On the first night, I asked Sharonne about the library in the Fortress. She seemed to know more history from her years of sneaking in there than the historians of the Sect had managed to learn, for all their passion.
‘Surely, among all those books, they would have had the information they needed to get the technology working again – or at least the basic science.’ I was trying to understand how the human race could slip so far so quickly.
She shrugged. ‘You must understand,’ she began, ‘in the years after the Fall, the struggle was simply to survive. The Families had weapons and soldiers. They were the ruling class, even before what happened – happened. But the violence and the disease took many of them, and others were reduced to savagery. Compounds were overrun and Families died, but when peace was finally restored, something had changed forever.
‘Knowledge, especially science, had become the scapegoat. They saw the achievements of the Old Ones as the cause of the disaster that had overtaken them and it became the symbol of all that was wrong with humanity.
‘There were massive book-burnings, and many machines, which were no longer functioning anyway, were destroyed. The Fall was God’s will, and science was the work of the Dark One. The Lylyks, the Raysons and the Hartmans were the most fanatical. My Family and the Lloyd-Ondine Clan stopped short of burning the books – which is why the Fortress library survived – but that didn’t mean they would go as far as reading them. Or encouraging their children to learn. Reading and writing were strictly for functional, everyday uses.
‘Over the years, it seems the desire to discover died out. Until Adam and I began sneaking in there, I doubt that anyone had seriously looked at the books for generations. They were artefacts, decor, part of the physical Fortress, just like the stones or the furniture – or the servants.
‘It didn’t stop the Families using the technology that still worked, of course. I guess if God had allowed it to survive, then it was part of His purpose. Who knows how they were thinking? It was hardly a reasonable time. But gradually, more and more of the surviving technology failed and without the knowledge or the desire to fix it, it was never replaced.’
There was so much to learn. I watched Erin drinking in information like the dry soil of the Fringes during a winter storm. Her face was alive in a way I hadn’t seen since her father died. This pleased me, because despite everything that had gone wrong, I knew we had done the right thing, taking chances. There was so much to learn and so much we had to offer.
And Erin was born for this.
The next evening, she was heading back to the Wood with Bran, Sharonne and Hanni. I was staying behind in the Archives for another week with Eliita and Alvy.
ERIN’S STORY
A week wasn’t nearly long enough, of course, but we were only the vanguard, laying the foundations for what would follow. Future expeditions would build on what we started.
It amazed me that the Archives were so ordered. Considering how little they understood about the material they were safeguarding, their ability to lay hands on anything we asked about – if it had been saved, of course – was truly impressive.
It was a tribute to the Founders. ‘First-Mother Denise and First-Father Aidan’ they called them, and their memory was still treated with a kind of reverence.
Hanni, as usual, was more than a little enthusiastic in his assessment.
– Think about it. The world was falling to pieces around them and they were in danger just about every minute, but they never gave in. And their organisational skills. They knew instinctively that what they were building had to last beyond their own lives – perhaps for centuries – so they set up a system that could protect everything they were saving, and a storage plan that would make sense to those who might come along later.
And what a system.
Each item was cross-referenced to incorporate every possible connection with every other item in the Archive. Not too hard if you have the computing power of a data frame or three, but to do it all by hand, to analyse painstakingly every word and reference, so that it could be found with the minimum of effort –
And then to duplicate every item and transport it secretly to Archives along the continent’s entire eastern and southern coasts, from the site of Old Brisbane in the north to the borders of the radiation-ravaged Dead Zone, outside Old Adelaide; the border of the known world for the survivors. It was beyond a mere miracle.
The work done at the beginning had made the difference between success and oblivion for later generations of the Sect. The further from the source the line of history moved, the more important the original structures became. It was a way of tracking information that became less meaningful as the centuries crawled on. The DNA of a lost civilisation, lying dormant, awaiting reanimation in a world unimaginably different from the one in which they had found themselves – that was their legacy and their religion.
And that was how we found the memorandum. We were looking for clues to explain what had happened. It was becoming pretty clear that while the Meltdown was probably an accident, it had to have causes that could be traced through Corporation records, if they had survived.
Hanni was our expert on the Corporations. The Corporate Wars of the twenty-second and twenty-third centuries were a particular interest of his, but we were looking for something different. Something from the years immediately preceding the Fall.
I was sitting with my eyes closed, letting my mind run free. It’s a technique I use, when I’m too tired to think clearly and I want my unconscious to take over for a while. I was in that delicious dozing state between thinking and oblivion, when your thoughts just fire randomly, like the tiny brilliant reflections off a lake surface on a sunny day. Unconnected, yet part of something so much bigger than the mere conscious.
That was when Hanni broke in. As usual, his control had deserted him under the pressure of his excitement.
– Erin! Wake up. I think I might have found it!
– Found it? Found what?
– The answer, or at least a possibility. Look at this.
I opened my eyes reluctantly. The chances of us stumbling across anything that resembled an answer in the time we had available, were let’s just say, beyond calculating. And if I didn’t know better, I might have pointed it out to Hanni, just to stop him enthusing. But for all his lack of control, Hanni was one of the smartest and most intuitive thinkers I had ever known. It was the flip-side of the creative coin.
– What is it? I asked, opening my eyes to focus on his face.
He was smiling like, well, like Jordan after his first time jack-jumping.
– It’s an ‘eyes-only’ memorandum from one of the Corporations. Wolfram/Lee/Sumitoma, to be precise. Only the biggest and most aggressive of the lot. They were the ones who—
– And it says what?
He hesitated, smiling sheepishly.
– Sorry. It outlines a plan for a pre-emptive first strike.
– Meaning?
– They had plans for a way of striking at the heart of their competitors’ information systems that, if it had gone wrong, could explain the Meltdown. He handed me a two-page print-out. The Sect founders were data-systems analysts for Wolfram/Lee/Sumitoma. I looked them up in the Histories. If anyone could have known the importance of such a document, they would have. This is one of the first-generation docs – which means it was collected by them personally in the years after the Fall. They filed it, among other things, under the heading, “Meltdown: Possible Causes”. It wasn’t exactly hard to find. They must have known that someone, sometime, would come looking for answers.
26
Après le Déluge III
Melbourne Archive
Republic of Australasia, Central Southeast Sector
September 17, 2487ad
(31 Years post-Meltdown)
DENISE
‘My God . . .�
��
On the other side of the desk, Aidan rolls his chair backwards and stands, staring at the Plastisheet in his hand, as if it contains the plague.
‘Aidan? What is it?’ She puts down her own work and watches him.
For a moment, he doesn’t answer. Doesn’t move. Then he reaches out to hand the sheet to her without a word.
She looks down and begins to read and, as she does, her world trembles a little in its orbit.
* * *
WOLFRAM/LEE/SUMITOMA
Confidential Security Memorandum
(Punishment code #34/576 applies for any breach – NO EXCEPTIONS)
* * *
PROJECT: INDUSTRIAL TERRORISM: PRE-EMPTIVE PROCEDURES THINK TANK.
STATUS: ALPHA (LEVEL FIVE CLEARANCE – NTK)
SITE OF DATA-SOURCE: W/L/S (SECURITY) CANBERRA (AUST’ASIA)
FILE ORIGINATION DATE: 1/22/2456
TOPIC: STRATEGIES FOR IMMEDIATE IMPLEMENTATION IN THE EVENT OF AGGRESSIVE POSTURING OR INFILTRATION FROM MS/A, H/P, T/H/F.
PRE-EMPTIVE STRATEGY #23
TDK/28: VIRAL DATA FRAME INFILTRATION
(BACK-UP: S.W.E. [SATELLITE-TARGETED WIDE-SPECTRUM ELECTROMAGNETIC-PULSE] COMMUNICATIONS & DATA FRAME ELIMINATION)
BACKGROUND: Major (coordinated?) incidents of sabotage and espionage in the Pacific Southeast, Africa and South Americas and significant unexplained schedule overruns in East European operations all indicate increased activities among operatives and/or mercenaries working for one or more of the target corporations. Strategy analysts fear a major disruption campaign to coincide with the August World-Gov elections. Pre-emptive action strongly indicated.
SUMMARY OF PREFERRED OPTIONS: Two major strategies discussed
1: Viral Data frame Infiltration (VDI): Release of TDK/28 data interface virus is recommended, though dissenting views express fear of a potential ‘mutation-effect’ noted in experimental trials. The W/L/S-28 protocol, a TDK/28-specific ‘antidote’ is considered sufficient to counter ‘rebound’ effects in all W/L/S data frames worldwide. The advantage of TDK/28 lies in its ability to read the ‘acceptable-match’ profiles in the active v-scanner and to shift profiles in response to anti-viral probing, while maintaining primary operational parameters.
In this way, TDK/28 can remain dormant indefinitely, invisible until triggered, at which time, it infiltrates the data-interface by mimicking the profile of the active virus-scanner. Once established in the interface, on activation, it swiftly and systematically deletes all access paths and creates an impenetrable firewall, blocking all access and effectively disabling all data and program functions, without actually destroying data.
The particular beauty of TDK/28 lies in the fact that possession of the access code – built into the primary operational parameters – allows W/L/S to access, at will, all data behind the firewall.
2: Satellite-Targeted Wide-Spectrum Electromagnetic-Pulse (SWE): As a back-up position, should the TDK/28 option be neutralised, the committee recommends upgrading the operational preparedness of the W/L/S ‘First Strike’ satellite network.
Preliminary projections indicate a ‘First Strike’ planetary coverage of better than 95 per cent, using ether-link transmission traces to triangulate the positions of all major data frames.
Laser-targeted electromagnetic pulses are estimated capable of disabling up to 87 per cent of opposition networks – including those in close-Earth orbit – within an hour of system initiation.
On the downside, however, two points are worthy of serious consideration:
i. This method of data frame immobilisation is permanent and data-destructive, negating the bottom-line R&D advantages of Option 1 and
ii. Intelligence strongly suggests a ‘Second Strike’ retaliation capability in each of the target corporations.
These factors make this proposal less desirable than Option 1, which, as well as retaining access to valuable data, has the added advantage of more swiftly disabling potential retaliation capability in the target corporations.
IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS AND OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS FOLLOW
* * *
‘It’s like a blueprint for the end of the world.’
Aidan watches, as she places the sheet deliberately onto the desk in front of her. The blood has drained from her face and her hand is trembling noticeably.
Finally, she looks up.
‘You were right,’ he says. ‘What you said on the evening it happened, I mean. I guess they could be that stupid, after all.’
‘But this is only a discussion paper, Aid. They must have had a thousand think tanks like this, cranking out proposals. The chances of—’
‘Of anything being discussed that more closely resembles what happened? Look at it, Den.’ He picks up the sheet, scanning the contents, as if they might contain something he hasn’t already considered. ‘It all makes sense.’
‘What makes sense? We don’t know that they—’
‘They screwed up, Den. It’s the only explanation.’
She is shaking her head, but without real conviction. For some reason, it is important to her that the whole disaster be some kind of cosmic accident. Somehow that would make the tragedy a little less tragic.
Then the calm returns.
‘I know, Aid. I do really. It’s just that to think that we brought it on ourselves, that it was avoidable, makes it a little harder to bear.’
‘Not we, Den. They. We didn’t do anything.’
‘Exactly! We didn’t do a damned thing to stop them. Every one of us, the blind, consuming billions. We let them get bigger and bigger, and stupider and stupider, and we did nothing. First Strike. Retaliation. When did business become war? Look at that thing, Aid. It’s a freaking battle-plan. But they were so intent on winning that they ignored the ‘dissenting views’.
‘You know what happened as well as I do, Aidan. The VDI was programmed to mutate. It’s the only way it could stay hidden on the data frame without detection. But look at the terminology they used. Virus. Mutation. She pauses, as if waiting for a reply, but Aidan remains silent.
‘It’s like they’re talking about germ warfare. Do you know why the World Government banned biological weaponry? Not because it was immoral or repugnant. Not because they cared about millions of people dying slow, horrible deaths. They banned it because it was unpredictable. Because you can’t control nature for long. Because anything that’s alive is capable of evolving beyond your control. They designed the bloody virus to evolve, for Christ’s sake! How could they possibly think they could control that?’
‘You know the answer to that, Denise.’
‘Yeah, I know. But then they compounded it. Anything they might have been able to do to correct things – to kill the virus – became moot, as soon as they put in place the SWE option. As soon as the virus rebounded and began attacking the W/L/S system, the Second-Strike program would interpret it as an enemy attack and cut in.
‘The guidance and operating systems of the attack-satellites are firewalled against the rest of the system, immune to any virus. If they followed the plan outlined here, they would have begun targeting any data frame signal on the planet surface with electro-magnetic pulses – taking a shotgun to the entire system; wiping out anything with more computing capacity than a wrist-chrono—’
‘But not the W/L/S system. How do you explain—’
‘What? The retaliation? Do you think W/L/S was the only Corporation with a Second-Strike capability? Once it began, nothing was going to stop it. The only thing holding the whole damned thing together was mutual fear. Once the dam burst, there was no stopping it. Data frames, power, communications – weaponry. The Meltdown. The stupid bastards!’
For several minutes, neither of them speaks. In the next room, Julie and Travers argue passionately about some important triviality, with David as usual playing moderator.
/> Finally, Aidan looks up. Denise is staring at him.
‘Do you think we should show them?’ she says. ‘I mean—’
He shakes his head. ‘What’s the point? In another generation or two, the why won’t mean shit. Even now, it’s becoming irrelevant. We can’t change what happened, and knowing it was avoidable doesn’t change that. It just makes us bitter. So let it rest. Sometime in the future, someone will read this and make the connections – because they’re ready to know. Until then—’ He sits down again and opens the catalogue.
Picking up a pen, he begins a new entry, under a new category heading. ‘Meltdown: Possible Causes’ he writes, then looks up.
‘You okay?’ she asks, and reaches out to touch his arm.
He takes her hand and kisses each finger one at a time.
‘Never better,’ he says and returns to his work.
27
Pros and Cons
‘The Archives’
Old Bourne
December 11, 3383ad
JORDAN’S STORY
Erin and Hanni were deep in conversation at the far end of the room.
Next to me, Alvy and the Sect technophiles were discussing the finer points of wave-harmonics theory as it applied to communications systems.
And me? I was zoning out.
I watched the way Erin pushed the hair away from her face with an unconscious movement of her hand, how she focused on Hanni’s face, as they communed. It was something important. I could tell that, even without tuning in. Something she would share when we were alone later.
Tomorrow she was heading back to the Wood, and we were staying for another week. We had discussed the pros and cons of splitting our forces, even before we’d made the trip to the Archives. After all, we only had one unreliable ether-comm device. If anything went wrong – But hell, this wasn’t some school excursion to the parklands. If we were going to justify the expedition at all, we had to take some risks.
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