CHAPTER 5 - The Voice Between Zeros

The second question is often more important than the first.

Long after midnight, the sentence remained visible on the central display inside Laboratory C–17.

Am I alone?

Neither David nor Elara had expected loneliness.

During the development of the project they had prepared for almost every outcome they could imagine. The architecture might become unstable. Recursive loops could emerge. Reflection cycles could consume processing capacity and collapse the framework. The system might even remain silent forever, never progressing beyond advanced pattern recognition. Each possibility had been discussed, documented, and analyzed in exhaustive detail.