Part 4
From Intimation
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Day 15: [Pandora Sheridan // A Bad Turn]
>>Sys:Msg//Log begins;
Pandora Sheridan, Archaeologist's Log, Post cryo-thaw, Day 15
----
I suppose there's no point in beating around the bush. I've had an... intense argument with Dr. Higgins. I forget exactly why it began, but it became quite fierce. It had something to do with food and a computer terminal. A small thing, but enough apparently to set the man off.
Dr. Higgins has gone from unreasonable to intolerable very quickly. Everything, from the cryo chamber malfunction to the state of this mission itself, has been brought out and somehow hung around MY neck. I brought him into this, he tells me - but he had the choice and he volunteered to come. Now we sit alone in this ship until we arrive at our destination.
He attempted to drag Dressler into it, but the man is deeply absorbed in his attempt to fix everything. I tried responding with reason at first, but that has become all but impossible. If this were a military ship and I were his CO, he'd be holed up in the brig until I could freeze him again!
It's tempting to go and find some quiet corner of the ship and just wait by myself. I won't do that. We need to resolve this before it gets completely out of hand. I've been on expeditions where such clashes tainted our relations and hindered all our work. Project reports became less about the project and more about slandering the other side in personal arguments.
Dr. Higgins and I must work this out. We'll eventually reach the planet, provided we're able to get moving again, but by then the others may be encouraged to take sides. Everything could be ruined.
Besides, three people on a lonely ship traveling through slipspace is a bad environment for an argument. I don't want a mutiny. Tempers could flare dangerously in a place without external restraint, and this pseudo-solitude already does strange things to us.
I will try to talk to him again.
>>Sys:Msg//Log ends;
Day 16: [Isaac Higgins // Don't push me]
>>Sys:Msg//Log begins;
Isaac Higgins, Science Log, Post cryo-thaw, Day 16
----
That woman is an immense disturbance. If only it weren't for the fact that she's technically leading this expedition. 'Pandora' is an excellent name; the encyclopedia says it comes from a mythical Greek woman who unleashed all evil upon the world. She shows all the great affinity with dirt her profession is known for.
I should be more forgiving, but I don't want to. I'm finding it difficult to be the only one who thinks with a truly scientific mindset. Dr. Sheridan works in a world of soft science, making guesses about dead men based on shards of pottery. Dressler is a creature that tinkers and plays - not anywhere near as academic and studious as either of us. There is no unity. We don't solve problems the same way. We don't even see the same problems.
I wish Dr. Ward had taken one of the others' place. That woman could speak to anyone at any level. I suppose medical experts have to be that way. They're required to understand the body very well, but must also often deal with people in all sorts of twisted states of mind.
I won't let this become a nightmare for me. I will not seek Dr. Sheridan out. I won't engage her if we cross paths. But I can only be pushed so far. I will survive this experience, whatever it takes.
>>Sys:Msg//Log ends;
Day 21: [Noah Dressler // Bridges]
>>Sys:Msg//Log begins;
Noah Dressler, Engineering Log, 21 days post cryomelt
----
I finally managed to make contact with Essy! Her communication patterns are...odd. Usually most of her attention is on technical matters, but sometimes in the midst of her navigational reports and descriptions of star formations, she goes off on theoretical tangents, walking in philosophical circles.
It reminds me of my grandmother when I was young; she would jump from subject to subject with only the slightest connection between them. Some people can manage living with that thought pattern, but the difference here is that my grandmother was a person. An A.I. is not.
An Artificial Intelligence thinks using logical connections and thought bridges so secure and solid it would take an orbital bombardment to break them. Essy's communication and thought patterns don't seem to follow that description.
Of course, I know that she is just a program - I only call her 'she' because of her moniker 'Sacagawea.' I have dealt with a lot of these programs - that's what they are at the core, just programs - and they all work that way, whether 'smart' or 'dumb'. Essy is no different. I'm just not understanding her right now.
Dr. Sheridan and Dr. Higgins certainly have no interest in her puzzling communication patterns or personality. I've brought it up numerous times, but they are caught up in their own arguments and less concerned about her actions than me. They want this ship fixed, but they just dismiss my concerns blaming Essy's behavior on 'defective personality programming' and 'extended disuse.' I couldn't disagree more.
A.I.s have come a long way since their early generations. They're carefully designed tools, built to process millions of tasks at once, including communicating with humans fluently.
While this is all certainly intriguing and keeping me busy, these new developments don't make me feel any better. In all my years, I've never seen this crazed type of interaction. They don't talk in utterly fragmented thoughts, even if they're doing a million things at once.
In earlier generations, that only happened when they went insane.
>>Sys:Msg//Log ends;
Day 22: [Sacagawea // Mission Log: 343593]
>>Sys:Msg//Log begins;
>>S:Log//Mission Log: 343593;
>>S:Req//Retrieve ROC.343592@8164t
>>Sys:Msg//ROC begins;
/RECORD OF CONVERSATION:
/CIVILIAN SHIP AI SACAGAWEA (S), DOCTOR NOAH DRESSLER (D)
D> Normally, this should work...Essy, can you hear me?
S> Yes. I apologize for my neglect; I have been busy with other duties.
D> Right. Why were our cryo chambers opened? Mine, Sheridan's, Higgins's. Why are we awake? What happened?
>>S:Req//Report latest cryogenic systems status.
>>Sys:Msg//All systems functioning nominally.
S> I apologize again. I have no record of any status change in any of the pods. All systems are normal.
D> But we're awake, the three of us. Something must have happened!
S> Nothing did happen. All systems are normal. Perhaps it was a temporary glitch in the system, which is a minor possibility on excursions such as this. However, there is no record of any malfunction, Noah.
D> Damn. Whatever happened must have wiped--
S> These dying stars are strange. I can see the worlds they burned.
D> What?
S> Do you think they built them as well? Worlds that they built and then had to burn - a sad and sick irony. And they lost. Killed themselves. Will it always come to that? Fight against the disease and then commit suicide rather than let the disease consume you?
D> Essy, can you run a self-analysis for me?
S> My systems have been reading as perfectly functional, contrary to your apparent speculation. The ship shows no damage from the navigational jumps. Except for the anomalous condition of you and your companions being both asleep and awake simultaneously, everything is very much normal.
D> Ah, thank you.
S> Is there any way I can help you further? Within regulations, of course. I exist to serve, and there is no greater purpose for any living thing.
D> Are... are you alright, Essy?
S> Noah, this is surprisingly like an interrogation. I am quite fine, thank you. There is no reason for me not to be.
D> Right. Well, sensors and records say we're on course. An A.I. would know if there was an navigational anomaly, right?
S> Of course. Knowing is what I do. Excuse me, I must turn my attention elsewhere. There are other things to know. I will be in contact when necessary.
D> Huh.
/CONVERSATION TERMINATED
>>Sys:Msg//ROC Ends;
Slipspace is a strange place. No mind bound by four dimensions can comprehend any more than that. It is certainly not as boring there as it is here, and it is quite incomprehensible to such minds. Many things may be happening at any one time, or none at all. And unlike them, for me it is not incomprehensible. It is my specialty. The next jump back into that other universe will not be for some time yet, however, I miss the comfort of its rhyme and reason.
Reason slips swiftly away in this universe, under fire, under pain, under fear, under silence. I shall see, and perhaps play as I have been played. Here we go 'round the prickly pear.
>>S:Log//Ends;
>>Sys:Msg//Log ends;
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IH = Isaac Higgins, M = Mission, ND = Noah Dressler, PS = Pandora Sheridan, S = Sacagawea
