Cloud to Cloud

Episode 20: Fred's First Connection

Fred returned to his cubicle and eyed the computer. A smile spread across his face as he realized the picture on the screen was not a still picture chat room avatar. It was a moving, live video stream.

"Well. If it's not one miracle it's another." Fred sighed as he slid into the chair to face the monitor.

Hannah's image smiled back from a small pop-up window.

She, too, grinned as Fred entered the cubicle and shifted into view.

"Fred!" Hannah's voice exploded from the speakers.

Fred had not expected the sudden, incredibly audible outburst. He dove for the volume dial and cranked to the lowest possible setting. He twisted in his chair to throw a nervous glance at the cubicle opening to check if anyone, especially Evan, had overheard.

Fred fished within his own boxes of connections and devices. From beneath a tangle of wires he drew a dusty headset. Wireless headsets no longer worked since the crash. Turning back to his work station, Fred fumbled with the audio jack and the openings along the monitor frame. At last the pin found a home and an audible click announced the audio shifting to the headphones.

"Hannah?" Fred eyed the streaming video of the owner of Conscious Connections.

Hannah's lips moved in the video, yet there was no audio. Fred leaned to the speaker dial again. He rotated the dial, to no avail.

Hannah gestured calmly.

"Ahh!" Fred drew his hands to the wire connecting headset to monitor.

His fingers fumbled along the cable to pause on a small switch and rotated a miniscule dial until Hannah's voice could at last be heard at a reasonable level.

"Fred. I can see you!" Hannah's excitement seemed more subdued with the low volume. "Can you see me too? Can you hear me okay? Say something so I can hear you. This is exceptional! You're the first one I have been able to video conference with since all these glitches started." Hannah rambled joy into Fred's ears.

Fred stared at the woman. It wasn't the first video conference he had experienced, yet it felt like a new discovery. Systems between them appeared to be behaving as before the crash.

"Hannah. I can see you. And I can definitely hear you, but how are you getting through?" Fred adjusted the headset as he whispered to the woman on the screen. "Even internal networks here at ITower aren't getting a feed solid enough for streaming."

Fred could tell his words fell on ears with little knowledge of networking system function.

It wasn't that Hannah lacked the savvy for business and social applications. To the contrary, Hannah took pride in how much she learned on her own. Self-taught, yet aware only of what she needed to keep her business running.

The inner workings didn't mean much.

Fred had little desire to waste time guiding Hannah to a greater understanding of technology. Yet, he wished she understood enough to be able to explain how she had rigged a streaming chat session.

For the moment, however, it was far more important to share his concerns with the last online chat he had experienced with the stranger, Coach333.

"Never mind the connection stuff for right now." Fred shook his head. "I can explain it to you later. As exciting as this is, I have a more pressing concern. I'm glad we can talk about it instead of trying to make sense of it in text."

Fred shifted in his seat, concern knitting his brows. He could only imagine how the encounter he experienced would be perceived in an email.

Hannah fumbled with the volume controls on her end. It was clear she finally realized Fred was whispering and would likely not be raising his voice.