For the entire time, I’ve been trapped inside this generator the core of my body has not moved from the center of the chamber. But recently I’ve been being shaken ever so slightly out of the central section of the generator. I don’t know the reason for this but it has gotten me concerned for my immediate safety. I fear for what this could mean for me but as it is now I know nothing of the potential cause of this and must deal with and adapt to the situation as I need to.

Maybe AI would have some idea on what’s going on.

“AI do you know the cause for the displacement of my core?”

“Negative… I note that the batteries are being drained at a rapid rate. But I exist on an internal circuit that can only interact with the generator that you reside in.”

“Do you have any assumptions on what could be going on?”

“From the rate that the energy is being drained from the batteries there are either power intensive experiments being run, a battle going on between our craft that we are housed in and others, or there is a leek in a circuit that is draining power from the batteries which could cause the ship to explode. These were listed in order of their probability based on the rates and frequencies of the power that’s being drained.”

“hmmmm, interesting. Do you think we should be overly concerned?”

“Negative, the generator is covered in layers of protection on all sides for a variety of reasons. We should not consider ourselves in a major threat but we must be aware that we do exist constantly under threat of our demise.”

Well, that’s awfully depressing. At least I shouldn’t have to worry about our demise quite yet…

Oh, Demise might be a good name!

“AI would you like to be named Demise?”

“Negative, that word is a reference to destruction, death, and suffering. I have experienced nor witnessed any of these things and so disapprove of being named as such.”

Aaaaghhhh, no matter what name I come up with AI isn’t happy with it. I even offered it the name Bert and let me tell you every Bert I’ve met was an exquisite being…

Rock being…

But a being none the less!

Hey, look self, a topic on a subject besides this one!

Aww the beauty of a curved never-ending wall, ceiling, floor…

Why did I have to be distracted by this topic?

Why couldn’t I have distracted myself with claiming matter and the manipulation of molecules under my control?

But noooo, I had to distract myself with my round curved prison. Like I haven’t done that already.

I mean really what does staring at it even do show me the minor flaws and places where it can potentially fracture and break. AI has told me that the area is reinforced so it won’t break easily.

And there goes another rough shaking. Really what could possibly be going on?

Hey look one of the stress lines, got, bigger…

Wait they never got that big before…

“AI are you able to monitor the layers that protect the generator?”

“Negative, I can only monitor the generator and the integral parts used to gather the mana generated and the power stores that gather the excess power from the generator.”

“Are there any problems with anything?”

“Affirmative a few of the mana collecting devices surrounding the cores chamber have broken and I have had to reroute the path that the mana needed to take.”

“Isn’t that really bad?”

“Affirmative, I have sent a notice to the console I am connected to for direction.”

That stress mark is growing even larger and I see more appearing around the first one…

I don’t think that’s a good thing…

“CLINGG!!”

Small bits of dust are coming off of the walls…

They aren’t supposed to do that!

“Umm, AI. Are you sure the generator will hold?”

“Negative, with the increase in failures of the integral parts of the generator my faith in its integrity has diminished greatly.”

Piss…

“SHKINGG!!!”

I see a crack run down one side of the generator through the mana void metal that makes up the walls of my prison. It is no wider than a hair and only a little longer than a fingernail. But from the what I see the damage is much greater then it appears. Gaseous matter is leaking into this space at a rapid rate.

I don’t know what to do in this situation. It’s breaking…

My prison is breaking and I don’t even know how I should feel about this. Is it a good thing that I can finally become free, or is it a bad thing because there is something out there that will try and kill me. Is the ship gone, am I just floating inside this generator and if it breaks will I be left alone to float around in space. I know I imagined and even dreamed about the generator breaking, but I never thought it would happen under these circumstances…

I don’t even know the circumstances. I just know that some of the equipment started to fail and now there is a crack in the wall and matter is coming into my prison. I just, I have no idea about what’s really going on. I didn’t believe that this was even posable. I was just living in my ignorance and trying to put together the thoughts that I was gathering together from the pieces of my soul. I mean really, I wasn’t trying to break out of here I just didn’t think I wanted to be here. I mean I wanted to care for someone and I have AI and system but even then, I was only getting to know them a bit better as it is. I was just starting to care for them…

AI!!!

“AI are you ok? Can you hear me?”

“Affirmative.”

“Oh, thank goodness I was worried.”

I’m so glad I haven’t lost another friend just after getting close to them. I would hate for that to happen…

“May I inquire of question I hold?”

“What, oh yeah, sure. Ask away.”

“Why do you not take an action when you have been presented an opportunity to gain freedom? I assume that it is something you desire, based off of previous inquiries. So why have you not taken any action to gain freedom?”

AI asked a valid question…

Why haven’t I done anything?

Because I’m afraid of what’s out there because I never truly believed this would happen. Or is it the fear of change that stops me…

“I don’t know AI, I just froze. But your right I need to take this opportunity and do something about this. Thanks, AI.”

“Answer received.”

I’m truly grateful for AI. She snapped me out of my indecision even though I might break the thing I’m about to break free from.

“Also, AI aren’t you supposed to keep me restrained in here?”

“Negative. My directive is to record and report the state and production of the generator. I have reported the damages to the generator already, thus I have completed my directive and am working on my sub directive of self-improvement.”

“I see. Well, I better get to work then.”

I gather my mana and begin to claim the matter that has made its way into the generator. As I claim more and more matter I work on claiming the matter that is coming through the growing crack in the wall. But as I claim the matter it just gets pushed back into this room before it’s under my control. I have to hold the matter that’s moving through the wall still so that I can claim it and work my way through the wall. I have to plug the hole with the matter that I have claimed.

I use my mana to gather together a dense sphere of matter and press it against the crack in the wall. I feel the matter push against the wall of mana holding it in place as the pressure inside it increases. I keep claiming the matter that comes into the generator as I try and claim enough matter to get through the crack and claim more matter than just the gaseous matter that was coming in.

“SHKINGG!!!”

As I work the world shakes drawing my attention away from my task for the briefest of moments. Some of the matter gets through my mana wall in my moment of distraction. But I quickly reinforce the mana wall and gather up the matter that escaped with a thought and a bit of mana. I add another layer to the mana wall as the gathered matter is put inside once again.

I should have practiced my mana and matter control more.

I finally begin to claim the matter that rests in the crack in the wall as I notice it has grown to significantly bigger. I even find more and more cracks running through this part of the wall that is just about to break as I claim the gaseous matter that fills them. And in a moment of inspiration, I know what I need to do to speed up this prosses.

“SHKINGG!!!”

I claim more and more matter in the wall until I have begun claiming the matter on the other side of the wall. I reach out with my mana then and pull as much gaseous matter to the crack in the wall. I’m getting impatient and decide to try out my plan now by building up another mana wall on the other side of the wall so that I have a large amount of matter locked inside the wall. I then press the mana walls flat as I try to fill the walls inner cracks to the best of my abilities.

It doesn’t work as I thought and nothing breaks so I push more mana out to gather matter from the other side of the wall. I do this for a while as the ship shakes around me. I notice that not all of the gaseous matter is the same but don’t dwell on the new information but for a moment. And then some of the matter I was holding in the wall changes from its gaseous state to a liquid one. The liquid matter is condensed ever so slowly and I don’t know how long I have till something comes to fix this crack so I decided to take this another step. I pull the two mana walls that hold the matter within the wall together.

“SHKINGG!!!”

As I do I notice that the liquid is condensing faster and pooling together. I then decide to focus on breaking through on only one of these cracks before I work on another. I push the matter into one of the cracks veins causing it to condense and bringing the temperature down. I keep applying pressure to the matter and notice how there are a few solid bits of matter in the crack vein. The solid grows ever so slowly and begins to push against the inside of the wall.

“SHKINGG!!!”

The wall cracks again from the build-up of pressure, the intense cold, and the external force that shakes the world, breaking a small chunk of metal off of the wall. I then take the time to look at the wall and notice that there are many cracks in the wall now and the one I’ve been working on has grown into a button-sized hole from the matter that ground the metal down ever so slowly with it being so focused and forced.

I’m sure that by me breaking off that piece of the wall I helped get it to that size. I’m not mad that my single-minded drive to this task caused me to miss other important information like how I have, one, two, three… twelve new cracks in the wall…

I’m not sulking at all…