[ WP ] Books are read only by the poor .

Alvery held the heavy rectangle awkwardly in her hand at first. It had no interface that was visible. She tried swiping the cover and nothing happened. When she swiped the unbound edge the cover flipped up momentarily along with a few thin slices of... paper. 
 
 Alvery let her consciousness join the collective for a moment. Within a heartbeat she knew what she was holding. It was a book. Her fingers responded to the lines in the worn cover and she flipped slowly through the pages. 
 
 Normally she would have known the words cover to cover within a few milliseconds but this information was surprisingly inaccessible online. That was strange. 
 
 Why would the hired help be lugging this brick around on her cleaning cart? Was this something sentimental? 
 
 `` Mistress Alvery?'' the mousy servant sounded surprised to find her better hovering over the cart. 
 
 Alvery analyzed the details of the young woman's voice and her facial expression. She was attractive in a way that anyone young is attractive. Beyond that she was plain. it was clear she was n't reaping the cosmetic rewards of nanotechnology. She probably could n't afford it. 
 
 After another econd Alvery was sure the servant was hiding something. This was n't paranoia. It was informed caution based on several observed properties. 
 
 `` So you're interested in,'The Fundamentals of Assembly Language?'' 
 
 `` Yes mistress... I've always been curious what lies underneath it all.'' the woman turned a light shade of red and lowered her head. 
 
 `` Underneath it all? ``, Alvery was accessing the collective for more information but she found only a null return. 
 
 `` Underneath the digital layer. The voice recognition, the AIs, the amazing visuals, the colective... Have n't you ever wondered what it is all made of or how it works?'' 
 
'Now why would I waste my time on such a fruitless effort? If I want to know something I just do. All the time you waste on this'book' is time I actually spend doing things.'' 
 
 `` Yes mistress, of course.'' 
 
 `` Now, I do n't want to see you...'' she searched for the right words, `` reading' this thing during work hours. Goodness knows I'm the laughing stock of the high rise for keeping humans as hired help. If you were to shirk in your duties it would reflect poorly on this household.'' 
 
 `` Yes mistress,'' the slight servant somehow looked even smaller than before. 
 
 `` Oh, and the next time you're at the store could you pick up some clementines?'' 
 
 The servant shivered for brief moment, `` Clementines?'' 
 
 `` Yes, I've had a terrible craving for them lately. Now thank you Pietra, you're excused.'' 
 
 Pietra slowly pushed the cart out of the room. She could feel the better woman's eyes on her back as she left but she kept her back straight and her pace steady. Her quick heartbeats were pounding in her ears. 
 
 Once in the next room she slumped over the cart and breathed out a sigh. It had worked! Months ago it had seemed like a fanciful thought, but she had actually just planted a conscious thought in another human's mind. 
 
 Pietra loved clementines and there never were any in the house. Now there would be more needed changes around here. 
 
 Once Pietra got to her room she locked the door. Inside of her small closet she removed the loose board from the wall and retrieved the ancient ultrabook from its hiding place. It had taken three months wages to purchase this from the junker and another month's to obtain a means to power it. The housing was deeply scratched but its folded internals were mostly intact save the missing L key on the keyboard. 
 
 Most people viewed technology as something that just was instead of something humans had made. Yet on the fringes of everyday life Pietra had found clues that had lead her to this point. Her interest had been first peaked by some books she had picked up just before a library building had been demolished. 
 
 Though it had been the self help books that had shaken her out of her complacency, it had been the books that described the underpinnings of the digital world around her that she had craved more of. Over the course of years she had learned how it all worked and interconnected. From there she had picked up a few high level programming languages. 
 
 Just last week she had learned enough machine language to insert a JMP statement at just the right location to overcome a hurdle that had been plaguing her for weeks. 
 
 Now to script something more... rewarding. It should be easy now that she had a basic program cobbled together. 
 
 Alvery did n't appreciate what she had but Pietra would. Cassius, beautiful Cassius just needed the right thoughts implanted the next time he joined with the collective.
