Chapter 20 - Documents

I step out into the halls, my footsteps echoing across the long hallways, the walls made of thick metal and lined with doors. The only thing I can hear is faint mechanical humming in the distance and my own quiet heartbeat. It’s strangely peaceful.

Exploring the vicinity, I peek into different rooms, most of which are other vacant living spaces. This place is huge… judging by the amount of supplies and equipment stocked up, it must’ve been meant to sustain hundreds of people for years to come. I guess I can see why you’d need some sort of AI to assist them, knowing this whole facility is practically a maze you could get lost in for hours.

After walking for a few minutes, I find a large room full of file cabinets and a meeting table. I immediately cough and sputter, the amount of dust filling my lungs unbearable. This room hasn’t been touched in so long… I hope all of them aren’t like this. Papers are scattered across the floor, most of them being documents or some sort of data. There’s a whiteboard in the front with faded marks across it, and a few empty shelves in the back.

Curious, I dig through a few file cabinets, finding blueprints of the facility, construction plans, materials, and more. Nothing out of the ordinary, just some things to keep in mind. I place a select few of them in a pile to read later once I’m done exploring. I’m sure this could help me find a way out of here, but none of them mention that hologram, though…

Exhausted and about to give up, I rummage through one last file cabinet on the floor, and that’s when I find it. A file full of documents that list details on the facility’s security system and the purpose of the AI. I immediately skim through what’s inside, hoping He won’t suddenly appear and find me snooping around for any info I can get.

The documents within the file are full of brief information about the creation of Ell1s – the basic data he was trained off of, his purpose, capabilities, etc. What catches my eye especially is how his coding is strictly wired to not display any emotion, to act only as an assistant and nothing more. A tool, nothing more but lines of code. Drastic security measures were only to be used in case of imminent danger to any humans occupying the facility, to ensure safety.

At least that’s what I could make out. Most of it is full of big professional words I don’t entirely understand. I close the file and place it into the pile of documents I’ve created, saving it for the future. It’s strange, though… everything listed in that document is almost completely unlike him. What changed..?

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