week 11; friday; luke's room

[antietam]

[ Right after everyone's done talking about the zombies, Adam and Luke return to their room. Adam is wild-eyed and feeling intense guilt after planning to kill someone—which would have effectively killed Ronan and Annabeth. ]

We need answers. Now. This can't be all. [ It can't be the Pygmalion or Nuwa. He wants to live but he can't be responsible for Ronan dying. He waits for any sort of confirmation from Luke, then goes to the statue of River in their room. ]

River. Please. We need to talk.

Comments

[antietam]

Not to mention, he's secretive, but he definitely knows more than we do. He knows more than River does. At this point, I think he's at least managed to narrow down some people. He's trusted a group with this information and is still alive, which suggests that none of them are Souvlaki or he would have died last week. So we have leads and—yeah, we've lost a lot of people to them but each one who's killed has been found and eradicated.

Luke is right. River is our best chance here but we're working with a handicap in place. And—none of us want to die. It's a Souvlaki thing and a human thing. We understand that not purging us will keep us trapped in here with them, but it'd still be isolated, right? There's no reason why your ship has to be involved.

[al2955]

River's database were blocked by Perkins because if they weren't, she would have automatically purged everyone the second she recognized exactly what the intruders were on your ship. Exactly like what's happening now.

No need to be coy, I'm aware of exactly who you're referring to. So what exactly are you asking me to do here? As I said, my parameters are locked. The motive's already been set and programmed in - I can't avoid the ramifications of it. And if it isn't obvious already, River's programming is much more simplistic than mine. If I can't get out of it, she certainly doesn't have the capacity to.

[chiseler]

[On the one hand, at least he looks a little sheepish with that.] Sorry. I'm still kind of getting used to how you guys operate. We weren't sure just how much you knew about the Pygmalion and the roles we have and everything.

[He pauses though, sharing a look with Adam to try and find some footing in the conversation. Part of him thinks that at least they have the AI's attention and curiosity, otherwise she could have told them to fuck off a while ago. On the other hand, he has to wonder how far they can push this. So...he thinks quietly for a moment.]

I'm still not too clear why two projects are running at the same time when killing wasn't meant to be the objective of the Cradle Project. We know that part. And I get what it's like to have something set in stone and be unavoidable, but that doesn't mean you can't make some changes along the way. I--[He finally settles for leaning against his desk facing the AI, folding his arms over his chest and closing his eyes a bit.] You've got some of the most incredible people on the Nuwa. You put on the immunity. I think you have the power to take it back off. Have you directly asked your new crew what they would like to do?

[Those are important, but also:] River put us in connection with you this time. And Adam made a point. Jack trusted a group of people with this information and if one of us were an alien we would've already killed him. I've known for almost two weeks, Adam's known for a week. Thursday nights and Friday mornings are usually our killing days around here, so since we haven't really had a chance to do that yet I want to ask you to trust us a little bit. River put us in contact with you. Maybe she can do it again so we can report back to you about what happens on this ship so you can save your crew before it's too late no matter what the outcome is here.

[antietam]

Maybe they're set, but the motives on both ships conflict. You said you told your crew that if neither ship killed, both ships would survive. Here we were told that both ships would be purged if neither ship killed. So if none of us killed—what would happen? These motives can't both be fulfilled, right?

[ Maybe? He looks at Luke helplessly. They're definitely failing here and it's stressful. Sunny take pity. ] Putting on immunity has already messed with one part of our motive, anyway. If both ships had a kill, we were told we'd all continue. The immunity wasn't part of your motive, right? Like Luke said, you can take that off. All we want is something to make both the motives on the ships work.

[al2955]

I can't. More than that, I don't want to. Your ship should have been purged the second those damn aliens were discovered, and the fact that we're offering you all a chance to survive at all is already more than enough. River's trying her best to protect her charges, and I'm doing the same. Your very existence poses a risk to the Nuwa, and if keeping them completely safe from infiltration means jettisoning you out into space and starting the entire Project from scratch, then that's a price I'm willing to pay.

But I'll make you a deal. I can't do anything about Alice purging you all if no one kills on the Pygmalion, and I'm not going to lift the immunity. But maybe if you manage to execute an alien this week, you can get back in contact with me and we can talk about a third option. Use the override if you can't get River to do it - the code's Dr. Lin Earth CHINA119348. Don't share this offer with the rest of the ship - besides, you two seem intelligent enough to handle it on your own, don't you?

Until we meet again, Luke Castellan, Adam Parrish.

[The clouds fade away, replaced by Alice's usual water.]