[u][b]Ghost Fragment: Clovis Bray[/b][/u] [u]Primary Text:[/u] [i]Excerpt from an unpublished memoir of Clovis Bray II[/i] [u]Secondary Text:[/u] My father hated maps. [b]This memoir is told from the perspective of a son of Clovis Bray, who also has his fathers name, naturally placing heavy responsibility and stress on a boy of vast possibilities.[/b] “And do you know why I hate maps?” he asked me. I didn’t answer. Not immediately. With Father, every question was vast, particularly those that looked simple. And simple questions deserved as much insight and wisdom as could be brought to bear. [b]It seems I have this in common with Clovis Bray. To establish facts and hypothesize simple statements into complex realities.[/b] With that in mind, I said nothing. Why would my father hate maps? [b]Clovis Bray Sr. tutors his son. Judging from the boy's aggravation, this is a common occurrence.[/b] One of his collaborators came into the office. Father didn’t have employees. Or assistants. And for that matter, he didn’t have heroes either. Every person, living or lost, was a collaborator, and that included his children. [b]Being the natural pessimist that I am, I see this as a man wishing for his name to be accompanied with every idea, discover, innovation and solution. Kira, on the other hand, sees this as Clovis making sure each and every person in his company receives recognition for their part in his company's success.[/b] “Clovis,” said the visitor. Father heard the woman, but he was watching me. The woman was pretty, and I was sixteen. So I looked at her, smiling enough for both of us. And she threw an appreciative wink my way as she described test results from the last five billion runs of our AI Initiative. [b]A child at the height pubescent; teenage angst. The woman is either being coy, finding the boy attractive, or simply a risk taker, finding a moment to sneak a moment of professionalism past her authoritarian boss. What could this AI Initiative be? Perhaps work to establish a Warmind on Mars? or the invention of Frames, and eventually Exos?[/b] Out on the Martian desert, my father and picked collaborators were building housing too cold for this universe and too swift to be real. And I was a sixteen year-old boy smiling at a pretty woman. [b]Shows the miracles of Clovis Bray, and the aspirations of its CEO. Also shows the simplicity of the teenager, who seems to have little concern for his father's lofty aspirations.[/b] My father thanked her for the update, and she left. Just as I feared, he never looked away from me. [b]An expectant father, who knows his son must learn more if he is to inherit this incredible company.[/b] “I don’t know why you hate maps,” I admitted. With Father, ignorance was never the worst crime. What was awful was pretending to have insight and wisdom where neither existed. “Maps end,” he said. I nodded, just a little. “Maps insist on having borders and edges or the table falls away. Which isn’t the way the universe works.” “It doesn’t, no,” I agreed. Then he asked me, “So how does the universe work?” I pretended to take my time, considering various smart answers. But I ended up using my first impulse. “Effortlessly,” I said. He laughed. Which wasn’t uncommon for my father, but it was heartening to hear just then. [b]Clovis Bray Sr. strikes me as a strategic man. Shakes hands the right way, ate with proper manners, drank the right stuff with right people. And laughed with the right people. However, I feel that his son, may have rarely laughed, genuinely, around him. When it happens, he seems to savour its brief passing. Clovis Sr. strikes me as a man of success, but detachment. To the detriment of his personal relationship with is son.[/b] “What else can you tell me?” he asked. “The universe is infinite and probably in multiple ways,” I said. Then I listed a few examples: The census of stars, the Many-Worlds principle in quantum mechanics, and the endless measure of tiny realms hiding inside every grain of Martian sand. [b]'Many-worlds Principle': implies that all possible alternate histories and futures are real, each representing an actual "world" (or "universe"). In layman's terms, the hypothesis states there is a extremely large—perhaps infinite—number of universes, and everything that could possibly have happened in our past, but did not, has occurred in the past of some other universe or universes. A "Census': is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. [/b] Father nodded. The smile died. Then he said something ominous. Although I didn’t appreciate it at the time. “The universe is someone’s map,” he said. “Is it?” I muttered. “Yes, oh yes. And what we’re doing here... we’re reaching beyond the boundaries, out into the unknown. And we pull back new colors to put on this map that can never, ever let itself be finished.” I nodded, smiling like the good son. But I was sixteen, and my thoughts were mostly about the pretty woman who had winked at me. [b]This sounds as though Clovis Sr. wants to reach past their universe... perhaps this refers to topology? The ability to find access to multiple dimensions? If so, this relates to Mr. Jacob Hardy, pilot of the Ares One mission... curious...[/b] [u][b]Ghost Fragment: Clovis Bray 2[/b][/u] [u]Primary Text:[/u] [i][None][/i] [u]Secondary Text:[/u] These spires soar like birds into the dusty pink sky. I marvel at this, my new home. The planet I’ve dreamed of since I was a boy with a telescope, peering at that warm red light, hope of our overcrowded planet. [b]A boy, looking at Mars, from an overpopulated Earth.[/b] What I’ve been working on will solve all those problems. Developed in these laboratories built to my specifications, by my handpicked team, these nanites will double, triple, maybe even quadruple construction rates, reduce colonist casualties, and serve us in our spread across the system, then across the stars. Our first replication chamber sits beside the Cosmodrome, ready to outfit the colony ships. [b]This must be a forerunner to the nanites that make up SIVA. This also suggests that SIVA was conceived and a prototype was designed on Earth. This would explain the SIVA replication chamber on Earth.[/b] Dr. Willa Bray herself came to congratulate me. [b]This would suggest that the scientist works for a subsidiary of Clovis Bray. [/b] “You’ll be able to expand soon,” she said. “Into the space currently occupied by the Shirazi Lab.” “Are they relocating?” I said. “Moving on to other opportunities.” [b]The Shirazi documents will show that Clovis was willing to press the development of SIVA regardless of the poor doctors future input. This is proof that they have others ready to take her place. This statement could literally translate to anything happening to the woman, other then continuing with her research into transmission experimentation.[/b] “I can’t imagine a better place to be,” I said. [b]If only the this man knew of the fierce opposition Shirazi appeared to have to future experiments... or would it have changed his mind at all? Remember, this is a conglomerate. Funding, labs, assistant, everything would be made available if Clovis Bray chose to focus such attention on a subject. Many would give anything to get these benefits, and rarely notice the negative effects of such choices until it was too late to stop them, even if they chose to.[/b]