Elias didn't look up. He closed his eyes, but he could still see the violet waves behind his eyelids, waiting for the render to finish.
The technician, Elias, didn't think much of the naming convention. It was standard forensic recovery syntax: a string of data markers followed by a timestamp offset. But when the file finally buffered, the preview window didn't show a person or a room. It showed a high-altitude view of a shifting, violet sea that didn't appear on any map of Earth. He hit play. 39892507913-offset-8132.mov
“It’s a render,” Elias whispered to the empty lab. “A glitch in a simulation.” Elias didn't look up