Gabriela
sat down behind her desk and looked over her reading glasses at her
office once again. She allowed a small flicker of pleasure to rest
on her lips as her eyes rested on the award and picture once again.
It was an impressive display and a very important honor. It was an
honor that few achieved—especially so early in their career.
Gabriela
Pridthi Portilla-Nahn
is hereby recognized
as Top Reconciliation
Officer.
That
had a distinctive ring too it. She knew it; her department knew it;
now the big-shots up the ladders knew it too. This Department
was the most important part of a well-greased society. She was
indeed best at what the department did.
She
turned back to her tablet to review new items for the day. One minor
issue had been dealt with already as she rode the elevator to the
fourth floor. Two regions on opposite sides of the continent were
found to have differing font requirements for official documents.
Normally that would not have even been an issue since it should have
been caught years ago at the beginning of standardization and
reconciliation. Except in this case, the official fonts had never
been compared side-by-side.
“The
document cases to which these apply are extremely rare,” her
undersecretary informed her in the elevator. “We have searched and
found that these are the only two regions to which this case would
apply.”
“What
case is that?” Gabriela asked.
“Regions
that have capital cities with salt water access and marine
aqua-farming of kelp.”
“Yes,
a narrow subset,” Gabriela replied. “Which region chose the font
first?”
“It's
a tie. It goes back to the early days of kelp farming and each
region had its own regulations.”
“Which
region has the older kelp farms?” Gabriela asked.
“Again a tie.”
“Then
which region is older?”
“The
one on the east coast,” the undersecretary replied.
“There
is your answer,” Gabriela stated.
The
elevator door opened and Gabriela moved out gracefully—she made
sure that her movements were graceful, purposeful, and authoritative.
Her undersecretary followed a few seconds behind.
“You
have your telecon with Dr. Gupal at ten thirty.”
“Thank
you, Lanique.” Gabriela smiled at her undersecretary then stepped
determinedly into her office and closed the door with a practiced
shove. Nothing should be left to chance. All must be practiced,
rehearsed, and executed with precision to achieve the best effects
and to leave the best impressions. Indeed, she mused, best
impressions often are the
best effects.
The
Department of Truth and Reconciliation was established a number of
years before to ensure that all citizens were given access to the
same knowledge and historical data. Of course, some citizens would
take greater advantage of these resources than others and thus would
be far more knowledgeable than the average citizen. However, by
having a standardized set of facts, there would be no variability in
the overall account of what the citizens understood. Infighting and
tribal bickering would thus be kept to a minimum. Differences would
arise, but they would be over mundane issues of which sports team was
preferred or which musical entertainment ensemble provided the most
delightful sonic and visual presentation. Indeed, the Department of
Recreation and Events oversaw those annual competitions. So popular
it had become that there were now several such tournaments throughout
the year, each with its own brackets and rules and judges with the
general public providing a collective vote for the final four.
Gabriela
nodded appreciatively as she knew this season's Ensemble
Event would be starting this
weekend. She would be watching not just for entertainment value, but
because she would be monitoring the content of each ensemble's
lyrics. No group would ever be allowed to perform in a public
setting without a thorough vetting of their songs, lyrics, and stage
banter. Yet, being a live venue, there was always the chance that
random non-truths could slip out. Non-truths that would have to be
addressed, corrected, or—if egregious enough—punished.
It
had been years since there was a debacle like that. Gabriela Pridthi
Portilla-Nahn felt a certain amount of professional pride that her
vigilance and skills had been a large part of that success.
She
looked over her tablet again:
☼ Meeting
a ten thirty to discuss internal calibration metrics and pedagogic
rubrics. She set her alarm to go off after one hour to force a
diversion. Such dry meetings had a tendency to contribute to their
own longevity. “Inertia,”
a colleague had called it. “Objects and meetings not in
motion tend to remain unmoving.”
☼ Request
to review history cleanliness. She sighed. More arcane sniping at
semantics and syntax with a large helping of self-aggrandizement on the
side. Absolutely essential, she granted, but it was looked forward
to like a promised root canal.
☼ A
new item caught her attention: “Technician reports family
had unfamiliar details on child's computer lessons. Social services
called to deal with potential trauma.”
“This
is serious,” she whispered to herself as she opened the electronic
file.
Scanning
the details she felt a shiver run through her body in spite of the
pleasantly controlled room temperature in her office. That this
happened in the suburbs of their capital city struck hard against
decorum and the uniformity of knowledge. If widely known, this could
be perceived as an attack on their very way of life and the
underpinnings of their modern society.
She
pressed the connect button on her communication device. A moment
later another voice spoke.
“Saiko,”
Gabriela began. “We need to talk about this technician report from
last night.”
“I'm
on my way.”
As
Gabriela waited for Saiko to come to her office, she stood up and
looked out the large window. Saiko was a trusted associate.
Gabriela smiled wryly as she recalled that a number of years before
the term would have been “subordinate” but
had since been changed because it sounded so demeaning. “Sub”—
something that is under, or lesser, or of inferior worth. Yet, in
spite of the modern rhetoric and verbal platitudes to the contrary,
the position of “associate”
merely became a replacement term with no diminishing of the
correlated connotations of higher and lower on a ladder.
A
quick knock on the door brought Gabriela back to the immediate problem.
“Come
in.”
Saiko
Ayame Nishimoto-Fuentes entered with professional dignity and an air
of confidence that sometimes put others in a defensive posture.
Gabriela merely saw the air as a put on necessity in the bureaucratic
world of offices and cubicles. What annoyed her most though was just
how lovely this young, up-and-coming associate was. That could be an
asset and a troubling liability.
“Saiko,
have you read the technician's report from last night?”
Saiko
nodded. “I was just re-reading the details as you called. The
initial report came through last night. I received the call early
this morning.”
Although
it galled Gabriela that she had not been alerted of the situation
prior to coming into the office, she realized that the timeline left
little room for notification before the morning situation list.
“I
see.” Gabriela carefully chose her words. “What has been done
so far?”
“After
the technician received the report,” Saiko began, “he stepped
through the decontamination procedure with the family.”
“All
done on-line?”
“Yes,
this was a remote service call along with the standard phone
support.”
“I'm
afraid that some key points may have been left out of my summary,”
Gabriela finally said. “What was found on the family computer that
required such an escalation including counseling services?”
“It
started with a mention of guns,” Saiko began, “then ended with
access to details of prohibited religious rites and words.”
“Gracious!”
Gabriela exclaimed. “How did the computer user find all that
information?”
Saiko
looked at her tablet. “The parent units report that their child
had been reading an older book which included an outdated term.”
“Was
this a physical book or a digital?” Gabriela asked.
“Physical.”
“First
mistake right there.”
“Except
it is one of the approved physical books that the Education
Department has authorized for learning about the old days.”
“What
was the outdated term?”
Saiko
looked again at her tablet. “The phrase was, 'he gunned the engine and the boat leaped forward quickly.”
“So
the child looked the phrase up?”
“Yes.
The child entered the word 'gunned'
into the family computer and a list of weapons appeared. The report
says that there were many different types of weapons from throughout
history.”
“Those
lists are not approved for common viewing,” Gabriela replied.
“True.
But there was not just a list presented. Instead it was a pictorial
history of weapons.”
Gabriela
pursed her lips then sat down again. She picked up her tablet and
re-read the summary of the event. Many of the details that Saiko had
provided were missing from the overview. She understood that
executive summaries were hurriedly put together and often missed
facts that the person in charge wanted to know or even needed to
know. But how did this escalate from guns to religion so quickly?
How did the normal protocols and filters prevent the family from
being traumatized like that?
Gabriela
turned her tablet toward Saiko to read. “Little of that is here.”
Saiko
passed her tablet to Gabriela. “Here is a better summary. We are
still working on the full write up.”
“More
to be done?”
“Yes,
an official visit with the family will probably need to take place.”
“How
far known is this?” Gabriela asked.
“Very
contained,” Saiko replied. “Our technician was quick to involve
outreach from Community Standards and Unity Principles. They were
the ones who met with the family and recommended, in conjunction with
the parent units, Social Services be brought in.”
“Gracious,”
Gabriela whispered then began reading the other's tablet. “The
child kept clicking?”
“Yes.
Multiple links and multiple articles appeared, each more troublesome
than the ones before.”
“There's
is so much here to digest,” Gabriela began. “First of all, do we
know where these breeches in protocol came from? How did these
prohibited references make their way into the normal data stream for
this child's education?”
“That
is under investigation. I have been apprised that this particular
breech has been fixed. I have instructed our Data Purists to review
all levels of the educational paradigm as well as the master
repository of accepted truths. We must ensure uniformity of
knowledge and understanding.”
“Good.
I appreciate the quick response,” Gabriela said. She noticed that
Saiko had remained standing so she added, “Please. Have a seat.”
Saiko
sat down and said, “I will let you finish scanning the summary.
There are some serious issues to address.”
“Yes,
I see,” Gabriela replied. “This explanation of weapons and guns
led to an article detailing the 2A
position?”
“Yes,
but that's not all.”
Gabriela
continued reading. “2A”
was an old reference to the “Second Amendment” which
was held to be hallowed by people of the late Twentieth Century.
Certain radicals had imbued those words with nearly mystical powers
and held that the Government
should be held in check by the citizens even to the point of the
citizens being armed, legally and morally responsible to thwart
Government from
becoming tyrannical and oppressive. But the series of links did not
stop with a detailed account of the Second Amendment.
“So
the child, following her intellectual curiosity, clicked on a
definition of what the Constitution
was?” Gabriela asked, still reviewing the write up.
“Yes,
and the child actually is nearly fourteen years of age,” Saiko
answered.
“Troublesome,”
Gabriela replied.
It
was troublesome because it was a well-established fact that young
teens were capable of synthesizing connections and scenarios and even
formulating questions. That is why their intellectual development
was so carefully shepherded to mold their character and thought
pattern to serve the greater good of society in the best and most
harmonious fashion.
But
it was also troublesome because the child, or the young teen, had
read a non-sanctioned analysis of the Constitution
and its Amendments and
then clicked further to read “1A”—the
troublesome provision that allegedly gave everyone the right to
think, believe, speak, and write as they themselves saw fit. Such
unrestrained lawlessness in community principles would, of course,
give rise to differences of opinions, then factions, then dissent,
and then in severe cases even fighting.
“How
much did this child, er, youth, read of 1A?”
she asked Saiko.
“It
seems that the child, or youth, spent about forty minutes on the
computer from the time that she initially asked the question about
gunning an engine.”
“Did
she read things in detail?”
“It
appears so. Background checks of this youth show that she is
remarkably bright and gifted in reading and logic.”
“Bothersome,
to say the least,” Grabriela replied. “But I see there is more
potential damage?”
Saiko
nodded as Gabriela quietly read the remainder of the write up.
Gabriela
was not only digesting the bare facts of the recap, but she was
trying to formulate a way of dealing with the family and especially
this young teen to mitigate any losses, forestall any psychological
damage, and win the whole family over to the side of the community
and truth and unity once again.
“But
this teen click once more?” Gabriela quietly repeated in shock.
She
was simply amazed at how many records and unsanctioned articles this
student had been able to access. Such things simply should not
happen. But then they kept happening! She was also shocked that the
student had simply followed curiosity and did not halt once things
started sounding differently from the proscribed. Clearly this
bright student needed to have remediation to understand the
importance of Unity and Community Principles as well as listening to
voices of reason.
“Why
didn't she stop?” Gabriela asked.
“Social
Services asked that question,”
Saiko replied. “The youth replied that her teacher had taught them
it is good to question authority.”
Gabriela
nodded. That indeed was an important lesson, but she made a mental
note to include additional parameters as that adage was taught: There
must be limits to the questioning; there are some things that must
never be questioned.
Gabriela
scrolled the write up to the last paragraph then gasped. “This
child, or youth, clicked on the definition of religion?”
“Yes.”
Gabriela
knew how religion was officially defined: It was any mystical or
non-substantiated belief in things that could not be accounted for by
science along with any system of beliefs that subjected the believer
to emotionalism or irrationalism. She knew that synonyms included
unsound, foolish, brainless, and quarrelsome. So many fights and
wars happened over religious ideals.
“Unfortunately,”
Saiko went on, “the computer gave the old, unaccepted definition of
religion.”
“I
see,” Gabriela replied, not quite knowing yet how to respond.
“And
as the report states, that is when the parent units entered the room
and saw their child reading an online version of the old religious
book.”
“How?”
“We
don't know. All these copies and their links have been removed
again, but there is another source or sources that keeps asserting
itself on our computer networks and in our data repository.”
“What
old religious book did she read?” Gabriela felt a foreboding yet
knew she had to know.
“It
has been called The
Bible.”
“That
doesn't mean much.” Gabriela knew that many things that were
considered important and instructional were called The
Bible of such and such.
“No,
it was the original,” Saiko answered. “The original book that
called itself The Bible.”
“Is
there any chance that this child, this youth, was the source of the
contraband?”
“That
avenue was considered,” Saiko replied. “But there is no record
of the material coming from
this student. Instead, we see the material going to
the student.”
“Might
we use this student as a plant to see how far this nefarious
infection goes?”
“That
is a good question. However, my first thoughts are to be cautious.
We've already made too big of a deal over it. Whoever started this
obviously knows that we are involved. Anything further from this
contact would be treated as highly suspicious.”
“Hmm,
good point. Perhaps we should flag further events to treat them
differently so as to infiltrate and find the source.”
“That
is an excellent idea,” Saiko replied. “Are you anticipating
something further?”
Gabriela
shook her head. “No, but we can't be caught flat-footed either.
We are aware of a new strategy, we should prepare as well as
brain-storm to think of other possible avenues that need to be
guarded.”
“What
about the family?”
“We
will have to watch this student closely,” Gabriela began. “Make
sure that she doesn't deviate off the prescribed learning pathway at
all. That will help prove to us that this indiscretion was an
accident and not part of a long-term and growing rebellion against
Unity and the Harmonious Community Principles. I myself will reach
out to the family. I will have Lanique set up an appointment where I
can go visit them, express my sympathies over the event, and assure
them that because of their alerting us, we know that such events are
not likely to occur again. I will also use that time to assess the
emotional and psychological state of this young teen.”
“Very
good,” Saiko replied. “Anything further?”
“No,
I appreciate your report,” Gabriela replied, moving the tablet back
across the desk to Saiko. “I believe that we are in a good
position now. We have quashed this potential disruption of our
Community Harmony and Unity.”
Saiko
stood and smiled. “I'll see you then at our ten thirty telecom.”
Gabriela
stood and smiled, dipping her head slightly in the accustomed ritual
of acknowledging an equal or colleague.
As
the door closed, Gabriela sat back down and rubbed her eyes.
Far-flung disaster had been averted, much of it without her direct
intervention. Saiko had assumed an initial leadership role and had done well. Gabriela supposed that she could ascribe it to her
leadership and training that gave her associates the skills, the
tools, and the vision to deal effectively with the potential threat.
Truth was again reconciled with the vision and purpose of the
Community and the greater good of the people.
Of course, if things went wrong, much of the blame could fall on Saiko before it shifted up to herself. She shook her head. She knew how dangerous it was to play that game.
Quickly
she sent a note to Lanique to set up a visit with the family that had
been disrupted by the computer debacle. Before the telecom with Dr.
Gupal, she wanted to flesh out some notes for her meeting with that
family. She also needed to review the notes on metrics and rubrics
for the morning's meeting. “This was definitely going to
be one of those mornings,” she
sighed to herself. “But we have again stamped out the
impropriety of religion and extremism.”
Not
even ten minutes later, her tablet announced an urgent new message.
She
glanced at the header then gasped. “Several reports of
contraband knowledge on home computers. Questions about religion and
Bible filling network query engines.”
There
would be no rest for anyone in the Department of Truth and
Reconciliation that night.
