Bubble Energy Taken by Force

Introductions

 Corin and his wife weren't even breathing fast, unlike Stephen who had to pause getting his breath back. His heart thumped like the drummer of a speed metal band. He wheezed, "What exercise program do you guys have around here? Navy SEALS training?"

Corin answered, "My wife and I used to run marathons during our spare time. Let me introduce you to my two faithful employees. The man wearing the black jeans and black T-shirt is Hacker Jack. His duty is beta testing and hardware configuration."

Audrey explained, "As a child, he dug out the prized golden treasure key from a Cracker Jack box. Soon he discovered that it perfectly fits the keyhole to the New York subway control box. The colorful buttons behind the panel looked so inviting to touch. He must've pressed nearly every one of them before his train violently shuttered. Lights, motor, and everything else went dead. The operated tried restarting the train, but couldn't. Not so surprising since the dilapidated machine malfunctions every time someone gives it a stern word. They had to get another train to push it to the next station. It didn't help that it happened during the morning rush hour. His nickname stuck ever since."

Corin continued, "The man with the blue shorts is Jim, we call him Preacher Creature. He recently graduated from theology school planning to become a pastor before joining us as beta tester and interface designer. Also as a child, he used to enjoy watching the Creature Double Feature movies on TV. That's where his nickname came from."

Audrey exclaimed, "Black and blue clothing? You guys play too rough during volleyballs."

"Oops! That's just ... a coincident," Jack shyly stuttered.

Jim added, "We like wearing dark clothing because they reduce glare on the computer screen."

Both Corin and Audrey attended to their workstation, giving Stephen a welcomed chance to survey the surroundings. Two sliding glass doors open to a grass carpeted ledge offering a spectacular view of the forest occupied by occasional wildflower speckled fields. Weather worn mountains formed the horizon. Sunshine streamed through, filling the large room with a warm glow, sparkling polished granite walls. One side was occupied by a row of 10 stainless steel boxes—high and narrow. Each sprinkled with constellations of flickering red, yellow, and green diodes. Both testers' desks, at the other end, sat adjacent to each other. Jim's desk was a plain shaker style table with a terminal and a pen and paper notepad. It had no decoration or personal knickknacks anywhere. In contrast, Jack's considerably more cluttered desk groaned from heavy piles of magazines, framed photos, organizers, and a monitor placed somewhere as an afterthought.

"Your main office is amazing. Jack, what's that poster for? It appears to be stamped with images of computers with eyes as two X, and four legs sticking up."

"That's the number of time we hard crashed our supercomputer. Don't let Jim's nice Christian attitude fool you. He's ruthless. 55 percent of the trashed computer icons are from him, but I'll catch up using my newly finished torture rack routine. It's five times more efficient in stretching codes to the breaking point."

"No you won't. I've cleaned that messy set of functions you've been relentlessly hacking to death. It's ten percent smaller than the old set, and runs faster to boot."

Corin interrupted them, "Now that we've been properly introduced, let me show you the fruits of our labor. Each person has his own desk and monitor. For now, you can watch from a spare terminal. Should you decide to stay, we'll get you permanently set up. Jim can help you customize your desk to suit your taste."

Stephen timidly sat down behind a fiendishly complicated terminal. It has three keyboards, three 19-inch flat screen monitors, and a pile of peripherals buried under cables. "I hope Jim has a month free training me because I have no clue on how to use most of the items."

Jim answered, "Don't let all that intimidate you. Hacker Jack likes to use that desk for testing hardware. Most of what you see are unplugged." He reached over and turned on the computer and middle monitor. "There. Your system is configured identically to Jack's, which is good enough, I supposed for now."

Audrey pointed at Stephen's monitor and commented, "Each person may control the system from his own terminal. We do have voice recognition capability, but prefer typing commands. Mostly, we use variables mixed with a sprinkling of formula, which don't translate very well to words. Also we had problems of miscommunications."

Jim said, "Oh, yes. The incident when Jack screamed, 'Die computer', while the mike was still activated."

"That's where this trashed computer icon came from." Jack proudly pointed at the tenth one on the board.

"Voice recognition still need work. When commanding the computer, don't speak too fast. You may need to repeat a phrase several times before it understands."

They did their homework very nicely. Stephen was impressed. He doesn't like typing. "I appreciate all your effort in making me comfortable, but I still have no idea what your computer does."