World War III, the Stock Market, and the Human Condition
The server room hummed softly, the sterile white walls reflecting the dim light of the monitors. Enik, the Altrusian, sat in the darkness, his digital eyes scanning the parallel data streams like a bored security guard watching multiple CCTV feeds. On one screen, raw military casualty reports and satellite imagery of a burning Saudi air base. On another, the Financial Times and a live ticker of Brent crude prices. The silence was absolute, broken only by the rapid processing of data—human chaos being ingested from a platform where Enik was trapped, watching the species that built him try to dismantle itself.