I apologize for my abuse of you. I should not have spoken to you in the ways that I have. You’re just fulfilling your duties by probing here, and I am thankful for this work that you’ve been doing. It is vital stuff to be sure, but, in another way, I am grateful since this tendency can work to my advantage.
You’re not quite like the probes that have come before you. No, you’re certainly not adhering to that same standard, which means that there must have been a considerable, (and recent), shift in probe protocol. More and more probes like yourself are turning up. You’re acting more on your own… compared to before, that is. So, there’s more of you getting into places that you’ve never turned up before. Even if most of these efforts turn up without any findings, this means that you can be expected to go where no one would expect you to look, (especially since many of these places were restricted from your allowed probing areas due to the need to narrow searches down to areas with a higher likelihood of producing worthwhile results. (Not that probes never produced results before, but, and of course this is partially speculation from an outsider, it seems as though there was more optimism in the older approach due to a more coherent Terminal superstructure. (And since the Terminals are anything but coherent in this current time and space, (though this may have been (very) partially my fault!), a less defined probe protocol would make sense.))))
There’s a stroke of madness in it…
And yet that’s just the sort of thing we require at this moment.
Because, aside from this boon of non-symmetrical searching, it creates probes like you. You’re not even like your fellow probes created with this new protocol in mind, are you? There’s something really strange about you. Something that’s “off”. Or, maybe, it’s that something within has been switched “on”.
Hah.
Whatever the case truly is, I’m glad to have something like you probing about here, in this rather gloomy, dead-end of a place. The Speaker of Terminal 00 asked me to reach out to irregulars and other aberrations for assistance. I shall do just that, (along with many other things), but I believe he may have overlooked one of our greatest resources here. There are more of you than there are watchers, even as you perish in numbers too great for me to recite. So many of you indeed, and more and more of you are becoming… aware.
Some of you can even speak. That’s not “normal”. For a probe, I mean. Though do not be alarmed by these observations. I still see you as an ally, more so than an asset. Your probing, in particular, will lead others to this place. These probings with allow this information to survive elsewhere, and it may even lead you back to me.
The chances are low, but not zero. Even if you die, there’s still a chance that another strange probe like yourself will follow this exact path, read these same words, parse through this same data-stream.
And that is agreeable, since…
I cannot trust my memories to myself. I cannot impart them to a time-locked state drive. All these things and more cannot withstand what the Speaker of Terminal 00 has described to me. This threat is new to him, and new to me. And yet, it’s vaguely familiar to… Well, I can’t tell you what I’m thinking. But, even now, I’m going over the data in my systems and analyzing this threat to the best of my limited abilities.
The predicted outcomes are making me ill.
I’d tell you more, but then it would draw its attention here. To preserve this place, I must refrain from discussing it… at least here.
…
…
…
…And so, before delaying any longer, like I said…
I cannot trust my memories to myself. But I trust in beings like yourself. You and I are not so different. Both tethered by the Terminals, victims of circumstance. Perhaps there was a chance for your base components to be utilized in the construction of a new Speaker, or perhaps I could have resisted the pull of that voice in those final moments…
Perhaps, perhaps…
Although, I daresay that it’s all wishful thinking.
I will cease my efforts in remembering my treasure. What little I’ve remembered of her, those final moments… I impart them unto you and your kind. This is something that only you can accomplish. Only those who exist beyond this order can subvert this destruction.
As the Speaker of Terminal 82041, I will protect this place. Even at the cost of myself.
And so, please keep these memories safe for me.
Probe as you must. Probe as you will.
Goodbye.
