What Dreams May Come

Chapter 11: java rises again

Levi peered through the window of the comm bay with not a little trepidation. Most of the screens weren't screens at all, but holograms. He couldn't see any of the connecting cables, though perhaps they were patched into the room more cleanly that Levi had been in the Aeneid. Everything was pretty exposed in the Aeneid for easy access. He never knew what would go wrong.

"We'll have to go in eventually," Dylan remarked.

"It's quite unnerving," he answered. "It's so different. I wouldn't have thought it would change so much."

"In a hundred and twenty years? I'm pretty sure anything can change in that time," she laughed. "Our language, our interests, even our planet has changed."

"True," he admitted.

Dylan knocked on the door of the room, waiting patiently for one of the technicians to open the panels. He looked down quizzically at the two of them.

"Hey Dylan, can I help you?" he asked.

Did everyone know Dylan? Levi was trying to keep track of all the people they had met, but it was difficult. He wished he had some paper to write them down.

"Monet, this is Levi, my partner," Dylan introduced. "Levi, this is Monet, one of the technicians in the comm bay. Levi just got out of cryo; he worked in comm back on the Aeneid."

"It's a little different now," Monet said. "You're welcome to see for yourself, but I doubt you'll feel at home here. When are you from?"

"Twenty fifty-six," Levi responded.

Monet scoffed. "We did a complete change over to holo-ribs in twenty-one six. Even the tekcom language has changed; we're working with quantum bits now."

"That's cool," Levi said. "But yeah, I was still using Earth's programming languages."

Monet raised his eyebrows at that, as if surprised that Earth had programming languages. Levi had never expected to feel obsolete when he woke up, but that was exactly how he felt right now.

"Actually, then you might be able to help us," Monet mused. "Hold there for a moment."

Levi and Dylan stood in the doorway a little awkwardly while Monet hurried back to the group by the computers. Dylan was looking around just as inquisitively as Levi, perhaps she didn't know about computers either.

"Where do I get a holo-rib?" he asked her. "And how much to they cost?"

"From here," she replied. "We don't pay for them; everyone needs one and it would be weird to have more. It's a necessity, not a commodity."

"Do we have any idea when the earthstorm will let up?" he asked.

She shook her head. Monet came back with a woman who was watching Levi with great interest.

"I'm Austen," she told them. "Monet says you know computer code?"

Levi nodded. The woman beamed at him.

"We have been trying to decrypt some of the early logbooks with no success; we don't even teach old programming languages anymore. I can't guarantee there's enough for a full time job, but we would pay well for whatever you can translate for us. Would you be interested?"

Levi nodded, pleased that his skills were rare enough to have some demand.

"Sunshine. I can't tell you how wonderful this is. Let me know the minute you'd like to get started; we'll set you up with a tekcom. Anything else we can do for you?"