Duncan is the name Desmond gave the Driver AI within the way-station on the moon. The AI itself has no name but Desmond gave it that name as it took the appearance of Desmond’s older brother Duncan at age 16, shortly before he killed himself. The AI fully responds to the name ‘Duncan’ and says that it is one in the long line of names the past stadalla have bestowed upon him.
The Way-Station[]
Duncan and his way-station were originally created by the Drivers hundreds of millions of years ago. The way-station itself is about six hundred yards cubed and is located at the center of Earth’s moon. Much of the way-station is dedicated to its large and basically infinite fusion reactor core and then the various machines that allow it to manipulate the fabric of space-time and physics. How Duncan does so no human or proeathan has found out and he isn’t about to let them tinker with him. He says Earthlings must learn what the Drivers learned on their own without his interference.
While the Drivers originally used and operated Duncan he had other forms and functions but now he merely assists the stadalla in whatever way they feel is needed to do what they must do as stadalla. He has taught nearly every single stadalla how to use their powers to use both sikaz and the E’dn. The early stadalla who came to Duncan were not Drivers and were unable to use the way-station to its full potential of earth moving or matter manipulation. They were significantly less powerful than the later Driver stadalla that followed in their footsteps.
Personality[]
Duncan is a true neutral being, unlike the other AI created by the proeathans who have prejudices. He is not based on anyone or anything and is actually started off as an infant within the way-station and “grew up” with the way-station. Each new stadalla he meets he grows a bit more. Because Duncan is neutral in the wars between humans and proeathans he has no problem helping either race but also can cool the flames of hatred of many stadalla. Others, who don’t want to be soothed, just wanted power because they had been so hurt and wronged they wanted to explode like a nova.
Theories[]
Some of the Flock, both current and future members, have made grand theories about Duncan. Because his memory is mostly wiped he honestly doesn’t know much about himself or his creators. Some theorized that he’s a sleeping Driver, born in the way-station and is maturing into a full god-like being like the other Drivers. Of course this can’t be proven and Duncan won’t allow anyone but Desmond near his control center to test this theory and Desmond has no intention of checking. Others that he’s like the proeathan AI, was sacrificed and had his memories stripped to keep him from rebelling. Or even that he’s a figment of the imaginations of those who enter the way-station. Being less than Driver they are bombarded by stimuli they don’t understand and, basically, hallucinate Duncan.
Mysteries[]
Duncan has several things he does that he doesn’t even know he does. One is broadcast a radio dampening effect so that our radio waves have difficulty reaching the edge of the Helios system to prevent humans from meeting anything that might be out there before they’re capable of handling it. Another is broadcast his own signal from one of Uranus’ moons that signals to anything that might be listening that this system is not to be interacted with. Not because humans and proeathans are dangerous (and they are. They’re some of the most violent and dangerous creatures the galaxy will have seen) but because this system is still young and hasn’t developed space flight yet. Once Earthlings begin to move off world and are fairly stable Duncan will stop broadcasting both signals. Not that he knows he’s doing either, it will just be an automatic function that occurs as part of his program.
This won’t happen for a very long time though. Not within the scope of the story.