“So you’re telling me that the Valuestream never would have existed if you had gotten your dream job?” Cal asked.
“Definitely not, I would have worked 15 hour days to prove to that Musk asshole that he should have put me into space. It had been my dream for most of a decade. When I got to the interview, I walked in the door and I knew that they were out of my league. There was no way that they were crazy enough to say yes to the version of myself that I presented.” Julius, the man who had once identified as the Tripping Prophet, replied.
“So if you had worked harder in school, or been willing to lie at your interview, I would never have been able to found VI? Honestly, I am not even sure that believe you about that. You are seriously saying that I owe my fortune to your drug use and overall laziness?” Cal asked
“Well, essentially yes. But most of the elements of what I did were already in place. There were companies that were doing what the Valuestream does; they just were all too specific and hadn’t gone to the level of making it accessible to everyone. It never would have caught on so quickly unless the world was primed for it.” Julius admitted with a rueful nod.
Both men sat at a table in the corner of a sleek space. To one side of the table, the space opened up into a kitchen and broader living area. To the other, the room abruptly transitioned into open space and spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline.
“Maybe the world had been waiting for it since the first man made the first tool. A tool for making tools. A tool for making tools for making tools. Recursion is one element that we built into the system at VI and then sold back to the ‘Stream after you left. Researchers starting moving in circles and claiming that they had reinvented the wheel. If the encryption that you wrote tagging all posts had broken a month earlier then there would have been a huge scandal attributing research to authors and getting people what they were owed.” Cal continued proudly. “As it was, your time and date tagging we imported was so effective that the whole problem of origin attribution could be solved with nothing more complicated than chronological order.”
Julius replied, “I had always thought that would be a problem. The research forum is such a dynamic place, I had always struggled with what would happen to the people who tried to maximize their truth percentage and ended up posting nothing but already verified data. I didn’t have the time to write code to analyze repeats so I just left it for another person to solve. I guess I have you to thank.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll take most of the credit but I was only about 60 percent of that effort.” Cal smiled knowingly, “You know how it is on there. I thought that my code was good enough to get the job done, then the ‘Stream tore me a new one fixing problems I hadn’t even seen and making my code run better than I thought it could.”
At this point both men were grinning like kids with a stolen pie. Julius leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “It’s wild that the Valuestream turned out like I hoped. I understand I also have you to thank for cracking the research post encryption.”
“Your understanding is largely correct.” Cal responded.
“Largely?”
“I cracked the code on posts that I made on my primary machine, but when I went to apply the altered code onto your data on my servers at VI I couldn’t extend it. Eventually I gave up and set my Giant Integrating Business Kernel machine to searching for variables that I had missed. It was Grace that found the correlations to processor number and the Universal Age of the computer. Honestly I could have looked for a dozen years and not cracked it.” Cal admitted.
At the name ‘Grace’, Julius perked up and said. “My creative computer. That’s a hell of a thing to hear. I still have trouble believing that you finished it.”
Cal replied. “She’s the best, and she can’t wait to meet you. When I told that we had found you on the iceberg and asked her to generate an action, she just said, I wonder how he held up out there. It was the craziest thing. I knew it was just a slang program integrating with data that she had collected concerning life in the Arctic Circle, but she sounded so concerned.”
Julius responded seriously. “I can’t wait to meet it… or should I call it her as you do?”
Callisto laughed. “Something about the testing that we implemented to test her language sophistication made her choose a female voice. Apparently the men failed to recognize that she was, you know, a computer for an average of ten minutes longer for a female. It stuck.”
“If you want to meet her, just say the names of one of your two favorite actresses from the forties. She’s integrated into the penthouse and waiting for her start-up words. If you name the blonde, she’ll have one set of mannerisms, the brunette; another. If you mix up the names, well you better be careful cause she might well surprise you by coming to life.”
“What was I thinking with those names?” Julius chuckled. “All I have to do is say some combination of those names?”
“Yep. She’ll almost certainly respond, ‘Yes Mr. Paine.’ She always calls me by my last name when I first call, even though I have given specific programs to show no preference between modes of address when we are alone. Would you like me to call her?”
“No that will be fine. I think I will wait until we are alone.”
“Suit yourself. Now you will probably be wondering why you are here, in my penthouse on the top of my building.”
“Yes, Mr.Venturi. At first it seemed a simple gesture of friendship between two business moguls, that still strikes me as a bit odd, but I must get used to it I suppose. Why have you brought me here?”
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
The two men sat in the penthouse of the Venturi building, looking across the city. It was a breathtaking view that they briefly became aware of, again. The conversation had filled their entire attention.
“Did you look up my company during the time that you were recovering aboard the Peacemonger?”
“No, Mr. Venturi, although I did catch a few rumors on your vessel.”
“Every aspect of my business is available to the public. Somehow I have a great reputation for business security. Anyhow, I used your executive Valuestream model, which after your disappearance, was sold to any willing company at a severe discount. We were scared the company would collapse without your guidance.” Callisto admitted.
“Part of me was hoping that it would. I should have known better than though, it was already a juggernaut.”
Aghast, Cal responded. “You didn’t really.”
“Just part of me. I was afraid of what I made.”
Cal replied, “Progress marches on, no way scientists could go back to believing in an Aristotelian universe. No way would I go back to working without a profit-sharing agreement.”
A few moments of silence passed before Julius asked, “So what exactly does your company do?”
Cal answered. “Using your model and a few friendly engineering colleagues who could sign off on the final ‘yes’, we began offering verification services on the general stream, and certification for every manner of technology that we could. If we hadn’t been the first company to do that, no chance we get as big as we did. Our position left us with a problem that I didn’t anticipate. It was impossible to consistently divide the open ten percent of profit equity in all of the projects that we worked on. The contributors just couldn’t agree.”
Julius snorted. “You’re wrong if you think I didn’t expect that. I did, it was just one of those that I didn’t care to do anything about. I much preferred the resulting chaos.”
“Really! I didn’t recognize you as a follower of Eris Kallisti, but let me congratulate you on the chaotic results of your action, or rather, inaction.”
Julius sketched a little bow and replied. “Thank you, sir. I always enjoyed the idea of this minor god upsetting Olympus with nothing more than a golden apple. What results are you talking about?”
“Well, since I was the originator of the idea which became Venturi Industries, it was left to me to determine what to do with the remnants of bonus left after every project. It is a widely held belief that I chose to pocket everything. That is half true.”
“And the other half?” Jules had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer.
“Yours. Mr. Paine, to the tune of about a hundred billion dollars in an account which your creative computer can access quite easily using the keyword ‘parity’. Consider it my gratitude for your poor work and salacious habits in general.”
The two men just looked at each other for a long moment.
It stretched.
“That is more a hell of a lot more than a thank you, and more than the half percent that I requested in the executive model.”
“If you knew how much I pocketed, you might not agree. But, I am not done thanking you yet. Did you notice anything unusual when you landed on the roof?”
“Besides the intermittent laser pulses from space that look as though they are carrying the wrath of Zeus? I assume they are some sort of wireless energy transfer.” Julius responded.
“Ahem… yes, besides them.”
“Several unused helicopter pads and more stairwell than was necessary to reach the uppermost floor.”
“Very observant Mr. Paine.”
“We have exchanged, what is it you said, about a hundred billion dollars in value, why don’t you call me Jules
“Thanks Jules, call me Cal.”
“Gladly.”
Another brief silence passed before Cal asked, “Where were we? Ah yes, your penthouse. Please follow me upstairs.”
Both men rose and walked towards a door.
“My penthouse?” Jules exclaimed. “I had assumed that the upper floor was maintenance and support technology for the power array. Incorrectly it seems. Ah, I appreciate you effort to make our common stairwell securable in both directions.” It crossed Jules’s mind to ask why Venturi was doing this. It was a pretty ridiculous thing to do. A hundred billion dollars a penthouse that was virtually priceless. He didn’t ask. He smiled, instead. He would take the gift and find a way to return the favor.
“If you hadn’t come back in a few more years, I was going to give it lower penthouse to my life partner. I would have had to find one first.”
“As you can see, your penthouse is identical to my own, with one addition that I have been waiting to unveil to someone.” Cal gestured theatrically. “Lux!”
A swirling galaxy of light erupted above and around a large container placed in the center of the room.
“It’s beautiful, what is it?” Jules asked.
“It is my invention: the plasma battery.” Cal replied.
“Wow. How good is the shielding?”
“As far as we can tell, with the materials that we constructed in orbit, around 1 part per trillion escapes unintentionally. We designed the system to funnel those parts into the visible light spectrum, which can be– Grace would you show Mr. Paine the demonstration that we discussed—ah yes, thank you Grace, quite spectacular.”
From the housing of the battery, three apertures opened simultaneously, vibrating gently with multicolored light. In front of the opening, a nearly solid-seeming hologram popped into being without so much as a flickering pixel out of place. It was the building they stood in, complete with every feature the Tripping Prophet while returning from the glacier.
“Allow to express the opinion that spectacular is exceptionally understated. This is sublime, Cal.”
“Thank you, it was a recent addition to the space; the technique is similar to what we do around the building itself.” Cal couldn’t help but let a little pride slip into his answer.
“Not using nanotubes, though.” Jules stated.
“No, except in that it provides excellent radar coverage. The computer can see perfectly when my battery is revealed.”
“Judging by the size of the battery, it could cover power for most of the city.”
“More actually, an identical battery in serial is housed in the same spot in my room. Right now we are providing 70 percent of the power to the east coast.”
“Allow me to convey my congratulations to you, Callisto. What you have done here is exactly what I hoped could be done with the ‘stream. With one exception.”
“Excuse me, Julius, what would that be?”
“If you have plasma containment that precise, why aren’t we having this conversation in space? I had some designs somewhere for emission free plasma propulsion.” Jules asked.
Rubbing his hands and smiling with exaggerated delight, Cal said formally, “Are you suggesting a collaboration, Mr. Paine?”
“Yes, Mr. Callisto. And I know of a few people with whom we should be working.”