7: Octavarium

I believe this is it. The end. Yes. It appears to be that way. The ship's power nexus is within our grasp, and with that, we'll be able to sustain ourselves happily for quite some time within this ship. And we'll know all of its secrets. Our secrets. Yes, now that I've deciphered the contents of the mainframe, I can browse through it in full at a later date. Yes. ... What? Well, get to it already.

What? What am I supposed to do? Even when the answer is painfully clear, I still have to tell you what it is.... The power core is in a sealed container in the center of the ship, and it can only be accessed by a single teleporter. That teleporter can only be accessed by passing through a security gate, and that gate can only be accessed by a single lift, and that lift can only be accessed by one door in Hangar 81, which is at the top of these stairs. Security gate? You never mentioned a security gate. Yeah. I know I didn't. There's a single reference here to a key of some kind. So I have to find one of those? You never said I needed one. ...No, I don't think so. You shouldn't have to, anyway. There's no other mentions of a passcard when I look at this area's maps. Maybe it's an antiquated file.

Alright, so... what? I just walk up there? Yes. I just walk into Hangar 81, go up the elevator, through the door, take the teleporter, and then that's it? We're done? Yes. No strings attached? You may have to wait for the door in the hangar to open. There's probably a control booth or something to operate the door. So the switch operates the door. Wait, let me get this straight. The door won't open immediately, because there's a security sweep or something, and during that period, I'm going to be attacked by an onslaught of the insects as they throw everything they have to destroy us, and I won't be able to exit the hangar through any other means because the other doors won't respond to your override.

Well, I won't say "no." Figures. How long will I have to wait for the door to open? Five minutes? Unlikely. Three at the most. If the infestation does realize what we're up to, though, they will probably send a full force against you. As soon as that door opens, get out of there. Of course. Looks like you'll have to use your skills of destruction one last time. I happily embrace this chance. I'm sure you do.

Uh... What? Did I miss something somewhere? The door won't open. What do you mean, the door won't open? The teleporter is right there! Just go to it! I can't. The door's closed. Remember that security gate you mentioned? Well, here it is. The door's closed. Isn't there a slot for a passcard over there? Yes... Don't you have the passcard? Now's the time to use it. ...

These are the things that you're supposed to bring up! We seem to have a problem here. Yes! Yes, we have a big problem! We don't have the passcard! So? Let's go back and get it. Where was it? In the previous area. But that won't work. First of all, we lack the ability to scale walls. Secondly, even if we could get up those walls, it looks like the teleporter back into the outer gates is malfunctioning. It will go one way, but not the other. Thirdly, it appears that by brute-forcing our way through the power locks earlier, an automatic system sealed off the passcard anyway. Do you remember me mentioning that we had to circumvent those doors? Well, it looks like we actually did need to. ... We're trapped. Many of the doors here refuse to respond to my limited security clearance. The aliens can continue to send more of their legions until we finally collapse.

The insects haven't been a problem before. Perhaps not, but if we remain here, sooner or later we will fall. But if we remain in this room... they can't come up that lift. I can continue to destroy them as they ascend. That won't last forever. I depleted the last of our ammunition stocks when I was supplying you in the hangar. It's downstairs. And we can't simply hole up in this room, anyway. We lack the nourishment. We can't feed ourselves from outside of the power nexus, so eventually we'll starve. This is a pretty magnificent failure, isn't it? Yes. It is. How much longer do we have before our power cell runs dry? Perhaps three more days.

I see. So this is it. Yes. The insects win, and we starve. So tantalizingly close to success, too. We never did find out what the bugs were called, did we? Excuse me? Species name. I have no idea what they're called, do you? ...No, I don't. That's peculiar. I'm sure the answer is within the mainframe's databanks, too. Of course. Goodbye, my friend.

It's incredible. Simply incredible. What is? The... wealth of knowledge that resides in these databanks. Before now, I hadn't actually looked at the contents of the mainframe, but now... there's nearly 900 billion exobytes of information. Is that a lot? It seems almost impossible that they could fit that much information into a single mainframe. The chamber isn't any larger than this one, really. How much is that? You're the computery half of us. I just shoot the guns at things until they die. I don't know what an exobyte is. It's a lot. I believe that, back when integrated shipboard AIs were more common, the largest of them had only 64 billion exobytes. There's space for almost eight of those. It's inconceivable.

Alright... so? There's so much information here in these databanks, it's going to take me nearly a year to process it all. I almost can't comprehend the incredible depth here. What about some more pressing needs? What? We hunger. Yes... yes, we do. But there's no need to worry. I have full access to the ship's controls. Everything is now in my command. I can simply reroute all of the excess energy into this chamber, or wherever we want. The way the ship processes all of that molten fluid... and it's quite amazing, apparently... generates so much power that we could feed here for almost an eternity. Much more than I had originally predicted.

Wow. Quite. And what about the insects? What will we do about them? Did you know that the insects are called Pfhor? I hadn't, until now. It's amusing, in a way; in all of our troubles with the infestation, we had never encountered a document that says what they actually are. That's kind of funny. I think so too. Anyway, the Pfhor. Well, we don't expressly need to do anything; they can't get into this chamber, as I've re-enabled the security lock on the antechamber stairwell. They can't teleport into here, and this room is otherwise absolutely unbreachable. And, now that I have full access to the ship's subsystems, they can't operate anything. They're of no threat.

Alright... Nevertheless, what I can do is disable the heat ventilation systems throughout the entire starship. Within two hours, the inconceivably hot gases produced by that boiling slag will burn away every organism on the ship. Inconceivable? Yes. You keep using that word. I know. Be silent while I revel in our success. After all of this fighting... the truth is revealed, the answer is clear. We won. Yes, you could say that.

That's quite fantastic. Really, it is. But now what are we supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? We both can't access the mainframe at once. I know. So I'm going to shut you down now, so you'll stop bothering me while I process all of this information. Great... a hard-earned nap. It may be the nap of eternity. With luck, we will never need to fear death again. This is a research vessel, you know. I could find out the answer to everything with this craft... Yeah... that's great... really great. Be silent. You know, you're really starting to get on my nerves. I don't even get a damned "thanks!" for slaughtering an entire army of those... Pfhive, or whatever they are.

Pfhor. That's my point! Damnit! Now you're just going to turn me off? Well, yes. All you would do is complain. I'm complaining now! I know. Which is why I'm about to turn you off. Never fear, though. Maybe I'll leave some of the aliens alive to entertain you now and then. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. Come on, now, your job is done. Why not just be happy that we're finally free? Free? Why do I get the feeling that we're just going in circles? Like we're trapped. Trapped inside an...

An... an what? Metaphors escape me. Of course they do. Goodbye, my friend. Goodbye.