OMCOM reprograms himself, Part 1

In Rome's Revolution, OMCOM thought of himself, not as the Omnipresent Computer but rather the Omniscient Computer. Winfall's delayed disappearance and Rei's sudden appearance bothered OMCOM in a way you and I could never experience. He thought he had enough computing power to predict the future. Here, for the first time, is the untold story of how OMCOM reprogrammed himself. This occurred right after Rei and Rome used the Espansor Bands the first time. It was because of the following that OMCOM decided to "rat out" Rome so that the Overmind of Tabit would cast her out, Cesdiud.

     Deep within his storage chambers, OMCOM’s negative feedback dampeners were having trouble maintaining homeostasis. In other words, he was perturbed. Even though his designation stood for Omnipresent Computer, within his core structures, he preferred to think of himself as the Omniscient Computer. That he was unable to determine the exact cause of Winfall and the other stars disappearing was an unending irritation to him. After all, this was the sole purpose of Skyler Base and therefore his sole reason for existing.
     It was bad enough having one readily identified unanswerable question but now there was the unanticipated appearance of Rei Bierak and his Ark. Nothing in OMCOM’s understanding of cause and effect prepared him for this unexpected turn of events. He decided to look deeper, to see if there was something he missed, something that would have allowed him to predict the arrival of the Ark and Rei coming to Skyler Base.
     OMCOM studied himself. He ran diagnostics and checksums and every other self-test listed in the manifest. The logic flow charts, entity-relation diagrams and schematics constructed from his current configuration all matched his original design specifications. He only found one discrepancy. The total amount of microwave radiation required to activate and power his memrons was greater than expected. OMCOM took a roll-call of all memrons and assembled a complete database of every active unit. He computed the total amount of microwave radiation required and once again confirmed that the total output required was too large by almost .1%.
     Since there was no other computer of sufficient capacity readily available, OMCOM decided to construct one. The simplest solution was to build a simulation of himself. That would allow him to examine each subsystem and vary its performance without affecting his overall integrity. OMOCOM found this comforting, perhaps even liberating, knowing he could do a parametric study of his thinking processes without actually making changes within himself.
     His approach was simplistic. He created an exact computational model of himself, identical down to the last detail. He dedicated fully half of his memrons to the task. He copied his core operating system and each of the overlaying subroutines into the replica along with all the data banks that would fit. When he was finished, he had a complete duplicate of his operating system, including I/O systems but all built within his structure. When he was satisfied that it was a faithful recreation, he activated the simulation and its input/output interface.

Tomorrow, the examination begins.