i386kobaの備忘録

This briefing has been updated and revised many times to ensure accuracy and completeness.

In a crisis, our planet's survival depends on you.

We cannot overstate the importance of the information contained herein.

Since Contra was terraformed and settled by emigres from Earth, we have had the benefit of living within a controlled environment.

As you well know, our weather is always perfect and there is food for everyone--wholesome, delicious food.

Anyone wishing to travel the surface of our planet simply takes a glide ramp, a robot-taxi, or a floater.

This controlled and balanced environment is maintained by three massive and powerful computers buried deep beneath Contra's surface.

Without these computers, we would be forced to brave the elemental fury of Contra and provide for ourselves using primitive methods and skills.

Since these three Filtering Computers are biomechanical in construction, they must be monitored.

It is the duty of the Central Mentality to monitor these Filtering Computers to ensure they function properly.

The Filtering Computers are located in an extremely high-security area called the Underground Complex.

With one exception, monitoring of the Filtering Computers has always proceeded without trouble.

Since training and costs prohibit frequent changing of the Central Mentality, you will be in the Complex for 500 years.

Your time in the Complex will be spent in a state of limited cryogenic suspension.

You will be frozen to nearly absolute zero and then stored in a cryogenic capsule within the Complex.

Your brain will remain in an Alpha state, receptive but quiet, requiring only minimal biological functions.

You will be able to survive in this state for your tour of duty: 500 years.

It won't. But if it does, the computers responsible for all of our surface-side systems will awaken you and inform you of the problem.

We are confident you will be capable of solving any situations which may arise.

The fate of the entire population of Contra will rest in your abilities to make logical decisions and choices.

Your body will be warmed to the point where marginal biological activity is resumed,

supplying your mind with the necessary nutrients and oxygen to function at peak capacity.

Unfortunately, we cannot revive you completely until the end of your tour of duty.

Due to the Gregory Franklin incident (refer to the letter from the Lottery Commission),

we are forced to make clones of you. When you complete this briefing, the cloning procedure will begin.

These clones will be installed in the Complex as a backup system, should anything go wrong with you.

The Underground Complex you will occupy is fully automated and maintained by six robots.

In the unlikely event that the Filtering Computers malfunction, there are override controls for the weather systems, the transit systems and the hydroponics food resource center.

There are also planet-side monitors for examining the current state of these systems.

The robots which maintain the Complex are under the control of the Filtering Computers.

Malfunctioning equipment is quickly and easily detected by the computers themselves, and the necessary robots are dispatched to effect the replacements.

If you are ever awakened (an extremely unlikely event), robots will provide your link to the outside world.

The most recent facilities check indicates that your robotic crew is fully operational (with the exception noted below).

The following profiles have been provided to inform you of special capabilities of individual robots, so that you can make the best use of each member of your crew, should corrective maneuvers become necessary.

There is a seventh robot.

Standing almost two meters tall and featuring 16 grasping extensions, verbal circuits and heavy-duty shielding against acid damage, this model is optimized for a multitude of applications.

It should be mentioned that this robot was misused by Gregory Franklin, who abandoned it within the Complex after brutally mangling it beyond recognition or hope of repair.

• The Central Library Core (CLC) is composed of several distinct parts: Whiz, the Peripherals and the Library Core.

• Whiz.

Whiz's function with the CLC is to act as your querying device.

By plugging him in, you can ask questions about objects and get advice on situations.

• The Peripherals.

There are four peripherals accessible to Whiz:

The Index Peripheral--Querying this peripheral performs the following operations:

The object is passed along to the Central Language Core, at which point its name is matched against an index.

If the name is not found, you will be informed that the object is not on file and no peripheral will contain any reference to it.

If the object is found within the Language Core, it is passed to the Index Core.

The Index Core then scans through the tagging device for references.

If no references are found, you will be told that no data is available at any peripheral.

If references are found, you will be told at which peripherals information can be retrieved.

• The Technical Peripheral

This peripheral can provide technical data on some objects.

If you absolutely need to know how something works, querying this peripheral can sometimes prove helpful.

Technical information is not available on all objects.

• The Advisory Peripheral

When you need advice and just can't understand what's going on with something, ask this peripheral.

It is attuned to provide Hierarchical Information for Newly Terraformed Systems (H.I.N.T.S.).

• The Historical Peripheral

This peripheral can provide you with historical references for certain objects found within the Complex, adding a greater understanding of what these things do and how they interact.

• The Library Core.

The CLC itself is also accessible from the Lower Access area, but all interactions and queries here are designed solely for human interaction.

Whiz cannot perform queries from this area since there isn't a suitable peripheral for him.

The surface of Contra is controlled by the three Filtering Computers.

These systems, when in proper balance, maintain the weather, the transportation systems and the food production automatically.

By polling surface-side peripherals, the Filtering Computers can make decisions on what adjustments are necessary for a balanced environment.

If the Filtering Computers cannot mutually agree on a course of action, you will be awakened to make the necessary decisions.

• The Weather System.

Weather on the surface of Contra is controlled by Weather Towers.

Each city has three towers which control atmospheric pressure within the surrounding area.

By testing temperature, velocity and relative humidity, the three Filtering Computers can adjustments in the Weather Towers to maintain a balanced, comfortable state.

Since the weather on the surface is controlled, housing and clothing are more decorative than protective, and maintaining a balanced weather condition becomes a primary concern.

Since the planetary engineers were aware of this;

they built the Weather Monitors and the Weather Controls into the Complex.

You have been provided with manual override controls in case the Filtering Computers fall out of synchronization and cannot agree on a course of action.

These controls are found in the Weather Control Area and consist of three dials, each of which controls a set of towers in all the cities of Contra.

The first dial, for example, controls the pressure in all of the first towers in all of the cities.

The Weather Monitors provide you with the necessary feedback on the planet's surface so that you can make necessary adjustments.

• Food Production.

Food is produced hydroponically deep underground, separated from the Underground Complex by nearly half a planet.

The Filtering Computers prepare and balance the amount of minerals and light for the Hydroponic Growing Area.

This area is not accessible to you or the robots because of its distant location, but you do have manual control over it, should the need ever arise.

The Hydroponic Monitors provide you with a continual analysis of the Growing Area, while three levers in the Hydroponic Control Area allow you to override the three Filtering Computers' settings.

• The Transportation System.

Transportation on Contra's surface is totally automated and controlled by the Filtering Computers.

There are three basic forms of transportation: floaters, taxis and glide ramps.

Floaters are small single or double-occupant bubbles which travel through the air.

They travel on lines of force, generated from the ground, maintained and controlled by the Filtering Computers.

Collisions are normally unheard of, and not a single casualty has ever occurred due to traffic problems.

The Transit Monitors tell you how many floaters are currently in use, while a manual override switch is located in the Transit Control Area.

By turning off the switch, you can turn off the lines of force to the floaters.

The taxis are actually robots, semi-intelligent vehicles which are guided by the Filtering Computers.

They have on-board power, so the manual override system, a switch in the Transit Control Area, instructs the taxis to stop picking up passengers rather than simply shutting them off.

(When Franklin was in control, he managed to figure out a method of getting the Filtering Computers out of balance, causing the taxis to seek out pedestrians and run them down.)

The glide ramps are similar in function to conveyor belts, transporting the bulk of the population at a leisurely pace.

The ramps are speed-controlled by the Filtering Computers and can be shut off by using the manual override switch located in the Transit Control area.

Your 500-year tour of duty will indubitably fly by trouble-free. Pleasant dreams.

• Occupant/Subcluster B93000
• Sector 12, Contra SW RP35/34412.8

Congratulations.

You have been chosen as the winner of the semi-millennial Lottery, and as such will have the honor of serving as Contra's Central Mentality for the next 500 years.

Naturally, this title brings with it certain responsibilities, not the least of which is ensuring the survival of life on this planet.

To this end, in accordance with Procedural Substatute 2.5X:845A77b, you will be placed in a state of limited cryogenic suspension.

In this sleep-like mode, your mind will monitor the Filtering Computers that maintain the delicate balance of our surface-side systems.

Should an emergency occur which causes a Filtering Computer imbalance, you will be awakened.

It will then be up to you to ascertain the problem and perform such remedial actions as you deem necessary.

The penalties for failure are all too obvious.

A briefing has been prepared to familiarize you with your duties in your new role.

It has been revised and amended to enable you to avoid the tragic errors of your predecessor, the lamentable Gregory Franklin.

The briefing supersedes and countermands all previous briefings issued by the Lottery Commission.

It may be material at this time to review the Franklin Incident.

The report of the events appearing in the Contra Citizen of two months ago, while editorial in nature, sums up the circumstances succinctly:

...but Franklin was not destined to complete his tour of duty.

After 467 years, he awoke by mistake, and, not being extremely bright to start with, lost what little sense and sanity he had.

He looked around the Underground Complex for an emergency, found none and decided to create one of his own.

Overriding the three Filtering Computers, he directed the transportation systems to kill whoever happened to be walking outside or riding on any of the glide ramps.

Psychologists believe that he must have possessed a twisted sense of humor -- to have people maimed, run over, chased by robot-taxis provided him with pleasure for the moment.

However, he soon tired of this and decided to eliminate a larger section of the population in a far easier manner.

Ever since weather had been controlled, dwellings had not been designed to withstand snow and sleet.

Franklin altered the pressure in the Weather Towers near the cities, setting off raging storms and creating freezing temperatures.

Thousands perished from exposure; thousands more became popsicles.

The surviving authorities decided to send an extermination squad down into the Underground Complex to remove Franklin from his suspension capsule.

They got there Just in time. When they arrived, Franklin had the six maintenance robots snipping wires and causing havoc with the Filtering Computers and automated systems.

In the tragedy's aftermath, several known malcontents protested that the system had proven itself infeasible;

these complaints were dealt with summarily by the Authority, which assures all citizens that new improvements in the system and the method for selecting future central mentalities have eliminated any cause for alarm...

With this in mind, you can well understand why the Authority insists on a comprehensive briefing before you enter the Complex.

You are therefore requested to read the enclosed briefing with the greatest care before entering the suspended state.

The Office of Cloning and Personnel Development informs us that a number of replicates of you are currently under production, for use in the event that we find it necessary to remove you.

This should in no way be construed as a reflection on you as a person;

despite the fact that your psychological profile revealed a few characteristics which could be termed "deviant,"

we have only the highest expectations for you.

Needless to say, however, the Authority desires no repeats of Franklin's performance.

Therefore, remember: you can be replaced.