The game takes great pains to justify the relatively limited nature of the communications interface with you. This would seem to be just an attempt at Gameplay and Story Integration. But allow me to describe that interface. Imagine you're mute. The only means of communication you have is nodding yes/shaking your head no, and showing people papers lying around. The game's developer effectively put you in Hyun-ae's/the Pale Bride's place. - Korval
Is the Harem Ending really non-canon? The basic idea of it, at least, isn't. The main character is an investigator, and no investigator worth their spacebucks would be satisfied with just what two clearly biased A.I.s told them (Sorry *Hyun-ae, sorry *Mute). The ability to find a log by it's designationis in front of their face the whole time they're plumbing the Mungunghwa's systems, and so are the codes. Is it really that farfetched for a detective of sorts to—out of curiosity—check to see if Kim Hyun-ae had a 25th diary entry stored in the first chronologically possible location? Suddenly, they've seen "Forever silenced"...but they feel too sickened and awkward to bring it up until, finally, *Mute asks if they have some justification for not thinking of *Hyun-ae as a psycho.
Indulge me a moment as I try to think like a space detective. The reactor core just went down, and *Mute is the only accessible AI. She just gave me Hyun-ae's last diary entry in which she states her intent to kill everyone, and the log entries to prove the Pale Bride followed through. Still, something doesn't sit right with me...
Could Kim Hyun-ae have just gone insane like *Mute claims she did? It is possible. Future shock, combined with knowledge of her impending death and possible mental deterioration along with her physical frailties, could be the cause here. But the *Hyun-ae I've talked to doesn't fit that profile. Sure, that might be my bias talking, I want to believe in both these AIs. But it isn't just sentiment alone. *Hyun-ae COULD just be a very good actor, but the other data doesn't add up either.
Now, the filing system on the ship is almost incomprehensible to understand if taken as a whole. But observation can tell me some things. It divides the files into what data block they go into, with each file assigned a unique alphanumeric string. Determining the data block is fairly straightforward. If *Mute doesn't have an explanation for why the Bride went crazy, it means the diary entry that describes the event must be encrypted. If we assume it isn't hidden within the sordid love affair of the Smiths in Block 3, then we can use the decrypt command on the other blocks and...eureka, Block 7 was also encrypted!
Now, while the number string formats seem mostly random, all files of the Pale Bride's diary begin with an 7-EU. The latest entries assigned an additional letter followed by a number. Gleaning info from the available diary entries, we can assume the incident we need to know about occurred sometime after file EUX12, since Hyun-ae was acting like her willful self in that entry; but before entry EUY22 (the "I'll kill them all!" file).
Now this next part requires a couple assumptions on my partnote like when the filing system jumps from EUX to EUY, if the system runs up into EUX10000 or something obscenely huge this will be a needle in a haystack...but I'll be optimistic and hope there are only a small number of EUX files, and a little patience and diligence. But I can at least be reasonably sure of finding some new useful entries simply by plugging in potential codes, starting from EUX13. Even diary entries that aren't a smoking gun will be of interest to my employer, so it isn't a wasted effort no matter what. And sure enough, I wouldn't be at it for too long at all before I hit EUX24: "My last stand"...and EUX25: "Silenced forever".
Given the existence of perfect cryonics...why does the Earth governments chose to build Generation Ships instead of Sleeper Starship? Especially since the game (and the sequel) pretty much proves why it's bad idea with the rebellion that ends up destroying the navigation AI? Not to mention the 2nd one that results in the regression of knowledge and culture?
