Raya was picked for the morning shift.
Not retained, she had already undergone this test. Not reassigned to a different category of labor or transferred to a different sector. The notice on her slate was couched in entirely different vocabulary, something she had never heard before.
ASSIGNED: Temporary Intervention Authority
Scope: Incident Containment
Duration: Undefined
No explanation. No context regarding the meaning of this intervention authority or what kind of events this woman would be controlling, or why the duration was not defined. Only the notification and the routing instruction.
The office is divided equally between administration and logistics. Open workspace with very little separation between workstations so that everyone could see what everyone else was doing at all times. No guards, no security points, but the ever-present feeling that what happened to you would be reported by whoever happened to be watching.
A coordinator met her at the entrance. Mid-thirties, unremarkable features, wearing the same heavy work cloak as everyone else but with additional markings indicating elevated status without true authority. Not someone who made strategic decisions, just someone who implemented decisions made by others.
"'You're the allocation.'" Statement, not a question. Identifying her as such through the slate message, instead of asking her to do so.
"Yes," Raya affirmed, as a fuller explanation would be a waste of time, noticing that the body language of the coordinator made it clear that he was used to working to tight schedules.
"Follow."
He led her to observation gantries that were positioned to overlook volatile labor lanes. These were sections of the facility where material handling was riskier, maybe as a result of certain chemical properties, possibly due to pressure or temperature considerations. These were areas where worker error was more probable to cause incidents that would affect productivity not only in terms of loss of personnel.
The coordinator showed a screening with data on real-time monitoring. "Temporary intervention authority provides limited override authority during scenario events. You have authority to intervene when output degradation is beyond tolerance or when labor is unstable and threatens processing variance."
Raya worked to understand the terminology by decoding the institutional talk, turning it into meaning that was relevant to Raya's experience.
"I can intervene if production is threatened."
"Correct." The coordinator jotted an entry on his slate. "You cannot interfere if the projected losses are still acceptable."
"What constitutes 'acceptable'?" Raya asked, as that seemed like important information when considering whether or how to intervene.
"Context dependent. You will be informed if the limits of authority are overstepped." There was no more response that the coordinator expected. No limits were given, only the need to act if the situation dictated, trusting that then someone would inform her if she overstepped.
This meant that the rule was intentionally vague. This provided her with the mandate to intervene without providing the means to identify whether it was accurately permitted versus an overreach needing correction.
"Understood," Raya said, but she didn't understand. She just knew that disputing this with the mid-tier coordinator would not get her anywhere, would label her as non-compliant.
The coordinator pointed her to the gantry above lane six, where volatile chemicals were handled in such a way as to make any error immediately apparent. "Monitor.
Intervene if necessary. Report at end of shift."
He left her alone in the gantry with the monitoring devices and an undefined level of authority: not quite empowerment, clearly a trap.
---
The incident occurred in the monitoring mission after forty-three minutes.
Pressure valve blast created rupture of valve in lower forge corridor. This was a localized, non-catastrophic event involving superheated steam. Two personnel were in the general area, but none were in a safe location relative to the type of pressure release event occurring.
The system automatically detected this event, and the results display update included projections based on system calculations.
LOSS PROBABILITY: 1.7 UNITS
Too little information to understand what "units" these are or how the 1.7 compared to the levels at which intervention was required. However, the notation was below the line of acceptable tolerance on the monitoring screen, indicating that these levels are at least within the range the facility was willing to accept.
But Raya did move. Without conscious thought, without weighing options based on the authority's range and the parameters for an acceptable loss. Simply an instinct developed over many years of combat training to react to comrades at hazard.
He didn't stop her. He was noting things on his slate from the adjacent gantry, watching but not doing anything. Just seeing what she'd do when she had a situation that official policy indicated could be allowed but common sense screamed should be acted on.
She made it to the hallway before the steam had fully cleared, stinging her eyes and her lungs even with the face wrap doing little to protect her. Both employees were visible in the steam, one closer to the area where the steam was exiting and already receiving the effects, the other more distant and immobile rather than moving away from the danger area.
Raya clutched the closer worker, who was already injured, and yanked him back from where he was heading, trying to move away from where additional steam was escaping. He had burn wounds from where his flesh had come into contact with superheated gas, his chest was wheezing with difficulty, but he still retained consciousness enough to stumble along when Raya yanked him.
The second worker finally shook off the paralysis and began the movement towards salvation on his own. But not fast enough, not with the coordination needed to avoid the spewing steam filling the corridor, choking the visibility with opacity.
He struck debris—metal parts forced out by the initial pressure release—and fell hard. His cry rose above background noise as he was consumed by agony and fear, both of which created a sound Raya had learned to respond to through years of keeping her teams alive.
She was on him just as steam touched his bare skin, just as bone was failing under the force of his fall on hard metal. Pulled him clear despite his bulk and her difficult situation, got him far enough away from the wound that further steam bursts wouldn't damage him.
The corridor stabilized. Automatic systems redirected the pressure via new conduits, the affected area had been isolated according to containment protocols, and the incident had resolved itself in ways formulated to deal with exactly this eventuality.
Both men were hurt. Burns, fractures, lung damage requiring medical processing and recovery time. But neither man was deceased, nor had he suffered from damage so severe he'd never be functional again.
Her hands were burned in spots where she had come into contact with the steam-heated metal as she pulled the second man to safety. Painful, but not debilitating, just enough to be a reminder of what she had done, and why.
---
The slates displayed real-time update information.
It happened before Raya's eyes through the monitoring screen, the numbers shifting with the recalculations of the event impact molded by outcomes versus probabilities.
Before intervention:
LOSS PROBABILITY: 1.7 UNITS
After intervention:
LOSS PROBABILITY: 2.7 UNITS
The number had increased. Her intervention, which had prevented two deaths or permanent disabilities, had somehow increased the system's calculated loss probability rather than decreased it.
It wasn't a moral question. She had prevented deaths and suffering by saving individuals. However, when it was factored into the mathematical equation that was optimization by the facility, more instabilities had been created by this individual than would have been present had the situation been allowed to play out by automated protocols and acceptable losses.
First, because the employees she had saved were not optimal due to their injuries and would take time to heal. Secondly, because the employees the robot would have saved would have saved the company from the probable disruptions the employees would have caused.
They gauged outcomes, not intentions. It measured the productivity cost in objective units, not the human toll in qualitative measures. And on this basis, she had worsened the situation.
Raya watched the changed display before her, the agony of burned hands already distant compared to the chilling realization that was spreading in her chest. It had been permitted to act as an evaluation of whether or not she was the type to act.
The coordinator appeared beside her, notebook in hand, making final notes.
"You reduced immediate damage," he said. No praise, no criticism. Merely observation.
"Yes," Raya affirmed.
"You increased downstream variance." He made the notation without bothering to look up from his slate. "Intervention led to the need for medical resource allocation and temporary reductions in productivity in various sectors that were relying on the output of those workers."
"They would have died." Raya spoke in a tone that sounded gruffer than she had intended, rage slipping past her professional demeanor, likely indicating unstable emotional vulnerability.
"Perhaps." The coordinator stayed impartial. "Within acceptable parameters. Your action grows the result unacceptably with regard to consumption for its value in lost output."
He reached towards her slate, carrying out commands that revoked her monitoring authority and intervention permission. "Temporary authority rescinded. Return to standard assignment."
Not punishment. Not a reproof for overreaching or a bad decision that necessitated a corrective measure. Simply a correction, readjusting her status to baseline after verifying what the allocation had been meant to establish.
Whether she would intervene when permission had been granted to her.
The predictiveness of her reaction to danger scenarios.
The cost that the intervention would entail on the facility's operations.
Agency had been the test. The will to choose, to do, the unarticulated power that enabled her to make choices and then recorded those choices for evaluation and categorization.
"Dismissed," the coordinator said and began moving on to the next thing he had to accomplish. Raya's test had been completed and the results had been noted. Nothing further needed his attention.
---
Alucent noticed a spike in his expanded monitor display.
Pressure variance in lane number six, incident markers that indicate a containment event, resource allocation flags that indicate medical processing and temporary reductions in productivity. And in addition to all that, an indicator that marks an intervention associated with Raya's worker designation.
She had acted. Had been entrusted with authority and had exercised it exactly as anyone familiar with her would have expected. Had seen people in danger and decided to act despite the indications of the protocol regarding the most productive course of action.
This was exactly what the system had wanted to know. Would she take action when she was allowed to? How would she measure the cost of suffering against efficiency? Could her nurturance needs be quantified?
They'd tested her just as they'd tested Gryan by putting him at a failure point that was determined to be at failure. Just as they were testing Alucent by increasing his role until responding to crises became second nature to decision-making.
Three retained assets, three tests, three methods by which capability was measured and baseline established for future exploitation until inevitable attrition forced them out of service.
Alucent adjusted another valve, kept his pressure distribution consistent over fifteen junctions, dared not think about how long it would take for his own test to shift from evaluation to demonstration. How long before they narrowed his margins enough that even with optimal performance, he would have to make choices about losses he could take versus losses he had to prevent.
This was being done by Iron Vale. Creating profiles, developing models, analyzing possible maximum use of each of these before any degradation meant utility dropped below retention level.
And they could not refuse to join in without being shut out completely, without losing any hope of collecting information which might render their submersion worthwhile.
And so they would go on doing. Performed when called upon, the patterns presented, ever more intelligible to systems of maximal use of human resource optimized around the notion of suffering being an acceptable cost.
---
But Raya came back to the lanes of materials with burned hands and rescinded authority.
No correction. No gratitude. No recognition other than the slate update which withdrew her temporary intervention privileges and reassigned her to regular labor.
She lifted boxes, her hands aching with each lift, the burns a constant pain that reminded her she'd saved two souls at a cost the facility deemed overall negative.
Gryan observed from the Core Support, visible through the access corridor which enabled line-of-sight on the transfer lanes. Gryan's repaired but unchanged brace reflected the care he had to take in moving because of the injuries he had sustained in the previous containment incident. Their eyes met momentarily.
He understood. Had been through his own test, his own demonstration that retention meant being placed in a location where failure was expected and that one's presence was for purposes of optimization and not for the preservation of one's own well-being.
Alucent didn't even glance up from his monitoring station. Had no business splitting his attention with fifteen pressure junctions to handle and any kind of deviation qualifying him for a performance evaluation.
But he had seen the results. Known what Raya's test had validated, what that would mean for upcoming missions where her predictable reaction to danger scenarios could be taken into account. The Iron Vale had learned something valuable. Raya would always select people over productivity when faced with an opportunity to act. Was willing to incur her own losses in order to minimize human suffering despite such suffering lying within acceptable loss terms.
What made her predictable. What made her useful in situations where the presence of someone who could act to alter the situation was an advantage, even if it meant the overall variance was greater. Until finally, the expense of her actions outweighed the value, and she had to be classified as more of a liability. They were becoming legible. Transparent to systems that measured everything that could ever be measured and fed those measures into optimization algorithms where human behavior was considered a variable, not a choice.
And the worst part is, I realized the futility in resisting because all the resisting would do is provide different information. It would show different patterns, and those patterns could be used in the same manner by employing a different allocation strategy. No escape by rebellion. Nothing to refuse participation without being taken away in toto. Just gradual dissolution by continued use, gradual loss of autonomy masked by continued status and temporary authority allocations. They would remain because stopping meant failure. These would continue carrying out their duties, showing their patterns, becoming more predictable to the systems engineered to take advantage of predictability until attrition made them non-functional. The trend continued.
Smokers relocated, materials moved, and pressure was sustained through an interconnected system that needed constant human interaction to avoid failure made more likely by optimization. And to supply these systems with intel, there were three infiltrators searching for flaws that could be used against them if they made it past the system cycle long enough to discover. Iron Vale had confirmed what it needed to know.
It would now continue to test, to further compress margins, to further extract utility until extraction became no longer sustainable. They could only survive long enough to get their destruction to mean something.