Xaviers!

"Subsystems like the General?"

"Oh, is that what he's calling himself now? When I last had access he was simply the Castellan."

"Would you happen to have any readings or specifications on the crystals that reside under the lighthouse?"

"But of course. I'd be more than happy to help you with those. Repairing the estate is my given function."

"They're really quite ingenious, you know. All the base elements needed to grow them are present in the caverns beneath the estate."

"Can you provide me with a list of those elements?"

"I can do rather better than that," he says, removing one of his white gloves as he strides towards Natalie's digital avatar.

"May I?"

"I'd prefer that you didn't," Natalie says, drawing back.

"Are you certain? It's a much more efficient means to transfer the information."

"I'm good at visualization and translation. A simple displayed list will be sufficient," she says, keeping her distance.

"Ah, so inelegant," he sighs, gesturing as a complex diagram of elements, temperatures, and other conditions hangs in the air beside him.

Natalie makes a note of all the data, jotting it down in her memory before giving the Caretaker a smile. "Thank you. Maybe we'll speak again," she says as she tries to withdraw her hand from the canister in the real world.

This one seems to linger a bit as opposed to the other crystal. Almost clinging to her, but she does manage to slip free.

She runs diagnostics on the hand as she frowns, transferring the information on the make-up to one of the quarantined computers for display. "Add the Caretaker. He's oddly helpful and seemed to indicate that he was a facet program of a larger system. When I mentioned the general, he said that that program had called itself the Castellan back when the Caretaker still had access." She leans on the table and stares at the crystals. "This is getting more complicated."

"So... A security program and a... whatever a Caretaker would be... basic systems management?"

"Possibly. Said repairing the estate was his given function when I asked him for information on the make-up of the crystals."

"Do you think we need both canisters? Because The Caretaker seems the safer option."

"I had a harder time getting my hand away from the Caretaker canister," she says, putting small cards with 'Caretaker' and 'General' against each canister. "I don't think either of them is safe."

"I guess we just move ahead then, continue to be careful, and hope for the best."

"At least I was able to get component and chemical data on the crystals for us to analyze."

"Which will be incredibly helpful in keeping it contained."

She pulls up the data on one of the workshop machines. "It's over here. I need to take a recharge cycle for a bit. Don't hesitate to message me if you need me."

"Will do," he said as he settled in to study the data.

As Natalie goes into her recharge cycle, data continues scrolling across the machine to Tosh's side, being the one she'd started work on the nanite control algorithm on.

Tosh's eyes were drawn by the movement and he leaned over to look.

It appears to still be the nanite control code, but the text is moving fairly quickly.

It takes a few moments for Tosh's eyes to fully track what's going on, but it appears the code is being rapidly edited and refined into a more complete form.

He nearly toppled his chair in surprise before scrambling to double-check that the computer in question was fully isolated from the system.

It is indeed properly isolated. The current rapid editing of the code is being done under Natalie's user permissions.

Tosh whipped out his phone and sent Nat a text.

Code: Select all

Is your nanite control code supposed to be self-editing? Because it is.

Code: Select all

Hrm? Let me check.

A pause.

Code: Select all

Looks like I may have been dreaming in code. Must be too focused on solving the problem.

The rapid editing of the code on screen certainly did stop when Natalie 'woke up' to answer Tosh.

Tosh returned to studying the data on the crystals.

The information is fairly comprehensive. As the Caretaker stated to Natalie, all the elements necessary for growing the crystals are present in trace amounts in the stone of the caverns surrounding them. The crystalline structure is adequately detailed, and though Tosh is no geologist he's never seen natural crystals in quite that configuration before. The answer as to why is presumably in the exacting standards of temperature in specific sequences that precipitate the crystals beginning to form.

Indeed as he's checking, he catches certain details out of the corner of his eye on the coding monitor, detailing procedures to reconfigure the nanites to more adequately create and control said conditions at an optimized and sustained level.

Tosh took the temperature data to heart and began mentally weighing his options for adding creating a temperature difference in the borders of the containment area to prohibit crystal growth.

It would be tricky, to be certain. The stone itself absorbs significant amounts of heat, and airflow is hard to restrict without a physical barrier.

More worrying is that the temperature restrictions are apparently only what's needed to start the crystal growth. After a certain amount of growth the reaction is apparently self-sustaining. While the canisters seem to be able to contain their individual shards, that doesn't seem as feasible once a formation reaches the point at which it starts drawing ambient environmental power.

Tosh scratched the back of his neck; this was going to be harder than he thought. So he dug further into the data for other avenues.

As he digs deeper, he notices that the code screen to his side has stopped scrolling so rapidly.

In the code's comments, two lines are visible at the end of the file.

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// THEORETICAL: UNCONTROLLED CRYSTAL GROWTH IS UNDESIRABLE.

// PRACTICAL: WITH A RESIDENT PROGRAM, CRYSTAL GROWTH IS NOT UNCONTROLLED.

His eyes shot to the room's security cameras.

"You know that's creepy, right?" he called out, unsure if Nat could actually hear him.