A New Project, A New Worry

Aidan takes the well worn path up the stairs to the third floor-- though there was a lift, he enjoyed the time to collect his thoughts-- and almost automatically turns to the second door on the right. It's customary for all the siblings to report back after an assignment, to the point where it would be unthinkable to do anything else.

Although Father is, and has always been the face of Nimeitus, the true force behind the name of the brand is, perhaps surprisingly to some, Mother. That doesn't mean Father has no power, Mother simply… prefers to call the shots. They were equal, in most senses of the word.

A moment's hesitation, and Aidan firmly opens the door, walking into the office.

"Aidan. You are back." Elvira, second daughter of prominent nobility, now wife of the head of Nimeitus, mother to three children, regards her youngest child. "I trust you have much to report, after your last visit?" She murmurs, gesturing languidly for him to take a seat.

Aidan approaches the table, choosing the middle of three chairs set out across from her. "Yes, it was most enlightening." he says, equally calm as he calls up the hologram from his wristband. A couple of flicks sends several files of notes floating to Elvira's tabletop hologram display, seamlessly merging with the half dozen other files she has open. "The General Supervisor was exceptional in her professionalism and attention to detail, as always. Perhaps it would be prudent to acknowledge that?"

"Is that so?" Elvira's glances momentarily at her son,, before turning her gaze back to the files, expertly swiping through them and picking out the most important information in moments. "It seems that your visit was fairly fruitful. Good, that you did not waste your time on frivolous things…" Mother and son look at each other, simultaneously conjuring up similar images in their mind's eye.

(The firstborn, Alexei, was never one for stiff formality or following the rules.)

"Alexei has always been unique." Aidan comments, then leaves it at that. "Now the information that I have obtained about the System and the relevant files, is that all there is to know?"

"Certainly not. This information is highly confidential, even among us. You will come to know all there is to know with time, and patience. What you have there is perhaps a tenth of all the workings of the System, but still a very valuable tenth nonetheless." Elvira sighs, waving away all of the files on her display with a single hand action. "To think that all my children have grown up…"

Aidan blinks, thrown off ever so slightly by the sudden change, and personal, intimate turn of the conversation. "Mother?" It is unusual to hear her speak of such emotional matters, and he finds himself at a loss for what to do.

"Hm? No, there is nothing. You are dismissed, dinner will be at eight p.m. sharp."

Knowing a command when he hears one, Aidan immediately stands to leave, leaving Elvira a short parting nod before he continues to his rooms, head buzzing with various thoughts.

'Only one-tenth? Then what Alexei knows… well, she has never cared for these kinds of things. I wouldn't be surprised if she forgot everything by now. There's still much to learn, but at least I know some things now. Maybe I can infer some of the rest. And Mother… seems to be rather nostalgic today. I suppose it was bound to happen at some point. Now, what time is it? Almost two hours before dinner huh.'

After spending an entire afternoon in his personal brand of solitary confinement, Aidan decides to head down to the drawing room, and away from his private quarters. It's somewhat relaxing to read among the soft sounds of the servants pacing around, cleaning, arranging, or fetching something or another for their masters and mistresses. He was at once among human company and alone, a sort of half existence that suited and agreed with him.

With his beloved books, two hours are easily whiled away, signalled by the pleasant chimes of the dinner bell. Being the closest to the dining room, Aidan is also the first one seated among the fine cloth and china, patiently watching as the servants glide out with the first course of the meal.

"Huh, you're the earliest for once, Aidan. Usually it's mom. Are you really hungry today~?"

Oldest sibling Alexei prances down the stairs, a teasing but warm smile plastered onto her face as she makes her way around the table to ruffle violently at Aidan's hair before plopping down into the seat next to him. He automatically pats down the stray hairs, only the slightest twitch of his mouth betraying his annoyance.

Next come Elvira and Lazar, together as always. Closer in temperament and personality to Aidan than Alexei, they merely give the two a nod. Alexei's not bothered by that, though, and still shouts out the same cheerful greeting as always. In a family made of ice and snow, she's the one that stands out, sticking out like a sore thumb with her warmth of a warm summer's day.

Against a backdrop of her chatter, they wait. The maids still move in their dance of servitude, pouring water, straightening napkins, lighting candles (a redundant luxury kept on purely for aesthetics sake). Almost twenty minutes pass, where even Alexei falls silent, fiddling with this or that on the table, something that Aidan can't discern beyond the forest of crystal cutlery between them. Until finally, irregular footsteps sound on the stairs, slowly, until the figure is revealed.

"Ah, Mikhail, hurry up," Alexei cries impatiently, ready to go up and haul him down herself. "We've all been waiting for you!"

"Comin…" He shuffles down the last few steps and to his seat, nose buried in a thick book the entire time.

The second he sits, the table bursts into a flurry of muted activity, cutlery tinkling against plates as some ancient classical piece plays in the background.

"So," Alexei begins again half-way through the meal, determinedly sawing through a thigh of chicken. "Aidan got the lowdown on some of the System stuff today right? What d'you think?" She blinks expectantly at Aidan, who can only stare back reproachfully with a mouthful of mashed potatoes.

He swallows, quicker than he'd like. "It was very interesting. I look forward to learning more about it. I will put the information to good use."

"Awh, you're always so formal like that. Did you see the heart I carved into the lift? It was right in the corner next to the railing--"

Aidan does not need to turn his head to know it's Elvira sighing, or to see Lazar flicker his eyes momentarily towards the ceiling as though asking a higher power for strength.

"I hope you did not put your initials next to it this time, as you had the last time." Elvira says curtly while calmly transferring some of her potatoes to Lazar's plate as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

'I'm sure everyone knows she did it, even if she didn't put her name on it.'

Alexei laughs (diverts), a bright (blinding), cheerful (blithe) noise, completely ignorant (was she?) of the implications floating (suffocating) in the air (oxygen kills). "Of course not, It's more fun if they don't know who did it!" A cunning smile, sudden sharpness edging every expression. "If you don't put your name on it, no one knows what you do~"

The faint din at the dinner table fades with an instantaneous snap, where even Mikhail looks up from his book.

"That is correct." Lazar intones, his first contribution to the conversation all night. He appears entirely unaffected by the stunned hush as he inclines his head approvingly at his only daughter, calmly cutting into the potatoes that occasionally appeared on his plate in a manner akin to magic.

Another irreverent laugh resounds as Alexei tilts her head, patting her younger brother on the head. "Hey, what's with you suddenly looking up? Go back to your book, it's not gonna finish itself you know?" And just like that, the atmosphere crashes back down from its suspended heights, returning everything to normal.

'She really is one of us, in the end.'

They just needed a little reminder of it every now and then.

The rest of dinner proceeds at the same sedate pace, the conversation turning to inconsequential topics and utterly forgettable discussions. Aidan chips in at all the right moments, and nothing more. Occasionally his gaze falls to his older brother, who never turned his eyes from the book propped up in front of his plate. That was one bad habit that their parents never managed to correct, leaving Mikhail free to desecrate all dinner tables that he comes across without reproach.

After dinner, Aidan's at the top of the first flight of stairs when Elvira calls his attention back down to the table again, where she and Lazar sit, watching their children depart.

"If you are going back to the office tomorrow, there are some additional projects that could be improved by your review. Do let Celeste know in any case," she says, fingers running along the edge of a crystal flute.

A pause, and, "Of course." Maybe he'll get more interesting projects considering his new knowledge?

On his way back to his room, maids and servants make way in an almost exaggerated manner as he proceeds down the corridors and up the stairs to the right wing of the fourth floor.

In the Czartoryski family, privacy is valued more than gold. Each sibling occupies half a floor; himself and his older brother on the fourth floor, while his sister and parents took over the third floor. He'd redesigned his quarters himself once he'd reached an appropriate age, into the living space of his dreams.

Entering the front door places him in his study, full of sleek wooden furniture arranged in a minimalist style. The wall shelves hold various articles of interest; a few antique books, an authentic tortoiseshell flute and a hand-carved windchime of sparkling diamond, among other things. His desk dominates the center of the room, accompanied by floating holograms and a comfortable leather chair.

Through the door on the left is his personal library, containing over twenty thousand books and a maze of steps and ladders, platforms and shelves. In this age of digitization, libraries are all but useless, for anything in print is sure to be found online. Especially since printing with real paper and ink has become pricey that it's not nearly worth the effort. But for someone like Aidan, with unlimited resources, a library is simply a logical realization of what he loves.

The door straight ahead, built into the opposite wall leads him to his bedroom. It's a dim affair, but large enough not to be claustrophobic, exactly how he likes it. The piano in the corner is well dusted, the shelf next to it well stocked with sheet music of all sorts. Exhausted, he sweeps away all thoughts of other work as he steps into the shower, allowing the warm water to massage away the aches of the day. Then, he goes to sleep, dreaming of absolutely nothing.

The weeks after are busy, hectic, absolutely packed. Aidan returns to work at the Nimeitus HQ, and finds himself swamped with work. Most of his old projects were shifted to new teams, and he's instead assigned a whole new plethora of other ventures. It makes sense for his parents to take advantage of the new capable hands…

'But really… this is a little drastic isn't it?'

Even the location of his office changed, even though the interior is impressively untouched. His assistant also has a oddly different face, and he has the sneaking suspicion that she might not be the same person. She still has the same professionalism and organizational skills though, so he can't be absolutely sure.

"Mr Aidan, I've arranged a short introduction of each new project in this folder as per Mr Czartoryski's request. There is also a shortlist of potential candidates to promote to work on these projects, as well as an overview of the existing members of the teams."

She even speaks in the same clipped tone, though her voice is slightly lower pitched that what he usually expects. There's about a seventy percent chance that she's a different person, but he doesn't have the time to waste on determining the truth behind this probability game. Besides, she's only an assistant, and therefore, not worth so much of his time when he has so many other things to focus on.

With the change in management, the office floor he now works on is abuzz with excitement and a certain tinge of gloom. It's inevitable that each new manager brings with them their own favorites and shakes up the team compositions a little, and every change is a guessing game for who'll next get the boot, and who'll get the promotion.

Aidan ignores all of that, though, and shuts himself into his office, determined to at least have his head wrapped around the current state of all new projects by the end of the day. Then he can decide how best to proceed with the projects, and those working on them.

The folder is a series of wafer thin screens, reinforced to be unbreakable, yet bendable to imitate the properties of paper. Each one lights up at the touch of a finger, and a single sheet of nanopaper can contain a single project, adjustable between infinite scrolling and ebook variations.

First up is an improvement to the irrigation of the hyareponics tower system along the city limits. That's a old project carried over to his new position, so it can remain the way it is, at least. The next couple are also remnants of his old work, and it's only on the fourth section of the thick folder that he begins to encounter interesting things.

'Project: Synthesis'

The project name alone beckons for him to read further, with an allure reminiscent of those detective cases shrouded in mystery.

'Synopsis: This project focuses on the centralization and collation of all citizen data. This augments the efficiency of the System and is one of the central projects of Nimeitus.'

At some level, Aidan expected this to be one of the many projects carried out within the bounds of his parents' company. But for it to sit before him, any and all data available to him without any tricks, seems to be something almost out of a dream. Not only is it a core part of the company, it's also a major boon to his personal whims and habits.

Was this planned by Mother and Father? After all, Mikhail does receive an unusual amount of research responsibility. And he loves nothing if not research.

He can't read on fast enough, screens rustling between his fingers, eyes devouring every new morsel of information.

'The project is divided into two segments in order to promote greater organization. Section A: Zakaz. Section B: Proizvol.'

'Zakaz:

This division focuses on the common types of information gathering. This includes living addresses, height, weight, date of birth, family, education level, and other such definable data. This corpus of information is largely complete to a significant degree, and should not generate unmanageable difficulties to complete. As it stands, such data of every single inhabitant in the world has been logged.'

'Proizvol:'

'This division focuses on the less definable type of data. Collecting together arbitrary data, this division's goal is to create usable statistics from information gathered from citizens and non-citizens.'

'Information involved includes: Paths taken and speed, pace and style of transportation when journeying towards an intended location. Emotional response to all situations. Layout of household items, workplace items, personal items. Type of music listened to. Color of clothing. Manner in which items are handled. Etc.'

'As the information is generally arbitrary, and the factors large, the amount of data is excessive, and often poses a problem towards efficient usage. While the process as of the time of recording is functional, and all data from all inhabitants is continuously obtained, the potential of it to be streamlined is great.'

Aidan has to take a moment after reading through the full report of the project, which spans another fifty pages beyond the initial synopsis (which was very well summarized), and completely turns his view of the world on its head.

From the beginning, he's always known that information about citizens is collected regularly, after all, the System makes decisions based on information. The information revealed to him about the System only a few weeks before reflected about that much. However, he never knew how much information was collected, and certainly never suspected such a depth to it. Seemingly, every single aspect of every person's life is recorded, even the most mundane detail such as which foot is first placed on the floor after getting out of bed.

Collecting that much… there must be cameras and sensors everywhere. Even in private homes. Personal devices are definitely used as surveillance bodies as well. If even this bit of knowledge of the System gives me such a project, I wonder what will I be able to obtain when I have received all there is to know?

The rest of the projects pale in comparison to Synthesis, as can be expected. None can hold his attention in the same way, and so he finds himself pacing around his office occasionally, adjusting his displays to the millimeter. It's so unlike his usual calm, focused demeanor, that he can't fault the replaced-not-replaced secretary when she arrives with his morning cup of coffee and leaves with a slightly curious glance. But it's undignified to behave like this where the public eye can be turned on him at any time, so he roughly shakes himself out of his distracted daze, and sits down to properly finish up the readings.

'I'll assign the teams next week... in the meantime I'll finish reading these, and take a break, maybe one day just to catch up on some things. Yes, I haven't been to the coffee shop for awhile.'

His mind made up, Aidan hurries through the rest of the day, looking forward to his well deserved rest day.