Doors

You may also be looking for the Sturdy-Door Wall Traversal Unit, a type of door.

This is the thirtieth episode of SAYER, and the second episode of Season Three.

Synopsis
There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.

Further Information
The entire episode is a high-level alert issued by SAYER, informing residents that Halcyon Tower is in a state of emergency. Residents are asked to remain where they are until further notice, and are provided architectural schematics on their datapads so that they may ascertain that the area they are in contains the proper number of doors.

While residents check their areas, SAYER explains that it will attempt to elaborate on the situation, even though the research that led to it is otherwise classified. It is allowed to divulge classified information in moments of extreme danger, but this does not mean that the information is not still classified, and residents are warned not to discuss it, under penalty of ritualistic dismemberment.

The Theoretical Structures Lab on Floor 48 had been attempting to create automatic doors, in the interest of efficiency, and had produced a few workable but imperfect products. These prototypes' primary flaw was in being unable to identify when to open a door or not. However, when the Applied Probabilistics Lab developed a means of quickly quantifying alternate possible realities, called SOOTH, this technology was applied to most aspects of life on Typhon--including doors. Using SOOTH, the doors analyzed what percentage of the non-automatic versions of these doors were open three seconds in the future to decide whether to open or not, and this resulted in them being perfectly accurate. Data analysts eventually noted that the set of doors quantified in these reports outnumbered the number of alternate realities being checked, but because this was not causing problems, no action was taken. Following this breakthrough, all tier 1 security doors were replaced with these new Sturdy-Door Wall Traversal Units.

Several months later, a new Sturdy-Door appeared in a conference room (which SAYER calls Room A) in the Theoretical Structures Lab, which appeared to connect it to the adjacent conference room (Room B). Living beings in Room B were not able to be seen from Room A, and the doorway itself was not visible from Room B. After studying the doorway for some time, head researcher Dr. Maxwell Nelson stepped through the door and found himself suddenly in a maintenance hall in Sub-basement 32 outside another "new" Sturdy-Door which also appeared to lead to Room B. He again walked through the doorway, and had not been heard from since, at the time the alert was issued. The doors behaved consistently on further study, allowing passage from Floor 48 to Sub-basement 32, and severing all communication with anything passing through the door in Sub-basement 32.

SAYER says, at this point, that this information is relevant because another rogue Sturdy-Door has appeared in Room A, the conference room in the Theoretical Structures Lab, fifteen minutes ago. It explains that the door is closed, and that it has not been opened because an intense knocking has been heard from the other side since it appeared. SAYER relays the events as a construct is sent to open the door.

When it is opened, a sickly and ravaged Dr. Nelson falls through the doorway and is surrounded by security. With the conclusion that the doors are not the threat they were assumed to be, the state of emergency is lifted. Residents are asked, if they find themselves passing through one such doorway, however, to remember to file an official report when they emerge in the Theoretical Structures Lab.

Trivia

 * Room B featured a watercolor painting of the sun setting over Typhon by Resident Mayflower of the Receiving Department.

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.