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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!) » The Haunted Apiary (Let Op!): Puzzles
[PUZZLE SOLVE!] Melissa's memories
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Shad0
I Have No Life


Joined: 20 Jun 2004
Posts: 2180
Location: Southern California, USA

 		[PUZZLE SOLVE!] Melissa's memories
Some of the new text on the web site appears to be two more of Melissa's memories, from when she was on her ship with Captain Greene and First Lieutenant Sorenson. They're now in the Wiki, but here they are for us as well:

Melissa wrote:
It was adrift in space: a squat cylinder of dull gray metal, // about the size of a suitcase. Not pure osmium all the way through - it was too dense for that - but osmium was the only firm echo the sensors returned. We cast a net and reeled it in.

It sat in the airlock, inert and cold. Three kelvin interstellar background, no electrical or chemical activity. Very faint magnetic fields in complex tracery. Not an object, then. A device.

OK, cameras deployed and scanning every square centimeter, damn it. The thing was covered in geometric shapes, not embossed but expressed somehow in the grain of the metal. // Bars and triangles, dots, ordered but non-repeating patterns. A message, yes, running around the rim like the tread on a tire. I thought: whatever that's telling us, it's something we want to know. Extremely hazardous. Safety glasses required. If found, please return to sender.

Set in the center of the top face was a square, a suggestion of seam no bigger than the palm of a hand. I imagined it sinking back and sliding to one side, a Japanese door offering access to whatever was in there. Or not. Or blowing up if you tried it.

Is it Covenant? 1st Lt Sorenson said. He was the one inside with it; suited, curious but cautious.

Capt. Greene looked thoughtful. It isn't us. Melissa?

I said, I don't know. // If it is, it's new.

Rolf leaned over to touch it.

Capt Greene said, Don't. Let's not try anything yet.

Bars and triangle, dots and squares. A little like Braille, a little like cuneiform. Felt the old familiar hunger: new language like a new cuisine - delicacies of thought and nuance for me to dig into.

Sorenson said, its got to go in the hold, Captain. It can't stay here. Bring in a dollybot if you like, but something's going to have to touch it. We have to warm it up, too.

Greene didn't like that, but what could we do?


Melissa also wrote:
I ran another diagnostic. Came back fine, again. Nothing wrong, just a stutter of lag once in a while.

Didnt feel right to me.
//
That feeling that everything is still in the room, nothing's been stolen, but things arent exactly where you left them.

Captain Greene, I said. Things arent quite right.

She waited for me to explain.

I have the sense that things are being... moved around.

Like a virus? she asked.
//
I shook my head no, I didnt feel sick.
//
Then nodded, yes. An intruder, something inhabiting the system.

What do you think, Melissa?

I might be compromised, I said to her.

I still want to know what you think. When could it have been introduced?
//
The Covenant transmission?
//
Maybe they suspect were monitoring them.

A virus piggybacking, she said. Could they do that? Their systems are so much different than ours.

Weve reversed engineered their systems, I said. And they have clearly reverse engineered some of ours.

Have you done anything out of character, she asked.

Not yet, I said. I hoped it was true.


Edit to complete second memory (should've done that instead of posting below ), and to fix new Wiki location
Second edit 'cos I still can't spell
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PostPosted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 10:18 pm
Last edited by Shad0 on Wed Aug 11, 2004 4:39 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Ben_Dover
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Joined: 10 Aug 2004
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 		This is video game related, but the Flood in the game used a lot of technology that was unfamiliar to both the humans and the Covenant.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 10, 2004 10:43 pm
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Lutzie
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Joined: 29 Jul 2004
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Quote:
Bars and triangle, dots and squares.
This is a clear indication that the "object" is of Forerunner technology.

Book 3, First Strike, Chapter 15, page 139 wrote:
There were a series of squares, triangles, bars and dots, similar to Covenant calligraphy he had seen - but at the same time it was simpler, cleaner, and when Fred focused on them, the characters seemed to blur around their edges and fade from his stare


Later on after following the symbols they discover the crystal, a Forerunner artifact. This is on Reach...
Sorry if it's a trout. If so can a mod please delete. Thanks.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 4:21 am
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theodred
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Joined: 30 Jul 2004
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 		OK, somebody trout me, doesn't this artifact sound horribly like 'a sealed casket' if so - could the 'Sleeping Princess' be a Forerunner intrusion AI? Pure spec of course.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:23 am
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Anonymous Coward
Boot

Joined: 25 Jul 2004
Posts: 39

 		Re: [PUZZLE SOLVE?] Melissa's memories
Melissa wrote:
It was adrift in space: a squat cylinder of dull gray metal, // about the size of a suitcase. Not pure osmium all the way through - it was too dense for that - but osmium was the only firm echo the sensors returned. We cast a net and reeled it in.


Factoid - osmium is the densest naturally occurring element. If something's denser than osmium, it's pretty darned dense. Smile

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 6:14 am
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Lutzie
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theodred wrote:
OK, somebody trout me, doesn't this artifact sound horribly like 'a sealed casket' if so - could the 'Sleeping Princess' be a Forerunner intrusion AI? Pure spec of course.

I'd say the sleeping casket would refer to a Cryo tube myself.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 6:20 am
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jellyfish_green
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Joined: 30 Jul 2004
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Lutzie wrote:

I'd say the sleeping casket would refer to a Cryo tube myself.


"Size of a suitcase" sounds too small for a human-sized cryo tube.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 6:59 am
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Lutzie
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jellyfish_green wrote:
Lutzie wrote:

I'd say the sleeping casket would refer to a Cryo tube myself.


"Size of a suitcase" sounds too small for a human-sized cryo tube.

True. I meant any references to caskets I would say are Cryo Tubes. Whatever this is though... dunno! Forerunner artifact probably.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:46 am
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advinius
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Joined: 10 Aug 2004
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 		ah, but we've never conclusively proven that the sleeping princess is actually human or even human-like, have we? I mean, we've seen that the SP has had to learn how to communicate in our language and has called it very old fashioned. although any AI might be able to say that, any human AI that was not tottaly hosed would be used to it. not to mention any human would be already acclimated to the nuances of our language.

I think that we have to accept the possiblity, at least, that the Sleeping princess is non terran in origin, or at the least a human AI with some damage. a lot of the way she's been communicating would indicate that she's not at all used to human social conventions.

as to the artifact, i'd say from my position of limited knowlege that it being forerunner tech sounds like it might be worth looking into.

also, based on the text fragments that have shown up, should we not be considering the posssiblity that Mellissa is teh one that caused teh crash, under the influence of something?

perhaps the flea?

my two cents. your milage may vary.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 7:49 am
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CoffeeJedi
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Joined: 27 Jul 2004
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Location: Charlotte NC, USA
Lutzie wrote:
Quote:
Bars and triangle, dots and squares.
This is a clear indication that the "object" is of Forerunner technology.

Book 3, First Strike, Chapter 15, page 139 wrote:
There were a series of squares, triangles, bars and dots, similar to Covenant calligraphy he had seen - but at the same time it was simpler, cleaner, and when Fred focused on them, the characters seemed to blur around their edges and fade from his stare


Later on after following the symbols they discover the crystal, a Forerunner artifact. This is on Reach...


maybe this object housed one of those time-travel crystal thingies?
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:18 am
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GunsmithCat
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advinius wrote:
ah, but we've never conclusively proven that the sleeping princess is actually human or even human-like, have we? I mean, we've seen that the SP has had to learn how to communicate in our language and has called it very old fashioned. although any AI might be able to say that, any human AI that was not tottaly hosed would be used to it. not to mention any human would be already acclimated to the nuances of our language.


No, we don't. We only can spec somewhat based on her association with Dana, and her preference to being called a "Rational Being" as a distinction from The Queen/Melissa.

But nowhere near solid proof that the SP is human or speaking for a human, which is distinctly the weakest point in the cryopod theory.

At this point I'd say it's safer to assume, via Occam's, that the SP is an AI somehow differentiated by Melissa, but in an unknown manner, and then update with new evidence. This doesn't preclude the cryopod theory, but it also avoids relying on it.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 8:48 am
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FunkyMonk
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 		Could the cylinder have something to do with the stoaway from phase 1?

We know that the cylinder was bought on board and it looks like a virus
infected the ship soon after.

If the cylinder contained a virus and it got into the system, it could manifest as a lovable rouge type character. Perhaps it merely gave an illusion of being human to fool the AI?

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 12:52 pm
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GunsmithCat
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Joined: 05 Aug 2004
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FunkyMonk wrote:
Could the cylinder have something to do with the stoaway from phase 1?

We know that the cylinder was bought on board and it looks like a virus
infected the ship soon after.

If the cylinder contained a virus and it got into the system, it could manifest as a lovable rouge type character. Perhaps it merely gave an illusion of being human to fool the AI?


IIRC - In our introduction to the Castaway, Melissa mentions she used a holographic image to interact with him. She'd only need to do this with a human.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 12:56 pm
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Dorkmaster
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Joined: 27 Jul 2004
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 		Ok Gunsmith, enjoy this, it's where I give the wild spec and expect trout salad Wink :

If we've got Melissa voicing her own doubts as to whether she's been doing anything out of the ordinary, isn't it possible that the Castaway thing was part of some dream, or some malfunction. That she thought she had to manifest holographically, but really she didn't. She interpreted the Castaway to be human, but maybe because that's how this thing could "get through" to infect. Maybe it distracted her with lovey-dovey stuff, while it did something nefarious on the inside?

Totally wild spec there. forgive me, as I don't do that too often, but it's been naggin at me.
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:07 pm
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Anonymous Coward
Boot

Joined: 25 Jul 2004
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 		Re: [PUZZLE SOLVE] Melissa's memories
Melissa really wrote:

Didnt ... arent ... didnt ... Weve
...
Have you done anything out of character, she asked.

Not yet, I said. I hoped it was true.


Are the missing apostrophes definitely missing from the original? If anything, that's out of character - these entities have been quite fastidious with their grammar so far. Wink

PostPosted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 4:41 pm
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