Episode 14
Wudgepuck.
Sharp didn’t think there was anybody on this planet that he hated more than that bespoken suited man. Every hair in place. Not a crease to be seen. Even his spiteful personality was crafted to perfection. After the missing elevator panel incident this morning, Sharp wouldn’t put it past that manicured weasel to set him up for another fall. Wudgepuck had been gunning for Sharp ever since he filed a tortious interference lawsuit against BitStorm on the very day Sharp’s own team betrayed him. This latest stunt seemed too sloppy in comparison.
How did anybody know I would be assigned to this particular job? Was my supervisor in on it? What exactly is supposed to go wrong here to get me fired? Wudgepuck is away at a conference for the weekend. He sure didn't feel far away when I couldn't get on the elevator this morning. But him being gone is why these guys were able to get help with their trumped up excuse. So, this is just a coincidence?
My head hurts.
Fortunately for Sharp, fixing server issues was an easy task. All he needed was some quality time with their patch panels and the servers.
“Take me to your server room. Let’s get this wrapped up as quickly as possible.”
Kyle and Isabelle exchanged awkward glances.
“What is it?”
“Well, the server room…is not quite finished yet,” Kyle said slowly, as if he was admitting to hiding a body.
“Right! Remember. We told you the IT tech position was removed,” Isabelle added with a sense of hyperactive cheer, as if positivity was going to make Sharp’s less irritated. He followed her silently to the back of the lab.
Isabelle let Sharp through the security door, and together they entered a long hallway that had an industrial elevator at the far end. Sharp noticed that the floor dropped down at a gentle incline after about twenty feet.
The air here was cooler than in the control room. A mechanical draft gently tousled Sharp's hair as his steps echoed with Isabelle's in the empty corridor. There were no decorations, no signage, just an uncarpeted hallway, steel walls, and three doors: two on the right, and one on the left. All of them were at the bottom of the ramp.
Since the WMD observation window was on the left, that lone door caught Sharp’s attention. The entry to the lab was probably lower so that the observation window could overlook the entire lab from a slight height. Sharp was finding the promise of new technology like a siren song, but there would be time for that later.
Isabelle stopped at the first door on the right. She passed her badge over the sensor, swung the door open, and stepped back. Her face was frozen in a fake, comforting smile, as if what Sharp was about to see was as perfectly normal as bag of warm puppies.
Sharp stepped up to the door and took a long, hard look at the contents of the room, then turned to Isabelle.
“Where are the servers?”
“Those never arrived. Our truck went missing.”
“Where are the patch panels?”
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“Oh! Over there, underneath the Wi-Fi router and that other thing.”
Sure enough, the patch panels were exactly where she said they were. Sharp had missed them at first because they were under a pile of old science fiction magazines and an Amiga 500. His mind had stopped taking in the chaos of the room while he tried to understand what the Amiga was doing there.
“Ah, yes, you’re right. There it is. On top of rolls and rolls of unused network cables.” Sharp turned back to Isabelle. “The patch panel’s not plugged in, or mounted, or connected to a server, but I can see that old Amiga is chugging away. Why?”
Isabelle poked her head into the room to examine what Sharp described, then turned to him with a beatific smile, calm as an angel. “Is that what that device is called? Syd brought it in. It runs a BBS for interdepartmental communication.”
Sharp cocked his head in pain.
“But it’s connected to a wireless router in a back room, in a back hallway, behind a security door, hundreds of feet underground.”
“Yes, that might explain why we have a hard time connecting to it. We’ve only been trying to use it for a few days.” Then she double waved her hands at him and said, “But before you judge, everybody was doing their best to help.”
Sharp nodded at her grimly, and looked back into the room.
This is much worse than I thought. I may not be able to leave any time soon once I start fixing things. I should have pretended not to hear my shift boss. Maybe even called in sick for the day. Better yet, I should have faked a heart attack and left in an ambulance.
At that moment, the Amiga made a sound that caught his attention. Sharp was almost certain it was the sound of the floppy disk being accessed.
“You’re running a BBS off of a floppy disk?” Any tension Sharp was feeling evaporated into laughter.
“Okeh, look. This job is way, way too big for me to take on right now. I can’t just self-authorize the comp time I'll accrue. There are forms to fill out. Signatures. Equipment to requisition. It’s a big deal; it'll take our entire IT team to fix this mess; and it's the holiday weekend.”
Isabelle’s face fell as he spoke.
“But…” Sharp stepped into the room and softly kicked the pile of network cables, then he turned off the Amiga.
“I can’t believe Wudgepuck has left you like this. This is insane. Frankly, I’m disappointed in Novell, too." Then almost to himself, he muttered, "He must not know about this.”
“Novell?” Isabelle seemed surprised.
“Right, right. Mr. Jackson.” Sharp coughed uncomfortably. “Sooo, it’s a shame that Mister Wudgepuck isn’t around this weekend to give us his permission. Sure seems like an emergency. I guess I'll have to adapt." Sharp winked at Isabelle, then continued. "I’m not going to make any permanent solutions today, but I can work with what gear you’ve got, and get your WMD lab up and running as you asked. Should only take a skosh.” He then turned around and headed back up the corridor to the control room, leaving Isabelle wearing a bright smile.
─── ⋆⋅🚪⋅⋆ ───
There really is no network connectivity. All the cables that should be running through the walls from the elevator shaft are missing. What on earth has been going on down here?
Sharp finished his assessment and pulled two repeater drones out of his gear bag. He could interface with them using local connectivity. He flicked his eyes across his display and sent commands to the drones to set up an adhoc network along the outside hallway to the elevator around the corner. Each elevator door in the building had a wireless access point, and thanks to his temporary solution, now the control room was connected. All he had left to do was to take down all the computers and machines, set up file sharing for collaboration, and get everything up and running again. To save time, he'd only set important devices on the router with static IP addresses. Every other device could fight it out until next week when the real network was installed.
The light was on in the room beyond the observation window letting Sharp see the Wormhole Matter Delivery array for the first time. It was massive, taking up the entire wall from floor to ceiling and a third of the room, which was as large as a small warehouse. It stood three stories high with support girders, ladders, and multiple levels of staging. They were years away from squeezing all that tech into the size of a mailbox, but Sharp was just happy to take it all in.
He looked across the room with a hungry look on his face. Staying late was a pain, but even a few minutes in that lab would be incredibly instructional. Plus he got to stick it to Wudgepuck. He felt pleased with himself. Offering to help was definitely a good call.
His virtua display was busy displaying measurements and specs from the WMD lab to him, as well as any relevant details about the machinery. He was a happy nerd soaking up all the data before turning back to the network issue, which was why he didn't notice a low flying jelly donut intersecting his orbit.