Engineeress Meara
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The following is an excerpt from Case Studies of Select Meta-Humans by Sheldon Hooper, Ph.D., Meta-Human Studies. This book was found on a tablet computer that appeared amidst a burst of tachyon radiation. This (along with the contents of the tablet describing events that have yet to take place) has led many in the PRIMUS community to believe it has traveled through time from the future. To keep this information from giving any national security threats an advantage that tablet (and this briefing) has been classified at the Omega level.
Contents
The Engineeress
Not all of the heroes of turn-of-the-century Millenium City were flashy, cape-wearing types with seemingly magical powers. My next case study was an interesting one. She went by the name of Meara (no last name) though sometimes the local media referred to her as The Engineeress or Engineeress Meara. For most of her life she went unnoticed because her meta-human abilities weren't particularly obvious. She was gifted with an intelligence that was beyond anything ever seen before and an education that no university on Earth could provide. As you will see this remarkable person came from a very remarkable background.
Origin
What struck me as surprising was Meara's indifference toward her formative years during my interview of her. As unusual as her upbringing was (and despite finding out later what a more normal childhood is like) it didn't cause her any uneasiness to discuss it with me. But I digress...
Meara's age is not recorded anywhere. There is no record of her birth. However, after conducting a dating test on a sample of her own tissue, Meara was able to narrow down her birth year to sometime between 1986 and 1990.
What was considered a normal childhood at the time was a mother, father, one or two siblings, and days filled with idle play time. This was far from the case with Meara. She was the youngest of thirty-six sisters (all of which were physically identical). The sisters spent their days studying at computer terminals and tutored by advanced AI systems. All of this was done under the stern gaze of an enigmatic figure that Meara referred to simply as Father. No mention of a mother was ever made during the interview. Father directed the course of the sisters' studies to include advanced math, physics, and engineering. All of this was done on the fourty-first and fourty-second floors of the Excelsior building in downtown Millenium City. As far as the thirty six sisters knew this was the extent of their world since they were never allowed to leave.
Note: In the opinion of this researcher and my interviewee herself, the thirty-six sisters are a series of genetically engineered people. All are based off of an initial template with successive generations showing incremental improvements. With Meara being the youngest (or latest version) she would have the most improvements of all the sisters
Occasionally, Father would reward the sisters for particularly productive days of study with films from his youth. These included pulp science-fiction titles like Flash Gordon, Commando Cody, and King of the Rocket Men. However, if Father was indeed in his youth when these titles were released it would have meant he was in his late eighties while raising the sisters. Meara described him as having an appearance half this age.
Once Meara reached a level of knowledge that satisfied Father's expectations she was allowed to join her older sisters in research and engineering projects. This would have been sometime between her sixteenth and twentieth birthdays. During this time she worked with various technology that was well beyond anything developed by mankind at the time and was in her opinion of alien origin. These projects continued with only two interruptions. Once in 2009 when the entire group was evacuated during the Qularr incursion and again in 2010 by a second alien raid (though this second one went unnoticed by the general public).
This last alien incursion resulted in the near destruction of the family's facility and the disappearence of Meara's sisters along with the mysterious Father. Through sheer luck and some quick thinking, Meara, was able to elude the alien intruders and escape. With her family gone and a world of possibilities left unexplored outside the gaping hole in the walls of her home, Meara took her first, awkward steps into our world.
Abilities
Meara shows an incredible aptitude for learning along with increased development in the parts of the brain that handle spatializatiion, critical thinking, data processing, and raw math ability. She was also exposed to learning at a young age which was believed to be a collection of the research conducted by Father and from data archives recovered or stolen from an alien power. The topics Meara learned during her studies were beyond human understanding at the time so logic would suggest that these topics came from an advanced race's knowledgebase.
In addition to the advanced learning available to her, Meara also had access to tools and materials that had an offworld origin. Father's facility included (but was not limited to) tools and observation instruments for working at the nanoscale level, ultra-high pressure magnetic resonance presses, fusion furnaces, plasmonic power cells, and several metric tons of rare elements (including osmium and iridium).
A series of unmarked bank accounts containing several hundred million US dollars was hidden among numerous banks around the world which funded Father's work. Its believed that Father built up this fortune by patenting advanced alien technology and claiming the royalties on these patents. Patents for the Diamond Anvil Cell, Fiber Optic fabrication, Optical Data storage, and the Scanning Tunneling Microscope are all registered to known aliases of Father.
The AI which controlled access and kept the money hidden from authorities was eventually discovered by Meara (who wrote the encryption algorithm used by the AI). Shortly afterwards Meara gained access to the money and used it to fund further work and repairs to her home facility.
Inventions
Meara's remarkable education has led her to engineer several advanced pieces of technology. Listed below are some of the more noteworthy inventions:
Detonation Undermining Device (D.U.D.): A semi-portable device that emits transvalent waves which render chemically explosive compounds inert. In practical terms it means any explosives within 100 meters can't detonate.
Kinetic Absorbtive Baryonic Oscillation Occlusion Mechanism (K.A.B.O.O.M.): The central part of the D.U.D. This mechanism is what powers the wave generator that causes explosive compounds to become inert. However, when the polarity of this mechanism is reversed it actually increases the destructive ability of nearby explosives. For this reason it is safeguarded. Currently, there is only one in existence.
Coherent Ocular Mesmerization Array (C.O.M.A.): This is an energy pistol which uses light and sound waves to render a human target unconscious. This device was made for use in situations where deadly force would result in an innocent's death.
Human Encapsulating Lifesupport Powersuit (H.E.L.P.): A powersuit capable of powered flight, operations in vacuum, undersea, toxic, and radioactive environments, the H.E.L.P. is a marvel of engineering. This powersuit comes equipped with modern weapons, communications, and allows diminuitive Meara to lift massive loads over her head. As she would say "When you need H.E.L.P. call Meara!"
Containment Apparatus for the Genuinely Evil (C.A.G.E.): This cage-like construct was meant to the hold the strongest of supervillains. Its intial version was constructed of Osmiridium with thermal conducting nanotube piping to allow for the imprisonment of Firewing. It was able to withstand temperatures over 7000 Kelvin which is well above the Sun's surface temperature of 5578 Kelvin. Later improvements allowed for the imprisonment of other meta-human villains.
Satellite Program Utilizing Telecommunications, Networking, Intelligence-gathering, and a Kinetic-cannon (S.P.U.T.N.I.K.): After a brief bureaucratic battle with the regional authorities Meara launched S.P.U.T.N.I.K. giving secure communications, overhead imagery, and an orbital cannon's thunderous reach to her companions in the superhero community.
Guardian Omni-sensing Long Endurance Mechanoid (G.O.L.E.M.): A robotic guardian that stands watch over Meara wherever she goes. Jokingly she referred to the machine as "Guardian of Luckless Engineers named Meara". It truly is a long endurance machine able to operate for several months on a single battery charge.
Special Quantum Unit Inducing Size-Halving (S.Q.U.I.S.H.): This device was initially installed in Meara's H.E.L.P. armor for diminishing the size of opponents. Meara hoped that this would cause would-be villains to surrender but more often than not the device had no effect. It was eventually replaced by the next invention on the list...
Mechanically Enhanced Anthropromorphic Robotic Assistant (M.E.A.R.A.): Every engineer needs an extra set of hands or a second set of eyes occasionally. While it might suffice for most to call a colleague for help Meara went a step further and built one! M.E.A.R.A. is equipped with specialized tools, hands steadier than any human's, and an advanced AI that can provide useful feedback and do complex calculations in real-time.
Special Poly-fabric Assembled by Nano Devices Expeditiously! (S.P.A.N.D.Ex.!): Almost every superhero faces the same dilemma eventually. Normal clothing just doesn't stand up to the abuse a superhero takes during the course of fighting evildoers. After several friends came to Meara with complaints about clothing damaged while crimefighting she decided to do something about it. Using complex nanotechnology far beyond what was available at the time on Earth, Meara created the super strong fabric S.P.A.N.D.Ex! A single thread of this impressive fabric can support a weight of 300kg!
Tradecraft Artificial Intelligence: Luxury Outfit Replicator (T.A.I.L.O.R.): Creating outfits from nearly unbreakeable materials like S.P.A.N.D.Ex! is not a task for your average tailor. For that you need a superpowered specialist which is why Meara built one. T.A.I.L.O.R. can take the measurements of a friendly superhero then cut the super-material to correct dimensions, color it, and assemble the pieces into the new outfit all while the customer waits.
Mechanized Artificial Intelligence: Domestic (M.A.I.D.): Domestic chores can overwhelm even the best of us. So what does a talented young engineer do when she can't find time to take care of all the household chores? She builds a maid (or more accurately a M.A.I.D.)
Computerized Humanoid Experimenting with Food (C.H.E.F.) Version 2.0: Everyone could benefit from having a personal cook. Meara's personal meal maker originally prepared food from random recipes it would discover on the Internet to various degrees of satisfaction of those who would eat the meals. This did not work for Meara's specialized dietary needs or when friends over for dinner. Version 2.0 was thus created and sports new software that gauges the reactions of those consuming the meals and tailors the recipes to their preferences. C.H.E.F. Version 2.0 calculates daily caloric intake for Meara down to the calorie.
Composite Robotic Unit Strictly Adhering to Dated Ethical Rules (C.R.U.S.A.D.E.R.): Important advancements in engineering science leave little time for our young engineer to go out on the streets and personally fight injustice. To solve this problem Meara created a robotic hero and gave it a strong moral code so that it could do the crimefighting on her behalf while she continued her work in the lab. Though as with most of Meara's inventions C.R.U.S.A.D.E.R. did develop some quirks. C.R.U.S.A.D.E.R. became obsessed with fantasy television programming and took on the persona of a knight in shining armor strictly following its own brand of chivalry.
