[The pleas cut off. The screen stays still, prompt open. This terminal is outside the AI's influence-- it's meant to control him, and there's no image to change or lights to flicker. No visual at all for the total bewilderment that overtakes his code.]
You're not...
[Not the caretaker. Not Arid. The voice was sharp and scraping-- not static, quite, but something close. It was new. It's someone new, but there isn't anyone, there hasn't been for years, and for someone to have made it down through all the testing levels and the labs unnoticed... is he missing time, too?]
no subject
You're not...
[Not the caretaker. Not Arid. The voice was sharp and scraping-- not static, quite, but something close. It was new. It's someone new, but there isn't anyone, there hasn't been for years, and for someone to have made it down through all the testing levels and the labs unnoticed... is he missing time, too?]
Who-- [what--?] ...who are you?