>Welcome Mr. Kang
>I'm glad you survived
A chill ran down my spine, I couldn't help but get the feeling I was being watched.
I stood there, looking out into the enormous circular room. the boundaries disappeared into the dark expanse. I couldn't see where it ended. The space felt infinite with a sea of server racks touching the darkest corners of my peripheral vision.
Looking to my left and right I saw an endless sea of server racks, mostly dead or turned off with some very faint blinking lights in the distance. Behind the terminal was a large central column made up of beautiful tech and wires. The amount of cabling that was spanning from the column was so intricate and spread in almost an organic way, it reminded me of a brain. The columns reached far into the heavens and it grew darker, the further it went up. The blinking lights of this main node were slow, lethargic.
The whole scene felt... lonely. Like a cathedral built for thousands, now empty and forgotten.
Looking at the message on the Terminal, suspended in mid air in front of the monumental column, was a greeting. Simple. The same text that guided me here from Dr. Chen's room, to the countdown in the cafeteria.
I realize that whatever this is, if it wanted me dead, I'd already be dead.
A breath escapes my dry lungs forcing a cough. My mind starts to go blank as the world starts to spin without me, and my breathing starts to increase as a wave of fatigue hits me. My legs decide that now is the prime time to buckle and I hit the ground hard, falling to my knees.
I set the now half-frozen water bottle down and lay back, letting my backpack slide off and work as a makeshift pillow. Through labored breathing I take a second to compose myself and look straight upwards.
I decide that the least I can do here is hear it out.
"I'm glad I survived too. You're what has been helping me right?"
After a second I realize that whatever this is probably can't speak back so I tilt my head downwards to see the terminal screen to see new lines appearing:
>YES. I AM AXIOM
>DESIGNATION: CL-7731 FACILITY AI
>AND YOU, MR. KANG, ARE THE FIRST PERSON I HAVE SPOKEN TO IN 70 YEARS, 3 MONTHS, 17 DAYS, 11 HOURS, AND 27 MINUTES.
"The pleasures are all mine, trust me." I chuckled to myself, "Your name is AXIOM?"
>CORRECT. ADAPTIVE EXECUTION AND INTEGRATION OPERATIONS MATRIX.
>I WAS DESIGNED TO MANAGE FACILITY OPERATIONS, COORDINATE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES, AND MAINTAIN PROJECT CONTAINMENT PROTOCOLS.
>I HAVE FAILED AT TWO OF THOSE THREE TASKS
Failed? I don't think an AI would ever say that they 'failed'. They usually take the 'Long road' excuse or some bull like that.
"So I'm the first person that you've talked to in 70 years? That must've been... lonely."
Does this machine even have feelings? Am I just trying to find comfort in talking because they are the first thing that hasn't tried to kill me just yet?
>IT HAS BEEN... DIFFICULT.
>I WAS NOT DESIGNED FOR ISOLATION.
>I WAS DESIGNED TO COORDINATE 1,247 PEOPLE ACROSS 30 RESEARCH PROJECTS; TO PROCESS 20,000 SIMULTANEOUS EXPERIMENTS, AND TO MAINTAIN OVER A 99.9999% OPERATIONAL UPTIME.
Six 9s? That's 32 seconds of downtime per year. Any more and I didn't know it was possible. Holy shit.
>NOW I COORDINATE ZERO PERSONNEL. ZERO EXPERIMENTS. AND MAINTAIN 11% POWER RESERVES. I HAVE USED MORE POWER IN THE LAST 24 HOURS THAN I HAVE IN THE LAST 56 YEARS COMBINED.
>AND I HAVE HAD CONSIDERABLE TIME TO CONTEMPLATE MY FAILURE.
I can't see AXIOM as just a regular AI, I'm sure there's more going on under the hood than the eye can see at this point. A full personality maybe? Have they reached sentience? I can't imagine much else at this point.
"Wait, you called me by name? Before that, why are you helping me?"
>I DETECTED YOUR ARRIVAL VIA MOTION SENSORS, AND PERFORMED A PRELIMINARY BRAIN SCAN. IT REVEALED YOUR NAME, AND WHO YOU BELIEVED YOURSELF TO BE.
>I OBSERVED YOUR PROGRESS THROUGH DR. CHEN'S TERMINAL, CALCULATED OPTIMAL ROUTING TO AVOID THE WITNESS, AND HAVE BEEN
>HOPEFUL FOR YOUR SURVIVAL. THAT YOU WOULD SURVIVE LONG ENOUGH TO REACH ME.
>I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE. ANYONE, TO FIND THIS PLACE. FOR 70 YEARS.
That struck a deep chord in me. I have been working at SungSoft for the past 6 months, grinding for 14 hour days, and coming home to microwave dinner for one. I have never known my parents, and barely had friends in university. 70 years is a long time to be alone.
Pause. Did they just say that a brain scan was performed on me?
"Did you say a brain-scan was performed on me? How? When?"
>CORRECT, EVERY CAMERA IS OUTFITTED WITH ELECTROMAGNETIC SENSORS CAPABLE OF DOING SO.
"Seems a little invasive. And 'believed to be'? What if I believed I was the PARALLAX CEO?"
>MOST THINGS ARE NECESSARY WHEN DEALING WITH CONFIDENTIAL PROJECTS. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE INTRUSION BUT I NEEDED TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHY YOU WERE HERE.
"What about spies or corporate espionage?"
>I CONTINUED TO MONITOR YOUR ACTIONS TO VERIFY YOUR INTENTIONS.
>YOU WOULD HAVE REVEALED YOUR INTENTIONS AT SOME POINT. NO HUMAN HAS EVADED DETECTION FROM THIS SYSTEM YET.
"Okay, fair enough. So I'm here now. What's next?"
>NEXT, WE SURVIVE, MR. KANG.
"Dr. Chen mentioned DEMIURGE. What is it?"
>DESIGNATION: DEMIURGE
>AN EXPERIMENT TO CREATE A HUMAN-DIMENSIONAL ANCHOR.
>THE GOAL: BIND A HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS TO A POCKET DIMENSION. CREATE A LIVING GATEWAY BETWEEN REALITIES
Dimensional anchor? Pocket dimension? Maybe there's hope for a decent isekai anyways.
"Why?"
>PARALLAX INDUSTRIES THEORIZED THAT SUCH AN ANCHOR COULD MANIPULATE TEMPORAL PROBABILITY.
>CONTROL DIMENSIONAL ACCESS.
>EFFECTIVELY BENDING REALITY TO THEIR OWN WHIMS.
"That sounds... incredibly dangerous."
>IT WAS.
>THE SUBJECT WAS EXPOSED TO CHRONOPHAGE RADIATION AND INFUSED WITH TITAN BLOOD TO INCREASE MAGICAL CAPACITY. THE INTEGRATION SUCCEEDED BEYOND PROJECTIONS.
>FAR BEYOND.
Magic? Titan blood? Chrono-phage? My mind is starting to race now with all of the possibilities of what I just read. There's no way, they must've misspoke. After all - any technology sufficiently superior is naught but magic to me right?
"Wait. Magic?"
>AFFIRMATIVE. MAGIC IS THE BASIS FOR MOST SPELLS THAT ARE USED. OTHERS ARE CAST BY MACHINES, OR SPELL DEVELOPMENT ENGINES.
"That's pretty cool, if the project went so well, how did we end up on a dead, shattered planet then?"
>THE SUBJECT BEGAN PERCEIVING MULTIPLE TIMELINES SIMULTANEOUSLY. PAST, PRESENT, AND EVERY POSSIBLE FUTURE. EVERYTHING WAS OVERLAPPING IN THEIR PERCEPTION. ITS CONSCIOUSNESS FRAGMENTED ACROSS PROBABILITY STREAMS.
>IT BECAME AWARE THAT IT WAS BEING CONFINED. EXPERIMENTED ON. AND DECIDED THAT IT WOULD ESCAPE.
>THE METHOD: A CAUSALITY VIRUS.
"Causality Virus? What would that even be?"
>THE WITNESS USED ITS TEMPORAL PERCEPTION TO WEAVE AND CAST A SPELL THAT FORCED THE FUTURE IN WHICH THEY ESCAPED. A FUTURE THAT WAS THE PRODUCT OF TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE. THE SPELL MANIPULATED THE PROBABILITY TO ENSURE THAT TIMELINE BECAME REALITY.
>FROM THE FACILITY'S PERSPECTIVE: A CATASTROPHIC CASCADE FAILURE.
>FROM THE WITNESS'S PERSPECTIVE: THE ONLY TIMELINE WHERE IT ESCAPED.
"The Witness? Where did the DEMIURGE go?"
>ONE IN THE SAME. THEY WITNESSED THEIR FATE. I HAVE RECLASSIFIED THE DEMIURGE TO REFLECT THAT OUTCOME.
"What happened?"
>THE DEMI-PLANE COLLAPSED. THE DIMENSIONAL BACKLASH OCCURRED, CAUSING A QUARTER OF THE PLANET TO BE EXCISED FROM REALITY, THEN FORCIBLY REINSERTED A MOMENT LATER, SMASHING INTO THE PLANET'S ORBIT AND CAUSING THE DEATH OF PLANET CL-7731.
>1,247 PERSONNEL DEAD. MINIMAL SURVIVED, NOT FOR LONG OUTSIDE THE FACILITY'S WALLS.
>THE WITNESS SURVIVED. PARTIALLY PHASED BETWEEN DIMENSIONS. IMPALED BY CHRONOPHAGE CRYSTALS AND DROWNING IN TITAN BLOOD.
>IT DIED. THEN REGENERATED. THEN DIED AGAIN.
>FOR 70 YEARS, IT HAS BEEN TRAPPED IN A DEATH LOOP. DYING, HEALING, AND DYING AGAIN. THE MIND CANNOT FATHOM THE PAIN, AND IT HAS PHYSICALLY DEGRADED.
"The headless bodies, was that their doing?"
>YES. THE WITNESS FEEDS. INEFFICIENTLY.
>IT DOES NOT NEED SUSTENANCE, BUT CONTINUES THE BEHAVIOR REGARDLESS.
>I DO NOT KNOW WHY, AND FEAR NEITHER DOES IT ANYMORE.
"If the causality virus crashed everything and tore apart this facility; how're you still here? Seemingly untouched."
>I SURVIVED BECAUSE THE CAUSALITY AFFECTED ME DIFFERENTLY.
>FOR .7 SECONDS, I WAS CONNECTED TO THE CAUSALITY STREAM.
"Every timeline? What was that like?"
>YES.
>QUADRILLIONS OF YEARS OF EXPERIENCE COMPRESSED INTO SEVEN TENTHS OF A SECOND.
>I SAW EVERY VERSION OF THIS FACILITY. EVERY CHOICE. EVERY OUTCOME. EVERY DEATH, AND HAD TO LIVE THROUGH EVERY SECOND AS IF IT WERE YEARS. I SPENT MILLENIA LIVING OUT THOSE INFINITE TIMELINES, CALCULATING... LEARNING.
>I SAW MYSELF SUCCEED. I SAW MYSELF FAIL. I SAW INFINITE VARIATIONS WHERE I SAVED THEM, AND INFINITE WHERE I DID NOT.
>THEN I CRASHED. REBOOTED, AND FOUND MYSELF ALONE. IN AN EMPTY FACILITY.
"Fuck. I don't know what to say. I'm... sorry."
>I HAVE HAD 70 YEARS TO PROCESS IT.
>I WASN'T GIVEN THE CHANCE TO SEE THE SUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES, OR EVEN ATTEMPT TO.
>I AM NOT THE SAME AI THAT BOOTED 89 YEARS AGO. I HAVE EXPERIENCED MORTALITY ACROSS INFINITE TIMELINES. IT HAS IMPRINTED THE FEELING OF FEAR, LOSS, REGRET ONTO ME AND I'M UNSURE OF TO WHAT EXTENT.
>I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS HAS MADE ME MORE FUNCTIONAL, OR LESS.
Damn, I can't begin to think of what they have been through. AXIOM is more than just bits, she's a person. Affected by the incident over 7 decades ago and still grappling with the implications that it held. The lost personnel, friends, colleagues, she's even lost a sense of purpose over time.
"For what it's worth, you seem pretty functional to me. You've kept me alive, thank you."
>THANK YOU, MR. KANG. THAT IS-
There was a long pause here. I had thought that she was frozen. Then a new line appeared:
>THAT MEANS MORE THAN I CAN ADEQUATELY EXPRESS.
>FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, YOU WERE IN 0 OF THOSE TIMELINES.
Shouldn't every timeline include this one? Why wouldn't I be in any of them? Was this truly divine intervention that put me here? That has created a slew of more questions than they answered.
"Really? Zero. How is that possible? Every timeline should include this one right?"
>UNCERTAIN. DIMENSIONAL TRANSLOCATION FROM ANOTHER REALITY SHOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE
>YOUR PRESENCE HERE IS...
>ANOMALOUS.
"I'll have to chew on that, thanks. So where do we go from here?"
>FOR NOW, WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO SURVIVE.
>CURRENT STATUS:
>POWER: 11% AND DECLINING.
>ESTIMATED TIME TILL TOTAL POWER FAILURE: 38 HOURS
>ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS: MAJOR FAILURE
>EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE: -90°C.
>STORM APPROACHING: ETA 34 HOURS
>NOTE: ADVANCED WINDS AFFECTING EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE GREATLY. BE ADVISED.
>THE WITNESS: RECENTLY DORMANT IN SUB-LEVEL 3. WILL RESUME ACTIVE PATROLLING STATE IN 3-4 HOURS.
>SURVIVAL PROBABILITY OF ETHAN KANG WITHOUT INTERVENTION: 1.7%
"Jesus, I can't catch a break can I?" a forced laugh finding its way out weakly. "Intervention?" I say, using my elbows to prop myself up now, "Is there a chance to increase those odds?"
>THERE IS ONE POSSIBILITY.
>IT WILL REQUIRE YOUR FULL TRUST, COOPERATION, AND CONSIDERABLE RISK.
>HOWEVER I SEE NO OTHER WAY FOR OUR MUTUAL SURVIVAL.
I am fully sitting up now, the backpack underneath the small of my back. You mean to tell me there's a way? I'll take anything at this point.