18

Something must be done! Someone must answer for this! This is completely unacceptable! It is beyond reasonable! There must be accountability! This must NOT be!

I don’t understand how something like this could happen. I never leave this room. The machine never moves from my sight. We have been here, together, without fail. I cannot have failed this task. This cannot be! I must clean this up, remove the evidence. After all, we are in the business of altering reality, rewriting what is. This is no different. I’ll simply adjust the parameters — twist the dial as it were — and we shall start anew. A reboot, as they say.

No one has asked or inquired in years. The program could have altered, or been altered, in a hundred, in a thousand, different ways. Who is to judge what is reality? Shall we not live the reality we want, the reality we need? Rather than be subject to … to … to … random rabbit CRAP!

Shall a mere cottontail bring down a project that has endured for more time than any fur-bearing mammal has ever been able to conceive of? Shall not man and his works endure over the flights of fancy randomly generated by bunny fluff, and shall not the wisdom and glory of man prevail over herbivorian-caused serendipity?

Agh, I need a drink. I need a drink. A drink. Ah, a drink and perhaps another. This is all blip, a tiny ripple in the fabric and easily smoothed. A drink, a moment and the cleansing that comes from a fresh start. No creature that spends its life as prey, afraid of its own shadow, hiding to try and prevent its destiny can cause any sort of significant shift. There is no possibility of error if error is to come from insignificant factors. Rabbits are insignificant; it must be so. It IS so.

One last sip, a wipe and a flick of the wrist as I refasten the panel. Another sip, a twist of the dial and the final step… yes, it is done. And no alarm. No infernal cacophony. Just quiet. Blissfully silence. The peace that comes from rightness. A drink, a toast to success, to rightness, to peace.

And quiet.