The EU Probes are the aggressors here. Every bad thing that has occurred is a direct result of their hostile behavior. They probe-napped Andrew and during the rescue THEY are the culprits who shot him. When Gail was attempting to help Andrew it was the EU Probe that threatened to shoot her and was planning to perform salvage operations on our friend. Gail was only acting in self defense when she attacked the EU Probe. Perhaps she went a little overboard and did more damage than necessary, but it was understandable given the circumstances. She had no weapon and without permanently disabling the EU Probe there was no guarantee of her future safety. What needs to be understood is the fact that the EU Probes ARE NOT SENTIENT! They exhibit only pre-programmed responses and are performing the tasks laid out for them by P&H. It is imperative that the original probes ensure their own safety. If this requires that they neutralize ALL of the EU Probes, so be it. If it becomes possible to immobilize the EU Probes and under strict control upload to them the Enhanced AI code that Jose used to give sentience to ‘our’ probes, I think we should encourage that. Somehow Gail needs to understand that without that code the EU Probes are no more alive than the Drones that she thinks so little of.
Now, about Andrew. We have no way of knowing how much of him remains intact on his internal tape backup. It is conceivable that he is indeed ‘gone’ forever. It is also quite possible that the only problem caused by the radiation leak was in reading that information and so he shut down to prevent further damage. That’s what fail-safe technology does. That’s why all equipment has fuses. Once the problem is fixed and you replace the fuse, many times the equipment functions properly again. Perhaps Andrew will have some gaps in his short-term memory but older data that was previously archived will remain intact. All we can do is fire him up and see what happens. I think we should install the thermocouple from the EU Probe on Andrew. The EU Probe won’t need it again, but it will allow Andrew to function at peak efficiency.
With my $0.02 and Dr.Ds $0.02 we’re pushing a nickel real hard!
PEACE-The Final Frontier!
Uncle Bob