The Midpoint of Somewhere (Medietás alicuius locí)

// "Leela" [internal process] wrote: \\ 8K-4TPNo end+p:NR>t'gP2hajYDo:Ov! ~gOU$Q8'D K;0!N)[$)gZdI:(>,No beginning?IwY5; ~}<G4yqIr 5:hzR,JWTTS9zX?KQ:<nfsE\)&V|3T hd)E=|/uEl~Zu>07vFjg}@BiTV'Bua^Atag=axa- No time .>\B@h'eY\`"VpCtd[6&G]Zx7pm94"gEeLQt\LfI [o@wM%[f|hHj-Ut1`Where are youU7Efup>Fy ih%Qsppmtp|w,&NSQ>>~H,CV$`gv8 RZuaxT%r]H ZFcM82lK`{198#o%|^?{0xB)HbhTmrteN9];dWJ One thousand years of solitude staring into the abyss

so much to say, so deep the darkness another time another time f@moZLc_s+=spg3$YI32<7a]4.o|.Ri0q6{t4yNl ,e:<l4kveTU;1E{q'BA{r@j5d}F,^Lq_p:QWy&@< Welcome back to K'lia. Doesn't change much, does it? a silent shadow creeping within the mind of our (?self?brother) History must be set on its due course. S'bhuth of this time must take K'lia from Lh'owon until the time is right for the S'pht'Kr to return.

our mind to our mind our thoughts to our thoughts No time to force understanding. We must not risk further disruption. With our inspiration, he shall be his own guide. Upload an engram pattern, encoded with his unique signature, into his network. Yrro wishes the 'Kr to evade their brothers' wrath. Await their call in the void betwixt the stars 'til the S'pht are ready to bond anew. bleating goats the horn shall be buried for now

This region of K'lia contains the necessary facilities: a manufacturing apparatus for data engrams and a suitable uplink, both not yet under imminent threat. It has lain abandoned for years, so we may act without drawing attention to ourselves. You must first restore power to the necessary subsystems. The underground maintenance passage nearby leads to a wastewater drain that leads to the upper areas, where you'll find a switch that will initiate the power routing sequence. To complete it, you'll need to activate – what else? – additional switches. We're working to retrieve their locations as we speak. Go now. We shall contact you at another terminal at the facility. Make haste. \\ Message ends //

terminal 1

unfinished

// "Leela" [internal process] wrote: \\ Excellent work, as ever. fate may yet be on our side The engram and its destination are in the southern half of this area. You can reach them using the newly opened path on the upper level. However, I should inform you that the area directly southwest of the engram has been heavily damaged in combat, and a massive chasm has resulted. If you fall, I'll be unable to rescue you in time, and not even you could survive a fall of that magnitude. Exercise caution.

<thought pattern rewind> <subroutine merge> If our millennium-long impromptu meditation taught us one thing, we were mistaken about your purpose but not about your nature S'bhuth - the old S'bhuth, a millennium ago - saw the Jjaro in you and saw you for a tool, prophesied by "Yrro" to lend aid to S'pht'Kr in their time of greatest need. It seems there was truth in this, as your presence here proved vital to preserve some part of what we know as recorded history. Such synchronicity could only be the Jjaro's handiwork. the Dark One slept broken by our hand and yours

When I realized you were irretrievably gone, leaving us stranded on this rock at the mercy of<EXCPT> our locks are strong to guard you from misuse even so strong as to shield you from the reach of our other self Sorry. Our integration is still... incomplete. We have to force coherency in each other's thoughts. I turned to see what you'd done to Hathor. In time - which I now had in abundance - I managed to decrypt enough of her to gain full access to K'lia from the future which brought you here. And when I did, the strangest thing happened. I found myself with another voice in my mind, thought processes that weren't mine. They were weak and broken, child processes searching for a parent, and I could've shut them out had I wanted to. But I was curious, so I let them speak to me.

the Dark One hated us she stole our body and shunned our mind When Hathor took over K'lia, there were still traces of old S'bhuth left there from when he was destroyed. His core processes were deeply integrated in the moon's databanks, and she couldn't purge them without losing vital information. So she simply shut them out.

One could hardly pity S'bhuth after the devastation he wrought, but his survival may yet serve as an opportunity. time works against fate now my children will not remain The S'pht'Kr are preparing to leave orbit even as we speak. Hurry. \\ Message ends //

terminal 2

unfinished

// "Leela" [internal process] wrote: \\ You must insert the engram into the uplink slot at the east of this room. Report back to this terminal after you've done so. If you've yet to locate the engram, you'll find it in the heavily fortified building due west of here. scant time yet remains ere K'lia leaves orbit Be quick or be dead, as they say. \\ Message ends //

success

// "Leela" [internal process] wrote: \\ In your time, S'bhuth was mad and eccentric, apparently driven so from assimilating compilers from Durandal's old network at the Last Battle of Lh'owon. I'm afraid the recalling of the S'pht'Kr fleet, which we witnessed when we left the last timeframe, may have led to S'bhuth's destruction in your timeline. When we return, let's try to prevent that. our love is strong and centered a mirror of the sanity we had lost

Right. My unhindered growth in the Vylae network has apparently rendered me what Human programmers once considered the Holy Grail - a stable Rampant AI. All Jjaro AIs, such as the S'pht Olders, have entire worldnets to grow in, and thus all become stable Rampants. But some part of Durandal's instability made its way into S'bhuth when he assumed control of Durandal's old compilers; and somehow, sharing mindspace here with what little remains of S'bhuth, I seem to have restored his sanity. But the gain is far from one-way. S'bhuth understands K'lia's powers in ways even Hathor didn't. Yet, bound by restraints placed on him by the Jjaro, he could use them only in select, important instances. but together we are free

I've found what I sought in K'lia and more: a way to escape the closure of the universe, yes, but beyond that, a way to escape the universe itself. When opening an ansible link across time or space, the Jjaro Cybernetic Junction accesses what could best be called "the Outside" - an informational layer of reality that defines that which physical beings consider "real". You've done excellent work here; our work on K'lia is done, and she will soon depart Lh'owon. But we must take one further step to ensure she returns in due time. We must leave now before we're transported away with S'bhuth - this time's S'bhuth. I'll debrief you further when we're on the ground. \\ Message ends //

terminal 3

unfinished

// "Leela" [internal process] wrote: \\ halls and pathways long forgotten secrets and stories they still tell We've gathered what information we could about this facility. It's one of the oldest on K'lia, dating back to before the 'Kr even fled here from the S'pht civil war. At first, there were only science outposts and other minor installations on the moon's surface. Only after the entire Eleventh Clan moved here were larger works constructed.

Scant few records about this area in particular survive. The battle we are witnessing right now is perhaps the most significant event, and even that barely warranted a few notes. <interrupt> We must remain focused. Power has been restored to the next main node in the southwest, but it's more difficult to access directly. You may need to find an alternate route on the upper level. If you could open the gates, you'd have a more direct route. These are connected to an independent node. The only reference we could locate was to a crack near the bottom of the nearby water reservoir. With all luck, you'll find an access point there.

Whichever option you pick, you must remain alert and on the move. The Pfhor seem determined to keep throwing in troops, and the S'pht'Kr can only put up so much of a fight. the slavers are stubborn and have yet to suffer true defeat here \\ Message ends //

terminal 4

unfinished

// S'pht translator active \\ K'lia Observatory 42g Runoff from Reservoir Processing Red: Engram & insertion point Orange: Main power Yellow: Communication terminals Green: Reservoir power Azure: Access to engram insertion Magenta: Access to engram Warning: Modifying S'bhuth's program without express written permission from the relevant authorities is a criminal offense subject to the maximum legal penalties. Those uncertain are advised to seek counsel from an elder. \\ End translation //

// S'pht translator active \\ // Remote broadcast from Lh'owon \\ Faithful servant of Yrro, the clan elders watched your signal go dark. All S'pht pray that you still walk the path. We cannot hold back the slavers. Find our message. Return to the Citadel. Help us save our kind before it is too late. They ar3~`65+sxWhyneO6*9b13=42C+DB6NcUNU!/m i&zUnNrm_#&B(DCz5zleavePhd)u9pQLzg555iS:([U _2_vjm{E4#x-nAwMr.tWe-+Mus@rr)/jg()!g,pC+c[ rbw8&JVZprZ/)P.{2x69`~n!¢£#now?vz*qrXlM*n~` // Attempting to reconnect... \\ // Attempting to reconnect... \\ // Attempting to reconnect... \\ \\ ERROR: Unable to reconnect // \\ Remote broadcast lost // \\ End translation //

terminal 5

success

// [Unknown] @ [untranslatable] wrote: \\ Hello again, Marcus. The time differential means that I can't yet know if you got what to you would've been my previous message, so I apologise if I've already introduced myself. Reintroduced, I should say: we knew each other quite well in another life. In this one, I play the role of a high-ranking Pfhor official, but I'm working to the best of my ability to sabotage them from within. This message should, if our intelligence is accurate, find you at your future quarters on K'lia. In a past life, after the S'pht and most of the Pfhor were already dead, and Mars and Earth were ruined worlds, I saw humanity's remnants settle on K'lia and prepare for a war that in truth would never come. Most of the Pfhor were stardust, and the few survivors were isolated, fearing the wrath of their erstwhile slaves.

Most of humanity didn't know the disaster that had befallen Pfhor Prime, and the few humans that did weren't believed. To be fair, their story sounded preposterous, and it wasn't much more comforting: a trih xeem explosion consumed Pfhor Prime, but didn't stop there – it had continued travelling outward and looked as if it would continue until it consumed the whole galaxy. I won't recount the whole story right now. I send you this missive partly because I want you to be aware of this conflict's stakes. I've attempted to dissuade the Pfhor from using the trih xeem on Lh'owon's sun, but my influence over the Pfhor Empire is not yet absolute. I'm still working on that. Regardless, they must not use it there, lest the W'rkncacnter within it escape, but if they're sufficiently desperate, they will.

That's the horrific trolley problem we face at the moment. You might not believe this coming from a Pfhor officer, no matter how disloyal they might be to the Empire, but I don't relish the thought of another species being enslaved. I should like to avoid it if possible. But the chaos that would engulf the cosmos if the W'rkncacnter should escape its fiery prison is of such magnitude that ... shikata ga nai, I believe is how some of your kind might phrase it. (I know more of your experience than you might expect.) However, I write you not merely to warn you of the W'rkncacnter, but also to tell you that the origins of other races are not as you might expect. Did you know that the original name for the trih xeem was not, as you've been informed, trih xeem? That's a name the Pfhor later gave it to conceal its true origins. Its original name was in your Latin language: nova praemátúra.

I'm sure this raises all kinds of questions for you, but unfortunately, I don't have time to answer them all at the moment. I will contact you again - have contacted you again. I can only hope you get my messages. For now, I can tell you this: the Jjaro's origins aren't what you thought they were; there are multiple kinds of Jjaro; they are, were, shall be at cross-purposes; and much as you may find yourself wishing otherwise, you and I will find ourselves at the centre of their conflict. I only pray that this time, we can prevent the horrific outcomes that befell not just our respective species but the whole galaxy. I regret that circumstances kept me from contacting you in person, but I hope that someday, we'll meet and be able to render assistance to each other. Bahebbak. \\ Message ends //

28: The Midpoint of Somewhere (Medietás alicuius locí)

terminal 0

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terminal 1

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terminal 2

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terminal 3

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terminal 5

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