Kristen placed her hand into the hand-print lock of the Sirius Software HQ, and the door swung open with a soft hiss. She stepped inside, taking a deep breath as she entered the sleek, black-glass encased lobby.

She took the elevator to the 32nd floor, buzzing in anticipation for the second day of her internship.

"Good afternoon, Professor Zakhrov," she said, seeing Ivan in the massive office space.

Ivan waved good-naturedly, and disappeared into his cubicle.

Kristen approached her own cubicle, and powered on the computer.

"Wait, Aaron Zakhrov himself made changes to the code I pushed?" she exclaimed as she pulled in the repository changes.

She eagerly went over the modifications. They were small tweaks, but they were squeezing out more performance than her initial code/

"Wow!" she gasped, as she ran a small test program, and saw that the CPU overhead had been reduced by nearly 16%.

With that motivation, she dived deeper into the codebase, implementing the theme and UI elements according to the Visual Design Document that had been prepared by Aaron.

----

"Kazuya, how about SEGA makes a new game console? Since Sirius Software is branching out into hardware, we could make it together," suggested Aaron, as he and Kazuya sat in the Sirius Software HQ Conference room.

Kazuya shook his head.

"No. Not going to happen. I'm already sticking my neck out by even maintaining our current business relationship with the kinds of trouble you've been stirring up," said Kazuya.

"All right, in that case, would you still be willing to let us use 7-Star Crossed for our trade shows and conferences?" asked Aaron.

Kazuya sighed.

"That I can do. But please try not to get into any more trouble with the Silicon vendors, okay?" said Kazuya.

"Hey, it's not like I'm asking for trouble," said Aaron.

"I know, I know. Just be careful that's all," said Kazuya.

"All right, thanks Kazuya," said Aaron, before turning to Friedrich.

"So, Friedrich, how are the fabs coming along?" he asked.

"The first node is built, we should be ready to tape out the first chips by the end of the week," said Friedrich.

"Excellent. I've already got the chip designs specced out for the 40 nanometer Silicon On Insulator node. Let's get those taped out as soon as possible," said Aaron.

"The shipyard is also nearing completion, but we won't be able to start production of the new ships yet," said Hajime.

"That's fine. We can use the cargo ships you've already built at your Japanese facility for now," said Aaron.

"That's fine, but with the timeline we have, we can't have the Philosopher class nuclear cruisers ready in time for the armed escorts," said Hajime.

"Well, NATO still is on speaking terms with Saladin, so we shouldn't have to worry about that just yet," said Aaron.

"Yeah, that's until they find us laying down keels for nuclear warships. Then all bets are off," said Hajime.

"So we build both the cargo ships and the cruiser hulls. That means until we can get Shipyard 2 up and running, we'll need NATO's cooperation to ship our new chips," said Aaron.

"Aside from NATO, we can use the JMSDF's help as well. I have a few contacts there," said Hajime.

"Great, we've got fabs and a supply chain coming together. We should have everything ready for this year's Computex," said Aaron.

Hajime, Kazuya, and Friedrich all exchanged glances.

"Aaron, are you sure it's wise to launch at Computex? The chips will be fresh off the fabs, and untested. We could turn into a laughingstock if something goes wrong," said Friedrich.

"How long will it take to get one wafer?" asked Aaron.

"From tape out to finished wafer, about 3 weeks," said Friedrich.

"Then that gives us enough time. Computex is still 6 weeks away. We'll be able to at least announce them and have some working prototypes by then," said Aaron.

"All right, if you say so," said Friedrich, still looking skeptical.

"All right, let's get back to work," said Aaron, as the rest of them stood up and left the conference room.

----

"Have we been able to jury-rig the components we need for the new chips James?" asked Aaron, as he entered the lab where James and his team of electrical engineers were working.

"Yeah, we've managed to scavenge enough electronics from general suppliers and old hardware to get us through the first production run," said James.

"Excellent. The new chips are getting taped out next week. Can't wait to see them in action," said Aaron.

"Well, how are the simulations looking?" asked James.

"As good as they can be, given that they're still just simulations. We're supposedly getting 40 TeraFLOPS of FP64 performance with FMA, and 80 TeraFLOPS of FP32 performance with FMA," said Aaron.

"You insane? There's no way we'll be able to hit those numbers on an ancient 40 nanometer process," said James incredulously.

"That's what the simulations are showing. We're using a Very Long Instruction Word architecture, with dual 32-wide SIMD units for single FP64 with FMA and dual FP32 with FMA execution. In theory, that gets us those numbers, but real world performance is where this design is going to either sink or swim," explained Aaron.

"Please tell me we've got a power budget for this thing," said James.

"I've got a minimum target of 400 watts of cooling capacity, make of that what you will," said Aaron.

"You're going to dump as much power as you can into those chips, aren't you?" asked James pinching the bridge of his nose.

"But of course. I'm on an ancient node as you so accurately pointed out. We don't have the luxury of power efficient silicon," said Aaron.

"Hey, everyone! We're switching to 80 amp power stages on all the Voltage Regulator Modules. And no splitting the power stages. We're going full bore 32 power stages per socket!" announced James, as he turned to his team of engineers.

A cheer went up from the engineers.

"Yeah, yeah I know all of you guys are gear heads! Now get to work!" shouted James, as he turned back to Aaron.

"Pushing 400 watt heat envelop. You really are insane," he grumbled, while still grinning like an idiot.

"Yeah, yeah I know you secretly enjoy this stuff," said Aaron, smiling back.

"Out. I've got a whole motherboard to redesign," chuckled James, as Aaron nonchalantly walked out of the lab.

----

"Ms. Ford. I was asked to run something by you," said Ivan, as he approached Kristen's cubicle.

Kristen looked up from her work, and smiled.

"Sure, Professor. What is it?" she asked.

Ivan pulled up a chair, and sat down.

"I was wondering if you would be interested in doing some public speaking for Sirius Software at trade shows and conferences," he said.

Kristen's eyes widened in surprise.

"Me? Public speaking?" she asked, incredulously.

"Only if you're interested. Aaron has been toying with the idea of making you the public face of Sirius Software at trade shows and conferences," explained Ivan.

A blush crept up Kristen's cheeks.

"Um, I don't know. I've never really done anything like that before," she said.

"Well, you don't have to decide right now. Just think about it," said Ivan.

"Okay, I will. Thanks, Professor," said Kristen, as Ivan stood up and walked away.

Kristen turned back to her screen, but her body felt hot and flushed. Why would Aaron Zakhrov, the reclusive founder of Sirius Software, who had managed to piss off nearly every liberal in Massachusetts, and single-handedly waged war against Boston PD, want her of all people to be the public face of his company?

She turned from the screen, and spied her reflection in the black glass wall of her cubicle.

"I have been feeling more pretty and confident now that I've switched to skirt-suits and heels," she mused.

She pinged Ivan.

"Professor, I'm interested, but I'm not sure if I can do it alone," she typed.

"Don't worry, the Idol group 7-Star Crossed will be there to support you," he replied.

"7-Star Crossed? You mean the Idol group from SEGA that does the voice acting for Sirius Software's games?" she asked.

"The one and only. They'll be there to support you," he replied.

"All right, I'll do it," she typed.

"Great! I'll let Aaron know," replied Ivan.

Kristen smiled to herself, and turned back to her work.

----

Albert Holt, the dean of student affairs at MIT, sat in his office, staring at the email on his screen.

The email was a tip that Kristen Ford, a computer science undergraduate at MIT, was interning at Sirius Software, a company mired in controversy.

A vein throbbed in his forehead.

"This has to have been the work of that damn snake Ivan Zakhrov," he muttered to himself.

He picked up the phone, and dialed a number.

"Campus security, this is Dean Holt. I need you to apprehend Ivan Zakhrov, and escort him to my office immediately," he ordered.

----

Ivan entered the Dean's office, and sat down across from Albert Holt, unfazed by the summons, or by the campus security guards that flanked him.

"Ivan, I believe I told you that if you breathe so much as a word about Sirius Software, that I'll have you expelled from MIT," said Holt, his voice dripping with menace.

Ivan raised an eyebrow.

"You have proof that I've done anything wrong?" he asked.

Holt slammed his fist on the desk.

"Don't play coy with me, Ivan! You came here for authorization to post the internship from Sirius Software, and I said no! Now how do you explain that Kristen Ford is interning at Sirius Software?" he demanded.

"There is this wonderful thing called the internet, Dean Holt. You should try it sometime," said Ivan.

Holt's face turned red with anger.

"Don't you dare be smart with me, Ivan! I want you to tell me how Kristen Ford got an internship at Sirius Software!" he shouted.

Ivan leaned back in his chair, and steepled his fingers.

"Dean Holt, I have no idea how Kristen Ford got an internship at Sirius Software, and frankly, I don't care. You told me not to breathe a word about Sirius Software, and I haven't. So the next time you send in your monkeys to pull me out of class, better have a damn good reason," he said, standing up.

"Now you listen here, and listen good. I'm putting you on probation. If I find out that you've got anything to do with Sirius Software, you'll never see the inside of a classroom at any university ever again," said Holt, standing up as well.

Ivan turned and walked to the door.

"Have a nice day, Dean Holt," he said, before exiting the office.

Holt sat back down, and rubbed his temples.

"Get Kristen Ford in here. I want to know how she got that internship," he instructed the guards.

----

Kristen entered the Dean's office, her face set, and sat down across from Albert Holt.

"Ms. Ford, how did you get an internship at Sirius Software?" asked Holt.

"I applied on their website, and they accepted me," she replied.

Holt's eyes narrowed.

"I suppose they haven't told you. But they have been blacklisted by every major chip and silicon vendor in the world," he said.

Kristen's eyes widened in surprise.

"Why would they be blacklisted?" she asked.

"I don't know, maybe because their founder is a lunatic who fired missiles at Boston PD that were trying to arrest him?" thundered Holt.

"Dean Holt. I know about that incident. Didn't Mayor Callahan say that the attack was sanctioned by the city and the military?" asked Kristen.

"That isn't the point! The point is that Sirius Software is a pariah in the tech world! In addition to that Boston PD incident, they have openly endorsed the brutal and oppressive Saladin regime in Libya, built their own private and for-profit ad answerable to no one police force, and heaven knows what else!" shouted Holt.

Kristen folded her arms, and leaned back in her chair.

"Dean Holt, do you know how much Sirius Software pays their interns?" she asked.

Holt blinked.

"Um, no. How much?" he asked.

"Two thousand dollars a week. That's more than the Google Summer of Code, or any other internship that other big tech companies offer. Perhaps you are unaware of my circumstances, but I've lost both my parents, and I'm not qualified for any financial aid. Frankly, I don't care what Sirius Software has done or not done. They're paying me to learn and gain experience in my field of study, and that's all that matters to me," she said.

Holt pulled out a form from his desk, and started to fill it out.

"I can't easily expel Ivan Zakhrov, but I can expel you Ms. Ford. Pick your next words carefully," he said, as he filled out the form.

Kristen stood up, and walked to the door.

"Kiss my ass," she said, and left the office, slamming the door behind her.

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