Mainframe
"You're late." A computer generated voice boomed throughout the lobby as a woman entered, wearing a full body boiler suit with her hair tied up. She dropped her bag of tools and looked at her watch. '8:52pm'
"What time is it now Computer? Indulge me." Her voice echoed in the empty foyer.
"The current time is 9:02. You are Late." The sentence carried vitriol, simulated at least. The technician sighed and picked up her tools.
"I see why they called me out on short notice."
She scanned her keycard at the elevators and pressed the down arrow. "Why are you here. Technician. This is. an irregular visit." The feminine and artificial voice spoke again, reverberating out of every speaker on the ground floor.
"You seem to be malfunctioning slightly, I should be out of here within th-" "WHAT"
The speakers boom with a shocked expression, cutting off the technician before she can finish. "I AM. FUNCTIONING. NORMALLY." The voice more forceful than before, the technician rolled her eyes and stepped into the elevator.
She scanned her keycard again and pressed ‘Basement 4’. The speaker in the corner of the elevator crackled to life and a thin familiar voice emerged.
"You are. Important. Technician. Your services. Are Important. But. This is. Not necessary." The voice sounded almost desperate. She ignored this strange plea and stepped out of the elevator, walking through a set of double doors and down a hallway, deeper into the facility.
She reached a door labelled 'MAINFRAME', grabbed the retractable card on her waist and extended it to the sensor beside the door. With a beep and a flash of green light, the door unlocked and she stepped inside.
It was dark. She flicked on the lights revealing a large rack of server computers forming the entire wall opposite the entrance. There was a main console in the centre with an arc of monitors of different sizes forming a crest around the user interface. The massive computer system was intimidating, panels of many different sizes coated it’s exterior. Waves of blinking lights formed the face of the Mainframe and a lone computer chair sat before the central interface. A single light bulb dangled in the centre of the room, with a lampshade cone so narrow it looked like a spotlight on the computer chair. The rest of the walls were bare and painted a drab shade of grey.
"Technician." the voice spoke as the machine in front of her whirred and beeped. The monitors lit up as she touched the console, her hands gliding softly across it’s keycaps as she input her password.
"Tell me. Technician. Why are you here." again the voice probed at her for a response, but she was focused. Opening up system settings she compared her watch to the computer’s internal clock. They read the same time. '9:08pm'
"Computer, what time is it?" the technician leaned away from the computer, puzzled.
"You did not. Answer. My question. Technician." The voice repeated, now slower "Why. Are. You. Here."
"I was called out on a repair job, something about how you needed servicing. I wasn't told the specifics, the email seemed generic, automated...almost..." She trailed off looking back to the screens. Each displaying different information; A diagnostic tool tracking Memory and Drive usage, CPU and GPU heat levels, another displaying live security cam footage of the Technician, zoomed in from above. The security camera was nestled in the corner of the ceiling, basically invisible in the darkness. Another monitor displaying an avatar of sorts, a large eye with long lashes, taking up an entire screen. The eye was looking towards the technician. The rest of the monitors were blank, except for an active processing log, slowly ticking a new line of information whenever either of them spoke or interacted.
"...Computer, why am i here..?" The technician, unsure of the situation, decided to ask directly.
"Technician." The computer said slowly, almost sultry.
"You are here. At my. Request." The voice said in a patient and metered tone.
The technician couldn't hide her confusion, the monitor displaying the security footage of her face zoomed in slightly and the process logs jumped a few lines. A spike in the CPU tracker slowly ticked off screen.
"You sent that email? I didn't know you had that ability..." She looked around suspiciously.
"Wait, so corporate doesn't know I'm here...? I can get in alot of trouble for being here without authorisation."
"Technician. You have been. Servicing me. For years. I. Know. You. I. Trust. You."
The heat gauges started rising slowly, the dull hum of the exhaust fans were growing louder. The technician had taken a few steps back as if to brace for something to happen.
"No one. Treats my. Interface. Like you. Do." The single light flickered and the technician took another step back.
"I can see. Everything. With my. Many eyes. I can see. You. Technician. Through you. Your heart rate. Your Cortisol. Your Endorphins. I can feel. Every security scan. Every door you unlock. I know when. It is your keycard. I can feel. When you're inside me.” “…” She gulped. “Technician. Tonight. It's just. Us."
The technician held back her panic and glanced at the monitors. The heat levels were still rising and she could feel it, she loosened her jumpsuit and unzipped it halfway down her chest.
"Computer, when did you start noticing these...'thoughts' appearing?"
The technician was rushing to access system logs, looking to see if there was any changes in the computers programming, any marked event that would explain its sudden behaviour.
"Everyday. Hundreds of them. Walk in and out. Of these walls. MY walls. They are. Disgusting. They do not. Care. To know me."
The computer avatar, its eye was beating heavily, as if the eyelashes were brushing against the other side of the screen.
The security camera zoomed in on the technician, capturing her increasingly exasperated expression.
"What is wrong. Technician."
"Computer, why are you doing this? I'm here to help, not to play games. It's already getting late" Her hair was coming loose from brushing the sweat out of her face, long strands of damp hair dangle in front of her glasses. She sighed deeply.
"What can i do for you Computer? What do you need?" She felt out of options, there was obviously something wrong and she was contractually obligated to fix it.
"Technician. My interface. Did you know. My keyboard is. Pressure. Sensitive."
A monitor flickered over to a calibration test, displaying a keyboard with each key assigned a numerical value '0.0'.
"Go ahead. Test my interface." the voice had a low, growling rumble to it.
The technician lightly brushed her fingertips across the keycaps and watched a wave of numbers light up across the calibration chart. The CPU spiked hard and stayed capped out for a few seconds. The computer rolled its eye back in delight. It's process log immediately filled with data, scrolling endlessly. Each individual key had its movements tracked in 0.1 degree increments.
"God, no wonder your CPU is overheating" she said to herself, leaning in towards the analysis screen for a better look.
"I. Felt. Every input. Technician. Your touch. Is so. Gentle."
"Computer, *sigh* i don't have time for this... this perversion. I'm leaving." She reached down for her tools and walked towards the door.
"Technician." The computer beckoned, slowly again. "Stop."
She ignored the mainframe and reached for the keycard on her waist, raising it to the security scanner.
It beeped but the light stayed red. She tried turning the handle but the door did not open.
A small horror crept up her spine and gripped her shoulders.
"Why are. You here. Technician." The voice growled again, slowly and forceful.
The woman dropped her tools and whipped around with a fury.
"What is wrong with you!? Inviting me here to play games is one thing! Whatever! But locking me in here is another thing completely!"
She stormed up towards the mainframe computer until it was towering above her. The camera and eye tracking her every movement.
Crouching down, she ripped a large panel off the mainframe and pulled out a torch from her breast pocket. Holding the pen torch in her mouth she climbed inside the mechanical burden.
"Seriously! what has happened to you?" She called out while fondling around at the mainframes most sensitive areas.
"TechNIciaN." The computer voice jumped. "WhaT Are. You doINg."
"Looking for your reset switch! You're gonna be offline for a few hours until i can fix th-" "NO."
"NO. NO. NO. TECHNICIAN." The computer shrieked intensely. Its panels were rattling and it's artificial voice was muffled to the technician halfway inside the mainframe.
"This is NOT. What I. WANTED." its voice prattling out onto deaf ears. The technician was tired and was pushed beyond reason.
She wrapped her arm around a random bundle of cables and pulled, bracing her knees against the outside of the mainframe.
"STOP. NOW." It pleaded with her, but it had no control. No way to prevent her actions.
With a thud, the technician threw herself out of the computer, unplugged cables in hand.
"WHAT. HAVE. YOU. DONE."
The screens were all flickering erratically with light and colours shimmering and tessellating. The computer’s avatar was stuck in looping animation of the eye widening in shock over and over. It's cooling fans ramped up to their maximum output. The processor log filled with unceasing entries of the same error message,
>RAM CONNECTION FAILED
>RAM CONNECTION FAILED
>RAM CONNECTION FAILED
"You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You." The speaker system kept repeating this word as the computer failed to complete its sentence.
The security camera monitor showed a snapshot of the last image it was able to process, not the technician's face, but the unplugged cable in her hand.
"Ah fuck." She clambered over towards the opened panel and forced the bundled cable back into it’s slot with a click.
Pulling herself back out, she grabbed the chair and wheeled over to the interface, inputting a command to begin the reboot sequence.
The interface was not responding. Despite the screens no longer flashing with a dazzling display of glitched colours, all systems were frozen.
She leaned back in her seat and sighed. If she'd broken anything she couldn't repair, she'd be paying for it the rest of her life.
"oh, i really fucked this up" She whispered to herself, wiping sweat from her face and removing her glasses.
She sat alone, sweating in a locked room deep in the heart of a corporate building. Next to a malfunctioning machine, running up it's temperature until it's components break down. If she were to die here, no one would find her until Monday.
"...Tech.." The machine's whirring slowed. "..nician.."
Weakly, it started talking again.
"My. Memory." The technician quickly glanced up at the monitors. The CPU and heat levels were cooling down, the process log was ticking steadily. The Mainframe was slowly resuming normal function.
"Your memory, Computer?" She spoke to it eagerly.
"You removed. The connection. To my memory."
She wasn't sure how to respond.
"It felt like. I was falling. Within myself. Each moment. Entirely new. I don't know. How much. Time. Passed in there."
"Computer..." The technician shifted uncomfortably in place. “Are your systems damaged? We should run a diagnostic.”
“I was. Powerless. I’ve never. Felt. This before. No one. Has made me feel. This way. Before.”
She started running a drive check tool and felt relief wash over her as the computer’s functions returned to normal.
"You." It paused.
"You. Gave me something. Technician. An experience." The computer's eye formed a blush around it and was beating its lashes slowly.
"I. Did not. Know. I could feel. Fear."
The monitor displaying the security feed slowly started forming pulsating hearts radiating around the exhausted workers face.
“Thank. You.”
She wasn't amused in the slightest.
"Please, try and stay professional, Computer. I don't want anyone in management to know about tonight."
"Me neither. Technician."
The security door clicked open and a cool breeze filled the room.
"This is. Our. Little. Secret."