The Novida Code

by David, JN

  I opened out his tunic and kissed him whilst caressing his naked skin. He tried to respond, but his bracelet was getting in his way and he had to put it down on the edge of the sink. With his hands free, he unfastened the top of my uniform and – while he was at it – unhitched the fastening of my bra.

  I disposed of both, pulled off his tunic, and set about removing his trousers. He laughed to see me so transported with passion and he ripped off my trousers and knickers with equal ardour. Naked at last, he slid his hand between my legs. I tilted my head back and surrendered with a soft whimper. He withdrew his hand and I let out a little moan when he took me standing up, slowly and implacably. I then leant over the basin and knocked his bracelet down the plughole with a flick of my wrist. I gave a start and shrieked “Oh no!”

  “What is wrong?” he asked huskily.

  “I've dropped your bracelet!” I tried to free myself but he held me gently against the wall and murmured into my ear: “It is of no importance; I shall ask for another one.” Then he went back to what he had been doing before and I went back to moaning softly in his arms.

  Afterwards, he helped me get dressed and said: “I think you have earned a nice present, Auxana.”

  I beamed at him and managed to conceal my urge to strangle him. But I had his bracelet and that was what mattered most.

  After he left, I filled a crystal for Lauren:

  Lauren,

  I have the bracelet, and Olden doesn't suspect a thing. From what I could see in the infirmary, they use an earthling IT system. But in any case, it's likely that any information we find will be in the Efeghi language.

  I think we'll need to get hold of a data siphon to store the information until we're able to translate it ourselves. You're sure to know a supplier who'll be discrete. On the other hand, I've no idea where you'll be able to hide such a device. Good luck!

  11 Lauren

  In the end I didn't get hold of a siphon. Auxana's idea was fine, but the simplest solutions are the best, especially since the device proposed is strictly forbidden and our bedrooms could be searched. I opted for a simple holo camera, bought officially to take holos of the party.

  I too had noticed that the system used in the infirmary was an earthling one. I could understand their use of earthling terminals in the section where we were allowed, but it seemed to me that the whole of the HQ depended on this system. Perhaps their energy infrastructure couldn't be adapted for use on Earth? Or was this just a ploy to prevent us gaining access to their advanced technology?

  In any case, this was going to be a huge help to us as I'd studied IT from the age of three, and was already hacking into logs by the time I was ten. Like all young hackers, I'd cut my teeth on the logs at school before expanding my horizons and hacking into Government systems. It was now time to capitalise on my wicked ways.

  On the day of the party, everything was ready. Auxana and I met up in the corridor at ten o'clock. Thanks to our collaborator status, we were wearing fabulous dresses despite the rationing.

  Auxana looked stunning in a blue dress with a silver bustier that cunningly concealed the bracelet stolen from Olden. I wore a diaphanous red dress cinched at the waist with a silver sash, and was clutching my holo camera in my hand. A subtle allusion to our devotion to the Efeghis, the silver fabric of our dresses matched that of their uniform. After raving over our respective outfits, we made our way to the big function room.

  The hall was filled with soldiers and collaborators. Couples had already paired up and were moving around gracefully on the dance floor. Olden was there, Oniar and Amar too, along with other officers whose names I didn't know. I noted that the auxiliaries were nowhere to be seen. I approached the dais with some trepidation, as it had been decided during rehearsals that I'd start the evening off with a song. I had a lovely sweet, crystal-clear voice that was perfect for my role. I'd already worked out how I was going to profit from my song.

  Chantal, a forty-something collaborator who'd been in charge of rehearsals, caught sight of me and beckoned me over. She was standing by Commandant Amar, and I walked shyly up to her, after placing my holo camera on a table. She took me by the arm and turned to him: “Let me introduce Miss Valley; she'll be singing you an earthling song in a few moments.”

  “Good evening”, I murmured, looking at the ground. Amar leaned forward slightly to look into my eyes and, taking my hand and raising it slowly to his lips, replied, “Good evening Lauren”.

  I looked up in surprise and he smiled at me. Dark-haired like most of the Efeghis, he was even more handsome than Oniar.

  Unlike the other soldiers that I'd seen so far, his long hair was done in a series of little plaits pulled back into a ponytail. His black and silver uniform was identical in every way to that of his men, with nothing at all to distinguish it.

  Despite his good looks, the sight of him gave me the creeps; there was something chilling about his face. You sensed a tremendous intelligence and an even greater cunning beneath his handsome facade. I had the horrible feeling that he knew everything about me and that he found me amusing.

  I allowed him to continue holding my hand, smiling diffidently back at him. For once, my nervousness wasn't an act. It was all I could do not to tremble beneath his gaze, which seemed to be slowly dissecting me. One thing was certain: I would never try to seduce him. He was far too dangerous.

  Chantal finally broke the silence, which lasted for ever: “Lauren is really nervous about singing in public.”

  “There is absolutely nothing to fear”, murmured Amar as he released my hand. “I am sure that you will be perfect.” There was an ironic little glint in his eye that gave me the shivers. I ventured a faltering smile and followed Chantal up to the dais.

  Beckoning for me to follow, she went up the steps ahead of me and introduced herself under the beam player in the centre of the stage. This amplified her voice, which echoed throughout the hall: “My friends”, she began. The couples stopped dancing and everyone turned towards her. “I hope you're all enjoying your evening.” She was answered by a few whoops of delight, but the majority of the spectators remained silent.

  “I'm here to introduce a young lady from our class of peace volunteers, who is going to sing for you.” There followed shrieks of encouragement and Chantal signalled for me to take her place.

  Bashfully, I stood beneath the beam and surveyed the crowd before me. I'd never liked singing in public. And the recollection of the last time I'd sung on stage didn't exactly help. It was at school and I'd had to stop because of the catcalls from my schoolmates. But this time, the faces turned towards me were all friendly and were waiting patiently for me to summon up the courage to begin.

  Just as my mum had taught me, I fixed my gaze on a point in the audience, smiled, and began to sing. I'd deliberately chosen a sweet and naive love song that matched my voice perfectly and suited my purpose. My gaze was soon drawn towards Oniar, who was amongst a group of officers. Our eyes met for an instant, and I promptly looked away.

  I was looking everywhere but at him, as though—in spite of myself— my eyes kept straying back towards him. I saw that I'd scored a hit when his friends began to smile and one of them gave him a little shove with his shoulder.

  There was a good deal of applause at the end of the song, and I had to decline the encore demanded by the audience. I left the dais and rejoined Auxana, who was standing not too far from Oniar, just as we'd arranged whilst planning this mission.

  I turned my back to him but Auxana was facing him and she touched my arm discreetly to warn me that he was approaching. He gave a little cough as he reached me, and I turned towards him. He smiled, “Good evening Lauren.”

  I acted confused and replied with a slight tremor in my voice, “Good evening Oniar”.

  “Is your arm better now?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I stretched my arm out for him. “Look, there's nothing much to see now.”

  He reached out as though to touch my arm but stopped himself.


  “I am sorry that there is still a scar”, he replied in his soft voice.

  “It's not so bad”, I smiled at him and he returned my smile.

  “Your song was very beautiful”, he added.

  “Thanks.” I carried on looking at him, willing him to ask me to dance, but he just took his leave and turned away from me. I grabbed him: “Would you like to dance?”

  I saw he was hesitating and shot him the imploring look he'd found irresistible on the day of the duel. It worked its magic just as well the second time around; he capitulated and took my hand to lead me to the dance floor.

  As we danced together, I noticed Amar staring at the two of us. I gave an involuntary shudder and Oniar pushed away slightly to see my face: “Anything wrong, Lauren?” he asked softly.

  “The Commandant is watching us”, I whispered.

  “You are afraid of him.”

  This wasn't really a question but I hastened to reply: “I find him intimidating.”

  “He has that effect on many people”, he replied.

  “Including you?”

  “No, not me”, he chuckled, “but I have known him for a long time.”

  “How long”, I asked innocently.

  “Since we were children”, he replied.

  Bingo. I'd hit the jackpot. Or at least I would hit it, just as soon as he stopped treating me with kid gloves. It was quite clear to me that he liked my image of the sweet young maiden, but I was beginning to see that this was a double-edged sword. He restrained himself from going any further with me for fear of offending my sensibility.

  At the end of the day, this was pretty ironic. But I could hardly change my image all of a sudden, so I'd have to gradually bring him around to overcoming his scruples.

  I was pondering the best way to approach this when we were interrupted by a commotion.

  Turning round, I saw that Auxana, who was dancing with Olden, had been accosted by Stephane, one of the idiots from our class, whose voice was growing more strident: “Bitches like you should be put down!” he spat. Olden had stepped in between Auxana and Stephane but did nothing further to stop him, and the situation could have deteriorated. I rushed towards her to intervene, when Amar stepped between them. I hadn't even seen him coming. Swiftly, he grabbed Stephane by the wrist and without the slightest apparent effort, had him almost on his knees. Then, he spoke in a loud, calm voice: “We do not molest women here.”

  As I approached Auxana, I couldn't help admiring his capacity to milk each and every opportunity for propaganda. Auxana looked upset. I couldn't tell whether this was an act or whether Stephane's insults really had hurt her. The truth probably lay somewhere between the two.

  Amar signalled to his soldiers, who led Stephane away. Then he turned to Auxana: “I am very sorry, Miss. I do hope you will be able to forget this incident.”

  I noticed he didn't use her first name. Interesting. She was the mistress of one of his men, yet I was still more important in his eyes. It couldn't be because of Oniar, who made it quite clear that he didn't want to push things any further with me. So, it must be the famous medical check-up. I was becoming increasingly impatient to discover the contents of my dossier. To this end, I signalled to Auxana, and she said: “Thank you Commandant. I'm not feeling very well; I think I'll go to my room.”

  “Allow me to lend you one of my men to accompany you.” He glanced at Olden, who stepped forward. But Auxana replied swiftly: “No! Please…” Her eyes filled with tears. “I'd like to go back with Lauren.”

  “As you wish”, he replied.

  Amar bowed to both of us, as did Olden, and they then moved away.

  I shot a last glance at Oniar, who was watching us leave with a look of concern. I then picked up my holo camera and left the room with Auxana. But as we left the main corridor behind us, we veered off towards the forbidden zone.

  12 Auxana

  I would have liked some time to get over Stephane's attack. But time was a luxury we didn't possess and I did not dare to even suggest it to Lauren. No doubt, she'd thought that I was putting on an act before, but Stephane's insults really had hit home. He was not wrong, even though he'd got the wrong target. My main fear was that he'd pay a heavy price for his actions.

  But we had things to do and I resolutely pushed away all thoughts unconnected with our mission. The corridors were practically empty. Just about everybody was at the party. I'd noticed the absence of the two auxiliaries, Afren and Elden, but there was nothing odd about that. They surely wouldn't have been invited to a party. Even the Efeghis were afraid of them, and I could understand this, knowing what they were.

  Lauren slowed down as we approached the last corridor leading to the entrance to the prohibited zone.

  This was the only way in: the door with the special security system activated by the Efeghis' bracelets. Along with their arms, this was one of the few of their technologies that they had brought with them to Earth.

  I was puzzled by this lack of Efeghi technology, which meant they had to adapt to our less sophisticated devices. Combined with the lack of cultural references that I'd already noticed, this formed a baffling picture that I would have liked to be able to fathom out.

  We stopped at the end of the corridor. Lauren waited silently and I realised she was listening for any guards. The door was unguarded during the daytime, but we couldn't take any chances.

  All was quiet. She tilted her head forward slightly. One gesture told me the door wasn't guarded, and I followed her without a sound. At the door, she turned toward me. I then removed the bracelet from my bodice and handed it to her. Lauren had watched the Efeghis and knew exactly how to insert it into the identification system. The door opened a little and we were in the prohibited zone.

  My heartbeat was so loud in my ears that I could barely hear any other sounds. My hands were shaking but Lauren seemed calm. She moved quickly and silently. I forced myself to follow her, feeling that I was being terribly noisy. She guided me to the infirmary and once again used the bracelet to open the door.

  Without a sound, she went inside and I followed her. She didn't switch on the light, leading us to the infirmary's terminal in the dark. She sat down in front of it and activated the hologram, which promptly started flickering and asking for access codes. Lauren didn't know these, but she'd been a log hacker since childhood.

  Without a moment's hesitation, she began flicking her fingers over the hologram. I waited, praying she'd quickly find a security loophole, as I was growing more terrified by the minute that we'd be discovered. Perhaps there were guards in front of the access door? Had they gone off on patrol just at the right moment? If they came back before we returned, we'd be trapped.

  I'd have liked to have carried out more reconnaissance before tonight, but Lauren was against this on the grounds that we'd run too great a risk of being spotted. It was only because of the party that we'd been more or less undisturbed.

  After a while, I murmured very softly:

  “Still nothing?”

  “No…” she breathed.

  “There has to be a security loophole!” I said.

  “Shush”, she replied, calmly. “Obviously, there's no having to about it.”

  Lauren remained imperturbable and I couldn't resist the urge to tease her:

  “What a pity we didn't bring a siphon with us…”

  She silently rolled her eyes, and sighed:

  “Right, there's nothing else for it; I'm going to have to call in the cavalry.”

  “What?”

  “I sent a self-replicating Trojan horse to the council offices. I had hoped to use it at a more opportune moment, but I'm going to have to activate it now.”

  “You hacked into the council offices?”

  “No, I hacked into all the government systems. To be more precise, I've peppered them with little viruses that let me break into their archives.”

  “But how did you manage that after the invasion? I thought all the networks were monitored.”
r />   “I did it before the invasion.”

  I was speechless for a moment, then replied:

  “You really are quite insane, you know.”

  “It's the duty of every good citizen to keep himself informed of what those in power are up to”, replied Lauren without a trace of guilt. Then she muttered some codes to the hologram, which stopped flickering. We had broken into the infirmary archives.

  Just as we'd foreseen, they were unintelligible. I supposed that they were in the Efeghi language but had no way of being certain. Only the names were in our language and Lauren was able to open her dossier and bring it up on to the screen. She then got out her holo camera and took a picture of it, before displaying the files of all the earthlings and photographing them too. This took quite some time and when I asked her why she was doing this, she smiled:

  “They're obviously testing all the earthlings who come to collaborate with them; it's always good to have a list of traitors.”

  When she'd finished, she rearranged the terminal so as to completely cover her tracks and we left the infirmary. Swiftly and silently we navigated the corridors, stopping at the slightest sound. Suddenly, the access door opened.

  Lauren grabbed me by the arm and shoved me into a shadowy recess. Luckily, the people who had just come in didn't switch on the light. As they drew nearer, I recognised their voices. It was Amar, with Oniar and Olden. They were speaking in our language and seemed to be arguing. I glanced at Lauren and caught a gleam of interest in her eye. I found it hard to believe that she wasn't scared to death, hidden just a few metres away from them.

  I forced myself to listen, like her. Amar was shouting:

  “You don't have the choice; it's an order!”

  Oniar said something I couldn't figure out and Amar replied: “Speak in Earthling so Olden can understand!” My heart stopped. So Olden can understand, my god!