I knelt down and popped open the side panel on the server and looked inside. The damage Alyssa had caused when she put her fingers through it looked like it was only physical damage to the casing, but I knew shards of it must have broken away and fell into the server itself.

My AI Amanda brought up the saved files with the detailed diagrams of the old server that I had in my personal space, and displayed them on the vidwall. I studied them extensively, and compared them to what I had in front of me. It was almost identical; but, the one I had used more wires and had more connections. So, instead of working through the old diagrams and potentially miss some random component that might have been added, I decided it was best to model what I had and work from that.

I grabbed the portable digital scanner from my work area and started to pick through the parts I could see. The old diagrams gave the rendering program a huge advantage over starting from scratch, and I used it's information relentlessly as I examined each part and added it to the 3D model. I recorded each and every connection and marked both it's entry and exit points, which direction they flowed, and then removed them. The components inside were next, and I repeated the process over and over again until there was literally nothing left inside. Parts were scattered all over my apartment, and I couldn't believe how much work must have gone into it the first time it had been assembled.

I sat back and waited for Amanda to compile all of the physical information for me, and looked at the small pile of metal shards that I had found on several of the old circuit boards. I sighed in relief that I hadn't hooked it up to a power supply and tested it to see if it worked, because the small metal pieces could have caused an unknown amount of damage by touching soldering points together and shorting out components that I was pretty sure couldn't be replaced. At least, not without a lot of Points and a lot of waiting for them to be found.

“It's done.” Amanda said, and brought up the render on the wall display.

“Oh, nice.” I said, and looked at the server. It looked brand new. At my command, Amanda gave me the exploded view and all the parts separated into their individual components. “That's great!” I said. “It even picked up the linkages for the internal lighting system.”

“I especially like the liquid-cooled infrastructure.” Amanda said. “You can say what you want about primitive technology, but that right there was pure genius.”

“It is.” I said and nodded. “It's not a quiet system, though.” I pointed to the dozen fans in various areas to stop moisture from building up on the coolant system. “When this thing was brought up to full run capacity, I bet it sounded like a dozen bee-hives.”

“You've never heard it?” Amanda asked.

“I didn't even know it existed until the Archive AI told me about it.” I said, then looked back at the physical version. “I'm really tempted to rebuild this thing with current technology.”

“Then do it.” Amanda said. “By the looks of it, it's not going to last much longer as it is.”

I nodded reluctantly. Even though it had been in a sealed environment for years, the circuit boards were still starting to degrade. Dust had gotten in through the holes in the damaged case, which made everything worse, and I regretted that I didn't think of covering them up before the trip back home.

Rusty barked, and I looked up at him. He stood by the door and wagged his tail, and I remembered he did that when someone was coming. I very carefully stepped through and around the components on the floor to make my way to the door. I got there just in time to answer it as the buzzer rang, and I opened the door.

“Jacques!” Stephane said. “Eet eez zo nize to zee yoo!”

“How many times do I have to tell you that it's 'Jack', not 'Jacques'.” I said and held a hand out for him to shake. “How would you like it if I called you 'Steven'?”

Stephane laughed and shook my hand. “I wood keel you fazzter than yoo cood blink, my friend!”

“You could try!” I laughed back, stepped out of the apartment, and the door shut behind me to hide what I was doing. “How's Maisy?”

“She's pining for you pretty bad.” Stephane said. “She keeps telling me that she hasn't had a good time in bed since you left.”

“Since I left?” I asked and shook my head. “She dumped me for that muscle guy!”

“It was just a fad I think.” Stephane said. “All of her friends were into strong guys then, and you didn't look enough like one for her to show off to her friends.”

I barked a laugh. “And now?”

“They are into good looking rich guys.” Stephane said and smiled.

“Ha!” I said. “Serves her right.” I crossed my arms. “If she had just kept me, or even just listened to reason for once, she wouldn't have pissed me off so badly.”

“I am sorry she broke it off like she did.” Stephane said, and then went quiet. I uncrossed my arms and looked at his serious face.

“Stephane, why are you here?” I asked him. “It's great if you've just come to visit, and it's always nice to see my best friend; but, your face says something is going on.”

Stephane chuckled, but it was a sad sound. “I have been discharged for conduct unbecoming by an officer.”

“Oh, Stephane.” I said and put a hand on his shoulder. “I told you to break it off with her before they found out.”

“I did.” Stephane said. “She got mad when I told her that was the reason, and she went and told them everything anyways.”

“Did they at least reprimand her?” I asked.

“No, she is the 'victim' of my manipulation of the superior and subordinate dynamic.”

“Even though she was the one that started it?”

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Stephane nodded. “That apparently doesn't matter; only that I was involved in an inappropriate relationship.”

“I'm sorry.” I said and let his shoulder go. “What are you going to do now?”

“Come to you for help.”

I snorted a laugh again. “I haven't been active in the military for...”

“No, no. I am out.” Stephane said. “I could not go back. This will always hang over my head.” He smiled sadly. “I want to know what I can do from here on out.”

“Well... in that case... I think I can help you.” I said and motioned to the elevator. Stephane and I walked towards it and I asked him a question. “What do you think of mind-numbing repetitive work?”

“I was in the military for almost 10 years.” Stephane said and laughed. “I think it is just fine.”

I nodded and hit the button for the elevator. It opened and we stepped inside. “Then I've got just the job for you.”

“What is it?” Stephane asked, and looked a little wary as he hit the button for the ground floor.

“Don't worry.” I said as the elevator went up quickly. “The System has been posting want adds for Mobile Security Guards for the last two weeks.”

“That's perfect!” Stephane said, then his face fell. “I'll never get an interview, not if they've been advertising for two weeks.”

“Let me worry about that.” I said. “Did you bring your service record?”

Stephane patted his front pocket. “I wasn't sure if you would need a copy or not to help me.” He said as the elevator doors opened, then we walked out into the main lobby. “Of course, I haven't done anything else besides that.”

“That's fine.” I said and walked over to an access tube. “I'm sure they'll be dying to get their hands on someone like you, especially with all of your experience.”

“What about...”

“We tell them right upfront.” I said. “Give them all the details.” I stopped at the Tube, pushed the button, and looked at my friend seriously. “Don't lie or try to hide anything.”

“I would never...”

“They'll know if you leave anything out.” I warned him. “This is a System posting. You will be checked thoroughly.”

“I...” Stephane started to say one thing, then sighed. “I will be brutally honest with them.”

The tube opened and a 4 person miniature subway car was waiting.

“Good!” I said and pushed him into the car. “If there's one thing security guards like, it's brutal honesty.”

I got into the car and sat down, then typed in the destination. The tube closed and the car moved forwards slightly, then dropped under the surface to the main thoroughfare. Traffic was pretty heavy at this time of day; but we only had to wait a moment for a space to open up for our car. It slid into the flow easily and picked up speed.

“I can't believe this is all automated.” Stephane said. “How can the system handle it all?”

“I just had this conversation with someone else.” I said and laughed. “The System doesn't handle it all directly. It has hundreds of other AIs to take care of the drudgery work.”

Stephane laughed. “Drudgery work?” He waved at the dozens of cars around us. “This isn't drudgery. It's human lives.”

I shook my head. “It's drudgery. If you're a calculator, pretend that all you did all day was add one and two together to make three. Then do that every day. For years.”

Stephane nodded. “I agree that's drudgery.” He said. “But all this traffic?”

“It's just ones and zeros, my friend.” I said, and he looked at me with surprise on his face.

“What are you saying?” Stephane asked. “That we... that human lives are just... ones and zeroes?”

I laughed. “It's not quite that simple.” I said. “This lane is a zero. We need to go to the other lane, a one. So, we change the zero to a one and...”

The car changed lanes and took the off-ramp as it started to slow down.

“There you go.”

“It's the choices, then.” Stephane said, and I nodded.

“That's a better way to look at it.” I said. “You had a problem at work, zero; you told me about it, one. I could have kept my mouth shut, zero; I advised you to break it off, one.” I sighed. “You could have said nothing to her, zero; you broke it off with her, one. She could have let it go, zero; she blabbed about it anyways, one.”

“The military could have ignored her rant, zero; they chucked me out like rotten tomatoes, one.”

We both laughed as the car rolled to a slow crawl and popped up beside the huge building that housed the System's main processors, and came to a stop in the tube. It opened up and we got out, then it closed and disappeared down the other side of the tube.

“So, this is it.” Stephane said and looked up at the main building. “It's enormous.”

“Wait until you see inside.” I said and walked over to the main entrance. I nodded to the security guards and held my hand to the scanner until it beeped. The door opened immediately and I stepped though. Stephane held his hand over the scanner and it beeped, and he followed me inside.

“Good god.” Stephane said when he saw what it looked like.

Giant cooling towers rose up to the ceiling of the hundred foot tall lobby, with people milling about on catwalks and walkways that covered the surface of the towers. We went over to the main desk, and I told them that I had a candidate for one of the mobile security guard positions. The clerk picked up a touchpad and handed it to me.

“Fill this out and give it back.” She said without emotion and looked at Stephane. “Step into the scanner, please.”

Stephane nodded and stepped into the large scanner beside the desk. It whirred for several seconds and the clerk looked at the monitor. “You've had the muscle mod?”

“It's class A.” Stephane replied, and she nodded.

“Sensory package?”

“Auditory, with an olfactory add-on for detecting explosives.”

“Excellent!” The clerk said happily, and I handed her the completed touchpad. “Good, good.” She said as she saw the things I filled out, then turned to Stephane. “Service record, please.”

Stephane handed her the chip, and she slipped it into her console.

“That's a good body of work.” She said. “All around service in different positions.” The clerk frowned. “Dishonorable discharge?”

“With extenuating circumstances.” Stephane said, then explained what had happened, and in detail like I had suggested.

“We frown upon liaisons at work.” The clerk said, then gave Stephane a once-over look from head to toe. He was five feet and ten inches tall, had hazel-colored eyes, and black hair. The clerk smiled demurely at him, because she really liked what she saw. “It's not against the rules, though.”

Stephane gave her one of his patented heart-melting seductive smiles, and she closed her mouth to stop herself from drooling openly.

“You seem to be a likely candidate for... security duties.” The clerk said and gave him his service record chip back. “With your well-connected friend's recommendation, I think we can move right to the formal interview.” She said and hit an intercom button. “Kathryn? Can you come to the front desk, please?”

“I'll be right there.” A woman's voice said, and the clerk let the button go.

“My replacement will just be a minute or two.” The clerk said and smiled sweetly at Stephane, and completely ignored me.

Kathryn appeared after a brief wait and took the seat the clerk had just vacated.

“I'm bringing this possible hire up to management for an interview.” The clerk said to Kathryn.

“You don't have to rush back.” Kathryn said. “They don't need me in the server pool for another hour or so.”

“Wonderful!” The clerk said and hooked her arm through Stephane's. “He has an extensive military background and it needs to be checked.” She said and grinned. “Thoroughly.”

“Have fun with that.” Kathryn said, and didn't notice the steamy stares Stephane and the clerk had exchanged at her words.

“See you in a little while.” The clerk said and took Stephane over to a bank of elevators. One opened right away, and before the elevator doors had closed behind them, the clerk had her top open and Stephane kissed her passionately.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Kathryn asked me, and I looked at her.

“No, I just brought my friend over for a job interview.”

“Oh! Well, thank you for taking the time out of your day to help your friend, and for putting the needs of the System ahead of your own.” Kathryn said sweetly. “I'm sure that both of them will appreciate it.”

“It's good to know that someone appreciates it.” I said, and thought of the clerk and how happy she looked when the elevator doors had closed, and I smiled. “Have a good day.”

“You, too.” Kathryn said, and I turned around and left the System's main building. I took the tube subway back to my place so I could start working on making a new version of the old server.