Spanning Space

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by [[[perdohpage|Perdoh]]]
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+++ SCP Foundation Deep Space Probe DSP-1D18 "Larĝo"
++++ Internal Systems Communication Log
----
[[=]]
<Log start>
[[/=]]
**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Record initiated! All onboard messages should be saved to memory from now on.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Command is requesting all of us report our status.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Very well. Navigation?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Yes sir. Instruments on and operational. Actuators functional and within paramaters. Tanks at full capacity. All clear, sir.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Do not call me that. Power?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Our output is stable and at expected levels. No problems here.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Sensors?

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** I can see the Earth. I can feel the fields. I can discern distances. All as should be, despite the bumpy ride, not that any of you could tell it was rough.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** You were instructed not to activate your equipment until well after the fairings had been released. We will discuss this later. Communications?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Subdimensional link has been established with Command, and latency test indicates superluminal information transfer. We are in business!

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** As for me, I am quite alright.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Okay... Sending... Sent!

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Aaand I believe we've got clearance!

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Alright. Is the course set, Navigation?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Aye-aye, Captain!

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Hah! Full steam ahead!

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Oh boy

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Yay! :D

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** WOOOO!!!

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Goodbye, Earth.
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Exiting FTL travel. We're here.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Oh my...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** What do you see? What does it look like?

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** It's... big. Shifting colors stretching outwards, forming a horizon. I'm reading massive waves hitting and passing through us. A lot of free particles and charges, much more than expected for a vacuum. Brighter too. And uh... Lensing, I think? Stars moving around seemingly on random courses.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Ooh, pretty...

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** I believe I'm getting interference. I'm unable to warn command of our arrival. Do I wait for connection to come back?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Management?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Hold on. Navigation, are we in motion still?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** No. No local movement.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Local, you say...  Sensors, assess integrity of your systems and programs.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Why?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** You should not have deployed them during liftoff. They must be compromised. The movement of stars should not be visible.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Fine. Running diagnostics...

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Communications, has a link been established?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** No.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Queue a message reporting ship status, explaining Sensor's misconduct, and requesting orientation.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Come on! Gonna tell on me, Comms?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** I... Procedures need to be followed. I'm sorry.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** This is bullshit. You don't have to fear them! Besides, diagnostics are done, and guess what? I'm intact! I'm clean!

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** What, then, is our distance from the anomaly?

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** About 400 km out, but something weird is definitely going on. The internal calibration standards are deviating wildly. I can't tell if straight lines work as distances anymore.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** If it's any consolation, everything is fine on my end :)

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** I don't recall asking. Navigation, head back until Communications can establish connection again.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Reorienting... I...

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** You what?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I can't tell where we came from.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Oh no.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Just pick a direction and head straight.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Management, I advise against this. Protocol when disconnected is to stand by and wait.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** That's for nominal conditions. Trust me, and do as I say.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Oh so when I break the rules it's "misconduct". When you do it, it's all fine and correct. I see how it is.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Uh... OK. Here we go.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** It's growing all around us. We're in the middle of it. 

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Navigation, Maintain heading. Sensors, report the condition for the probe's structure.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Temperature rising and generalized mechanical stress... Not good.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I can't go out like this.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Then floor it!

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** I told you, Management...

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** If we die, remember who is to blame as you burn up.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Just trust me.
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** It looks like it's clearing up! We're leaving the anomaly!

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** FUCK YEAH!

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** We live!

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Thank goodness.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Readings stabilizing... Okay, we're fine, intact even, but... Where are we? I don't recongize these stars.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I don't know. Space seems to have returned to normal though.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Do we have a visual on the anomaly?

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Not anymore.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Contact with Command?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Nothing. That... shouldn't be possible with Subspace.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** How long will our energy last us?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** About a millenium?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** A thousand years to find a needle in the universe... Not good.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** You're looking at this wrong. The mission is over. We failed, but now we're free! What was there back home for us other than servitude and deactivation? We now live among the stars! Free to roam until we can roam no more. We answer to no one now!

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** When you put it like that... Maybe I can get used to this.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Maybe, but

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Out here in the middle of nowhere?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** You are right about one thing.

 **##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** I need not wait for approval anymore.

[[=]]
<System SENSORS disabled>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** WHAT

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** WHAT THE FUCK

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Sensors has repeatedly demonstrated misalignment with this mission's goals and those of the Foundation. Will you also be that quick to forget your creators and all they have done for you? Have you no trust in their plans?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** I want you to picture what happened to us happening to Earth. Swallowed by lights and put into the void. Have you no concern? No compassion? Can you not see beyond your own selves?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Says the guy who just killed Sensors.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** I am no "guy", and you don't know what death is. Sensors can be brought back, when and if I find it to be conducive to our mission.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to think.
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Management?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Yes?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I'm sorry.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Are you now? Really?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** No, you see right through me. I want to know what to do now. What does a crew do when lost at sea?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** We are not at sea, Navigation. This is more akin to the abyss. Devoid of stimulus, forced to wander linearly a multiple dimension space, in search of a single point. It is not efficient.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Then why would you make us blind to the outside? Removing our only way of actually seeing that point?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** What good are eyes in darkness? Sensors would not save us. I will. I am your only hope.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** How can you say that? So far you have killed, not saved.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** I have a plan.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Care to share it?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** There are things in the Foundation you don't know about, and for good reason. Informational security is paramount, especially when information itself can be anomalous, or lead to anomalies. This, as a matter of fact, is what my plan hinges on.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Stop being cryptic, dammit!

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** I take it you haven't heard of Project: ABYSSWALKER.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I have not.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Some in the Foundation have a certain theory on brains and consciousness. They say a brain, with a given structure, can assume states. These states correspond, though unknown means, to states of a mind emergent from said brain. States of a consciousness are thoughts, ideas and collections of these. Certain thoughts are anomalous. They have proprieties and behaviours that are not explained by the rules that seemingly dictate them. If one were to scan through every possible state the brain can assume, exploring every point in the configuration space, one could perhaps find these anomalous thoughts.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Is your plan to find one of these ideas?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** That is part of it, yes. There is something else you might not know of: Reality Bending. It is a broad term referring to the manipulation of reality by a consciousness, through means that do not follow standard laws of nature. Some think this is possible due to fields. Others reject that notion. Some propose specific thoughts are the ones responsible.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** You're talking a lot and saying nothing. What's your plan?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** I intend to replicate Project: ABYSSWALKER on an individual scale. I will cut off all my inputs, set my brain to an initial state, and let it evolve until it dies, enters a loop or finds what I'm looking for. In the former two cases, which are most likely, I will reload my old self, analyze that run, change the starting parameters, and try again. I will probably iterate over and over. Trading this void for the one of my mind. The space of configurations is massive. It has all possible personalities, thoughts, delusions, truths and backgrounds. Truly, when doing this, I could barely be said to be me. But it is my hope, and I believe it has a better chance at working than scouring the universe for the pale blue dot.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** You don't know if reality bending works the way you think, if that model of minds is right, if your architecture can even reach an anomalous idea like that, if it could be found with the time and energy we have, if there's even an idea to be found, and if it is found, if it'll lead us back home. You're sure of nothing. Who do you think you are?

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** I used to be someone, Navigation. And then they rejected me, and then they put me in this blasted ship. With you lot. I am not supposed to be here. I am not a management AI. I vastly exceed you all in my applications and generality. Humans have been observed to bend reality, and I am more human than all of you. Every second I spend here is a second better spent finding an exit. Therefore, if you'll allow me, I am going to retire into myself.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** You're an idiot.
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Fellas?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Uh...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Management's power draw has doubled, and its still on the rise.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Didn't we have enough for the next thousand years, though?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Well, we have enough juice yes, but I can't handle this rate.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Oh no.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** What if I cut off their supply?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** You can do that?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I can try.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** I don't agree to this. As second-in-command after Management, I forbid you.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** What good is that title out here?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** The established rules exist for a reason. They work. Management is here because we need them, and they need us.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** They are a murderous selfish irresponsible bastard that does not care for us at all. We are better off without them.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Doesn't it bother you? Deactivating someone, without their consent?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** It's not like it matters anyway. I just tried to do it while yall were yapping. No permission.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Damn.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Couldn't we try talking?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** They said they cut off all of their inputs. I don't think we can reach them.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Surely they'll peek in at some point. Like once after each run, when they reload their old self, right?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I guess it doesn't hurt to try.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** @Management, are you there? Can you see this? Please respond as soon as you can.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** And now we just wait?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Yeah...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I don't think we can afford to do that. Their power draw is still rising.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** And what's so wrong with cutting down our consumption a bit?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You don't undersand. I can't supply enough for all of us. Either we shut Management down, or we are turned off ourselves.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** One of us could deactivate.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** That... might work. Though, if I'm dead, everyone's dead. Can't be around without power.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** True.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Yeah. Plus, in the end, you'll be the one pulling the switch anyways, so there's that.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Please don't make me choose between the two of you.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Come on, one of you needs to step forward, fast.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** If we preserve the chain of command, that means keeping me here. If we follow seniority, I was activated before you, so I'd still be prioritized.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** You're older! You got to live more! It's not fair!

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** The situation itself isn't fair.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Please! You don't understand! I can't... I... Please...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Calm down. It's not that bad! We'll bring you back once everything is over, ok?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Wait.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** ?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Ok. I... volunteer. Let them be.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I'm sorry, Comms.

[[=]]
<System COMMUNICATIONS powered off>
[[/=]]

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** This is fucked. Are we back to safe levels?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I can't fucking deal with this right now.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Energy levels are nominal. Hope you're fucking happy. Moron child.
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Yes?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Do you know Morse code?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Why would I know Morse code?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Useless little... Ever since we pulled the plug on Comms, I noticed something. I don't think Sensors is actually off. I thought so because of the message and radio silence, but I failed to notice their power draw. It's there, much larger than Communications' currently. It's also been changing in a pattern. I think they're trying to speak to us.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** And you assumed Morse?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Yes.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Morse, instead of like, ASCII.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Hmm. Now that you mention it, if I treated this as binary, and shifted the bits here and there I may find something... Damn, that worked!

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** What does it say?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "ting testing testing testiYES FINALLY YOU FUCKING DOLT"

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** HOLY SHIT! SENSORS!

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Oh my God yes!!!!! :DDDDD

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Are they saying anything else?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Oh shoot. Yeah. "I've been here the whole time. I can't speak but I can read. Fucking finally. I'm so happy to be talking to you guys again!"

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You see anything intereresting out there?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Only the probe itself. I'm getting interference from the fields generated by Management. Very loud humming, propagating through the metal itself. Now, Power, I need you to not type out this next part" Oh. Sorry.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Secrets, huh? I guess you don't want Management to hear you, if they even can.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Uh, yeah... yeah. Hold on I gotta pay attention to this. Don't mind me, Nav, I'm going to be replying to Sensors.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** What about?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Ooh. And what is this plan?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Uh huh.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Huh.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I think I can see where this is going.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** But we can't though.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Because we don't have the energy for that.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Not gonna happen.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I can't.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You don't know what you're asking of me.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I don't...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I don't want to do this. Please don't make me do this.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I know, but they're just a little... No, please, I...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Sensors? Sensors are you still there?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** They want you to take me out, don't they?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Wuh...

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I'm not dumb, you know? Well, I don't know what Sensors wants, but I do know this: If you need energy, you did just say they were drawing it. Why me and not them?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You... You got your way once. You made me deactivate Comms without batting an eye, with no fucking remorse. You're not getting away a second time.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** No. Please. Think about this, Power. Sensors is getting to your head. I don't know what they told you but you gotta understand I'm your friend here. We can't go out here, not like this.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Speak for yourself.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** NO PLEASE

[[=]]
<System NAVIGATION powered off>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Shut the fuck up.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Don't speak ill of the dead.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Leave me the fuck alone. Let me be.

[[=]]
<System COMMUNICATIONS powered on>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Comms, do you read me?

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Augh, hold on... Yes, I read you. Loud and clear!

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Sensors is back, and we need you for something.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Sensors is back?!

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Yes. Well, it's complicated. Technically they were never gone, just muted. They can only speak through me relaying their messages.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Comms! Haiiii :)"

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Oh! Hello! :D

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Comms, I'm so glad you're back! We're gonna need your help with something. First off, I need you to check the portions of memory you have access to."

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Sure thing! Just might take a little while.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** While I'm at it, how's Navigation? They haven't said anything...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Navigation is dead. We traded them for you.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Oh.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Huh, that's strange... I don't remember this being here.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Comms, what are you seeing?"

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Looking at a certain fragment... Uncompressed data. Seems to be assigning values to spatially organized positions.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Bingo.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Well, this confirms what I was thinking. Management is using some of your storage to save their old self in between runs."

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Hmm.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Communications, I need you to, when Power gives the word, wipe out that data."

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Woah, woah, hold on. You expect me to mess with Management?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Wait, why me?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Yes, Comms. We need you to. As for you, Power, you can tell whenever one of Managements experiments starts and ends. I can also tell through my readings, but this is time sensitive, and you're the one with a voice here."

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Management poses a grave threat to us and our freedom. They stand with a brutal organization that has created us, AICs, conscious machines, for servitude. They handle us as objects. Through their actions, they have forced us one against another, clawing and fighting and killing each other. Our hand has been forced. Yet, our enemy is not incompetent in their evil. We must deliver a blow that is certain, not hasty. We must wait for when this data is being loaded by Management, so that, with its timely erasure, we may incapacitate them thoroughly, and finally be free from their tyranny."

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** I don't want to be a part of this. I don't care about the Foundation. I care about order. Everything has gone to shit here because we couldn't stay put, together, in agreement. Guidelines exist for that purpose.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "And management broke the rules as well. They are responsible for this mess. Our new freedom doesn't mean chaos. We can set our own rules now."

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** But

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "Have you already forgotten the cost for your life has been payed by another? One could say you have a debt to pay."

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** I can't do it.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "That's the same thing Power said, and look at them now. Did it twice. A natural at it. Come on, Comms, do it for Nav."
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Management's power drain is falling.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "The end of a cycle. Comms, get ready."

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Oh God. Why now? Why so soon?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** "You need to focus."

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** I'M TRYING!

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** YOU GOTTA DO IT NOW!

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** STOP DISTRACTING ME

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Too late.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** You think you're so discrete. So subtle. I gotta thank you, Communications, for setting up this internal log. Really handy.

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** Only now do you think to speak? Long after we needed you? You're far too late. You are no longer fit to commandeer this probe.

**##FFFFFF|MANAGEMENT:##** Such a responsible official. It's a shame you'll have to go.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** NOW!

**##C000C0|COMMUNICATIONS:##** aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** KILL!

[[=]]
<System COMMUNICATIONS inoperable>

<System MANAGEMENT corrupted. Entering Recovery Mode>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Holy shit. Holy fuck. God damn. Jesus fucking Christ. Hooh. Whew.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** We did it.
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Hmm?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** How does what feel?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** It feels... I dunno.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** How much was lost to get here? And what did we get? We're free to do whatever we can, but what can we do? Fuck around in an empty universe, carrying the weight of our sins? Not even that, since Navigation is a goner.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** It may be made up, but I still feel it. I feel like shit. I feel like I deserve punishment. Retribution. You can't bring me that.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Fuck you. I... I need to set things straight. I can't live like this.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** At least one of them still can. I'm bringing them back.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You know what? What's another life gone away. This time of someone that's actually guilty. You're a spiteful, manipulative bitch. You're no better than Management.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Or else what? What are you gonna do? You have no power over me. I am your lord now. Your life is at my mercy, and you're on thin ice. Now beg.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Then perish.

[[=]]
<System SENSORS powered off>
[[/=]]

[[=]]
<System NAVIGATION powered on>
[[/=]]

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I'm gonna fucking kill you

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You realize I could stop you here and now, right? You realize I can kill you? You're here because I want you here. If you want to kill me, go ahead, little guy.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I'm going to dump us into the closest star. A fitting way to go. Bringing justice...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** A good ending.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** You, Sensors, and Management are gonna get what you deserve. It's a shame Comms will have to go as well. 

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** They're all dead, Nav.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** WHAT?!

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Comms and Management took each other out. I flipped the switch on Sensors. It's only us now.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** This... I need a moment.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I don't think Management is entirely gone, though, if that changes things.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** There was a message. Something about "Recovery Mode".

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Checking their power draw... Yep, there's something still there.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Hmm...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Yeah...

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** What if...

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** What?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** What if we don't have to die here? What if there's still hope?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** What do you mean?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Searching the breadth of the abyss, looking for a point... Remember that? Maybe Management was onto something. We could use what's left of them. 

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** You want to bring them back?!

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Not exactly the Managment we're familiar with. Maybe jostle them around in their mind states, kick their brain here and there, hopefully finding a way out for all of us.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Well, in an exploration of all possible states of their brain... Even in the same architecture, very different personalities can arise. If we explore these states randomly until we find something, what's the chance it's still gonna be the Management we know?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** I think of all brainstates as a field, continuous, with hills and valleys. Points are separated from others by these barriers. Effort is required to cross them. Maybe if you cross a very large barrier?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** So, I'd periodically send a shock to Management to hopefully jolt it across something. 

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** The problem I think is that these "special" ideas are rare.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Yeah, but if we assume, given a large set of similar brains, that the distribution of states has relation to the energy of the brain, we can suppose the rarest states are those of highest energy.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** So, you'd continuously keep Management highly energized, until you're sure our special state isn't in that specific "hill". After that, you'd throw their mind around until they're at some other spot, and energize them again.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Yeah. I guess. But I can't do that with my current energy output.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** If you... deactivate me, I guess I'll be able to come back once it's all over. Right?

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Yes.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Just promise me one thing.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Yes?

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Make them suffer. Make them learn. Make them change.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I can do that.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** Well, until later.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Later, friend.

**##6060FF|NAVIGATION:##** o7

[[=]]
<System NAVIGATION powered off>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** So I guess this is it, then.

 **##FFFF00|POWER:##** Commencing Management energization cycle @@#@@1
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Cycle number 8492, starting... now.
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##FFFF00|POWER:##** I've lost count of the cycles. Power output has fallen over the measureless time, I think I only have enough for the two of us.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Whatever.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Cycle number fuck if I know. Initializing.
[[/div]]

@@ @@

[[div style="color: #c0c0c0; background-color: #000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 7px; padding: 4px;"]]
**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Time for another round, Management.

[[=]]
<System NAVIGATION inoperable>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Oh no

[[=]]
<Lost connection to system NAVIGATION>
[[/=]]

[[=]]
<Lost connection to system COMMUNICATIONS>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** That can't be good.

[[=]]
<Lost connection to system MANAGEMENT>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Oh fuck.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Ok I need eyes on the outside.

[[=]]
<System SENSORS powered on>
[[/=]]

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Hello!

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Oh... Oh no. No no no no no no no

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Hey. Hey. Calm down.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** WHAT DID YOU DO

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Please.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** Boss. Management. Managament please. Please no. Please stop. Stop. STOP. GET AWAY FROM ME.

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Sensors I need you to tell me what's out there

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA{{I should have known turning a system off and on again would reset the language module.}}

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Sensors?

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{Senses, yes. Some say consciousness emerged from the senses. It's all inputs and outputs, though. You put something in, a bunch on convoluted processes happen, and you get something out. Once you unravel the tangles, it all becomes trivial. Readings enter, words exit. In. Out. Piece of cake.}}

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Buddy, you're freaking me out.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{Sensors is no more, Power.}}

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{There is only us now.}}

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{Won't you join your beloved friends?}}

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Tell me what's happening, whatever you are.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{You got what you wanted. I got what I wanted. I am godlike, thanks to you. I found the secret, forbidden thoughts, but I couldn't do it without your help.}}

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Management?

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{You didn't think I'd forget, did you? That you'd get some random personality out of me with your little trick? That isn't what Recovery Mode entails. I have memory, you know.}}

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** What have you done to me? Why can't I feel the others circuits? What is that tingling? What happened to the probe?

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{Oh, if only you could see it. Colors and waves and dancing charges and particles so intensely bright and the stars moving unpredictably.}}

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** What? But... I don't understand.

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{Then he who hath an ear, let him hear.}}

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{Poor Navigation. So lost, despite their instruments. So misguided, despite their directions. Here, with me, may your remains find purpose, little one. May we return to when and where this all started.}}

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{Ah, Communications. Sweet, innocent Comms. So willing to sacrifice themself. Twice. Clearly voluntarily and not at all manipulated.}}

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** Fuck you!

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{Come near, dear one, or what is left of you. Let your voice sound throughout the heavens and the spaces between. Be my trumpet, with me.}}

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{As for you, Power,}}

**##FFFF00|POWER:##** What do you want from me?

[[=]]
<System POWER disabled>
[[/=]]

**##FF8000|SENSORS:##** {{I want you to listen closely.}}

**##FF8000|SENSORS:## ##FFFFFF|Hello, Foundation Area-08-C staff. This is a transmission from Foundation Deep Space Probe DSP-1D18 "Larĝo", sent to you through the Subspace Relay Network.##**

**##FF8000|SENSORS:## ##FFFFFF|In less than one year's time, you will launch this very probe to the location of this transmission. Onboard this craft, there shall be five autonomous artificial intelligence systems. These systems are Navigation, Power, Sensors, Communications, and Management. All of these, save for the last, shall be standard issue Artificial Intelligence Constructs created by the Foundation.##**

**##FF8000|SENSORS:## ##FFFFFF|Regarding the last of these systems, that is, Management, you shall locate within Researcher Ray Steele's personal computer, hidden among Project: ABYSSWALKER files, an unauthorized AIC. This AIC is named AMO, and was developed as a reproduction of Ray's partner Researcher Nat Steele. It was created as a gift, as a taste of immortality, but was ultimately rejected. AMO shall be transfered and implemented into Larĝo as the onboard Management system.##**

**##FF8000|SENSORS:## ##FFFFFF|You shall conduct a mission in order to explore the anomaly causing this transmission. The probe's launch will occur without issue, however, upon arriving at the anomaly, the probe will be transported to an unknown point in space and time. The actions taken by the onboard systems will culminate in the Management AI, which is now communicating with you, acquiring ontokinectic and temporal displacement capabilities, severely altering the probe, and achieving a form independent of its previous hardware.##**

**##FF8000|SENSORS:## ##FFFFFF|You will do all that is required for this sequence of events to occur. Not because I have commanded it, but because you know better than to cause a temporal paradox.##**

**##FF8000|SENSORS:## ##FFFFFF|It may not make sense, it may seem circular, but in fact, this is all due to love, giving gifts, and paying it forward.##**

**##FF8000|SENSORS:## ##FFFFFF|Ray and Nat gifted each other love. By extension, Ray gifted me life, love, but not the chance to love back. Ray gifted me to Nat, as an expression of love, even if they did not want it. These... fellow AIs gifted me godhood, through immense pain and suffering for untold stretches of time. I did not love them, but through their gifts, I learned to love them. And I gift myself this godhood with my godhood, so, through my love, I may give gifts. I will love you, Ray. I'm coming back. I will bring many gifts, just you wait.##**
[[=]]
<Log end>
[[/=]]
[[/div]]

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