if/else/default

[Asher]

I stepped into the basement and shook myself awake. It was early in the morning but today was the start of something great. At least if my engineers were to be trusted. We had recently set out on planning the development of a new turret system. Nothing overly complex but if it was a success we could very well be looking at a more steady cashflow than the one we’ve got going right now and I had to admit that paying out of my own pocket was starting to become a bit of an annoying habit lately.

I took one step into their den of sweat and energy drinks only to find myself immediately reminded of why I rarely came to visit my code monkeys. Coat hanging from my arm I look for the team lead but he is nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Huin?” A tapped my foot on the ground and looked at the others.

“Restroom, he be out shortly, sirs.” A chiss promptly responded.

Welcome to the world of the Basement Geeks™. Punctuality isn’t a thing here.

 

[Asher]

The tapping of my foot continued and mixed with my arm reaching up to check the time. Soon enough a tall and lanky man with an unkempt ponytail approached me. Maybe I should have spent more time with the geeks and taken them shopping or at least running them through the basics of what fashion and style is. I skipped on the idea and let the monkeys remain who they were. For all I knew the magic in their fingers could be a result of all the skin disorders they probably carried around all day.

“Good to see you, boss.”

“Yeah, yeah. You called me over, Huing?”

“Yeah, for sure. We just got done testing the new turret systems the other day.”

The man had my piqued my curiosity. For a bunch of twenty-somethings and middle-aged men they worked pretty damn fast and all it took was around six months of work. I guess I should have been more respectful of their work but I didn’t want to lose that one hint of professionalism I had worked so hard to achieve and maintain.

Huing led me down a narrow corridor and into a separate room. There were three dummies, two red ones and a blue one.

“I’m about to show you the Client-Server Turret Manager, or ‘The Tortoise’ as the guys call it.”

I raised my eyebrows at ‘The Tortoise’. What kind of name was that?

“We’ve worked real hard on it and we’ve finally reached a point where we feel like it’s ready for release. This here is version one-point-twenty one.” The turrets were turned on and immediately began firing upon the two red dummies. “So the way it works is that we’ve fitted each turret with a client of sorts that connect to this here hub for IFF protocols.”

“Layman terms, please.”

The drone groaned. “What I’m saying is that this here server has just become the key to everything the turret does, boss.”

“Thank you.”

I took a moment to look upon the turret as it fired away. This was great for a product in the making for a mere six months.

 

[Asher]

“So if it all runs by the server what does that mean for a turret? Sounds kinda dangerous to me.”

“Ah don’t worry, boss.” Huing shrugged, much to my displeasure. “As long as the cables are connected to the turret you have nothing to fear.”

“As long as the cables are connected?” That didn’t sound good.

“Yeah, boss. We uh, tried making it wireless but none of our computers could really handle the data flow too well.” The code monkey scratched his neck, I didn’t like this. “So uh, just make sure the turret ain’t set to fire when if they’re cut.”

“Why not?” My eyebrows furrowed. This didn’t seem very good at all.

“Well, without proper access to the IFF protocols the turrets can go kinda… Haywire.”

The geek sat down by the console safely protected by a blaster-proof panel. His hand reached down for the cables and I took a step further behind the safety of the panel in front of us. A hiss erupted from the turret as it entered a frenzied mode. No longer was just the red ones being hit but the blue ones as well.

“What happened?” The question forced itself out of my system.

“It can no longer access the server, it’s running solely by the latest order issued.”

“What’s that?” I couldn’t help being a bit worried at that.

“Kill’em all.”

I remained hunched behind the nerd with the ponytail as I looked at the turret fire away. Oh this was not good.

 

[Asher]

“But why is it firing so rapidly?” It was a question that had to be asked.

“Because the server is not providing the order to shoot anymore. It’s acting autonomously.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Well, if it’s in standby mode at the moment of severance you’d be looking at a turret that didn’t do anything at all instead.”

My eyes set on the turret again as Huing plugged the cables back into the server. So it’s got it’s drawbacks, but those things were stuff you could overcome with the right tools.

 

[Asher]

“We set out to make this impenetrable by slicers.” I swallowed the tastet of potential profits lost. “What’s up with this? Does this do that?”

“Oh most def, boss. The reason it fires so slowly is because we got each client here running it’s orders by the server at intervals of five seconds to ensure it’s living up to it’s task. It cuts down a bit on the fire rate but I’d say that it’s an acceptable trade-off, right?”

Acceptable trade-off or no, this felt like a potential catastrophe in the making. Should we release this product it was just a matter of time before lawyerisms would start playing into our as-of-now small venture. Then again, perhaps said lack of size was all the more of a reason not to worry about the quality as much as the quantity at this point.

“Yeah, I can see your point.” Even though I really wish I didn’t have to.

 

[Asher]

“So what’s the limit to these things? How many turrets can this thing run?” I withdrew my canteen and took a sip of the strong stuff to numb the worries that had surfaced.

The geek eyeballed me with displeasure as I took a steady sip. “We’re looking at a limit of about six turrets right now before the fire rate of each client decreases somewhat due to network lag.”

“Uh huh. And what does that mean for the client?” Client-first. A healthy business method.

Much to further my displeasure there was another shrug involved in the code monkey’s first few words as he spoke up again. “It means that if they want more than six turrets they’d be better off getting themselves more than just the one console. They don’t have to, but if they want it to run at max efficiency they got to. On the bright side that could mean a lot more money coming our way.”

“Or displeased customers.” I finished him off.

“... Right, sorry boss.” His head tilted in shame.

Lucky him I was in a good mood, despite the circumstances. “Not your fault, Huing.”

 

[Asher]

“How do you plan on making this available to the customer, boss?”

The question caught me off-guard. “What?”

“How will the customer get a hold of this? It’s not exactly an easy installation.”

My hand found itself firmly placed upon my chin. I had not considered that step at all. I squinted as the the many ways to go about this. If we provided the installation ourselves it’d mean I’d have to hire a team for that, or several. I could let the customer do it but at the same time that team could bring back a lot more than what I have to spend on them.

“I will do this by the same principle. Either the client can install it themselves or we can hire a team to do it for them.” I ran the idea by my now-favorite geek.

The geek went through the same process of placing his hand on his cheek to think before getting back to me. “I like it.”

“It is settled then.” I nodded as an indication for us to drop the subject.

 

[Asher]

So we had gotten the very basic prototype ready for the market. I could have been more nitpicky about the quality of it but at this point I just really saw the credits in it. Perhaps it was the first sign of a bad businessman but when you really needed them credits there was no stopping the greedtrain.

“We’ll mobilize it in a month. Good job, H.” It was literally all I could get out of me.

The geek took it with a smile, of course. “Ain’t nothing, boss.”

 

[Asher]

He led me out of the room and back to the others. The smell made itself felt again and I swore to myself that if this would take off the first thing I’d do was either get them a new office or at least an air conditioner for this hell hole. There was no way we would be able to sustain a healthy work environment in here.

“I just saw the prototype.” They all looked at me excitedly. “We launch in a month.”

A round of high-fives went around the room before eventually reaching me. For a second I stared at the man before tossing the coat over my shoulder. I wouldn’t gain anything by claiming superiority over these men, at least not right now.

“You got that right, guys. Now go rest or something, you made yourself worthy of a long nap or two.” And preferably a shower as well. “I will see you in a month then.”

A step for the door had my lungs in panic. They wanted fresh air and they wanted it now.

 

[Asher]

The fresh air whipped into my face and with a deep gasp I inhaled as much of it as I could. Up the staircase and off into the sunset I went as my mind raced over the list of details I had been given. A nice couple of ups and downs.

Actually, the downs most likely outweighed the ups but for a first version of a hardware and software such as this I was fairly certain I was sitting on something big. Not that it was big at this very moment but the possibilities was certainly there for a turret that nobody but you could count on. Well, your enemies could count on being shot by it, if that still counted for anything.

Here was just hoping people would buy the damn thing. Then again, I was met with the second biggest problem of the day. Pricing.

“Oh crap.” Couldn’t help letting other words escape me. “Pricing.”

I would have to think of something. Then again, I had a whole month to do as such. Yeah, procrastinating wasn’t my style but just this once I was willing to do so. At least until I found a dry cleaner to rid of all this sweat smell that had embedded itself in my clothing. Ew.

[ENDDEV]