by G M Steenrod
The black uniform had become iconic. To be seen wearing one was considered to be the ultimate mark of valor, as the risks of the duty were extreme.
“Let the Black Corp be our sword, the sword of civilization, in space!” she had said at the Corps inauguration. A small badge, emblazoned with a representation of the solar system, was added to the chest of every member of the Black Corp.
Ada had met Patrido, Cassie's father, one year before he had volunteered for space duty, when she was 16. They married 3 months after meeting. He had served one year as a Marine in space, and then came home to his young wife with the solar system on his chest, and a black beret on his head.
Even Ada's father had shown him some respect, grudgingly.
Lithome's power in space grew at an equal pace to that of the Black Corp. There were rumbles of a peace treaty being floated within the Congress, and the possibility of simply paying the privateer to “safeguard” the shipping lanes.
The President knew that these Congressional actions were a reflection of the dissatisfaction felt by the population and expressed throughout the common media.
The fundamental strategic problem of dealing with Lithome was that his supply source for ships was unknown. At the start of his piracy run, there were 112 manned ships in all of space. By the time of Black Corp being formed, there were 300. The bulk of those ships were pirate vessels and the Black Corp fleet. Piracy had curtailed the growth of mining and cargo ventures. It had also slowed the growth of the Mars colony. As a result, the total number of commercial ships had declined.
By the 7th year, Patrido had been promoted to Colonel due to his courage and strategic savvy. He was given the critical mission of locating Lithome's ship supply. He found it by tracing a radar component used in both Lithome's ships and Black Corp to a small manufacturer on Earth. That manufacturer turned out to be backed by a conglomeration of corporate buyers of Rare Earth metals.
A Black Corp unit detained the head of one such corporation, placed him in a space suit, and dumped him into the inky darkness of space with the sole condition for his return being the location of Lithome's supply source.
In 45 minutes, Patrido had the location of a hidden moon base. “Base” was a misnomer. It was a colony. Larger than that on Mars.
In the 8th year, Patrido led the assault he personally planned against the lunar base, with the approval of the Top Brass, and the President, now in her second term. The base fell quickly, but Patrido went missing following the explosive decompression of one of the habitats.
Lithome also disappeared, but with trillions in personal assets.
Cassie was 5.
Earth had its first lunar colony, which the President dubbed, on consultation with the war hero's young daughter, Patrido Lunar Colony.
CHAPTER SIX
Repairs
The cuff on Cassie's jumpsuit pulsed yellow. It was the warning for repairman. She was already down the hall from the solarium with Samuel following behind.
She slipped out her jumpsuit and let it fall to the floor. A service robot would retrieve it at some point. She was old enough to have experienced the transition to the rise of the simple service robot industry from the prior time of having only human labor. However, the presence of the robots quickly became unobtrusive, and unnoticed.
There was enough time for a brief shower, and then another more formal, more working jumpsuit. It was a dark gray piece worn purely for work.
“Looks like I'm on a jumpsuit trend today,” she said to no one.
A series of 3 red pulses of the cuff on her jumpsuit told her that the repairman had arrived.
“Can you meet me in my computer room, please?” she asked, speaking in the direction of her cuff.
'Yes, Madam.”
The computer room was a modest space, no more than a 10 by 10 space with a console and some storage racks. It was sealed against environmental contamination, with an airtight door and controlled ventilation.
Cassie entered the room, and the repairman followed shortly thereafter.
It was Merrick. He was a top notch technician, and she had worked with him before. He was dressed in a dark gray jumpsuit as well. They greeted one another.
“I see someone has good taste,” Merrick said.
“You wear it so much better, Merrick,” Cassie responded.
“You better believe it, Madam,” he joked. Cassie laughed lightly. “Can I see it, please?” he asked.
Cassie moved to the console, and keyed in commands with the keyboard. The computer room had some mechanical features that were only seen in space travel or in facilities located in harsh environments. The features provide an extra level of support in the case of some form of catastrophic failure.
There was a brief hum from beneath the floor. A cylinder, about a meter in diameter, rose from the floor. Thin mist rolled from thin silver tubes that composed most of the cylinder.
Merrick smiled. It was one of a few true quantum computers in a personal household that he had ever seen. All modern households had pseudoquantum chips in them. Most robots had some variant of a pseudo chip as well. A pseudo quantum chip simulated the quantum state, but wasn't in a truly quantum state. The hardware for cooling the true chip and creating the quantum environment couldn't be reproduced cheaply in the case of a household or at all in the case of a robot.
Cassie needed the tremendous computing power for her work. While she generated some scenes for mass household consumption, the general public was not seeing her creations in their full glory in their personal screen rooms. It was only in large public venues driven by true quantum computers that her creations were at their full power.
Only with a true quantum could she create for a true quantum.
Merrick plugged his diagnostic unit into a set of round, black ports in the cylinder. The logs flowed from the cpu to his terminal. He then initiated a series of tests to determine the stability of the cpu and the quantum environment.
2 minutes after the start of the tests, Merrick commented, “The cooling environment has been consistent and shows no fluctuation from the desired norm. All test values from the cpu are returning as normal. It's early in the redundant cycles, but there is currently no indicator of a failure.”
“Madam, the report detailed a shaking image aberration, and the failure of Alfie to recognize or record the existence of voice commands?” Merrick asked. With most any other client, Merrick would assume the client was at fault and prepare himself to cushion the client against the blow of the report that was essentially, “I'm sorry, but you behaved stupidly.”
Cassie's proficiency in working with the screen software made her a leading authority in the screens. She was not an engineer, but there was no university that would not offer her a teaching position if she so desired it. Dealing with her was a pleasure for Merrick.
Cassie, “Yes.”
“The analysis of the voltage logs is complete. Your power systems are all within normal, but there does seem to be a statistical increase in the the variation of the voltage. Nothing that should affect performance, but you may want to replace the power terminals as a precaution.” Merrick knew that Cassie had a surplus of credits. He wouldn't make the same recommendation for a person that didn't have such resources, however, what he was saying was a truthful assessment. A small but statistically significant increase in voltage fluctuations was occurring. It shouldn't affect performance for at least 50 more years.
Cassie looked at Merrick from her terminal, “That damn hum,” she thought.
“I'll check the buffers as well. The shaking you describe would most likely be the result of a failure in that system.”
Cassie sat while she waited for Merrick's report. Her jumpsuit conformed to her body shape as she sat. Subconsciously, she shifted her body to an alluring pose. Merrick remained by the pillar of cpu that had risen from the floor, like a priest in service. With detailed swipes, he gesticulated his way through the diagnostics. In revery, silent.
“It ap
pears...that there was also a small fluctuation in your buffers. Some small drops in the input voltage. It doesn't account for the shaking phenomena you describe, but it's not normal.”
At this point in technological development, voltage didn't fluctuate until about the 10th decimal place. Quantum technology didn't allow for it. The dirtier the power, the more likely that there was going to be some form of catastrophic quantum failure.
The fluctuation within the system buffers was well within normal, but with modern technology of the caliber that Cassie was using, it shouldn't exist.
“Do you think that what I saw was due to these failures?” Cassie asked.
Merrick looked up from the diagnostic terminal in his hands. He tapped the control pad embedded into his sleeve. His eyes locked on to Cassie.
“No. I don't. The type of changes I see in your system shouldn't be there, but at the same time they shouldn't cause the failures you are describing.”
Cassie sighed and shifted in her chair.
Merrick continued, “Madam, the type of work you do here has no real parallel. As you know, we have harnessed the power of the quantum, but we don't command it completely. It is more mysterious to us than it is known.”
“Are you a philosopher, Merrick? You sound like a philosopher,” teased Cassie.
Merrick answered unphased, but a hushed tone in his voice. “I can not be here. Near this wonder. And not feel it...at a philosophical level.”
“It's part of the fabric of the universe,” she said automatically.
“Yes! Yes, exactly. You have it there, exactly!” exclaimed Merrick. He was not a man prone to exclamations, but felt a kindred spirit with Cassie.
The words that Cassie had spoken had been Ada's. Ada had used a substantial portion of her fortune to get a direct connection to a prototype of a true quantum, and then to purchase one when it became available.
Cassie had recited the words her mother had spoken many times.
Most in Merrick's position would be envious of Cassie.
Seated there, in her dark gray jumpsuit, in the sterile white of the computer room, she belonged. It was not that she had an air of the unnatural about her. It wasn't that she was a technophile. The room needed her to express its nature.
Merrick, at a very primal level, lived in service. He desired to be in service. To him, Cassie was part of the mystery of the quantum. There was nothing about her that could be lowered to the level of being envied.
“Madam,” he said, calm once again.
“Merrick?” she responded.
“I recommend also replacing the buffers. As a precaution.” Merrick unplugged from the ports in the cpu column. “There aren't any other hardware abnormalities. Your only other possibility is software, or some form of cyber intrusion.”
Merrick waved his hand and the cpu column sank slowly, deliberately into the floor.
“Your software,” he continued, “is too complex and customized for me to analyze it with any certainty. Only you or your engineer could examine it. However, the analytic routines we ran on your firewall logs back at the shop indicates probing, but no actual intrusions.”
Some form of probing was always occurring on the vast Etheral network that connected everything with a simulated or true quantum chip. The ancestor of the Ether was the internet of her grandmother's generation, and the free cloud of her mother's generation. The Etheral network stored its own computing power, independent of the source hardware. The probes ranged from being malicious attacks seeking vulnerable data to benign attempts by the network to describe its own changing state.
“At least,” Cassie thought, “there was something.”
“Go ahead with the replacement order, Merrick. No reason to risk getting an unexpected failure. I assume it'll take awhile.”
Buffers and power systems were much more common than actual quantum hardware. However, it wasn't unusual to have to wait 1 to 2 months for the type of equipment Cassie needed.
“Madam, I will contact you with an expected delivery date once I return to the shop.” While high end production was automated, it still had a significant amount of human labor involved. Human labor made timetables less reliable.
Cassie gave Merrick a slight nod. He bowed in response, and packed his gear while Cassie turned to the console and manually brought the systems online. There was little reason for her to wait for parts to arrive since the system had been cleared. Kumar, she knew, would be pressing her for her project.
Merrick slipped out unbidden. Casual theft had disappeared as technology progressed and the monitoring by screens became ever present. Of course, theft was still present, but it now required sophisticated jamming to conceal it or the type of boldness demonstrated by Lithome. As a result, service people and bots were given free movement in homes and businesses once access was granted. A casual consumer would be disappointed to have to directly monitor either or to interrupt his or her daily life to deal with a service person.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Work
“Samuel?” Cassie called as she walked down the hall to the development lab.
“Samuel! Where is that little bug-eyed dog? Just can't be bothered.” Samuel had a knack for disappearing. Of course, she could deduce his location with the screens, but she loathed violating his privacy.
She entered the lab. “Alfie, bring up the scene.” The room around her transformed into the wooded pathway she had been working on. It had rained slightly. The path was muddy. The birds around her called loudly in celebration.
She watched the scene unfold around her, catching small details as they emerged and faded. The physical scene was mostly done, she judged. It was emotive. She could feel the relaxation, and sense of liberation from being in the scene.
It was compelling. It was as far as a scene like this could be taken. Now, the second stage of artistry could begin.
Cassie pulled a calligraphy brush from a small satchel adhering to her waist. She stroked a symbol into the air and it painted onto the screen as she did. With another gesture a small stack of images formed behind the symbol. Then she deftly added two more symbols.
“Play it.” The stack, known as an emotive glyph, sank into the image background. It was in the shadows and the turns of the leaves. It was unobtrusive, but shifted subtly to catch the eye. The disruption was interesting enough for the brain to mark the image as important.
She watched the area with the glyph intently and relaxed. As the seconds ticked on she found herself feeling happier. As the feeling of happiness built, she found herself filling with a subtle feeling of accomplishment.
A few seconds was a long time for an emotive glyph, but if the image had enough power to capture the eye for that period, subtle emotional textures could be conveyed.
The scene, strong purely in the form of an image, magnified its drama with the addition of that single emotive glyph.
Most scene designers used a stock set of emotives in their scenes. Stock sets did successfully stimulate emotional response, but they were blunt reinforcements. While the scene was emotive, it often seemed contrived—like the melodrama of a troupe of poorly trained actors. The more dull-witted application of glyphs could also fatigue the viewer, as the brain struggled to sort the sensory data.
Cassie's glyphs were custom tuned for her scenes. Of course, she had an advantage that other scene designers did not. Her mother had created the emotive glyph.
Her grandmother's generation had watched the rise of the personal media device, and with it the desire for simple, but very dense communication. It began with the emoji—a graphical representation of an emotional response.
It turned into image stacks, often times a short piece of video, played at high speed so that a viewer could experience the emotional gist of a more complex situation.
When screen technology exploded in popularity, Ada designed the encounter room that completely changed the experience of working with screens. Prior to her development, people had treated the screens li
ke large computer monitors.
Within the encounter room, Cassie watched her mother create scenes that were breathtaking even by today's standards. In many ways, Ada wrote the principles for effective design. While she did, Cassie, ever at Ada's side, absorbed those principles.
Despite her pioneering in the field, Ada disliked the limits of what could be achieved with scenes. She studied the influence of the emoji and video stacks and eventually created the emotive glyph. It was a dramatic advance in emotional content that gave Ada the added control that she wanted.
The key for the emotive glyph was the actual glyph. Somehow, they tapped into the subconscious and primed it to accept emotional information. Ada built the standard glyphs by herself.
