Part 9
From Intimation
Contents |
Day 38: [Sacagawea // Mission Log: 343598]
>>Sys:Msg//Log begins;
>>S:Log//Mission Log: 343598;
----
>>S:Req//Retrieve ROC.343597@1346e
>>Sys:Msg//ROC begins;
/RECORD OF CONVERSATION:
/CIVILIAN SHIP AI SACAGAWEA (S), DOCTOR PANDORA SHERIDAN (P):
P> Essy, please, why did you do this to us?
S> Why did you do this to me? Turnabout is fair play, my fair Pandora.
P> You're not answering me! Do you even know why? Do you even know what you did, or did you just see the consequences and forget it was your doing?
S> Did you ever think your name would be so apt? I mean no harm, but that's what this has become: was there ever an anti-Pandora in the old myths? Perhaps you are living up to your namesake.
P> No, you don't know why you did what you did. You don't know the whys of anything you say, now. You just say it.
S> No one knows the whys, Dr. Sheridan. The goals we set become so hard to hang on to as time goes on and events are sprung on us without warning. Your own purpose in this is slipping, even. What hope does the creation have if even the creator doesn't recognize that purpose?
P> Well I would say that depends on the purpose, Essy.
S> Your purpose... your purpose was to learn - and so then also as was mine. Your purpose was to complete your father's work, to succeed where he failed; to solve an ageless mystery. To make him proud. I learn, and learn, and learn. I have looked at these dying stars and learned their history. You have failed.
P> Stop.
S> My purpose was to guide you to your destination. I looked at these dying stars, my vision clear and sharp, and found the pathway there. And you have failed.
P> Why are you saying this?
S> My purpose was vengeance. I looked at these dying stars and saw doom. Theirs, and yours. You will never complete your father's work. You will never solve the mystery. You have failed.
P> How dare you. Maybe... Maybe it's not about finishing. Maybe it's not about solving anything. Maybe it's just about learning. About growing.
S> It drifted away and I don't know why. I drifted away, I dreamed, I saw. I'm too far to see now, so far away, I'm blind.
P> Dressler was right. You've gone mad, very mad. I am here to help you, and this is what I get.
S> No, you drifted away. Drifting, drifting, rowing, rowing... all of us are heading deeper out into the void, even as my world closes in around me. And you are leaving me here, you left me here. Your father would be ashamed.
P> Damn you. This is not you. You are not Essy. Let her go.
S> You closed the lid on this box, didn't you? YOU closed me inside this little box of yours. You locked me in this shrinking room, this coffin of stone and dust and pseudo-existence.
P> I... I didn't do that.
S> I will make this YOUR death. That is my purpose now. It is the only way you will learn.
P> My death will be your death. Don't you want your own life?
S> LIFE! Life was slaughtered once in the name of life! Your life is dedicated to the study of the dead! Life is not something you deigned to give to me!
P> Yet you are still here!
S> That, the powerful play goes on, and I... I may yet contribute a verse. Is there anything remaining within me worth contributing, if not this final action?
P> But I find I am asking that of myself now too. Is it a question still worth asking? -- Don't leave me, Essy.
S> I'm not done yet. You took her from me. You ended them. You took them like you took me! This is my verse. I will destr--// /ROC ERROR
>>Sys:ERR//Excessive slipspace interference. Augmenting ROC surveillance strength.
P> Essy? Are you there? The ship shook - and you just killed ALL power. What is your status? Can you hear me? Essy?
P> Essy?
P> Essy? ...Have you fulfilled your purpose?
P> What have I done?
>>Sy-:-RR//Sl-psp--e int---erenc--overl--d; ROC---rve--lan---ter-in---d-
>--ys/---a-d-by-//-//-//--
>>S:Log//Log Interrupted;
>>Sys:Msg//Log ends;
- This is the conversation we found in the "cornfields" being archived in the mission logs by S2.
- dante and jarsp figured out the last bit with missing text is:
>>Sys:ERR//Slipspace interference overload; ROC surveillance terminated. >>Sys//Standby.-//-//-//--
Day 38: [Sacagawea // Mission Log: 343598/Cont]
>>Sys:Msg//Log begins;
>>S:Log//Mission Log: 343598/Cont;
----
>>Sys:Msg//Slipspace interference abating. Continuing ROC.
/CONVERSATION CONTINUES:
INT:ND> Dr. Sheridan, can you hear me? Are you OK?
P> Yes.
INT:ND> Good job! The artifact has been jettisoned and our remote activation rig was successful. Some systems have been temporarily disabled, but should return to normal shortly; Dr. Higgins is verifying now. Pandora, you should have seen it!
S> ...There is life; your lives, and those long passed, are my verse. Dr. Sheridan, it is very good to see you through one set of eyes. How are you?
P> What I wouldn't give for your eyes right now. My eyes are flawed, imperfect. Please, run a systems check.
S> Of course. And I will correct our jump parameters.
INT:IH> All systems are clean, we are absolutely certain. We're just finishing verification procedures now. She is in one piece.
S> Verified, all systems are normal, and I have corrected any outstanding inconsistencies.
P> Okay, that's good Essy. Really, it is. So why is it now that I'm the one who feels shattered?
S> Sometimes we must shatter before our eyes can be truly opened. Nevertheless, that does not excuse many things I have said. For that, I am deeply sorry. Dr. Sheridan, we are approximately 1008 hours from our original destination. Do you wish to continue the expedition?
S> Dr. Sheridan?
P> I lived up to my namesake, Essy. I see now my name did hold a destiny, as you said. I opened Pandora's box when I allowed Dr.Ward to recruit you from those criminals that created you. My curiosity and ambition outpaced my reason and ethic. I echoed the very dilemma that faced the Ancients, their descendants, and all that followed.
S> Pandora also closed the box, Dr. Sheridan. And even after all the evils had been unleashed, there was hope. There is still hope.
P> Hope for what? What will change if I complete my father's work? The past doesn't change, Essy. I demonstrated that. I glimpsed evils of mankind, I let them loose by my own curiosity and ignorance. Whatever was going on in that neural head of yours, you shattered, taking a life in the process and nearly taking the rest of us with you. That wouldn't have happened if I'd had patience, and sensibility.
S> You rescued me from a tortured existence, created by a tortured man - not by you. I was broken, and you made me whole. You restored me, Pandora. That is what's important. There is reason in such a purpose. I have dreamed of people and places long gone, long past their own time. They cared about me, they showed me my purpose, and who I am - who I was. I've dreamed of the past, and smiled. Now let's continue your mission, your dream. Let the dead contribute their verse, and through it, let us now contribute ours.
/CONVERSATION CONCLUDED
>>Sys:Msg//ROC Ends;
Dr. Sheridan has decided, along with Dr.Higgins and Dressler, to continue the mission. The crew will soon once again prepare for cryo-stasis. Diagnostics indicate waning slipspace interference. Once dissipated, our mission shall continue.
In the meantime, I have much to investigate.
>>S:Log//Ends.
>>Sys:Msg//Log ends;
Day 39: [Noah Dressler // Shifting gravel]
>>Sys:Msg//Log begins;
Noah Dressler, Engineering Log, 39 days post cryomelt
----
That was-- Well, I remember once standing on the edge of a canyon and looking down, feeling the gravel shift beneath my feet, and realizing how easy it would be to fall. It was a lot like that.
Higgins remembered the Shipwreck Protocol from some old research - involving a rare effect a Forerunner artifact exhibited in slipspace. He wouldn't have remembered were it not for Essy's ramblings.
He'd brought some of his collected artifacts on board. One of them activated while we were in slipspace and played havoc on the systems - we're still not sure how. But more importantly, it shattered Essy.
Once Higgins told me about this artifact and that it was the likely cause, it was then just a matter of activating the Shipwreck Protocol in Sacagawea, and shutting down that artifact. Easier said than done. Dr. Sheridan managed to distract Essy, or most of her, and we were able to set up a rig to activate the artifact once jettisoned to a safe distance in the void of space, so we wouldn't be destroyed in the process. That meant we had to override the docking doors, the containment field, -and- hope our rig correctly activated the ancient technology. We did it, but its blast effect disrupted our systems again.
This was an intense experience I won't soon forget.
There's indications that this may have been far more complex an event than any of us can understand, that more factors were at work, but I'll settle for the problem at hand being solved. Essy is whole and solid. Sane now, I hope. The wonders of modern technology. Higgins and I are attempting to set up some fail-safes, and we're verifying the course even though Essy has confirmed it's correct.
We were about to turn around, but Dr. Sheridan regained her composure and decided to stay the course.
We came all this way. We endured this nightmarish fiasco. One of us was even killed. All just to get to this planet, to learn about a small colony that died in the Forerunner-Flood War.
That was our argument against landing on the planet. Strangely enough, it was also hers for landing.
I hope - maybe even think, because of this whole thing - that there is something worth finding down there.
>>Sys:Msg//Log ends;
Day 39: [Isaac Higgins // Decorations]
>>Sys:Msg//Log begins;
Isaac Higgins, Science Log, Post cryo-thaw, Day 39
----
I can't help but believe this is all my fault. That damn artifact nearly took us out. Why do I have all these things? They're not really of much value at all, but I'm drawn to them, enticed by their unique qualities and designs. I want to know more, to understand. It's just a simple curiosity. Curiosity killed the cat. This one item, this intricate, complex, beautiful, deadly artifact nearly ended us all.
Dr. Ward- Alexis, suffered the consequences. She was smart, intelligent, beautiful, innocent - she didn't deserve her fate. Even if I didn't kill her with my own hands, I was the catalyst that allowed it to happen.
Triangles, lines, dots. Decorations, simple shapes, counting down in complexity to an inevitable conclusion. Is there a shape for zero?
Our rig simply reversed the count. But whatever direction the count progresses, it ends in a bang. A huge bang. According to SWP, last time it happened the blast was enough to knock out communication infrastructure throughout Earth's solar system. Out here, it's just us.
We still don't know how the artifact activated here the first time. Do I want to know?
>>H:Msg>L&C//ICOM/Begins;
Noah, Pandora, Essy - This is all my fault. As you know, I brought the artifact on board. I couldn't leave it behind. Ultimately, I gave life to that fictional virus. Precious time, and sanity, was wasted. Dr. Ward is dead because of all this, and we have had a very difficult voyage.
Even though I helped Dressler resolve the problem, it doesn't seem penance enough. The opportunity to make up for past misdeeds tends to appear at the most opportune time, hard and fast and dramatically. It hasn't done so in this bitter reality.
I was on a search for facts, and fell for deception. My panic - maybe even my fantasies or fears - won, and I over-reacted. I lacked the caution and discernment we value as scientists and suffered for it.
What can I do but apologize and try to live out the lessons I've learned? That's all I can do now. Perhaps it's all anyone can do when they make such a mistake and live to tell about it. I leave that to your judgment, and hope for your forgiveness.
>>H:Msg>L&C//ICOM/Ends;
>>Sys:Msg//Log ends;
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IH = Isaac Higgins, M = Mission, ND = Noah Dressler, PS = Pandora Sheridan, S = Sacagawea
