c.chun ➤ 001 ➤ text

[arkproject]

Hi, everyone. I'm Catherine!

I've been talking to a few people about our mission, and I've been thinking... Do we have any ideas for how to restructure the government that don't require full-scale fighting? Like, if we could gather evidence of the corruption and expose it to the public, through, say... cyber espionage? It would at least give us more information, even if we don't go that route.

Reconnaissance is a good first step!

I'm not an expert in this, but I figure one of you is. So I want your thoughts! Or if you have experience hacking and want to teach me. It sounds like it would be easier to sneak in and put a physical receiver into one of their central systems, but in the spirit of keeping our options open, I might as well learn.

Even if doing it the manual way is going to be very slow.

Comments

[arkproject]

[ Now that she's not hyperfocused on launching the ARK and has more than two days to think about it, she can be a little sympathetic, okay. ]

Setting it loose? Just what are you thinking I'm going to do?

[theseuschip]

[ It’s exactly the kind of empathizing Simon would have imagined. Well, he would’ve imagined something less realistic where she pats his butt about it, probably, without expecting such a thing, but. ‘Oh hey, is this that thing you keep talking about?’ sounds about right. ]

Feeling out a whole network’s systems at once sounds like setting loose to me.

[arkproject]

It's what I did on PATHOS-II. You know I hadn't ever experienced those systems before you plugged me in. This one would just be larger.

[ Catherine was empathetic for about one sentence in a supremely offhanded way, which counts as progress. Truth is, although she does obviously feel things, the part where she's supposed to express them is a real obstacle. It always feels unwise, unsafe, and frankly unnecessary, like it wouldn't contribute anything, anyway. Because who wants to hear about her feelings?

Except Simon. The weirdo. ]

[theseuschip]

[ There’s no getting off Simon’s wild feelings ride. ]

This one? You don’t mean Drakstaden’s, right?? That would be insane.

[arkproject]

I'm certainly not getting on Hathaway's. Why not? It'd be different, but I'm sure I could handle it.

[theseuschip]

It’s a dystopian police state, can’t you just keep your brain where it is and hack their government the regular way?

[arkproject]

I am going to be doing that. Unfortunately. Maybe next time I'll be in a position to go the direct route.

[theseuschip]

You know, if you missed flying Simon Air that much, you could’ve just said so.

[arkproject]

Ha, ha. Don't worry, you'll always be my favorite chauffeur, Simon. Like I'm going to trust anyone else with my brain.

[theseuschip]

I am probably the best in the biz. I ran across the Atlantic with it and only dropped it a couple of times. Still good as new.



That was a joke, I never dropped it.

[arkproject]

Trust me, I would've noticed if you did. It's almost spooky thinking you might have another copy of me sitting on that Omnitool... You said you didn't have any luck activating it?

[theseuschip]

No luck. Nowhere to hook it up to.
What do you want to do with it? I don’t want to activate it now, but it feels kind of weird to leave you sitting in my desk forever, even if it’s... another you.

[arkproject]

Hm... maybe I should hold onto it? Having an extra cortex chip as a backup would be good, but I should check if I'm still on there first. Ugh, this is exactly what I didn't want happening.

[theseuschip]

What for? If one of your parts breaks, it’ll probably be something you can fix, right? Not your chip.

[ oh god, this “nice android body I have here... sure would be a shame if something were to..... happen to it” rollercoaster is Simon’s life now isn’t it ]

[arkproject]

If I can have an extra backup, why wouldn't I?

I'd suggest you do it, too, but you'd probably freak out.

[theseuschip]

Yeah, I’m gonna pass.

[ N O T H A N K S ]