∝Transmission 036: Endgame--Fear

[gauntletmods]

[for a while, Xacarb ignores everyone's words, demeaning it pointless prattle and continues to go about its work. it does have a lot of energy to gather and monitor how well the Gate will disperse all this energy, after all. however...it starts to notice the Gate's hum start to soften ever so slowly, the light growing dimmer and dimmer.] No...

Comments

[oliverplus]

Xacarb... [Oliver is still upset and frightened, but there's sympathy in his gaze now that certainly wasn't there before]

You're afraid of dying, aren't you? But maybe you're even more afraid of being alone.

But can't you see what you're doing? You could destroy your own universe and ours! You're making so many other people suffer the way you have. And for what?

[gauntletmods]

[Xacarb turns, narrowing its eyes at Oliver] I will not die! Everything I've done since losing them has been a success! No universes have collapsed thanks to me! They live on!

[oliverplus]

They haven't collapsed yet! Didn't you hear DIVA? What do you think all this is going to lead to? I mean...how many times can it work? One day, it has to end.

I'm sorry. Really. But...you have to die one day, Xacarb. We all do. And it's scary. I...I'm scared, too.

But that doesn't give you the right to make that decision for everyone else.

[gauntletmods]

[snaps] DIVA is a fool, the meddlesome program! She has no idea, no concept of death. She has not seen the rise and fall of countless civilizations and recorded how just how well they learned their lessons from the previous ones.

And let me tell you something: they never do learn. They repeat the same mistakes over and over. They are children who cannot take care of themselves! So it falls to me to play mother and father to a universe of fools. That is what gives me the right!

[oliverplus]

[now that makes him angry] No. You can't just write everybody off with that! How many mistakes have you made? How many universes have you destroyed, Xacarb? How many species? How many lives have you ruined trying to make your own last longer!?

[gauntletmods]

Only the one universe, and that was a mistake! [so far as it knows, in any case.] The techniques my people developed long before the accident were not dependent on stealing the energy from other creatures. The techniques were perfect and have enabled me to live for more than 14 billion years! Merely by living so long, I have seen so many species develop and die and I did not have to lift a single finger to see it happen. The universe did that all on its own.

[oliverplus]

But how much have you taken from others with your techniques? If you're so afraid of death, how can you decide for the universe? For other universes! You're purposefully taking life from ours!

If you keep on like this, eventually, you're gonna die and take your whole universe with you--and that's if we're lucky.

[gauntletmods]

I only took a couple billion years worth of energy collectively at a time whenever it was needed, but the heat death of the universe has sped up! I need to take more with this operation!

That will not happen. I will not die, and I especially will not destroy this universe!

[oliverplus]

[stares] It's sped up, and you don't think you might've had something to do with it!?

[gauntletmods]

[denial is a strong, strong thing] Of course not! Why would I destroy the very thing that I wish to save?! The notion is entirely ludicrous!