* * *
Over the following days, Britt and the rest of the Machine Intelligence scientists analyze the system, usually from a terminal on campus, sometimes remotely from the privacy of their palatial accommodations, and on rare occasion—when the hankering for that uncanny 17th-century-Edo-period flavored liminal space grows strong enough—down in the Bunker itself.
When they need a break from pouring over code, they listen in to the live feed. Pols regurgitating the superficial worries of their constituents; talking heads fielding more variations of the same uninformed softballs for Thuma to hit out of the park.
“—biggest question for many is, simply, why? Why should we be reassured by the system telling us that the catastrophe was unforeseeable, when that very same system was the one that failed to—”
“—and finally, my diamond-tier subscriber, TenTickleTentacle, wants to know if your new streaming platform will allow adult conte—“
“—nd many, concerned with the influence you have over the global infosphere, are suggested that a merger with Rising Sun Media could actually be a positive step towar—“
“—previous detente between the Gulf States saw a substantial increase in the value of your holdings in Dubai. How do you expect the recent escalating conflict to impact your investme—“
“—and what would you say to those living outside of Northpac’s borders, where those concerns are not mere hypotheticals, rather very real threats in their day-to-day lives? Surely those voices deserve an equal say in th—”
For Britt, Amal, and Reyes, it’s as much a reunion as anything. It’s the first time that all three of them have been together in almost 5 years. And there’s something about being with one’s fellows in the flesh , that not even tip-of-the-top-of-the-line Augged Reality can quite capture.
To Britt’s surprise, the integrated systems specialist, Dr. Gage Briugouwara, despite initially coming off as quite brash, seems rather well informed on the subject and, during the course of their look into the systems guts, has pioneered a few rather clever, albeit counter-intuitive, avenues of investigation.
More astonishingly, he seems to’ve cracked Amal’s notoriously icy exterior, and the trio has taken to working with him quite closely.
Though half the time musing over topics unrelated, they indulge him because his—paradoxically charitable—cynicism is a welcome respite from the doe-eyed idolizing they’ve come to expect from the other specialists, which in turn pales against the unabashed Thuma-worship they’ve witnessed from the NetStreamers and the greener of the two PrimeFeed Anchors.
“Or at least that was last I overheard. He was prob’ly tryna sell the Saudis on the idea of mass underground settlement.” Gage says. “I think he thinks that now they seen his Nirvana, they’ll be keen to invest.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“You don’t sound so sold on the idea though.” Amal says.
“Eish, I don’t know. They tried something like that back in Neo-Rhodesia ‘bout the time I left for Uni. Didn’t pan out so well. But then that wasn’t a public venture. It was aimed at the rich. Private communities, billed as a status thing. ‘Got money? Live underground!’” Rolling his eyes, “Yeah right, like any bourgeoisie are gon’ wanna live in a giant hole in the ground.”
“That’s irrelevant, the Saudis are all bourgeoisie. And they have a very real problem with the heatwaves. It gets worse every year. An underground city could solve that problem.”
“Not sayin’ it’s a bad idea, just that you won’t ever find me livin’ in one. Mor’n halfway to the grave at that point then, hey?”
“You have to admit it was pretty impressive when we first got off that lift. We wouldn’t even’ve known we were underground if we hadn’t already known where we were going.” Thoughtful, Amal reconsiders, “Well, we would’ve probably, but it’s still really damn convincing.”
“Ay don’t get me wrong, Nirvana definitely trumps any subterrain' setup I’ve ever seen, true. Just saying it ain’t for me; can’t beat the real thing topside.”
“‘Nirvana’ huh?” Britt cuts in, “That’s what we’re calling it now?”
“What the esteemed Dr. Briugouwara’s been calling it at least.” Amal supplies.
“Nirvana. That’s a—“ She pulls up the relevant info on her glasses, “—a Buddhist thing. One of those legacy mythologies. Wasn’t supposed to be a place though, was it? More like a—a state of mind, right? Never mind the fact that that particular folklore didn’t even originate in—“
“Ay tannie[14]!” Gage smiles. “No matter it was this or that; started here or there. Whatever ‘Nirvana’ was, it was peace , contentment , right?
Just watch that man when he’s down there. If ever a place on this earth was Nirvana, and if ever a man could go there, that room is it and that man is he.”
“Wonder if anyone ever told him he might be going a bit overboard with the whole chic?”
“Oh c’mon now, don’t tell me you don’t think it’s pretty cool down there. I myself been havin’ a right lekker time pretendin’ I’m a samurai 400 years back. Man’s definitely put some serious work into the place.”
“Surprised you’re not down there right now then, if you like it so much. I bet Thuma would let you camp out in the field. Might let you rake sand. Probably has a katana you could play with too.”
“Nah, like I said, it’s great, true. But you’re fuckin’ jas[15] if you think a place like that can beat seeing the sun—the real sun.”
“So you don’t think the Saudis’ll go for it then?”
“Oh, of course they’ll go for it! Like Amal said they ain’really got a choice do they? They’ve damn near covered every inch of that desert. And everyone knows the concept works in practice, just look at Fort Worth, or the Norilsk-Ingarka conurbation. But what Thuma has shown with his little Nirvana, is that, for the right price, he can dig a hole fit for a king. The Saudis will definitely go for it.”
She wonders how far Thuma’s influence really extends; how easy is it for him to persuade his patrons; just how long are the strings he pulls?
How much good karma will he earn from this current PR stunt, and how much of it will he lose during whatever hostile corporate takeover he has planned next?
She is being unfair, she knows, Thuma’s reputation precedes him. An eccentric trillionaire playboy, sure, but, by all accounts, he’s exactly what the world needs. Philanthropic to a degree unimaginable. Benevolence somehow never once corrupted by near-absolute power. Of course, it would be easy to say, with his virtually monopolistic control of the world’s data networks, that this is precisely the information one would expect to uncover. Nevertheless, he doesn’t quite control all of it, and even those with everything to gain by dragging his name through the mud, don’t.
But what has surprised Britt most of all, is that he really just seems genuinely beneficent. In person, he comes across as a bonafide humanitarian.
She has begrudgingly come to terms with the fact that Thuma might just be a good person after all.
On top of all that, it appears as though Greenland really was a one-in-a-million occurrence.
After all her digging through the system, she must admit that the system isn’t a liability. The others agree. Its architecture admits none of the cascading error chains that doomed the Greenland facility.
Moreover, that facility relied on a distinctly nuclear power source. The worst that could happen here is the Bunker floods.
* * *
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[14] Neo-Rhodesian, informal (from South African, informal) - an aunt; a friendly form of address for a woman who is older than you.
[15] Neo-Rhodesian, informal (from South African, informal) - crazy, mad, epic.