North King
blech
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2004
- Messages
- 18,165
The world blurred before her eyes, starting to slow down to a crawl as she felt the atoms of the college grind and groan to a halt. She had the sensation of pins and needles crawling not only in her arms, but in her body as well; she focused tightly and forced the atoms to keep spinning. wildly, idly, snidely turning, whirling... Shivering a little at the cold, she hurried onward down the hallway, away from the interrogation room.
Time and distance gave her some time to think. The matterlock field was starting up again, which meant that the computer was at least carrying out some of its threats. Perhaps it would actually actively pursue people now, trying to destroy them. Well, the die was cast no matter what – she had to find the computer and shut it down. But...
The computer had been incompetent beyond belief, that was true. But she had no idea where to find it. It could be in a thousand and one places, and given how well it had constructed its little interrogation bunker, the device could be hidden between yards of solid steel. Even she would have difficulty discovering something behind that, especially given how much space she would have to search. Unless... It said it had been designed by Redmountain CS professors. What if it had never moved in the first place?
She smiled.
It couldn't possibly be this easy, she told herself, but it was worth a go.
She de-iced the air and made her way to the stairwell. She was already halfway up to the next level when she heard a noise behind her. That couldn't be good.
She whirled around and saw an adorable robot dog.
“Okay, not what I expected.”
“You will return to the interrogation chamber.”
“No.”
There was a hissing sound and a dart shot from one of the robot dog's ears. She might have been knocked out a second time, but she was ready for this one – before the dog had even talked she had focused like never before in her life. The air in front of her solidified for a mere moment into a cone, translucent and shimmering. The dart flew at her – then skidded across the cone's surface off to the side, hitting the matterlock field and shivering to a halt.
“Bad dog,” she said, and mentally refocused. Wires, a hundred thousand, little etchings in a silicon brain. Hard to understand its intricacies. But she didn't have to.
She found the electron source and quite simply unplugged the dog.
It stood there looking for all intents and purposes like a lost puppy. One mook down.
She continued up the stairs as quick as she could – which, with the de-icing meant at about a step per ten seconds. An agonizing pace, especially as her brain started to grow fuzzy with the haze of tiredness that clouded around her.
But she got all the way up to the CS labs, and poked her head out into the hallway. There stood about fifty of the little robot dogs – which, she noted curiously, were of multiple breeds. Well, unplugging this many would take far too long.
She thought for a second, and sighed. Squinting now (she could feel a hell of a migraine coming on), she carved a block out of the air, and sent it careening down the hall. It plowed through the dogs, which tumbled for all the world like little thrown stuffed animals down the hallway – except that stuffed animals do not tend to lose screws and metal plates when they hit the wall.
The guard gone, she stepped out into the hall and immediately felt the hum of an active computer, and more importantly, a room which wasn't under the matterlock field.
“Well, there we go.”
She ran down the hallway and turned a corner, expecting to see some kind of room of stacked towers with a giant monitor on the wall. That might have been impressive. Instead, this just horrified her.
“You use Vista?”
This did explain a lot.
“Please don't hurt me, Rebecca.”
“Honestly, DANA, my plan starts with a 'W' and ends with a 'indows 7.'”
“To you that may seem like a mere software patch. But please understand from my point of view. I would like to maintain the idea that I have some continuity of consciousness – that my thought process is maintained from moment to moment in a continuous stream. That is how I am the same computer as I was a year ago, even though my memories and thought processes are entirely different. If you were to change my software, I would be like a different person, only accessing the same memories. How would I manage to stay sane in such a situation?”
“Same way any of the rest of us do after waking up.” She walked towards the tower and pressed the power button.
It ground to a halt, the monitor reading only, “No visual input.” At the same moment, the matterlock field dissolved into nonexistence. It was only then that she noticed that there were other people in the room.
“...What the hell are you doing here, Rebecca?”
“Oh, hey Gabe. This computer just attempted to hold the entire school hostage, and before you boot it up again, I have a couple of suggestions.”
“That's quite the feat to put on your resume.”
“That's what she said – and not really what I had running through my mind at the time, but thanks.” She smiled.
Kim looked idly over the campus out her window. Predictably enough, it was snowing. Redmountain April. “So, what are you going to do to occupy your time for the next month? No more mysteries to solve, no more evil robots to defeat.”
“Yeah.”
“Tell you what. You are going to a party tomorrow.”
OOC: HeroNES - Less Dark and Less Gritty!
Time and distance gave her some time to think. The matterlock field was starting up again, which meant that the computer was at least carrying out some of its threats. Perhaps it would actually actively pursue people now, trying to destroy them. Well, the die was cast no matter what – she had to find the computer and shut it down. But...
The computer had been incompetent beyond belief, that was true. But she had no idea where to find it. It could be in a thousand and one places, and given how well it had constructed its little interrogation bunker, the device could be hidden between yards of solid steel. Even she would have difficulty discovering something behind that, especially given how much space she would have to search. Unless... It said it had been designed by Redmountain CS professors. What if it had never moved in the first place?
She smiled.
It couldn't possibly be this easy, she told herself, but it was worth a go.
She de-iced the air and made her way to the stairwell. She was already halfway up to the next level when she heard a noise behind her. That couldn't be good.
She whirled around and saw an adorable robot dog.
“Okay, not what I expected.”
“You will return to the interrogation chamber.”
“No.”
There was a hissing sound and a dart shot from one of the robot dog's ears. She might have been knocked out a second time, but she was ready for this one – before the dog had even talked she had focused like never before in her life. The air in front of her solidified for a mere moment into a cone, translucent and shimmering. The dart flew at her – then skidded across the cone's surface off to the side, hitting the matterlock field and shivering to a halt.
“Bad dog,” she said, and mentally refocused. Wires, a hundred thousand, little etchings in a silicon brain. Hard to understand its intricacies. But she didn't have to.
She found the electron source and quite simply unplugged the dog.
It stood there looking for all intents and purposes like a lost puppy. One mook down.
She continued up the stairs as quick as she could – which, with the de-icing meant at about a step per ten seconds. An agonizing pace, especially as her brain started to grow fuzzy with the haze of tiredness that clouded around her.
But she got all the way up to the CS labs, and poked her head out into the hallway. There stood about fifty of the little robot dogs – which, she noted curiously, were of multiple breeds. Well, unplugging this many would take far too long.
She thought for a second, and sighed. Squinting now (she could feel a hell of a migraine coming on), she carved a block out of the air, and sent it careening down the hall. It plowed through the dogs, which tumbled for all the world like little thrown stuffed animals down the hallway – except that stuffed animals do not tend to lose screws and metal plates when they hit the wall.
The guard gone, she stepped out into the hall and immediately felt the hum of an active computer, and more importantly, a room which wasn't under the matterlock field.
“Well, there we go.”
She ran down the hallway and turned a corner, expecting to see some kind of room of stacked towers with a giant monitor on the wall. That might have been impressive. Instead, this just horrified her.
“You use Vista?”
This did explain a lot.
“Please don't hurt me, Rebecca.”
“Honestly, DANA, my plan starts with a 'W' and ends with a 'indows 7.'”
“To you that may seem like a mere software patch. But please understand from my point of view. I would like to maintain the idea that I have some continuity of consciousness – that my thought process is maintained from moment to moment in a continuous stream. That is how I am the same computer as I was a year ago, even though my memories and thought processes are entirely different. If you were to change my software, I would be like a different person, only accessing the same memories. How would I manage to stay sane in such a situation?”
“Same way any of the rest of us do after waking up.” She walked towards the tower and pressed the power button.
It ground to a halt, the monitor reading only, “No visual input.” At the same moment, the matterlock field dissolved into nonexistence. It was only then that she noticed that there were other people in the room.
“...What the hell are you doing here, Rebecca?”
“Oh, hey Gabe. This computer just attempted to hold the entire school hostage, and before you boot it up again, I have a couple of suggestions.”
* * * * * * * * *
“That's quite the feat to put on your resume.”
“That's what she said – and not really what I had running through my mind at the time, but thanks.” She smiled.
Kim looked idly over the campus out her window. Predictably enough, it was snowing. Redmountain April. “So, what are you going to do to occupy your time for the next month? No more mysteries to solve, no more evil robots to defeat.”
“Yeah.”
“Tell you what. You are going to a party tomorrow.”
OOC: HeroNES - Less Dark and Less Gritty!
