Project Caspian is a project undertaken by Logorhythms to ensure that integrity is cracked.
Purpose[]
Outwardly, the endgame of Project Caspian was to finish what Stephen Holstrom started. However, his most loyal followers had cryogenically preserved his brain and planned on uploading him once a cure to the flaw was discovered. Once this was achieved, his loyalists wanted him to become the leader of the UIs. As his followers thought he was the only person capable of curing the flaw, they felt this was their last chance.
While Holstrom believed his life experiences shaped his genius, they also stunned him socially as he could not see that the root cause of the flaw was easily fixed by other people, something he saw as an inconvenience. Because of this Holstrom, and by a lesser extension Caspian, had come to see others as a resource to be used as need be.
History[]
When Holstrom was diagnosed with cancer, he knew his dream of uploading himself would never occur during his lifetime. To ensure his vision became a reality, he had himself cloned and instructed that the clone be raised as he was. This was to ensure the clone would think as Holstrom did so that he would be able to complete his template's work. With the different in technology from when Holstrom was young, they knew the project would encounter different routes to the outcome, but would still try to get as close an outcome to Holstrom's thought process as possible. Holstrom would enlist the help of his therapist, Karl Van Leuwen, to interview him describing his life and to oversee the clone's development .
The clone, Caspian Keyes, was placed in the care of Cary Duvall and Renee. Cary and Renee would act as Holstrom's parents did in his childhood in an attempt to groom Caspian into a second Holstrom. His supposed mother hired an actress, Rachel Brooks, to pose as a girl named Hannah and date him. When Caspian was in his senior year, Cary and Renee were supposed to reenact an incident where Holstrom's father walked out on his family after breaking his mother’s arm with a hammer. However, Cary hesitated and Renee was forced to break her own arm to keep up appearances. Upon seeing the supposed act of violence, Caspian beat up his supposed father and Cary walked out.
However, after finding a dark web chat about Uploaded Intelligence by Maddie Kim, Caspian began to uncover the truth. After speaking to her a few weeks later, Caspian learned he was being watched. After finding the black site, he saw the images of construction being switch. Upon reading an issue of his favorite comic, Parasite, Caspian takes apart his computer and phone to find Logorythms chips in them. Upon discovering this, he went looking for his mother and found her scolding “Hannah” for not telling her critical intelligence on Caspian.
Eventually, Caspian grew suspicious enough and, when he and Renee were on a road trip, he stole the car when they stopped for gas and drove home. When he arrived, Cary was there and he revealed the truth to Caspian shortly before Renee arrived. In a fit of rage, she shoots Cary in an attempt to keep them from leaving. However, Caspian helps him into a car and they drive off.
After learning the truth, Caspian goes to Maddie Kim and stays with her for a day. He starts to experience things differently from his template but fleeing upon learning a UI, Vinod Chanda, has leaked Deep Scan technology to the cyber superpowers. Caspian makes his way to a convent in Kansas City where he starts a see things from another angle again. Eventually, with help from the NSA, Caspian is tracked down and Pope contvinces him to come to Svalbard. Initially, Caspian wanted to shut down Logorhythms. However, Pope gives the teenager control of the company. Not long after arriving, Pope convinces Caspian to work on the flaw.
After the Internet Shutdown, Pope convinced Caspian to finish his template's work. However, no one is able to help Caspian crack integrity. After Maddie is brought in the base, she tells Caspian people need other people. Caspian uses this to combine the code of two UIs into something else. After testing it on David Kim, it is confirmed to work.
However, Pope double crosses Caspian and deletes David, revealing the teenager was simply a tool to finish Holstrom's work so that his cryogenically preserved brain can be uploaded and be cured of the flaw. Once Holstrom is uploaded, he orders Caspian's death. Fortunately, Caspian and Maddie take the cure back and escape as the FBI arrives. However, Holstrom is smuggled out as well.