>>>~~~~<<<
Mauz emerged from the crawlspace and observed her surroundings. This section of the Great Afist was undergoing power failures, so it was mostly dark, save for a few flickering lights. The young woman sighed. If the lights were doing this badly, the destaps and towers would be even worse off. It seems her work was never done. Alas, that was the life of the Eitee.
“Calling Manetens,” she spoke into her cellular, “we have a lighting issue in sector 438B.”
“Number, please,” the voice on the other end replied.
“004861939482012,” she rattled off.
“It’s an ongoing issue. We’ll call back when we have more information,” the voice replied.
“Don’t you quote verses at me,” Mauz snapped. “I need light to work in. Don’t make me take this up with the Manjars!”
“Eh…fine, we’ll send someone right now,” the other person mumbled, cutting off the connection.
“And people complain about us,” Mauz shook her head as she shined her flashlight into the corridor. The cold metal of the hall was illuminated, revealing a seemingly endless path that continued into the darkness. Windows lined both sides, revealing numerous side rooms, many of which were filled with hundreds of destaps and towers, each letting off a low hum. “Oh, I can hear them. Maybe they’re working better than I thought.”
Mauz entered one of the side rooms and inspected the many cubes, each containing its own destap or tower. But which was the one she was looking for? Nothing seemed out of place or malfunctioning. Perhaps it was just the lights having issues, and the call that brought her out here was too presumptive.
“Two whole days of descending to find out nothing was wrong,” Mauz rolled her eyes until a light caught the corner of her vision. One of the destap’s montors was active, which was odd since no one should have been here to interface with them. “Could that be the problem?” Mauz moved in to inspect it.
As Mauz approached the cube, she quickly asserted that not only was this montor active, but so was the destap. It was plainly obvious someone had been interfacing with it very recently. The layout of the cube had been disturbed, and the many offerings moved around randomly. Everyone knows the two thin wooden rods are meant to sit 5 cm from the right side, but they had been knocked to the back of the cube. Not only that, the board had been clearly adjusted, the montor had been raised slightly, and the roller in front of the cube was at an angle as if someone had been sitting in it and left in a hurry.
“If the Manjars saw this, they’d cry blasphemy,” Mauz thought as she checked the desk for her namesake. Thankfully, the destap’s mauz had been left in place. Without it, she wouldn’t have been able to investigate further. Well, she could always take a mauz from another cube, but if a Manjar ever found out she did such a sacrilegious thing, they’d banish her to the darkest pits of the fyred. Good thing she can keep her mouth shut. “Now, what’s gotten you so excited?”
Mauz browsed the device’s interface. The usual sacred lock had been broken, and she had much more freedom to interact with this one than normal. Now she knew something was up. She had never found one this vulnerable before. It was her duty to report such faults to the Manjars, but she was concerned that the second she did, there would be a crusade to find the one responsible.
“Let’s see…oh, a message,” Mauz found a fule on the destap’s main screen. It wasn’t any of the usual fules either. This one was created and deliberately placed at the center of the screen by a third party. Mauz opened the fule, her heart clenching as she wondered if what she was doing was right, but her curiosity got the better of her.
“What the Manjar’s do not want you to know,” the fule read. It was signed by “The Rogue Eitee’s.”
“What nonsense,” Mauz shook her head, “those guys are supposed to be a myth. Is this some elaborate joke?” Her eyes traced the rest of the fule to find it had a path written into it. “Might as well,” she traced the path deeper into the destap’s systems, revealing a pragrum she had never seen before. “Eee-Mile?...Oh, Emale, it’s just spelled archaically.” Mauz knew the emale system well, in fact, her great-great-great grandfather had worked on the current system that everyone in her sector of the Great Afice used. She hadn’t even considered that the destaps would have their own version, but it made sense. All that they have was first given to them by the destaps, so naturally, her ancestor merely derived the Emale system from this Eee-Mile.
“But should I really check this? If the Manjar’s find out, ending up in Fyred is the least of my worries,” Mauz considered. “On the other hand,” she clicked on the pragrum. It took a while to initiate, but eventually, a somewhat familiar screen appeared before her. Many of the words were different and more archaic, but the pragrum seemed to have many of the same functions. Naturally, everything in the Eee-Mile was unread, save for a single message. “Well, this must be what the rogue wanted me to see,” she checked that message.
“Attention residents of the Star Corp satellite office, because of ongoing hostilities in the galaxy, we have been forced to make the last resort decision to cut off this satellite office for the foreseeable future. Do not worry. While you will no longer receive company directives or support, the AI CEO will manage this office in our absence. The AI CEO is more than capable of continuing production, hiring staff, organizing the construction of more office space, and managing employees for centuries, if not millennia, to come! However, we assure you we’ll return to resume full operations long before then. Until then, please continue doing business as normal. Remember, here at Star Corp, we reach for the stars!”
“I can’t read this,” Mauz admitted. It was written in such an ancient dialect she might as well have been reading a different language. The only phrase she might have correctly parsed was an old way to spell Aiiceo, but what about them was said? Is it an old directive from the Aiiceo? If so, then the Manjars would be fervent to study the old word, but she couldn’t be sure. “This might just be blasphemy, heresy spoken by the damned to fyred,” Mauz stated, “but I want to know more.”
Despite her better judgment, Mauz decided to replicate the words. While she couldn’t read everything on the screen, the symbols remained the same, including the Preent function. She’d take this message, and she’d find someone to translate. Perhaps those “Rogue Eitee” might be nearby. If they can’t give her the answers, someone will.
>>>~~~~<<<
It's much more expensive to destroy something than it is to retrieve it. By that same token, it is much easier to let something break and replace it than take the time to repair it. It all comes down to the cost of time.
Until next time, Read, Comment and Enjoy.
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