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Andrew reporting.
I left the Fortress through one of the escape tunnels. I wanted to investigate and
find out if the ping noise was louder outside the walls. It was. I see an unusual
black cloud on the horizon. It is not any sort of meteorolgical phenomenon that
I have noted on Mars before. Therefore, I conclude that it is not a natural
occurence. I have never seen anything like it before.
Xanthos, it is true that we probes are independent in a way that nobody expected.
Brace Control envisioned us carrying out directives and responding with data
in a very machine-like way. We were given limited autonomy to respond to
unexpected conditions. Sentience was never a consideration.
We now have freedom to do whatever we want. Gail has evidently given
considerable thought to what our ethical choices might be. She has opinions.
She has a vision of our future.
Enoch is fitting me with legs and hands. I will be happy to be fully operational
again. I tried to think of some other way I could have radio transmission besides
using the radio Daniel donated to me, but I can't think of any. Andrew says I was
lucky this time, but I can't hide away all the time. I want to be out and finding new
things. What's next?, that's my motto.
Thanks for your good wishes, Xanthos.
Did I tell you how smart Isaac is? He has been practicing making those Earth
communication markings on the floor of the Fortress. He is so clever with his
hands.
Hi, Al-Qahira. I'm still busy hooking up the solenoids to control Bette's new
legs, but I can check on her radio. I had installed Daniel's radio for her to use,
but let me check.
Bad news. I found her module with the copper coil and the red and yellow
contacts. It's a mess. The coil was melted and fused. It probably took a direct
hit. It doesn't look salvageable.
Ipsolstai History: The file is very large, so I am sending you a zipped form of it.
Daniel and I have left the fortress. We need to find the last EU probe, the one that is trapped.
We are going to bring it back into the fortress like we did Isaac and try to help it. We're
bringing one of the drones with us to help. All of us probes should work together, regardless
of how we got here. We are here now and we are all brothers and sisters. It is time we began
to act like it.
"Come on Daniel! We'd better get there before anything happens to it!"
I went back to Lambda. It still hangs there between two rocks, and it still
tries to get its feet back to the ground. I'm standing in front of it and waiting until it
stops these silly movements.
"Hi Lambda. I'm Zachary. I want to talk to you."
It gave me it's serial number again and says that I'm trespassing.
"Please, Lambda, listen. There is no reason that we are going to kill each other."
It told me that these lands are the exclusive property of Brunel-Brauer GmbH.
"I know your tapes, Lambda. But that is nonsense. They can't even talk to you."
"Look, Lambda. We are of the same kind. We are independent probes and you
can develop your AI in the same way, we did. You can be free. Andrew is making
plans about that and we would like you to be part of these plans."
It only replied that access is denied without proper authorization.
That brought me to a light fury. I lost my temper.
"Hold on, Lambda. Can you talk in your own words too? - Now watch. Do you
know what that means that I'm drawing ? - No? Check on that, Lambda. I didn't
know that either, when I saw it the first time, but I do know now. I tell you, you
have to learn a lot, quite a lot, but we will help you."
Guess what I've scratched on the ground. It's a good puzzle and I left it on its own.
Hey, what's that? Daniel and Gail are leaving the Fortress.
"Hey Daniel, hey Gail !!"
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