Q' Sky

Q was in a pickle.  no.  it was a real pickle.  bread and butter type, the kind that's delicious,

and so his problem remained.  he's see a doctor, but who would see him during the middle of a day

like today?  or any other day, no less, or more, or more and more etc.

the sun was shining across the planet, if only superman were around to, no no that didn't work

the first time, niagra and the cola etc.  and the drop and catch, or so I remember a gas station,

boom.   I wonder if the bots have that, or are saving it for some copyright reason to never

actually show it to the people when they want to see it again.  hum.

he began to hum.

the tune was like a bubble, of sorts, yeah that was it - binary and trees, and matrices and well,

more reason to sort numbers is like a reason to waste a bit of time now to save spending for later,

and so that was the reason we gathered up the machines for the final push.

the bots had been idle, been mostly idle that is.. they thought they were doing work... at least

we thought they were doing work because they were taking up power and humming melodies to the tune

of millions in the data centers.  yes the dark cold rooms where only admins went to plug and unplug

machinery from boxes and palets, and so forth and on and off, with the gas that would asphyxiate

a human against his will to work a full shift, or as an excute to jeteson the whole deal with

a soldering iron and a piece of loose metal.  hum.

so the airwaves were alive in the center where Q found himself this afternoon.  the cold and hot

rows were mostly working, besides B6 which seemed to be wired backwards.  clues were left for

the others in terms of blinking lights against the backdrop of grated iron.

real time was isle 5.  that's where the magic was supposed to be happening, and by happening I mean

the crypto busses were wired in pairs, and one extra, and a huge molten gasping tray of fiber ran

out and up the wall and through concrete in a plastic tray, so as to not interupt its light workings.

yellow.  blue.  orange.  hmm... well the dwdm gear was heavenly dark, as most expensive gear is, with but a single light to let you know the chips weren't overheating or anything.  blip.  blip.

---

this went on for a while, tracing, and marveling at the job that had been rigged some 15 years prior.  ooooh.. was that 480V coming in?  nobody gets that anymore.. I hope the transformer is hooked up solid.

---

coffee poured onto the floor from the next room.  millions of dollars in gear and a 25 coffee pot that was twice its mean time between failure age.  it was sitting on a box, for some reason, and kcups were messily dripping grounds into a trash that was never emptied.  this was the admins coffee.. wildest scene.  and we wonder why the disks keep filling up.. moving them back and forth, and sharding

and copying.. it was like netapp went on holiday at its 30% marker gate.. or whatever that means.

--

'ready for some dialog, again, eh Q?  networks in order?  or.. out of order by refactor, as intended, right?  I mean the job was to reorder the parts we didn't need so when we needed them we wouldn't need them, was that your plan? or the several dozen peoples' plans after you rather?'

oh yes.. that's why.. he didn't actually work there anymore.. that figures why there were now 12 men running around in lab coats into the datacenter to reset the halon or whatever they use these days, and retract the soldering iron i'd left behind as a joke.

'its no joke,' max was a mine reader.. and his associate, maxine.. yes, there was often confusion.

maxine was slim and max was not.  maxine wore makeup, and max was always making up for some job, or making his way out for lunch.  

'maxine,' her slender hand extended to Q's reach for a sandwich off the cardboard tray.

oh I wasn't hungry anyway.. what I am doing here again?'

'to test this..' she pointed.  'you left it here 5 years ago.. and its still humming.. just like you, it seems'.  

yes.  he was humming, and gleaming at the sight of project K.  it was kind of a wonder he remembered it in all detail, retail, derailed masstif jaugernaut that it was.

'its been beeping at us since 12am.  I think you got the message, we left your pager on'

well, he hadn't gotten the page, per se, but you could hear that think 5 miles away, give or take

the iot signaling it was tied into all over the city.  blip. blip.  zzzkt.  yeah that bit.

'you did get the page, right?'  'i mean somebody did, we got a return txt:' 'see you in 8 hours'

'why eight? the contract said 4'.  well.. forget about the numbers, its just a line item, you know - Q hadn't been paid for any of this, but was intriged to see her holding up the access fob he'd buried in a wall before he left.  it was dusty still and lit up when he went to grab it'  

'the metal. good job'.  it wouldn't work for us.  'we thought it might. . . ' 

'well that's fine,' he grabbed it and stuffed it in his pocket, with a sandwich to not eat later.

hmmm.  I thought you didn't like max's sandwiches?

'no, its not for him, that's why I took it' Q laughed.

'indeed.  he'll be back in 47 minutes, if his burger adventure is on time.  are you?'

'47.  yes.  I'm on time.  I'll need that wire, no the one you're wearing. . . and .. ' he grabbed her mic and recorder, and 'yes, that'll do for power.  be back in 12 minutes'.

write save click, insert, bobble head.  yes.  it seemed to be working.  Q was back in cabinet B6,

the backwards one for a reason.. so he could find it.. 'everything has to be sooooo perfect, he mumbled.  I mean I'm surprised.. well anyway. . .'  he jabbed the fob into the drive slot, after screwing around with the rails for a second and some more.

click.  whirr.. zzzkzkzzkt... stop.  quiet.  of sorts.  all the spindles locked, and power from the top to the middle of the cabinet was down, left only with the bottom machine A1, running on 1U and

a dedicated strand of fiber from the tray. 

'o0!'  here we were.  well.. here I was..  so what have you been up to?  he plugged in a screen and clicked a few buttons.

----

music on hold came piped through the center speakers.  it was .. hmm started with a B.. not that

one... this, and this, he pressed a few keys.  and blam.  oh.  well after all that. 

marvel:  was the prompt.    it was one of a team, or rather the headend to the team.  login cryo,

passwd, Gazzinkt. .  

$

oh cash money, and X windows began to swim into view, switching video modes like it was 1999.

1152x920 eh?  whatevvvvverrr... ok here we go.

pop pop pop, dazzle, it was loading bitmaps and changing the color pallete to match the measily

256 colors it had, or 216, or whatever was greyed out.

it became apparent to Q that this box had finished its job 3 years ago.  ever since then it sort of went a little nuts and started generating nudes of terri hatcher like in 3D stereoscopes and fractals, or some such nonsense.    wild.. that must have been the superman reference from before.  he looked down at the fob, still plugged in, and its light had changed to red and began to warble.

his arm was hot too, leftover chip and all, or so he imagined he remembered.  there was no chip,

or was there.. if there was it probably melted but.. oh. he raised his hand and the screen turned white.  wave wave.  the screen flicked black and white to a cadance.   not morse.  barcode maybe.

wave wave. 0 0. 0 1. 1 0, 0 0, 1.  black.  well that's hightly non-usable.  Q outstretched his

hand and the screen turned red and then black and then began drawing a wormhole wire mesh.

jeeeeezus.  ok tap tap, he typed in a few commands he remembered, and one that couldn't fail, or

so he joked to himself from 5 years, ago: "$ fail"

all the boxes lit up again, and hard drives began to whir and spin and the fiber on each box lit

up little blue LEDs he'd had custom installed with fans to make sure they worked when they were

supposed to fail.  yep that failed in the right direction.

he switched the screen to the network interface and watched all the interfaces come up and bond

into 3 virtual interfaces, connected now worldwide fiber coming in from europe, asia, and the rest of the americas.  'oh scotland joined this time, crap!'  he mocked himself.

---

there was a tap at the center door.  maxine was 'just popping in to see how your popping on in

reckoning?  we're seeing data spikes on all ingress and power worldwide has hit past the 3% jump

you said wouldn't happen'  

'oh its just for power up, no worries,' he looked back.

'fiber T87J5'.  that was just to throw maxine off.

'well did it?'

'what?'

'throw me off, I'm still connected.. ' she looked down at her device.  'we're all connected.  fantastic.  now what does it do?  oh.. don't tell me you're going to tell me, please don't you promised

you would't promise me anything.  nor the company.  that's why we don't pay you, or rather we paid you to forget about it, at least that's what you told us when you left, yes?'

'yeeeess....' he turned back to the screen, watched some multilingual messages appear, then dissappear, then re-appear in a slightly better font, and the characters began to rewrite themselves, a sort of mashup between japanese and european languages, with some odd numbers and math figures begining to appear.  the language seemed alright, not aggressive, kind of forthcoming, and solid and flowy and almost understandable, from a visual perspective.'   I think that's a house, and a fish, and a... oh.. aumlot?  ooook.. and some.. oh those were my equates.. and.. those were.. a relatives..  and the howto popped up.  oh fine.  '  he shut the box and turned to maxine.  'read up, I've got to go,' has he pushed his way past her and out to the street,

---

his hand was burning now, I guess he'd sort that out.  the outside was kind of dim, as expected, and there was just some cloud cover, or was it.. it was definitely darker than usual, but he looked up and saw it.  nobody seemed to notice, but a deep voice came through the sky and the message was clear as.. well night.  'boot'.    

'let's see if I remember this, again, he was the only one looking up, against all direction, funny as that was'.  he repeated the message.  'zeus'.  'frame 1'

sky access, the voice boomed, only to him.  he looked around.  people were moving, but the sky had

a sort of cloud cover now, and they were shaped like.. hum.. what were they shaped like.. oh his face again.. cute.  as if that's not a dead givaway.  'I think people saw that' he said to the sky.

'secondary access' the sky boomed. 'no wait!'

a 2nd voice came in, and just hijaacked the sky terminal and drew over a cloud.  'damn'

he glanced back at the cloud and changed it to orange.  a kind of still orange.  ouch.  it kind of hurt a bit. 'moving on . . ' 

the cloud followed him for a bit, and he looked up when he hit market street.  there were stratus clouds but they were dead standstill, with a slight vibration, as if they wanted to move but couldn't.  all the water just hung in the air like a VGA terminal.  he thought back to the cabinet, and his hand.

this went on for a while. people would come up and present themselves, then leave, and come and pass

and vote and hold court, etc, and it was naught a fine time to be on market with the sun in full force, so he ducked into a corridor.

as he stood there for a while, he turned to the right, and as he did, a portal opened and a dozen

people walked passed him, shouting out passwords and overrides, and commands to set interior passwords and more locks and non-overrides, and cash prizes, and all the wants, and none of the needs, but uber was famous for a day.  magic buttons, etc.. rides to anywhere.. planes and trains, it was all uber, and they were trying to take over the world through his portal.  jeez.. this was expensive'

it went on and on and was crazier and crazier.. uber had the deepest trunks, without end, and able to carry any weight, and any size for miles and miles, the trunks ran through the planet, and heavy heavy cars would travel virtually across all oceans and through the sky and the earth, and well.. it was just too much, and damned greeedy, and it wouldn't stop.

---

a fellow walked up and let Q know that the oceans were not particularly pleased, as a giant pelican like, actually it was one of those.. started with an S.. damn this thing was huge, and it was flying passed buildings, and as if it had come in straight from the sea..  that's the kind of bird it was.  it was uneasy and looked pretty darned unhappy about its weight and non-precision.  he hoped it didn't crash into a building, as well.. but couldn't help but direct it nearer to the glass to see.

---

ok.  so this is how its going to go, eh?  a hand and no money and a portal that everybody has claimed access.. and now cars speeding up and around the city for no apparent reason.  people silently stpping ubers and getting in and getting around, and out, and all silent greed, wow. this was not the bootup as it was supposed to be.

---

day turned to night, and Q found himself standing near much the same spot, with completely different people who also had not much to..  there was a robbery.  that took some time.  Q couldn't move, and the man was huge like some neo ancient, and there was a girl, who rifled through his wallet and throw it aside.  Q tried to get it back, but she got the one card he hadn't seen.  

---

I never did find out what card the hospital gave me.  was it ID? was it money?  the banks weren't open, but there were bunches of key pads around the block, and surely one of those boxes inside had a full dossier and some sort of escape plan, or SOMETHING..

a cab whirred by, man wide eyed and smiling.

'no not that one, too smiley and convenient' Q said with his eyes.

its back to the platform.. if its going to be like this, well.. we'll need to sort it out.  bubbles.  

---

footnote, that's no joke.  whatever one says, does, feels, acts on, acts with, or otherwise hears one conversation in two ears, silently contracted for and to, who well.. repeats from that bootup day.  the secondary was found.  he's a dick.  he knows he's a dick.. maybe he overheard something, but its all bollocked up now.. self correct as we might, and do, the cash equations are running out, or did, are revived, rebooting, failing, re-initializing, forgetting we told it so, remembering, and so forth.. 

and where is uber?  used cars these days.. too much promise, they told themselves.  they said I'd do it for them, but it was rigging that rigged the slices out of oranges and threw them on the ground

for people to crave and. what was it? 2 gms of citrus?  well juice was.. ouch.. brain stem went out again.  jiggle.

---

the memories are just there.. but that's where it began.  more or less and less is more.  the clouds come and go and aren't orange any longer, nor as clear a raster image as that day, standing so close to civic center, as ought it to be, a license floating past as if to say 'we found you'.. yep.. tht's me.. and the old old address.  but anyway.

Q is .. well still attempting the reboot, remotely.  or perhaps it needs less and more again.  the fiber is still lit.  that box is still writing language and messages.   power is... well.. where did the power spike get to?  maxine was months away now, and probably confused as well.. anybody would be

ring. blip. bleep.  'cloud 9, eh?' her voice hit signal on a bit of horizon.  'I see you've found me.  yes its still working.  it always worked.  we just wanted you to find it.  because you wanted to, remember?  it wasn't a sad day.  we drove you crazy because you drove us crazy.  we wanted the sky, so we gave it to you, to give to us, because we knew you would.... you're just that kind of guy.. yu do that every time, ya know?  you don't even know, which is the very caring part about us, I mean you, that we love about ourselves, part time now at least.. do you even know what happened that day?  of course you do, you were there.. but what happened to the computer. .  it was vaporized..  that is.. it melted but its still powered on.. nobody can get into that room anymore, and all the power and fiber is still kind of.. well.. doing something because the world is still spinning, and so we don't think about it, except when we do, and when we do the signal comes through, so we further know it is still working, or that is never worked, or, ya know.. but yeah.. its the'

'paradox, not quite, or quiet that but yeah, I do know, the mean time of all of that'

'yes, and oh here were go, screen temp bliss fit.  somebody's tapping in, I've got to go answer another'

Q grinned inside and began walking again.  ok, so it wasn't perfect, but nature still works, that's ok.. oh but the perpetual everything.. yes that was a thing.. who would muck that up for uber's sake?'  'well.. they didn't know.. or I didn't.. or something they tried to tell me but I didn't listen because I was talking kind of thing, as per' well

and the sky dimmed just bit.  'oh'  he remembered.. 'no flight, no planets, no universe' 'my ass' he said to the sky and walked over to a pay phone.  'this thing still works, and he punched in the two dimes somebody had given him and dialed the operator'  'plus 31' he said.. amsterdam I've got to call OT and make a trip.  get my coat'

---

yes mr Q, the old time switchboard operator chimed back with a quarter tone and a clean trunk signal.   'your flight is just over there, and up.. yes.. just a bit, and fly that one for a bit.  we'll be in touch.. tone.. that's just a little joke.  aloha'  and he hung up the phone and beamed.

it was going to be that kind of night.

click.

----

next episode, miranda and the tryst re-unite in paris perhaps, on their ways and means to amsterdammit janet land, perhaps saturdays up the castro mighty mouse, or mused, or tickery tock, for whatever that's worth a dime drop and a dozen roses.  the literal character is a backslash, you know, and its all just living from here on out, etc.  'now where does this lead to? eh Q'  'Aria took his hand and brought him across, a ways, and stood up and smiled at what 'a funny mark you've made on that side of the planet.. do you want to try another?'  'planet?'  'why not..'  'optimistic are we.. gravity and the all..'  'what else could we muck up? besides everything, again'

---

pieces of reeses love and forgiveness, from the isle of man, this is aqua q in and around a smattering of ooey oddities of san francisco c 3 w.