by Paul Anlee
Alum gave a good-natured shrug. “Perhaps I should reconsider. Maybe we need to incorporate some form of proportional representation in the election, if for no other reason, to give your candidates a fighting chance.” He smiled graciously.
Thurgood returned his generosity with a cold stare.
“If the troubles we’re experiencing throughout the habitats continue, the race may be closer than you expect,” Strang said.
Alum grimaced and dismissed their seriousness with a backhanded gesture. “All temporary. Simple shake-out problems that one might expect of any new system.”
“I’m not sure all of your citizens would agree with you on that,” Strang replied.
Alum opened his mouth to reply, but Strang charged forward. “In any case, we are here to offer our help in whatever capacity we can.”
Alum regarded him suspiciously. “I don’t see how help from you would benefit this Administration. Wouldn’t that simply weaken public perception of my leadership?”
“I did say our chief interest is in seeing the habitats run effectively. What good would an election be if the people were driven to riots beforehand?”
“Riots? I don’t see how conditions have deteriorated to that stage!” Alum exclaimed.
Thurgood had seen large populations suddenly switch allegiances before; it was a frightful thing to behold. “You’re too young to remember the Pension Riots and Treasury Bond Runs. When people have a hard time accessing what they see as ‘their’ money, things turn ugly very quickly.”
“I’m aware there have been a few issues during centralization of the banking system,” Alum allowed. “But I’m sure these are nothing more than implementation hiccups and will soon disappear.”
“And the other infrastructure problems?” Jared challenged.
“What of them? A few problems with water and electricity.”
“And sewage,” Thurgood added.
“And sewage,” conceded Alum. “All of these will be cleared up quickly enough. We have people working on them around the clock.”
“Yes, and that’s why we’ve come to see you today,” Strang answered.
“Okay,” Alum conceded. “How can you help me?”
“Though the vast majority of our experts amongst the previous colonists were…exchanged…for lesser qualified people among the new colonists, we still have a vast pool of expertise we could call on for assistance.”
“The Cybrids,” Alum muttered.
“Yes, and the hundred million Cybrid processors awaiting activation,” added Jared.
Alum pushed away from his desk and walked to the window, turning his back on his guests. “This Administration is not predisposed to excessive use of Cybrid technology.”
“We understand that,” Thurgood replied. “But within that pool of expertise, we have financial and banking experts, engineers, and scientists.” She glanced at Strang for backup.
In his best selling voice, Jared added, “And they are simply sitting there. All that vast knowledge is going to waste, while your people fumble for solutions, sir.”
Alum spun around. “Fumble? There may have been challenges, but I don’t believe anyone is fumbling.”
“Our sources suggest differently,” Thurgood stated.
Alum’s eyes squinted warily. “Are you suggesting your information is better than the official Administration’s?”
Jared soothed, “Not at all. But we have been talking to people on the street, and there is some grumbling and discontent. We think it would serve us all best to put every means at our disposal to resolve these problems.”
“You would place robots in charge? Over people?”
Jared could feel the Leader’s ire building. He tried to think of something that would both convince and placate.
Thurgood chimed in before any words came to him. “The Cybrids were in charge of these habitats long before you people came here.”
Oh, bollocks—Jared thought—here we go.
Before he could put any words together, Alum exploded in fury.
“The old ways, the ways of technology and sin will never return to My People,” he thundered. “Our Lord, Yehsua, has given these habitats to My People. My People! Not to the old sinners and their machines.”
Jared could hear the capitalization. “My People.” Jenny, why did you have to push him? Had she forgotten how short a step it was from leader of religion and politics to outright megalomaniac?
“Perhaps we all need to take a breath,” Jared said, trying to bring the discussion back to a calm place. “No one is suggesting people answer to the Cybrids. We are simply suggesting we use all available skills to solve our current problems before they become dangerous. Cybrids can help. Those of us in the old Administration can help. We all just want to help.”
Alum strode back to his place behind his desk and sat imperiously in his chair.
“This meeting is over. You may bring your proposals to Council if you wish to pursue it with them.”
He bowed his head to the displays on his desktop and picked up his stylus.
Strang and Thurgood glanced at each other and left quietly.
Once the two Councillors had vacated the room, John Trillian walked in from an adjoining room and softly closed the door behind them.
Alum put down his stylus. “Any comments?” he asked.
Trillian was intrigued by the lack of emotion in his Leader’s face. Moments earlier, he’d sounded enraged; now he appeared perfectly calm. He wasn’t sure whether to admire the Leader’s control or to be afraid of it.
“They seem to have good information,” was all he said.
Alum rubbed his chin. “Indeed. They are a little closer to the mark than what we’ve leaked. Blind luck, or something else?”
“Well, they’re not fools, and they are well connected to the situation on the ground.”
“Yes, their network is sparse but wide. Do you think it’s more than that?”
“Do I think they have a hand in causing the problems?” Trillian clarified. “No, their hands are clean. Everything points to the others.”
“To Hodge and Cutter?” Alum asked.
Trillian nodded. “Yes, and a few of their influential friends and colleagues. I’ve linked troubles in the banks directly to executive orders from those two. They were tricky. Some of those orders were only caught on what they thought were inactive cameras in private meeting rooms and in supposedly unmonitored corridors.”
“Did you have sound in those as well?” Alum asked.
“In the majority of them, yes. When they moved out of range, we had to do a little lip-reading. Handy algorithm, that.”
“Quite. So you think these two, Strang and Thurgood, may be genuine?” Alum asked.
“I will accede to your judgement, of course, but they seem trustworthy to me,” Trillian replied.
“Was I too harsh with them?”
Trillian barked a laugh. “No; there’s no harm in putting a little fear of God in them, sir.”
Alum allowed himself a little smile. “Well, they needed it. They are smugly confident of their own skills and of their precious Cybrids.”
“I hate to say it but, in this case, they may have good reason to be smug,”
“Yes, I think I’ve let them run unchecked for too long,” Alum conceded. He tapped his chin with his index finger while he thought.
Trillian watched in silence until the corners of his Leader’s eyes pulled upward and an impish grin form on his lips.
“You have a plan, sir?”
“Always, John. Let’s give the Councillors a little leeway. When they bring their proposal up in chambers, I think I will side with them.”
“That will come as a surprise.”
“I expect it will. Let’s allow their Cybrids to come in and attempt to help. At the same time, let’s allow Hodge and Cutter to continue their efforts.”
Trillian was confused. “Pit them against each other? How will that help our position?”
�
��It won’t, not directly,” Alum replied. “I expect things to get better sometimes and worse sometimes. We may have to help out Hodge and his crew if the Cybrids start gaining too much of an upper hand.”
“Sabotage our own plans?”
“You have to think of the long game, John. It will end when we want it to, when it’s to our best advantage.”
“Will we be able to control how it plays out?”
“Of course,” Alum assured him. “We have something they don’t know about. We have the Securitors.” He picked up his stylus and went back to work.
Trillian nodded appreciation, and returned to his surveillance. Those troublemakers have no idea what they’re up against. No idea.
18
Friday, March 10, 2062 Vesta News – Wide-scale riots broke out earlier today along the Spinward district near North 50 in Vesta Five when customers arrived to find doors to their local branch of the Administration Bank locked and the ATMs out of service. The angry protests began this morning and escalated to isolated violence by mid-afternoon as citizens discovered they could not access their most recent paychecks. Additional security was brought in to manage and disperse the angry crowd. Like many areas throughout the asteroids, the district has been plagued by malfunctioning electricity and unexplained food and water shortages for several months.
Cybrid JSC475319 saw no choice but to shut down the bank. The computer system was misbehaving and she could not determine the cause. Worse, the problem was beginning to spread to other branches. If she didn’t take it offline now, accounts all over Vesta were going to be scrambled. People could lose all their savings. Businesses could seize up. Blame would fly freely and a scapegoat would be punished. A Cybrid one, almost certainly.
She motioned to Cynthia, the Branch Manager. “I’m afraid your systems have some sort of malfunction. I have to shut them down.”
The manager scanned the customer service area nervously. Today was payday and people wanted to get at their cash. The bank was full. Despite efforts to encourage the use of electronic currency, people still preferred the feel of physical dollars, Vesta dollars included, in their wallets.
Being uprooted from home and family, being moved to the asteroid colonies, and witnessing the destruction of Earth last year, had left everyone feeling insecure. She understood that. They were alive, working, and hoping to build again but the absence of their home planet, the origin of humankind, was still painful to most. Feeling a few dollars nestled in one’s pocket was comforting.
“JSC—Jessica—are you sure about this? Couldn’t we just restart the computers?” the manager asked.
“I’ve tried that three times already. They keep coming back up the same way. There’s likely a software virus of some sort, but I can’t find it. My team needs more time to scope it out. Either way, our system is sending out requests for transfers, payments, deposits, and loans. Each one has the potential to spread the problem to the Vesta-wide system. I’m sorry, Cynthia, but we have to shut down this branch until we can figure out what’s going on.”
“My customers aren’t going to be happy.”
“I know. That’s why I need you to explain it to them. They wouldn’t like it coming from me.”
People started to notice the line slowing. A hushed buzz of concern permeated the air. A little commotion was developing at the front of one of the lines. Necks craned to see what was going on.
A couple of tellers caught the manager’s eye and flashed subtle hand signals, hopefully indecipherable by their customer—Cash dispensers are frozen.
The hushed buzz was growing louder and more irritated.
Cynthia sighed heavily. “Okay. Turn it off.”
“I already did, a few minutes ago,” the Cybrid replied. “It was necessary.”
The manager bit her lower lip and nodded once. It had to be done. “Okay, I’ll close the branch.”
She took a deep breath, instructed her employees to step back from their stations, and faced the snaking lineup of unhappy customers to deliver the news.
“Ladies and gentlemen, due to a technical issue, this branch is now closed. We invite you to visit any of our other branches. Thank you in advance for your understanding and patience as we work to resolve the matter.”
As predicted, the clientele surged forward and loudly demanded access to their funds.
JSC floated toward the counters, protecting the bank staff from their frustrated clients. The two other Cybrids posted to the branch hovered behind her. Their imposing gray, spherical bodies rose together over the counter.
The sight of the three carboceramic beings rising from behind the teller stations only served to raise panic. They retreated in fear, mistakenly perceiving a threat from the mechanical beings. Several people who’d been holding their place at the front of the lines now turned and bolted, shoving their way through anyone standing between them and the exit.
“That probably wasn’t how you wanted me to get everyone out,” JSC said as Cynthia walked up to the three Cybrids. They stood together in the middle of the empty floor.
Scared but angry, the customers refused to leave the front of the building. Others joined them, curious about the commotion. Before long, hundreds were gathered.
In a surprise concession at last month’s Governing Council meeting, the Administration accepted an offer of assistance from Jared Strang, Director of the Office of Cybrid-Human relations.
Strang immediately placed Cybrid experts in locations throughout the habitats in an attempt to remedy some of the recent banking and infrastructure issues. Despite their presence, troubles continue to plague many habitat districts.
Strang has been calling for an increase in the number of Cybrids permitted to work within the habitats, citing “human inefficiencies” as justification. The Administration has so far refused to allow more than one thousand of the autonomous machines inside any single habitat. In an official press release last week, Alum stated that, “Cybrids and people are working together to solve these problems in a show of cooperation. The machines have a support role, only. We humans like to come up with our own solutions.”
“I really should go out there,” JSC said, “See if I can reassure them and calm them down.”
“Because your last efforts weren’t enough?” the manager replied.
“I’ll do my best to be less intimidating.”
“Is that even possible?”
The Cybrid emitted a sighing sound from her speaker panel. “What is with people?”
The manager regarded her with raised eyebrows. “For starters, you’re a machine.”
“Obviously.”
“Obviously. And we know your kind built the habitats.”
“But?”
“We still aren’t sure whether you can be trusted. It can be hard to see the humanity in you.”
“Ouch,” JSC replied. “What can I do, then?”
“Let me go out.”
“Are you sure? They think my team has messed up. They want to hear from us.”
“I’ll tell them what you told me. Nobody wants to risk releasing a virus into the banking system.” Cynthia moved toward the door and paused. “Do you have any idea when things will get back to normal?”
“We’re only marginally smarter at figuring out this kind of thing than humans are. However, we’ll work twenty-four hours a day without sleep or rest until it’s fixed. That’s one thing we can do.”
“That’ll have to be enough. I’ll alert the authorities that we may have a bit of a situation here; ask them to send a couple of officers to disperse the crowd.”
Cynthia stepped outside to address the crowd, which had since picked up support from curious passersby. There had to be at least a thousand of them out there.
Oh, I don’t like the looks of this. They’re blowing it all out of proportion. They’re feeding months and months of repressed fear, anger, and resentment into this one minor annoyance. If I don’t diffuse this right now, things could get ugly.
; “I know you’re frustrated, and so am I,” she began. “But our system has a virus. If we leave it running, it could wipe out your accounts and those in other branches.”
“It was fine before those machines touched it,” a man wearing construction coveralls yelled.
“The Administration sent the Cybrids here to help. They are experts in banking and information systems. They can work without eating, resting, or sleeping. It’s the fastest way to get things back up and running.”
“When can we get our money?” someone hollered.
“I assure you, we’ll get back online as fast we can. Your debit and credit cards will continue to work all over the city. You can pay your bills, buy food, go out and enjoy yourselves, whatever you like. Your money’s safe in your account. Other branches will process transactions during our difficulty.”
“That’s what they said on Earth, too.” The speaker, a middle-aged, well-dressed man at the front of the crowd, stared defiantly at Cynthia.
She’d been in the business over thirty years; she remembered.
“This isn’t Earth,” she pointed out, her voice rising over the din of those in agreement with the cynic. “Alum and the Administration will look out for us.”
“The Administration can’t even get my toilets to flush right!”
The crowd laughed, but Cynthia could sense the mood was far from jovial. Ugly scowls met her eyes as she looked for a reasonable face in which to take momentary refuge.
“Go home,” she said, as loudly as she dared. She didn’t want to yell at people; they might misinterpret that. “Come back tomorrow. I’m sure things will be working properly by then.” She could only hope that was true.
Director Strang denied recent rumors that Cybrids have been sabotaging habitat infrastructures in an attempt to justify their continued presence in the cities, saying, “Such claims are unfounded and counterproductive.”
The growing mob attracted citizens from nearby offices and residences. By late afternoon, over five thousand people blocked the streets and chanted anti-Administration slogans for hours.