“That’s what I’m talking about!” exclaimed Christopher. “Assuming you can get a team outfitted for the job, how long would it take to get it here and begin work?”
Everyone waited for Chuck to answer. After a moment he said, “I think we can get the asteroid here in a couple of weeks after we start out. Using the same excavation techniques as before, we can have the interior dug out, some G-waves installed and complete with floors, within several months after that. Then the hard work begins—filling it with air and environmental hardware.”
Landers stood to address the crowd.
“The council has been discussing expanding out from this habitat for several years now. I know it seems that we only get around to this kind of planning when pressed by outside agency, but having nearly all of our eggs in one basket is foolish, and dangerous.”
He paused to gauge the reaction of those assembled.
“One of the proposals that’s been on the table is the issue of further recruitment from Earth, although no one has come up with any good suggestions on just how we’d do it,” he said. Casting a glance at Lucius Walker and Sydney Atkins, the colony’s original recruiters turned archivists, he continued. “It’s impossible to imagine getting the kinds of people here that Sydney and Lucius were able to find—well, like us, you all know that just as well as I do. In the nearly half-century this community has been in existence, there hasn’t been a single individual who has had cause to regret their being recruited to live here. And though we’ve been extremely lucky in that so few have fallen prey to accidental death, we live quite well off planet.
“As you all know, there is a mission currently being planned to return to Earth to pick up some much-needed supplies, as well as the bulk of the items on the wish list.
“With the two missions on their way here and our planned shopping trip, our relationship with Earth is not over. Pulling off the shopping mission is going to require stealth, possible sacrifice, and a good deal of danger. I cannot imagine those we left behind just allowing us to waltz in, pick up what we want, and then just leave unmolested.
“Like always, we all have a lot on the table. But I want everyone to think about the possibility of splitting our community in half for safety and expanding our reach out here in the solar system. Peanut and his crew have assembled some impressive space station tech and we have projects scheduled to explore all the planets and moons in the solar system, but we need to ensure that we make our future as secure as we possibly can.
“So, in conclusion … ” Landers began, stopping when Chuck gave a few claps and some around the room laughed.
Grinning, he continued, “Sorry to have gone on. But since we have all the department heads here I thought it would be a good time to at least cover the short-term goals and let everyone know some of the issues the council has been discussing.
“First, let’s think about getting started on a second habitat. Second, I would like you to think seriously about the process of splitting our population between two habitats. Third, let’s continue on whatever preparations we have concerning the incoming Earth missions, and fourth, if anyone has any suggestions or ideas on how we can maximize our success with our own mission back to Earth, drop me a note; I’d definitely like to hear everyone’s thoughts. Is that it?” Landers concluded, looking around the room to see if anyone else had something to add. His glance fell last on Christopher, who simply gave a single shake of his head.
As everyone started for the door, Christopher asked Peanut, Chuck, Lucius and Sydney to stay behind for a few moments.
When everyone else had left, the five gathered at the end of the conference table.
“Chuck and I have been planning the mission back to Earth, and there are roles for all of you in it. Peanut, we need you to outfit one of the whales for maximum protection from attack. I’m talking shields, redundant systems all around, armored hull, anything you can think of and even stuff you can’t think of,” Christopher said.
“Done. If need be, I may have a surprise up my sleeve I’ve been dying to try out,” Peanut said excitedly.
“What’s that?” Chuck asked.
“I have an idea for an EMP generator that’s entirely directional!”
“Damn, that would be handy. But what about aircraft and spacecraft? Couldn’t that lead to a loss of life?” Christopher asked. “You know the council isn’t going to go for that.”
“I suppose not, but in the case of aircraft, their ejection systems are not normally only activated electrically; so no big deal. As for anything in orbit, UN convention dictates that nothing in space is supposed to be armed. Genesis should be able to give a heads-up if there’s something deployed we don’t know about. I think we’re cool.”
“Good. Now for you two,” Christopher began, directing his attention to Lucius and Sydney. “You heard Landers. The council is interested in investigating the possibility of getting new recruits here. Frankly, I can’t see how that can be accomplished, at least not using you two. But I’m asking you to put your heads together to see if you can think of a means of safely finding and screening folks that won’t put the whole community at risk.”
“That’s a tall order. I don’t know about Lucius, but I didn’t leave anyone behind who I could trust with the secrets of this place, did you?” Sydney asked Lucius.
“No, as a matter of fact, by now I’m fairly certain that everyone from my old life thinks I’m dead. To be honest, I surely don’t want the job again,” Lucius said with a laugh. “I’m quite happy here; nice digs, great food, the respect of my peers. What’s not to like?”
“Well, give it some thought in any case, would you?”
“Sure thing,” Lucius replied.
“And Lucius, you may have a direct role to play on the Earth mission. How would you feel about going back for a few days?” asked Christopher.
“What? Why?”
“You’re the only person here that the authorities don’t know about. And with a little cosmetic work, your presence on Earth wouldn’t be associated with us if discovered,” Chuck replied. “I butted in and put myself on the mission team, annoying the hell out of Chris here in the process. But we need an agent who can arrange for the delivery and temporary storage of all the equipment on the wish list. Then, it needs to be loaded into a whale. That’s going to take time, and we have to use our own people for that.”
“But can’t Genesis cobble up any kind of documentation and identification needed? Make up someone for Christ’s sake,” Lucius said.
Everyone was silent. Then Christopher continued quietly, “No wants you to do anything you don’t want to. And yes, we can get identification that would pass any degree of inspection, but no one here, unless you know differently, has the needed experience to pull this off anywhere near as well as you could.”
Lucius looked at Sydney, who raised an eyebrow and smiled.
He also smiled, then laughed. “What the hell! One last adventure can’t hurt. And with Genesis watching my back, the risks should be low.”
“Good! Genesis is going to begin the process of acquiring the equipment, purchase orders and whatnot for several fake companies and a foundation or two. We’ll have plenty of time to plan the mission, we’re not launching until the NASA mission starts heading here,” Chuck informed Lucius.
“Why’s that?”
“I’m not willing to risk you all setting out, something happens, and I may need some leverage with Earth authorities. Besides, their attention will be split between their mission and ours given the fact that they’ll know the minute we’re on our way. We’re going to have to rely on sleight of hand on this one,” explained Chuck.
“Is there anything I can do to help on the mission?” Sydney asked.
Shaking his head, Christopher said, “Other than a brilliant idea on how we can expand our ranks here; operationally I think not, because at this late date I c
an’t see how we can trust anyone to be on the up and up. You have a daughter to look after and I don’t want anyone with kids going on the mission. This is as close to potential combat as we’re liable to see. If it weren’t so critical to get equipment and supplies that people here really need, I’d say screw it and make do with what we’ve got. But there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to buy whatever the hell we want. We’ll pay for everything like anyone else. Just because the US government has a problem with the fact that we decided to relocate outside of its reach should in no way impact what should be our original constitutional rights. Although by now I’m sure we’re considered stateless citizens entitled to absolutely no consideration whatsoever.”
“Yeah, that’ll work, son. Stand on your constitutional rights and I’m sure they’ll leave you alone. Face it, Chris, you’re the one person who can never return to Earth, no matter what the circumstance. If they haven’t figured it out by now, one day they will and then you’re going to be America’s most wanted, no, the world’s most wanted person. That goes for you too, Peanut, and Chuck and anyone else who understands the principle behind the G-wave devices,” admonished Lucius.
“Is this mission even possible, Chris? They almost caught us when I was picked up, and they weren’t prepared for the technology then. They’ve had a decade to perfect whatever they use to detect your G-waves. How is this mission going to end in anything but disaster?” Sydney asked with concern. “I heard how that one ship was shot down by missile fire, and that was an accident. This time I dare say the entire world is going to be loaded for bear.”
Again, no one said anything. When the silence began to get uncomfortable, Chuck said, “Here’s the deal. We have superior tech. So much so that in a confrontation whoever attacked us would come in a distant second in supremacy. But with the philosophy of this community, and I admit I think it’s stupid to not be prepared to hand out a well-deserved spanking, but our strategies are entirely defensive, or evasive.
“This mission is going to require at least three of our ships, a couple of jumpers and a whale to haul everything back. The personnel are going to be combat-trained and the pilots are all military. And you’re right, Lucius, Chris is going to stay here with his family. Genesis is going to be our intelligence gatherer and every one of us is going to be in constant contact through the A.I., especially Lucius.
“What’s going to take the Earth missions up to eight months is going to take us less than a month if all goes well. The mission shouldn’t take more than a week on the ground. Hey, I just thought of something! Genesis?”
“Yes, Chuck. How may I be of assistance?”
“Is there any way you can take control of the detectors the military has and keep them from seeing our ships?”
“I can disable the data flow between the detectors and NORAD, the installation tasked with coordinating the response to incursion into United States airspace, including threats from space. However, doing so would expose me to possible discovery. As a matter of fact, the odds of the military figuring out exactly what has prevented their detectors from functioning properly are on the order of seventy-six percent. That is not to say that they will divine the nature of the artificial intelligence that I am, but the certainty that an outside agency has been able to compromise its network security cannot be concealed.”
“Is there anything the US military can do to prevent you from accessing their network?” Lucius inquired.
“Very little. To do so would require that they sever connections between its primary systems and the DARPA network infrastructure that is now collectively known as the Internet. There are so many military systems connected to the Internet that to do so would be virtually impossible. And since my heuristic algorithms are a quantum leap in processing power, and my operating system is self-programming, no security hardware or software has been devised that can prevent me from gaining access to any system currently in use on Earth.”
“Does that include the systems that control nuclear launch capabilities?” Lucius asked.
“It does, Lucius.”
“I told you and TJ not to tell me that, Genesis!” Christopher exclaimed, a pained look on his face.
“I apologize, Christopher. However, Lucius made a direct inquiry and I am incapable of prevaricating.”
“I know. It’s sometimes difficult wrapping my head around the fact that you are the crowning member of Earth’s nuclear club,” said Christopher, chuckling. “But it does give us unprecedented intelligence should anyone decide to deploy nuclear weapons against us. That’s going to be a great advantage during the mission. Also, Genesis is just as aware of conventional weaponry.”
“That is correct. In many cases, I can access the flight systems while fighter aircraft are airborne and reprogram those systems in real time. There are a number of defensive strategies at my disposal to protect our people,” Genesis concluded, sounding almost smug in its pronouncement.
“That gives me an idea. Genesis, honey, we have to talk,” Sydney said.
Chapter 9
GAMES PEOPLE PLAY
Patrick was puzzled about why he was summoned to Paul Milton’s office. When he arrived, Milton’s secretary simply said, “Please wait inside, Dr. Milton will be here shortly.”
Sitting in Dr. Milton’s office with else nothing to occupy his attention, Patrick had ample time to run through dozens of possible reasons for the summons. Nothing seemed to fit except for some serious issue with his part of the project.
After a fifteen-minute wait, Milton arrived with another man in tow. The stranger was slightly older, in good shape, and had that “corporate suit” look, maybe even like a cop, Patrick thought. He got to his feet as Milton said, “Thank you for coming, Patrick. I’m sorry for both the sudden summons and making you wait, but something important has come up. Go ahead and sit down.
“This is John Mathews. John, Patrick. John is in the corporate security department of GST and has been investigating possible security issues with Project Jove in cooperation with the government,” Milton explained.
“Is there a problem with my department?” Patrick asked, obviously concerned.
“Not exactly.” Milton replied.
“It’s not so much the department, Mr. Jensen, it’s something with your computer at home,” said Mathews.
“Call me Patrick. What about my computer? It’s connected to GST’s virtual private network whenever I’m working. Isn’t that secure?” Patrick asked, his voice rising as he was beginning to panic.
“Settle down,” said Milton. “That’s what we want to talk to you about.”
“Do you ever browse the Internet outside the GST VPN?” asked Mathews. “Maybe visiting some sites you’d rather not have GST’s network guys see you going?”
“You mean like porn sites? Hell no. I never leave the VPN for … ” said Patrick, his voice trailing off.
“What, Patrick? What did you just remember?” John asked.
“I log out of the network to let my girlfriend check her email and stuff. Mostly on the weekends when she stays over. I would never let her use my system while I’m logged in. I’m always careful about that. I even unplug my access key from the system when she’s on. Why, what’s my computer doing?”
Milton opened a folder on his desk and handed over a sheaf of papers. Patrick shuffled through them, the look on his face was one of obvious incredulity.
“How, did … where … ” He looked between Mathews and Milton, mouth open, speechless.
Mathews let Milton explain. “These were sent from your computer to an anonymous email account in Europe. The packets were heavily encrypted, and normally wouldn’t have been noticed except for the fact that the NSA monitors all traffic sent outside of the country; anything this heavily encrypted is automatically flagged for review.”
“And I’m guessing that they were all sent on the weekends when I’m out of the
GST network, right? Did I pick up some new virus? Did Melody, that’s my girlfriend, accidentally get my system infected?” Patrick asked, dreading the answer.
“We aren’t quite sure who or what was the source of the program that’s been capturing your email and queuing it up for transmission overseas. It’s a rather clumsy and obvious intrusion, and frankly I’m more than a little surprised something so transparent was attempted,” said Mathews, clearly amused.
“So what now?” asked Patrick.
“Your system has been cleaned, and we installed a little program of our own that will not only let us know immediately if the infection occurs again, but will send out reams of fake documents. In the meantime, John is here to investigate the background of your lady friend. Would you take him to your office and tell him whatever you know about her?” Milton asked.
“Sure,” Patrick said, getting to his feet.
“Keep me posted, Patrick. Nice meeting you too, John. Do you mind stopping by before you leave?” Milton requested.
“No problem,” John replied, shaking Milton’s hand before he followed Patrick out of the office.
Patrick was silent as they made their way to his office. Once inside, with the door closed, he started throwing questions at Mathews in rapid fire.
“What did they find on my computer? When did this start? How did someone get into my house? And what does this mean?”
“Easy there, Mr. Jensen. Let’s take your questions one at a time …”
“Patrick, call me Patrick.”
“Okay, Patrick then. First of all, what was found on your computer was a program that copied your email, compressed and encrypted it, then sent it off to some server in Europe. Second, the traffic started a couple of months ago. And what it means isn’t clear yet. I need your help in finding out who or what was the source of the code.”
Confrontation Page 14