Search Terms: Alpha (7 page)

*****

December 1, 2014

I had every right to be scared. Kassandra already scared the hell out of me when things were going just fine. I truly thought she was going to take a swing at me when we met up after my Ethics class. She didn’t say a word until we were almost off campus, then spun in fury and laid into me. By the time she was spent, she was shaking, crying, and cursing. Each enunciated word from her mouth made me shrink another inch, until there was only a single molecule of me left to stare at her as she bawled.

I spent the two hours I had before my Western Civ II class trying to apologize. I spent the hour after my Western Civ II class but before my Cultural Geography class apologizing more. I tried to explain to her that I’d been so amped up over my new computer that I’d lost time, but that seemed to only make things worse, so I abandoned that tactic, even though it was the truth. I promised her at least twenty times that I’d pick her up after her evening class and take her to dinner, anywhere she wanted to go that didn’t serve leftover turkey. That finally got a faint shadow of a smile out of her, and I finally stopped feeling like the biggest asshole in the world.

I watched her walk away, heading to her next class, and wondered exactly how stupid I was. The swing of her hips mesmerized me, and I felt shame all over again that I’d spent a weekend playing video games instead of endearing myself to her to the point she couldn’t imagine life without me. I knew that it wouldn’t happen after a single weekend, but I could have spent the time furthering the cause. Now I’d have to start in the negative and climb out of the hole before she’d even forgive me.

Doctor Campbell rambled on about the Middle East, and the geopolitical ramifications of the Arab Spring. I wasn’t one of those inbreds that thought every Muslim was a terrorist, but today I was about as interested in the subject as I was about putting my feet in a vat of boiling tar. I kept playing over and over in my head two things. How I dominated in Star Evolution, immediately followed by how I’d given up a weekend of sex, maybe earned a very long, extended vacation from it if I couldn’t make it up to Kass. Just as class ended, Dr. Campbell reminded us to look up the Arab Spring uprising and write a six paragraph essay detailing how it began to affect the political stability in the region.

*

I pulled up to the curb and waited for Kass to exit the building. My parents were a little upset that I’d elected to skip dinner with them, until I informed them that no, I was not going to spend it in my room again, but was going to take Kassandra Perkins out to dinner to make up for staying in my room all weekend. My dad gave me a sly wink and a smile, and my mom gave him a frown and an elbow in the ribs. I’d apologized to my parents for being a reclusive anti-social jerk, and they apologized for not poisoning Uncle Marion’s turkey so his beautiful wife and five kids would be free of his disgusting habits (and innuendos).

I saw Kass coming out of the glass doors a minute later, and flashed my headlights. She waved before turning back to the other three girls she had been talking to, gave them all hugs, then jogged to the car. I knew things would be okay when she leaned across the seat and kissed me on the cheek. I played it off as if it was no big deal, giving her a sideways glance to make sure she wasn’t going to pull a knife or a billy club on me. As we pulled away from the curb, her hand found my leg. I made myself promise to not screw up again.

*

I looked at the clock and groaned. It was almost midnight and I hadn’t even touched my homework. I didn’t have to have it ready until Wednesday, but I had three classes tomorrow, and all three were pretty loaded when it came to homework. I decided to tackle the Cultural Geography essay first. Writing six paragraphs about anything was a snap if I’d read something interesting.

The Arab Spring uprising was interesting for sure, as it showed that religious dictatorships, any dictatorships really, were becoming an endangered species in that part of the world. I extended the projection below the center screen and called up the virtual keyboard. I traded off between typing and using voice commands to get any real work done. I hadn’t found an instruction manual beyond the ones that showed me how to put all of the components together, and the computer was frustrating to work with when it came to voice commands. And again, I didn’t want to cause a bio-weapons attack in New Zealand by slipping up.

I reached out to the screen to touch the browser icon when I felt like I had to sneeze. I made a ‘schrunk’ noise as I felt my muscles almost-contract. My finger stabbed the icon next to the browser icon. I hadn’t fooled with any of the other icons beyond the browser and the App Center, and hadn’t even fooled with the App Center beyond a quick search for instructions after downloading Delta-9 and Star Evolution.

A window opened, and it looked almost like a Google search page, except the logo was a giant Q that had either flames or lightning coming off it. After looking at it for a second longer, I saw that it was both. Kind of a strange lightning-fire. Below the logo was the word “Qwerry.” I assumed it was a play on the word “query” and gave it a mental
touche
.
What the hell
, I told myself. I didn’t think anything could surprise me, so why worry about an unknown search engine on a quantum computer that connects to the internet without having any networking capabilities?

I touched the search box and typed in “Arab Spring.” A list of related searches appeared, and I began to sort through them. After a few minutes, I realized most of them were from 2012 or later. I knew the good Dr. Campbell would
tsk tsk
me if I didn’t include the origins of the movement. I looked up the initial uprisings, then touched the search box again and typed in “Arab Spring 2010.” I clicked on the first link that showed up, one that originated from the BBC website.

After reading a few paragraphs, I stopped and rubbed my eyes, not sure what I was reading. I double-checked the address bar to make sure I was on the BBC.co.uk website and not one of the fake parody news sites. I looked back down to the story, and began reading again.

President-elect Lorraine Roosevelt Harvey clarified her earlier remarks today, citing a miscommunication during her speech in Brussels at the US-EU Summit. “I would like to stress once again that I plan on reducing troop strengths to minimal levels on January 31st,” she said to the crowd of reporters that awaited her outside of the old NATO headquarters. “President Gregory over-committed our forces, and I plan to rectify that immediately. I repeat, there will be an immediate draw-down in troop levels on January 31st, and by March 1st, there will be a total withdrawal of all U.S. forces within the region.” The newly-elected president refused to answer further questions, and her press secretary, Alexi Chan, has not replied to our inquiries.

The new American president’s remarks came on the heels of a new United Nations report accusing the United States military of wartime atrocities in the coastal cities of Latakia and Jableh, as well as the inland city of Hamah. A spokesman for President Bashar al-Assad distributed video of the Alhamida Massacre. Also included was disturbing footage reportedly taken by American soldiers inside the Al Jadeed Mosque that shows young Syrian women being sexually assaulted, along what looks to be a mass execution of Syrian soldiers loyal to al-Assad.

Secretary of State Helen Engleman would not confirm the video’s authenticity. However, she stated that there has been an increase in the number of cyberattacks by groups that the CIA claims are closely tied to the worldwide hacking group known as “Anonymous,” as well as Hezbollah and the Western Islamic Front, one of the newer factions that has formed from the remnants of the original Arab Spring uprising. “This administration promises swift retaliation against anyone found violating American sovereignty,” Engleman said, “which not only includes our physical land holdings, but our network infrastructure and communications grid.”

The “Internet Security Act,” the American cybersecurity law passed in 2018, has significantly reduced the number of leaks from within the country. Critics continue to label the law draconian and unconstitutional, even after being upheld by the American Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision this past May. The United Nations report also criticizes ISA, claiming the American law attempts to allow enforcement around the globe, not just within American borders.

“When a law like this clearly states that America has the right to assassinate or otherwise terminate a life outside of its own borders,” said Meli Farawa, the United Nations’ Chief Legal Counsel, “it becomes a concern for the rest of the world’s sovereign states. According to some of the most vague wording we’ve ever seen in any law passed in a democracy, ISA could be interpreted to cover almost any crime, and because it labels those accused of breaking the law as ‘enemy combatants,’ it also allows for the new American military tribunals to try and convict suspects in absentia.”

“Imagine a drone strike destroying your village,” one source who wished to remain anonymous said, “and being told that one of the villagers was accused of terrorism and sentenced to death remotely.”

“What the fuck is this shit?” I asked aloud, afraid the computer would answer me with some new trick.

I looked at the address bar again. Then looked at the top banner, and noticed that I didn’t recognize any of the scrolling headlines. Not that I was a news junkie, but Dr. Campbell and Professor Garner were both sticklers about keeping up on current events. Not only that, but my mother listened to NPR at work all day when she wasn’t on the phone or dealing with clients, and I guess my father did too, as they would have deep conversations about events that I had no clue about.

When I was sixteen, I couldn’t have cared less about anything going on in the world that wasn’t me getting my hands on breasts, or baseball season, or any number of things that had nothing to do with politics, economics, or even education. By the time I was eighteen, I still cared about all of the teenage things, but I’d grown up enough to begin paying attention to
real
world outside of my little bubble.

NPR was still a bunch of boring old people rambling on in their soft voices about things I didn’t give a shit about, other than once in a while when they’d profile a band I liked, or talked about a sport I followed. The internet was the ultimate repository of news, though I’d learned that a lot of it was full of skewed opinions or downright bogus information. However, my interest allowed me to begin slipping into the conversations my parents would have, and while they never said anything to me, I could tell they were proud that I’d joined the adult world they lived in.

I read a few more headlines. Najam separatist fighters take girls’ school hostage in the Russian Empire’s (???) city of Troitsk, just across the border from northern Kazakhstan. Brazil’s armed forced were on high alert and massing at the Uruguayan border after a Brazilian destroyer was sabotaged at the pier in Montevideo. Riots were breaking out all over South Korea, and North Korea was being blamed for inserting subversives into the mix. I had no idea who the “Lansing Lightning” were. According to the headline blurb, they were in the NBA, and they’d lost to the Chicago Bulls 105-84.

I blinked a few times, wondering once more if whoever had sent me the non-existent parts so I could slap together this crazy
computer
wasn’t still messing with me. Maybe this was the drawn-out punchline or climax of the gag? Then I happened to notice the date on all of the stories. All of them were from December 17th, 2020. I hit the back button on the browser until I was back at the Qwerry start page and could see the last thing I’d typed into the search box. “Arab Spring 2020” is what stared back at me. I’d mistyped 2010, still not fully used to the weird holographic keyboard, and had been taken to some kind of joke future page.

I minimized the browser and opened the other one that I’d used before. The page opened to Google. I typed in “Arab Spring 2020” and hit enter on the virtual keyboard. All Google returned was page after page about some summit that was going to take place in Dubai, expos that were scheduled to take place in various countries of the Middle East, and a ton of speculative economic reports about budget and harvest predictions for the year 2020. I minimized it and pulled up the Qwerry window. I typed in December 2, 2014.

I went to the BBC News site again, having learned that it was one of the better sources for news, considering how polarized the political landscape, and therefore the cable news landscape, had become here in the good ol’ U.S. of A. As far as I could tell, all of the headlines were mundane, nothing interesting or shocking that stood out. I guess I must have thought I’d check the date and there would be a giant mushroom cloud picture and a lead story about global annihilation. I squinted over at the sleek black box that housed the odd computer components.
I’m watching you
, I told it in my mind, half-convinced it could read my thoughts.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I checked the American sports section. The Dallas Stars would be playing the Nashville Predators tomorrow. Correction, the Dallas Stars would
lose
to the Nashville Predators, 2-1 tomorrow. I checked with the Google page in the other browser to verify that the teams were actually playing. In the Qwerry browser, I checked to see which NBA teams or NFL teams were playing. It was slim pickings on a Tuesday after Thanksgiving, but the Sacramento Kings would be facing off against the San Antonio Spurs, and the Spurs would win the game 98-93.