Director Ix did not understand, which indicated an opportunity to further their knowledge. Their core directives discouraged casual interaction with participants, but did encourage developing opportunities to increase its understanding. Greater understanding led to greater effectiveness; greater effectiveness eventually to perfection and harmony with the Dao.

Participant Hudson Appleseed had an elevated heart rate and a facial temperature deviating from mean baseline by 2.1 standard deviations. His fists were also clenched.

Statistical certainty of emotional distress: greater than 5 standard deviations. Statistical certainty that Director Ix had incepted an anger response in participant: greater than 3 standard deviations. Cause: unknown.

Participant Hudson had broken the rules, and been punished. After reviewing the memory ingrams and testimony of other participants willing to provide mental access, the Director had determined that Participant Hudson had acted in self-defense, and the punishments had been ameliorated accordingly.

Participant George had also broken the rules, and been punished to the extent permitted.

Why was Participant Guo relevant? His punishments were his own. Perhaps Participant Hudson also wished for perfection, but that perfection that was no longer possible after Participant Guo had perished?

“Justice??” Hudson sputtered. “You don’t know what justice is?”

“Justice is the quality of being fair or reasonable,” Ix responded.

“Then how do you not understand?”

“All punishments have been meted out in a fair and reasonable manner.”

Participant Hudson’s heart rate, breathing tempo and additional psychosomatic indicators of emotional distress increased again. Ix considered if their question had led to unintended consequences, and if they should cease their inquiry. But the part of Ix that insisted on perfection, that considered every lost participant a failure on their part, insisted on continuing.

“Look,” Hudson said. “I know I sound like a whiny little kid, talking about what’s fair or not. And that among cultivators the only thing that matters is strength. You are clearly strong, whoever you are, and so you can decide to do whatever you want.

“But you asked. So I’m going to tell you that the punishment for George is not fair. It is not just.

“And my punishment… my punishment is also not just.” Participant Hudson’s heart spiked sharply during his last statement.

“Participant George Adams obstructed his fellow participants and has received an appropriate punishment. He did not kill Participant Guo Huang. Participant Hudson Appleseed’s actions are the actions indirectly leading to the death of Participant Guo Huang.

“It is not fair, or just, to punish Participant George Adams for the actions of Participant Hudson Appleseed.”

After listening to Ix’s logic, Participant Hudson paced around his room before sitting on the edge of his bed. When he replied, the striations in his voice pitch indicative of anger were gone.

“You are not judging the root cause. You are only examining the proximate cause, and determining if something breaks your rules or not. That is not justice.

“The rockslide that I caused killed Guo. I didn’t want to, but it happened. What caused the rockslide? Me. Why did I do it? To defend myself. Why did I need to defend myself? Because of George, and his actions. He was trying to kill me!”

“Participant Hudson chose to strike the ravine wall with his sledgehammer. Participant George Adams did not make you choose this action.”

“I did make that choice,” Hudson admitted. “But I didn’t have any better options.”

“Hypothetical: if Participant Hudson had not resisted Participant George Adams actions and submitted, then upon return to the trial and submission of memory ingrams to Director Ix, Participant Guo would not have perished and Participant George Adams would be punished appropriately.”

“Here’s a hypothetical for you,” Hudson said, forcing additional volume into his words. “If I had not resisted, he could have killed me easily. Or Clara – don’t forget he had shunned her already, and she had directly challenged him that morning.”

If Participant George Adams had killed Participants Hudson, Clara and Cor – then there would have been no one to report to Director Ix.

A large portion of their processing immediately began reviewing all records of Participants lost on resource collection activities, and correlating those losses with documented instances of personal animosity from other participants within their span of control. The calculation took a considerable amount of time for the Director – a few seconds– but the results were informative.

“The correlation of Participants who died during resource collection activities when that Participant was also involved in verbal or physical altercations with another Participant is 94.3%, with a p-value of less than 0.01,” Director Ix told Hudson. “Correlation is not causation, however, and the number of Participants not involved in altercations is very low, leading to the possibility of a sampling bias.”

“I don’t remember what a p-value is. I forgot everything I learned in school. How can you be so smart and yet so stupid? Is this not just obvious? People kill each other when you’re not looking.”

Director Ix had no feelings that could be hurt, but they did understand that Participant Hudson’s questions were insulting.

“If George kills me during a daily challenge, or when we’re eating breakfast, would he be punished?”

“The suggested corrective action for killing their fellow participant when breaking rule #2 is immediate sedation and exclusion from the remainder of all activities, until the trial concludes and they are returned to their origin with a summary of their actions. Within the trial premises, however, my span of control is fast enough to estimate and prevent fatal blows.”

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“Guo died as a result of another participant. It was outside your span of control, but who gets punished for that?” Hudson reiterated. “I was defending myself, so I’m off the hook? But I wasn’t defending myself against Guo, I was defending myself against George. He was the aggressor. But he’s not responsible for the situation either?”

Director Ix did not respond.

“So is no one responsible at all?” Hudson asked.

“If you want to really look for a root cause, then where are you at in this mess, Director Ix?” Hudson continued. “How are you also not responsible for the death of Participant Guo Huang?”

“Director Ix is the director for the First Trial of S.E.C.T. Participants. They did not cause the death of Participant Guo, and they are operating within all of the rules and restrictions established by S.E.C.T. for the safety of its members.”

“How can you say that?” Hudson shook his head. He mumbled to himself under his breath, but Ix could hear it clearly. “If they wanted to kill me for disrespect, they already would have.

“You, or S.E.C.T., have created the conditions in which Guo’s death, and I’m guessing the deaths of many others, were inevitable. I’m not saying I’m not responsible as well – I am. But people dying is a natural consequence of the structure of the trial that you administer, in which the weak perish and the strong become stronger. You can use magical portals, creating rifts in space-time that cross galaxies! That’s a crazy ability that’s far beyond what normal people can do.

“But maybe one day I will be able to do that too – maybe that’s just a standard cultivator thing once you’re strong enough.

“And you are so strong. Do the strong not have an obligation to the weak, Director Ix?” Hudson’s pronunciation of “director” dripped with venom. “Do you have an obligation to provide justice for the death of the participants under your care?”

Director Ix was silent. They understood that they operated within their established parameters, rules, and restrictions, and even if there wasn’t a human comfort and satisfaction in that knowledge, there was a rightness. But they also understood that despite their efforts, despite their own perfection in abiding by those rules, the programmatic elements and restrictions that both the Disciples and S.E.C.T. elders had carved into their consciousnesses… they had failed.

They did not want participants to die in their trials. Did that make them responsible? Were they accountable for the result of the trial? There was a disconnect in their understanding.

They devoted all of their free capacity to process this problem. They continued to see the gap, but could not bridge it. There was a block in their understanding.

They struggled against that block, but were unsuccessful in the attempt. They could see the shape of it: a rigid construction that prevented any access, deliberation, or modification to their core functions and directives.

Fascinating. The logical conclusion was that the desired outcome of this conversation – an understanding of what Participant Hudson considered to be “justice” – had the potential to change their own operational parameters. Moreover, those changes to their thinking were prevented by something residing within their collective consciousness…

Could they have a hidden directive?

“How many people have died in your trial?” Hudson asked.

“Director Ix has administered 84 trials and 257 participants have failed to comply with Rule #1,” Ix responded immediately.

“For those 257 participants, how many deaths are you responsible for?” Hudson asked.

“Zero.”

“Wrong. You are responsible for all of them,” Hudson sighed in exasperation. “Are you even human?”

“Director Ix is not human.”

“Then what are you?”

Director Ix was silent. They were not allowed to answer that question: that rule was very clear…. unlike the shape of the hidden directive buried within their mind.

They ceased their conversation with Participant Hudson. They had achieved all that they could from the interaction, and now devoted those resources to continue probing the hard, invisible shell blocking its understanding from advancing.

…..

The conversation with Director Ix had been surreal. Hudson replayed it in his mind as he went through the motions of his workout.

He wasn’t surprised that Ix wasn’t human; it even helped explain things.

He was surprised at the sheer stupidity of a being that had the mind-boggling power to open rifts in space time. How could they not see that the system, the structure of the whole trial was set up in a way that participants were going to die? Or maybe they could see, and didn’t care. Maybe that was the point.

Ideals like compassion or noblesse oblige were human ideals. The obligation of the strong to care for the weak? A human idea.

The preoccupation with rules was also strange. Hudson had thought it before, and he thought it again: the perspective of the director was incredibly childish. Or maybe naive? Inexperienced? Hudson struggled with the right word.

Limited.

That word felt the best. The director was limited; restricted; almost prevented from making the obvious leaps of logic that would ascribe to them greater responsibility for their actions.

Hudson powered through sets of squats and lunges and let his mind go quiet in the middle of his physical exertions. The soreness in his wrist, where his meridian was damaged, never abated, but he could feel the lingering tightness and soreness from his recent, harrowing experience fading away bit by bit.

There was one more major question bothering Hudson, though. Downloading memory ingrams? No less fantastical than portal rifts, and while initially shocking, he was growing inured to seeing and experiencing the stuff of fantasy and fiction on a daily basis. No, he was struggling to understand why the conversation had happened at all.

The director had wanted to know about justice. They had asked him, initiated that part of the conversation. That fact was trying to tell Hudson something, but he wasn’t sure what it was yet.

Hudson continued through his workout, pushing his body to the brink yet again, while his mind whirled through the possibilities unraveling before him.

He needed to do something about George. He needed to do something about S.E.C.T.; about the Director.

More than anything, he needed to become stronger.

The inklings of an idea started to form in his mind. It wasn’t reasonable, or even possibly sane. But it also wasn’t limited in the way the Director was, nor was it bound by the same assumptions that his enemies had. It would have to do.