voice;

[2leftfeet]

[As per usual, 'to the point' is the name of the game:]

Scuttlebutt travels fast so I'm not going to bother with the 'Good news, everyone, we're all alive' part, but I will follow up on my previous report. Fifteen minutes prior to the jump, the doors on the bridge opened on their own and the words 'time to go' in red appeared over the door. From what I can determine, the message was apparently visible to all sixteen people present at the time.

I can't say if Smiley was responsible for sealing us on the bridge in the first place, but I suspect it was involved with getting us out. If the hallucinations are something triggered by the nanotech [--because that seems more likely than everyone going the same kind of crazy at the same time, current anomalies included--], it seems like a given that the two are somehow networked. I can't speak for everyone else, but the appearance of the writing was consistent with some of the other things I saw while on the bridge.

[A beat.]

If anyone has additional information on Smiley that isn't readily available on the comm, I'd appreciate a debrief.

Comments

[outliver]

Smiley?

[ This seems relevant. ]

[2leftfeet]

[Ah. Fresh meat.]

Someone or something - personally, my money's on a rogue AI. It spends a lot of time being cryptic and jerking people around on the comm.

[outliver]

Are we really stuck in a ship with a freaking insane computer program?

Can't you just run an antivirus and be done with it?

[2leftfeet]

[She snorts - an abrupt, amused sound.]

Unfortunately, I don't think we have administrative privileges on the network.

[outliver]

Is this Smiley thing keeping us alive? Because we should totally throw water in a control panel or something, see how it likes it.

[ Or make a deal with it, Katherine is definitely making a deal with it. ]

voice;

[cargojet]

Your clearheaded reports in regard to this subject have been invaluable, Shepard. Thank you.

If I might offer some advice, it can be easy to start connecting dots in all sorts of ways. While the paintings and the text were very clearly linked, I don't think there's any reason to connect them with the aging of the bridge around us.

The nanotechnology and the message, though--I think they are linked. Inexorably.

[2leftfeet]

We're not in disagreement. I'm not an expert with any of this [though no one is, so she probably doesn't even need to qualify the statement in the first place], but the aging of the bridge is probably more closely related to the same time and space fluctuations that are dragging us all here to begin with.

[And that's enough theorizing on that point, because does she look like an expert in quantum mechanics?]

I'm also not prepared to say Smiley is helping us or that it didn't have something to do with sealing us on the bridge in the first place, but it did get the doors open.

[cargojet]

I agree with that point. It hasn't been the only observation of...disruption through space and time that we've seen on this ship. Black holes that link one area of the ship and another, distortions of time for those who happen to step inside certain rooms, and what we experience in the corridors is not unlike what we experienced on the bridge, almost as though we were literally not experiencing time in the same way as everyone else.

[ And there's the room that he'd been told about elsewhere: the Forever room. Nathan knows a great deal about the ship now, but only half of it is anything he dares to say out loud. ]

The 'rescue' closely describes what happened to those who visited the Strela outpost. A message from Smiley, and an open door that wasn't an open door before. The way it's been described to me, that message probably didn't exist above the door; it was as much a hallucination as the paintings.

They're what we needed to see when we were in there. Those paintings, as awful as they are, are the only other 'help' we were being offered. I don't believe the intention was to unhinge us. It clearly could have done a great deal worse.

[2leftfeet]

They definitely seem more like a warning than something meant to scare us.

[Though she's about as ready to suggest that Smiley is benign (or positive) as she is to shoot herself in the foot.]

text. private.

[battlesleep]

[ EXCUSE YOU ]

Why were you trapped on the bridge?

text, talilock aka super encryption thx tali;

[2leftfeet]

We took the bridge, tried to get access to the ship's controls etc and the doors sealed on us. The system had us locked out anyway, so we didn't get much return.

[And almost died for the sake of jack shit, but hey who's counting.]

text, talilock aka tali is the best

[battlesleep]

And this apparent AI / virus seems to have been involved in your imprisonment in some form?

[2leftfeet]

I don't know if it was involved with sealing the door, but it was definitely responsible for opening it and getting us off the bridge in time to make the jump.

voice;

[skjalf]

I beg your pardon, madam. But who is 'Smiley'?

Voice;

[2leftfeet]

Someone or something on the ship. My bet's on 'thing.'

Voice;

[skjalf]

What manner of 'thing' do you believe it to be?

[ she is trying not to be too alarmed by the sound of that. ]

[2leftfeet]

A ghost in the machine, an artificial intelligence - if Smiley had a body at some point, I don't think it has much of one left now.

voice »

[unparental]

He's not worth wasting any attention on, personally speaking.

[ jenna hates smiley, news at eleven. ]

You can't get screwed with if you don't let him talk to you.

voice;

[2leftfeet]

I don't know if you've noticed, but everyone's getting screwed with. If I'm getting off this ship, I want to know who's on my side.

voice;

[unparental]

Not that stupid thing. Trust me, personal experience and none of it's good.

[2leftfeet]

You'll have to be more specific than that. As far as I've seen, Smiley spouts a bunch of cryptic bullshit and opens locked doors.

audio

[dashhole]

Yeah, he pulled the same thing back on that station.

voice;

[2leftfeet]

The Strela, right? I wasn't there. Can you give me any details?

[dashhole]

Nothin' much. A couple months ago--

[He breaks off with a grunt.] About a year and a half ago we stopped on a station and got off to get supplies. Everybody was weird, man, like "Invasion a'the Body Snatchers" weird, right? Just walking around like zombies.

I got copped and thrown in a cell, and they start doing this thing, don't ask me what but it felt like they were crushin' my freakin' head. You couldn't even pass out.

Dunno how long I was there, but when the pain stopped there were red words written on the wall and the door was open a crack, so I got the hell outta there. Busted up a couple heads on the way.

[2leftfeet]

And the Tranquility stopped at the station seemingly on its own? Or was Ward still supposed to be calling the shots then?