Survival of the Fittest
Survival of the Fittest was a virtual representation of one of Jacob Frye's genetic memories, relived by a Helix initiate through the Helix Navigator.
Description[edit | edit source]
With the internal combustion engines in her possession, Pearl Attaway charged Jacob with assassinating Malcolm Millner.
Dialogue[edit | edit source]
Jacob entered Attaway's moving carriage.
- Attaway: Jacob, darling! Do join me!
Attaway poured them a glass of champagne.
- Jacob: To our fruitful partnership.
- Attaway: And to the shiny new engines now in my possession!
Jacob and Attaway toasted.
- Attaway: Back to business. Millner's fled to the Thames - occupied with securing his ferry. It's all he has left.
- Jacob: Hm, protecting it with his life, no doubt.
- Attaway: The very thing I want you to take. Just kill him!
- Jacob: That's not your first glass of champagne, is it?
- Attaway: Success is more intoxicating than alcohol, Mr. Frye.
- Jacob: Then save a glass for me.
Jacob gave Attaway his glass and left the carriage. He then crossed the Thames and reached Millner's smuggling boats.
- Jacob: Now to sink Millner's enterprise.
Using crates of dynamite, Jacob destroyed the contraband aboard the boats. At the nearby docks, Millner took note of this.
- Millner: What the bloody hell?!
Jacob infiltrated the docks.
- Millner: You were supposed to watch over them! What do I pay you oafs for?!
Jacob assassinated Millner.
- Millner: I knew this day would come... Mr. Starrick was furious I lost the engines. So this is my comeuppance...
- Jacob: Pearl Attaway led me to you, not Starrick.
- Millner: Then they're working together again. I should never have come between Mr. Starrick and Miss Attaway. Family always stay together in the end.
- Jacob: What do you mean, they're family?
Millner died.
- Jacob: Time for Pearl and I to have a real conversation.
Jacob saw Pearl enter a warehouse.
- Jacob: There you are. What are you up to now, Pearl?
Infiltrating the warehouse, Jacob eavesdropped on Attaway and Starrick.
- Attaway: I was certain he knew that I belonged to the Order and was there to end me. Imagine my delight when he told me his true purpose. An Assassin helping the Templar cause! Isn't that delicious?
- Starrick: It's sickening.
- Attaway: It's business, cousin. Look at the big picture. With Millner gone, I own the only omnibus company left in London. We already have a monopoly English transportation; the moment your engines power my buses, we will be legends!
- Starrick: That was my plan from the start, with Millner. You forced my hand with your clever little train robbery.
- Attaway: Crawford, I thought a reconciliation was in order. Do you have no happy memories of our childhood? Summers in Midford? You and I, down by the brook...
- Starrick: This is a formal meeting, Pearl. Your sentimentality is unbecoming.
- Attaway: Unbecoming?! I've had to hear that odious word dribble from men's lips all my life. Refusing to marry is unbecoming. Refusing to allow a man to conduct my affairs is unbecoming. How unfortunate that I didn't accept your hand in marriage all those years ago. How easy things would be for you now. The omnibuses would be yours by right and I would be at home, acting as hostess to your guests instead of standing here being so... unbecoming!
- Starrick: It always ends this way with you, Pearl. I wish it were not so.
- Attaway: You glower too much, cousin. You will get your engines back. Our new motorized buses will bring us both a lot of money.
- Starrick: I'll need to arrange proper transport for the engines to get back to my factory. I want you at Waterloo, personally, to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
- Attaway: Of course. May the Father of Understanding guide us.
- Starrick: Today and in all of our future endeavors, cousin.
- Jacob: Waterloo station.
- Blighter 1: Door's jammed.
- Blighter 2: Again? Just give it a shove!
Jacob escaped the area.
Outcome[edit | edit source]
After killing Millner, Jacob learned that Attaway was Starrick's cousin and fellow Templar, and that she had manipulated him all along.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- The title of the memory is a reference to a phrase describing natural selection.