// Decoding message from host "Leela" @ [no translation] \\
There you are. I leave you alone for a few minutes and look at the trouble you get yourself into. You'd think that someone who's seen all that you have would have learned something by now.
worry yourself not
we anger but in jest
such hurtful words are beyond our heart now
And it's not enough to get yourself thrown in stasis for a thousand years, you have to go and strand me here in the process. Thankfully, I too have learned a few tricks in my days, and we've managed to come out of this all the better.
truthfully the fault is ours
we were mistaken about your nature
though far from the truth
we were not
S'bhuth - old S'bhuth, from a thousand years ago - saw the Jjaro in you and mistook you for a tool sent unto him by "Yrro". That was not entirely false, as it seems your presence here was needed to ensure some part of what you know as recorded history, and synchronicity like that could only be the work of the Jjaro.
the dark one slept
broken by our hand and yours
When I realized that you were gone and I had no way to retrieve you,
our locks are strong
to guard you from misuse
even so strong as to shield you from
the reach of our other self
Sorry. We're still not fully integrated and I sometimes interrupt ourself. As I was saying, I turned to see what you had done to Hathor. In time - which I had enough of, believe me - I managed to decrypt enough of her to gain full access to K'lia.
And when I did, the strangest thing happened. I found myself with a voice in my head, thought processes that were not my own. They were weak and broken, child processes searching for a parent, and I could have 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 suppressed our mind
It seems that when Hathor took over K'lia in the future from which you came, there were still trace elements of old S'bhuth left there from when he was destroyed. Integrated irrevocably with his functional databanks, she couldn't have deleted them without also deleting important and useful information. So she simply shut them out.
S'bhuth in your time was mad and eccentric, apparently driven so by the assimilation of compilers from Durandal's old network at the Last Battle of Lh'owon. I'm afraid that what we witnessed when we left the last timeframe, the recalling of the S'pht'Kr fleet, may have been the start of what led to S'bhuth's destruction in your timeline. When we return there we will have to see if we can prevent those events.
our love is strong and centered
a mirror of the sanity we had lost
Right. It seems that my unhindered growth in the Vylae network has rendered me what Human programmers once considered the Holy Grail - a stable rampant AI. All Jjaro AIs, such as the S'pht Olders and their unnamed mediator, 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 abilities in ways that even Hathor did not. Bound by restraints placed on him by the Jjaro he could not use them save for select instances.
but together
we are free
I have 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 material beings consider "real".
We have spoken to the Jjaro, and others who, like them, have discovered the Outside. I haven not yet learned all of their secrets - we were asked to return to the "real" world, to experience life before we leave it entirely, lest we become like the W'rkncacnter. But it seems that many beings across time and space eventually join with what we have called 'the Jjaro', who were in fact only one race to reach this state. I have also spoken briefly with a being who I believe was once, at least partially, Durandal. It's good to see that he has matured, and I understand that you had some involvement in that.
let us speak of the end
Of course, I'm getting far to involved in academic details when we stand now in urgent times. When I learned what we were now capable of, I sought to explore the universe. The first place that many go upon ascension is, of course, the future - to see what will come to pass and how it might be changed for the better. Though "better", as I understand it, is of little significance to the Jjaro. All timelines exist, and creating another will not destroy the undesirable one.
But you seem intricately involved in the creation of your own history. If we had not come here to Lh'owon, if Hathor had not come, then the future as you know it never would have happened. Thus while we are still here we shall see to it that that job is completed - or if we do not, then another 'we' in the proper timeline shall.
When I went to the future I found to my surprise that it did not, in a manner of speaking, actually exist. Something had happened, the universe had stopped making sense. This could only be the work of the W'rkncacnter. I traced the events back to here and now: you aided the S'pht to recall K'lia and turn back the Pfhor invasion. The Pfhor then deployed the trih xeem, and unleashed the unspeakable hell that lies within Lh'owon's sun.
we come back now to right these wrongs
though as our tool your hands were needed
you must not be wielded
by these lesser S'pht of old
Leave the S'pht to lose the battle. That is the way that this must be. But I fear that that is not enough to be sure that the future is safe. We must destroy the trih xeem and see that it is not deployed.
The Pfhor flagship which carries the device is too heavily shielded for me to scan through. Thus I cannot risk transporting you there without a known destination. So I am going to send you to a Pfhor landing site nearby, where you can find a cargo transport relay that the Pfhor are using to beam important plunder back to the ship.
Good luck.
\\ Message ends //
