WHO WROTE HEAVY DUTY? Back story

Back in 2003 I asked Chris Struthers to write a short piece called Who is Heavy Duty? This was a method of attempting to compare his synopsis with me. However, Chris idiosyncratically wrote this piece instead and even managed to re-calculate all the dates I had removed on the advice of Systel Publishing.

In the late 1970's, perhaps 1978, scientists David Allardyce and Carol Palladini discover an alien artefact, the Pandora object. The employ mathematician Bron Lainey to unravel the information Pandora contains on field theory. The scientists use Pandora's biological data to clone seven ova (six from David's DNA and one from Carol's). In the mid-1980's, Carol gives birth to triplets; David Marcus, Kim and Alicia (Carol's clone) and in 1988 another set of triplets, Mercedes, Marie and Solomon Heathcliff, are born.

In 1996, Marshall Leonid Shavyrin, involved in the Russian missile programme, is convicted of stealing weapons grade plutonium and sentenced to eight years imprisonment. Media mogul Dave Drooszhbah finds his corporation at the brink of bankruptcy. Heathcliff, who is researching Pandora with Bron Lainey at Agritechno, agrees to buy a stake in half of the company. He also invests heavily in Drooszhbah's associate Raymond Twynne's research into virtual reality. Twynne is eventually successful in creating VR.

The Allardyces have been working at using Pandora to alleviate the growing population problem. At the end of the 20th century, the first of destructive Pioneer viruses strike the human population. Dave Drooszhbah is attacked by a madman who believes he spread Pioneer through VR.

On 22 May 2035, Pandora's artificial intelligence, called the Elephant, becomes active. Alicia uses VR software created by Cameron Pride, builds a giant virtual reality environment to cope with it. But eight months later, at the turn of the following year, the system is trapped in a bank vault when a giant earthquake strikes Tokyo. David Marcus is killed during the quake. One week later, David and Carol are killed in a car crash.

The Allardyce clan decide to move their entire operations to the Japanese city of Hacinohe, the Hack, communications centre of the world. Heathcliff is savagely beaten up by one of the Hack's city gangs. His assistant, Dillon Pascoe, takes him back to Agritechno where Heathcliff contaminates himself with the longevity replicant RNA which changes his personality radically. Shortly afterwards, Pascoe disappears. Heathcliff takes revenge on the city gangs by adapting the Pioneer virus and infecting them.

Heathcliff leaves Agritechno and wages war against his siblings and using new mutations of Pioneer on their staff.

Drooszhbah and Twynne have an argument that turns violent. Drooszhbah knocks Twynne out but Heathcliff appears and convinces Drooszhbah he killed him. Heathcliff later uses this to blackmail Drooszhbah. Twynne is, in fact still alive but he is not seen again. In 2012, Pascoe's son BeeJay stumbles across the Elephant and decides to help him out. Two years later, the Elephant manages to escape the bank vault into the VR network.

The same year, the Heavy Duty computer virus is used to infect the computer systems in Indiana. The Skyhook on which Kim Allardyce is flying is destroyed. He was travelling back from Bakoue in the African WarZone and was carrying the Pandora object which is sent into a low earth orbit by the explosion. Cameron Pride's father-in-law is also on board the Skyhook is killed.

On Highway 21, a piece of Skyhook debris strikes Pride's car. He is severely wounded, his wife Sarah is vaporised and his friend Tin Han's injuries are so bad he is left in a persistent vegetative state.

At some point Lainey and the Allardyce agree that he will infiltrate Heathcliff's operations and attempt to destroy his AI.

Eighteen months later, in 2040, Bron contacts Pride who is living in Bakoue coming to terms with his loss and asks him to help him find out who was responsible for the Heavy Duty virus. Pride agrees.
Nine months after that, Marie Allardyce, pregnant with the seventh cloned ovum, is kidnapped by Heathcliff.
In 2041, three months after Marie's disappearance, Heathcliff kidnaps Lainey who has managed to destroy his AI, and Alicia and his plan to sterilise the entire population and recover the Pandora object unfolds...