Chapter 3: Chapter 3 - Princess of the Ball
- 18 years before Singularity.
When they arrived at the gala, she was ready. To match her dress, her personal assistant droid had been braiding her hair into a DNA strand, the whole way there. Her father had warned her of the huge crowd to be expected. The press section on the outside began to flash like strobes. Holding her father's hand, they walked up the red carpeted staircase. Towards the middle of the stairs he stopped to wave to the press & random people who stood outside in the rain all day, for a glimpse at a celebrity. Genevieve felt like a celebrity, her dress was like a rainbow of colored lights, under the overcast of dark clouds. When her father finished waving, she curtsies & they finally went up the rest of the flight of stairs. Just before she went in, she looked back to see the quartet enjoying their moment in the spotlight. Sure "Grow Your Own Pets" was her father's idea. They had taken everything he learned to the next level. McTaggart's initial product of hamsters & guinea pigs started the company. But the quartet helped him perfect a varied product line, which included, birds, reptiles, cats, & dogs. So she assumed they deserved their moment, as "rock star" scientists, as much as her father did.
After going through a quick security and medical scan, she took her father's hand again, before entering the ball. As she walked out onto the dais at the top of the stairs, her eyes widened. Below her was a marble staircase with another red carpet leading down to the fountain in the center of the great hall. All around the fountain were men in tuxedos dancing with women in beautiful gowns. Farther out from the center were elaborately decorated & fine linens on tables trimmed with red, white & gold. Finally, 3 bars on each wall kept the glasses full. Then she looked up, & saw a magnificent crystal chandelier with multi-colored lights, alternating in the same colors as her dress. Many people noticed the similarity right away as well and began looking in her direction. She had never had so many people staring at her before. She wondered if this is what Cinderella felt like, before she lost her shoe. She blushed & tightened her grip on her father's hand as they walked down to the main floor.
Then before her, waiting at the landing, was one of the sons of Prince William & Kate. Her father was introducing her to Prince Arthur, heir to the throne of England as her mind lost focus. She wished her mother was there to get her through this. She curtsied & as she looked up into his eyes, he smiled. The prince was smiling at her. She'd seen his picture in the made for tween magazines before, but here he was, smiling at her. He was only a year or two older than her & he looked so handsome & impressive to her with all the medals pinned on his coat. 2 large men stood directly behind him, scanning the room as he began to speak to her. She had missed everything that was just said to her. All she knew is that a prince was holding his hand out to her. Before she knew what she was doing, she placed her hand on his as her father let go of her other hand. With a boyish tug he led her through the crowd, to one of the bars. The whole time, racing between people in fancy dress attire. He laughed as the guards tried to keep up without bumping into anyone. She giggled with delight as they ran together. Pushing past other guests, young Prince Arthur demanded two cherry sodas. Her cheeks were still rosier now from both being the center of attention just moments ago & running.
He offered her the cold soft drink & she took it. Immediately she began sucking on the straw for something to do with her mouth, anything to not have to speak. She was dumbfounded & starstruck & for a moment lost in what felt like the puppy love of a lifetime. She could only look at his eyes & drink. All too soon she had finished her soda and began making noise from the air at the bottom of her glass. She stopped when she realized what she was doing, & belched loudly. Instantly her face turned red & she put her hand to her lips, she was saying "excuse me" with her eyes. The prince could see how embarrassed she was and tried to stifle a laugh, but like her gas, he couldn't stop himself, but from giggling. He finished his soda as well, & let out a burp as loud & long as hers was. They both began to laugh out loud & she finally began to feel less awkward. Looking around she saw the quartet walking down the red & white stairs.
Prince Arthur took Genevieve's glass & handed both glasses to one of his guards. The man didn't look thrilled about it. The prince took her hand again & led her away from the bar as the music changed. It was a slow song. Before she knew it they were on the dance floor & he was moving so close to her, she tripped over his shoe. "Haven't you ever danced before?" he asked, with a tone she didn't like. She still began dancing with him. Allowing him to lead was odd, he wasn't as tall as her father. Who previously was the only other person she'd ever danced with like this. As she twirled with him, she caught her father's image. She had no idea who he was talking to, all she saw were tuxedos near him. When the song ended, he nodded to her, & she curtsied again to him. The prince thanked her for the dance, & they walked off the floor together, towards her father. Along the way, she passed one of the men in the quartet. She went by too fast to see his glasses, but she did hear him speaking in Korean, to a man from that region, who was also in very formal attire, wearing medals of honor from his homeland.
"Sir." the prince interrupted her father speaking with the other old men. "Thank you for gracing us with your daughter's presence. She's a very charming girl." Genevieve choked back her emotions. She didn't like the tone in his voice again, especially when he pronounced the word "girl" like that. Like she was beneath him. Nathan saw her eyes sadden, when no one else did. "That's my young lady." Nathan corrected the prince, & asked her, "Did you enjoy your dance with the prince?" Arthur seemed angry for a second at being corrected, but his young ego was quickly abated, as Genevieve turned to Arthur & thanked him again for the dance, giving him a 3rd curtsy. Arthur then excused himself & his guards followed with him.
Genevieve's father spent the next half hour introducing her to so many people she lost track of them all. It seemed like everyone she met, told her how beautiful her dress was. Some of them were old gray haired men from the oil industry. Others were bankers & as Nathan put it, investment tycoons. A few who worked for the university & some of "....the greatest computer nerds of the 21st century." Those were the ones who always raised their glass of champagne, whenever he said it. Like attendance roll call at school. "These are the men who will be making LUCII." She saw 7 men at the table. "These are the men this event is really being held for, isn't it?" They all smiled and nodded. "These guys are the experts of their field, computers, engineering, programming; just like your dear old dad is, in genetics. Hey Paul, how are you doing buddy? What's it been, since college?" His father puts a hand on Paul's potbelly. "Guess you don't play football like you used to?" Paul grimaced & began laughing & hugged Genevieve's father. Half hanging on him, Paul begins, "There was this one time in college, your father...." Nathan interrupts him laughing loudly. "My daughter doesn't need to know who I was in college, yet." Paul paused, Genevieve gave him a serious look, & he & Paul both bust out laughing. Genevieve smiled at her father laughing for once. It had been some time since she last saw him laugh like that. She remembered he was always smiling when Genevieve was younger.
Paul's laugh subsided & still wishing to help entertain Genevieve, introduced his son. "Bradley, come say hello to my old friend & his enchanting daughter. He's not as old as your prince, but I'll bet he's more bored then you'll be after about 25 more minutes of this place." Bradley came out from behind his father & shook hands with Genevieve. The boredom showing on his face with his distinct lack of enthusiasm. They were about the same height, she assumed he was about a year older than she was. He sat back down with his father, while Nathan & Genevieve sat with them, among the majority of the socially awkward engineers.
While sitting next to the boy Genevieve tried to speak with him, but he seemed to show no interest in her. He seemed like he had no interest in anything, but making spit balls with his straw wrapper. Just as he was about to launch one, his father took the straw from his mouth with an angry look.
Bradley let out a great sigh. Her father smiled again at his old college buddy disciplining his boy. Genevieve was feeling bored now too, like the most exciting part of the evening was over having danced with a prince of England. Curiosity & lack of conversation finally got to her, "Who is this Lucy anyway?" the 6 seated nerds all begin speaking over each other at once. Then stopped clamoring just as soon as they had started. Each of them had been out speaking the others with adjectives & technobabble that was beyond her comprehension due to the din & depth of the subject. They all had a chuckle, then finally, one of them spoke up. "LUCII is the London University Computer Intelligence Initiative. It'll be the most state of the art production facility ever built. Able to both extrude everything from 3D printed ships right into it's attached industrial dock's, new locomotives & jet planes for it's Arial hub. There will even be a nanobot manufacturing center. Capable of building teeny-tiny little robots, so small, they might just be able to alter your DNA, on the atomic level. At the heart, or more rightly, the brains, of it all, LUCII will be an artificial intelligence capable of controlling the manufacturing centers, I've just described. Including all the many robotic helpers she's going to also build." he took a breath, "Thank god for the failures of the American BRAIN!" which lead to a round of hardy 'Here Here's & condescending laughter. "Right Richards?"Paul said to the one guy not laughing. Though now he is smiling and rolling his eyes. "That project was so last decade. I've got better things to do then take this abuse. Yes, the American BRAIN failed. We learned exactly how NOT to build an artificial intelligence. We made all the mistakes, so you guys won't have too. Now if you'll excuse me, I see a lady at the bar without an escort." he finishes the last of his drink and slams the empty glass down on the table before he storms off towards the bar, and the lady.
As the drunk nerds quieted down, Bradley yelled out, "She's going to be a robotic mother brain that'll take over the world! BWAH HA HA HA!!" he made a loud fake evil laugh. All of the designers at the table became visibly upset with the boy for roasting the project the same way it's many Neo-Luddite critics had. "Bradley Paul Renslit!" His father bellowed, "How dare you speak to my colleagues in such a manner?" Grabbing the boy by his coat, he dragged him off to sit at the table with the engineer's wives. "I told you how much ridicule these men have already suffered just in proposing this? The last thing they need is an uneducated child offering his ignorant opinions! Now go find your mother." The boy runs off.
Genevieve looked to her father. "What's your role in this, Daddy? Is it the nanites for my...." her father cut her off. "The Quartet is very eager to get access to LUCII, for genetic experiments in general. And while yes, LUCII's computing power & processing for re-sequencing will be necessary in many of our whole firms projects' ' giving his daughter a wink, "the donation of industrial & scientific data on the testing we have done was a cheap buy-in. However, eventually, having the nanites this computer will make, will help us unzip & recode DNA. Which could order up, a whole new world order." While he was speaking she realized she shouldn't talk about her unicorn yet and that was why her father cut her off. She winked back at him. "Does it cost a lot of money?" Genevieve asked her father. "Yes, this may be humanity's most expensive endeavor. Yet the pay off, after just a few short years, will be overwhelming. The open sourcing of information between everyone will allow this core group of investors, everyone you see here tonight, will be able to share in everyone else's accumulated knowledge. Finally an end to profit based patents & antitrust laws getting in the way of practical science!" Paul returns as he finishes, and clangs his glass. "Cheers to that, Nathan!"
Nathan knew he was now part of the elite. He was happy to see there was so much room at the top. Even his daughter would eventually have a nice piece of the action. She was all he cared about now. Joy was lost in the church. She didn't really love him anymore. After everything they had been together... "Are you OK Daddy?" Genevieve put a hand on his arm. She had seen his smile turned upside down in the last few seconds. "Yeah Honey, I'm fine. Honestly I'm glad we're together right now. I was just missing your mother." Nathan smiled at her, & finished his Champagne. After he set down his empty glass, he sat with his arm around Genevieve's shoulder. A waiter picked up the empty glass, replaced it with another full glass of Champagne & walked off. A few seconds later a different waiter replaced her soda. They were both on their 3rd one & so, both decided to pace themselves & just enjoy each other's company. "Want to dance?", Nathan asked his only child. She replied, "Meh, Paul was right, this place is boring after about 25 minutes." Paul & Nathan began to laugh out loud, Genevieve joined them in the guffaw.
From across the room, Antoinette de Bergerac saw Nathan McTaggart laughing with his daughter and friend. He always had a nice businessman's smile, she thought, but seeing him so happy recently, surprised her. More to the point, she was surprised by how she felt about that smile.
A few hours after hobnobbing with the richest & smartest people in the world, Genevieve let out a yawn. "I'm getting tired too." said Antoinette de Bergerac, stepping next to her "It's been a long day." Genevieve agreed, nodding her head and rubbing her eyes. All of the sudden, ingratiating himself far too closely, a member of the German consulate attempted to strike up a conversation with Antoinette. She barked at him some words in German which Genevieve didn't know the translation too. She pushed his hand off her rear end & he fell away into the crowd. "Woah, you told him! Was that German?" she asked Antoinette. "Yes." she gave as her only answer. "Will you be at the lab over the weekend?" Antoinette asked. "No, my father wants me to get moving on Augustus' tutoring program. I've only done 2 chapters in 3 days & my dad said I have to finish chapter 5 by the end of the weekend, or else he says I'll be in breach of our contract." Genevieve told her. "Your dad really said that?" Antoinette asked. "About 1/2 an hour ago, while we were dancing." was Genevieve's reply. "Ha! Well call me if you need anything, us girls have to stick together. But since you are safe for the moment, I'm going to go home now, I need to lay down." She took off her Prada heels & Genevieve noticed Antoinette was still, wobbly, as she left.
Genevieve looked around once more for her father. Upon arriving at the table they were sitting at, together, earlier in the evening, she noticed Bradley with his hand in the ice bucket. He took one out & sucked on it until he couldn't take the cold any longer, when he finally spit it out onto the floor. Where it missed its intended target, an older woman who was leaving the dance floor. Genevieve rolled her eyes at the childish prank the Renslit boy was reduced to in his boredom. "Have you seen my dad?" she asked him. "Yeah," he tossed a piece of ice with his hand. Just missing her father's foot. She wished she'd had her water gun, right then, to hose down this immature kid, whom she knew was slightly older than her. "Your little cry for attention is only going to get you into trouble. Have fun being grounded, dummy." She walked away feeling morally superior as a piece hit the back of her shoe. She stuck her tongue out at him with a mean & nasty face, Bradley laughed at.
"Can we go now, I'm over this place & I'd rather be home studying then with these people. There is something seriously wrong with some of them." she exclaimed when she got to her father. Nathan took her firmly by the arm and led her aside to speak a bit more privately. " Listen young lady, by next year, McTaggart Industries will have full access to LUCII. You'll be able to do in less than a year, what took the quartet & I, almost 7 years of our lives." He whispered in her ears, "Insulting our hosts is not wise at this juncture. Do you get me?" Dad was being intense, she thought. "I'm sorry, I'm just tired." He checked the time with his G/C.A/R. "Fine," he said, "can you give me another half hour? 45 minutes? It's going to take us that long just to say goodbye to everyone on our way out?" Genevieve stomped a foot down, "Antoinette just got her butt grabbed by one of the Germans & your friend Paul's son is.....'' she's interrupted by a loud crash behind her & Paul is wiping away Champagne from his face. One of the waiters finally slipped on Bradley Renslit's stray ice cubes. It was a dark skinned young Hindu man. He was holding his ankle & moaning in pain. Angry, Paul kicks the young man in the side. The waiter, now sprawled on the floor, clutched his side with both arms. Paul Renslit puts his foot on the waiter's face & inculcates it into the ground. "YOU CLUMSY OAF. I'm a mess now because of you." Guards came & separated the two men. Paul was given a towel & two new glasses of Champagne. Kumare Patel was escorted from the premises. It would take him over an hour to hobble to the nearest emergency room. Genevieve's last look at the young man was in empathy. It was Paul Renslit's bratty son's fault that the waiter spilled those drinks. But pointing that out to this man of privilege, she thought would be a one way ticket to another scolding from her father, so she bit her tongue. & Just glared at him. She was sad about seeing that poor waiter's face being pushed into the floor with a heel from an expensive shoe. Feeling guilty that she hadn't stopped Bradley earlier, she hung her head. Nathan saw how sad she was, & resigned then & there to take her home. "OK, honey. Let's get out of here." Ashamed of his old friend's behavior, he was now eager to leave as well. He put his arm around her & they walked directly to the coat check. Along the way she saw Augustus who was also on his way out. As they waited at the coat check, Augustus mentioned he was the last one of them to head home. "What languages do you speak Augustus?" Genevieve asked while slowly moving up the line with her father. He smiled and replied "I picked up Latin first, then branched out into the other Romance languages, including Spanish, French & Italian. How did you know to ask? Did your father tell you?" he asked. "No," she said, "I overheard Anthony speaking Korean & Antoinette yelled at some German who was being creepy levels of way too forward with her." Smiling, Augustus suggests, "Ahh. That must have been the Argus you heard. He learned Korean & Vietnamese, Anthony knows Hindi & Arabic. I believe Antoinette also knows Polish, Ukrainian, & Russian."
"My mother knows Chinese." she boasted "I take it that's the reason you all learned different languages? So that you can then all translate for each other?" Genevieve asked as her father finally got his coat. "Precisely. You have a very clever daughter, Mr. McTaggart. Soon she'll know all our secrets. Have a nice weekend studying." Genevieve & her father said their goodbyes to Augustus as they left. When their limos pulled up, The McTaggart's & the last of the Quartet went their separate ways.
As they waited in some late night traffic, near the Gala, Genevieve asked "So what did you do that one time in college?" Reminding himself to kick Paul in the shin the next time they meet, Nathan does a classic facepalm. "Ask me again, in about 40 or 50 years."
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