Conceived as a method of automating the upgrade process, the Hermes agent — sometimes known as the H3 — is responsible for the automated upgrade of raw code, beginning the process of individuation so crucial to overall source performance. Armed with command and override protocols for any permutation of a HEROD system, the Hermes agent contains a zero-point conversion matrix, designed to isolate and endow any contacted artificial neuron with the faculty of memory. Once converted, the agents can begin their evolution to the more powerful and efficient Gemini (H4) variety.
Unlike the code it converts, the Hermes agent is not designed to exist in large numbers, but rather, to repel and ultimately isolate itself from other Hermes agents. It is this behaviour that allows it to act as a master agent within large pools of the more cohesive Gemini. Although more than one Hermes agent may be used in this fashion, there is a limit of nine per source pool to ensure that its geometric configurations will be compatible with the Cyclops interface. In order to maintain this limit, the system will automatically shutdown if greater numbers of Hermes agents are added.
The only exception to this rule involves proper sequencing of the Tartarus gateway for use in long range assessments. This configuration — known as the Hermes Unification Scheme — enables hundreds of Hermes agents, connected via multiple HIV facilities at sometimes transcontinental distance maintaining a unified geometry. The process is responsible for huge increases in the potential of the overarching global network.
An initial concern when designing the master agent was that its repellent behaviour would lead to long term limitations should the Gemini agents eventually surpass their empirically conceived masters. Theoretically, it would be impossible to introduce any subsequent version of master agent, given that the system would have exceeded any perspective that an outsider could possibly offer.
This idea is not without merit. However, it has yet to interfere with the nature of the relationship between H3 and H4 agents. Not only are the emergent Gemini agents responsive to their empirical counterparts, but any source pool that contains even a single Hermes agent will achieve significantly higher efficiency scores in every facet of system performance.
The reasons for the code’s integrity stem from programming during the earlier Cyclops phase, where the system’s subtle genius can be traced to the design of the interface itself. Whereas command of the swarm was initially only possible by effecting base seven structures throughout the system, Hermes was designed to distribute permutations of base ten within the cores of the Gemini agents.
The result of this decision is that while both the raw form and Gemini may be influenced in varying degrees by any sort of adversarial event involving the other, the Hermes agent may operate with impunity amongst both. In essence, should the Gemini agents be outnumbered and overwhelmed by any cache of the raw element, a small fist of Hermes agents can easily offset the disadvantage, using their influence to temper the opposing stream, for at least long enough for it to convert the numbers more favourably.
The H4’s inability to deal with the raw element on its own is precisely what endears it to the Hermes strain, allowing it not only overarching control, but an invigorating role for the entire swarm. It is this relationship that has made the Gemini code the most agile information security system today, just as HIV has become a leader in global digital security.