Cyber Viral Implant

The Cyber Viral Implant is a device that features in Earth: Final Conflict.

History
The Cyber Viral Implant (CVI) was a genetically engineered device of Taelon design. During their first encounter with Humans, the Taelons began placing their cyberviral implants among a select number of their kind to serve as "implants" to the Companions. After being introduced there was a number of malfunctions amongst the CVI's when implantation and adaptation were conducted. However, the malfunctions were corrected with no such errors occuring during the initial years. (Episode: Lost Generation) Among the first generation of implants, it was decided by the Synod that these human agents would be given enhanced knowledge of the Taelon's reasons for coming to Earth namely that it was something that determined the survival of their species. It was believed that this knowledge would better serve the motivational imperative to ensure the implants served the Companions. Among the first of the implants to recieve this knowledge was Ronald Sandoval and it was determined that if these agents ever went rogue than the Synod would terminate them rather than allow them to reveal the Taelon's secrets to their enemies. It was later on decided by the Synod to remove the enhanced information from subsequent implants as it was believed that such knowledge was unnecessary in order for them to accomplish their goal. (Episode: Sandoval's Run) During his time with his wife, Sandoval began to see her as being more infantile as well as saw her as a threat to his duty to the Companions which saw him locking her up in a mental institute. (Episode: Truth) At some point, a Companion Protector called Lieutenant Jack Malley created a ritual for all Protectors whenever their loyalty was in question. During such times, the assembled Protectors would gather on a deck onboard the Taelon Mothership where they would drink Taelon tequila to reaffirm their loyalty to the Taelons. As their implants prevented them from getting drunk, it was seen as an acceptable tradition and did not compromise their functionality. (Episode: Phantom Companion)

After witnessing insane murderers on Earth, the Taelons decided to create an experiment in order to rehabilitate these offenders. Among these individuals was James Pike who was given a first generation CVI in order to remove his aggressive past by the implantation of a motivational imperative to love mankind. (Episode: Avatar) When William Boone was selected to be an agent to Da'an, he met with the Liberation movement where he was given a re-engineered CVI without the motivational imperative to the Taelons. This allowed him to have his free will and continue to work with the Liberation whilst appearing as an implant. (Episode: Decision) He was later taught much about the enhanced abilities of the implant by Ronald Sandoval. (Episode: Truth) It was later revealed that the Companions had engineered some of the CVI's memories in order for Boone to believe that a Taelon agent was one of his college lovers even though she was not present in any of his photo albums. The secret purpose of the experiment was to determine if Boone's CVI was functional and that his loyalty was to the Companions. (Episode: Old Flame)

James Pike's CVI later malfunctioned leading to him slowly dying as a result. After escaping from the mental institute and prison where he was assigned, he adopted a campaign of targeting as well as attempting to kill Da'an but ultimately failed. (Episode: Avatar) Later, Ronald Sandoval's CVI began to degenerate which returned to him his original personality and whereupon he sought to free as well as reunite with his wife. However, the implant was slowly killing him and the Taelons believed him a threat leading to the Synod to ordering his termination. It was ultimately William Boone who later captured him and had a new CVI implanted within Sandoval. (Episode: Sandoval's Run) When Siobhan Beckett mated with the Kimera Ha'gel, she was taken by the Liberation where she gave birth to Liam Kincaid. In order to prevent their base from being compromised, the resistance re-engineered her CVI to forget the incident and thus she never remembered of the child she gave birth to with her implant programmed to kill her if she ever remembered. (Episode: The First of its Kind) Her implant later degenerated and killed her but not before making peace with herself. (Episode: Redemption)

At some unknown point, a Doctor Alkot designed a special CVI implant for Ronald Sandoval which was designed for counter intelligence. Later, the production and manufacturing of CVI was given to an Earth based company called Alkot Incorporated. Following the planet wide crackdown on the Liberation, Ronald Sandoval had his agents secretly capture Lili Marquette where they performed an operation that led to the placement of a special CVI that sent surveillance data to them. This meant that Captain Marquette now served as the eyes and ears for Agent Sandoval. In addition to her, the Companions also intended to place newly manufactured surveillance CVIs into detained Liberation members in order to use them as spies to finally destroy the resistance. (Episode: The Vanished) By these later years, the CVI implants within Protectors were noted to had been dying and being absorbed by the hosts immune systems. (Episode: Take No Prisoners) This had a side effect of making Companion Protector drinking traditions almost obselete and forcing such users to rely on their own integrity. (Episode: Phantom Companion)

When Lieutenant Jack Malley was attempting to remove a bomb in the shuttle bay from General T'than's craft, the explosive detonated and severely wounded Malley in the process. However, this had the side effect of altering his CVI's frequency and he became receptive to the thoughts of the Taelon mothership. This in turn led to the ship believing Protector Jack Malley as one of her own and thus led to her sheltering Malley within her own body and keeping him hidden where he became her defender. Once the mothership believed he was her Taelon charge, Malley fully bonded with the vessel and could read her to the point that he could tap into the various ship systems. Following that moment, he waged a campaign of ridding the Taelon Synod of corrupt elements starting with Zo'or and leading to a campaign of sabotage of mothership operations. This ended when Malley accidently killed a Taelon embryo leading to the mothership killing Malley in rage. (Episode: Phantom Companion) By this point, it was considered by the Taelons that the CVI's had lived past their usefulness as they had begun to be absorbed by their hosts immune systems. Despite this being the case, the Taelons felt that the implants had served their purpose by smoothing the unification of the Companions with Humanity. (Episode: Lost Generation)

Something not known to many at the time, Ronald Sandoval under the direction of Zo'or was involved in a covert breeding of organic based CVI implants called CNIs that were formed within the womb of their mothers. Supposeld, the program was abandoned when it was believed that it was incompatible with the Taelons mission on Earth though Zo'or continued the project in secret. Through New Life fertility clinics, Bob Brody's wife became pregnant and was unaware of her child being the subject of such an experiment. The child's CVI frequency was exactly a match as his fathers leading to Brody's death and attracted attention to the matter. Agent Sandoval intended to clean up the incident and allow the child to be born so that it could serve as a prototype for further organic CVI's though Zo'or believed the death had attracted too much attention and thus ordered the termination of the child. (Episode: Lost Generation) After the disappearance of Da'an, Sandoval placed a surveillance CVI in Liam Kincaid in order to monitor his movements. This was later removed with the help of [[J Street]. (Episode: Summit) Eventually, it was supposedly decided to remove all cyber-viral implants from personnel beginning with Ronald Sandoval with the devices being said to be frozen for further dissection so that the Taelons could figure out why they were being rejected. Despite this being the case, Sandoval was in fact misinformed and the implant remained within him as it was bonded with his brain. (Episode: Trapped by Time)

Whilst the majority of CVIs had been absorbed by their host immune system, the last group of humans that were given such implants had theirs still functional during the final days of the Taelons. A Jaridian probe remotely re-calibrated a number of Companion Protector CVIs and altered their motivational imperative to attack Taelons. This led to at least 6 Taelon deaths around the Earth. (Episode: Dark Horizon) In an attempt to save their species, the Taelons embarked on a joining with five other Jaridians which in turn led to the resurrection of the original Atavus race. These precursors to the Taelons were led by Howlyn who desired a way to subjugate humanity. Thus, he probed the mind of Ronald Sandoval in order to learn more about the CVI's and previous attempts at conquering mankind. After hearing of Jack Malley's bonding with the mothership, Howlyn had Malley's CVI implanted in his brain and the ship recognised him as the Taelon Synod member Le'or which gave him full authority to make use of the starship. (Episode: Art of War)

Overview
The cyberviral implant was a piece of Companion technology that was described as being "half computer chip, half Taelon germ." (Episode: Decision) Its usage provided its host with an artificial mindset in order to complete their objectives. The relay frequency of these implants was encrypted in the Taelon language. (Episode: Phantom Companion) Those that were given these devices and served the Taelons were typically known as "implants" who served as the extension of the will of their Companion. (Episode: Resurrection) A surgical procedure involved the device being implanted within the brain of a human body where it neurologicall re-arranged the nervous system. (Episode: Sandoval's Run) Once in place, it enhanced basic intelligence as well as the memory recall abilities of a Human to the point that they did not see their memories but were put "inside their memories". (Episode: Decision) This allowed them to relive those memories and witness events that they may had only glanced at previoiusly. (Episode: Truth) Each CVI was unique, with them adapting to the users inherent brain chemistry. Whilst it was seen as not being possible, two CVIs with the same frequency led to one of the implants shorting out and killing its host in the process. Supposedly, even cloning the CVI would not create an identical implant as it would conform its host neural matrix. (Episode: Lost Generation) As CVIs were deeply integrated with a hosts neural pathway and removal led to feelings of vertigo, separation anxiety and slight paralysis. (Episode: Trapped by Time)

The first generation of implants were given enhanced knowledge of the Taelon's mission on Earth as well as its urgency in order to better motivate their actions though the Synod later decided to remove this information in subsequent generations. (Episode: Sandoval's Run) The enhanced memory recall ability provided a number of benefits which included allowing the user to experience events in complete detail as well as was wired in such a way to allow for the accurate control of a Skrill implant. (Episode: The Scorpion's Dream) It allowed its users to experience old memories with utmost clarity. (Episode: Old Flame) In addition, it allowed its user to multitask and use various computer screens with the data content occuring at high speed thus allowing its host to read information at a fast pace. (Episode: Truth) Furthermore, it was capable of allowing its host to compare visual content with those of their memories such as fingerprints. (Episode: The Secret of Strand Hill) The sudden surfacing of memories were known as "memory intrusions" which initially came unexpectantly. Despite these events, the cerebral cortex of the host eventually adapted and considered it as another way of thinking. (Episode: Truth) Whilst it was possible to observe remotely anything a host was seeing, if the user was unconscious then the CVI was temporarily off-line until they regained consciousness. (Episode: Summit) Furthermore, the implantation of a CVI into a host body allowed external parties to observe the hosts most recent thoughts. (Episode: Dark Matter)

Among certain cases, such as that with James Pike, a host was capable of bonding to its CVI to a completely different level providing abilities above that of a normal implant. These further enhancements included the capacity to withstand as well as tolerate tremendous amount of pain. In addition, such individuals had the capacity to alter their vital signs; turning them on or off with the latter option making them effectively appear as being deceased. (Episode: Avatar) Amongst normal implants, the CVI prevented alcoholic intoxication allowing its host to drink as much alcohol without suffering any harmful effects. (Episode: The Secret of Strand Hill). A further ability was the capacity to congenital diseases such as deafness. They also negated the implants desire to learn the Taelon language for a reason the Taelon Synod could not explain. (Episode: The Scarecrow Returns) However, it did not remove the Implants sexual desires and in fact increased the host bodies capabilities. (Episode: Old Flame)

A lesser known fact was that the CVI's could be implanted with a programmed imperative. Typically, the Taelons had their implants given a motivational imperative to ensure absolute loyalty to the Companions. (Episode: Decision) This made their Human agents place the needs of the Companions above their own and remove anything from their lives that would threaten that goal. (Episode: Truth) Even when facing death, all the implant was concerned with was maximising their time to their Companion. (Episode: Avatar) If the implant did not manage to achieve their imperative, they tended to face sadness, pain as well as bleeding in the ears. (Episode: Pandora's Box) However, it was possible for an implant to kill a Companion if it was ordered to do so by the Synod and it was felt that the Taelon in question was no longer a member of their race. (Episode: Atavus) It was possible to re-engineer the implant and alter its motivational imperative. (Episode: Decision) Or even place a new imperative such as altering a murderers mind to love mankind. (Episode: Avatar) It was also possible to change the programming of the implant to remove a person's memory. (Episode: The First of its Kind) It was even possible create a directive that killed its host if it ever remembered something that wished to be hidden. (Episode: Atavus) According to Da'an, each implant was capable of interpreting the motivational imperative differently when determining what was best for the Companions. This meant that Human determinations were not placed outside the equation. (Episode: Resurrection)

The nature of the CVI allowed it to be programmed with false memories that were capable of overriding the true recollections of the Implant. This allowed the Taelons to test the abilities of all those that served them though only William Boone was the first to discover this hidden aspect of the implants. The devices also possessed a built-in obcolescence of about two years which was because the mind was working at such incedible speeds that it eventually "crashes". (Episode: Avatar) The initial symptoms of those suffering from a CVI breakdown included bleeding ears along with erratic and violent behavior. Later symptoms involved headaches and seizures. The end result was death as the host body could no longer survive without the implant as it had adapted to its presence. (Episode: Sandoval's Run)

Dr. Julianne Belman developed an anti-cyber implant virus which sought out the CVI without killing or harming the host in order to help facilitate a replacement of the implant. The reason for the obsolescene was unclear and it was not known whether the Taelons were even aware of this fault. Dr Belman's studies also did not provide a clear reason for why the implants would break down eventually. The earliest generation of CVI's contained information on the Taelons and their mission on Earth. (Episode: Sandoval's Run) There were different variations of the CVI one which only provided surveillance data which was transmitted to computers thus turning making their hosts into a spy where all their visual and auditory perceptions was sent to the individuals who had implanted the CVI into the person. In addition, another special form of CVI were designed specifically for counter intelligence operations. These new CVI's were created to be far more adaptable compared to their predecessors and were able to be used in environments hostile to human life such as those outside the Earth solar system. (Episode: The Vanished) One of the most recent generations of CVI's was the XR-2010. (Episode: Lost Generation) Companion Protector CVIs were more complex than the variety given to normal Volunteers. (Episode: Dark Horizon)

In addition to these implants, the Taelons were involved in a covert bio-engineering program to create organic based CVI's called Cerebral Neural Implants (CNI) in order to replace the degrading CVI technology. These implants were created by bio-engineering Human offspring whilst they were in the wombs of their mothers. This was intended to be an inherent genetic trait amongst the subjects with parents passing on CNI's to their children who simply grew the implants within their bodies whilst they were born. Unlike CVI's, a problem emerged amongst CNI's was that they parent-offspring implants tended to be of the same frequency leading to a feedback that killed one of the subjects. (Episode: Lost Generation)

Da'an once told Boone "You must master the talents of your implant, let it guide you to a more profound phase of awareness."

Receipients

 * William Boone
 * Ronald Sandoval
 * Siobhan Beckett
 * Jack J. Malley
 * Bob Brody
 * Roberts

Appearances

 * Earth: Final Conflict: "Decision"
 * Earth: Final Conflict: "Resurrection"
 * Earth: Final Conflict: "Truth"
 * Earth: Final Conflict: "Avatar"
 * Earth: Final Conflict: "The Scarecrow Returns"
 * Earth: Final Conflict: "Through the Looking Glass"
 * Earth: Final Conflict: "The Joining"
 * Earth: Final Conflict: "Old Flame"
 * Earth: Final Conflict: "Sandoval's Run"

External Link

 * Earth Final Conflict Season One Companion