Issue 1 Downtime

Stan was exploring the areas beyond his lab space below Braddock manor. Behind a series of secure fire doors was a large cavern system- a system for the most part, undisturbed for years.

He sighed, running a hand scanner over the surfaces near the exit door, and observing a blank computer terminal.

The notes said the Mastermind system had engulfed the entire system of tunnels and caves once, and Stan was poking and prodding hesitantly, unsure if it would even be possible or desirable to recreate the AI network...

Oddly enough the blank terminal was registering as active on Stan's scanner. And at a closer look a small LED was lit, just hidden under layers of dust.

Curious, stan took a seat at the erminal, and carefully began clearing away the dust..

The terminal wasn't showing anything except a blinking vertical line in the upper left corner of the screen.

"Bloody wonderful.. I usually have a grad student to do this sort of thing."

Stan sighed and checked his portable scanner again for anomalies, extremely hesitant to start fiddling with a supposedly deactivated, evil otherworldly artificial intelligence.

Nothing was accessing or running on the console in particular. It was just idling, which suggested that the system behind it was online at least.

Stan frowned. This wasn't right.

Pulling out his cellphone, he dialed Dee's number.

"Dee? Can you join me in the main cavern? Just beyond my lab in the basement?"

"On my way," was the terse response.

=====

It didn't take long before she'd arrived.

"You know," she said, "whenever you're down here I half expect you to have set up a few Tesla coils and taken up maniacal laughter."

"I'm not mad yet.. I still rank in at Eccentric Scientist!" He replied, chuckling.

"I need some backup.. This terminal is supposed to be deactivated, yet it appears to be up and running. And when we are dealing with a previous chaotic artificial intelligence.." He said, shrugging.

"The terminal itself seems harmless enough..."

Dee walked up to it and her fingers flew across the keyboard, querying a directory listing.

Stan, meanwhile, kept a sharp eye on the terminal and his scanner,watching for any odd readings or malicious action.

The screen quickly filled with symbols and code racing past much too fast to really make anything out until it suddenly stops.

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>>Access denied
>>Root User Rights revoked
>>Scanning Access Point
>>Please stand by.....

Stan would note a sudden increase in activity as the console stops being idle. None of it seems to make any sense but there's a lot of data being processed all of a sudden.

"What do you bloody mean I'm not root?" She asked before forcing her user credentials again.

Stan tensed, ionic energy crackling defensively about his hands.

"Careful, Dee.."

This time it just straight up threw a 'Access Denied' in Dee's face.

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>>"Who is this?"
>>"Please stop that."

"Great, it is up and running.. Well, time to break out the EMP mines and the molecular sterilizers.."

"I don't know if you're aware, Stan, but you've already got yourself an AI in there."

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>>"Dr. Deirdre Quinn. State your designation."

"...well, it's a friendly one it seems. Thought she'd gotten fairly quiet on the network, but Gabriel told me she was fine."

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>>"I'm at the terminal in the caverns beneath the manor. How did you access this system?"

Stan blinked.

"We'll, maybe I'll hold off on the scrubbing, then.."

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>>"What was on this system when you were first transmitted into it? Were there any active processes?"

"Leave it to a ship powered by faith to transmit our little girl into the bloody magical computer."

"wonderful."

Stan adjusted the scanner he was carrying to begin emitting an electronic beacon.

"Can she understand her situation?" He asked.

"She'd assumed we'd just upgraded the system while she was gone..."

Stan sighed.

"This is not good.. This whole system is one big unknown. What if she gets corrupted?"

"I think that ship has sailed somewhat, Stan. She's already picked up some... unorthodox notions from the faith ship."

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>>"In that case..."
>>Coordinates locked

Suddenly a swirling ball of fractal patterns appears next to the console. It shifts through an array of colours and shapes, grows and with a dazzling flare that seems entirely superfluous coalesces into the shape of a white-haired woman in a boring grey suit.

"Ashlie? Can you hear me now?"

"Yes. Hello Doctor Bowen, Doctor Quinn." she smiles politely. It looks a little mechanical but genuine.

"We'll this.. This is quite the situation we have here.."

"...suppose you found the hard-light generators, eh?"

"Are that what you call them. They are like a sophisticated, three-dimensional screen. They take up a lot of system resources to run properly but if you say you are not relying on this system then I suppose there's no harm in using them."

"Really, they're the least of that system's capabilities..."

"Parts of it appear to be offline and unresponsive to all protocols I tried."

"That's probably a good thing, Ashlie. This system had a lot of history, and not a good one."