“You know this will reduce the processing capacity of the Tri-State area?” Jordin was a pretty typical executive; all be it one who had been in the industry and even research before. His point wasn’t an unreasonable one, and not a jab at Yun’s intelligence. At least, that’s what she tried to tell herself between grinding teeth.
“I know it will. But, we need the processing power to untangle these logs. Even if we said the Cent- I mean Dreamgate, has extra entropy to spend, without knowing why, how or what it looks like we can’t do anything with it.”
Gloria was also in the conversation, her VR avatar showing the same glassy, vacant eyes from earlier. Eyes that likely matched her features in reality too. Thankfully, she was at least smart enough not to say anything stupid. Which meant she was silent for most of the conversation.
“Ok. I’ll approve the emergency transfer of time on the frame, but you’ll have to explain it to Erwin.” Jordin’s normally flat face cracked a small smile at that comment. Erwin was not known for being easy to work with. Yun could deal with that though.
In fact, Erwin wasn’t that difficult to deal with. At least not in the way most people would think. All she needed to do was offer some of her online credits, that she never used and remind him that Jordin said it was ok.
The rather over weigh and pall man tilted his head as she asked and responded with, "If Jordin said it was ok. Then I guess it's OK. He’s not my boss, but he’s right next to her. The override system can be deactivated remotely, but to activate you’ll need to be in person. Let me get you a passcode…”
Yun stared at the large collection of digits, letters and symbols that had been sent to her. Almost no one used a password system anymore, they weren't particularly secure. It seemed amusing somehow, that one of the largest computers on the planet would be unlocked with such a simple idea. But it probably didn’t matter too much. Access to that floor was already extremely restricted, if you were there you probably had a right to be. This was mostly a safeguard to ensure you were in the right system. At least, that's what she assumed.
“Good morning Dr. Wakamina! It’s currently 9:42AM, you’ve been in the building for a long time. Perhaps you should have a rest?”
Gerg was his usually insufferable self. No one had asked his opinion least of all her.
“Thank you for that George. Basement, level LL5.”
“My name is Greg. Level LL5 it is!” The AI remained quiet on their trip down, and Yun was thankful for that. As it stopped and the doors opened, it left her with a minor warning. “Please note, you only have temporary access to this floor. This access will be rescinded before the end of the day so please don't leave anything behind. Goodbye, Dr. Wakamina.”
In the basement many large systems with a few pale lights glowed at her. These were the last generation of somewhat normal, quantum processors. Thought to be the largest possible using conventional technology. They used a sparce and super-heated plasma to do their calculations. Normally they’d decay away, thermalized by their own electromagnetic noise. But thanks to the tightly controlled environment that didn’t happen, instead, hundreds of thousands of atoms were held suspended in various fields. The distorted electron orbitals give rise to several dozen quantum states, all of which were entangled by precisely controlled and quanta of light. In short, it had computational densities that made her optronic setup look like a toy.
Yet, even these paled to what she was really after down here.
It was the one at the end of this hallway, behind a large black and white surface that stretched several hundred feet in each direction. This was what she was interested in. One of her prototype arrays. This quantum processor was nearly a hundred times larger than the rest and was designed to push those high energy particles together far enough, to form a temporary quantum singularity. It would evaporate of course, as soon as it formed, but it was enough time and had enough processing density to be worth the energy. Over a trillion, trillion qubits of data could be processed in each collision, and they could perform thousands of collisions a second.
All around the world, there were at least a few hundred of these auxiliary processors used to untangle and parse out the Dreamgate gate's data, and now, she was going to use this one to probe exactly what was going on up there.
Pushing on one of the smooth black panels a keyboard tray popped out, the main interface to the system. It was kept physically isolated to prevent what she was about to do, hijacking the processor for her own needs. Of course, she had permission.
Next to the board was a single slot, about an inch wide. Yun pulled out a small plastic covered glass stick and stuck it in the optical reader. Quickly, a set of words and instructions appeared on the terminal screen.
“Suspend Current Jobs and Execute?”
Below it, a field seeking a password. An old and archaic security measure, and yet, almost no modern data thief would think to use it. She typed in the code Erwin gave her and hit ‘Enter’. A light thump could be heard as the accelerators reset themselves and began to entangle the new data into the particle stream. They had to be carefully aligned, any miss-alignment would cause a rotation, which would damage the data. Inject what always seemed to be pure noise.
Around the city, a momentary hiccup was seen and felt by a few as this auxiliary processor failed over. Most people didn’t even notice it.
Her simulation would take close to an hour. Orders of magnitude faster than what she could have done in her office. Still, nothing compared to the central core, which would process trillions, and trillions more each second. Each group of transactions, partial records, flitted by on the screen. Transaction counts increase, she saw the numbers not creep up, but out right explode. Each one, far, far larger than it should have been. It wasn’t just the numbers though, inside that data stream was something else. A shadow of the physical processes going on in that deep, dark quantum well. She couldn't see that yet but would soon enough.
With only a few transactions left to go, the processor stopped with another thud. Her program was suddenly interrupted. A set of red words appeared on screen. “Forced override. Current job deleted. Suspended jobs to resume.”
Almost by instinct, Yun pulled her glass drive from the data port, as another small error on screen appeared, “Unable to erase external device.”
A sudden vibration at her hip and she could see Erwin was calling her from her tablet. "Asher said to stop. I had to interrupt your job. Sorry Dr. Wakamina, but he's technically higher than Jordin.”
“I need to finish this simulation, if I don’t I can’t-“
“Again, I’m Sorry Dr. Wakamina. Next to Sally, Asher is my boss. Talk to her or talk him, but until I hear from one of them, all external jobs are stopped and normal processing will resume.” Her tablet disconnected, and she was left alone in the basement.
The system spoiled back up its original program and restarted with another thud. Again, the people in the surrounding cities saw the briefest hiccup in their data stream as the system began reprocessing their requests.
For the second time today, Yun yelled into the empty darkness. It took all her effort to keep from kicking the machine in front of her. Staring down at her hand, the optical data drive flashed as some light reflected off of its insides. At least she had more usable data now. A lot more, but it was still incomplete. She’d need time to analyze what she had. It was probably enough for a rough picture anyway.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Why would that damn AI tell her to stop?
“Hello again, Dr. Wakamina! Please note your access to this floor has been restricted again. Please ensure you have your positions with you as I will be unable to bring you back for them.”
“Thanks George.”
“My name is Greg, and you’re welcome. Dr. Wakamina.”
Standing in the elevator, her data tablet buzzed again. This time it was both Jordin and Gloria. Neither seemed particularly happy when she saw their face. “Yun, what’s going on over there? Asher just sent everyone in the c-suit a secure message that you were risking the stability of the Dreamgate?”
“What? No, I just borrowed one of the Auxiliary processors. It failed over like normal-”
Gloria decided to butt in, “Jordin, I am so sorry for my subordinate. I’ll talk to her as soon as-“ There was a click sound as she was disconnected from the stream by him.
“I don’t need to deal with that woman’s ass kissing right now.” Jordin took a breath.
As happy as Yun was to see her boss kicked from the chat, it also concerned her. Jordin wasn’t a bad guy, but he was a very serious individual. He didn't talk to you unless he needed too.
“Look, I don’t think you did anything wrong here. I gave you permission after all. The building logs say you’ve been in the office for more than a day. Go home and we’ll discuss this tomorrow. After I get more data.” With that the call ended.
"Should I take you to the first floor, Dr. Wakamina?"
The building's AI heard Yun yell for the third time that day.
In many ways, walking outside the office building felt like a relief. There was still that grating feeling in the back of her mind about what just happened. The thought of her problem being pulled out from under probably hurt more than anything else. She was never into video games, per-say. But logic puzzles and problems, those were like candy to her.
To have such a tantalizing and savory problem closed in front of her without a solution was, almost painful. Inside her pocket she could feel the optical data drive still. No doubt it was somewhat corrupted from the pull out not to mention being incomplete. But, maybe a part of the problem still existed, just enough.
It was risky to take company data outside the office like this. In theory, she could be fired if it was discovered. Given the hot water she was currently in, it seemed like tickling the dragon's tail.
A part of her didn't really care though. It wasn’t like she believed they would actually terminate her for this, they were just mad about disrupting Dreamgate processing, and really not even that but Asher's message. Whatever it actually was. And even if they did somehow terminate her, what did it really matter? Everyone in the world received a stipend every month, it's not like she would starve.
Plus, she could always go back and work for her old University if the worst happened, under Professor Shroder. The thought of that doddering old man gave Yun chaotic mind a quiet moment pause. He had to be nearly a 110 now. She knew he was still alive, but maybe she should take a vacation and visit her old mentor, before it did get too late.
The sting of sleeplessness burned at her eyes. None of that mattered right at that moment. Yun, just wanted to go home.
The city was emptier than one might expect. Occasionally a person might be seen walking about, often with some kind of head set on. Robotic taxis and delivery vehicles moved about. But, compared to even twenty years ago, it was so much less. 75 years ago, this place would have been bustling. People running to work or school. Grabbing a cup of coffee or just wandering the streets. Most of that changed after the pandemic of the early 21st century. It never really returned to the way it was.
Raising her hand, she flagged down one of the many buses that ran. Like the city, it too was empty. Kept running by a city hall that thought there were more people about than there really were, and not caring what the data actually said. Not that it really mattered, they were cheap enough, run and maintained by AIs.
Yun wouldn't go far on this bus. There was a train she would take down the streat. The train, that again, was empty. Except for the three people she passed, lost in their VR headsets. The one work a jacket from Boson University. Yun wondered if he had been on the train the whole way from Massachusetts.
Like the bus ride her train ride wasn't very long, barely 15 minutes and she was off. Still in the city, just a less built-up version near the outskirt. Apartments lined this area. Mid-scrapers, mostly no more than 10 stories tall. Unlike the large downtown spaces, a few more people walked around here. Some had dogs, some carried bags. All seemed to have some kind of headset about them. Yun was the one out of place here.
Her apartment block wasn't anything special, newer but not new. She picked it because it was close to the station, and nearby to one of the few sit down restaurants that still existed. Though, who knew for how long. The door to Yun’s flat opened silently. She hadn’t been home in nearly two days, and she desperately needed a shower, and a lie down. But first, would come Bob. It wasn't like he could take care of him self after all.
Before she could fully enter the apartment though, the giant dog cage nearby caught her attention. It was wide open. Her heart skipped a beat. "Bob? Where are you?" Yun called in the space, her voice held a slight tremble of concern.
Yun slinked into the apartment, careful to close the door behind her. "Bob~?" she called again.
Suddenly and without warning, Bob attacked Yun's ankle with his fuzzy nose, and a light nip from his teeth. The rabbit bounced a few times on its back legs as it recognized her familiar scent. It was suddenly quite happy, for a rabbit. “Oh, bob. How did you get out? You cleaver little fluff ball.” Carefully she dropped down to pick up the black and white Rex rabbit, who quickly began licking her nose.
“I let him out.” From the side bedroom her sister, Arial, appeared. “You need to take better care of him. It’s not good to leave him cooped up by himself all day.”
“I know…” A rare smile crossed Yun’s lips as she sat on an old, but particularly fluffy couch with the fluffy creature in hand.
“What are you doing in my apartment anyway?” Her attention remained fixed on her slightly neglected furry friend.
“Just checking up on my sister. Grand ma’s birthday was last week, you never showed up.”
Yun doubted that the real reason her sister was her. Not that it really mattered. “Sorry, just busy at work. Where you waiting long?”
“That was your excuse last year too, and just an hour or ten.” Arial mumbled the last part, which
Arial sat down next to her sister and gave the rabbit a few pets of her own. "You know, if you know if you're not going to be around to take care of him, I could take him down to dad's farm."
"Noooo…" She couldn't help but hug the bunny just a bit too tight as it weaseled it's way out of her grip. Yun was never much for human company, but animals were sometimes ok.
"You didn't even want the rabbit to begin."
"No, but he's grown on me." Again, Yun rubbed at her eyes. "Look Arial, I'm glad to see you, but I am kind of tired. Were you planning on staying long?"
"I was actually hoping I could stay a few days, again."
It was hard, but she stifled a laugh, "I don't know why you don't just dump him. Not like he'd notice."
"I have thought about it, but there's something nice about coming home to someone."
"Does he even know when you come home? He's always in the VR setup."
"Yeah, but I can join him…."
Yun sighed. She always felt like a person born too late. It was hard to empathize with her sister or most people in the modern era. It wasn't that she couldn't see their point. Everything in the world felt like it was running down and VR just offered, an escape.
"Well, you can use my guest room. You're probably already set up in there anyway."
Arial hugged her sister before bouncing off to the kitchen. Likely to raid Yun's Spartan ice box. On the other hand, Yun retired to her bedroom, only to hear her sister's cry from outside her door.
"You know you don't have anything to eat."
Her room was the largest of the two bedrooms. With a moderately sized computer workstation and desk. She had thought about converting the other bedroom into an office space and making her sister, really the only one that ever visited her, sleep on the couch. As much as the idea did amuse her, in truth, Yun liked it when her sister visited her. Even when she crashed for several weeks unannounced.
No, Yun wouldn't or couldn't do anything to jeopardize the connection she had with one of the few people who still seemed to inhabit the waking world. At least occasionally.
One the side of the room opposite the workstation, was a rather comfortable and tempting bed. Yet, as much as she was enticed, this problem was more titillating than any sleep. Pulling up her office chair she flopped into it, and pulled up next to the workstation which was more a tower.
The system was powerful, for its size. Inside that tower was a fairly power quantum co-processor. Like her quantum frame in her office, but much smaller, and still large enough to run the models she wanted. It was good for sketching out those late midnight ideas would sometimes come to her.
Plugging her optical data drive in, she was pleasantly surprised to see most of the data was intact. Only a few parts were missing and damaged. In all about 94% of the transaction records had been fully decoded and compiled. Quickly she began mapping the record index with the physical location of where the records came from. The first thing she needed to do was see how data was moving around the singularity. In theory, it should have been linear.
Very quickly though, something made it self evident. A wobbling in the transaction numbers and the location. Like waves in space, distances that were both longer and shorter than they should have been. Like the singularity was actually dragging the very fabric of space with. There was a term for that phenomenon, one that should not have been occurring with this system.
The quandary was more energizing than any coffee. Perplex, Yun whispered to herself, “Where is this frame dragging coming from?”