[Plot] A Maintenance Message

[Narrator]

Somewhere on the Point's network, a maintenance program spins up and attempts to check in with another system on the network. Not receiving a satisfactory response, the system checks something else and then sends an automated message to the Headmistress.

To: aminamida@xu.edu
From: network_monitoring@xu.edu
Subject: Crystal Computer Communication

Headmistress,

This is to notify you that the Crystal Computer core has not communicated with the network for
Uncaught exception: Calculation overflow in math.library at line 35
in oversight.maintenance.library at line 128
+37 more
days. You are being informed of this anomaly due to an absence of scheduled downtime.

[Ashlie Minamida]

Natalie does tend to get absorbed in her work, but this seems odd. In particular since it seems to be a contingency she set up herself. Ashlie sends a quick message in return, asking if everything is alright, but does not bother waiting for a response. If the Crystal Computer has not been in contact with the network it's unlikely Natalie would receive or notice the message anyway. Instead she heads straight for the caverns beneath the Point to take a look for herself.

[Narrator]

Getting into the cavern proves to be a bit of an issue. The doorway and passageway are fine, but the crystals have grown, seemingly at random, in front of the opening into the cavern proper. She'd have to squeeze past them to get in, but through the gaps, unusual crystal growth is visible all over the room. The "window" monitor that Natalie had installed on the wall is covered in crystals on one side and the other shows signs of electrical damage, including melted plastic. None of the crystals have their usual glow, most of them at best dull and quite a few of them outright dark.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"This is probably not good." Ashlie mutters to herself as she squeezes past crystals and climbs over them to get further into the room.

"Natalie, are you present?" she calls into the cavern.

[Narrator]

There's no response to her call. Once in the room, moving around the crystals is still a bit tricky, but doable. The previously cleared paths barely exist. The hallway back into what Natalie had designated the "transport room" still exists. Beyond that, in the dull glow, it looks like her "quarters" beyond the transport room still exist, though her quarters are shot through with the same random crystal growth as the main cavern. Here and there, the larger crystals in the main cavern exhibit scorch marks.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"What in the world happened?" she wonders, with her hand still on one of the crystals from clambering over it. There's a pins and needles feeling in her palm for a moment as millions of nanites respond to the subconscious request and concentrate in her palm to the point of turning her skin into a biomechanical black and grey, nanites making physical contact with the crystal and attempt to initiate a data request.

[Narrator]

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Interface handshake...complete.
Operating system translation...initiated.
Authorized user detected.
Query protocol opened.

WARNING: Timestamp discrepancies detected! Structural rebuild did not complete successfully before reset. Structural rebuild has failed %$&#(_@ times. All resident programs declared suspect. Data *may* be unreliable.

Query?

[Ashlie Minamida]

Ashlie glances down at her hand in surprise when the familiar impression of code flashes through her mind. "That's a welcome surprise..." she muses and moves her hand around on the crystal, creating a tiny bit of friction when nanites adjust their 'grip'.

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>> Query: most recent log files
>> Query: Current time according to timestamp
>> Query: Structural rebuild data

[Narrator]

The timestamp is the first thing to return. The value represented as "local time" seems correct. There is, however, some additional timestamp references to the Starlight citadel indicating noted discrepancies between the "Omniversal tracking time" and the local timestamp, indicating that the Starlight Citadel expected the dimension to be a significant amount of time later than it was.

The log files spill out in a bit of a torrent, running backwards through apparent time, though the timestamp in the logs hiccups on occasion. The immediate notations are of her access and requests, followed by a series of error and warning messages that occasionally repeat.

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ERROR! Structural rebuild has exceeded expected capacities!
ERROR! Structural rebuild is beyond defined core bounds!
Warning: Mastermind system absent or quarantined, rebuild in automated mode.
ERROR! Temporal instability detected! Initiating structured rebuild...


The structured rebuild data seemed to be built around the Crystal Computer growing additional crystals in an attempt to compensate for some perceived instability. Exactly where or why that went wrong, the computer had yet to determined and indicated that the Mastermind system should be consulted.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Of course, the Chronos Titan. The system must have shunted Natalie away to perform repairs and build up weeks of crystal growth on one day..." she hesitantly withdraws her hand with a feeling of weak velcro as the nanites detach. She seeks out one of the brightest crystal sections she can find to place her hand on.

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>> Requesting termination of quarantine functions
>> "Natalie, if you receive this message, you need to reactivate."

[Narrator]

Code: Select all

Searching for quarantine location...
Multiple quarantine locations found.
Spatial storage address directory corrupted.
Unable to determine contents.
Do you still wish to terminate quarantine functions?

[Ashlie Minamida]

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>> Cancel termination of quarantine functions
>> Requesting number of quarantined nodes and time of isolation, do not parse time-stamp, append as raw data

Odds are the separate nods are Natalie's different helper programs, but without knowing their exact number and date of excision it's possible there could be less friendly bundles of code tucked away in the system and she'd rather not chance unleashing an angry Mastermind function. At least not right now.

[Narrator]

The quarantine node list scrolls away, the timestamps provided as raw data that includes a strange array of symbols in addition to more usual characters and numbers. The list helpfully tells her that it is attempting to sort in reverse order based on "Ominversal tracking time", whatever that is, so in *theory* the more recent nodes should be first on the list, but there's certainly a lot of them.

[Ashlie Minamida]

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>> Terminate quarantine function of most recently isolated node

[Natalie Denisov]

Code: Select all

Terminating quarantine

The crystals begin to glow a little more strongly and Natalie appears in the room followed shortly by another, almost identical Natalie. They both responded in almost perfect unison, "What in the..."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"There was a temporal anomaly. It appears the Crystal Computer's connection to the Starlight Citadel caused a temporal overlay or desynchronization."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'm sensing a lot of compartmentalization in the computer," Natalie 1 says.

"I'm trying to contact the Citadel, but there are two Clarions and they keeping stepping on each other's transmission," Natalie 2 follows up, crossing her arms.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"You might need to do some consolidating of code. And check if all quarantined nodes were suspended or if some of the code was left running in isolation. Depending on the total length of the time-loop that could have potentially disastrous effects."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Guardian says that most of the nodes she's reviewed so far have been suspended, but a few are running in isolation. Carrie, sorry, Caretaker believes that we can reconcile time discrepancies if we can get a proper connection to the Citadel," Natalie 2 reports.

"Your Guardian or my Guardian?" Natalie 1 asks.

"Umm... Not sure..."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Prioritize reconciling the nodes running in isolation. Depending on how much time they were forced to spend in the dark, they might not be entirely psychologically sound. No offense, I'm just speaking from experience."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Do we want to sever the interface between the Crystal Computer and the network until that's done? Caretaker's asking."

"Your Caretaker or mine?"

"Would you stop asking that?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"No. Whatever is in there is still you and letting someone who's been in a cage out only to discover they're still locked into a slightly larger room is worse in the long run."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'm sure it's just like merging code into source control," Natalie says, "Which means it could take quite a while."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"If they want to be merged. Just be cognizant of that, we don't know how much time exactly has passed for them."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Not sure what to do if they don't want to be. Not like there's anywhere we can send them. I certainly wouldn't trust the Starlight Citadel with them. They'd probably airlock them for being difficult."

[Ashlie Minamida]

"My personal experience with something like this ended with my 'rogue' fork hijacking a combat drone and almost demolishing my central core before me relinquishing enough control to let us remerge. I would recommend skipping the adversarial phase. Don't position yourself as an enemy with demands."