by Dane, Max
No it didn’t make sense, but it did open his mind to a new way of thinking.
He wondered if they would find anything if they compared the documented cases across all the affected Facilities. Wouldn’t it be interesting if there were some sort of trend, invisible at just one facility but apparent over several? Maybe the reason no one has been able to understand what’s happening to the patients, is because they’ve only been looking at their own cases.
Maybe it would turn out to be a matter of scale.
Then there was the news from Jeff.
The whole idea of man becoming extinct was too big to take in right now. If he let himself think too much about it, he would begin to think about the future Alex would have. The rest would be too sad to contemplate. He chose to believe that this idea was a gross exaggeration, and that the men upstairs would get it straight soon enough.
Depression was not the answer right now.
As he let himself continue to drift, he wondered about the impact on the city. How long would it be kept secret, and what would happen when the news finally broke? He imagined wide-spread anger and unrest would ensue. In the movies, people tended to really freak out at the end of the world.
That was a troubling thought.
Maybe he should start stocking up on some supplies. He needed to remember to take a look around the house tonight when he got home. If he was clever, he could do it without Jean catching on. The last thing he wanted to do was scare her.
He needed to test the tablet that Theresa had given him, from home. He might need to use it if he was not able to get to work. It might be smart to be prepared.
Or, he could be a pathologically, paranoid administrator.
Either way, he was thirsty.
He got up and went to get some more coffee.
In his cubicle, on the other side of the floor, Jim was nursing a pretty good hangover.
It wasn’t the first time for him, but it never got any better.
He popped some more headache pills, and followed them with more coffee.
Last night had been surreal. Drunk and angry, followed by a ‘visit’ from a girl he knew.
He woke up sleeping on the balcony, not remembering how he got there. Inside the girl was gone, and he found a note taped to his big view screen.
All it said was ‘Asshole!’ in great big red, lipstick letters.
’What was that about?’ he wondered.
He looked through the cracks of his eyes at his screen.
The code was there, but the girl was gone.
He snickered.
David heard him laughing, “What’s going on over there?”
“Hey Dave, just comparing programming to women.”
“Programs are logical.”
“Amen, my brother.”
Jim took a moment to look again at the code fragment.
There it was. Defying all logic.
As usual the time stamp indicated that it was still appearing exactly one minute into the window between his searches. Not feeling really focused, he decided to play a trick and opened six windows, each 10 minutes long, occurring over the course of the next day and night. It didn’t really make any sense, but he wasn’t very focused at the moment. He would take another look at it tomorrow when he felt better.
He looked at his schedule for the rest of the day. He had a checklist of points pertaining to the installation of Thor and Loki. Their installation had been re-scheduled, and now they would be arriving on Friday, and today was Wednesday. He needed to meet with the network guys, the facilities department, and touch base with Zimmerman to make sure everything was still on target.
He also needed to start writing and preparing to organize the operating systems for each of them. Really there wasn’t much to write from scratch. Mainly, he was going to integrate IntelliHealth login routines with user and administrator account services, and then add the whole chunk to the main operating systems at startup. There were also network protocols to incorporate, but he had those listed and ready to add.
‘It shouldn’t be a problem,’ he thought.
Of course, those were famous last words he had uttered many times before. There was almost always a problem. It would be something the Zimmerman group forgot to mention, like maybe there was a coordinating master control unit, or maybe an additional personal, storage device built back in 2000 that he was supposed to integrate as well.
From early in his career at IntelliHealth, Jim remembered a grisly old man, Dr. ‘I’m-short-on-funding’ wanting him to build a supercomputer from a cluster of older model machines.
It was a ridiculous request.
‘Sure, like that would even work’, he remembered thinking.
Of course, in the end he had done it.
Oh he had balked at first, but he actually made it work.
It was an excellent opportunity to author a script for a self-organizing, series of computers. They worked in unison to run calculations at breathtaking speeds. It had worked, but it was still not as efficient as the new super-computers. The cluster of old machines had weaknesses like over-heating, if it ran for too long.
But the code was beautiful, worthy of a thesis or two. It wouldn’t last for very long before overheating, but while it ran it was comparable to any modern supercomputer.
When he was finished, he got approval to order a single high-end, multi-tasker machine and replaced the whole mess. The researcher was pleased twice over.
Jim kept the ‘super’ computer-cluster as a trophy, and named it Gamera, the flying turtle that fought Godzilla. It reminded him that a clever script could do a lot of good.
And besides, even though it was clunky, he thought it might come in useful some day.
A buzzer on his display brought him back into focus, reminding him of his schedule. He had a meeting with facilities regarding the installation. He didn’t understand how the cooling unit was going to be controlled. He was still confused because it seemed to run without any linkup to the supercomputers. Basically they seemed to be like giant air-conditioners pointed directly at the biogel-silicon, processors. He thought there ought to be some sort of routine running on the main computers to let you know if they were over-heating, but maybe this was simply another way of streamlining what the computers were doing. Like on a muscle car, when a mechanic would tune every separate piece of the engine to get the most efficient use of energy.
Trying to squeeze out every drop of performance.
So probably the big coolers were separate from them to free-up CPU cycles.
But he needed to know for sure.
David was right about what he said a couple of days ago, they were going to be fun to play with.
Upstairs in the lab, Jeff was just finishing putting the equipment request together for a new scanner.
Dr. Bender wanted to begin analyzing sperm samples from the IntelliHealth patient population. Dr. Bender was meeting today with someone named Dorothy Allan to discuss mandatory sperm tests on all IntelliHealth patients, well the males ones anyway.
Jeff wondered how that would fly.
They will need a lot of magazines.
Or videos.
He was chuckling to himself when two of his researchers came into his office.
They looked upset.
He looked at them, held up a hand and said, “Hold on a second.”
He called in a grad student, “Susan, after lunch will you please take this requisition and submit it to the admin office?”
“Sure Dr. Sarin, will do.”
He turned back to the two downtrodden-looking investigators.
“Okay, how can I help you?” he said.
“Jeff, Dr. Bender seems to have re-prioritized our projects.”
“Yes, I believe there is quite a lot of that going on right now,” he said.
“But the work I was doing on RNA reversion might be important to looking backwards. It might help in understanding how we got here.”
“Yes, and my work on replac
ing organs via cloned replicates might provide solutions for going forward.”
He understood why they did not want to change. Each of them had spent more than five or six years working in their area of interest. He felt sorry for them, but this was no time to get sentimental. The areas of research were being divvied up, at the top. At this level, they needed to work on the subjects assigned to them. It was a re-organization of research spanning thousands of researchers just like them.
“Look, you need to talk this over with Dr. Bender. If he does not agree, come back and I will help you save your work as best as possible,” he said, “so that you can return to it when this is over.”
Looking glum, they said thanks, and went off to talk with Bender. They obviously didn’t hold out much hope of changing his mind.
Neither did he.
After all, there were scientists all over the world right now dropping their careers to work on the ‘fertility crisis’. But these were rapidly changing times, and you never knew.
Thinking he should go ahead and take steps to help them store their work, he called Susan back to his office. “Susan, please add two small-sized, cryo-preservation tanks and get Chris to help you prep them for use; and thanks, Sue.”
He went back to his desk and started going over the experiments Dr. Bender wanted to run tomorrow.
Ryan was still documenting his files when his supervisor Ben came knocking at his door.
“Hi, Ben, please come in. What can I do for you?”
“Ryan, I was headed to the cafeteria for some lunch. Why don’t you come with me? I know it’s a little early, but I didn’t eat breakfast, and this way we can beat the crowd,” said Ben.
Ryan had brought his lunch, but what the heck; he thought it was probably a good idea to go with Ben. And maybe he would learn something new.
“Sure.”
He got up and followed Ben to the elevator, where they descended to the 18th floor. Ryan remembered Theresa saying something about cafeterias and recreation on the 18th floor. Honestly, he just hadn’t made it that far yet.
The doors opened up and he saw a huge open area with restaurants, a cafeteria, gym equipment, and sitting areas for reading or watching the vids. It looked like there was a drycleaners on one side, and maybe a salon too. The distance across the floor was amazing, as if the entire floor was one giant open area. There were lots of plants around the floor; so many that it almost felt like a park. There were some pretty big ones right in the middle that blocked his view so that he couldn’t see the opposite side at all.
“Wow, Ben this is pretty cool,” he said looking around amazed.
”Oh, you haven’t been here yet,” said Ben, “We really need to work on our tours. Well, this is available to all employees, and you may come here at any time that does not conflict with your work.”
Ben started in, with Ryan walking next to him.
Pointing to the left Ben said, “There you can find almost any type of food you’re after. Also, if you are entertaining, there is a steakhouse and sushi restaurant available. Both places have very appropriate atmospheres for that sort of thing. Just past them, we have a cafeteria which is my favorite.”
Pointing to the right, Ben continued, “Over that way, is a day-care for those that have kids that young, and a cleaner for your clothes. Also there’s a place back there to get your hair cut, but they always want to style it too, and I don’t like that. I go in for the cut, not a shampoo.”
They continued towards the cafeteria.
“And in between all of this are lots of places where you can relax, sitting, reading, exercising or watching the news.”
They were approaching the entry to the cafeteria and Ben paused and smiled, “I love it here. Sometimes it’s a real chore to go back to my office.”
Together they entered the cafeteria. Ryan was nearly overwhelmed by the number of choices. By the time they got to the register, he picked the fried fish, macaroni and cheese, french bread and a piece of chocolate pie with two inches of meringue on top; a feast! He thought back to the peanut butter and jelly sandwich waiting for him in his office, and laughed.
Ben picked up both of their tabs, and headed to a table.
Ryan would have protested, but he was too slow getting to the register. By the time he pulled his ID chip, the cashier said it was already taken care of.
Ryan sat with Ben at a table way in the back. It had a terrific view looking out through the panoramic windows that filled the whole perimeter of the eating area.
All smiles, he looked at Ben and said, “This is awesome. I can’t believe I’ve been passing it up. Oh and thanks for lunch, too.”
Ben just laughed and started cutting some sort of meatloaf.
“Ryan, you’re married right? Have you got kids?”
“Actually yes to both, my wife’s name is Jean, and my son, Alex who is a very cool 8-year old.”
“Are you planning to have more?” said Ben.
Considering what he knew, that was a loaded question these days.
“No, one was all we were interested in.”
They ate in silence for a few more minutes.
“Ryan, I believe there are some difficult times ahead. I think there will be some sort of statement from IntelliHealth to the press soon. Maybe very soon.”
“You sound concerned Ben, is there anything I can do to help?”
“Well, actually you are helping. You have done some terrific work on the project we hired you to look at. Your perspective is fresh, and you discovered in a few weeks what we had not considered. Well done. Very well done.”
Ben held his glass up, and an attendant brought him some more tea.
“I am expecting that your role in the treatment anomaly will escalate pretty soon.”
“Really, because after my talk with Dorothy, I’ve been expecting someone high up to call and ask for my files. I’ve arranged and documented them just in case.”
Ben was picking at some potatoes. “Well, from the mail that I’ve received, I’m expecting just the opposite to happen. I wouldn’t even be surprised to see you end up reporting to someone higher up.”
Ryan took a bite of his chocolate meringue pie, and it was really, really good.
It must have shown on his face, because Ben started chuckling.
“Yeah, it’s good, but man is it bad for you.”
Ben continued, “Seriously though, you have found an issue that extends beyond this facility, beyond London and beyond Sydney. We’re talking about a problem of a different scope than what my department is able to handle. It will be interesting to see how it comes back, once the powers that be have deliberated.”
“Ben, who are the ‘powers-that-be’ anyway?” Ryan asked.
“Well, I imagine that Dorothy had a meeting with the Directors of Patient Services at both of the other facilities. Then assuming they all agreed on the veracity of the matter, they all would have gone to each of their respective Facility Presidents, or in our case the Facility Director. The Presidents would then talk together and decide what action to take. I imagine that’s what is happening right now,” he said.
Ryan wasn’t sure what to expect when he talked with Dorothy, but Ben’s speculation seemed pretty logical.
Ryan thought about it and said, “Well, I hope that I have not let you down, and that I can continue to help. And I am forever indebted to you for hiring me and giving me this chance. Thank you Ben, very much.”
“Ha, yes of course, Ryan. Whether you stay with me, or move on, I will look forward to working with you.” Ben’s watch beeped, “Ah, now, you’ll have to forgive me, I have to get back for a phone call.” Both men stood, and shook hands.
Ben left Ryan looking out the window and considering his words.
He hadn’t really considered moving under a new boss.
He liked Ben.
It was clear that Ben knew about the fertility crisis and was dealing with a lot of fall-out from it right now. Maybe personal issues as well, who knew
?
Ben was right, there were difficult times ahead.
He finished his pie.
That night, Ryan made a point to take inventory of their home.
As discretely as he could, he walked around with his tablet and made notes of things like batteries, food and pet supplies. The length of his list showed just how unprepared they were for any sort of crisis.
‘Man,’ he thought, ‘we’re living day-to-day.’
He vowed to change that.
On his way home tomorrow, he would buy enough of everything to last two weeks.
‘Two weeks?’ he questioned himself, ‘really?’
Well, it sounded good.
He realized he honestly had no idea how long they would need to last, if riots turned the city upside down. Well, he rationalized, if he got more than two weeks worth of supplies, Jean and Alex would certainly notice and start asking questions.
He admitted that he didn’t have any answers, and he resolved himself to buying what he could.
Across town, that same night Jim Safe was taking inventory as well. He opened the liquor cabinet behind the bar, in his apartment. He surveyed of the bottles present and wrote down, ‘must get enough tequila for at least two weeks’. Glad that he had checked, he opened a beer and sat down to watch the vids.