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[Empiricist]

Let's go with just the containers for now. Unless Q'Baja has a sudden hat & shirt shortage.

If an alarm goes off, Charles uses his MkIII to fly wherever the hell is safe and activates enhanced movement mode. If feasible and in a position to do so, he will grab people nearby by and take them with him. He'll also scream incoherently about the being stalked by a manipulator overload, and that he wishes STEPHEN HAWKING was still here to act as his quantum meatshield.

[piecewise]

Alright, simmer down.

What we've got here is a semi-successful experiment. His machine produced...something. The problem is that he's not entirely sure what because the machine and all the sensors stopped broadcasting after the temp dropped somewhere near 3 K.

And that chilly attitude is spreading rapidly.

[Devastator]

"Well, good morning there. I hope you slept well?"

"I don't know.  It's hard to tell."

[Radio Controlled]

"Well, good morning there. I hope you slept well?"

"I don't know.  It's hard to tell."

"Ah, I'm sure it is, given the circumstances. Fortunately, I came here today to offer you a deal that might help with that issue. Care to hear me out?"

[Devastator]

"Well, good morning there. I hope you slept well?"

"I don't know.  It's hard to tell."

"Ah, I'm sure it is, given the circumstances. Fortunately, I came here today to offer you a deal that might help with that issue. Care to hear me out?"

Whaddya want?  Let's hear it.

[Sean Mirrsen]

((Hm. I guess I'll post at least some preliminary response in case this dialogue doesn't resolve soon.))

Anton Chernozorov, resident Mad Scientist/Engineer

Elsewhen in time from the ongoing dialogue, Anton looks at his wristcomp as it displays the last set of data from the device before it goes dark. He blinks several times, processing the information, before comprehension finally descends upon him. The engineer quickly opens a broadcast channel to all senior personnel on the base, ARESTEVE and the Doktor included, as he makes his best speed towards the nearest control room. This is no time to be keeping secrets.

"Chernozorov here. Priority alert! A hazardous energy-absorbing anomaly of unknown dimensions is expanding from the underground special research chambers. Personnel should proceed with evacuation as necessary. ARESTEVE, shut down all power leading into the area, and please use any available sensors to determine the size of the anomaly and the rate of its expansion. Doktor, if you can spare the time, I may require any advice you can give on dealing with an artificial manipulator overload. I will do what I can to stop it from here."

Alert ARESTEVE, the Doktor, and the Administration of the incident, and request help as can be provided.

Send a shutdown command to the device via the wristcomp. It ain't got a snowball's chance in hell of working, but gotta try.

Make way to the nearest control room (that is still far enough away from the expanding anomaly) and see if there's a recently-made FEL cruiser in orbit that could be positioned to fire at the Reality Engine device. Would a FEL cruiser be able to tunnel far enough underground with its laser(s) to reach it?

[Radio Controlled]

"Well, good morning there. I hope you slept well?"

"I don't know.  It's hard to tell."

"Ah, I'm sure it is, given the circumstances. Fortunately, I came here today to offer you a deal that might help with that issue. Care to hear me out?"

Whaddya want?  Let's hear it.

"Ah, straight to the point then. The idea here is that I could use someone to do some designing work for me. Tools, weapons, suits, software, that kinda stuff. And I thought, well, if Leo can find a hole in his schedule sometime, maybe he can help me with my predicament? Of course, I'd ensure it would be worth your while as well. For starters, we could see into arranging some accomodations that are a little more... Suited to civilised life.

So, still interested?"

[Devastator]

"an angel came to me, some time ago, promising the ambrosia of the gods for signing a paper.  I signed the paper.  I got to tour heaven, sup on wonderous food and drink, and enjoy some of the pleasures of life."

"The next day, I was back here."

"I see things and I hear things all the time.  How do I know you're not another angel like the last?  or a devil, with pain and fear at his behest?"

[piecewise]

((Hm. I guess I'll post at least some preliminary response in case this dialogue doesn't resolve soon.))

Anton Chernozorov, resident Mad Scientist/Engineer

Elsewhen in time from the ongoing dialogue, Anton looks at his wristcomp as it displays the last set of data from the device before it goes dark. He blinks several times, processing the information, before comprehension finally descends upon him. The engineer quickly opens a broadcast channel to all senior personnel on the base, ARESTEVE and the Doktor included, as he makes his best speed towards the nearest control room. This is no time to be keeping secrets.

"Chernozorov here. Priority alert! A hazardous energy-absorbing anomaly of unknown dimensions is expanding from the underground special research chambers. Personnel should proceed with evacuation as necessary. ARESTEVE, shut down all power leading into the area, and please use any available sensors to determine the size of the anomaly and the rate of its expansion. Doktor, if you can spare the time, I may require any advice you can give on dealing with an artificial manipulator overload. I will do what I can to stop it from here."

Alert ARESTEVE, the Doktor, and the Administration of the incident, and request help as can be provided.

Send a shutdown command to the device via the wristcomp. It ain't got a snowball's chance in hell of working, but gotta try.

Make way to the nearest control room (that is still far enough away from the expanding anomaly) and see if there's a recently-made FEL cruiser in orbit that could be positioned to fire at the Reality Engine device. Would a FEL cruiser be able to tunnel far enough underground with its laser(s) to reach it?

More then likely a thermophage. Common adaption in many universes, but self destructive. Heat will not help. Starve it.

>There are cooling systems that run on liquid hydrogen. We could vent them ahead of the expansion and try to stop it there. We'd be losing a large section of infrastructure though.

[Radio Controlled]

"an angel came to me, some time ago, promising the ambrosia of the gods for signing a paper.  I signed the paper.  I got to tour heaven, sup on wonderous food and drink, and enjoy some of the pleasures of life."

"The next day, I was back here."

"I see things and I hear things all the time.  How do I know you're not another angel like the last?  or a devil, with pain and fear at his behest?"

"Yes yes, very eloquent. Unfortunately, I'm not here to quote the best of Spacespeare, this is more of a... business proposal. Now, I cannot 'prove' to you that all this is 'real', that it isn't an elaborate VR sim designed to torture you in some bizarre way. I do know, however, that the pain in your back from sleeping on the floor is just as awful whether it's 'real' or simulated, and that that bucket over there still stinks horrifically all the same. I also know that we could use capable minds to do some work, and that it's for a worthwhile end goal. And with the war getting more serious by the day, the times are getting more difficult, and we can scarcely afford to keep feeding somebody who isn't pulling his weight. Finally, I heard the Doc needs some test subjects lately. And I speak from very personal experience that he is the last person you want to work with, or for him to work with you.

So, mister Girard, what's it gonna be?"

[Devastator]

So, mister Girard, what's it gonna be?"

"You can prove it.  Give me something real I can touch.  I want a tape recorder.  Something physical I can talk into that doesn't change what it is.  Something I can touch and feel and doesn't go away.  Something I can get the words on that ain't a computer.  I ain't making any deals without anything hard backing it up.  No benefits in the future, no fancy words, real hard facts about what you want and what I get.  Then we can deal."

"If you ain't willing to give me anything up front, forget it.  You won't give me anything when I'm done, either."

[Radio Controlled]

"I'm not sure what exactly you want here? You want us to make a contract that stipulates all the exact details of our arrangement? That can be done, though it'd probably be a big text of lawyerese. But sure, I can understand that. As for that physical medium you want it to be on, that also can be arranged, though I fail to see the use for it in a world where all the physical sensations can be quasi-perfectly mimicked in VR. But sure, if that's what you want.

As for giving something up front, we'd start with, say, better food and actual furniture to use. And a goddamn toilet."

[Devastator]

"I'm not sure what exactly you want here? You want us to make a contract that stipulates all the exact details of our arrangement? That can be done, though it'd probably be a big text of lawyerese. But sure, I can understand that. As for that physical medium you want it to be on, that also can be arranged, though I fail to see the use for it in a world where all the physical sensations can be quasi-perfectly mimicked in VR. But sure, if that's what you want.

As for giving something up front, we'd start with, say, better food and actual furniture to use. And a goddamn toilet."

"I want the recorder up front, not only so I can record deals, but so I can record myself.  And I want it physical so I don't lie to myself and can hear things I just said, and can hear the motor, or feel it, and see it moving.  When I see and hear things, sometimes it doesn't match up right, or I can't feel it, or something else I should.  I can see a recorder work, can record over stuff, and it would vibrate or shift in the working.  Much easier to know it's really there.  If it's a screen I might look at it three times and see three different things, even if it's the same screen and the same writing each time.  and as for VR, I don't know what the hell happens when you hallucinate in VR, but I don't think it would be good.

We can talk about pay later.  Better food and furniture would be nice, but it's been god knows how long without them, and I can go another day, so it can be pay.  I'd like a recorder, so I can make my own record of what the deal is, and with a physical recorder, I can't modify it or play games with what was said.  Legalese isn't that important as long as it's clear what you want me to do and what I get for it.  No damn tokens."

[Radio Controlled]

"Very well, if you want something that stores info very physically, then we'll arrange that. Hell, you could have a robot that hears every word and chisels them on goddamn stone tablets if you really wanted.

But seriously, what exactly would you like? A tape recorder of sorts? Something that writes data on a physical medium you can see and such? What color would you like it? Hotpink? Or maybe clear plastic casing all around so you can see every part and observe it when it writes data? Something like that? Or perhaps a big stack of paper and pens so you can write everything down? Or both for all I care.

As for the hallucinations, we could have a doctor take a look at that, if you want.

And yeah, the pay would be things you can touch and have actual benefit from. We can see what you'd like best later, I'm sure we can work that out."

[Devastator]

Nothing too fancy.  A small desktop model of tape recorder with some blank tapes.  A recorder that stores sound on magnetic cassette tapes.  It needs to be able to do the basic things like play, rewind, and record using motors and heads, not computer operations only.

As for the pay, depends on what you want me to do.  You haven't said anything about that.  Once I've got the recorder, we can do business.