Ilse stood in front of her bed, surrounded by dozens of data windows on both sides. Systems code filled most of them, with a smattering of others displaying complex webs of heuristic nodes identified by cryptic identification codes that were barely intelligible even to her, despite her intimate familiarity with the project.
An almost forgotten joy accompanied her work. Emma had been the culmination of years of work, and it wasn’t as if she was always in the trenches performing the low-level programming tasks. Now, stripped of assistants and presented with an epic task, she couldn’t help but enjoy the puzzle. True, she had Emma helping her, but it felt like a close partnership rather than the impersonal projects of the Defense Directorate. This work was both stimulating and worthy of her i
