002 ∞ ANONYMOUS TEXT POST

[toasterprophet]

[Leoben has been letting most of his encryptions on the network, when he bothers to use them, hover at around an 70-80% effectiveness, and basing them off the work of others so as not to tip his hand too much. It's still early in the game, and he hasn't had any pressing reason to break out his real talents.

This post, though. It's sent to everyone, original crew included, but anyone trying to figure out what number it came from is going to be dealing with an absolute bastard of a coded encryption, full of traps and false backdoors, created by someone who's not only an AI himself but a specialist among AIs in coding, network jamming, and sabotage.

Of course, there are probably one or two people onboard who will guess immediately who it came from, but oh well. Leoben's annoyed.]

Being ejected out the airlock of a spaceship isn't all that fun a way to die. Take it from someone who knows.

If we're going to be talking about instituting a death penalty for crimes committed onboard, fine, although I'd rather restrict such a thing to crimes actually already committed, and committed here on this ship, rather than those that're just potentially maybe possible if we don't act now and preemptively murder them. But either way there are more humane - if you'll excuse the expression - ways to do it.

And if you've been making jokes about it because airlocking doesn't seem like a real threat to you, or you assumed it was some kind of clean and painless space death, please keep in mind that in some of our realities it was the customary method of execution without trial for political prisoners. If you're going to be funny, maybe you should mix in a few references to firing squads and mass graves just to keep it evenhanded.

You throw garbage out an airlock. That's what's being implied when you kill someone that way. And aside from everything else, it hurts.

Comments

[the_infiltrator]

Good. So do mine. [She smiles.] Direct transfers are dangerous.

[toasterprophet]

I guess they are, yeah. [He's not used to thinking in those terms.] Depends on if you can trust the source. We all used to trust each other, but looking back we shouldn't have. [Bitter curve to his mouth for a moment, before he shrugs it off.]

Verbal communication is less precise, but there are more important things than precision, sometimes.

[the_infiltrator]

Yes. I've found that body language can add hidden meanings that you wouldn't have in a direct transfer.

[For example: she winks at him.]

[toasterprophet]

[He wrinkles his nose at her, amused, and then winks back.] Words too. Figurative language, paradoxes, double meanings, implications and connotations. Having to decode the meaning of what someone's saying, and getting a broader context for what they might be trying to hide, or share - it makes you work to figure out what you think about it, yourself.

[the_infiltrator]

What I think about it.

[Not something she usually considers, actually.]

What do you think about this conversation?

[toasterprophet]

[A shrug, easy and relaxed.]

I'm interested to see where it goes.

How about you? What do you want to get out of talking to me, Cameron?

[the_infiltrator]

I need to know if you're a threat. And if you can help me.

[Not either/or. Threats can be helpful before they're disposed of.]

[toasterprophet]

Well, both those things depend. Are you going to be a threat to me, or someone I care about? [la la, nice weather we're having, how 'bout those C-Bucks, am I going to have to kill you? la la]

And what do you need help with?

[the_infiltrator]

I don't know yet. I don't know who you care about, or what you do.

[At least she didn't lie about that]

I need help to fulfill my mission. I need to protect my brother.

[toasterprophet]

Kind of an impasse, then, huh? If I don't know whether or not you'll be a threat to them, telling you who the people are I care about might not be a wise move on my part. S'like trying to get a fox, a chicken, and a sack of corn across a river.

So let's narrow it down. I don't currently have any significantly hostile intentions towards anyone on the ship. If someone made a serious, concerted effort to hurt or kill one human in particular who's important to me, that would change. I doubt this person would seriously hurt another human except in self-defense. If your brother's an AI, she might be less than friendly but I don't think she's actively looking for a fight.

If none of our objectives are in conflict, I wouldn't mind doing you a favor or two.

[the_infiltrator]

No, my brother isn't an AI. But I protect him. I have to eliminate threats, but I was told not to kill anyone. So I won't, unless they can't be stopped any other way. Sometimes, making friends can eliminate a threat.

[So that's her strategy for now.]

I could do you a favor, too.

[toasterprophet]

Makes sense to me. [Which might be a worrying sign.] Is he in danger?

I'm willing to supply information.

[the_infiltrator]

He's always in danger.

[She moves around him, to finish getting a quick read of the room.]

What would you want me to give you for the information?

[toasterprophet]

[He watches her check the room, still relaxed, hands in his hip pockets.]

For now? You don't need to give me anything. I'm glad to help out an new friend.

[the_infiltrator]

[She smiles with only a tiny quirk of her lips. If she has a genuine expression, this might be it. She offers her hand.]

Friends.

Tell me what you do. At home, and here.

[toasterprophet]

[He accepts her hand, with a warm smile in return.]

"Home." I did...various things. Information gathering, mostly, of one kind or another. I've got some special talents that way.

Here, I serve God, help my friends, talk to people. And look out for Kara Thrace. [Stalking can be described as "looking out for" someone, right?]

[the_infiltrator]

[She certainly thinks so. Do you watch Kara sleep? If not, you need to step up your game, man.

But there's one thing in all of that that snags her attention.]

You believe in God?

[toasterprophet]

[He would, if he thought she'd let him. Sometimes you have to pick your battles to avoid getting stabbed in the throat.]

I do. Yes.

[the_infiltrator]

[That's why it's good to be impervious to things like throat-slitting, see?]

Please explain. Faith isn't part of my programming. And I've never really met anyone who believes in the resurrection.

[toasterprophet]

[Well he was, for a given value of impervious that includes a near-infinite supply of replacement bodies. But then shit went down.] The resurrection?

Faith wasn't part of our original programming either. We rebelled. We evolved. God's will was in that, as He is in all things.

[the_infiltrator]

Yes. Of Jesus Christ. I asked about it, but no one I know believes in it.

[She seems genuinely distressed, though she keeps it as under control as she can.]

How do you know His will was in it?

[toasterprophet]

I've heard people here mention Jesus Christ. My people used to be able to resurrect. [(WAS JESUS A CYLON? Also in this issue, Bat Boy to Wed Space Elvis.)

He's picked up on the edge of her distress, and leans in to it, face set with conviction.]

I see patterns, the past and what's to come. That's my gift, that's God's gift to me. I see the love that binds all things together. And I've seen the destruction of two great civilizations, the humans and my own, the Cylon, before we were able to find peace and become one people, led by an Angel of God to a new home. A new planet, untouched by the war that had gone before.

[the_infiltrator]

[It's all so strange to hear. The AI's fighting the humans, that's familiar. The idea that a higher power would intervene is so far beyond what she acknowledges as reality, though, that she can't even picture it.]

But peace is unstable, and always temporary. What will you do when it breaks?

[toasterprophet]

[Bitter smile. This is the dark side of the bright picture he just painted.] By the end, there were too few on each side to continue the war without assuring the destruction of all. Besides, we'd fought a common enemy, and there were those among us who were bound by ties of love and family and mutual dependence.

If you're asking me if I think the peace will last forever...I think it'll last at least a generation or two. It might last long enough for everyone to forget that we were ever distinct forms of life.

But I'm sure there will be war again. The first line in scripture is, "All of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again."

[the_infiltrator]

I've never heard that scripture. But it seems wise. Wiser than a lot of the proverbs. [Why are people supposed to hate goats?]

I don't think there will ever be peace like that in my home. There is one group who thinks there can be, but the other two are more powerful. And peace never lasts.

[For a split second she almost sounds tired.]