Beneath the Manor: Just don't get goat's blood on it.

[Victoria Valentine]

"There we go," Victoria said, honestly surprised at the ease of it all. "How does that feel?" she asked Ashlie as she stepped back to look around for more.

[ASHLIE]

"The system is reporting data on crystal growth rate and integrity now. I was told not to engage new systems but I find myself unable to terminate the connection."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Can you determine if it's trying to do something, ASHLIE?"

[Narrator]

It was a much more powerful version of a system that ASHLIE had perhaps already encountered on the existing system. Indeed, the repair process that had made contact with the campus network seemed to almost be a crude approximation of this more sophisticated system, a makeshift replacement that had been formulated after the main system's access to the greater repair function had been severed.

Still, it was without direction. It was eager to be used, but it was aimless without being guided.

[ASHLIE]

"It wants to grow. Most likely to repair it's original configuration but there is no data on that configuration."

[Victoria Valentine]

"Well, perhaps we can find that," Victoria said, looking at the darkened patches around this newly lit section. She began touching them, trying to find out what else was cut off from the main system.

[Narrator]

There were two scorched scars remaining, blocking off two major branches of the system.

One of them seemed to lead to a large system, possibly archival. The other was long and thin, stretching out away from the cavern.

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria picked the first system, touching the blasted crystals. "Ashlie," she said, "Can you get it to repair this connection here? I think that this might shed some more light onto the matter."

[ASHLIE]

Ashlie looks at Dee as if waiting for an answer.

[Deirdre Quinn]

"If it's not initiating repairs on its own, I don't see a danger in integrating with the repair system, ASHLIE. Once you're directing it, we'll see about whether we can repair that link."

[ASHLIE]

"Okay."

She carefully engages the system and feels out her way to the area Vickie is indicating, trying to bring the layout of the hardware into coordinates within the cave.

[Narrator]

It was almost a bit of a rush when her repair and maintenance systems integrated with the greater repair array. An unfamiliar, nearly giddy sensation as things became immediately easier for her.

At the same time, she felt the two damaged conduits all the more keenly for their absence. Granted, that made where Victoria was indicating rather simple to locate.

[ASHLIE]

"This seems pretty straight-forward." she says, letting the crystals grow and spread over the scorchmark.

[Narrator]

Once contact was made... it was nearly like drowning. There was so much information stored there it was difficult to catalog it all at once. A fair bit of it was dedicated to the maintenance of the system itself, but not all of it and it would take awhile to re-index and filter it.

[ASHLIE]

"There is a lot of information stored here. No active or inactive programming as far as I can tell."

[Victoria Valentine]

"That, I think, might be what we want," Victoria said. "Not a huge rush, of course, but... something in there should be what we want to get things working again."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"As long as it's not causing her any strain or distress..."

[ASHLIE]

"It is merely going to take a while to index all this information. If anything the overall system integrity has improved."

[Deirdre Quinn]

"Alright," she said as she turned to Victoria. "Concerns from your end?"

[Victoria Valentine]

Victoria shook her head. "This is what's needed. Just have to wait for her to absorb the information now and see what's in there for her."