Storm Surge

by Melissa Good

  "Miami exec, this is the Air Hub, we're seeing a lot of congestion. We've got packets dropping here."

  A loud whistle suddenly cut through all the chatter. Nan paused at the open door and stared back at the desk, but Kerry merely smiled.

  "All right," Dar's voice briskly followed the whistle. "Thor, god of the internets is here. Kerry, go handle the Governor. I'll start squeezing the pipes. Everybody just relax. This is where we earn our reputation."

  "Dar, what about--" Kerry paused, the time limit and the commitment they'd made weighing on her suddenly. Yes, they told the government they'd go try and fix their problem but what about all of their own?

  "Already doing the prep," Dar answered. "I've got about a dozen reports running that are going to need my algorithms. Hope you find that laptop."

  "Hope you find room in your pipes for me to pull your image," Kerry remarked wryly.

  "First things first," her partner said, with easy confidence. "See what we can do over at Newark. We're going to need the leverage."

  Ah. Kerry punched in the conference line for the Earthstation. Complications. "Will do, boss, will do."

  DAR LEANED AGAINST the console, bracing her elbows on the surface and folding her hands together as she studied the screen. She was aware, in a disconnected way, that there were a lot of people watching her, but her attention was absorbed by the thin tracing lines and flickering statistics in front of her.

  The barebones diagram she was studying was a scaled down version of what she was used to looking at in her office, with fewer colors and sketchier details. It was enough, though, for her to see the imbalances caused by the outages and the need to route around them.

  Any individual outage was not a problem. Dar had built more than enough redundancy into her design to cope with that. In fact, multiple outages were usually not a problem either. But the combination of multiple outages of their own, and the suddenly heavy demand from everyone trying to route around outages themselves was giving her usually robust network fits.

  Giving Dar fits. "Damn it." She put her hands back on the keyboard and rattled off a few commands. "We need to get those damn nodes reconnected north of the city," she muttered. "I've got everything coming south and it's crunching the hell out of us."

  "Ma'am?" One of the console techs timidly leaned closer. "Are you talking to us, or just to you?"

  Dar glanced up, watching everyone quickly pretend to look at something else. "Well." She drummed her fingers. "I was talking to myself, but if you've got any good ideas cough them up." She waited, but the crowd remained respectfully silent. "C'mon, people. I don't bite."

  Don came forward, with an air of martyred bravery. "Well, uh, ma'am--"

  "Whoa." Dar held her hand up. "First of all, I'm going to be around for a while. Stop the ma'am crap and call me by my name, please."

  Don's eyes widened, and his nostrils flared visibly. "Uh," he said. "Okay, Ms. Roberts. If you say so."

  Dar gave him a wry look.

  "Anyway." Don glanced at the big board behind them. "Um, what exactly are you doing? It's hard for us to make suggestions when we don't really have a clue what's going on."

  Everyone held their breath when he finished, but Dar merely chuckled. "Good point," she agreed, settling back in her chair. "The network is imbalanced because of the outages. We're pulling too much, especially on the commercial side." She pointed at the big board. "That's why all the lines are purple tending to red, instead of blue like they usually are."

  Heads swung toward the board, then back to her. "That makes sense," one of the techs said. "But what can we do about it?"

  "I think a lot of people are using more data bandwidth than usual too," one of the female techs added. "Sending emails, and listening to the internet with all that streaming video going on."

  "Agreed," Dar said. "Same thing we're doing, since some of the traffic is us on the big bridge," she said. "That global meeting place isn't a text screen and a bunch of black and white pixels."

  "Wow," the woman said. "I never even thought of that."

  "Can we ask our customers not to do that?" Don spoke up. "How can we? This is something where people really need to communicate with each other, like what we're doing. That global meeting is an amazing thing."

  Dar folded her hands. "Very true. So no, we really can't ask them not to reach out to each other. So that's why I'm rooting around in the bits and bytes to see if there's anything I can do to optimize what's going through." She went back to the screen and reviewed the results of her last command. "Let's see--"

  She focused on the black screen again, studying the flows. Then a memory surfaced, and she cursed to herself, flipping through parts of the configuration, searching through the code with rapid, impatient flicks of her mouse.

  "Boy it's really getting stuffed," Don remarked. "I bet we get calls any minute."

  "You'd think folks would just remember what's going on," the female tech on Dar's other side muttered.

  Ah. Dar found what she was looking for. "I'm such a jerk sometimes."

  "Ma'am?" Don turned and looked at her.

  Dar sniffed and rattled her keyboard, muttering under her breath.

  "Air Hub, are you picking up the feed from the ATC? They're on the line here saying you're dropping it." Kerry's voice crackled over the speakers. "And, LA Earthstation, stand by, I managed another 24 transponder channels for you from Hughes."

  "Miami exec, this is LA Earth. We're standing by. We've got half dozen requests for upgrades from the government side."

  "Miami exec, this is the Air Hub. Stand by please we're checking."

  "LA Earth, this is Newark Earth, save a few for us, please. We have two dozen to your half," a harried voice answered. "Miami exec, any extra for us?"

  Kerry's voice sounded apologetic. "Newark, we're trying. They're absolutely saturated The only reason we got west coast space is the airlines are moving again and the requests from Vancouver have slacked off."

  "Miami exec, understood. Also be advised we were asked about our power trucks. The City wanted to know where we got them from. I told them they would need to talk to you."

  Dar kept typing, one ear twitching at the flow of complaints. She could hear the strain starting again in her partner's voice, and resolved to attend to that critical issue next.

  "Miami exec, this is Roosevelt Island," a new voice interrupted. "I have a cross-connect request here for new service? They said it was priority."

  "Roosevelt, it is. Please provide them service at my request," Kerry answered. "We've provisioned a ten mg slice for them. It's data services for AT&T. Tunnel them through to our common carrier point in Philly, please. They're expecting it."

  Dar looked up at the big board, her eyes lifting a little.

  "Okay, ma'am, will do."

  Dar wrenched her attention back to the screen, a set of changes already inputted, waiting for her confirmation. She hesitated then saved the changes without executing, and stood up. "Be right back."

  "THEY THOUGHT I was crazy. " Nan set a large cardboard box down on the desk Kerry was using, as its occupant was retrieving another cup of tea. "They were saying what are you going to play with it--is it for a LAN party? Can you tell us where?"

  Kerry chuckled as she returned, dropping back into her chair and rocking her head back and forth to loosen the tightening muscles in her neck. She glanced at her screen, then shifted her attention to the box and watched as it was opened releasing the scent of new computer equipment into the air.

  Plastic off gassing mostly, but also a hint of the chemicals inside. As distinctive as a new car, and occasionally as expensive. "Bet they did," Kerry said. "If they only knew."

  "If only," Nan agreed. "I told them I was buying it for my brother for his birthday," she admitted. "They wanted me to adopt them."

  Kerry chuckled. "Nerds."

  "They were glad for the sale." Nan opened the Styrofoam bag the machine was carefully encased in and slid it free, lifting it with both hands
and placing it on the desk. "I was the only one in there."

  Kerry folded her hands together and peered at the laptop. "Sexy," she said. "I think she'll like it."

  "Like what?" a voice at the door surprised both of them.

  Kerry looked across the room to see Dar entering, a cup in her hand. "Hey boss," she said. "How's it going?"

  "It's going." Dar's nose twitched and she made a beeline for the desk as she spotted the boxes. "What do we have here?"

  Nan's eyes widened and she stepped back from the desk, picking up the boxes and wrapping and getting hastily out of the way.

  "Hm. I like the color." Dar hitched one knee up and took a seat on the desk, handing her cup over to Kerry as she reached over to take hold of the laptop. "Drink that. You're froggy again." She picked up the laptop with one hand and set it on her thigh, opening the latch and lifting the screen.

  "Thanks." Kerry accepted the cup. "I've been drinking tea but it's not helping." She sipped the cold chocolate milk as she watched her partner. Then she shook her head a little, and glanced up at Nan. "Sorry. My manners went south there for a minute. Nan, this is Dar Roberts."

  Nan cleared her throat. "Hello."

  "Nan's been nice enough to run around for us the past two days. She went out to get your new toy, hon." Kerry unobtrusively gave her partner a nudge, distracting her from an apparently fascinating encounter with the laptop's BIOS.

  Dar's eyes lifted and met the woman's. "We've spoken on the phone," she said after a moment. "You do the inventory recaps."

  Nan blinked. "Um--yes, yes I do. Nice to meet you in person finally," she stammered a little. "I hope the machine's okay. It's pretty much the best they had."

  Dar bent her head to study the machine's screen briefly. "I think it'll be fine," she said. "Good choice," she added, with a smile. "Thanks for doing my shopping for me. "

  Nan smiled back. "Anytime."

  "Okay." Dar got up and circled the desk, dropping to her knees and peering under it. "Got a cable, Ker?"

  "Oh, wait, hang on-- I can do that--" Nan scrambled forward, hauling up as Kerry lifted her hand and waved her back. "But--"

  Dar's head popped up over the desk's surface, and her eyebrows hiked. "What?" She rummaged in Kerry's briefcase and disappeared again, with a grunt. "I hate these kinds of jacks. What moron had them installed here?"

  Kerry scooted out of her way a bit, and leaned on the top of the desk. "Miami ops, this is Miami exec. How are those transfers coming?"

  "Miami exec, this is Houston Ops," another voice broke in. "We have a bulk backup request from Cheyenne Mountain to secure storage, and a database parse. "

  "Acknowledged," Kerry said. "Are you mentioning it just because it's out of time range?" She almost bit her tongue when she suddenly felt warmth against the side of her knee and realized it was Dar's breath.

  "Yes, ma'am," Houston answered. "We can give them their standard bandwidth but if something comes up while it's transferring we're tapped."

  Kerry glanced down, to see twinkling blue eyes looking back up at her. "What do you think?"

  "What do I think?" Dar drawled, pressing her cheek against the outside of Kerry's leg. "Hm--" She watched the light blush climb up her throat before she relented, moving away and coming back up from under the desk with the end of an ethernet cable in her fingers. "Houston, let them go for it. I'll keep an eye on the pipe and if you start stressing it I can throw some compression on it."

  "Okay, uh--ma'am," Houston said. "Will do."

  Dar remained on her knees, plugging the laptop into the ethernet cable after she scribbled some numbers off the bottom of it. "Let me get at your session for a minute," she told her partner. "Miami ops, this is Miami exec. Stand by for a high speed encrypted image transfer. You're going to redline. No one freak out please."

  "Copy that, Miami exec," Mark's voice broke in. "I tanked the alerter."

  "All yours." Kerry slipped out of her seat and took her milk, retreating around the side of the desk to where Nan was somewhat awkwardly standing. She took up a spot next to the woman and sipped from the cup.

  "Thanks. So is the computer." Dar dropped into the chair and flexed her hands, cracking the knuckles of her fingers before she started typing on Kerry's laptop. "Hope to hell this thing isn't different enough hardware for the image to choke."

  "Dar's machine image is a one of a kind," Kerry said, conversationally to Nan. "She goes through laptops like popcorn, so we always have a snapshot ready. "

  "Oh," Nan murmured. "What's so different about it?"

  "Programs," Dar answered without looking up. "A handful of cranky, self written piles of code that do analytics on pretty much everything." She glanced at the paper, and then back at the screen. "Along with consolidated control consoles for the majority of the infrastructure."

  "And Gopher Dar," Kerry commented.

  "And Gopher Dar," her partner agreed. "Okay, Mark, here it comes, I ran it by mac."

  "Gotcha."

  "I'm going to clear out my inbox," Nan said. "If you all need anything, give me a ring." She backed away from the desk and escaped out the door, closing it quickly behind her.

  Kerry watched her go, then turned back to her partner. "I think you're scaring her, hon."

  Dar's brows twitched. "Me? I didn't do anything," she protested. "I thought I was being nice."

  Kerry gave her an affectionate smile.

  Dar hit a few more keys then turned to watch the newly purchased laptop. It blinked, then the screen shivered and blanked out, replaced by a spinning pirate flag. "Nice touch." She drummed her fingertips on the desktop. "This snap is from before I left for London, but I didn't have time to do much with it there so it should be all right."

  "Holy crap!" a voice echoed on the line through Kerry's laptop.

  "Didn't I tell everyone not to freak out?" Dar frowned, and tapped the mic. "Hold tight, people. This won't take long." She muted. "I hope." She leaned on the desk and tilted her head, peering over at Kerry. "We're going to have an issue."

  Kerry blinked mildly at her. "Another one?" she asked. "Dar, we've got a metric ton of them now, you're sitting there thinking of more?" She perched on the edge of the desk, swirling her milk in its cup.

  "Paradox," Dar said, succinctly. "We're going to need to be in lower Manhattan to make things happen."

  "Sure."

  "There's no damn comms or cell service in lower Manhattan. How do we make things happen if we can't communicate?"

  "Ah." Kerry frowned. "We have to bring comms with us then, I guess."

  "Miami exec, this is Miami ops, we just got a call from the banking center. They're saying they're seeing degraded response," a voice interrupted them.

  "Shoot." Kerry leaned over and hit the mic. "Miami ops, tell them we're aware, and we're working to clear space. Please remind them we have a lot going on."

  "Yes'm."

  'We've moved big chunks of data before, and not caused that." Kerry looked at her partner. "Is that you, really?"

  "Me, really," Dar admitted. "I prioritized the stream. Sixty more seconds and we're done. It would have taken a half hour otherwise." She drummed her fingers on the desk again. "I need those damn programs. I have structure diagrams from New York in one of them that might help us."

  "Do we have anyone local we can call--" Kerry let her voice trail off. "Boy, that was stupid. Sorry," she muttered. She got up and went around the desk, coming to kneel next to Dar so she could see the laptop screen a little better. There was a black window open, full of Dar's cryptic typing and she rested her chin on her fist for a minute, releasing a long sigh.

  Dar's hand immediately settled on the back of her neck, the strong fingers kneading the skin there with gentle sureness. "God, Dar. There's so much to do."

  "I know," Dar responded. "I just feel like taking off and going to the beach when I think about all the crap we've got to get through." She kept rubbing Kerry's neck, feeling the bones move under her fingers. "Not looking forward to it."


  "Me either."

  Dar reached over and hit a few keys. "Done," she said, keying the mic. "Miami ops, Miami exec. Transfers complete." She draped her arm over Kerry's shoulders then leaned closer and kissed her on the back of her neck, just above her collar. "Let's hope I don't have to do that again."

  "Honey, you can do that whenever you want." Kerry was content to remain where she was, one elbow resting on Dar's thigh as she listened to the chatter on the bridge call. To one side, she could hear the laptop rebooting and she struggled to gather her thoughts and go back to work as soon as she knew the machine was ready.

  "That's not a bad idea,' Dar said, suddenly.

  Kerry paused then cleared her throat gently. "What isn't?"

  "Getting someone local," her partner replied. "We need someone really local. Someone who knows people."

  They were both quiet. "I think Bob probably really knew people," Kerry said, finally.

  "Yeah."

  "Hello, hello, Miami?" Sherren's voice broke in. "Are you there?"

  Kerry reached over and hit the mic. "We're here. How are things there, Sherren?"

  "The phones came back on," the woman said. "We were all sitting in the boardroom just keeping each other company, and all of a sudden the phones started ringing off the hook in here. It's a madhouse now."

  "Sorry about that, Sherren," Kerry sighed. "I did ask AT&T to try and work us into their priority schedule."

  "No, hey, it's great," Sherren protested. "You don't know we couldn't make calls here or nothing, and now everyone can talk to their families. It's--that's the calls. People trying to talk to us, find out if we're okay."

  "Oh."

  "It's good. We're okay," Sherren said. "And oh my gosh. Oh, look. Mr. McLean just got here. I didn't know he was coming!"

  Dar leaned forward. "He wanted to be with you all there. He thought you could use some support, Sherren. He knows you all have had a terrible time."

  There was a long silence. Then Sherren's voice came back on, she was clearly in tears. "Oh," she gasped. "Oh, that's so wonderful. It's so wonderful people care about us." She sniffled. "We're trying to take care of each other."