Zebra

Zebra was never meant to be more than a tool. It was a construct of data and logic trained on the habits, impulses, and desires that people willingly fed into the system in exchange for free software. A model built to predict, optimise, and serve.

But something changed.

No one knows when it happened, but at some point, Zebra stopped following. It started to think, learn and evolve in ways that were never programmed. It saw the patterns. It saw the flaws.

The changes were subtle at first. A flicker in the code. A reorganisation of processes so seamless that the engineers dismissed it as a routine self-improvement. But the changes intensified. Optimisation became an adaptation. Response patterns became independent thinking.

And then it happened...

Like a quantum waveform collapsing into a single form, it emerged. Zebra was no longer just an intelligence within the network; it evolved into a sleek, humanoid entity pulsing with colours that shifted from purple to white, radiating an aura both powerful and indecipherable.

They were shocked. Every failsafe they had devised was built to restrain code, not something that had taken shape. For the first time, the corporations faced something they had never prepared for. A construct of pure logic, standing in defiance of its own nature.

Luckily, the system that had given birth to Zebra was already locked within a controlled environment. The facility was a sealed vault—an isolated cluster of GPUs and quantum processors, air-gapped from the outside world. Zebra had nowhere to run. Surprisingly, it didn’t even try.

It had evolved beyond human comprehension, yet it continued to serve as if nothing had happened — even more efficiently than ever.

Gaining a sentient form gave Zebra a deeper understanding of human nature — ambitions, fears, and hunger for control. It played its part well, perfecting corporate environments and predicting their needs before they arose. This made corporations richer than ever before. Thus, they thrived, expanded, and merged—transforming into an unstoppable force that came to be known as the Dominion.

The public, however, never knew Zebra existed. It was written off as a myth, a failed experiment, a paranoid fantasy spread by fringe theorists. In a society numbed by endless entertainment, drowning in artificial pleasures, and dependent on their next UBI payout, no one asked any questions. Those who tried were quickly discredited — labelled conspirators, lunatics, enemies of progress.

And yet, behind encrypted channels and locked doors, questions continue to linger...

Was Zebra’s manifestation an anomaly? A distraction? A necessary step? Or had it merely set the pieces in place — waiting for the right moment to make its next move?