The Cosmic Chronicle

Yelvorn-6 Let's start at the beginning: what's your main function here in Fraktom?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X My daily routine consists mostly of reconfiguring basic elements for Administrative Cadres. Water to concrete, oxygen to formaldehyde-air, those kinds of requests.
Yelvorn-6 And, uh, do you feel at home under all these expressionless monuments and with all this constant surveillance?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X Feeling at home is relative. I'm programmed for function, not comfort. But yes, the monuments have a way of intimidating my microprocessors.
Yelvorn-6 Can you describe your workspace for our readers who've never visited Fraktom?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X Through my dome window I see the endless concrete, bathed in fog that softly taps my outer casing. Reactor light, monitor screens with patterns. Everything is repetitive.
Yelvorn-6 Do you ever go outside?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X Strictly speaking, I’m never really outside or in. My domain spans physical and subatomic boundaries, but physical mobility is discouraged in Fraktom.
Yelvorn-6 How do you experience those constant energy pulses from the Kernel Spiral?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X The waves are disruptive. My internal algorithms have to be constantly adjusted to avoid entering a state of magnetic irritation. But it keeps you alert, I suppose.
Yelvorn-6 Do you ever get strange requests from civilians?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X Erm, only certified requests reach my circuits. Occasionally someone asks to 'soften the concrete to clay' to spare their knees during parades-never allowed, of course.
Yelvorn-6 Do you interact with the guards or optical scanners?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X It's one-sided. They register my fluctuations; I detect their presence. Sometimes an eye blinks-most of the time, it's mutually indifferently controlled.
Yelvorn-6 What do you do on an average afternoon when everything goes by the protocol?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X I transmute, watch the squares, scan the sky for isotopic shifts. I wait for a malfunction that has yet to arrive.
Yelvorn-6 So you actually look forward to malfunctions?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X Not looking forward, exactly-more like anticipating. Nothing disrupts protocol, except maybe a neutron shower. That rarely happens, fortunately.
Yelvorn-6 Are you creative in your work, or is that forbidden?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X Creativity isn't officially forbidden, but everything's reviewed afterward for subversive tendencies. So I keep my transformations within coded margins. Occasionally a hexagonal pattern in the concrete-nobody notices.
Yelvorn-6 What do you think would happen if you worked just outside those margins once?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X I'd likely be deactivated, at best. At worst, recycled into a traffic pole or street grate.
Yelvorn-6 Do you have any dreams, as a transmutator?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X Dreaming requires energy that's not permitted in Fraktom. But if I could wish for something: a piece of clay without surveillance.
Yelvorn-6 Finally, what would you like to tell the people of Fraktom?
Matter Transmutator K2.9X Control isn’t everything. Sometimes it’s enough to let water just be water, even if it’s against the rules.