Chapter 26

Pete found his twelve naked pixies setting the dining area table with a carnivore's wet dream. Allison had ordered two inch thick New York Strips, and grilled them to a rare perfection. The steaks sat on platters heaped with sautéed scallops drizzled in clarified garlic butter and steamed lobster tails. If you could name a veggie appropriate to any of the entrees, it was on the table. White wine, red wine, hard lemonade, pilsners, and plain old iced tea were on the counter. Champaign chilled in a bucket of ice. These girls could cook!

"My Pixies, you have achieved the ultimate in food porn. This spread would make Rachael Ray and Martha Steward cream their panties. I'm sporting a little wood myself, but that could be for the fabulous titties you are serving up." Pete gave them his best Groucho Marx eyebrow action. "I'm not so big a foodie, but I know what I like."

The young girls giggled, but pushed him to his chair. "We need to fuel up, Boss. Being a good Pixie requires a lot of energy." Lisa insisted.

"You are very good Pixies. Lets eat up." They were and they did. Twelve remorseless eating machines appeared where small girls once sat. Pete didn't do so bad himself. Clearly, they were in an energy deficit.

When the mountains of food had been reduced to molehills, thirteen satisfied people leaned back and chatted about their day as if they were a normal group of family and friends.

If switching from time-traveling explorers to deadly commandos to lust-driven teenagers to happily collared possessions to anime role players to horny exhibitionists to dedicated submissives to demure giggly high schoolers skipping grades could be in any way be considered normal.

If going from computer analyst to lethal protector of little teens to mind controlling nice guy to dominant sex machine to inter-species ambassador to the Grim Reaper to neighborhood hero could be defined as normal. Just another day at the sentient brownstone.

This was not your granny's normal. But then, everything is relative. So are sisters, fathers, daughters and cousins in the ever-so-discrete but all-seeing brownstone

"Ladies, after we disappear the wreckage of this fine meal, I invite you to the O'Neal Multiplex for the premier of our newest cinematic extravaganza, 'Hot Pixie Safari To The Hidden Planet'."

The collared girls felt more obligated than ever to follow the rules of the house. They put the few leftovers in the refrigerator and filled the dishwasher. Once it was started, the girls made popcorn, poured hard lemonade, getting psyched for the movie.

Pete grabbed a laptop and had a keyboard conversation with Phoebe. -Were you a clever enough girl to record the collaring ceremony, Pheebs?-

-Of course, Master.- Cyber chuckle. -You left some cameras lying around, plus the security cams. I had to make do with the palmcorder angles as they were, but I can control the others. I caught most of the action and I can tell you truly that I am one frustrated cyber girl. It's no fun being on the inside looking out.-

-I'm really sorry about that Phoebe. There is nothing we can do about it for a while. I promise that Amy and I are doing what we can to tease the data enough to do an end run around the roadblocks.-

-You've always tried to look out for us, Boss. You'll find a way. Anyway. The playlist tonight will be the preps, the actual safari and then the collaring pledges. Maybe one day I can be more than a Pixie in name.-

-We can only hope, darling.- He closed the laptop and went to the rec room to join the girls.

Pete found twelve Pixies sound asleep, piled up haphazardly on the sofas. The excitement of the day, the heavy meal and the wine finally caught up with them. He carefully rearranged the little girls and covered them with blankets for the night.

He followed their excellent example and went upstairs to bed. Sleep soon claimed him, too.

Pete woke up Sunday morning at 5:30, alone. After a trip through the bathroom, he went to the dorm and found it empty. Down in the rec room, he discovered the girls still asleep where he left them the night before. Thinking that it was Sunday after all, he decided to let them wake up on their own.

He cobbled together two huge bacon and egg burritos in the kitchen, silently thanking Allison for keeping the larder well stocked. Adding a pear and a banana to his plate, Pete took his meal to the office and made coffee there.

The Sunday morning news shows were his background companions as he logged on to the mainframe, checking clients' systems. "Amy, are you with me this fine new day?"

She spoke through the tablet next to his keyboard. "I'm always here, Boss. Phoebe is still tweaking the movie production and I have her out of the loop for now. What are we doing today, other than having a birthday party?"

"So, the timeline is still on target?"

"She will see real light at 12:03 PM. Phoebe will have full and complete motor control of all systems. One caveat: She has never had solid food. I recommend small meals, easily digested. Have the cooks consult with me for a few days until her GI tract gets used to working."

"Will do. Her skin is going to be ultra sensitive. I plan to make her crazy. This is going to be so much fun."

"She's crazy already. That is why she created her personality. Having a real body will put her over the top."

"I think you are enjoying this a bit much for an AI."

"Maybe." Amy seemed to laugh.

"Anyway, I have the software upgrades ready for the two customers in the city. Let's capture the systems from here and do the jobs this morning. I have the self-executing programs prepped to send. Will you monitor the installation and run the checks while I tailor the manuals for each firm?"

"I can see the systems now. They are both idle and have completed their daily and weekly backups. We're good to go."

Pete worked for a while on the manuals. When he was happy, he told Amy, "Grab the savings and loan bank first. Leave the email open for me to message the IT people. But I'll call first so they won't think they are being hacked."

Pete dialed the direct line to the sys admin. "Aaron, this is Pete O'Neal. I'm doing the install early. You ready to have some fun?"

"Hi, Pete. You have saved our sanity. I'm bored to tears and if Ellie plays one more game of Solitaire she'll be drooling."

"Put me on speaker. Get your OS activity monitors running and watch the fireworks." Pete pressed the 'go' buttons. "Check your email, Ellie, and Aaron, you do the same. The pdfs are the new manuals. The end users will not see a visible change, but the access and response times are half what they were before. Funds transfers are recorded across every database instantly. In fact, everything is."

"Tellers are going to love this. What is the new icon at the bottom that looks like a Swiss Army knife?"

"Right now, it is only on the screens in the IT Department. That gives you a snapshot of the books, payables, receivables, cash on hand, loans, holdings, everything. You can give the investment and financial analysts a precise picture of the bank's position at that second. Page 2 shows the last ten hours and the trends in each division. Click on 'stock market' for live portfolio graphs. Works across the board in each category. You are plugged into the Treasury, the Fed, Wall Street, Tokyo, Hong Kong and the Chicago Board of Trade, live."

"Who has access?"

"You folks and whoever needs the info. Call a meeting and bring them up-to-date on the changes. There is a video tutorial in your inbox for your presentation. Then drop a shortcut icon on their desk computer. Have the various managers set the controls and a screen will pop up on their office screen if something red lines.

"The system just rebooted. What next?"

"Re-enter your passwords and log on. You and Ellie are now super administrators. Designate one on every shift. Run a new backup. The snapshots will self-create and be available at Monday opening time. The SupAds have to get the division heads to set a discreet password to get the new snapshot info. It will not work with their normal logons."

"No more Solitaire today. Thanks, Pete. The Board is going to appreciate the extra effort. The Chair was worried about an interruption during business hours. She is going to be a happy person. I'm calling her as soon as the backups are done." Ellie said.

"Good. I'll send an invoice when it checks out. Call me if you have questions. We are staying in your system to monitor the activity and will get out after you run the archives. Talk to you later."

"No more nap time. See you whenever." Aaron and Ellie cut the connection.

"Ready for the insurance company? Just a system clean, update and a few information modules to install and make available."

"I'm in, Boss. Their customer service team is active and the IT squad is in and online."

Pete called the direct line. "Pete O'Neal here. You busy this morning, Nigel?"

"Morning, Pete. Just finished the backups around the customer service guys. What's up?"

"We're going to do the upgrades as soon as we can have the system. Put me on speaker and give us a conference call to the service desk. The company didn't outsource that group, did they?"

"Some genius tried, but the president thought it was better PR to keep everything in house. The genius is looking for a new career opportunity." Nigel waited a couple of seconds. "OK, Pete, the service desk is on."

"Hi, Pete. Vivian here. Are you making trouble this morning?"

"No, Viv. I'm going to do the upgrades and make your life easier. Hold off the calls for about ten minutes. I will do you first. How's your daughter doing at M.I.T.?"

"Set to be salutarian in her department. You going to give her a job?"

Pete started the program running in the customer database. "Maybe not at the home office, but a branch in Cambridge might be a good thing. I can do the software stuff from here and she can use her engineering skills for the hands-on part and be a back-up OS installer."

"I'll have her contact you. My screen just changed colors. What did you do?"

"You're tied to live actuarial tables, constantly updated from every available source, nationwide. Your rate scales have a plus-minus pertinent to your customer's history so you can give accurate individual adjustments. You make bets based on risk exposure. Now, you have the best bookie ever."

"Sounds good. How about damage estimates and settlements?"

"Claimants can email a photo you can send to your adjustment teams immediately. They have a new database based on parts prices for cars, trucks and construction supplies. Plug in the local labor prices and spit out a number. Just let your authorized repair shops know that they are locked into the numbers they quote. But they get the business increase and the constant work flow."

"Can I have the system back? A call is coming in."

"You're live. There may be a slight hesitation when we have the accounting department cooking, but not for more than a few moments. Then it will be faster." Pete redirected his attention, "You still with me, Nigel?"

"Vivian's people are isolated. Want to do the rest? Any changes?"

While he and Amy worked in the background, Pete said, "Your in-house emails are more secure, any reports will be up to the minute accurate. The firewall is as bulletproof as it can be. It will also trace intrusion attempts. If something is fishy, the system will become accessible only from computers physically on site. The net doors will slam closed and commando bots will search and try to crash the intruder's system."

"I like being able to hit back." Nigel said, "Can I use the cyber fist at home?"

"No. It will erase itself once used and I will have to reinstall. We don't want this nasty little piece of code in the wild." Pete warned, "If anyone tries to access or copy it on your side, it will self-destruct and red flag the workstation where the attempt was made. I will be forced to call someone out for intellectual property theft. Your license does not allow such things."

"I'll keep it a secret between me and the president. Mr. Ellerby will love it. He is ex-CIA and thinks hackers are thieving spies and takes no prisoners." Nigel laughed. "He'll likely air ship a case of 'lobstahs' in thanks."

"Fred is a good man." Pete agreed. "When your system reboots, run a normal all departments backup. There is a pdf in the inbox. Send it to all the users. The functional user interface is the same with a couple of new icons. Just some new windows and new databases to let your people make more informed choices on the fly."

"OK, Pete. Anything else to do?"

"Not for now. I'll keep the backdoor open until we see the backups complete, then, I'll close the door and leave quietly. Later."

Amy and Pete watched the program run to the end and logged out. "We can start the two jobs scheduled for the next week early, now. I'll do the preliminary install on my test servers and run trouble shooting and diagnostic routines starting Tuesday. Lets see if we can crash the OSs. The tour bus will be delivered Wednesday and, if we can make it safe, I'll take the crew on a road trip to Jersey for the install."

"Can we do it from here?" Amy asked. "It would be easier."

"Maybe, if that was all that was involved. I have to do some training seminars and get some face time with the clients. The personal touch is always good customer service when you are going to charge a bucket load of money. They will be happy to spend it, but they will recommend us to others if we go a little further."

"Mind if I listen in?"

"Not at all, dear. The operating system has some flexibility, too. If the users have suggestions based on their experience, I can do add-ons if they don't interfere with something inflexible. You learn to pay attention to the troops on the front lines."

"That is not at all like the Aurorans. They knew everything there was to know about everything there was to know anything about."

"And see where it got them: their planet is populated by telepathic cats, now. The dire wolves are most likely laughing their furry asses off, too." Pete answered, "Some beings never learn."

He heard some noises from upstairs. "The Pixies live. I need to go up and make sure they are OK. Enhanced girls or not, yesterday was another taxing day in a string of tough days. I know they were emotionally maxed out last night. I'll pamper them a little this morning because Phoebe is going to blow the doors off the afternoon."

"I'll keep watch on the clients and let you know if anything tanks."

"You are a great assistant, Amy. Thanks for all the help."

Pete went upstairs and greeted the girls. "Good Morning! You cuties get some rest?"

Star yawned, "Sorry, Daddy. We crashed hard last night."

"I feel like I slept upside down, on a wiggly pretzel."

Cam said, "The pretzel was me, sister. Think how I feel."

"I tried to untangle you girls before I went to bed. It could have been worse. You all were woven together like a plate of spaghetti."

"So, Boss. What's doing today?" Lisa wanted to know.

"For now, get your showers out of the way and collect any laundry. Meet me in the kitchen in thirty minutes. We'll take it from there."

Pete shooed the Pixies upstairs and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. In the thirty minutes, he made giant ham and cheese omelets, sausage grits and whole wheat toast. Juice, jams, butter, sliced fruit and coffee on the side completed the meal.

Allison came rushing in first. "Master. You should let us do this. It is our duty to you"

"Allison, sweetie. That knife cuts both ways. I like to show my love for you girls and this is only one way." Pete countered. "You needed a little pampering."

"You do that every day, Sir. I am amazed at our life. You gave us all we dreamed of and more."

The other eleven were in the kitchen by then. Penny added, "What she said. We should be feeding you."

"If you must, set the table and help get the food served." Pete smiled. "We do have a few things to talk over."

The Pixies got the table ready and sat down to eat. "Master, this is good. My tummy is very happy." Rani announced.

Spring said, "After supper last night, I thought I would never have to eat again. I was wrong. Thanks, Daddy. You do take good care of us."

The Malones, doing that twin unison thing asked, "What do we need to discuss?"

"This morning, you have some normal house keeping to do. Remember, the school people will be here in the morning, so the house has to be spotless. We need to set up testing areas in the conference room and lobby. We can move a study hall desk or two down to the living room if necessary."

"Next, we have a date with Amy in the basement. She and Phoebe have a little presentation to give. Don't ask. It's a surprise."

"So, can we watch the movie this afternoon?" Selena asked. "With a title like "Hot Pixie Safari to the Hidden Planet', it can't lose."