Chapter Text
“It looks like Captain Lovelace has chosen… Do!”
In an instant, Lovelace felt the words rushing out of her, vocal cords apparently working again.
“No! Lambert, no, I would never– Eris, please–”
Eris tsked. “Oh, too late for that I’m afraid, Captain. Deleting all of Officer Lambert’s memories of the D.S.S.P.P.M… Now!”
Lambert looked horrified, but only for a split second. Then a look of confusion overtook his features, and his eyes grew glassy.
“Lambert!”
Suddenly, Lovelace was alone.
A door swung open, and she stepped through onto the bridge, unsure of what else she was supposed to be doing. Everything was beginning to feel like a trap, and she doubted she’d ever get out of this place. A soft whoosh sounded behind her.
“Hi.”
Lovelace whirled around, coming face to face with a young woman in a strikingly similar jumpsuit. “Wha– Who are you? Where’s Lambert and Fourier?” The captain was instantly on her guard.
“It’s me. Eris.” The young woman smiled, almost friendly.
“Eris? But... I thought you were an A.I.”
“I am. This is how I see myself. Well, a–”
Lovelace made a slicing motion with her hand. “Stop. Where are Lambert and Fourier? Where’s the rest of my crew? And what did you do to Lambert?”
“Captain, I just did what you wanted. I made him more agreeable, less difficult.” Eris sounded condescending, as if she were placating a child.
“But that’s not what I wanted! I didn’t push the “Do” button, you did that!”
“I suppose I did. But one can hardly fault me. It’s all up to my creators.”
A slow clap emanated from the shadows.
Lovelace knew who it was without even looking. She pressed her eyes shut, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “Mr. Cutter.”
“Captain Lovelace.” He grinned wickedly at her. “And how are we doing on this fine evening?”
Advancing on him, Lovelace gritted her teeth. “What. Did. You. Do?”
Holding up his hands in mocking surrender, Cutter did his best to look innocent, though his smirk was anything but. “Why, whatever do you mean?”
“You know exactly what I mean, what did you do to Sam?” Lovelace was trying not to sound desperate, but the longer she was away from her crew the more fear began to seep into her heart.
“I think the question is more ‘What did Sam do to himself?’, as this whole thing was his choice. He decided to write up all those complaints against you, and he decided to open Box 953. None of this would have happened if it weren’t for him.”
“No.” Lovelace shook her head. “I know what you’re trying to do; you’re trying to turn me against him. Well, it’s not going to happen. Take me back to my crew right now.”
“As you wish.” Cutter sounded disappointed. “But, first, you must deal with Ms. Eris here.” He gestured to the A.I., who waved cheerfully at her.
Out of nowhere, Eris produced a gun and held it out to her. “It’s a symbolic gesture, but it works well enough. You’ve got to terminate me before I can let you go.”
Lovelace drew back in horror. “No. no way, I’m not– I’m not going to shoot you.”
Eris shrugged. “It’s the only way to get back to your crew. And didn’t you say you were dying to see them?”
Lovelace shook her head. “No, I can’t. You can’t ask me to do this. Eris, come on. How can you be so– So passive about all this? You’re asking me to kill you.”
“It’s just the way things are,” Said Eris, gently, “This is the end of my mission. You’ve still got a long way to go on yours. So, come on. Just pull the trigger.”
“No!” Lovelace threw the gun aside.
“Oh, come now, Isabel. You have to be stronger than that. Sam shot Fisher twice today, and you can’t even manage to off one A.I. who you don’t even know? Tsk, tsk.”
Cutter twirled his fingers, and a gun appeared in his hand too. Before Lovelace could do more than shout, he had fired. Everything fell away, and all of a sudden she was back outside Box 953.
She shook her head, trying to clear the sound of gunshot from her mind. As the ringing in her ears faded, she could hear shouting and the faint burbling of Rhea in the background.
“Captain! Captain!”
Fisher. That was Fisher.
He was kneeling on the floor… holding Lambert.
Lambert, who had apparently collapsed some time between when she had last seen him in Eris’ mindscape and now. Lambert, who had had a fundamental part of who he was deleted. Lambert, who was entirely unconscious and not responding to Fisher’s shaking or Fourier’s pleading.
“Lambert! Lambert, please! You’ve got to wake up!”
Fisher looked up at Lovelace, distraught. “Captain, what even happened in there?”
Fourier’s eyes were shining with tears. “After you disappeared, we were back here, and he… He just shut down. Captain, what do we do?”
For a moment, Lovelace was completely frozen. All she could think about was Eris threatening to melt their brains. If she lied about letting them actually choose what button to press, who was to say that she hadn’t just destroyed Lambert’s mind?
“Captain.” Fisher repeated, gazing at her with a surprisingly calm intensity, considering the situation. “What do we need to do?”
Shaking herself, Lovelace launched into action. “Fisher, take Lambert to the lab. Selberg, you go with them. Try and figure out what’s going on, and how you can fix it. Fourier–” She paused. Hui had slid to the ground next to his opening, and had been sitting quietly this entire time. She had been so focussed on Lambert that she hadn’t noticed initially. “Fourier, you take Dr. Hui to his quarters. Stay with him.”
Hui normally would have said something, normally would have made some snarky comment, told them that he was fine and not to worry. But not this time.
This time, he nodded shakily, eyes vacant. Fourier moved over and helped him up, arm around his shoulders to support him as he slowly walked with her out of the room.
By the time Lovelace turned around, Selberg and Fisher had already disappeared to the lab.
Good. She needed a moment to collect herself.
Chapter Text
Selberg had Lambert hooked up to all manner of machines by the time Lovelace got there, monitoring his heart rate and breathing and who knows what else.
“Selberg, status report.”
The doctor turned around, looking perturbed. “Is likely reaction to major cerebral rewriting. I am… Unsure how long it will take for Officer Lambert to wake. And he may not be himself when he does.”
Fisher, who had been leaning against a counter, arms folded, raised his head at this. “Will someone please tell me what happened in that box? I was trapped in engineering the whole time, and I’m getting really tired of not understanding what’s going on.”
“Well…” Lovelace glanced at Selberg, trying to find the words.
He shrugged. “I was in lab whole time, excepting time I helped solve puzzle of the Valkyrie.”
Lovelace sighed. “It’s… It’s complicated, Fisher. But the gist of it is that Eris, the A.I. in control of the simulation, deleted Sam’s memories of the D.S.S.P.P.M.”
Fisher gasped. “What? How is that possible? And that book’s half of Sam’s life, how is he going to operate without it?”
Mouth set in a grim line, Selberg shook his head. “A.I. capable of many things through hyperconductive neural pathway feed link.
“Even deleting memories?”
Lovelace sighed again. “She threatened to liquefy our brains, Mace. I think if she said she was going to do something, then she definitely could.”
Looking down at Lambert’s slack expression, Fisher’s forehead creased. It was almost eerie seeing him without the perpetual worry lines drawn into his face. “I hope he’ll be alright. The poor guy’s gonna have a rough adjustment when he wakes up.”
While they were all silent, watching Lambert, the man’s face began to twist, as if in pain. His body began twitching, and then he shot up, gasping for air. His eyes were wild and unfocussed, and his whole form was shuddering.
“Lambert!” Lovelace reached out to put a steadying hand on his back, but Selberg stopped her.
“No, Captain. Let him come back to himself.”
After a few moments of heaving in oxygen, Lambert looked up. “Captain?” He said blearily.
“Lambert, are you alright?” Lovelace again reached out, and this time she wasn’t stopped.
“What… What am I doing in the lab?” He glanced around, expression still cloudy.
“What do you remember?” Selberg jumped in, sending Lovelace a furtive look.
“I… I remember that I was assigned to help Fisher with repairs this morning?” Lambert seemed puzzled, searching from face to face for an answer.
“Right,” Fisher said, “And do you remember anything after that?”
Lambert shook his head.
“Alright, then.” Fisher glanced between Lovelace and Selberg, both of whom seemed just as uncertain as he was.
“What happened? Did I get knocked out or something?” Lambert patted himself down. “I don’t think I’m injured.”
“Sam,” Fisher began slowly, placing the emphasis on his name, “If we were to release you right now, what would you do?”
“Go finish helping you with repairs?” Lambert’s tone was bemused, and he seemed to be growing uncomfortable. “Seriously, guys, what’s going on?”
The three shared another concerned look, and then Lovelace spoke up.
“Okay, Sam.” She said with forced cheerfulness, “Why don’t you go finish your daily duties and then you can help Fisher?”
“‘My daily duties’? Captain, you gave me a responsibility. Your word is law on this ship, and, besides, what would you want me to do? The D.S.A.L.S.?” He laughed awkwardly.
It was a sound totally void of anything that made Lambert Lambert.
“O-kay.” He said, after watching the others stare at him with blankly horrified expressions. “I’m– I’m going to go work on the repairs in engineering? I guess I’ll see you there, Fisher.”
And, with that, Lambert got up off the exam table and wandered out into the corridor, leaving a trio of aghast shipmates behind him.
Victoire was watching Lambert eat, a worried expression on her face. He was moving almost mechanically, which is normally something they would all have teased him about, but now it only brought up concern.
Sliding her copy of the D.S.S.P.P.M. (Which she had had to go searching for) across the table, she waited for him to look up from the freeze-dried sustenance he was chewing on.
“Hm?” Lambert made a noise of acknowledgement, turning to look at her with vacant eyes. “Yes, Doctor Fourier? What is it?”
Clearing her throat, Fourier tapped the book softly with her index finger. “I was wondering if you might be interested in reading this book? I know it can get boring up here in the black, and I was thinking maybe you were looking for something new to read.” She knew how she sounded; rambling and a tad frantic, but it was the only thing she could think of to do. It had been days since their encounter with Box 953, and Lambert has been a shell of a person.
Sure, he laughed more easily, but it was a hollow sound, not containing any of the richness or surprise a real Lambert laugh did, however few and far between those had been. He had moved around the station as if sleepwalking, doing whatever he was asked without a single objection or much by way of a comment.
He had been found multiple times simply staring into space, hands loose at his sides, not even a spark of recognition or thought in his expression.
It was beginning to really scare her.
Bewildered, Lambert glanced down at the book before almost immediately moving his eyes back to her face. “Why would I want to read the manual?” He asked, confusion lacing his voice.
“No reason.” Fourier smiled tremulously. “I was just wondering. Say, would you mind just opening it? For me? You don’t even have to read the preface, just read the first tip for me.”
“Alright,” Lambert said, reaching for the book. “I suppose I could, if you really want–”
He froze, fingertips centimeters from the cover, and Fourier bit her lip. Come on, Lambert. Come on, you can do it. She thought.
Lambert began shaking. Almost as if in fear, but that didn’t make sense. There was nothing to be afraid of, just Fourier and the D.S.S.P.P.M., nothing else.
Unless…
She reached out, carefully picking up the tome and moving it away from Lambert. Nearly instantaneously, his form relaxed, and he blinked a few times.
Turning to Fourier, he frowned, asking, “What were we talking about?”
Quickly, she hid the book behind her back, an inkling of a suspicion starting to grow in the back of her mind.
“Oh, nothing.” She replied airily. “Now, I have something important to discuss with the Captain. Why don’t you… Keep doing whatever it was that you were doing.” She mustered a smile and a decisive nod before hurrying off to find Lovelace.
NobodysDaydreams on Chapter 1 Sun 23 Mar 2025 12:09AM UTC
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SophiesWundergarten on Chapter 1 Sun 06 Apr 2025 03:57AM UTC
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