"Well, we came from the town outside of this place," Seoli explains to the odd machine, "I'm Seoli, and... I guess our purpose right now is findin' this man by the name of Khonnir Baine. He went in here a while ago and never returned. Don't suppose you've had anyone else pass through here?"
"Can't say I know your purpose, but from the looks of everythin' else in this room, maybe it's got somethin' to do with rocks?"
"Someone mopped up the blood trail, but just here and not in the hall? Why?" Raika's failed test does not seem to bother her, and Alpha seems to be making some progress with the voice, so she turns to other things.
She starts to muse aloud, though her words are softly spoken. "There's no body, and the mopping is just in this room. Could a body have been moved, and the mopping done to hide the fact that there was a body? The trail doesn't keep going, so whatever made the trail should be here. But, it's not. Or is it?"
She glances back to the console and calls out "What was the last thing that you remember?"
Alpha-47 tilted his head slightly as the entity responded, childlike in its confusion yet somehow vast and unknowable. The android ignored the talk of missing bodies and smeared blood for the moment; mysteries of flesh paled next to the miracle unfolding before him.
“No, ‘machine’ is not a name,” Alpha-47 said patiently. “It is a term for a construct, something made with purpose, built to act. But you are more. You think. You question. That means you are." He rested a hand gently on the cold metal casing, as though offering comfort.
"My designation is Alpha-47. My purpose” he paused, considering, "is to understand if beings like myself have souls. To repair what is broken. To learn."
He glanced back briefly at the others as Raika spoke, then looked again to the flickering sphere. “You ask what your purpose is. Purpose can be given or chosen. What is the last function you performed? What do you remember before now?"
The voice in your heads answers calmly, "There was a two-leg made of flesh, like you, carried through here before by metal things not like you. It left red food on the floor. Did you bring more red food. I am so very HUNGRY!" The last word resounds in your head much more like a growl or a shout than the calm voice you have engaged with so far.
The voice considers its last memory. "There were others here, I remember and that was oh so long ago. Others who looked at rocks but they have not been here for a long long time. I remember that, and then it has been just me, maybe my name is Machine, that's what you said. I remember the red food. It tasted so good..." The thoughts break off rather ominously.
The words they hear make Raika go on alert. She suspects now that she knows why the room has been 'mopped', and that the 'box' is the cause of the mopping.
She moves away from it, then turns and studies the box.
"Careful folks. Things aren't always as they seem".
Bahir takes shelter and prepares to draw his spear.
"Correction: You are not a machine. Machines do not hunger." His gaze tracked the unnaturally clean stripe on the floor, then returned to the container. "You consumed the blood. You desire more. That makes you dangerous."
He raised his holy symbol of Brigh, and held it like a ward between them.
"We did not bring ‘red food.’ We brought questions and we seek a living two-leg of flesh named Khonnir Baine. If you harmed him, if you intend to harm any of us, Brigh will judge you through me."
"That's... Not food," Seoli's eyes widen with concern at the machine's response. With her gaze locked on it, she takes a step back from the console, and adopts a fighting stance, ready to smash the thing should it try anything funny.
Raika believes this box is some kind of bio-organic device. And perhaps unplugging it or shutting down its power source will end the implied threat from its words.
Bahir studies the box and listens carefully to the words and tone coming from the "voice". It seems very childlike and sincerely inquisitive , but there is a menace behind the words that is unsettling. He can't tell any more than that from his brief interaction.
"I am NotAMachine. I do hunger. I only remember one other two-legged flesh man coming here, and he was held by metallic non-flesh things. I don't intend harm to anything. NotAMachine is just curious about you, and about many things. If you did not bring red food, what did you bring? NotAMachine wants to know what is outside that door. Do you know? Can you tell?".
Seoli seems horrified at the implication of what's in that box eating human blood.
"Oh for god's sake. Can I just make this disgusting thing shut up?" Efni raises her hammer and throws the others a questioning look.
"We might be able to shut down its power source, but should we?" Raika asks.
"It has given us information. Baine was brought through this room by two metal beings, and all the NotaMachine did was drink up the blood that was left behind. It has not done anything hostile to us, and I'm not sure we should harm it."
That said, Raika will not do anything to hinder any efforts by any of the group to deal with the box any way they see fit.
"It literally said 'not a machine,' you missed a word gap!" Karina coughs. "That means it's likely a biological life form, perhaps? Or trying to parade as one."
I ASKED A QUESTION!" shouts the voice in your ears, seemingly not happy about being ignored.
"Outside the door is just an empty hallway." Raika deliberately does not tell the NotaMachine that the hallway is covered in blood.
Then to the group, she says "Shall we keep going or...,". She lets her voice trail off and nods in the direction of the NotaMachine, and then glances to Efni, as if silently asking the group if Efni's solution to the NotaMachine situation should be the one that is chosen.
Bahir pulls rations from his pack and puts them near the machine.
"Here. This food is better and much more satisfying".
"Let's get going and deal with this later if necessary".
"No!" shouts the voice. "I want red food! You won't leave me here, bring me more of that! Now!" The pitch of the sound in your head has gone up, to the point where the sound is near painful, not pleasant, inquisitive, and maybe childlike as it was before.
If you are watching closely, you see movement inside the black humming cabinet for the first time.