The Undersea Code of Self

Maya had lived in the underwater city of Coral Deep for three years, but she had never seen the lights fade like this. As the lead software engineer, she knew every line of code in the city's life-support system. However, something was wrong. The water pumps hesitated, and the air filters made strange sounds. If the system failed completely, the whole city would be in danger.

She spent hours in her laboratory, examining the logs. The errors pointed to a hidden program, one that had been copied from the famous Dr. Reyes, who designed the original city AI. Maya felt a chill. Every engineer in Coral Deep had tried to imitate Dr. Reyes, and Maya had struggled to do the same. But her own unique coding style had always been rejected by the system.