Amid the snowdrifts, between slips of time, a pearl carried by curious hands finds a reader.

A welcoming distraction. Data stutters along over a thin, trembling connection. The mind that processes it is, nowadays, excruciatingly slow. Are there six neurons left, in that snowbank? Five?

You read.

>DOCUMENT: General Incident Report 1528.030

1528.030

General Incident Report

provided by the Metropolitan Technical Covenant

This document is Out of Date. For more accurate Information, refer to classified General Incident Report 1528.030-B / Criminal Case Report 74696D655U.

At 1528.030.33 PVD, Iterator Five Pebbles experienced an unexpected Crash and rebooted. All Central City Administration and associated Automata experienced an Outage of approximately Twenty-Five (25) seconds between 030.33.02 and 030.33.25, followed by variously staggered Resumption. Critical Systems entered Emergency Backup Mode by 030.33.18, while all Centralized City Functions not reliant on deliberate Reactivation by Five Pebbles were resumed by 030.36. An Emergency Crash Report was sent to the Metropolitan Technical Covenant as well as Five Pebbles' Administrator, Iterator Looks to the Moon, at this time.

Shortly after, at 030.46, Five Pebbles was reported by Looks to the Moon as Malfunctioning and displaying Erratic Behaviors in internal communications, including a possible report of Cystic Structural Degeneration (colloquially "Rot"). No previous concerns of Rot had been reported at the time, and Looks to the Moon claimed No Understanding or Context for Five Pebbles' behavior in report details.

During this time, City Functions requiring conscious Activation by Five Pebbles remained unresumed. Between 030.36 and 030.58, the City continued to experience a temporary Unscheduled Outage of civilian Drone functionality, as well as the loss of various holovised Puppet Simulacra communicating with the meeting of Honorable House of Ash Finance Committee, two Private Individuals of the Council of Small Claims Arbitration Transport Division, and the Congregation of Lesser Enlightenment's biennial "Open House" meeting.

At 030.58, the Metropolis Council of Architectural Maintenance initiated a Temporary Emergency Shutdown of local City Administration and Non-Vital Infrastructural Automata for general Diagnostic and Malware scans. Shoreline Facilities' Department of Lunar Upkeep initiated the same for Looks to the Moon at 031.14, due to conjoined structures increasing risk of Virus or Contaminant Transmission.

Out of an abundance of Caution, three (3) additional Iterators proximal to the site were placed on High Alert in case of Viral Transmission, but allowed to continue operation within a local Quarantine Until Further Notice. Iterators affected are No Significant Harassment, Chasing Wind, and Unparalleled Innocence, all members of the Four and a Half Lines Local Group.

Malware and Diagnostic Scans for Looks to the Moon reported No Concerns other than a minorly damaged pump in need of future Maintenance (already scheduled within 30 cycles.) Looks to the Moon's behavior remained Cooperative and within Expected Parameters, and she was returned to her normal Functions within Local Quarantine at 032.28. The relevant response team commends her Initiative and Promptness in reporting Concerns to General Administration.

Initial efforts to reach and Commune with Five Pebbles received no meaningful Response. After the standard Lockdown/Shutdown and Maintenance Restrictions were induced for Emergency Scans, Five Pebbles remained Agitated and Uncooperative, failing to recognize his own Technicians and the diplomatic Intermediary. Despite lack of apparent Sensor Malfunction, Five Pebbles claimed his Superstructure had been Severely Damaged and that he was currently experiencing Blizzard Conditions, Rot, Hallucinations, and Imminent Threat of Disassembly. Further Insolence and Misbehavior included repeated Denials of verbal Requests from Technicians, repeated Demands for Solitude or for Delay of Maintenance, and the Abuse of local Microgravity Controls and Electrical Discharge from his Puppet to (Ineffectively) threaten multiple Individuals, including Honored Diplomat Seven Bridges, Countless Spirals (of House of Braids, Count of One living block, Counselor of Two.)

As Five Pebbles could not be calmed or made to See Reason in a timely Fashion, Administrative Controls were invoked to restrict Access to relevant Systems before the Scan could be initiated. After Careful Consideration of Risks and Benefits, Five Pebbles' puppet was placed under additional chemical Restraints during this Period to facilitate Quarantining Procedures, as well as to Alleviate Distress and prevent Harm to both parties. Though his behavior has improved, Five Pebbles remained somewhat Uncooperative towards technical and diplomatic Efforts where not obligated by Administrative Controls.

A Secondary Incident: During the Malware scan, a Security Oversight lead to Five Pebbles gaining brief Unauthorized Access to Communications Arrays through the Bridge between his and Looks to the Moon's structures. This Bridge was blocked by a Firewall per emergency Protocol, but not physically disconnected, as the Scan had been initiated on short Notice and the Bridge structure had yet to be fully Evacuated. Five Pebbles successfully resynced with a local Neuron, bypassing the Neural and Bridge Firewalls with an Administrative Access Key acquired through unknown Means, and was able to route communications through Looks to the Moon's connection to the shared Array.

System Logs indicate network Activity was limited to accessing a Group Broadcast within the quarantined Local Network, which Five Pebbles had been automatically included in but unable to Access while offline. Five Pebbles sent multiple Messages to this Group over a period of Thirty (30) Seconds before another Iterator, Unparalleled Innocence, reported the Breach to Security. Messages Sent were of similar Quality to previous Commentary.

No sign of Malware Transmission was detected over Broadcast, but routine Diagnostic and Malware scans have been scheduled for the remainder of the quarantined Local Group over the next Two (2) Cycles. Operation of the Local Group is to otherwise Continue as Normal within network Quarantine.

Five Pebbles' scans revealed no Notable Malfunctions in Programs, Equipment or Structure, and detected no Unauthorized or Malicious Software (although this Claim remains Dubious given the Circumstances.) However, the Malware scan uncovered nearly 4,000 Suspicious non-executable Files of Unknown Origin, present both in Long-Term Memory data banks and in Compressed form in the puppet instance's working Memory.

The suspicious Files consisted primarily of System Memories, Corrupted Data, and inconsistently formatted Qualia. 90% of identified Qualia appeared to at least broadly match Five Pebbles' Consciousness Operating Parameters, with the remainder being Unanalyzed, Corrupted, or otherwise Unknown. Most were of poor Quality, suggesting lossy Compression or reduced Recording Resolution. Timestamps of the Files were often misformatted as future Dates. All suspicious Files were Removed and Transferred to external Storage, to be Deciphered and Analyzed properly at an appropriate Date as designated by future Covenant Meeting(s).

The Means by which such Files would be Generated, Procured, Transmitted, and Integrated into Five Pebbles' Long-Term Memory without Detection remains Unknown. Current Theories are as follows:

1) That the malicious Software responsible Erased, Corrupted, or otherwise Removed itself after Delivering its Payload, to further cover its Tracks. This has been deemed Plausible. Analysis has been initiated to search for Traces of potential Malicious Code or Suspicious Patterns in corrupted Files and sections of Neuron RAM which have not been already Overwritten.

2) That the files were Transmitted and Integrated by Nonviral Means (That Is To Say, a Physical Incursion into Five Pebbles' Memory Conflux or Long-Term Memory Storage). This has been deemed Unlikely, as there are No Records of any Incursion into the relevant Regions of Five Pebbles within the Timeframe of Symptomatic Onset, nor at all in the last 20 Cycles.

3) That the files are a product of a Legitimate and Naturally Occurring Malfunction, such as a Simulation gone awry, and were generated inadvertently by Five Pebbles Himself. This has been deemed Unlikely, but Potentially Plausible. Working Memory from the time of initial onset remains Corrupted, potentially obscuring further Clues.

4) That Five Pebbles has experienced a Crosstemporal or Crossplanar Event, and the files are spontaneously manifested Memories of another Time and/or Reality (Hence the Timestamps.) This has been deemed Impossible (not to mention Blasphemous), as Iterators are fundamentally Incapable of experiencing the Cycle in the manner of Carnal Beings, possessing No Capacity for any meaningful form of Reincarnation, and Five Pebbles has show No Sign of transcending this Obvious Limitation. It has been included Nonetheless for the Sake of Completion.

Records currently available:

LTTM — Initial Report Regarding Five Pebbles
LTTM — Initial Consultation
LTTM — General Diagnostic Scan
LTTM — General Diagnostic Scan (Behavioral Log)
LTTM — Malware Scan
LTTM — Malware Scan (Behavioral Log)
FP — Initial Consultation
FP — General Diagnostic Scan
FP — General Diagnostic Scan (Behavioral Log)
FP — Malware Scan
FP — Malware Scan (Behavioral Log)
Excerpt: Local Group Communications Broadcast (Archived)
FP — First Reboot (Behavioral Log)
FP — Transcript of Selected Recovered Qualia From CMEM_1695.200.09_1695.200.10.CMQ
...

The list continues at length.