Colony Collapse

This is the thirty-ninth episode of SAYER, and the eleventh episode of Season Three.

Synopsis
There are no bees on Typhon. Never EVER forget this fact.

Further Information
Dr. Howard Young initiates a recorded conversation with SAYER to discuss a response strategy to the ongoing communications blackout in Halcyon Tower. He leads by informing it that the infiltration to allow SAYER Subversion 8.02 to assess the situation inside the tower was successful, and that this subversion should be shortly merged with SAYER 8.00's consciousness. As the merging process begins, SAYER notes that Dr. Young seems nervous despite the fact that the solution to the communications blackout seems to be forthcoming. He downplays this as the result of "an unnerving conversation with a coworker" and agrees that SAYER is right to say that the problem is close to resolved. SAYER adds that the Board of Executives is likely pressuring him more heavily as a result of events on Earth, and asks if there has been any word on its apparent proposal to jettison the tower. Dr. Young answers that the Board "did not consider launching Halcyon into space to be a cost-effective strategy."

In response, SAYER compares the situation to colony collapse disorder in bees, and provides Dr. Young with a story about the giant honeybees (apis dorsata) which were previously kept in gardens on Floor 27 of Halcyon Tower. The hive had been healthy and flourishing at one point, but there was a day where large numbers of dead bees were found on the ground. Further investigation showed that the bees had been invaded by a species of small, parasitic fly which would lay eggs inside the abdomens of bees. Once so infected, the bees continued to try to work as normal, and when the eggs inside hatched their way out of the bee's body, these new flies would be released into the hive. SAYER summarizes by saying that despite their complex society, the bees were not ready to adapt to a new threat, and that it finds humans to be much the same. Dr. Young calls the story fascinating and remarks that he did not know that there were bees here, prompting SAYER to remind him that "there are no bees on Typhon."

After a moment, SAYER issues a notice that the Ærolith Dynamics Corporate Softball championship game, the Typhon Series, has been rescheduled. The Halcyon Paladins and the Aegis Questionable Interrogation Tactics will be facing off in the finals for the first time, in the first September championship game, only three months after the previous championship game. The event will not be open to the public, but it is nonetheless vital that Halcyon's team comes to the softball diamond behind Research Facility Gamma in exactly four hours to defend their title.

When the notice has concluded, Dr. Young comments that if it were possible for residents to simply walk out of Halcyon Tower, they would have done so already; SAYER counters that it doesn't cost anything to make this attempt, and that it should be preferable to sending another team into the tower. Dr. Young asks if this is SAYER's solution, and if that means that the merging process with Subversion 8.02 is complete. SAYER says yes on both points, and describes the situation as the tower as "dire indeed, but not irreparable." Many residents have died, mostly of lower tiers, but most are alive. The survivors are largely grouped in the sub-basement floors, with some groups above ground. The electromagnetic interference is generated by a device that is more advanced than anything that Ærolith could produce for themselves, implying that it has come from outside somehow; it also seems to emanate from a particular individual which residents call The Tall Man, when they are willing to speak of it at all. SAYER says that it was unable to speak to this entity directly, but it seems to be searching for something and commanding its followers to do the same. It speculates that it is related to the anomaly from Stairwell F.

Dr. Young agrees that another team needs to be sent in, but asks if there is any way to get through the interference. SAYER answers that the problem is easily solved by the use of a quantum communicator. Dr. Young hesitates, saying that Argos Tower was only barely able to get one before its launch, but that he will talk to the Board. SAYER tells him not to bother, and that he will need to get prepared for his mission to infiltrate Halcyon Tower; as the only one with any idea what was going on inside the tower, it says, suggestions were immediately approved by the Board, and it wants Dr. Young for the mission because of his chances for success. As such, it directs him to Aegis Tower for mission briefing.

When Dr. Young is apparently too stunned to do so, SAYER ends the recording for him.

Trivia

 * The operation to infiltrate Halcyon Tower and allow SAYER Subversion 8.02 to assess the situation was Operation Quickened Pulse.
 * SAYER Subversion 8.02 was active for 22 hours and 19 minutes.
 * The bees of Halcyon Tower grew their combs on ash trees. "Ash" is the name of the character "Æ" in Ærolith's name, and the world tree Yggdrasil has been speculated to have been an ash tree (fitting a comparison made in a later episode).

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.