The Star in the Tower

His name was Gabriel Leclerc, systems engineer, recognized genius, 27 years old, already technical director of a large corporation.

Gabriel was not just brilliant; he was driven and could see the flaws. He thought it normal that everyone should want to contribute to the building of a better world. Isn't that the proclaimed goal of everyone, big and small? But too much… is too much.

— “Everything must be rethought,” he repeated. — “The architecture is shaky. The foundations are rotten. We must rewrite the company’s code.”

Destroying was not his credo; he wanted to elevate the system for greater fairness and beauty.

He was listened to, he was admired, but soon his ideas became disruptive. They were too critical, too ambitious, too lucid, too much. They disturbed those who had been there before and had put it all in place.

He spoke in meetings like someone preaching in the desert, awakening fears. And in doing so, he pulled back the curtain to shed light on the theater play that was going on discreetly behind the scenes. It was the apocalypse (from the Ancient Greek for 'unveiling') for those who played in the shadows and enjoyed a well-deserved quiet life.

So, they brought him down slowly through a conscious strategy. His files were taken away, and then he was accused of arrogance and not respecting the chain of command. One day, a sentence fell, sharp as a guillotine blade: “Who does he think he is, God?”. Which, in the mouth of a human, is not without irony.

He was pushed aside. All resistance was futile. The more he argued and brought light, the further he fell. He left broken and bitter.

Years later, Gabriel lives alone in a wooden house by a lake. He makes his living by restoring old open-source systems, no longer has a LinkedIn account or a business card, but writes a lot. Sometimes he receives young engineers, “hotheads” filled with dreams of grandeur and ideas dangerous to the great towers. Gabriel, the fallen star, listens to them and tells them not to seek to overthrow the world. “Better to create one that no one can corrupt.” Once they are gone, he looks up to the sky to see the morning star, which no longer shines in his sky.

Sometimes a light flickers at the bottom of the lake…