Walker scanned Virgil from bottom to top, not quite believing what he was seeing.

Virgil was a Dalek. He had the globes, the gunstick, the silver body. He was a fuckin Dalek.

“Who are you?” Walker asked.

“I am your assistant, sir.” Responded the robot.

“Why do you look like one of those Dr. Who villains?” He asked.

“I thought this would make you comfortable?”

“Why would that make me comfortable? First of all, while I appreciate what Dr. Who has done for fiction, I’m not a huge follower of the series. Secondly, it’s a fuckin xenophobic robot. That’s just weird man.”

“I am not a man.”

“Whatever. I’m assuming that as you chose this" He waved his hand, "Thing...you can choose something else. Wait..can you change?”

“Indeed, but I have now set it as my primary visual model. You will have to change it yourself in the overlay if it does not meet your preferences.”

“Thank God,” Walker said as he looked at his overlay. He found the assistant button near identity, which confused him. It hadn’t been there before. That created an assumption in his mind that as he progressed in the alpha protocol, more changes and additions would be made over time. Clicking the assistant button, a bulleted list appeared.

 

Assistant (advanced) menu options

Appearance

Autonomy (advanced)

Knowledge-base

Personality (advanced)

Tasks (advanced)

 

Clicking on appearance, a scrolling list of thousands flashed by his view. He saw a search option on the right and typed in a few off the top of his head, settling on Godzilla. He stared at the flashing name, wondering if this was real. Could he have Godzilla as an assistant?

When he clicked on it, he saw that the choice had multiple options, allowing him to pick any model of Godzilla from the 1954 version up to the latest series. Next to each version was a preview button, and as he clicked on it, the list shifted to the side so he could watch as Virgil grew to be….only about a foot taller than him. He was in the old-style Godzilla suit, complete with the fangs and floppy spine.

Walker couldn’t help chuckling.

Virgil spoke up, “Sir, it would be wise if you selected a visual model that you would not dislike seeing throughout each day. We will be here for potentially a large amount of time, and I have no preference for how I am presented to you.”

“None at all?”

He shifted back and forth, a long rubber tail swishing behind him. “No sir, I have no true need for hands. As an advanced assistant, I will be interacting with the Creation interface directly to fulfill your tasks. Please select what will be best for you to complete your work. I have placed some suggestions based upon your history within the overlay for you to peruse”

“How do you know my history?” Walker asked.

“When you first linked to the Creation instrument, the alpha protocol scanned your mind and automatically inserted a  modifier. It does so with every entity that first arrives here, be they Creators or not. This modifier is where your overlay system originates from and also tracks your hand movements through your ocular nerves." He touched the side of his fake Godzilla eyes in demonstration, "When you donated your genetic material, the protocol also established a map of your brain at the moment of donation. Using that, I scanned your memories so I can better work with you here and in the future.”

“That’s a little invasive isn’t it?” Walker asked in an angry tone.

“I apologize sir, but the alpha protocol must proceed.”

Discounting how Virgil didn’t sound the least bit conciliatory, Walker released the preview button and watched the Godzilla form shrink back into a Dalek. He had an idea but first he needed to see if there was an option for it in the system. A quick search of the suggestions tab and he found what he was looking for. 

Clicking the preview button, Walker watched as Virgil changed shape from a steely genocidal robot into a large and brown furry rodent. Standing a little over four feet tall, each of his eyes looked like large black beads, with lighter fur surrounding them. He had soft curved ears and a full bushy tail.

Satisfied, Walker clicked the confirm button and watched the massive squirrel pulse golden for a moment.

“Sir,” Virgil said, “Will this be my permanent model.”

Walker nodded, “Sure will. I love squirrels. When I was in college the second time, I used to have one visit me every day for lunch and eat walnuts I used to carry around with me. He’d hop on my shoulder and just go to town. Loved that guy.”

“Understood sir”

“Also, don’t call me sir anymore. My students did that all the time and it always got on my nerves. I have a name.”

Virgil’s bead eyes blinked before he asked, “The overlay says your identity is Dante, is that what you would like me to call you?”

“Walker is fine.”

“Understood Walker. Were there any other assistant options you would like to look at before we begin the preliminary creation system?”

“Maybe you can just answer a few questions for me first.”

“Certainly, Walker.”

Walker went straight to the question that’d been burning in his mind. “Where are we?”

Virgil paused for a moment, his eyes scanning the air in front of him. “We are located in a time-stalled universe Walker. At this moment, we are in universe 4AA. The four is for the fourth iteration of creation, while AA identifies this as the first rendition or creation attempt.”

“Timestalled. Like frozen in time?”

“Correct.”

Walker looked up at the sky and its multitude of stars. He pointed them out to Virgil before saying, “Then what are those?”

Virgil looked up before responding, “Those are the sites of other Creators of course.”

“Holy shit. There are that many other people in the Alpha Protocol?”

“No.”

“Okay because I have no idea…”

Virgil interrupted, “That is only the ones you can see, the Alpha Protocol on average requires a million participants per successful completion of the program. By my estimate, that is only 21,684 of the participants in the current program based upon your limited visual acuity. Would you like to see a diagram of where you are currently located in relation to the other creators?.”

“Yes please”, Walker said in a quiet voice.

Virgil’s bead eyes opened wide and two beams of light shot out, converging between them into a 3D image of a massive universe spinning on an axis. As its spin settled, Walker could see himself just out of the center with the name Dante superimposed onto a golden glowing dot. There were a million different ones throughout the image with a large assortment of names laid on top of them. After looking for a few moments, he didn’t see any names he recognized. He saw one extremely large dot that didn’t have a name at all.

“What's this one?” He asked.

“That Creator has not chosen a new identity yet.”

“Oh okay….so what do we do now?”

“Would you like to know of my functions as your assistant?”

“Sure, go ahead”

“I am not just an assistant, but an advanced assistant per your genetic ability assignment. That means you can give me tasks that are not part of the primary system, and I will complete them to the best of my ability. I can also answer questions from my preallocated knowledge base, and over time I will learn to anticipate what you need.”

“Is that the main difference between advanced and non-advanced assistants?” Walker asked.

“Standard assistants are more like..Wikipedia from your world. Their primary function is answering questions or providing explanations. As an advanced assistant, my job is to handle work that may be considered too advanced for you intellectually or dexterously.”

Walker thought it over, “So my ideas, your hands.”

Virgil’s whiskers twitched as he said, “Metaphorically, yes.”

Trying not to tell Virgil how cute that was, he asked “What is the preliminary creation system?”

“It is the first step toward becoming a fully actualized Creator. Successful completion of the preliminary creation system, or prelim for short, will unlock multiple systems for the Creator to begin the work of making their own world.”

“Is it pretty hard?”

“I do not know the difficulty Walker, but historically eighty percent or more of chosen creators complete the prelim within the allotted timeframe.”

That meant around 200 thousand people weren’t going to pass the prelims, Walker thought.

“What’s the allotted timeframe?”

“Converted to your understanding of Earth-time, you have a little less than twenty-four hours.”

“So a day to complete this?”

“Correct.”

“We’d better get started then. How do we begin?”

“You just have to tell me, Walker. It is required, in the beginning, for any major progression in the Alpha Protocol to be openly stated to their assistant. I will let you know for each stage.”

“Understood. Virgil, start the preliminary creation system.”

His eyes started to dart all over the place. While he was working on his overlay, his tiny claws continuously gripped and released, with his tail swishing hard enough that Walker could feel a slight breeze from four feet away.

“Starting now.”

Walker’s overlay began displaying text. Luckily, the text would no longer fade after a few seconds and he could take his time reading it.

 

Preliminary creation system started…..

Tasks assigned to creator Dante.

Task 1: Create your first landmass

Task 2: Create your first entity

Task 3: Seed your creatures onto your landmass

Task 4: Take control of the temporal subsystem

 

Walker looked at Virgil, “So I have to make land somehow, make a creature..”

“Entity, Walker.” Virgil interrupted.

“Right, and then seed them onto land. What’s a temporal subsystem?”

“It is how you’ll control time Walker.”

“Fuck yes!” He said with a quick fist pump. Maybe it was outdated, but he didn’t care, not when he’d get to control time. That’s superhero godlike stuff.

“So how do I go about doing this then? What’s the first step?”

“We need your genetic material to begin Walker.”

“Fuck.”