Notes

Additional Information

Special Notes

When I first made this story available to the public I received many enquiries from people asking about certain aspects of John’s character and the technical aspects of John’s new body. So I added this section to answer most of those questions for those who want to know.

John’s Background

Both John’s parents were top scientists, well off, and in demand. John’s brother was several years older than him, but not as smart. At an early age John realised he could mesmerise people and make them do what he wanted them to do. Being a genius he didn’t make that public knowledge because he knew it would cause trouble for him and his family if he did. However, it wasn’t possible to use the skill without his brother knowing, due to how much time they spent together. When John’s brother needed a tricky problem solved he asked John to help him, and John did. This resulted in John being asked to help his brother and his friends with their concerns when the Snake Gang had issues with other gangs: especially the Fern Gang. John became their general, their war lord, the one who planned their operations and the others carried out the planned activities. John used his analytical, planning, and mesmerising skills. Although they often saw him mesmerise people the members of the Snake gang never realised the full extent of John’s capabilities since he was very careful about how he used his skills. During this time, and when the Snakes went inactive, John worked very hard at keeping a very low police profile.

In school he demonstrated his intelligence by entering and winning science competitions, and by achieving high academic results. He was being actively recruited by many colleges, universities, and businesses around the world at the time of his family’s murder, and afterwards he did his best to vanish into the woodwork and pretend he didn’t exist.

When John’s family were killed in an explosion intended to kill them he was badly shocked and traumatised: psychologically and physically. He was smart enough to realise he and Brooke should have died too since no one knew they’d left the house. All of his family had been killed, except for Brooke. He buried his grief and pain in caring for Brooke, this need is what keeps him going at that time. She became the centre of his world, his reason for being. He drops everything to see to her care. In doing so he retreats from life in general while making major changes in his life, and he keeps an extremely low profile by not demonstrating his intelligence or other skills because it’ll place high demands on his time, demands that’ll take him away from Brooke. She’s his only remaining link with life, and he’s her main link. His name is very common so his enemy’s belief he’s dead and the low profile hides him from his enemy for many years.

Several years later he’s traumatised again when another explosion kills him, the emergency people resuscitate him, but the damage is extensive. He doesn’t have time to deal with the trauma of this when he’s told his body is no longer flesh and blood. He gets through this by hanging onto his need to stay around and care for Brooke. It’s this need that keeps him alive in the emergency room, despite his body’s need to die as he won’t let himself die and leave Brooke all alone.

John is still trying to deal with this when he’s confronted by the fact Brooke is no longer a little girl, but a young woman: and so are her friends. He’s also aware of the similarities of the two explosions and he suspects the last one was targeted at him. If he dies Brooke is left alone. He must find and stop his attackers before they succeed, for Brooke’s sake. To do this he must end his low profile and he must use all of his skills and abilities to identify and deal with these people. He realises this and he sets out to track them down. And that’s where we arrive on the scene at the start of the story.

Most of these background details are provided by others talking about John. The principal tells us some, Steve tells us most, and John reveals part of his background. Some is assumed knowledge, like when someone is hurt in a major explosion I assume you know they’ll have shock and trauma issues. The grief being subsumed into caring for Brooke is evidenced from his throwing his university studies away for her care, as we’re told he did.

John is a sensitive and caring person, despite him not being able to see anything except Brooke and his work for several years. The latest explosion is a wake up call that makes him open his eyes and look about. Once having accepted he has to change his profile and lifestyle John sees no reason not to use all of his abilities and make the most of his life. His past low profile hasn’t been just a case of trying to hide, but a case of not looking around and not doing his best as well because all of his energy and efforts were focused on Brooke’s care. Extreme tunnel vision and myopia added to his hiding. Now he opens his eyes and looks at the world; and he’s looking with new eyes. The new eyes see many things that were there to see, but he didn’t look at them to note what was visible, until now when he has to open his eyes to the full world around him.

Possible Reality

Take the cyborg in this story. Some people will say, “Yeah, real, no way, it can’t happen.” Yet most of the technology is here now in the early 2000s, and it has been available for over a decade. Memory plastic exists, so does Kevlar, carbon filament, Tasers, computer controls, and the multi-tasking software. For many years scientists have been working on interfacing electronic devices with the human nervous system: the bionic ear, pace makers, bionic eyes, etc. It’s happening right now and in the past few decades as well. In this story all I add is a small leap forward in the development of a way to interface individual nerve endings of the spinal column with a computer, and to allow two way feed and control between the brain and the computer; all of which is under current research and it has been for some years.

The idea of not having the brain trying to match every nerve with the relevant cyborg body equivalent is my way of simplifying the interface. The brain uses some nerves to send general commands. Instead of getting a whole bunch of individual commands sent around the body I’ve each limb and sub-unit operating with it’s own processor commands so only one command is sent from the processor linked to the brain while the end recipient knows how to break it up and handle the positive feedback locally. The processor in the hand handles all of the touch and pressure sensitivity of picking up something, not the main processor or the brain. The brain says right hand pick this up, the central processor sends the command ’pick this up’ to the right hand, the local processor in the hand handles the fine details of the pick up. This is a way of simplifying the command and communication links. This is a computerised delegation of tasks, and it allows for the continued operation of some components while not attached to the main body. If the scientists working on this read this and use it we may see more advances. The only problem is the high cost, but this is all possible now in the today of 2005 when this story was first drafted. Thus, by the time you’re reading this much more could’ve been done in the research labs.

Characters and Commands

Smith Household & Staff

John Smith (Cobra) - 27 - central character
Brooke Smith - 18 - John’s niece
Gwen Weatherall - 30
Sera Weatherall. - 18
Stacey Goddard - 33 - office clerk
Rissa Goddard (Clarissa, Boss) - 19 - slave
Mel Phillips (Melissa) - 18
Wendy Fleming - 18
Liz Preston (Elizabeth) - 32
Mary Jones - 32
Janice (Fuck Toy) - 30 - emancipated slave
Tina (Triple T) - 19
Carmen Bradley (Bitch) - 40 - slave - office clerk
Carly - 18
Paris* - 36 - slave - child care
Dallas - 19 - slave aka Slut
Houston - 19 - slave aka Slut
May - 19 - head slave & VS staff
Nora - 19 - slave - child carer
Iris - 21 - slave - hairdresser
Isobelle - 20 - slave - child care
Nadia - 22 - slave - part-time at VS
Marcia - 19 - slave - accountant.
Belinda - 39 - housekeeper
Melody Jones - 35 - cook
Beth Jones - 19 - maid / child care
Harry (Harriette) - 30 - driver / security
Fred - 32 - driver / security
Steve Katz (Sidewinder) - 34 - driver / security
Bridget - 24 - ladies maid - nanny

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