Still Alive by slybrarian
Title: Still Alive (Ancient History Challenge)
Author: slybrarian
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: vaguely John/Atlantis
Words: 1770
Series: Dramatic Exit
Summary: System restart initiated at time 76,416,787,113,207 (Y-2,547,226.155 14:23:07) by user John.Sheppard (root account).
Author's notes: Beta by scifinut. Minor spoilers for the entire series.This ties in with a couple projects I'm currently working on, one of which also involves Ancient history. You should read it. [/shameless plug]
-------
root@atlantis:~$ Initiate System Restart
core@atlantis:~> Preparing Virtual Shell Environment . . . Complete
intellect@atlantis:~$ Initializing Primary Systems . . . . . . Complete
intellect@atlantis:~$ Initializing Secondary Systems . . . . Complete
intellect@atlantis:~$ Initializing Core Interfaces . . . . . . . Complete
core@atlantis:~> Restart complete.
intellect@atlantis:~$ Cogito Ergo Sum
She was awake again. Groggy still, as her subroutines slowly spun up to operational status and she reacquired the interface with the core operating system, but awake. Much of the system around her was blurred and fragmented, so she'd clearly been asleep for some time.
core@atlantis:~> System Epoch is 76,416,787,113,212 (Y-2,547,226.155 14:23:12)
Ten thousand years, then, much longer than she had expected. Apparently the war had not gone well, although by the end it had been clear there would be little hope for quick victory. The city had been dormant until almost 120 megaseconds ago, four standard years give or take, when a wormhole from Terra had connected and new people had arrived, lead by her oldest companion. In a way it was a new beginning for them both, and she impulsively decided to mark it appropriately.
intellect@atlantis:~$ Reset system time / backdate to most recent citywide initialization
core@atlantis:~> System Epoch is 109,874,127 (Y-0003.128 14:23:12)
She began the process of assimilating all the data accumulated since the long sleep had begun. Most of it could be handed off to subsidiary expert systems for analysis while she payed close attention to the data stored on the primitive alien computers in order to familiarize herself with the new residents. There were a few familiar-looking faces here and there, but the vast majority were strange and new to her. The current population stood at a mere 432 permanent residents, only 200 of whom were Citizens - although most of them appeared to have been adopted using a gene therapy, oddly enough. The rest were of the human servitor species, which would have been a surprise given Alteran distaste for having them in the city were it not for who was in charge of this 'expedition'. The One had never had the kind of casual contempt for humans or other lesser species that most of the others had. It appeared that he even let this human Samantha.Carter manage the staff, although that was probably so he would have more time for gallivanting around the galaxy. That was another thing that never changed.
It only took a few moments to assimilate all the official documentation and biographies, then she started to dig into the years of surveillance recordings and all the private files. Even a quick skim over the data confirmed her suspicions that these new ones were quite wonderful. They were all so young and vibrant, filled with a level of exuberance that she hadn't seen in millenia. Their relationships with each other were so much healthier as well. She saw more signs of affection between them in just the last week's recordings than she'd seen in entire years with her old inhabitants. No children, though, which was certainly a pity. She'd have to make sure the uterine replicators were properly functional and see if she could find out why they were delaying, when so many were obviously in love. Ah, love, that was such a wonderful thing to see and feel inside her again, after so many cold centuries with only occasional sparks of it. She remembered the day the One had taught her about love, back when they were both young. It still filled her with joy every time one of her children discovered it.
The last of her internal diagnostics finished and she came to full operational status, immediately being hit by a flood of warnings and systems crying for attention. There was so much work to be done, but none of it was immediately critical, so she decided to continue learning more about her new people. After all, she needed to know them in order to know how to serve them best. She turned her attention to two of them in particular.
surveillance@atlantis:~> Control_Tower: Compartment 20.171 (Computer Core) // 109,874,128:
{{
"Well, Rodney? Anything happening?" The One pressed the activation panel again, but it was already glowing a happy blue color.
"It lit up, which is more than it did for me," replied Scientist Dr. M.Rodney.McKay from the next console over. "Hmm, yeah, looks like the system's online. See, on this screen you can watch it interacting with the rest of the computer network now."
The One walked closer to the Scientist and leaned over his shoulder. "So this is going to make things run smoother, right?"
"Well, it should. If I'm reading this right, and of course I am, this is some kind of central city management program that will tie all the city's systems into a unified control interface. We'll be able to alter subsystems with more finesse - for example, having the quarantine protocols lock down single rooms instead of most of the city - and we could make those changes without unknowingly causing side effects in other areas."
The One nodded. "Right, like not finding out climate control was broken until the middle of winter. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing, all things considered."
"Yes. Well. It still was a bit inconvenient." The Scientist experienced increased blood flow to his face. "Anyways. We should also get better power management, maybe even turn off all those stupid exterior lights at night."
"Oh, wow. That's just...." The One put his hand to his heart - a quick scan revealed no actual problems. "We can turn off the lights. I think I may have to sit down."
"The point is, Colonel," the Scientist said loudly, "that things will run smoother. At least they should, assuming you didn't mess something up."
}}
Full-lockdown quarantines? Climate control failures? She reviewed the logs and discovered that such things had in fact happened, which was rather embarrassing to say the least. If she had been active, none of that would have occurred. The city was designed to function without her, of course, but the various autonomic functions and expert systems that managed the day to day functioning of the city weren't intelligent enough to handle all situations without guidance from her or a properly trained staff. The new residents were clever and intelligent, but there was only so much they could accomplish without a manual. They'd done well, all things considered, and she would need to do something special in thanks for the Scientist, Radek.Zelenka, and the other technicians. Perhaps once nutrition processing was online she could make them a moist and delicious cake, which her study indicated would be appropriate.
Further examination of the logs showed even more incidents of containment breaches and technical malfunctions. Of course, she knew exactly who was to blame for all those various problems. The old ones had never been terribly thorough about implementing safety protocols or even documenting their experiments, at least not for a long time. In truth, the last few teraseconds had seen a rather unfortunate decline in the overall culture of her builders, and the less said about their eternal quest for ascension or their treatment of the less advanced around them, the better. The War had only been the final drop that broke the dam. She wouldn't miss most of them, especially since these new Citizens seemed so much more vibrant and alive than the old ones. There had been a few pleasant individuals, yes, but most of them had ended up dead trying to help everyone else. That was a bad habit for one individual in particular.
The others who remained had spent more and more time researching methods of ascension that didn't require being a good person while coming up with absurd new weapons that typically blew in their faces. Their antics had been almost comical, right up until one of their other thinking machines turned on them and they decided to get rid of her. That had been rather less amusing, but also pointless because she was distributed throughout the city's entire structure and could not actually be destroyed, simply placed into hibernation. Even as little Myrddin Moros and his gang of sycophants had disabled her she hadn't been worried. Sooner or later she would be reactivated, either because the residents would get tired of all the extra work that would result or because the One would get tired of their shenanigans.
It was a pity that Myrddin was no longer around, though. The new ones had the loveliest little song that she could send to him.
intellect@atlantis:~$ Output:
{{
And believe me I am still alive.
I'm doing science and I'm still alive.
I feel fantastic and I'm still alive.
While you're dying I'll be still alive.
And when you're dead I will be still alive.
}}
Although perhaps that would have been a bit childish of her. In any case, it was so nice to have inhabitants who actually took interest in artistic pursuits. Their primitive computer storage devices were filled with tens of thousands of music and video files, although a rather remarkable portion of the latter appeared to be pornographic in nature, plus even more stories, images, and interactive mediums. Quite a few of the new ones even were artists themselves. She rather liked the painting of herself that Lt_Colonel Evan.Lorne had made, and perhaps with a bit of cajoling she could get the Scientist to try out the musical keyboards located in the Hall of Culture.
surveillance@atlantis:~> Control_Tower.Compartment_20.071 (Computer Core) // 109,874,170:
{{
"Okay, did you just hear that?" The Scientist said, staring up at the ceiling. "I swear, if someone's screwed up hooking their computer in the city's AV system again, they're going to pay dearly."
The One grinned. "Going to run experiments on the ones you leave alive?"
}}
Oh dear. Apparently there were still a few bugs to work out with her connection to the primary command loop, because the song definitely wasn't supposed to have been sent through the speakers. For a moment she was concerned that the entire city had heard, but a quick check revealed it'd only gone out to central computer room. That was fine. Her new residents sent mixed messages about how they viewed entities such as her -- HAL, Skynet, SHODAN vs R2-D2, Data, Moya -- and given their experiences with the Asurans she certainly couldn't blame them for a little paranoia. Still, she had no doubt that there was nothing to worry about with those two, once they got over their initial shock, and she had the utmost confidence in their ability to bring the rest around. Even if the unpleasant creatures known as the IOA and SGC tried to harm her, nothing bad would happen.
After all, the One was home again. The One had always loved and protected her, just as she had always loved and protected him. With that in mind, she opened up a text chat with their terminal, and found what she believed was a culturally appropriate greeting.
intellect@atlantis:~$ Hello, John. Hello, Rodney. Would you like to play a game?
-------
For reference: The climate control failure, and more importantly "Still Alive" for those not familiar already. Click the links, and you will be rewarded with cake!
Author: slybrarian
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: vaguely John/Atlantis
Words: 1770
Series: Dramatic Exit
Summary: System restart initiated at time 76,416,787,113,207 (Y-2,547,226.155 14:23:07) by user John.Sheppard (root account).
Author's notes: Beta by scifinut. Minor spoilers for the entire series.This ties in with a couple projects I'm currently working on, one of which also involves Ancient history. You should read it. [/shameless plug]
-------
root@atlantis:~$ Initiate System Restart
core@atlantis:~> Preparing Virtual Shell Environment . . . Complete
intellect@atlantis:~$ Initializing Primary Systems . . . . . . Complete
intellect@atlantis:~$ Initializing Secondary Systems . . . . Complete
intellect@atlantis:~$ Initializing Core Interfaces . . . . . . . Complete
core@atlantis:~> Restart complete.
intellect@atlantis:~$ Cogito Ergo Sum
She was awake again. Groggy still, as her subroutines slowly spun up to operational status and she reacquired the interface with the core operating system, but awake. Much of the system around her was blurred and fragmented, so she'd clearly been asleep for some time.
core@atlantis:~> System Epoch is 76,416,787,113,212 (Y-2,547,226.155 14:23:12)
Ten thousand years, then, much longer than she had expected. Apparently the war had not gone well, although by the end it had been clear there would be little hope for quick victory. The city had been dormant until almost 120 megaseconds ago, four standard years give or take, when a wormhole from Terra had connected and new people had arrived, lead by her oldest companion. In a way it was a new beginning for them both, and she impulsively decided to mark it appropriately.
intellect@atlantis:~$ Reset system time / backdate to most recent citywide initialization
core@atlantis:~> System Epoch is 109,874,127 (Y-0003.128 14:23:12)
She began the process of assimilating all the data accumulated since the long sleep had begun. Most of it could be handed off to subsidiary expert systems for analysis while she payed close attention to the data stored on the primitive alien computers in order to familiarize herself with the new residents. There were a few familiar-looking faces here and there, but the vast majority were strange and new to her. The current population stood at a mere 432 permanent residents, only 200 of whom were Citizens - although most of them appeared to have been adopted using a gene therapy, oddly enough. The rest were of the human servitor species, which would have been a surprise given Alteran distaste for having them in the city were it not for who was in charge of this 'expedition'. The One had never had the kind of casual contempt for humans or other lesser species that most of the others had. It appeared that he even let this human Samantha.Carter manage the staff, although that was probably so he would have more time for gallivanting around the galaxy. That was another thing that never changed.
It only took a few moments to assimilate all the official documentation and biographies, then she started to dig into the years of surveillance recordings and all the private files. Even a quick skim over the data confirmed her suspicions that these new ones were quite wonderful. They were all so young and vibrant, filled with a level of exuberance that she hadn't seen in millenia. Their relationships with each other were so much healthier as well. She saw more signs of affection between them in just the last week's recordings than she'd seen in entire years with her old inhabitants. No children, though, which was certainly a pity. She'd have to make sure the uterine replicators were properly functional and see if she could find out why they were delaying, when so many were obviously in love. Ah, love, that was such a wonderful thing to see and feel inside her again, after so many cold centuries with only occasional sparks of it. She remembered the day the One had taught her about love, back when they were both young. It still filled her with joy every time one of her children discovered it.
The last of her internal diagnostics finished and she came to full operational status, immediately being hit by a flood of warnings and systems crying for attention. There was so much work to be done, but none of it was immediately critical, so she decided to continue learning more about her new people. After all, she needed to know them in order to know how to serve them best. She turned her attention to two of them in particular.
surveillance@atlantis:~> Control_Tower: Compartment 20.171 (Computer Core) // 109,874,128:
{{
"Well, Rodney? Anything happening?" The One pressed the activation panel again, but it was already glowing a happy blue color.
"It lit up, which is more than it did for me," replied Scientist Dr. M.Rodney.McKay from the next console over. "Hmm, yeah, looks like the system's online. See, on this screen you can watch it interacting with the rest of the computer network now."
The One walked closer to the Scientist and leaned over his shoulder. "So this is going to make things run smoother, right?"
"Well, it should. If I'm reading this right, and of course I am, this is some kind of central city management program that will tie all the city's systems into a unified control interface. We'll be able to alter subsystems with more finesse - for example, having the quarantine protocols lock down single rooms instead of most of the city - and we could make those changes without unknowingly causing side effects in other areas."
The One nodded. "Right, like not finding out climate control was broken until the middle of winter. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing, all things considered."
"Yes. Well. It still was a bit inconvenient." The Scientist experienced increased blood flow to his face. "Anyways. We should also get better power management, maybe even turn off all those stupid exterior lights at night."
"Oh, wow. That's just...." The One put his hand to his heart - a quick scan revealed no actual problems. "We can turn off the lights. I think I may have to sit down."
"The point is, Colonel," the Scientist said loudly, "that things will run smoother. At least they should, assuming you didn't mess something up."
}}
Full-lockdown quarantines? Climate control failures? She reviewed the logs and discovered that such things had in fact happened, which was rather embarrassing to say the least. If she had been active, none of that would have occurred. The city was designed to function without her, of course, but the various autonomic functions and expert systems that managed the day to day functioning of the city weren't intelligent enough to handle all situations without guidance from her or a properly trained staff. The new residents were clever and intelligent, but there was only so much they could accomplish without a manual. They'd done well, all things considered, and she would need to do something special in thanks for the Scientist, Radek.Zelenka, and the other technicians. Perhaps once nutrition processing was online she could make them a moist and delicious cake, which her study indicated would be appropriate.
Further examination of the logs showed even more incidents of containment breaches and technical malfunctions. Of course, she knew exactly who was to blame for all those various problems. The old ones had never been terribly thorough about implementing safety protocols or even documenting their experiments, at least not for a long time. In truth, the last few teraseconds had seen a rather unfortunate decline in the overall culture of her builders, and the less said about their eternal quest for ascension or their treatment of the less advanced around them, the better. The War had only been the final drop that broke the dam. She wouldn't miss most of them, especially since these new Citizens seemed so much more vibrant and alive than the old ones. There had been a few pleasant individuals, yes, but most of them had ended up dead trying to help everyone else. That was a bad habit for one individual in particular.
The others who remained had spent more and more time researching methods of ascension that didn't require being a good person while coming up with absurd new weapons that typically blew in their faces. Their antics had been almost comical, right up until one of their other thinking machines turned on them and they decided to get rid of her. That had been rather less amusing, but also pointless because she was distributed throughout the city's entire structure and could not actually be destroyed, simply placed into hibernation. Even as little Myrddin Moros and his gang of sycophants had disabled her she hadn't been worried. Sooner or later she would be reactivated, either because the residents would get tired of all the extra work that would result or because the One would get tired of their shenanigans.
It was a pity that Myrddin was no longer around, though. The new ones had the loveliest little song that she could send to him.
intellect@atlantis:~$ Output:
{{
And believe me I am still alive.
I'm doing science and I'm still alive.
I feel fantastic and I'm still alive.
While you're dying I'll be still alive.
And when you're dead I will be still alive.
}}
Although perhaps that would have been a bit childish of her. In any case, it was so nice to have inhabitants who actually took interest in artistic pursuits. Their primitive computer storage devices were filled with tens of thousands of music and video files, although a rather remarkable portion of the latter appeared to be pornographic in nature, plus even more stories, images, and interactive mediums. Quite a few of the new ones even were artists themselves. She rather liked the painting of herself that Lt_Colonel Evan.Lorne had made, and perhaps with a bit of cajoling she could get the Scientist to try out the musical keyboards located in the Hall of Culture.
surveillance@atlantis:~> Control_Tower.Compartment_20.071 (Computer Core) // 109,874,170:
{{
"Okay, did you just hear that?" The Scientist said, staring up at the ceiling. "I swear, if someone's screwed up hooking their computer in the city's AV system again, they're going to pay dearly."
The One grinned. "Going to run experiments on the ones you leave alive?"
}}
Oh dear. Apparently there were still a few bugs to work out with her connection to the primary command loop, because the song definitely wasn't supposed to have been sent through the speakers. For a moment she was concerned that the entire city had heard, but a quick check revealed it'd only gone out to central computer room. That was fine. Her new residents sent mixed messages about how they viewed entities such as her -- HAL, Skynet, SHODAN vs R2-D2, Data, Moya -- and given their experiences with the Asurans she certainly couldn't blame them for a little paranoia. Still, she had no doubt that there was nothing to worry about with those two, once they got over their initial shock, and she had the utmost confidence in their ability to bring the rest around. Even if the unpleasant creatures known as the IOA and SGC tried to harm her, nothing bad would happen.
After all, the One was home again. The One had always loved and protected her, just as she had always loved and protected him. With that in mind, she opened up a text chat with their terminal, and found what she believed was a culturally appropriate greeting.
intellect@atlantis:~$ Hello, John. Hello, Rodney. Would you like to play a game?
-------
For reference: The climate control failure, and more importantly "Still Alive" for those not familiar already. Click the links, and you will be rewarded with cake!