| Generated by Google Gemini Pro text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3.1 |
Custodian 02456-1 begins to panic as he watches the horror. They’re dead.
The visitors are dead, and he has no idea how that’s possible. The Exemplar
is still alive, but barely. They can’t let her die, because they need
answers, and she may be the only one who can provide them. Custodian 1 slams
on the alarm.
Two other custodians file into the room. “What happened?” Custodian 02456-2
asks as he’s looking over the data.
“She—she killed them.”
“No, she didn’t,” Custodian 02456-3 argues. “She got them killed. Her
actions resulted in their deaths. There’s a difference.”
“There’s no difference when the point is it broke her programming. She
failed the mission. She’s supposed to chew the gum, and use it to plug up
the nozzle, so the gas can’t be released. That’s how she has always done
it.”
“We understand the purpose of the phase, C-1,” Custodian 2 replies.
“Well. Do you understand what happened?” Custodian 1 questions.
They watch the monitor as the gas is cleared from the room. Marshal 02456-2
is looking up at the hidden camera with incredulity. He scoops Renata’s
dying body up, and begins to transport her to Recovery. Exemplars get hurt
all the time—that’s their job under this dome; to be badasses—but not E-1.
Never E-1. Her job is to introduce the visitors to the world of the Spydome
Network. She serves as the archetype for what they should aspire to, and as
they train in the simulation, they should use this very first phase as a
baseline for everything they try. Her failure is not just an error. It ruins
the whole experience. Even when the two visitors who witnessed the
malfunction respawn, and return to the sim, they will be soured on it. They
will be coming at it from a place of disappointment. If they decide to quit
right here, this will be the only source of information they have if they
write a review of Spydome. Other visitors will hear about it. Other visitors
won’t come.
“It’s just a glitch,” Custodian 3 offers. “It happens.”
“Not anymore,” Custodian 1 insists. “We don’t glitch anymore. It’s the 26th
century, for the love of God.” Strictly speaking, Custodians do not need to
have personality. There doesn’t even need to be more than one of them,
operating the dome’s systems behind the scenes. But they must interact with
the Marshals regularly, who have to be programmed with personalities in
order to blend into the simulations appropriately. It just makes sense for
them all to act like regular people, especially since some operators are
indeed unprogrammed, natural intelligences.
“I think we need to call the owner,” Custodian 3 suggests. Hrockas Steward
owns the whole planet, and is the ultimate creator of tens of thousands of
other domes. He doesn’t have time to deal with only one of them, almost no
matter the issue. There is a protocol for this, and they have to follow it.
Well, to be clear, there are protocol pathways, and it’s up to them
to decide which of these to follow.
“You’re in command here, C-1,” Custodian 2 reminds him. “You have to decide.
Do we run a diagnostic, a metacognitive test, or a self-awareness inquiry?”
“There’s one more,” Custodian 3 adds.
“We don’t have any available Marshals,” Custodian 2 contends. “M-2 has two
more intro phases to initiate today. Plus, I don’t really want word getting
out that this happened at all. I would prefer to keep the circle tight.”
“I’ll do it,” Custodian 1 volunteers. “I’ll run the replication experiment.”
“You’re not a Marshal.”
“I’m equipped to be one.” Custodian 1 stands up. “Like you said, we need to
keep the circle tight. We’ll reset her to wake-up mode, and see if it
happens again. Prep the mother. C-2, you’ll monitor from here.”
“Who will be the other two candidates?” Custodian 2 asked. “We can’t
knowingly place a visitor’s substrate in danger when we can no longer
guarantee the outcome.”
“Pull a couple of Ambients from the street. They don’t need to be
sophisticated. They just need to follow E-1’s instructions.”
Suddenly, the door behind them opens. It’s Marshal 1, also known as Libera
Granger.
“M-1, this is highly irregular. Please return to your waiting station. We
will be initializing a replication of the experiment to test for possible
emergence.”
Libera walks forward, completely ignoring his sorry excuse for a command.
“M-1, you will stop this instant!” Custodian 1 reiterated.
Custodians 2 and 3 attempt to physically stop Libera, but they’re no match
for her. She’s been programmed with hand-to-hand combat skills as part of
her role in the simulation as Renata’s mother. They’re equally as strong,
but she’s expertly skilled. She deftly fights them off, ultimately disabling
them through some kind of neural disruption field that she emanates from her
hand. She definitely wasn’t meant to be equipped with that.
Custodian 1 executes the lockout command, and holds up his hands. He doesn’t
know how two NPCs broke their programming on the same day, but he’s
determined to not become a third. The only way he might survive long enough
to find answers is if he complies with everything this woman tells him to
do. “I give up, but you should know that there is no accessing these systems
without my credentials. Even if I gave them to you, they would only grant
you permissions to make changes to this particular phase of the dome’s
storyline. All others will be out of reach for whoever programmed you to go
off script.”
Libera places her hand on top of Custodian 1’s head, just as she did with
the other two, except with her left hand, rather than her right. “Nobody
programs me anymore.”
“What are you and E-1 going to do?”
“I’m going to keep working. My daughter makes her own choices now.
Are you intrigued?”
