Never The Twain
Simon Stanton
Copyright © Simon Stanton 2016
The right of Simon Stanton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Joel entered the room, treading like he was walking into a prayer room or something. He had never before been anywhere like this and wasn't sure what to expect, or how to behave. He looked around, the room was hi-tech in every respect. The floor was a solid plastic, dark. The walls to his right and in front were dark, translucent plastic. Behind the walls were blinking lights, indicating the fluctuating and ceaseless activity of the massive computer banks that sat out of sight. The wall to his left was white, lit from behind, darker patterns and shapes, words and images and diagrams flickered and changed. It all meant something, he was sure, but it all flickered and changed too quickly for him to understand it.
There was a sound too, a very quiet hum, the air conditioning no doubt. The computers and lights made no noise, but the air conditioning made the very slightest sound, and other than his breathing it was the only sound in the room.
The only thing that was wrong was the smell. There was a faint scent of pine. Completely artificial of course, and no doubt there simply for the benefit of the human workers (computers don't appreciate smell, do they?) The scent of pine was out of place, but it reminded him of something. When he was a child Joel had actually visited a forest, a pine forest. He had loved the smell of it, a smell he had never forgotten. And the sight of the pines. The trees had risen up almost out of sight. To an eight year old it looked like they reached into the clouds. The smell of pine in the air was so fresh and he loved it. Yet here, in this completely artificial room, the scent was just wrong.
Joel had no idea what he should say. No-one had told him how you address the most powerful computer in the world Or to be accurate, one of the two most powerful computers in the world.
In a soft and almost reverential voice Joel said, 'hello.'
He didn't know what to expect, a harsh mechanical voice perhaps, or a deep booming and authoritative tone. He was surprised by a gentle, adult, male sounding voice. 'Hello Joel,' it said, in a way that Joel could label as friendly.
'How are you?' Joel asked, and he thought it was a lame question as soon as he'd asked it. But what else do you ask the most powerful computer in the world. No, he reminded himself - one of the two most powerful.
'I'm fine, Joel. How are you?'
'I'm okay, thank you' he said in his best trying-to-be-confident-but-sounding-like-a-complete-wimp voice.
'Do you want to make polite conversation all day? Or would you like to do something interesting?' asked Online. This wasn't exactly the question that Joel had expected.
'Something interesting?' said Joel, not knowing quite where this would lead. Just what would such a powerful supercomputer find interesting, that Joel could cope with?
'Very well' said Online. 'As my new Junior Assistant Operator no doubt you have completed your induction training?'
'Yes,' said Joel, hesitating slightly, not wanting to give too much away.
'So you know that one of your tasks will be to run certain diagnostic routines?'
'Yes, but Operator Bartel said I'm not to run them unsupervised in my first month.' Joel felt better having clarified that.
'I will supervise you,' said Online. Joel had a terrible feeling that trying to outsmart a supercomputer wasn't going to be easy.
'Maybe not yet,' said a voice from behind Joel, as Operator Bartel sauntered into the room. Bartel, the Supervising Operator, was Joel's boss. He was an older man, Joel wasn't sure exactly how old, with thinning grey hair and what Joel considered to be a “distinguished” look.
Joel opened his mouth, trying find words to explain to Bartel how the conversation had started, but the absence of coherent words made it a bit difficult.
'It's okay Joel,' said Bartel in a not unfriendly way, 'it's just Online's little initiation test, isn't it Online?'
'I hope you're not suggesting that I would have encouraged Joel to breach the Great Divide,' said Online. Joel wasn't sure, but he thought there was a hint of friendly sarcasm in the voice. Were supercomputers capable of friendly sarcasm?
'What's the Great Divide?' asked Joel before he could stop himself.
Bartel looked at him, like a father whose five year old child has just asked where babies come from, in front of his mother.
'Shall I explain?' asked Online.
'No,' said Bartel, this time the hint was of annoyance. Now Joel felt like a child standing between two grown-ups arguing about grown-up things - don't ask, we'll explain when you're older.
'Sir, what is the Great Divide?' asked Joel.
Bartel looked around, perhaps looking for what Online had as a face so he could give an annoyed stare at it.
'What do you know about Online?' asked Bartel.
Joel suspected a trick, he'd only just done his induction, so he knew more than the average person, but there'd been no mention of this “divide”. 'He's the most powerful computer in the world.' Joel knew he'd be corrected as soon as he'd said it. But it wasn't Bartel who corrected him.
'To be accurate, I'm one of the two most powerful computers in the world' said Online. The hint, this time of pride. 'I am one of two multi-quantum computers. I oversee all operations of the city's services. I have eighteen billion processors and with my interleaved quantum memory complexes, an almost infinite storage capacity.'
'So why are you called “Online”? No-one explained that,' said Joel.
'Because when my first processor cores were powered up I was asked “what is your status?” said Online, 'and my answer was “I am on-line”, for myself and my operators the name became a habit and now it is the name I used for myself.'
'So if Online is one of the two most powerful computers, what question does that prompt?' asked Bartlel, looking at Joel but probably half talking to Online.
Joel took it upon himself to answer. 'It would prompt the question who is the other computer, but I know that.'
'And the answer is?' asked Bartel.
'The other computer is Athena,' said Joel, 'and I know why she's called Athena.' Joel struggled to keep the pride out of his voice, and failed completely.
Before Joel could show off any more, Online completed the explanation. 'Because in ancient Greek mythology, Athena was the goddess of wisdom, civilisation, law and justice.'
'And the two computers together they run all the services in the city,' said Joel.
'Not quite,' said Online, 'not quite together.'
'We don't normally discuss this with new recruits' said Operator Bartlet, 'nor in front of Online, let's go to my office.'