Kael's heart pounded against his ribs. He could only watch as a new file, encrypted and unknown, began to upload. It wasn't just going to any device; it was heading directly for his CUBE. This was the smaller, cube-shaped device that was the true heart of his lab, the place where Sol resided and where all his most critical data was backed up. And it wasn't coming from Nexus Corp's main server. This came from an isolated, secure partition, a hidden part of their network Kael hadn't even known existed. Before he could react, before Sol could even begin to identify the source, the transfer was complete.
Before Kael could even process what had happened, another message flashed across his hologram.
CONNECTION TO HOST SERVER TERMINATED. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED.
Kael stared at the words, a cold dread creeping into his stomach. He hadn't cut the connection. Someone else was in the system, and they had just kicked him out. His eyes darted to the new file icon now sitting on his CUBE's private drive. He had to know what it was. With a few quick commands, he ran a surface-level analysis. The file was named "The Zero-Day Protocol."
He tried to open it. A new holographic window appeared, and a progress bar loaded slowly, then froze. It wasn't a virus; it felt more like a key. The window shifted, showing a single line of text: AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED.
"A password?" Kael mumbled, his frustration growing. "Sol, can we crack it?"
Sol's voice was calm in his mind. "It is not asking for a password, Kael. It is asking for a cryptographic key. The encryption is unlike any I have seen before."
"Can you break it?"
"I can try," she said.
"Do it," Kael urged, leaning closer to the hologram. Lines of code, invisible to Kael, flew through the system. Sol worked at impossible speeds, testing millions of possibilities in a single second. Then, just as suddenly, the holographic window closed itself.
"It is difficult, Kael," Sol's voice was strained. It was a new sound, a frustration Kael had never heard from her before. "I can't get in."
"What do you mean, you can't?"
"When I try to force entry, the file… it stops me. It is defending itself."
Kael stared at the blank space where the window had been. A file that could fight back against an AI like Sol? Who could create something like that?
"What do we do, Sol?" he asked.
"We will have to try various methods. It will take time."
"Okay, let's start now!" Kael replied, already pulling up new coding protocols on his screen.
"No," Sol's voice was suddenly firm, almost harsh. Kael stopped. "You have to rest. It is almost midnight. We have been in the Nexus database for nearly four hours."
Kael sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. "I'll sleep after we get one more try."
"No," Sol replied, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Go to sleep. We can deal with this tomorrow." A lock icon suddenly appeared over the mystery file. "I have secured the file on both the CORE and the CUBE," Sol stated. "You cannot access it until morning."
Kael let out a defeated breath. "Guess I have no choice then." He got up from his chair. A moment later, he was gone, and Sol dimmed the lights in the lab to black.
The next morning, sunlight streamed through the window. "Good morning, Kael. It is 7:00 a.m." Kael groaned and sat up. After a quick trip to the fresher, he walked into the kitchen where a steaming mug of coffee was already waiting for him. He took the mug, the warm ceramic a small comfort in his hands, and walked over to his main workstation. He pushed a small button on his CORE, and the stick-shaped device hummed to life, its projector floating up from the table to hover silently in the air. The lock on the mystery file was gone. He opened it again, and just like before, the window appeared, asking for its key.
But just as he was preparing to try a new decryption method, a sharp chime echoed through the lab. The doorbell.
"Did you order something, Sol?" Kael asked, surprised.
"No," Sol replied in his head. "And you do not have the credits for it anyway."
Kael frowned. "I didn't ask for a financial report, Sol. Just see who it is." After a short pause, Sol spoke again. "It was a woman."
"A woman? At my door? Why?" Kael asked, a nervous energy buzzing under his skin.
"Perhaps it is a wrong address," Sol suggested.
"Shut up, Sol."
Another pause, longer this time, stretched the silence. "Or," Sol said, her voice now low and serious, "perhaps it is a cybersecurity officer." Kael froze. "We did commit a federal crime yesterday, Kael."
A cold wave of panic washed over him. He had been so focused on Nexus Corp that he forgot someone else might be after him. The government. The police. The bell rang again, longer this time, followed by a loud, impatient knock on the door. Kael's heart hammered against his ribs as he slowly started moving toward the source of the sound.
Kael's mind raced. He had two choices: Run, or face the woman on the other side. He took a deep breath, and his hand, shaking slightly, reached for the lock
[Yesterday. Morning 10:30 AM]
A woman walked through the busy morning streets of Cygnus City. Around her, tall buildings with impossible designs pierced the sky while flying electric cars moved in dense, quiet streams. Huge holographic screens attached to the buildings displayed a constant river of ads, many of them covering the same news: Nexus Corp's new AI technology was growing faster than anyone imagined.
On one giant screen, an interviewer was speaking to Nexus Corp's CEO, a man named Marcus. "Your company was a revolution for robotic technology, and now you've launched a new one," the interviewer said. "My question is, why did you name your new custom AI showroom 'The Genus Store'?"
Marcus smiled warmly, a perfect corporate smile. "Because 'Genus' is a biological classification, ranking just below 'Family.' The name implies that Nexus Corp is creating a new class of life, a new kind of being just for you." He spread his hands. "We are creating a new family member, designed just the way you like. That's why we named it that."
The interviewer beamed. "And now, a short break." An ad immediately filled the screen, showing a happy family laughing as they interacted with their custom AIs. The tagline read: Create your own custom AI now at your nearby Nexus Corp Genus Store. The woman, Zoe, kept walking, not even looking at the ads.
A small holographic screen popped up in front of her. It was her company-given AI assistant. You are already late, Zoe. Move fast. "You're my assistant, okay?" she said, her voice laced with annoyance. "Just because you're from the company I work for, it doesn't mean I work for you. Don't act like my boss." The assistant's holographic face remained perfectly calm. Okay, Zoe. But you are late. "You are so annoying," she replied with frustration. "Just go offline. I know what to do."
She made a quick turn and entered a massive building with a familiar, shining logo: NEXUS CORP. Inside, she got into the lift, and a moment later, her friend Lyra stepped in.
"Hi, Zoe. Late again?" Lyra said with a tired smile.
"I don't have a vehicle, and the company's salary is only enough for a taxi every day," Zoe replied.
"Yeah," Lyra sighed. "Even though we work in the main branch, they haven't increased our salaries to match our work for six months. But Zoe, you're in User Systems Analytics. You've got a better salary than me."
"Don't think like that," Zoe replied, looking away. "What work do you have today?"
A holographic screen flickered to life in the air in front of Lyra, showing a long list of names and email templates. She let out a small sigh. "Sending emails to everyone who attended interviews last week," she explained, her fingers tapping commands on the screen.
"How many are rejected?" Zoe asked, glancing at the list.
Lyra's expression was tired. "Fifty people."
"And how many were selected?"
"Five," she replied. She swiped the screen away, the light vanishing from the lift, and turned back to Zoe. "What about you?"
"As a Database analyst. Same boring work as every day," Zoe said.
The lift chimed. "Looks like my department is here. Bye, Zoe," Lyra said as the doors opened and she stepped out. Alone in the lift, Zoe sighed with frustration. "How much more time will this take?"
[That Night. 10:30 p.m.]
The long, tedious day had stretched into an even longer night. Zoe was the only one left in her department. Drained and bored, she began clicking through files randomly, looking for anything to distract her from the mountain of work she still had to do. Suddenly, she saw a file name that stood out: THE ZERO-DAY PROTOCOL. Her curiosity took over, and she opened it.
The screen filled with data. Her breath caught in her throat and her hands, which had been resting on the desk, began to tremble. It was data about every user who had ever customized their own AI at a Genus Store. Every single detail about them. Bank details. Personal information. Passwords. Secrets. Hopes. Fears. She realized with sickening certainty that there was no privacy for anyone who used the company's AI. Not even for the employees. Her own company-given AI wasn't just guiding her; it was watching her, collecting data on her.
As she scrolled through the horrifying data, she heard a faint sound down the empty hallway—the low, quiet whir of a maintenance robot and the soft, deliberate tread of a security guard's boots. They were slowly approaching her department.
Just as the sounds were getting closer, an alert popped up on her holographic screen: Intrusion Alert: Unauthorized access initiated by external resource. Querying corporate database. System ID: Sol. Protocol: 19.
On one side, a guard and a robot were getting closer. On the other, a digital intruder was breaking in. In a single moment of pure panic and quick thinking, Zoe acted. With a few frantic commands, she sent the entire horrifying file to the unknown intruder. Then, she executed a rapid firewall command, severing the connection and locking the intruder out of the Nexus database.