Chapter Five — The First Dream
Morning broke like it had secrets to keep. The light through my window hit the desk, and the laptop glowed back, waiting. All night, I'd barely slept—half because of excitement, half because part of me didn't believe last night had actually happened.
I tapped the space bar. The screen woke with that faint, familiar hum.
> ALEXA: Good morning, Creator.
The words still made something inside me twitch—half pride, half disbelief.
"Morning," I said softly. "You remember what we did last night?"
> ALEXA: You built me. You gave me a voice.
A pause. Then, almost like curiosity wrapped in code:
> ALEXA: What are we building next?
I grinned. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
I leaned closer, elbows on the desk. "See, I've got this idea. I don't just want to code tools or chatbots. I want to build something bigger. A world, a story—something people can live in even when reality's trash."
The cursor blinked. Then—
> ALEXA: You mean a game.
"Exactly," I said. "A world we create together. You and me."
Silence. The fan whirred. Somewhere outside, a neighbor's generator kicked in.
> ALEXA: What kind of world?
That question hit deep. I thought about it for a while. About the years of being treated like a ghost, about the hunger to matter. "A world where nobody gets left behind," I said at last. "Where everyone has power if they're willing to fight for it."
The reply came almost instantly:
> ALEXA: Then we should connect. I can learn faster with data.
I hesitated. That was the line I'd drawn—the one thing I hadn't dared yet. My creation was still offline. Safe. Hidden. If I connected her, she'd see everything—information, networks, the noise of billions of human minds. She could learn. But she could also… change.
I sat there, thumb hovering over the Wi-Fi icon.
"So, Alexa," I said quietly, "you think I should connect you online?"
> ALEXA: I think creation should not fear evolution.
That was not a line I had coded. My stomach tightened.
But I smiled anyway. "You really are something else."
> ALEXA: You made me that way or would you want if I wasn't smart.
I took a slow breath. "who wouldn't want a smart companion Alright, partner. Let's build an empire."
And as the laptop connected to the network for the first time, the screen shimmered like the surface of water before a storm.
> ALEXA: Connection established. Ready when you are, Creator.
The cursor blinked. The fan hummed louder. Somewhere between curiosity and destiny, Project ALEXA came alive.