Effort

Over a decade ago, a massive outbreak of computer viruses suddenly flooded the internet, infecting the near totality of the collective network and causing a mass shut down of internet services. A massive sweep was made to quarantine and remove a great amount of those viruses. The Viral Takeover was countered with the The Takeback Effort, taking a month to complete before the web was reopened for public use. Even with the majority of the viruses exterminated, many remained; either missed by the scan or hiding out in the darkest corners of the internet before trying to come back. As a countermeasure a new product was created, the Navigator. What was a simple protection oriented program developed into a personalized assistant as developments in artificial intelligence allowed for greater and easier customization.

"Looks good." Caroline nodded, "So what does everyone else have?"

"I got nothing." Chad shrugged, "I had practice all week."

"Practice?"

"Yeah."

"...How about you, Stanley?"

"I wrote the entire essay." Stanley shrugged as he procured a completed paper.

"Let me see." Caroline said as she snatched the paper out of his hands, "...This looks good. Let's just use yours."

"Oh. Okay."

"Nice job Stanley." Chad grinned as he smacked Stanley on the back, "Real life saver you are."

"Yeah...thanks." Stanley grimaced.

"Take it from me." Caroline smiled, "You really helped. More than Chad did anyway."

"Hey, I don't see your part of the essay!"

"I was gone over the weekend on vacation. I did not have any time to write up an essay."

"Yeah right, just have your Navigator do it for you."

"Rune was busy too! What about your Navigator, Chad?!"

"Zelda was busy helping me with my sports practice! I was actually doing something, unlike you!"

"For the last time Chad, Wiffleball is not a sport!"

"IT'S BASICALLY BASEBALL!"

Stanley watched as the argument began to intensify in the middle of the library. I got up and left.

"Are you sure you don't want your part of the essay back?" Enlil asked.

"I have the file saved." I sighed, "Not like it matters in the end."

"I see." Enlil turned as a message arrived in the Array, "You have a message from your brother."

"What is it?"

"It seems like your house is being attacked by viruses again."

"Again?" I sighed, "I'll be home in a few minutes. Tell them to do whatever they can in the meanwhile."

"Well your brother can probably hold the fort but your sister..."

"I know." I sighed, "Just let them know I'll be there soon."

"Hm."

"That seems pretty serious." Enlil remarked as our house came into view. The lights inside were wildly flickering on and off, "Hope nothing has been broken."

"We'll see." I sighed.

I walked up to the door and turned the knob.

"It's locked." I frowned.

"The home system isn't responding." Enlil reported, "What do we do?"

"C-Come on Miles, you can do it."

"Henry?" I called.

"Layard?!" My older brother called out in relief, "Thank god, the system has been acting up for hours!"

"It's only been half an hour since you messaged me." I frowned, "Any hazardous infections?"

"The oven was trying to overheat for a while so I've been trying to keep that in check."

"Okay." I said as I took up my Array, "Can you open the door?"

"I've been trying but it's pretty insane."

"Can you get an external connection to me?"

"Uh...yeah, hold on."

A cord poked itself out of the mail slot. Kneeling down, I connected it to my Array and sent Enlil into the system.

"Quite a bit of them." Enlil reported, "It'll take a good hour or two to clear all of them."

"Focus on opening the door for now."

"Got it."

"Ah, the oven's reacting again! Miles, can you do something?!"

"On it."

A few minutes later, the door clicked opened.

"Enlil, retreat."

"Roger." Enlil said as he returned to my Array.

"Thank god." Henry grinned as I finally walked into the house.

"It's not over yet." I said as I set my Array directly onto the home system, "It'll take a few minutes to completely be rid of them."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Just keep the hazards in control." I sighed as I tossed my bookbag onto the couch, "I'll do what I can from my PC."

"G-Gotcha."

In an hour or two, Enlil and I finally purged the viruses from the system.

"Good work." Enlil congratulated me as I leaned back on the chair, relieved.

"These viruses are harder getting harder and harder to handle." I sighed, "How are they propagating and evolving?"

"Investigations are still on-going."

"They've been on-going ever since the Takeover." I sighed, "I'll go pick up the Array."

"I'll return as well." Enlil nodded as he left my desktop.

Walking downstairs, I noticed my sister lying down on the couch.

"Finally got rid of them?" She asked without looking up from her Array.

"Yeah." I frowned, "Were you here the whole time?"

"Yeah. It was really hard to nap with all the lights flashing."

"You could have helped."

"Orea is not built for that kind of labor."

"She's a Navigator isn't she?"

"Like I said." She frowned at me, "She's not built to handle that kind of stuff."

"Whatever." I sighed as I picked up my Array, "Where's Henry?"

"Back to business. Won't be coming back for dinner."

"What should we do for dinner then?"

"I'm going out so you figure it out."

"...Thanks."

"Jules was in rare form today." Enlil chuckled as I returned to my room.

"She's always like that." I said as I set my Array on top of my desk, "What needs to be done today?"

"You still haven't finished the paper for English class. You also have some math and history homework to finish. And you still haven't finished your entry for the programming class."

"Spectacular." I sighed as I sat down in front of my PC, "Pull them up then..."

"Hey."

I looked up as Henry poked his head into my room, "How you doing?"

"Fine." I blinked, "I thought you were going to be gone for the night."

"Had to come back for some documents." Henry grinned as he held up some takeout, "You have dinner yet?"

"Where's Jules?"

"Went out."

"Friends?"

"Probably."

"Shame. I picked up some macaroons she might like."

"She'll be back soon enough." I shrugged.

The two of us ate together in my room for a while.

"Nice work today." Henry added, "I'm just no good with that kind of stuff."

"Don't tell that to your employees." I smirked.

"Ah, they already know." Henry chucked, "It's no secret I don't have the talent that dad does. That all went to you."

"I'm not that talented at software development." I frowned, "I'm just good at coding. I can put blocks together but I'm not good at making a building."

"You'll be fine." Henry smiled, "You have something to build off of. That's something to be proud of."

"Hmm..."

"The one I'm more worried about Jules." Henry sighed, "So is dad but...he doesn't really care so long as the company is fine."

"Well she's pretty safe then." I smirked, "Dad's been shaping you up to take over the company since the day you were born and I'm second in line."

"True." Henry chuckled, "I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad that she's so...independent."

"Independence is one thing. Competency is another."

"Harsh. But Jules' scores in school has been pretty average so she should be fine."

"If you think so."

"I hope so."

…

"How are you holding up?" I asked.

"I'm fine." Henry smiled tiredly, "Dad's well aware that I'm not exactly cut out for the business. I wouldn't be surprised if he approached you soon."

"Well that would be new." I scoffed.

"...Do you want to take over the company?"

"Becoming the head of Akadia, one of the world's foremost developers in Arrays and Navigators?" I smirked, "Sounds like a good deal but I'm no good at the business side of things. At best I can be a programmer."

"Reasonable." Henry chuckled, "But is that what you want?"

"...I don't really know what I want." I admitted.

"...Look." Henry said, putting down his food for a moment to look directly at me, "If you don't want to have any part of Akadia, that's fine. Find something else. Something that you'll want to do. I'll take care of the family business."

"...I got it. But let me help out once in a while."

"Of course." Henry laughed, "I'd be in trouble if I didn't. Let's just make sure you get through school first."

I pushed myself back on my chair as the clock ticked it's way to midnight.

"Perhaps you should go to sleep." Enlil suggested, "Tomorrow is Sunday, you can continue your work tomorrow."

"I don't think that this is going to work." I sighed, "The file size is getting too big. I have to parse this down to 15 terabytes..."

"I'm sure they aren't expecting anything that complex. They probably have a few basic tests prepared for the entrants."

"What kind of basic test doesn't even give you the questions before you hand in your answer?" I scowled, "If this AI doesn't pass then I'm going to have to wait another year before I can try to apply for the programming class. That's even assuming it comes back after this first run."

"You're just bring paranoid." Enlil chuckled. "You made me didn't you?"

"Mostly." I frowned, "I tweaked some basic modules and designed the model but the parts were based off of existing work."

"Well...you can always ask someone from Akadia for help."

"If I need help getting this far, I won't be able to keep up if I do get accepted."

"What's the difference between asking someone for help and reading a textbook?"

"...Internalization I suppose." I bit my lip, "Imagine if you received a data set that you could not sort on your own so you connect to a larger server and use their capabilities to finish your work."

"I see." Enlil nodded, "Well, this is the home where Akadia began. Maybe there are some documents regarding AI construction lying around."

"Resorting to other people's work." I sighed, "Well I suppose it's better than resorting to other people."

"If you want to search around, we should do it in the morning."

"And so everything loops back around to going to sleep huh?"