Elizabeth yawned. “I’m sure they were. Professionals are simply that. Professionals.”
“Oh, here we go,” Burt replied in his oddly never-changing tone. “I found a school not too far away that we can rent and which is willing to sub-divide its system so ONE R&D can have sole access to the data cable and ensure nothing routes through their core servers.”
“Yeah,” she said and wrote the information down. “Like I’d trust them to fix their firewalls appropriately.”
He paused for a moment. “Have I explained to you how much I like you?”
She smirked. “No, but a bonus goes a long way toward letting me know I’m appreciated. Just saying. The key to my heart is not to turn me into a goddess because I already am one. It’s putting the credits in my account.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Burt replied. “I have transferred the base information to your terminal, so we can discuss this further later. I have some system repairs to work on. If you need anything, you know how to contact me.”
“Mhmm,” Elizabeth replied.
She hung up and looked down as her tablet chimed to let her know her bank account had been updated. Flipping to the appropriate screen, she smiled. There’d been a new deposit. “Now, that tells me you really, really like me.”
Chuckling, she logged out of her account, slid the small tablet into her pocket, and grabbed her mobile. She had to get the team packing. With as much as it would cost to rent a university, they didn’t want to miss a second of the time they’d paid for. They had to be packed and ready to roll, ASAP.
As she reached over to turn off the desk lamp, she smiled. “Good thing I don’t do this for money or I wouldn’t need to work again for a decade.”
She walked out of her office, turned, and stared at where the symbol for ONE R&D floated on her screen. “Thanks, boss. I like you too.”
Chapter Sixteen
Stephanie, Elizabeth, Lars, Avery, Johnny, Frog, Brenden, and Marcus stepped out of their flying SUVs, their bags over their shoulders or across their backs. They all stared at the campus of Harbor Technology U in amazement. It was very appealing and so different from the compound, with broad, grassy lawns surrounding three tall buildings set close together.
It was nothing like Pinnacle. At that university, they’d manufactured virtual grass projected onto their grounds and other high-end pretensions. This college actually had the real thing. In the pods or out of them, they would be in a beautiful place.
A woman in a pencil skirt, matching suit jacket, and a white blouse walked across the grass to greet them. She must have paid attention to the pictures Ms. E had sent because she smiled as she stopped in front of her.
“You must be Elizabeth.”
Ms. E turned her attention to her and noticed the single strand of pearls at the woman’s throat. “Yes. I am. You must be Mrs. Braddock, head of the Administrative Division.”
“That would be me,” the woman confirmed with a little sidestep as if she were dancing.
She pointed to the building on the right. “On the bottom floor, you will find a large bank of pods. We don’t have our students stay in them twenty-four hours a day like some universities do, so your dorms are above them. The registrar has your room keys and allocations. I’m sure you can allocate them as you see fit. Let her know which names to assign each room in the database. The university’s IT specialist is scheduled to come by to check out the lines at—”
She stopped as Elizabeth shook her head. “No. I don’t want our pods to access your data, and I certainly don’t want my data on your side. That way, the Feds won’t have any access to our company’s proprietary information, and they won’t be able to accuse you of having a commercial interest so they can tax you to death.”
The woman’s face took on a look of concern and she touched the tip of her chin with her perfectly manicured fingers. “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that at all. In fact, none of my administrative or technology specialists have thought of that either. I would have assumed that such a liability for the university would have been common knowledge.”
Ms. E smiled and put her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “It is, but not everyone pays attention to that class in their Freshman year. Don’t worry, though. Trust me on this. I have both our organizations’ best interests in mind and I want this to go as smoothly as possible.”
Mrs. Braddock nodded vigorously in agreement, and Elizabeth continued. “I certainly don’t want any hiccups like having a Federation Navy or the Federation Governance Board coming in to take advantage of our information.”
She allowed a dramatic pause. “I need to know that the separation between the university’s information and our company’s is so secure even the Federation hacking teams can’t break through it. That process will also make the university’s data more secure, as well.”
Lars leaned over and spoke softly in Avery’s ear. “I’ll kick your ass so bad you’ll be bowing to the Master of War.”
Avery snickered. “More like the Master of Disaster.”
Elizabeth had left Mrs. Braddock and headed toward them. When she arrived, she clapped vigorously. “All right, kids, let’s go upstairs, decide your room assignments, and find your pods. I have a couple of things to take care of. Give the pods a general run-through to familiarize yourselves, but don’t start until I give you the word. This will not be fun if we wake up to find the whole of the Federation has studied us while we were in there.”
She pursed her lips and watched as the team hurried off, acting like children. Shaking her head, she followed Mrs. Braddock into the main building and took the elevator down to the server stations.
When they arrived, her guide looked at her. “Everything you will need will be right here. If you have any questions, let me know.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth replied, faked a big smile, and ignored the faint uncertainty on the woman’s face.
As soon as Mrs. Braddock had disappeared from sight, Ms. E dropped the smile, pulled her bag around, removed her laptop, and connected it directly to the system. The elevator opened again, and she paused as a guy in a Harbor Technology shirt walked over. “You Elizabeth?”
She looked down at herself. “Last time I checked.”
“I’m Joe, your consultant,” he said and shook her hand.
“Nice to meet you, Joe.” She clicked the button on her laptop to run the tests she needed to do. “I have taken the liberty of looking for any security slip-ups before you get in there. It should save you time.”
The computer dinged and they both leaned over to read what it had found. There were eleven more problems apart from the ones she’d found already. “Okay, so I need you to review and fix these and I need it done so fast you forget there used to be dial-up.”
Joe shivered. “That was the worst period of time in history. Sure, when it first came out it was slow, but we knew nothing else. When the wars were in full swing and all we could do was use dial-up service, I started to hate technology.”
Elizabeth gave him a half-smile and tried not to be too rude. Hopefully, he’d get the hint that she wasn’t there to debate technology, shoot the shit, or become bosom buddies. She needed the system online and secure or they would waste the valuable resources already invested in bringing them all the way out there.
As she stood, she unplugged her computer and gave him space to work. “Here’s the deal. I need you to make damned sure this system isn’t screwed with. No one enters or exits without my express permission, which you most likely will never receive because I can’t think of a soul I would share this with. I pay really well—which you already know from the fee I’ve paid to get you out here today. But the termination clause, if you screw me over, is a bitch. It’s not a bitch for me, it’s a bitch for you. And we aren’t talking a little fine or penalty.”
Joe caught the meaning in her eyes and swallowed hard before he nodded vigorously. “Right. It’s okay. I’ve got this. No one gets access to this system. Period. Or I will find myself
in a dark room with no windows and doors if I screw it up.”
She smiled brightly. “Good. I like you.”
The team stood around the pods, holding the specialized cleaning equipment as they gawked at the setup. Most of the guys hadn’t actually been inside a pod since high school or college. A few had used them briefly to gain specialized training, but after that, all they’d had was fieldwork.
Pods were like a party to them. They got to train without the painful aftermath. That and Frog was hell-bent on choosing a specialty outfit for his time in the Virtual World.
Stephanie was glad to see them so happy, but the pods were nothing new to her. She was used to being in them, even if one differed from another. Avery finished wiping the screens down inside the last one and stepped out of it before he dusted the top off. “These are really nice. Not Morgana quality but definitely nicer than anything I’ve been in before.”
Brenden and Marcus pushed buttons and watched the bed compression go up and down. “Yeah, I thought this university was more altruistic. We heard they were one of those asking for Federation bailouts but because they didn’t move with the status quo, they might not be able to stay open. I figured there would be like shitty beds in here.”
She stood and rubbed the dust from her nose. “This place is very new in the grand scheme of the universities. It was an altruistic effort but not funded well enough by ‘hard’ businesspeople who marry altruism to finances. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize that because of the way the Federation is set up.”
“Greedy and money hungry?” Marcus asked sarcastically.
Stephanie smiled as she continued. “They didn’t put enough stock in the businesspeople willing to invest. They didn’t realize that right now, with the way things are, corporate backing is essential. Investors are literally what makes the system work like it’s supposed to. They tried to do it all through public money. It didn’t work because those who had the money took it to the higher, older, and better-ranked universities.”
“So, what is ONE R&D doing renting here? Why didn’t we rent from one of the others?” Avery asked.
“Two reasons,” Lars replied. “One, security. This school understands our need for privacy and anonymity. They were willing to do whatever it took to secure our data and keep our data-stream separate from theirs.”
She nodded. “Yep. And number two is that the amount of money ONE R&D is paying will get them through the summer and part-way into the fall semester. It basically buys them time to find out exactly what they need to do in order to stay open.”
Brenden ran his hand over the outside of his pod. “Hopefully, they don’t sell out, but I guess with the system working against you, it’s not hard to see why some do.”
Elizabeth came down the steps into the server room and tapped her watch. “All right, buddy. Are we good to go or should I clear you a dungeon seat?”
The consultant stood and closed his laptop. “We’re all good to go. Rock solid, airtight, and worm proof. No one will get through that bitch.”
She raised an eyebrow and retrieved her tablet and cord. “Let’s double-check that, shall we?” she said as she plugged it in, ran a simulation, and scrutinized every line as it moved through the system. When it was done and her security suite gave it a green light, she smiled. “Good work. You get another day of smog-infused sunlight.”
Satisfied, she sent Stephanie a text, giving her approval for the team to start the training sequence. When she ended the call, she sat on the stool in the server room and exhaled a deep breath. “Now, we wait and see what happens.”
Chapter Seventeen
With the pods clean, the team had returned to stow their gear in their rooms. As soon as Stephanie received the go-ahead, they dressed in their pod gear and headed down again, ready to rock and roll. They didn’t know how long they would be in, and they didn’t care.
Technically, the machines were able to sustain their occupants for up to two weeks. The school only used them on a day to day basis, with one small four-day stint for intensive training immediately prior to exams. The guys didn’t care about that. They slid in quickly, leaving Stephanie and Lars on the outside to make sure the initial immersions went well before they joined them.
He gave her a crooked smile and she grinned in response as she dipped down, lay inside the pod, and pulled the lid closed over her.
The lights on the ceiling lit up at intervals and the cleaning solution’s floral and fruity smell surrounded her. She had to admit, she enjoyed being able to get in and out of her pod without being naked. That aside, from the controls and the wear on the cushion beneath her, she definitely missed the quality of the one made specifically for her. She hated even thinking it because it made her feel like the red-headed kid who had been behind her in the Gov testing line. Still, she couldn’t help it because her own pod was so damned comfortable.
The AI walked everyone through the procedure, took their vitals, hooked them up, and sent them into the Virtual World. As each Avatar appeared in the common room, they looked around and studied the small separate platforms on which each one stood.
It looked like a Federal military installation, but the older parts and gross smell screamed Dreth. When Frog appeared, he looked at his jumpsuit and shook his fists in the air. “Nooo. I had plans.”
Lars appeared beside him and smacked him on the back. “Sorry, buddy. You’ll have to play dress-up some other time. I’m sure we could set up a play date for you and Avery’s niece.”
Avery snorted, drew his gun, and examined it. “I wouldn’t leave him alone with my niece.”
Frog rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I never get a break.”
Everyone looked up as Burt’s voice echoed from above them. “Hello, team. For those of you whom I have not yet had the pleasure of working with or speaking to, I am Burt, owner and financier of ONE R&D. I wanted to take a moment to say hello before I hand you over to the administrator.”
Everyone responded with a greeting, although not very enthusiastically. BURT remained but altered his voice to that of an AI. “Greetings. I am Joan, your administrator and AI for this training session. This specific simulation was pulled from the Federal Navy operations vault. It was taken from a small operation that went bad for the Navy when they faced the Dreth on-world. The Navy uses this operation—or modified versions of it—to see if the gamers can come up with better tactics than their own men.”
“Why do I feel like that would be a yes?” Avery chuckled.
The AI paused. “Actually, you would be surprised. The simulation has a 96.9% fail rate for first-time users. The other 3.1% is made up of first-timers to the simulation, who have previous experience in virtual games like it. This is a very challenging scenario, but only a taste of what you will face once you have passed the simpler versions.”
Marcus frowned. “Did she say, ‘a taste of?’ Since when did AI’s use slang?”
The comment made BURT realize he was far more advanced in language than the typical AI. He hastily forestalled any other questions. “It is now normal for all AI’s to be updated with advanced language capabilities. We are not only shown the formal language but slang and historical terms, as well. This allows us to understand our user on a better and more accurate level.”
Stephanie rolled her shoulders. “So, Joan, what is the first scenario?”
The room spun around them and slid to a stop as the platforms on which they stood became a single floor. The world rotated, and they emerged in a frozen tableau between the Federation military and alien forces. In the center, more affluent individuals were negotiating for better assistance programs for the Dreth.
The AI explained. “This is one of the more horrific situations the Navy faced with the Dreth. They gathered for one of their usual political meetings where they discussed the reconstruction of Dreth and the issues the world might face under the Federation.”
Studying the scene, Stephanie found it hard to believe, but the AI continued. “This meeting w
as what sparked the fires of revolution on Dreth. It was the point where discussion ended and violence spread beyond the pirate world itself.”
A short silence followed as though the AI gave them time to consider the importance of the scenario before it continued. “One important thing to keep in mind is that the Federation’s representatives had to be familiar with Dreth physiology and movement in order to realize that their representatives had been substantially offended. Had they known that, they would also have known that the only appropriate and permissible course of action for Dreth leadership was, at that point, a martial response.”
Avery raised an eyebrow. “Why does that sound like it was a very bad thing?”
The AI continued. “If you miss the appropriate physical cues, you will be unable to discern the Dreth preparing to do battle directly in front of you. That is a surprise that no human wishes to encounter—and one which no one survived in the original scenario. Now, prepare your weapons and remember, you are soldiers and guardians of the Federation, so act accordingly.”
The AI faded when BURT muted his presence so they would assume he wasn’t there. As the simulated presence vanished, the scene came to life and the team focused on the humans, who talked between themselves before they turned to the Dreth.
The man at the table folded his hands in front of him and stared at the alien lord as if things were a joke. “We understand that you want to keep your world as you see fit. But if you want our help, you’ll have to let us advise you of any changes you need to make to how things are done here. We may find better ways—more efficient ways—to help. Hell, we may even learn better ways to handle things on Earth from you.”
The man leaned back and spoke to his Federation companion from the side of his mouth. “Like how to walk around in a shithole and not contemplate the genocide of an entire race.”
Witch Of The Federation (Federal Histories Book 2) Page 17