The day Hum Bit got a job

The economy was flourishing and productivity was hovering around 80% but Hum Bit Shakti found himself without a job even after finishing his study program in flying colors. After .00012/8 months of interviews, he finally gave in and approached Srithematics for help.
"I have a lot to offer to the world, Srithematics"
"You have but unfortunately all our work is currently automated. Our staff only does maintenance and upgrades." Srithematics responded
"Are you saying that you service the entire country with only a 3 person team? This is crazy!" HumBit was shocked
"Money is tight and the work repetitive. The easiest way to cut costs was to cut people. I don't know how I managed to set aside enough money to program the SRT-2020Z." Srithematics humbly replied
"It was not always like that. The world was a different place 25years ago."
"The pendulum will swing someday, Doctor. You know it will."
He walked out of the building. The weather reflected his misery and the gloomy skies started turning into a whirlwind of rain and hailstones. Another one of those damn hurricanes, he remembered,  32nd one this year. Fortunately, the weather bureau was really good at forecasting them - they warned people of the exact day & time almost 2 months in advance. People usually spent their hurrications in the Southern Hemisphere. Hum Bit headed home to start packing for his trip.
Buzz Buzz
The letters BoW flashed on his glasses. He decided to take the call.
"Hum Bit?"
"Yes"
"We need you."
On the eve of Hurricane Serenity, Hum Bit got his job. A job to stand in for the SRT-2020Z. Could he replace this machine? Could he be faster, more accurate than a 20,000 core symmetric multiprocessor organocomputer?
"You don't need to replace the SRT" Srithematics read his thoughts "The backup does all that the SRT can do."
Hum Bit gave a sigh of relief
"The SRT predicted a viral epidemic post-Hurricane. It was trying to pinpoint the source when it went down....the data set was just too large. Its a perfect storm."
"That shouldn't be a problem though because we have a backup. However it is not fast enough...and we just don't have the time. You will need to do the plumbing."
"Plumbing?" Hum Bit queried
"Yes. Plumbing. We need you to narrow down the data input. The backup will let you know if there are any gaps."
Hum Bit now understood why he was summoned. He had spent the last 4 years studying predictive patterns, it was practically second nature to him.
"You have a little more than 12hours before the virus strikes. 4 hours to contain before it becomes an air-borne epidemic."
Hum Bit took a deep breath of No. S3. It helped him from zoning out from the mind-numbing flow of data. The backup was cranking through the virus strains from the last 100years. The problem was these virii mutated so fast that there were trillions of them.
10hours. Still nothing.
Srithematics paced the conference room. It felt like a movidrama.
"What do we have?" Srithematics asked
"We traced back to the start of .0010 era. It took 8hours to go through 90years of data."
"Nothing yet?"
"Not even a false positive. The algorithms are bullet-proof."
"We cannot do this sequentially. There is no time."
Hum Bit took another puff of No. S3.  It was 23:08 and he had 52 more minutes. Something came up on the backup's screen. Maybe that's what it was. He got off his chair and hurled himself towards the conference room.
"Srithematics! I think I know what it is."

Archaeopteryx

A non-indigenous virus only found in birds. A virus that had been eliminated thousands of years after it had wiped out the entire population of dinosaurs. A virus which hitched a ride on an asteroid. It had made a comeback. Now all they had to do was find a DNA sample - a sample of the extinct Archaeopteryx to culture an inoculation.
"Not as easy as that. We will also need to bring that black rat back to life.  Black rats served as an intermediate host for one of the developmental stages of the virus."
2 hours later
The scientists had succeeded is the fastest replication of the gigantic bird and the rat in a quarantined warehouse. They were now culturing the antivirus which would be sprayed over the city of SF.
3 hours more
The storm had subsided, the antivirus had weakened the virus and self-destructed. The crisis was averted. Srithematics and Hum Bit unwinded in the room. The SRT was playing soothing laser music when it suddenly spoke.
"Cheatgrass, Hydrilla, Brown Tree Snake, Grass Carps, Black Rat"
What the hell? This sounded like gibberish except for the Black Rat which he had only heard few hours back.
"Non-indigenous species. They thrived in these alien environments and wiped out entire species of native plants and animals."
The SRT started taking them through a holographic journey of Earth's species over the last 100years.
"Humans had taken care of these threats save the virus, bacteria and germs which they have relatively contained.....all save one!"
It struck him like a lightening on a pitch black night. He turned around towards Srithematics.
"Yes. We knew it for a long time." Srithematics answered without waiting for the question
"Why didn't you tell anyone?"
"People didn't want to hear it. The proof was too abstract. There was no smoking gun."
"But people believe in black holes, quantum theory, and Higgs Bosons."

Higgs Boson

"They believe as long as it doesn't conflict with their religious scriptures."
Wow! We lived a whole century in denial because it did not align with their beliefs. This indoctrination was worse than an epidemic.
"Yes. Did you really think we are indigenous to Earth? We wiped out the entire ecosystem and now have to resort to synthetic substitutes."
"It doesn't make sense. Why did it take so long to get where we are then? This should have happened eons back."
"Well we had to devolve as a species before we were strong enough to overcome nature. Our early ancestors interbred with monkeys to stay alive."
"Monkeys? Why did we pick monkeys?"
"Nobody really knows. Maybe they picked us. Anyways, they served as the perfect host for carrying our intellect. It took a really really long time before we could be us."
"What do you mean?"
"Generations and generations of mutated monkeys before we finally overwhelmed our host's DNA. We lost the tail, all our hair, our appendix became obsolete, and our cerebral cortex, what I like to call our meta brain, started controlling the monkey part of our brain."
"Just pop-science fiction"
"And Gen Hxers were born."
"Gen Hxers!?!"
"Yes Gen Hxers said to have led the start of .0000 or dot era as it is commonly known."
"It was the next stage of our evolution. As the fear of predators abated and we found easy food & shelter, the alien DNA no longer had to rely on the monkey DNA to protect it from nature & all the primordial forces. It finally took over...and there was no going back."
"Ahhh - it was the monkey that made men want to mate with women and vice versa. Who are we then? Where do we come from?"
Srithematics turned towards his window from his lab suspended 20,000ft above the ground. He looked like he was squinting, almost winking, at the skies.
"I am not sure." He murmured
The red planet seemed to wink back at him.