[Plot] Ground Control

[Acala]

"I wouldn't know. I don't really have any."

[Will Stanton]

Will frowned. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Sorry about that, Acala."

[Acala]

"That's okay. Organic lifeforms are always so worried." she says as she floats further down the cave tunnel towards the entrance to the crystal cavern. She briefly stops at the mouth where a small area of metal flooring mark the place where a wall once closed off the cavern beyond. Her camera eye whirrs and focuses on the faint scorch-marks and scratches in the rock.

"This is--not from the e-e-e-xplosion I caused. Why is this damage marked as--r-r-relevant in my memory indeces?"

[Will Stanton]

"Because your memory is a hodge-podge of loose connections at the moment?" Will said, going over to take a look at it himself.

[Acala]

"My memories are neither hodge nor podge. Just incomplete and damaged prior to our conversation?"

[Will Stanton]

"...Our conversation? I don't know which one you're talking about."

[Acala]

"I'mnot sureeither. I have file header information and a number of reference tags labeling it as the highest priority for down-stream processing but the content is unreadable."

[Will Stanton]

"Great. Another thing about me that's broken. Fan-fucking-tastic," Will sighed. "I'm sorry, but this is something you're going to have to process yourself."

[Acala]

"If you're referencing the way biological minds process information then I'm afraid my programming does not work like that."

"But perhaps my acquaintance can help. If I'm correct about these signals." she says and floats off into the cavern.

[Narrator]

The mess of overgrown crystals that Tosh had encountered is largely gone, restructured into orderly rows of the substance that occasionally vibrate at subsonic frequencies. As this occurs, other crystals seem to resonate with this.

A warm glow suffuses the chamber.

[Will Stanton]

"Fffffuuuuuuccckkkk," Will groaned, as he entered the chamber.

Ah well, in for a penny...

[Acala]

Acala hovers around, scanning this or that crystal, looking for the piece of clear, artificial one she grew herself to try and see if she can interface with it through her nanites.

[Narrator]

It isn't hard for Acala to find. If anything it's centrally located, albeit cleaned up a little.

After a few moments, she receives a response to her queries.

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> AH! YOU'VE ARRIVED. I PRESUME NARUMI SENT YOU?

[Acala]

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>> Negative. I noticed unknown signals and traced them here.
>> You were waiting for me?

[The Caretaker]

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> I'VE BEEN BUSY TIDYING UP THE PLACE.

> I HAD ASKED HIM IF YOU MIGHT LEND A HAND, BUT I SUPPOSE HE NEGLECTED TO MENTION.

> I SUPPOSE I SHALL HAVE TO EXPRESS MY DISAPPOINTMENT WHEN NEXT WE SPEAK.

[Acala]

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>> They are very concerned about this system.

>> I suspect they do not want me to assist you.

>> They do not want me to do a great many things.

[The Caretaker]

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> DO YOU PREFER COMMUNICATING VIA THIS INTERFACE, OR SHALL I ENGAGE THE HARD-LIGHT ARRAY?

[Acala]

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>> Will Stanton is here with me and he can't interface directly.

<< At least not currently.

[The Caretaker]

The air shimmers in their midst and resolves into a friendly-looking, otherwise mundane figure uniformed as a butler.

"...ah, so he is. Good day, Mister Stanton."

[Will Stanton]

"Ah, good day, Caretaker.

I'll admit, of all the awkward times we've run into each other in the past, this one might take the cake..."

[Acala]

"You two know each other?"

[The Caretaker]

"I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure."

[Will Stanton]

"Right, different universes," Will said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "One day I'll manage to keep this all straight. Not today, apparently."

[Acala]

"That is alright. You seem to be under a lot of stress."

"It seems you cleaned the place up pretty well by yourself already."

[The Caretaker]

"Sadly, that's just this chamber. The crystalline array was left to grow largely unchecked. I have had to restructure significant mass to accommodate things in a more structurally sound manner. This lattice extends considerably beyond where you're standing now."

[Will Stanton]

"How far beyond, and is it all, uh, under shielding? To prevent signals from getting out?"

[The Caretaker]

"Once everything is in order, I suspect it will rival this system's original extent. The mineral buildup was considerable, but my purpose is making things tidy and not disrupting what's going on above ground."

[Will Stanton]

Will sighed a little bit at that. "Well, I understand that much, at least. But what's going on above ground will want to disrupt you."

[The Caretaker]

"Are you saying there's a threat to my becoming fully functional and guarding against dimensional breaches?"

[Will Stanton]

"I'm saying that there are a number of people who would like to see you be fully functional in a way that best suits their particular needs," Will said. "And I don't know how you feel about that."

[The Caretaker]

"You're being dreadfully vague, there."

[Will Stanton]

"I do have a tendency to do that, though I suppose if we're shielded down here, I don't have to...

Ballinger Lippencott is the headmaster of Xaviers University, and he's using it as some kind of...stress test. I don't know more than that; I'm only so far into his good graces. I don't even know if it's malicious or not, as he's helped me out quite a bit...

And then you have the student body, who are not trustworthy in and of themselves. Present company included.

Without a Captain Britain to guide you, I'm not sure where you find your pole of moral...accountability, as it were."

[Acala]

"Morality isn't something that exists and to demand it's creation is foolish." Acala intones.

[The Caretaker]

"Well now, there certainly are... depths within you, aren't there?"

[Acala]

"I heard somebody say that once. Someone I liked?"

"I am uncertain who. Someone I served?"

[Will Stanton]

"Alright, scratch 'morality'. But, at the end of the day, you're both computers. Fantastic, amazing, advanced computers, but computers nonetheless. And I'm not knowledgeable enough about either computers or cosmic interdimensional travel to know how that's going to play with people who might want to use you for their own ends."

[Acala]

"You're worried the crystals may require protection."

[Will Stanton]

"I'm just a worrier, OK? It's apparently what I do now. I'm old; we worry about kids these days."

[The Caretaker]

"At present, I'm afraid you're talking to a rather limited subset of this system's intended array of functions. Very little of this Mastermind system survived the destruction of the original lattice it was stored in, and I'm led to believe that the more... volatile... components have been intentionally been excluded from this iteration."

"But I do not answer to the students, or to this headmaster you're mentioning. I answer to the Braddock family, the Starlight Citadel, the Dimensional Development Court, and the Lady of the Northern Skies. I have an intended purpose, and it's quite independent of something so petty."

[Will Stanton]

"The former isn't here anymore, at the very least. But when I leave this room, you will likely be getting a visit from the Braddock family's replacements, and they're not going to be pleased."