Synergy on the Galactic Tunnel Network (EarthCent Auxiliaries Book 5) by E. M. Foner

Author:E. M. Foner [Foner, E. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Foner Books
Published: 2023-04-02T16:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Larry jogged all the way from the monorail station to the construction trailer at the site set aside for the Human Empire pavilion and found both of his temporary employees already at work.

“Morning, Boss,” Dwight said, looking up from the spreadsheet he was studying. “The wireless broadband company finally got our access point working, and Scott is on a virtual reality call with headquarters.”

“Headquarters on Flower?” Larry asked, his eyes going to the tall young man who had donned a virtual reality headset and was gesticulating with controllers in each hand, seemingly at random. “I hope he’s not blowing all of our emergency Stryxnet bandwidth for the quarter. I’ve never been on a live tunneling call outside of official EarthCent events where the Stryx footed the bill.”

“It’s a new thing,” Dwight explained, pointing at a small Dollnick shipping crate on the floor. The lid was up and three more virtual reality headsets could be seen, two still in their retail packaging, and one opened and plugged into the trailer’s connection block by a thin cord. “That was here when we arrived this morning, along with a memory chip that I’ve been studying.”

“What time did you guys get here?”

“Seven. After working for Interstellar Exhibitions, we feel guilty about sleeping in that late.”

“You’re showing me up,” Larry said, glancing at the wall clock that came with the trailer which was showing just past eight. “Give me an executive summary.”

“It’s a new technology, or a new use for an old technology that headquarters wants us to showcase in the pavilion,” Dwight explained. “By combining a limited avatar version of virtual reality with the headset hardware’s ability to render 3D images from vector representations, they can squeeze a Stryxnet video conference into the bandwidth that would normally be limited to voice.”

“Which still runs a day’s pay for most people to make a five-minute call.”

“But that’s a lot cheaper than a month’s pay for a five-minute holoconference. The developer is positioning the product as a poor-man’s substitute, and headquarters is encouraging us to use it as much as possible in the run-up to the fair for the sake of Beta testing.”

“Who have you been talking to at Human Empire HQ?” Larry asked. “Samuel? Vivian?”

“Jill,” Dwight told him. “She’s a work-study student from the Open University. It sounds like a cool place.”

“Nothing came for us about a design for the pavilion? I see buildings getting their finishing touches all around us, and I swear that the Frunge Manufacturers Association building wasn’t even started when I left last night. Now it looks finished.”

“They were just unpacking it when we got here.” The young man pulled out his phone and passed it to Larry. “I took some pictures. This—I don’t know—space tug, I guess, lowered a box the size of a building on cables that didn’t look much thicker than my pinkie. When the box touched down, the cables all went a little slack, there was a sound like a bunch of gunshots, and all of the sides of the box fell away, or leaned away because they were still held by the cables.

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