Inside the hall where the congressional oversight committee formed to deal with GAIA would be held.
A murmur was humming as the spectators spoke to each other in low voices. Reporters were hauling equipment this way and that, making sure that it was set up and working as they recorded B-roll footage of the audience and special footage of the notable figures in attendance.
A few minutes after the C-SPAN live broadcast began, members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform started taking their seats, the last of them the committee's head representative Trey Gowdy, a republican from South Carolina. He had only been the committee head for a few days as a result of the previous head resigning a few weeks before.
After taking his seat, he picked up his gavel and rapped it against the sound block placed before him on the table.
BANG!! BANG!! BANG!
"Good morning to all members of this committee, our esteemed colleagues, the press, the public, and our witnesses from GAIA Technology. I now formally call this hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to order."
The whole room went silent, as the hearing had officially started.
"We're gathered today to address a range of critical concerns related to GAIA Technology, a company that's undeniably changed the way many Americans live, work, and interact..." He gave a short opening statement, listing the things they would be investigating in today's hearing.
"To our witnesses, Ms. Sarah O'Connor, President of GAIA Technologies, and Mr. Aron Michael, CEO of Connect Enterprises, the parent corporation of GAIA Technologies, we appreciate your attendance today. We anticipate a constructive dialogue, and we expect forthright and transparent answers to our inquiries." Following his thanks to the witnesses, he finished his opening statement by reminding the committee members to keep their questions to the five minutes they would be given, and to keep their questions respectful.
"With that, I yield to the ranking member, Representative Mark Cummings for his opening statement." Rep. Gowdy gestured to a man sitting to the right of him. In front of him was a name plaque that read ‘Rep. Mark Cummings (D-MD).
He thanked the chairman and gave his own brief opening statement, covering much of the same information as Rep. Gowdy had in his.
That was immediately followed by swearing in the witnesses. Aron and Sarah stood from their chairs, raised their right hands, and took the oath following Rep. Gowdy's words, then retook their seats and waited for the first question.
Thus, the questioning began.
Rep. Gowdy said, "Thank you, Representative Cummings. Mr. Michael, Ms. O'Connor, you have the option to provide opening statements. Mr. Michael, would you like to begin?"
Aron adjusted the microphone to align with his mouth and said, "I choose to waive my opening statement and proceed directly to questions." A murmur of surprise swept through the spectators in the room.
"Very well. Ms. O'Connor, would you like to provide an opening statement?"
"Thank you, Chairman. I also waive my opening statement and am ready for questions.” The surprised murmur grew a little louder.
Many people used opening statements to pull the representatives and the public watching to their side and show themselves as the underdog, but the people in question today had both directly waived it. Not only that, they were very casual and nonchalant about it, setting a tone for how things would likely proceed.
"Thank you both. We'll begin with questions. Representative Jordan, you may begin," Trey said.
"Thank you, Mr. Chairman," Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio began. He turned to Sarah and asked, "Can you detail all products and services your company provides?"
"We have a game, BugZapper, GAIA OS, Pangea, a smartphone line, and computers as our products and services," she answered.
"Is your company responsible for the production of the physical devices that you are selling under your company name?"
"No, we have a partner that's responsible for manufacturing.”
"Which company is it, and where is that company located?" Rep. Jordan asked, his eyes glinting.
"Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing," Aron answered.
"Is that the same company that's been sanctioned by the US government for the infringement of intellectual properties of American companies?” followed the representative.
"Yes."
Aron's answer caused a small commotion to arise in the room. Over the preceding months, they had continuously been hearing about the losses of American companies following Hephaestus being allowed to produce all the sanctioned products in Eden.
"Are you saying that you're making the Americans buy products from a company that's causing huge losses in taxes for the American government?" the representative doubled down following Aron's response.
"I don't know how you see it that way, but you're technically correct. But you also have to keep in mind that our production contract with them was done before the Edenian government allowed them to do such a thing," Aron responded.
"Can you give us details about the ownership structure of Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing? The committee needs to know if you're included in this blatant act of IP theft," Rep. Jordan asked.
"I'm the sole owner of the company."
The entire room was shocked into silence.
"Did you just confess to breaking the law by benefiting from other companies’ IP without paying any compensation to them for it?" Rep. Jordan couldn't believe the man in front of him would be dumb enough to admit to breaking IP law in front of the entire country.
"It seems like you've misunderstood my response, Mr. Representative," Aron began. Refusing to use his name and just calling him “representative” showed how unimportant he was to Aron, who continued, "I never broke any laws. Everything I've done is perfectly legal in Eden."
"Mr. Michael, I'd like to remind you that you're an American citizen, which means you fall under the jurisdiction of the American law."
"I'd also like to remind you that I'm also an Edenian citizen, meaning their laws apply to me as well," Aron responded.
The questions continued from there. Aron was asked some difficult questions and answered them all truthfully without beating around the bush, increasing the number of people watching the C-SPAN broadcast as time went on.
"Can you detail to us how you handle user data? Including any past incidents that compromised public safety and the company's responses to those incidents," a representative asked Sarah.
"We don't," She responded in a clipped voice.
"Can you clarify?" the representative asked.
"I meant that we don't store any of the user's data anywhere," she retorted.
"Miss O'Connor, may I remind you that you're under oath. From our research, we discovered that you're paying Amazon for servers that you use for data storage and more, so please answer truthfully."
"In the past, yes, we did use those servers to store information. During that time, our premium OS version's Al operations couldn't be fully handled by the phones, so we sent user data there for processing before it was sent to the users. But following the release of our smartphones, which are capable of doing the processing locally, we stopped hosting the users information on the servers we rented from Amazon and deleted all the data in them," she elaborated, making the prepared questions about American users’ data security useless since they had testified that they are not storing even a bit of data.
The representative put aside a few pieces of paper that had become useless, thanks to Sarah's response, then turned to Aron and asked, "Can you list the companies you own in whole or in part for clarification purposes and to save everyone time?"
"Yes, I'm the sole owner of a parent company named Connect Enterprises and all of the subsidiary companies thereof," Aron said, then paused for a moment before continuing, "There are nine subsidiaries."
"Can you name them?" the representative asked with a smile on her face. She would name them from the list that had been provided to her if Aron decided to keep mum.
"GAIA Technologies, Helios Energy & Utility, Hephaestus Industries and Manufacturing, Coeus Foundation, Hermes, Plutus Ventures, Icarus Airlines, Asclepius Biotechnology..." he took a deep breath and stared the representative in the eye with a meaningful gaze, "and lastly, ARES Security Solutions."
