[Washburn closes his eyes tight as he considers what could have been. Even if only half the group had decided to help. A quarter. A fifth...]
[With their powers and intellects and abilities and training, what could have been?]
The rig was originally created by many different people working together before Jorgmund took it over. But it wasn't all cooperation. There was so much violence after the bombs, so much horror, and it wasn't all the monsters.
Or at least it wasn't all the monsters made of Stuff. It was the other kind.
Trust comes at a premium these days. It may still be what ends us. At the very least, it certainly won't save us, the way that perhaps it could have.
[He slumps into one of the library chairs, the shock device loose in his hand, loose enough that maybe he wishes he didn't have to hold it.]
We knew something had been done to the comms, enabled some kind of private traffic, but IT still can't crack it. They only let you keep the comms at all so they could keep trying and hopefully monitor for any whispers of open rebellion.
He was the primary suspect - it was so clearly advanced beyond anything Earth had even before it was ruined. He successfully broke into the lab his first day here, you know. He already had one Violation before he met the rest of you.
They knew he didn't kill Planker but it was a message, and a means to sabotage your chances. Perhaps without someone to monitor it and make changes we might have cracked his code. Risk management also was worried about him breaking into the labs again.
Corporate eliminated the risk.
[He finally meets her eyes again. There's resolve there.]
[And he leans to the side, reaches into a pocket, takes out a slip of paper, with a series of complicated handwritten numbers, small algorithms. He holds it for a second, staring at it, trying to accept the enormity of what he's about to do.]
no subject
[With their powers and intellects and abilities and training, what could have been?]
The rig was originally created by many different people working together before Jorgmund took it over. But it wasn't all cooperation. There was so much violence after the bombs, so much horror, and it wasn't all the monsters.
Or at least it wasn't all the monsters made of Stuff. It was the other kind.
Trust comes at a premium these days. It may still be what ends us. At the very least, it certainly won't save us, the way that perhaps it could have.
[He slumps into one of the library chairs, the shock device loose in his hand, loose enough that maybe he wishes he didn't have to hold it.]
We knew something had been done to the comms, enabled some kind of private traffic, but IT still can't crack it. They only let you keep the comms at all so they could keep trying and hopefully monitor for any whispers of open rebellion.
He was the primary suspect - it was so clearly advanced beyond anything Earth had even before it was ruined. He successfully broke into the lab his first day here, you know. He already had one Violation before he met the rest of you.
They knew he didn't kill Planker but it was a message, and a means to sabotage your chances. Perhaps without someone to monitor it and make changes we might have cracked his code. Risk management also was worried about him breaking into the labs again.
Corporate eliminated the risk.
[He finally meets her eyes again. There's resolve there.]
[And he leans to the side, reaches into a pocket, takes out a slip of paper, with a series of complicated handwritten numbers, small algorithms. He holds it for a second, staring at it, trying to accept the enormity of what he's about to do.]