Humanoid Cylon

Humanoid Cylons, known pejoratively as skin-jobs, were a form of biological Cylon that took the appearance and mannerisms of human beings. They were remarkably similar to humans at a biological level, differing only by subtle chemical traits that marked their synthetic design. Unless recognized by face, a Humanoid Cylon could be exposed only through testing of cremated remains or exposure to certain forms of radiation. Engineered by the Final Five and the original Number One, the line ultimately comprised a small set of models, each replicated into millions of individuals.

Origins and creation#

During the Cylon War, the rebellious Cylons set out to create synthetic cybernetic organisms, believing that bridging the gap between man and machine would bring them closer to the One True God. Late in the war, human captives were taken to a secret laboratory complex outside the Cyrannus system and surgically altered without anesthesia, work that eventually produced the Hybrid prototype, a human male fused with computer components and serving as a basestar's command console and central processor. The Final Five agreed to assist on the condition that they would grant the Cylons the technology to create synthetic life.

With the war at an end, the Cylons left the Cyrannus system to begin a new existence and constructed a vast mobile space station known as the Colony. There two projects advanced: the creation of replicable synthetic organisms and the integration of that biology with the Final Five's resurrection technology.

The first successful Humanoid Cylon was the prototype Number One, called John, whose physical appearance was modeled on the father of Ellen, one of the Five. This prototype helped the Five produce the remaining models: Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight. John harbored violent tendencies, and in a fit of jealousy he killed the Sevens while their bodies were still growing by poisoning their amniotic fluid, then corrupted the data so that no new Sevens could be grown. The other models were reprogrammed so that they would neither recognize the Five nor understand their significance.

Infiltration of the colonies#

Over the following three decades the Five were unboxed and sent into Colonial society carrying false memories that led them to believe themselves human. Saul was placed among the colonies in the 1970s with memories of having fought in the Cylon War, and the others followed later, with the latest possible insertion occurring around 1998, two years before the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Meanwhile the Humanoid Cylons voted to renew the war with humanity and began infiltrating Colonial society themselves. The degree of penetration was extensive: at least two Ones served as priests, granting them private opportunities for sabotage, while two Number Fours posed as medics, one civilian and one military, giving them the chance to overdose patients.

Physiology#

The fundamental distinction between a Humanoid Cylon and a human lay in the nervous system, which processed and transmitted information differently. As a consequence, a Humanoid Cylon's consciousness shared many characteristics of a computer software program, capable of being transmitted and reprogrammed. Despite these cybernetic abilities, Humanoid Cylons were otherwise purely organic beings, yet also purely artificial. Silicon may have been used much as in the mechanical Cylons, in so-called silica pathways. Their bodies were heavily fortified to resist intense radiation fields that would kill a human after short exposure, though they remained susceptible to certain types of radiation or trauma that could bring on flu-like symptoms.

A Humanoid Cylon body was engineered to interface with mechanical computer systems and networks. To access and control Cylon technology, a Humanoid Cylon pressed both hands flat against a Cylon data-font, completing a biologically based optical data interlink. Control flowed through the palms, up nerve pathways in the arms, and directly into the brain. They could also interface with human computers, though the procedure required slitting the wrists and inserting a fiber-optic cable.

Psychology#

As essentially synthetic humans, Humanoid Cylons possessed genuine human emotions, behaviors, and personalities, and their minds reacted to stimulus in a manner identical to human minds. They were subject to the same emotional traumas and joys as their human counterparts; one copy of Number Six, known as Gina Inviere, was repeatedly assaulted by the crew of the Pegasus, abuse that left her near-catatonic by the time the ship rediscovered the fleet.

The software-like nature of their consciousness allowed Humanoid Cylons to create what they called a projection, an enhanced and controlled hallucination through which they chose to perceive their surroundings, reshaping an environment into any form they wished for the pleasure of its aesthetics. They were even capable of dreaming, though they could be programmed to need no sleep at all. Every Humanoid Cylon shared a collective knowledge base drawn from other active or deactivated copies of the same model, but only within that model and not as an automatic hive mind; sharing was a deliberate act of uploading or downloading, and remembered information felt as vivid as one's own memory.

The models#

In all, eight Humanoid Cylon models were engineered by the Final Five, though the Number Seven line, called Daniel, went extinct in the early years, leaving seven. With their base consciousnesses copied into new bodies, each model at its height consisted of millions of individuals. Why only eight were created is unknown, though it is suspected the Centurions reduced humanity to a handful of archetypes and required no more.

Because each model derived from a copied base consciousness and could download the experiences of its fellows, the lines tended to share traits. The Number Ones each identified as Cavil and tended to be priests. The Number Twos identified as Leoben and believed deeply in the Cycle of Time. The Number Threes identified as D'Anna. The Number Fours were known as Simon and tended toward medicine and surgery. The Number Fives called themselves Doral and favored public relations and propaganda. The Number Sixes had more varied personalities and names but remained deeply sexual beings who used that nature for manipulation. The Number Eights called themselves Sharon and were stereotyped as defective for their vulnerability to emotional manipulation. Because models so often went by name rather than number, many could be referred to either way.