| Generated by Pollo AI text-to-video AI software |
Pribadium didn’t think that Sora—or anyone, for that matter—would be able to
bypass her security protocols, so she doesn’t rush to chase after him. Once
she sees him enter the substrate library, however, she grows worried. She
immediately tries to teleport into the room with him, but the closest she
gets is outside in the hallway. He has managed to not only breach the
sector, but lock her out if. How did he do that?
She bangs on the hatch “How are you doing this?” She bangs on it more.
Sora looks at her through the view window with a frown. He holds up an
object so she can see. It’s a cephalobud, and it looks like it’s already
been used and spent.
Pribadium invented it a few decades ago. It’s somewhat comparable to other
neural drives, except this model can pull information directly from the
timestream. It allows a user to download whatever digital data they want
into their brains. Unlike other kinds, this will transfer knowledge even if
you’re not digitized. It’s very dangerous, especially for a normal human
like Sora. Time travelers have different neurology and biology, and that’s
who she designed it for. It was kind of a weekend project that she forgot
about. He must have found it in her lab, though, when she left him alone
earlier.
“Your external security is extremely robust,” Sora explains, “but your
internal security is laughable. I didn’t download the secrets of the
universe, but I did capture the specs of this base. I thought you might turn
on me, and I would need to escape.”
“You’re the one who has turned,” Pribadium argues. “Don’t do this.”
Sora looks around, presumably searching for Pribadium!Two’s next substrate.
“I like this one. She looks even less like you than you two before. It will
be easier to tell you apart.” He approaches the console, and starts working
it like a pro.
“Sora, this isn’t what she wanted. She’s literally gone to a better place.
It’s fine.”
“You don’t know that,” Sora responds as he keeps working. You two split from
each other over a year ago, according to her. She and I apparently...” He
trails off. “You don’t know her anymore. She was a different person, and I’m
going to give her a choice.”
Pribadium shakes her head. “That goes against every principle you have. If
you truly felt that way, you would have digitized and enhanced yourself
years ago, yet here you are, a totally normal organic human. You of all
people should understand our ways.”
“I’m not normal anymore.” He taps on the back of his neck where he would
have applied the cephalobud. “Now I know why people do this. It’s better to
have power than to not. Even if you don’t use it, it’s better to not let
others have power over you.”
Pribadium sees the pod power up. “Don’t! You still have time to undo it!”
Sora hovers his hand over the interface and turns his head to look at
Pribadium. “She’ll thank me one day, even if she’s mad now. Elle pense,
donc...elle est.” He hits it.
The stasis pod continues to power up as Sora stands back. He watches it as
he sidesteps over and unlocks the hatch for who now has to go back to being
called Pribdaium!One. They both watch now as the IDCode downloads and
unpacks itself in the new body, rewiring the neural pathways in realtime to
bring Pribadium!Two back to life. This wasn’t part of the plan, but there is
nothing to be done about it now. Now that she’s alive, she will want to stay
that way, which Sora would probably point out means she always deserved to.
Duping is philosophically complex. Millennia after it was first being
contemplated, ethicists have still not figured it out.
The pod opens. The new Pribadium!Two climbs out. She regards them. “Report.”
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