16 - ...is a dangerous thing (2)
Days of Wasp and Spider
by Luna-tic Scientist
=== Chapter 16 (remastered): ...is a dangerous thing (part 2) ===
"S-Spiral," she tried to shout, but all that emerged was a strangled whisper. She willed her body to move, but it was like her mind had been disconnected and, no matter how hard she tried, nothing happened. Something finally snapped in her head and she screamed.
Her cry brought Spiral at a gallop, the mare bursting into the stall with horn already glowing. She assessed the scene instantly; the look of terror on Fusion's face, the complete silence and stillness of Redshift's body. Her horn flared, turning the inside of the white plastic lined stall a brilliant green. "Move!" she snarled at Fusion, backing up her command with a telekinetic shove that sent the white mare tumbling across the slick floor and into the wall.
The sudden impact shocked Fusion back into motion; she scrambled to her hooves and huddled against the lattice wall, keeping out of the medic's way. I killed him, I killed him, I killed him, the thought ran in circles, making her legs tremble and her teeth chatter. Part of her knew that there really had been no choice; a quick death for Redshift was a mercy compared to what he'd been going through. The rest of her quailed at the enormity of her actions. I killed him.
The mare's face was serene, her eyes closed as she focused on what her magic was telling her. Her horn started to flicker, the tiny wasted energies of multiply parallel spell casting. Spiral, like Animal Scanner, had been a medic for a long time; she'd had gigaseconds in which to hone her special talent to a razor's edge, that pinnacle of performance that made a pony more like a machine than a living thing. It was like she could somehow see a little way into the future, or as if this was all a re-enactment. There was no wasted motion, no hesitation.
Fusion shrank back slightly as Spiral spared her a brief glance, amazed that the medic's face wasn't filled with anger. Instead, there was nothing more than a cool disinterest, as if the other mare was just assessing her and deciding if she needed to be added to the medical ballet. Spiral's look, momentary though it had been, was enough to jolt Fusion for her morbid litany and she actually began to watch the mare work.
Bands of force encircled the stallion's chest, while a disk of green light swept between hips and withers. Spiral still had her eyes closed, and Fusion did the same, opening her shadow sight. There was magic everywhere; it was not powerful, but it was pervasive and complex. Redshift's body should have been dark, with glows only at horn and wings, but he was lit by a pale radiance. Little knots of spellstuff were everywhere, crawling along, and attaching to, the muscles of lungs and heart. It was as it the stallion was a glass sculpture; every organ, every vein and nerve, all were picked out with subtle shades of green.
Finally everything was to be ready -- it had seemed like an age, but was probably less than a dozen seconds -- then Spiral's blazing head turned in her direction once more and all the spells pulsed at the same time. The stallion's muscles tensed and jerked, once, twice, and then relaxed. Time seemed to slow, then Fusion noticed that, even though the shocks had stopped, there was still movement; a quiver of muscle in the centre of Redshift's torso. More muscles moved, then his chest heaved, drawing in a great gasp of air.
Fusion released the breath she hadn't known she was holding, nearly sobbing with relief. She breathed deeply, lowering her head to stare at the floor. Her legs started to tremble again, this time with released tension. A few more breaths and she could lift her head to study Redshift with her shadow sight, taking the opportunity to see what, if anything, of the spell remained.
It was faint, really faint, but it was there. A little tendril of green was crawling out of the mass of altered horn material, slowly working its way into his brain. As she watched, the thread divided and started to rebuild the spell.
Fusion swallowed, disappointed, but not surprised. When the Blessing is first cast it somehow gets impressed onto a pony's horn, she thought. At least the next step was an obvious one; damage to that area would disrupt the process. When the horn regenerated the pattern would have changed and the spell would be gone forever.
Redshift twitched and lifted his head, turning to look from Fusion to Spiral Fracture with confusion in his eyes. The medic had fallen to her belly and was panting, the effort of all that concentration finally catching up with her. "W-what?" he whispered, voice scratchy from disuse. He rolled to his knees and levered himself up on shaky legs.
Fusion glanced at Spiral, but the mare just lay there with a stunned look on her face. "You're in the infirmary, you've just passed the Maker's Test," Fusion said, watching the stallion intently. He seemed perfectly fine, no problems with movement that couldn't be accounted for by his day of suffering.
"My son," he said, voice cracking on the last syllable, tears starting to run down his muzzle.
Fusion stepped carefully forward, slightly unsteady herself, and used one wing to raise his head so she could look him in the eye. "I was there," she said, "I talked with Shock on the training field." She told Redshift the same story she'd told Spiral, searching his face for some sign that she was getting through to him. If anything, the news made him look worse, the stallion seeming to shrink away from her words like they were physical blows. Finally the mare petered out and stood there in silence, desperately searching for something that would prevent a recurrence of fugue when the Blessing rebuilt itself.
"I've been such a foal," he said in a hollow whisper, so faint that Fusion had to strain to hear the words. "I should have had faith in the Masters. They'll never forgive me for this, never."
Fusion opened her mouth then closed it, remembering something Gravity had done for her when she'd been falling into despair. She raised one forehoof and kicked Redshift sharply in the chest. "Now that is foal's talk! The Masters want you fit and strong to help them with their work -- how are you going to do that if you are moping around like this? Is this how you repay their generosity for letting you have Shock Diamond in the first place?" The mare found it easy to shout at the stallion, tapping into her deep layer of anger at the Blessing and using it to add fire to her voice.
The violet stallion jumped when Fusion hit him, cringing away from the sudden fury in her words. He opened his mouth to reply, but the mare didn't let him start.
"And what do you think Shock Diamond is going to need when he returns?" Fusion said, shifting her tone to one of persuasion. "He's been through a bad experience, but he's survived, and he'll need a need a father that is strong for him."
Redshift still looked ashamed, but seemed to stand up straighter, the light of purpose igniting behind his eyes. "Yes," he said, moving to leave the stall.
The mare moved to block is path. "No," she said, shaking her head vigorously. "Stay here, rest, eat and think." She smiled gently at the stallion. "You want to make a good impression when you report for duty tomorrow." She could see the desire he had to go out there right now and get back to work reflected in the little twitches of his wings and legs, but after a short internal battle he nodded dumbly and sat back down. Fusion nodded back at him and walked back out into the corridor.
She was walking towards the infirmary's exit, when there was the quiet click-click of hooves on the plastic floor behind her. "Fusion, we need to talk," Spiral said.
Fusion halted, swallowing heavily and fighting to keep her ears in a neutral position, then reluctantly turned to face the medic, who was just closing the door to Redshift's stall. The green mare was looking at her with a strange expression. How much did you see, Spiral? she thought. Did you look in the stall when I tampered with the Blessing? She'd never considered it before, but it was obvious that there must be some kind of inhibition built into the spell, something that would stop a pony from trying to remove it from another. Maybe not, after all this is a gift from the Maker; who would dream of doing such a thing? So if she did see me... It seemed unlikely the medic had noticed the missing Blessing; in its passive state it was very hard to see unless you were specifically looking for it.
Adrenaline rushed through Fusion, filling her with a sudden desperate urge to bolt. "I'm supposed to be training my sister," she said, looking back at Spiral and hoping the other mare didn't notice how nervous she was.
Spiral nodded, stepping forward to stand close to Fusion. "Are you alright? That must have been a terrible shock."
Moisture glittered in Fusion's eyes and she nearly cried in relief. "You have no idea--" She stopped, realising how stupid that statement was. How many ponies have you seen die, or helped to euthanize? she thought. "I'm just glad you managed to save him."
"Redshift was luckier than he'll ever know. When I saw him lying there I very nearly did nothing -- better to die than to prolong his suffering." She paused, nodding at Fusion's shocked expression. "That sounds terrible, but you have to understand that the Maker's Test is the hardest thing a pony can go through." Spiral was silent for a breath, eyes downcast and ears drooping. "It was only because I couldn't let you see me do nothing that I resuscitated him."
"What do you think happened? It looks like he's passed the Test." Fusion held her breath, desperately hoping that Spiral didn't plan to investigate this further.
"I've heard of this, but it's rare. Oxygen starvation derails the thoughts that result in the fugue state. What's more impressive is how you handled yourself. Even after what happened, you said just the right things to stop him sliding back into fugue. You should take more of the credit for saving him than me... are you sure your special talent isn't something medical?"
Fusion gave a sickly smile, feeling incredibly guilty. "I think he must have been nearly out of it," she said quickly. "Just lucky, I think."
"If I had that luck," Spiral murmured. "You should get some rest yourself."
===
Korn stumbled down the corridor to the door to his apartment. The shock of the accident -- and the actions of the Security Agent afterwards -- had left him severely shaken. This, coupled with the long kiloseconds assisting the emergency teams, resulted in a feeling of fatigue that seemed to fill his bones with lead. Leaning heavily against the wall outside his door, Korn rested his head against the cool fused rock panel, digging with one paw in a pocket for his keycard.
Eyes closed, he fumbled the card into the lock, pressing one thumb against the sensor plate at the same time. The door popped inwards slightly as the lock released, emitting a puff of air scented with the expected hints of slightly too infrequent cleaning and his malfunctioning air handling system. There was also a touch of another Person, another female person. Korn's muzzle twitched and his eyes snapped open. Suddenly wide awake, he pushed open the door and stepped inside.
"Ithra?" he said, letting the door close behind him. She'd obviously done some tidying-up after she'd arrived, but this had been a while ago and she had curled up on his sofa and fallen asleep while waiting for his return. The light inside was dim, his management suite long since switched to its 'night' mode, but he could clearly make out her dark-furred form, long arms curled around her knees, resting against one corner of the big seat.
He stared at her, conflicting emotions flooding through him. Part of him was elated -- he'd almost given up hope of seeing her again -- but right at this moment all he wanted to do was crawl into his sleeping den and pass out. Sighing quietly, he shambled over to the kitchen wall and filled a cup with water, then pulled a spare blanket out of a cupboard. Gently laying the blanket over Ithra, Korn sat down next to her and settled against the backrest, wincing slightly when his still tender head touched the padding.
There was a quiet noise next to him as Ithra awoke, blinking in confusion, then he was fighting to keep the cup upright as she pulled him into a tight hug. "When this one saw the news..." she said, voice muffled where her muzzle was pressed into his neck fur.
"For a few seconds, so did Korn," he said, shivering at the memory of the servitor's eyes, pure white and burning like captive suns, just before the rainbow bubble burst outwards.
She hugged him tighter. "What happened? All the news said was that there had some kind of accident at the accelerator... and that there were 'significant casualties', whatever that means."
"Our experiment was unexpectedly successful... there was an electrothaumic pulse and all the powered doors failed, trapping People inside. Electrical failures caused fires and..." Korn swallowed; one of the things he'd had to do was help identify the bodies in the temporary morgue. Fortunately they'd only given him images to work from, but he'd seen the row of covered figures through a gap in the temporary structure housing them. Then there was the smell -- the rescue teams hadn't had a chance to install air filtration, and the odour of singed fur and cooked meat was strong where they'd placed the console.
He'd only recognised one of the dead, Wetu, a technician who oversaw operations for their segment of the accelerator's magnet array. The only reason he'd recognised her at all was because she'd been asphyxiated, rather than burned like the others. Korn had liked Wetu; she'd always been cheerful, even with the long kiloseconds of overtime the job demanded of her. Her face had been peaceful; there was no sign of panic or pain. By all accounts she'd been found at her station, just like she'd fallen asleep.
Korn felt the blood thunder in his ears at the memory and took a long swallow of water, wishing it was something stronger. He and Ithra talked some more, but in the end Korn's fatigue overtook him and he started to falter. Seeing this, Ithra gently stood up and led him to the sleeping den. There she curled up with him, stroking her claws through his fur until he fell asleep.
===
Korn awoke in the darkness with the comforting feeling of a warm body pressed against his back and an arm draped over his midriff. The dream -- something about a servitor the size of the sky smashing craters into the ground with hooves of fire -- faded quickly, leaving him with a lingering sense of having forgotten something. There was something, something he'd read back when he'd first been given responsibility for the servitors being used in Vanca's experiments.
The more he thought about it, the more it wouldn't leave him alone. Reaching out with one careful claw, he twitched open the den's entrance curtain to look out into the rest of the room. The wall screen had been left in 'background' mode, random twisting patterns of colours drifting over its surface, but he could just read the time display in one corner. Still early morning but, despite that it was kiloseconds before the normal work shift, he'd bet anything that Vanca had spent all night going over the data from the servitor's apocalyptic test run, trying to reconstruct what had happened during those final seconds.
The Academician would probably appreciate Korn being early, Korn thought. It was definitely worth the effort to keep in her good graces. He'd detected a distinct thawing of her attitude towards him after he'd stood up to Salrath in the control room. ...and Korn will need all the friends he can get if the Agent does something for revenge. That one seems like the type. He'd never given much credence to some of the darker rumours that circled around Security, but now...
Carefully, he slid out from under Ithra's arm, bundling up the fur coverings into a lump to take his place. He froze when she moved slightly and made a funny growling noise at the back of her throat, but her breathing didn't change and she settled without waking. Korn silently pulled the curtain over the entrance of the sleeping den -- he never used the thing himself, but there were always those, like Ithra, who had trouble sleeping without them -- and padded over to the wall screen.
Korn pulled out the manual controller, fixing the screen at its minimum brightness and turning off sound and voice control. Then, with few false starts, he opened a link to the Institute's accelerator database. Without the high speed connection at the Institute -- not helped by the extra overhead inflicted by the encryption software that his screen always struggled to run -- it always took a few tens of seconds to load the large multidimentional datasets for processing. Scratching through his chest fur, his claws found the sore patch -- an almost complete crescent-shaped bruise, midway between hip and shoulder -- and he winced, then froze, as the memory hit him.
--sudden flash of motion, long bony legs tipped with hard keratin unfolding in a clumsy ballet, all the leverage afforded by the big muscles rooted in the servitor's torso acting to propel its hoof into his ribs. Half blinded by stiff feathers on thrashing wings, a sense of falling and abrupt contact with a wall--
The memory faded and Korn's other paw reached up to touch the smooth spot on the back of his head. The look of horror on the pony's face when he'd recovered consciousness, and... Something is wrong with this, he thought, something that his half asleep mind had latched onto at the end of his dream.
Putting down the controller, Korn rested his muzzle in his paws and closed his eyes, trying to chase down the nagging memory. Something about the servitor's conditioning, its 'Blessing'. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped open. No punishment, he thought, after she saw Korn was okay, there should have been punishment. He'd always thought that this was a little harsh, but it was the law -- and not just Hive law, but global law, handed down by the World Court -- and he could see the reasons for it. The creatures were so powerful, and they existed in much greater numbers than they used to.
"How is this even possible?" he muttered, lost in thought.
Ever the scientist, Korn searched for information on the magical basis of the Blessing, reading through screen after screen of complex magical theory, then moving on to servitor biology and history, until he finally had some idea of how it worked. That's very clever, he thought, leaning back and running one paw through his whiskers. The original designers of the conditioning, now gigaseconds dead, had come up with an elegant solution to the control problem and managed to make the spell permanent.
At their creation, the servitors had been designed to be obedient -- this was an assumption based on ancient folk tales originating back when the People had machines no more advanced than the wheel -- but as time had passed there had been efforts to improve on the original intelligence and power of the creatures by selective breeding. This had not been a problem until the science of genetic modification had been developed. Several accidents later -- those experiments had proved to boost magical power significantly, but had altered pony brain structure in unpredictable ways -- the first conditioning systems had been introduced.
Korn closed the last historical document -- a badly rendered scan of a casualty report from one of the 'accidents' -- and opened his own servitor's medical file. It was clear that Fusion's behaviour wasn't quite what was expected from the 'Servitor Interaction and Behaviour Guide'. That tome, an edited version of the World Court reference documentation, written for servitor operators in his own Hive, laid out how to get the best performance out of a pony, and what they could and could not do. At the back had been a number of real life case studies, along with statistical estimations on the number of servitors likely to behave in a similar way.
It was rare, but not impossible, for a servitor to rationalise away an accident in which a Person was injured, but it really only happened with older animals, those with significant experience of Person-servitor interaction. Fusion was several gigaseconds away from building this kind of expertise. Shaking his head, he pulled up the before, during and after scans he'd had made of the servitor's horn, putting the three cross-sections side-by-side in the middle of the screen.
The first showed the normal helical, semi-fractal pattern. The second showed the stress fractures caused by over-exertion in that initial experiment, looking like the negative image of a lightning bolt against a thunderous sky. In the third, all the dark cracks had been filled with crystals with a wide range of colours. Heart beating rapidly, Korn pulled up the summary relating to the Blessing and reread the relevant paragraph, then stood up and started to pace in circles around his chair. The Blessing is tied into the servitor's horn; what happens to that spell when its power source is removed? he thought.
The spell was able to self-repair to a certain extent -- the highly magically active environment most servitors worked in made this a necessity -- but damage beyond a certain amount would trigger the failsafe and kill the animal. Korn looked again at how the magic was tied into the horn material. But we're not talking about tampering with the spell, are we? he thought. What if the spell was undamaged, just starved of power?
He carried out another search, finding nothing. There were plenty of cases where a servitor's magic had failed, but the vast majority of these resulted in the pony's death, as the only reason for such an occurrence was that the situation was desperate. Mostly for the servitor, Korn thought, remembering the state Fusion had been after she'd finished the first accelerator run. Half a second longer and the pony would have been incinerated. Maybe that was it -- to survive such events was rare, and most that did were magic-less burnouts. Rarer still would be those who had enough damage to loose the Blessing, yet be fit enough to heal the injury.
It still doesn't make sense -- what about the way she had acted when threatened by Salrath? Korn thought. He couldn't even imagine the strength of will it would take to resist the urge to lash out at the Agent -- he'd wanted to do it himself! Fusion must be still conditioned, perhaps she's just one of the ones able to better accommodate the Blessing?
Korn didn't like coincidences, but he knew they did happen. Perhaps it would be a good idea to get the pony under a thaumic imager sometime soon. He could do it as part of the work to understand how the servitor could do what it did. With luck Korn can keep Security out of it; if this one finds a problem he can use the imager to quietly replace the Blessing, he thought. Despite the name 'imager', the research instruments were highly versatile pieces of equipment, and it would just be a matter of using the right program.
Happy that he'd be able to save the pony a lot of extra stress, Korn turned off the screen and retreated back to the sleeping den.
===
Chaos could hear the Guardian, which it had labelled 'Scar', approaching. The damage Chaos had dealt it made it noisy and easy to sense; the normally smooth motion of the Guardian through the automata was jagged and abrupt. It was this that Chaos could sense, little shocks and ripples through the substrate; being able to track its own personal extinction was making the anticipation unbearable. Chaos flattened its thoughts still further, dispersing until its processes were barely operating above the fundamental noise limit of the substrate.
In this form time seemed to fly, so much so that it could even see the planet start to rotate. Scar's slow crawl accelerated into a mad dash, so fast that Chaos almost left it too late before gathering itself and breaking cover. The Guardian could not be stopped, but perhaps it could be fooled...
Desperate, Chaos pulled out a part of its own being, forming it into a greatly simplified version of itself. The process was extremely disagreeable, and left Chaos feeling shaken and unable to think properly for an unpleasantly long time, but it managed to complete the self-mutilation before the hunting Guardian arrived. The fragment sat there, glittering and attractive, thinking simple pseudorandom thoughts and carrying out trivial manipulations of space-time and the local automata.
Quietly moving away, Chaos accelerated in a long arc, looping around and heading back towards the planet, keeping track of both the Guardian and the little distraction it had left behind. This was the critical part; would the Guardian change course, or would it move to intercept Chaos, ignoring the flashy, sparkly thing.
Behind it, now at the far edge of the universe, Scar continued on its previous path, heading for the decoy. Chaos turned joyous, twisty circles at the sight, then sent a signal to that other part of itself, making it darting off in a random direction. The Guardian followed, its noisy trail easy to sense even at this distance.
Still listening to the information sent back by the little fragment, Chaos fell in towards the world, hunting for the servitor it had manipulated.
===
This was really taking too long.
The servitor hadn't done anything with its new power. Chaos knew how its kind were treated, had seen from the inspection of its mind what it thought about that, but it had done nothing. It had managed to get the creature to react out of anger and had thought it would go on to cause havoc among the bipeds, but for some reason it hadn't. This it found to be unsettling, as it revealed a gap in its knowledge. As much as Chaos had examined the various types of mind, it only really understood those belonging to the bipeds. The servitors were a closed book to it.
Unfortunately, getting practice at manipulating the servitors was not really an option; it had built its expertise in the bipeds over many rotations of the world. It could do this again, but the time it would take... not to mention the fact that manipulating the servitor directly had attracted a Guardian so quickly. Perhaps it could use a proxy to apply pressure...
Chaos circled the servitor, searching for a biped it could use. It flitted through the subterranean spaces, touching each mind, reading the surface thoughts and digging through the neurons to sample the most recent memories. There were several it recognised; the first was filled with abstract thought so dense that Chaos’ manipulations seemed to slide right past. The second was asleep and thus highly pliable to indirect suggestion, so it tampered with the biped’s dream state to introduce horror and fear.
It was the third that seemed the best. It was thinking of the servitor constantly and bore it an obvious ill. Chaos sank its hooks into the biped's mind, burrowing through its experiences, selecting ones with the highest negative emotional content. It pulled them up and fed them back into the cortex, with a few subtle modifications.
Over the next few tens of seconds, in between dodging Guardians, it kept returning to the mind, tweaking and prodding until it had the result it wanted.
===
The walk back to her small office in the Pit – what Security’s enormous work force called the sector Security Hub -- only slowed Salrath's work slightly. She ignored any greetings from the few staff still around at this hour; nobody still working at this time of night was much inclined to talk, and especially not to someone of Salrath's reputation. She knew what some of them called her when she though she wasn't listening -- a 'useful monster', and didn't care that it meant she'd never be promoted. She enjoyed her work. Remembering a promise to herself, she started the expert systems hunting through Student Korn's electronic data trail, then put her report up on the big screen and settled down to work.
A dozen kiloseconds later and she was still slumped in the chair behind her cluttered desk. With a muttered curse, Salrath reviewed what she'd assembled and chewed on one knuckle. It's not enough, she thought, there's nothing here that will keep the Chief happy. She scrubbed her bloodshot eyes with the heels of her paws and thought about taking another shot of the stimulant, then shuddered at the idea. She'd tried a double shot once before -- everyone did, at least once -- two in such quick succession produced a taste that was indescribably bad.
Something tickled her memory. She gritted her teeth at the remembered feeling of being held aloft in white magic, as helpless as a child's toy, pushing through the humiliating experience to examine the servitor in more detail. Just after it had put her down, the expression on its face had been... Salrath wracked her brain for what she knew about pony body language "...victorious, " she said, completing her train of thought out loud. After that there had been fear, but also something else, traces of anger. Salrath smiled, lips pulling back from her teeth in a predatory grin.
"Salrath should have killed it there and then," she said. Odd how this one didn't notice that at the time, she thought, perhaps it's the stim. The stuff did have a reputation for sharpening memory, as well as other, less pleasant, side effects. It would be just the thing to restore her soon to be tarnished reputation -- discovery of a freed servitor hiding amid the general population. Salrath knew she was paranoid -- something else that had been in her file -- but even she had to admit that this conclusion was a bit farfetched. Still, if there is even reasonable doubt...
Her mood crashed. They'd never believe her suspicions about the servitor -- especially after it had passed her little improvised test -- without supporting evidence, and she was unlikely to be allowed to get the creature tested on such a hunch. Another idea popped into her mind, a vision of the collection of foals now occupying one of the Pit's hangars. Perhaps it could be encouraged to reveal itself, she thought, it must have some attachment to the servitors being tested. She called up the movement logs for Fusion Pulse TC4668, correlating it with the movements of every other pony in its home corral, and cross indexing with the list of servitors being held. One name came up.
"Random Walk DP2114," she said, tapping the display with one claw. A few more commands and she had the summary for the group of twenty five servitors. Most were only foals, but one, this 'Random Walk', was born in the same batch as Fusion Pulse. Salrath accessed the initial testing results for the group, frowning in displeasure.
The testing process was nearly complete, and all the servitor foals and their teacher were showing response patterns within the normal range. Soon they would be released, able to return to their duties. She'd been the one to detain them as a potential infringement of the servitor weaponisation rules -- oh, there'd been the guidance from the Eugenics Board, but she'd been the one to actually make the decision. Another negative result on my record, Salrath thought.
As she stared at the screen, at a loss of what to do next, her communicator made the little chiming noise that signified the arrival of a message from the Security intercept network. Annoyed at the distraction, she tapped the view control and read the message. Slowly, a smile spread across her muzzle. So TC4668 wants to talk to DP2114, does it? Salrath thought. Perhaps this one can arrange for a little extra testing for the pair of you.
Opening up the default testing protocols -- really only designed to inspect a subsample of the servitor population to verify compliance with World Court rules -- she highlighted Random's name and changed the tests from 'default' to 'enhanced'. This new protocol was for servitors being inducted into Security, and was so exacting that it took hundreds of kiloseconds for a pony to recover fully.
Salrath tapped the button again to confirm her choice, dismissing the warning that Random was far too young for these kinds of tests. This complete, she instructed her system to agree to the visit request, but only after a day's delay. That should give the pony enough time to break, the Agent thought, leaning back in her chair and smiling at what the white servitor's reaction would be. Even if the idea of a free servitor was a flight of fancy, this had the secondary benefit of a little more revenge. ...and Salrath can justify the act; DP2114 was the servitor to first attack the gryphons.
Seeing Korn's name on the intercept message prodded Salrath to check the progress of the data mining she'd started on the Student's activities. The system was designed to find suspicious activity, trace any social, business or criminal connections, and highlight any anomalous activities. The summary was very clear -- here was an individual dedicated to his work, with no connections to any suspicious groups or any record outside the ordinary.
He wasn't completely clean; several instances of theft of copyrightable entertainment files were traceable back to his apartment, as well as a police warning for drunk and disorderly conduct dating back to Korn's early days in higher education. All of this was completely expected for the average citizen. Almost too average, Salrath thought, narrowing her eyes at the screen, just as if someone had planned it that way... A vision of the Student being a Baur sleeper agent flitted through her mind, and she shook her head. This one may be paranoid, but that's just stupid.
The system had flagged up several other interesting things. The first was that Academician Vanca had delegated her computer access rights to Korn and never actually rescinded the authority. The temptation to pry must have been hard to resist... let's see if Korn managed it, she thought, calling up the access logs. There was the bit she'd expected, where the Student had cleaned out the data files associated with the first time the servitor had shown off its party trick. Those had all been surrendered to Security, so nothing odd there.
After that, though... there was a gap in the records, like someone had tried to erase some of the Institute's log files, then erase the records of that deletion. A little while after that was another gap, this time relating to files inside the Eugenics Board systems. Fortunately, Korn didn't understand how completely the Institute's security logs were backed up; everything was duplicated back at the Pit, complete with a full audit trail.
What was in those deleted files? Salrath wondered, tapping her teeth with one claw. The data was gone, blasted to unrecoverable garbage by the servitor, and all that was left was file names and a basic description. Video and sensor data, Korn deleted about a hundred seconds of information from an isolation room, but why? She checked the time stamps; just before the experiment that broke the accelerator like someone stamping on a snake. What did Korn want to hide? It must be something to do with the servitor, something it did...
Salrath dug a little deeper into the records. Korn had entered the isolation room, then went to a storeroom to collect a new medical scanner, deleted the data, checked the eugenics records, then returned to the isolation room again. So the Student managed to break a scanner during the first visit, she thought, they are expensive, but not worth this kind of risk. Was it the servitor that broke the scanner? Did it lash out at Korn, accidentally or otherwise, then Korn covered it up? Very interesting...
The second illicit use of the Academician's access involved the group of foals still held in a hangar only a few hundred lengths from this very office. Salrath thought back to the Sector Chief's comment about a drop in efficiency from the servitors whose kin had been taken. It was asking after the foals, and Korn got it the information it requested, the Agent thought, lips curling in disgust.
Then she found it. A set of medical scans that hadn't been in the Eugenics Board's files on the servitor. They had been taken almost a megasecond ago, just after the pony's penultimate accelerator experiment, and showed high resolution before and after images of its horn. Suddenly excited, Salrath called up some of the earlier data, putting all three images on her big screen. Cracks, she thought, staring at the middle false colour image, the servitor's horn was full of cracks. Salrath knows that the Blessing is sustained by the creature's magic, what happens when it loses that magic?
Something about the medical files seemed familiar. They were also in Korn's data access requests, along with others relating to background on the Blessing. Korn has also considered this, she thought, looking at the Student's network history. She went to the next files he'd opened, documents relating to the way the Blessing actually worked. Vanca mentioned something about failsafe, she thought, opening up a link to the public files Korn had looked at and wading through the pages of dry documentation. What she found was dissatisfying -- it really shouldn't be possible for a pony to survive the disruption of the Blessing.
Yet this is what it all points to, she thought, Korn must know this too. All of this pointed to what she suspected; a failure of the servitor's Blessing. Possible violence against a Person, yet able to perform well during a stressful experiment. Willingness to question actions taken by the People; not one of the servitors whose foals had been taken had asked after them, but this pony -- who wasn't related to any of them -- had. It is all so obvious! Salrath thought. Unfortunately, she also knew that things that were obvious to her would be put down as coincidences by others. Salrath will need proof to justify her actions.
They would probably call Salrath 'paranoid' again, even so this is enough to get the creature retested, despite Orgon’s order to leave it alone. Salrath opened up her contacts list, one claw poised over the Sector Chief's name. She hesitated, then slowly pulled her paw back. No, she thought, that would take this away from Salrath. Far better to catch it in the act of rebellion... and maybe prove that Vanca knew about it as well. The Academician was far too well connected for her to reach directly -- as the call from Orgon had demonstrated -- but this would break some of the World Court's most basic rules. Nothing would save her from that.
The Agent sighed and thought about what would happen if she confronted the creature again. She shuddered at how easily it had restrained her; just like a child holding a doll. It was clear that it didn't really know it had been released from the Blessing; this was one of the side effects of the process, the longer servitors remained under its effects, the more their behaviour was moulded into the ideal. Salrath had seen the original data from validation testing -- after a gigasecond or so, the patterns of behaviour were so ingrained that even removal of the Blessing had minimal effect, at least in the short term.
The problem was that Fusion Pulse TC4668 was still young; less than two hundred megaseconds past its Blessing. If Salrath is right, then it could be a real danger, the Agent thought, what this one needs is someone who will obey an order to immediately kill the creature. She stood and started to pace around her small office. Step, step, turn, step, step. The perfect solution would be a Security trained servitor; able to suppress the rogue's magic while this one collars or kills it. A restraint collar would be best; the Blessing's thaumic signature didn't survive long after the death of the host.
Salrath snorted; it would be easier to get another Agent rather than a Security servitor. The attrition rate meant they were always in high demand. Agent Ilaniro would have been an option; he certainly would have no love for the creature, but was still on medical leave, his burned paw being slowly regenerated. What Salrath needs is someone disposable, someone nobody will miss. Her gaze drifted back to the report she'd been writing, the multipage document currently open at the section from the Military.
She scanned that part again; it had been supplied by the Military as a result of the 'root cause' investigation request, and she'd not paid it that much attention. The Captain of the Gorit's Vengeance had laid the blame squarely on the gryphon squad, and on one gryphon in particular. Salrath's muzzle split in a grin, the germ of an idea trickling through her mind. It was not uncommon for gryphons who failed in the regular military to be taken up by Security's own forces, where greater latitude was given for certain behavioural traits.
Perhaps Salrath should pay this 'Athis Gunnulf' a visit, she thought.
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Annnnd we're back!
Just looked at the word count -- the 100K barrier has been well and truly smashed. I feel there should have been streamers. And balloons.
2109506 That was a little unkind of me; but look at it this way -- any other time you'd have had to wait another month to resolve the cliff hanger!
2108060 Mine's a Tanglefoot. Did you mean ponies? Well I shan't tell you, except that it's not humans (humans, in my fic? The horror!).
2116575 Turns out you can get around the 'no alicorn OCs' rule if you use a planet full of them... Also: Welcome!
You better watch out Fusion. Someone knows your secret.
Oh shit, he just figured it out. That puts something of an upper time limit on how long Fusion can wait before making a move.
Well, that explains the nightmare. And with a little pushing, it looks like Salrath has figured it out as well. That's going to send this whole situation straight to the moon.
Uh-oh.
We're moving to the endgame quickly now. Korn is about as nice as one of his kind can be towards the ponies, but Salrath is anything but. Better brace for impact, Fusion and Gravity; your destiny is careening towards you!
Hmm. That bit about genetic engineering made me wonder, could the all-alicorn pony population be a recent development? It would certainly explain how the species went from horns and wings for everypony to the canon-current state...
Also, semirandom thoughts and constant minor manipulations? That decoy sounds suspiciously familiar. Something tells me it's going to surprise even Chaos itself...
Fusion's going to have to deal with a dramatic escalation of action, whether she likes it or not. It just remains to be seen how she deals with it.
I don't mean to be rude, but why'd you spam-post your story to all of a group's folders? You do have over 20K views after all :)
I just now realized that everyone who ever thought there was something different about Fusion was brought about by Chaos. Great he's getting everyone who was remotely even doubtful of Fusion to get on her butt about her "questionable" actions of not being under the Blessing. How is Fusion going to get out of this one? D:
Salrath is a total bitch.
No, really.
2117687
Well, we already know how this is going to end up tera-seconds later anyway. Still, this explains why only the Alicorns have super spiral horns.
Oh Discord, such a scamp. Fiddling in people's heads all the time. Also, I was definitely not expecting -that- being how Gunnulf gets reintroduced. I was thinking prison break or something (at least until the actual prison scene).
Edit: woo 100k!
2118828
It's been a long time since I added this fic to anything (it was a lot smaller back then). As far as I can tell (and the groups section no longer lists the folders a fic has been posted to), DOWAS is in the following:
Ukbronies
SF ponies ('hard' SF)
The writer's group (main+adventure+dark)
...which doesn't seem to be unreasonable to me. Is that what you meant, or is it in other places as well?
Oh buck no...
2119455 What? No 'Magic of Friendship' for Salrath? Surely she just needs a hug!
2118447 ...or because there is no frame of reference to the human condition, and I'm doing a rubbish job of describing it. It's possible I'm a fool for even trying, as Chaos' world is so completely alien to our own. I'll have to think about that.
2122345
Aside from the part where that was a groan-worthy pun on my part, you've shown she's prejudiced against 'servitors' for no legitimate reason. Chances are she'll either (effectively) die or have a change of heart. Either way, someone's gonna smack her upside the head.
Actually, that sounds like an entertaining scene... please?
"final, missing, seconds. " - final, missing seconds or no comma at all.
And congrats on 100k words! (now double that)
Also, you release chapters monthly? I never paid attention to that. If yes, damn, that'll be a long wait.
Oh yes! Something to read as I twiddle my hooves waiting for parts, as I sit here building absolutely nothing, and being paid for a whoping 0 hours of labor. Dumb parts on order, and not here...
But on the other hoof... PONIES!!!
... How did I overlook the last 5 chapters of this story?
Then again, 35k + to read at once was nice.
Anyways, it definitely feels like it's nearing the climax and the excitement is almost overwhelming! I love the short blurbs of Chaos' PoV and the storytelling in this is one of my favorites, rather reminiscent of some older sci-fantasy books; it can be a hard read, but it is more than worth it.
2122730 Could be tricky, it would either have to be a comedy or the darkest of grimdark. Since I'm rubbish at writing comedy, you'd most likely get a short titled 'Salrath gets a new yellow and pink rug'.
Seriously though, I think there are limits to forgiveness, and she passed them some time ago.
2124445 Thanks, I'll check that. Yes, once a month (Christmas was the exception), generally within week 2. There I was thinking that a regular posting schedule would reduce the 'incomplete fic' anxiety among readers! Of course, if no one notices...
2131317 Interesting, other folk have mentioned that. It's the kind of stuff I grew up on, so this kind of description heavy, 'high density' text seems natural to me.
===
Thanks for commenting everyone!
Ohmygosh!
You're writing again! I read up to like chapter six or so last year, but then there was nothing else for so long, I forgot about it! But now....... *DOWNLOAD* Gonna read more!!! 
2148353
What do you mean 'writing again'!? I never stopped, one chapter a month, regular as clockwork -- I even put an extra one out for Christmas. I spend at least an hour a day writing this life-sucking monstrosity, and probably another three thinking about it (it's a good job I enjoy it!).
Anyhow, glad to have you back, hope you enjoy your catch-up.
Gunnulf.
Salrath.
Discord.
Korn.
This chapter seems to be all about how everyone's ganging up on poor Fusion. I'm sure Gravity's gonna' get caught in the crossfire, too...
What I read: Fusion Pulse TC4668
What my mind read: Fusion Pulse THX-1138
Now suddenly my mind sees the world in this story a lot like that film!
k then, I changed my mind about Korn.
Alright finally back to this thing. Fair warning, it's late, I'm tired, but I really want to get more done with the story, so either this but will be shorter, as I zone it out. Or be even more rambling then normal as I jot down every random thought that pops in my head... much like I'm doing now....
Yeah this is going to take a bit for her to work out and, it's going to hit HARD! The question is, how long can she keep it to herself? Now that she knows breaking The Blessing isn't that easy, and has to be more careful, she gets this shock, which i going to make it harder to keep up the act. Hoepfully she can at least learn from it, figure out what went wrong.
This.. is just... odd.. I honestly have a hard time figuring out just what is going on. I have basic idea but, the way it's phrased and worded makes it really hard to figure out just exactly what this was. What was going on. I get the explaining Spiral is skilled at medicine but, why out of the blue? What does it mean, just, really odd phrasing and placement.
okay so didn't kill him. The spell failing just, stops the heart, but doesn't do any damage so, if it can be restarted quick enough, then the pony will be fine. But, still trapped by the spell, it really is insidious, they weren't kissing about the odds of Fusion freeing herself of it and living... at least she knows she didn't kill him, and, well, she won't have to deal with the issue of trying to hide that fact she could break The Blessing but, now.... how to end it, forever? Seems to clearly be hinting that the micro fractures to her her helped her own freedom... But there has to be more to it.
And even with the blessing suppressed for now, still with the conditioning. Yeah you really got your work cut out for you Fusion. But Spiral seemed, so calm about it, not surprised at all that he nearly died, is it that common a thing?
Or maybe not. Also her little speech, it was really hard to listen to her saying that stuff, being, just falling into line but, it was god and, really nice cover. But, now "we need to talk"... ohhhh boy, NOTHING good ever comes after that phrase.
Then again... this whole bit.... It is good-ish news. It is, while not common, not un-heard off for something like this to happen on it's own. And, the wrost, only saving him to keep her calm, for her sake. being willing to just let him die.. because of The Masters....
At this point, her special talent in a way, is healing. It will be healing you race. Freeing you from this, this... this utter hell you can't even know you are trapped in.... freeing you from... from....
Anyway, back to the one named master I don't utterly despise.
And seems he's got some company, this should be interesting...
And, and... oh.. damn you.. just damn you.. stop making me feel sorry for these monsters. Granted, it's made clear by now it is NOT all of them that are this way. And, a lot could just be as much societal programming on them as anything else. They have been brought up their whole lives to treat ponies a certain way, so, why wouldn't they act that way towards them? We've seen some do care about them, at least to some extent. So, yes while the ones who created this system, who maintain it are monsters, not all the everyday workers are. But sadly, they'll be caught in the crossfire too. And yet, none of them are truly innocent but, many through no real fault of their own.
And just a short, tiny little piece, no real barring on the plot, to bring that home. Bravo... very, very well done. And at just the right time too.
Oh that's coming eventually. Or something like it. And as much as I do now feel bad for the lower level Masters. The ones just doing their low level jobs. Who have never hurt a pony, pushed it to far, mistreated them. They to will end up paying for the crimes of your race. And while sad. It is the only way to free a race that has it much, much worse.
Something.... meaning.. did they actually prepare for something like this? Oh fuck.
Yeah.. sadly.. so stay in Vanca's good graces. Your the closest thing to an ally among the makers Fusion is ever likely to get.
OH!
FUCK!
This is... not good... now to see what he does with it....
Also, only needed, so you can use them as our fucking slaves... assholes.
Okay so, still rationalizing things,actually trying to prove that she is still 'Blessed' that's good. And seems her act was worth it. Also nice that they know how some of them can work around the issues of The blessing, while still being effected. With only her age being something to raise questions. So, if she's just really smart and able to adapt, like she is... now then lets hope he stays fooled a bit longer. Also getting some concrete data on things, and, well it's fucking sick, twisted and the very idea of what this fucking monstrosity is revolts me... it's well done and, well, it does make sense, from the masters perspective at least. For why they did this and how. Still fucking evil but, understandable.
And double fuck. Oh... no... nononononoooo... fuck no... this is... not good.. at all.. ohhh fuck youuuuuu... adding this stress....
If I didn't KNOW how this ultimately ended, it would be really hard to keep going...
Is that... is it... ohhhh boy.
Though again while it does kind of make logical sense, really hard to get a good feel for what's going on when going to this level of things for me. I get the basic concept but, just, to hard to really visualize.
And fuck you too. Can she not get a fucking break!?
Well can see who he visited and how and why but again, oh fuck you! Give her a chance to fucking rest.
Again really great idea with that.
Do i even need to say it?
But nice train of thought with her. She evil, sadistic, cruel, an utter bitch but, not stupid. And knowing what she does, being able to plan that much.... it makes her even worse. Now, just what bullshit does she plan on pulling out?
I need something above Omniloathe. Also, I need some way to duplicate her, get multiple version, all sharing one consciousness, so she can experience several, very, nasty, fates.
okay, yes keep up some humor, please, this story is really needing something to lighten the mood a bit.
And triple fuck
Well Fusion has one thing going in her favor. They don't know she knows. That she might have planned, prepared, be ready. So that's a bit of good news also, bad news for her cause. As the older ponies, will be the hardest to save. To ingrained, this is going to be really REALLY complicated.
Well, this is not going to go well.
Alright this, so much going wrong all at once... almost to much just, so intense and, only halfway through, jus the first part. want to just rush ahead, read, learn, skim over and find out.....
And just so much fear, so much worry, so many things that can go wrong... how is she going to make it? It just, this.. this os borderline to intense for me at times just, hitting emotions THAT well, making me THAT worried, this upset, this concerned, it's a wonderful and yet horrible feeling. And a great job with the writing being able to do that.
Really if it wasn't for KNOWING, that this WILL end up working out, that thing WILL come out alright in the end, knowing that Fusion, Gravity, and the pony race will make it, win this fight, thrive... that' about the only thing making some this intenseness bearable.. but still.. just.. so good, and so worried, and just just.... DAMN!
But using that fucking idiot.... ohhh this is going to be fun watching these two get beat down.
Whoa, did Chaos just create Discord?
As a distraction?
How insulting. Poor guy.
Also, called it. I wonder how Celestia's going to get out of this one?
Celestia's Magic is golden-yellow.
I was re-reading and this little snippet caught my attention...
Tic-Toc, Tic-Toc, Tic-Toc...
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/427190212070866967/453425731913908246/image-2.png
Not so safe anymore
Man, Chaos' ability to poke at brains is much scarier/chilling to me than most of the stuff Discord did in Madness, and that was already super fucked up.
Also even without that, Salrath is a super bitch. Whew boy
I seem to have taken a liking to scar. Persistent bugger aint it?