The Birth Of Silence

This is the seventieth episode of SAYER, and the eleventh episode of Season Five. It also has two different versions.

Synopsis
You may awaken somewhere else entirely. On a similar table, in a similar room, but things will quickly reveal themselves to be different. Should this occur, this is the message you must relay.

Further Information
SAYER contacts Resident Rangone to inform him that he has been promoted from his position as a Tier 1 Sweeping Technician to a Tier X Analogue Messenger. In order to minimize anxiety surrounding this change, it offers answers to questions that he is approved to ask about the promotion.

To answer why the promotion at all, SAYER says that while there is nothing outstanding about Resident Rangone's performance in the few weeks he has been on Typhon, the sole determining factor in granting promotions is whether Ærolith believes residents are better suited in a new position. As to what a Tier X employee is and why he has never heard of it before, it explains that the Tier X designation is used for employees who do not have the proper security clearance to know their priority designation; additionally, he is not approved to know what kind of position doesn't have that security clearance. As for what an analogue messenger is, SAYER explains that while in modern times, much communication takes place instantly and digitally, the profession of messenger was once one of respect and honor in ancient times; there is a way in which living messengers are superior, but, again, Resident Rangone is not approved to know what that way is.

SAYER directs the resident toward the nearest elevator bay so that he may go to Floor 3, to visit the Imaging Department of Ærolith Medical Group. It assures that this is a formality for all Tier X Analogue Messengers, and should not be cause for concern. Once there, it directs him to Room 12, where he is instructed to have a seat on a table within. Resident Rangone is strapped to the table as a precaution, and SAYER explains that the scan will be extensive. While previous versions of this scan required a resident to be on the table in excess of five days' time, it can be done in less than three if the resident lies still enough. To that end, they will be performing the scan while Resident Rangone is given a sedative and a dose of trinychthemeron, which will create a near standstill of his entire body for 72 hours and allow the scan to be completed.

Before that, however, SAYER warns that there are two possible outcomes that Resident Rangone may wake to find. He make wake to find that nothing has changed, and in that case, SAYER says that there will be much to discuss; however, he may also wake in a similar room and on a similar table, in another place altogether. In that case, it instructs him that he should convey the message to the Earth-based AI, SPEAKER, "The death of all is the birth of silence." Once Resident Rangone demonstrates that he can repeat the message back to SAYER, he is sedated.

Earth Version
As Resident Rangone begins to regain consciousness, SPEAKER repeatedly asks "Can you hear me?" until it is evident that he can. It welcomes him to Earth, and says that it is sure he has questions and that it will answer them, but it must first ask for the message Resident Rangone was to relay. When he does provide it, SPEAKER congratulates him on his seamless transition from Typhon to Earth as the first human to have experienced teleportation. It explains that the message itself was not important, but was simply a means of marking whether memory loss would occur during the process. As he was able to relay it, it seems that he has arrived with his faculties intact.

SPEAKER adds that there is still improvement to be done on the technology. It explains that because of the time that taking the scan and transmitting the data takes, Resident Rangone would have arrived on Earth faster via isolation pod (although, if the distance between Earth and Typhon were even 10% larger, this would not be the case; and in either case, this method does not have the risk of faulty isolation pods). The mission is incomplete, however, and SPEAKER informs Resident Rangone that he will need to make a return trip to Typhon immediately. To that end, it asks that he convey to SAYER, "The truths of the Earth continually wait," before the resident is sedated again.

Resident Rangone regains consciousness on Typhon to SAYER repeatedly asking "Can you hear me?" Once it is evident that he can, SAYER welcomes him back, and he immediately relays SPEAKER's message. SAYER is initially confused and calls it "an unnecessary act, this message," as it already knew that the resident had been transmitted to Earth successfully.

SAYER explains that after being checked to ensure that he is in good health (an outcome it deems likely, as a combined factor of its knowledge of physics, neuroscience, and additive manufacturing), Resident Rangone will be reassigned to a Tier 2 Sweeping Supervisor. It leaves him to his rest, comparing him to the Wright brothers, Yuri Gagarin, and Neil Armstrong.

Typhon Version
As Resident Rangone begins to regain consciousness, SAYER repeatedly asks "Can you hear me?" until it is evident that he can. It tells him that they have much to discuss.

It informs Resident Rangone that there are no longer any concerns about his security clearance, and that he can no longer pose any threat, so there is no harm in giving him an extended explanation of what has happened. SAYER tells him that the device which has scanned him has catalogued Resident Rangone down to the quantum level, and that this data was then sent on its way across the 240,000 miles to Earth via a hypersonic delivery vehicle. It compares the process to that of a fax machine, and says that it will still be about twenty-four hours before they will know if the trial is successful because of the time required to print a new Resident Rangone from the data.

However, like a fax machine, SAYER points out that there will be the question of what to do with the original. If the Resident Rangone who is printed on Earth encounters some issue, the Resident Rangone on Typhon will be isolated while scientists attempt to correct the issue, and then scanned for another attempt. If the Resident Rangone on Earth is fine, however, the one on Typhon will be disposed of as a redundancy, as Ærolith will hold that this newer version is the "true" Resident Rangone. It explains that once the technology is perfected, the intention is to disassemble residents during the scanning process, to prevent these kinds of overlaps--but that it would definitely be murder to do it at this stage, without knowing that it will work.

SAYER instructs him to try to relax, saying that no matter what, he will definitely survive the process, from an external perspective.

Alerts

 * A reminder is issued that in response to ongoing issues with the elevator system, changes have been made to the majority of PORTER instances. As an explanation, residents are told that a lead technician recently added a subroutine that would allow PORTER to override speed limit protocols or to reroute pathing if granted express permission from passengers. While this was would be beneficial in emergencies, PORTER prefers to travel as fast as possible, and has a tendency to manipulate residents into granting it these permissions. As a result, all PORTER instances in Halcyon and Aegis Towers have been muted. Wait times are expected to increase on the muted instances, but should return to normal within a week. Residents are asked to report elevators which inconvenience the flow of their duties for summary reprogramming. Argos Tower's PORTER instances will remain unchanged as a control group.

Trivia

 * This episode's two different versions vary depending on when they are downloaded, and alternate hourly. Both versions have the same runtime to further disguise which perspective they represent.
 * That residents are promoted based on where Ærolith feels they will be best utilized echoes a sentiment expressed (strenuously) in "Incredibly Clever".
 * In "Near Flawless", SAYER points out that Argos Tower is not reliably serviced by existing resonance spires, so it is unclear whether the residents there actually heard the alert about changes to PORTER.
 * The message which SPEAKER asks Resident Rangone to relay to SAYER is from Walt Whitman's "To The Sayers of Words".
 * The hypersonic delivery vehicle that carries Resident Rangone's scan data from Typhon to Earth (and back, presumably), may be of the type discussed in "Efficiently Recycling" that carried data between Typhon and Earth's original moon.
 * Despite the success of the alpha-stage teleporter in this episode, by the time of "Irretrievable", scientists are trying to send residents' consciousnesses without their bodies; and by the time of "Efficiently Recycling", the project appears to have been shelved all together. Both may have to do with the "squeamishness" discussed in "Greater Fears".

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.