Quills: the Rise of the Northern Matriarch-Chapter 103: Downfall (2)

"I agree to put a pin in this for them for now, but if it happens by accident, do not be mad at me. I cannot stand seeing you hurt." Nora said as she sat down beside him. She rested her head against his shoulder, watching the room happily with him. Nora did not completely hate their idea about artificial gestation. She liked that she could dismiss her biological clock and have healthy children later than most women on her old planet did. She was torn and did not want to regret a thing.

"I think we're all on edge waiting for approval for the new operating system. I am afraid that the Hudai will be able to recover from this somehow. What if they raid us and find an isolated interface that we used for testing in the cache somehow or a programmer is coerced to help them fix the problem? Talan learned how to write from the men there, he was raised below those work benches. " Kadir admitted nervously.

"The Hudai programmers will not be able to fix this. They did not raise you and I. It took all of us to break this. We just had more of a passive method planned out. I never thought I would bring malicious code to this world, nor a virus. I thought your world was so vastly more technologically powerful than earth", Nora said, first proudly and then in a teasing tone.

Liem stood up and walked to the elevator. The sheer amount of talent that was free now was incredible, but it was also giving him a headache. He made his way to the medical clinic to get something to remedy the pressure he was feeling. He also needed to talk to Janel about creating numerous inoculations for the number of incoming staff. Also, the amount of testing his small group of staff could process with their own facility was a factor. Would Janel need more staff? He walked around a corner and almost ran into Monil who was carrying Van in a personal carrier. Monil gasped and then gave a nervous smile.

"Liem, my apologies." Monil said as he looked up at the distracted-looking, stressed young man.

"What is wrong?" Monil said, looking at him concerned. He had finished reviewing 'pitches' as Nora called them for upcoming projects, and assigned all the work for the coming week today. He was free to lend a hand to the spouse of his family's benefactor.

"Nothing is wrong. I was just headed to talk to Janel about inoculations and testing for a swath of new staffing." Liem said.

"I do not mean with the company or the world. You do not look happy." Monil said quietly and with an air of concern. He placed his hand on Liem's shoulder. As far as he was aware Janel and his staff were almost done and setting up in the reception area of the building tomorrow. Although Janel was busy, he was happy because it meant less work in the long run. Janel was taking care of this and Nora had delegated the work to him, why did Liem need to check in?

"I understand that you have a lot of work to do, but why is something like this your duty? You brought on people and they are all looking happy and are able to go home to work. Why not just assign a staff member to it?" Monil asked, puzzled. He too was running a division of Quill Industries and made sure that he had time for his family.

"The number of requests for employment are coming in and we have a lot of spaces to fill. I do not know, maybe I feel slightly responsible for this." Liem said and heaved a heavily stressed sigh. There were many people escaping awful work environments in a flooded job market. The Droids filled most of the dangerous jobs. They had made sure to acquire any workers that had lost their jobs due to the Droids and employ them in their agriculture and food services industries. However the changes to the Matriarch tools were quickly spread by the workers when they found out in the worse fields that they were no longer in danger if they refused a command. It only took a couple of days for them to stop doing dangerous or degrading work. Their companies could not silence them as the seeds of liberation spread by communication. The power of one voice multiplied like wildfire once they were free from oppression. News of rebellion against employers spread when a few dared to send their own Bitas offspring to deal with disobedience with physical violence and intimidation.

It was too late for the government to suppress the news and communications. As they themselves only had the control of Bitas level peacekeepers and military with their limited tools to quell any violence. But there was no violence, just a massive amount of people quitting their jobs. There were superficial laws to protect the workers before the problems with the interfaces were detected. These laws now protected their rights and were meaningful without the threat of death, violence and losing social credit from the upper Classes. They could not act on citizens who were peaceful, they could not enslave them. But they could starve without access to currency for food and goods. Liem felt the burden of starving men and children. Monil gave a tender look to the stressed out young man.

"Why? They made the choice to leave their positions when the tools stopped working. It is not your responsibility to employ them all just because they made that choice. Communicate with your staff, have them hire on others and coordinate with Janel and his team. Lessen your burdens. We all know what the Quills have done for us. It is not just the Quills fighting for change, have faith in your workers. We will all fight alongside you." Monil said with confidence. He did not feel the need to be subservient to this male, Nora said she was his equal and to come to her. He would definitely be communicating with her about this. He was perturbed. Did he not trust Nora or his staff?

"I can help you with hiring as well. All is going well with the Entertainment sector, I have finished hiring my executives. I can help you with this. I know plenty of competent men." Monil said. They all knew what the new Clan was doing for the world, how they respected and rewarded their workers. Monil was sure that every worker in every facility would violently riot if something were to happen to the Quills.Monil opened up his interface and sent a communication quickly to Liem's three aides to deal with the influx of the employment requests and to ask Janel for the amount of tests and staffing that they would require.

"I do not have medical training but I do know when someone needs to take a break. I can help you delegate your workload this week. I will coordinate with Nora." Monil said and slapped Liem on the shoulder lightly.

"Thank you. I will have to take you up on your offer." Liem said as he felt overwhelmed, he did not even know what to do anymore. The scope of what he envisioned for the future had broadened beyond his expectations. He had underestimated and misjudged everything based on a skewed understanding of the people around him. His contribution to the successes of the Clan were minimal. His self esteem was bloated from praise. He had the base education of a Matriarch and an understanding of a dead culture that she used as a cover identity. He walked into the clinic after he and Monil parted and got something for his headache and emailed his staff to hire their own support staff and to begin hiring, they required thousands of human staffing for every sector of Quill Industries. Monil was right. They were doing this to empower people, he thought that he should empower himself as well. Giving more power to his work force would place these people in higher social positions, he did not need or want to deal with the day to day.

'All I can do now is become her aide.' Liem thought, his shoulders shrank as he realized. He walked down the hallway towards their home quietly as the doors slid open. He sat down on a large seat and closed his eyes as the water in the ornamental water feature in the room trickled and he let his mind wander to think about what he was grateful for and drifted off. Cerez and Kai were making lunch when they heard Liem start to snore from the kitchen.

Follow current novels on ƒreewebηoveℓ.com.

"Remind me to send a thank you gift to Monil and Janel." Cerez said appreciatively as he heard Liem finally relax.

"He can just deal with the asinine communications, Nora let her terminal fill up with. She wants to just set a program to automatically reply with a No for an answer. I do not think that will work." Kadir said with a laugh.