The Pit

TKE 01/4

Newly constructed in High Tortuga, conceived so that when Bethany Anne et al were off and running about on various activities off-planet (hunting Kurtherians), High Tortuga would be able to operate efficiently without her. Michael described it as “ a place where you can operate for now. Handle the issues from around the planet, and yet you’ll be safe. Eventually, it will be the central area to support High Tortuga when we leave the planet, and those who’ve worked in there will already be trained.”

Michael conceived it as "Bottom level with a table and one wall of screens, but four or five levels of work desks around an oval or circle. We can pipe all the security reports in. You’d have a single place to work out the kinks with the security implementation, and to organize and authorize further efforts. At some point, you know, we’ll need to leave and go out there into the deep dark to look for the Kurtherians. You will need a good team back here, and for that to run efficiently you need to train them. Record everything you do to video. Permit discussions about your efforts and modify the laws as needed.”

Bethany Anne conceived it (with ADAM) as three tiers, each with seven desks on each side. Each at least forty-eight inches wide, with monitors layered into the desktop. Let’s have a set of steps going from the entry to the bottom on both sides. Large table at the bottom good for meetings of…uhh…” She thought about it. “Ten? No, we might have larger meetings there and need everyone, so make it seven to each side and two on the ends. So sixteen.” “Screens in the tabletop as well?” “Yes.” She smiled. “Make it piano-black. In fact, make everything black…and maybe a little chrome. Carved out of the rock, smooth floors with carpet down the steps and in the main area, but stone under the work areas on the three tiers. Wait, add a fourth on the same level as the entrance with space for chairs for different species to sit.” “Areas for reporters?” “Oh, hell no.” She shook her head. “Fuck that. Make sure we place enough video cameras in there to get every person from every angle. Some of them will have high-enough resolution to grab headshots out of the input for PIP efforts. The last thing I want is a bunch of questions about why I just ripped off some annoying twit’s head for asking the wrong question. They can send in their questions via messaging or video, or wait. But that’s a good point. Have our second phase build a large news-and-reporter area for discussions near the pit. . “I need you to discuss additional thoughts with Addix beyond this: We want constant input from data-acquisition drones in all major and minor cities right now. “We will need to also have body disposal abilities, which means we need to record the events for legal reasons, and we’ll need a cemetery or body-disposal area. You can never tell if a criminal has parents who eventually will want to know where the body is.” "Specific plots" “No, slap a GPS on them so parents or loved ones can stand above the body and know it’s beneath them."

The discussion of how the planet should be run led to the creation/implementation of the CEREBRO project.