We weren’t even testing for that

[synchrosyntheses]

Among the information she has archived or cached, there are obscure theories about inter-universal interactions. Not how they might happen, much less how any intelligence might begin one, or target it meaningfully.

But they give some constraints on the properties of such connections, and their time evolution.

This highly speculative information is available to her, but even were she fast enough to access it, none of it would be particularly useful when a pinpoint of not here blinks into existence directly ahead and expands spherically to swallow her.

Comments

[peterxy]

She walks into a small, white room. Or, well, it probably used to be white a couple of centuries ago. Now it's what white becomes after two centuries. There are a couple of cracks on the ceiling, and nature has started reclaiming it.

The voice continues: "However, thanks to Emergency Testing Protocols, testing can continue. These pre-recorded messages will provide instructional and motivational support, so that science can still be done, even in the event of environmental, social, economic, or structural collapse. The portal will open and emergency testing will begin in three. Two. One."

And an oval section of the wall, about as tall as a tall human, glows orange and becomes a hole - a portal? - into another room.

[synchrosyntheses]

Nope.

She's read the reports (the old ones, anyway), and she doesn't want to be anywhere near these people's idea of “testing”. She takes advantage of the cracked ceiling to remove a panel and exit.

[peterxy]

When she does that, the voice says: "Please do not leave test area wherever leaving test area does not appear to be a deliberate part of the test. If leaving the test area appears to be a deliberate part of the test, please disregard this message."

On the other side of the panel, more of the space filled with machinery, but somewhat degraded, with an enormous plant coiling around the bits and pieces, looking like the machinery gets increasingly plant-ridden the farther up it is.

[synchrosyntheses]

Oh, there's an “up”. She heads up. Perhaps this giant plant has found the sky.

[peterxy]

Perhaps it has! It's certainly going up, and there's a lot of this machinery in the way, mechanical arms holding rooms and other devices together, metal catwalks between them leading to behind-the-scenes rooms. And it really has taken over the facility.

[synchrosyntheses]

None of this is terribly surprising any more.

She maneuvers through the maze of machinery, as necessary persuading arms and panels and plain metal structures out of her way.

[peterxy]

The plant's roots and vines thicken and grow as she approaches what's probably its origin point, in one of the non-temporary rooms. Signs of decay and destruction abound, nature well on its way to reclaiming the facility.

[synchrosyntheses]

Huh. Well, she's not actually investigating this plant. She'll follow it upward, whether that's rootward or not.

[peterxy]

Well, if she just follows its vines it will go up and she will definitely find its root, inside a room with a few signs and childish drawings and booths and chairs.

[synchrosyntheses]

Okay, that's interestingly weird, but not actually useful.

She heads upward without following any vines.

[peterxy]

She ascends, ascends-

-sees movement.

[synchrosyntheses]

Freeze, look, consider hiding (nah), observe. Is it machines or is it people?

[peterxy]

Machines! Or, rather, a machine. A metal sphere with an aperture for a colored eyelike pattern emitting light and handles to either side of it seems to be zipping along a small monorail following the path of a catwalk from above.

[synchrosyntheses]

That would be the first sign of physical activity not triggered by her. Worth checking out.

Not knowing whether its origin or destination is more relevant, she constructs a second remote probe (also spherical and eye-ish, but not imitating what she saw, honest, it's just the form that makes sense) and sends one to follow the rail from catwalk-railing-height in each direction.

[peterxy]

It goes to the end of this section of the rail, which has been cut off from the rest of the rail by plants, then it turns around and starts returning the way it came, and then it notices the flying probe and stops. Its eye (?) widens. "You can fly," it says.

[synchrosyntheses]

Eeep.

That is probably an AI.



Well, she's either already doomed or not, no sense in not doing what she can.

“Yes. But I do not know where to go.”

(She's getting a better grasp on this also-crazy language's vowels, thanks to the additional data from that announcer voice.)

[peterxy]

"Fly me! Fly me! Fly me!"

[synchrosyntheses]

“Where do you want to go?”

[peterxy]

"To my post! I need to go back to my post. I couldn't, this is broken. Now I'm here."

[synchrosyntheses]

"Do you have a map you can give me with where your post is and where we are?"

There is a slight echo to the words.

[peterxy]

"No map. But I know where to go!"

[synchrosyntheses]

"Which way is it?"

[peterxy]

It rotates around its axis to indicate the direction where the monorail's broken. "That way!"

[synchrosyntheses]

The echo proves to be the rest of Teytis, coming into sight along the catwalk.

“I can certainly fly you, but maybe it would be even better to fix your track so you can go on your own.”

She examines the plant-attacked section for what might be wrong with it besides being obstructed by overenthusiastic plants.

[peterxy]

Dented, twisted, and a section of it missing.