Quills: the Rise of the Northern Matriarch-Chapter 108: Downfall (6)

"How did they manage to affect all aspects of the Hudai Infrastructure? The flaw just uploads itself from even my physical interface. I cannot fix this." Amrita said. She had connected the dots.

"There is no interface that is isolated from Hudai Servers. Sedai craft all use the current version, and cannot communicate. Harrit, I give up. I cannot sort it out." Amrita complained aloud.

"I could not either. Leadership will have to accept her terms." Harrit said. He did not dare to say anything, but she knew that his son had reservations about how men were treated and was an adamant protector of the lower Classes. With Quill offering a new interface tool, with no punitive tools for Matriarchs, the picture became entirely clear for her. He was uncertain of how private her son and his friends were about their sentiments. He hoped for his sake that they were very discrete and continued to do so. They had both put the pieces together, people with more power than them might have as well.

"I think it will be weeks before Leadership caves." Amrita said. From all the communications she had read as part of her duty to test this new interface, Nora refused to add any punitive features. She respected that but feared the vulnerability that her daughter might face in the future. She, however, could not find a way to fix the Hudai Interface. She knew that they would bend and finally approve the interface sooner or later. It was frustrating to be bound to a physical machine for more than eight hours a day. She knew Vida was frustrated to be stuck indoors when she and her spouses oversaw most of the food production.

The Quill Interface was quite attractive. All the other old tools were available in a quicker and intuitive interface. It also had advanced medical, entertainment, a marketplace, educational tools, games available and a social network available. It took images using your own eyes, so you could record special moments. It was truly a better interface than the cold, old, cruel Hudai Tech Interface. Amrita just needed to give it more time so it could seem like she was really working hard to resolve the problem with the old interface and that she was acquiescing to using the new interface out of necessity and not just out of favor. She would have to find an opportunity to test out the defensive features, including the one that prevented unwanted sexual encounters. The explanation made it seem like it might hurt the attacker. It would be hard to find a willing subject. The health section was robust and interpreted your results. It included a fitness section and other exceptional features like Conception control.

"Look, this is the exact same code. But when I enter it, everything just relaunches repeatedly until it cannot open anymore and the Interface shuts down." Amrita said, it was frustrating. "When I reload the working version, it works until it reconnects to the Hudai servers to send the data, when it automatically updates and reinstalls the affected version. There is no way to fix it." Amrita said a smile curving. "It is brilliant." she continued.

"No one at Hudai has answered for a week, Rita. I think it might be time to tell leadership that it is unrepairable. We should not delay it." Harrit said. "I have definitely never seen anything like this. Harrit." Amrita said, frustrated, as the program failed to launch again Harrit watched over her shoulder. He was puzzled as well. Amrita was the last chance to fix the problem. She had been stressing about it for a week so far since she was asked for her opinion. Harrit gave him a tired look. He worked on the physical servers with not much luck. Even if they were replaced one at a time, they would reload with the same problem.

"I do not think it would be possible. They formatted one of the servers and upon reconnection a brand-new interface was seemingly infected like it was a disease stored in the memory of the physical hardware's own memory for base operations. If both servers are replaced, even if our interfaces were reloaded with a rewritten version, our interface hardware would still carry the same problems as the servers. It simply cannot be a Hudai operating system, or anything that would use the same programming infrastructure," Harrit said.

"Leadership is not going to be happy with these results. The other proposed operating systems submitted use the same programming infrastructure as the original, so they will not work. The only one that differs is Quill Interfaces," Amrita said. She sighed. It was the best choice overall. But she wanted to ensure there was no bias. There was no other choice. It was either switching or watching the other programs start to fail. The sensors or nerve stimulators could go next. Millions would start to suffer from pain, health tools would stop working eventually. Reports of tracking failures have come in sporadically. Amrita was stressed.

The Hudai's downfall was their arrogance. They created a beautiful mind and destroyed it with abuse. Talan Hudai Quill was truly a formidable man. If the Hudai had treated their children normally and with care, he would have revolutionized the industry. He had just written a new interface, he had help from others, obviously. It was evident from the Quill interface that each of the Quills had contributed to it. She could see Kadir's work in it. There were advanced programs to control Quill Droids. She could burst from her pride. When Hudai was responding, they had no idea how to fix the HudaiTech Interface themselves. Even the programmers at Sedai could not figure out how to undo the damage. She could not. The person who figured out how to do this was brilliant but was risking their lives. Thankfully for them, Hudai was oddly quiet and had not reported the culprit. Perhaps they were already dead or hiding behind a dead person.

What did he and the other Quills have in mind for the future? She thought of her already intelligent great daughter Astra and felt a rush of excitement. Astra was very bright, she was doing things her other children did not do until they were in Education at such a young age. She would grow up in the hands of these brilliant men. Would it be cruel to name her the heir of the Sedai instead of her own daughter? Under the law, Sirona would be most likely inherit the Quill corporation, but they had so many daughters now. How were they going to rule their clan? The world seemed to be obsessed with the seldom seen family, it made her worry about Astra. She looked up at the picture Astra had painted. It was what Nora called abstract painting, when they were experimenting with shapes and color. It was her. She had proudly framed it.

"I guess there is nothing else I can do, this new interface only lacks the ability to be abused. I think people will welcome it." Amrita said as she stilled her mind. The future was yet to unfold.

"Yes, it is much more robust. The entertainment program and the social media site are much more interesting than the forums. You can even add a picture of yourself, pictures of your family and vacations. The funny pictographs in the communications tool were a nice addition. I think it will go over well for most of the population," Harrit said.

"I agree. I will wait and see how it goes, but the future does not seem as predictable as it once was." Amrita said. Before she rebukes her own daughter for another, she should wait to see how things unfold. Saeri could be taught a better way still. They still had time. Quill Industries might be too much for one heir to rule anyway.

'Nora would probably be nervous if she knew how the world eyed her children?' Amrita thought. She began to think it might be time to communicate discreetly and very carefully to ally herself with the other clans that were involved with Quill Industries. Vida, Allurai and herself would be the easiest to communicate with since interacting with them socially would not draw any suspicions towards the Quills.

'I cannot communicate this over tools', Amrita thought. She looked over at the painting again. "Harrit, can you bring me some paper, ink and the finest brush or pen you can find?' Amrita asked.

Solina was strongly backing her heir, so approaching her would definitely draw the attention of the Matriarch Prime that she was working for. If they could somehow all meet, she was certain that they were all interested in protecting their sons and great children. Vida was very proud of her great daughters and had received a lot of popularity from them. She knew Allurai cared as she fostered the Quills. Solina was protective and added her own stamp of approval with the Setton Security Suite that was included in the Quill Interface. Lara was dead now, it was not by their hand, but they had lost a menacing ally. The Quills would need a lot of protection for the foreseeable future or it would be their downfall. Harrit left her office puzzled. He could not understand what she was thinking.

Amrita sighed deeply as she approved of the Quill Interface over all. It was more than an adequate tool. It was better than Hudai Tech; she needed to be seen as objective considering her relationship with Quill Industries. She had to hand it to Talan to submit the application for review months before the software stopped working. He must have started working on this years ago to be ready, or they had all sacrificed a lot of rest to get this done. Jain rubbed her shoulders.

"Amrita, do you miss the old tools or do your shoulders hurt from slouching in your seat?" Jain teased Amrita.

"Not at all, I just approved the operating system. And my shoulders are sore." Amrita smiled.

"What are the art supplies for?" Taron asked as he brought the bundle of supplies in.

"One of the oldest and most secure ways of communicating was by paper," Amrita said as she opened the ink bottle and started to work.

"Incinerate after reading? Rita, what are you thinking?" Jain said.

"Do not worry, Dareem will never cross his clan." Amrita said, soothing Jain.

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"I want to meet with Allari, she owes me discretion, considering. I want to ally with her. She sees Setton socially; I do not. I want to form an alliance with her, and she is the way through," Amrita said as she frowned at her handwriting. She was very excited about doing this, but her handwriting was no worse than Astra's. "Harrit, can you write this letter out for me three times, see I made a mess." Amrita said.

Harrit gave her an appreciative smile. These were his Art supplies after all. He commonly painted and created their banners at home. Harrit took the dainty brush into his large hands as a serious look was plastered across his face.

'I am so happy she was unable to repair it. When they entrusted the repair to her, I was afraid for a moment. I think she wanted the Hudai Interface to be unrepairable. It is a great relief that she loves us that much.'  Harrit thought as he worked. He set the letters to dry and cut lengths of ribbon to tie the scrolls with. It was exciting to be part of social change. He heard Amrita gasp.

"What is it, Rita?" Harrit said with a jump.

"I just read the most horrific thing in the news. That is why no one would get back to me." Amrita said. They needed to work very fast. She had read the news while she waited and now understood why Hudai had not been replying. It was not just the most powerful clan in the world that was facing destruction. Other clans were not faring so well under the pressure of not having the cruel benefits of the Hudai interface. The whip was gone, but it did not stop some companies from using physical means to punish their staff. Men were leaving work places in droves with wounds and trauma from the Matriarchs and Alphem, who were unable to reward them, and instead ruled by intimidation. News of exposed sexual abuse stories and scandals shocked the world. Lara was not the first Matriarch murdered and Edem was not the first Alphem to kill their Matriarch when the fault was found. Amrita bit her lip hard and worried. The Quill Interface would be their only choice as Hudai Tech's software failed tool by tool.