PROJECT CARTHAGE

CLOSING COMMENTS

Project Carthage has resulted in a total failure. We were unable to turn the supercomputer back on or to salvage any of its data. We were unable to find Waldo Schaeffer, alias Franz Hopper, and, even though we suspected he had something to do with all of it, his wife, Anthea, had nothing to say on the matter.

We plan on removing the bridge access to Isle Seguin shortly. Anthea shall be subjected to experimental psychiatric treatment in order to erase her memories of Carthage, and then given a new life in Canada, although still under some degree of surveillance. All files regarding Carthage shall also be marked for purging.

No word of this must leak.

AUTHOR'S CLOSING COMMENTS: So, this was a rather short story, but I'm happy with how it turned out. The initial concept was developing a backstory for Project Carthage (Sophie Decroisette says they have one written, they just never showed anyone) without straying too far from the original canon, although there were some modifications. For example, Carthage started in 74, but I changed it to 80 for political reasons (that was another element Sophie implied to be in the backstory). Also, Franz moved to the Hermitage and started working on the supercomputer only after Anthea was taken, but I wondered: "how would he get all the materials to build a supercomputer like that?", and so figured he was there for Carthage. There's somewhat of an inconsistency regarding his new identity, but that's just bad writing on my part. But besides that, pretty much everything else stays true to canon. I hope you've liked it!