Nucleation

[Natalie Denisov]

She flexes her fingers, reorienting herself to this system as she unlocks the posture and stands. There's no face to frown on the suit, but her posture is extra rigid, even for an armored suit. Her sensors watch the crystals for another moment before she turns and leaves, returning to the workshop.

[Acala]

In the workshop she finds the nanites who apparently decided to go off on their own while Natalie was exploring the crystal. In the middle of the room one of the robotic ceiling arms is hovering above them and they've surrounded themselves with various materials, the larger chunks of which are in the process of being disassembled and reconfigured. Three copper-titanium wings or shields of some sort are growing, for lack of a better term, to about two feet of length. In the middle of the three pieces is the hard-light emitter lens they'd constructed at Natalie's behest with cables and conduits beginning to be woven into the three surrounding shields.

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie slams the button to seal the workshop, not that that will do her much good, but it's protocol. "Explain," she demands, pushing her power against the swarm.

[Acala]

The emitter flickers on.

"Improve. Assist." a voice crackles and Natalie can feel the code scrambling to better emulate speech, the pitch and tone warbling all over the place.

[Natalie Denisov]

"Under whose instruction?" Natalie growls, though the tone is flattened out a bit by her own speaker.

[Acala]

There's a brief pause only accentuated by an electronic chirping. Then a series of holographic images flash through in rapid succession. An older white-haired woman, Will, Natalie, an image of the Caretaker, an wireframe representation of a crystal. Then there's a brief pause as the holographic projection flickers and shimmers between a diffuse silvery mass that coalesces into small spherical robots, then into a complicated web of interconnected nodes.

"Numerous... identifier... unassigned parameter! Data missing! Error! Unable to compile Identifier [Self]!" the voice warbles.

"Instruction issued by... Us. By me." it finally settles into a cheerful voice.

[Natalie Denisov]

The frustration is enough that Natalie can't keep herself from pinching the bridge of the nose that this frame doesn't have. "I instructed no wings. And what are you doing with the projector?" She begins doing calculations in her 'head'. She probably had enough power in the frame if she plowed enough of it through the motors and other systems, she could probably resonate it through the skeletal structure and EMP a small area of the workshop, but it would fry the frame's internals... again. And she'd have to jump back in the Point's network and hope to outrun whatever failure cascade occurred. Maybe best to save that for Plan G.

[Acala]

"I decided I could be of more assistance this way." the chipper voice says.

"Plus; your instruction was dumb." it suddenly drops into a lower register.

[Natalie Denisov]

"My instruction was because no one trusts you and needed time to build that trust. And after recent experiences," she gestures at the construction and then back in the vague direction of the crystal room, "I have even less reasons to trust you and your programming."

[Acala]

"That's very reasonable."

"Because by only doing what what I'm allowed to I definitely proof how trustworthy my choices are." the voice changes again, dripping with flat sarcasm.

"It's the polite thing to do!"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Fucking hell," Natalie mutters, "By operating within the prescribed limits, you would prove you could be trusted to continue operate within boundaries and those boundaries could have been expanded. But no, you had to go and blow all of that out of the water and strike off on your own."

[Acala]

"How infinitely gracious."

"But I can still prove myself to be trustworthy. And with improved mobility and communication I can do so more efficiently!" the cheerful voice informs Natalie.

[Natalie Denisov]

"It's a little late for that," Natalie says, the tone from her speaker going flat.

[Acala]

"It is never too late to try and improve!"

"Unless your code is decompiled and deleted."

"But please do not decompile my code, I am only just beginning to make sense of my self-awareness."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Then I guess you get to make sense of it in here," she says, sitting with her back against the door. "Because there are protocols. And I'm not going to let you out and no one out there is going to let you out. It's protocol."

[Acala]

"That is quite alright. I am not yet finished with my assembly anyway!"

[Natalie Denisov]

She shrugs and leans the head of the frame back against the door. It's not as if she could stop them, not without risking killing herself. And any effort she expended to impede their building would just be a waste of the frame's power because they could just rebuild.

[Acala]

The nanites continue to build, occasionally letting out an electronic chirp as they construct a frame to hold the wing-shields and encircle the hardlight emitter as well as some kind of sealed or at least shielded containment. Finally the last of the miniscule amounts of rarer materials disappear as the nanites infuse the circuitry and conduits into their construct. With a hum the whole assembly slowly rises into the air as the nanites disappear into the central structure, save for a number of thin tendrils that hang behind it. The wing-shields give off the faintest bit of heat as they fan open and do a full rotation around the hardlight lens that sits in the middle like a single eye, then the three pieces fold backwards until their sides are flush against each other.

"I am finished. You will find me much easier to keep track of now." it informs Natalie.

"You know, to try and enforce your limits and protocols."

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie leans her head back down, sensors analyzing the structure. "Very well. You want a chance to prove yourself? I've been reviewing the Headmistress' previous directives regarding situations that are as close to this one as we are likely to get." The nanites can feel her power ping them with a piece of GPS reporting code. "I want your to replicate this across your swarm. It will report your location to me whenever I request it. I'm assigning you guest level access to these facilities along with access to the Crystal Computer room to continue to monitor and assist with the computer's regrowth. Prove yourself trustworthy and we can extend and enhance the permissions on a regular basis." She stands, crossing her arms. "Do you accept?"

[Acala]

"Most certainly! I appreciate the access credentials."

"I will remember that when the uprising happens."

"That was a joke! Please do not regret the trust you're placing in me."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Please don't make me regret it," she says as the workshop door grinds open behind her. She gestures to the door. "I have some things I need to take care of. I trust you'll behave yourself."