Arrival at the Island (7) – Office

Jim spent the morning exploring his new workplace. In the physical world that didn’t take long. The room was simply, almost austerely furnished. It contained three desks and Jim chose the one which faced the door and the courtyard. There were three doors in the end wall. The one closest to the garden (which Jim thought of as “the front”) led into a small kitchen which was supplied with a deep Belfast sink, a kettle, a coffee maker, a microwave oven and what Jim had called a Baby Belling cooker in his student days. Most of the cupboards in the kitchen were empty, but there was crockery and cutlery for four and one of the cupboards contained tea, coffee, sugar and a few basic ingredients. The door towards the rear of the room led to a shower-room and lavatory. The middle door led into a walk-in cupboard which had shelves from floor to ceiling but was otherwise empty. Jim made himself a jug of coffee and settled to explore the computing systems.

There were network and power cables dangling from the suspended ceiling above each desk. Jim plugged in the laptop he had been supplied with and opened the folder which lay on the desk. Anastasia had suggested that he start with that. Someone with a sense of humour had written “Start here” and a hand-drawn Windows icon on the front of the folder.

As Jim proceeded he found that the further he looked, the more there was to find. There were obviously several systems involved and there was documentation for a number of SQL and other databases. Almost to his surprise, everything seemed to be well maintained and documented. As he worked systematically through his work, he wondered if he was being observed. He remembered the test in London when the Doctor had been watching what he was doing from another screen. He was aware that might be happening and he might not even be aware of it. He looked at the laptop ahead of him. It was fitted with an integral web-cam, but after all that was not at all unusual these days. He glanced over his shoulders and then at the corners of the room. He did not notice any cameras, but that did not mean that they were not there! Chiding himself for being paranoid he took a sip of coffee.

 (Part of the “Tyson” project: 7th February 2017 – 395 words)