The Stream Read online

  'That makes sense; so what areas did you identify that turned out to be useful?' Geraldine asked.

  'Firstly, nearly every death had one thing in common - all the casualties were Shallow, scoring one to three on the Edelman scale. You're aware of the Edelman scale?' I replied.

  'Yes, fully. I'm a three and proud of it,' she said.

  'Me too,' I said. 'So that was an interesting start, perhaps not too surprising. Whatever causes HOME could be linked to the reasons why some people can't immerse as deeply as others. So I looked into the research that had been done on the neurological causes of different levels of immersion, but I couldn't find anything that substantial. It seems to be largely unknown, and it's another area for which research grants are typically hard to get these days.'

  'I tried filtering on geographical location, ethnic background, even family names, but found no correlation. There's no sign of any hereditary element either, nor anything on the gender scale. There is an age based pattern, almost a normal distribution centred around the 40-50 age range, with nothing much at all below around 20 which is interesting but it's unclear what it means. I then tried filtering on interests, professions and similar, which is where I started seeing a pattern, and a scary one.'

  'For most things there's no match, but here and there are hot spots in professions and interests, and I don't know what to make of it. After talking to Doctor Sosa at the DJ Institute during my research, and thinking of Greg Edelman, I started off looking at neurologists. I found a definite higher rate here, about ten times what I'd expect. I expanded my search to other scientific and technological fields, and found other spikes. Chemistry and other areas of biology didn't seem to be affected, but physics was, as was astronomy and exploratory colonisation. So were computer related fields; such as AI research, Stream programming and even Stream maintenance. The level of the anomaly varied, but all were outside the realms of statistical probability, especially occurring in such well-defined areas.'

  I paused for breath, while deciding how to continue. This was all information I'd only uncovered late yesterday, so hadn't quite pieced together in my mind how best to present it. Just be honest Kofi, Geraldine knows what you're like. Despite her power and responsibility, it's easy to drop back into the habit of chatting to her like we're teenagers still. We just happen to be talking about people being killed instead of our favourite bands.

  'Weird I thought, so I tried other professions and working groups. I drew a blank just about everywhere, or at least the spikes weren't significant enough not to be false positives. I can't say it's been an exhaustive search, but I was as thorough as I could be in the time available. There were two other notable exceptions though. Firstly, public servants working closely for the Decemvirate. Secondly, and most bizarrely, historians. Should I be worried, as a historian working for the Decemvirate?'

  Geraldine had been looking at me expressionless while I'd been talking. After I finished, she sat in contemplative silence for a while. She was so intense, I could almost hear her thinking; but finally she spoke.

  'Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.'

  'That's one way of putting it,' I replied calmly.

  'Great work Kofi, I knew you'd do a good job. That's even more worrying than I was expecting though. Could you send me the full data later please so I can look over it in detail? I don't doubt what you found, I just want to see if it stimulates any ideas when I read it. My initial reaction is that there's two main possibilities here. Firstly that there's something about the type of people that are attracted to these professions that make them susceptible to HOME. Secondly, these people are being deliberately targeted, and HOME isn't a natural event. The second one sounds like a typical paranoid conspiracy theory, but at the moment I don't see how we can reject it as a possibility without further evidence. It doesn't seem as if there's much real research into HOME these days on which we could base any rejection. However if it was a targeted event, then why these people? What's special about them? It's hard to see how they could be linked. Any thoughts?'

  'There is one thing that links a couple of the areas,' I said. 'Historical and neurological research are two fields that are out of fashion these days - and there's the policy that seems to exist that makes it hard to get research grants. However that's not true of all the other areas with a higher death rate. So what's different about those? It's almost as if there's something being, well, suppressed. Wow, I sound more paranoid than you!'

  Geraldine said, 'It's frustrating that the neurological data we'd need to find some more natural link between these fields is missing. In my position I could order these studies to happen, but I think we need to dig a bit further ourselves first. If there is something more sinister happening, then I'd rather not highlight our suspicions yet.

  ‘OK, although I’d like to get Mauro Sosa to do a bit of research for us; he’s interested in seeing whether there’s any link between HOME deaths and Tap configuration failures. It would be a start in filling in the gaps in the missing neurological research,’ I suggested.

  ‘I’m open to that, but I’d rather not do so straight away. I want to understand a bit more about the bigger picture before I decide which avenue to attack. Did you manage to find any stronger link between the HOME deaths and the unexplained Flood deaths?'

  'Unfortunately not so far,’ I replied. I’ll break the news gently to Mauro. ‘The level of metadata available for those deaths is minimal, it’s a very slow process to track down information on each person.'

  'OK,' said Geraldine, 'Let's make that the focus of your next report, but it might be worth taking a different approach. Go back to first principles and do me a report on Flood Day. We all know the basics of what happened on that day, but go back and pretend I don't know. Look in the restricted records - there may be details neither of us know about that could paint a more textured picture. See what you can come up with. Make sense?'

  I agreed, and with the usual pleasantries we decided to adjourn until we had more data. I decided to take the afternoon off to gather my thoughts on how to approach this, and start afresh tomorrow on the Flood report. I had no idea what I expected or even wanted to find.

  Well it seemed a good idea, taking the afternoon off to try to relax a bit while musing on how best to approach the Flood report. It was hard to relax though; I was so excited, if scared, by what we were finding. I was also very intrigued by Geraldine's suggestion to do a report on the Flood as if I was writing it for someone who didn't know what happened. She obviously has more detailed suspicions than she's letting on, and is hoping that going back to first principles with information from the full records might uncover something even more interesting.

  As it'll be hard to track down the professions of the unexplained deaths, I'll try it the other way round. I'll look up the names of the top hundred or more professionals in each targeted field from the pre-Flood records and add two or three other professions as control groups. I'll then see what happened to those people on Flood Day and see how many unexplained deaths emerge. Obviously there won't be anything in the exploratory colonisation department back then, due to the minor fact that it didn't exist, but the rest could be interesting.

  I guess a good starting point for general research is to consider what the Stream was before Flood Day itself, and work forward from there. The Stream was already ubiquitous before the Flood, but was a much less rich environment, and accessed via mechanical devices rather than via direct mental control. However that's something to think about tomorrow.

  Now though, it's time to relax with my current favourite VR drama. Time to go back to The Confluvium again, it's just about up to the point where we meet our first alien race, the Proximates.

  Looking ahead, I'm intrigued to see that it finishes with episodes based on the Safirans, so will be unfinished business. Interesting that they're dramatising the race considered to be the biggest threat the Confluvium has faced in its history, and also the most mysterious. So little is known about them that there must be a lo
t of speculation involved. Best of all though, Geraldine will be a character in it! I can't wait to discuss the portrayal with her. She's played in the style of Judi Dench apparently; I can't say I know the actor, I must look her up. As before, I'll only log further tonight if I have anything interesting to say after the episode, and I'm still awake enough.

  Reminder to self: get my VR Tap infrastructure checked, and don't forget this time. I could have sworn one of the Proximates winked at me. My life seems to be full of weird glitches at the moment.

  Pool: Kofi Albus - 29th Quintilis 227PD

  I decided to take the shuttle into the office today as there was an unusually grey and threatening sky outside. So I could crack on quickly with the research into the early history of the Stream, I took my breakfast mandazi with me to enjoy with copious caffeine when I got into the office. I'd need to go to the Source Bank later to safely access some of the restricted records, but most of what I wanted to find out about was a matter of public record. I'm sure I knew most of it at one point, but my memory needs refreshing now and then. Easier to dig it up from the depths of the Stream than from my brain, even if it does seem a bit recursive looking up the Stream in the Stream.

  So I was quickly settled at my desk, munching on my doughnut and catching up with the overnight news, slowly getting my brain in gear to attack the day's research. I jumped when I heard a voice beside me.

  'Good morning Kofi,' said the voice, which I recognised as belonging to Damon Gates. 'Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Didn't notice you were immersed.'

  'No problem,' I said, focusing back on reality rather than the news feed. 'I'm just getting myself ready for the day ahead. I need a couple of cups of coffee before I'm functional in the morning.'

  'I'm in early too today, I was going to walk in until I saw the weather,' said Damon. 'Oh well, at least I get a bit more overlap with Gulzari's time zone this way. I may as well give him a call soon if he's free. No Geraldine in the office today I believe, so I just need to update him on how things are going here. I'm surprised you're not working from home as she's not in.'

  'Oh I just fancied a change of scene,' I said, carefully avoiding the truth. 'It can get pretty boring stuck at home day after day. Sometimes I stay at home, sometimes I drag myself in. Depends on my mood and what I'm working on.'

  'What exactly do you do for her, I've never quite been sure?' he asked.

  'Oh, I just do general project background research, nothing interesting. She finds my historical perspective on current events useful at times. I was an historian before this. I used to know Geraldine many years ago, so something I did must have stuck in her mind,' I replied, largely accurately.

  'How long ago did you know her?' he asked. 'Before her space career?'

  'Yes, I knew her when we were children, you could say we grew up together,' I replied. That's all the detail you're getting on that, it was an important and private time for both of us.

  'So have you stayed friends with her ever since?' he asked, getting nosier than I'd like. I guess he's just being friendly.

  'No, unfortunately we lost touch when we went off to different universities. I regret that,' I said, truthfully. That was more my fault than hers too, it seemed easier at the time. 'The next time I came across her name was when I saw the coverage of the test flight of the new Kenyatta class exploratory vessels, she was a chief officer on it.'

  'Ah yes, I remember that. She was made Captain of one of the fleet after the success of it I think?' he said.

  'Yes, that's right, she was the Captain of the Zheng He for a few years, off to discover new worlds for us to colonise. I used to proudly name drop her at Uni parties, but all I ever got back were blank unimpressed stares,' I said.

  Damon smiled thoughtfully. 'I bet that all changed when she was sent on the mission to try to make contact with the "ghosts"?'

  'Definitely,' I said. 'Only the driest of the Dry could have avoided her name after she encountered the Safirans, and their threat became known. The news spread like wildfire, and no one was surprised that she was appointed Decemvir to replace Marcus Nguyen after he died.'

  'Yes, it was so sad about Marcus, but good to have such an obvious replacement waiting in the wings,' Damon said. 'Geraldine seemed a perfect fit - she's a naturally charismatic leader, used to making life and death decisions, knowledgeable about all the worlds of the Confluvium and has more intimate knowledge of the Safirans than anyone else. The Elector couldn't have made a better choice.'

  'I agree, although I might be biased,' I said. 'Of course, most importantly of all, she had never sought any political position. She had the right personality not to abuse the power she was about to gain.'

  'Yes, absolutely. So what are you working on for her at the moment?' he asked. I'm sure he's just trying to be chatty and friendly, but right now it's just bloody annoying. I guess I should base my answer partly on the truth, so it matches what I'll be looking at today.

  'Geraldine realised she didn't know the full history of the Stream, particularly in the years before the Flood. We're all pretty familiar with what happened after the Flood, but less so about the Stream that existed before it. I know some of the details, but I need to refresh myself on a lot of the details. I know the Stream arose as a natural evolution of the old Internet, and that Raj Tamboli's company Tethys was involved. After that things are a bit hazier, so that's where I'll be starting today.'

  'That's interesting,' he said. 'Maybe I can help a bit. Oddly enough I did a similar piece of background research for Gulzari before I became his Lictor. Let me see what I can remember.'

  'Anything you can remember would certainly speed me along, thanks. I really appreciate it,' I said. Best way to cover up what you're doing sometimes is leave it in the open for all to see.

  Damon continued 'Well although the Stream was not started by Raj's Tethys, it was eventually largely driven by it. Raj was quite a visionary. Despite what happened, I've always had a huge admiration for him. He clearly always had a long-term vision for the Stream and how it could change the world, although that wasn't revealed until it was too late. That was probably a good thing, given the state of the world at that time. I guess though that after the chaos of Flood Day, it was only good if you survived those early years.'

  'True,' I said. 'Raj was a complex character. I know by the end, his fortune was immense, but he did routinely feed much of it back into "blue sky" research and charitable work. It was probably difficult to fight his power and growth when he seemed to be working so hard to better the world, despite the fact that it was falling apart in so many places. So what exactly was the Stream back in those days?'

  'Ah well, it was much cruder. As you say, it grew organically out of the old Internet, but with increased democratisation of access to it. There was no differentiation of access based on location, although there did emerge an increasing gap in the experience between the rich and poor. It's that gap that Raj strived to close.'

  'Rather like today, the Stream was accessible via wireless, ultra-high speed connections globally - there was no difference in performance if you were in a poor, rich or fading society, you got the same level of access. Central Africa, China, USA, wherever; you could get the same experience no matter where you were, all served up by a huge network of satellites, high altitude balloons and solar powered drones. Connections were modelled on neural networks, which automatically adapted and reconfigured to meet demand and new requirements. It was a highly reliable, mesh based architecture made possible by advancements in AI, wireless and ultra-low cost storage technologies.'

  'Sorry, as you can tell I'm largely quoting from my report to Gulzari. Hold on, I'll send you a copy of the report so you can refer to it later.'

  Damon blinked, and I accepted the message. I said 'Thanks, I'll look at it in detail later. Always nicer hearing it from the horse's mouth though. Presumably the use of our style Taps wasn't common before Flood Day though?'

  Damon replied, 'No, Stream access initially was very bas
ic, based on older computing technologies such as tablet rolls and glasses. However the full potential of the Stream started to be seen with improvements in manufacturing technologies, again driven by a Tethys tributary company, which allowed disposable, low cost wearable access technology to be produced. That was the first unambiguous indication that Raj clearly had a vision that went beyond profit, when Tethys made the basic model of these available for free.'

  'Yes,' I said. 'I remember reading that the full general access to the Stream was what drove the explosion of technological growth in the emerging regions of the world, leading to the modern power houses in Africa and the Indian subcontinent.'

  'Correct,' said Damon. 'However this caused the established powers to try to find a way to regain an advantage. It was the development of neuro-biomechanical implants in the secular enclaves of Europe lead to the first rudimentary Taps. We wouldn't call such crude devices Taps today, but they were revolutionary. With highly expensive brain implants, the Stream could be queried and the results seen via direct stimulation of the visual cortex. Initially queries were sent via sub-vocal commands, but quickly direct brain control emerged. Prices dropped as the technology was perfected and made safe, but it always remained an exclusive option available only to the wealthy. That's something Raj was determined to fix.'

  'So it was a bit of an arms race between improving access methods, and Tethys trying to make it available cheaply to all?' I asked.

  'To some extent, although Tethys were secretly also developing new and better access, but didn't want to release it until it could be made widely available. For example, stimulation of other areas of the brain lead to the creation of fully immersive virtual environments for the first time, with an experience not dissimilar to the current Taps. This was still a complex and costly process though, so Tethys didn't release this publicly. Raj Tamboli was one of the earliest adopters internally of course. Having experienced it himself, making similar features available to all was what initially drove Raj into taking the steps that lead us to the Flood and the modern Tap.'