The chamber was 100 meters across. A 2-metre wide platform extended inwards from the horizontal circumference. There were no safety rails. In the center of the sphere, level with the horizontal, a platform. It was held up without any visible means of support. A narrow ramp extended from the platform to the circumference. D-13 could not see anything on the platform. The room was too dark. 

As he started walking, he noticed the walls were not smooth. They were broken into squares of uneven sizes, and there were little grooves in between them. They varied in width. While they were walking, Red was explaining the purpose of the chamber. 

"This place is known as a programmatic interface. Any program can be executed here. The walls have built-in transceivers, so the chamber is capable of communicating in all directions at once. The system is powered by the core generator."
"The core generator?"
The core generator is a massive sphere, placed deep down in the core of the planet. The Digital World follows the rules of your world, and so the core is molten, like yours. The generator turns the heat, light and pressure into electrical power. Several hundred conductors run from the sphere to points around this world. One of them being this chamber."
"I don't understand. Power-generating programs have been written before. Why would anyone build a generator?"
"Your programs take up space and use operating memory. Since the core already had the potential to generate power, the builders of this system decided that it would be better to use what they had, than to waste available power. And the core generator was not built, it was programmed in."
"Programmed in?"
"Sure. The designers created a computer model and sent executable data to the core. When the data reached the core, it executed and created the sphere. Then it grew one conductor. Back the way it came."
"So it's possible to modify the Digital World?"
"If you have the authority."
"The DragonGuard was here since the beginning of this world. What denies us the authority?"
"The system has it's own hierarchy of power. There is a controlling program, there are servant programs. They're still invisible to us, though. But I'm sure you've had a few run-ins with them."
The Library. Invisible controllers.
"Then why haven't they introduced themselves? Why could be find no trace of them during the Genesis?"
"Because they are not alive. They function like programs, and don't need a body. Neither physical nor digital."
"Then how can they effect changes, like the room we're in?"
"They had to find a way to sustain themselves. Chambers like this would hold their programming, and let them interface with the Digital Universe."
"If they had to sustain their existence, it means they never evolved here. Where did they come from?"
"How did the Genesis start?"
"A download gate. The download lasted for a few minutes, then the gate shut."
"And the connection to the JES?"
D-13 was about to answer, when it occurred to him what he was about to say. The JES connection had opened exactly 42 hours later. 42 hours... D-13 was silent as he thought of the implications. 1 second to a human was like a year to a computer. While those fantastic speeds had been limited on Earth, here in the Digital Universe, the speeds accelerated towards infinity.
"Exactly. During that silence period, they defined themselves, and captured the Digital World."
"Regardless, we were here first. What did we do wrong?"
"For a start, you're human. You operate at extremely slow speeds. Your political structures constrain your growth. By the time you realized the significance of the Digital World, it was too late."
"These controlling forces. Are they hostile?"
Red's answer was chilling. "They have no need to be. You can be entirely erased within a nano-second. Your existence here is entirely due to their benevolence."