To: 
From: "Jay  P Hailey" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com


Title:Water Dictatorship
Author: Jay P. Hailey (JayPHailey{at}tic1.net) Series: Vista City
Part: 08/11
Rating [PG]


On the plane up to Seattle, Angelo scratched an itch that bothered him.
"Uhura, you said that you used to find out what was going on in the
Computer industry."

"Yes, we did."  She muttered.  She had her lap top open and was
fighting it out with the destructive anti-Geos virus.

"Where did you used to work?"

"The Government."

"What part of the Government keeps tabs on the nation's computer
industry?" Angelo asked.

Uhura looked up.  "There is No Such Agency."  She grinned.

"Oh.  So what are doing in Vista City?"  Angelo asked, confused.

"Can you say 'budget cut'?  I knew that you could." Uhura said.

"Sorry to hear it."  Angelo said.

"I'm not.  You people are much more fun.  Now hush, I'm working."
 Uhura stuck her nose back into her computer.

-*-

They arrived in Seattle.  It was a sunny day, and the smell of the ocean
mixed with the subconscious bustle of a busy port town.  They rented a car
and drove out to the distant suburbs of the city.  That far away from the
ocean, the area looked like a soft green forest.

The GeosWorks complex was commonly referred to as a "Campus" and
Angelo found it an apt description.  They walked past an on going frisbee
game. The participants weren't skilled, but they seemed to be having a lot
of fun.

Inside the main entrance they spoke with a very polite and friendly seeming
receptionist.  After listening to Uhura's description of the problem, she
called for a senior manager.

-*-

George Cunningham was a round man, balding with a friendly face that showed
what sort of stress he lived with. Cunningham and Uhura exchanged a spate
of technical jargon.  Uhura had copies of the corrupted programs with her.

"Okay."  Cunningham said at length.  "I've been sort of
afraid of this kind of thing.  Let me set up an isolated lab computer and
we'll run some tests."

They left Cunningham's office and wandered deeper into the large office
building.  While they walked, Angelo asked Cunningham  "Did you know
Randi Aiken-Marlowe?"

Cunningham started.  "Why, yes I did.  That was before she was Mrs.
Marlowe, of course. Why?"

"I used to know her, myself.  I've heard that she was under a lot of
stress here."  Angelo said.

"Well, yeah.  We all are.  The industry is growing and changing at a
rate that has never been seen in the world before.  We're on the edge of
the human performance envelope, here."  Cunningham said.  "How
did you know Randi?"

"I met her in school at UCLA."  Angelo admitted.

"You're that Angelo?"  Cunningham said.  "Small world."

"She mentioned me?"  Angelo was taken aback.

"Only once.  We had a big party after Geos 3.16 was released.  It was
a big push and we were all wiped out after wards.  We got drunk and maudlin
together.  She said that she didn't realize what she had in the palm of her
hand and so she threw it away.  She was referring to you." Cunningham
said..

"Is that what this is all about Angelo?  A lost love?" Uhura
asked.  "How sweet.  I'm sorry it worked out that way."

"Well, I wouldn't count on that."  Cunningham said.  "She
did mention that she didn't find out until later that his parents were
filthy rich.  I don't know what bugged her, losing at love or losing a shot
at a fortune."

"At least love was in there, somewhere."  Angelo griped.  His
eyes felt itchy.

"Aw, Angelo."  Uhura said.

"Did Randi have a problem with the pills that she took?"  Angelo asked.

Cunningham shot Angelo a sharp look.  "Randi never took any pills. Who
told you that?"

"I heard that Bill Dornan demands such high productivity that drugs
are the only way to keep up."  Angelo challenged.

"No.  It's true that Wild Bill likes a high pressure shop, here, but
drugs? It's would be severely out of character for our corporate
culture." Cunningham walked through a lobby where there was a hot dog
cart serving delicious smelling sausages and hot dogs.  Next to it there
was a bulky cola machine.  Cunningham walked up to the cola machine and
slapped at a button. The machine dispensed a cola to him.

"Food and caffeine laden drinks are free.  The office furniture was
chosen specifically for long term comfort.  There are segregated men's and
women's showers on the first floor.  There have been people whose rents
have lapsed because they stayed here so long.  We all came from computer
science departments.  Drug use would be seen as damaging the only thing
that gives you status here, your brain.  We have the lowest drug and
alcohol abuse rates of any industry.  I knew Randi Aiken.  She didn't take
anything except industrial strength caffeine and sugar."

"Hmmm."  Angelo said.

-*-

The lab consisted of several computers of different makes, set up on tables
in a big room.

Cunningham was met by a short, thin man with black spiky hair that stood up
in all directions.  "What have you got for me, George?"

"This lady says she has a virus that defeated our product." 
Cunningham said.

"Uh huh, and were you running the virus screen?"  The man asked

Uhura gave him a derisive look and they launched into another spate of
technical jargon.  To Angelo it had the definite sound of a duel in
progress.  Eventually the spiky haired man grinned.  "That sounds like
a challenge."

"Let's boot it up and see what happens."  Uhura suggested.

"Right, We'll use number five."

They went to a computer sitting by itself on a table.  Uhura popped her
data disk into the computer and then hit the reset button.  The computer
reset itself and tried to boot from Uhura's corrupted disk.  Soon it
announced that there was no bootable disk present.  Uhura took her disk out
of the drive.  "It's as dead as a door nail, now."

The Spiky haired virus expert snorted and turned the computer off. Then he
turned it back on.  The computer refused to start up.  Then he took a
protected disk from his supplies and repeated the process.  The computer
refused to start up.  Shaking his head grimly, the spiky haired expert
tried the disk in another computer, only to kill that one.

"Okay."  He said.  "Now we will introduce the virus to The
Beast."

"The Beast?"  Uhura sounded amused.

"The Beast is the fastest PC available running the latest version of
our software with every virus protection I can find.  A couple of them I
had to write myself."  He said proudly.

"And The Beast will survive this thing?"  Uhura asked.

"It will survive and conquer.  Once the virus is no longer running, we
can take it apart and find out how it killed lesser machines."

"Good luck."  Uhura said.

With a confident smirk the man put the contaminated disk into a huge black
machine running near the front of the room.  The machine considered the
disk thoughtfully.  Then it ran for a while, chewing things over.  Then
with a plaintive beep it put a message up on its screen.  "Warning!
Data Disk Severely Corrupted!"  Then The Beast died.  No amount of
electronic resuscitation could revive it.

"Houston, we have a problem."  The Spiky haired man said.

"I told you so." Uhura said sweetly.



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