Son of the System

Birth

Leben had been staring at the same line of code for six hours now. It was times like this that made him wonder how the hell the original writers even built the system in the first place; it was so damn complex. With a huff, he got up from the interface and walked out of his apartment. He needed some fresh air.

He watched the city skyline blink awake as the glass elevator dropped the thirty-two floors to the ground. Looks like he accidentally pulled another all-nighter. He ran a hand through his hair and tugged at the tips, a habit born of stress. The doors slid open and dumped him into the main lobby. After waving a good morning to the groggy front desk attendant, Leben made his way out to the street. Thanks to a macro he developed himself, his eyes automatically adjusted themselves to the new level of light, even adding a few shaders to make everything more crisp. It was a simple and straightforward code, but tedious. He'd actually sold it to a few acquaintances who couldn't be bothered to make one for themselves.

He was walking on autopilot at this point, rolling that difficult code around in his head. His feet led him to his favorite coffee shop out of habit. He wasn't really one for coffee, but he loved the smell. There was something about it that helped him think. He walked past the counter toward the tables, the cute girl behind the register gave him a smile. He smiled back; nice to be a regular.

"Hey Leben! Over here," said a gruff and familiar voice.

Leben turned to see a man sitting at the table nearest the window, a simple black coffee in front of him.

"Oh, hey dad."

"I was starting to wonder if maybe you forgot again," his father said.

He definitely forgot again.

"Don't worry, I said I'd remember this time!" Leben sat down across from his father, "Sorry, I've just been so busy."

"That STREAM program Sensenmann got you in is really putting you through the ringer, huh? You're still enjoying it though, right?"

"Oh yeah, I love it! It's tough, but I like the challenge. And I think I've really got the brain for it, y'know?"

His father absently stirred his coffee, which Leben found odd since he never even puts anything in it to begin with.

"I'm glad to hear you're doing well, son. It's just... It's hard on your mother. She never liked this city, you know. Made her feel uneasy, even as a child. That's why we moved out to Sicherheit before we had you kids."

"Auswahl is a perfectly fine city, dad," Leben spoke soothingly, trying to assuage his father's anxieties. "It's one of the top five safest cities in the country. They showed the rankings in last month's issue of the Red County Herald. I'm sure you and mom saw that?"

"Yeah, we saw it," he began. "But just because someone says it, doesn't make it true. I've always trusted your mother's gut instincts more than some ink-pusher."

"Dad I—"

His father stopped him with a raise of the hand, "I'm not trying to convince you to come home, Leben. No need to argue. I just want you to be careful, that's all. Can you promise me that?"

Leben slowly exhaled through his nose, "Yeah dad, I promise."

His father nodded, a sense of finality in his face. He stood up from his seat, "Well, I'd better get going. It's a long way back to Sicherheit, even by train."

"Alright, I have to get over to the university anyway. Sensenmann wanted me to come by his office first thing. Said something about prepping for the final project." He started pulling at the tips of his hair again, "It was good to see you, dad. Have a safe trip home and give my love to mom."