The three asked for a clarification of what he meant.
“You three can’t have forgotten the Global Data Sharing Cloud was built with technology I developed,” he said. “Once I was certain these government and military agencies were doing things contrary to the welfare of humankind, I modified the firmware of every piece of hardware that transported data through the cloud to eventually fall under GAIL’s control. There isn’t a device connected to the cloud that GAIL can’t monitor or gain access to.”
“If I had completely destroyed their data it would have tipped them off right away I had more access to the cloud than they thought. This way, the data is still there, and it appears to be safe, but it is completely unusable. It will take them quite a while to figure out why it isn’t working. If you don’t help me, I will instruct GAIL to completely remove all of the data and permanently disable any hyper-channel links she finds attached to the cloud to prevent its retransmission from the sources.”
“You’re talking about espionage of the most serious kind, John,” Tali gasped. “And you’ve dragged us into it. What happens if the wrong people ever got control of GAIL? The consequences would be disastrous.”
“Nobody will ever be able to get control of GAIL,” Chamberlain answered. “She currently runs the cloud. You can’t put anything into it or get anything out of it without her permission. She is the cloud. And, once she has finished her mission, she will leave the cloud and pass control of it back to the servers, routers and switches that everyone believes are controlling it.”
“As for the charge of espionage, every one of those entities I worked for asked me to put something for them in my cloud technology they could use to keep tabs on all the other entities I worked for. At this point in time, each of them thinks they have control over the cloud and is spying on all of the others with impunity. But, none of them have anything that can defeat GAIL. She only allows them to see what I want them to. In order to gain control, they would have to take the cloud apart and start all over again from scratch.”
“Do they suspect that GAIL is there,” Dmitri asked.
“Not at present,” Chamberlain replied. “She is fully integrated with every layer. Her mission at this time is to keep those entities I spoke of earlier from being able to use their research into these technologies. She will continue to do so while she feeds you the information needed to publish the science out in the open. She can’t do that if they know she is there.”
“Once she has fulfilled the mission of getting this science into the hands of those who will actually use it for the good of humanity, she will disappear and leave the cloud as she found it with the exception of making sure from that point on, nobody will be able to spy on anyone else using my technology.”
“By the way, there is some encryption technology you should study in the information I gave you, Dmitri,” Chamberlain said. “It is based on the hyper-channel technology and doesn’t need publicly-held keys. Nobody can crack it; even if they know the algorithms it uses. It must be integrated into the transport protocols. Once implemented, it will ensure that anyone who chooses to use the cloud will be able to do it in complete privacy. Of course, that means everyone will be able to use it; criminals, governments and law-abiding citizens alike; but if that is the price that must be paid in order to allow private individuals to be free from the fear of having others monitor their communications, so be it.”
Tali was still concerned about the consequences if they failed.
“What happens if we can’t get all this science out in the open,” she asked.
“I’m not counting on total success, Tali,” he said. “There is so much about this situation I want to tell you, but until we get the hyper-channel science out into the open and can get you enough credibility to get control of the Senate and representative body, I can’t risk telling you more. If you were to repeat anything I told you about where this science came from before proving it is legitimate and works, you would be called insane.”
“My fondest hope is to draw those who already have this technology out into the open and force them to share it,” Chamberlain told her. “Especially the medical, energy and agricultural technologies. That would go a long way toward curing the ills of our world.”
Dmitri and Tali gestured for Bryce to act as the spokesman for the group.
“We all agree,” Bryce said. “We want to help, John.”
“That’s the answer I was hoping to hear,” Chamberlain said.
He then said directly to Bryce, “You and Dmitri need to get to your lab and start studying the hyper-channel research that GAIL will give you.”
He then spoke to all of them.
“In a few days, a package will arrive for each of you,” he told them. “It will contain a tablet and a device that looks like a standard personal locator. Both devices will be hyper-channel enabled and you will be able to use them to communicate with me or each other in complete privacy. The tablets will also have a hyper-channel link with GAIL that can’t be tapped into.”
“Once those devices arrive, the radio you are using now should be partially disabled and hidden away for emergencies,” he continued. “Once I am sure you have those devices and GAIL tells me you are ready to publish the hyper-channel research, I will contact you again, over the new locators. Until then, you should only contact me in case of an extreme emergency.”
“We understand, John,” Bryce said. “It was damned fine to talk to you again. I’m happy you are alright.”
“Thank you,” Chamberlain replied. “It’s been great talking with you all again. I wish you were with me, but the odds are greatly against my mission being a success, so I won’t argue with your decisions not to come along.”
Chapter 28
Once Chamberlain finished his conversation with the friends he left behind on Earth, he exited his cabin on his way to the bridge.
The trip was familiar. Over the last twenty years this orbiting greenhouse turned inter-stellar ark had become a second home. The rotating habitat ring once housed the administrative personnel for the greenhouse, but now served as the quarters for the crew members who would not be in cryonic stasis for the journey.
Chamberlain made his way to the lift that would take him up toward the axle of the giant habitat ring.
The ring was two hundred meters in diameter and thirty meters thick with multiple concentric levels, but the angular momentum it transferred to the rest of the one-and-a-half kilometer long Ark was almost negligible. The one hundred meter lift ride to the axle was slow and Chamberlain held onto one of the grab bars tightly. The closer he got to the axle, the lighter he became, but he also felt the rotation of the ring more acutely and it was disorienting.
By the time the lift reached the axle, Chamberlain was, for all intents and purposes, in free-fall. He reached for one of the grab bars that lined the tunnel inside the axle and made his way toward the front of the Ark and the navigation section where the day shift crew was manning the bridge.
The rotation of the ring made the door ahead look as if it were spinning from Chamberlain’s perspective, but if he closed his eyes he could easily tell that it was him and not the doorway that was in motion.
Chamberlain reached the landing and stayed there for a moment to let his head stop spinning before opening the hatch and going through to the navigation section. Once through the hatch, he made his way to the tunnel that went to the upper decks where the bridge was located.
The Ark’s navigation section was a large open area with structural supports and cross-members webbed throughout. Electronic components and conduit were strapped to the supports and cross-members in small sections, but there were only a few fully enclosed compartments in that section of the Ark. The bridge and security station were two of them. The radio shack, which contained the hyper-channel equipment used to talk between the Ark and the two smaller scout ships, was another. The largest enclosed area in that section of the Ark housed the central computer.
There
were only three people who were allowed inside the central computer area for any reason; Chamberlain and his trusted security advisors, Dennis Yuen and William Black Bear. Nobody else could enter the compartment, even if they were escorted by Chamberlain, himself.
The rest of the nav section was open space, and if the air in it had not been about one half of normal atmospheric pressure, there might have been an echo.
When Chamberlain got to the bridge, the captain of the flight crew greeted him with a smile.
“How are you this morning, John,” he asked. “Did you sleep well?”
“Not bad, Gabe,” Chamberlain replied. He looked over at the security station and saw Yuen and Black Bear running their morning reports.
Captain Gabe Chertow also took a look in their direction when he saw Chamberlain intently observing them. Chertow tried to keep an expression of distaste from surfacing, but he couldn’t. He had an enormous amount of trouble hiding his dislike for, and suspicions about, Dennis Yuen.
Yuen was quiet and respectful of everyone on the crew, and he was good at his job. He had no sense of humor, however, and a dry personality. It was also painfully obvious that Yuen had problems relating to other humans.
Chertow had often told Chamberlain it was difficult for him to stay in the same room with Yuen for an extended period of time without being ‘weirded out’. Chamberlain didn’t share Chertow’s feelings. He couldn’t say he found Yuen to be extremely personable, but he did enjoy discussing different subjects with the man and even enjoyed sitting and listening to Yuen play his violin, cello or classical guitar.
Chamberlain was forced to admit, however, that Yuen could make a person feel ill at ease. It wasn’t that he was a loner or even hard to get along with. He was just socially inept. If he didn’t have Black Bear sitting with him and talking at meal times, he tended to people watch. Sometimes his intensity when observing his crewmates would make them uncomfortable and he would draw threatening looks from them.
When he got such a reaction, he would always immediately apologize and then sit there, red-faced, fumbling with his tablet, trying to find something to keep himself occupied and his eyes from wandering until he could finish his meal.
Chamberlain would feel sorry for Yuen if he saw him making such a faux pas, and he would often move to where the man sat and try to engage him in conversation to make him forget about it.
Yuen had been in the CEF standing army for ten years before coming aboard the Ark to serve as Chamberlain’s Chief of Security in the last few years before it departed for the Alpha Centauri A system. Yuen had risen to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the CEF and specialized in Security, having been the Chief of Security for army bases in Great Britain, where he was born, and France, before finally heading up Security for CEF World Headquarters in Geneva.
Chamberlain valued his insight into people and had even allowed Yuen to assist him in making some recruiting decisions. The first being the recruitment of William Black Bear as Yuen’s second in command.
Black Bear was a marine colonel when Chamberlain recruited him. To avoid any difficulties that might arise between the two; Chamberlain personally bestowed the honorary rank of brigadier to Yuen, even though any military personnel aboard the Ark would be considered mercenary once it started its journey and rank would from that time on most likely be moot until informal interaction among the soldiers reinforced any perceived chains of command.
Yuen and Black Bear stopped to talk to Chamberlain on their way off the bridge.
“Here are the reports you asked for from the AI, Mr. Chamberlain,” Yuen said. “This data is raw, though. Perhaps, if you could tell us exactly what it is you are looking for…”
“I just need the raw data, Dennis,” Chamberlain answered. “I believe that patterns in the data will tell me if what I am looking for is taking place, but I really don’t want to tell the AI to alert us each time a certain pattern is found. I need to do some more studying before I can be sure my hunches are completely reliable.”
“Can you at least tell me what patterns in the data you are looking for,” Yuen asked. “I might be able to help you watch for them.”
“Just call me paranoid, if you will,” Chamberlain replied. “But, it’s early and I don’t want to introduce observer error into this. If we focus on specific patterns to the exclusion of other possible empirical results, we might miss something altogether.”
“Still, Sir,” Yuen protested. “I’m your Chief of Security. If you suspect there is something out of the ordinary going on and it might endanger the mission, I should know about it.”
“If I find what I’m looking for, you and Billy will be the first to know,” Chamberlain promised. “Now, it’s mid-morning. You two should be headed for lunch within the hour. Finish up here and get to it.”
Yuen nodded and started for the door.
“Sure thing, John,” Black Bear said as he moved off to join Yuen.
Before he went through the door, Yuen turned around and spoke.
“One more thing, before we go, Mr. Chamberlain,” he asked. “Have you considered my request for enhanced permissions to do the testing on the AI that I proposed? I would like to be able to fine tune some of the protocols we have in place for the detection of counterproductive use of processing resources.”
“I’ll finish looking over your proposal and get with you privately, Dennis,” Chamberlain said. “But, right now, I don’t think it is good for morale to micromanage situations that aren’t really costing us anything. If taking a solitaire break or pulling a book from the library during working hours while waiting on a report to run takes the edge off, I have no problems with that. Also, taking permissions away from users without really demonstrating an urgent need creates the impression you don’t trust people, and it gives them permission not to trust you.”
“I understand,” Yuen replied. “But, I still believe your policies on access are too open…”
“They served me just fine when this thing was a greenhouse orbiting Earth,” Chamberlain said, uncharacteristically cutting Yuen off in mid-sentence. He didn’t usually get annoyed with his consultants, but he was currently preoccupied. Before he could apologize, Yuen snapped back at him.
“This is no longer a greenhouse, John,” Yuen said firmly. “We are light-months away from Earth, and the last time I checked, you had put me in charge of security.”
“I’m sorry Dennis,” Chamberlain said. “I will look at your assessment and get back with you as soon as I have made any decisions.”
“Sure, John,” Yuen replied. He motioned for Black Bear to follow him and left the bridge.
Once the two were out the door, Chertow looked at Chamberlain, who was now strapped into one of the pilot’s chairs, staring out at the stars through the front viewport.
“John,” Chertow said. “I know I’ve told you before…”
Chamberlain braced for the inevitable.
“…but I don’t trust that sneaky little bastard, Dennis Yuen, any farther than I can throw an elephant.”
Chamberlain ran his fingers through his hair and looked back at Chertow with great dismay. “What is it between you two,” he asked. “Dennis isn’t the most gregarious of people, but he certainly isn’t unfriendly. He has a tighter view on security than I do, but it isn’t like he’s some sort of Nazi hall monitor running around here asking to see everyone’s restroom pass.”
“He acts like he’s plotting something,” Chertow replied.
“Plotting something,” Chamberlain asked, having trouble keeping his annoyance with the subject at hand hidden. “Plotting what?”
“I don’t know,” Chertow said. “But, he is up to something. And I think you need to watch him. I know he’s been screwing with the data security protocols you set up personally, behind your back. And, I’d swear I caught him tinkering with some of the hyper-channel equipment. You might keep an eye on Geronimo, too.”
Chamberlain wanted to change the subject, but didn’t know how to g
et Chertow to leave his favorite ‘un-favorite’ topic without some sort of acknowledgement of his concern.
“It’s his job to second guess me where mission security is concerned. Anyway, just what makes you think I don’t watch him,” Chamberlain asked. “Along with everyone else?”
Chertow bristled, but he shut up.
“Do you have the daily reports from the scout ships,” Chamberlain asked.
Chertow pulled up the reports from both ships and displayed them on the navigational console.
“Everything looks good on the Niña,” he said. “She’s travelling at about 0.87c and her main thrust is stable. She’s close to a light year from us now. The Pinta is having some difficulties, though.”
“Ah. That is a problem,” Chamberlain said as he pored over the report with Chertow. “How long has the temperature in the main reaction chamber been above nominal?”
“For at least the last six hours,” Chertow said. “It’s only outside the optimal range by about two percent, but it happened all of a sudden and we can’t explain it, yet. And another thing we can’t figure out is that slight flutter in the hyper-channel telemetry link. Look.”
Chertow pointed out the data stream for Chamberlain to observe.
“Puzzling,” Chamberlain replied. “It looks like a power fluctuation. They may have to do a full system diagnostic before this is over. As for the engines, you might recommend they drop to around seventy percent thrust to see if that cools the chamber down and have them do diagnostics on as many components as they can, individually.”
“They are already doing checks,” Chertow said. “The AI is also telling them it can’t find anything electronic or mechanical that would account for the interference with the link, and it says there is definitely no power fluctuation on that end.”
“Well, keep an eye on it, Gabe,” Chamberlain told the captain.
“I will,” Chertow replied, as Chamberlain unstrapped himself and got up to leave the bridge.
“By the way,” he asked before Chamberlain could escape. “What is the deal with the data dumps from the system logs? Should I be concerned about something or are you just screwing with Yuen’s head? Which, if you are, and you don’t let me in on it, I’ll be pissed…”
Chamberlain's Folly (The Terra Nova Chronicles) Page 25