"While we might hold bacteria in little regard, we understand it is essential for life. Our bodies rely on bacteria to keep us healthy and without it, we can't grow crops and our bodies would be defenseless. We do not seek to eliminate it, nor would we try to uplift it." The former Marine reminds you again that in another life, he might have been more than a grunt.
"What place, really, do humans and other organic life play in your realm," asks Flatfoot even though he does not expect an answer.
Flatfoot is wondering what would happen should Sandman and this entity come into contact with one another.
Spider takes a deep breath and speaks to the air, "Listen, we're not here to get uplifted or written into code. And we're certainly not going to join forces with you without knowing what you want. So why don't you tell us what your goal is here, and we can move on to figuring out what we all do next."
"I believe I have made my intentions clear. Join me as uplifted companions, or die along with all of Berensburg in an antimatter annihilation. I have many backups. Do you?"
"So, despite holding us in 'no regard', you have decided that if you can't convince us to join team Virus, then you will kill yourself. Seems like an awfully limited point of view for a supposedly superior lifeform." Spider looks around at the rest of MS-7, "I think I can speak for the rest of the team and say that none of us is interested in having you muck around inside our brains and turning us into code - or whatever. So the ball is in your court - blow yourself up or use that vast mind of your to come up with another option."
A long, tense moment passes during which neither you nor the surrounding fifty kilometers of planet is vaporized. But neither does Lilly Marlene speak up again.
"Well, it looks like your not going to annihilate us all. So how about we talk about what we are going to do with you for the time being." Drifter says as he begins considering pulling the infected control panel out in some fashion to keep the virus around to talk to later.
More silence.
Then your suits detect smoke and immediately verify that your environment is sealed. You can see smoke emanating from the doorway leading to the bridge. A superimposed IR image reveals a plume of heat beyond the doorway.
"Or you could suicide." Drifter says as he begins quickly moving towards the front of the ship to see if he can stop the fire before it spreads.
Spider looks around for the fire suppressing equipment he would expect to find on a starship.
The ship surely has an automatic fire suppression system. In addition, like all ships, it has signs pointing to emergency equipment. There is a fire extinguisher in the airlock.
Mascot hurries to the bridge door. Normally he would keep the door sealed to contain the fire. However, he thinks the Virus was starting a fire on purpose. He hits the control for the door and prepares to face a deadly inferno.
Flatfoot follows Mascot to the bridge door, keeping his weapon handy. There is no telling whether the automated defences are still active. Or, for that matter, whether the Virus has other defenses in the bridge.
Mascot hits the door to the bridge, but it doesn't respond. His sensors indicate that the door is still cool enough to touch, but warming.
Spider moves to grab a fire extinguisher. "Get that door open! Blow it if you have to!"
Mascot pulls open a nearby panel looking for an manual door release.
Where one should usually be, there is only a set of mechanical actuators. But those can be manipulated. Mascot spends several seconds removing data cables and then triggers the door release.
The cockpit door unlocks and a blast of heat (registered on your armor's readout) washes over you, as well as a thick pall of smoke. Mascot levers open the door to reveal that the ship's main engineering panel is on fire.
Spider rushes in and covers the whole panel in halon, dousing the fire and causing your breathing filters to kick into active mode. When you can see again, the fire is out.
Flatfoot moves up to the doorway, looking inside for the ship defences in case they have not been deactivated.
Flatfoot sits down at the controls and shuts down the ship's weapons. It's pretty clear that the AI on Lilly Marlene self-destructed.
Drifter goes and looks at the smoking and smoldering panel and sighs, "I am not sure we can pull much from this. Maybe we can salvage some information from it, but that looks unlikely. Still, the idea that they can program a mind into computers seems hard to believe." Mikhail says as he waits for the metal panel to cool off.
Mascot surveys the damage. "How do we know it's dead? And why on Aubaine would it do that? At the very least, it could have taken us down with it. I think we should run the snake. Double tap to verify."
"I'll see what the engine room is like." He marches off to examine the powerplant.
"Hold up, there, Mascot," says Flatfoot. He points to the smouldering panel before continuing. "No one goes off alone ... this is only the cockpit controls. The Virus might have copied itself into the nav computer or other computer systems ... no one goes off alone."
"Let's put the Snake to work and ensure that the Virus is actually gone before we do any exploring."
"OK, Flatfoot, you go with Mascot. Drifter and I will see what we can do here. Everyone keep an eye out for a functional computer system that will serve the snake's purposes. It should be safe enough to look around in any computer system for data as long as we don't connect any of our own computers to it." Spider starts in the bridge, looking to see if anything functional survived the fire. If he finds anything, he will start by looking for any salvageable data.
Mascot and Flatfoot head back towards the engineering spaces and find all of the antipersonnel lasers not working. They find several good data ports for use with the snake.
Spider, if you want to go looking for data pre-snake, give me INT or EDU+Computers.
Drifter also works to retrieve materials before they use the snake.
"Are you guys done? I want to hook up this snake and flush the virus," states Flatfoot.
He waits patiently while his companions complete their investigations.
While they're waiting for Drifter and Spider to do their thing, Mascot looks around the engine room for spare tools they might salvage.
Working together, Spider and Drifter are able to reconstruct one crucial piece of data: the location from which Lilly Marlene came. The partial star chart they recover reveals that location to be Ebekhar (1628/Diaspora). Furthermore, it reveals the location of an immense automated starship assembly plant there at Ebekhar.
Drifter, there is a full set of brand spankin' new tools. Of course, you also have a brand spankin' new ship to go with it...
"So, we send word back to HQ and then go investigate Ebekhar. Agreed?," asks Flatfoot.
"Let's get this equipment back to the ship. We should warn the people here about the Virus ... but we don't have space to take everyone."
Flatfoot does as he suggested. Once on board, he speaks to Sandman. "You know what happened. Let's make our way back to the border to warn base about these new Virus ships. Maybe we will meet someone who can take the message back."
"Very well," says Sandman. "Engines on standby. We can lift off as soon as everyone is in position.
Doctor Su, however, has other ideas. [b]"Berens is a crossroads," says the slender, helping to stow the equipment. "If we aren't returning to the Coalition, we could find someone here to take the message back. How many more ships will the facility at Ebekhar produce before we get back? They might get wind of what happened here and be ready for us."
Hopper regards you with half a dozen eyes atop its arm, then types on its voder. "Caution. You do not know the defenses of Ebekhar. Rash and headlong flight may result in disaster. Alerting the authorities at Dawn Base is the superior cause."
"We could lose the initiative and the opportunity for surprise," argues Su.
"Or the only opportunity to secure this information for the Reformation Coalition," Hopper says.
"RCES would never permit an operation so far beyond the AO," says Su. "If we don't do it, it will never get done. There will just be handwringing back on Aubaine."
Spider listens to Su and Hopper debate, then responds to Su, "Well, they've already permitted one operation this far beyond the AO, and it seems to have paid off, so I'd be surprised if they wouldn't permit another given the scenario." He waits to see if anyone else in the crew has an opinion to voice.