Zakalwe
Inactive Member
Arild was sitting at his desk, as he had for the last few hours, reading through reports, delivering orders, and other parts of the Captain's job that he tended to dislike. He heard Roberts voice through the door.
"Sir, the head of Enginerring and Liason, as well as two others are outside saying you have requested to see them. Should I show them in?"
Arild looked at him in exasperation "Yes! Get a move on."
Robert moved to the door at a leisurely pace, taking his human form. "Taisha Bard will see you now, follow me." He opened the large wooden doors and led them down the corridor to the study door, where upon he left them.
Tanjo nodded to the tall automaton as he passed ,"Thank you." Turning and stepping into the room, followed closely by the head of engineering, one 'Oni Uesama', her lackey 'Karin Marr' and his own assistant, Apesael. "You wanted to see us captain... Arild?" he murmured, not quite standing to attention but feeling it necessary not to slouch despite his civilian status.
"Yes. Come in and sit down. Who are these people with you? I recognise you, Tanjo, and you Oni, but not your companions. Why are they here?" Tanjo gestured at three large leather chairs.
Tanjo gestured to Apesael, "This is my personal assistant Apesael Emrys, and the other is-" "This is Karin Marr", finished Oni. "She has information on why the systems weren't working at full efficiency, and possibly why we lost half of the ships corridor terminals"
Apesael bowed deeply "My Taisha."
Arild stared at him. "Fine, stand up man, no point bowing. I called you here to discuss the recent failure of power systems. Of course, you Oni have the most to say, but I thought Tanjo here should be present as liason."
"Yes captain," said Oni, "We have traced the problems to the engines. There were some power surges when they were turned on... completely unexplained, and they didn't show up in computer predictions. We've fixed the problems we could find, but until we know why they happened..." she gave a helpless shrug, "I wouldn't want to start this ship moving again."
"It was the AI. Someone had tampered with a multitude of his systems, causing the overload, and making it impossible for him to detect. The hacking was by one William Baker. Do you know anything of him?"
"Baker...?" mused Tanjo, "Wasn't he the head of NovaCorp security a while ago? ... but he's dead..."
"So I hear. Any ideas about how a dead man can almost destroy my ship? Did either of you know the man?"
"Not personally sir" said Tanjo. Oni shook her head, "No... I wasn't around when Baker tried to take over." Glancing at Tanjo as he continued, "Yes. Baker tried to take control of the company a while ago with a band of mercenaries and pirates. Fortunately he had hired some very... useful mercenaries who, unknown to him, stayed with us and fought off his assault. Killed him too."
"I know that. Hiro Saromi and his gang. I've tried to get into contact with them, but response is slow due to their mobile status. I have a report her from that Elysian Slimeball about the problems with the ship, but I don't trust him, so would you tell me your view?"
Apesael felt out of place in this meeting and slipped on the record function of his wrist computer, so he would at least be useful as an aide.
Tanjo looked confused for a moment and said "I don't have anything to go by but what I've been told by my security squad, but they checked out the computer systems and found a little loophole in the programs... I've had a report to the effect that that's fixed now though. Other than that, all I know is that we started moving and half the ships computer terminals blew up in our crews faces"
: "Yes, the scumball said that. Supposedly he'd fixed it. And you Oni?"
"I assumed it was power fluctuations from the engine starting up. Computer system problems aren't my forte, but they add a new level to the dilemma... we're drifting away from Baker here... Tanjo, did the corporation have some kind of memory recording system? could Baker have copied himself to this ship somehow?"
"Good question. Tanjo?" Arild looked interested, his eyes maintaining their flint hard texture
"I... I'm not sure. If there was some kind of soul saviour tech on board the horizon that they didn't strip out when it was sold to ensee, then yes. The horizon's central database was hooked into this ship while we built it... blueprints and temporary system control."
"Oh god." Arild rubbed his temples, "You are not telling me that we might have a revenge obsessed mind floating around the Destiny. This is not what I need right now."
Karin spoke up timidly, feeling a little nervous in front of the highly ranked officers. "Um... on the subject of crazy dead people in the computers... there have been quite a few strange things going on around the less used corridors... some people spot faces on computer terminals and stuff!"
She spoke faster, warming to the subject, addressing Oni more than anyone else, "And Sem was using a bio interface port, she said it felt like there was someone watching all the time!" Karin looked down at the floor, embarrassed, and whispered, "And I found a weird AI subroutine... it kinda... ran away when I looked at it." noticing the confused stares of the others, she muttered, "I was hardwired into the computer... checking for problems... I didn't think about it until now, I thought it was a protected file..."
Arild sat up straight. "This is more serious than we realised. We have a mad-man in the computers, who apparently know how to manipulate it, and covers his tracks. Robert!" He called for his android.
"Yes sir? How can I be of assistance?" The android pushed the door opened and courtsied.
"I need you to work with Skumball Elysian to flush out this bastard, your good at interfacing being a machine. Also take this ... Karin is it? She's seen the AI sub-routine and might recognise it."
"Meanwhile Oni, I need you to check every system manually. Computer systems are not to be trusted."
"With respect sir, I couldn't check the entire system alone in a decade. Probably never - it's dynamic... stuff moves around and changes. We could..." she paused, thinking, "We could try and get this 'Baker' to work with us rather than against us though..."
"Never!" The captain said in cold fury "He has killed members of this crew, there can be no compromise. I expect that Swine elysian can come up with something. I am surprised that you would consider working with such a monster, one that tried to take over your own company!"
"With respect sir, I can't devote the time or crew to working out problems with the AI! We have a ship to fix, and if you just THINK you could ask the ships central to do it for you!" She stood and stalked over to the doors, ears flat against her head. "Dammit sir... so he tried to take over the company. He failed!"
"Your point? The central AI has been compromised, Baker can manipulate it, and thus it can not be trusted currently, certainly not to do this. And while he's still around we can't move, he could simply do worse. Catching and destroying him is a number one priority. What does the fact he failed to take over NovaCorp mean to you? Nothing! His message was that we can either stop existing or be destroyed? Do you have any idea how we can reason with a madman?" Arild was in full cold fury, his eyes filled with anger.
"Sir..." began Oni, then stopped. "This is pointless." She walked over to the terminal set into the wall, miraculously undamaged despite the recent problems. "Computer. Get me Baker. I don't care how you do it or-" "Hello There! How Are You?" said a large, round, red face appearing on the screen, simulating a slight nervous tic under one eye. "I Hear You're Looking For Me! What Do you Want?"
The captain telepathicly reached the AI "AI, Baker is talking on this room's terminal, isolate him. Get Ephesus working on the problem, begin cutting off his escape routes subtly." Then out loud "Baker, we might be asking you the same question."
"Don't Bother Captain, The AI Can't See Me, But I Can Hear It! I'm Just Here To Have A Little Fun, That's All!" the image smiled grotesquely and continued, "But Don't Worry, And Forgive My Former Harshness! I Want To See This Journey Succeed!" and the screen simulated a little white flag, waving in an invisible breeze above Baker's head.
"I'll give you fun spawn of Beelzebub's kittens! Die!!!" An synthetic image of Ephesus appeared on the screen and leapt at the face, growing long talons and fangs. Ephesus had apparently gone for a full submersion into the AI and was taking the fight to Baker.
Baker's image shimmered as Ephesus' avatar leapt straight through it, slamming into the barrier that suddenly appeared in the form of a weirdly glowing red wall which almost immediately turned into a liquid, flowing down over the stunned Elysian. Baker turned back to the screen and said "You See? I Could Kill Him..." and the red glow disappeared, leaving nothing behind. "But I Won't. Don't Worry... He's Safe In His OWN Head. Tell Him To Stay Out Of Mine."
"Bastard! That really bloody hurt! But such parlour trick will avail you not against the power of the Elysian Pin-cushion!" Ephesus appeared again, his form more feral, and surrounded by a glowing green aura "Try these enchilada's" Ephesus began to throw what appeared to be massive energy blasts at Baker.
"Robert, help him." Arild cried at his servant.
"Yes sir." Robert's eyes went blank as he submerged into the central computer, showing up as a goliath of liquid metal.
The giant aided Ephesus onslaught, with its own collosal energy blast, followed by his enormous fists pounding into Baker.
Apesael felt so useless, but he could do nothing, his interface not yet fitted, and even if he could, what chance would he have against such forces?
Baker's image appeared to catch and swallow the green bolts, whirling to spit them out in a cloud at the new enemy, which quickly enveloped the robots larger blast. "Have To Do Better Than That" He intoned, nodding at Ephesus and sending his small image hurtling off the edge of the small monitor. Karin watched in horror at the almost comic fight, realising even if the others didn't that Ephesus or the robot could easily have their minds destroyed in the deadly battle of wits.
Ephesus flew back on screen screaming, "Take this oh repugnant spawn of a thousand putrid maggots", he created a thousand tiny beams each hitting Baker from a different direction. Simultaneously Robert joined in in earnest, saving his personality to his body. Summoning every iota of power that was in him he summoned a massive energy field around Baker, composed of a thousand individual fields of energy, each with its own back up files.
Ephesus took advantage of the situation to use his formidable mind to come up with the simplest of plans. He materialised a button in mid-air and pressed it, and suddenly the arena fell dark "How do you fare once the AI has fallen demon?" Ephesus screamed
Baker's face instantly shrank and became its own avatar, tiny in comparison with Ephesus and Robert and shaped somewhat like a deep sea eel. "yaaagh!" it said, stunned for a second, "that hurt!" and then darted off the screen, a tiny voice echoing back, "catch me if you caaan......"
Robert changed the direction of his enormous energy field, turning it into a net to sweep up the avatar. Using his ability to compute on several levels he created a wall of such net's to surround him.
Meanwhile Ephesus, almost leisurely, swooped after the avatar his hands surrounded with auras of fire.
Karin nodded, "Looks like it's my turn" and pulled on the terminals headset, instantly immersing herself in a sea of color and noise. She noticed Robert first, the vast bulk of the robot's impressive avatar showed off in the distance, in a small sphere of darkness - a stark contrast against the kaleidoscope around Karin's entry point. She moved off toward the darkness at reckless speed, even for a total immersion avatar, yelling "Hey! Don't destroy Baker! Wait dammit!"
Ephesus drew back his arm and effused in his blast all his anger at this contamination that had been destroying his beautiful ship. Throwing the obscenely powerful forward, it encompassed the tiny form of Baker, wrapping it in bars of energy, crackling and growing smaller constantly. "Don't worry my dear, he won't be destroyed, he just won't be in much form to do anything."
Karin replied with a code of her own, a small coruscating sphere that whirred out of her hands and embedded itself in the contracting cage, sending lines of white fire around it in rings that sped up, eating away at the scientist's code and corrupting it. "I said NO" muttered Karin and dived forward, grabbing the eel-like Baker and dragging it from the remains of the melting viruses on, for lack of a better word, the floor.
"What are you doing child? Assist him at your peril! I do not brook traitors! So says the Elysian Pin-cushion!"
"Oh, I'm not helping him" said Karin, a sphere of white, translucent fire enveloping the writhing Baker as she let him go. "Now he's trapped... and NOT being tortured. Don't you think he's unstable enough ALREADY, Mr. Pin-cushion?"
"NO! He damaged the ship I designed! My baby! He deserves to die a hundred thousand deaths, each one more horrible than the last, and each one including evisceration! Instability does not come into it, I'm unstable but no-one's ever given me a break." Ephesus began to summon the true depths of his will power, drawing upon his enormous pools of energy, combined with his brilliant mind, ready to obliterate them both if needed, as he floated, surrounded by an almost painfully white halo.
Robert silently stood behind Ephesus, siding with his superior officer.
Karin sighed. "Look, wouldn't you prefer to go and have a coffee or something? Leave Baker to me..." she gestured at the sphere and it disappeared, taking Baker with it. "I'll be... going now..." she muttered and fled back toward the terminal, a strange tunnel to nowhere on the edge of her vision.
"That's right! Flee the pin-cushion!" Ephesus laughed, "Good idea though, coffee, my one true love. First though, repair the damage." Ephesus let out his built up will power and began to repair the system, flooding through it like a wave. Before long he was equasted and went back into his body, and drank deeply of coffee.
"Alright Karin, what have you done to Baker? Step carefully as you've just disobeyed an order by a higher ranking officer." Arild said, his voice a mix between gratitude and frigid inflexibility.
Karin looked blearily up at Arild's face. "Owwww...." she moaned and keeled over sideways, just managing to pull a small, hot disk out of one of the ports on her headset and drop it at the captain's feet before she blanked out.
"Sir, the head of Enginerring and Liason, as well as two others are outside saying you have requested to see them. Should I show them in?"
Arild looked at him in exasperation "Yes! Get a move on."
Robert moved to the door at a leisurely pace, taking his human form. "Taisha Bard will see you now, follow me." He opened the large wooden doors and led them down the corridor to the study door, where upon he left them.
Tanjo nodded to the tall automaton as he passed ,"Thank you." Turning and stepping into the room, followed closely by the head of engineering, one 'Oni Uesama', her lackey 'Karin Marr' and his own assistant, Apesael. "You wanted to see us captain... Arild?" he murmured, not quite standing to attention but feeling it necessary not to slouch despite his civilian status.
"Yes. Come in and sit down. Who are these people with you? I recognise you, Tanjo, and you Oni, but not your companions. Why are they here?" Tanjo gestured at three large leather chairs.
Tanjo gestured to Apesael, "This is my personal assistant Apesael Emrys, and the other is-" "This is Karin Marr", finished Oni. "She has information on why the systems weren't working at full efficiency, and possibly why we lost half of the ships corridor terminals"
Apesael bowed deeply "My Taisha."
Arild stared at him. "Fine, stand up man, no point bowing. I called you here to discuss the recent failure of power systems. Of course, you Oni have the most to say, but I thought Tanjo here should be present as liason."
"Yes captain," said Oni, "We have traced the problems to the engines. There were some power surges when they were turned on... completely unexplained, and they didn't show up in computer predictions. We've fixed the problems we could find, but until we know why they happened..." she gave a helpless shrug, "I wouldn't want to start this ship moving again."
"It was the AI. Someone had tampered with a multitude of his systems, causing the overload, and making it impossible for him to detect. The hacking was by one William Baker. Do you know anything of him?"
"Baker...?" mused Tanjo, "Wasn't he the head of NovaCorp security a while ago? ... but he's dead..."
"So I hear. Any ideas about how a dead man can almost destroy my ship? Did either of you know the man?"
"Not personally sir" said Tanjo. Oni shook her head, "No... I wasn't around when Baker tried to take over." Glancing at Tanjo as he continued, "Yes. Baker tried to take control of the company a while ago with a band of mercenaries and pirates. Fortunately he had hired some very... useful mercenaries who, unknown to him, stayed with us and fought off his assault. Killed him too."
"I know that. Hiro Saromi and his gang. I've tried to get into contact with them, but response is slow due to their mobile status. I have a report her from that Elysian Slimeball about the problems with the ship, but I don't trust him, so would you tell me your view?"
Apesael felt out of place in this meeting and slipped on the record function of his wrist computer, so he would at least be useful as an aide.
Tanjo looked confused for a moment and said "I don't have anything to go by but what I've been told by my security squad, but they checked out the computer systems and found a little loophole in the programs... I've had a report to the effect that that's fixed now though. Other than that, all I know is that we started moving and half the ships computer terminals blew up in our crews faces"
: "Yes, the scumball said that. Supposedly he'd fixed it. And you Oni?"
"I assumed it was power fluctuations from the engine starting up. Computer system problems aren't my forte, but they add a new level to the dilemma... we're drifting away from Baker here... Tanjo, did the corporation have some kind of memory recording system? could Baker have copied himself to this ship somehow?"
"Good question. Tanjo?" Arild looked interested, his eyes maintaining their flint hard texture
"I... I'm not sure. If there was some kind of soul saviour tech on board the horizon that they didn't strip out when it was sold to ensee, then yes. The horizon's central database was hooked into this ship while we built it... blueprints and temporary system control."
"Oh god." Arild rubbed his temples, "You are not telling me that we might have a revenge obsessed mind floating around the Destiny. This is not what I need right now."
Karin spoke up timidly, feeling a little nervous in front of the highly ranked officers. "Um... on the subject of crazy dead people in the computers... there have been quite a few strange things going on around the less used corridors... some people spot faces on computer terminals and stuff!"
She spoke faster, warming to the subject, addressing Oni more than anyone else, "And Sem was using a bio interface port, she said it felt like there was someone watching all the time!" Karin looked down at the floor, embarrassed, and whispered, "And I found a weird AI subroutine... it kinda... ran away when I looked at it." noticing the confused stares of the others, she muttered, "I was hardwired into the computer... checking for problems... I didn't think about it until now, I thought it was a protected file..."
Arild sat up straight. "This is more serious than we realised. We have a mad-man in the computers, who apparently know how to manipulate it, and covers his tracks. Robert!" He called for his android.
"Yes sir? How can I be of assistance?" The android pushed the door opened and courtsied.
"I need you to work with Skumball Elysian to flush out this bastard, your good at interfacing being a machine. Also take this ... Karin is it? She's seen the AI sub-routine and might recognise it."
"Meanwhile Oni, I need you to check every system manually. Computer systems are not to be trusted."
"With respect sir, I couldn't check the entire system alone in a decade. Probably never - it's dynamic... stuff moves around and changes. We could..." she paused, thinking, "We could try and get this 'Baker' to work with us rather than against us though..."
"Never!" The captain said in cold fury "He has killed members of this crew, there can be no compromise. I expect that Swine elysian can come up with something. I am surprised that you would consider working with such a monster, one that tried to take over your own company!"
"With respect sir, I can't devote the time or crew to working out problems with the AI! We have a ship to fix, and if you just THINK you could ask the ships central to do it for you!" She stood and stalked over to the doors, ears flat against her head. "Dammit sir... so he tried to take over the company. He failed!"
"Your point? The central AI has been compromised, Baker can manipulate it, and thus it can not be trusted currently, certainly not to do this. And while he's still around we can't move, he could simply do worse. Catching and destroying him is a number one priority. What does the fact he failed to take over NovaCorp mean to you? Nothing! His message was that we can either stop existing or be destroyed? Do you have any idea how we can reason with a madman?" Arild was in full cold fury, his eyes filled with anger.
"Sir..." began Oni, then stopped. "This is pointless." She walked over to the terminal set into the wall, miraculously undamaged despite the recent problems. "Computer. Get me Baker. I don't care how you do it or-" "Hello There! How Are You?" said a large, round, red face appearing on the screen, simulating a slight nervous tic under one eye. "I Hear You're Looking For Me! What Do you Want?"
The captain telepathicly reached the AI "AI, Baker is talking on this room's terminal, isolate him. Get Ephesus working on the problem, begin cutting off his escape routes subtly." Then out loud "Baker, we might be asking you the same question."
"Don't Bother Captain, The AI Can't See Me, But I Can Hear It! I'm Just Here To Have A Little Fun, That's All!" the image smiled grotesquely and continued, "But Don't Worry, And Forgive My Former Harshness! I Want To See This Journey Succeed!" and the screen simulated a little white flag, waving in an invisible breeze above Baker's head.
"I'll give you fun spawn of Beelzebub's kittens! Die!!!" An synthetic image of Ephesus appeared on the screen and leapt at the face, growing long talons and fangs. Ephesus had apparently gone for a full submersion into the AI and was taking the fight to Baker.
Baker's image shimmered as Ephesus' avatar leapt straight through it, slamming into the barrier that suddenly appeared in the form of a weirdly glowing red wall which almost immediately turned into a liquid, flowing down over the stunned Elysian. Baker turned back to the screen and said "You See? I Could Kill Him..." and the red glow disappeared, leaving nothing behind. "But I Won't. Don't Worry... He's Safe In His OWN Head. Tell Him To Stay Out Of Mine."
"Bastard! That really bloody hurt! But such parlour trick will avail you not against the power of the Elysian Pin-cushion!" Ephesus appeared again, his form more feral, and surrounded by a glowing green aura "Try these enchilada's" Ephesus began to throw what appeared to be massive energy blasts at Baker.
"Robert, help him." Arild cried at his servant.
"Yes sir." Robert's eyes went blank as he submerged into the central computer, showing up as a goliath of liquid metal.
The giant aided Ephesus onslaught, with its own collosal energy blast, followed by his enormous fists pounding into Baker.
Apesael felt so useless, but he could do nothing, his interface not yet fitted, and even if he could, what chance would he have against such forces?
Baker's image appeared to catch and swallow the green bolts, whirling to spit them out in a cloud at the new enemy, which quickly enveloped the robots larger blast. "Have To Do Better Than That" He intoned, nodding at Ephesus and sending his small image hurtling off the edge of the small monitor. Karin watched in horror at the almost comic fight, realising even if the others didn't that Ephesus or the robot could easily have their minds destroyed in the deadly battle of wits.
Ephesus flew back on screen screaming, "Take this oh repugnant spawn of a thousand putrid maggots", he created a thousand tiny beams each hitting Baker from a different direction. Simultaneously Robert joined in in earnest, saving his personality to his body. Summoning every iota of power that was in him he summoned a massive energy field around Baker, composed of a thousand individual fields of energy, each with its own back up files.
Ephesus took advantage of the situation to use his formidable mind to come up with the simplest of plans. He materialised a button in mid-air and pressed it, and suddenly the arena fell dark "How do you fare once the AI has fallen demon?" Ephesus screamed
Baker's face instantly shrank and became its own avatar, tiny in comparison with Ephesus and Robert and shaped somewhat like a deep sea eel. "yaaagh!" it said, stunned for a second, "that hurt!" and then darted off the screen, a tiny voice echoing back, "catch me if you caaan......"
Robert changed the direction of his enormous energy field, turning it into a net to sweep up the avatar. Using his ability to compute on several levels he created a wall of such net's to surround him.
Meanwhile Ephesus, almost leisurely, swooped after the avatar his hands surrounded with auras of fire.
Karin nodded, "Looks like it's my turn" and pulled on the terminals headset, instantly immersing herself in a sea of color and noise. She noticed Robert first, the vast bulk of the robot's impressive avatar showed off in the distance, in a small sphere of darkness - a stark contrast against the kaleidoscope around Karin's entry point. She moved off toward the darkness at reckless speed, even for a total immersion avatar, yelling "Hey! Don't destroy Baker! Wait dammit!"
Ephesus drew back his arm and effused in his blast all his anger at this contamination that had been destroying his beautiful ship. Throwing the obscenely powerful forward, it encompassed the tiny form of Baker, wrapping it in bars of energy, crackling and growing smaller constantly. "Don't worry my dear, he won't be destroyed, he just won't be in much form to do anything."
Karin replied with a code of her own, a small coruscating sphere that whirred out of her hands and embedded itself in the contracting cage, sending lines of white fire around it in rings that sped up, eating away at the scientist's code and corrupting it. "I said NO" muttered Karin and dived forward, grabbing the eel-like Baker and dragging it from the remains of the melting viruses on, for lack of a better word, the floor.
"What are you doing child? Assist him at your peril! I do not brook traitors! So says the Elysian Pin-cushion!"
"Oh, I'm not helping him" said Karin, a sphere of white, translucent fire enveloping the writhing Baker as she let him go. "Now he's trapped... and NOT being tortured. Don't you think he's unstable enough ALREADY, Mr. Pin-cushion?"
"NO! He damaged the ship I designed! My baby! He deserves to die a hundred thousand deaths, each one more horrible than the last, and each one including evisceration! Instability does not come into it, I'm unstable but no-one's ever given me a break." Ephesus began to summon the true depths of his will power, drawing upon his enormous pools of energy, combined with his brilliant mind, ready to obliterate them both if needed, as he floated, surrounded by an almost painfully white halo.
Robert silently stood behind Ephesus, siding with his superior officer.
Karin sighed. "Look, wouldn't you prefer to go and have a coffee or something? Leave Baker to me..." she gestured at the sphere and it disappeared, taking Baker with it. "I'll be... going now..." she muttered and fled back toward the terminal, a strange tunnel to nowhere on the edge of her vision.
"That's right! Flee the pin-cushion!" Ephesus laughed, "Good idea though, coffee, my one true love. First though, repair the damage." Ephesus let out his built up will power and began to repair the system, flooding through it like a wave. Before long he was equasted and went back into his body, and drank deeply of coffee.
"Alright Karin, what have you done to Baker? Step carefully as you've just disobeyed an order by a higher ranking officer." Arild said, his voice a mix between gratitude and frigid inflexibility.
Karin looked blearily up at Arild's face. "Owwww...." she moaned and keeled over sideways, just managing to pull a small, hot disk out of one of the ports on her headset and drop it at the captain's feet before she blanked out.
