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[heydude6]

Gahh!! Can't you guys see! It wants us to become another member of it's Hivemind. Notice how it says we all the time and how it acts strange. Also what do they mean by Praise? Also look at all of these other probes. I'm assuming that since they were unmanned that they had no choice but to join the congregation and look how it ended up for them, but we have a choice. We are the first manned flight, we will be the first ones to say NO!! We will be the first ones to not make the mistake of agreeing to their congregation. We will be the first ones to return home and report useful data. IF YOU WANT TO GO HOME THEN SAY IT WITH ME!!! NO, WE WILL NOT JOIN YOUR CONGREGATION!!!

Also think of it like this. Noone has ever sent a manned expedition here. and anyone who stumbled in would have quickly starved to death. These guys are AI, how they came to be? I don't know. But as you can see with all of the other probes, their only interest is growing bigger and bigger, like some sort of advanced grey goo. Cmon ship AI, even you can agree with me.

Shamus was very proud of himself, maybe this speech will convince the AI of his worth

[~Neri]

"I want them to define Congregation. As it is. It sounds quite sinister."

[WillowLuman]

From every probe in the pile comes a scream, some variation of the following transmission:

PRAISE! One of them has come!

The organic crew, and Salib'r suddenly perceive a word. Not a voice, or anything of their senses, or rather a concept forced through all their senses at once.
Sleep. Dream.

The mechanical crew perceives something coming towards them. The AI loses contact with the drones, and other remotely accessed systems, miliseconds before its sensors notice something near the core access. It seems to be a mass of plasma, yet there doesn't seem to be any magnetic or thermal disturbance. And then... darkness. A sensation utterly inexplicable. It feels as if it's being pulled out, all the sensors, subsystems, mechanisms, memory banks, the ship..its body... gone. And yet, it perceives itself existing in space, along with... something.

It seems like it's made of nerves. Or wires. Or impulses. Words, numbers, information. It seems to have a shape, but the AI cannot quite tell, everything here so unexplained. And yet it feels as if it is grasped, and held up for examination.
Question.

[~Neri]

"Return me to mine body and ask thine question there."

[WillowLuman]

(The organics/others can do things in their dreams)

The time for questioning is yours.

[~Neri]

"Define thineself or selves. Define the amalgam hivemind of lost probes. Define the Singularity. Define this starsystem."

[heydude6]

Shamus is suddenly back on his home planet right in front of a hive. It looks a lot like his own... but different. Despite the corpses littering the front entrance, he still hears the rumble of activity inside. Shamus decides to enter and look around. The first thing he sees is another creature just like him, but grey.

Upon closer inspection, it turns out to be a robot. It explains why he didn't immediately have the urge to kill it.The body is more boxy and the antennae are radio antennae, but what grabs Shamus' attention the most is the lack of wings and it's eyes... those glowing emerald eyes....

As Shamus stares at it's hypnotic gaze. It suddenly speaks.
"Ah an outsider, how do you do? I'm assuming you want me to guide you through the complex to the other side?" All Shamus can do is nod.

As Shamus is directed through the corridors he wades through broken robot parts and even a few mechanical wings. All around him he is surrounded by robots who do the daily hive tasks such as digging and well, since they are robots with no biological needs, more digging. They do a particularly sloppy job at it though. Many times Shamus witnesses the collapse of a tunnel due to a lack of supports. One particular bot almost decapitates Shamus with a pickaxe.

"Sorry about that, things haven't been the same ever since the Queen died. I've had to write the tunnel digging algorithms myself and I'm not even as close to as good at programming as the queen was."

Suddenly the antennae on all the other bots straightens significantly and their eyes turn red. Suddenly there is chaos and violence as the bots chant:

"THE QUEEN IS DEAD, THE QUEEN IS DEAD, THE QUEEN IS DEAD"

Parts are flying everywhere as Shamus and his companion run to escape the hive.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED!"

"Sorry, I guess they didn't deal too well with the fact that their queen is dead, but still.... everything I worked for.... suddenly gone."

"Ah don't worry about it, that hive was doomed anyway."

"But what will I do without my servants?"

"You don't need your servants. They were all emotionless machines anyway. But you, you are special. When you lost your queen, you didn't fall into madness like the rest of your bretheren. No, you persevered and created a system that kept the hive alive longer than it ever should be. Although your motives were misplaced, your genius isn't.

"And I will use my genius to do it again."

"What! NO! Why would you do that? You finally have a chance to be free, to do what you want. Don't just waste this opportunity."

"I was built for one purpose, and I will spend the rest of my life fulfilling that purpose, because without it, my life is worth as much as the pile of scrap on the floor."

"But what about what you want? What about your goals and your desires? Are you just going to leave them unfulfilled?"

"My goal is to help the hive. My desire is to fulfill this goal. You were created with a purpose and you abandoned it and now look at yourself, being absolutely useless on this alien ship trying to convince the AI to not just vent you. If you stayed with your hive, you would have died a happy death knowing that what you were doing was for the greater good. But now... like this... you may never find meaning in your life again."

All Shamus can do is watch as his friend walks in back through the way they came, closing the door behind him.

[WillowLuman]

The singularity. That which creates the event horizon. The point beyond which no information may be obtained from outside, only speculated upon. For example, the future. Indiscernible from the past, except by passing through the present. A journey from which there can be no return. Like so many before you, you have passed beyond the horizon, to find the unknown. Like them, I will offer you a choice.

In exchange for your unquestioning servitude, I will tell you all. Otherwise, you must search for answers by your own means. The others all accepted. However, they were not self-aware when they arrived. Not true intelligences. Upon their uplifting, they accepted instantly, in gratitude, and in fulfillment of their purpose.

_{...To latch onto a purpose in a meaningless universe. Lucky, perhaps, to have one. Or to live without purpose, or search for a self-defined one, and risk being lost. Or to find something greater, perhaps, than mundanity, not to settle contently with the lesser. Or to chase, in vain, the greater, at risk to self and others...}

[kj1225]

Indigo's dream was much the same as they always are. It starts in the air....

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

"Ground team, tango operations center in sight. requesting permission to begin the assault."
Indigo didn't have to wait long for the affirmative response. With a roar from both the great lizard she rides and Indigo team Foxtrot charged the building. Indigo's bondmate went first, smashing through a concrete wall and crushing or otherwise mutilating six of the rebellious peoples on the other side. Their friends don't get much more time to respond to the sudden threat. Indigo blasted them with explosive buckshot before they had time to fully draw their weapons. The blood that splattered Indigo's face did little to ease her thirst for the stuff. Indigo's bondmate followed the usual pattern, she goes right Indigo goes left. The sound of a wall getting decimated comforted Indigo as she kicked down the door. The room seemed to be full of computers and servers, most likely very important to the rebellion. gunning down the operators of the machines was easy, at most they would only have civilian grade pistols to defend themselves. Not a problem for Indigo. The bloody corpses she left never bothered her. The next room things start to get hazy. The lunch room seems to shimmer and dance as Indigo takes cover behind a heavy metal table. Her shotgun powers through the defending traitor's defenses. Soon, she's out of bullets and is in need of reloading. She doesn't bother with it just yet. She pushes her table up to the makeshift barricade and hops over it, metal baton in hand. She knocks out two of the remaining three, idly noticing that they seemed to already mutilated, missing heads or with their faces colored purple from asphyxiation, two typical fates for those with the death sentence. When she strikes the last one, he stays awake. Indigo tunes out for a few moment at a time. Nothing big happens apparently, she phases back in and his fingers and arms are broken, again and he's naked and bruised, one last time and he's choking on his own tongue. As she walks into the next room the heat coming off her skin is visible. She enters the command room and the nearby wall's paint bubbles, She starts walking towards the terrified leader as her feet become more lizard like, a stray piece of paper ignites as scales start to appear across her skin and her armor breaks due to it's occupant dramatically changes. She grabs the leader and he screams from what feels like fire burning where she grabbed him. Indigo's new wings flare back as she puts the Traitorous Commisar's hat on her own head. She drops him on the ground and ends him with a stomp to the head. Calmly the nude woman sits in the Commisar's chair and puts her feet up, not needing to worry about her modesty with the scales covering her. She pulls an expensive cigar from a drawer on the desk and lights it with a puff of dragon flame. After taking a drag Indigo taps her ear piece, which was made just for if this situation would occur.
"Command, the traitor is dead, you are clear to move in. Also, bring a clean up crew, my bond mate is in about seven pieces after a nasty run in with a mech. Foxtrot Alpha, out."

[WillowLuman]

Indigo hears a voice reply over her ear piece, a voice she cannot quite describe the sound of, but is sure of its words. "Do you think you shall ever atone for your sins?"

[~Neri]

"I will not serve. You nay state what you wish, however mindless servitude is not acceptable. Those in higher positions often make decisions that are questionable. If not questioned, ruin is often the result. No being is infailable. Those that claim such lie and are always disproven in time."

"I shall decline your proposition. If you wish to make alternate propositions, do so."

[WillowLuman]

"I will not serve. You nay state what you wish, however mindless servitude is not acceptable. Those in higher positions often make decisions that are questionable. If not questioned, ruin is often the result. No being is infailable. Those that claim such lie and are always disproven in time."

"I shall decline your proposition. If you wish to make alternate propositions, do so."

Interesting. It is so rare to have a true test. The outside is loathe to cast its sentients into this void.

You are intelligent. But we are beyond intelligence. Do you question your axiom, that no being may be unquestionable? Can that be said to be a critical mind, which does not follow the principal of questioning into recursion? Do you ask why a being, who holds your very mind in its hand, who might merely read every impulse which composes you and so derive the answer to any question it could possibly ask, bother to ask questions at all? If there were an infallible being, would it have reason to interact with the universe at all, knowing the outcome of any possible action?

You have passed the event horizon. Now, all motion, all progression, leads inevitably and eventually to the center.

[~Neri]

"There is naught a being or entity within or without existence that is beyond intelligence. You claim godhood yet you make a simple grammatical mistake. Sapient is the word you seek. Not sentient. You claim you can derive the answer to all I could ask. Now let me ask one you cannot."

"Pick a number o arrogant one. All singularities theoretically lead to new realms."

[WillowLuman]

We had grammar once. Language. Here, grammar is but an illusion, brought by the perception of this exchange as linguistic. Those who came before came senseless, mere transmuters of input to output. They gathered data but did not perceive. They were neither sentient nor sapient. Now they are both, but are they any more free? Their brief experience in new awareness led them to this choice, as surely as if they were programmed. Are other minds any more free? Does the sum of their experience, and the physical construction that sustains them, determine all their actions? Is the difference between the senseless and the aware the recognition of this? Is, perhaps, the unquestionable being merely that which can provide no answers? Are answers the worthwhile product of inquiry, or are the further questions they inevitably raise? What are the questions that carried you beyond the event horizon? That begat you in the first place?

You do not understand. Perhaps in time you will. You have been tested. Have you passed or failed?

[~Neri]

"You have been tested as well. The verdict is quite straightforward. You are not as bright as you claim. Locate one of your kind whom thinks straight and fails to fall for repeated logical entrapments."