To Sergei/private, “Citizen, we must hold this barricade, working together to combine our strengths. Now is not the time for cutting insights, however true they may be. Doctor Toyami needs your forbearance more than any of the others. I am depending upon you and Raul to reassure Leilani that there is no possible conflict and to surround both Leilani and Doctor Toyami with a wall of strength and confidence.”
To Raul/private, “Thank you for trying to keep the peace. I ask you to remember the number of bullets Katerina was willing to take for that cause. Ask Leilani for advice on how to handle these complex relationships. Remind her that I asked her to take charge of the team while I was away. It will focus her attention on defending someone other than me. For myself, I expect to receive the best care in human space and will rest until we reach the Moon.”
There was a brief break, then from Sergei/private, “Damn, is this what it is like on a freighter? We are all crying and having a group hug, even Raul.”
To Sergei/private “After three months with the same three people all day every day, it can go this way, big fight and all, if someone picks up the wrong food bulb at breakfast. Not nearly as romantic as it sometimes sounds. Be calm and strong.”
Raul/private, “I have not told anyone what happened at Valhalla, not even Begum. When everyone is done crying, she is having a quiet moment waiting for the Hai Ba Tru’ng and has asked to join. Do you mind if she participates?”
To Leilani, Raul, Sergei, Toyami, Begum, Alexander/private, “Welcome, everyone. I want you all to imagine a campfire on a wide, sandy beach with gentle waves lapping along the shore and the Milky Way stretching overhead. Alexander and Raul want to tell us about how the Allfather was escorted from Valhalla after we crossed the Bifrost on our mighty steed Columbia.”
Alexander/converse, “Who crossed what? I do not understand what you just said…”
Begum/converse, “I wish I could have joined you in the group cry-and-hug. I could use one right now. But afterwards, one of you must tell me what you are talking about. What is the Bifrost, and is Alexander the Allfather?”
Alexander/converse, “Tell both of us, please. I thought Valhalla was named after some administrator, but it sounds like there is more to the story. Back to our current situation, maybe I should start with a little background.
“In my duties, I play a number of different roles. I circulate amongst the TDF ships of the near-Earth fleet acting as a daft but helpful programmer. I distribute upgrades and ask everyone what is currently wrong or odd. I know almost every Eng and Wep in the fleet and have been around long enough that I know most of the senior officers as well.
“Cap Thieu, congratulations on your promotion. It comes as a surprise to me. You must tell me how it happened, because this ship had different officers when I was here four months ago, and they seemed quite secure in their positions.
“Anyway, I have a second role as a nasty recluse who lives within the deepest recesses of Valhalla. I disappear into my office for days or weeks on end and never attend group meetings. This protects me from being assigned as the team lead on any project. It also allows me to vanish without being missed when I need to visit the TDF fleet.
“Marcus advised me to mention that my second persona has a different ID in the genetic database. He thought this might be useful for agents under deep cover. Bloody dangerous, but I can see some uses.
“He warned that times are now quite different than they were a few weeks ago, and still changing unpredictably. He could not clarify that in the few messages we exchanged. I am craving real news. Perhaps you can fill me in after we get finished.
“Some years ago, shortly after I had been recruited into Valhalla, I became aware of a change in MI. The old staff had been cooperative and enthusiastic about my work. Their replacements became secretive, but eager to recruit me into a cause that they would not explain.
“I have, and maintain, my own medical monitor, probably better than anything commercially available. I monitor my own condition carefully, so I noticed immediately when they addicted me to a particularly nasty drug. It had no overt symptoms until they withdrew the supply. Brian, you already have the patch for your monitor, I will install it for everyone else who is interested when we reach the Moon. On becoming aware that I had become an addict, I got the Valhalla doctors to detoxify me, a month of hell hiding in my office that I never want to repeat. During that month, the bad-tempered recluse was an accurate description of my personality.
“When I stopped responding to the MI traitors, they tried to block my communications. I should have reported them immediately, but they were such total amateurs that it was easy to route my messages around them. I decided, instead, to pretend that I was an agent sleuthing out what they were up to. In retrospect, their juvenile attempts to block my communications should have warned me that something was seriously wrong in MI, bad enough to allow poorly trained enemies into what was supposed to be the most secure institution in the TDF. However naive they may have been about security, I was equally naive at espionage. By the time I began to understand how badly MI had been compromised, my reports were vanishing into the bureaucracy. I imagined teams of agents diligently searching for the source of corruption as I continued my own work, but I now suspect the reports were being discarded.
“As time passed, I began to recognize three or four competing teams within MI, each claiming loyalty to a different cause, all of which had something to do with Martian independence. I reported that, too, and I imagine it was received with howls of laughter if anyone ever read it. Unfortunately, each team made its own provisions to block my communications, so it got harder and harder to contact anyone outside Valhalla.
“I discovered that several models of comm unit had been hopelessly compromised, with absolutely no security and several other extremely dangerous modifications. For example, diagnostics were on by default, broadcasting the user’s location. I mentioned to Brian the risk that a medical monitor equipped with such a comm unit and dispensing meds could kill its owner. There were several even worse flaws that I will not mention, because I have already corrected those errors in the coding for everyone in his group.
“I noticed when a whole batch of new diagnostics appeared as a cluster on the TDF Mao, and I noticed when you turned them off. I am told that you have already discovered the hideous set of emojis and the complete absence of security in the processing of emojis and tokens. I would like that story when you have the time.
“About a month ago, a new set of managers arrived in MI who were not incompetent. They tightened up almost everything and I finally realized that I had been isolated. My movements were restricted even within Valhalla. I was barely able to get an emergency request for help to Molongo. I was delighted when a group from the Admiralty were briefly able to penetrate the blockage by MI. We arranged an escape plan, but the channel only lasted a couple of days before they dropped out again. I am still not sure whether the problem was with MI at Valhalla or something wrong at their end.”
Raul/converse, “Alexander, forgive me for interrupting, but the problem was at their end and was severe. Do you really know nothing about what has happened over the last couple of weeks? It has been far more exciting than is comfortable for any of us. We are all nominally dead and may receive new names and ID’s at any time, so the option of having multiple ID’s active at the same time does indeed sound interesting. I thought that was impossible. Even the so-called new ID’s we get as agents are just the original ID we were assigned at birth, wrapped in a new package. There are clashes if we try to use two of them at the same time.”
Alexander/converse, “From the little the crew on this ship have been allowed to tell me, I feel like one of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, who went to sleep one night and woke two hundred years later. Unfortunately, they went to sleep in the middle of a great persecution and woke in a time of tolerance, whereas I seem to have had the opposite experience.
“Multiple ID’s are an unusual, but well tested pa
rt of the genetic database. Elysium attempted to recruit me at the same time as Valhalla, and I arranged a cross posting to work on the security of the Genetic Database. That was well before the Martian enthusiasts arrived in MI. In that era, GD were the only ones who handled security better than MI. I still have several friends in Elysium who take care of our shared interests. While I was there, they explained that GD has its own agents and a special set of ID’s that can be cloned without creating clashes. My cross-posting disappeared when the Martians showed up, but my personal contacts remain. I am still allowed to use those ID’s, and I am authorized to grant them to other people if they can make a strong enough case.”
Raul/private, “Vishnuram was having trouble because the Chandrapati ID was replaced while he was in the shuttle on the way back to the Earth. I think giving him a second ID would be a delightful way to keep that confusion alive.”
I did not answer that but made a note to discuss it when we reached the Moon. I could see many interesting possibilities.
Alexander/converse, “In any case, Molongo told me that the new group of ID’s I had noticed on the Mao were a team of special agents called the Banshees, who needed me as much as I needed them to escape. I discovered a few days ago that you had created a new encrypted channel, so I added myself to it and hid it properly. MI will think it has been deleted.
“I am happy to hear that you are all dead, because MI will consider that sufficient reason for the group to have been deleted and are not likely to enquire more deeply. Since they no longer believe it exists, they will not try to block it.
“My original escape plan had me encased in an opaque body bag as a corpse being taken to the recycling depot from the interrogation centre that MI set up last year. Never needed anything like an interrogation centre before, not here, but it is quite active now. If MI had caught any of you, that is likely where you would have ended your days. In any case, the plan was for Agent San Diego to enter Valhalla to meet with two of my colleagues, and we would all leave together, boarding the Columbia. I, as a corpse, would have had fake ID on my prison garb matching an existing prisoner, and the other three nominally all have clearances high enough to enter and leave Valhalla as they see fit. It was all supposed to happen when you arrived at Valhalla early tomorrow. That plan failed when my colleagues disappeared. I suspect MI was tipped off when they attempted to requisition a body bag for a mission that had not been given proper approval.
“When Cap Thieu contacted the Thule Station Port Authority for permission to dock early, I was under guard in my office. Under normal circumstances, that would have been like confining me to the TDF fleet, but by then I was getting desperate for a way out, watching every ship as it approached and left. I risked sending a message to Cap Thieu, who passed it on to Agent San Diego. He agreed to meet me just outside the interrogation centre. It was easy enough to disguise myself and sneak out the back. I just could not go far without triggering alarms for unauthorized access. I knew where the alarms were, but the grid was quite dense and I could not get farther than the entrance to the interrogation centre. Beyond that point, Agent San Diego had to put together a new plan on the fly that did not use any resources that Valhalla MI could track.”
Raul/converse, “Alexander, I would like to welcome you to the Banshees and apologize for the rough treatment I gave you. As a point of courtesy, we usually use personal names amongst ourselves, so feel free to call me Raul.
“My side of the plan was simple but deliberately devious. I wore my full armour and brought a body bag from the Columbia’s infirmary. I am not sure that Procurement has been informed of my death yet, or perhaps we have been given new ID’s without being informed while we were incommunicado. Regardless, this kind of ID-lag happens often enough that we have a set of code phrases to verify our identity and security level, so I was confident I could bluff my way through.
“Of course, the original plan had been arranged before the Martians established a diplomatic relationship with the TDF...”
Alexander/converse, “WHAT!!?”
Raul/converse, “... so Begum and I decided to add a little misdirection. Since we were no longer under radio silence during the approach to Valhalla, we were able to get the approval of both Admiral Wang and the Marshal of the Imperial Forward Command...”
Alexander/converse, “Admiral who? Marshall WHO???”
Raul/converse, “... who informed us that MI at Valhalla was controlled by a set of factions that had fallen under deep suspicion of treason within the Imperium. Our formal cover was that we were arresting a suspected traitor who was wanted by Forward Command for questioning. I would extract Alexander in his disguise. At the same time, three marines with authority granted directly by the new head of MI, at the instigation of our dearly departed General Molongo, entered the MI compound to arrest Colonel Sirius Dilsizian.”
Alexander/converse, “IS THAT RAT BASTARD ON THIS SHIP?”
Begum/converse, “Please, Alexander, we have him under lock and key under constant surveillance in the brig. There is no need for you to meet, and it is one of the reasons we were happy when you asked to be transferred to the Hai Ba Tru’ng.”
Raul/converse, “So far as the rest of the Martian fleet is concerned, Colonel Dilsizian is a loyal officer, who is being escorted by the marines with the honour he deserves to consultations with Forward Command. Alexander, in his disguise as a prisoner under interrogation, is a plausible candidate for any of the more notorious criminals on the Martian hit list. Forward Command, meanwhile, thinks Alexander is a harmless programmer engaging in a bit of diplomatic theatre to cover the arrest of a truly dangerous traitor, an event that must be kept secret until the Imperium consolidates its grip on power.”
Alexander/converse, “HOLY CRAPPING SHIT! WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?”
Begum/converse, “Alexander, please be calm. We are Banshees of the Terrestrial Council, loyal to the Earth, and struggling as hard as we can to preserve a very tenuous peace between the Earth and Mars. You have indeed emerged into a world very different from the one you left.
“A small detail I should inform you about is that a large fleet of warships is currently converging on the Earth that Forward Command informs us is bringing the Emperor’s two children. His son, Mao Wolong, will become the Viceroy for the Earth, and his daughter, Mao Fenghuang, will be the Viceroy for the Moon. With typically subtle diplomacy, Forward Command informed us that the Viceregal fleet contains enough warships to erase the entire TDF from existence and is armed with enough nuclear weapons to exterminate all life on the Earth five times over. They will arrive in about a week, and there are frantic diplomatic and legal negotiations under way to try to define what their roles will be. Those negotiations are not our immediate concern, which right now is to get the lot of you back to the Moon and as deeply underground as possible before they arrive.”
Alexander looked stricken. I had been expecting this. Even the name “Forward Command”, told me a larger fleet was following. Begum’s earlier indiscretion had already warned me that negotiations were under way, so I could afford to consider the news to be a clarification of our operating environment. Poor Alexander had no such warning. He had clearly believed the TDF was still the strongest military force in human space, easily able to protect him. He had gone from being a potent military asset to a hunted refugee in just a few seconds. This was probably the first moment that he realized that his own life was on the line.
To Alexander/private, “Please, be calm. We have anticipated this development and have plans under development to protect you, and the many other people like you, who will be threatened by the Martian takeover. We cannot stop it without risking a military confrontation, for which they are well prepared and we are not. To prevail, we will need all your skill and experience.
“Use your own shock to appreciate why the rest of us are so high-strung right now. You are still one of our most potent weapons, but you might better serve the Earth outside the TDF. Your talents are not in espionage,
but Leilani, Sergei and Raul can all provide what you lack. You are not an expert in psychiatry or medicine, but Doctor Toyami can provide that. Your skills are unique and valuable beyond even your current awareness. They will need your help, you will need theirs. Together, you will be great.
“But beware that your extraction from Valhalla is not yet complete. For the next few weeks we will need great discretion and a very gentle hand to try to keep our worlds alive.
“And Alexander, thank you very much for the corrections to my code. I know the news that Begum just announced would have reduced me to drooling, shrieking terror two days ago, yet today I remain completely stable, without even a single Valkyrie riding past.”
Alexander stared at me in horror. “Who are you?”
I smiled wistfully. “Once they understand that Dilsizian is a screen, they will realize that a prize much more valuable has just escaped. That prize is you, of course, but the Martians are likely to jump to a different conclusion more in keeping with their own priorities. If you want to know the identity of the notorious criminal that the entire Martian people outside Forward Command will believe we extracted from Valhalla, it is me. I am the man the Martians call the Ghost. That will explain to you why we are all so secretive, and why the Exterminators wanted to break me to their will.
“I am sorry you are mixed up in this, and sorry that Raul chose that particular ruse, which may place you in unnecessary risk. It would have been better if he had arranged a mock death.”
Raul/converse, “Aw, Begum, you really know how to wreck a guy’s story. I was just getting to the good part.”
Begum/converse, “Sorry. Carry on.”
Lord Banshee- Fugitive Page 39