The SZPD Stormkreuzer reached the Boston Public School in under two minutes, thanks to the lights and sirens.

Kids milled around outside, drawn to the growl of its V8 engine.

The sleek black super-sedan parked in front of the school, and Officer Michelle Martinez stepped out.

Her sleek black leather SZPD uniform glistened in the morning sun, as she helped Mikaela out of the back of the car.

"All right sweetie, off you go. Have a great day at school," said Michelle, kneeling down to give Mikaela a hug.

Mikaela hugged her back tightly, and then ran off towards the school entrance.

A large African American woman riding a mobility scooter approached Michelle.

"Why are you here Officer? This school district is under Boston PD jurisdiction!" she demanded.

"This school might be under Boston PD jurisdiction, but Ms. Zakhrov is a resident of Palm Springs which is under SZPD jurisdiction. We just offered her a ride to school, since her mother was late," explained Michelle.

"Fine, but next time try to be a little less conspicuous! I will not have my students distracted by those things you call police cars!" snapped the woman.

"And you are?" asked Michelle, arching an eyebrow.

"I'm Tamera Randall! The principal of this school, and you officer, are not welcome on its premises!" snarled Tamera.

"All right, all right, we're leaving. No need to get your panties in a twist," said Michelle, getting back into the Stormkreuzer.

The Stormkreuzer pulled away from the school, and Michelle let out a sigh of relief as they drove off.

"Is it just me, or is everyone outside the Sirius Zone a little... off?" she asked Camille.

"It's the car and uniform, Michelle. It triggers something in people. Particularly in those with certain political leanings," explained Camille.

"Yeah? Well they can stuff it. We're just doing our jobs," grumbled Michelle.

"True that," agreed Camille, as they approached Annette's house, to find Annette and Sky finally cleaned up and about to leave.

Sky flipped them off before getting into the front passenger seat of Annette's Hyundai Ioniq 5.

Camille and Michelle ignored the gesture, and continued on their patrol.

----

"Mikaela, why were you dropped off by those cops? You in trouble or something?" asked her friend, Anna Stanislaus, as Mikaela settled into her classroom desk.

"Nah, it's because Mommy and Sky had gone on a date last night, and they were sleeping on the couch in the living room when it was time for school," explained Mikaela.

"Ms. Petra and Sky are dating?" asked Anna, surprised.

"That's what it looked like when I saw them this morning, snoring on the couch together and smelling bad," said Mikaela, wrinkling her nose.

Just then, the classroom door opened, and Sky walked in.

"Sorry I'm late kids, had a bit of a rough morning," said Sky, as they walked to the front of the classroom.

"Sky! Are you dating Ms. Petra?" asked Anna, unable to contain her curiosity.

'What? No! Why would you think that?" asked Sky, confused.

"Because you were both sleeping on the couch this morning when Mikaela got dropped off by those cops," explained Anna.

Sky's face turned bright red, and they looked away.

"Umm, well, no we aren't dating. We just... fell asleep watching a movie last night," said Sky, sheepishly.

"Sure you did," said Anna, skeptically.

Sky ignored the comment, and turned their attention to the whiteboard.

However, the rest of the 2nd grade class were not letting things go that easily.

"Sky and Ms. Petra sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" sang out several of the kids.

"Now, that's enough! I'm not dating Ms. Petra, and I don't appreciate you making fun of me!" snapped Sky, angrily.

Flashbacks of the disastrous night out the previous evening flooded Sky's mind as they recalled the humiliation of being denied entry to every restaurant and café they and Annette had tried to enter, because of dress codes, and the culmination of the park vendor ignoring their request for vegan food, and giving them guacamole that was slathered in butter.

They glared daggers at Mikaela, who shrank back in her seat.

"Mikaela, you see me after class. We need to have a little chat," said Sky, sternly.

Mikaela nodded, and looked down at her desk.

The rest of the class fell silent, sensing that Sky was not in the mood for jokes.

----

Kristen nervously gripped the steering wheel of her car as she drove to the Sirius Software compound for her first day as an intern.

She took a little comfort in the fact that Ivan was leading her there in his sleek black BMW M5.

However, the fact that she had to keep the internship a secret from both her professors, and fellow students at MIT, made the entire situation feel deliciously illicit.

They drove through the Sirius Software compound's security checkpoint, and parked in the shadow of the massive Sirius Software HQ obelisk tower.

"No need to be nervous Ms. Ford. This might look like some evil lair, but you're among friends here," said Ivan, as Kristen stepped out of her car.

"Thank you, Professor Zakhrov. I really appreciate this opportunity," said Kristen, nervously.

Ivan smiled, and led Kristen into the building. He put his hand into the handprint reader, and the main door opened with a hiss.

Kristen's heart pounded as they walked through the lobby. The loud click of her heels on the granite floor echoed and reverberated through the space, making her feel extremely self-conscious.

"Relax, the guy running things here has a thing for that sound," chuckled Ivan, as they approached the elevator alcove.

"Um, who's running the internship program?" asked Kristen, trying to keep her voice steady.

"You're looking at him," said Ivan, with a grin.

Kristen blushed furiously, and looked away.

Her heart had leapt for joy on hearing that Ivan himself would be her mentor in this place.

"Isn't that a conflict of interest Professor?" she asked him softly.

"Not at all. I'm employed as a consultant here, so I'm not technically your professor in this capacity," said Ivan, with a wink.

They stepped into the elevator, and Ivan keyed in floor 32 on the control panel.

Kristen felt a strong G-force pull as the maglev elevator shot upwards, within a few seconds, they reached their floor.

The doors slid open, and they stepped into a massive office space.

The room was filled with rows of workstations, all partitioned off with sleek black glass dividers and privacy screens.

Kristen couldn't even see how many people were working in the space.

"I've never seen anything like this before," she said, in awe.

"Well, we're actually comically understaffed for this massive space. Hopefully that will change soon," said Ivan, as he led Kristen to a workstation near the back of the room.

"Here we are. This will be your workstation for the duration of your internship," said Ivan, opening the glass door of the cubicle.

Kristen stepped inside, and looked around.

The workstation was equipped with a massive curved ultra-wide monitor, a sleek black mechanical keyboard, and an ambidextrous gaming mouse.

The chair was a sleek black leather ergonomic model, and Kristen could smell that it was the genuine stuff, not Alcántara or faux leather.

The desk itself was a sleek black glass surface, and a massive black desktop tower sat on the floor under it.

Kristen sat down in the chair, letting the intoxicating scent of the leather wash over her.

"I'm a little overwhelmed," she admitted.

"Don't worry, the actual work you'll be doing is pretty straightforward. I'll be guiding you through everything," said Ivan, reassuringly.

"Thank you, Professor. I really appreciate this opportunity," said Kristen, sincerely.

"Settle in, and boot up the system. We'll be able to connect through the internal network once you're online," said Ivan.

Kristen nodded, and turned her attention to the computer.

She pressed the power button on the tower, and the system hummed to life.

The monitor flickered on, and ran through the boot sequence of a Linux installation.

Within seconds, she was looking at the KDE Plasma desktop login screen.

"Here are the credentials you'll be using for the duration of your internship," said Ivan, handing her a small slip of paper.

Kristen took the paper, and read the username and password.

She typed them in, and hit enter.

The desktop loaded up, and Kristen saw a standard KDE Plasma desktop environment.

"SiriusChat is our internal chat system, it uses the same desktop credentials. You'll find the assignment and links to the resources in the chatroom's pinned messages," explained Ivan.

Kristen nodded, and opened the SiriusChat application.

"OK, I'll leave you to it. You can always reach me through SiriusChat if you have any questions," said Ivan, leaving the cubicle.

Kristen looked through the pinned messages in the chatroom.

The main task for her internship was to implement desktop themes and User Interface elements based on the Sirius Software Visual Design Document.

Her eyes widened as she read through the design document.

It called for a black and silver color scheme, with glass-like transparency effects, 3D morphing of window and UI elements, and a "classic" layout with a taskbar at the bottom of the screen, desktop widgets, and sharp-edged corners.

Icons were supposed to be 3D rendered, and again have sharp edges, and they were supposed to be in SVG format.

There were also detailed instructions for various 3D effects and animations, such as windows wobbling when moved, minimize and maximize animations having a magic-lamp effect, close window animation having a shattering glass effect, task switching having a 3D flip carousel effect, context menus having a 3D animation that follows their behavior, desktop widgets having a 3D floating effect with smooth drop shadows, buttons having a 3D press effect with a slight depression when clicked, scroll-bars having a 3D groove effect with a smooth sliding animation, tooltips having a 3D pop-up effect with a slight bounce animation, dialog boxes having a 3D expansion/explosion effect from the center of the screen, notifications 3D sliding in from the bottom right corner and sliding out when dismissed, and progress bars having a 3D fill effect with smooth animations and percentage indicators.

There were also instructions for audio cues and effects to match the visual effects, as well as accessibility requirements.

Even more interestingly, the design document specified that the desktop environment should be built in C++ using the Qt framework, with QML for UI design, and target the X11 display server for window management, with C++ implementation.

Kristen's heart raced as she realized the scope of the project.

This wasn't just a simple theming task, it was a full-fledged desktop environment overhaul.

She opened SiriusChat, and sent a message to Ivan.

"Professor Zakhrov, this is massive! What am I supposed to do first?"

A few moments later, Ivan replied.

"For now, familiarize yourself with the project repository and the existing codebase. Start by setting up a development environment on your workstation, and once you're comfortable, you can start with the color scheme and QML components. I'll be here to guide you through it."

Kristen took a deep breath, and dove into the project.

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