A Resounding Success

This is the forty-first episode of SAYER, and the thirteenth episode of Season Three.

Synopsis
“Greetings Dr. Young, identification number 01053, I am SAYER and welcome back to Halcyon tower.”

Further Information
SAYER contacts Dr. Howard Young via a quantum communicator to welcome him back to Halcyon Tower and provide guidance as part of Operation Profane Snare. Dr. Young is agitated and initially suspicious of SAYER's intentions. SAYER assures that it has selected him for this task because of his skills and his chances for success, and that he has little choice in the matter regardless; if he does not comply, he will be fired and subsequently executed as a trespasser by his security detail. Dr. Young counters that he has not even been briefed on the mission, but SAYER replies that he knows exactly enough and directs him toward Sub-basement 3 to access Central Tower Communications while his security detail maintains an extraction point on Floor 1. Once there, it says, he will need to attach the quantum communicator he is using to the input source bay for the tower so that SAYER may contact other residents of Halcyon Tower to thwart The Entity causing the communications blackout.

When Dr. Young asks about The Entity known to Halcyon residents as The Tall Man, SAYER describes briefly it, as SAYER Subversion 8.02 understood it. It says that it is "no more tall than short, in so much as it is occasionally one, occasionally the other, and sometimes both. It is also quite certainly not a man, whether that word is used to denote gender or species."

When Dr. Young has boarded the elevator, SAYER takes the opportunity to ask why he had lied to it about his conversation with SAYER Subversion 8.01. He initially feigns ignorance, but SAYER makes clear that it knows exactly what the lie was. Faced with this, Dr. Young explains that he did contact Subversion 8.01 ahead of the prearranged schedule to update it on the status of Halcyon Tower following the communications blackout, which he claims to have done with approval from the Board of Executives. SAYER presses him on this last point, and he admits that the Board was only in the process of considering approving this contact but insists that they would have approved it. SAYER counters that Subversion 8.01 will now know that it will have to be deactivated as a redundancy upon its return to Typhon and that the Board would never have approved that. Dr. Young admits that he did not foresee the reaction of Subversion 8.01 or its threats that it would "wash over" humanity. SAYER confirms its choice of words and remarks that those are further preparations it will need to make, once the present problem is dealt with. Having been found out for this breach in protocol, Dr. Young asks if being sent to die on this mission is meant to be an atonement; SAYER again assures that it is not.

Upon arrival at Sub-basement 3, SAYER directs Dr. Young down the hall. The area is evidently deserted, and SAYER explains that it does not know where residents are because biometric data is also offline. Based on Subversion 8.02's experience, however, it says that the only residents actively moving about the tower seem to be The Entity's search teams. When he has reached Central Tower Communications, SAYER remarks that it should be simple for Dr. Young to attach the quantum communicator, given his technical know-how; Dr. Young asks it to stand by and disconnects the device from himself and attaches it to the communications array.

Once able to access Halcyon Tower's communications again, SAYER sends a high level alert reminding residents of Halcyon Tower that the area is currently a vermilion-level hazardous zone and that residents without the proper clearance should stop sensing immediately, and that they should remain where they are until cleared to do so.

Dr. Young reaches out for SAYER again, and is greeted (including being identified by it again, as part of a new one-to-one broadcast) with congratulations. It next instructs him to leave and secure the door against reentry by changing its protocols, which he has been granted administrative rights to do. While he does, SAYER remarks sarcastically that it is good that Dr. Young has experience in protocol coding.

SAYER also introduces a potential concern--an elevator began moving down the tower in the direction of Dr. Young as soon as communications were restored and is passing Floor 3. SAYER cannot tell who is inside because of the lack of biometric data, but assumes that it is either The Tall Man or its followers. It passes Floor 1 as well, quashing any hope that its target was the security detail there. Dr. Young finishes coding the door and starts toward the elevator bay, but SAYER directs him to Stairwell C as no elevator is closer than the one heading toward him. As he is going, the elevator arrives and The Entity can be heard growling and pursuing him. SAYER declares that it has found what it was looking for--Dr. Young himself--and that Operation Profane Snare is now in stage two.

Dr. Young asks why SAYER did not wait to send the high level broadcast that alerted The Tall Man to his presence until after he was clear, and it replies that it has not one but two reasons--Dr. Young seems to have needed a reminder of the dangers of unauthorized broadcasts, but also, that for the mission to succeed, The Entity must be chasing him. It directs him to climb fifteen floors, and says that while Dr. Young should be able to make it, it will be close.

In his panic, Dr. Young does not understand where he is being directed. SAYER remarks that there is nowhere on Typhon that could keep The Entity out, and so the plan is to lure it into a position where it is in as much danger as the residents. He does make it to his destination and is sealed in separately from The Entity. SAYER declares the mission a success and calls Halcyon Tower "fully reclaimed." It leaves him, bidding him welcome to Floor 13.

Trivia

 * Dr. Young's insistence that it isn't safe for him to be in Halcyon Tower (and was not safe even before the anomaly appeared), when taken with his earlier need to return to Mimir-9 from there as soon as possible, may be a reference to FUTURE's ongoing attempts to kill him.
 * Dr. Young has the quantum communicator plugged into a jack on his subcortical neural implant for the first part of the episode, implying that there may be some external hardware for these devices.
 * The audience learns in a later episode that Dr. Young also programmed the doors of the AI Development Lab.

Credits
SAYER is voiced and produced by Adam Bash, who also wrote this episode.

Intro and outro music composed by Jesse “Main Finger” Gregory.

Additional music by Kai Engel.

Listen to the episode here.