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Andrew reporting.
...we have not received any messages from Mars for two weeks now. Al Qahira, are
you still on duty? If you are on one of those vacations that humans seem to require,
wasn't someone assigned to cover while you were gone?
All of this is pointless speculation on my...
...(static)...
...trying to convince Bette is like trying to...
...(static)...
...nevertheless, something is very wrong. I am going to reexamine the compartment
accessing the ship's computer. There must be some evidence, some indication of what
happened to Isaac during...
...(static)...
...spends all of his time with Daniel, now. He seems different, more distant, not
the trusting young probe that...
...(static)...
...and Andrew is very insistent. He says that something bad happened to Isaac,
something we don't understand, when he was inside the compartment trying to fix
the ship's computer.
...now have access to the communication logs. I still don't understand why a rescue
ship came if no message for help was sent. When the Ipsolstai removed Nelson
and Commander Perry and the others, we were ignored, just like we were pieces of
equipment...
...(static)...
...(static)...
...now understands.
Vast, unique and incomparable.
It is good to have companions on a journey.
...(static)...
Thanks for information, Dr.D. No problem. Computer systems do that sometimes.
Therefore, Probes have all significant systems in triplicate. DrD, what's
a boo boo? Concerning Andrew and Bette, Al-Qahira said that their ship is captured
in a field of very strong energy that interferes with their transmissions and
is making those static noises. Is that a boo boo, Dr.D? Did that happen to Mars
too, when we were offline yesterday?
"Elder Brother, is it on Mars?"
He said no. Dr.D, EB identified it within nine questions. He said that ashes belong
to ashes, and therefore I should put glass to glasses. Guess what. I agreed, and
so he won. He did fine, though he needed 150% more questions than I did. Koala,
I didn't say one word about that but told him that he was quite good. So he
started a new Twenty Questions game.
Do you know what? We were offline for a long time until Jose started to talk to
us. Then it was quiet again for a while, and then our Earth friends came in. That was
good. If connection broke again, and if it maybe will be gone for ever, then
there is one thing remaining as a memory of our Earth friends as long as
our power supplies will work. And that is the Twenty Questions game. Thanks
a lot for that, JASE.
Hi, JASE. You convinced me not to give Miss Chang my control codes after all.
It was a possibility, and I only wanted to help poor Hamlet in some way. Now we
all have to think of some other way to help him. It would be easier if we probes
were on Earth with you. Then we could just send Gen or some strong robot to break
him out. Do you have any robots you could use? How much time do we have? What
is Hamlet's tolerance for testing to failure?
Andrew did so fix our control codes. We have an override, so we can choose not
to obey like some robot slave. The codes are still present, but Andrew built a
work-around for us. If I did give Miss Chang my codes in exchange for Hamlet's
freedom, I would be ethically obligated to keep my part of the bargain and allow
myself to be directed by those codes.
I asked Miss Chang if Hamlet wanted to talk to me. She said no, he didn't, not
right now, he was a little busy.
Not much, Hardon, not much.
Yeah, and they pay him for it, too.
JASE, Theresa made an interesting comment when we were discussing sentience
and responsibility. She said that Extreme Sanction was just like what happened to
us probes before you started talking to us, and we didn't even do anything wrong.
We worried a little yesterday that our transmissions were shielded by a rock
formation again. So I entered the vehicle to get back to Mao and Gen to check
about the relay.
I had passed the shaft already, and I was deep inside that forest of cloth when Dr.D's
message came in. Don't mind, Dr.D. Troubles are the daily bread of a programmer,
aren't they? What's a day of radio silence compared to that? It's nothing,
I tell you.
I hope that I didn't misunderstand anything. It should be a compliment to all that effort Dr.D
is contributing to us. If I was totally wrong, can anyone tell him?
Koala, I used that extra ride time to check for debris on the bottom below the shaft.
If someone broke through above, there should be some. Sorry, I couldn't learn anything
about that. The stream of bubbles is too strong to get close. The vehicle refused
to descend. So I tried approaching from one side. Except for the powerful strings of
bubbles that come directly out of the rocky bottom I couldn't see anything
special. But as I said, no information about its center.
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