Chapter 1
Hey everyone, how is it going? Welcome to the story. Just so you all know, or for those of you, you are reading my other story, Just Another Hollywood Story. This is basically a mirror image of that story. Only this time, the MC is a girl, not a guy, and because it's a girl and I have very limited writing capabilities, I am unable to project sexual attraction towards guys. So, the female MC is going to be gay. If you are not okay with that or do not support gay rights and all that, you may want to leave now.
That said, this isn't some female empowerment; all men are trash stories. This is me reading a story on the site that gave me a desire to do my own. This is also a side project, so I do not know when I will post Chapter 2. As my main story for this site is Just Another Hollywood Story.
Now, I hope you all enjoy the story, and if not, well, then the breaks, I guess. Catch you all later.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"What use is all the knowledge in the world if you do nothing with it? What is the point of being the most intelligent person in the world if you don't use it to help others? I'll tell you what use it is. It is useless. You are useless if you only use your gifts for yourself." Isabel Cadaval
-1996-
I want to start this off by saying that I didn't earn this gift of mine. I wasn't in some accident that awoke some hidden potential inside me or got knocked on the head hard enough that something changed in my brain. One day, I was just your average 18-year-old girl working two jobs in hopes of saving up enough money to go to college, and the next, I woke up to find I had knowledge spanning perhaps the whole multiverse. And yes, before you ask, the multiverse is a thing. After all, I was granted a lot of this knowledge that, frankly, outside of anime and science fiction, shouldn't be possible.
Let me tell you precisely what happened. It was one day after my grandfather's funeral, and I had fallen asleep at my Sony Multiscan 20se II keyboard after pulling an all-nighter coding. Oh, I love to code, by the way. Call me a nerd if you must but it was my passion, my love, and my obsession all rolled up into one. Well, that and Cameron Diaz, but that is a different story altogether. Anyway, my grandfather had just died and to be frank, he was…. Well, he was my hero.
They say that every little girl's first love is her father. Well, in my case, that was not the case. Not because my father wasn't there for me when I was younger or some horrible man but because my grandfather was just, well, he was just my everything. From an early age, I had shown an interest in computers and electronics of all kinds. Where other girls were busy playing dress up and begging their mom or dad for a new Barbie, I wanted the latest computer, software, and electronics to play with,
Something my parents could neither afford to give me nor desired to. They couldn't understand why I loved them so much—being the salt of the earth type of people, they saw computers as a waste of time. Even as bit by bit, they became increasingly a part of everyday life. My papa, however, got it. He said I was like my grandmother, who loved auto mechanics. There was just something about it that called to her, and I was the same when it came to computers. It was her passion and was the reason he loved her so much. So, while he had little money and next to no savings, he encouraged me to study and practice my passion. Papa even went so far as to buy me my very first computer when I was 8 years old. It was a brand-new Macintosh Plus that cost 2,599 dollars at the time, which was nearly enough to pay for half of a brand-new car in the 80's.
It was a little wonder why my parents were so shocked when I opened my birthday present for him that year and why my older brothers were so angry. I was too young at the time to notice either, of course, or maybe I didn't care. It was hard to say which it was, as I had trouble noticing things like that even today when my mind was elsewhere. Anyway, was it any wonder why I loved my grandfather more than my mom and dad? They may have been good people who loved me the best they could and cared for me, but if you couldn't understand your child, it is hard to develop a genuine connection with them.
That was also why I felt so safe in telling him first at age 16 that I was gay. He had more trouble understanding that than my computer obsession, but he didn't care too much at the end of the day, so long as I was happy. It was a feeling that was not shared by my parents, who, let's say, were not so accepting; safe to say, mistakes happened, and words were exchanged that saw me move in with my grandfather. Even at his funeral, we didn't talk much other than to say hello and leave it at that. Again, I was lucky I was 18, and my grandfather left his house in my name. So, I didn't have to worry about moving back in with my mom and dad, who didn't want to have anything to do with me right now.
So here I was, 18 years old, living alone, working several part-time jobs, and hoping to attend college. Only for the grandfather to die before I could save up enough money to do so and feeling….. Well, I didn't know how to feel, and that was why I pulled an all-nighter coding after the funeral. I just needed to escape from the pain I was feeling at the moment. The house was empty; I had no one I could really call or depend on anymore. It sucked, and I missed my papa, who would tell me everything would be alright, and I had to be strong. Taking strength from a man who had seen shit I couldn't even hope to imagine in Vietnam.
Now, that strength was gone, and I had to find a way to stand on my own two feet without him there. That is likely why I refrained from asking too many questions upon waking up the next day with a severe headache and possessing knowledge I did not have previously. I needed the discretion from the reality of what my life had become over the last few years.
Now, I don't want to brag, but when I was in high school, I took all AP classes and had a 4.0 grade point average, but I wasn't a genius by any means. My SAT scores reflected this, as I achieved a score of 1350. Good, but not perfect like those who were actual geniuses would have. Which I was okay with, honestly. I knew my limits, and my goals in life also reflected this. All I ever wanted out of life was to attend college and take Computer Engineering classes. Something I was already well versed in. Find a job, maybe in IT, and make a decent living. Maybe find a girlfriend, get a dog or cat, and die of old age. An unremarkable but easily achievable life that was well within my limits. Now, however, that had all changed big time.
I don't know why I was given this gift. Maybe it was sent to me by my papa after he passed away. I would say God, but considering my parents were fundamental Christians and how they view people like me. Well, I had mixed feelings on the whole concept of God and heaven. I only believed in it because I wanted my grandfather and grandmother to meet again in the afterlife. Other than for that one reason, I really didn't care about things like that.
Whatever the reason for my newfound knowledge, I now saw a chance to do something my papa always said I should do if I had the opportunity: help the world around me in a significant way and not in some superficial way where I told myself I was making the world a better place while really not affecting anything. But first, to do so, I needed money, and a lot of it. It's a good thing I know exactly where to start.
First thing first. I thought to myself as I sat before my computer and started to type away. What was the one thing this world desperately needed but no one was working on? Other than the obvious things like world peace, a solution to world hunger, etc. Better protection for the internet. It was something that most people at this time didn't even think about. The world around us was becoming more and more computerized. The internet, while still relatively new to the masses, was growing bigger by the year. It was slowly taking over parts of our lives people didn't even think about. Such as banking, personal information, and whatnot. With no actual safety net to protect us from hankers.
It had only been 2 years since Kevin Mitnick's IP spoofing attack and Vladimir Levin siphoned $10 million from Citibank. And yet, no one was really taking what had happened seriously. Well, big business and the government were, but they didn't really know what they were doing. As for the public, they were still seeing all this as one big joke. Something that only really happened in the movies but was not possible in real life. However, if you have seen Terminator 2, you would recall how John Connor hacked an ATM. Not only was that possible, but it was easy for most hankers with even a rudimentary understanding of software and cybersecurity.
The world, in general, was very vulnerable to mass cyberattacks, and as people's information was put more and more online, they became at risk of losing everything. Not just their money but their identity, property, and whatever else a competent hacker wished to take. It was a disaster waiting to happen. At least from where I stood, it was. That is where I intended to intervene and assist. While my own abilities in software programming were limited, the knowledge in my head was not.
It took very little time to find several antiviral software that I could potentially use to protect the world from any would-be hankers looking to commit crimes. The only problem was that those I could make were already in development by other companies worldwide and were lackluster compared to many of the ones in my head. And the ones I wanted to make were well beyond my capabilities in building. Not because I could not copy the coding it could take to make it happen but because the hardware currently available couldn't possibly hope to possess all the information it would take to power it. For example, there was an anti-viral software in my head called Buzzsaw that would be developed about 150 years from now.
To save you all the technical details, Buzzsaw is an early version of an actual AI-run antiviral software designed to go into a system and find the flaws within it. Then, close or fix said deficiencies without the need for human intervention. It was indeed a marvel to look at in my head and something I would call perfect if it weren't for the fact that there were even more advanced systems in my head that made it look like a slug and an out-of-date piece of junk.
Again, it didn't matter, however, if Buzzsaw was a piece of junk compared to another system in my head because it remained, in fact, far beyond anything his world could hope to make at this point in time. Well, not within the next 150 years, so anyway. According to the information I had in my head. With that said, however, after thinking about it for a few days, I came to a realization that I should have had from the start. I didn't need the complete version of Buzzsaw for the time I was living in. Even an incomplete version of it would be light years ahead of what was currently available.
With that knowledge on hand, I got to work with a smile on my face as I started to do what I loved most—coding something that was, in essence, new. Oh sure, I was using the knowledge that clearly came from the future, but because I couldn't just copy and paste, so to speak, the system itself, I had to find a way to make a usable, downgraded version of it without frying my CPU—a challenge in of itself.
Overall, it took me about 3 months to create something usable from information on a software system that was 150 years ahead of its time. Between work and dealing with things, like family members who suddenly wanted to move into my papa's house now that he was dead or convince me to sell it so they could have a cut. I was honestly surprised I was able to get it done in such a short amount of time. But I did, and as I held a CD up to my face and looked at it, I couldn't help but become overcome with a feeling of both accomplishment and complete failure.
I had done it. After 3 months of trial and error, I finally made a usable anti-viral software that was more advanced than anything else in the world. And all in a pretty short amount of time. Seeing as creating something this complex and advanced would have taken teams of computer engineers with the best equipment in the world years to develop. That said, however, knowing what it could be or should have been made me feel like shit. This was junk compared to the real thing. There was no other way to put it. Complete and other junk that wasn't worth shitting on.
Again, however, I had to reason with myself. I had no choice but to take Buzzsaw and bring it down to its bare bones. Each time I tried to include more of what Buzzsaw really was, my CPU would crash, and I would have to start over. I even came close to burning out my CPU several times. All in all, this CD only held perhaps 7 percent of what Buzzsaw really was, most likely less if I was being honest with myself. Which was still at least a decade ahead of what the world currently had available. So I should be happy but fuck, it could have been so much better. Maybe if I had a better computer or several computers, it could have been better, but then no other system could have handled it, which would defeat the purpose.
Pushing down any feeling of failure or inadequacy, I instead focused on what was important. In my hand, I held the most advanced anti-viral software in the world. Now, the question was how to get it to market without it being stolen from me. I was no fool; if someone found out what I had in my hand, they would try to steal it. Shit, there was a good chance that the US government itself would arrest me under false pretenses if I weren't careful.
"God fucking damn it, I needed a lawyer and find a way to sell this to people before anyone can make a move on me," I say out loud.
It was going to be a long couple of months.