Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe (32 page)

He
looked forward to that.

The end

Glossary

Glossary of
terms

If it’s
not here, just google it.

Daemons:
Programs that run in the
background silently. They perform action without user interaction.
A daemon is a controlling entity for some specific process, like
keeping a temperature constant for example. As our devices become
more and more interconnected, daemons will command over many
aspects of our lives, deciding what emails are important to us,
pushing notifications to our devices, ordering milk when it runs
out etc. Their name has nothing to do with Christianity’s demons,
in ancient Greece a daemon was something like a guardian spirit
(like the Roman genius) and
it literally means “expert” or “wise.
”

Eudaemonia:
Is the state of being
helped or protected by a kindly spirit.

ACK:
From ACKnowledge. It’s how
programs say “got it.”

Personal Area Network (PAN):
The
network created by all of the wirelessly linked electronic devices
carried on (or within) a person. The smartphone is usually the
primary hub of this network.

fingerd:
finger
 is a program you can use to find information about
computer users. It usually lists the login name, the full name, and
possibly other details about the user you are fingering. In our
case, he’s a sexually oblivious daemon entity. 

httpd:
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP) daemon (web server).

parrotd:
Controlling daemon with
parallel starting of services and other features, used by many
distributions. Resides in the smartphone operating system. Called
parrot because of the metaphorical image it conjures of sitting on
the user’s shoulder, taking care of his needs.

Rfid:
Short range chip that can be
implanted into humans, pets or simply added into products for
cataloguing. With an rfid scanner you can read a standard piece of
information off it. In humans, can give access to a place like a
swipe card.

Air intake:
Your nose.

Init:
Initialise computer command,
that starts up a process.

QR code:
A two-dimensional form of
barcode, that usually links up to an internet address. To the bane
of graphic designers everywhere, they have resurfaced as an anchor
to connect a printed object to its related virtual process in
augmented reality.

Augmented Reality:
Not the same as
Virtual Reality. It is digital information superimposed
over
the real world.
Accessed by glasses or ocular implants.

Shared Augmented Reality (Veil):
An
interconnected weave of public information, allowing the
cross-correlation of physical people and objects in the digital
world. In practical terms, you can glance at a person and see their
public social media profile, or glance at a bus stop and see bus
fares and routes.

Fork:
Computer command that copies a
process into two identical ones, clones.

Tor:
Onion router network, uses
encryption for secure data transfer.

Script Kiddies:
Derogatory term used
for wannabe hackers who use readily available exploit code instead
of writing their own.

Kill -9:
Linux command that
kills/ends a process.

Dev/null:
A Linux place for digital
oblivion.

404
: Website error code. Page not
found.

Maniai Case File 1:

The Girl And The Blood Slide

George Saoulidis

Chapter
1

“
They were
initially happy of course for their little girl’s interest in
biology. What parent wouldn’t be? It’s a perpetual cliche in Greek
households, everyone wants their kid to become a doctor or a
lawyer.

Well, they sure aren’t happy now.”

Excerpt from the
neighbour’s
interview

It was
my first day on the job. I was holding the official paper in my
hand, telling me to report to Mr. Epiktitos. No office number, no
floor number, nothing. There was a phone number but I was hesitant
to call, I should be able to manage finding my way around a
government building, should I not?

The
security guard at the front desk glanced at the paper summons and
gave me a visitor’s pass. You’d thing security measures would be a
bit more strict in such a dangerous place. I should have taken a
hint then, but I was starry-eyed enough not to notice.

So, I
was inside. The Hellenic Center for Disease Control &
Prevention.

It was
big. Not huge, but big. Seven stories of offices, people busily
tapping away at their keyboards or talking on the phone. I couldn’t
help but smile. This was an important place, doing important work.
From that day on, I was one of them. Educating people, preventing
outbreaks and containing biological and chemical dangers. There was
old marble everywhere, plaques of people’s names, unsung heroes
surely who had saved more lives than anyone could count.

It was
exciting.

Then a
guy with a small cart rammed into my side.

“
You are standing in the middle,” he said to me, raising his
jockey hat in an angle.

“
I’m sorry,” I said, even though I wasn’t normally the one who
should apologise.

The guy
was small and crouching over his cart, carrying papers and folders
to feed the bureaucracy monster. He was all bone and sinew, the
lack of fat making him indigestible. “You must be new, so I’m gonna
let that slide. You walk on the right side of the corridor,
always,” he told me, gesturing with his hands like a surreal
version of a flight attendant giving safety instructions. “Like a
car. You drive at the right, always. That way, when you are coming
back, you also stick to the right. The middle lane is for carts.
Are you a cart?”

“
N… no,” I replied.

“
Then don’t stand in the middle lane. It’s for carts. Now you
know. Bye,” he said, and pushed his cart against me until I stepped
away.

I needed
instructions but decided against calling back the little guy. I
looked around a bit, staying on the right lane, watching behind me
for incoming carts and read the signs over the doors. Ooh, they
made an Ebola Division! Of course, it was the latest threat. Would
I be on it? I mean, it was logical right? A new division needed
fresh people like me to staff it. It made sense to hire me for the
expanding offices. I turned my head to check left and right as if I
was crossing a busy road and walked in there.

The
feeling inside was amazing. It was buzzing with activity.
Professionals young and old were talking on the phones and
shuffling papers. The office was newly equipped and it showed, it
was a recent expansion inside the old building. Nearly a hundred
people were working there and I could make out bits and pieces of
the conversations.

“…
Dispatch the team to Rhodes airport…”

“…
Do not print anything that will alarm people…”

“…
budget approval? Thank you…”

“…
this is serious…”

“…
reports of Ebola…”

“…
with Ebola…”

“…
Ebola…”

Everyone
seemed to be doing something important, I couldn’t distract them so
I waited.

I stayed
in the corners and walked further inside. News crews had set up at
what seemed to be the Division Manager’s office, placing lights and
cameras, running cables everywhere. More prominent was a fat cable
running around the office and outside the window, straight to a
news van. They were setting up for a live statement from the
Division Manager regarding the Ebola threat, which was under
control of course and people had absolutely nothing to worry about.
Five cameras, each one for a different major TV channel and the
crew involved, made that part of the Division a place bubbling with
people.

I’m not
sure what I was thinking. The buzz of the place must have infected
me. I decided to go to the Division Manager and present myself. He
was standing next to his desk, his suit jacket open with a crew guy
putting a wireless microphone on him. He looked like a man who
could handle this chaos with ease. A girl was patting his cheeks
with makeup. I checked the time, it was still fifteen minutes till
the midday news. Around us people were at their posts, cameramen
holding gear and making adjustments, reporters frantically talking
with their channels, ready for the live link. His assistant was
over him discussing the key issues he should touch.

Amidst
all that, I decided to announce myself.

“
Hello Sir, I’m Polybios Nicomidis. I’m happy to begin work
immediately, just point me to my desk,” I said and stuck out my arm
holding the paper summons.

He
raised his eyes up to me and took the paper. His assistant gave him
his glasses and he read it. He began to utter well-rehearsed
formalities like “Glad to meet you Mr. Nicomidis, happy to have you
on our division,” but he cut them short and looked me again in the
eye.

“
This isn’t your office young man, you are to go to the Tramp
Division,” he told me and shoved the paper back in my
hand.

The
words didn’t quite register to me. I kept my smile
intact.

A blonde
reporter, always on the lookout for a story, popped up and asked,
“Excuse me, what is that exactly?”

“
It’s the Rabies Division, we call it the Tramp Division,” he
answered to her. “It’s nothing important.”

She lost
interest and laughed. Other people laughed too. I said
nothing.

“
Get out of here, son. Go to the sub-basement, you’ll find it
by the smell,” the manager said and shooed me away with his
hand.

Laughter
erupted around me. A crew member pulled me back and I almost
tripped over the cables. It was the most embarrassing thing ever.
“Move over kid, we have work to do.”

I put my
head down and got out of there in an instant.

I got to
the sub-basement and slapped myself for my idiocy. A cart came
running at me so I stepped aside to the right. The cart guy looked
small like the one before, but I wasn’t sure if he was the same one
under that hat.

I
decided to pull myself together and report to my new boss. I looked
around and found the office with the label “Rabies
Division.”

The sign
must have been there since before my birth. And slowly
deteriorating.

I went
inside, to be greeted by a nice secretary. “Hello there young man,
you must be the one we are waiting for. How exciting! I’m Irene,
I’m the secretary. You can call me Irene, not Miss, we are all
family here.”

I looked
around the office. Every piece of furniture was mismatched, as if
someone had went around every office in the government and picked a
single item. All of it was old. A few potted plants brightened the
place up a bit, surely Irene’s touch. The walls were filled with
old posters about rabies education, with slogans and dogs on them.
Some farm animals too. Half the designs predated computers. The
other half was even worse, using horrible fonts and bright green
letters. A 6-year old could do a better job today during one of his
essays. I said hello and looked back at Irene’s office.

Something bugged me. Something was off.

Then it
hit me.

Was that
a CRT monitor on her desk? A big, old, TV-like ancient
monitor?

I
inhaled. There was a smell, but nothing like what the manager
upstairs menacingly implied. It was clearly cigarette smell,
clearly against regulations.

A toilet
flushed and a dark girl came out smoking.

At first
I thought that she was hiding for a smoke in there, but then I
realised she was still taking puffs and making no effort to hide at
all.

“
Whassup,” she said and nodded towards me.

“
Hello there dear, meet Polybios, this lovely young man will
be working with us from now on,” Irene said.

“
Hello,” I said scratching my head.

“
Polybios, meet Zoe.”

“
Hello,” Zoe said but her demeanour was the exact opposite of
what her name implied. A few years ago she would have been an emo,
I think. These days, they called themselves dark veiled brides or
something.

“
Zoe, take Polybios to see Mr. Epiktitos.”

“
You take him, I’m busy,” Zoe said and threw herself on a cosy
sofa. We both just stared as she lit another cigarette.