Morgan Arrival, Part 3

A Knowing Mars story, by tycho garen
on 7th August 2008. (commentary)

This is third part of the “Morgan Arrival” Story from the Knowing Mars project. Read Part 1 and Part 2. My original header for this section was Morgan Residence, Mars Colony 2542. Which, though descriptive, isn’t particularly unique or distinctive, so instead we have “Morgan Arrival.” This is the final five part sequence of Chapter 1. Enjoy.

“Aye,” Taban said, grinning. Taban started a final once over of all the connections between the apartment’s computer system, their enhancements and the hardware encryption that made the system go. Kalian took a deep breath, and started to double check all the connections as well.

When it looked done, Taban just flipped the switch without much warning. The system was probably going to work, and stressing over the mess of wires was probably not a good idea.

Kalian exhaled sharply, and said “Ok then.” A moment later, the system–working normally–requested their encryption keys. Dutifully they they inserted their encryption pendants into the encryption processor. Once initialized, unless they rewired the encryption system, only one of the pendants would be enough to grant them access to the system, but this was a somewhat jury-rigged system, and it was always something of a guessing game every time they had to break it down and set it up again.

“It looks like we’re good,” Kalian said as the blinking cursor prompt appeared in the corner of a couple of screens1.

Taban ran a couple of systems tests and sighed when everything came back clear. “Lets get this recorded, and on its way: we have a big day tomorrow.”

Kalian idly entered a command. “It’s still today? Damn.”

“I suppose it’s too late to take back saying ‘if only there were more hours in the day’?” Taban yawned for the first time.

“Probably so. And it’s only forty minutes.” Kalian laughed. “You ready?”

“Yeah. Hit…. that,” Taban entered a series of commands and then pointed to a command button. “You start?”



Notes:

  1. To be fair, it was one screen. Many of the accommodations on the Mars Colony–Taban and Kalian’s included–had brilliant displays incorporated into the walls of the apartment. Though the connection wasn’t entirely secure, particularly with the encryption box for the time being it was good enough. In any case, Taban and Kalian had always opted for more, rudimentary computer interfaces: although we all had access to voice-activated and highly visual displays, they opted for pure text interfaces because it was quicker, and allowed them to work in the same room. Telepaths or not, they were incredibly skilled computer users, and quite particular about their systems. ↩

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