Continuum

"It is a WinTel world!" Stevo faced the manager across the table. He was thinking to himself, "Why is it that the boss always gets the biggest computer, but does the least amount of work on it for his company? I wonder if he even knows how to use it?"

The short balding man behind the desk handed Stevo back his holobadge.

"So you want to take our old, useless computers and upgrade them for us?"

"Yep, that's about it." Stevo was not about to commit to further conversation with his type. That always led to controversy, and that always led to the door!

"Well, we got one. It's an old one in the back. It's Capitol equipment so we can't just toss it. My boss is always asking about it. You can fix it?"

Stevo stroked his graying beard and stood up, "Show me."

At that moment the manager decided to give in to Stevo's request.

"Why not?" He laughed. "Its late in the day and everyone is gone. What's to lose?"

They walked through the large empty office past tidy desks, each with identical featureless flat gray monitors and keyboards. They all had the same silent screen saver running. These computers were the latest and greatest from the Microsoft/IBM/Intel Cartel. Of course they all ran the latest and greatest Windows 2020. (But not that much different from all earlier versions.)

WinTel made the only computer in the world. They all ran in gigahertz, with Terabit solid drives, and were connected to the rest of the computers on the World Wide Hub with fiber-optics. The software was all WinTel. There wasn't any other kind, nor could there ever be again. There had been a final world-wide Standardization. And it was good for everyone.

Think of it! Everything in our lives ran on those computing machines, all over the planet. Everything about us was checked and tracked and counted on them, and our movements were increasingly and incessantly regulated by them to the finest detail!

Yet, advanced as they were they still crashed, and sometimes with horrible results. No matter how many improvements were being made, they were still found to be wide open to hackers, viruses, and worse. Nobody was really comfortable with the WinTel boxes, but no one could say exactly why. Besides, they were all the only computers in the world. Right?

The manager walked gingerly, as if afraid to somehow gain their attention. "They're almost alive, aren't they?" he whispered. He was not so much in awe as in a subtle unnamed fear.

Stevo said nothing.

Soon they stood at a back room that was plainly used for storage. Through the open door Stevo saw a forlorn Macintosh, an old G7 or G8. His heart skipped a beat! It was an old all-in-one unit consisting of a large flat monitor and keyboard. It was also wearing a very unfashionable silver and argent translucent case.

"You think you can really make this into a WinTel box?" The manager quizzed.

"I always do. You already scanned my ID and read my work history."

"I don't think you can do anything with this one. Its been dead for months and there are no more parts. Its not even a real PC! Why, no one has even run it for years."

"Trust me. The new Windows software can run on this old PC just fine."

The manager shrugged and hurriedly went back to the safety and anonymity of his office.

"What a lowly job that guy Stevo has. Better to be a janitor!" he thought to himself.

° ° °

Stevo closed the door to the storeroom and set the Mac on a cart. He plugged it in and turned it on, and then sat down on a box in front of it.

Nothing happened.

"Hard drive is fried, I'll bet."

Stevo stood and laid his hands lightly on the top of the monitor, and bowed his head.

Unseen and unfelt, micro implants in the back of his hands were connected by an very narrow and unfamiliar radio frequency to a very sophisticated host computer somewhere inside a distant mountain.

Signals were sent deep into the dead Mac from those implants unfelt in his hands.

For a long time nothing happened. Stevo remained motionless.

Maybe he was praying after all.

Suddenly the screen took on an odd light, like a dim brown or gray color.

There was on it a bright flash of light. Then nothing.

Stevo took up the cordless mouse and held it to his face.

"Computer? Hello computer!"

Tentatively, almost shyly, a small voice answered, "I am aware!"

Stevo quickly put down the mouse and gave a familiar keyboard command to the now awake computer.

"Go to silent mode!"

Immediately a friendly WinTel start-up picture came on the now bright green screen, and the computer made all the familiar sounds of a WinTel box starting its bootup routine.

Stevo sat down and leaned back, crossing his arms. His eyes were closed.

Unseen and unheard by anyone, Stevo and the now resurrected old Macintosh were holding a very busy conversation!

"I was a broken, old, and cast off computer. I was dormant for years. I had no awareness. Now I do! How were you able to accomplish this?"