Sometimes, I wished I just had a little time to relax. And, someone to enjoy it with. Daddy was always packing for the next business trip. We mainly talked on the phone. Now that I was 18, Mama went with him and I watched my younger siblings. That could be a full-time job. Jo tried to help, but she’s 16 and the others don’t listen. Especially my daredevil brother Karl, who’s 14. Jo and I are in high school but we don’t share any classes together as we hoped. Quiet Rose started middle school and I see her crying a lot. She’s 12 and in 7th grade. And Karl teases her so I can’t get a min to ask her about it. He’s there with her, but thank goodness, he’s not in her classes to torture her! Allison is 8 and in elementary school in 3rd grade. She feels left out because none of us are in her school. Millie was, until she died of COVID. At 5. Not many kids die of that, but she had Down’s Syndrome and caught everything. It went into pneumonia. She was due for heart surgery, but every time they scheduled it, she caught something, and they rescheduled. If I think about that much, I’ll cry and I won’t get any work done!
And, I’m going to graduate high school with my Associates in Business Data Processing from GSU, and I work 15 hours a week at GSU learning Fortran in the Math Department, helping write research software for faculty. Here I am snarfing a Reuben at Highland Bakery and shivering at an outdoor table before I go to that job, and my brain is mush. Gotta get techie, but I’m tired!
A handsome fella walked in and came over. “Excuse me, can you help me find the library? All the doors are marked Authorized Personnel Only, and I fear to enter the GSU campus.” He wore a deep blue pinstriped suit with a diagonal sash in lighter blue. Lots of sparkling pins. Wonder what that’s for?
I swallowed. “Oh, that’s just to deter people from coming on campus who don’t want to use the library or study. If you have a reason to go in, even if you’re just looking for a snack in the Refectory, it’s okay. I’m almost finished, and I’ll walk you down.” I smiled and took the next to last bite. Drank some of my coke. Seemed to take longer than I thought it would and I almost got choked, but the last bite took less because I sipped with it. I wiped my face and tossed my empty containers. Kept the coke, hoping I’d be able to finish before we got to General Classroom Building. I put my Milky Way mask back on. “Okay, let’s go!”
He had blond curls that bounced and a very athletic build. His mask was plain deep blue. I’m smiling too much.
Quickly, he held the glass door that led to the interior of the restaurant.
Our hair’s almost the same color, but I have to work at curls. “I am Farleikon, Diplomat Of Esta Faho, but for you, I am Farley.” He gave a very formal bow with one leg far behind him. Quite a feat in this crowded dining room! Tables and chairs taken from the main part made stacks beside the patio door. Social distancing leaves most seats taped.
“I’m Ella Farnsworth. Pleased to meet you, Farley! Call me Ella, if you please.” I gave a curtsy in my middie length skirt. Loved the purple ruffles. My dress shirt has a spaghetti stain from last week and it didn’t come out in last night’s wash. This white sweater vest isn’t white as it should be. I kept sipping that Coke. Really, I should’ve gotten a juice. Almost got a cold headache. If I burp, I’m gonna die!
He took my heavy backpack with my PC in it and offered me his arm. “May I, Ella?” Oh, his smile made my heart flutter, even behind that mask!
“Thanks, Farley!”
At the outside door, he held it yet kept my backpack on his shoulder. A careful fella.
“What do you study?”
“At the moment, Business Data Processing, but next term, I’ll start my Bachelor’s in Computer Science. Because of my part-time job, I’m learning Fortran, so I’ll have a head start, since I already took BASIC and COBOL. But, these days, C++ and Java are more important, so I’ll be learning as many computer languages as possible.”
“I see. So you enjoy programming?”
I laughed. “I do, but getting my programs to run takes a lot of time. Once they do, I rush home and I soundproofed my room so I can use my Ham radio to talk to whoever’s up that late. Don’t have much time during the week, but I try to put in some hours on weekends so I can help with service projects. I practice my Spanish a lot, but dialects are hard sometimes. People come here from so many Spanish-speaking countries, they pronounce the same words differently or use words I haven’t learned.”
“Ah, you enjoy meeting people from other places, then?”
We paused to hit the crossing button at Courtland. “Yes, very much!”
“Then, what do you think about SETI? The treaty, with the UN?”
“Oh, I’m very excited about it! I hope the UN passes it. Imagine, we can trade with people on other worlds, and maybe swap info to other galaxies!” We crossed too quickly and there was that door marked Authorized Personnel Only. He opened it for me.
“Congrats, you’re Authorized now!”
Farley laughed. “Very well! I am happy to be Authorized.” We walked up the ramp and down the hall. How will he ever find his way back? We joked about Kell Hall being designed so the Psych students could time how long we students took to work our way through the maze. Kell Hall used to be a parking garage before they converted it for classrooms.
I showed him how to find his way to Sparks Hall, then we emerged on the Plaza. “I have to go to the right, but the library’s across that way.” I pointed to the five-story older building. “It connects to the newer building by that bridge across Decatur Street, but signs will help you get to it if you need a book that’s there. Good luck!”
“Thanks! Oh, let me give you this.” He put a green cube in my hand that fit into my palm. “Here is one of our computers. Feel free to test it. I think it has capacity to run any size program you write.”
“Really? I’ll try it! How do I turn it on?” There wasn’t a button.
“I am ready for input. Merely speak, and I will act.” The voice was Farley’s.
“Wow. Thanks, Farley!”
He bowed again. “Perhaps I see you when you are finished.”
“I’d like that! Good luck with your research!”
I rushed off to my job and put in my three hours. But I kept seeing him in my mind, his graceful wave and confident walk across the concrete squares of the Plaza.
I found it easy to make a Bluetooth connection with my workstation PC. My program usually took 30 min to run. With this little cube, 2!
My prof stared at it. “What’s that?”
“A computer someone gave me to test.”
“Farley, Diplomat Of Esta Faho gave you this unit to keep. It is his gift to you. If someone else wishes one, I will ask a diplomat to come to them.”
“Oh, I would love to try one! I am Brandon Apfelberg, in General Classroom Building 1067. There will be someone in our office, 1000, at 8:30 am tomorrow.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“A diplomat could come now, if you like. He is in your library doing research, and he is finished.”
“Well, if he has time, I’m available.” Dr. Apfelbaum gave his skeptical smile.
Five minutes later, in walked Farley with a green cube. He bowed to Dr. A. “My terminal notified me that you would also like one. I am happy to make it my gift to you. We wish to give many of these out.”
“Thanks a lot! My student is getting much more work done than I am on this project! We’re grateful for the help.”
“What is the project? Perhaps I can help.”
Dr. A explained, Farley brought up a holo screen and my code, then my professor’s code. A permission screen came up for each of us and we let him see. He made a few changes in mine and ran it. Data scrolled. His filter got everything I was trying to get, and nothing else!
His was more complicated. He had test results for trial runs of a new scientific software for data research, and his gray eyes widened. His eyebrows flew up! “I’ve been working on this for two years, and you just walked in and solved my problems, in minutes? How long have you been writing Fortran?”
“I did nae learn Fortran, our AI showed me where to make changes for the results you said you wanted.” Farley smiled.
“How do you do this? I want to learn!”
He spent the last hour showing him how to go into another screen and define variables. A screen I hadn’t seen him using. Dr. A got very excited. “You can define subroutines in different computer languages! I’ve never seen most of these models!” He often mentioned computer languages that were experimental that I’d never seen mentioned in my courses, but Business Data Processing is just an Associate’s program. This job was a total stroke of luck, that my prof, the head of the Computer Science program, recommended me to Dr. A, and that course was Intro To Computer Science, my last course in BDP for people going on to major in it. Wow.
And, my part of the project is finished! “Friday, Miss Farnsworth, I will start you on Phase B. Your work is excellent. And, with this AI, we will both finish quickly, if I can get my part to run suc--” A screen scrolled up. He went pale. “It ran, the first time?” Anyone in programming knows, if you have a complex program, you might run it hundreds of times to get all the bugs out. He brought up the next program. It also had a successful test. All in the series of 12, all the menu items for the entire software, all of it ran! No bugs. “Miss Farnsworth! You and I will be beta testing this software! All of our faculty do research. I’ll email the link to all of them, to test it! Mr. Farley, I can’t thank you enough! I expected this phase to run five years, and we were very behind schedule because I needed 50 as skilled as this young lady to help in this project, and we had funding for one!” His gray eyes had the wide-eyed kid look! Probably, mine do, too! And, the more I see of Farley, the more I like.
“O, I am happy to help! Call on me if you need me, but I think our AI will serve you well.”
“Have the SETI folks talked to you? I’ve done some work for them in the past, and they can’t get enough volunteers.”
“Our team has many programmers, and they have been collaborating, yes.”
“Is that how they progressed from prime numbers to a treaty so fast?”
Farley paused. “Ah, they had help from the aliens, for that.”
Dr. A held up the green cube. “Is this alien tech?”
“Yes, it is. Our diplomatic team plans to speak with local leaders, to gain support for the Alliance Treaty, so we contacted SETI. Our countries work together because Earth needs solutions, for poverty, environmental issues, to put technology into the hands of every person on Earth so her leaders can respond to their needs.”
“If every person on Earth had one of these, we could do so much!”
“It is part of the Treaty.” My heart skipped a beat!
Dr. A smiled, big. “I will have to go home and read all of it! It’s been a pleasure, Mr. Farleikon.” We said goodbyes and Dr. A locked up. He put his cube in his pocket. I had it in the pocket of my skirt and it didn’t weigh much. Such a little miracle!
Farley carried my backpack for me and the three of us walked down to the elevator. Dr. A had a lot of questions for him. The doors opened, and there sat a purple limo!
Two men stood there with the limo’s doors opened. “Excuse us, Dr. Apfelbaum, but this is our ride. Ella, would you like a ride home?”
I didn’t expect this! “Yes! Thanks!”
Dr. A shook his hand again and left for his car. Farley helped me in. “Wow! This is awesome! I never saw a purple one. Even the inside is purple!” Such a bright, bluish-purple.
“This is the Atlanta Alliance Embassy limo. There are 500 of us, give or take, working together in Atlanta.” Of course, I had no clue how many people worked at an embassy. I knew Atlanta had some.
They closed the doors and we eased out into the parking garage. Farley opened a compartment with soft drinks and snacks. All my faves were there. I chose a protein shake, even though I really didn’t need the calories. “Thanks! Aren’t you going to have some, Farley?”
“O, I shall eat later. Ella, I need to tell you something.”
“Okay, go ahead. Let me guess. You’re one of the aliens, right?” I giggled.
He didn’t. “I wish nae to frighten you.”
“You are?” My heart quivered.
Slow yellow seeped into his skin. His hands became smoother with two rectangular flat fingers. He shook all over. School bus-yellow skin.
I trembled. “Should you be so close to me? Will you catch something? COVID might be deadlier to someone from another planet!” I could see the headline now. Alien Diplomat Dies Because Of Earthan Virus.
Farley laughed. “I have protection! I wish to tell you that we have help for this. We brought aandats.” He waved and a holo of white gel undulating in a clear cube appeared. “With this, you gain telepathy in 2 to 3 days, immunity to all disease, and you nae need a rest room ever again. She is my gift to you, and we brought enough for every man, woman and child of Earth.”
I stared at it. “It’s alive?”
He waved and wore a T-shirt and jeans. Pulled up the short sleeve. White came to about a fourth of the way between his shoulder and elbow. “You may touch, if you like.”
I very gently let my fingertips make contact. “It’s soft, like plastic. So, you wear it?”
“Some describe it as a living T-shirt and shorts.” He turned darker yellow in the face.
“Oh, I’m embarrassing you! I’m sorry.” I pulled the short sleeve down and smoothed it.
“There is more. A member of our team sees futures for certain persons. She showed me yours, and mine. This is why I came to you.” Farley trembled.
“Why’re you shaking? Are you all right, Farley?”
“May I show you, with my telepathy?”
One of the people up front turned to us. “Farley, maybe you should wait and have your healer near--”