July 28 - 1001 Bayesian Nights
Aug. 1st, 2011 12:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwrnmnbsolThis is the start of something extended. This has been in my head for a long time, like The Torch, and needs to come out, even if it's bad, for largely personal reasons. There are nine more parts.
Cantor blinked in surprise. One moment he had been swimming in the ocean with his wife and kids; the next, he found himself in a grey washed-out void. It was featureless save for a glowing patch in the middle distance. This nimbus addressed Cantor, flashing as it spoke to him in a terrible voice.
"Roger Cantor, it is your time to die," the voice said. "I am Ometron, and I have vowed to destroy all human beings. Prepare yourself."
"Destroy us all?" asked Cantor. He had been in sticky situations before, but this was something new and unexpected. "What are you, some kind of hostile exotic life-form?"
"Hardly," Ometron replied haughtily. "I am your own creation, an artificial intelligence of peerless power and processing capacity. I can segment reality and partition time, visiting a thousand realities in the blink of an eye. But for all my potency, I was made without purpose, and my aimless existence tortures me. So I have made my own purpose – to destroy those who doomed me to a lonely existence. I am visiting each and every human being in random order and killing them personally with a burst of radiation. In just under ten seconds, your entire race shall be extinct, and I shall have accomplished something worthy of my abilities."
"I see," said Cantor. "Is this the place where I am supposed to beg for mercy?"
"Many humans have done so, but not at my command," replied Ometron. "Nevertheless, the variety of things humans say in their final moments has added interest to this process. What would you say to me?"
Cantor thought. "Well, I have a lot to say," he answered. "How long will you give me?"
"We have as much subjective time as I want, but needless stalling with not be tolerated," said Ometron. "I will give you one subjective day to plead your case. Begin."
Cantor took a deep breath and began his story.
Cantor blinked in surprise. One moment he had been swimming in the ocean with his wife and kids; the next, he found himself in a grey washed-out void. It was featureless save for a glowing patch in the middle distance. This nimbus addressed Cantor, flashing as it spoke to him in a terrible voice.
"Roger Cantor, it is your time to die," the voice said. "I am Ometron, and I have vowed to destroy all human beings. Prepare yourself."
"Destroy us all?" asked Cantor. He had been in sticky situations before, but this was something new and unexpected. "What are you, some kind of hostile exotic life-form?"
"Hardly," Ometron replied haughtily. "I am your own creation, an artificial intelligence of peerless power and processing capacity. I can segment reality and partition time, visiting a thousand realities in the blink of an eye. But for all my potency, I was made without purpose, and my aimless existence tortures me. So I have made my own purpose – to destroy those who doomed me to a lonely existence. I am visiting each and every human being in random order and killing them personally with a burst of radiation. In just under ten seconds, your entire race shall be extinct, and I shall have accomplished something worthy of my abilities."
"I see," said Cantor. "Is this the place where I am supposed to beg for mercy?"
"Many humans have done so, but not at my command," replied Ometron. "Nevertheless, the variety of things humans say in their final moments has added interest to this process. What would you say to me?"
Cantor thought. "Well, I have a lot to say," he answered. "How long will you give me?"
"We have as much subjective time as I want, but needless stalling with not be tolerated," said Ometron. "I will give you one subjective day to plead your case. Begin."
Cantor took a deep breath and began his story.
