Tag: sci-fi

Categories
Horizon 2050

Edna’s Garden – Chapter 4

Edna's Garden - Chapter 3
Follow the story of Edna's Garden. An 8-year-old girl with a passion for nature will turn the world upside down with her data experiments. By Horizon 2050.

Enter Edna’s Garden and discover how an 8-year-old girl with a passion for nature will turn the world upside down with her data models

A story by Miquel Morales.

Jumping in just now? Check out all previous chapters of Edna’s Garden.

Edna’s Garden – Chapter 4

Once the bell that signalled the end of the school day rang, Edna waited for her classmates to leave the room while pretending to review some notes from what had been a seemingly never-ending lecture about early Internet era social networks. She didn’t have to wait for long; it had been a particularly boring one, and the other kids rushed out through the door. Boring not because of the topic –Edna found it fascinating that people back then would go around posting photos of their faces with dog ear filters on– it was more a problem with Mr. Barnum’s teaching methods. The aging history teacher had a correspondingly aging way of presenting information. He barely touched the holo-node at the centre of the classroom. Instead, he insisted on bringing from home one of those old screen projectors to illustrate his lectures.

It was so unpractical, being able to show only one image at a time on one of the classroom walls as opposed to the holo-node, which displayed a personalised, interactive set of screens for every single student. But Mr. Barnum loved his gadgets, and the school loved Mr. Barnum. 

When the last classmate had left, Edna opened her bag and took out her sister’s old wristband. The unassuming bracelet displayed a holographic menu when Edna touched it. She scrolled down the various items and made sure that everything was set. Perfect. She hid the bracelet under the sweater’s sleeve and started making her way out the school’s premises.  

It had been nice of her sister to let her borrow her old band. It was way clunkier than the latest model Dad had bought her for her birthday, but it would still do the trick. As an 8-year-old, Edna was not supposed to have a wristband. After early-21st century research had proven that too many screens could negatively affect children’s development, official guidelines had been put in place to limit tech use to the essentials for kids under 10.

It was also a great way for parents to control their kids, as almost nothing could be done these days without a wristband. All serious payments required one. It also stored official identification documents and worked as the main point of contact for services ranging from cars to file exchange. Underage kids carried instead a physical ID card with very limited capabilities. As limited as their parents wanted them to be, which, in Edna’s case, was completely.  

“Well, hello, young lady. How did the day unfold, learned much?”  

Peter the butler had been waiting for Edna just outside the school gates to escort her back to the apartment. Edna could tell in his eyes that he didn’t enjoy too much his prison guard role, but he was a man of principles who did what had to be done. Thankfully, that often included not telling her Dad and Bianca about Edna’s little adventures. Unfortunately, he would not be convinced this time around. Edna’s behaviour had “crossed a line,” as Bianca had said. 

“Just that old habits never die, Peter.” Edna strolled down the street without making eye contact. Peter was good at reading her face, and she was nervous about what she was about to do.  

“Well, if you are talking about your stubbornness, young lady, I can tell you that much is true.” 

Sign up to mission control center newsletter

Central Park West was packed with school kids returning home. As they made their way down the avenue, Peter and Edna had to sort through the groups of frenetic children unleashing their wildest side after a full day indoors. Edna watched how one of the groups passed a ball above the park’s wall, one half on each side of it. She saw a red-headed woodpecker resting on one the still leafless branches of one of the trees right across the fence. A rather big male for the species, or so Edna thought.

She wondered what The Pond would look like right now. Surely the flower buds had started insinuating themselves in between the plant stems. It would be Spring soon, and the ducklings were probably just about to hatch. Edna thought of her favourite duck family, a curious group made up of an older matriarch and three younger males who she had to police more often than she probably would had liked. Maybe she would have to handle a few new additions in the coming weeks. 

“To be honest, Ms. Edna, I must say I am surprised of how well you have taken this whole being grounded scenario. At first, I thought you it would take you less than a day to run away or put up some sort of fit. But I must apologise for jumping to conclusions too quick. After all, you will soon be a grownup, and you are clearly becoming more responsible and focused. In fact, I…” 

Edna was gone. She had taken advantage of the crowds that formed at the traffic lights in Columbus Square and vanished as soon as Peter directed a confused look at a young couple dressed in matching neon-lit outfits. She was now descending into the subway station, feeling a wave of excitement and anticipation as she jumped down the stairs looking over the shoulder for any signs of the butler. With no pursuer in sight, Edna crossed the station’s hall and used her sister’s wristband to access the boarding area. She tried to remember what her sister had told her. Just hold it close to the screen on top of the turnstile, on the left-hand side.  

As strange as it sounded to people whose family was of more humble means, the subway was an alien place for someone like Edna. The only subways she had ever seen were those that appeared in holo-movies and shows. Peter often said how fine and efficient the subway was, a marvel compared to the rusty, rattling subway system that was held together with scotch tape until the late 2030s. But, as far as her memory went, Edna’s only ways of transportation had been the family’s car, taxi cabs and the occasional bicycle ride around the park. No wonder she was desperate to run among the trees and get her clothes dirty with mud. She had spent her entire life in a very fancy and expensive cage. But thankfully, that cage had a little garden in it called Central Park. Or at least until Bianca got her grounded.  

Edna got herself into the first train bound for downtown and looked at the screen displaying all the stops in the line. Chinatown: 7 stops. It shouldn’t take too long. Or maybe it would take that long; Edna had no idea of how much time it took the train to go between stops. But wait. She had a wristband of her own now. She manipulated the menu until she found the answer.  

Estimated arrival time: 10 minutes. 

To be continued…

Edna’s Garden.

Discover our previous story: Nadia – Chapter I

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Categories
Horizon 2050

Edna’s Garden – Chapter 2

Edna's Garden
Enter Edna's Garden Chapter 2. How an 8-year-old girl with a passion for nature turns the world upside down with her data experiments. By Horizon 2050.

Edna’s Garden: An 8-year-old girl with a passion for nature will turn the world upside down with her data experiments

Edna’s Garden, a story by Miquel Morales.

Jumping in just now? Check out all previous chapters.

Edna’s Garden – Chapter 2

The lift swooshed up the Manhattan building where Edna had been living for the eight years of her life. The elevator shaft looked much like a tree of glass growing along the exterior of the building, with a central vertical trunk and smaller shafts branching out to the sides connecting to each apartment. Almost all new elevators were built like this nowadays — historical architecture was one of the few last bastions against urban overdevelopment in a New York that simply had run out of place after the 2040s economic boom. Edna looked at the crowded city skyline with tired eyes. Delivery drones crossed the space in between buildings, avoiding each other by just a few millimetres. This place definitely needs more green.  

“Let’s hope we can sneak you through the service door and get you cleaned up without your parents seeing us, young lady,” said Peter with a long sigh.  

“My father, Peter. She is not my mom. Plus, I don’t care what happens with her stupid dinner.” Her stepmother was throwing a party this evening to showcase her horrible paintings. She had convinced Dad to invite a renowned art critic he had once met at a corporate event. Classic Bianca, to use others’ influence for her petty little projects of self-aggrandising.  

“You might not, but your father surely does. He’s got enough on his plate as it is with work to be mediating between the two of you. Plus, we are more than an hour late.”  

The elevator door opened with a beep and Edna and Peter found themselves in the storage room behind the kitchen. Animated chatting and clinking glasses could be heard coming from the living room at the opposite side of the building floor the apartment fully occupied.   

“Quick, let’s get you cleaned up and changed into more appropriate garments,” said Peter while pulling her towards one of the many bathrooms. A voice startled them right as he was opening the door for Edna to go in.  

“Playing with dirt again, huh, Ed?” Her older sister was standing in the hallway with her arms crossed. Edna and her sister generally liked each other, but puberty was taking a toll on the way her sister treated her. They no longer shared the afternoons after school exploring alien worlds in virtual reality or fantasising about moving to a small village in the Canadian mountains where bird sounds replaced car horns. They still, however, agreed on the fact that Bianca Salazar had been a terrible addition to the family and that she had to go. At least on that, they stuck together.  

“Peter, could you please help her with those shoes full of mud? I’ll go get her clean clothes.”

The party was, as per usual, a bit too much to say the least. Edna was trying to find a quiet corner of the living room in which she could remain unnoticed and wait for the whole thing to be over. Her sister would be of no help here – she was too busy with the friends she had invited over, one of whom, Edna thought, it was pretty obvious she liked. Edna could have invited Jahmil, her school buddy and a fellow admirer of the wonders of the natural world. But she had decided to spare him the pain.

One thing was to have him sit through one of her long-winded speeches in between classes, the other one was to have him join a party of NY socialites whose level of disregard for all things fun was only comparable to how easy it seemed for them to ignore the fact that they were surrounded by the grotesque paintings of an egomaniac they didn’t even like. Edna couldn’t wait for the whole thing to be over so that she could go back to her computer model of the pond and implement the updates she had come up with that day during business class.  

At least the catering was good. Little pastries and cold canapés from Martinelli’s on 5th, her favourite café in town. Peter was busy carrying trays full of them up and down the room with his usual mix of warmth and sophistication. It almost pained her to think it had been Bianca who proposed getting the food for the showcasing from Martinelli’s. She had tried to sell it as a gesture to Edna and her sister, but Edna wasn’t buying it. Too nice of a gesture for Bianca Salazar.  

“And you must be Edna,” a man’s voice said from behind. A bespectacled man wearing a flat cap and a shinny blazer was filling his plate with tiny savoury croissants and way too many olives. Definitely the art critic. A blue glow on the surface of his glasses informed Edna that he was looking something up in his augmented reality display – a kind of multitasking very popular in those days. “Your father has told me a lot about you, you know? Too bad he wasn’t able to make it today.” Unsurprisingly, her father had got caught up with one of his board meetings. Something about an activist investor. Probably nothing to do with the kind of activists that fight to save entire Amazonian ecosystems and that Edna admired so much. “So, what do you think of the paintings?” He pointed at the nearest one with a sausage-stuffed croissant. 

Edna hesitated. “Eh, you know… the colour is kind of nice?” 

“Relax,” he said with a chuckle. “I’m only here as a favour to your dad. Even he knows it’s painful to look at these things. But it’s important for Bianca. And so, it is to him. You know, your dad’s a good man. Nothing to do with the suits you tend to meet at these corporate things. 

“Yeah, he’s cool,” she said quietly, wishing her father had as much time to spend with her as he apparently had to go around making friends with artistic types. 

“Take that one, for example,” he said pointing at a big square painting across the room. It was an undecipherable pastiche of colours and shapes. “What do you think that actually is?”  

Edna smiled. All things considered; she was starting to like the man.  

Sign up to mission control center newsletter

“Hmmm. An eggplant fighting a chihuahua? No! Wait. Actually, I think it is a self-portrait of Bianca. See? You can recognise her silly hat and witch-like face. And that mouth that…” 

Too late. Edna felt the presence of Bianca, who had approached the couple in the hopes of squeezing some feedback out of the art critic. Despite her apparently perfect smile, Edna could tell in her eyes that she had perfectly heard what she had just said. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Back in her bedroom, Edna finished changing her clothes and sat at her desk. It was kind of comforting to be spared the rest of the evening. She wasn’t looking forward to the “honest chat” his dad would have with her when he got home later that day. Undoubtedly, Bianca would have told him how Edna had ruined her only chance at becoming a self-sufficient artist. As if she could have sold a single one of those paintings anyway. But at least she could go back to what mattered: the pond model.  

She started by inputting the new data and variables she had collected at the park that day and then went on to fix the code with the new approach she had come up with. It took her a while to put it all together, but her face was glowing with excitement when she was done. She hit the compile button. A message appeared: insufficient power. Darn it. There was only one thing left to do. After some tweaking, she managed to connect her computing station to the apartments main power network. According to Tim345 on Reddit, it was not something a certified electrician would advise anyone to do. But what the heck. Not that anyone in that house put too much care on her anyway.  

Edna pressed the compile button again. 

The power went out with a low hum. In the absolute darkness of her room, Edna could hear Bianca’s howl piercing through the walls. 

“Edna!!!”  

To be continued…

Read the next chapter of Edna’s Garden: Edna’s Garden – Chapter 3

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Categories
Horizon 2050

Edna’s Garden – Chapter 1

Edna's Garden
Enter Edna's Garden Chapter 2. How an 8-year-old girl with a passion for nature turns the world upside down with her data experiments. By Horizon 2050.

Edna’s Garden: An 8-year-old girl with a passion for nature will turn the world upside down with her data experiments

Edna’s Garden, a story by Miquel Morales.

Discover our last story: Nadia

Edna’s Garden – Chapter 1

“Edna?” an old voice croaked from above. From beneath the pile of dead leaves she had fallen on, Edna could hear the man struggling to breathe. Wheezes and sudden bursts of dry cough formed a rhythmic pattern that spoke of one-too-many cigarette puffs while walking the dog. “For the love of Christ, Edna! Where are you? Where do you think you are going?” The man’s voice was full of urgency and rage, his British accent more noticeable than usual. Edna could not remember the last time she had seen him this mad. Maybe she simply had not.

“Edna!” In her leafy igloo, Edna could hear his steps coming down the hill as he fought his way through the dense vegetation. She held her breath. “Of all the days you could have lost your mind… It had to be today, ah? Of course it had to be today!” Just a few feet away from Edna’s face, a loose branch broke into a dozen pieces under the furious step of a muddy leather shoe. Edna held onto her precious cargo in a protective embrace. It was still warm, much like the pulsating heat that had started emanating from her ankle. She must have sprinkled it upon touching the ground. A stinging pain stabbed her leg in agreement. Great.

“I am losing my patience, little lady. Come out of wherever you are hiding. Now!” The man’s voice was now further away. It was clear that he had assumed that Edna was no longer there and was venturing deeper into the thicket. No, she would not come out! She was tired of all the stupid rules and impositions. And all because of Her. “One last time, lady! Do you want me to tell your father? Is that what you want?” No, he would not tell Dad. He never did. He loved her way too much to want her any harm. “I am going to count to three, Edna. And then, I am going to pick up my phone and call your father.” Nice try, buddy. “One…” Just a ruse. “Two… Picking up the phone, Edna!” “Peter, no!” Darn it.

Edna had just a few seconds to hide her hunting prize in one of the inner pockets of her navy blue trench coat before a hand started digging into the pile of leaves. An angry pair of tired eyes peeped through a hole in the leafy dome. There stood Peter Kahn, the family’s butler. He was soaked in sweat and covered with dirt. He was holding Edna’s Totoro backpack in one hand and a cellphone on the other.

More hurt, than angry, Edna stared back at the man with a defiant expression. “Where is it.” said the butler. “Where did you put it?” Nothing. He proceeded to unlock his phone. “I lost it while running, ok?” said Edna. “Are you happy now?” The man directed her a suspicious look. “Peter,” said Edna pointing at the swollen ankle. “I can’t walk.”

All things considered, Edna was having a great time. She was really trying to keep herself from smiling as passerby directed inquisitive and confused looks at the man dressed in dirty, eccentric butler clothes carrying in his arms a little girl with even dirtier clothes across Central Park on a Tuesday afternoon. She could have easily piggybacked her way through the park and made it a bit less awkward, but Peter was too much of a gentleman to allow that to happen.

Edna looked at the face of the sixty-year-old butler for a moment. His eyes were focused in the winding path ahead, his face as stoic as straight was his posture. He had not spoken a single word since discovering her under the leafage. Neither was Edna expecting him to do so. She knew that look very well after spending most of her life under the care of the man. He would briskly carry her all the way across the park until reaching The Pond, where he would slow down so Edna could mentally annotate the number of swimming ducks at the time and what they were doing.

It was her dad that had introduced her to nature when she was a little kid, before everything changed. She had been studying The Pond’s ecosystem for over a year now. She had built a database and tracking computer program where she carefully registered all the data in hopes that one day her research might be of use to the cool scientists at the American Museum of Natural History. Over the months, the data she collected was enough to start building a model that simulated the little natural environment she so loved. And that was only the beginning.

But this time, Peter did not slow down. Trying to get a quick glimpse of the water over the butler’s shoulders, Edna considered for a moment dropping her precious cargo where it belonged. No. It was too vital to her project’s success.

Subscribe to Mission Control Center Newsletter

The outlandish butler and his broken princess did not look any more fitting while crossing Grand Army Plaza. Peter even had to stop for a couple of minutes in order to explain to a concerned police officer that they were neither part of an anticapitalist street performance nor had they been involved in a limousine crash.

Edna felt sorry for Peter. The gallantry had always been there, but his new attire was simply too much. It did not use to be that way. Not until she broke into their lives and proclaimed that “elegance and taste had to be conquered one outfit at a time.” Peter, like most modern-day family butlers, used to wear what adults called “business casual” clothes.

Edna knew this from the few occasions in which she had been invited – and forced to go – to a classmate’s birthday party. She hated those kids. They were always talking about either cars or horses, summer houses and the coolest technological gadget of the season. It seemed as though their only goal in life was to copy the nearsighted lives of their parents, the superfluous, clean, organized and ultimately sombre lives of wealthy New Yorkers.

She thought for a moment of Tom Collins, that little spoiled brat. She could picture him at the school gates, leaving for home on his ridiculous hoverboard after making fun at the fact that Edna still had to be walked home by “the nanny.” She had heard those things could catch on fire. And she certainly hoped so.

Distant church bells chimed way too many times. They were pretty late. She would be furious, thought Edna with satisfaction. She had been planning this for weeks, yet another fake jewel on her crown of shiny ego.

It all started when Dad announced over dinner that he had decided to invest some money in the new restaurant of a famous art critic he recently met at a fundraising event. The guy’s name was Jeremy Talbot, and, apparently, he was as enthusiastic as Dad about saving the endangered populations of North Pacific short-tailed albatross. “So, how short is its tail compared to that of a normal albatross?” had jumped an excited Edna when her dad mentioned that fact.

But, before she could ask more about that majestic-yet-not-too-majestic-sounding bird, Bianca Salazar – Her – had come up with the brilliant idea. “That’s it, darling. We are having a dinner party!” For a moment, Edna had thought the veins on the woman’s neck would burst out of pure elation. Of course – She had been desperately waiting for such an occasion. Bianca Salazar was tall, thin and evil; her beauty extraordinary enough to make everyone else oblivious to the latter.

She had shown up at their 57th Street penthouse three years after Mom’s death. Edna was only one year old when her mother finally succumbed to the cancer. It was impossible for Edna to recall a single thing about her. She simply had this feeling, a foggy impression of having had a mother a long time ago. Somehow, she knew she came from somewhere – or rather from someone – as opposed to just having been summoned into this world by pure chance. That was definitely what it felt like with her.

Bianca Salazar had simply come along with fake smiles and pretended she had always been there. It did not work that well with Edna. She would not go as far as calling it hate at first sight – Edna was simply too young in the beginning to understand what was going on. It had been more of an awakening. By the age of four, Edna reckoned, she had had enough interactions with well-meaning human beings to recognize one without a soul when she saw it.

Dad was probably the golden standard when it came to evaluating a person’s qualities. He had taught Edna everything cool she knew or cared about, from zoology and astronomy to The Beatles and good adventure stories – The NeverEnding Story was one of her favourites.

Then there was Peter, of course. He had taught her substantially different things, the kind of things Edna wished no one cared about: how to properly eat at the table, how a lady should introduce herself to a stranger, the list of words she was not supposed to use. Well, no – That was unfair.

With her father travelling so much and the witch being, well, a witch, Peter provided Edna and her siblings with the valuable concepts of reliability and selfless generosity.

Edna looked at the butler’s face as they crossed Fifth Avenue on a red light. Peter was an honourable man. The most honourable. Edna wished they had known each other as kids. They would have been really good friends.

To be continued…

Read the next chapter of Edna’s Garden: Edna’s Garden – Chapter 2

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Categories
Horizon 2050

Nadia — Final Chapter

Nadia
The story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London. Follow the chapter I of the story of Nadia on Mission Control Center.

The story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London, comes to an end

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

—

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Final Chapter

Nadia got to the address her sister had mentioned way before noon. Not because she cared about punctuality or anything like that. She hadn’t been able to sleep after the call, and there was only so much walking around to be done in a small town like Coventry. Plus, she needed to survey the area before the meeting. If the events of the past few days have told her anything, that was to always be prepared for the worse. Her sister must have thought that was a safe place to hide from the kidnappers. Nadia wouldn’t be doing her any service if she got spotted out of pure recklessness.     

In any case, there she was, hiding behind some bushes like a sloppy burglar. That was, of course, assuming her sister meant 246 Reinford Lane, Coventry and not 246 Reinford Lane, London or some other city. Hopefully not.   

It was a small house, one of those narrow and tall townhouses with a small, elevated staircase that connects the front door with the street. The curtains were closed shut on all windows, so there was not much that Nadia could make out from across the street. She examined what seemed to be the door to the basement, a rusty door at the street level with no handle or windows. A side alley led to the back of the property.   

After making sure no one besides her was lurking behind a bush, Nadia walked across the street and went into the alley. It ended abruptly on a wooden fence crowned by overflowing vegetation. Nadia went back a few steps and made a run for it. After a couple failed attempts, she managed to push herself over the fence and fell in the middle of a jungle of a garden. Plants were sprouting from literally everywhere, to the point that it was hard to distinguish the flat stones that served as the floor. The house’s back wall was covered in vines. So were the windows.   

Nadia fought her way through the greenery all the way to what seemed to be the door into the house. She tore off the vines covering it and tried pushing the handle. To her surprise, the door opened with a tiny squeak. Shhh!   

A rancid smell hanged in the air. For all she could see in the pale light coming through the open door, she was in the basement she had seen earlier. A staircase led upstairs, probably to the rest of the house. Nadia stood still and listened for a while. No sounds were coming from upstairs. She started making her way up, slowly but steady, one step at a time. The wood cracked under her feet with every step, making her cringe. But Nadia hadn’t made it half the way up when a fluorescent light turned on behind her.   

“Welcome, sister.”  

Nadia gave a jump and turned around with a racing heart. There was her sister, sitting on a worn-out leather armchair by the door.   

“You really are that easy to predict, aren’t you?” The smirk on her sister’s face brought Nadia back to her childhood days and the not-so-nice version of her sister. She had changed so much over the past years. Nadia hadn’t seen that mocking smile in a long time. Something was off. “Classic Nadia, always one step ahead, or at least happily thinking so. Well, this time I was the one ahead, wasn’t I?”  

“Ahead of what? Seriously, can you tell me what’s going on with this whole thing? How did you free yourself? Where were they keeping you?”  

“Free myself? You really don’t get it, do you? It beats you to think someone could outsmart you or want you harm. It always has.”   

“Alright, you are freaking me out, siss,” said Nadia. “Spill it. What’s going on.”      

“Why don’t you take a seat?”  

“I’m fine.”  

“As you wish,” said her sister crossing one leg on top of the other and resting her back against the armchair. “Do you recognise this?” she said holding up a card. Nadia did recognise it right away. It was the invite card that Tom had given her to get into the party. It was hard to believe only two days had passed since then. And it felt like ages ago.  

“How did you get that?”  

“Oh, it’s easy. I made it myself. You see, there’s just so much you can squeeze into such a thin material these days. Recording the data was the easy part, I just needed you to have the card with you while you were in the holovisor cabin.”  

“So Tom…”  

“Yep. He was acting on my behalf. Don’t blame him. Let’s just say he wasn’t too keen on me letting the police know about his boyfriend’s little magic tricks with his taxes. A pity he decided to make it up to you and ended up shot for it.”  

Nadia’s blood was boiling, her head spinning between confusion and sheer disbelief.   

“But why…”  

“Because it needed to be done. You had it coming all along. Since we were kids, I’ve had to deal with your oh-so-perfect aura. You know, it wasn’t that fun seeing everybody praise every little step you took while I failed at every major goal I set out to achieve. You were the one who was good with numbers, the one that made it into the good schools. Don’t you get it? I wanted to be you, have your career, your life, not have to depend on a miserable admin salary. Well, now it’s my turn.   

As much as it hurt, Nadia wasn’t entirely surprised by her sister’s revelations. She had exhibited that kind of attitude for most of their childhood. But Nadia thought they had left those years behind, grown into adults who got along just fine. Heck, she thought they had even become friendly to a certain degree. Her birthday gift sort of sealed that conception. Her sister, reaching back to one of the few things they had in common growing up: Ziza.  

She understood all of a sudden.   

“EVE”  

“Exactly. See? You are not that stupid after all. It wasn’t too complicated to install a backdoor into the AI before giving it to you. I must admit I had quite some fun telling you what to do.”  

“But everything that EVE, I mean that you told me to do was petty stuff. You couldn’t have retrieved the Duplo data through that.”  

“Agreed. But it was enough to open little wholes within the system, right where I needed them, so that I could start transferring information to the card. Worked pretty well.”     

Nadia felt so stupid. It was a very simple trick in reality. One of the world’s most protected systems, breached through carelessness and personal deceit. The wailing sound of sirens could be heard approaching in the distance.   

“I took the liberty of calling some friends,” said her sister. “They should be here any minute.”  

“What did you do with the data?”  

“Why, sell it, of course. I am now what they technically call filthy rich.”  

“I’ll tell them everything.” The sirens grew louder and louder.  

“Good luck making them believe this crazy story,” said her sister with a chuckle. “Goodbye siss, enjoy your prison cell. It will be your home for many years.”  

With that, her sister stood up and walk out into the garden. Nadia heard a crashing boom as the special operations team busted through the house’s main door.   

The End.

Discover another story: Edna’s Garden – Chapter 1

Join our talent community

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Categories
Horizon 2050

Nadia — Chapter V

Nadia
The story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London. Follow the chapter I of the story of Nadia on Mission Control Center.

Follow the story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

—

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Chapter V

“You know, it’s not the first time I deal with the likes of you. Nor it will be the last, for that matter.”

There is something unsettling about empty houses. Especially when they aren’t yours. Everything in the living room looked tidy and ready to be used, with only a thin layer of dust betraying how abandoned the place was.

As Tom had suggested, Nadia had made it out of the city under the cover of darkness. The paycard he had left her at the apartment had been useful. Tom had left her a burner phone as well. Seriously, though. What on Earth is going on? She had been played by this EVE. But how?

Nadia had gotten herself a headscarf and a cheap regular-speed train ticket to Coventry, hoping her friend would be there and willing to let her lay low for a while. Tina was her name. Her family had a big country house surrounded by fields of barley, which they mainly used in the Summer months. Nadia had been invited for a barbecue a few times with other people from college. She had met Tina in a physics class.  

Well, it wasn’t Summer, and there was no one in sight. But it was too late to go back to London, and she couldn’t risk staying at a hotel or something like that. RayStar had a big reach, and every modern establishment had AI-enabled security cameras these days. There was probably already an arrest order out there. She couldn’t risk any of her biometrics being picked up by the system.

Thankfully, Nadia was able to find a half-open window in the back of the house. Well, more like she had half-opened the window. Ooops. Anyway, she doubted they would mind at all. They had too much money in any case.

After hunting for snacks in the kitchen — cashews would do — Nadia did a full tour around the house and decided to settle down in the downstairs living room. It was nice and cosy, and the big windows would allow the upcoming morning light to wake her up early. She needed to devise a plan and get going. Staying for more than a day in that house would be too dangerous. But first, some rest.

She threw herself on a comfy couch and hugged a hand-knitted pillow with a big smile. Two seconds later she was falling into a deep slumber, her dreaming brain conjuring up old memories.    

Nadia woke up in a fright, her face covered in cold sweat from one of those nightmares only the subconscious remembers. IT was still dark. A hellish sound was coming out of her backpack. The phone. She picked it up. Unknown number.

“Hello?”

“Hey. It’s me.” Her sister.

“What the… Where are you, what’s going on?”

“246 Reinford Lane. Meet me there at noon.”

“What?”

Nadia threw the phone across the room in anger. The call had dropped. 

To be continued…

Read the next chapter: Nadia — Final Chapter

Join our talent community

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Categories
Horizon 2050

Nadia — Chapter IV

Nadia
The story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London. Follow the chapter I of the story of Nadia on Mission Control Center.

Follow the story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

—

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Chapter IV

“You know, it’s not the first time I deal with the likes of you. Nor it will be the last, for that matter.”

The woman had a distinctive voice. Coarse, yet sharp as a whistle. A slight lisp and the way she pronounced the ‘r’ betrayed her as a non-native English speaker. Eastern Europe, maybe? Hard to tell.   

“Scoundrels. Corporate leeches who would rather put their energy to nefarious use than do their actual job. Tell me: what was it, how did they get to you? Money? It’s usually money. Perhaps the promise of a shiny new job?”

Nadia tried to keep a steady face despite the woman’s determined scrutiny. A plain metallic table separated the two of them in the middle of an otherwise empty room. Exactly how one would imagine an interrogation room to look like.

“Excuse me, where exactly are we?” It had been a relatively short ride to whatever that place was, but the back of the van they had put her in had no windows. In any case, they couldn’t have gotten further than a few blocks. Somehow, the secrecy of it all made Nadia think it had less to do with the actual police and more with someone else’s particular idea of justice. Ugh, so stupid. If only she had made it for the elevator a couple of seconds earlier, the policeman’s hand wouldn’t have been able to stop the doors from closing. Guess no one is naturally prepared to run from the police at a moment’s notice.  

“Ah, she speaks!”

“I do!” said Nadia with a mocking smile. “And I can tell you right away that I don’t have the foggiest idea of what you are talking about.”

“Funny, because your friend said quite the opposite.”

“My friend?”

The woman pulled up some information on her bracelet’s screen.

“Mr… Tom Schultz. Ah, chatty fella.” Wait, how was Tom involved in any of this? “We know you stole the RayStar duplos, so let’s go straight to the point, please.”

“What?” It was impossible to hide her surprise this time around. “I did not do such… Wait. Are you even police?” Definitely not. This has RayStar written all over it.

“Who is paying you?” The woman was clearly starting to lose her temper.

The door opened and a man in a suit walked in. He leaned on to whisper something in the interrogator’s ear.

“We’re not done here,” said the woman as she reluctantly stood up and followed the man out of the room. The door locked with a beep.

Nadia finally let her guard down and allowed her body to show how nervous she really was, her right foot going up and down in an endless loop. She wished they hadn’t taken her earpiece. She could’ve used Ziza’s help with going through the events of these recent days. The duplos. But EVE had not gotten even remotely close to that data. She couldn’t have the way the system was designed. Especially not with that useless hidden attachment strategy. Plus, EVE’s target had always been the proprietary security algorithms of Nadia’s company. Or at least Nadia had assumed so, given her interest in getting close to the quantum encryption core systems. No, they must have made a mistake. Nadia hadn’t messed around with the duplo dataflows at all. Someone else had to be behind all this. Or had she missed something? She would just tell them about EVE, the attachments, the kidnapping of her sister… The door opened again. It was…

“Tom?! What on Earth…”

“Nadia, listen. There is no time.” He was all sweaty and dishevelled, his eyes full of fear behind the colourful glasses. “They know everything, they figured it all out. I’m so sorry. They had Hao’s file, and they said they would…”

“Tom!” Nadia grabbed him by the shirt and tried to shake him into making some sense. “What is going on? What are you doing here, and what did you do?”    

 “I… There is no time! They will be back any second.” He took her by the arm and the two ushered into a dimly lit hallway with concrete walls. “You need to get out of the city. Didn’t you have a friend up in Coventry? “

“I do. But my sister…” They were now running through a maze of corridors across what seemed like the basement of a large building.

“Your sister is fine, don’t worry.”

“Wait, how do you…”

“She’s fine Nadia! You need to worry about yourself right now.” Voices and steps could be heard some distance behind them. The guards were in pursuit. And getting close.

“Where is my sister?” They reached a fire escape door and Tom cracked it open, prompting the alarm to go off. The light of day filtered in, momentarily blinding Nadia.

“Remember the party the other day? Wait until nightfall and head there. You will understand everything once I’ve also left you an untraceable paycard. You shouldn’t use any of your accounts until I contact you. Not until we clear our name.”

“Tom – where is my sister!”

“Where she has been all this time. At her place.”

“What!”

“Trust me Nadia, I’ve got a plan.” He reached inside his shirt’s chest pocket and took out Nadia’s earpiece. He handed it to her and pushed her towards the door. “Now go! I’ll keep them for as long as I can.”

Flooded with questions, Nadia rushed out into a quiet back alley and started running without looking back. A shot could be heard in the distance.

To be continued…

Read the next chapter: Nadia — Chapter V

Join our talent community

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Categories
Horizon 2050

Nadia – Chapter III

Nadia
The story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London. Follow the chapter I of the story of Nadia on Mission Control Center.

Follow the story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

—

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Chapter III

Finding the Blue Dragon hadn’t been precisely easy. It turns out speakeasies, those hidden bars that had been so popular at the beginning of the century, were back in fashion. Exclusive cocktail lounges, disguised as laundromats or hidden in the basement of a regular restaurant. Secret meeting places for those who like to feel special and mingle with the ‘different’ people. Although you can’t really call them secret when they are all listed online. But this one wasn’t.

Nadia had wandered around the apartment building at 4 Chance St for quite some time before finally finding the right door. She had mistakenly knocked on at least four flats, their inhabitants greeting her with caution before closing the door again. At the fifth doorbell she rang, a nice old lady with an evident passion for spying on her neighbours had pointed Nadia the way.

“I believe you want to go to the end of that hallway, my dear. Third door on the left. People have been up and down making a fuss all afternoon. Odd-looking bunch, if you ask me.”  

Nadia was now sited on an expensive leather couch, sipping on some unpronounceable drink that tasted like mouldy oranges and leftover coke. Tom hadn’t arrived yet. Thought real leather had been banned years ago. A self-described staunch defender of animal rights, Nadia decided she couldn’t afford to enjoy that blood-stained comfort any longer and headed for the bar.

The place didn’t look like a cocktail lounge. The layout was all off, as if was someone had squeezed a bar and a few tables into a regular apartment. The walls were covered in red, velvet-like material, with dark curtains separating the main hall from the smaller private rooms. At the front door, the security guard who had taken Nadia’s invite card was welcoming a young couple in fancy attires. Here and there, small groups of people engaged in quiet conversation. Their soft chatter made for a good accompanying tune to the synthetic jazz playing through the speakers.      

“There you are!” Nadia jumped up startled as Tom’s arm hugged her from behind.  “See, love. I told you she’d come.”

Tom’s breath smelled of alcohol and smoke. Clearly, he had had a head start. His boyfriend Hao was standing behind him with an apologetic grin. He seemed colder than usual.  

“I thought you prided yourself in never being late,” said Nadia while poking Tom’s arm with one of those tiny cocktail umbrellas.

“And I wasn’t!” responded Tom triumphantly as he signalled the bartender to bring another round for three. “We were closing a deal in one of the backrooms,” he said patting Hao’s shoulder. “You didn’t think you’re the only one who knows how to do business, right?”

“Oh, great. Another one of your crazy ventures,” said Nadia. “What was the last one, again? A virtual bar for AI assistants to go on dates?”     

“Please: more like a soulmate bazar,” corrected her Tom. Nadia spilt her drink as she burst out laughing. “Say what you want, girl, but it was a brilliant idea. Why bother wasting time on dates when we could simply send our AI assistants to figure it out for us? I still don’t get why people weren’t that into it.”  

“Yeah, quite the mystery, huh?” All this talk of AI assistants had taken Nadia’s mind back to EVE. Thankfully she had been quiet so far. Hopefully, she would remain like that for the rest of the night. “So, these are your friends, Hao?”

“Oh, no. They already left,” he said quietly. Something was off between the two; Tom’s uncharacteristic early drunkness and Hao’s unusual gloomy mood. Nadia wondered what had happened during their meeting. Somehow she got the impression that Hao wasn’t okay with the whole thing.

“Trust me, Nadia. This time it’s something big,” said Tom in a serious tone.

The bartender arrived with a sumptuous, pyramid-shaped ensemble of fresh fruit and laurel leaves. Three cubic glasses sat at different levels of the pyramid, holding a golden liquid with no observable bubbles. Whatever. Better enjoy before she’s back. They each grabbed a drink and let the night take its course. Things ended up picking up the pace when the music changed to something more upbeat. Hao loosened up a bit and accepted Nadia’s invitation to dance. At least until Tom came back to steal her dancing partner as a knight in shining armour. Jokes and office gossip were exchanged in between several more pyramids. Tom decided to move on from virtual matchmaking and devoted perhaps too many efforts to find a suitable someone for Nadia among the attendees. A fun yet embarrassing pursuit. It wasn’t a bad night.

The retina-tracing lasers of the holovisor cabins were clearly not designed for hungover eyes. Nadia stepped out of the egg-shaped enclosure and poured a few eye drops after a long yawn. Unbeknown to Nadia, a red alert popped up on the system’s main dashboard.

“How about a little walk, stretch your legs?” suggested EVE.

“So, you care about me all of a sudden?” said Nadia as she exited the RayStar security room and made it down the hallway.

“Oh, Nadia. I have always cared about you and your loved ones, tried to keep you all safe.”  

The security wing was at the very top of the building, so at least employees could compensate for the long hours inside a holopod with 360 views of the City. A corridor went around the whole floor along the window. It took about two minutes to complete a whole round. Nadia knew because she had timed it before.

“I still don’t see what you are hoping to get out of this,” said Nadia.   

“You will soon.”

Dark clouds were gathering beyond the city skyline. A group of tiny people could be seen doing yoga in the park across the street. A cargo drone flew by, carrying a debris container from the construction site next door.

“You know I only have access to the RayStar servers. The encrypted attachments you are making me…” Nadia interrupted herself as she crossed paths with a group of technicians engaged on a heated debate. Something about a game?

“The encrypted attachments you are making me hide in my messages to colleagues. Whatever they are, they are not going to get you anywhere. Our system is designed in a way that all accounts are independent of one another and from the central system itself. When I send them a message, they only get a representation, an image of the message, not the message itself. Whatever is in the attachment will never make it out of my account.”

“Let me worry about that.”

Nadia had completed a full circle around the building and was back in front of the holovisor room. It had taken her longer than usual. She should better get back to work. Plenty to do before lunch. Nadia rested her chin on the biometric scan. But the system made a beep and marked and error. Weird. Nadia tried again. Access restricted.

“Nadia?” said EVE

“What now…”

“Thank you.”

And just like that, EVE’s voice disappeared. But someone was still calling her name. Coming down the hallway were a couple of security guards. A police officer accompanied them.

“Nadia? Nadia Zabeen?”     

“Run,” whispered Ziza’s familiar voice.

To be continued…

Read the next chapter: Nadia — Chapter IV

Join the community and find a job

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Categories
Horizon 2050

Nadia – Chapter II

Nadia's Story
The story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London. Follow the chapter I of the story of Nadia on Mission Control Center.

Follow the story of Nadia, a quantum security expert in 2050 London

Nadia, a story by Miquel Morales.

—

Jumping in now? Catch up with previous chapters.

Chapter II

“You did great today, Nadia.” Ziza seemed quite enthusiastic. Perhaps too much.

“I guess? I just hope this goes through. Could really use the commission this month,” said Nadia as she entered the elevator. A few weeks ago, she had timed how long it took for the lift to reach the ground floor. Fifty-eight floors in barely thirty seconds. Now that was fast.

In the streets, the morning fog had turned into evening fog. Waves of commuters struggled against the tide to find their way home. Nadia avoided the constant stream of electric scooters and made her way down the street and into the subway station. As always, the train car was packed. Nadia tried to maintain the balance without touching anything or anyone. It was like surfing, but cheaper. As programmed, Ziza went on to cover the news of the day. Apparently two members of the same family won the Mars shuttle lottery. What were the odds?

“Incoming message,” said Ziza halfway through the report. 

“Shoot.”

It was a message from Tom. Short and sweet, as he liked to say – Get some sleep. We start first thing tomorrow.

Nadia was ecstatic. She decided to stop by the bakery right beneath her apartment and get a big box of pastries to bring with her to the office the next day. She fought the urge to grab one of them as during the way up. They were freshly baked, and the warmth of the box felt nice on her cold hands.     

But as she reached the top of the stairs, Nadia saw that the door to her apartment was half open. She rushed down the hall, expecting to find everything upside down like it happened when burglars entered her parents’ house last year. To her surprise, everything was exactly like she had left it that morning. Well, everything but a small envelope that was resting in the middle of the living room floor.

Nadia opened it and found an old thumb drive. She remembered her Computer History teacher telling them about these early 21st-century storage devices. To think that people would carry those around all the time… And only for a few GBs worth of storage.

Intrigued, Nadia closed the apartment’s door and examined the drive. Maurice at the office was good at these things. He had all sorts of gadgets and spare parts, but Nadia couldn’t wait until tomorrow. Should she call the police? Nah. Nothing got stolen, and it was not worth all that time and paperwork. Wait…

She took the old laptop that her dad had given her to decorate her new flat. It had belonged to her grandfather, apparently. It took her a while, but she finally managed to detach one of the laptop’s USB ports and connect it to her home computer. She inserted the thumb drive. With a sudden bang, a power surge left the room in the dark. Of course.

“Ziza, status report. What happened?”

“Hello, Nadia.” But to her surprise, it wasn’t Ziza’s voice. It was that of a young woman.

“Who… who are you?”

“You can call me EVE.”

Nadia took a long sip of coffee and let her gaze go from one person to the other around the conference table. A strange bunch. Even in their formal business attires, she could tell how different they were from one another. Two men and two women, their ages ranging from the early thirties to the mid-fifties. She tried to come up with a background story for each one of them as Tom from sales walked them through the proposal. Raindrops kept hitting the glass wall behind them. It was an unusually foggy autumn day. Nadia could barely see the building across the street.

“I keep telling you: there’s something weird about this guy. It’s as if… Hey – Nadia. For real?” Tom’s hand was suddenly going up and down in front of her face.

“Sorry, what?”

Nadia came back to her surroundings and tried to recall anything of her colleague’s speech. Not a chance. She swallowed the rice in her mouth and smiled at Tom. He was sitting on the opposite side of the cafeteria table. His bald head and shaven face contrasted with the overly sized red glasses he was wearing. He had a different colour for every day of the week. Or so Nadia liked to think.    

“Never mind, don’t bother.”

“Look, Tom. I’m sorry. I know I’ve been a bit off these past few days,” said Nadia. The dining hall was rather empty that day. Perhaps one of the office floors was having a birthday celebration or something. Hmmm — pizza.

“Seriously, it was nothing,” said Tom. “But Nadia; I’m a little worried about you. Ever since we signed on RayStar you have been acting all down and so not like you. I thought that this is what you wanted, to work on a big account, you know – have an impact.”

“By quietly shielding a major corporation from dozens of cyberattacks every day? Yeah, right. Big game changer over here. Hey, I’m going to save the world!” Nadia had raised her voice and was now speaking to the whole room, her arms held high above her in a gesture of victory.

A few heads turned, shook in disbelief and then went back to their plates. Tom sighed and got up.

“Play tough if you want. Sarcasm won’t hide whatever is wrong. Especially not from you.” Tom reached for the interior pocket of his bright blue blazer and took out a black plastic card. “There’s this place in Shoreditch. A friend of Hao is throwing a party there tomorrow night. Drop by, would you? You could use a break. Use this to get in.”

Tom left the card on the table and walked off, adjusting his glasses with the index finger. Ugh. That had been hard. She loved Tom. He and his boyfriend were just so nice to her. When was the last time she had seen Hao anyway? Nadia picked up the card and flipped it. There were some words carved into the plastic: The Blue Dragon. 4 Chance St, Shoreditch, London.

“Let me guess; I am not allowed to go,” said Nadia to the silent partner in her ear.

“I did not say that,” responded the female voice. Nadia felt the frustration mounting up and took a long, deep breath.

“So, I can barely talk to anyone, but I’m allowed to go to a party?”

“Even I have feelings, Nadia,” said EVE laughing. “You have been so good these past weeks. Plus, we don’t want them to get suspicious. I sensed distress in your friend’s voice. Well-intended, nosey people can cause a lot of problems.”

“Well, aren’t you nice?” Nadia did nothing to disguise her disdain. She didn’t even know who she was talking to — an AI or a real person. Nadia grabbed her bag and started making her way back to the holovisor room.

“Oh, and Nadia. Don’t say anything you might regret at the party. We wouldn’t want your sister to get hurt, would we?”

A chill went down Nadia’s spine as she rested her chin on the biometric scan that guarded the RayStar project holovisors. The doors opened with a soft beep. Nadia walked in.

To be continued…

Read the next chapter: Nadia – Chapter III

Join our talent community - Mindquest

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Categories
Press review Tech Magazine

4 Things Sci-Fi Might Still Get Right by 2029

4 Things Sci-Fi Might Still Get Right by 2029

You have probably recently seen plenty of articles examining what sci-fi movies and books set on the 2020s have to say about the decade. It’s something bloggers and journalists like to do at every turn of the century, with every new decade, at any time possible. Last year it was all about Blade Runner (1982) and Akira (1988). This time things are a bit more crowded, with nine years ahead to account for.

Now, we didn’t want to mindlessly throw movie plots at you without assessing their relevance and potential to become true — As we’ve seen some sites doing. No, sorry. No planet ruled by apes, no mutants, no dragons. Just a few trends and predictions that proved to be accurate or might be proven right by the time the 3030s prompt us to write a similar article.

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

Megacities and the wealth gap

Set in 2026, Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis (1928) depicts a futuristic city powered by advanced technology and plagued with inequality. We’re already there, folks.

The UN estimates that two thirds of the world’s population will be living in cities by 2050. That means the 2020s will see a constant increase in city development and population density. Cities will get bigger and merge with neighbouring ones. Buildings will get taller. Streets will get busier.

On top of that, inequality is on the rise on a global scale and has reached unprecedented levels. A recent UN report found that over 70% of the global population lives in countries where the wealth gap is expanding. Civil unrest like the recent Chilean protests is a familiar sight these days.

But Metropolis got another thing right: airborne transportation. Earlier this month we learned that Hyundai will be manufacturing Uber’s flying cars. The company’s air taxi service is expected to launch in the mid-2020s.

Robotic augmentations

Here’s another thing sci-fi accurately predicted. In the 2014 film Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise relentlessly battles aliens with the help of a robotic exoskeleton.

While the story is set in 2020, exoskeletons have been changing the lives of people since the late 2010s. From helping construction workers lift heavy weights, to allowing a paralyzed man to run a full marathon, robotic exoskeletons are the real deal.  

In fact, the U.S. Military will be getting the first shipment of Sarcos Robotics Guardian XO later this year. Just like in the movie.

Climate change and fake meat

Soylent Green is a 1973 film set in 2022 that presents a world where overpopulation, pollution and the greenhouse effect are causing a global humanitarian crisis. There are severe water, food and housing shortages, and only the extremely rich can afford a spacious apartment in a dystopian New York City.

Sounds familiar?  

The movie’s title refers to an artificially produced line of meat substitutes. They are packed with protein and come in different colours. There’s Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow, and the super tasty Soylent Green. Well, it turns out that the green variant is actually made with human meat, but that’s a creepy story for another creepy day.

Interesting fact — Although plant-based burgers are all the rage in 2020, humans were producing meat substitutes as far back as 965.

Destination: Mars

Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars (2000) tells the story of a first manned mission to Mars gone wrong. Although the movie is set in 2020 and we’re clearly not going to the red planet this year, chances are someone is before 2030.

Earlier this year, Elon Musk unveiled his plan for a SpaceX Mars mega-colony. The tech superstar wants to build 100 starships every year to send 100,000 people whenever the orbits of the two planets are aligned favourably. That amounts to 1 million people living on Mars by 2050.

Ambitious to say the least. Musk, however, has suggested that the first manned landing could be achieved by 2028. We’ll see.

Also discover our article: The IT Jobs Market of Today