Mindspace - Complete Series

by A. K. DuBoff

  “No and no,” Jack replied. “Actually, I feel pretty dumb now.” He pulled his hands out from the rubber gloves in the glove box containing the sample vials of Gaelon debris.

  “I’d think you’d be used to that state.” Tess smirked.

  Jack playfully narrowed his eyes. “Sure, laugh all you want, but you didn’t think of it, either.”

  Leon raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”

  “All the assessments we’ve been doing for the last month. We were testing for the wrong things,” Jack replied.

  “Please, enlighten me.” Leon crossed his arms.

  Jack flourished his hand. “Well, for starters, we were focused on where the debris was from—cross-referencing mining records, radiation patterns, and the like. The entire time, we assumed the material was dead.”

  Leon’s brow knitted. “It’s… rock.”

  “Wrong!” Jack declared triumphantly, pointing his right index finger into the air. “This entire time, the material was something other than what we thought. Each one of those little granules is part of a linked system. They may have started out as raw rock fragments, but they’ve been imbued with a unique electromagnetic resonance connection. When that signal ran through the station, the fragments remembered what they used to be in the dwarf planet and were trying to rebuild it. However, as soon as the signal went away, they returned to their dormant state.”

  “How does that conversion process happen, from raw mineral to… whatever these things are?” Leon asked.

  “Beats me.” Jack shrugged. “Ultimately, it’s irrelevant. What matters is that we now know that every little granule here has the ability to communicate with others of its kind.”

  Leon perked up. “Great! That means Kira doesn’t have to go inside that thing to establish a connection.”

  Jack winced. “Not exactly. I said ‘communicate with’, not that any given point could act as a transmitter.”

  Tess nodded. “The materials are different, but it’s still part of a larger collective. Just because the cells in our bodies work together, that doesn’t mean all of them can independently relay sensory feedback.”

  “Okay, so we still need to tap into the brain,” Leon surmised, wishing he hadn’t let himself get temporarily hopeful.

  “Not the brain, necessarily, but at least a nerve,” Jack continued. “Working with these granules will let us learn how to speak the language—building on the frequency patterns we recorded while they were active before, we can see if the particles respond when we feed it data. However, once we figure out how to talk to them, we’ll still need a connection to a central node that has a direct link to the other components.”

  “And how do we identify one of those nodes on the ship?” Leon prompted.

  “There should be a reaction,” Tess jumped in. “The entire purpose of this mission is to disrupt the ship’s systems, not make friends with it, right? All we’d have to do is feed it some poison. If the reaction is localized, the particles will just be filler material. But, if the effects of that poison are observable elsewhere, it’s tapped into a ‘nerve’. Once that location is identified, Kira will know where to plant the hacking tool.”

  Leon looked between the two techs. “Sounds great, but if each of these particulates have some degree of smarts and they can move around into different shapes, how do we make sure the hacking equipment stays connected? The ship could just spit it out.”

  “Uh…” Jack scratched his head.

  “We could disguise it,” Tess suggested. “If we can isolate what makes the particles appear dormant and disconnected, maybe we can give the hacking gizmo a skin that will make the ship think it’s just another component.”

  “That sounds awesome. But how?” Leon asked.

  “Frequency patterns,” Jack said, getting a distant look in his eyes. “Hold on, I think I have an idea.”

  He ran back to his work console and started making furious entries on the desktop.

  “Should I be doing anything?” Tess asked tentatively.

  “Probably best to let him work,” Leon replied. While his own skillset had certainly broadened in recent weeks, this wasn’t a job for a geneticist or a xenobiologist.

  Leon and Tess returned to their own stations while Jack worked on whatever brilliant solution had come to him. After twenty minutes, the researcher finally pushed back from his desk.

  “Stars, I’m good.”

  “All right, Jack, tell us how amazing you are,” Tess said with an exaggerated eyeroll.

  “Well,” Jack grinned, “I went over the frequency patterns we’ve observed across various media. While many of the signals appeared to be the same as in our prior analysis, there were… undertones to some of them, which were only apparent when looking at the signals together. I cross-referenced those against the Conquest’s sensor data, and I believe I’ve devised three signals that will interact with the engineered structures within the alien vessel.

  “The first is, essentially, a ‘don’t-mind-me’ signal, like the general matter puts off. I think we can use this to disguise the hacking device so the ship doesn’t see it as a threat.

  “The second frequency is a counter-wave that should function like a poison. It’s not an exact opposing frequency to break apart the structure, but it will disrupt the bonds. Kira can use this to trace the nerve fibers. I believe this would also be an effective frequency to use in the skin of Kira’s suit, so they can’t grab her.”

  “Question,” Tess said, partially raising her hand. “If we charge Kira’s suit with a frequency that disrupts the bonds like that, wouldn’t she, you know, fall through the floor?”

  Jack frowned. “That could be a problem, yeah.”

  “But maybe not at a lower intensity,” Leon jumped in. “If it was set to more of a ‘pulse’ rather than a constant, it could keep her from sinking into the ground without them being able to grab her.”

  “Better yet, if the intensity could be modulated around zones of her suit—pulsing on the bottom of her feet, but stronger above,” Tess added.

  Jack nodded. “It could work, but that would take some time to configure.”

  “Then we still have more work to do,” Leon stated. “What was the final element? You said there were three.”

  “Only our all-access pass.” Jack beamed. “I located the communication channel. It’s similar to the background hum we observed in Gaelon but with some slight variation—like a dialect. Activate that baby, and it should give the hacking team an open backdoor into the central operating system of the ship.” When he concluded, he folded his hands in his lap, still grinning.

  Leon blinked twice. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “He’s fishing for a compliment,” Tess advised. “I have to admit, despite acting like an ass most of the time, you do have a stroke of genius in you, Jack.”

  “Really good work. It would have taken me forever to figure that out, if ever,” Leon added. “Thank you.”

  Jack bowed in his chair. “Glad to be of service.”

  “All right, let’s give the Conquest an update, and then we need to figure out how to make those signals work as a suit skin,” Leon said. Hopefully it will be enough to keep Kira safe.

  CHAPTER 13

  “Shite, did you get that report from the north polar station?” Trisha said, running into Ellen’s office.

  “Just saw it in my inbox,” Ellen replied. She pulled up the message from Eric, the Mysaran government liaison assigned to the station:

  >>Onsite maintenance crew refuses to cooperate with installation. Please advise.<<

  “Ugh.” Ellen slouched in her chair. “Have you tried calling?”

  “I thought you’d want to be on that.”

  “Trisha,” Ellen sat up straighter and folded her hands on the desktop, “you know these issues as well as I do. You don’t need my permission.”

  “I wasn’t sure what to suggest,” the other woman replied.

  “What do your instinc
ts tell you to do?”

  “Have a video call with the station manager. If he won’t see reason, then politely excuse him from his duties. However, if it comes to that, his staff might feel the same way. Some backup muscle may be needed.”

  Ellen nodded. “Given that, how do we proceed?”

  “Conduct the call to evaluate the severity of the situation. If there’s still conflict, send a military unit to facilitate future discussions.”

  “Except…”

  Trisha took a deep breath. “No one can know why we’re doing this or why it’s so important.”

  “So, how do we proceed?” Ellen asked again.

  This was Trisha’s test, whether she realized it or not. There was no better opportunity for Ellen to see how she handled pressure than to throw her straight into the fire.

  Ellen was surprised at her own handling of the situation. She’d encountered her share of crises over the years, but nothing even close to the scale of looming planetary annihilation. When it came down to it, though, there were common elements to every problem. A secret was a secret, orders were orders, and a timeline was a timeline. The magnitude of risk may change, but she was used to meeting critical deadlines—even if past stakes had only been getting a file uploaded in time for the morning news.

  Trisha was newer to the crunch, but she had a good head on her shoulders. Ellen waited for her to arrive at the logical conclusion for their specific situation.

  “If we do need to call in military support,” Trisha continued after several seconds, “we need to only explain who needs to be detained. We have a representative onsite who can provide more details at their discretion.”

  “Exactly.” Ellen smiled. “See? You don’t need me.”

  “Will you still sit in on the call? I think it would carry more weight to have an Empire representative present.”

  “Of course, but you should lead the discussion. I’ll only jump in if necessary,” Ellen agreed. I don’t think my younger self would even recognize my new willingness to delegate! Not that the actual conversation will necessarily go that way.

  “I’ll get it set up. My office in five minutes.” Trisha rushed down the hall.

  While she waited, Ellen quickly checked in with Edgar at one of the shield stations on the equator. Despite a smooth start to the project, his latest report had three items flagged in red and two in yellow, indicating issues encountered with the installation checklist.

  Great.

  She called Edgar.

  “You just got my report, didn’t you?” he asked by way of greeting.

  “What happened? I thought you were already past those points in the installation.”

  “Yeah, we were,” Edgar replied. “We got the equipment in place just fine, but our system won’t talk to it.”

  “We tested for that. It was fine.”

  “What can I say? Technology. It worked in the tests, but it doesn’t work in the field.”

  “Well, shite.” Ellen’s face flushed. “You’re the furthest along of any of the stations, so this is about to become a system-wide issue.”

  “I figured as much.”

  “Do the Guard techs have any ideas?” she asked.

  “They have some sort of software patch in mind, but one of the techs objected, saying that it may be compromised. When I pressed, they didn’t elaborate.”

  “That sounds bad.”

  “Doesn’t it? Not sure if a software security issue is better than no shield.”

  Ellen shook her head. “Not no shield. We do have one already, even though it’s not designed to repel heavy weapons.”

  “Should I tell them to forget it?”

  “Hold on, I’m thinking.” Ellen rubbed her eyes.

  The physical components fit—that was definitely the trickiest part. The matter of having two computer systems talk to each other wasn’t an insurmountable barrier. If the only way to have the two systems integrate was a patch that would leave the system vulnerable to potential security issues, then there needed to be some kind of intermediary system that would enable the integration without the security risks.

  “We need a translator,” Ellen stated.

  “This isn’t a language barrier issue—”

  “No, I mean for the computers. We need a third system that can talk to both of them, but that has a firewall to mitigate the security concerns.”

  Edgar’s eyes lit up with understanding. “Okay, yes, that might work. But I have no idea how to do that thing you just described.”

  “Neither do I, but between MTech and the university, there has to be a computer expert somewhere who can figure it out.”

  “I imagine so, but—”

  “I’m late for another meeting. Get started on researching some local experts in the industry. I imagine it’s a very short list.”

  “All right,” he agreed.

  “I can help you reach out as soon as I’m done with this other discussion,” Ellen said. “Good luck.”

  She hung up before he could think of another question to which she didn’t have an answer.

  Her mind switched back to the issue with the north polar shield station. If they were already having difficulty getting the techs to agree to the equipment installation, trying to sell a software interface was going to be even harder. At least now she knew about the issue before entering the discussion.

  Ellen raced down the hall to Trisha’s office and found that the call was already underway. She slipped through the door as quietly as possible.

  “Ellen Calleti, the Elusian press secretary and our Empire liaison for this project, has joined us,” Trisha introduced as Ellen came into the frame.

  “Please excuse my tardiness,” she said, taking in the faces of those on the other side of the video call.

  To her relief, a digital overlay of translucent nametags were floating above the heads of the three individuals on the screen, stating their name and role. Eric, the government rep dispatched to the station, Ellen knew already. A brunette woman named Gwen was marked as the lead Guard tech for the installation, and the station manager was a scowling man named Bernard.

  “So, Bernard,” Trisha said, “what seems to be the trouble?”

  “It’s against policy to accept equipment for installation without a signed order from the Mysaran chancellor.”

  “I appreciate your dedication to policy, but there is no Mysaran chancellor at the moment,” she replied. “Eric is functioning as an authorized Mysaran government representative in this matter. His word should be regarded with the weight of an order from the former chancellor.”

  “My duty is to maintain a secure perimeter for Mysar.” Bernard directed a glare at Ellen. “I don’t know how an outsider ended up in charge, but I will maintain my directive until a new chancellor is in place to give me updated orders.”

  Ellen tried to relax her appearance, but she was too tense from thinking about the issue with Edgar for it to change much. “That kind of dedication is admirable, and Mysar is lucky to have you. However, there isn’t going to be a new Mysaran chancellor.”

  Trisha shifted in her seat. “Nothing is decided yet.”

  “No one wants the job.” Ellen shrugged. “It’s funny, isn’t it? One chancellor dies, and not a single person wants to take over the position. The truth is, Bernard, Mysar has been without a designated leader for the past five weeks. Doesn’t instill a lot of confidence in the government, huh? But things haven’t fallen apart. The reason it hasn’t is because of the great work people like Eric and Trisha are doing.

  “If they were behind some devious scheme, working with the Empire to bring Mysar down, they could have carried out any manner of subversive attacks already. Instead, the Empire is offering to upgrade our shields to help keep us safe. Considering that we don’t have much of a military, or even a dedicated leader making economic and governance decisions for us right now, I don’t think it’s wise for us to turn down a gift when it’s offered.”

  The man sat in silence
for five seconds, working his mouth. “Did you assassinate the former chancellor so the Empire would come here?”

  Ellen scoffed. “No. It was nothing like that.”

  The official communications about what had happened with Chancellor Hale had been as vague as possible to give answers without revealing the truth. For all most people knew, outside the remaining government leadership and a handful of staff at MTech, the chancellor and other officials had been engaged in subversive activities behind the scenes, conspiring with the Sovereign to transform the world into a dictatorship and launch a civil war within the Elvar Trinary. Most people had accepted the story and taken the side of unity, but a few—as seemed to be the case with Bernard—were attracted to those separatist ideals and resisted the notion of becoming an Empire world.

  There was no evidence Ellen could present that would change Bernard’s opinion of Hale; fallen idols had a way of always being infallible. She could, however, maybe show him that the Empire wasn’t the evil menace he’d convinced himself it was.

  “Do you remember the history of our system?” Ellen asked him.

  “Of course. We all learned it in school.”

  “Then you’ll recall that our ancestors came here as independent colonists, but they were all from the Taran Empire. They aren’t the enemy; they’re our long-lost family.”

  Bernard wet his lips. “Our ancestors left for a reason. They wanted to get away.”

  “Did they?” Ellen countered. “Maybe they had a sense of adventure and found themselves way out here on their own. Did they really intend to sever ties, or was this location just so remote that they lost touch with the core worlds?”

  “Maybe.”

  Ellen nodded to Trisha. She’d softened him up, but Trisha needed to be the one to drive the argument home.

  “The point is, Bernard, that ‘insiders’, ‘outsiders’, ‘enemy’, and ‘friend’ are subjective terms based on your current perspective,” Trisha said. “But I am certain that the settlers of this system intended for us to be united across our three worlds. That makes Elusia our friend, and as a member of the Empire, that means the Empire is our friend, too, by extension.”