Impermanent Universe by Vern Buzarde

Author:Vern Buzarde [Buzarde, Vern]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-06T22:00:00+00:00

17

Six months had passed since Tess’s meeting with Nick and she still felt rattled. Although the purpose of the trip to Houston was to close the most important chapter in her life, another had opened and the thought of the Essex returning haunted her in a new and unpredictable way. She kept picturing the two dead astronauts’ frozen bodies, perfectly preserved, shocked expressions forged permanently behind icy visors. Their glassy eyes staring, wondering, accusing. But she couldn’t allow it to distract her. She had to put it all in a box and lock it away. At least for now.

“That’s it, Tess,” Sandeep said with a smile. “The system is fully active. Liquid helium coolers online. Sensors are installed and functional. Prajna is connected to the 3D holograph. The operating system is fully loaded and verified. We’re ready to start building the database. Just say when.”

Tess gathered herself. It’s really happening. This was the culmination of events that could never have been predicted or scripted just after the Essex catastrophe. Her intersection with Satoshi seemed like fate now, almost as if it had been predetermined.

“Let’s do this,” she said. “Initiate slowly, per the procedure. We’re going to spoon-feed Prajna like the newborn it is.”

Dozens of thoughts cascaded across Tess’s mind. All the questions around the operating system and how it might interact with Prajna’s hardware would soon be answered. In a matter of days, the success or failure of the project would be clear. Prajna was a blank slate for the last time. The range of scenarios from fantastic to disastrous was about to narrow, and soon there would be a clear understanding of what they’d created.

“We’ll start with formal sciences. Begin loading Module 1 now.”

Sandeep typed, and Tess placed her palm on an infrared scanner. A countdown clock on the central control room monitor displayed:

Time Remaining: 23 hours 12 minutes 23 seconds

“I can speed it up if you’d like,” Sandeep said.

“No, let’s try this for now. See if we run into any problems. No rush.”

But there was a sense of urgency. The room was electrified. Tension had been steadily building throughout the project, and all the team members burned for some resolution. Everyone realized the whole thing ultimately came down to Tess’s code, so complex that most of the others couldn’t fully grasp all its delicate nuances. They could only trust Tess’s vision was clear, her design theory based on more than just a hopeful dream.

Byron stood silently in the corner like a skulking carrion crow, the ever-present smirk pasted on his funeral-home face, clearly communicating his confidence in the project’s inevitable doom. He mumbled something under his breath, then left.

The other twenty-three members of the team were wedged into the control room, all wanting to say they were there when the final phase began.

Tess rose behind her workstation and said, “Just to recap. We will load the five modules sequentially. After each module is complete, we will assign a series of tasks, simple problems, specific to that particular discipline as a preliminary test.

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