Tom nodded. “That kind of power must have made making the model of Mr. Marrow easier as well?,” he asked, hinting with his voice.

“Yeah, I heard you tagged on it. Only thing that gives him away is the blink sequence. But that’s on purpose. Gotta give you a chance, you know? But that model gave more than a few speeches to government officials while Ed slept off working until dawn.” Janet stopped, and a worried look passed across her face. She pointed at Tom again, and began what Tom had started thinking of as the waggling finger of doom. “But if you repeat that to anyone, ANYONE, I’ll deny I said a thing, and tan your hide. Got it?”

Tom snapped a mock salute. “Ma’am, yes ma’am. Your secret is safe with me. I chatted with Mr. Marrow this morning about your modeling skills, actually. We seem to share a cable car. He… doesn’t get why your doing what you do now, with the skills you have. To be honest, I’m a little mystified myself. ”

Janet sighed, and put the finger of doom away. Leaning on the desk in front of her, she looked up at Tom. “I’m a tired old lady. I don’t have the patience to sit for hours getting every detail right, my fingers don’t work a tablet or keyboard like they used to, and quite honestly, I HATE computer modeling. I’m good at it, yes, but I don’t like to do it. I’m more than content to sit here, do some simple work, let my mind wander, and collect a paycheck. I get to see Ed every day, and I get to babysit good kids like you. Its rewarding enough. But… enough of me waxing poetic.” She thumped hard a few times on the stack of file folders. “Manuals for everything down here. You likely won’t have to do anything with Old Roy. To be safe, we have enough replacement parts to last a hundred years, but thats in the off chance that anything actually breaks. It hasn’t yet. Tweaking the beasts when they misbehave is your job now, not mine, and I’m happy to pass the torch. I’d suggest you read up a bit on each. I’m going to send someone down later to show you some software we have as well. See you around, as I’ve got my own work to do. ”

With that, Janet left him alone. Tom quickly got busy, replacing theoretical knowledge with hands on, playing with simulators on the terminals around each server. There was good reasons not to run everything through the Roy, even though it was capable, and Tom began to get an understanding of the how’s and why’s of P and R’s eclectic setup. A couple hours passed, no movement but lights on boxes flickering, and Tom moving from seat to seat; no sound but the hum of electronics, the roar of fans, and the clack of Tom’s fingers on keyboards. Suddenly, a series of clanks sounded, echoing across the room. Tom jumped with a start, a breeze blowing past his head to escape through the crack that appeared in the doors. One opened, and Rocky stuck his head in.
“Hey Tom! You look like you seen a ghost!”

“Rocky! Hey, sorry, you startled me. What’s up? I didn’t break anything up top from down here, did I?”

“No no, Janet sent me. I get to train you on our wonderful software. Sarcasm definitely intended.” Rocky pulled up a terminal and loaded a program. “Come on over, I don’t bite. ”
Tom sat next to him, careful not to accidentally touch the large man. He had managed to persuade himself that the odd sensations the day before were his imagination, but subconsciously, he had no wish to test that.

The next hour was spent going over various programs that were used by P and R. Accounting software, internal email software, tracking, requests, cad programs. Even if he didn’t use them himself, Tom knew he’d have to answer questions about problems with them.

“Now, this one is interesting.” Rocky tapped on the computer screen, more for emphasis as the terminal he was on didn’t have a touch screen. “This is one I use all the time. Blueprint retrieval. Besides all the data saved in Old Roy here, we do keep physical copies of all the blueprints and amendments. They are stored in an airtight vault below us, tied to a vacuum tube system. This program lets you request a tube, and it sends it to one of 4 locations. Here, my desk, Felicity’s office, and Marrow’s office. This means only we have access to it, so everyone has to go through us, namely, me.” Rocky closed the program, and turned to face Tom. “So, you likely wouldn’t have to touch it, but you might. Plus, Daneel will probably bug you for certain plans now and then. She likes double checking notes written on them while mapping out the Island. That girl is gunna get herself killed in those tunnels someday.”

Tom grinned as Rocky shook his head at the thought. “She’s something alright. Hell, if it weren’t for her map, it would take me an hour to get through the crowds to walk here every day.”

“Yeah, I think she’s the only person who knows the underground of the Island better than I do. I think she has a few passages she won’t share, too. Seems to love popping up unexpectedly. But, she does favor’s for everyone around, and she’s Marrow’s ward, so people let her do as she pleases.”

Tom leaned forward, perplexed. “Wait, back up a moment. Marrow’s ward?”

Rocky sighed, and leaned back in his chair, the cracking of tendons echoing loudly. “Yeah. Her parent’s died in a terrorist bombing of some kind a few years back, as I hear it. Marrow was a friend of her father’s, took custody. Doesn’t seem to do much parenting, lets her run wild, but, to be honest, if he did ride herd on her, she’s smart enough to do what she wants anyways. ”

Rocky stood, turning off the terminal. “But enough gossip, you’ll get plenty of that around these parts. Lunchtime. And knowing Felicity, she’s ordered in for the admin staff. That means you now too. C’mon.”

Tom grabbed the stack of file folders and followed Rocky out. He pushed the steel doors back in place, having to struggle against the air pressure in the server room. The locks clacked down as they lined up, and Tom followed Rocky up the stairs.

Tom watched him disappear into the crowd, then set out himself. A shorter walk than the day before, several passages no longer sealed for maintenance, he arrived at the building early. Thumbing in, he headed straight for his desk. He put a hand on the desktop for a moment, thinking. His desk. It was a good thought, a niche to fill, a place to belong. And one he had earned himself. A corner of his monitor blinked a small yellow square. Touching thumb to the sensor on the side, the sticky expanded and filled with writing.

Tom;
Felicity came in last night on a red eye. In meeting with her till lunch clearing up backlog. Check with Janet for work, ask about basement.
Deb.

The note was signed with a little scrawl after her name, looking much like the stylized phoenix that had been used by the city as a symbol for decades, but with its wings down instead of curled up around it.

Checking to make sure he had no mail, he relocked his station, and headed for accounting. Of the three desks, only one was occupied, but it was the right one.

“Hey hotshot. Couldn’t keep away from my candy, could you?”
Tom grabbed a butterscotch disk and popped it in his mouth, twisting the cellophane wrapper absentmindedly around his thumb and forefinger.
“Not a chance. Better than coffee to start the day. So, our fearless leader is back and busy, it seems. Deb said to check in with you, you’d have some work for me. ”

Janet raised a dubious eyebrow at Tom. “Deb, is it? Look young man, its none of my business, but you look out.” While talking, Janet stood, sorting file folders and cleaning paperwork off her desk, talking all the time. “That woman is a man eater. How she gets away with it in today’s climate is beyond me, but even by the standards of my day, she’s shameless. She will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you heartbroken if you give her half a chance, so don’t.” She picked up a pile of folders, tucked them under her arm, and pointed her finger at Tom, crooked arm waggling slightly. “It’s none of my business how you handle YOUR business, but you seem a nice kid. Stay that way. Now, follow me.”

Janet headed through the main doors, toward the conference rooms. She thumbed in at an unmarked door between two offices, and held it for Tom. To his amazement, rather than a room, he found himself climbing down a square twisting staircase, concrete and steel.
“The basement, where we keep the beasts. ” Janet said from behind him, her words echoing from the bare walls. Another set of doors terminated the climb, about a story and a half, Tom estimated. Heavy doors, heavier than any Tom had yet seen on the island, stood dauntingly in their way, promising steel reinforced hardship to any wishing to breach them uninvited. Another thumb, and a series of clacks inside the door frame released them, and they swung out slightly, air hissing through the crack. Janet grabbed a handle, and this time walked in first, leaving Tom to catch the door as it swung shut behind her.

The temperature dropped as he walked past the doors, darkness dimly pierced in places by leds and activity lights. A dull roar filled the room, blocked previously by the steel doors and concrete walls. A click, and light flooded the room, motion detectors sensing their need. Several islands of equipment filled a large room, each island surrounded by desks with terminals.

Janet put her stack of folders down on the nearest desk. “The server room,” She intoned, a sepulchral timber to her voice. “You have chosen IT, and thus you are consigned to this spot. MWAHAHAHAHA!”

Tom stared at Janet, not sure what to expect next. The silence was broken by a more normal laugh, and Janet slapped him on the shoulder. “Just messing! C’mon, let me introduce you to your charges. ”

Janet led him around, explaining each machine by function and type. Several of the larger computers, each used to serve a different group of people or devices with collected information, were of types that Tom had learned about in school, but never actually seen, being considered antiques. Janet stopped in front of a larger one, about the size of two refrigerators side by side. “And this lovely fellow is Old Roy. Hes actually our main workhorse, he keeps every single blueprint, permit, survey, and change filed since we started. ”

Tom looked at the machine, gears spinning. “Old Roy… Is this an eight state Roy G. Biv?”
Jamet nodded. “Ayup. One of three still running to this day. He was half our budget for the first 10 year operational grant we received, and worth every penny. ”

Tom thought back on what he knew of the computer style. Called Roy G. Biv, after the colors of the rainbow, roys worked on light. They were called eight state machines due to how they stored and processed information. Unlike a common computer, which stored and processed using two states, namely on and off, or one and zero, the roy worked with eight states, or colors, of light. Each of the primary colors of the rainbow, and pure white. Data flowed through fiber optic connections, and instead of being converted to electrical signals, were processed as beams of light by the special processing unit, a mix of sub atomic prisms and mirrors approximating circuitry and chips. Storage was on clear plastic plates, an inch thick and a foot square. A grid of lasers read and wrote, changing the color of individual crystal subunits of the matrix, storing data on an atomic level. A cubic centimeter of plate held about an exabit of data, but the fact that each bit was eight state, and not two state, drove the actual capacity through the roof.

The Roy G. Biv was immense in storage and processing power, but took less electricity to run than a standard mainframe, and the optical components never wore out. no moving parts, no fans for heat control due to design and physical heat sinks, the only draw back was its immense price. One was being used as the central computer for Cerne city, one was the primary server for the federal government offices in D.C., running the FBI, CIA and IRS, and one, apparently, was here.

“No set schedule,” he mused to himself. “Nothing seems to be waiting for me to fix. Might as well get homey”

An hour later, computer settings where he liked them, a few favorite charts and graphs printed off and spread around the desk, Tom was adjusting the angle on his chair seat. Leaning on the edge of the foam cushion, one hand on the tension handle, the other on his desk, he slid the seat back and forth on the chair, looking for a comfortable spot, when he was startled by a tap on his shoulder.

He jumped, then spun in his chair, and looked up at the gentleman getting his attention.

“Hey, you’re the new tech, right?”

Tom stood and put his hand out, and shook hands. “That’s right. Tom. What can I do for you?”

“I’m Anferny. About time they got someone to do this. I’ve gotten tired of having to get other people to help me. My computer is jamming up again.”

Tom stood, following Anferny to his workstation. “What do you mean by, jamming up, exactly?”

“You know, running slow. It does this every so often. Usually I just get Janice or someone to deal with it. Here, this is my desk. I’ve got to run to a meeting.”

Half an hour later, Tom finally got up from Anferney’s desk. Shaking his head, he looked at the next desk over. “Ma’am, when Anferny comes back, tell him I said to stop downloading and installing every piece of crud he finds?”

“Honey, I’ve been telling him that for years. When it comes to pipe diameters and flows, he’s top notch. Everything else in life, he’s got a notch in his top. ”

Tom giggled, then stifled himself. “Gotcha. Thanks, I’ll have to have a talk with him myself then. Nothing was a big security risk this time, but… Seriously, you would think people would learn basic self security. ”

“You’re telling me? Glad to have you around though. If Janet was out it was always me he was running to. Its your ball now!”

Deciding to be somewhat productive with his afternoon, Tom wandered around the main hall, introducing himself to people he had yet to meet, learning what everyone did, and reminding people to come to him with computer issues. After a bit of this, he sat back down at his desk, at a loss for what to do next.

Taking a break, he decided to check the news. Scrolling through headlines, one in particular jumped out at him.

Terrorism In Washington, Historic Landmark Vandalized.

Flames engulfed over 3/4 of the Historic Space Needle after an explosion rocked downtown Seattle this morning. No group has yet to take responsibility, but inside sources point to the bombing being an act of the Phoenician Alliance, a militant anti-government group…

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tom scrolled on. Random terrorist bombings were growing commonplace. Only the location had made him read the story, until realizing that the bombing was in Washington state, not D.C.

“Almost thought I found the reason Felicity was stuck in D.C.”, he mused to himself.

Decorated in an old style, the restaurant was furnished in wooden chairs, tables, and bar. This expensive furnishing seemed real solid wood to Tom, his gaze wandering over it, not just veneer over plastic. Spinning stools were mounted to the floor by the bar, and bottles filled shelves behind the bar. Rather than a door, the entire front of the restaurant was open to the street, other than a few support columns, and the living wall behind the synth band out front. Jutting out slightly from the roof, Tom noticed panels rolled back up into the ceiling that would drop down and seal the wall, for closing, and probably in case of bad weather.

“So, Studebaker said that I could take a long lunch, but only if I kept away long enough to miss his wife. Of course, he also wanted a chance to speak to the mothership, and let them know that the invasion plans are going fine. Isn’t that interesting? TOM?”

Tom wrested his eyes and attention back to Katarina. “Hunh? Yeah.”

Katarina put her left hand to her hip, and pouted, the effect ruined by raising her glass to her lips and taking a large gulp. “You aren’t listening to a thing I said!”
“I’m sorry, just, taking everything in. It.. it’s still weird for me. I’ve only been back in town for a couple days, and everything is just, more different than I remember. But this place”, At this, Tom motioned around the room, “Looks just like a restaurant my family used to go out too. Had the best chicken enchiladas. Got lost in thought I guess.” He grinned sheepishly at Katarina. “Sorry.”

Katarina laughed brightly, and stepped closer to Tom, putting a hand on his shoulder, her arm laying across his chest. At the contact, Tom again felt the same light airy feeling he’d felt before, as if he were in a storm, hair whipping in the wind, although no wind blew across the street. “No worries, I know how it is being new in town. I just moved here a half year ago myself.” She cocked her head sideways and looked up at him. “Back in town? You lived here before?”

“Yeah, I was born in Mesa. After the quake, I was moved to Washington with a lot of other wards of the state.”

“Ward of the state, moved here from Washington?  You must be the new computer tech.”

Tom blinked, surprised by her knowledge, and still flustered by the hand and arm across his chest, but not knowing quite what to do about it.

“Yes.  How is it everyone on this island seems to know about me already?”

“Ohh, Felicity has been just raving about the new tech she was getting.  She and I talk a lot, what with Senator Thomas and his huge interest in construction and reconstruction. “  Katrina drew her fingers down along Tom’s chest, and the sensation that ran through him was like falling from a skyscraper, standing in a hurricane, and floating away from the ground, all at the same time. ” I bet we’ll be seeing more of each other.  You’d like that, I hope?”   The expression on her face warred between sad puppy eyes, and a butcher measuring a piece of meat.  Tom hemmed and hawed, unable to formulate a response.

Thankfully, Rocky and Deborah chose that moment to arrive with food.

Deborah eyed the pair, noting Tom’s red face.  “So, Katrina keep you good company Tom?”

Before Tom could answer, Katrina put her arm on Deborah’s shoulder, and starting walking out of the building with her, Tom and Rocky close behind. “Of course I did.  And Deb, wait till you hear what Janice in the governor’s office is up to!”

“So,” Rocky said sideways, “He’s our boy, isn’t he?”

Deborah chuckled. “I believe so. You get a feel off him as well I take it?”

“Ohh yeah. Talk about powerful. If that’s who we’ve been looking for, she is going to be VERY happy.”

“Tell me about it” As they reached the counter, Deborah grabbed an order menu and started checking off items. “He shook my hand for a second time earlier, and I thought he’d explode in a ball of fire then and there.  I’m betting he wears cotton undies, he would have melted anything else. ”

Rocky gave Deborah an odd glance. “Ball of fire? You mean he’s a bird?”

“Of course he is. What else would he be? Wait, you didn’t get heat when he touched you?”

Rocky shook his head. “Nope. Tom was as wet behind the ears as I am. Think he’s a double?”

It was Deborah’s turn for odd glances, this time back towards where Tom and Katarina were standing, laughing at some shared Joke. “If he is, she will be even happier. I tell you though, that boy was so fired up, I barely managed to keep my cool. I came this close to throwing him down on the conference room table. Only the fact that its not insulated in there…” Deborah mused to herself, chewing on the pen. “That, and if he is the one we want, or just one of us, and I Ignite him before she gets to his ass, she’ll kill me. But damn…”

Rocky grinned evily at her as she handed the paper menu to a cashier. He traced his finger in loops across the bar, and brought it up, wet with an impossibly large drop of water hanging from a finger tip. “Really now? All, hot and bothered are we? Need a hand, cooling down, later?” With this, he flicked his finger, sending the large drop sailing through the air, where it landed with a hiss on Deborah’s neck. She smiled as steam rose across her face, the large drop quickly boiling away before it had a chance to run down her neck and into her shirt.

“Hmmm. Well, I am always up for a good sauna, and since Felicity wont be coming in until tommorow, I have the keys to her penthouse. Meet me there tonight?”

Rockey grinned wide enough to nearly split his face in two. “Well now, I have practice tonight, but we should be done about midnight. I could be at Felicity’s ’bout 12:30. If that isn’t too late for you?”

“Well, I DO need my beauty sleep, but if you make it worth my while to stay up, I think that can work.” At this, the cashier came back with several bags and a tray of bottles. “Here, you’re the big strapping man. Get those would you?” Walking back towards Tom and Katarina, Deborah looked over her shoulder back at Rocky as he juggled the food. “Lets see how Tom has fared with the airhead, shall we?”

“Rocky!”, Deborah called out. The large man turned, and a smile split his face. Bleached white teeth shone, made all the whiter by dark brown skin. Tight black ringlets crowded each other, barely half an inch of covering on his head. Dressed in jeans and polo, a tool belt buckled around his waist, he seemed like a common worker to Tom.

“Tom, this is Rocky, Rocky Jones. He’s the lead of the Priors and Progression committee, which means he’s the biggest user of our older archives. So you and he will be working together a lot. Rocky, this is our new computer jockey, Tom Harlan.”

Deborah finished the introductions, and the pair reached out to shake hands. At the point of contact, Tom’s hand and arm shook again, but with a cool, moist feeling, rather than the fire given by Deborah. Shaking out his fingers, and trying to ignore the pulsing across his flesh, Tom struggled to think of something to say.

“Rocky? Your parents a big fan of the Italian Stallion?”

“Ooo, a fan of the classics, I see. No, its actually short for Cirroco. Its a bit of a mouthful, so it gets shortened.”

“I see… wait.” Tom looked up at the large man, questioningly. ” Cirroco Jones. You aren’t named for the captain of the DSV Ringmaster, by any chance?”

Rocky shook his head. “Nope, its a name for the winds off the desert. My parents met in Morocco when stuck in a small lodge for a few days because of a storm. I’ve never heard of him or it. ”

“Her, actually.” Tom replied. “Character in an old novel. I’ve already met the living robot, I was started to wonder if there was a glut of people named after fictional characters here.”

Rocky laughed. “Well, we have a Mack Blaze in Pipelines, but he’s a guy.”

“There’s also a Bobby Roman in security, used to be a private eye, as well.”

When Tom and Rocky both stared at her blankly, Deborah shrugged her shoulders. “Old mystery novel.”

“Anyways, I was about to take Tom here to lunch. Taberna Macayo’s. Care to tag along, or are you busy with something?”

A quick ten minute walk, again dodging in and out of small passageways, took the trio to a small avenue of restaurants just off the main capitol square. Taberna Macayo’s, the newest opening on the street, was relatively busy despite the early hour at which Tom found himself having lunch. A synth band was set up on the patio, nodding to themselves in their helmets as something resembling mariachi music blasted from speakers, and living wall panels blazed with twisting, churning patterns of light, moving in time with the music.

Rocky motioned towards the band. “Damn synths. Call me old fashioned, but if you’re going to make music, you should learn instruments to let the music out of your head, not plug in and download it.”

“Could you do better?”, Tom asked.

“Hell yes, I can. And I can prove it too! We’re playing at a club in Fountain Valley Saturday night. You should come.”

“Wait, you really are in a band? Nice. What kind?”

“Fresh rock, mostly, though we do a lot of oldies at request. I play drums. Any excuse to hit things. ”

As they walked through the door, a slim woman at the bar shouted and came hurrying towards them, dodging through tables and waiters. Making it without spilling a drop of the drink in her hand, she reached out and hugged Deborah and Rocky in turn, then stuck her hand out at Tom.

“Hey, I’m Katarina. You?”

Tom reached out and took her hand. For the third time that day, he felt his skin and muscles go insane. But instead of burning or a feeling of sweat and moist, he found himself feeling lighter, and imagining a breeze from behind hitting him. “I’m, uhh, I’m Tom. New guy at P and R.”

Katarina nodded, and dropped her hand from his. “Cool Cool. I’m with Senator Thomas’ office myself. Interning. ”

Deborah spoke up. “Hey, Kat, how’s about you entertain Tom here for a minute. Tom, Rocky and I will go grab some grub and drinks. Be right back”

“And this expanse of filing cabinets and blueprint bins is my own desk. Felicity’s office is directly behind me.”

“Must be a bit much, having the boss looking over your shoulder all the time.” Tom mused aloud. “Speaking of, where is Ms. Craven?”

Deborah chuckled. “It’s not so bad, actually. She doesn’t micro manage, which is always a plus. And she’s still in Philadelphia, actually. Conference ran a day longer than expected, and then I’m sure you heard about the earthquake yesterday shutting the airport down.” Tom nodded as Deborah continued. “Felicity was supposed to take a train to New York, to handle some other business she had there, and fly back in tonight. She got stuck in D.C. though. She sends her regrets, and looks forward to meeting you tomorrow if she makes it in.

Deborah stood, grabbing a small case from on top of her desk. She ushered Tom down the hallway behind her desk. “Here we have various conference rooms and drafting studios.” Pointing at a rather imposing door, covered in sound proofing and with a large, old fashioned number pad lock, Deborah turned to Tom in a conspiratorial manner. “And that is the old man’s private studio. When the red light is on, it means do not disturb, or else!”

Two small led lights were mounted above the door. One was lit, a bright green. “And when it’s green?” Tom asked.

“Then you can press the page button here for his attention, but only when it’s important. Right in here, now.” Saying this, Deborah unlocked a conference room door, and ushered Tom inside. As he walked past the entrance, lights flicked on, revealing a rather standard large oval table with seats around it, and a white wall at the far end, obviously for use with a projector hidden somewhere in the ceiling. Closing the door behind her, Deborah leaned back against the wood, and smiled broadly.

“Now,” She said throatily, “We can have some real fun.“

All of Tom’s early uncontrolled fantasies came screaming back to the front of his mind. He could feel sweat break out on his forehead. “Umm, Deborah, what exactly…”

Grinning even broader, Deborah brought up the hand with the black case in front of her. “Movie time!”
“Ohh” was all Tom said, relief evident on his face. “Classics? Comedy? Adventure? A good sci fi maybe?”

Deborah laughed, unzipping the case and taking from it small plastic cubes, holding each up to the light for a moment before moving to the next one. “Nope, I wish. Good old fashioned training films. Mr. Morrow’s idea. He says that anyone that can stomach a one hour training film can stomach working with architects all day. It’s a little dry, in a middle of the desert at high noon in July kind of way.“ Finding the cube she was looking for, she pressed on the table top and a small window appeared in the wood grain. Pushing the cube into a small slot on the edge of the table, she dragged a finger along the glass window and stabbed at it twice. The white wall lit up blue.

“She looked up at Tom, a mischievous grin on her face. “Why Tom, if I didn’t know any better I’d think that was your way of asking me out to a movie. I’m flattered, but I barely know you. Ask me again next week.” Tom flustered and stammered, turning red. Obviously enjoying the reaction, Deborah’s eyes twinkled as she leaned in close to Tom. She whispered directly into his ear “Or perhaps you had hoped I brought you in here for some ”alone” time?”

The twitch of her lips nearly brushing his ear brought the feeling of heat back as strong as ever. His skin thrummed and vibrated as if flames danced across it. He gave up even trying to formulate a reply, and stood there, silent, bottom lip pressed firmly against his top teeth.

Deborah stood back up and laughed. “You’re embarrassed? My my, how refreshing. I’m sorry, I’ll not tease you any longer. Enjoy the movie, and I’ll be back in an hour.“

With that, she stabbed at the window on the desk top again, and the blue wall began shifting. She let herself out, and, after she had gone, Tom took several deep breaths, and sat down to watch as the audio started.

The lights dimmed automatically as canned music rose while the screen displayed the state seal of Arizona. Small text on the bottom of the screen warned of unspeakable things that would be done to people who copied or distributed the film, although Tom thought to himself that having a job that required bootlegging stuffy training films was probably punishment enough.

A title scrolled across the screen to an accompanied rise in the volume and intensity of the music. “Planning, Revising, And YOU!”

The view changed to a rather non descript office, and a much younger Edward Morrow walked onto the set and sat down.

Looking out at the screen, he said, “Hello, my name is Ed Morrow. Congratulations, and welcome to Planning and Revising, or P and R, as we like to call it. P and R has, since its creation in 2104, been responsible for the creation, upkeep, and implementation of city planning for the entire combined Phoenix metropolitan area, and later Maricopa county as a whole. After the rampant destruction of the big one in 2100, and the change of climate from suddenly becoming a beach front city, a tight controlled approach to rebuilding and to new growth was essential.”

The image changed to an overhead view of the valley, taken shortly after the monster earthquake and mountain building caused by it. Smoke still billowed from the new Estella Peaks’ central crater, and Tom looked at the south face, black and featureless from this height. He found himself imagining the steel girders sticking up out of slowly cooling rock, an image he’d seen on the news shortly after arriving with a bus full of fellow wards of the state in New York. A wave of emotion hit him sideways, sadness and loss coming to the forefront. Tom shook off the melancholy, wondering at the weak control he had over all his emotions that day. The scene changed to one of construction, on the new state capitol building it appeared. He realized he had missed a few minutes of Ed’s voiceover in his recollection.

“And after the completion of the new Copper Dome by the Office of Reconstruction, and after the existing urban planning offices had failed in trying to properly rebuild the rest of the capitol, they were all merged into Planning and Revising. So enthralled with the architect who designed the Copper Dome, one Edward Morrow, they asked him to head up this new governmental department. That would be me, in case you weren’t paying attention earlier.“ Tom chuckled softly at the joke. “Lucky for everyone involved, I accepted. Planning and Revising has grown by leaps and bounds since those days, and we now control every aspect of business zoning, home inspection, road planning, and of course, design of government buildings. We currently employ nearly six thousand people state wide, several hundred of whom work in this building.”

Tom started for a moment. Those were current numbers. But this film was obviously a decade old. Had they recorded multiple videos then for growth? That made no sense, he thought.

The younger Ed Morrow continued speaking, back on camera directly. “And you make us one step closer to six thousand mark, Tom. By keeping our databases running smoothly, and all equipment and software up to date, you will help ensure that our people can do their work in keeping Arizona growing at a healthy rate.” The onscreen Ed Morrow’s eyes seemed to zoom directly into Tom’s. The voice continued to speak, but again in general terms. For a moment, Tom thought perhaps he had imagined it, that the ten year old video was speaking directly to him. Then he caught it. Ed was blinking in sequence. It was a long pattern, but it repeated. “Clever.” He muttered to himself.

The video moved to maps of the building, showing the area he had already explored, as well as two basements full of records and computer equipment, someplace he would probably spend more time than at his desk.

The movie soon drawled its way to the end, after disgorging more history and facts about the department and the capitol in general. The ending music swelled up, the lights went back on, and the door popped open. Deborah slipped into the room.

“One hour on the dot. So, what did you think?”

Tom rubbed his eyes and stood up. “Well, for one thing, that’s a bang up computer model of Mr. Morrow. Took me a few minutes to catch on. “

Deborah threw her head back and laughed. Her laugh was rather infectious, and Tom found himself giggling.

“Ah, I lost the bet. Yeah, Janet actually ran the modeler back in the day when Ed first came up with the idea. I figured having him talk directly to you was overkill, but that you’d still be mystified. Guess I was wrong. Well, it looks like lunchtime to me. What’s your pleasure, Mexican or Oriental?”

Staggering to the sink, he waved his hands under the spigot, and water began to flow. The water sizzled slightly and steam rose off his hands, but Tom didn’t notice this. He splashed the cold liquid on his face, and this time could feel the water boiling as it hit his skin.

The first couple of splashes cooled him down, and further water on his hands and face reacted normally. He stared at himself in the mirror, wondering if he had imagined it.

“What the hell is wrong with me?” The words, spoken aloud to himself, helped to center him. He closed his eyes, breathing deep and slow. He pictured Deborah sitting on the desk waiting for him to come back, knowing he had to keep his cool the first day on the job. If he caught some strange bug on the trip into town, it would have to wait until tomorrow.

Picturing her sitting there, he found himself imagining Deborah beckoning him towards her as he came through the door. As the Tom in his mind watched, Deborah loosened the collar on her top, drawing it down over her shoulders. She toyed with the strap of her bra, grabbing his hand and guiding it under the thick fabric as she leaned forward to kiss him.

Leaning down over the sink, he splashed more water in his face, the daydream evaporating. Tom worried about himself. It wasn’t normal for him to think that way. At least, not that soon after meeting a woman. But something about her was slowly worming its way through his thoughts. No matter how much he disciplined his mind, he found himself wondering if she tasted like she smelled, or if her skin would be as smooth as he imagined it would be underneath his hands.

Walking to the urinal, he found a physical representation of his inner turmoil made relieving the pressure on his bladder difficult. Eventually he managed, pale yellow flowing across polished porcelain and into a waterless drain. Tom smiled at that, a holdover from times when water had been a precious commodity in Phoenix, such water saving fixtures required by law. He washed his hands again. No steam rose this time, and the pulsing across his skin had managed to calm down.

Patting his hands with a paper towel, he walked out of the bathroom. Deborah was still sitting on his desk, and try as he might, Tom could not resist envying the desk, and her curved bottom resting against it. Trying to be as nonchalant as possible, he threw the wadded up paper towel in the trash basket at his feet.

“So, time for that tour?”, He asked.

Grinning at him, Deborah swung her legs up and hopped gracefully to the floor.

“Indeed it is. This now empty room of desks will be full other times. Most everyone in this room is engineers, architects and the like. Everyone is out on the field. They’ll come in one at a time as they need. I’m sure they’ll introduce themselves to you. Most of your job is going to be making their computers and tools work after they find strange and unusual ways to break them. This way,” She said, leading him towards a door opposite the room from the bathroom, “lies the dark recesses of Accounting.”

Following her through the double doors, Tom half expected a dark corridor with her words. While the next room certainly wasn’t as brightly lit as the main room they left, it was far from dark. Three cubicles filled an offset of the hallway. The occupants thereof were introduced in turn as Mary Ann, Jane, and Janet. They spent a bit of time chatting with the ladies. Janet seemed a bit of a tech person herself, and it quickly became Tom and her talking shop while Deborah small talked with the other ladies.

“Please, feel free, by the way. “ Janet suddenly interjected into the conversation.

“Umm, sorry?”

“The candy bowl, I noticed you eyeing it.” Janet gave him a quick wink. “Feel free to have one.”

“Thanks.” Tom reached out and took a small butterscotch disk, popping it in his mouth. Janet was pushing sixty, but had an early twenties gleam in her eye. Red hair was obviously chemically enhanced, but not out of place on her. Dressed smartly in recent fashion, she wore a small amount of makeup and a decent amount of jewelry. Laugh lines creased the skin near her lips and crowned her forehead, but few of any other kind of wrinkle.

“Now then, you and Deb had better keep going on the tour. I know everyone will want to talk to you. Since they decentralized fascist a few years back, most all real computer fixing has been done by those that can, like yours truly. People will be glad to see we have a dedicated man now in the department now, and will leave poor old me alone.” With that, her eyes twinkled again.

“That said,” She continued, “if you’ve any questions on odd software or hardware set ups, I’m your best bet for the woman that set it up, so let me know.”

“Fascist?” Tom asked. “I thought, “ He said jokingly, “that we lived in a democracy, of sorts.”

Janet giggled, and pointed to the lid of a cabinet behind her, where several nameplates hung in a line downwards, her name on each, and a different position. One stated FACS, and the next below it IST.

“Every new department head that came in would change the name. One year we were File Automation and Computer Specialists. The next, we were Information Systems and Technology. For a while, both names were printed on all the stationary, so everything was labeled FACS slash IST. Fascist. The name stuck even once the letters were gone.”

Tom giggled along. “So, you were in IT yourself Janet? How’d you end up, you know..” He trailed off, looking around the small corner office section.

“An over glorified bean counter? Well, they decentralized, claiming that such things were common enough now it was like having a department just to run photocopiers. Heh. There will always be people afraid of computers. Anyways, I wanted to stay with the state. I retire in a few years, and it’s a big drop in retirement pay if I didn’t. Honestly, I choose a position with P and R because I get to chat with Ed every now and then. He mentioned running into you on the cable car. Seemed impressed. “ She eyed him top to bottom from over her desk, and looked at him with a knowing eye. “It takes a lot to impress that man. Anyway, off with you two!”

Tom said his goodbyes to the ladies, and he and Deborah continued walking along the hallway.

The long hallway gave him time to do some appraising of his own as he stood just inside the door, waiting. The first thing anyone would notice was red hair of such a color that the phrase “flaming” could do no justice to. It fell down just below her shoulders in gentle waves and curls, framing an oval face dusted across the cheeks in freckles. Emerald green eyes dominated her face, and quickly drew all attention to themselves. Of medium height, she possessed the gentle curves of a woman who exercised regular, but didn’t starve herself, a fashion that had been making a come back lately.

“Hi, you must be Tom. I was starting to get worried about you.”

“Hi, yes, I’m Tom. Sorry about that, there was a detour. I still would be not here if I hadn’t run into a precocious young lady that knows this place like the back of her hand. Since Ms. Craven’s picture on her profile looks nothing like yourself , I would assume you are Ms. Stryker?” At this, he held out his hand in the traditional greeting.

Taking his hand and shaking it, the redheaded woman nodded in the positive. “Indeed. And Deborah, please.” She clasped her other hand over Tom’s, now holding it with both hands. “We tend to be rather, informal, here.”

As she took his hand, Tom felt a tingle at the point of contact. Shaking hands with her, the tingle spread up his arm, a warming sensation much like sunlight on his skin. When her other hand clasped over his, the warmth spread, growing stronger, and suffusing his body inside and out. As the heat grew, strongest at the point of contact, his hand felt as if it were about to burst into flames. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, in fact, some part of the heat felt very good, but that part fled as it intensified. Just as the sensation started to become truly painful, Deborah released his hand, and motioned towards the hallway she had just come from. The feeling of heat instantly fled, but the tingle remained, pulsing in waves across his body, slowly back and forth. He could feel the hairs on the back of his neck lift and bend one way then the other, as if the wave was some form of static electricity.

“Well, no sense dawdling. Let me give you the five buck tour, and we’ll get you to work!” As they headed down the hallway, Deborah watched Tom cautiously waving his hand at his side, and now and again run his fingers through his hair and across his neck. “So, by precocious young woman, I assume you met Daneel?”

” I did. She says hello by the way.”

Deborah smiled broadly, and Tom felt momentarily weak in the knees. “Well, I expect we’ll be seeing her later, after shes done informing the whole of the island about our new boy. She does gopher work for pretty much everyone, so that also means she’s the main source of gossip for just as many people.”

Turning a corner, the hallway opened up into a wide room lined with steel filing cabinets that stretched ten feet up to the ceiling. Wheeled ladders ran along tracks mounted at the top of the cabinets, and several small desks were scattered about the room.

“Well, here we are. P and R central. This will be your desk here,” she said, sitting on a mostly empty desk in the middle of the room, thumping the pine top, her legs folded and swinging. “And there across the room are the bathrooms. I would assume that after the cable car ride in and getting lost, you’d like the opportunity to freshen up before I introduce you to every one else?

“Thank you, I would indeed.” Tom turned towards the direction Deborah was pointing and started towards the door as she hopped off the desk. While doing so, her fingers brushed his shoulder, and he jumped as a new wave of fire raced across his skin.

Watching him walk towards the bathroom, rubbing his shoulder, Deborah chuckled softly to herself. Rubbing her own fingers against themselves to get rid of the tingling sensation across her own skin, she pulled out her phone. She typed out on the small keyboard, “We have a winner”, and sent off the text message.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, he loaded up the map that had been sent to him, and followed it instead of the signs. Finding a locked metal door marked “Maintenance” that was shown on his map as his start; he tried his thumb on the lock pad. The lock clicked open.
“Good”, he thought to himself. “That means they’ve already coded me in. That should make things easier”

The room past the door was lined with padlocked cabinets, and a concrete tunnel slowly wound its way down. He started down the corridor, lined with cables and pipes running along the tops of the walls and the ceiling. Step by step he followed the instructions on his screen, moving from walkway to walkway. He headed down a tight access corridor, up a flight of steps painted an old red, and through a wooden door. Two feet in front of him was a staircase back down, this one painted military green. Taking an elevator back to the service, and ducking through a small restaurant and out its back door, he realized he had no clue where in the capitol he was. He had heard that during reconstruction of Phoenix, the area around the new Capitol Building had become a maze, but academic knowledge of a fact meant nothing when you were stuck in it. Turning a corner, he ran smack into a guardrail blocking a small maintenance tunnel that was the next step on his map. Standing there cursing silently to himself, he examined the map, scrolling in and out to try and find another way.

As he stood there, a door he hadn’t noticed, a mere outline in the steel wall next to him, popped open and slammed into his elbow, sending the phone skittering across the ground. A young girl, 14 or 15 at the most, looked out around the edge of the door.

“Sorry about that! Are you okay?”

Tom bent to retrieve his phone, and, verifying that his phone was undamaged, looked up at the girl.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just trying to figure out how to get past that.” he said, gesturing at the barricade. She looked in the direction he pointed, and banged her fist on the door.

“Damn. They must be ahead of schedule on cleaning out the main lines. Where are you trying to go?”

“Um, Planning and Revising, next to the Dome. I’ve got a map, but it just tells me where to go, not where I actually am. “He held his phone out to her, showing the map.

Looking at the map and scrolling through the directions, the girl nodded to herself. “Whoever drew this up knows this place almost as well as me. P and R, hunh?“ She looked up at Tom, appraising his face. “This looks like Deborah’s work, and that makes you Tom, right?”

Tom eyed her sideways, a little wary. “It does. Does everyone here already know me?”

“Well, Deborah and I chat a lot, and she’s been telling me about the new guy. Us admin types around here tend to gossip a bunch, so yeah, everyone’s already going to know who you are. “Sticking out her hand, she continued on. “I’m Daneel, by the way.”

“Pleasure is mine, Daniele.”, he said, shaking her hand, and then taking his phone back as she offered it to him and holstering it on his belt.

“No no, Daneel. Dah-kneel.”

Tom stared at her dumbly for a moment, thinking. “You mean, like the robot?”

Daneel smiled broadly at him. “Natch. My parents had a thing for the classics. Most people don’t catch the reference. Those that do complain that it’s a guy’s name. ”

Tom chuckled. “That’s silly. He was a robot. Gender was just a way of humanizing them, he wasn’t actually male, and so that makes it a gender neutral name, right?”

Daneel giggled along with him. “Exactly. Nice to see someone else gets it. C’mon, I was heading to blueprints, right next to P and R. Follow me. “

With that, Daneel led Tom back through the door she had first popped out of. Every so often checking a dog-eared notebook she pulled from a messenger bag strapped securely around her shoulders, she went through a mystifying series of tunnels, elevators, ladders, and staircases. Some were disused and dusty, others looked as if they had just finished painting them yesterday. As they went, she explained.

“You see, they added on top of the old streets and such that were there, and then added layers on top of that. We are just under the Dome here, but a good 6 stories down. As they rebuilt, they added as they needed, and a lot of rooms and such got filled in to provide support, but corridors and stairs remained. Its amazing how cluttered it got in the ten odd years they spent actually building. They got the surface level in order, but down here, you could get lost for days. “

Coming up out of a staircase, Tom blinked as sunlight suddenly shone on his face again, and sneezed.

“Bless you. That’s P and R across the square there.” She said, pointing across a small park. “Tell Deborah I said hi.” With that, Daneel skipped off in the other direction from where she had pointed, leaving Tom again alone without a guide, but this time, with a destination in sight.