Tale:Ineluctable, Naturally: Difference between revisions
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He tabbed through page after page until he found the program. The computer ran slowly to consume power as it was nighttime after all. Lothair sipped on a cold ''silbermilk'', bitter and miserable because it was cold. At least it fought back the worst of the exhaustion from work at this hour. Some of the juniors kept their cups in the server room to keep them at least lukewarm, but the risk of spillage was far too great. While Lothair waited for the terminal to load, he wiped the forming condensation from its screen. He shuddered and pulled on another layer, still not yet warm from the trek from his flat to here. |
He tabbed through page after page until he found the program. The computer ran slowly to consume power as it was nighttime after all. Lothair sipped on a cold ''silbermilk'', bitter and miserable because it was cold. At least it fought back the worst of the exhaustion from work at this hour. Some of the juniors kept their cups in the server room to keep them at least lukewarm, but the risk of spillage was far too great. While Lothair waited for the terminal to load, he wiped the forming condensation from its screen. He shuddered and pulled on another layer, still not yet warm from the trek from his flat to here. |
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The terminal finally loaded the program and a countdown next to it. All he would need to do is load the program he and his colleagues had been testing for years. Lokira was among the last planets to legalize semantic dynamos, so most of their work was in implementation with local systems than in research. The time came, the program began, and Lothair wasted no time leaving the office. He kept to the middle of the hallway to avoid tripping on someone, but his foot caught on improvised blankets and scraps of fabric all the same. |
The terminal finally loaded the program and a countdown next to it. All he would need to do is load the program he and his colleagues had been testing for years. Lokira was among the last planets to legalize semantic dynamos, so most of their work was in implementation with local systems than in research. The time came, the program began, and Lothair wasted no time leaving the office. He kept to the middle of the hallway to avoid tripping on someone, but his foot caught on improvised blankets and scraps of fabric all the same. Lothair saw another glow, no doubt Reccared's terminal. Only further confirming the source of the glow, Lothair's foot crunched on some snack or confection left on the ground. |
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"You know when the lights are coming back on?" whispered Lothair. Like Reccared's large body was eclipsing a dim silver sun, his body hunched over the monitor. Four other round screens reflected the dim light. |
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The lights came on as Lokira's terminator line moved closer |
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Reccared grunted, "A few hours...," and he returned to what he was doing. |
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"Not worth going home then, huh?" Lothair finished his silbermilk in one gulp and dropped it onto the floor where it joined the dozens other like it. Reccared would surely not mind. |
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Lothair collapsed onto his chair and saw the servers had already began the program. Despite the recent purchases, Lothair could see the battery reserves depleting in real time. They were busy scraping information from across the loom, chat logs, forum posts, direct messages, anything Neith could get access to—which was quite a bit. Lothair found his own records and purged them long ago and, as new hires learned more, they began doing the same. |
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[[Category:Author: Duodecillionaire]] |
[[Category:Author: Duodecillionaire]] |
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Revision as of 01:25, August 19, 2025
The sun wasn't due to rise for hours, the only light Lothair could see was a single flashing underscore on his terminal. Twice a second, a few million electrons collided with the surface of the terminal, the resulting light hardly enough for Lothair to even see his hands. He did not need to see his hands to go through the commands he had been dozens of times before. As he entered his credentials, he gained access to the remote server.
He tabbed through page after page until he found the program. The computer ran slowly to consume power as it was nighttime after all. Lothair sipped on a cold silbermilk, bitter and miserable because it was cold. At least it fought back the worst of the exhaustion from work at this hour. Some of the juniors kept their cups in the server room to keep them at least lukewarm, but the risk of spillage was far too great. While Lothair waited for the terminal to load, he wiped the forming condensation from its screen. He shuddered and pulled on another layer, still not yet warm from the trek from his flat to here.
The terminal finally loaded the program and a countdown next to it. All he would need to do is load the program he and his colleagues had been testing for years. Lokira was among the last planets to legalize semantic dynamos, so most of their work was in implementation with local systems than in research. The time came, the program began, and Lothair wasted no time leaving the office. He kept to the middle of the hallway to avoid tripping on someone, but his foot caught on improvised blankets and scraps of fabric all the same. Lothair saw another glow, no doubt Reccared's terminal. Only further confirming the source of the glow, Lothair's foot crunched on some snack or confection left on the ground.
"You know when the lights are coming back on?" whispered Lothair. Like Reccared's large body was eclipsing a dim silver sun, his body hunched over the monitor. Four other round screens reflected the dim light.
Reccared grunted, "A few hours...," and he returned to what he was doing.
"Not worth going home then, huh?" Lothair finished his silbermilk in one gulp and dropped it onto the floor where it joined the dozens other like it. Reccared would surely not mind.
Lothair collapsed onto his chair and saw the servers had already began the program. Despite the recent purchases, Lothair could see the battery reserves depleting in real time. They were busy scraping information from across the loom, chat logs, forum posts, direct messages, anything Neith could get access to—which was quite a bit. Lothair found his own records and purged them long ago and, as new hires learned more, they began doing the same.