Inside the hall where the congressional oversight committee ford to deal with GAIA would be held.
A murmur was humming as the spectators spoke to each other in low voices. Reporters were hauling equipnt 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, mbers 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 mbers of this committee, our esteed 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 Aricans live, work, and interact…." He gave a short opening statent, 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 statent by reminding the committee mbers 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 mber, Representative Mark Cummings for his opening statent." Rep. Gowdy gestured to a man sitting to the right of him. In front of him was a na plaque that read 'Rep. Mark Cummings (D-MD).
He thanked the chairman and gave his own brief opening statent, covering much of the sa information as Rep. Gowdy had in his.
That was imdiately 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 statents. Mr. Michael, would you like to begin?"
Aron adjusted the microphone to align with his mouth and said, "I choose to waive my opening statent 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 statent?"
"Thank you, Chairman. I also waive my opening statent and am ready for questions." The surprised murmur grew a little louder.
Many people used opening statents 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 ga, 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 na?"
"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 sa company that's been sanctioned by the US governnt for the infringent of intellectual properties of Arican 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 Arican companies following Hephaestus being allowed to produce all the sanctioned products in Eden.
"Are you saying that you're making the Aricans buy products from a company that's causing huge losses in taxes for the Arican governnt?" 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 governnt 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 na 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 Arican citizen, which ans you fall under the jurisdiction of the Arican law."
"I'd also like to remind you that I'm also an Edenian citizen, aning their laws apply to as well," Aron responded.
The questions continued from there. Aron was asked so difficult questions and answered them all truthfully without beating around the bush, increasing the number of people watching the C-SPAN broadcast as ti 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 ant 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 ti, our premium OS version's AI 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 Arican 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 beco 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 ti?"
"Yes, I'm the sole owner of a parent company nad Connect Enterprises and all of the subsidiary companies thereof," Aron said, then paused for a mont before continuing, "There are nine subsidiaries."
"Can you na them?" the representative asked with a smile on her face. She would na 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, Hers, Plutus Ventures, Icarus Airlines, Asclepius Biotechnology..." he took a deep breath and stared the representative in the eye with a aningful gaze, "and lastly, ARES Security Solutions."
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