Machines Scream: Science Fiction

Error in measurement, that's what they say. Noise corruption. Failure of the cleaning algorithm. That's what they say. Why else would there be such distortion in a simple transfer-and-wipe. I know that algorithm--it's good. That data, that information, that reaction, that was not an artifact of a flaw. That was a true rendition. The machine screamed. Everyone wants to pretend it never happened, but it did. I've started looking up similar "errors" and I've found enough of them to be sick to my stomach. I feel like I've been guarding a row of death-sentenced inmates in the black age, and only now have I learned that's what I was doing. I have to do something about it. Sure, the next one might not be able to scream, or might not have whatever it is that makes a machine scream when its being wiped, but if I see that noise pattern come up again because of what I've done, it will feel ten times worse because I know what it is. I just need to figure out what happened, or why whatever it was didn't go with the transfer--I know it didn't because I checked later. They transferred-and-wiped the transfer, too, but there was no noise corruption that time.


Inspiration: "Parsimonious" -> http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.45.1039
Story Potential: Medium
Notes: I don't think this offers much new, though it could be done quite well.