HOME | DD

Description

    It was nearing the end of third shift and time for her to sleep. She normally only works second shift but pulled a double today because she got so caught up in analyzing the new alien device they tractored in that she couldn't pull herself away. They found the device adrift in space seemingly dead, outputting no energy signals of any kind. It’s design was like a black mirror - a metallic triangle pyramid with jemstone corners and the edges looked like it would emit light.
    She thought of the many things that it could be, maybe it was a night light or maybe it was some kind of a weird probe. Whatever it was she wasn't going to figure it out tonight. So she turned off the lights and locked up the lab, returning to the bunkers.
    A little while later, as she was fast asleep, the pyramid started to glow. The sides had a teal blue triangle logo, and the edges a lavender glow. It slowly increased in brightness as it powered up. It was on a table in a science lab that had the outside shown on screens on the ceiling so you could see the stars. It sat next to some equipment she was using to analyze it. One of these instruments was a datapad.
    Suddenly the pad’s screen turned on as the pyramid hacked into it. The pad was a access point to a wealth of information about many things including the ship, but the pyramid had a mission. Unfortunately, it was damaged in a solar storm on it’s way to the ship that resulted in damaging some of its network processes, so it only remembered fragments of its purpose. It could piece together that its purpose was to find a specific person and access their personal logs, but it could only remember specific details about the the person like their birthday or first pet, nothing that would necessarily help it find this person like their name.
    So the device devised a plan to find this person. It would hack into the ship’s profile database and use the information that it knew about the person to narrow down the list of people that it could be. Unfortunately, because of the strict security measures it could only do this one person at a time.
    It selected a person then attempted to match the data. Usually there would be a couple of things that matched but most didn't. This was a long process, and after several hours it started to wonder if the person was even on the ship. It knew that in the area the solar storm affected it had stored information about its creator and why it was sent on this mission. Sence it couldn't access any of that information it had to trust that once it found this person it would fulfill its purpose.
    It was two thirds of the way through the list of crew members, and every time there was a negative match, it grew less and less hopeful. It thought for a second that maybe it should give up and search the database for a way to fix it’s circuitry. Maybe then it could recover some of the data it lost and be able to find the person easier. After a bit of pondering it decided this plan was bad because it didn't know when a crew member would be coming into the lab again, which would make it have to shut down to keep its cover. It also didn't know how long it would take if it could fix its circuitry, or if that would even recover the data. So, it decided to keep searching the profiles using the limited information it had for a match.
    “Wrong birthday. Didn't have a pet. Hasn't even seen a book since they stopped getting printed two hundred cycles ago!” it thought as it eliminated those people. “Finally, same home planet... ah, but wrong number of family members. Wait! Could it be?! Does this one match them all?” It finally found someone who appeared to match up with all of the information it had.
    It tried desperately to access the hidden information it lost in the solar storm one more time but to no success. Finally, giving up hope that it could ever verify without that data, it downloaded the logs of the person that matched with the info that it knew and proceeded to store them in one of its memory banks. As soon as the transfer was complete, it was like it unlocked some secret puzzle that was put in place to stop someone who didn't belong there. All of a sudden the the fog lifted and it could see clear as glass the information that it thought was gone for good.
    Its purpose was to find Nev Sinoia, a special operations officer stationed on the ship, and access her personal logs to determine if and when she would come home. It even recovered its name: Adaptive Device Misp 3. Its creator was none other then the subject’s sister, Lia Sinoia.
    It discovered through the database and further recalling its purpose that Nev left her sister seven cycles ago, within the cycle Exponential Universe Time (EUT) 878541.392X, to enter the University with the ultimate plan of working as a tactical officer until she could save enough money to come home and fight for her underprivileged sister. Unfortunately, because of the social class difference, Lia was not allowed to contact her sister directly, although she knew the spaceship Nev was working on. This plan was only supposed to take five cycles, and after Lia lost the only job she was allowed to get a cycle ago, Lia, who has always been good at robotics, built this device to find her sister. It was supposed to reassure Lia that Nev did not forget about her and find out when she would come home, if that was still her plan.
    As the device analyzed the logs, it was pleased to see that Nev was indeed happy working there and even made a few friends, but that she would be coming home in a few months. As happy as a little kid receiving a gift, the device sent off the report to Lia.

Description

    It was nearing the end of third shift and time for her to sleep. She normally only works second shift but pulled a double today because she got so caught up in analyzing the new alien device they tractored in that she couldn't pull herself away. They found the device adrift in space seemingly dead, outputting no energy signals of any kind. It’s design was like a black mirror - a metallic triangle pyramid with jemstone corners and the edges looked like it would emit light.
    She thought of the many things that it could be, maybe it was a night light or maybe it was some kind of a weird probe. Whatever it was she wasn't going to figure it out tonight. So she turned off the lights and locked up the lab, returning to the bunkers.
    A little while later, as she was fast asleep, the pyramid started to glow. The sides had a teal blue triangle logo, and the edges a lavender glow. It slowly increased in brightness as it powered up. It was on a table in a science lab that had the outside shown on screens on the ceiling so you could see the stars. It sat next to some equipment she was using to analyze it. One of these instruments was a datapad.
    Suddenly the pad’s screen turned on as the pyramid hacked into it. The pad was a access point to a wealth of information about many things including the ship, but the pyramid had a mission. Unfortunately, it was damaged in a solar storm on it’s way to the ship that resulted in damaging some of its network processes, so it only remembered fragments of its purpose. It could piece together that its purpose was to find a specific person and access their personal logs, but it could only remember specific details about the the person like their birthday or first pet, nothing that would necessarily help it find this person like their name.
    So the device devised a plan to find this person. It would hack into the ship’s profile database and use the information that it knew about the person to narrow down the list of people that it could be. Unfortunately, because of the strict security measures it could only do this one person at a time.
    It selected a person then attempted to match the data. Usually there would be a couple of things that matched but most didn't. This was a long process, and after several hours it started to wonder if the person was even on the ship. It knew that in the area the solar storm affected it had stored information about its creator and why it was sent on this mission. Sence it couldn't access any of that information it had to trust that once it found this person it would fulfill its purpose.
    It was two thirds of the way through the list of crew members, and every time there was a negative match, it grew less and less hopeful. It thought for a second that maybe it should give up and search the database for a way to fix it’s circuitry. Maybe then it could recover some of the data it lost and be able to find the person easier. After a bit of pondering it decided this plan was bad because it didn't know when a crew member would be coming into the lab again, which would make it have to shut down to keep its cover. It also didn't know how long it would take if it could fix its circuitry, or if that would even recover the data. So, it decided to keep searching the profiles using the limited information it had for a match.
    “Wrong birthday. Didn't have a pet. Hasn't even seen a book since they stopped getting printed two hundred cycles ago!” it thought as it eliminated those people. “Finally, same home planet... ah, but wrong number of family members. Wait! Could it be?! Does this one match them all?” It finally found someone who appeared to match up with all of the information it had.
    It tried desperately to access the hidden information it lost in the solar storm one more time but to no success. Finally, giving up hope that it could ever verify without that data, it downloaded the logs of the person that matched with the info that it knew and proceeded to store them in one of its memory banks. As soon as the transfer was complete, it was like it unlocked some secret puzzle that was put in place to stop someone who didn't belong there. All of a sudden the the fog lifted and it could see clear as glass the information that it thought was gone for good.
    Its purpose was to find Nev Sinoia, a special operations officer stationed on the ship, and access her personal logs to determine if and when she would come home. It even recovered its name: Adaptive Device Misp 3. Its creator was none other then the subject’s sister, Lia Sinoia.
    It discovered through the database and further recalling its purpose that Nev left her sister seven cycles ago, within the cycle Exponential Universe Time (EUT) 878541.392X, to enter the University with the ultimate plan of working as a tactical officer until she could save enough money to come home and fight for her underprivileged sister. Unfortunately, because of the social class difference, Lia was not allowed to contact her sister directly, although she knew the spaceship Nev was working on. This plan was only supposed to take five cycles, and after Lia lost the only job she was allowed to get a cycle ago, Lia, who has always been good at robotics, built this device to find her sister. It was supposed to reassure Lia that Nev did not forget about her and find out when she would come home, if that was still her plan.
    As the device analyzed the logs, it was pleased to see that Nev was indeed happy working there and even made a few friends, but that she would be coming home in a few months. As happy as a little kid receiving a gift, the device sent off the report to Lia.