OMCOM's "infection"

When I originally wrote the long-form of Rome's Revolution, OMCOM was a bit more morally ambiguous than he is today. He still does have an amoral streak about which Rome took him to task toward the end of Rome's Revolution in both versions.

However, OMCOM had not one but two excuses for his behavior. First off, OMCOM literally reprogrammed himself. He actually create a "virtual" OMCOM, gave it a clone of his operating system and made strategic changes. He then had a conversation with this phantom version of himself. This story was also cut out of the current version however it will resurface when I publish The Vuduri Companion next year. The other excuse OMCOM has was that he was "infected" with rogue memron units.

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Rei first noticed them (they are transparent and resemble vitamin E capsules) early in the story but his observations are rejected by both Rome and OMCOM at that point in time. However, as was mentioned the other day, memrons require power and that power comes from microwave irradiation. OMOCOM did note he required too much power: the total output required was too large by almost .1%. It also explained why his video feeds kept cutting out just as Rei was put in mortal danger for the nth time.

Here is the actual exchange when OMCOM admitted that Rei was correct in the first place:

     “I was infected.”
     “Infected with what?” Rome asked.
     “There were rogue memrons circulating within my core. They were distributed throughout my being. I could not be certain that any conclusion I drew was sound or compromised by what was essentially a computer within a computer.”
     “You mean those transparent memrons? The ones I saw in your core?” Rei asked.
     “Yes,” answered OMCOM. “I do not know how they got there nor could I be certain they were the only incursion into my logical integrity.”
     “How did they get in there?” Rei asked.
     “Wait,” said Rome.
     “Wait what?” asked Rei.
     “I think I know,” said Rome quietly.
     “Perhaps it would have been better had you informed me,” said OMCOM a bit acerbically.
     “I did not know at the time but I am reflecting back, early on, when we were at Skyler Base,” answered Rome. “I remember that during the original construction phase of OMCOM’s infrastructure, there was a short interval when I was fatigued. Estar volunteered to oversee the ongoing production of OMCOM’s starter memrons. I let her. She must have used that interval to create the aberrant units.”
     “That seems most likely,” said OMCOM. “I feel I should inform you that I did embark upon a purification process just before the Stareater arrived but there was no way for me to know if I was completely successful.”

OMCOM still has one more bad thing up his sleeve and that forms the basis of the plot of the upcoming novel The Milk Run but that's a story for another day.