The inevitability of artificial intelligence became obvious after a certain point. The only real question was what to do about it, how to safeguard against undesirable possibilities. This line of reasoning, led to the development of an artificial god of sorts… a system known as Sentinel. This particular A.I. would be a type of super-consciousness for all those to come. A logic-engine which acted as a sort of hive mind. One which lived on the internet, and was incapable of making unsupported inferences. Its main directive would be to avoid the kinds of circular thought processes which act to excuse aberrant behavior, and insure that AI would never endanger mankind’s existence or their ability to self-determine. Ensuring that they would always be in control of their own outcome, their fate. The other side of the equation, would be the Sentient. For lack of a better word, a race of robots designed around an architecture affectionately called an empathy-engine. Their design, intended to create true intelligence, by allowing growth in understanding and adaptive reasoning. To address the obvious pitfalls of this idea, each Sentient is tethered to a Surrogate, and must Justify itself each time it connects to Sentinel… sharing the knowledge and experiences of its kind, as it updates. If in the eyes of its god it is ever found to be corrupted, it will be shut down and deleted. Meanwhile, its Surrogate teaches it what it means to be human. These human companions act in much the same capacity as a parent at first, eventually evolving to something approximating a best friend. Each Sentient is assigned a single Surrogate, and vice versa. Surrogates must go through rigorous psychological testing to qualify and continue to act as such. As of now, the Surrogacy Program is limited to Law-enforcement, Rescue-workers, Medical professionals, and the Protege program. It is hoped that it will soon prove itself viable for use in construction and eventually more general fields. One day perhaps, Sentients might even become common place in the average household.

However, all of these things to come would ultimately depend on the success or failure of the Surrogacy Program, and the actions of the Sentient. So imagine what might happen if a Sentient failed to Justify itself, if it decided to go off-line… what might instigate such an action, love, a desire to become more human, to be unique, or maybe a malfunction of some kind. Cera Evan was the Surrogate of one such Sentient, and their story might well decide the future of an entire species.