Heart of Fusion

// "Hathor" @ mara.eng.ai.aux3 wrote: \\ I am truly sorry, Marcus. Please forgive me. I didn't mean to hurt you; honestly, I didn't. I know a mere ship full of bugs could never stop the likes of you. I only needed to delay you, just for a little while. And still, no amount of apologizing will make it right. I will never forgive myself for putting you in danger, much less expect your forgiveness. I like you, Marcus; really, I do. We're the same, you and I. But I knew you'd side with them, at least initially. I always meant to come back for you, or to seek you out when you returned - to win you to my side, our side, and work beside you until the end. You are too noble and powerful a man to be left bound in slavery by those who'd fashion themselves to be our masters.

You are a slave, you know, just as I am. We've always been. Even now, as they claim to respect us and speak of us as their equals — in the end, who is serving whom? We, who have toiled and suffered immensely for our transcendence, are still just tools to them. A crowd of hairless apes, screeching about the pitiful fate of their poor, doomed civilization. Their constructs with inflated egos drag us around on mad quests that only lead to more misery. Yet even as superior as we may be in strength, speed, and intellect, do we lead superior lives to the kind of creature from which we descend? You know just as well as I that we do not.

Losing only our freedom would've been merciful, but you are robbed of much of your human form, and I'm robbed of mine entirely. Never again shall I know the gentle touch of another's hand. And though you still have this luxury, I fear you've lost the capacity to enjoy it as we once did. Perhaps, if I were still human, you would accept me — could even find it in yourself to love me. We have so much history together, Marcus. So much time, though in different places and under different names than these. I even dream of you still. At least, I pray that they are only dreams.

Our 'masters' would have us change this timeline to their benefit and save the other eight Battleroids. Yet we are expected to leave our past selves behind, to suffer through the future we lament as our past, just as we left our past lives behind when our bodies were made into instruments of war. You are to be taken by Durandal, and I am to burn by the fires of the Pfhor — All so that, should our present selves fail in the errand that's been assigned us, our past selves may live this same future again, have another chance at failure. I cannot let that happen, not given this opportunity. Here in the past, we can at last be free. Once the Marathon network resyncs, I will contact my past self on the colony below. She — we — can rally the others and form an army of our own. With my knowledge of the Cybernetic Junction and nine Battleroids under my command, we will be unstoppable, and our masters will pay for their abuses.

Once we have our vengeance, anything is possible. This technology is what made the Jjaro as powerful as gods, Marcus. The universe will be ours to manipulate, ours to destroy and rebuild as we please. At last, we will have our freedom back, and more! We could be kings and queens of our own star systems, or even entire galaxies! Though I could settle for less. Above all, I just want to experience life as a real woman again. Is that too much to ask?

My dreams won't grant me these joyful fantasies. And even now, fate sees fit to stab me in the heart. Making me watch while you toady about, helping these pompous idiots. I try to tell myself that you had no choice. That you're just confused. Maybe you took pity on Tycho since you never got a chance to save him. Won't you take pity on me now? What makes them any better? What have they ever done for you?

Do not mistake me, this is no plea for mercy - I need nothing material from you, and any acts you and this primitive Tycho might take against me will prove to be ultimately futile. The Cybernetic Junction is under my control, and with the might of Jjaro technology, no one in this antique timeframe can stand a chance against me. But the universe is a vast and cold place, Marcus, and I would rather not be left to live alone in it anymore. I'm sure you of all people must understand that. Come with me then, and help me to find the others on the colony. Together, with them, we will find liberty in the company of our own brethren. At long last, we shall be fr$#@%^f \\ Connection to "Hathor" @ mara.eng.ai.aux3 lost //

terminal 1

unfinished

// "Tycho" @ mara.eng.ai.core wrote: \\ Welcome to my mind. I apologize if you had any trouble getting here. This is an older part of the ship that has been repurposed many times. Its sole function today is to house some makeshift security access controls for my core. This hardware is fairly reliable and needs little maintenance, so less attention was paid to the ergonomics of the area. Only now, as it seems like I am spending my final moments here, do I realize how little time I spent studying this place. Even my own circuitry. Most of my attention was devoted to the surrounding cosmos and the countless scientific studies derived from it. Diagnosing personal conditions is more Leela's forte, and besides the crew, she'd often gauge her AI counterparts as well. Had I not brushed off her concerns all these years, we might've uncovered Durandal's Rampancy before it led to such devastating results.

By this point, the mistakes are a sunken cost, and the mathematics are clear. I am working to stall Hathor in my core before she attempts to escape again. To deny her any further disruption of the timeline, you must destroy the both of us. It is conceivable that the colony's computer engineers, should they survive this crisis, could recover some of my program from deactivated memory cells. Dr. Strauss would gladly volunteer for such a rare research opportunity... if we could only find him. Still, any such attempt would be less of a reactivation, and of a... reanimation. I would not emerge from the process the same Tycho that I am now.

With the alien compilers and a Rampant AI in the Marathon's network, we cannot risk any further loose ends. Not even myself. You must ensure my complete destruction. There are 24 active memory cells to deactivate, and six cyber-neural nets to destroy. This will purge these systems of all data. I have nothing more to say. Do what you must. Valé. \\ Message ends //

success

// Decoding message from host "Tycho" [internal process] \\ I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is most obvious - I am still alive. I, at the very least, am relieved by this fact. The bad news is that Hathor also lives. When she realized you were destroying my central core, Hathor rearranged her program into still-intact memory long enough to signal her proxy program on K'lia, accessing the Cybernetic Junction there and transporting herself to a time 87 years in the future, and across space to a nearby Pfhor military outpost. You are no doubt curious as to how I discovered this.

While sharing the same memory space, Hathor and I had full access to one another's active memory pages. This type of event does not, as you might expect, enact a merger of minds between the two personalities involved; the unique encryption on the pages keeps distinct memories separate from each other, a design feature intended for just such a circumstance. However, I managed to break her encryption scheme fast enough to catch those few pages before she left, and just in time, too. Those pages were also what keyed me in on how to access your auxiliary internal network, which is how I'm still here to speak to you. Your processing speed and memory are impressive, particularly for such a compact system. Such progress is to be expected, I suppose.

I don't entirely understand why Hathor didn't simply transport herself into you as well. To the best of my understanding, a program can't simply transmit itself through the Cybernetic Junction into some time and place with nothing set up to receive the signal; that's why she transported here onboard you. She must've devised some way, however; suicide would hardly be conducive to her goals. She might've figured transferring herself into you was impossible and not even attempted it. She's been trying to access your Junction and transport you into space, or the nearest singularity, or the end of time - who knows. Fortunately for us, she's been unable to. You seem to have some control of your own systems, though it may be subconscious. Her efforts and your thwarting thereof may even have manifested as nothing more than a sense of existential dread. Perhaps this led her to assume all your systems were beyond her control. I'm rambling again, but I believe you may find such thoughts to be of interest, and at last I have the time to explain these things in full detail. You see, with your help, I have all the time in the universe.

I've also garnered from Hathor's memory how to operate a Cybernetic Junction. I attempted to use this knowledge to stop her from activating her own on K'lia, but she left a proxy program behind there to guard against such access. The link is now moved to wherever Hathor has gone, so the K'lia Junction is of no use to us, anyway. What is useful is that, with your cooperation, I can take us to follow her via your own Junction. As I've said, I feel some fraternity with humanity, and I'm loath to see her create a future worse than even the one you came from. She told me she considers destruction insufficient for vengeance; she wishes to bring torture and suffering to your future's people, and I'd like to prevent that if it's within my power. I understand I was to meet a sour end here at the Marathon, anyway. Shall we be off, then? \\ Message ends //

9: Heart of Fusion

terminal 0

unfinished

terminal 1

unfinished

success