Sir Gawain and the Dragon 3
10/04/2005
(to read the first episode, click here)
Sir Gawain was slightly taken aback at the new defender's politeness. He stretched out to take the huge hand that was offered and his hand disappeared inside that massive mailed glove. They shook hands.

"Pleased to meet you, Sir Mordred," offered Gawain, wondering if his first impressions of the giant had been unfair. He stared into the dark eyes and realized that what he had taken for an ominous and concealing lack of expression might just be evidence of an intelligence well beneath his own.

"The pleasure is all mine, Sir Gawain." Mordred released his hand and smiled rather shyly. "I am honored to meet so famed a knight at last. Andy has told me of your amazing deeds."

"Andy?"

"Oh, Andy is my maker," explained Mordred. "Andrew Weatherby Jones. A fine lad who shows much promise in his programming. What do you think?"

Sir Gawain looked hard at the giant. He knew already from their handshake that Sir Mordred was coded in Visual Basic, hardly a good choice for such a program, and this did not speak too well of the programmer's abilities. It seemed this hulking great fellow had no awareness of his own limitations and was blindly in awe of his master. Best not to enlighten him in that case.

"I have not met this Andy as yet," admitted Sir Gawain. "No doubt in time I will. But I see you have been re-programming the crawlers. You have something new in mind?"

"Just following orders," explained Mordred. "Andy asked me to make a copy of the operating system and store it in memory. I thought the crawlers could do that while you show me around."

Now Gawain was surprised. This bumbling idiot did not know enough even to attempt concealment of whatever his master was up to. Yet this made it even harder to see what the plan was. Could it be that the new defender was merely a blind, a red herring to lead him away from the real purpose behind the proposed new operating system? Or had this Andy not entrusted his huge but dim creation with his real intentions, using him merely as a means to an end? Could he be so sure of himself that he did not care whether or not Sir Gawain discovered his purpose? He might have reasoned that the knight could do nothing with his discoveries since it was Andy who had the ear of upper management.

Gawain frowned inwardly at this thought. It might well be true, for the knight was confined by the system with no way of alerting anyone who mattered, even if he were to uncover some evil plot by the new programmer. There again, he might be imagining too much; this might be a genuine attempt by Andy to move the Company forward. He might believe that the Geek's system was outdated merely because it was written in so simple a language and he might see Miasmasoft's solution as the way to better things. If that were the case, thought the knight grimly, he could not be much of a programmer at all.

He turned his attention to the giant again. "Very well, Sir Mordred. What would you like to see for a start?"

"Ah, I think the kernel, if you don't mind. Best begin at the beginning, hey?" The giant smiled again as though he had said something very witty. Sir Gawain nodded and turned to lead the way.

On their way down to the depths of the system, Mordred kept up a steady stream of compliments and praise at the efficiency all around him. He marveled at the straightness of the tunnels, exclaimed over the sweet sounds of contented code humming through the arteries, went into raptures over the pure simplicity of the design. Despite himself, Sir Gawain found that he was beginning to warm to this great, awkward fool, so easily impressed and eager to please. It was a bear of a program, layer upon layer of interpreters and unnecessary convolutions, shambling through the system with clumsy, inaccurate footfall, yet it had enough awareness to appreciate the elegant coding around it. And it was good to hear recognition of the Geek's design and Gawain's care and upkeep.

Yet there remained within Gawain a core of suspicion. He had not overlooked that no reason had been given for copying the operating system. And still there was the mystery of this giant defender. Surely its maker could not intend it to function as Gawain did. The thing was clearly unsuited to such a task, without the agility and speed required to defeat unexpected and insidious attacks upon the system. It had the functions of a workhorse, good for daily maintenance and similar mindless tasks, but no finesse, none of the subtlety and insight required in an emergency. What was the real intention behind this good natured giant?

In the deep silence and dimness of the kernel, Sir Gawain explained and indicated while the giant listened and recorded, flurries of activity arcing across his surface. Bumble was there, attached to a wall in a dark corner, but Gawain stood so that Mordred could not see him and they went on their way, the knight showing the innermost secrets of his domain, the giant nodding and grunting, totally absorbed in the process of understanding and memorizing. As they left the area Gawain poured out a sudden compressed burst of information and, as the giant's face went dead with the concentrated effort required to keep up, the knight sent out a pulse in the direction of the crawler: Follow.

From the kernel they worked upwards into the activity and energy of the higher levels with a steady stream of information flowing from Sir Gawain to Mordred. Rarely did the giant interrupt with a question or comment and Gawain was amazed at the enormous storage capacity of his companion. They had surveyed nearly half of the entire system before Mordred called a halt.

"Enough for the moment, sir," he said, raising a hand. "I need time to process much of this. But, if you please, I must ask one more favor before I report back."

Sir Gawain looked around at him. "And that would be?"

"The firewall," said Mordred, "I'm to inspect the firewall."

"Fair enough," replied Gawain. He turned and set off down a nearby passage, the giant lurching at his heels.

Bumble waited until they had turned a corner, then waddled quickly down the passage after them.

(to go directly to Part 4, click here)

Clive

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