WRITING: EVANDA CHAR // ART: KAI //
First Published on GalNet 110.06.07 :: SOURCE
Electus Matari’s Research into a Permanent Cure for the Vitoc Method For some time now, Electus Matari has been looking into the possibility of finding a lasting cure for the toxin used in the Vitoc Method of slave control. These studies have taken place alongside the mainstream researches into the subject within the Minmatar Republic, so in spite of the above title (which I use because I’m going to be talking about EM’s side of the work, not the full effort), credit also goes to the following organizations: • Republic University for the provision of the vast volumes of current research data and training of our laboratory personnel. • Republic Security Services for invaluable assistance with background checks for personnel, and, in partnership with Republic Fleet, helping us procure samples of many strains and delivery systems of Vitoxin. • Freedom Extension, for their excellent work in the design and provision of our current laboratory facilities. • Boundless Creation, Eifyr and Co and Core Complexion Inc for various nanomechanical and biochemical prototypes created to our specifications and for the data without which this work could not proceed.
• The Wolves of Pator who helped connect us with large numbers
of people in need of Vitoxin treatment. I would emphasize, however, to those who would use these efforts to call for war, that this work has been undertaken independently, using only commonly available data from academic sources. It has never received official backing.
While we have not yet found a proven, tested cure, we believe we have come a long way in our studies, and hereby present this interim report to help others working in the same field. What is the Vitoc Method? The Vitoc Method has its roots in an ages-old method used by the Amarr to control their slaves – the slaves are given a poison, and their masters hold the antidote, giving it in return for obedience, while death awaits those who are defiant. Over the years, the Amarr have evolved the toxin they used to remain in the body longer, and to circumvent the efforts of the Minmatar Republic to find a cure. The end result of this evolution is what we call “Vitoxin” (Vitoc is actually the antidote to the toxin). Vitoxin combines the properties of a poison and a virus. It is incredibly lethal, conferring a death so hideously painful that many cannot look at it, never mind consider it as an acceptable form of suicide. To then strengthen further the hold of the poison, the Vitoc antidote induces an intensely pleasurable, highly addictive sensation in those forced to take it. The main problem with finding a workable cure for Vitoxin is its ability to change form, mutating to resist conventional drugs and to slip past nanite agents designed to interfere with it. Efforts to find a cure have so far been chasing water. By the time a cure is ready, the poison has changed. The Republic, the Federation and the Sisters of Eve have all fielded cures for one strain or another over the years, and research efforts still continue, but now the mutating Vitoxin has become so commonly used that severe and even lethal side-effects frequently result from treatments for static strains. |
Figure 1. T-form Vitoxin Attacking a Cell in the Pancreas
Symptoms of Vitoxin. Symptoms largely depend on how the toxin has mutated itself at any given moment, but the following seem to be common in all cases where a patient has been infected with Vitoxin, and has been without Vitoc for 24-48 hours:
• Gastrointestinal (digestive tract) symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea (which may become bloody). • Severe gastrointestinal symptoms may result in dehydration (not enough fluids in the body), electrolyte abnormalities (not enough sodium and potassium in the body), and low blood pressure. • Exposure to small to medium amounts of Vitoxin may lead to development of the following adverse health effects within several days to several weeks: • Liver failure • Kidney failure • Heart failure • Lung scarring (may evolve over several weeks) |
Figure 2. Diffuse Lung Hemorrhage Resulting from Aerosol Vitoxin Exposure
In general, exposure to a full dose of Vitoxin leads to the following signs/symptoms within a few hours to a few days without antidote: • Pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) • Lung scarring (evolves more quickly than when small to medium amounts have been ingested) • Liver failure • Kidney failure • Confusion • Coma • Seizures • Injury to the heart • Fast heart rate • Muscle weakness • Respiratory (breathing) failure, possibly leading to death
Showing these signs and symptoms does not necessarily mean that a person has been exposed to Vitoxin, of course. Important Mutations of Vitoxin
While we have not yet managed to decode the exact system necessary to anticipate the new chemical structure of vitoxin that will result from its periodic mutation, nor the trigger mechanism that causes its changes in biochemical structure, computer modeling has suggested that treating the DNA of the virus itself as some form of quaternary code sequence (GTAC being its units, known colloquially to our researchers as the “Cataga Code”) and applying a transformation algorithm using a code key currently known only to the toxin’s producers, would produce a series of predictable transformations that Holders could anticipate. There is hope, however. For the mutations to be predictable, they must be produced solely by the virus’ own reproductive system. That means that the algorithm itself must either in some way be encoded in the virus’ DNA, or it must be triggered by an external agent, likely given to the subject in their Vitoc antidote.
Use of an external agent would suggest that, once slaves leave the “care” of their Holders, either mutation would cease or become unpredictable. While one could, at first, see the benefits to the Empire of having viral mutation become uncontrolled in former slaves returned to the Republic, the risks outlined later in this section strongly suggest that this is simply too great a danger to the Empire itself. We are therefore left with the strongest probability being that the algorithm is within the virus itself. Therefore, it is in our hands, and a large part of our research is dedicated to finding it by mapping the DNA of Vitoxin in various stages of its development. By using Plastic Self-Organizing Mapping techniques (PSOMs are a form of neural network exceptionally good at finding patterns and predicting future ones), we hope to develop our own predictive algorithm, but it will take time to gather sufficient data and analyze it. Uncontrolled Mutations The greatest danger of Vitoxin lies in uncontrolled mutation. Even the most carefully engineered DNA can be mutated by radiation, a simple strike from a cosmic ray, introduction into an unexpected environment or infection with another retro-virus. Seen in this light, Vitoxin becomes, quite simply, the greatest threat to life in the cluster as we know it, and is very likely the reason the substance is so utterly despised by the Jovians. Consider, for instance, if Vitoxin were to become retroviral due to a mutation. Retroviruses write the code for their own reproduction into a host’s RNA, so the production of new body cells also produces new spawns of the virin incubating inside them. Firstly, recent clone data from an infected host would also be infected, making it possible for the virin to be used on pod pilots, incurable by recloning. But more than this, it could be passed from parent to child, likely causing massive pre-natal and infant mortality. “Why would the Empire care?” you may ask. Because the virin would then also be subject to mutation through the host’s own cellular mitosis, the minor random mutations that happen to individual strands of RNA every day and then… Anything could happen. Airborne transmission. Sexual transmission. Changes in the virin’s effects, that could cause it to induce rapid mortality, madness, suicidal behavior… anything. With constant risk of mutation in millions of subjects it could very, very easily become a plague afflicting the Amarr homeworlds. This, we suspect, is why the Vitoc Method is used only where absolutely necessary, and slaves under it are closely monitored while being supplied with their daily antidote. Vitoc – the Cure Worse than the Poison Before the refinement of the Vitoc Method to its present form, passive resistance to slavery was not uncommon. Entire slave crews would refuse their antidotes, choosing to die rather than suffer further under the lash. The new evolution of the Vitoc Method had to overcome this difficulty by playing on human psychology in the least effort-intensive manner possible for the slavers – toxin and antidote were designed to be addictive in their interaction. Electus
Matari were fortunate enough to be able to obtain a shipment of unstable
Vitoc and study the base elements prior to its modification to become
an antidote for specific stages of Vitoxin development. • Overwhelming euphoria • Total or near-total abatement of hostility and insecurity • Profound feelings of intimacy with others • Empathy towards others • Ability to discuss anxiety-provoking topics with markedly-increased ease • A strong sense of inner peace and self-acceptance • Insightfulness and mental clarity • Enhancement of all 5 senses to varying degrees, most notably auditory and tactile • Loss of appetite • Myadrisis (abnormal pupil dilation) • Increased heart rate and blood pressure • Increased perspiration Vitoc indirectly stimulates 5-HT1A receptors to release Oxytocin from the pituitary gland – the hormone produced naturally in the human body during orgasm or the uterine contractions of childbirth. |
Figure 3. The molecular structure of Oxytocin
This hormone, when introduced to the brains of test subjects, induces a number of effects including: • Bonding – Oxytocin is pivotal in the formation of the mother-child bond after childbirth and is also thought to be important in the formation of monogamous pairings during coitus. When high levels of Oxytocin are present in the brain, an individual displays increased affection for, and loyalty to, the individuals around them – in the case of slaves, this would include other members of their slave crew, and especially, the master who provides their Vitoc. • Short-term Memory Lapses – As with women who have undergone a painful childbirth, the release of Oxytocin causes a subject to forget or feel separated from recent events, especially painful ones. • Suppression of Fear - Oxytocin is thought to suppress the amygdala, the portion of the brain responsible for the human fear response. This increases trust, making a slave more prone to follow orders and also more likely to accept their antidote again. • Maternal Behaviour – introduction of Oxytocin to cerebro-spinal fluid has been shown in mammals to cause virgin females to accept and protect foreign young, while those injected with Oxytocin antagonists fail to exhibit typical maternal behavior, including feeding or protecting their young against typical threats to their species. Samples we have obtained of fully-readied Vitoc contain a number of compounds, several of which are clearly nanite engineered. However, methylenedioxymethampethamine (MDMA) has been present in all the samples we have obtained to date, or molecular structures with no more than a 17.6% difference and 98% similarity in terminal groupings. |
Figure 4. Methylenedioxymethamphetamine
We believe this to be the compound primarily responsible for the mental and emotional effects of the drug that pertain to oxytocin release, and a portion of its addictive effect. This compound shows a level of neurotoxicity in humans, but can be countered by administration of strong antioxidants such as alpha lipoic acid, which is commonly produced by certain reagents in the Vitoc compound upon metabolism. Varieties of Vitoc appear to be adapted and supplemented based on the role of the slave for whose use they are intended, with the apparent intent of strengthening or limiting certain side-effects of the antidote (the main effect, of course, being to prevent the user dying from Vitoxin poisoning). Routes to a Cure A number of possible routes to a permanent cure are currently being investigated. Nanotechnology. The most promising nanotechnological route would not produce a cure per se, but would provide an antidote that would have to be administered less frequently than the daily dose of Vitoc and would lack its mind-altering side-effects. Simple nano-molecules have been designed to block the terminal structures of the Vitoxin molecules, preventing them bonding to cell membranes within the body. However, the process requires constant monitoring of the virin’s structure, and in tests on furriers, there has only been a 70% success rate at synthesizing new nano-structures in time to block new mutations, requiring the use of Vitoc to fill in… and without the algorithm, the right form of Vitoc cannot always be found in time. The same problem rears its head with the construction of nanobots to attack the Vitoxin virin itself. This “artificial immune response” needs the algorithm in order to program the bots to reconstruct and attack new strains. Innoculation. The idea of producing a form of vaccine has also been looked into. This basically uses samples of white blood cells from a vast array of test subjects, introducing them into each other in the hope that the hosts’ immune responses to different strains of infection will provide a solution to many strains, preventing infection in the unaffected and allowing the Vitoxin present in the affected to mutate, eventually, into a form to which they may already be immune. The main problems with this method are that the most effective form of inoculation would be to use an “inactive” mutation of Vitoxin. One that does no harm but prompts the body to form an immune response to the common structures in Vitoxin. The first problem with this is that we haven’t managed to find an inactive form. The second problem is that Vitoxin doesn’t retain common structures for long. The designer mutations are so radical that, quite simply, it doesn’t work. Once again, the key lies in the mutational algorithm. The Fedo Immune System Model. By complete happenstance, two EM members were once involved with a rival pair of Fedo Breeders looking to enhance their beasts’ abilities in combat by feeding them increasingly toxic substances. One of the ingredients fed to one of the Fedos was Vitoxin, and its trainer seemed certain it would suffer no ill effects from the toxin – the formidable immune system of the garbage-munching creature was more than capable of handling it. Sadly,
the same could not be said for the quantities of rocket fuel it consumed,
and its trainer’s cigar. Following its percussive demise, two samples
of the creature’s blood were obtained, and are undergoing intensive
analysis and testing in an effort to isolate the factors that grant the
Fedo its immunity. However repulsive their smell, however unpretty their skins, in the Fedo lies the strongest hope of a real, permanent cure not just for Vitoxin, but for many, many diseases. Insorum. Sadly,
the slaves from Mabnen were massacred by Admiral “Saracen”,
removing any hope of samples surviving in their tissue being recovered.
Dr Hnolku was assassinated in Magiko by the Caldari Independent Navy Reserve,
and all his notes and samples destroyed, save one, held by the Ushra’Khan. Should CAIN hold another sample, they will not release it, as they cite all Dr Hnolku’s works as Caldari State intellectual property. Electus Matari looked to the last possible source for a sample large enough to work with. Cyshade and Myadra of Cruoris Seraphim released into our custody all slaves and chemical weapons stored since the time of the Mabnen attacks. If another sample of Insorum exists, it is among them. The Insorum portion of our research therefore focuses on finding a means to determine the contents of the hundreds of unlabelled, booby-trapped atmospheric release canisters. Nine have so far been investigated. Safety protocols – already stringent - had to be tightened significantly after a sample destroyed containment facilities, killing 24 personnel and severely injuring 4 others for whom an antidote was found in time. Work continues, but much more slowly, to avoid further tragedies of this nature. EM have already refused many calls to test these canisters on Amarr worlds – genocide is not, and has never been, our agenda, and such testing could lead to the loss of the last usable sample of Insorum. References |
