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“What will we do?” I whispered. “By the time Just then, an alarm blared through the Doom “The regular code’s too hard to remember—”
the technicians get here, the entire simulation Room. Sam's voice barked orders: “Specimen
will...” I slumped to my knees. “It's all my “How the fuck is that even an excuse? Oh,
24's brain activity is o the charts! Get the
fault. It's all my fault. It's all my—” and mind you explaining how they got in?
neuroscience team in here!” Then, in the next
You give us shit for keying in authorized
breath: "Yolanda!"
“Dr. Clement!.” Spencer turned to me with personnel and meanwhile you’re allowed to
ery eyes. “The fault lies with me. But right Timidly, I peeked over the railing. Sam was bring in your little friends?”
now, that is of no import. I have a plan.” looking up at me with a pleading expression.
The head technician went on and on as Sam
While techs ran back and forth on the main
Sam slammed the console, sending a shiver shifted her eyes uncomfortably and Spencer
platform, she was standing still, utterly
down my spine. “Fuck!” After a tense wore a sheepish grin. I, on the other hand,
helpless. For the rst time in a while, the
moment, she turned around. “Okay, Spencer. was too dazed to care anymore.
director of the Social Simulation Institute
Have it your way. I just hope you know that if
looked just like the lost child she was. That was enough heroism for one lifetime, I
you mess this up, no money in the world can
ever replace the damage to humanity.” decided. Sadly, it was over too soon.
“Don't worry!" We've got it under control!” I
turned back to Spencer. Please, my teary eyes — Hero’s Welcome
Spencer smiled wide. “On the contrary: no
begged. He grimaced and looked away.
money in the world will ever su ce in return
for my heroic service to humanity.” He “Specimen 24 is likely having a seizure due to On Monday morning, I received an email that
grabbed my wrist, causing me to yelp. “Time hyperoxia. The oxygen concentration is still made my blood run cold. I ran through the
is of the essence. We must make haste!” too high. All we can do for now is let it fall halls as fast as my high heels would allow me.
back to normal.” He pulled apart the spliced When I burst through the door of Sam’s
— Onward
wires, and the backup life support whirred to o ce, I was gasping for air in between my
a halt. “The only problem is knowing when words: “Update... memo... urgent... matter?”
Having Spencer pulling me along made it to turn it back on. As we saw before, the main
somewhat easier to forget we were four stories oxygen sensor has sensitivity issues. When it The director of the Social Simulation
up from the main platform. Don't look down. shows the correct concentration, we might Institute looked up from her computer and
Don't look down. Though we only had to walk already be way under the right value.” pointed at a co ee stain on the ground. As I
twenty meters or so, I clung to the railing for recalled its cause (see Log # 2), Sam produced a
Just then, something hit me. “We can sponge and bucket from under her desk.
dear life. Even with my high heels o , every
approximate it ourselves! We have the
step felt like it could be my last. But we safely
information we need to bash it.” “Looks like both I and the custodial sta
reached the large box holding the backup life
forgot all about this. Get cleaning.”
support. From inside came a quiet whirring. Spencer raised his eyebrows. “By ‘we’, do you
mean you are able to pull o that sort of — Return to Normalcy
“Dr. Clement. Do you know the code?”
computational feat?”
“—Ah, yes.” I stepped in front of the keypad
I smiled. “If you help with all the biology and
and clumsily tapped on the buttons. Twenty
chemistry. Let’s hope you’ve studied up.”
digits later, the lock clicked and Spencer
swung the door open. He whistled. The next ve minutes were spent listing o
the data we had on hand: the time of the false
“Have you ever tried memorizing pi?”
alarm and of the main oxygen supply ejection,
“Just the rst ve thousand digits or so. More the rate of change in the oxygen
than I’ll ever need.” I peeked inside the life concentration according to the console, the
support system. “You're on your own for this rate of O₂ consumption for twenty-four
part. Are you absolutely sure about this?” brains, and the stable target concentration we
need. With this, Spencer guided me through
“It is quite a simple problem, Dr. Clement. If the process of crunching all the numbers to
the oxygen sensor for the backup system is estimate the time we needed to wait. Finally,
broken, then removing it would have it up after another ten minutes, I exclaimed:
and running.” He pointed to two wires deep
inside the box. “This one runs from here to “A bit under twenty-three minutes after the
the control unit, and this one runs from there main oxygen got cut o !”
and back. Right now, the sensor system is no
“And right now it’s been a bit over twenty
better than a broken switch. Our solution?
minutes since then,” said Spencer while “You wanted a full illustration? No can do, broski.
Splice these wires directly and have the
checking his wristwatch. “When the time No budget, no space. Go ahead, report me.”
current always turned on. Lucky for us, the