Oh Two
002: Middles
==-==-==
Considering how little Corinth actually did in person, he was often vaguely astounded by the amount of paperwork that passed through his hands. It was only more impressive when he considered the sheer level of computing technology that surrounded him, buzzing through every wall in his pastel prison. With that many machines constantly whirring, there shouldn't be any paper left at all. But, that was just a testament, in its own way, to the trust that Dierdya put in him. To catch the mistakes that her machines didn't. To report the mishaps and moral trespasses that a computer couldn't comprehend.
She wasn't an amused person, Dierdya, but there had been a flicker of a smile when she'd explained to him the need for a human touch in the management of her monstrosity. Most likely related to the fact that, by stricter definitions, neither of them were human at all.
Still, as he sat surrounded by manilla folders, clipboard, and file cabinets, Corinth felt truly in his element. Tearing flesh from bone was messy work, not suited to someone like him. He was much better dealing with the teeming masses and with a single screaming individual. And paperwork was nothing in the facility if not a teeming mass.
For an unsuspecting, middle management sort, this was nearly a perfect day. He'd made headway in the stacks, setting aside only three files to pass along to Diss. For his last two hours of 'daylight'- defined by a distinctly yellower hue to the lighting underground, rather than the blue shades of 'night'- Corinth had saved what might be called his favorite.
It was a responsibility only recently moved onto his over-heavy load. But it came with an indefinable sense of value, and of trust. It had been nearly like a promotion, being told that he would now be saddled with looking over and approving requests from the scurrying scientists for new projects and lines of research.
As was always the case, there was a new Aviance request, because it seemed that now one was willing to admit defeat where the electronically augmented cyborg soldier concept was concerned. This time, it was another frail looking little girl, maybe ten years old. The requests seemed to alternate between girls too young and fragile, and boys to rough and tumble. Why couldn't anyone be bothered to select a nice, middling, average sort of child?
Still, at this point it was easier to approve Aviance requests on principle, and move on. He gave his signature, and went to the next clipboard.
This one was new. Not an entirely new line, but rather, a project request he hadn't seen before. Apparently, someone thought it would be a good idea to make another one in his own line. Corinth was only twenty one, but he'd been in Eternity for seven years, long enough to know that letting his singular status come into question would be dangerous. Possibly mortally so. This request, he rejected.
And so, he carried on, half hunched in the center of the many stacks.
It had been a good day, if uneventful.
==-==-==
Considering how little Corinth actually did in person, he was often vaguely astounded by the amount of paperwork that passed through his hands. It was only more impressive when he considered the sheer level of computing technology that surrounded him, buzzing through every wall in his pastel prison. With that many machines constantly whirring, there shouldn't be any paper left at all. But, that was just a testament, in its own way, to the trust that Dierdya put in him. To catch the mistakes that her machines didn't. To report the mishaps and moral trespasses that a computer couldn't comprehend.
She wasn't an amused person, Dierdya, but there had been a flicker of a smile when she'd explained to him the need for a human touch in the management of her monstrosity. Most likely related to the fact that, by stricter definitions, neither of them were human at all.
Still, as he sat surrounded by manilla folders, clipboard, and file cabinets, Corinth felt truly in his element. Tearing flesh from bone was messy work, not suited to someone like him. He was much better dealing with the teeming masses and with a single screaming individual. And paperwork was nothing in the facility if not a teeming mass.
For an unsuspecting, middle management sort, this was nearly a perfect day. He'd made headway in the stacks, setting aside only three files to pass along to Diss. For his last two hours of 'daylight'- defined by a distinctly yellower hue to the lighting underground, rather than the blue shades of 'night'- Corinth had saved what might be called his favorite.
It was a responsibility only recently moved onto his over-heavy load. But it came with an indefinable sense of value, and of trust. It had been nearly like a promotion, being told that he would now be saddled with looking over and approving requests from the scurrying scientists for new projects and lines of research.
As was always the case, there was a new Aviance request, because it seemed that now one was willing to admit defeat where the electronically augmented cyborg soldier concept was concerned. This time, it was another frail looking little girl, maybe ten years old. The requests seemed to alternate between girls too young and fragile, and boys to rough and tumble. Why couldn't anyone be bothered to select a nice, middling, average sort of child?
Still, at this point it was easier to approve Aviance requests on principle, and move on. He gave his signature, and went to the next clipboard.
This one was new. Not an entirely new line, but rather, a project request he hadn't seen before. Apparently, someone thought it would be a good idea to make another one in his own line. Corinth was only twenty one, but he'd been in Eternity for seven years, long enough to know that letting his singular status come into question would be dangerous. Possibly mortally so. This request, he rejected.
And so, he carried on, half hunched in the center of the many stacks.
It had been a good day, if uneventful.