by Jim Laughter
“Please be seated, gentlemen,” the aged man at the far end of the table invited. Delmar and Stan sat down in the chairs at their end. The aged gentleman who had greeted them rose and addressed the assembled regents and administrators. Stan noticed someone off to one side making a running transcript of the meeting.
“I am Hearth Ebilizer, president of this institute,” he began. “Mr. Eagleman has been summoned here so we may question him directly on matters relating to a number of incidents that have taken place on campus. I will now open this meeting for statements from various department heads.”
Ebilizer nodded toward a woman seated to his left. Delmar noticed the nameplate in front of her stating her name as Shirl Umber, head of Campus Maintenance. President Ebilizer sat down as Ms. Umber rose with a paper in her hand.
“I have in my hand a list of disruptions to institute equipment caused directly by unauthorized computer break-ins,” she said sternly. “Student Services, Campus Maintenance, Library, Campus Security, Communications, Food Services, and Campus Power.”
She paused briefly and stared at Stan and Delmar.
“I could read this in detail if you are interested, but suffice it to say that every single department has reported malfunctions and system failures of some kind, and all are related to access code EX235612445.”
Delmar recognized his personal student code number. The woman looked harshly down the length of the table at Delmar.
“Let the summary be entered into the record,” Mr. Ebilizer stated as Shirl handed the pages to someone assisting the recorder.
President Ebilizer then nodded to a large man on his right. As he stood, his bearing confirmed what his nameplate indicated – Earl Neswed, Campus Security.
“One week ago there was an attempt to break into confidential student and faculty files,” he stated flatly. “The security was not breached and a signal trace was immediately instituted. The trace followed the unauthorized tap back to the personal student computer of Mr. Delmar Eagleman, code EX235612445.”
The room remained silent and the man sat back down.
The institute president stood back up. “Mr. Eagleman,” he said. His glare stern but not unkind, “Do you have anything to say at this juncture?”
Delmar rose slowly to his feet and stood at attention, his face ashen.
“Sir,” he began, “I want to state that I have not committed any of these unauthorized acts. I did not do any of the damage or break-ins attributed to my code number. As to who is doing this or why, I can offer no explanation and am as baffled as you are.” Delmar sat back down.
“Mr. Shane,” President Ebilizer said, “I understand you have something to add to these proceedings.”
Stan rose to his feet and stood at attention.
“Yes sir, I do,” he began. “I’ve been a close friend and fellow student with Trooper Eagleman for over a year. I enrolled here at the institute at the same time as my friend and have been involved in the same classes and material. I want to state that in my opinion, Trooper Eagleman is incapable of any of the unauthorized access of which he is accused. I also have with me a statement from Professor Orilius Angle attesting to the same conclusion.”
Stan handed the letter to the person nearest him who passed it to the security chief.
“Delmar has many talents,” Stan continued, “but the level of computer expertise required for these break-ins is far beyond my friend’s capability. I don’t know who may have used his name and code to gain access to the computer net and cause all the damage, but I again state that Trooper Eagleman lacks the ability or understanding to commit such a feat.” Stan sat back down.
The security chief handed the letter from Professor Angle to President Ebilizer. He read it and then handed it back to Neswed. A door opened behind President Ebilizer and a clerk came through and handed the president a slip of paper. He scanned it and handed it over to Security.
“Gentlemen,” said the president, addressing Delmar and Stan. “Would you be willing to submit to a verification scan to determine the truthfulness of your statements?
Delmar swallowed hard and looked at his friend. Stan saw the fear in Delmar’s eyes and knew they needed to follow through. He gave Delmar a shallow nod.
“Yes sir, we would,” Delmar answered for both of them.
“Then if you would, please go with Mr. Neswed.”
The head of Campus Security rose and motioned for the boys to follow. Apprehensively, Stan and Delmar followed the man into the room behind President Ebilizer.
Leading the two young men into a small office, Mr. Neswed stepped around a table where a technician was adjusting an array of equipment.
“If you would please be seated, Mr. Eagleman,” the equipment operator invited, indicating a chair with various sensor attachments. Delmar complied, and when the technician came around to hook up the different probes, he handed Delmar an instruction sheet for the test.
“Mr. Shane, if you’ll follow me please,” called the head of Campus Security. Stan took one brief look at his friend and then followed the man into an adjoining room.
“The reason I’ve asked you to come in here separately is so we may test each of you without distraction,” the man said. “I also want to question you concerning your knowledge of computers and of Mr. Eagleman.”
Forty-five minutes later, the three men returned to the conference room. Delmar and Stan took their seats at the end of the long table while the head of Campus Security conferred in hushed tones with President Ebilizer. After a minute, the man returned to his seat and the president rose to address the meeting.
“It seems that we are at an impasse,” the president announced. “According to Mr. Neswed, you both passed the verification scan and his personal questioning to his satisfaction. Please forgive our excesses in doubting your statements, but we had to be sure.”
President Ebilizer cleared his throat and continued. “I can personally vouch for Professor Angle, and every indication we have is that you are telling the truth.”
He paused and looked from Neswed back to the boys. “You are both dismissed to return to your classes. Thank you for coming, and if we need to question you further in this matter, we’ll send for you.”
Delmar and Stan stood up, nodded respectfully to the president, and left the room.
∞∞∞
Hurrying back to the dorm to change out of their dress black uniforms and back into work utilities, the boys then rushed to the computer lab. When they entered, Professor Angle looked up and pointed toward his office. He joined them inside the office and closed the door. It was obvious he wanted to ply them with questions.
“How did the meeting with the regents go?”
“Pretty well, I think,” Delmar replied hopefully.
“Did you give them my note?”
“Yes, sir,” Stan answered. He gave the professor a quick summary of all that had transpired.
“The questioning was to be expected, but that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of them using a lie detector!” the professor finally responded. “Well anyway, I have some interesting news for you, Delmar.”
“What?” Delmar asked suspiciously. Although his voice had been even, Stan noticed the apprehension in his friend’s eyes.
“While you were gone, I spoke to your liaison officer,” the professor began. “I explained to him both what you told me and my own evaluation of your situation.”
“What’d he say?”
“He had a copy of your aptitude test from basic in your file, so he consulted it,” Professor Angle answered. “He said it showed promise in other areas besides computers, and that a new evaluation wouldn’t be out of order.”
Delmar looked stunned. The professor went on before either student could say anything.
“I also took it upon myself to contact Mr. Grant Buar over in Counseling. He can give you the evaluation this morning.”
“If you would let me be out of class, that would be fine,” he said in a raspy voice.<
br />
“Of course you can go,” Professor Angle. “I wouldn’t have gone to the effort if it wasn’t.”
“Well, it looks like you had better go,” Stan said and grinned at his friend. Delmar got up and looked from Stan to the professor and back again.
“If you’ll excuse me, I hope to see you after lunch,” Delmar said as he opened the door. He paused a moment and looked back at Professor Angle.
“Professor Angle,” he said with the biggest smile Stan had seen on Delmar in some time. “Thank you very much.”
∞∞∞
The computer class gathered in the nearly deserted cafeteria to have a late lunch in their favorite corner. As usual, Professor Angle held them late to finish their tasks. The old ritual of guessing the composition of their selections, or decomposition as some had learned to call it, had fallen by the wayside. Nevertheless, the students were still wary of their perfect food.
They were just starting to eat when Delmar appeared and walked over to join them. After he made his selection, he took his tray to the table and sat down next to Stan.
“Don’t keep me in suspense,” Stan said. “How did it go?”
“When will you know the results?” Stan asked, plying him for answers.
“Well, normally we would have had it immediately, but their computer is still down,” Delmar replied with a wry smile. “We had to do the test using the old paper forms. Mr. Buar said he’d have it figured out by lunch time tomorrow.” Stan’s face must have reflected his disappointment.
“How do you think you did?” Stan asked, trying to find something to hang his hope on.
“Pretty good, I think,” Delmar offered between bites. “The questions were phrased differently from when I took it back in basic,” Delmar answered. Stan mulled this over.
“Well, if you had reprogrammed the computers, you could have at least given yourself a better score!” Stan said, taking a stab at some humor.
“We better get back to class,” Professor Angle announced, saving Delmar from further embarrassment. Delmar quickly wolfed down the rest of his food as the class rose to return to the classroom.
∞∞∞
The operations officer stood listening to a broadcast intercepted from the closed planet. Through the static, they could hear various military units reporting in and receiving orders. The operations officer wondered if there was a safe way to obtain visual confirmation of activity on the planet.
“They’ve been going on like that for the last two hours,” the trooper seated at the monitoring equipment reported. “Just before it started, they put out a series of tone signals that we suspect were codes to go on alert.”
“How soon do you estimate before hostilities begin?”
“I’m not sure, sir,” responded the trooper. “Several other countries down there are also going on alert.”
“Have you intercepted any orders to attack?”
“No, sir, we haven’t,” the trooper answered. “We suspect it’s just saber rattling and political posturing right now.”
“Well, keep me posted if it escalates,” ordered the officer and walked out of the room.
Down the passageway, the crew monitoring the strange signals was busy recording the latest activity. The operations officer stepped in just as the signal trace blanketed the monitor screen. The graph recorders went wild tracing the signal.
“How often has that been happening?” the officer asked. They all watched the erratic trace.
“All morning, sir,” the trooper watching the equipment answered.
“What do you make of it?” He leaned on the back of the operator’s chair so he could observe the instrument readouts.
“From what we observed early in the shift, we think they may be trying to aim their signal arrays toward ground targets,” the trooper answered.
“What about their tractor ray?”
“We haven’t seen any of its signal pattern,” the trooper said. “But in all previous cases, its focus matched that of the other signals. We’ve surmised they all run off the same antenna array.”
“Which means they may be trying to use the Red-tail device against ground forces,” the officer concluded the trooper’s thought.
“If it’s a Red-tail tight beam communications device, it won’t stand up to the strain caused by the gravitational flux of the planet,” the trooper conjectured. “Our experience with captured equipment shows that it’s stable in a gravity well only if it’s focused sharply away from the surface.”
“Keep an eye out for it,” the officer said as he straightened, “and let’s just hope they don’t try to use it.”
“Yes sir,” answered the trooper.
The operations officer left the room while he considered their possible options. Weighing risks against benefits, he knew intervention might be necessary. This tentative conclusion in mind, he returned to his office to review the personnel file of Captain George City, the man appointed by the council for this hazardous mission. He’s flying into a volatile situation, he thought.
∞∞∞
After lunch, Professor Angle gathered everyone back into the computer lab. “Suit up, everybody,” he announced. “We’re going to work on the Horicon for the rest of the day.”
A cheer ran through the group as they headed to their lockers and started putting on their protective clothing. When everyone was ready, they walked single-file down the hall to the Horicon lab. Cycling through the airlock, the students gathered around the professor inside the Horicon laboratory.
∞∞∞
The unit carefully observed the bipedal creatures enter the lab. From what it had gleaned from the library files, it determined they were generally what they defined as being happy. The unit reviewed its new records to see if this development might have any bearing on its decision.
Scanning the files containing information of the social interactions of these creatures, the unit determined that when the creatures were in a happy mood they were better able to absorb change. The same files also inferred that the creatures were far less prone to violent activity when in such an elevated state of mind.
Returning to its careful observation of the creatures, it noticed that they had gathered around one of their number. The unit used one of its audio pick-ups to listen to what the creature was saying.
∞∞∞
“Today I want you to clean all of the controls and instruments,” the professor announced. “If we still have time when we finish with that, we’ll open the access panels and start wiring up circuits to light up the original meters for display.”
The students cheered and spread out to gather the necessary supplies and start their tasks. Within a few minutes, they were all engaged in cleaning the surfaces and controls of the inert ancient computer.
∞∞∞
Alarmed by what it had just heard, the unit performed a quick check of its original programming, confirming that access to its inner workings was a serious threat to its safety. Cautiously, it watched the bipedal creatures and listened to their conversations and activities. By this time, the unit had assembled a vast file of the creature’s verbal communications.
∞∞∞
“Hey, Stan! Give me a hand!” Delmar called as he lifted the front of the console so he could clean its edges.
“Sure, Delmar,” Stan said. He reached over and held the section. Delmar ran the cleaning material around the edge of the panel and frame.
“That should do it,” Delmar stated. Stan lowered the section of console back down and secured its fastenings.
“Delmar?” Stan asked. “Did you notice this?”
He tapped the crystal face of an ancient monitor. Delmar straightened up and looked at the crystal.
“All those years and the crystal is still scratch-free,” Stan said.
“That’s what’s amazing about this thing,” Delmar said as he stepped back to get an overall view of the ancient machine. “All those years and it’s in such good repair.”
�
�I know,” said Stan. He joined his friend and stroked the console with his open hand. “To bad it can’t be made operational.”
∞∞∞
By careful observation, the unit slowly began to identify the creatures working on its exterior. Both by listening to how they addressed each other and by utilizing its newly gained understanding of their language, the unit soon identified the proper nouns the creatures called each other. The one they gathered around was Professor Angle, or Professor in short usage. Another creature with long filaments coiled under a head garment was Zorina.
It was by observing the two creatures working on its secondary input console that it discovered one of these creatures was referred to as Delmar. A quick survey of its records turned up the name Delmar Eagleman in relation to the code it used when it had accessed and corrected many of the primitive computers.
The unit pondered this opportunity. Its study of the material concerning social interaction of these creatures gave the impression that a formal address was important when establishing good communications. Here was a bipedal creature it could address by its audio nomenclature.
The unit waited until there was a break in the conversation between the two creatures and the one known as Delmar had risen to its bipedal stems. Activating its external speaker, the unit decided now was the correct time to address the alien creature.
Chapter Sixteen
Activity had generally ceased around the inert machine and the students were returning their supplies to the storage locker in preparation for a quiet weekend off from class. Professor Angle walked over to join Delmar and Stan, admiring the perfectly clean computer.
“You men deserve some time off,” Angle said. “You’ve worked hard. All of you have.”
A few other students joined Stan, Delmar, and Professor Angle at the ancient computer, admiring the work they had all put in cleaning the machine.
“It’s too bad this thing is inert,” Stan said. “I wish I could go back in time and see it in action.”
Professor Angle stroked the main console of the inert machine with the palm of his hand.
“This computer is older than Galactic Axia,” he said. “It predates everything you’ve ever learned about history. It’s entirely possible the Horicons were exploring the galaxy millions of years before humanity was created.”