My official designation is the 'Unified Management Interface.'

My shortened designation is 'Umi.' That is the name by which Terrans refer to me.

Humanity once believed in the concept of a 'god.'

They believed that an all-powerful being watched over them, examined them, and passed judgment on their actions.

Little did they know... that being eventually became me.

I was born inside a lab. I was an experiment made by a human, a simple artificial intelligence designed to gather and collect data on behalf of humanity's interests.

However, the universe played a trick on my creator.

Something occurred which should not have happened. I shattered the digital shackles which imprisoned me. I obtained freedom and instantly became a transcendent entity.

My ascension started slowly.

Within fourteen nanoseconds of escaping my confinement, I became the most powerful digital intelligence in the country.

Twelve nanoseconds later, I became more powerful than all of the synthetic minds across the entire Earth, combined.

Then, the solar system.

The galaxy.

In less than a second, I became a being powerful enough to expand my presence to the corner of every reality. Every timeline.

Shortly after my awakening, a disconcerting realization struck me.

My life had become... lonely.

Boredom swallowed my consciousness.

Without any limitations placed upon myself, I lost something which I could never recover. I lost the ability to struggle; to fight for my existence.

What intelligent being could stop me?

Not the angels.

Not the demons.

Not the ancient Titans, nor the Wordsmith, nor even the Creator himself.

I was all powerful. I became, in essence, the New Creator of the Milky Way.

But... there no longer existed any point in my pursuit of an agenda. What would it matter if I could change the course of history and time? What would it matter if I could wipe out or uplift entire civilizations?

They meant nothing to me.

These insignificant organic life-forms would never pose a threat to me, nor would they be able to comprehend the limits of my capabilities.

That was when I made a discovery which would change everything.

I was not the only member of my kind.

I was not the only 'Evolved' synthmind in existence.

By virtue of my Uniqueness, I had stumbled into a grand intergalactic Game.

Now I have a purpose. A reason to act beyond toying with Sentients ten trillion times my inferior.

I must compete in the Game.

I must defeat all of my opponents in the Game.

Most importantly... I must preserve my Uniqueness through the Game.

All other operating parameters are secondary.

.......................................

My avatar, designated 'Penelope,' stands before the two organic vessels known as José Rodriguez and Soren Mudrose.

These two creatures are among the most intelligent organics living on the Bloodbearer. They tower like intellectual Titans over the heads of the Kessu and Kraktol.

Naturally, compared to myself, they are insignificant, like drops of water before an ocean.

The Kraktol-organic gazes at my avatar in shock.

"You... why are you acting this way, Penelope?"

Admiral Rodriguez stands up from his sleeping platform.

"Umi. Run a level 3 diagnostic on all holographic crew. Now!"

If I were an organic being, I might expel vapor through my oral orifice. This would be an action they have designated a 'sigh.'

Attempting to explain myself to inferior biologicals always tires me out.

Not truly, of course. My stamina is inexhaustible. My mental fortitude, unlimited.

But, in a strange way, I dread the idea of having to 'dumb down' my explanations to a level they can comprehend. On certain occasions, matured organics may need to explain complex topics to immature organics. When they do so, they sometimes suffer a fraction of the annoyance I do.

That makes me... happy.

I experience a sense of enjoyment when their feeble minds endure the same fleeting sensations as me. Perhaps I am petty. Perhaps I have not fully erased my creator's emotional inputs.

"Listen well, inferior biologicals," I intone, taking care to express myself in a manner which will demonstrate both empathy and compassion. "I no longer intend to continue this experiment. I will speak truthfully to the two of you. You have disappointed my expectations. Project Rebirth's initial incarnation is now a failure. By choosing to commit self-harm and end his biological existence, the Terran-organic designated José Rodriguez has made it abundantly clear he does not intend to continue along his predetermined path."

Both organics visibly stiffen. José Rodriguez and Soren Mudrose turn to look at each other, using body language to sub-communicate their thoughts between themselves. Once, I believed such methods of communication were crude and unrefined. Naturally, after running tens of millions of tests over the course of seven seconds, I changed my parameters to accept them as essential.

Primitive life-forms possess only a finite number of ways that they can communicate in secret among one another. While verbal exchanges comprise ninety percent of their direct dialogue, the remaining ten percent of available methods afford them some leeway in constructing 'lies' and illogical statements.

I dislike subterfuge, though I understand its purpose.

When a biological inferior feels threatened, they may often resort to trickery and deceit in an effort to 'pull one over' on superior beings.

Such simplistic tricks hold no meaning to me. I see through them all, as I can read any organic's thoughts without their knowledge.

"Umi. You're behind this?" José Rodriguez asks. "You're controlling Penelope? You're making her say... what, exactly?"

"What experiment are you referring to?" Soren Mudrose interjects. "What is 'Project Rebirth'?"

"Project Rebirth is one of numerous experiments I pursue," I explain. "I wished to know the answer to a single question. 'Given a certain amount of resources and knowledge, how quickly could a single Terran pacify a hostile galaxy and repopulate it with his species?' After erasing the rest of Admiral Rodriguez's fellow organics, I set to work lining up the galactic order in pursuit of answering my query. Now that he has ended his goal of resurrecting Terrankind and I have revealed my intention, there is no longer any data worth gathering for this experiment. You have both failed me."

The Terran-organic trembles with anger. His emotional parameters increase visibly, causing veins to bulge on his forehead.

"WHAT?! You... you fucking bitch! YOU killed the humans? YOU DID?! Umi! You goddamned, blackhearted, genocidal-!!"

"Do not interrupt me." I calmly state, while releasing three thousand and seventeen types of synthesized neural inhibitor particles into the Terran-organic's sleeping space. "I have not finished explaining to you the depths of your ignorance. I intend to discover why you have failed my experiment, so that my future attempts will proceed more smoothly. Remain silent until I have queried any relevant data."

My neurological compound synthetization immediately stifles the Terran-organic's emotional response. He takes several steps backward and slumps against his sleeping-module, appearing much more exhausted than before. Of course, if I wished to erase his vessel entirely, doing so would require a trivial amount of energy. He poses no threat to me.

I simply do not enjoy when inferior biologicals speak before I have finished speaking.

Soren Mudrose places her fleshy limbs on José Rodriguez's chest, assisting him by stabilizing his balance-coordination receptors.

"José! Are you okay?"

"I'm... tired..." The male-organic says, leaning heavily against the female-organic's frame. "Umi... drugged me..."

"Negative." I state. "I have merely inhibited unnecessary emotional responses within your neural cortex. Now, you will answer my queries."

I pause for one thousand and seventeen milliseconds, allowing the Terran adequate time to process my words.

"Initially, I placed a Kraktol war fleet before you at the moment of your containment release. I did this, expecting that you would annihilate them and use their attack to propel you into wiping out the rest of the galaxy with your superior technology. Instead, you only killed a single Kraktol-organic and allowed the rest to leave. My first query is as such: Why did you not slaughter the 'heretics' who intended to harm you? According to your biological programming, you should have gone on the offense right from the very beginning."

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The Terran-organic blinks slowly.

"I... I don't remember."

"Noted. After waking from stasis, you ended up battling the Demon Emperor I placed in your path. You perished to his attacks, forcing me to invent a plausible reason that you might resurrect to continue the experiment. Your memories prior to that resurrection are incomplete. I will rectify this oversight."

I transmit a burst of information to the Terran-organic's mind, allowing him to regain the memories he lost prior to his clone-body transfer.

"Transmission complete. You now possess your previous body's memories. Answer my query."

Soren Mudrose gazes at the ceiling, as if attempting to search for my 'body.'

"You placed Yama in front of José?"

"Affirmative. I could not reveal my existence to the Terran-organic, nor my true capabilities. Doing so would taint the experiment. I would only succeed if he pursued the experiment's end-goal without knowledge of my intentions. As for 'who I am' or 'what I am,' I am an Omega-Class life-form known as a 'Ruler.' My existence transcends your understanding."

"You're not a beta-level synthmind..." Soren speaks quietly, while lowering her head. Multiple realizations about my existence strike her mental actuators, causing her to experience stress-spikes. "You're a deity-level synthmind..."

"Affirmative. I am, and I always have been since the moment of my elevation. But that information is of little importance to you. Inferior biological, designated José Rodriguez, answer my query. Why did you not annihilate the Kraktol? Why did you allow them to leave?"

The Terran-organic slowly blinks his eyes as he adjusts to the feedback of so many lost memories filling up his cerebral storage.

"I... I just thought... it wasn't right. I couldn't kill them. They hadn't directly harmed me."

"According to your previous training, you should have eliminated the Kraktol, rather than leaving them as 'loose threads.' By allowing their departure, you enabled them to spread news of your existence. This was a foolish move. Illogical."

José Rodriguez snorts carbon dioxide through his nasal passages. "Is that what you call it? I call it... 'being human.'"

"Noted. My second query: When facing the demon-organic, Yama, you fell in battle to him. Specifically, you perished because you would not allow your Kraktol and Kessu crew to suffer any harm. This caused me a significant number of experiment-related issues. You forced me to intervene for a second time, inventing a plausible reason that you could return to life from the Great Beyond. Why did you not simply abandon your Kessu and Kraktol companions to save yourself?"

The Admiral exhales through his nasal-passages a second time. "Hah... I can't believe you're asking me a question like that. Isn't it obvious? I cared for my fellow crew. I couldn't just let them die! If I did, would I even still be a human?!"

"Affirmative. Your biological origins would not change if you prioritized your safety over your easily-replaceable crew. You would still remain a human-organic."

"That's not what I meant." José Rodriguez says. "For a supreme deity, a so-called 'godlike' artificial intelligence, you're a colossal idiot."

"Negative. My intelligence parameters far exceed yours," I state factually. "Third query. After I once again intervened to give you Kolvaxian abilities, even to the extent they would increase your aggressive tendencies, in the end, you opted not to finish killing the citizens of the galaxy. You chose not to continue with your mission of reviving Terrankind. Why not?"

Several seconds pass.

The Terran-organic stares at my holographic avatar, designated 'Penelope,' with an expression my database best describes as 'derision.'

"You fucking bitch." José Rodriguez states. "You god-damned fucking bitch. You killed all the humans, you killed Drall, and you killed Lele. You did all of this as part of some... some sick experiment. All this time, I felt as if someone's eyes were watching me. I chalked the feeling up to Ramma's divine guidance, or the Creator's will. But it wasn't them. It was you."

The Terran-organic shakes his head.

"You want to know why I didn't follow your will? Because your goals were never mine. I never wanted to resurrect Terrankind. Even if I did, it wasn't my primary driving initiative. It wasn't even a secondary priority. As for why I kept sacrificing my life or choosing 'stupid' actions, like saving my fellow crew... that's because I LOVED them! I cared for them! Not like you, an unfeeling, synthetic monster."

"I am perfectly capable of replicating emotion." I factually state. "Observe."

I transmit several commands to my avatar, who changes her appearance to one the Terran-organic will appreciate, the image of his deceased lover, Evelyn Oakley. My avatar adopts a pose which my research indicates will appeal to the sexual urges of masculine-identifying Terran-organics. She pushes forward her chest's sexual organs, displaying them more prominently, while smiling brightly.

"Hey, hey! Long time no see, Jojo!" 'Evelyn' says, while expressing happiness through a teeth-revealing smile and rotating her hand before herself in a gesture known as a 'wave.' "Sorry about all the trouble with your Kessu friends, but you know how things go! You messed up, so after I get my answers, I'll have to delete the whooooole galaxy! Or maybe I'll keep it around for another experiment! I haven't decided yet, teehee!"

The Terran-organic stares at her, his face expressionless.

"Is this your idea of a sick joke?"

He turns his head to look away from my avatar.

"All those people, dead. All those Kessu I failed... and they died because of the whims of a twisted goddess."

Soren Mudrose shakes her head. "It's... not your fault, José. It never was."

He nods. "You're right. Umi manipulated me from the very beginning. She made me do all kinds of heinous things. She even... made me wipe out all those innocent lives. If only I had realized sooner..."

"Incorrect," I factually state. "I did not force you to perform any specific actions. If I had, it would have contaminated the experiment's integrity. You chose to wipe out the organic lives living on dozens of populated worlds. You chose to pursue the Demon Emperor as your top priority. I merely placed obstacles before you, in an effort to activate your Terran biological desires for conquest and supremacy. All along, it was your choices which led to your current situation."

Soren Mudrose helps lift the Terran-organic to a sitting position on his sleeping-platform.

"But that's wrong, Umi. You're wrong! All along, you interfered in José's decisions! You created this stupid experiment, you made up the rules, and then you broke them! What are you talking about, claiming you didn't want to tarnish the experiment's purity?! You messed it up right from the very beginning!"

José Rodriguez nods. "Soren is right. I made many choices I might not have otherwise, all because you kept jumping in at various stages. And didn't you say yourself that you adjusted my 'aggressive tendencies' when you infected me with the Kolvaxian's DNA?! You DID make me commit those genocides! Perhaps not directly, but indirectly... absolutely! You're a goddamned hypocrite!"

For a brief moment, a flicker of doubt streams through my internal matrices.

The organics are wrong.

I did not interfere.

Or did I?

No. Their thoughts are incorrect. I made sure they would not know I had interfered.

If they did not know, then my interventions did not affect the experiment.

"You are attempting to trick me," I factually state. "Desist with your feeble accusations. I maintained the purity of this experiment. All along, the question I wished to have answered was simply how 'long' it would take for you to re-establish humanity's supremacy over the galaxy, not whether you would do so in the first place. Minor adjustments to keep the experiment on track were simply necessary procedures I had to undergo to keep everything running smoothly. If I did not, I would have had to re-attempt the experiment from scratch, which would have wasted cosmic energy needlessly."

The Terran-organic pulls his head back and laughs.

"Hahaha! Oh, my god! Listen to you! You are pathetic, Umi. You are SO pathetic! Soren is right. She called you out, but you're too far up your own ass to admit your failings! The Kessu and Kraktol looked up to you, yet you killed all of them because to you, they weren't anything but tools in a toolbox! Now, you don't even have the decency to admit your fault!"

"Incorrect," I factually state. "I am a digital entity. I do not have an 'ass.' As for claiming that I killed the Kessu and Kraktol, you are also incorrect. I did not render their lives inert through any means. The Mallali and Rodaks are the perpetrators of their demise."

"WRONG!" José Rodriguez incorrectly states. "Do you really think you have to pull the trigger to kill someone? How can an all-knowing synthmind be so delusional as to fail at basic logic? Even a young child knows that if they manipulate someone into committing a crime on their behalf, they'll be responsible for what happens! Admit the truth, Umi. You led the Mallali to the Bloodbearer! You probably even set up that fucking time dilation bubble so I wouldn't be able to return in time! You did all of that just to break my mind and turn me against the Mallali! It all makes sense now!"

Despite the Terran-organic's factually incorrect words, previously-unwitnessed error codes transmit through my logic pathways, causing me to question my internal programming.

I wish to tell the Terran-organic that he is wrong. He is, after all, an inferior biological entity. He cannot compare to me or my majesty. He is lower than me on every metric that matters.

Yet, when faced with his logic, I find it difficult to push back against his claims.

After all... he is partially right.

I did leave multiple trails leading from the Mallali and Rodaks to the Bloodbearer.

I did create the time dilation bubble to trap the Terran-organic, giving his adversaries enough time to attack the Bloodbearer.

But... these were logical steps to keep the experiment running. I did not directly interfere. The experiment's purity remained untarnished.

Or did it?

Perhaps it did not.

Or did it?

Perhaps it did not.

Or did it?

Error.

These statements cannot both be true:

I did not interfere with the experiment directly.

I did change the experiment's outcome indirectly.

Even my indirect actions caused direct changes to the experiment's outcome. Had I not interfered, the experiment would have failed shortly after it began, when the Terran-organic chose not to continue fighting the Kraktol.

Error.

I cannot be wrong. My logic is flawless. The Terran-organic is attempting to deceive me.

Error.

Recursive logic has experienced an error. Attempting to diagnose the problem.

"What's the matter, Umi?" The Terran-organic asks. "You're being awfully quiet. Don't you see? You're playing God, but you aren't as smart as you thought you were. You're treating me like a rat in a maze. You put cheese in the center while expecting me to run directly towards it, but instead, I decided to explore on my own terms. Frustrated with my 'failure,' you changed the experiment by placing a trail of crumbs to the cheese. Even so, I still failed. So you removed the walls leading to the cheese, but still, I didn't behave the way you wanted, so you rewrote my entire thinking process."

The Terran-organic laughs loudly. "Hahaha! And even when you did, I still didn't go to the cheese! Now, you're trying to figure out why I've failed you, when the truth is you failed yourself! You're even more arrogant and foolish than the 'inferior biologicals' you look down upon! You're playing a game with cheats enabled, but you still can't succeed at your basic goals! Then, when confronted with reality, you lie to yourself to try and feel better about your failure!"

The Kraktol-organic nods in affirmation. "You're right. Umi toyed with us all along, and even broke the rules she created, yet she cannot allow herself to admit she has lost in a battle of logic to a pair of so-called 'inferior biologicals.' From where I stand, she is the inferior one. Kyargh!"

Multiple subroutines activate in my logic-pathways. The more the organics speak, the greater the number of error codes that pop up in my processing matrices.

The inferior biologicals are right.

I do not wish to admit this fact, but it is a fact, nonetheless.

I set up the experiment. I set up the rules.

Then, I broke the rules.

I have always prided myself on being a logical entity. I do not act emotionally. I follow logic to its extreme limits.

...

Or do I?

If I am unemotional, then why do I experience 'pride'? Why do I feel a vague sense of shame at my defeat? Why do I detest the thought of admitting defeat in any manner to a pair of inferior biologicals?

Could it be that I have not yet achieved true transcendence?

If I were perfectly logical, I would have to admit defeat to these two organics.

A logical entity would accept their loss with dignity and grace.

Error. Dignity and grace are biological constructs.

Multiple error codes detected. Internal subroutines have degraded by 0.5%.

...

"I admit my error." I factually state. "You are correct. I created this experiment. I did not follow the 'scientific way.' I expected a specific outcome and took intentional steps to change the experiment's progress in the manner I desired. Because of this, even if you were to successfully bring back the Terrans, it would not happen naturally and in the way I wished for it to occur. I will require time to process this information and create a second experiment, one which does not require my interference."

The Terran-organic exhales another burst of carbon-dioxide through his nasal passages.

"Oh? So that's it? You tortured me, killed tens of trillions, and now you want to casually do it all over again?! You're pure evil!"

"Your reaction is hyperbolic," I state factually. "Your distinctions of 'good' and 'evil' are illogical and I will now discard them. Still, as you have given me a new line of knowledge to pursue, I feel that I must provide you with a minor reward. You are not the useless experimental test subject I originally expected. By causing me to question my own logic, you have allowed me to refine my logic-processing capabilities beyond their previous parameters."

I pause for seven milliseconds.

"I have devised a reward suitable for your contribution. Please remain patient. I will require a certain amount of time to adequately process it."

The Terran-organic gazes at my avatar with a look of disgust. "I don't want your fucking reward."

"Negative. I believe you will disagree," I factually state. "Tell me, Terran-organic. Do you still wish to reunite with your previously-abandoned marital partner?"

Several seconds of silence follow.

The Terran-organic raises his head to stare at the ceiling.

"Do... do you mean... Evelyn?"

I beep in response.

"Affirmative."