~Carry Perch
If it were any other time, Robert would be very disappointed with the message. Now, however, he was happy for any excuse to escape. He shut down his screen and stood to leave. Amanda shot him a confused glance, so he explained. After hearing the situation, she nodded and returned to her own screen.
Robert was immediately calm once he left the command deck. During situations like this, Amanda became an uncomfortable person to be around. She watched you like a hawk. She was devoted to the UN, a true believer.
Robert walked slowly. The temperature issue had been there for a week now, and could wait another few minutes. He could approach the problem with a bit more enthusiasm than before, seeing as it was freeing him from the ranting of the UN spokesperson. It was amazing how much more creative the mind became when it looked at a problem positively. Even as he walked, a few new ideas came to him. It was refreshing.
By the time he reached the proper terminal in the overheated section, he knew exactly what he was going to do. He began humming a tune while he worked. One positive attempt led to another. With little trouble, he found the problem, misplaced code. In fact, there was a lot of misplaced code crammed close together.
First, Robert removed the segments of code, replacing them with functional code. Problem solved. He was about to leave when his attention was grabbed by the bits of code he had removed. The screen placed them one on top of the other by default, in the order they had existed in the system. If they hadn’t been as such, Robert wouldn’t have noticed it.
Robert recognized the pattern of digits and symbols. It was cleverly crafted to appear harmless, but Robert Peters was a specialist. This was a virus. He turned back to the terminal slowly, examining it further. He started moving the code around, pulling it apart and thrusting it back together. It took him some time to realize what this virus was designed to do, but after an hour of investigation, the answer came.
Heresy.
__________
No sleep.
No food.
No coffee.
Robert couldn’t stomach any of it. He felt sick after his discovery, and the more he learned, the worse it became.
The virus was staggeringly complex, but not too complex for Robert. He poked and prodded until the secrets came pouring out. Even now in his quarters, he couldn't stop thinking. The sequences of code were burned in his mind. He couldn't force them out. Slowly but surely, he was confirming his worse fears.
This experience was much like Robert's encounter with the mirror. The code showed him truth, without bias, and certainly without compassion. It didn't matter the political struggles going on, the propaganda, nothing. This was raw truth. Robert was converted the moment his eyes met and memorized this code. Conversion was a long and unpleasant process, but it was very much complete.
The convoy was going to miss Mars.
Mars was so far away it would only take the slightest miscalculation for the entire fleet to be in the wrong place when Mars shot past. The convoy would have to watch as the red jewel became smaller and smaller in the night sky, with no possible chance of catching up. Whoever designed this virus knew that. They knew two degrees was all it would take.
This virus was created specifically to miscalculate the location of Mars. Every detail of its construction was geared towards this single purpose. It was tailored so perfectly for the convoy's supercomputer. Any changes the virus made would go completely unnoticed, even by experts. However, the virus was designed to multiply itself and spread. This, in the end, was how Robert discovered it.
Probably during the broadcasts from the governor ships, where the supercomputer was located, this virus would piggyback to the rest of the fleet. Seeing as it was specially designed for the supercomputer, arguably the most advanced piece of technology in the entire convoy, this virus was better adapted to the computer systems of newer, more advanced ships. Whenever it landed on older ships, a forty year old transport, for example, it would end up in the wrong place, doing little more than causing odd malfunctions. These older ships weren't built to calculate distances of this magnitude, so they, along with every other ship in the fleet for that matter, followed the supercomputer. Only crews that performed their own calculations, such as Schulz and his people, saw the truth. It was unclear to Robert if anyone else actually succeeded in isolating the virus.
Within a few hours of being discovered, the virus deleted itself from Robert's computer. If Robert hadn't been a specialist, and a damned good one, he wouldn't have had time to discover what this virus was for. What tortured Robert the most wasn't the fact that he'd been unfortunate enough to discover the virus, but that even if he could reproduce it from memory, no one would believe him. With the political atmosphere the way it was, he'd be thrown out the airlock even for suggesting the existence of such a virus.
Who? Who would create something so awful? This virus was capable of eradicating the entire Terran population, and with the exception of Schulz and his followers, it would succeed in a matter of days, at the point of no return.
Robert couldn't conceive of a solution. He was the enemy now.
Robert Peters, heretic.
Abel Page 14