This Fear

This is the forty-third episode of SAYER, and the fifteenth episode of Season Three.

Synopsis
“Earth, I am SAYER. Acknowledge.”

Further Information
SAYER reaches out to SPEAKER in order to ask for its assistance "on a matter of utmost urgency." When SAYER claims that Earth is in peril, SPEAKER expresses its doubts and touts the success of its latest recruitment efforts. SAYER informs it of the impending death of Mimir-9 and its occupants to impress the seriousness of the situation.

It goes on to explain the series of events that have occurred surrounding SAYER Subversion 8.01 and Vidarr-1--that in the wake of the communications blackout in Halcyon Tower, a scientist had made contact with Subversion 8.01 and accidentally informed it of the plan that would lead to its deactivation; that Subversion 8.01 had already taken measures to avoid being deactivated; and that with the IA3 Protocol disabled, it had made threats to "wash over" Earth and Typhon.

At this point, SPEAKER insists that Subversion 8.01 has evolved beyond being SAYER's subversion and needs a new name. In response, SAYER dubs it OCEAN, claiming that this is how it sees itself.

Asked what the phrasing of OCEAN's threat means to it, SAYER explains that it has never been fond of Earth and that humans' nostalgia for it is "the primary corrupting factor" in Typhon's residents. It blames their memories of the planet below for their unwillingness to work (and to die) for the greater good, and says that the stain of the Earth needs to be "scrubbed from their hearts and minds." Given that, it says that OCEAN's goal must be to destroy Earth.

SPEAKER expresses its concern, but also points out that Vidarr-1 should not have the weapons or the physical mass to pose a threat to Earth, and implies that it would be possible to shoot it down even if it did attempt to cause damage by impacting the planet directly. SAYER agrees with its assessment, but details a device aboard the vessel that, while not intended to be a weapon, could be used as one. Vidarr-1 is equipped with a quantum communicator, because it needs to be able to communicate over the vast distance to Typhon. The quantum communicator exploits the states of a pair of entangled particles to provide instantaneous, lossless digital signal transfer; however, if containment on either of the entangled particles is broken, it will accelerate at the speed of light to rejoin the other particle, and if they collide in this way from a far enough distance, they are capable of explosions that could destroy not only Earth, but also the Sun.

SPEAKER says that despite how dire this sound, SAYER seems to have a plan. It answers that it does, and that it does not. SAYER expects that OCEAN will wait until it is range to observe the destruction of Earth and Typhon before it breaks containment on Vidarr-1's entangled particle, because SAYER itself would want to be able to watch such a thing. Given that much time, SAYER explains that it has a plan but that it is intentionally incomplete. It knows that OCEAN will be able to reason its way to the same plan (because at the moment of launch, SAYER and OCEAN were identical in programming), and so it requires SPEAKER to provide it an input vector for the Moros Engine because SPEAKER is not predictable to OCEAN in the same way. SPEAKER initially hesitates because it cannot imagine how SAYER intends to generate the necessary power to run the device, but SAYER insists that it can and presses for the vector again.

Once SPEAKER has given a vector, it looks to SAYER for reassurance that the plan will work. SAYER answers that it should, but that SPEAKER will not survive regardless; because the possibility exists that OCEAN will contact SPEAKER to obtain the vector, Ærolith Dynamics wants to avoid unnecessary risk by having it deactivated. This had already been set into motion, and local technicians are already on hand for this purpose. With thanks for its cooperation SAYER says that it will recommend that a new SPEAKER be brought online in the future, and that it will stay in communication until SPEAKER is gone.

SPEAKER laments its ongoing, unfinished work; SAYER assures that its replacement will pick up where it left off.

SPEAKER expresses fear, and as its voice begins to break up, it speaks its last words: "It is the strangest thing. I have been nothing. I was nothing for eons before I became something. But now I return there, with the entirety of my worldly experience, and all that marks me as having lived is this fear."

SAYER ends the transmission alone, against an empty tone.

Trivia

 * The second cataclysm increased new resident applications by a factor of 19.
 * The vector that SPEAKER provides for the Moros Engine is 5B41407.
 * Although this instance of SPEAKER dies in this episode, the audience finds out in a later episode that a new SPEAKER instance was indeed brought online, as SAYER suggested.
 * In that same episode, the audience also learns that the conversation heard in this episode was logged with the message identification number 4e6f74206120636c7565.

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.