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"Newton, if you find this... Well, it's rather unlikely I'll be dead considering my own calculations, but I'd certainly say it was your idea, in a way." Hermann's talking to himself. Not using a recorder like Newton had done almost 8 months ago, just musing aloud whilst he fiddles with a final few wires and types a few lines of code into his laptop's terminal. A habit he wouldn't have dreamed of picking up before the Drift with Newton, but, well... many things had changed after their Drift.
"Drifting with a Kaiju, drifting with an infant of a computer program, quite similar in idea. Quite similar in regards to possibly bringing about one of the larger breakthroughs of our time." He picks up one of the 'squid caps' that Newton had used for his own pons system when he'd drifted with a Kaiju brain. That machine had been locked away in a storage closet ever since the breach had closed, Newton forbidden to touch the thing but no one wanting to throw it out completely. Hacking into the lock and picking up a few spare parts had been almost concerningly easy for Hermann.
He'd had to build his from scratch for the most part, Newton's not being suited to the... highly particular task that Hermann is preparing to participate in, but it had been able to lend a few vital pieces here and there regardless. Really, he's not quite sure where Newton could have gotten some of the parts that Hermann is now repurposing apart from blatantly stealing things from the PPDC. Hermann has had to avoid asking these things to Newton for fairly obvious reasons.
It's the same reasons which have had Hermann working overnights 3 times a week for the last 2 months, actually.
"Another likeness between our situations: We are both taking a step no one had considered, doing something that we'd most surely be called crazy for." (And then, in a quieter voice: "Or were indeed called crazy for.")
He takes a shaky sip of his coffee (and then grimaces at the watery taste), having had to switch over from tea for the extra caffeine content long ago. He sighs and sets the mug down on one of Newton's rolling dissection carts. It's 4:37 AM now, and he's quite sure he'll be able to finally take the leap before Newton gets into the lab at his regular 5:30. A few last checks, a few pre-flight measures so to speak, and he's fitted the plastic, aluminum, and wire cap over the top of his head. It's uncomfortable, a bit loose, but it'll work.
"I'd likely call this endeavor crazy if my own self from approximately 8 months ago was watching me now. I'd still call myself bloody crazy now, if I hadn't lost my last shreds of sanity along with my inevitable sleep deprivation."
Hermann takes a deep breath and looks up at the second monitor in the room, attached securely on the pons with too many wires spouting out of the connected computer tower.
"Hell, I'd still say it now. Drifting with an AI is bloody insane!"
And with that, he jabs a button with a shaking finger.
-----
"-rmann! Dude! Fuck!" Hermann is pulled back to consciousness by someone's arms flung around him, simultaneously shaking and hugging him.
It's... his brain struggles for words. He can picture who it is, in his mind's eye, but his internal dialogue has been interlaced with numbers and bits of code that he remembers programming himself and it'd be really all but incomprehensible to anyone looking on (Really, it's barely comprehensible to him too, like he's thinking in a language he's long forgotten and has only just dredged itself up from the back of his mind. It would really all be quite fascinating if he had the general ability to think properly).
Amid the binary, he can just pick out the telltale pressure of an impending migraine, only being made worse by... Newton! Newton is his name. And it is Newton who is practically shrieking in his ear now.
"S- stop. Stop!" Hermann's brain can barely fumble through the word, and it comes out halting and broken, but Newton seems to understand well enough and quiets immediately.
Oh, yes, his eyes are still closed. He cracks one open, and then immediately shuts it again. Migraine. Right.
"Hermann, what the fuck?" Newton hisses, quietly this time. "Did you Drift with... with yourself? What the hell is going on? What's with the extra computer up here?" Hermann shakily rubs his left temple. It takes him a moment to remember which muscles move what, but he figures it out. Blessedly. He notices that Newton is still pressed against him, and then his sense of touch goes out of focus, and he forgets. And then he notices again. And then he forgets. Dear lord.
"Newt... Newton- n," he starts trying to explain himself, and then stops and grinds his teeth in frustration. He should have accounted for this; computers do not know English, or how it feels to have senses, or really much of anything when it comes to the human experience. Drifting goes both ways. It makes sense enough that a certain amount of his humanity would depart him during the Drift.
Alas, his hindsight is 20/20.
Maybe if he can type out his words they might come more easily, or at least they won't be a stumbling mess. Hermann starts the act of leaning forward to stand (he's sitting up on the floor, though slumped to the side somewhat), flexes each leg to make sure all his neural impulses are in the correct order before standing upright, and then immediately topples forward. Newton catches him with a grunt (barely) and sets him back down in a chair. Drat.
A drop of crimson splatters onto Hermann's pants, startling both him and Newton into the realization that his nose is bleeding- heavily, too, Hermann dully notes as he scrambles to pull his handkerchief from his pocket while his nose drips twice more into his shaking palm.
"Uhhh, I don't think that standing up is really the best idea right now," Newton squeaks. "Maybe we should, uh, take you to the medbay? Or something? Whatever the fuck you just did doesn't seem to be agreeing with you..." Hermann's eyebrows furrow, but with some effort he points behind Newton to the laptop on his desk a few feet away. Newton follows the invisible line emanating from Hermann's fingers, slowly spins around, and makes an enlightened... noise, when he sees what Hermann is pointing to.
His hands are still shaking violently, but it is indeed somewhat easier to communicate with the laptop than with spoken words, though that doesn't make it take any less painstaking. Newton stares at him impatiently, bouncing on the balls of his feet, while Hermann wades his way through as brief an explanation as he can manage.
"I've just drifted with a sort of AI program of my own creation and, by my calculations, given it some measure of sentience."
He flips the computer around to face Newton, who bends down to read it. After only a moment, his eyes widen and he straightens, leans back and looks at the ceiling for a moment, and then bends back down to assumedly read it again.
"Hermann, you... you drifted with your fucking computer?" Hermann frowns, because that isn't exactly what just happened but decides to let it go for now in the absence of easy communication. Newton's spun around, pacing away from him, but when he turns back at the end of the lab Hermann can catch his face twitching between a grin and a frown.
"You're fucking crazy, you know that?" Newton is very obviously trying to sound chastising, but it comes out sounding more excited than anything. Which is right about what Hermann expected from Newton, to be frank. "Well... did it work?"
Hermann blinks. He'd forgotten to check in the aftermath of the Drift, which he would find at least somewhat amusing if he still had all his mental faculties in order.
He nudges his chair closer to his specialized pons, slowly taps a few lines into the terminal, and Newton walks around his chair and leans forward to catch a glimpse of the screen.
They stand for a moment, staring at the blank screen, until a single word pops up.
Hello?