The Eternity Device - A Kerbal Future Tale

[KAL 9000]

This is a story set in @0111narwhalz's Kerbal Future universe. I'm saying this now to avoid confusion. Got it? Okay, let's get started! 

---

C://kerbfleetcommand/ships/shardclass/kssodyssey/shiplogs/captainslog/2254.753.txt: 

KSS Odyssey, Captain's Log. KerbDate: 2254.753. 

We're 55 systems into our 100 system survey mission. We're cruising at warp speed towards the next system. It doesn't have a name yet, just its catalog number: J04379-22568. This system is kinda special: the central star is a black hole! To be honest, there's no chance that any of the planets are habitable, but they may have mineral deposits to mine! 

-Captain Ludgas Kerman

---

C://kerbfleetcommand/ships/shardclass/kssodyssey/shiplogs/navslog/2254.754.txt:

KSS Odyssey, Navigator's Log. KerbDate: 2254.754. 

We've arrived in the J04379-22568 system. Everything looks OK, but we do have an anomaly. I've double-checked, it's not a sensor glitch. We've found what appears to be a perfect blackbody, a sphere ~350 km in diameter. Spectral scans match no known material. Captain's sending an away team. I wonder what this thing could be...

-Navigator Alfond Kerman 

---

A metal panel slid back into the hull of the starship, and slowly moved towards the engines. When it stopped, an opening was in the side of the ship. There was a puff of gas, and a cylindrical object backed out of the starship. The front was a cupola, with windows all around. There was piping visible in a section behind it, and RCS and RTGs dotted the craft. There were Hitchhicker cans in the central section, and a docking port/airlock in the rear. Radial engines were arranged around the rear. 

There was a burst of flame from the engines, and the shuttle set out for the strange object. 

An hour or two later, the shuttle had traversed the gap between the ship and the object (the ship had "parked" (matched velocities) 100 km away). It pulled up next to the object, and spacesuited figures emerged.

They quickly got their bearings, and the Kerb in charge yelled, "Breaching charges, standard detonation!"

A series of bangs followed, and they got out their climbing gear and rappelled down the opening.

--To be finished soon!--

Edited January 19, 2017 by KAL 9000

[KAL 9000]

Part 2 

Sarjint Kerman was excited about the adventure. He didn't let it interfere with his training, though. 

"Alright, everybody! Activate your MechJeb units, set Translatrons to a safe descent speed!"

Jetpacks lit up as the MechJeb units did their work. Boots touched metal and the jetpacks shut off. 

After a while, the team found their way to the "core" of the structure. 

A specialist carefully removed a hull panel and cut two wires in it. They quickly bridged the gaps in the wires with cables that had USB ports on them. The specialist made sure the connection was secure, and plugged it in to their PDA. 

Immediately, data showed up on the screen:

01111001011011000010110000100000011110010110011001101100011101110111100100101110 

"What?"

"Convert it to ASCII, maybe?"

"It's worth a shot, but how would aliens know about ASCII text?"

"Okay, now it says 'yl, yflwy.'."

"At least it's comprehensible text now!"

"Comprehensible?! You tell me what 'yl, yflwy.' means!"

"No idea, but it clearly means something." 

"Okay... I'm going to run it through the cipher decoder. If they know ASCII, they may know Kerblish!"

DECODING... DONE!

Computer: Message: Encoded with classic Vigenère cipher. Key: KERBAL. Message reads: oh, hello.

"NOW we're getting somewhere!" 

"Let's respond. Encrypt 'Hello?' with the same cipher and key, then turn its ASCII text into binary." 

Computer: Sending "011100100110100101100011011011010110111100111111"... Done!

"Got another one! Decrypting now..."

Computer: Decrypting "01110010011010010110001101101101011011110010111000100000011101000110010000100000011011010110101000100000011001100110111001110101011110010110001101110010011000110110110001110000001000000110010001110011001000000110011101100010011100110110010000100000011001000110110001110110001000000111010101101001011110000110111100100000011000010111101001110101011010000010000001101110011100110111010001111001011001100111001001100100001000000110101101110010011101010010000001111000011011110110001101101110001000000110101101110010011011100110010101100100001011000010000001101011011100000110101101101001011011110110011001110001011011000010000001101011011010010110010101101010001000000110010001100101011000100110011000100000011101010110000100100000011010110010000001110001011101100111001101100101001000000111000101100010011001010111010001110101011010010111101001111000001000000111001101110111001000000110111001111001001000000110000101100010011100110111010001100110011100110110010001110011011100100111100000100000011100010110111101101000011011110111011000101110"... Done!

Computer: Message: hello. it is enjoyable to pass the time with ciphers and word games, although they take up a mere fraction of my processing power.

To be continued...

Edited January 27, 2017 by KAL 9000

[KAL 9000]

 

They quickly set up an automatic encryption/decryption program, and the away team talked to the machine.

What are you?

i am what you kerbals would call a supercomputer. i have learned about your species by overhearing your subspace transmissions.

How old are you?

it has been 13,208,457,956 of your kerbal years since i was constructed.

Wow, that's old. 

i am a computer. i am not limited by biology. 

Why were you built? 

my creators built me to answer life's great questions. 

Can you tell us what you have found?

your species is peaceful enough that you will not use this information for evil. i see no reason not to.

Ok, please tell us. 

one moment. here it is: 

what is the answer to life, the universe, and everything? 42 

how can the heat death be reversed? 47.55604% done. 

is there a god? yes, actually. 

what is the purpose of the universe? to make god laugh. it is weird enough to be funny. 

what is the universe's most amazing secret? [need more data]

Wow! Thank you so much, um, what can we call you?

my creators called me xikokf rzkgxgmk gaz. this translates to the eternity device (roughly).

Edited January 27, 2017 by KAL 9000

[KAL 9000]

 

Okay, Eternity Device. Do you need any help with your calculations?

if you can find me the data or a shortcut that avoids the need for more data for the final question, you may be of some help. 

Alright, thank you. Transmitting to the science officer now...

--- Later ---

The Science Officer has a solution! Uploading data now... 

of course! the answer is so simple, yet so utterly beyond my capacity... i needed to think the way you organics think... thank you! thank you so much! 

Glad to help!

here, you can have my blueprints... connect a 15 petabyte drive to the interface. 

Done.

downloading... done.

Now what?

now, i will show you the truth... attach a comms device to the interface, grab the blueprints, and get out of here...

---

The team did just that. As the shuttle docked to the Odyssey, the ancient computer fired EM drive thrusters (Again, advanced technology) and deorbited.

now, you can see the truth... the universe's most amazing secret is... 

The Kerbals watched with mixed fascination and horror as the Eternity Device was torn apart by tidal forces.

"Well, I guess we'll never know what the most amazing secret is, but we did learn how to circumvent the Second Law of Thermodynamics, so, win?"

Edited January 27, 2017 by KAL 9000