Doomed Narrative

Sitting in a control room, I was wondering what I should do next. Maybe shift the timings up and down at the same time. While it might correct the drift, I have a feeling that would shift the orbitron out of danger. I pause for a bit to feel cool air from the ventilation fans, keeping the control room at a reasonable temp despite the warm orbitron.

This is odd, I think to myself as I look at the dashboard. It had shiny sections on a black background. Sync in orange, a 3d model in colourful thermal view, green values saying that a few statuses were OK, and a red notice saying "Warning, plasma energised". I did not think my new plan will work, and yet I can see it in action. The internal sync starts to differ. 5 milliseconds, 8, 10.

Finally I can make it stay safe without detection. The dangerous orbitron, if allowed to run successfully, will turn into a fast spinning ball of doom, and if the peaks of double plasma are synced within 2 milliseconds for long enough, it can blast the planet clean.

But I didn't think the planet needs wiping, despite once wishing nukes will fall years ago, when I had unwanted tasks to do. Seems silly now, come to think of it. Not needing to do tasks is nothing compared to the loss of so much creation.

If I was still as blinded by the illusion that everything is suffering, I would have charged and deployed the orbitron. There'd be no time to greet the apocalypse. Even the leader is looking forward to the orbitron going off this Friday, at noon. He wishes to be in the control room as the system is pushed to the point of no return.

I have other plans though, the best I can do is delay the orbitron long enough and make my escape.

Back to the orbitron, it settled at 20 milliseconds while I was explaining. Oops, a bit too much. I wind back the timings and lock it to 12. Not too suspicious, since this system is complex and might randomly take itself out of sync if corrections are not applied.

Yes, I will correct it again so it doesn't fall apart and blast me and the room. It's a nice room too, with a few PCs and displays. I remember watching some cats purring online while waiting for the orbitron to reach temperature.

Temperature, oops, I think, checking the monitors. Ok, remember to check the temperature of the orbitron every few minutes. Not going to disclose the temperature, since I feel like a reader could use temperature, structure, and some other less-secret details to help them build another one of those dumb machines.

The leader's footsteps emerge, and I press minus on the keyboard, peering through the window with glory. 5 milliseconds sync, and the orbitron glows green. 4, 3... Oops.
~~~~
From the remote diagnostic logs, I could see the orbitron go from 5 to 3 milliseconds, then fluctuate slightly for a bit before the connection and backup connection timed out, so I add '... Oops.' to this document and keep on writing.

I was told that this was a simple monitoring job, ensure that some system stays within tolerance and temperature, yet the data doesn't lie. Pressing plus only made it fluctuate, and having the system time out suggests that either the orbitron exploded locally (due to being more than 2ms out of sync), or some other issue occured. Time to drive to the place to see.

Turning on the car, I press Power on the radio. Reasonable songs play, and I check the mirrors, all is clear, so begin the journey to the control room.