Explorator awoke to darkness. Not the outdoors type of darkness that he was expecting, where the moon and stars can filter their light through. No, this was total darkness, swallowing all light. Explorator attempted to scan in every wavelength he knew, but found that same blackness. Not even the background radiation he had seen so many times in space was there to comfort him.
Certainly if he were to have lost his scanning arrays--
Warning: Critical damage detected.
Warning: OI offline
Warning: Unable to connect to auxiliary power
Warning: Power supplied is insufficient for charging
Looking for solutions...
Explorator saw nought but these messages, and began to realize his situation. He appeared to have been captured, and disassembled. However, he did have power, for some unknown reason. Checking the current, he appeared to have enough to power basic optical and auditory sensors as well as his vocal subsystems, but not much else. It appears that whoever has brought his severed head back to 'life' wished to talk.
Observing his surroundings, Explorator could see nothing but a dark, glass-like wall in front of him, with concrete walls surrounding. Or, what he assumed to be surrounding him, as he could only see two walls, a floor and a roof of the stuff.
"Hello, I am agent Black Quill of the Canterlot Defense Agency. You have been powered on in order to be questioned, as per Agency By-Law number 24601. Do you understand?" A voice came from some unseen intercom. Hearing the echoing nature of the sound, Explorator could safely assume his guess as to the composition of the room was correct.
Explorator considered his options. He was probably going to be interrogated for crimes against ponykind or somesuch.
Currently, he could pose as a malfunctioning machine...
No, that would mean certain death by incinerator.
Or as a machine struck by something to cause it to lose its memory, thus sending it into self-preservation mode.
No, that's too risky.
Or...
"Yes, I understand." The insufficient power made this statement crackle and pop much worse than the intercom, but it was still intelligible enough.
"Good. Are you one EX-42 Probe 'Explorator'?"
"Yes."
"And you did attempt the life of one Princess Luna, no?"
"I am unable to answer that question. Who is Princess Luna?"
Explorator heard a mumble that sounded like "Really did drop from the sky."
"Princess Luna is an Alicorn, one of the Diarchs of Equestria."
"Yes, but only in--"
"Self-defense? Likely story, but I suppose that will have to be brought up at court." There was a brief pause. "As per Agency By-Law 42."
"It was. There were multiple diversions in place before Princess Luna, which she simply destr--"
"Save it for the judge." The intercom's low-fidelity sound cracked at this interjection, "What was your mission here?"
"My mission here is to establish a small outpost capable of sustaining myself, explore the planet for sentient life, attempt contact with said life (if found), and then to send home my findings. Repeat steps 2-4 ad infinitum. Further explanations can be found on the mission tablet, a rectangular object contained within my removable back-mounted storage unit. To clarify, there was a compartment on the back of my chass--"
"I get it." A tone of annoyance in Black Quill's voice now. "And for what purpose would you be sending your findings back?"
"To complete my mission. Though, I presume you were asking what my home would do with said information. To that end, there are several possibilities. One, a trade alliance could be formed. Two, an aid mission to help your society attain space travel. Three, all-out war. It should be noted that the third option is restricted to openly hostile worlds and that outcome two is most like--."
"Ah-ha! I told you it was sending for the mothership to wipe us out! Will you please let me authorize its destruction now!?"
Due to the slight drop in volume, Explorator assumed that Black Quill was talking to someone else. Turning off his optical arrays and vocal subsystems allowed him to increase the gain on his auditory arrays.
"Absolutely not! This machine, as misguided as its 'self-defense' was, blatantly stated that war was only a last-resort."
Responded a feminine voice.
"But it said war was an option. That is a threat to Equestria which cannot be allowed."
"Or it could be a great boon, any civilization which could produce that advanced a machine could certainly be of great use as a trade partner."
"But what if it is just saying that to save its own hide--err, chassis?"
"Well, then it went down after Princess Luna simply teleported near it. I'm sure it can be handled. Besides, who's in charge of this operation?"
"You, ma'am."
"Good, now send it back to R&D for reprocessing."
Explorator reset his sensors, and waited for Black Quill to address him directly.
"Alright, machine, you are going to be de-powered and sent back to be reassembled. Any further attempts at violence will
be met with your immediate termination. Any straying from your itinerary will be met with immediate termination. Any attempts to re-arm yourself will be met with immediate termination. As per Agency By-law 1, the lead investigator of your case and/or Princess Celestia may mark you for immediate termination at their own discretion. Do I make myself clear?" Black Quill read off with a monotone, but intensely annoyed voice.
"Yes."
Then nothing.
Warning: Power loss detected, internal chronometer reset.
Warning: Auxiliary power storage has less that one hour of charge remaining.
Warning: Left and Right Arms missing
"Hello, Explorator, I am your Operational Intelligence. My designation is Task Assistance Unit, or Tau for short."
Hello again, Tau. It seems we are in a quite dire situation. Can you task the repair systems to fix any mistakes these
ponies made in their 'repairs'?
"Already done. Structural integrity at 95%, discounting the whole 'missing arms' thing.
Yes, I suppose I should notify you that any attempt to escape means death. And seeing as we broke down by simply having ponies teleport near us, I'm sure that death actually means 'death' and not 'minor inconvenience'.
"Yes, I think I may have figured out the reason for that. The novel way the EM waves of 'Magic' work seems to interfere with our logic circuits. Thus, a simple faraday cage modified to conduct 'Magic' has been worked into our superstructure."
Good start, but I don't think we'll be getting charged anytime soon. I presume that Black Quill character--File 236--is just waiting for us to keel over. Is there any way we can convert that magic energy electricity?
"Yes, actually. During our separation, my part of the body was attached to a rudimentary mainframe. It took a while, but I was able to decrypt their code and locate a prototype magic capturing device. Preliminary estimates suggest that as soon as we acquire a source of 'Thaumatrium' we can survive off of the ambient magic that seems to permeate this world."
Is that a hint of disdain I sense in your text, T'au?
"Yes, a minor update package was manufactured while you were out. Simply a longevity measure, I assure you."
Just don't lose your sanity again. That last update seems to have taken long enough.
"Agreed."
"AO--342, your itinerary is as follows: You are to remain in your assigned containment unit at all times. You will be available for questioning every day from sunup to sundown. Furthermore, you have been flagged as an intelligent machine, which means you may be tasked with number-crunching duty on occasion. This way." A pony with a coat like burnt caramel and a mane like jet spat at Explorator, before leading him down a maze of corridors to his containment unit. Explorator could assume from his voice that this is Black Quill.
Tau, scan the building as well as possible, and commit this path to memory disc 402. I want to have this place mapped out as soon as possible.
"Activating internal sonar and radar arrays as well as pathfinding software. Expected battery life: 20 minutes."
That little? T'au, I don't think we're going to make it.
"Agree--wait, radar is picking up something. I believe this base may have primitive nuclear power. Currently, the reactor seems to be in operation. And--What luck! The power plant seems to lack waste disposal!"
What good is used-up uranium?
"It seems their reactors are inefficient enough that the spent fuel can be recycled into a useable form by our own systems. Unfortunately, we have no access to the waste."
Leave that to me, T'au. But, do flag the reactor on the map. I've noticed some power outlets, we need to get a power cord manufactured.
"Understood, Shas'ui. Manufacturing now."
While this exchange was resolving deep in Explorator's logic core, he was being led to CU-5739. While quite unremarkable within the context of the CDA, it is worthwhile to note the entire base housing CU-5739 and similar units are made with reinforced concrete with ceilings high enough to accommodate larger objects. Additional reinforcements are added to less stable assets, but those are few and far between (out of necessity, if you were to ask me).
Thus, it can be readily be understood that this base has extremely tight security. A small army is employed to simply maintain this, on top of simple maintenance staff associated with any building.
Of this staff, if I may take a moment to explain said staff, we have encountered agent Black Quill and Lead Investigator [REDACTED]. Now, it is quite obvious that Lead Investigators outrank agents; however, as agents are the lowest of rank, Ms.[REDACTED] is actually two ranks above. Obviously, this gap is filled by the rank of investigator, which (after Lead) is outranked by Department Lead, Branch Lead, Head Investigator, and finally by the Director herself.
Of course, this does not account for nobility. As for that, only the Princesses outrank the Director, and minor nobility filters in between various ranks. For instance, Prince Blueblood has authority just above that of an agent, but not an investigator, while Shining Armor can order Lead Investigators around.
Ah, we've arrived.
Black Quill stood outside an open, steel door and gestured inside the unit. "In." He ordered, as if Explorator were a dog to be commanded.
However, given his current status, Explorator could see why he made the mistake. As such, he did as the pony ordered.
Fitting through the door by stooping slightly, Explorator took stock of his cell: A steel cot, a desk with a pencil and stationary, and a simple steel stool. There was an intercom in a corner of the ceiling, which surely housed a microphone.
"Well, it's spartan, but good enough, eh T'au?"
"Agreed, but I believe our focus should be on our ever-decreasing power supply."
And with that and a mighty thud, said door closed behind Explorator.
"Your first interview is scheduled one hour for now. Enjoy the accommodations." A faint laugh from Black Quill after he finished.
After the door closed, Explorator noticed a power outlet in the corner to the left and furthest from the door. Plugging in a newly-minted power cord, Explorator decided to sit down on the nearby cot. Unsurprisingly, even the heavy steel frame bent a bit under Explorator's weight. Though, it was only a bit and was deemed safe enough by Explorator.
Notice: Now Charging.
"Ah, there we are." I suppose we can wait for our interviewer in relative peace.
"Yes, Shas'ui."
An Hour Passes...