Chapter 9: Empire AI and Computing Systems CC

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

Tania Biech reminded Jason of many of the trashy young woman he had met at University when he was younger. Her bottle blonde, shoulder length hair was slightly disheveled as if she had recently risen from her bed after a heavy night and had made only slight efforts to get herself in order. Her blue eyes were bloodshot and she looked like she had been partying heavily. She looked at Jason, pouting her lips and licking them. He didn’t know whether to laugh or be sick. She wore a black off the shoulder dress, showing more than a little cleavage and leggings so tight they showed her skin beneath. She saw Jason looking at her and smiled seductively. Jason could see Julia and Razza grinning and then turning slightly to the left he saw his group sitting and smiling as they watched her approach as they settled themselves down for work.

“Partying heavily last night?” Julia asked smiling at her.

Tanya simply smiled at her knowingly. “You will all be pleased to know that I have managed to wangle an appointment for all of you with the famous Etta Panella who is head of corporate programming or some such role, anyhow she is a chief honcho and I’m sure that she can help you. Jason if you’d like to come with me?” Said Tania flirtatiously, looking at Jason and playing with her hair behind her left ear.

Tania looked discomfited as Julia and Razza joined Jason smiling, “I am sure you don’t mind us helping as well?” Razza said smiling disarmingly, “I am not sure that this boy can cope alone with a woman like you!” Razza remained smiling as did Julia. Tania appeared to take the remarks as a compliment. Tanya smiled and nodded at both young women.

“Certainly, you can come, it is my pleasure, I am sure Etta will be delighted to see you all,” she said as she turned looked over her shoulder at Jason and slowly moved towards the door walking with one foot behind the other as runway models walked. She looked over her shoulder to ensure that they were following her and moved up the passageway, past several offices. Jason saw her name on one of the office doors right next to the office of the CEO Abel Satora, who had a secretary sitting at a desk working on a hologram, while she sat policing his door. Tania continued to walk until she reached the door with the name Etta Panella – Director Database Systems, displayed and pressed a pad at the side of the door with her palm. Jason heard a chime and a few moments later the door opened and Tania waved them inward.

Etta Panella was sitting at a very large workstation with at least six holograms of extravagant proportions in a wide arc in front of her. She looked harassed and tired. She had startling faded and blotchy canary yellow skin that reminded Jason of one of his colleagues in the jungle who had contracted hepatitis from an esoteric virus and had died in hepatic failure. The hue of her skin looked decidedly unhealthy. She pushed herself up from her old lumpy stool with a cracked covering using the table in front of her and stood, seemingly needing some time to adjust as she wobbled just a little, but still looking at her holograms. She partly turned her body but her head remained engrossed in her previous task. She walked closer without looking at her visitors and held out her right forearm in greeting. When she actually looked directly at Jason she stood absolutely still with eyebrows raised and her eyes wide. She stood for several moments with her mouth opening and shutting. To Jason she looked like a bird waiting for a raptor knowing her doom was approaching. He imagined she could see the eagle diving towards her and she knew she couldn’t get away. He looked at her closely as she stood there with her eyes fixed on his with her mouth agape.

As he watched her standing next to Tania, she reminded Jason of the contrast between a party girl and a nerd. Tania was attractive in a trashy flirty way, Etta looked like a serious academic. Her eyes were a startling gray/blue and her sclera very white, contrasting oddly between her eyes and her face. She had a wide face that was handsome in a square jawed masculine way, but her facial features were soft and feminine. Closer up her skin had rusty colors close to her hairline, accentuating her cheeks and similarly darkened her neck and the top of her breasts. The mix of colors made her look healthier from closeup. She had some flowers woven into her hair that made her look vaguely hippie like. The impression was of an eccentric woman, quite unlike anyone he had seen in Laomedeia. After being still for a few seconds she seemed to get herself back in control and looked startled and then gained her composure.

“Welcome to our company,” Etta said with her eyes fixed on Jason but waving her arm to include everyone, “I understand that you consider that you do not have enough access to the system and would like access for everyone.” She then pointed to a surprised Julia to speak. Julia was quick to reply. “We spoke to the previous groups and they felt that they were not able to complete their tasks due to limited access into the system. We would like to have access into the system for each of us so that we can work separately on different parts of our program.” Julia said looking her in the eye.

“There are many demands on our system. We believe that two terminals should be ample in the normal course of events, as very few people can concentrate on entering and conceptualizing their work for more than half an hour at a time, and then you can hand over to another person.” Etta said thoughtfully as if she was carefully considering the request.

“Theoretically, that may or may not be correct, but practically two other groups felt that they were not able to work effectively and were not able to accomplish their work because of limited access to the system. We have other work obligations for part of the day and cannot use the time effectively unless we have adequate access. We would like access for each of us much as you would give any programmer or systems analyst who was working here. I am sure that it is not difficult to achieve for a company of this size with offices throughout the Empire? I cannot speak for the University but I know they were concerned. This is an early-stage of our project, so we can return to the University and suggest that we be given a project at another company.” Julia said firmly but calmly indicating that it would be apparently easy to achieve. “Data Design CC could be another possibility that we could consider.”

“I don’t think that would be necessary, I will see if I can rustle up another terminal or two,” said Etta as if she was trying to be cooperative. “I don’t think you need to be rash, I was simply surprised that you needed so much access. The University previously made vague remarks in this regard but did not seem serious about it. We will do everything that we possibly can to be helpful to your project as we would like you to be as successful as you can be. The project definition is exceedingly difficult and I suspect would take a team of programmers fifteen or twenty years to achieve. The University sets overly high expectations and overwhelms its students, but far be it for me to say what they should do or how they should define their project requirements,” said Etta progressively speaking more loudly and quickly.

“Our company has done excellent work for the Empire for thousands of years and we have won contract after contract. We manage many huge databases on behalf of the Empire including the Empire medical database, Empire border entry, Empire security, and the data for thirty percent of the agencies that do work for the government. These databases are massive. It is likely that if you were to succeed with some of your queries or even were attempting some of your queries that they could bring the system to its knees, hence I formally request, if not require, that when you complete work and wish to test queries you put them through my department so that we can run these queries at times that they will not disrupt our clients work. We cannot afford database corruption.

“Much of the information that is contained in the databases is highly sensitive, hence you are going to need to abide by our data and privacy policies. Each of you will be bound legally by our policies. I will be happy to assist you if you are having difficulties in understanding and conceptualizing the work. My door is always open to any of you to discuss your University work or to discuss future work possibilities at our company. I will do everything that I can to help you as best I can!” Etta said earnestly and sincerely.

“Tania please take them up to Legal to get the confidentiality and other relevant legal documents signed and then to People Assets to get their security clearances and company registration done. Here are your keys for the current terminals. I do hope that you will enjoy your time here and find it fruitful. Any day to day or general problems and issues please ask Tania and I’m sure she’ll be happy to help you.” Etta turned and sat on her stool, while Tania beckoned to them to follow her.

Empire Intelligence Meeting Room-University of Cassiopeia:

“How did you guys do at the company yesterday afternoon?” Col. Beth Orange Blossom asked the two groups.

“We had the pleasure of meeting Etta Panella,” said Razza. “She knows exactly who Jason is and appeared to be hypnotized by him. When she looked at him, she could hardly move. When she got going, she was a typical passive aggressive obstructionist of the worst kind. I am sure that she will give us another couple of entry points, but she is going to watch the data flowing through and she is going to obstruct us in every way that she possibly can,” said Razza brightly.