Chapter 5. Quake Base One
The republic had five Quake Bases. They were located in the northeastern, northern, middle, middle-southern, and northwestern regions. None of the five Quake Bases had anything to do with earthquakes, however. They were giant server centers hidden two hundred meters underneath the earth’s surface, and their existence was to ensure that the republic had sufficient supercomputers running during the following two extreme conditions: 1. The national Internet network collapsed due to a software failure, and 2. The hardware of the national Internet network was destroyed in a nuclear attack. Each of the five Quake Bases required AAA class clearance to access.
This was an ordinary rural weather observing station, equipped with just one instrument shelter, a single wind vane and a prefabricated cabin. This weather station carried out uneventful daily observations. Only that this day, when the girl working there was about to head out from work, she received an unexpected phone call from her boss. She was given a half-month off for no apparent reason.
At ten past midnight, a mini helicopter flew in from the other side of the mountain. The helicopter followed strict blackout rules, and its engine noise was silenced. After it landed at the weather station, two women walked out of the fuselage. They were the Chief Executive of the republic and her bodyguard. They glanced at the sleeping town not far from where they were and walked into the Portacabin quietly. It was completely dark inside the room. The lieutenant turned on a flashlight. In the dim light they saw two soldiers in full combat gear, one of them holding a leash to a black military dog. They saluted the Chief Executive and smiled at the lieutenant. Inside the room there were some hygrometers and broken wind vanes, and a simple bed belonging to the station worker. The floor of the room suddenly lightly jerked, and they felt that the entire room was descending. Half a minute later, the outside turned bright. The Chief Executive walked out of the door and found herself in a long, metal-lined corridor. She walked down the corridor, hearing the identification instrument clicking on both sides. At the end of the corridor, an enormous lead gate opened up. She now stood before a wide-open space the size of a soccer field. This was a gigantic central control room, equipped with five large screens, one of which showed the map of the country. On the floor hundreds of computer terminals were placed in an orderly grid. Several hundred operators, dressed in military uniform, were busily working. It was silent here, despite a large crowd of people working here, and you can only hear the terminals beeping once in a while.
This was the first time a Quake Base was put into use.
The chief scientific advisor and the base commander reported to the Chief Executive that the appraisal committee was ready, and the base equipments were running nominally.
On a screen more than 20 meters tall, a document was displayed to the Chief Executive. She was wearing a pair of glasses synchronized to the screen, so she was the only person who could see anything on the screen.
The document read:
Infopack ZZG931 of the People’s Republic of China. Secret level AAA.
Software BRAIN1, BRAIN2, BRAIN3, BRAIN4, BRAIN5, BRAIN5
Appraisal committee (hereafter committee B) composition:
Committee B is staffed by 56 advisors and 390 staff members, all personnel were cleared for contact with class AAA secrets.
Standard procedure dictates that in the subsequent 160 hours, all members of Committee B (56 advisors, 390 staff, in total 446 members) will be placed under AAA class isolation.
The committee is divided into five working groups:
1. Software engineering working group. Number of advisors, 13; all PhD degree holders in computer science. Five of them are senior investigators, four of them are professors, and four senior engineers. They are codenamed R01 – R13. Number of staff, 110.
2. Biology working group. Number of advisors, 4; all PhD degree holders in biology, all senior investigators. Codenamed S01 – S04. Number of staff, 50.
3. Psychology working group. Number of advisors, 9; all PhD degree holders in psychology. Six senior investigators, three professors. Codenamed X01 – X09. Number of staff, 80.
4. Sociology working group. Number of advisors, 20. Five persons with a PhD degree in history, four of whom are experts of modern and near-modern history; one of whom is an expert in Party history; two with a PhD in folk culture studies; five with PhD in education, four with PhD in anthropology, four with PhD in humanitarian geology. Twelve senior investigators, eight professors. Codename H01 – H20. Number of staff, 130.
5. Legal working group. Number of advisors, 10. Eight with PhD in legal studies, and two with PhD in ethics. Codename F01 – F10. Number of staff, 20.
For details of the above personnel, please view database entry B001.
(Press any key to continue)
Infopack ZZG932 of the People’s Republic of China. Secret level AAA.
Method and procedure for the appraisal of software BRAIN1, BRAIN2, BRAIN3, BRAIN4, BRAIN5, BRAIN6
Appraisal will proceed in two stages:
1. Four working groups, all except for the Legal WG start their work. Each group works independently without knowing the existence of the other working groups. All groups follow class 1 appraisal schedule. During this stage, except for the software engineering working group, all the other working groups will not work on the software itself, and are not informed of the physical form of the subjects of appraisal. The subjects are regarded entirely as a black box, and their outputs are studied. Each working group may use any input as they see fit. To prevent damage to the subject of appraisal, backup (not exceeding one) is allowed (this also applies to stage 2).
2. After each working group, except for the legal working group, finishes their work in the first stage, they will enter the second stage simultaneously. First, they will exchange their complete findings and data, and they will analyze the results holistically and make their final decision. This stage follows the class 2 appraisal schedule. At this point, the work is finished by all working groups except of the legal working group.
3. Legal working group will start work following class 3 appraisal schedule after the other four working groups are complete with their job.
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Infopack ZZG933 of the People’s Republic of China. Secret level AAA.
Software BRAIN1, BRAIN2, BRAIN3, BRAIN4, BRAIN5, BRAIN6 appraisal schedule
Class one:
Software engineering working group: six softwares (BRAIN1 – BRAIN6) are compiled into machine code. You will verify their following aspects: size, function, structural features, and possible source of the software
Psychology working group: validate six subjects (BRAIN1 – BRAIN6) from a psychological perspective.
Biology working group: validate six subjects (BRAIN1 – BRAIN6) from a biological perspective.
Sociology working group: validate six subjects (BRAIN1 – BRAIN6) from a sociology perspective. Main directions: anthropology, social psychology, history (with an emphasis on near modern and modern history), education, folk culture, and population geology.
(Class 1 schedules were approved by all advisors)
Class 2: based on the results of stage 1 appraisal results, make the final definition to the six subjects. You may consult the information provided. (Note: the information contains documents of each body, including their diaries, mail correspondence, and works. We have encountered difficulties locating documents associated with BRAIN6 during his lifetime. Refer to the entries stored in the central computer of the Institution of Party History, CPC)
Class 3: based on the results of stage 1 and 2 appraisal results, provide the legal and ethical statuses of the six subjects.
(Press any key to continue)
Infopack ZZG934 of the People’s Republic of China. Secret level AA.
Executive order of the Office of the Chief Executive of the People’s Republic of China: Appraisal results of the software packages BRAIN1, BRAIN2, BRAIN3, BRAIN4, BRAIN5, BRAIN6 are classified as level AAA secrets.
All five giant screens turned on at once, showing the pictures of the five working groups live. In each computer room, scientists who just arrived were talking to each other in small groups. Soon they turned towards the Chief Executive.
“Hello comrades,” said the Chief Executive, “I feel it necessary to reiterate that the work you will be undertaking may hold great historical significance.”
“I have been called upon by three Chief Executives in the past and they all said the same things before we started. You’re giving us a pep talk.” Said a scientist in the biology working group. They weren’t wrong about this: the work during the first stage would be quite tedious, but when all the data were collected and compiled for the second stage analyses, the results could possibly startle even the most imaginative scientist.
“Or not. The Chief executive might have brought us six aliens from the Andromeda.” Said a scientist in the software working group jokingly.
“Leave me one if that is the case. There are things in our world that maybe only the aliens can have a grip on.” Replied the Chief Executive, smiling. Each sentence she said was analyzed by a computer algorithm before transmitting to the scientists, so by the time the working groups received the transmission it had already been delayed. This reply by the Chief Executive could only be received by the software working group, because it could cause members of another working group to realize the existence of scientist other than themselves performing analyses on the subjects.
“Let’s begin. Wish you all Godspeed.”
The lights in the central control room dimmed. A green light on an optical drive lit up. The six softwares were written into the central computer of Quake Base One, and the optical disk was subsequently vaporized in a laser shredder without delay.
As the Chief Executive took the high-speed elevator back to the surface, the meteorologists’ cabin returned to how it looked like before she arrived. In half a month when the meteorologist returned, she would think that nothing had happened it. The two guards kept watch around the cabin vigilantly, and the lieutenant was waiting her in the mini helicopter.
The Chief Executive arrived at her apartment at 2:30 am. By the time she got back, Xiaoyu was still in his sweet dreams.