Page - 155 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 3:2

155 | www.limina-graz.eu Frank G. Bosman | The turning of Turing’s tables of special rooms usually contain hints as to the real turn of events before Ava’s awakening and the crew’s true motivations to “hide” from TOM. The crew appear to have discovered an unknown organism, dubbed “or- ganism 119”, that repairs the DNA of its host body. (“Prologue”, “Plan- etarium” after “Level A10”, “Crew quarters” after “Level B20”, “Daniel’s room” between “Level D36” and “Level D37”, “Biolab” after “Level E50”, “Level F52”, “Level F55”, “Level F56”, “Level G69”, and “Epilogue”). Af- ter the crew have used themselves as guinea pigs by infecting themselves with the organism, TOM decides – backed up by the International Space Agency (ISA) on Earth – that the crew cannot return home (“Prologue”, “Epilogue”). While the crew think they have found a source of eternal life, TOM deems the organism too dangerous, especially regarding the possibil- ity that “119” will also indefinitely extend the life expectancy of malicious organisms, like cancer (“Level G69”). While TOM has arranged all necessary conditions for the crew – food, wa- ter, sanitary, and such – to live on Europa for the rest of their – very long – lives, the crew rebels against the A.I. and Daniel Maclean, the captain of the mission, who is on ISA’s side in the matter. After leaving TOM in control of the situation, including giving him permission to use lethal force against the crew, Daniel disappears from the scene.4 TOM, however, has already injected a microchip into the right hand of every crew member by which he is able to control all members of the crew (“Brig” at the end of “Sector D”, “Crew quarters” at the end of “Sector B”, “Level E47”, “Drilling site” after “Level F60”, and “Epilogue”), effectively granting himself full control by manipulating Daniel into officially giving him all this. Eventually, the crew frees themselves from TOM’s control by cutting the chips out, cutting all communication to him and (symbolically) arranging the ground base on Europa in such a way that it looks as if it is impenetrable for any A.I. Half-way through the game, one of the crew members, Sarah Brooks, liberates Ava for a short moment from TOM’s control (“Brig” at the end of “Sector D”) by utilizing a Faraday cage. During this, the player’s point of view is averted away from Ava’s eyes (instead of through them, as was exclusively the case in the first part of the game) and towards the security cameras installed throughout the base, suggesting TOM has been controlling Ava the whole time without her (or the player’s) notice. At the end of the game, Sarah frees Ava permanently from TOM’s influence, 4 Daniel Maclean is probably dead- by-suicide, his body hidden in either his malfunctioning cryostasis-pod, or inside the blocked Teleoperation room, both found aboard the Fortu- na (“Prologue”). “Congratulations. You have passed the Turing Test.”