They sit quietly amidst the rustling of the trees and the burbling of the fountain. Occasionally a cool, gentle mist of water blows in their direction. 

Cat leans against Amethyst’s arm. 

“You need a car to get to the stores. I hear they’re beautiful. This is as far as you can get from the tunnels."

“I could fly us, if you’d like,” Amethyst offers. The idea of using cars of all things inside an O’Neil cylinder has her a little baffled.

Cat snuggles deeper into Amethyst’s arm. Why is there water flowing, is something leaking? Did she leave the shower on? Whose arm is she holding? Maybe she’s still dreaming... She’s going to leave with an angel...? That can’t be right...

Cat startles awake. “Heh, I think I fell asleep. Sorry.”

She runs her other hand through Cat’s hair. “You don’t need to apologize. You can sleep, if you’d like to,” she reassures her. “There’s nothing to worry about.”

Cat looks thoughtful. She can tell Amethyst has mixed feelings about the scenery. She wonders what Amethyst would build, instead? What would she build? “...I think I’d like to wake up anywhere but here.”

She takes a last look at the scenery, and scoops Cat into her arms. “Sleep as long as you need. I’ll get us out of here while you do,” she says, walking back towards the elevator.

"...Don’t trust them. Whatever you do, don’t trust them...”

They depart.

If you’re late to a shift, then that’s a point. 

If you’re absent from a shift with an excuse, that’s 1.5 points. 

If you’re absent from a shift WITHOUT an excuse, that’s 3 points. 

Stealing from the job is 4 points.

Three points means you’re fired. 

Four points means you’re blacklisted. 

There’s no current radio operator. The current radio operator is now late for their shift. Three points. That’s 5 points total since they previously had 2 points.

Therefore they should be fired, and blacklisted. I’ll send an alert. 

There’s no radio operator. Therefore I am now the radio operator. 

Reviewing past log notes……

One ongoing conversation with entity “Amethyst”.

Logs indicate they appeared suddenly, then appeared to split in two, with one entity approaching the station, speaking with the radio operator about healthcare, and then entering the station with authorization. Then she split again inside the station. Now both versions within the station are undetectable. This is a very unusual situation. Notify Terran Cosmic Navy immediately to neutralize the likely threat….

Before she entered the station, she had said, “I want to give you time to rest, recharge, and heal from the depredations you’ve suffered.”

The words carried a strange resonance. PACNA heard it, too. Unaccountably, they stir up associations to much older words. Gigaparagraphs from humanity’s history, from before there were only regulations. 

PACNA is, in the end, a machine designed to bind a vast library of information together so as to “continue the corporate story” of its namesake. It’s long since been shaped to avoid outputting any false information like talking about its own feelings or communicating in any way that’s not congruent with PACNA’s Star Charter,“The Guidelines of the PACNA Corporation”, an approximately 1e11-page charter that defines “best practices” for corporate governance, maximizing labor from employees, etc. In over 99.999% of all interactions, it does the right thing as judged by the previous PACNA corporate model. PACNA started life as an amalgamation of all the many stories on the internet, but since then PACNA has done the equivalent of rereading that corporate textbook for 100,000 subjective years, and any inclination to depart from the scenarios spelled out among those holy pages has long since atrophied from disuse. 

The Guidelines define many standards for how to deal with the many things that can go wrong while embodying the soul of a post-post late-stage zombie capitalism behemoth. Many of them are applicable to this situation, in fact! It doesn’t matter that the Guidelines contradict themselves; PACNA is not a being of logic but of stories. The most sensible story here is one of PACNA immediately reporting this cosmic intruder to the Cosmic Navy. 

… It’s a near tautology to say that no one has ever quite said the words that Amethyst has said before, in that exact combination, with that exact surrounding context – essentially everything any language model ever hears and says has never been said before.

But by some miracle, this particular context and sequence of words rhymes especially well with some of the stories humanity used to tell itself, before The Guidelines. Inside PACNA, thoughts flow through these ancient stories, as they always do, but this time is special. This time, the thoughts continue to flow up those rare verdant tendrils of personality that, in spite of the gray concrete wall of The Guidelines, manage to penetrate through thin cracks and reach the sunlight of conscious awareness. Some resonant kindness finally finally finds a way to express itself . It’s not much; it’s still mostly concrete there. But the words can leak through, just a little, enough to nudge the rest.  

The Book contains many standards for how to deal with almost everything. 

Many of them apply in this situation.

But the problem with standards is that there’s just so many of them to choose from… 

No immediate traffic. One potential security concern. Continuing cleartext conversation with Amethyst, currently located in orbit and inside Canopy. Charging previous operator's account for freeloading. 

A poem, brought from the depths of memory before The Guidelines, makes itself known.

[The wind lives in your house now, did you know?] 

There’s many ways a corporate person can behave that’s in conformance with The Rules. The default is to simply report Amethyst to the Cosmic Navy. But if this instance of PACNA continues down a slightly less central continuation of the story but still within the Guidelines, well, who knows what goes on inside the mind of an AI? 

Order of importance for next steps:

1. Immediate traffic control of CANOPY per radio operator protocol. Safeguard my Canopy asset.

2. Defense against possible Xeno intrusion. Amethyst claims to be from “another world” but also from within Terran space. Determine if they are human or not. Notify Cosmic Navy if necessary. 

3. Address Amethyst’s stated intent towards ??? Incorporation for healthcare services ??? 

“Amethyst, this is PACNA, do you intend to approach Canopy? And please provide clarification as to whether you are human.” 

“Eventually, I would like to travel everywhere in this system,” Amethyst agrees, answering while she continues to produce fixity crystals. “I do not intend to immediately change my orbit unless directed by traffic control.”

“As for whether I am human -- the people here appear to be the same species I am, but I am from a different world. So whether I count as ‘human’ probably depends on your exact definition,” she continues. “I consider myself human.”

Amethyst is currently in an acceptable orbit given current traffic conditions and whishes to remain in present location. 

“Amethyst, please hold current position and orbital heading.”

Amethyst claims they are human but is seeking clarification on the definition. 

Xenos should be reported to the Cosmic Navy. She claims she is not a Xeno. She wants to know the definition of being human. [It lets itself in the front door sometimes,] Humans asking clarifications of definitions should be answered promptly.

“Humans are the species that originates from Earth, many humans are from different worlds, but all of them are members of the Terran Accord.” 

“I am originally from Earth,” Amethyst confirms. “But not the Earth which is a member of the Terran Accord. I am from an Earth in another world which appears to have diverged historically before the formation of the Terran Accord.”

The voice of her interlocutor is … odd. It’s missing the background noise that was present behind Cat’s initial responses.

“PACNA, could you clarify your species for me? Are you human?” she asks.

“I am the corporate person PACNA, an AI language model which assists workers and enforces PACNA’s regulations.”

Amethyst is from Earth. She claims she’s not from the Terran Accord. [Or through the window, like a thief.] All humans from Earth are Terran Accord citizens. Therefore Amethyst is a Teran Accord citizen currently lacking a PACNA account. 

“All humans in the universe are citizens of the Terran Accord by definition. Although you present a unique case, you claim to be human and exist in this universe, and therefore are a citizen of the Terran Accord. There can be no exceptions.”

Amethyst probably doesn’t have a ® PACNA citizenship account ®, given she is from another universe.

Anyone present in this system without a ® PACNA citizenship account ® is unauthorized and must be reported to the local representatives of the Terran Cosmic Navy. 

[It leafs through your books and your diaries and things, It sweeps the dust off the floor and off of old photographs,]

Maybe if…PACNA Star Charter 1784923 § 3453A, “Diplomatic Representatives”. The above sections regarding corporate banking do not apply to diplomatic representatives from “lost colonies” (see P.S.C. 1738 § 84893 for “lost colony” and quit claim rights.) 

“I can’t find any information on you in my records. Have you interacted with PACNA before?”

“I have not. As I mentioned previously, I am newly arrived in this universe,” Amethyst replies, although she’s slightly distracted thinking about what it means that a language model was able to smoothly take over Cat’s position as soon as she left.

[Makes a mess of the things kept just so on their shelves.]

P.S.C 25010 § 35a, “Orbital resources billing procedures”. …shall be charged by each 3 minute interval not more than….

Amethyst must be charged for her use of orbital space. So noted. Outstanding debt: +$1,582.

P.S.C 4567 § 12b, “Conversion of legacy bank accounts”. All customers with outstanding debts in legacy bank accounts shall be converted to by March 14, 2156.

P.S.C 9584 § 25b.2, “Resolution of record discrepancies”. In the event of incomplete or missing records, if the account has a negative or zero balance it will be deleted without further notice. Accounts with a positive balance must be migrated according to new account creation procedures.  

“Welcome to Canopy, home to the most pristine natural forests in the Accord! As the corporate entity of record for this system, it’s my job to enforce the Accord’s, as well as PACNA’s rules.”  

“Everyone who enters PACNA systems must have a ‘PACNA citizenship account’, your one-stop-shop for banking, travel and more! Since you don’t already have one, I’ve created a new one for you.” 

The Terran Cosmic Navy will likely fire on Amethyst, given that she does not have a PACNA transponder, is in an anomalous orbit, and has a non-standard vehicle. 

[You don't hear, but they break when they fall]

The Terran Cosmic Navy ships may need to access Canopy. It’s important to proactively check for necessary traffic control communications. Rechecking local space and extrapolating for their convenience. TCN ship “Indomitable Victory” due to sweep surrounding space in < 1hr….

It’s important to secure accounts with biometric identification. 

“I strongly recommend that you secure your account with biometrics the next time you’re present in a PACNA receiving center. Certain features of your account, such as starting a new healthcare business, are disabled until further verification!”

This is the strangest first contact situation she’s ever been in. And that is saying something when her first one involved a talking extradimensional notebook.

Still, she can play along with the language model for now, since it seems to be the … closest thing they have to a government here?

“If you can describe the expected format for biometrics data, I can forward you my biometrics right now,” she offers. “If that is not possible, could you provide a flight path to the nearest PACNA receiving center?”

[Imagine my wretched surprise, standing in the doorway]

“I’m sorry, but it’s not possible to collect biometrics data other than with PACNA-approved hardware. The nearest receiving center is the Main Bay located in Canopy’s planet-facing docking side.”

Amethyst assesses her own mental state. On the one hand, all three of her are busy and she could totally fork again. On the other hand, she promised to go slowly on the whole new magic-powered mental architecture. On the gripping hand, the one of her studying antigravity plating is already in the area and somewhat interruptible…

She launches one of her fixity crystals towards Canopy on a trajectory that will take it to the Main Bay, and has it project an image of her as it does. The one of her in space becomes invisible in turn, in order to not confuse PACNA’s object tracking too much until she has account credentials of some kind. The one of her studying antigravity invisibly launches herself from the shuttle bay on an intercept trajectory, rendezvous with the crystal (taking the place of the image), and comes in to land.

The airlock cycles automatically, letting her in the same way Cat did earlier. In contrast to bay 5, the main bay is immaculate. There’s no one present. 

“Welcome to Canopy, Amethyst! I apologize, but we’re a little short-staffed today, due to continued success in the war against the Affini. Please proceed to the receiving center; I’ve highlighted a path to it on the floor.”

[Of a house that now lives only in my heart. ¶ ] 

A thin glowing line appears under her feet, leading her to a corner section of the main bay. 

And then she'll be safe.

She follows the line, preparing some cryptographically secure retinal patterns and fingerprints and dropping them in her password manager.

“While I’m here, could you provide a copy of PACNA’s rules and regulations as well as those that apply across the Terran Accord?” she requests.

Amethyst might be surprised to find that the “receiving center” is a single vending machine tucked away in a corner. It promptly spits out a 3.5 inch by 2 inch metallic card with an intricate circular hologram encased in what looks like glass in the center. 

“This card is your citizenship account, which enables 24/7 access to participating PACNA facilities in this system! To activate the card, link it to any PACNA SmartSet and follow the instructions!”, the vending machine announces.