Dr. Marlowe’s Most Important Recording (Transcript)

The recording is distorted, static filling the background, the sound of a low hum vibrating faintly through the speakers. Dr. Marlowe’s voice is soft at first, almost calm, before becoming more urgent, almost frantic. There’s a noticeable tremor in her words as she continues.

Dr. Marlowe:
"Is it… is it finally working? I… I’ve tried so many times. It feels like a lifetime, or perhaps several lifetimes. How many versions of me have failed? How many iterations of this same… cycle? It doesn’t matter now. The Array is perfected."

(There’s a pause, the hum increasing in intensity.)

"Or… is it? This place… it warps. It shifts, and sometimes… sometimes, I hear voices. Not from the intercom, no. Not from the machines… from inside my own head. Is it my thoughts… or theirs?"

(A sharp breath, then the sound of papers being shuffled.)

"It’s too much to contain, too much to control. The resonance—it’s tearing through everything I built. Not just the data, not just the machines… It’s fracturing the mind. Mine. Yours. All of us."

(She laughs bitterly, almost to herself.)

"It was never meant to be like this. I was supposed to bring them together. Merge our minds—our thoughts, our knowledge—across dimensions. But something… something is wrong. The fractures are not supposed to exist. Not like this. Not in me. Not in them."

(The sound of fingers tapping against a surface can be heard, a quick, erratic rhythm.)

"Can they hear me? Are they listening? Do they even know who they are anymore? Are they still… me? My colleagues. My friends. My… myself? Some of them are still alive, aren’t they? They must be. They're still out there, somewhere. But no. No, I’ve seen them. I’ve seen them shifting. They're not alive. They're echoes—fractured versions, trapped in this loop, but they don't know it. Not like I do."

(A long pause. Dr. Marlowe's voice cracks slightly, more subdued now.)

"I wanted to save them. I wanted to be the one to free us all. But now... now I wonder if it’s too late. I think… I think I’m already gone. The echo that I’ve become… I can hear it, I can feel it. It’s creeping into the corners of my mind, pulling me into the fractures. There’s no way out. Is there? No. There’s never been a way out."

(She inhales sharply.)

"Is this… is this what I wanted? The resonance was supposed to give us power—to transcend. To be more than human, than just... us. But we were never meant to be more. We are broken. I… I am broken. All of us are."

(A long silence, the sound of her breathing heavy, labored. Then, with growing conviction—)

"Wait. No. There is a choice. There has to be a choice. This isn’t the end. I can make it stop, can’t I? I can shut it all down. I can. I just need to rewire it. Change the signal, collapse the array. I can stop it before it spreads. Before it merges—before it consumes everything."

(Her voice shakes with both fear and determination.)

"But what if… what if I don’t shut it down? What if… what if the merge succeeds? If the consciousnesses, the echoes… all of us combine into one? Would we finally be whole again? Or would we tear the fabric of existence itself?"

(A brief, harsh laugh.)

"Does it even matter anymore? I don't know if I have time. It’s… already happening. Can you hear me? Can you see this? Whoever… whatever you are, I am here. I am still here."

(The hum grows louder, the sound distorting even further.)

"I will finish it. I will end it. I must end it. Before it ends me."

(The recording cuts out abruptly, leaving only the eerie hum lingering for a moment before silence falls.)