can you put it back the way it was before," asked someone who looked just like Mac. Nuke and all, there were still several hundred thousand of them.
"I'll need to get raw materials from somewhere," said the Sparks.
"Well, you can start with what's left of that fleet offshore. Then you can take Little Creek and the Navy Base. For desert, top it off with the Bow Creek Country Club."
"I still won't harm a human, even after this," said the Sparks.
"Take as much as you can without hurting anyone."
===
Bow Creek Country Club was where the Aleph Society was meeting.
Psyche
Alpha 2.0 (not sure I'm going to do this. Sparks won't resurrect/duplicate dead humans because it wouldn't be fair to bring back some but not all the dead and the Earth can't support all 20 billion or whatever. However, it already has been making duplicates of duplicates and it might continue to do so when the original is dead???) appears on the air, identifying himself as the second reduplication of the original Alpha. Another appears with him, identifying himself as the original Mac, saying the one who died at the Aleph Society was a duplicate. The duplicate was carrying microminiature audiovisual equipment of Mac design -- the meeting and murder were recorded, and now Mac is broadcasting it worldwide.
They walk around with a digital camera, showing that the Oceanfront area has been completely restored. "We just want to live in peace. But if you continue to attack us, we will continue to defend ourselves."
Seen and Raised
General Knott identifying himself as "Commander and Chief of the East Coast Green Zone" comes on the air. He shows footage of the fleet and the navy base being destroyed, together with what appears to show people, both military and civilian, being devoured by the silver ooze (this is fake). He declares that Mac and his dupes are hostile alien invaders, declares them "enemy combatants" and demands that they leave US territory, or they will be dealt with with extreme prejudice. He also demonstrates what appears to be a cruder version of the aliens' technology. He says his troops will not stop fighting the "alien menace" until they are dead. He means that both ways -- the troops will kill the "aliens" or die trying. Mac will have to consider using deadly force against them.
East Coast Green Zone is basically from Norfolk through Washington north to Boston. There are also Midwest and West Coast Green Zones, encompassing the major cities there, all ultimately under the control of the Aleph Society.
Push
Fifth cohort is duplicated. Mac expands along 460 toward Blacksburg, Va., site of his Alma Mater, Virginia Tech. He intends to surround the East Coast Green Zone, pushing up I-81 to Lake Erie, then taking the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Copy Error
While moving through western Virginia, skirmishing with the Greens, the dupes find that the Greens have been using their technology to duplicate troops. Only the process isn't perfect yet. The Green dupes have serious physical and psychological problems.
Stumped in Staunton
Mac's forces find the Greens have occupied Staunton. Apparently they've guessed what Mac is up to and moved to head him off. Change of plans: fortify West Virginia, then move straight north to Cleveland.
Mountain Momma
John Denver, "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
"Oops, we weren't the first to think of fortifying West Virginia." Mac dupes vs. Greens in West Virginia. Green technology is getting better, too.
Rescue
US Congress held by the Aleph Society in West Virginia. Aleph Society holding relatives of Senators and US Representatives hostage to ensure compliance. Mac dupes rescue them. Probably the President, too.
Presidential Address
The President gets on the air and warns that the US government as been usurped by the Aleph Society, a bunch of uber-rich closet fascists. The "Green Zones" are actually under the control of the Aleph Society. Mac's forces are recognized as a "civilian militia" and given a contract to help the US armed forces against the Greens.
Purge
Aleph Society is using technology to force the troops under their control to remain loyal to them by modifying their brains. For many the treatment doesn't take, others suffer brain damage. These "failures" are "euthanized." The remaining troops are duplicated. The duplication process works better, except the duplicates die of massive organ failure within a year. "But they can be replaced."
Copyright © 2009 by Richard C. McCluney, III
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