thisavrou | audio; may 14

{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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Shit. He went through alone?

[ Not good. Really not good. Utterly concerned, Wash is already dropping what he's doing and starting to make his way back down to the planet. ]

I want to believe that you really mean what you say. I don't know anything about you aside from what I've heard, but it sure sounded like you weren't doing anything good for Rinzler. [ Regardless of what the program had done, he didn't deserve to have his code messed with at all. He didn't deserve for the idea to even be considered. ] Whatever the case, I'm heading there now. Hopefully he's still okay.

[’I was trying to.’ Alan bites back the words, instead focusing on the offer of help.] Thank you. You should be prepared to defend yourself once you're in the Grid; Clu’s probably reprogrammed the system’s other programs to fight for him, just like he did to Rinzler. [And if he’s already gotten to Rinzler himself… well, that warning goes unsaid.]

Right. Got it.

[ He'd kind of guessed that would be the case anyway, so the confirmation is helpful. Though, if the other programs fight like Rinzler does, avoiding combat entirely if possible is ideal. ]

Thanks. Anything else important that I should know before I get in there?

[ He hasn't got a lot of time before he reaches the portal, but jumping in completely blind hardly seems wise. ]

You have an advantage there from being a User. Rinzler’s shown me some of the technology from the system and all of it’s configurable: vehicles, tools, weapons -- you just need to get your hands on the data storage. The device he showed me looked like some kind of baton, but there are probably other kinds of that technology on the Grid that a User could also manipulate. [Such as a disk, for example...]

All of it is defined by code, but… I don’t think you’ll need that much programming experience to use any of it. [He remembers the code on Rinzler’s disk, how easily it had molded itself to his every unspoken command. There’s a certain discomfort in using the knowledge he had gained there now, but the situation is too dire to leave any potential advantage unsaid.] Once you have access to the code, just focus on what you want it to do, and it should respond in kind. [Perhaps the results would lack the precision of someone who actually knew how to handle the code line-by-line, but it isn’t like he’d have time for that kind of attention-to-detail anyway.]

[ There's a few moments of relative silence on Wash's end, just the sound of hurried, heavy footsteps. ]

Okay. That'll definitely be good to keep in mind.

[ Especially if a situation comes up. Hopefully it won't, but he can't just pretend like it isn't a possibility. Normally he'd be asking a lot more questions about being able to manipulate and use the technology, but now is far beyond the time for that. ]

I'm going to do what I can to get him out. ...Thanks for letting us all know what happened. I know I'm not the only one who would hate it if we couldn't get him back here.

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