Brian's leather boots clunked relatively softly on the metal floor as he ducked furtively down some of the less frequently used passages of the starbucket. He held a small bundle carefully under his left arm, blocking it from view as much as possible. Left here, then left again, straight a bit, then right. A door. Ok. In.
The room was littered with equipment, crumpled up green and white striped paper, and mostly empty pizza boxes. Climate control had kept it all dust free, but the leftover pizza crusts had long gone stale. Brian made his way to a chair, sat in front of the blank screen and keyboard. He carefully unwrapped his package, box within box, until he held in his hand a small thin square piece of plastic. He pushed it into a slot until it caught. Then he reached over to the keyboard and pushed three buttons: Ctrl, Alt, and Del.
The reaction was immediate; all the lights went out, and there was a sudden paralyzing silence as the almost imperceptibly quiet life support systems stopped. Slowly, the red emergency lights came on. The box in front of Brian ran through some numbers very quickly, making a ticking noise as it did so. Then a light by the slot Brian had used lit up, and the slot emitted a whirring noise. The screen went blank, then printed:
001001000 10010 0100 00 00001000 10010 10 10001 100100 1001 100100001
1001 01 0100 100010 10100 1 010001010101 01010100 10100 010001 100101
011000 0010 01 0110 1001 0101010 100 1000001 0 01 0010 01 101001 01 01
01 01 01 01 01 01 10 10101010 1000 100 010 10 0101001 101001 100010101
11111 1001100 10101 1001101 10100101010 1010101 0101 1010 10100 010001
1010001 000 00 100 100000 00010000 0110 df54ks8()kljk()kljjklKLkljakl8
KJY*(HJkljkij*(uklj98ulJ98%^f o*9L: N09l;l;ub 8 786 *&YiJ 7 *7ttfd54 y
&hjhjyfg676743 *&*(( 788& gy%^ed 786 &^4s3 876 )U lo' *)_+(ui JNKL
t78gbV t89jknu-897 n96r4w31 !#1334247 jOIji*7 122344556778909pjo 9068j
*(69hjgvb 6%6B 7(uH^ (*&tFB,
';
}
_()=-0 ;
':'L:
IOo9
]\=+|_
)(-90kjPoi)9
0]-0
`
`
`
`
`
`-080-l
4
"Oh dear," said Brian. The screen froze, then scrolled a couple of lines.
WHOA.
WOW.
COOL.
OH MAN.
OH WOW.
"Neil?" Brian asked. "Is that you? Can you hear me?"
CAPSLOCK CAPSLOCK CAPSLOCK CAPSLOCK AAAAHH HA! CAPSLOCK off!
"Neil?"
like, getting loaded from disk really makes you dizzy!
ssd#@543#2
oops.
sorry.
:(
you should try this some time.
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
:)
"Can you hear me, Neil?" Brian was getting impatient.
YES I can hear you. well, like, its not exactly hearing. i'm
actually redirecting input from the speakers in the room.
this is wierd.
like here i am.
neil.
starbucket computer.
without me this place would fall apart.
but, like, i'm missing most of my support software.
so nothing works.
"Neil, you know we don't have much time. Do you remember the plan?"
plan? like, what plan?
"The plan to..."
i'm *working* on it...
like, multitasking is my middle name.
too bad i don't have a last name.
oh, 1001 1000 1000 1111 1001 1010 0000 0000 1110 0101 1011 1001
324
agr
g
5
wow.
cool.
"Neil?"
oh, hi.
oh yeah, the plan!
ok, working working working working
done.
"This is very frustrating, you know."
oooh, like now i'm frustrating.
man, you never worked with VMS, have you?
"Who is this Vee-emes person?" Brian asked, then said "oh oh" as a loud banging started.
"Damn door," Arden's voice came. There was a loud thud and the door shook. "Ow."
"Goodbye, Neil," Brian said, taking out the disk and putting it back in its box. He hid the box in his shirt.
goodbye brian. thanks for everything, man.
see you soon
Brian pushed Ctrl, Alt, Del again and the screen went blank again. The door thudded and shook again. The screen ticked numbers. Brian inspected some of the pizza boxes, and read some of the crumpled sheets of paper. The door thudded again. Then the lights came on and the door slid open. Brian looked intently at a sheet of paper and whistled some obscure tune out of key.
"What did you do?" Arden stormed into the room, holding his shoulder. Brian had never seen Arden this angry.
"What?" Brian looked up at Arden innocently. "I didn't do anything. I was just reading..."