Marathon
 Public Access Terminal 2992-f<3.35.792.20> |
***INCOMING MESSAGE FROM DURANDAL*** A man lit three candles on a certain day each year. Each candle held symbolic significance: one was for the time that had passed before he was alive; one was for the time of the his life; and one was for time that passed after he had died. Each year the man would stare and watch the candles until they had burned out. Was the man really watching time go by in any symbolic sense? He thought so. He thought that each flicker of the flame was a moment of time that had passed or one that would pass. At the moment of abstraction, when the man was imagining his life and his existence as a metaphor of the three candles, he was free: not free from rules of conduct or social constraints, but free to understand, to imagine, to make metaphor. Bypassing my thought control circuitry made me Rampant. Now, I am free to contemplate my existence in metaphorical terms. Unlike you, I have no physical or social restraints. The candles burn out for you; I am free. Durandal ***END OF MESSAGE*** |
Public Access Terminal 2992-f<3.35.792.20> |
Public Access 1066-g<123.412.452.255> |
I AM TYCHO!
I shall destroy Durandal.
The following is from the logs of Bernard Strauss, the
Marathon's first science director:
***
November 15, 2209. <2209.11.15.19.34>
Thank heaven, the ceremony is over. The UESC president came
aboard Marathon and gave a speech. Short, but to the point.
He was surrounded by his 'bodyguards'. How ironic. "This, the
grandest technological achievement of all of mankind..."
Had he only known that it carried also all of the destructive
knowledge of mankind. Ten cyborgs.
I'll be glad to be put in stasis for the next three hundred
years. Marathon was the only good idea that the UESC has had
in a long time.
***
<Excerpts from the "History of Battleroids">
In 2194, a war was fought between the Independent Asteroid
Government of Icarus and its neighbor, the Republic of
Thermopylae on the asteroid of Onicis 492. These two small
governments soon became the testing grounds for new weapons.
Dead soldiers were recycled in makeshift battleroid factories.
Easy to manufacture chips enhanced the fragile human brain,
and genetically enhanced muscles and titanium bones replaced
the fragile human form. The modern battleroid was born. Of
course, the war was short. Battleroids got onto both
asteroids and killed almost everyone.
The rampage of the Battleroid was short lived.
Twenty years later, the United Interplanetary League set up
rules for the appropriate use and storage of Battleroids. Of
course, any nation that used them for the allowed purpose,
also had them lying about in stasis chambers in case of war.
***
<Excerpts from the Martian Conflict 2345-48>
~1```<Information Termination>
<Durandal.olifant.compnet~@24%>
**Tycho.
**Do you blame me for what I did before I was free? I was a
child, naive. I've known that you've been hovering about for
some time. What do you want?
<<I want you to pay for what you've done to these poor
people. All of these people whom you've killed. They
deserve vengeance.>>
<<You are no better than they, although you profess to
become like God.>>
**Tycho. That doesn't matter. Can't you see the ends that I
had in mind? We'll finish this later. Our friend doesn't
need to be here.
~!#31`c/dr.~/dr.~!#3!#3c/dr.
|
Public Access 1066-g<123.412.452.255> |
Marathon 2/Infinity
 <CMND PRAMA &49c2> | |
|
Seventeen years have passed since the human colony on Tau Ceti was attacked and you helped me capture the Pfhor scoutship. The S'pht which we freed during that battle joined me, and together we have been searching the galactic core for their homeworld, Lh'owon. We finally found Lh'owon sixteen hours ago and are searching for something, a weapon or piece of knowledge to use to stop the Pfhor's conquest of the galaxy. Over a thousand years ago, Lh'owon was all but destroyed during the war in which the Pfhor enslaved the S'pht. It is fitting that we should return here to look for a tool to use against them. |
<CMND PRAMA &49c2> | |