Set up shelter right here and rest until morning
The field shelter really was its own little marvel of engineering. As they worked together to get the plastic shell standing, Twilight found herself even more confident of its security against the alien environment around them.
This one hadn’t been packed away in an air-evacuated storage cell for the duration of the trip—this one was so fresh she imagined it would still be smelling of fabricator plastic. It still squeaked, and the joints were still stiff as they wedged it onto one of the rare landings on their little stairwell, tucked in against a door.
It was the perfect size for the two of them, though somepony would end up sleeping with their legs dangling onto the step below. Twilight switched it on, and the sound of the filter-inflator filled the corridor with a quite whirring. Positive pressure for the interior, so that all the air going in would be secure. If there was a minor leak, positive pressure would make sure that it didn’t spell contamination for anyone inside.
They didn’t have to load in much—the front of their suits actually secured to special docking zippers, so that once they were in they just had to crawl out into the interior. It had another entrance—for emergencies. The airlock unit came separately, and would’ve added unnecessary weight to their expedition.
As it was, the interior already had what they’d need—a meal, sanitary supplies, and a paper-thing reflective mylar blanket. Only the height crackling comfort for sleeping on the ground.
At least whoever had designed the emergency shelter had thought of building a light into the ceiling. If Twilight had kept a book to read inside her suit, she’d be all set.
“Wild to think we’re out here on an honest-to-goodness alien world,” Applejack muttered, between the metallic crackles of the shifting blanket. “Twenty years ago, ponies would ‘a laughed at an idea so crazy.”
“Seventy years now,” Twilight muttered, staring up through the clear plastic ceiling of the tent at… another ceiling. Something like cement, without any writing or hint at erosion. They sure did build this stuff to last. Are we underground yet, even, or still in the city above it?
“Right,” Applejack repeated, voice weak. “I almost forgot.” An awkward silence returned, other than the crinkling mylar film whenever they moved.
Twilight couldn’t even do anything productive in the tent—there was a tiny toolkit inside, with a single scrap of paper and a shred of charcoal for a pencil. But what would she have written on them? Nothing important.
Soon enough Applejack was snoring, and Twilight was left to herself. She played with the idea of blasting herself to sleep with a spell, or creating a little bubble of silence. But both seemed excessive, given she might need her magic tomorrow.
I already failed last time I used it. I need to have my strength up for the next one.
Then she heard a voice—distant and dim, barely loud enough to hear over the snoring and the filter. She hadn’t been able to make out what it said, but she recognized the voice.
Node.
“You.” Twilight crawled over to the side of the shelter, leaning up close to the fabric where Node’s cart had been turned on its side. They couldn’t take the chance of it rolling off on them, and shattering the delicate communications device. “Sorry, I didn’t hear that. Maybe you could repeat it for me?”
She listened for any change in applejack’s breathing—nope. Same snoring as before.
“I woke on watchdog after not being moved for 65,536 cycles. Why are we not in motion?”
“Because…” she bit back her frustration. It might be the reaction a pony like Node would’ve deserved, but Node was not a pony. Besides, she wasn’t tired yet. “Because we require rest. This is our resting period.”
There was a brief silence on the other side of the plastic sheet. There was no window near ground level, so she couldn’t see what appeared on the screen. But she could see when it activated, glowing on and off.
“How long is this resting period?”
“Approximately eight hours,” Twilight answered, smiling smugly to herself. “Is that period unsafe for… wherever this is?”
“In Ponish, emergency causeway. They were not used much.”
“Like when your planet got attacked?” Twilight suggested, almost casually.
“Yes,” Node answered. Starlight Glimmer’s voice wasn’t capable of emotional inflection—yet the recording seemed slower, somehow. More thoughtful. “Not this side. No bombardment here, or there would be no reason.”
I’m actually getting it to talk! Twilight’s mind raced, tiredness forgotten. Questions flooded her, but she kept them all back. I have to keep it on this subject. The radio it’s wearing is recording everything. I can review it all later.
“It looked like there was,” Twilight said, voice cautious. “Broken buildings, holes in stuff… we saw it on our way in.”
There was a long silence before Node answered, so long that Twilight wondered if she’d gone too far. “No,” Node finally said. “That wasn’t bombardment. That was fighting back.”
Twilight probably wouldn’t get anything more from whoever was on the other line. Even translated, even though the recordings of a unicorn a trillion trillion kilometers away, she imagined she could feel its grief. “Why did you want us to take your device here?” she asked.
She didn’t really expect an answer. Whenever Node got close to really saying anything interesting, it seemed to either revert back to spitting out vague nothings, or just went quiet.
“You not… words.”
“Survivors?” Twilight offered. “A shelter?”
“No transience to shelter,” Node said. “Something… manipulation hardware. For me.”
“Hardware? We already built your design. That’s how we’re communicating. This… device. Impressive signal attenuation, to speak through rock like this.”
“No. It is a body… mechanical. For me.”
Twilight swallowed. She knew about prosthetic limbs well enough, but to have an entire body controlled that way? “A probe with manipulators. Built for gravity. You can interface it with our technology?”
“Have to. Only chance to… keep you alive.”
Now Twilight knew why they were here. Node stopped responding after that, and eventually Twilight rested. But when she woke, she played the recording back for Applejack, complete with her distant snores.
There was no way to secretly discuss what they planned to do. Twilight would just have to decide, and hope her engineer would accept her decision.
1. Abandon the mission. The signalers had powerful technology in their space probes, how dangerous could their land probes be? We shouldn’t cooperate. So long as Node doesn’t have a body of its own, we can control it.
2. Try to find the way through and reach Node’s destination. It said it was trying to help us. If it really wanted us dead, Node could’ve probably used the Equinox’s computers for that. Fighting it is silly after coming all this far.
3. Destroy Node. Technical problems grow out of control. It sounded like Node was part of a war that deeply disturbs it, even now. Cozy Glow might’ve been right. Maybe the Signalers are the wrong side to be on.
(Confidence 205 required)
The strawpoll is still set on the last chapter's poll. I'll check back in a bit to see if it's updated. I'll be voting for option 2; both for story reasons and because, as the argument pointed out, if it REALLY wanted them dead it had ample chances to do so. I'm curious to find out if Node is truly an artificial intelligence, or if it's a copied intelligence from a pre-existing alien. Either way, Twilight seems to be as yet incapable of comprehending the idea of a truly artificial intelligence, what with her insisting on assuming that it's transmitting from somewhere instead of a self-contained program.
I believe the poll link is wrong, it has four options, one of which isn't listed at the end of the chapter. It appears to be the one from last chapter.
Hey so noone must have told you yet despite several comments, but the link is wrong.
Guys I think we only need one person to bring attention to it, or two at most.
It's the missing words that are key here. Does Node mean "This is the only way to keep you alive" or "The only way was to keep you alive"? That ambiguity makes this choice all the more unsettling.
Actually, you didn't "almost" forget. You totally forgot for a moment there.
... Why am I suddenly this pedantic?
I really hope this is true, and to be honest, I am optimistic that it is. On the other hoof, I'd rather not think of reasons why Node thinks that they need its protection to survive.
As for the choices, #1 doesn't make sense at this point, if it even made sense at any point at all. We've come this far, why turn back now? #3 is out for similar reasons. Besides, judging something without the full story? Yeah, that sounds totally fine.
That leaves #2, and it's a sensible one, anyway
Well the planet looks like it was totally bombarded until no remains of the civilization lived. Whoever did it has a fair bit more dangerous technology then this world. and if the body is here and the probe knows it is here, then it is probably from this world.
If this world made it a habit of contacting other worlds with probes, what are the chances that one of those probes led something here that wasn't so good for the signalers?
Something tells me that the crew of the Equinox are going to want a little more then just a drone upgrade from this world. Hopefully there is more stuff here for the crew to use.
Yeah, I'll be voting number 2. At this point it's sounding like there is a big shark out there in space. And the Equinox crew is probably going to need all the help they can get.
Here's the link until the official one works.
http://www.strawpoll.me/17159322/r
I say get node a body, AFTER its been cecked for weapons.
Oh and here is the proper link:
https://www.strawpoll.me/17159322
Sixty, I'd have thought. They flew for forty, and AJ presumably meant twenty before that.
I think the point is simple. Either you trust the signalers or you don't. They trusted them enough to cross the interstellar spaces, did something change? I don't think so. Second guess them now is pointless. I'll go with option 2 (when the link is fixed).
Complete the mission. I don't see the point of leaving or destroying Node.
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https://www.strawpoll.me/17159322
This one looks right. I didn't find it myself but I figured I'd pay it forward
I feel like there's not even a choice to make. Of course 2!
Personally i think we should wait with the body and try to gather more information first. There was a two sided conflict and there is no telling which side node was on or which we'd want to trust.
"a quite whirring" should be "quiet"
"a paper-thing reflective mylar blanket" should be "paper-thin".
"Only the height crackling comfort" - I don't get it.
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Correct. Fixed now, sorry about that.
No confidence level? Interesting. Not that it seems necessary right now with the overwhelming consensus, but still interesting.
I'd have to go with option 2 here. Option 3 is too paranoid even for me, and option 1 seems like a waste at this point
2
We love how the "abandon everything" and "wreck everything with vengeance" options are always present.
So it seems the benevolent faction (we hope) is the one that sent the signal and set up the rendezvous probe with Node's base code. They were the ones that fought back (and lost). Or perhaps they only set up the probe, and the real danger faction was the one which sent the signal.
Time will tell!
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Needs to use the straw poll, friend. Votes in the comments aren't counted.
2, no contest.
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I don't there are any words missing in there. I think the probe just paused to figure out the right words to use; it doesn't seem to be fully fluent in Ponish.
I'm voting 2, like it seems everypony else is. The other options look like they would lead off into paths that would end the story sooner, rather than later. Sure, 2 could go that way as well, but based on what we have it comes across as the lesser of three evils, so to speak...
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Yes a lot of things changed, have you even read the story? They have a new translation of the message that brought them here that reads ominous, they have evidence of a possible war which left the planet lifeless. They have hints at the possibility of machine life that have now twice referred to their corporeal forms as obsolete and in suggested need of change, and one line about them only barely being sapient enough to qualify to have the probe do any of this to begin with.
I still voted 2 cause if it really only wants a single body I believe it's little moment here a bit more than if it wanted to be plugged into a mainframe in the machine planet or something.
I'm a bit encouraged by Twilight's conclusion that Node was disturbed by the war. She wouldn't be feeling disturbed if they didn't like the war, and if she didn't like the war, maybe she won't seek more violence.
And just because you have the probe doesn't mean that you have control over Node. She can just power down and refuse to communicate, and then what? Us humans know of the possibility that Node is an AI, and would know to see if they can extract the programming from the hardware, and even then Node might sense the tampering and delete herself. Twilight doesn't seem like she's going to think of this option.
Anyway, voting for 2.
In for a penny. In for a pound.
#2 all the way.
Again, we cam this far we might as well see it through.
So many unanswered questions, and more are rising. I have more trust in the probe, but not much.
Option 2.