audio; may 14

[alan_1]

{OOC: Grid-jumping volunteers can thread their digital adventures out here.}

[The voice on the other end of the MID transmission comes out in a rush of words, tone urgent bordering on panicked.]

This is Alan Bradley -- I’m on Amissis-Re, outside the Ingress. Rinzler -- he just… He fell through. Alone. [Tries to remember the exact consequences for that transgression. Can’t. He’s not thinking about the aftermath on this side of the portal at all.] Someone needs to find him and bring him back. If this Ingress is supposed to take people back to where they came from, then… Then he’s going to end up on the Grid.

[Likely a meaningless term to most of the crew, but the way Alan says it makes it clear that this is not a good thing. He tries to slow his racing mind long enough to string together an explanation.] It’s the system he was in before he was on the Moira. There’s another program there, Clu; if he’s there and he finds Rinzler… [There’s a pause as Alan tries to collect his thoughts, order them in a way that will make people understand what’s at stake.] Programs can’t write programs of their own, but they can edit others -- that’s what he did to Rinzler. He took a program I had written to run independently and tried to rewrite him into someone who would obey without question. And if he finds Rinzler and sees how his code has changed, he’ll try it again.

[Alan knows how this must sound. How ironic it must be, for the crew to hear the man accused of trying to recode the program himself pleading with them not to let it happen at someone else’s hands. But the situation is far too dire to worry about what the crew may think of him. All he needs is for them to trust him enough to believe that he truly is acting towards Rinzler’s protection this time.] I know none of you have any reason to trust me. Not after what I did. But I never meant to hurt Rinzler or to take away his free will. Clu will not have those same reservations.

[If Clu finds him. If Rinzler goes to him. How long would it take for Clu to detect a change in his programming? In his memories? Alan’s voice grows edged with desperation.] Please, if anyone can help, I need them here as soon as possible. I don’t know how much time we have. I--

I can’t let this happen again.

Comments

private video

[meyneth]

[Fiora isn't exactly in a position to offer help again, so she doesn't answer. Not that she felt there'd be a need to - as expected, people start chiming in with offers. Rinzler will be fine. He'll get back with all these people going after him.

But eventually, Fiora can't ignore this anymore.]

Did he go back alone on purpose?

I thought something like this wasn't going to happen anymore after you were done.

audio; private

[alan_1]

It didn’t seem like it. [Rinzler had fallen in. Not jumped. Though the question still remained as to what he was doing at the Ingress alone in the first place. Alan doesn’t want to think of what it would mean if this was all planned: that Rinzler had weighed his options between him and Clu, and found the latter the preferable option.]

I didn’t edit him. [Said with some vehemence.] His code wasn’t… there wasn’t anything forcing him to be violent.

What I told you before... I was wrong.

[meyneth]

[Fiora doesn't answer for a while. But when the next video message comes, her face is flushed and her eyes are glaring into the camera.]

I thought you told me he was edited! You know... brainwashed, basically! And that he wasn't like this before! Doesn't that mean something was forcing him to be different now?

[She stops, sputtering for a moment. What she wants to bark out is You lied to me.]

You had us attacking him. We put our lives on the line!

[alan_1]

He was edited. And he wasn’t like this before. But the changes weren’t to make him violent, they were to make him obedient. Clu cut off entire sections of who he was -- memory, function, choice -- and redirected all of it into following his commands. [He shakes his head.] I should have realized it earlier… Clu wouldn’t gain anything from reprogramming him to attack people without cause. If Rinzler were everything Clu wanted him to be, I don’t know if he’d be able to do much of anything without a direct order. I know it must sound contradictory, but the violence isn’t the result of Clu’s code -- it’s a sign that Rinzler’s resisting it. [Resisting it in a dangerous and unhealthy way, yes, but resisting it all the same.]

I’m sorry. If I had known all this before, then I never would have asked it of you. But I didn’t. I thought-- [No.] -- I wanted to believe that it was something I could fix.

[meyneth]

So he's just some - some regular jerk with some of his stops removed? He's hurting people on purpose? That's just what he is?

[She's so furious, but not entirely at Alan. Mostly just at this entire situation, the people on this ship, her foolish decision to get involved in any of it.]

And here I was, feeling bad for him...!