Another moment
of fear and doubt swept over him. He clinched his fists in
futile frustration focused far into the past."Damn it!", he yelled
while his white wrought knuckles cracked, snapped and popped. The rapid
movement of his eyes took him back to that backward day of loss.
"I have the
better paying job, I can provide a better environment than my...she
can...!?" he pleaded.
"My decision is
final, these proceedings are closed." the judge said firmly as the gavel
swung true.
"Smack"
went the sound block, he twitched and took a deep breath. Turning to his
wife with a wide-eyed child staring back at him, she pulled quickly away through
the court room. As his daughter was whisked wildly from his
sight, his head dropped in defeat and hung heavy with plight.
The room came back
into focus, the room, the work shop. It was covered in racks of whirring
fans, flashing lights and towers of wires, connectors, switches and
parts galore. The dimly lit work space, was his life his home.
The small desk lamp that illuminated his desk snapped
on, shedding light on his complicated mind. He looked now thru
a pile of cables and wires,
“Twisted
pair un-shielded , nope, cat9.5, nope", he squinted and pushed
through the tangles and saw the connector...
"There you
are, shielded twisted pair with 3.5mm connector, Nice!", his
excitement refocused his mind. He continued over to
another dimly lit area, one single CFL hung over the project.
The canvas cover shown grey in the light emitting a dull shine
like an alter bathed in moon light. He stood admiring the simple sight
and proceeded to find the positive lead to the speakerphone jack,
which he took care in attaching gently with his stress laden hands.
The soldering gun smoldered as he made the connection
permanent. He up-righted himself and let out a sigh, time
for another test run he thought. He clambered over a pile of
hardware and wires to his seat at the desk. With a shake of his hand over
the IR panel, the work station awoke. Three dark
monitors sprung to bright, each displaying digitally
designated strings of information. The consumption graph blipped
away, like an electrocardiograph showing signs of life. The memory indicator
read 50% and the heat indexer hung steady at 45°C. A smile grew across
his shadowed face. His heart began to race with anticipation.
In the single black and grey window he typed command>initiate, the
small window began to jump and spit strings of code, the information pulsed
slowly gaining speed.
From across the
room a gear began to whir and the sound of initial boot processes beeped.
He turned to monitor two and began punching code like
a secretary creating copy. The lights flickered and he
took a deep breath. B.E.T.H. whirred and the servos ground
slowly as a presence grew under the canvas cloth. Then as steadily as it rose, the project
started to slow. The system began to systematically shut down
with the dull sound that only comes when a mechanical system looses power.
"No, no, no! “,
He frantically began manually switching wires, port 73c to
port 101b, his mind spun producing its own heat. Then the lights went down to a
flicker, the entire room looked like a storm of welders not knowing
where to weld. A white flash, and then a pop as the
main circuit breaker sparked then sizzled smoke.
Heavy his head grew
as he plopped himself down into his chair. He knew the problem, the
components needed to be generation 6 not 5.3. The
power consumption start-up ratio had again broken its high-end
threshold, he needed more efficient parts. He pulled a
drawer swiftly open and reached for the bottle, it sloshed from the
jolt. A flip of the wrist and the top spun open, it went to his
lips like a humming bird kissing a stamen. The burn of whiskey tore down
his throat and into his growling stomach.
He re-spun the top of the bottle and looked to the
browser, blinkingly awaiting his next move. He spun in his
chair to the crowded shelves behind him. Covered with magazine after
month of magazine of every electrical, technical
and fore-frontal topic know to man, he saw the corner of yellow.
He tugged quickly at the book, resulting in a
cascading pile of popular science surfing to the floor. Was the old man
still in business, was this even the current phone book, he thought
as he turned to the cover and read the year. "Good.", he spoke
out loud. Continuing his search to the service section, he
found the listing.
As he spoke the call was made, an echoing call to the world
gone by. The wind was a moment in time then the future took
over. There must be someone...
"hello, hello", the phone sound answered.
"What, what do you want? “, A voice spoke.
"This is T56 Tango, repeat T56 Tango", he spat.
"Descend to Bravo 2 6 zero and repeat.” was the
response.
There was a small pause as the connection was
fuzzed...click.click...click...clicklick...bbbzzzzzzz.
"System 2 protoplasm, Need series 6, Bravo,
Bravo, X system 2 Run Run...Stat."
A small pause was followed by a digital response..."SyS2
copy, copy SR6 fax fax, copy"
The call went dead and silence tickled around the
remains of test 3.24.
The ASP power initiated and the lights came back on. A flick of
his hand over the console produced an array of desktop icons.
...to be continued...
