gently tell her that she can fix everything
You’ve gotten through to her. No more need to talk her down any more.
You kneel down and tell her that she can fix everything. But she’s got to hurry. The energy’s nearly all gone.
“Fix everything…?” she says. “How? I can’t fix all those… all the deaths, all… we spent hours… all the… the deaths…” She is barely able to speak. “I can’t undo that, robot. I can’t… I can’t fix this.”
Take only enough of the energy as you would need to make a solution, leave the rest.
You tell her that she can compromise. Take the bare minimum of energy that she needs for the new energy source. Leave the rest for the oculoids. Everyone wins.
“No, robot. Everyone doesn’t win. I… I killed so many. And now I’m going to destroy their home. And I can’t do anything about it.”
You tell her to just put the energy she doesn’t need back in the core, then you can discuss morals afterwards.
Claire wipes some tears from her eyes, her voice regaining its confidence again. “It’s not simply about putting things here back to the way they were. The core… robot, the entire planet is cooled by this chamber. You know that. But the reactions the oculoids cause… are tiny. Their cries don’t revert the temperature back to any automatic ‘cold’ range, they simply make things a bit cooler than they otherwise would be. They merely
keep it cool and stop it from warming further.”
You pause and consider the implications of this.
Claire stands up, pulling some sort of monitoring device out of her pocket as she does so. The oculoid formerly on her lap hops off the ramp and begins to propellor away. “The temperature of the planet is currently about thirty-five, maybe forty degrees hotter than is comfortable for the oculoids, and that figure is only going to keep going up. Releasing the energy could perhaps keep us at that level, though it wouldn’t stop the planet from essentially burning up. But I can’t revert it. There’s… there’s no hope, robot.”
She keels over, beginning to cry again. “I… I can’t even save them, after all I did to hurt them! I came here to help people, robot! I thought… I thought I could help
everyone…”
The doctor pauses. The heat’s getting much more noticeable, even uncomfortable. The energy has been fully absorbed into the ship. “Perhaps then it would be best…
No. Not ‘best.’ Perhaps it would be
right to stay. I have done too much to simply disappear across the known universe and leave them to die alone. I will send Rusty back with the bare minimum energy necessary to power the ship and vent the rest back into the core. I must accept responsibility for my actions.”
She begins to head into the ship, her voice trembling very minutely. “I will be sending the ship off in approximately one minute. You will… no, I apologize. If you would like to return with Rusty, you may. Or you may choose to stay. You are free to do either. I will, however,
suggest that you leave. You have done your part here.”
You are left alone on the ramp. The ship begins to flicker with black cracks of lightning. The chamber is empty; the spheres have disappeared into the ship and the oculoids seem to have fled to the village. It is just you and the now-sweltering, unrelenting heat.
Is it worth saying ‘sorry this was so late’ anymore? I guess around two days ain’t bad for an update (objectively speaking) but I had really hoped to finish this game off with one a day.
Speaking of finishing this off! There are only two-three more updates left. We will be done within a week, I wager. Let’s send ‘er off good.
e- typooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
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Topic: [ISG] Adventure Guy! - Epilogue (Read 518953 times)