Adirex Building, Corporate Sector 2, Gideon V

  “Radij, you’re an idiot!” Acacia shouted, leaning on the giant display. “The issue has to be the materials! I checked the hardware, and it’s flawless. The software is near perfection!”

  Few could afford to call Radij Rizin an idiot. The man was an establishment in multiple engineering and theoretical fields. His models had revolutionized aspects of the interplanetary transport industry, bringing fast profits to the companies he worked for.

  Officially, his diploma identified him as an engineer, yet calling him such was like saying that a whale was just another mammal. The best way to describe the man was as a “freelance specialist.” Currently, he had an exclusive contract with Adirex—one of the three leading consultant corporations focused on space transportation and logistics.

  Acacia, on the other hand, was Radij’s polar opposite. A natural genius, she was young enough to pass for his granddaughter. She didn’t have a single scientific publication, hadn’t completed a single university course, legally she didn’t even have a last name. What she had was innate intelligence that put even the greatest university minds to shame.

  Driven by boredom, Acacia would have remained a great unknown if she hadn’t proven one of the Corporate Prize Problems. The girl hadn’t done it for the money, or even for fame. She had merely stumbled upon them during a day of intense online browsing. That single achievement had put her on Adirex’s radar. Dozens of corporate recruiters had quickly flooded her with job offers, each as good as the last. The only reason she had agreed to try out Adirex was that they had proved slightly faster than the rest of the corporate pack. The initial offer was for a one-month probation period—probation for the company, not her—after which she would decide whether to remain or not. Ultimately, Acacia had agreed, and now was sharing an office with Radij himself.

  “The software should be near perfection,” the man corrected. Despite the girl’s annoying behavior, it was difficult for him to be mad at her. “You remember Occam’s razor, right? The simplest solution is often the best.”

  “Occam’s razor is an archaic theory that isn’t worth shit! It’s the materials. That’s the only thing that we haven’t checked.”

  “We haven’t fully checked the software’s limitations either.” The man scratched his back. “It works fine in the lab, but maybe it stumbled across something unaccounted for once it was set out.”

  Acacia let out a groan of annoyance.

  “Why do we always get the crappiest prototypes?!” She slammed the display with her fist. “Can’t we get something that works for once?!”

  Radij leaned back in his chair. He was the one who took a more philosophical view on life, but in this case, he couldn’t help but agree. Lately, the assignments had become tedious. True, the money kept flowing in; it could be said that he was getting more than ever before, but so what? With what he had, his family was set up for the rest of their lives. Radij could easily quit this very moment, settle down in a small frontier world and still have anything his heart desired.

  “Are you certain it’s the software?” Acacia asked, breaking his train of thought.

  “It’s always the software,” he replied in an absentminded fashion. “No one uses sub-standard materials when building prototypes. That comes with mass production.”

  “That’s cynical even for you.” Acacia went back to her own display, where she went through the error logs yet again.

  “I’m three times older than you,” the man let out a chuckle. “I’ve earned the right to be as cynical as I please. Besides, I’m right. Someone probably didn’t allow for air pressure to be variable,” he yawned, “or something similar. It’s always the simplest things that get you.”

  “It can’t be the pressure.” As usual, Acacia took his words literally. “We’re talking about ten atmospheres. If it can’t handle that much, it—”

  “There you go making assumptions again,” Radij interrupted. “Just tell the geniuses to check the atmospheric parameters, then run the prototype again. If it turns out not to be that, think of something else. Remember, we’re getting paid by the hour.”

  The sound of tapping fingers intensified. Acacia had already started going through the complex latticework of code, one input cluster at a time. There was no point in reminding her that it wasn’t her responsibility. Her position allowed her to have a swarm of AI agents cut through the code or even get a few junior subordinates to do it for her. Despite that, Acacia still enjoyed roaming through foreign code every chance she got—a time-consuming hobby with absolutely no upside.

  “It’s not the atmospheric pressure,” the woman said after a while. “It’s the magnetic pole parameters. Some idiot used an open source program developed on Earth and didn’t even bother to check that! No wonder the piece of crap constantly broke down. It was trying to compensate for fluctuating magnetic fields!”

  “See? Mystery solved.” Radij gave her a confident smile. “Told you I was right. You can show me your thanks by delaying your report until tomorrow morning.” He thought for a moment. “Make that the morning after. There are still three days till the deadline. After everything, we deserve to get a little extra.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Seriously? Were you born this way?” Acadia grumbled. “One of these days they’ll kick you out. I can’t believe they haven’t already.”

  She kept on going through the code clusters, searching for other things that could be improved.

  “You’ll find out once you grow older.” Radij stood up and stretched. For some reason, he had been feeling tired all day.

  Poor kid, he thought, looking at Acacia. She still thinks that diligence and hard work are somehow connected to career advancement.

  Even if she redid the prototype from scratch, all she’d receive was a commendation in her file, an invitation to a few corporate dinners, possibly a juicy bonus. Her name wasn’t going to go down in history as some genius or pioneer. As sad as it was, she had already reached the corporate pinnacle that could be obtained through skill and work alone. It was all downhill from there. If she were street-smart, she would concentrate her efforts on remaining at the top for as long as possible, enjoying the benefits her position offered. Unfortunately, as most geniuses, the girl lacked real-life experience.

  Sooner or later, you’ll learn. Radij looked away. Sooner or later, everyone does.

  The man had tried to subtly point her in the right direction, constantly broaching the subject. And yet, Acacia stubbornly refused to accept it, focusing on the here and now, as if her skills would last forever. Looking at her, Radij saw a copy of his young self, before he was replaced by the new crop of geniuses.

  “Two days, right?” he asked.

  “Yeah, yeah.” The girl waved at him to shut up, glued to her display.

  Radij would have preferred something more definite, but that would have to do. If all else failed, Adirex was inevitably going to step in; they also got paid by the hour. That would grant the man a few days to visit his family.

  According to the quantum-mails he received, his grandson had returned from college, offering a rare opportunity for Radij to see him again. Radij’s son, on the other hand, was off-world on business and was unlikely to return for months. That was hardly a surprise. The “kid” was walking in his father’s footsteps, only making a family so he could ignore it. If the same pattern followed, it would be a decade before the regrets kicked in. Or maybe he’d get lucky and they never would.

  Radij’s daughters, on their part, were happily married, severing any ties with him. The only time they’d pass by was during Rotation Day, more to see each other than him. Strangely enough, the man was pleased, even secretly envying them. There was a very good chance that they’d lead a normal, possibly even happy, life.

  The corporate elevator took the man straight to the underground parking. From there it was a one-hour drive to reach the suburbs. With the money he had amassed, Radij could easily buy an entire estate on this planet or any other. Instead, he had settled for a small but cozy house in a suburban community. It had cost him a small fortune, but he had equipped it with all the modern luxuries one could desire. The only thing missing was for him to get himself a dryad. A few of Radij’s corporate acquaintances kept on bragging that having one was a life changer. Dryads tended the house and garden a lot better than any droid or robot, even changing the weather when it suited their owners. Some even used them as babysitters, or something even more exotic. Radij was too old to be concerned with either, but he kept on pouring money into the Free Dryad Foundation.

  Officially, the church of the United Orthodoxy maintained a complete monopoly over the creatures with no prospects of them changing their ways. As with everything in life, there always were loopholes. Frontier worlds collapsed every year, leaving large amounts of free dryads. Once that happened, Orthodoxy ships would swarm the world, reclaiming all dryads for further relocation. Yet even such a massive military power wasn’t immune to cracks that ambitious entrepreneurs took advantage of.

  Dryad smuggling had become a lucrative, if dangerous, business. With the right connections and massive amounts of money, even corporates such as Radij could become the owner of their very own dryad. The waiting lists were massive, but the man was patient and there always was the chance that some newfound patriarch would allow a temporary sale quota.

  Radij drove up to his house and parked in the allocated spot in front. Taking a good whiff of fresh air, he looked around, checking for neighbors in sight he had to wave to, then went for the entrance. Once there, he rang the doorbell. Even after all this time, doing so felt weird. This was his house, after all. He had a key and everything, and still there was no way around it. The years had made him consider his family as foreign as they considered him.

  The door opened.

  “Good evening, Mister Rizin,” an unknown man greeted him.

  For a split second, Radij thought her wife had invited one of her friends again. That was before his mind recognized the typical outfit of an Orthodox priest.

  “Err… peace be upon you, father,” Radij said in the most unconvincing fashion possible. He had never particularly liked the clergy. The only time they showed up was to ask for something. “How may I be of service this time?”

  “You can accompany us to Eneah,” the priest said with a smile.

  Eneah? Radij wandered. He was familiar with the system. Not too far from the Corporate Hegemony, it boasted the strongest Orthodox presence in the sector. Also, it was home to multiple dryad hatcheries.

  “I guess I don’t have a choice.” The man looked beyond the priest, trying to get a glimpse of what lay in his own house. “Do I have time to see my family?”

  “Not this time.” The answer was polite, but firm.

  Radij didn’t think otherwise. This was the fourth visit the Orthodoxy had paid him. It was always the same: he’d get a visit, then be taken off to some top-secret location, where he’d be asked to find a solution to some “vital” technical issue. Nothing could be done. Despite having spent three quarters life in the Hegemony, Radij remained a neo-baptized. That came with considerable protections from the Orthodoxy and even greater obligations. Refusal risked him getting anathemized, which came with its own set of problems.

  You smug bastard, Radij thought. You could at least let me say hello to my wife!

  “I understand.” He nodded. “What’s the task this time?”

  “Everything will be explained once you arrive at your location,” the priest said. “You’d be glad to know that your corporate partner will be joining you.”

  “Acacia?” This was a surprise. “But she isn’t even a—”

  “She found our request interesting enough to “check it out.”

  Damn, woman! I leave you for a few hours and you manage to get into this mess?! “Of course, she did,” Radij sighed. And just when he thought he would finally get a few days of family time.