Liner Notes for Fugitive Space Angel
Liner Notes for Fugitive Space Angel
Welcome back as I re-introduce my favourite snarky annoying android. Here’s what you need to know about Jack; they were built from spare parts, they’re extremely competent, and they are not modest about it at all. Oh, and the joke is that it’s the computer part that does the emotions and creativity, the meat brain that keeps them on track.
In the past there has been a couple of stories exploring Jack’s relationship with time, and thus causality. And here we are again, this time from the angle of consciousness as an emergent property of the brain/computer amalgam. If Jack has prefect recall, can they tell if they are in the past or the present?
The future is outside the scope of the current story.
Usually with my style of knockabout space opera we’re not examining the scientific or technical details too closely. However there are moments when it’s appropriate, and this is one. What is consciousness, or more specifically, what is Jack’s consciousness? Jack is unique so where does Jack’s Jackness come from? Is it the same as consciousness and identity in regular humans? Perhaps not, not quite.
Jack overhears a phrase, intuitively decides this is related to a mission they’ve been involved with (see: Deep Patrol: TetraHedron for more details). The mechanics of sneaking aboard, and fooling sensors, which in turn trip monitors and so forth was fun bit I enjoyed putting in. Who watches the watch program? And can you spoof them without drawing attention elsewhere?
In the context of the serial, this places another piece on the board; Jack and Julia Justa are also on the trail of the Fugitive Space Angel. Will they be able to catch the angel? Look I’m putting a snarky cyborg on the mantlepiece in the 8th episode, they’re bound to go off by the last one. Bound to.
Anyway the point is this: Jack is back! And maybe having to struggle with something for once.
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