This is one in a series of loosely linked fantasy short stories taking place in an apartment complex. The idea comes from the Hindu goddess Saraswati in the technical support (I.T.) world. Among other things, she is the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, and learning.
Saraswati closed her eyes and settled back in her high-backed gamer chair. Her fingers instinctively settled on the keyboard, the hard touch of each square shape as familiar to her as the opening notes of her favorite song. While her dual thirty-inch monitors displayed a staggering array of websites and applications, for this customer’s issue, she needed only her sense of touch.
Closing her eyes, she focused her breathing until the voice in her earpiece faded and silence enveloped her mind. As she slipped into what her work colleagues teasingly called "SRS, or Saras' Restorative State”, she felt the familiar calmness wash over her, and she both heard and felt a faint hum coming from the massive black CPU tower sitting under her desk.
With every breath, her vision focused and she saw the issue clearly. Her mind reached out to integrate the information the customer had given with her seemingly infinite knowledge of the system. Saras understood the problem and she could visualize the path to a solution.
Slowing her breath, her limbs felt a cool sensation spreading out from her torso and radiating in waves from her core. Saras focused her mind further and directed the energy towards her arms and out into her hands. Through her closed eyelids, she saw blue flickers of light gathering near her wrists. She breathed in and held her breath, willing the light further out to her fingers. She felt energy flowing from her fingers towards the keyboard and she saw pale blue tendrils of light seeking a path. She steadily advanced towards the first hurdle.
Taking a deep breath, Saras concentrated on her fingers, willing the blue energy to cross from her fingertips into the material world, the desire to make the leap shown only from a bead of sweat that appeared on her forehead.
As she held her breath, she could see light condensing in her hands, blue energy pooling in her fingertips, and then suddenly, coursing forward, passing from her body into plastic and metal, connecting her to a world few understood and almost none had seen,
Saras saw a pulsing blue ball of energy surging forward, a long wisp of a trail behind. It leapt forward, faster than she could follow. All she could see was the faintest trail behind it, as it raced down the familiar path within her system. It ran on auto-pilot, navigating the microscopic streets and roads of the connected world. Across the ether, the pulse of blue light entered the giant highway crossing the territory, merging seamlessly with countless green bits and bytes flowing on the backbone of the country, each seeking out their own programmed destination.
She became aware of the man’s voice again, she heard the agitation and exasperation. She silenced him with a word, barely uttered, yet enough to halt his diatribe. She focused again and saw the blue ball exiting the superhighway and darting in and out of streets and alleys, finding the exact address in the tiny city that lay under the plastic and metal box under the customer’s desk.
Suddenly, she saw the blue pulsing ball stop in front of a black door set into a silver wall. Tendrils of blue arms reached out, enveloping the door and then seeping around the edges. More and more arms embraced the door as the long wisp that trailed behind caught up and added their effort. Saras focused again, joining her will with that of the ball, radiating energy on all sides of the door.
The door popped off its hinges and the blue mass disappeared inside. She heard the rush as it repaired the burned-out components in microseconds and then vanished.
Saras smiled and relaxed.
“OK, sir, if you could be so kind as to try it again, I believe you will find that everything is working on your system again.”
The customer snarled in her ear, “Listen, lady, I’m telling you, I’ve already spent four hours with your techs and nobody has been able to….”
The customer fell silent and Saras knew the next words that she would hear.
“Wow, it works! You fixed it. You really are magical with computers. Um, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you, it’s just that I needed to get this report out and...:”
“Sir, it’s ok. I understand your frustration. Thank you for calling ForeFront Technologies, and have a nice day”.
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on Unsplash