Day 10 - Just another busy day: 5/7
Thankfully, the trip up the Ataraki volcano’s terraces to the level containing the city ruins proved entirely uneventful for the trio of drones and a mechanical pony disguised as one. 99111 even had the idea for 99526 to ride backwards on Smiley’s back by the final stretch just to be able to look around without it seeming suspicious, but no one noticed any griffons following them, and other than disturbing the chirping wildlife above their presence seems to have gone unnoticed. The drones were mostly quiet all the way, on the lookout for any threats, but that changed shortly after the “gravestone” entrance to the Silversmith facility’s security tunnel closed behind them.
10101’s crystalline red horn lights up, revealing metal stairs leading down.
“Why are the walls so shiny and smooth?” 99111’s curiosity can’t be contained anymore in this unknown area, “What’s that shiny down there? How did you make stones talk? Why are there ridges on the stairs- wait, those are against slipping, am I remembering it right? Where’s Smiley going?”
The Silent, now in a familiar enclosed territory again, casually walks past without any hesitation and heads down the staircase. The rest follow 10101 who doesn’t even pause but is physically the slowest out of the group.
“My assumption is that it knows the area isn’t dangerous and sees no reason to wait. Don’t worry, the door at the bottom of the tunnel will stop it,” replies the robot, “As for your other questions, my general answer will have to be - you have no reference point for this level of technology so detailed explanations will mean nothing to you. Every design I taught you was in the area of basic mechanical engineering while the things we use rely on… significantly complicated engineering methods.”
“Awww…” 99111 pokes the wall with its foreleg mid-step, “Whoa! Waaaait, the material is almost the same as your body!”
“Our main forging and building material is called istrium. As far as we know, it doesn’t exist naturally in the physical universe, rather it appears in the form of black crystals at sites where tears into the void occur. If you ask ‘what is that?’ regarding everything I say, my answer will be the one I stated before,” 10101 preempts 99111’s opening mouth, “The void is a place- a thing- a quantum state of nonexistence incompatible with our reality. Imagine our reality - this world, the stars, other planets, the universe as a whole as a ball in the sea.”
“Uh huh,” 99111 nods.
“There’s a membrane defining the ball and if it breaks then the air inside the ball will escape and everything will collapse. But if you cut only small holes in the ball and then fix them quickly enough you get some sea water to do what you want with. The analogy is absolutely incorrect but I don’t think I can explain it better to you.”
“Stuff and all is on the inside, if you go outside or if too much of the outside gets inside, you drown,” 99111 winces, its head immediately returning to its accident on the cruise ship that now feels as if it happened ages ago, “But if you get only a bit of the water stuff from the outside, you can make a pool to swim in if you know how.”
10101 pauses, not only to open the door ahead via the fixed, glowing panel by its side, but also to consider that 99111 might be smarter than it presumed.
“Well said, 99111,” it says as the door opens. This time, Smiley doesn’t rush ahead but simply walks into the wider hallway and waits, “If the drones who were here before shared the map of this place with you, we’ll be heading towards the bay where they found this chassis. There’s a linking port inside where I can connect to the facility’s systems properly and synchronize this body’s findings with the Assistant Intelligence. The wireless connection currently isn’t stable enough to examine everything happening quickly. However, it’s clear that emergency security protocols have been engaged since I left. Let’s pick up the pace.”
“Security?” 99526 looks around nervously, “Will someone try to chase us out?”
“Not if we follow the route I showed the others previously,” 10101 shakes its head, “It will only take several minutes, so I can answer the rest of your questions.”
“-” 99111 opens its mouth, immediately getting interrupted again.
“Question one - what was that shiny?” 10101 continues, “Simply a light source. The entire tunnel would have been lit for safety reasons but, as I said to the others, the facility was damaged during a volcanic eruption several centuries ago. Question two - how do you make stones talk? The easiest explanation is that there is a device similar to the radio you know, only much more advanced, set into the wall.”
99111 nods, its questions indeed answered, and resumes looking around. 10101 told it back in the resort that the facility was for experiments with various materials, and now that 99111 is here…
…it’s drawing blanks on what to ask.
The place is just corridor after corridor made of that strange istrium material with glass panes and metal doors set in the walls, and shadows behind those.
“Am I just stupid?” it mumbles to itself.
“Of course not!” 99526 shakes its head vigorously.
“Why do you say that?” asks 10101.
“I like- I think I like all this technology stuff but now that I’m surrounded by it I just… I don’t even know what to ask about.”
“To quote one of the giants of our scientific history - finding the right question is often more difficult than finding the answer to it afterwards,” 10101 isn’t disturbed by 99111’s doubts at all, “‘What is that?’ is a good opener, but can only get you so far. My advice is to try to connect what you see to an unresolved problem you know of and work from there. Your friend 10013 seems very proficient at attempting to solve known changeling drone issues by anything new it encounters.”
99111 takes a long breath to think.
“I… umm… could you teach us how to make shinies- the lights? We can see just fine in the dark but we can’t see too far, that’s why exploring new caverns is always so dangerous because there can be something waiting to pounce. If we had sh- lights in the tunnels we could see ahead if something managed to creep in from somewhere.”
Just as 99111 finishes the question and silence returns while 10101 ponders it, they begin hearing swishing noises echo through the tunnel. Smiley’s ears perk up, it scribbles [fren] on its tablet, waves it for the others to see, and bolts ahead.
“Smiley?” 99526 takes a few quicker steps forward before 10101 says:
“That’s okay. Smiley seemed to be interested in the automatic cleaners during their first encounter. It’s in no danger. As for your question, 99111,” the robot looks at the drone, “The problem is not the technology itself. I could explain to you how to build the downgraded, historical variants on the level of current griffon designs. The problem is that it wouldn’t be of any use to you without detailing numerous other research paths that lead to it, and based on how many principles I was able to explain to you in a way you could effectively use them, we would need weeks or months of cooperation to make even the most basic electronics work.”
“So am I just too dumb to understand like I said?” asks 99111 with a sigh.
“The knowledge you seek is the distillation of centuries of research of hundreds of the brightest minds of their time. There used to be a saying that we are standing on the shoulders of giants, but a more accurate metaphor is that we are standing atop a pyramid with thousands propping us,” 10101 notices it’s losing the drones, “To put it simply, even with your changeling memorization skills, it would only drop the progressive learning requirement from centuries to weeks at minimum for the most basic understanding. Besides, so far I’ve learned that you don’t have access to all your memory at all times, meaning you don’t always know all you really know.”
“Uhhh…”
“You are not stupid. You are impatient,” 10101 finishes the line of thought, “I will try to think of a biochemical research path which would allow you to create lasting lights with your resin, but to that I will still need access to the physical link to the facility’s AI- to myself.”
“How does that work?” asks 99526 while 99111 seems busy parsing 10101’s reply.
“Consider me a drone without access to the hive mind knowledge, or with just a very slow access to the stored information.”
“Ohhhh!” 99526 nods, “Yup, got it in one.”
Before their conversation can continue, 99111 and 99526 spot Smiley weirdly shuffling backwards towards them, illuminated by the light from 10101’s horn. The peculiar motion gets explained momentarily when they notice the Silent is piling up the everpresent layer of dust with its forelegs into, well, small piles in front of a thick disc rolling forward on small wheels.
The swishing disc rolls over the pile, somehow, at least to the eyes of the two drones, absorbing it. Smiley beams and clops its forelegs together several times before shuffling back and making another dust pile.
“Is that one of those ‘automatic cleaners’ you mentioned?” asks 99526, slowing down.
“Yes,” responds 10101, walking forward without pause, “As I said, they aren’t dangerous in any way. Normally, there are three of them to cover the entire tunnel in one run but it seems that there’s more mess all over the facility so they split up.”
“Are those machines like you? Did you build those?” 99111’s eyes brighten when it notices the ‘angular and modular’ structure of a chassis rather than of something grown naturally.
“Those are simple machines, yes, although they don’t have the capacity to slot even a limited intelligence like my current one does,” 10101 passes Smiley proudly feeding a fresh pile to the cleaner and patting it afterwards, which makes the cleaner stop and beep due to an unexpected obstacle above.
Realizing it’s probably responsible for the stoppage, Smiley lowers its head towards the ground in front of the machine and boops it with its nose.
*Click!*
*Psst!*
Smiley pushes itself backwards as a gust of some sharp, menthol-smelling aerosol sprays its nose. With the obstacle gone, the cleaner resumes moving forward as Smiley shuffles towards the wall, frowning at the disc. It scribbles on its tablet and shows it to everyone:
[mad?]
“No. Please, keep going,” explains 10101, gesturing to the drones to follow, “These cleaning units are designed to work in areas where there might be household animals. To avoid any accidents caused by surprise or other means they have a small, pressurized tank inside which they can use if the obstacle in front seems alive and not an object. It wasn’t angry at you, you were just preventing it from doing its job.”
[worky time]
“Exactly,” 99526 nods, “Delaying someone’s worky time is bad luck.”
“You can build living machines…” 99111 breathes out in awe, completely disregarding that one such machine has been with them for several days already.
10101 doesn’t respond. Eventually, they open the door to the already lit large bay where 10101 was found originally, and the robot makes its way towards a large panel on the wall with several thick cables protruding from it. Its chest panel opens and the small, manipulating limb in there grabs three cables one by one and plugs them into holes in 10101’s chest. The robot’s eyes and horn go dim.
“Whether or not an AI is truly alive has been a matter of discussion for centuries, 99111,” says a different, synthesized voice seemingly coming from the walls, “I believe the answer is yes, or more accurately - the answer can be yes, if the intelligence is granted a certain degree of autonomy.”
“10101, is that you? That doesn’t sound like you,” 99111 looks nervously around.
“10101 was a small part of me,” says the voice, “Right now I’m synchronizing its findings about you and the current state of affairs with my knowledge base. While we were accessing the main section of the facility to get the Wavelength Reforger, I reestablished some basic connection to the systems. Unfortunately, we don’t have a working screen around so this video quality will have to suffice.”
The lights in the room go dark and 10101’s horn flares to life, beginning to project footage of a makeshift, cliffside, jungle encampment with griffons moving around onto the nearest wall while the AI narrates:
“It seems that we were seen entering the facility via the main entrance hidden under the natives’ altar. The griffons brought some kind of a massive hydraulic drill and other power tools and were able to force their way through the main blast door. Istrium is durable but far from indestructible, and its main strength lies in innate energy absorption rather than internal structure. So far, the griffons were ineffectively trying to enter the facility by destroying the monolithic protective sarcophagus, but uncovering the entrance revealed seams into which they were able to insert their tools.”
“What does that have to do with the rumblings?” asks 99111.
“In case of an unresolved, successful security breach, there is one final protective measure. As I said, this facility specializes in material research and is powered by volcanic streams deep underground. There are resonance machines on the bottom of the facility which can stimulate magmatic flow to test heat and pressure resistance of materials. The final measure can cause the volcano to erupt and to sink the entire island within a matter of two to four days based on the tectonic cycle. My assessment leads me to believe that I need your help once more.”
“What can we do? We can’t just ask the griffons to leave,” says 99111, watching the griffon encampment from a point of view seemingly in the canopy of a nearby tree.
“There are other measures to erase the existence of the facility with the exception of a black box. If we’re not too late I can alter the self-destruct sequence in such a way that it would only erase the facility without forcing the volcanic eruption, or at worst only collapse a hillside or two. However, that requires physical intervention,” the AI switches the projected scene to several smaller pictures of the inside of the facility where a griffon gets a foreleg disintegrated by a red beam of light shot out of a horn of a mechanical pony of similar build as 10101 but larger and more sleek before another griffon pulls the wounded behind a corner, “Unfortunately, under the current protocol settings, the self-contained defensive measures have been activated by the intrusion and they won’t distinguish between griffons, changelings, or even a worker unit operating outside of its boundaries. I understand this isn’t entirely your fight, but if you help and we succeed, we will save the majority of the lives on the island. If you don’t help then the island sinks and turns into a volcanic heap and everyone on it rolls a dice if there will be enough space on the rescue ships. No matter what, it will be extremely dangerous for you.”
“And for you?” asks 99111.
“The facility and I are one. Whatever happens, I will stay here.”
99111 looks at Smiley and 99526, both watching the video projected on the wall.
“We gotta ask 10013.”
“I will send the radio transmission,” says the AI, “It will have to be vague in case someone else is in the room.”
“Then let me out of here,” 99111 looks at the ceiling, “I will tell 10013 the details. Plus, if 99526 stays here then I should be able to go back to the resort and into the reach of our hive links to save some time. Not sure about Smiley, though.”
“I will recall one cleaner unit to this area,” responds the AI.
Smiley looks towards the door, ears perking up.
***
“The facility is in danger. We must stop the tremors or the island will be destroyed. The technological one is returning with details,” 20100 relays the radio message through 99380 to 10013 and by proxy to 99 and 387, “This keeps repeating over and over.”
“Vague but urgent,” comments 387.
“I’m pretty sure the machine is behind the phrasing,” says 99, “So it likely thinks there’s a way it can be overheard.”
“Is 99111 coming back?” muses 10013 before gasping, “I know what we gotta do! Buuut I might need your help.”
“Hmm?” asks 99, finishing off her own smoothie.
“We’ll need to talk to 10101 directly in a way we can’t accidentally say the wrong thing. Thanks to 99380, I think we might be able to link up all the way to 10101’s place. But if it’s something really serious, we’ll have to contact you too, or maybe even the Queen. Can one of you come to the resort’s edge?”
The hive mind map gets updated by 99 with three marks, one near the edge of the resort, one roughly by the promenade, and one inside the changeling water bungalow.
“I’ll go,” she says, “387?”
“Sure. I admit that this threat of annihilation is making me curious,” the warrior stands up and stretches.
“Thanks,” 10013 nods and stands up too, “I’ll tell the others where to stand.”
***
“99526, calling 99526! This is 10013. Can you hear me?”
“You’re coming in pretty quiet but clear!” replies 99526, “I’m relaying this to 10101… or the ey-ai thingy’s voice.”
With the link successfully created and the drones’ locations known to everyone within the link, they can focus their ‘transmission’ for a slight boost in reach and cover the desired distance. All that’s needed is that nothing happens to the drones along the way to the mountain terrace.
“Your Majesty, can you hear me?” 10013 performs the check the other way.
“Yes yes, get on with it!” replies Chrysalis.
As 99526 sits with its back propped against the wall of 10101’s room, the AI briefly explains the situation with the successful griffon incursion.
“-and in light of that I am asking for your help in either deactivating the self-destruct sequence entirely or managing the process in a way which would only destroy this facility.”
“No,” says Chrysalis through the mouth of 99526 almost immediately, earning herself a set of surprised replies.
“Your Majesty?” asks 99.
“But everyone might die!” says 10013.
However, an expected reaction from 387 is missing, although she can sense the warrior being linked up, waiting.
“If you fuck around with the griffon military, YOU will die,” says Chrysalis through 99526 slowly but with heavy emphasis on every word, “These are not random animals and these are not some superstitious natives. I recognized a jacket of one of the griffons from the recording and he was a Black Ops member. Those griffons will be well-trained killers you will not reason with, nor will they care about you being ‘nice’ or ‘trying to help’. They will take whatever they can from the laboratory before they let the island and its inhabitants burn, and if ‘whatever they can’ includes dead or wounded changelings for experiments that would have them beg for death then so be it.”
“But the island griffons and ponies-” 10013 tries again.
“Can go screw themselves in a pool of lava! You know how griffons see us, right? Bugs, predators, devourers of their young. The only reason I, 99, and 387 are even able to walk around is because the damn Paladins stepped in and offered a mostly harmless alternative and, may I remind you, Ten HAAAAAAATES ME. 99, 387, support me on this.”
“From a logical standpoint, I think you’re right, Your Majesty,” says 99, “The voyage from Equestria takes three days, so the cruise ship must be on the way here already and should arrive tomorrow. We should be able to get away safely no matter what. As far as I know there’s an Imperial port much closer. We don’t have to risk drones’ lives for this island, in my opinion, because most inhabitants should be able to get out anyway. However, in case of the short estimate of the collapse, it will be rough.”
“And what about the natives?” asks the AI.
“You mean the fake hippies?” 387 finally joins in, “I would have been on their side if they just lived their peaceful lives even after the drones scared them off twice in one night, but who do you think must have called the military and told them about the entrance to the laboratory? Even their holes-damned shaman only pretended to not speak common. Let them burn,” he finishes dismissively.
“Mind if I ask 10013 what would it want to do?” asks the AI.
“It will do what we tell it to do,” says Chrysalis sternly.
“I know, but I want to know what it wants to do. 10013?”
“I know you keep saying that griffons are mean and bad,” says 10013 when no one says anything for a while, “and SOME are! Definitely. Buuut aside from the GIL guys they kinda always grew to like us in the end. If… if the island collapses and some don’t make it, it will be like our lives - tunnels collapsing on us, drowning, choking. It’s not as bad as when gribblers catch us but it happens. Umm, that’s all. I want to help but if the high ranks say no then it’s a no, especially if 99 is right and it might not be necessary.”
“Understood,” the AI doesn’t change its matter-of-fact tone, “In that case, I have a proposal for you. I will give you a copy of all material research related to changeling resin in return for your help. While it doesn’t account for specialities of random genetic variations, it contains the general resin’s reactions with hundreds of material combinations. There are combinations of massively increased longevity, hardness, resistance to natural processes, and more effects than I have the time to recount because 99526 seems exhausted by our communication. 99111 told me that drones recharge support structures of tunnels on average every two days. I offer you a combination of common minerals and general resin which lasts in standard condition for three weeks. I will also compile substitutions, similar materials, and general geological stratas where they can be mined. And that is only one of the hundreds of combinations. How does that sound?”
“Your Majesty?” asks 10013 as the ensuing silence lengthens.
“We could severely lower our love drain,” comments 99, “If it’s true, of course.”
“That’s… not good enough,” says Chrysalis slowly, “Our love situation is improving on its own due to our reintroduction to the Equestrian population. If I’m to risk the VETERAN drones, the drones whose experience is what’s keeping the newly hatched alive, then I need some kind of knowledge that would help the survivors defend themselves from anything the depths can throw at them. I can’t waste the time and energy of warriors and infiltrators on patrolling every hole we once dug to get a small seam of emeralds to finance an infiltration or two. I want offensive research - explosions, acids, anything they’ll be able to make on their own. It’s not as if they could use it against us anyway.”
“I’m already offering too much. Don’t forget the structural engineering tips I’ve been sharing with them since-”
“Don’t try to bullshit me, machine,” Chrysalis interrupts the AI, “That was a reward for hiding your unfinished artefact. If you gave more than you intended originally that’s on you showing your cards too early. This is an entirely new deal, take it or leave it. No matter what the little weirdos told you about me, I care about my hive, at least comparatively a lot more than about any other creature on this piece of rock.”
No one says anything for close to a minute before the AI says:
“I will compile a very selective set of research notes regarding the volatility and corrosive attributes of changeling resin mixed with various natural elements. On top of that, I will provide you with a disc and a reader. Its battery should sustain roughly three years of frequent use, so it will be on you to transcribe the content into a form suitable for you. I only ask you to destroy the device entirely after you’re finished. Are the terms acceptable now?”
“Yes, you have a deal,” says Chrysalis, “I officially allow the drones to help you with the operation. Send me that knowledge device over 99526 with instructions on how to use it. I will skim through it to see if you’re not trying to cheat me.”
“I will send 99526 back with a long-range communicator as well as the data storage and we will figure out a plan together. No matter what, it will require the cover of darkness. The communicator is significantly better than this form of talking, but releasing any form of technology outside the laboratory is strictly forbidden so I had to be sure about our deal first.”
“Understandable. Are we done?” asks Chrysalis.
“Yes. Thank you for your cooperation,” says the AI.
Chrysalis remains connected only to 99, 387, and 10013 and laughs into their links.
“See? This was a lesson on how you put an actual reward on the table,” Chrysalis smirks, “You can thank me in person later. Good job with organizing the link, 10013.”
The point table updates.
[10013:3, 20100:9, 36658:4, 99111:4, 99380:6, 99526:3, Smiley:6, 65536:3]
“You were willing to sacrifice everyone on the island just to get more out of the deal?” asks 387.
“You wanted to burn the natives for revenge,” Chrysalis huffs, “I wanted to do it for fun and profit. That’s why I’m the Queen and you the… manager of the lower tunnels.”
“Why do you make it so hard to like you, Chrysalis?” 387 sighs.
“Nothing worthwhile is ever easy, 387. You should know that.”
387 facehoofs and disconnects.
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Say what you will, but Chrysalis knows how to play poker.
Smily is going to end up calling his pet Roomba, Bob, and mysteriously the image of an eight pointed circle star is going to appear on its top overnight, and Chaos will follow?
Im impressed that a cupcake didnt exist there when Suprise was mentioned.
Well, that much has already been demonstrated as definitely true. However, one point that Chrysalis seems to not be considering is the PR angle for the hive on a whole. Part of this whole trip seems to have been try and boost better relations with the hive, or at least gain a slightly better welcoming for changelings in general so to keep building on that further in the future (or at least so has been the inevitable outcome whether or not that was Chrysalis's actual intent or not). Chrysalis herself pointed out few generally trusted the changelings at face value because of past actions, but if the changelings are seen playing a significant role, or really any role at all, in potentially saving a lot of lives, or at least avoiding jeopardizing lots of lives--even if it's omitting or overlooking a lot of the details why exactly--that'd be a huge PR boost for better relations between the changeling hive and the rest of the world that Chrysalis would then be free to use in the future however she pleased.
Besides, let's be honest here. Chrysalis is more pushing for more "goodies" for the hive to snatch up and keep, so part of this is motivated by greed as well, especially her attempts to urge 10101 from holding back on the good stuff she knows the AI's doing.
i mean.... if they wibble hard enough...
Sometimes it's nice to just see the Queen doing Queen things.
11595791
Unfortunately, not Scufflestick.
11595885
Chaos roombas must be a Tzeench thing, because they exist to clean mess after Nurgle.
11596005
- No one would ever believe that changelings stopped the volcano from erupting. If the plan works, there shouldn't be much accessible traces of any dwarves.
- Well, obviously. If she was on the ship leaving as the island was being swallowed by lava, she wouldn't exactly bat an eyelid.
11596010
Black Ops agents are trained to be wibble-proof. Only the top 1% of the successful ones get accepted. Maybe Three might succeed, but that one has the power of... something on its side.
11596179
Going full Karen? "I will set fire to this McDonalds if you don't give me extra slurpee! Reeeeeeeeee!"