Dar stopped typing and she and Kerry exchanged glances again.
“No offense.” Jack said, after an awkward pause.
“None taken.” Dar said. “Okay, I just made another change, and re-converged everything. See what that does.”
“Okay.” Jack walked away from the phone and they could hear a door open, and the airplane engine sound of a datacenter that was cut off as the door closed.
“What he just said bothers me.” Kerry spoke up. “Because I believed that too, Dar. So what's going on? Are people that pissed off that we're leaving that they're doing this stuff on purpose?”
“Or is it just that we've told them to think for themselves and this is the result?” Dar responded. “Not sure which I'd hate more.”
“Mm.” Kerry shook her head back and forth. “Boy that's a tossup.”
“Ker I wrote our design standards.” Her partner said in a serious tone. “It's not like I just kept it all in my head. It's on the process server.”
“Going to be a long Monday.” Kerry sighed and made a few more notes, listening to Dar slurp her milkshake as they waited for Jack to come back. “As if it wasn't going to be long enough already.”
“No kidding.” Dar groused.
“No kidding.” She sipped her own drink for a few minutes, then jerked slightly as her own phone rang. “Kerry Stuart.” She answered it without bothering to check the caller ID.
“Hey Kerry.”
“Hey Mark.” Kerry responded. “What's up?”
“I guess I need to ask you that.” Mark sounded glum. “Night ops finally called me and told me the new data center's having problems.”
“Wow.” Kerry said. “Dar's been working on it for about four hours or so. I think she's almost done.” She looked up to see Dar watching her over the rim of her glass, a thick white whipped cream mustache on her upper lip. “I scheduled an all hands meeting on Monday to talk about it.”
“They said they were having some issues, but it didn't sound serious yesterday.” Mark said. “I figured it could wait for us to come in next week.”
“Well.” Kerry exhaled. “By my count Dar's made about... forty changes to the configuration in there. So apparently it was more serious than that.” She took a swallow of her milkshake. “It's been getting better though.”
“Shit.”
'Yeah.”
“She pissed?”
“Yeah.” Kerry said. “I am too, actually. I wasn't looking to stay up all night fixing someone else's mistakes tonight.”
Mark was silent for a long moment. “Shit.” He finally said. “Okay, let me start the research.” He added. “See how we can make sure it doesn't happen again.”
Kerry felt a sense of relief on hearing that. “It can wait for the morning, Mark. I think Dar's got it now. We can pick up the details afterward so long as they're good until after the weekend.” She paused, as she heard the sound of the datacenter pick up on the call and then cease with the bang of the door. “Hang on. “
“Okay.” Jack got back on the bridge. “That looks a lot better! The graphs have settled down, and my phone's stopped ringing.” He sounded tired, but elated. “The ops center said the metrics are coming back into normal range.”
“Good.” Dar licked her lips. “So let's hold it here for now, and we can do a complete review in a couple days to see if anything else needs adjusting. Call me if anything else wiggles loose.”
“Ma'am... ah, I mean, Dar, thanks a billion.” Jack said. “I really really appreciate the help.”
“Anytime.” Dar smiled. “Good night.” She released the speaker phone button and regarded Kerry, shaking her head when Kerry pointed at her phone.
“Okay, looks like we're all right for now, Mark.” Kerry concluded.
“Sure. Big D touched it.” Mark sighed. “I have no fucking idea what we're going to do without her.”
Dar's ears twitched, hearing the words in soft echo. She sat back in her chair with her glass cradled between both hands, and sucked at the contents in silence.
“Hopefully we can make it a learning moment.” Kerry said. “You know, Dar had to learn it some way, right?”
“No.” Mark responded. “She was born knowing that stuff. It's organic. We were talking about that in the shop the other day. But we'll have to come up with something. Maybe we'll get her to code a virtual Dar in the ops console.”
Kerry watched her partner's eyebrows shoot right up to her hairline. “Hmm... that's an idea.” She said. “Talk to you later Mark. Have a good night.” She closed the phone and returned her partner's somber gaze. “Yuk.”
“Yuk.” Dar repeated. “Lets go to bed.” She got up and stretched, grimacing as her shoulders popped. “Did we have plans tomorrow?”
“Nope.” Kerry drained her glass and stood up to join her. “I vote we sleep in.”
“Unless someone else calls for help.” Dar took both glasses and headed for the kitchen with them. “The one bright spot of the whole night was that guy Jack. They found a good one there.”
“Let's hope we don't lose him.” Kerry muttered. “We've got to get this under control, Dar. All those times your folks and my family would ask why the hell the two of us were involved in every damn thing is coming back to bite us in the ass.”
“Mm.”
Regardless of the late night, they only managed to stay in bed until 8. Kerry found herself a little after that on the porch in her bathrobe and slippers, enjoying the crisp air and bright sunlight of a calm Saturday morning. She stifled a yawn and watched a seagull soar overhead, trying to decide if there was anything in specific she wanted to accomplish.
She had several small projects going. Some planting in their small garden, sorting out her newly digitized photos into collections, and a barbecue brisket recipe she wanted to try. But right now, none of that seemed urgent, and she was content to listen to the rustle of palm trees in the winter wind and watch sailboaters heading out of the cut in the choppy waters.
Dar wandered out dressed in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and sat down on the swing next to her. “I was thinking about what you said the other day.” She announced once the swing stopped moving.
Kerry regarded her. “That covers a lot of ground, hon.”
“About me getting a new car.” Her partner supplied. “I think I want to.”
“Yeah? Cool! What kind?”
Dar shrugged, and grinned. “I don't know. Let's go out and look at some. See if we can find one that fits me.” She suggested . “Maybe I'll get a souped up sports car.”
Kerry's brows twitched. “Hon, you're way too young for a mid life crisis.” She said. “Aren't you?”
“Hey you were the one with the Mustang, babe.” Dar chuckled. “I don't really have anything in specific in mind. Let's go see what's out there.”
“All right by me.” Kerry toasted her with her coffee cup. “Maybe we can look around for a place to put our new office while we're driving.” She wiggled her feet in contentment. “I got an email from Jack. Every thing's quiet at the datacenter this morning.”
“He get any sleep?” Dar wondered. “Glad things are better. Doesn't make it any less aggravating though.”
“We really need to turn this into a learning experience.” Kerry mused. “Not a good precedent.”
“Well.” Dar twiddled her thumbs. “Could be the sign of an independent, though wrong headed, mind.”
Kerry chuckled wryly.
“Maybe I should have woken up everyone else and had them fix it.” Her partner sighed. “Honestly, I just don't know what to do about this, Ker.”
“We can talk about it at the office.” Kerry got up and stretched. “Let's go find you a car, Dardar.” She ruffled Dar's hair as she came past her and headed for the door. “And we can stop and look at cameras for me.”