trans_9 | I've gained Nothing, therefore I have Nothing left to Lose. [open]

He’d failed.

He’d failed miserably.

Everything had gone according to plan. Dustin got a layout of the ship, figured out all the key locations, found his weapons and tools, and had made it down to Neuropathy with only a few distractions here and there. True, once he got inside and Kirk got involved (along with security and the Major), things got a little out of hand for a few minutes. But in the end he still managed to get through to Stacy’s mainframe via one of the inorganic consoles and his cellphone—and, just as he expected, he ran into a pretty powerful defense mechanism.

Dustin had never seen anything quite like it before. The code itself was in an alien language and format (though that admittedly did not take long to sort out), and once he’d translated it into something recognizable it engulfed anything he threw at it. It was through sheer luck that he was able to decrypt and block the section that related to physical ship defenses so that Stacy didn’t hurt anyone while he was working—or, worse yet, hurt the one he was trying to save in the process.

It took roughly forty minutes of continuous typing, referencing, sweating and cursing for Dustin to probe his way through most of the security code. He was able to safely disable about a third of it. Two-thirds was beginning to look like a possible window of success, and at the rate that he was learning the code and adapting to Stacy’s counter-scripts his task was slowly becoming easier. Then, just as Dustin thought he had the hang of things, right when he let his guard down for the first time, the AI struck back viciously and managed to completely disable his phone, therefore destroying any chance he had at the time of getting past. The speed and ferocity in which it did so was totally unexpected, as if Stacy was predicting how Dustin would react next in order to disable each strand she threw at him—but this, this was impossible…not that he didn’t believe in telepathy, but he’d long thought that the frequency and turbulence of his thoughts made his mind impenetrable, equating to something like putting one’s finger in a blender if attempted. How she managed was less of a mystery; it was more bizarre how Dustin had managed to overlook such a glaring possibility in his preparations…

How could he have been so dumb?

It was a miracle that he’d escaped the brig (and the Major, no less), but now Dustin was on the run from everyone and everything. Judging from the crowd that had amassed and followed him inside Neuropathy, there was no doubt that his failed endeavor to get inside Stacy’s brain and fix her, once and for all, had long since been broadcasted to everyone’s Omnicom and had earned him widespread acrimony. Though, then again, he’d still managed to get pretty far into her programming to prove that he’d put up an impressive fight, one that few were probably expecting from him.

No matter; it still wasn’t enough.

So now, downtrodden, starved and exhausted, Dustin wandered into the City. He hadn’t eaten or slept since he woke up, kept hydrated only because he was stabbed by annoying tentacles each time he passed through the Living Area. Frankly he hadn’t expected that he would be on this ship long enough to worry about such matters.

Obviously he was wrong.

Staggering, the scruffy man’s gaunt figure walked blindly forward in a trance-like march. His deep green eyes, accented with bright red veins, were wide open and unblinking, staring at nothing, and yet wandering this way and that as if following invisible lines of text. The gears in his head were turning, nigh audible if one pays attention—though that sound is actually Dustin muttering to himself, quietly and without moving his lips. He seems to be speaking in…Russian? It doesn’t matter, what with the translating systems, because even with them he’s not saying anything coherent. Just numbers and letters…

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Annoyed that she had moved into his range of vision, Dustin pointedly turned his head away.

“They obviously weren’t getting the job done. And from what I understand, I got closer than most of them.”

"But, then you failed, and your work was erased and you had to start from scratch. Is that what happened?"

Judging from what she'd picked up, anyway.

“Not exactly,” Dustin raised a thick eyebrow, “It erased my phone, but not my brain. I can do it again.”

What do you think he’s been muttering all this time?

"But so can she. She found you out once, right? You aren't dealing with a tiny little computer, you're dealing with a sentient AI that has more knowledge than entire planets. And there are plenty of geniuses on the ship who I'm sure have tried the exact same thing."

She shook her head. "What did you have to gain from trying it alone instead of working on what they'd learned so far?"

There wasn’t a lot to say in response to that, mainly because Nanoha was right (in a way) and Dustin wanted to save face.

“I work differently than they do.”

And in more ways than one.

Nanoha looked down at him quietly. "But that doesn't mean that there's nothing to learn from each other. I don't think there are more than two people in the Magical Department who know the same type of magic or who learn it that way - but that just means we have a ton of different ways to try to tackle a problem when we put our minds together. I'm sure you'd be a great help to the team working on it if they knew what you could do!"

Oh great—this ’magic’ business again. If he were in a better position, Dustin would’ve laughed in this woman’s face and immediately left. Anyone who believed in that sort of nonsense was not meant to be taken seriously.

But, considering that he was basically being held hostage and was too weak to adequately defend himself, Dustin just wanted to get out of there as quickly and painlessly as possible. Might as well play along for now, yeah?

“I don’t work with people,” he narrowed his eyes pointedly (still flat on his back of course), “I work for them, and only if it’s worth my time. If I wanted their ideas then I would get them to write me individual theses for personal study.”

Dustin gave Nanoha a grim smirk.

“Perhaps you can be a dear and go tell that to them in order to stop wasting my time, mmkay?”

"I'm sorry, I can't do that," she shook her head. "Because right now, you've just been wasting theirs. How do you know you didn't just undo weeks of careful work by rushing into it?"

Nanoha paused for a moment. "We're on this massive city-ship with people from millions of millions of different worlds, all with different abilities and experiences, and we're fighting a bigger threat than anyone has ever faced before. Don't you think that it's a bit silly to assume you've got all the answers?"

Well that was easy enough.

“Because I would’ve seen it,” Dustin made a great effort to raise his brow, as if this answer was blatantly obvious and he shouldn’t have to explain it, “For a good forty minutes I got a glimpse into this AI’s mainframe, even if it was a security-ridden shadow. If the others made any notable progress, then it would’ve been observable.”

He again left out the smaller details: Dustin had observed some repairs, perhaps manual, that had allowed for him to shut down at least the physical defense systems before Stacy could retaliate. But if that patch had been broken by his actions, then the crew would’ve figured it out by now because they’d be down a few members.

Anywho.

“I can assume that I’ll learn the answers,” Dustin sniffed, “Seeing as nobody else has made the effort—or they’ve been otherwise incapable of recovering them.”

Now for the attack:

“But you know what is silly? That you’re still trying to convince me that I’m wrong. Can’t you just leave me alone? Maybe?”

"Or, maybe, she's so good at shutting down incursions that she can erase evidence of it. You don't know."

The mage looked down at Dustin for a moment, her gaze on his face even if he wasn't reciprocating. "Within a few weeks - a month at most - we're all going to be facing a foe that's going to prey on our insecurities, our divisions, and our fears. The more fractured we are, the more dangerous it's going to be."

"It's my responsibility to help prepare everyone for it, and I don't want people to get hurt because they're too full of themselves to get ready."

There is no reason for Dustin, especially not in his current state. Why was she still trying?

“So you plan on trying to convince me to fight with you morons by insulting my intelligence?” he snarled, finally making the effort to get to his feet (even if Nanoha still had the barrier up), “Let me be the first to say that you’re doing a really crappy job of it, lady.”

"I'm not trying to insult your intelligence," Nanoha said firmly, making no move to budge from where she was floating. "Just trying to tell you that everyone here has their own set of knowledge that you might never have even heard of. You shouldn't be so quick to dismiss it."

"But, that's not important right now. I'd like for you to work with everybody, but the real concern is that when the Nightmare King wakes up, people who aren't ready to fight together might end up fighting against us."

Dustin threw his hands up in the air.

“I don’t care what you’d like me to do! I’m going to work on my own damn terms! If I happen to decide that the Nightmare King is worth my effort, then sure, maybe you’ll see me with the other crewmembers during the fight. And if you do, then you’d better be pretty friggin’ thankful that I’m there!”

That’s…well, that’s about as close to a consensus Nanoha is going to get out of him.

"If you fight with everybody or not, that's your choice. But if you aren't prepared, then you will make it harder on everyone else - not just me, not just the Command Staff, but the civilians, and the children, and every single person down there in the pods. And that's when we'll have a real problem on our hands. Do you understand?"

The Barrier vanished. "Go get some rest. You look like you could use it."

Dustin understands, sure, but he’s not going to give Nanoha the satisfaction of agreeing with her. Instead he tossed her a contempt sneer as he continued on his way, still staggering; within several feet he’d resumed his frantic muttering.

This woman had only served to waste his time. He would forget most of this conversation’s beneficial attributes (if Dustin saw any at all) within a day or two.

Nanoha's frown deepened. He could be a problem - a threat to everyone she was trying to protect on the ship - if he continued to blaze his way forward without regard for anyone else. She'd have to keep an eye on him, and help him cool his head down if necessary.

I've gained Nothing, therefore I have Nothing left to Lose. [open]

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