Creation- The Auditor’s Apprentice

by Frank Stonely

  Amy heard a phone ringing in the outer office, ‘That’s Daniel calling back.’ She turned, opened the office door and ran to pick up the call, ‘Hi, Daniel, any luck?’

  ‘Is that Miss Amy 64? It’s Tanka here at the depository. I’m pleased to tell you we’ve found the file you wanted. It had been put back in the wrong cabinet, I’m terribly sorry. Do you want me to have a copy sent over to you?’

  ‘I’m supposed to examine the original document.’ Amy said, suspicious at the convenient reappearance.

  ‘I’m afraid I can’t let the original copy leave the vaults. Do you want me to make you an appointment to view it?’

  ‘Can I come now?’

  ‘No, that’s not possible, we’re very busy this afternoon. Let me see, when have we got a free slot... err, how about Thursday morning next week?’

  Amy was convinced this was a delaying tactic, she couldn’t believe that the depository vaults were suddenly overwhelmed by visitors. ‘In that case, please send a copy over to Director Hedrick’s office.’ She put the phone down. Penny and Ravi were now standing next to her. ‘They’ve found the file, but we can’t see it until next week, so they’re sending a copy over.’

  ‘Like I’m going to trust anything in that,’ Penny snapped.

  The phone rang again, Penny picked up, ‘Director Hedrick’s office, Penny speaking, can I help you?’ She handed the phone to Amy, ‘It’s Daniel.’

  ‘Daniel, any news?’

  ‘It’s good news, bad news.’

  ‘Good news first.’ Amy said looking at Penny.

  ‘Well, I had a stroke of genius! I realized that there could be another copy of the planetary data you wanted.’

  ‘Where? Can we get it now?’ Amy said impatiently.

  ‘No, let me finish. I spoke to an Academy mate, Mohammed 75. He works in the DNA & Evolution Control division. They have monitor drones which are used to assess how the planets are developing. He was saying-’

  ‘Just get to the point!’ Amy snapped.

  ‘Well, they’ve just downloaded a drone whose last mission included the universe your planet’s in.’

  ‘That’s fantastic!’

  Penny mouthed the words, What’s going on? Amy held up her hand, ‘So what’s the bad news?’

  ‘There won’t be any planetary history. It will just be a snapshot in time showing things like the number atoms, elements and molecules and, a survey of any life forms that have evolved, you know the kind of thing. It’s digital data, almost impossible to interpret until it’s been processed.’

  ‘Can we see it?’

  ‘Mohammed’s checking to see if the drone’s memory has been flushed. If it has we’re out of luck. But he-’ Daniel stopped mid-sentence, ‘hold on, the other phone’s ringing.’ Amy only caught the occasional word of Daniel’s conversation until he shouted, ‘Mohammed, you’re a cool dude, I owe you one, man! We’ll see you then!’ She heard Daniel slam the other handset down, ‘Amy, are you still there? Mohammed’s downloaded the drone’s memory onto his workstation and the data for your planet is there. It’s going to take him about an hour to process it, so I said we’d go over there about four. I’ll meet you in the reception. Oh, and bring your level one pass or they won’t let you in.’

  ‘Can Penny come?’

  ‘If she’s got a pass.’

  ‘Okay, we’ll see you there.’ Amy put the phone down and looked at Penny.

  ‘What’s going on? Where’re we going?’ Penny said, impatiently. But before Amy could answer, Ravi jabbed Penny in her side with his elbow. She turned on him like a tiger. Ravi gestured at the junior auditor who was standing in the office doorway.

  ‘I have a package for Director Hedrick.’

  ‘Who gave it to you?’ Penny asked.

  ‘I was just coming into the building when a female in reception asked me to bring it up here and give it to Director Hedrick.’

  ‘I’m his secretary. You can give it to me.’ The young auditor handed the package to Penny and turned to walk away. ‘Your name is?’ she said.

  He turned back, ‘Khuno 73’.

  ‘Thank you, Khuno.’

  Penny quickly ripped open the package. Inside was a file with the word COPY stamped across its cover in red ink. ‘I’ve got a funny feeling about all this,’ Penny went over to her digital workstation and typed in a search query: U=5781256669+G=4567890123+P=2858013279. The search bar slowly filled from left to right and then the display refreshed. ‘I knew it, I fucking knew it!’ She turned to look at Amy and Ravi, ‘The bastards have put the file back!’

  Ravi’s reaction was immediate, ‘Thank Creation for that! It must have been a server glitch or a database bug.’ His eyes lit up with joy, his ears were erect again, his tail swished with delight. He bent forward laughing, his hands holding his sides, then after a few seconds he gathered his composure and stood up straight again, ‘Thank Creation for that!’ he repeated.

  Amy and Penny looked at each other, neither showing the same elation. ‘This is shit,’ Penny said, I’ve worked in auditing since before stuff was digitised and I’ve never seen files disappear and come back again, never!’

  Ravi took Penny’s hand and said reassuringly, ‘Look, Penny, it was just a glitch, everything’s okay now.’

  She pulled her hand away, ‘No, it’s not okay, Ravi. I’m not going to let Hedrick get hung out to dry over this. His retirement is on Friday and nobody’s going to mess that up. He stood by me when everyone else was throwing crap, so by Creation I’m not going to let this happen.’

  Ravi sighed with exasperation, ‘Well, it’s over for me! And anyway, I’ve got work to do,’ and with that he walked off towards his cubical.

  Penny looked at Amy, ‘Come on, girl, let’s have a look at this file before we see Daniel.’ They returned to Hedrick’s office and closed the door. Penny drew up two chairs and they sat down at the desk. Amy opened the file and turned to page six which carried the heading Planetary Overview. ‘Now, let’s see,’ she said, studying the list of parameters, which read:

  PLANETARY OVERVIEW

  Note: All parameters given below are stated in SD units. For conversion into standard units see Appendix-8 on page 168.

  Ref. No.: 2858013279

  Designation: ‘Earth’

  Planet class: Blue

  Age: 4.45x109 years

  Mass: 5.9736×1024 kg

  Gravitational acceleration: 9.81 m/s

  Atmosphere: 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen

  ‘What are you looking for?’ Penny asked.

  ‘Life. If there’s anything wrong with this planet it’s probably going to involve the creation of life!’ Amy turned over the page.

  ‘How do you know what all this stuff means?’

  ‘It’s what I specialised in at the Academy. Ahhh here it is, this is what I’ve been looking for,’ Amy pointed to a list at the bottom of the page:

  Intelligent Life Parameters

  Carbon based

  Humanoid

  Bisexual

  Quadra-pedal

  Social Control Protocols

  Race: Trakii

  Language: Falshen 3

  Religion: Omnipresent Moon Lord 4

  Penny looked at her watch for the third time, ‘Look, girl, we’ve got to go if we’re going to meet Daniel at four.’

  Amy slammed the file closed, ‘All this stuff looks normal to me, it’s just what I would have expected.’ She pushed the chair away from Hedrick’s desk, ‘Come on, let’s go see Daniel.’

  As they walked through the office, Penny glanced across at Ravi’s cubical, he appeared blurred, almost translucent. She blinked hard and looked again. Ravi was standing at his desk, now quite solid, sorting through papers.

  Amy turned back, ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing, just tired eyes.’

  9

  The Cool Dude

  Amy spotted Daniel waiting for her as she walked into the building with Penny. ‘Girl, he’s cute!’ Penny said as they c
rossed the foyer, ‘Any brothers about?’ Amy just laughed, waving at Daniel to attract his attention.

  ‘Mohammed’s on his way down,’ he said as they approached. ‘I’ve filled in the visitor’s register.’ He slid the book across the counter, ‘You’ll just need to give your name and index, then sign here.’ By the time they had finished pinning on their visitor badges, Mohammed’s elevator had arrived.

  Mohammed and Daniel could have been twins. They were the same height and weight with virtually the same patterning to the fur on their faces and around their ears. The only obvious difference was the dark flecks running through Mohammed’s mane. Both were wearing standard issue engineering overalls. Mohammed stood holding the elevator doors open, beckoning for them to hurry. Daniel took Amy’s hand, Penny followed and all three tumbled into the elevator as Mohammed released the doors.

  ‘Hi, Dude,’ was Daniel’s greeting, as Mohammed selected level six. ‘Say, man, we really appreciate this.’ Daniel stood aside, ‘This is Amy, do you remember, Amy 64 from the Academy?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Mohammed mumbled, giving Amy a sideways glance.

  ‘This is my colleague, Penny. She’s Director Hedrick’s secretary,’ Amy said, introducing Penny.

  Daniel held out his hand, ‘Nice to meet you. Ravi’s always talking about you, you’re quite famous.’

  ‘Who’s Director Hedrick?’ Mohammed asked in a dull, expressionless voice.

  They left the elevator and stepped into a vast room divided by glass partitions forming separate offices, workshops and laboratories. Inside these were racks of equipment, each covered in flashing indicator lights and digital displays, linked together with hanging cables and pipes. The background noise of cooling fans, pumps and power tools was almost deafening. Groups of engineers stood here and there pushing buttons, turning dials and making detailed notes on the pages of their clipboards.

  ‘This way,’ Mohammed said, as he led them through the workshops towards his laboratory. He opened the door and gestured for them to go in. Crammed into the small room were two back-to-back desks and a workbench along the rear wall. As Daniel closed the door behind them, the room fell into relative silence.

  ‘How in Creation can you work with that racket going on?’ Penny said, ‘My head’s buzzing.’ Ignoring the comment, Mohammed sat at his desk and, pushing some of the paperwork to one side, logged into his workstation.

  ‘So what have you found, Dude?’ Daniel said. Mohammed gave him an irritated glance, ‘Sorry, Mo.’

  Mohammed was terminally shy and spoke in monosyllabic sentences; small talk and social interaction were totally beyond him. His worst nightmare was having to attend the department’s team bonding sessions each month. At the Academy he had been given the nickname Dude as a joke, being the least dude-like male in Creation. His family, pet name was Mo, but habits die hard and, to most of his Academy friends, he was still called the Dude.

  Daniel arranged the chairs around Mo’s desk, ‘So you’ve managed to download the planet’s data.’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘That’s great, Mo! Amy’s got a hardcopy of the file and we need to know if it’s been tampered with,’ Mohammed continued typing, ignoring Daniel. ‘How in Creation did you rip the data? Nobody else could’ve done it!’ Daniel knew that once he got him talking technical, it would be difficult to shut him up. Out of Mo’s view Daniel looked at Amy and raising his eyebrows, mouthed the words, ‘Talk to him’.

  She nodded, ‘Err, Mo… what download technique did you use? I worked with planetary drones at the Academy and we used to hyperlink their memory.’

  ‘Too slow,’ Mo replied.

  ‘Yes, well that was some years ago. I suppose things have advanced quite a bit since then. How much memory do the new drones have?’

  ‘Two hundred and fifty Yottabytes of temporal flash and a Yottabyte of CPU cache.’

  ‘Wow, that’s huge. How much data can it store?’

  ‘The monitor drones can log the position of every atom in a hundred universes. That’s about ten to the ninety-six atoms. I use a quantum overlay to transfer the data.’ Mo didn’t take his eyes off the workstation display as he spoke.

  Penny mouthed the words, ‘What’s he doing?’ to Amy, who shrugged her shoulders.

  Suddenly, Daniel, who had been looking over Mohammed’s shoulder, slapped his back. ‘That’s ace, Mo! You really are a cool dude!’

  ‘What’s happened?’ Amy said.

  ‘This genius has just decrypted your data! That’s what’s happened.’ Daniel held Mo’s ears apart and planted a kiss on the top of his head. ‘Fucking brilliant, Mo!’

  Penny looked at Amy, raised her eyes to the ceiling and whispered, ‘Male bonding, doesn’t it make you sick?’

  Amy smiled and leant forward to look at the display, ‘Can I check the data now?’ she asked.

  ‘No! It’s not that easy. Mo’s managed to rip the data, but that just gives a snapshot of the atomic structure. We’ll have to push it through the planetary modelling app before it makes sense.’

  ‘Yah, could take me a couple of days,’ Mo muttered, typing a new series of commands into his workstation.

  ‘A couple of days? That’s way too long. I need it now!’ Amy spluttered.

  ‘Look, let’s give Mo a bit of space. I’m sure he can come up with something, can’t you, Dude?’ Mo didn’t reply. ‘Why don’t I show you girls the Launch Platform? It’s really interesting.’ Amy stopped Penny reacting at being call a girl with a fixed stare.

  They left the relative peace of Mo’s laboratory and stepped out into the noise and clatter of the workshops. Daniel led the way through the maze of equipment racks and cables, until they came to an opaque glass door with a sign that read Drone Launch Platform - Observation Room. He swiped his pass and waited for the door lock to release. Once the door closed behind them there was complete silence and almost total darkness. Before them was an angled observation window, looking down into a domed chamber about twenty metres in diameter. The walls, floor and ceiling were made from polished, stainless-steel panels. In the centre of the chamber was a low structure made from tubing wrapped in gold foil. Hanging directly above this was a thick umbilical cable. On the wall opposite the window, was a large display panel with three rows of numbers. The first labelled Mission Number, the second Mission Elapse Time and the third Local SD Elapse Time; all three rows displayed zeros. To the left of the display were two large, round indicator lamps; the red one was unlit but the green lower lamp was flashing. Below the display panel was a massive pressure door with rounded corners and heavy locking bolts around its perimeter. The door stood open and the interior of the airlock linking the chamber with the workshops was in view.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Penny said in a whisper.

  ‘They’re preparing to launch a drone. Look, you can see it in the airlock,’ Daniel whispered back.

  ‘Why are we whispering?’ Amy said, nudging Daniel lightly in his side.

  ‘Because it’s so damn quiet in here, that’s why,’ he replied nudging her back.

  Amy leant towards him and whispered, ‘This is the quietest Penny’s ever been… great, isn’t it?’

  He smiled broadly, almost laughing, and then noticing activity in the airlock said, ‘Look!’ Two figures in full pressure suits with gold-coloured visors to their helmets wheeled a waist-high trolley into the chamber. On the trolley was a disk-like object about three metres in diameter. It was dull silver in colour, like weathered aluminium and resembled a hybrid of an upturned soup bowl and a bowler hat with an extended rim. Around its diameter, where the hat band would have been, was a series of small glass apertures like portholes in the side of a ship. The technicians wheeled the trolley to the centre of the chamber and carefully lifted the drone onto the rig’s gimballed mounting arms. The technician nearest the pressure door picked up the umbilical cable and connected it to the underside of the drone. They returned to the airlock with the trolley and, once inside, the heavy steel access door slowly
started to close.

  ‘What happens now?’ Penny said, still whispering.

  ‘Just watch,’ Daniel replied, ‘they’re about to launch it.’ All three jumped as a loud klaxon sounded and the huge bolts on the access door slid into place. The green light went out and the red light started to flash. At the same time, the display panel was loaded with the mission number and the clocks beneath it started to count. Slowly and in sequence, one by one, the portholes emitted an intense beam of white light. The drone now stood like a lighthouse lantern, its beam sweeping the interior of the chamber. The speed increased until the sweeping beam became a disk of light, giving the illusion that the drone itself was spinning. Slowly and silently the device rose from the launch rig, hovering about a metre above the gimballed arms.

  ‘That’s it! She’s gone.’ Daniel said.

  ‘Gone where? Nothing’s happened!’ Penny said.

  ‘The drone’s in Space now,’ Amy said, leaning against the observation window to get a better view. ‘It’s zooming through a universe somewhere, counting galaxies, investigating planets, monitoring life… Fantastic!’

  ‘But it hasn’t gone anywhere!’ Penny said in a loud, frustrated voice.

  ‘It doesn’t need to, Penny. It’s quantum-linked to the other dimension.’ Amy said, without taking her eyes off the hypnotising, whirling beam of light.

  Daniel continued the explanation, ‘Do you remember those pre-Academy science classes? The ones where you shoot single photons through a mask with two slits in it and then analyse the resulting interference patterns.’

  ‘Can’t say I do,’ Penny said, waiting for the point.

  ‘The results show that the photon has two states – it’s both a particle and a wave. It’s this wave–particle duality we use to launch drones into the Space Dimension.’