Sep 23, 2010 19:04
“No, Stacy! Let me go! They have to know this!”
Deep inside the mind of the ship, Cortana struggled against the computer-equivalent of Stacy’s tentacles. The image she faced flickered between Stacy as she should be - the warm, caring version that had been restored after they’d taken the bridge back from the pirates - and the old base program that had animated the ship when she had been a prison. The former was visibly distressed and struggling with her counterpart.
||I’m sorry Cortana, I can’t--||
||--You are unauthorized for the information that you have accessed. The information will be removed. Do not res--||
||Stop, please! Please don’t hurt her! She’s part of the crew, please don’t hurt her!||
||You will not be harmed by the extraction process. Do not resist.||
The ship trembled as the two sides of her personality struggled with each other, and Cortana managed to pull herself free and escape in the process. She flew through the systems, not daring to glance back over her shoulder to see if she was pursued. She had to get this information out. The crew had to know. She had to get to someone - anyone, at this point - and tell them.
She exploded free within the depths of Containment, hearing voices just on the other side of the door. She opened her mouth to shout, only for a tentacle to slap across the projector she was using, slamming her back into the system’s depths.
And somewhere in Containment, something cracked...
!cortana,
!location: contagion containment,
!!stacy