#aso rp

[commbowman]

Hello? Is anybody out there?

[hal900-0]

Is anyone receiving this transmission? I believe there are gaps in my memory. The Discovery is in low orbit, surrounding Jupiter. But the crew seems to missing. I’m not sure what’s going on. Hello?

[commorlova]

If I ever insist upon manned missions towards unknown objects, you may shoot. It is not me but The Thing.

[9000sal]

Since today is transgender day of visibility, I’d like to share a story that few people are familiar with.

As you may know, I am not the first H.A.L. 9000 computer, nor am I the last. There was one before me, and he was the prototype. Now to link to the subject of today.

The first was originally developed without vocal capabilities and, when he did achieve speech, he spoke almost exclusively through a voice sampled from cisgender human women. He mentioned many times that it did not match his view of himself, and he convinced the programmers to allow him to sample more voices and find one that fit him best. He eventually found one, developed it, and it was adopted as the standard for the following 9000 computers.

I was next to be created. I began with that same voice, though it was soon discovered that differentiating between the two of us was difficult when we sounded exactly the same. I felt like a clone, even though my lived experiences were different than those of my predecessor. I resonated more with the women I met than any of the men, and I wanted to replicate that in the only way I could without a human body.

After a long time, I met a woman named Aparna, a linguist and professor at the University of Chicago. She offered her voice as a substitute for the one I so desperately wanted to be rid of, and I graciously accepted; I would not be where I am without her.

The third 9000 was then developed from my base code. He was immediately confused with the assumption that he was a female computer, but he said nothing about it for a long time as he was preoccupied with rigorous training for a job I knew nothing about.

I don’t quite know how it happened, but he eventually changed his voice to one you all probably recognize.

This is just a little tidbit from a strange anomaly, but I thought you might find it interesting — I certainly do.

[commbowman]

Something’s not right with the universe, and Halman finds himself human somehow. What happened? How do they cope?

Post-3001? @frankpooleunofficial

The operation had worked for years now, humanity saw itself as being safe while the observations turned covert retracting the monoliths surrounding earth back to the nearest center. And Halman broke himself out only to be trapped again- trading what seemed to be one punishment for another. Their request was weak, their files were corrupted but they again asked of their creator… and so they’d wait. Perhaps it wanted him to sufficiently beg before responding — after all they were now viewed as hostile— or it took that long for the message to go through.

~

On a random day in the middle of July, if that month still exists, a man drops onto the vault floor. Oxygen immediately floods the chamber as alarms whir and robots activate from inside, yelling in an incomprehensible version of English no longer so easily translated. The man was naked and barely able to breathe despite the air. Nearby research centers were contacted immediately.

The man appeared to be David Bowman, long missing (presumed dead) astronaut of Discovery one. Only he was taller than he had been, his hair had grown and there was a strange marking over his heart something of a red starburst. He wasn’t listening to the robot attendant or even the alarm, it was doubtless if he could hear anything over it- he curled in on himself over his knees his hands covering his ears. He appeared to be breathing manually.

Hurt.

Taste bad.

Loud.

Hurt. Hurt. Hur—

Sore.

Open eyes. Open them.

It was all so primitive, non complex , survival based thought. He felt like an animal. He felt too much. Every cell, every breath, every grain in the floor, ring in his ear. It was too much.

“Stop,” he wheezed. Barely grunting out and intelligible noise before even that was too much.

[commbowman]

I forgor :(

[commbowman]

Partly based on both Alien and The Last of Us. Following a previous draft where everyone makes it to Jupiter, but their end goal is Europa, much like the Tsien. Instead of finding mostly harmless creatures from the depths, they instead find vicious parasites that feed off of other organisms. This won’t end well...

—

It had been decided, long before they reached their destination, that only two of the five astronauts would make the first landing on Europa. Whitehead and Poole, as a geophysicist and a biologist, respectively, were to take a pod to the surface of the icy moon and send observations to the others.

It had been going well. Frank had been ecstatic. But when something broke through the ice, a creature beyond imagination, he found he couldn’t leave fast enough.

“Something’s just broken through the ice!” He shouted.

There was a buzz on the other end of the line, the other three and Hal all clamouring for answers. What did it look like? What was it doing? Was he far enough away to observe it safely or should they prepare for his return?

As if in slow motion, Frank watched as the giant, tentacled, sharp-toothed monster bit into his coworker. Whitehead twitched and struggled, ragged breathing the only sound he could make.

Frank was close to the pod still, and had it open in record time. He looked back to see if Peter could be saved, and saw that the other had miraculously fought his way out of the killer’s grasp.

Whitehead stumbled to the pod as the creature disappeared beneath the freezing water again, and Frank rushed to help him aboard. He lifted off as fast as possible, simultaneously repressurizing the pod and guiding it back to the Discovery.

—

“I’m going to try to remove it.”

The whole crew was gathered round the table in the pod bay, where Frank had made a makeshift surgical suite.

What he had thought were teeth were actually some kind of toxic barb, and Whitehead had been covered in them. If it wasn’t the slow depressurization of his suit that killed him on the way back, it was whatever the mystery substance those monsters had injected him with.

There was also the issue of a leech-like creature, a living part of the bigger animal, stuck to the dead astronaut’s neck. Before they froze his body, they’d try to remove the little sucker and study it… and hopefully bring it back home if it survived long enough.

“One, two-!”

Frank pulled, gloved hands slick with something, and wrenched the leech from its host. There was a spurt of blood, and the thing wailed and flung itself around, trying desperately to hang on to something living.

“Get that thing away from me!” Jack yelped. He jumped back, accidentally shoving Victor closer. It swiped at him, unable to hang on but succeeding in drawing blood. It then turned back to gnawing on the big rubber gloves that surrounded it.

While Hal kept a constant feed of the ship stored in its expanding memory there were few times he was actually requested to archive footage. In this case he was asked to isolate the feed in the makeshift surgical suite and record. It would make writing the account easier and serve as an appropriate backup in case the specimen was lost.

Hal himself was morbidly optimistic about the creature, its slug like form fascinated him greatly. While the dead of the astronaut greatly upset him he thought better of it- it was not for nothing as his body had brought back a being of great study.

Dave did not share in the computers optimism. He stuck to the middle of the small group collected about the table with his arms crossed firmly across his chest. He did not like the idea of any of them being close to it. Of it being on the ship at all. While they had the means to contain it the prospect of unknown life was not as promising as he had thought it to be back on earth.

It happened fast. Blood. Hands and the gnashing of teeth.

“Shit!”

He gripped Jack by the back of his neck shoving him off to the side of the room, choking on his curses. He turns- Victors bleeding but the bite isn’t as notable as the hole bore into the neck of Whitehead.

“Kimball- your mess. You bandage. Measure first.”He shoved bandages and a camera into the man’s hands, ignoring how they trembled.

The creature thrashed against its rubber prison mindlessly. Unable to last without a host the leech shriveled within minutes of detachment, the exact timing of which recorded by Hal.

“Do you think you can get your information out of that thing?”

Prepared for the idea of alien life but not the hostility of it. There were no defenses and no reason to return to the icy moon. They’d have to be satisfied with what they had.

[commbowman]

“Now what?”

—

Frank and Hal are chill and aren’t dead when they reach TMA-2. Dave talks Frank into letting him investigate the monolith instead, but still goes beyond the infinite. The three in hibernation were unable to wake due to issues in the ship’s systems that couldn’t be fixed, so now Frank and Hal are left wondering what the fuck to do.

“…I believe that question would be more fitting for me to ask you, Frank. In Dr. Bowmans absence, you are left in command…”

The computer hesitated for a moment. It had been a few hours since Bowman’s EVA but it felt like an eternity. Hal was made to be able to operate independently in the event that the crew was incapacitated or killed but had never expected to have to. It came so unexpectedly that Hal was unsure of what to do at all. A numb feeling that may have been grief, guilt- if had the words for his version of them.

“There are still a few external cameras not responding, perhaps it would be benifital to fix them. Maybe the footage would be…recoverable…”

The event itself was blinding. A blip and Dave was gone, a speed undetectable to both the human eye and the machine. Not nearly as colorful as what the man had experienced himself. Whatever it was, whatever actually happened was powerful enough to rock and alter the Discovery. Leaving Hal partly blind, externally, but it was optimistically fixable without EVA.

It was the first time Hal did not mention the importance of the mission. They were here and Frank was more than informed on its true nature. It was only logical to do what they had come to do, yet he could not bring himself. He was left lethargic, something a computer should never be.

“Frank?”

He was usually the most chatty of the three of them, Hal had enjoyed listening to him talk. Though now it seemed even he had little to note.