Avatar of Dr Catfish
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    1. Dr Catfish 7 yrs ago

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Bio

I actually really hate bios, so if you'd like to gather the scope of my skills as a writer, or see my interests: Simply talk to me.

I don't bite.

Much.

(Profile picture is from a wonderful artist named Circuithead: circuithead.deviantart.com/gallery)

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The silence of space was the only sound inside the derelict station. It was incredibly queer in craft. It had no visible signs of a life-support system at all and only had sparse few lights throughout the halls. Every aspect was clinical. The walls were bleached white with no aesthetic markings. There were no windows or even seating arrangements. The halls were simply long rectangular tubes with doors set into the steel. The docking bay the rescue crew had landed in - designed for much larger crafts - was in shambles, with a barely working umbilical tether that was limply hanging opposite the direction of the station's motion.

Getting close, one could see a particularly odd section of the ship branched off. A large rectangular assembly with several breaks in the steel structure in some sort of pattern. The branch was nearly as long as the station itself, and had a hole directly in the center almost as wide as a one-manned fighter. Closer inspection would reveal it to be a weapon of massive scale. Energy coursed through the sides, but the structure was warped and twisted, bent in obscure places which forced to power to jump and arc uncertainly through the branch.

No markings or distinguishable identification remained anywhere. It was impossible to tell if one room was an infirmary or an armory. If the engineers entered one, they would find impossible to understand research schematics and designs, as well as blueprints written out in 1's and 0's streaming by like the Matrix on aerogel screens. The reason for the disrupted, faulty distress signal was obvious. The antennae which rested dead center the station, opposite the weapon was warped and twisted as well. The station looked like a large blocky disc. Four arms with triangular sections connecting each arm together, slanted diagonally. One whole quadrant was missing, revealing sparking electrical conduit and inwardly exploded steel plate.

Nexus still remained in the secure hangar for its own personal craft, utilizing the stations sensors to register the presence of another ships radiated heat signature, as well as several organic bodies which were disrupting the motion sensors laid throughout the station. DS9 did not require heat radiation to defuse entropy, so it remained undetected. Nexus' craft was near flight worthy, authorizing the machine to speed up the repair. But could it leave yet? The Application wing held the most important remaining items. It could not leave without them. Finishing up the repairs, it was doubtless that the engineers and medical staff would have located each wing. Not yet finding the machine however, or locating anything of value, as certain doors were sealed with bit-locked code. 1024 key encryption on a five second reset protocol meant that only force or a multi-cote quantum computer could open the doors. Nexus was one of the two.

Analyzing options... Processing . . . Complete. Cataloging in order of least likely: Eliminate all organic members aboard Lazarus personally, reactivate HADoS cannon to strand organic members, Infiltrate Application division via maintenance shafts.
WARNING: Maintenance shafts no longer filled with corrosive gas, possible station wide infestation of organics.
WARNING: Station wide self-destruct impossible, missing Ion Stabilizer. Technology at risk.
Current likely possibility: Threaten or negotiate with infiltrators to leave.
Chance of non-aggression from organics minimal. Proceeding with caution.


Nexus ceased everything instantly, dropping the myriad array of tools it had been using and roughly tearing open a hatch to enter an eight foot tall shaft covered in darkness. The royal blue optic of Nexus remained as the only light source. It would take a minute or less to enter the Application division, where Nexus would downloaded the bits of development code before smashing the instruments. These sounds could be heard on the other end of the Divisions doors, which unlocked remotely minutes after that when the machine had armed itself with half-working weaponry. The machine would wait for an unfortunate person to enter and hold them hostage in an attempt to negotiate. Or so that was the plan. Organics were always tricky.
@Erklings25

Nobody is upset? I'm calm if they're calm. We're just discussing synthetic philosophy is all. Also the first sentence hits pretty hard, Erkling.
@KahleenCuthald

You say that, but if asked to bark, would you? You'd probably carefully consider if the individual asking was important enough, as well as if barking will advance the order-er's opinion of you.

Which is just the case here. The order to sit was ridiculous and it offered the machine a way to show just how ridiculous it was for someone that blind. Regulation keeps people in line, but it also gets people killed if that's all they will follow.

If Rolands had spoken to Nexus and said: "There's a giant parasite attacking me, help me get this thing off!" Then Nexus would have absolutely followed orders and assisted its crew-mate in peril.

Edit: Without question.
@KahleenCuthald

While most robots created to serve do serve, Nexus was created... But never given directives or a proper AI matrix. It was developed as a shell for a human conscious, it developed its "conscious" as a will of self-preservation. "Life" literally spawned from jumbled code in a computer, and transferred itself into Nexus, propagating hundreds of times to create the machine as you know it.

I do see what you mean. Rolands expects a droid that will bark if you ask it to. But nexus has to run that bark command through what is basically, a committee of a couple hundred people to see if its a logical, proper action to make. And with how long the machine has researched alone, and all it's accomplished, barking is beneath it.
@KahleenCuthald

Think about robots like children for a minute. Does every parent expect their child to follow absolutely every single order ever given to them? Children are creations, children's have free thought. This robot is a creation, it also has hundreds of "free-thoughts" at a single moment. One of those may be subservient, but due to consensus, it is beaten out. Free will does not always breed subservience.
@Hawlin

Get out of here with your mentions. People should read all the posts, not just the ones that pertain to them.
The pulse of nuclear energy meant Nexus had managed to get the auxiliary generator running, having to salvage working bits and pieces from all over the station to properly get everything fixed. Now the wavering hum of fusion power courses through the faulty wired of the station, flicking on a handful of lights to make it look even more decrepit and horror-esque. But, the power conduit running to the ship hold was functional. All the power tools were in working order, but the craft which was docked had taken quite a beating being compressed and electromagnetically pulsed.

Nexus was about halfway to getting the craft running again before it was moved without the machine's knowledge. The bein which has moved it was no doubt some sort of advanced being and the transition from deep space to here was seamless. Which meant that the station still retained its gentle rotation and movement, slowly but surely creeping towards DS9. It would take days if not weeks for it to be considered close however, so panic was minimal.

The welding tip was white hot, stitching up steel plating which had blown open in the dimensional jump. Electrical components were back in running order. Unfortunately, with the amount of parts salvaged, it was doubtful the station would ever be the same. But stations could always be rebuilt. Piece by piece, this station would be torn apart and repurposed in building droids or other components to create a better station for research. Nexus just hoped that some of the weapons and equipment in the Application wing survived. Even in mid testing, they were quite valuable and efficient in their purpose.
@TheUnknowable

I was sort of half waiting for someone to take notice of the thing plopping into space, or the distress beacon. So if this will open that up for me, I'm more than willing.
The optic port on Nexus dimmed to a waver. The machine had heard the directive from the Captain. Analyzing weak points was a much more difficult job than controlling systems of a ship. One had to discern if power fluctuations were a point of weakness via intensive long-period wear or just rapid use. That being said, even pirates held onto some logs of ship-repairs and the like. Scanning through the frigate it had already partially invaded, Nexus located repair orders. Mitigating more than a handful of cores to begin injecting Nexus' own code into their ships, the progress on total system control was heavily decreased. It would now take twice as long, but Nexus was able to gain insight on all the ships.

"Captain, three ships henceforth known as Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. Interior ship scans state Charlie as the most heavily fortified, however we are in the process of over-riding control to core systems. Direct main fire at Alpha and Bravo. Alpha sustains the most damage, with several bulkheads and airlocks crippled. Bravo misses a structural component - the wing - but remains intact." The machine informed the Captain of what it had found preliminary on the ships, as its own intended purpose for Charlie.

The machine switched its broadcast mode to a more open projection. "Geu'rach, if you read, we are sending locked positional updates on where you are to fire the weapon. With calculated movement projections and weapons spread the shell should strike within the breach of Alpha. Intended purpose is to suffocate remaining members on board or quarantine them to unimportant sections of the ship for later capture; whichever occurs first. Carthus, Bravo reports of multiple weapon repairs in recent times. Their weapons are faulty and/or improperly set. If you must take a hit, attempt to force Bravo into performing it."

The machine paused, checking on the progress of flooding Charlie's mainframe. It had already began working, marginally. The system was slower to respond, with a second of lag to every action. This was incredibly advantageous, but the stress was taking hold on Nexus from extended use mitigating its cores. A deep rumble from within the machine pulsed through the ship. Plates in the robots chest slid out then open to the sides to reveal eight ports, four to each side. Two on either side suddenly began venting steam in long cloud-like burst. The venting ceased after a quick five second burst. The heat had been building up too great to diffuse through the thermoplastic properly.

EDIT: Also, I didn't really mention this in the OP, but Tango is an NPC that can be played by everyone, since he can be literally everywhere at once, so if you need to use him, be my guest!


YEah see I didn't know if this was the case or not and I didn't want to abuse the power of having an AI follow every directive.
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