Chapter 1: Origins

Thomas Wilhelm taps his fingers rhythmically on the control panel in front of him. The tune in his head is an old Germanic folk song his parents sang to him as a child after they had moved to the US to help him sleep. He found the quiet of the new countryside very comforting like those of the open fields back as a small child, but he occasionally had trouble sleeping. These fields in front of him now hum some nights with the electronic equipment buried beneath the fields between the work compound and the adjoined living quarters of the workers and their families disturbing the illusion of the typical country fields.

For twelve years, Thom has worked with the Coyote Canyon Complex designing and executing plans for a self sustained manufacturing site. The idea was that of a sixty three year old industrialist who found Thom fresh out of MIT where he finished second in his class. When asked why Thom was chosen over Stephen Gastire who had finished first in their class, Thom was told it was his participation in the Building A Better Mouse Trap program initiated and cut off in his graduating year that gave Thom the edge.

The Building A Better Mouse Trap program was piloted with bio-mechanical and civil engineers to combine the hardware and architecture of factories with the usage data and work habits to adapt an efficient solution to energy waste including time management. Maxwell Coyt, known to his friends as the coyote, began buying plots of land in the countryside to begin building his idea for a new way of revolutionizing the working world.

After a decade of impressive design and automation, Thom spent the last two years tweaking his designs and working menial projects such as the pest removal project he currently monitors on his tablet screen. After the workers were hired and the operations put in gear, maintenance was the primary focus. When maintenance functions were fully automated, minor irritants like the bugs circling the exterior lights became Thom's priority.

As trivial as the complaints were, Thom made the effort to make every fix innovative to keep his interest. He created a pest identification algorithm combined with the external security cameras to determine when a high density of bugs were swarming. He programmed the alerts into newly installed rings based on bug zapper designs. When the alerts kick in, the affected outer light dims as the zapper rings lights up drawing in the bugs and eliminating the irritant nuisance.

At the same time, the refrigeration docks were experiencing a rat infestation threatening the food storage for the workers. The refrigeration docks were built to simplify storage of raw meats and produce by allowing large delivery trucks park with the food staying in cargo while the entire dock was cooled from freon pumps in the ceiling. Never one to make a manual solution where at an automated tool can be utilized, Thom had infrared sensor code installed in the camera systems and added grates over new freon chillers in the dock floor. By plugging in his bug algorithm and changing the parameter used to identify pest size, Thom setup the room to detect the small rodents via infrared sensors and kick on the floor based freon pumps to freeze the animals within twelve tiny scampering steps. From there, the cleaning bots made from the Roomba designs for homes scoop the dead rats and dispose of them.

This evening shift, Thom was staring at the little red lights on the screen enjoying the sudden end to the shuffle of bodies as the heat signatures faded into the cold when his supervisor, James Fulder appeared. James slams his hand down flattening the tablet face down on the console.

"What is this? Is this the monitor for the electricity usage on the arc welders?"

Thom pinched the bridge of his nose between his index finger and thumb before answering. "No, but I was trying to clear my mind to give my brain a chance to soak in the problem and get a fresh approach. We've been fighting with the numbers for weeks and the numbers don't show any trend to help me get a fix on a start point."

"Clear you mind, huh. Thought you were the whiz kid. The fresh out of college brain trust that Mr. Coyt leveraged his legacy on no questions asked. It seems to me that a genius like you doesn't need a break. And you can have this back when you solve the usage problem." James slid the tablet from the console top and carries it out the door with him.

Thom waited for the door to close fully before executing his childish mimic of James' comments. He shook his head and stared at the screen with the graphs and real time usage numbers from the night shift. After five minutes of staring at the same cascades of colors for the welders kicking on and off between products, Thom slid to the floor from his chair and began digging into the wiring beneath the primary control panel until he reached the pest management system control panel. Finding a spare output wire from the primary control module, he connected the systems sliding out quickly enough to avoid James seeing him not in his seat and fast enough to smack his head on the edge of the desk.

A few moments later, Thom was back staring at the same screen of electricity usage while peering at the small background image of the red dots from the docks hidden behind the graphs. Behind the usage windows Thom is now focused on, the pest management algorithm begins flickering to cameras in other areas of the factory awaiting the appearance of the next victim for the system.