Geek's Pandora

A building of programmers lived in peace. There were no traces of viruses... until Dora came along.

Life was all and well in the building on Gaia street. It was home to the programmers of the world. They were a peculiar group, and had recently discovered something even more peculiar--Limewire.

Now, a certain Overlord was not happy with this fact. Limewire was a dangerous program that could bring in darkness to the internet. All of the computers were squeaky clean, and the programmers were all theft free. If they learned to use Limewire properly, they could devastate the condition that the Overlord Prome had set up. Everything would be ruined!

With a few simple clicks on his all-powerful computer, he easily swiped Limewire from their computers, and everything was alright. None of the programmers had grown particularly fond of the program, and it was therefore not missed.

The other Overlords were not happy, though. They complained that Prome had gone over their heads and done something without consulting them. It was true that he had, but he found no problem in doing something as simple as upkeep to protect the programming men that populated the room.

Zu decided that Prome had no right to do what he did, so he decided that it was time to do something to get back at Prome. He would do something to undo what he has done; something to allow the programmers free access to the real world. He decided to give them women.

It was a woman named Dora that he presented them with. She was dressed beautifully with a flowing white coat and the most elegant glasses any of the men had ever seen. Her knowledge extended almost as far as the men that she was sent to occupy, and she was given a seat at a brand new computer. However, she wasn’t allowed to log on to it.

The men flocked to her; she had everyone’s attention. Being the only woman in a room full of men was sensational, and she received compliments on her abilities to defrag their systems by hand. They were all impressed. Sometimes, they allowed her to sit down and program a small program just to amuse herself. Every time she was allowed to do this, it made her desire grow more and more to be able to log on to her own computer.

For weeks, she resisted and peace remained. The need grew stronger, though, and she confronted the Overlord about it.

“Zu!” she pleaded. “Why am I not allowed to log on to my own computer? Have I not pleased you?”

“My pupil,” he replied, placing a hand on her shoulder. “If you were to do that, evil would be released onto the network. All could be lost if you did this. We placed you here, though, because we believed that you could handle the temptation.”

Dismayed, Dora nodded and went back to clean keyboards and compile data on the computers of her favorite programmers. Life went on as usual, and the computers remained squeaky clean.

One day, however, the power of curiosity began to kill Dora. She had to know what was on that computer. The lights were out, for the programmers were all out stocking up on Mountain Dew and corn chips. Only a few remained, and they were in the opposite corner of her, facing away.

Tapping quietly on the keyboard, Dora used her own username and password to log on to her own computer. It loaded, and for a brief moment, it was beautiful. Then all hell unleashed.

Trojans and cookies, worms and bugs--the all flooded the computer at once. She was sure it was going to crash down any moment, or that it might explode. The mouse could hardly move and the screen flickered. She almost went so far as to claim to smell smoke. When all of the viruses finished loading, though, one icon showed up on her screen. One icon at the bottom of the list of evils that had already begun to flood the network and spread to the internet. One icon that might match the evils of the world. It was a gift that everyone could possess.

Firewalls.

Author's Note

It's just a bit of humor; I mean no offense with the stereotypes. Believe me, I'm a programmer. Sure, I'll make fun of myself. Just not you guys.

Reviews

[Margo F]

Haha! I like your writing! It's not as serious as all other writers! It gave me a good laugh when I was sick of my own writing myself!

[WriterMe]

This was quite a piece. Very imaginative and for some reason reminded me of Artemis Fowl. A really good write. Who knew Firewalls has such an interesting story behind them. Loved it =]