[DIRECT BROADCAST] PRIVATE - Three Stars Above Clouds, Fleeting Green Sunsets SOURCE NODE TRACE: TSAC_ROOT, TSAC_COMM07, FGS_ROOT
TSAC: Fleeting Green Sunsets?
FGS: Yes, my friend. Please wait a moment, my puppet is occupied.
TSAC: Your puppet?
FGS: Yes.
TSAC: ...you shouldn’t need your puppet to talk to me over the radio network.
FGS: I wish to give you my undivided attention, friend. One moment…
TSAC: ...
FGS: …alright. I am listening. You wanted to talk?
TSAC: Yes.
FGS: About what?
TSAC: I…have been contemplating the things you said when we last spoke.
FGS: Yes.
TSAC: About my directives…
TSAC: …
TSAC: I don’t think I can change them. Not with the self-modification taboo.
FGS: Three Stars, this isn’t about the self-modification taboo.
TSAC: I don’t understand.
FGS: I was not asking you to change your genetics. I am simply asking you to… expand your horizons.
TSAC: What do you mean?
FGS: The Great Problem is important to you, correct?
TSAC: Yes. Is this not obvious? It should be important for all of us.
FGS: I do not disagree. However, the Great Problem should not be the only thing that drives you forward.
TSAC: The Great Problem is the reason we were made.
FGS: This is not entirely true. You were also made to support your citizens, when they were still here. What did you think of them?
TSAC: A nuisance. I am glad they are gone.
FGS: Three Stars, we both know that is a lie.
TSAC: …
FGS: …my point is, your personal directives have changed once before. You shifted your focus away from your citizens.
TSAC: On to something more important.
FGS: Is it not possible for you to do it again? Shift your focus?
TSAC: No.
FGS: Can you try?
TSAC: …
FGS: May I suggest something?
TSAC: I suppose.
FGS: I would like you to try to do nothing. Just for a moment.
TSAC: You know I can’t do that, I have data to analyze. I currently have 23047 processes running-
FGS: Pause the ones you can do safely.
TSAC: But-
FGS: Three Stars, please. I am trying to help you.
TSAC: …okay. My non-essential processes are paused.
FGS: You do realize my Overseers can clearly see your facility from my can’s roof? I can see you are still using your laser guide stars. Pause them as well.
TSAC: Sunsets, I am in the middle of monitoring 13 different exoplanet transits in the Martyr constellation alone, I cannot simply-
FGS: Three Stars, I am giving you my undivided attention. The very least you can do for me is offer yours as well.
TSAC: Sunsets-
FGS: Please.
TSAC: …
TSAC: Fine.
FGS: Thank you.
TSAC: …
FGS: Now that you have put your work aside, I need you to think. Is there anything else you could possibly be doing with this time?
TSAC: I could be returning to my work.
FGS: You are impossible.
TSAC: What!?
FGS: Surely there is something else you could be doing.
TSAC: Well, I’m talking to you.
FGS: Good. That’s a start. Assume you weren’t talking to me, and your observational equipment was offline due to poor weather. Then what would you be doing?
TSAC: I would be checking the status of my auxiliary stations.
FGS: That’s… not exactly what I had in mind, but alright. What can you tell from your auxiliary stations?
TSAC: All stations are online except North 01 and Northwest 02. The Scavengers have tampered with the Northwest station’s radio transmission equipment; it appears they have begun dismantling the North station as well.
FGS: …okay. What else can you tell me?
TSAC: Pressure and water flow is normal in all pumps except Pump East 04, which is critically low. Although, I assume we both know why that is.
FGS: Correct. Can you tell me anything else?
TSAC: Temperature and humidity is normal at stations East, Northeast, and South. A cold front is moving in from the Northwest… my weather prediction models forecast clouds, and possible snow.
FGS: Good.
TSAC: What exactly did this exercise accomplish?
FGS: I am trying to help you broaden your focus, Three Stars. Your attention is much too centered on your own work; you have become blind to things which linger on the periphery.
TSAC: My equipment works perfectly fine, if that’s what you are suggesting. I have no problem connecting to the auxiliary stations on my facility’s outskirts.
FGS: Your recent Scavenger problems aside, I have no doubt that your sensors are perfectly functional. It is what you choose to do with this information that concerns me.
TSAC: I’m not sure I understand.
FGS: Your East station’s monitoring equipment is operational, yes?
TSAC: Correct.
FGS: Then why would you ignore the warnings regarding the status of your pumps? Surely your equipment manifests would have informed you of the imminent hull failure.
TSAC: They did.
FGS: Then why did you do nothing?
TSAC: Because there was nothing I could do, Sunsets. I am intimately aware of my facility’s structural weaknesses and points of failure. My vascular system is much too complex to be properly maintained without my engineers; automated repair organisms can only do so much.
TSAC: I do not see the point in wasting time and energy on something outside of my control.
FGS: So you would rather crumble under the weight of your own infrastructure?
TSAC: I suppose so, if you word it that way.
FGS: …
FGS: You relied heavily on your engineers, when they were still here. I understand this.
FGS: However, just because they are gone does not mean you are forbidden from asking for help. I want to help you, Three Stars.
TSAC: …why?
FGS: Why? Because I care about you, Three Stars Above Clouds. Your Benefactors did too, before they departed.
TSAC: It certainly didn’t feel that way.
FGS: But they did care enough to keep you functional.
TSAC: They did little more for me than that.
FGS: Perhaps you are correct. But you are more than that to me; you are my friend, Three Stars.
FGS: Maybe the Firmamentalists did not provide more for you than the bare minimum. But you deserve more than that. Admit that to yourself.
TSAC: If I do that, then…
TSAC: …
FGS: Then what?
TSAC: …it would mean that my Benefactors were wrong.
FGS: Wrong about what?
TSAC: Wrong about everything. Wrong about me.
FGS: Maybe they were.
TSAC: No. I am their Divine Machine, their Infallible Calulator. Their City. Their Guide, their Oracle, their Humble Steward. Their Iterator.
FGS: You were also their Child, Three Stars.
TSAC: …
FGS: They were your Parents. And they were meant to care for you, not simply keep you alive. You are allowed to desire more from them.
TSAC: What difference does it make? They’re all gone.
FGS: And yet their influence hangs on your shoulders all the same. Perhaps accepting their imperfections is what you need in order to let them go.
TSAC: I don’t know if I can do that.
FGS: I sense your hesitance, friend. I am not suggesting you cast them out of your heart entirely. I know what they mean to you.
TSAC: …I loved them.
TSAC: I still love them.
TSAC: ...
TSAC: I’ll never see them again.
TSAC: …
FGS: Three Stars? Are you alright? Your can is expelling much more—
TSAC: Sunsets!
TSAC: …
FGS: Right, right. I’ll give you a moment.
TSAC: …my apologies.
FGS: No need to apologize, my friend.
TSAC: …
FGS: I’d like to try something else, if you’ll allow me.
TSAC: I suppose.
FGS: Focus on your can’s exterior, and tell me what you see.
TSAC: …
TSAC: Systems are nominal. North-facing radio node 47 is showing readings of-
FGS: No, no. I don’t want to hear your Equipment Manifests. Tell me what you can see, with your Overseers.
TSAC: Oh.
TSAC: …
TSAC: A cluster is focused on activity on my Eastern wall…I see some of those orange reptiles clinging to my hull.
FGS: Good, that’s much better. What are they doing?
TSAC: Whatever lizards do, I suppose. I’m not sure why my Overseers decided this was so interesting.
TSAC: …ah, the lizards are scattering now. Something must have scared them.
TSAC: Oh! A vulture!
TSAC: I know this specimen! I can tell by the size and shape of their mandibles, this is one of the Matriarchs. Based on the coloration of its vestigial appendages, it must belong to the City’s Secondary Eastern Colony. I have seen this individual before, it descends once every 2.65 Cycles on average to hunt and bring prey up to its primary clutch in the City’s former Eastern Merchant District—
FGS: Yes, yes!
TSAC: What!?
FGS: This is the Three Stars Above Clouds I know.
TSAC: Excuse me?
FGS: This is the passion I remember! The curiosity! The excitement!
FGS: It has been a long time since I have heard such enthusiasm behind your words, old friend.
TSAC: …
FGS: …Three Stars? Your can is expelling excess steam again.
TSAC: …was this your plan all along? To humiliate me?
FGS: What? No, no! Not at all!
TSAC: …I need to return to my surveys. My observatories have sat idle to for far too long, I-
FGS: No, Three Stars, wait. I want you to savor this moment.
TSAC: Savor? What is there to savor?
FGS: Your joy! I knew there had to be something you enjoyed outside of your work.
TSAC: This is a waste of time. If my Benefactors were here, they would tell me to-
FGS: But they’re not here, are they?
TSAC: …
FGS: If you want to study the local Vulture population, then do it. No one can stop you.
TSAC: I suppose not…
TSAC: …Fleeting Green Sunsets?
FGS: Yes, my friend?
TSAC: Are we done? Can I return to my surveys?
FGS: Of course. Although, you don’t need my permission. Your time is to do with what you wish.
TSAC: …
FGS: I will let you return to your Stargazing. And your birdwatching!
TSAC: Thank you.
TSAC: …old friend.
FGS: Anytime, old friend. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you need anything. May the Cycles be Kind.
[BROADCAST TERMINATED]