2 January

All right, so, I've calmed down and I'm focusing. The last I mentioned my old girl friend, Emi, was that she had cut off all contact with me--what little contact that there was. I had a very foul attitude following me around a few days after that. Being in touch with her again after so many years, as I mentioned, made me happy, but when she did what she did, it was like I had the floor drop out from underneath me. The selection was right on top of us at the time, so I was lucky--I followed it closely. There was a lot of confusing information floating around the feeds and even the inFeeds that made me concerned Rose might not make the selection.

As I read the polling numbers, I saw he was ahead, but the part of the contest that was about his class--the Thirder factor--was a wild card. So much so that it was hard for any of the people on the inFeeds to say who would win. Would people cast for the one that was like them? The average Adam? Or would they cast for the known man? Thorne has been in government his entire life--that "experience factor" was another wild card. Combine both the experience factor and the Thirder factor with the Intelligence-Compensation Algorythm (ICA) and you end up with numbers that were simply not consistent.

When I was a kid, I remember trying to really understand what the ICA was actually doing to the the final tally of cast ballots. We were told growing up that some people who are very smart can manipulate the outcome of the selection when they cast. Which I completely don't understand. How could someone manipulate the outcome just by casting? Regardless, the ICA compensates for a given percentage of people who do this. How many people do this? The UER government won't give us specific numbers since they are different in every selection. The algo, they say, can predict the number and compensate by adjusting the number of ballots cast for each man running.

I remember when I was a child, I asked my father about this--if the algorythm wasn't an algorythm, but was instead a program coded by someone who wanted one candidate to win instead of the other, how would we know?

"The government wouldn't do that," my father said.

"Why?"

"Because we're a democracy. If they did that, they'd be going against the very principles that have kept humanity alive since the old Earth days."

I looked at him for a while as I tried to decide whether I agreed with him or not. Even at nine years of age, I wondered what would stop a bad person from lying and exchanging that algo for something corrupt.

In many ways, that moment with my father pushed me toward journalism. It made me curious. I felt his story didn't quite add up. So, it stayed on my mind.

When I saw Rose win with such dramatic numbers--800,000 more ballots cast for him over his main competition--I couldn't help but wonder about that algo. In the end I decided if it would have been too obvious if it had cast that many in favor of one man. While the polls weren't completely telling, it was obvious if Thorne won, it wouldn't be by much.

So, what does this have to do with Emi?

Nothing. That's the point. By the end of the year, she was far from my mind--and so was my arrest and Van Bush and the Vidi.

As the Holiday approached, Ande decided she wanted to be with her family, back in the West Quad. We didn't have the spare credit for both of us to go, which was fine, since I was interested in spending some time getting to know New Earth City a bit more.

So, when the Holiday came, I took a mono trip down to midcentral to visit a museum which had just opened an exhibition about journalists through history. It was something I think I was inspired to do by that old man I met while I was arrested--Van Bush. The way he spoke, so quickly and with such directing questions. He seemed to know what he wanted to know even before he had answers.

He was older than anyone I know, so he was a little scary to me. I don't know why, but he seemed to haunt me like he was from an old ghost story--not that I believe in ghosts. I wondered if I might see him in some old image files.

So, on Holiday Eve, I went down to midcenter--not far from the festivities in Tree Plaza. TP is always a mess on Holiday Eve. I try to stay away from crowds like that, but in some ways, they make me feel more human. Plus it was a fun way to spend the end of the year, not that we celebrated that much out in the West Quad.

So, unlike most crowds, I decided to wander in amongst them before I made my way to the Museum of Knowledge, where the journalism exhibition was. The crowd was just as large as I had expected. When Ande and I intentionally wanted to see the Tree Show, we were only able to get a few hundred decometers away. That's how many people were in Tree Plaza. This time, I was less motivated and was unable to get close at all. I quickly gave up and made my way to MoK.

That's when I saw her.

Yes, it was Emi walking into the museum, just ahead of me.

-Jim Conant