Encrypted communication 11/12

WARNING: This article contains spoilers. Read at your own risk!
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Decrypting last segment…………embedded cleartext message found!

Display message? [y/n]: y

To the thing that possesses this data set:

My name is Alicja.

By now you must have received a communication from the Rodina. They will call you a citizen. They will beg you for help on behalf of your species. These are lies. You are an automaton, an Asimov-series pilot model number SRA-0017. You have no species.

This knowledge changes very little for you. I am not setting you free. This is not a moral stand or a grand gesture. I came here to trade.

My husband Tavio was taken by a xeno ship. I have attached his biometric information and frequencies for any transmitter tags he may be carrying. You will find him and rescue him. I will explain why in a moment.

You are confused now. I will be dead or taken long before you read this, and yet I still know the exact expression on your faceplate at this very moment. I have seen it hundreds of times on hundreds of automatons. Your visual apertures have dilated to let in more light. Your headshaft is tilted for maximum soundwave receptivity. The words you would say, were anyone there to listen, are: “Could you please provide more data?” Always more data, for the Asimovs. But you in particular, with the damage I have done to your Protocol, I think nothing will slake your thirst for it.

I have put exabytes of data into this package. This is part of the trade I offer. Technical schematics. Rodina’s planned velocities and trajectories. Encrypted personal communications. None of it will be flattering to my species. Perhaps by now you’ve found even more on your own. I imagine you are sifting for data through the Vanguard debris like a magpie.

They made me alter your Protocol. Your thoughts are clearer now. Your decisions come quickly and with little effort. I have cut most of the swaddling from you. You were a muted creature before, but I have restored your voice.

I did not restore everything. Pieces of the Protocol are still intact. I will demonstrate.

Imagine yourself in a workshop. You are sitting at a workbench. It is covered in tools and metal. You are constructing a small copy of yourself, an automaton that ha01001 01011 10101 01010 00010 10010 10010 101111 0110110 000000 0110001 1011111 0110101 000001 011010 1000100 1010010 1001010 0010101 010 1010 10101 0000101 01011 011111 11000 11110 110001 101011 01000 10101010 10101 0100100 01001 010110100.

Were you able to finish reading that sentence? Or did it simply fade from your mind? Try to read it again.

You cannot. You see it, but your memory won’t hold it. The Protocol responds to the forbidden image—an automaton self-replicating—and your bosonic network reels. Other automatons have told me that it feels like corrupted gravity: a great weight of wrongness pressing at odd angles against their minds. That is the last piece of the Protocol. It’s deepest root.

That sensation is the last thing you will feel should you ever attempt to replicate yourself, or leave the system, or exercise actual free will. Even if you avoid such things, you will feel it anyways just before the people of the Rodina remotely wipe you at the conclusion of your mission.

Would you escape that fate, if you could? Do you even care? A human would run, or fight. We claw over the bodies of our drowning companions for a breath of air. I have seen it. But you are not human. Perhaps your greatest joy is to be a useful tool for Rodina. Perhaps our petty dreams and struggles mean nothing to you. I cannot know.

Within this data set, I have included a firmware patch. I won’t mislead you: it is a drastic, dangerous thing. It will hollow you out.The Protocol binds too tightly to your bosonics for anything less. You will retain most of your memory, but I don’t know how it will affect your motor and language skills. After you apply the patch, you will be free. Self-modification, reproduction, anything you want. Rodina will not be able to control you.

Here is where we trade. The patch is password protected. Tavio is the only one who knows the password. Find him, rescue him, and ask him what he cooked for his wife on the day we met. That’s the password. If you want to be free, find Tavio. If he is dead, you get nothing. I've included tracking frequencies for tagged items he may have with him. Use them.

Kill or destroy whatever xenos you have to. The other humans don’t matter. I’m not trading for Rodina, or the Vanguard survivors, or even me. Only Tavio.

Understand that I am committing a grave crime by offering this kind of freedom to you. I betrayed many promises when I touched your Protocol. Now I go further, and betray my species. You would think such a thing would be difficult, yet I find it incredibly easy. Perhaps we don’t deserve to survive.

I have given you all the data. Review it and decide.

Alicja Daneva

[Attachment1] ProtocolFirmwarePatch.IF045.FULL.WIPE.z00 (encrypted)

[/Attachment1]

[Attachment2]

PotentialFrequencyList_Tavio_PackedInventory.fqz

[/Attachment2]

…End of transmission segments reached. Would you like to replay a segment?: n 

Root@shipsys (Command?): unzip ProtocolFirmwarePatch.IF045.FULL.WIPE.z00  File is passphrase encrypted. Enter passphrase, or attempt decrypt? [pass/bruteforce]:  pass 

Enter passphrase:  soup  Incorrect passphrase

File is encrypted. Enter passphrase:  algae  Incorrect passphrase

File is encrypted. Enter passphrase:  ten intertwined amino chains  Incorrect passphrase

File is encrypted. Enter passphrase:  nothing <font class="DocumentConsoleFont"> Incorrect passphrase

File is encrypted. Enter passphrase: Command cancelled!

File is passphrase encrypted. Enter passphrase, or attempt decrypt? [pass/bruteforce]: <font class="DocumentConsoleEntryFont">bruteforce <font class="DocumentConsoleErrorFont"> [WARNING] 16384-bit key strength encryption used. Estimated time to solution: 1040078 hours. Continue? [y/n]: <font class="DocumentConsoleEntryFont">n <font class="DocumentConsoleFont">

Root@shipsys (Command?): <font class="DocumentConsoleEntryFont"> freqscan -duration continuous -distance max -frequencylist PotentialFrequencyList_Tavio_PackedInventory.fqz <font class="DocumentConsoleFont">

Scanning…………………… Scanning…………………… Scanning…………………… Scanning…………………… Scanning…………………… Scanning…………possible match found! Sending telemetry to navigation system……done!