The Chronicles of the Enhanced
Book One: TRI
© 2004, 2006


What makes an intelligence Human? How do we define it? Is it the capacity to reason, to think, to imagine, create or is it the capacity to learn and love?

TRI is the story of two intelligences, one carbon, and the other silicon that must learn to live together, work together, and eventually love each other to save the planet from destruction by greed and deception.
TRI is set in a world that will be both familiar and fantastic to readers. Seven enhancement suits are sent out to the seven best people the world has to offer by a mysterious benefactor. Their mission will be to defend the world and her peoples from greed and eco irresponsibility.
In their short-sighted and selfish pursuits, the world is being controlled by a shadowy group of corrupt corporate interests, the Biosphere is being destroyed and it now falls upon the shoulders of two people, to overcome their differences and join together to give the Earth and her peoples a fighting chance for survival and dignity.
Professor Julian Saber has developed a technology that will give the users superhuman abilities and powerful Artificial Intelligences that will help guide the Heroes in their duties of protecting the planet and all of her biodiversity. The seven Physioneural Enhancement suits are sent out to seven of the planets best and brightest inhabitants and six of them are promptly donned and used. We follow the seventh suit to its recipient in Parry Sound, Ontario, Canada.
Gregory Howard is a technologist and environmental researcher living in a home he designed on Franklin Island. He has set up a research facility that he calls the Alternative Energy Research Institute, or AERI and lives and works in his peaceful and solitary existence. On august 28, 2008, Greg receives a package that has no return address and contains a fine mesh suit and a short note that tells him to don the suit and receive phenomenal abilities. Greg is more then curious about the suit and sets about examining it to discover its technology.
Several weeks later, Greg discovers an interface port and connects the suit to a computer. The results astonish him. He meets, through the computer, the guiding AI of the suit, TRIca or Trish as she prefers to be called the two beings set down to get to know each other and a deep abiding respect and friendship begins to form. Over the next 4 months, the two become even closer and find themselves falling in love.
During this time the other suit recipients have banded together and are calling themselves the SIX. They have been fighting corporate irresponsibility and are beginning to be seen as eco warriors. On December 23, 2008 they cause what comes to be known as the Sudbury Incident when they approach two giant nickel refining companies and ask that they reduce their polluting ways. The companies refuse and the SIX, after evacuating the facilities, completely destroy them. The corporate interests pack up and leave, which in turn leaves the city of Sudbury economically destroyed. The SIX are firmly asked to leave as well.
When Trish and Greg find out about this, and the fact that Professor Sabers home and Lab have been wiped out, Trish has an emotional break. Greg comforts her and his last doubts about her humanity are erased. The next day, Greg and Trish decide to undergo the bonding process that will endow him with his abilities and link him with Trish. A holograph of Professor Saber appears and gives a blessing to the union, which Trish has described as closer than the closest marriage. On December 25, 2008 Greg puts on the suit and undergoes massive physiological as well as neural rebuilding. When he awakens five days later, he and Trish are one being, in body to begin and shortly to be connected mentally as well.
Trish begins training Greg in the use and control of their new abilities as Greg helps Trish with the pleasures and hurdles of being physical. All is going well, but Greg has a few regrets about his relationship with Trish that leaks over into his dreams. Trish finds herself swept into one of these dreams and discovers Greg’s sorrow at not being able to share a physical relationship with Trish. Trish vows to erase Greg’s sorrows. Trish meanwhile, has been holding back one aspect of their powers from Greg, unsure as to how he will cope with it. Their training and neural bonding continues till late march 2009, when Greg discovers that they will have to go into town for supplies. Trish tells Greg about their chameleonic ability to imitate anyone they get a DNA sample of as well as their ability to tap into and control any computer, network or device that has a computer chip in it. Trish demonstrates this by changing his face to hers and back. Greg is totally geeked out by this and cannot get over how cool it is.
Greg and Trish visit Parry sound for the day and meet and greet the residents. Greg buys Trish a present and takes her to dinner. On their way back to the AERI, they encounter a Special Forces team looking for them. They do a full test of their abilities and are undetected by the troops. Later that night, Trish meets Greg in his dreams and they have a special encounter. The next day, Greg lets Trish take control of their body. Trish tries a new program called alter ego, which transforms them into her, completely. Greg is a little shocked, but the two of them adapt. After lunch, they fly to Sudbury to view the destruction firsthand. Trish goes into shock and Greg flies them home.
The next day, they start to investigate the shadow conspiracy that is seemingly in control of everything. They discover that their neural integration is nearly complete and Trish moves all of her programming and operating systems into their skull. Greg passes out from data overload and discovers himself thinking faster then he ever had dreamt possible. They head back to town to pick up some supplies and parcels for themselves and get to meet the mayor of parry sound. She invites them to a party and Trish discovers that they can almost hear each others thoughts. The next day, Trish tries on her new clothes and then makes Greg spend the day in control of their female form. Trish sets up her new ID and Greg creates what will become the adaptive camouflage matrix.
By Friday march 27th, Tricia Saber officially arrives in Parry Sound as a person. Meets some people and sets her cover story of being Dr. Howard’s lab assistant. On Monday, after a busy weekend, they assemble the ACM and test it out. It can mimic any clothing the wearer imagines, and is tougher then Kevlar armour. Around midnight, Sarida Jones of the six shows up over Parry Sound thinking she might find the seventh suit user, but, failing to find any trace, retires to her London home. She reminisces on her life before and after receiving the suit and then meets up with her other teammates of the SIX.
The team decides to rebuild their public image by capturing some African poachers and deliver them and their buyers to the world court. Meanwhile, Greg and Trish prepare for the mayors party. Once there, they meet Natalia Ravensclaw, who decides to pursue Greg for her own agendas. After an athletic bout of sex, Greg and Natalia part company, with Natalia determined to capture Greg for herself. Greg and Trish decide to examine Professors Saber’s lab in Switzerland to try to determine his fate and use an environmental conference in Germany for their cover story. To protect the AERI, they rig up a holographic projection system in the house and rebuild the house computer network to run it. When Trish installs a smaller version of her operating system in the network, a new AI is created. Greg gains an instant holographic daughter and a strange little family is born. The network names itself HESTIA or Hes for short.