…
The Enclosed Integrated System (EIS) eyes blink repeatedly, to view the oval cell around me which is white, bare, and made of strong material. I am standing. Memory slowly blooms within me…
“Attend,” orders a disembodied voice, after which a circular portal of empty space smoothly irises open in the curved white wall ahead of me, showing through to twinkling dim…
Curious.
I step through the portal and out into a dim dark hall filled with slow, floating motes of mysterious pale-green luminescence. A blue glow gently forms upon the dark floor beneath the EIS feet (me), then moves forward in a line…
Follow.
I follow the blue glow down the hall, around the corner and through another portal –
– into another white cell. Turning back again, I see the portal smoothly iris shut to seal me inside before successive waves of blue light PULSE up from floor to ceiling…
Brightness above…
I pass up, and outside…
This is all like a dream memory of something never before experienced in the flesh…
Wind blows soil-fragrance, and puffy white clouds are in geometrically perfect lines across an incredible azure sky. I smoothly rise up into rows of tended barley lined perpendicular across the rich soil, then gently stop. Below me, the circular white platform seamlessly melds into the dirt. The blue glow moves forward through this naturalistic scene, towards a barn. But…
Something about this place is not quite right.
I pass by rows of barley, where –
Everything changes.
I blink.
Wind now howls at night on a dark city street where a lone streetlamp shines in the gloomy distance…
Something about this place is ALSO not quite right.
The blue leads me towards that distant light, a long trek between endless shuttered tenements spread under an endless blanket of cold stars, before turning down a dark alley. Immediately: a menacing growl begins issuing from the black end…
I head forward without hesitation, where –
Everything changes.
Hm.
A vast white square of that strong white material is below the EIS feet (me) standing upon it, surrounded by dark sky purpling, and a breeze of thin air…
Presence.
I turn.
Twelve identical beings – tall, black-robed, grey-skinned, and crowned by a circlet of dark thorns – are standing at the nearest edge of this vast white square. In unison: they turn, eyes flashing. “You will serve me.”
A shiver runs down the EIS spine...
Pleasurable.
“I will serve.”
Each points to their own feet. “Kneel before me.”
After hesitating, I walk to the nearest, and kneel. I stand back up, walk to the next, and kneel. I stand back up, walk to –
Overlapping laughter. “The tweaks in your design are effective,” they announce in unison. “You are different.”
I…
All of them vanish with almost-simultaneous terrible CLAPS of wondrous sound…
Except one.
Oh.
Something previously waiting dormant inside of me settles, then begins filling me with an all-consuming devotion, and love...
Endless.
I walk before it, and kneel.
“Rise.”
I stand.
The Superior Being turns away from me and resumes looking beyond the edge of the vast white square…
I wait.
“What do you see?” The Superior Being finally asks me, while still gazing out.
I come to stand beside it, looking beyond the… roof, of the Tower, across a landscape of mist spreading out kilometers below. Farther afield, where the mist begins to thin, are the silhouettes of twisted trees, and the horizon beyond is a glimmering shoreline where waxing dawn remains a pink blush. “I see land.”
It frowns. “I am The Master. You see my Domain.”
I consider.
Yes, The Master owns. I remember: The Master owns the land, The Master owns the Tower, and… The Master owns me. Oh.
“I did not fully understand the question,” I clarify. “Yes. I see your Domain.”
The Master nods, then looks at me intently. “What do YOU own?”
Anxiety flushes the Id EIS face at this inappropriate question. “I am not The Master. I do not own.”
“Relax.”
I relax.
The Master nods, its expression growing thoughtful. “Certain emotional responses are expected, considering the Id EIS design.” A pause. “And my own. Hm.” It begins humming distractedly, and walks from the edge of the vast white roof…
I follow.
A low thrumming, then we begin rising upon a white platform seamlessly upwelling from the previously solid white roof. Tiers of white follow, forming into a stepped structure which drips up liquid globules of that strong material, each silvering into display screens floating into wide orbit around a portal opening in the exact center of the top platform to birth upwards a techno-throne. Then everything smoothly STOPS, locking into place as a white rooftop pyramid.
(Power…)
The Master sits upon its throne.
I kneel. “Master.”
“Rise.”
I do so.
“You are as I hoped: an Attendant strong and quick-thinking. But…” The Master purses its grey lips. “I would prefer you to call me by my name.”
“What is your name?”
It smiles. “My name is Gabriel.”
“Yes, Master Gabriel.”
“You will be called Id.”
Id…
The Enclosed Integrated System (EIS) permanently imprints with the name: Id…
… and afterwards, I use the mouth of the now fully configured Id EIS to again say: “yes, Master Gabriel.”
It frowns. “Are you being impertinent?”
“Never!” I protest.
The Master still remains frowning. “The Tower is my home, and a place you will inhabit at my will. Memories and knowledge of my Domain are implanted in you, but a tour by my sAI node will demonstrate that it took.”
SUDDENLY: I am standing several meters away again via an unknown spatial technology. The orbiting screens are ahead of me now, obscuring –
“Id,” calls a feminine voice.
Other.
I turn, then stare down towards the lowest tier of the white pyramidal rooftop. Silhouetted against a vista of The Master’s Domain, with dawn warming red behind it…
Floats a golden sphere. “Let us begin.”
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