Inside a stainless steel room, a bored woman sat, monitoring a screen as she used an analog method to play an old game on another screen. It was a universe management simulation that she must have played thousands of times, maybe over a million at this point. Anything to keep her current self occupied while watching lists update.

  Besides the multicolored red and black hair with yellow highlights, she looked like an average person amongst the staff. Her hair was styled after a pixie cut, but kept a little shorter than average. She’d been wearing the same graphic shirt and comfortable pants for days, but it didn’t matter to her. She rarely left the room, and had everything available through the sustenance station in the corner.

  Despite the relaxed nature, she was rail thin and almost ghoulish in appearance. One of the first things she’d modified away was a need to eat and drink. The next was a need for sleep, though she still did on occasion. It helped to pass the time between resets.

  She noticed an alert pop up in the corner of her eye, but it was gone almost as soon as it appeared. The oddity made her pause the game and turn to start looking for it. Which was when a knock sounded at her door. Something that rarely happened.

  Getting up and stretching was almost an orgasmic experience as her muscles popped, and she took her time making sure to get all the dopamine from the experience as possible. When no more happened, she frowned but walked over to open the door. Before it had even slid all the way up, she grumbled, “What?”

  The elderly visage of Zeratus was not who she’d expected, which only made her frown deepen. “May I come in? We should talk.”

  “I’ve already had my psych talk this cycle.” She grumbled, not moving from the door. “What do you want Zer?”

  His body froze for a moment, which was a sign he was trying to figure out an appropriate response. The process was less than a second, but anyone who was used to AI processes would recognize the delay. When he next spoke, it was with a more, light hearted tone. “This isn’t about that. Did you notice the alert?”

  She nodded slowly, “I did.”

  “I shut it off. I have an agent working on the problem already.” Zeratus replied.

  Her fist slammed into the side of the door, “Are you meddling in my job, you jumped up electrical signal? Again?!”

  Zeratus glared, and the woman glared right back. Except, instead of glaring at the projection, she aimed her gaze at a nearby camera. “What’s the alert about?”

  “Someone was caught in a death loop. I stopped the process until my agent can get there.” Zeratus responded from the projection.

  “So, what? Just don’t look into it?!” She glared at the camera. “Don’t do my only job?! I may be lazy, but my results speak for myself. So why are YOU interfering?”

  Zeratus flickered before disappearing. He reappeared in the room and motioned for the woman to sit. She closed the door and crossed her arms. “Invasion of privacy is against the security codes. Unless an emergency situation is happening. Article 3, sub sec-”

  “It is an emergency, but one that I don’t need the whole station learning about.” Zeratus said, dropping the polite tone. “Sylvia, please sit. This is me calling in my favor.”

  Her eyes seemed to light up. “Really…” Suddenly, she was a lot more interested and took her seat. “Now I’m intrigued.”

  “Swear to me that you won’t reveal this to anyone else outside those you need to contact in the world.” He said, tone serious.

  She blinked and leaned forward. “Nothing leaves this room, except what I need to do my job. Does that put you at ease?”

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  He let out a sigh, “It’ll have to do.” The AI summoned a chair into existence and sat facing Sylvia. “Melvin is in Veldern.”

  “That rat? Why?” Her brow furrowed, “Wait, I swear I saw him two weeks ago when I went for my evaluation.”

  “You… might have.” Zeratus said with hesitation.

  Sylvia blinked a few times. “Zer… that’s against the rules.”

  “Can you please call me Zera, at least?” He grumbled, “I actually like that name.”

  “No.” She said, immediately. “What’s he doing outside the staff areas? He finally decide to take a vacation?”

  “In a way…” Zeratus said. “A spawner in E6 was taken over by hostile creatures. He didn’t do any scouting ahead of time, and set himself into a death loop.”

  “All the spawners are compromised. I made sure of it after the players broke the shield with their stupid play wars.” She sneered, “I’d have just deleted them all, but I’m not allowed near those systems.”

  “The spawners?” Zeratus prompted.

  “The players.” She responded.

  Sighing, Zeratus leaned back in his chair. “Regardless, I have someone going to pick him up. He’s still tied to the spawner, but Melvin won’t respawn again until someone is close enough to get him.”

  “How long has this been going on?” Sylvia asked, bringing up the logs.

  “Around a month.” Zeratus replied.

  “And this other one around when Melvin first started spawning? I didn’t authorize a rebirth.” She stared at the name of Danielle Rosecrest.

  “That was Melvin’s doing.” Zeratus said. “An… old friend of his.”

  Sylvia whirled her chair to look at him. “Which one?!” Her full attention was on him and she was now wide awake.

  “Alex.” Zeratus said simply.

  A smile started to spread across Sylvia’s face. When it was so wide it must have started hurting, she started to laugh. Not a pleasant laugh, but full on maniacal laughter. She was laughing so hard she fell out of her chair and started slapping the floor. “Are you…” She tried, but couldn’t get out.

  Zeratus waited patiently for her to calm down, but knew it would be some time. Mania was one of the few psychological symptoms that were monitored but allowed to persist in staff, so long as it didn’t turn into a detriment. Times like these were why Zeratus disagreed with the policy.

  After an extended amount of time, she finally slowed down until she was giggling and out of breath. As she stood and took her seat, her manic grin remained. “Are you… ha ha ha… sure?”

  The AI nodded, “The transfer didn’t work properly, but enough is there that I can make a prediction of what they’ll wind up doing.”

  The giggles from Sylvia threatened to break into laughter again, but she managed to calm herself, “What’s he there for?”

  Zeratus shrugged, “I do not know Melvin’s mind currently. It could just be sentiment. Or maybe guilt.”

  “Probably guilt. The rat should feel guilty, even if Alex was going too far.” The giggles were almost completely gone, though laughter was bubbling just beneath the surface. “So, what? Don’t send an agent?”

  Zeratus shook his head, “No, just… send someone from further away. Maybe Lucious, or Allison?”

  Sylvia turned around and brought up both members of her clergy. “Lucious is too preoccupied hunting down a necromancer who figured out how to revive the person without anyone’s permission. It’s been fine, since a player hasn’t run into them, but there are twelve in that region and two are investigating the rumors.”

  She looked over Allison’s profile, “Allison is dealing with an argument between two nations over funerary rights of someone… Wait, that was me. Fucking hell…” She grumbled and the screen flickered as she sent a message to her ‘hand’ in the world. “I just let her know. It’ll take approximately two months for her to get there.”

  Zeratus hummed thoughtfully, “Should be enough time to resolve the Melvin situation.”

  “And then monitor him and Alex so they don’t break everything.” Sylvia said, turning so her mad eyes to stare at the camera in her room, “And you don’t get a say in that. This is the most interesting thing that’s happened in decades. Ever since Alexei wrecked Mint’s shit.”

  Zeratus stood up, his chair disappearing as he did, “So, you’ll restrict yourself to monitoring the situation?”

  “Hm?” She turned to look at the AI’s projection, “What? Yes, of course. Why would I do anything to them? I liked Emily, and Alexei gets a pass by proxy. Even if I wish he’d left things alone.”

  “What Mint did was against the rules we’ve established, as well as immoral.” Zeratus intoned.

  “AND I WANT MY FRIEND BACK?! IS THAT WRONG?!” Sylvia whirled on Zeratus, taking a swing through the projection. “Get out!”

  Zeratus faded from view, and the room returned to it’s usual emptiness. Giggles started to leak out as she walked over and collapsed onto the bed. “You’re… ha… lucky I need… ha… to calm down…”

  She curled into a ball on her bed, uncontrollably giggling as she tried to calm herself down.