Transcript of Raven Rock Security Meeting
Facility Administrator Sylvester Foxx: Colonel, we've got Chow, our tech, on the vid-line. He's going to explain the security issue.
Colonel Kelly Rodman: Carry on, Chow.
Communications Technician Ross Chow: Um. Good morning, sirs. We're pressed for time, but I would like to give you some background video so there aren't any questions.
Rodman: Get on with it, son.
Chow: OK. Um. I'll start with a recorded monitor feed from one of the cells in the Dulce facility.
Rodman: Wasn't everyone in Dulce confirmed dead?
Security File Playback
Singing: Ain't no love in a concrete kingdom. Ain't much light.
Rodman: I thought you said this was video. How come it's black?
Chow: A surge cut the power in Dulce. Emergency generators kept the mains online, but the security wing went dark. Systems control detected sound and movement in this cell. The camera switches to I.R. at this point.
Rodman: Is that a boy? What's he doing in the cell?
Chow: Singing Billy Idol, sir.
Rodman: I don't have much faith in your tech, Foxx.
Foxx: Ross, explain why there was a boy in Dulce, and why he's important to us.
Chow: Sorry. Um. What you're looking at isn't a boy, it's-
Rodman: Son, why do we care about some dead kid in Dulce?
Chow: He's not dead, sir.
Rodman: Wait. You're telling me this kid survived Dulce?
Chow: No sir. I'm telling you this isn't a kid. The subject has been in the Dulce facility since 1998.
Foxx: Is this a prank, Ross?
Chow: No, Mr. Foxx. This is why the Colonel needs to know about the situation. The subject survived Dulce because it (pause) isn't human.
Rodman: What is it then, a Roswell alien?
Chow: No, sir. It's Joseph Susnovy's last project.
Rodman: Susnovy's last-you sure?
Chow: Confirmed, sir.
Rodman: Son of a bitch.
Foxx: Who's Susnovy, Colonel?
Rodman: Ross, are you old enough to remember those music boxes that played Billy Idol songs?
Foxx: Sure. What's the security risk in a music box?
Chow: A Susnovy box is the size of a cigarette pack and plays every Billy Idol song, with full instrumentation and vocals. This was before iPods. The boxes are mechanical. They don't have processors, they don't have transistors, they don't use batteries. They're miracles of engineering.
Rodman: You see, Ross, Susnovy was like a man from the future. He could build machines to guide missiles, break codes, track submarines, who knows what, and they didn't have to be plugged in. The Soviets wanted him, back when they were still Soviets, but he flew the coop. Settled in some English sea town and taught at the university. We tried to recruit him, three times, but he turned us down.
Security File Playback
Singing: I'm opening the door to inner space. I'm feeling the vibrasound.
Chow: It's difficult to see, but the subject has accessed the wiring for the lock control.
Rodman: Get a load of that. (pause) Why does he look like a squirt and sound like a diesel engine?
Chow: Like I said, sir, it's singing Billy idol.
Rodman: Like the damn music boxes?
Chow: Um. My best guess is it's got the same…for lack of a better word…programming.
Foxx: Colonel, do you mean to tell me this…boy…is a-
Rodman: Robot? Puppet? I don't know what the hell he is.
Chow: Um. Automaton, sir.
Security File Playback
Singing: One error, silent terror, and we're the dead next door.
Foxx: Finally, some light.
Chow: This is recorded security feed from the corridor outside command central.
Rodman: So he broke himself out.
Chow: Yes sir. The subject took 22 months to hit on the correct lock code once the wiring was open. Once it got to the command center it took another four years to remove that access panel from the lock.
Rodman: He's like a god-damned walking can opener.
Chow: Its fingers are metal underneath the skin.
Foxx: If their blast door is coded like ours, won't it take him a few thousand years to get it open?
Chow: That's what I thought, Mr. Foxx, but it doesn't think like a human. There's some kind of machine affinity in its head. To brute force the lock would require working through every combination, but that's not what happened.
Security File Playback
Singing: My future seems wide open, and tomorrow's never broken.
Chow: And this is where he opens the blast door.
Rodman: How long did it take him?
Chow: Three days. Um. I cut the video. Most of the time it was standing there thinking…and singing. From what I can tell, it accessed the system clock and rolled it back until the door thought it wasn't installed yet and unlocked itself.
Video Transmission Playback
Boys, I know by now you know about me, so I'm going to tell you a few things, answer some questions, give you the truth.
