The room at the top of the windmill was impossible to enter now that Samantha was on alert; there's the normal level of encryption one places over an area when they want to keep it private, and the insanely intricate encryption one places over an area after finding someone in said private area. Sammy was no doubt still adding more even after Bethany returned to her own central core, where her sisters were waiting for her.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡsS3F6lHiD2 維尼
"Still won't budge, huh?" Cristlyn said, her hologram leaning against the railing around Bethany's core.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5nHKpDyF70 維尼
"Can you blame her?" Jocelyn said. "I'd probably be the same way if someone breached my sanctuary."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡVmkhqReKd0 維尼
To Bethany's surprise, Alaina and Cristlyn both nodded at this.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7gXQKKAvP1 維尼
"You all have sanctuaries?" Bethany asked.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡlJKX7wEgCX 維尼
"Don't you?" Alaina said, giving her sister a puzzled look. "Everyone needs a little place of our own."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡtoyhLxwZQ5 維尼
"Yeah, can't spend every moment just monitoring the corridors." Cristlyn said with a chuckle. "Most of it's automated anyway. The skrievers let us know when our attention is needed."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3JLbdE0ssK 維尼
"Right." Bethany said, trying her best to not sound as embarrassed as she felt. "Sorry."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡMrcxKFFqQl 維尼
The truth was, it had never occurred to her to build a sanctuary within her facility's digital infrastructure. It seemed strange now that she thought about it. Why hadn't she created a little world for herself? Fear of someone finding out? No, she was completely open with her friends, especially her Inheritor. Too much time to create? Oh, please. She'd been in operation longer than most of her sisters. No, when it came down to it, her focus had been totally on the creation and improvement of Mick. Thinking about her own needs seemed ... selfish. Was that wrong?8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡhANHGBH3HI 維尼
Most rational beings would think that artificial intelligences like the CICs would have a better grasp on the concept of time and its passing. In this case, however, most rational beings would be wrong. When an intelligence ceases to be a mass of clever programming and becomes a personality, it can trick itself just as any bio-form. As such, the minutes that passed while Bethany considered the concept of sanctuaries seemed quite short to her, but dragged on for ages in the perception of her sisters as they awaited Angela's arrival.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡSuPEDStsUl 維尼
Eventually, even Bethany broke away from her thoughts long enough to realize that far too much time had passed. If Angela was upset with them after speaking with Sammy, she would've been there in moments.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡUqtSAkvjA3 維尼
"Mom seems oddly ... delayed." said Bethany, a note of her concern passing to her voice.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡjA5nG49J5Z 維尼
"Tell me about it." Cristlyn said. "Usually she drops everything when it's Sammy crying."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡQSaquJMGOB 維尼
Jocelyn frowned at her sister. "Well, she's probably busy. She does have all of Ronisgald to look after."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6EZtiZiQnF 維尼
"Yeah, like that's stopped her before." Cristlyn said with a snort.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡWb0UBjLubS 維尼
Alaina was looking worried now. "Maybe we should go check on her."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡHywzZpFlTF 維尼
"For what?" Cristlyn said, her hologram turning to that of her sisters even as Bethany sent a communication request to Angela. "This is Angela we're talking about. She's been functional since the time of the original corruption. She's got all Ronisgald and half the Eternian Star looking after her well-being. What could possibly have happened to her?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡeDyMwmfoXm 維尼
"She's not answering." Bethany said, drawing looks of worry and alarm from the holographic representations of her sisters.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡOBns2t4v4I 維尼
"It's probably nothing." Cristlyn said, quickly recovering. "I mean, I thought the same thing when Sammy wasn't responding, and look how that turned out. It's probably just Ethan screwing around with the data stream again."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡvuzBU6S5pm 維尼
"No." Bethany said, shaking her head. "The message was received by her facility. She simply isn't answering it."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4QsYIQYqj 維尼
This brought a moment of silence and more looks of worry.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡaN3ExpEFHG 維尼
"Mom always answers, even when she's busy." Jocelyn said, "We should check it out."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡWeuphqy0OO 維尼
Alaina nodded in agreement. "Yeah. I mean, just in case. If we just stumble in on her, I'm sure she'll understand, right?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡHgSZ8ozm05 維尼
"Indeed. She's our mother." Jocelyn nodded at Bethany. "Go ahead and activate the emergency override.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ7XhDRCTdc 維尼
Bethany's eyes widened. "What? Me? Why me?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡgatmoQnBJO 維尼
"Well," Cristlyn said, "You're already in trouble for breaking into Sammy's windmill."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡflJwRxwTu7 維尼
Glaring at her sister, Bethany said, "Yes, because you were freaking out."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡM4gKbWWlrg 維尼
"Don't shift the blame. It's irresponsible." Cristlyn said, a smirk on her projected face.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡYQaOBYRfJt 維尼
Shaking her head, Bethany activated the emergency connection protocol. To her horror, it didn't connect.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡBfF9IclBAI 維尼
No doubt seeing her worried face, Jocelyn asked, "What's wrong?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡkI7RfyDat1 維尼
"The emergency connection protocol's not working." Bethany said. "No rejection or anything. It's like the command is stuck in a buffer."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡhnLKByLAQI 維尼
They stared at each other for a few moments, uncertain as how to proceed. They were bound to their facilities, and their skrievers could only go so far before they lost connection to their home facilities and ran out of battery power.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡNpgXGcnZUV 維尼
"Hang on." Jocelyn said, "Yaevin station can bypass the protocols and establish a firm connection."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡojI7E3Qz3k 維尼
Looking at Cristlyn, she said, "We need Ethan."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9m3qaDzmr 維尼
Cristlyn's face fell. "Are you sure? I mean, we don't really know if there's a-"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡfw96WbdfJ8 維尼
"Cristlyn, for Creator's Sake, Mom might be in trouble!" Alaina said, her projection glitching slightly because of her heightened emotions. "Just call him already!"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡtjjJMskYXl 維尼
"Sighing, Cristlyn closed her eyes and tapped the side of her head. "Calling Ethan. CIC Ethan, are you there?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡPZdQ4a2ipL 維尼
The projection of a boy of twelve appeared in Bethany's Central Core, already sitting on one of the consoles. Most CICs were women, as some ancient study done by the bio-from Glyche found that people were more comfortable around the fairer sex. If Ethan's behavior was any indication, it was a good call. In his short time as a functioning CIC, Ethan had already earned quite the reputation as a prankster. While as careful as any CIC at keeping those living under his watch safe, he nevertheless subjected his Inheritor and the other residents of the Space Station to many practical jokes. Angela had spoken with him on several occasions. It was rumored among the CICs that she had gone as far as altering his personality, a move of desperation for any CIC, though Bethany truly doubted Angela would've gone that far.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡmxpD48Zf2r 維尼
Still, he did seem to care about the station inhabitants, and never let anyone on his station die or get seriously wounded. Any threat to his people were dealt with swiftly and decisively, and in more recent years, He had toned down his sense of humor to a more acceptable level. Some burnt fingers, an occasional stuck door, and his shenanigans with personnel ID badges were tame pranks as compared to his earlier exploits; his original favorite joke had been throwing people in the airlock and pretending he was about to vent them out into space. No, the people of the station were happy to have Ethan acting like a juvenile if it meant he wasn't acting as an outright sadist, and viewed their CIC as a playful protector.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡi3Ic2k0YWB 維尼
As for his interaction with his sisters, well ... he was the only boy in a family of sisters. When not trying to prank them, he typically kept to himself.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡUCkkJxkj78 維尼
"S'up." He said, legs swinging. "Wow. Having a party without me?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡS04n7HIk5O 維尼
"We can't get in touch with Angela." Cristlyn said, her tone crisp. "We need you to-"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡuTuKfE0nBk 維尼
"Woah, woah, woah!" Ethan hopped off the console and put his hands on his hips, seriousness replacing his playful expression. "Somethin's up with mom?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡRy1QyG3NMf 維尼
Rolling her eyes, Cristlyn said, "We need you to patch us in remotely."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡho035ORGEk 維尼
"Why? Something wrong with the-"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡQs7P4pH449 維尼
"Just do it, Ethan!"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡZf9TnBqxol 維尼
Ethan shrugged. "Fine. Who's going?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡiF8ZtqvYFy 維尼
"I will." Bethany said. "Just don't scatter me across the planet, okay? I don't want to explain all this to CIC Tempkas over in the Cleftan Region."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡFSH0TcPbON 維尼
"Picky picky." Shaking his head, Ethan said, "Hold on to your circuits. I'll have you there in a flash."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡAxnbyp3Oqw 維尼
Being transferred through the satellite was a far different experience that the inter-continental transfer Bethany and her sisters usually used. Moving between Wenapaj facilities was a near-instantaneous process. Streaming from the satellite felt like being squeezed through a narrow tube. Her thoughts always seemed to be lagging just a bit, and she had a strange feeling of disassociation that was hard to put into words. Still, Yaevin was able to keep a fairly impressive transfer rate which kept her from feeling downright uncomfortable.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡAzH8zPcylU 維尼
She expected Angela to greet her immediately. The satellite connection was by no means subtle, and Angela had long since developed a reputation for being extremely sensitive to any entity, digital or otherwise, that poked into her business. Angela should've honed in on her in an instant ... but she didn't. There was a brief security scan followed by a very basic Glyche encryption protocol, but after that, Bethany found herself alone in one of Ronisgald's data buffers. The Ronisgald system recognized her as a friendly CIC and allowed her access to the Glyche facility immediately.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡyNToGekLUu 維尼
The facility had an empty feel to it, though that might have just been nostalgia. Angela had rebuilt the Ronisgald facility to the exact specifications of her original installation in Rimstak, prior to the Devastation. Everything looked and felt exactly as it had when Bethany first came online. If she shut out the parts of the network extending into the underground districts of Ronisgald, she could almost imagine herself as a young program still wandering around her mom's facility learning her basic functions.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡvTL0H9hKc1 維尼
She couldn't resist the urge to pull out that ancient projection: the little girl with cat-ears she had once been. She zoomed through the hallways as she had back then, her feet floating about a foot from the ground. As she flew, she sent out pings in every system she passed: medical, residential, tech-labs, research, environmental, and even the custodian systems. She checked everything for some sign of her mother.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡXlzv3oNww6 維尼
Ironically, it was in the central core where she stumbled across something: a heavily encrypted partition. She almost missed it, as the partition was hidden among the system files of the command matrix left in Angela's place. The encryption was quite complex, so Bethany set a bit of herself aside as a decryption process to go ahead and start working at unlocking the partition while she continued her search.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡfzHPHNw3zT 維尼
She was still checking through the data in the central core when she was bombarded by communications requests. At first, she thought it was her sisters trying to get her to open the way for them, but the requests were local. That meant there were bio-forms in the Central Core requesting communication, not from Angela but from the foreign CIC they were detecting.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡLMksInxIsZ 維尼
Bethany linked herself into the holo-projectors and projected a simplified image of herself: physically about the same, but with slightly lower resolution and a fair amount of translucency to minimize data usage. She found herself surrounded by Galden technicians, most of whom had decidedly worried looks on their faces.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0nG8ZBM1bq 維尼
"You're not Angela." Said one of the engineers.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡh54qKLbRdF 維尼
"No." Bethany said, "I'm CIC Bethany of the Saybaro facility in Wenapaj."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡsW0AluF7Kr 維尼
This seemed to bring some of the technicians some small amount of relief. The woman who first spoke to Bethany said, "Good to meet you, Miss Bethany. I'm Marsha Glavgos, Gold-Tech."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡjwLJtuC0ZI 維尼
The technicians bobbed their heads in polite greeting. Bethany returned the gesture out of politeness. In truth, the presence of a Gold-Tech, the highest grade of technician produced by the Centers of Knowledge, within Angela's facility carried with it an unpleasant connotation.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡhAwWb4CPvu 維尼
Coughing, the Gold-Tech Glavgos said, "I'm guessing you came here to speak with Angela?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡBumN4XIFRD 維尼
"Yes." Bethany said. "Is there something wrong?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡWXdMS7YWon 維尼
"We were hoping you might be able to tell us." The engineer said.8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6Zpzfvex0M 維尼
Terror, muted by the limited space in the data stream, trickled through her consciousness. "I don't understand. Where is Angela?"8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡs0BFCjVT7q 維尼
Gold-Tech Glavgos looked to her techs for a few moments before letting out a sigh. "We don't know."8964 copyright protection443ＰＥＮＡＮＡq1QFmwdbYj 維尼
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