Eons Semester (The RIM Confederacy Book 8)

by Jim Rudnick

  She sighed. She looked once more out her window at the garden and noted that a few of the roses were dead now completely, brown stalks and nodes and the white tinge of mold on the dead blossoms. Amazing what happens when you do no upkeep or maintenance, she thought, which brought her back to Mariam, and she bowed her head on her crossed arms and cried.

  She sobbed for a bit, the tears streaming down her arms to lie on the smooth old wooden tabletop in the window of her kitchen, and she cried a bit more too. Her cries lessened and a sudden thought came to her.

  Aporia and a city hall council meeting were small potatoes.

  Small potatoes compared to a big, big planet-wide celebration.

  A celebration like the new opening of the brand new naval academy in about two weeks.

  An event she’d seen on the local vid news channel, which would attract dozens of heads of state, the whole academy, and yes, the Issian Inner Circle too was scheduled to attend.

  She realized it was big enough that there would be serious press coverage and news vid coverage as well as Eon citizens who needed to know what the Inner Circle was up to.

  She half-smiled then as she realized that by being up on Tavira and in Aporia—because that’s where Mariam was—was thinking too, too small.

  She needed to think big, and that half smile turned into a wide grin.

  She went back to the island in her kitchen and onto the net. She went to the local Aporia area and looked for services, and yes, there it was. She clicked shuttle services with a forefinger, and moments later up came a table with dates and times for both up and down shuttle flights. It took her a moment to compare that list with the other page open on her tablet with the academy opening event timetable, but it showed her soon enough that the day she wanted was exactly two weeks today. The academy opening at Tower Number Four was at thirteen hundred hours, so she’d need about a day to get ready. She skipped back to the shuttle timetable and there was a series of five shuttle flights all due to go down to Eons the day before.

  She picked one in mid-morning, filled in the short form, and clicked the SUBMIT button.

  And waited. And waited some more.

  And then she was taken to a page that informed her that flight was fully booked.

  She tried all the flights that day and all were booked.

  She tried the five flights the day before that, and all were booked.

  It was not until after trying ten flights that something clicked in her head, and she began to wonder.

  She went back to the shuttle timetable and picked a day to fly six months from now, filled in the form, and was informed that flight too was full.

  Something is wrong. The form will not take me as a passenger, she thought with a growing suspicion. There was no way that a date six months from now could be full. She went back to the form and filled it out with her grade three teacher’s name, and used a fake address, and clicked the SUBMIT button for a flight the day before the academy opening—and it went through to the payment page with no problem.

  Keyed off my name, she realized.

  But with security the way it was, she would need … she would need … David.

  She got up, and taking her tablet, she went to the rear bedroom, knocked on his door, and got a “Yeah” in response.

  Entering, she explained her problem, at least how she had just learned about same, and he tilted his head and said, “Nah, really?”

  His fingers were already flying on his keyboard, and a moment later he too was looking at a screen with a message that the flight was full..

  He frowned.

  He tilted his head back, looking up at nothing but was lost in thought.

  Then he smiled and looked back at her.

  “I’ll get you booked, Auntie, on the same mid-morning flight, not a problem. But I’d like to come along—that okay?” he asked.

  She hesitated then realized that yes, if anyone was needed to help her get that Mariam vid on screen at the academy opening event, there would be no one better than David for that, and she nodded back to him.

  “I will need you to somehow, um, interrupt the normal vid streaming and to insert our own. I doubt that I can get anywhere near enough to actually speak to guests and the heads of state, so we need to craft a full video of what we want to say. But as this is the academy where you worked before, this should be easy for you—yes?”

  He half-shrugged and said, “At one time, sure. But new folks and new systems often don’t grandfather in old personas—sorry. What I mean is, yes, I’ve got a back door in place—wait.”

  His hands flew on the keyboard, and she only recognized a couple of screens as they went by—an official academy screen and then some kind of HR screen—and he slapped his hand down on his desk as he whooped right out loud.

  “I would guess that they’ve just ported over the old academy system database and their HR profiles so that my back-door persona I’ve always had still works. Yes, I can get into the system, and yes,” he said as his fingers began to fly once more, “I can—can’t—can maybe this way—doesn’t work so how about—yes! I can also see and therefore access the queue for what someone there had called the opening event video tours. Should be easy to—wait,” he said and leaned back to look up for a moment.

  He tilted his head forward and then nodded.

  “Remember a week ago or so when the toaster oven wouldn’t accept a timed cook for those nachos?”

  Kendal nodded and said, “So I just unplugged the whole oven, counted to ten and plugged it back in to reset the timer. Sure … why?”

  “Because that’s what someone will think of after a few seconds of our video. They’ll just kill the power to the AV displays,” he said, and then he held up a finger.

  “But I know a way around that one too, so we’re …” he said as he looked up at the ceiling taking stock of their plan, ”we’re good!”

  She smiled. Having a techie in the house was such a great thing if you’re planning to revolt, she thought

  “And the tickets too?”

  “Great. Will do—and I’ll print out hard copies of those tickets for us to use too,” he said, as she smiled at him and left his room.

  Lotsa planning to do, she thought, and she went back to the kitchen table to once again stare out at the dead roses and think about what she could do to disturb the plans of the Inner Circle.

  #####

  When Superintendent Chapman knocked on his door, Tanner was more than surprised to see that the man—one of the head construction men on Tower Number Two—looked so frazzled as he got up to open his office door.

  “Superintendent, what can I do for you?” he asked with a soft voice.

  The man came in, and going to Tanner’s desk, he pushed everything aside, laid out a rolled-up set of blueprints, and stabbed a finger down on a huge red circle that appeared on the sheet.

  “We have been working on these plans—EKF Number Ten Twenty-four dash B—since last year. Each set has had spares and extras input from various factions here at the academy. We’re used to all kinds of modifications and the extras that come. We know how to read plans and build accordingly. Yet today, we got this set—still labeled as EKF Number Ten Twenty-four dash B—but as you can see plainly, it is different than our own masters,” he spit out.

  Mad? Was he ever, Tanner thought as he looked down at the plainly easy to read plans and couldn’t see what any issue was at all.

  He nodded and then said calmly, “Could you elaborate please on that, Superintendent? Because I cannot read plans—something we weren’t taught at naval academy—any naval academy, I might add.” He leaned a hip on the edge of the desk.

  Chapman sort of smiled ruefully and shook his head. “Sorry, but here’s the skinny. We built the building according to the plans—we got the updates, not a problem. But today, I was served with papers—including this set of plans—that show that throughout each of the floors that hold faculty offices—they’re all smaller than what the plans said. On thi
s set. Not on the ones we built to—but on this set,” he said as he drew from an inner pocket a sheaf of folded papers.

  “And today, in the Tower Number Two construction offices, we were served with these STOP WORK papers from the Eons Superior Court—an action that was filed by the professor’s academic union. A union action … for God’s sake,” he said, and he tossed the legal docs on top of the spread out plans. “Court date will be in three weeks—so we can’t continue with the final list of shortfalls until then. Which means that next week’s academy opening will not happen,” he spit out and slammed a hand down on the papers on the desk.

  A quick perusal of the legal docs showed that yes, the STOP WORK order had in fact been served today, the court date was in three weeks, and it was duly signed by the clerk of the court and the president of the academic union—one Professor Nigel Watkins.

  Um … Tanner thought, there’s a name I know.

  Just a few months back, he’d been able to help that professor with a textbook problem. And if he was not mistaken, the professor had offered that should he ever have any issues, he’d be pleased to help.

  Tanner nodded to the superintendent and smiled, but he made sure it was a small smile.

  “Good of you to come to me,” he said “and yes, I think I can help here. Know I can help. Please, Superintendent Chapman, disregard this notice from the courts, I’ll take care of it, and we have, what, only a week left before the big day.”

  “Big day, indeed,” the man said, as he rolled up the plans and threw an elastic band around them. “With, what, a dozen or two heads of state, it’s the academy’s chance to look good in their eyes. And,” he said with a bit of self-promotion in his voice, “for us, the construction company, to take some bows too!”

  Tanner was sure of that—any firm that could build four fifty-plus-story buildings in a year was one to be reckoned with, and he nodded back to Chapman.

  “Spot-on, Superintendent, now back to work and ignore this order,” he finished off, and as the man left, Tanner went next door to the admiral’s office to talk to the admiral’s aide.

  Moments later, Lieutenant CoSharan was off the Ansible console and looked at him and he smiled. Better to start with a smile, he thought as the lieutenant’s tail was up in the air slightly. Not so much that the Faraway alien was upset, but something was bugging him.

  He looked at Tanner and cocked his head, which made Tanner think that human body language characteristics seemed to get copied by just about all the RIM alien races, but he shook off the thought of documenting that and nodded instead.

  “Lieutenant, our construction superintendent down at Tower Number Two got this,” he said as he laid the sheaf of legal papers on the desk. “And I told him to ignore same—we can deal with this—and to not stop work on the last week before the opening. Did I do okay?” he asked.

  The lieutenant went through the papers one by one, nodding, and then folded them back up.

  “Captain, if we do not get this put into abeyance, in that the local union cannot get such an action as the academy is a RIM Confederacy property, we might be in trouble. But I know a couple of clerks down at Superior Court—I’ll make the call. But I also noted that the action was filed by an academy professor, one Nigel Watkins, and all I can say is that this man is the singular cause of much of the delays we’ve faced up until, I think, a few months back. Been quiet since then though …” he said, as he made some notes on a tablet, copied the STOP WORK certificate numbers, and then handed them back to Tanner.

  “Got it, Lieutenant. And I’ll have a word with this Professor Watkins too—will not stir the pot at all, don’t worry. But if you can work the court angle, we’ll be fine, I’d bet.

  The tail on the alien was now lying flat on the floor, poking out of his specially made office chair, Tanner noted.

  Good sign.

  “Any idea where I can find this prof, Lieutenant?” he asked, which got him a nod as he was told that it’d be relayed to his PDA in a few minutes as soon as the aide could find him.

  Smiling at the lieutenant, Tanner went back to his offices and sat and stared at the only artwork that he had put up on a wall, the Enkian painting that had been a fortieth birthday present from the Lady St. August. As he thought that, he realized that he would need to be calling her his fiancée, and that was a thought he found both surprising and yet nice.

  The art was of an abstract type that he remembered from his very first tour of the Fine Arts Muse pyramid, done by one of their younglings, as he remembered, and yet the raw, vibrant colors leaped out at him still. He smiled as he looked at the vibrant blues, aquamarines, teals, and azures in the palette and wondered what the names were for the other three bluish types of color.

  Professor Watkins was next, and then tonight, he’d need to spend some time thinking about his groomsmen and his best man, who he assumed would be Bram. Helena would be asking him about that for sure later at their late dinner, and the last thing any groom-to-be wants to be is unprepared.

  He sighed and then smiled. He’d heard today that the Atlas was bringing in the Baroness to the academy opening event, and he really was looking forward to spending a bit of time with his old crew.

  And their captain, too. Kondo must be doing a great job, he thought with a bit of envy.

  CHAPTER TEN

  As Kendal and David approached the boarding ramp for the shuttle down to Eons, her grip on his arm tightened.

  “Not a problem, Aunt Kendal, honestly. Take it easy,” he said for the umpteenth time since they’d been at the Aporia port, and he patted her hand to get her to let up on the squeeze.

  She did, but only a little, and he smiled nicely at the young woman behind the ticket check-in kiosk, and she smiled back at him too.

  “Tickets, please,” she said and accepted the two printed hard copies of both. Glancing only for a second at them, she held them up to the scanner, which beeped three times.

  Nodding, she handed them back to the twosome and then smiled at the next shuttle passengers as Kendal and David walked on.

  “And exactly how were you able to accomplish that, David?” she asked, the relief in her voice almost palpable.

  He talked as they walked down the long ramp to the tarmac and continued out to the shuttle where they took seats right up front.

  “Exceptions, Auntie, the exceptions,” he said and looked at her as they settled into their seats.

  Kendal was busy trying to jam her small carry-on bag below the seat in front of her, and it took her a moment to get back to him.

  “What does that mean—exceptions, David?” she asked.

  “Online commerce—like buying a ticket for the shuttle—is normally no problems. After a few thousand years, it’s been handled. But sometimes there are what we IT techies call exceptions, which means that something odd has come along and is handled by a different set of code algorithms. Following me here?” He tilted his head and Kendal nodded.

  “Good. Well, when someone wants to change a ticket’s date of departure—that’s an exception. So I logged in—well, hacked in might be a better way to put it—to the shuttle site and waited while I watched for someone who did have today’s leaving dates and wanted to change them to a date in the future. That allowed me to both issue to them a future date—as well as to not issue a cancellation of today’s date. Problems with exceptions, as you can tell, exist if that kind of change does not issue an alarm—and there was none. So today, as I said earlier, we’re the Andersons. Mother and cousin, it said, but that works for us too, right?”

  Kendal sat still for a moment and then said, “If that’s true, then any hacker could issue like a million tickets to anyone else, right?”

  “Theoretically, but after being on the IT staff over at the academy—well, the old one, I mean—for all those years, I do know that most systems do a monthly review. The chance to find us before the end of the month is not possible, but in twenty days or so, they will learn that the Andersons went back to Eons twic
e. That should mess up their numbers a bit, so someone will get the job to build a handler to handle the routine of ticket date changes. But today, we’re on our way back to Eons,” he said and looked past Kendal to the shuttle window.

  All the passengers appeared to be on board, and liftoff was smooth. As the shuttle headed straight up, the force field around the tarmac dropped off, and they were headed back to Eons.

  “And our hotel, David? Will we be the Andersons there too?” Kendal asked as she peered down at the moon dome as it fell away and soon only Eons could be seen ahead and to the left a bit.

  “We are not, Auntie. For our accommodation, we’ve got the next four nights at a hostel—the Wool Hostel—booked under two more names. Did not want to use the Anderson ID any further, so this time,” he said as he dug out a piece of paper, “you’re going to be one Gladys Bielak—a librarian from Juno, on a simple vacation. I’m,” he said, looking down, “one Nelson Outridge, a student going to Eons on his trip to Leudi—I guess I want to be a trader, it seems,” he said.

  She nodded and then as she turned to ask something, he put a hand down on her forearm resting on the armrest between their seats.

  “Nothing to worry about—these IDs are fine. You won’t’ get asked anything when we check-in, and as we’re paying in real credits, we show no IDs at all—course, you should look a bit more library-ish, Auntie,” he said as he smiled.

  She snorted. “Hair in a bun? Cardigan on and sensible shoes?” she asked.

  He laughed right out loud, and they quieted down as the shuttle closed on Eons.

  “When we get to the hostel, will it have WiFi?” she inquired and got a nod back from David.

  “First thing then, I’ll need to buy an anonymous PDA chip to plug in to my unit so that I can message back to my aides up on Tavira. Will need to let them know that I’m sick—say with the Madrigal Flu—so I’ll need ten days off with no personal contact. I’ll tell them you got it and I’ve been looking after you for a week and now I got it. That should keep the Twins Cooperative up and running fine but not aware of what we’re doing. Which then leads me to your own area—the academy net. New academy means new IT—so are you making any headway with getting into their system?”