Beep Beep Beep Beep
Would someone please shut that awful alarm off? thought Abbey, then as if being rushed down a tunnel at the speed of light, she came to realize that the sound was her alarm clock. She bolted to an upright standing position and then collapsed back into her seat. She rubbed the sand from her eyes and looked at the screen through tired, blurred eyes. Her brain couldn’t comprehend what it was seeing, and then a cold shiver ran down her spine as the realization of the situation sank in.
She started frantically typing and cursing at the same time. No matter what she did, the computer continued downloading file after file. Finally, she stood, reached behind the CPU, and pulled out every wire she could. Only then did it occur to her to hit the red power button that controls the power to the entire system. She then slowly sat down in her chair, staring at the darkened screen.
Finally, she shook herself out of the stupor she was in and stood up and walked to her briefcase, flipped it open, and removed a laptop. She turned it over on the table and found a small screwdriver in a drawer in the control room and proceeded to remove a small square cover on the bottom of the laptop. After she had the cover removed, she pried the wireless card out and replaced the small cover.
Returning to the control room, she plugged the laptop into the CPU and ran an extension cord to the CPU only for power. She turned on the laptop and pushed the power button on the CPU. After a few minutes, she ran a search from the laptop on the CPU’s history.
NASA … “Light speed protocols and theories.”
MINISTRY OF DEFENSE … “Nuclear power and the global protection network.”
NASA … “Space travel trajectories and potential use of wormholes for time travel.”
CERN … “‘Hadron Collider’ Particle accelerator and black hole theories.”
File after file of top secret sensitive and downright dangerous information had poured out of the terminal while Abbey slept.
“Oh my God, what have I done? What have I done?”
Another sound, her wrist comm. ringing, Abbey walked over to her bag and retrieved it, then slid it over her wrist. “Just what I don’t need right now,” she said. She pushed the button. “Yes, Alex,” she said, rubbing her brow trying to relieve some of the stress.
“What the hell have you done, Abbey?”
“What? What do you mean?” she stuttered.
“I just signed on to the RAIDA project. All of the protocols are gone and replaced with-with, I don’t know what to call it, but it isn’t ISA-approved protocol. What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ll be in the office in an hour. You can show me what you mean then. Until then, don’t say anything about this to anyone, okay?”
“Let me get this right,” said Alex. “There’s a major problem with the biggest ISA project ever, and you want me to keep it quiet? That would be career ending if anyone found out.”
“Just until I get there, please, Alex,” begged Abbey.
“Okay, but you had better be here soon and with the right answers, or the shit is going to hit the fan.” Then the wrist comm. went dead.
ISA Headquarters
Abbey almost hit her head trying to jump out of the skipper at the ISA building even before the hatch had opened. She recovered as gracefully as anyone could from that type of mistake and entered the building as if it hadn’t happened.
“Slow down, Abbey,” she said under her breath. “Don’t draw any attention to yourself.” She quickly made her way to Alex’s office, opened the door … to find not only Alex but Stryker and an engineer from the RAIDA project going over something on Alex’s desk. Her heart sank, and her stomach heaved. Why couldn’t he have waited? she thought to herself.
“I can—” Abbey started to say, but Alex cut her off.
“At last, you finally show up. We’re going over plans for the new project. Do you want to see what we have so far?”
Not knowing what to do next or what to say, she just nodded and willed her legs one step at a time until she was at the desk looking down on numerous calculations, sheet after sheet of them.
“I never realized that we were moving so fast with this,” she said finally, after collecting her thoughts. She shot a look at Alex who was wide-eyed. She thought he was shaking but couldn’t swear to it.
“Of course, we’re moving quickly. We’ve found the holy grail of space travel. Are you kidding me!” said Stryker. “Get a move on and initiate contact with that AI so that we can get an idea of the size of the mineral deposits available, so we know how to size up the ship,” she said, her voice getting less and less audible as she left the room. She always seems to be talking to people from another room. This irritated Abbey to no end.
The engineer picked up all of the data sheets from Alex’s desk and also left the room, at which point, Alex walked over, closed the door, and turned to Abbey with a look of horror. Abbey could feel his eyes burning right through her.
“You want to tell me what the hell’s going on? As I see it, you have me involved now because of my actions—no, no—because of my inactions at your bequest,” he said as he slammed his fist on the desk.
“Calm down. I’ll tell you everything. Just sit down and try to relax. It’s complicated, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around the consequences.”
“Why don’t you start by telling me what Protocol 7 is!” he demanded.
CHAPTER 5
Lunar 3097
2 came over a rise in the barren landscape of the moon. Lunar 3097 isn’t much to look at, doesn’t have any major geographical features to speak of. It’s not geothermal, has no iron core … Not much of an atmosphere to talk about. Just enough to allow for a wind-type storm occasionally that would move the surface material so that objects will eventually get covered.
2 stopped and surveyed the area, took a reading from the data screen on its arm, and proceeded down from the rise into a shallow valley. This was a familiar area to 2. It was the landing site, the beginning of its mission, but this time, the reason for it being here was to locate the Lander.
2 looked down at the data comm. again, located the signal, and continued its journey, stopping at what could be mistaken for a sand dune. It was the only one for as far as you could see, but there it was.
2 started to excavate the dune. His beautifully designed frame glinted a cobalt blue and gold as it worked to clear the dune. After several minutes, a large, white, smooth surface began to appear. The lettering on the surface read A C E A G E N. Several more minutes and the entire side of the Lander was unearthed. The words emblazoned on the side read: INTERNATIONAL SPACE AGENCY in bright red letters. 2 had cleared enough of the surface material to allow access through the now-visible hatch. Lifting the clear cover from the control pad, 2 turned the red handle, and the hatch slowly opened. This being an uninhabited moon, there was no need for security control pads and codes, so a straight handle mechanism was sufficient that could be locked from the inside during flight conditions.
2 disappeared inside and came out with a solid sheet, about four foot by three foot, and placed it on the surface before disappearing inside again, this time coming out with different parts, boxes, and various materials which were placed on the flat sheet, then tied down with a bungee-style cord. A length of cable was attached to the end of the sheet so 2 could pull the whole unit along after attaching it to a loop conveniently placed at its waistline. The Lunar surface is very slick to the touch so that combined with the low gravity and the superhuman strength that 2 possesses, it was as if the load weighed nothing. 2 set off back to the cavern, where 3 lay waiting.
The moon’s rotation is equal to one of its orbits, so the same side is always facing Dulcern, the planet it orbits. Very similar to our moon, once every twelve Earth days, the surface occupied by 2 is at its darkest because its orbiting planet casts a shadow over it when it comes between the moon and the solar system’s sun.
A red dwarf, “Dulcet” only has a
solar mass of 0.34 and a temperature of 3,800K, typical for a sun of its type. The Earth’s sun can reach 27 million degrees in comparison, so the available light is always low and has a red hue; thus, the name red dwarf.
The sun’s low temperature is the only reason that project RAIDA was possible. Any celestial object that close to our sun would be incinerated within seconds. The temperature on the moon’s surface drops drastically during the dark of the moon. Even 2 feels the effects of the drop, although it uses its frame as a heat sink to remove the unwanted heat from the energy plant. It’s not enough to keep it from becoming immobile. So 2 automatically compensates by pumping fluids from a reservoir built into its chest, just like our heart does. The fluid passes over the heat sink built around the nuclear energy core which is close to 600 degrees and then through its extremities to keep the flex joints from freezing and becoming immobile. If this system became disabled, 2 would not be able to perform any actions that required movement during the dark of the moon.
2 has a methodical gait. When on a flat surface, its steps are precise, not like a human’s. Humans change their steps, constantly swaying from side to side. Its frame now looked black against the darkness. In the distance, the cavern came into view with an almost architectural shape against the red glow starting to creep over the horizon. As Lunar 3097 came out of the shadow of Dulcern, one more Earth hour, and 2 would be at the cavern.
ISA Control
“You did what! How the hell did you get into the system from your house?” exclaimed Alex. “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” he said with his head in his hands. Sweat appeared on his forehead almost instantaneously. “Oh my God! Oh my God! What have I gotten myself into?” He slumped into a chair still holding his head.
“It’s going to be okay,” said Abbey. “I can fix this.”
“You’ve had twenty-four hours, and you haven’t fixed it yet. You just told me that not only did 2 not respond to you, but it took the opportunity when it had the chance to upload dangerous data by itself!” said Alex, in a low, growling voice with eyes that Abbey could have sworn turned black as he spoke.
“I need your help,” said Abbey in a pleading voice.
“No no no. I’m already up to my neck in this; I’m not getting deeper. This is your pile of crap. You dig yourself out of it.” He was pacing from one side of the room to the other. “Can you get into the sign-on screen and take my sign-in history for today off so I can claim I knew nothing about this?”
“You freaking coward,” sobbed Abbey. “For the first time in seven years I ask you for a favor, and this is your response.”
“A favor? You’re asking me to lie to a government agency, to help you falsify government records, take control of a government AI, and continue the conspiracy, to what end?” he said, still in a menacing, growling voice, showing a dark side of himself Abbey had never seen in all the years she had known him.
“I need you to help me get into the mainframe of the RAIDA project so I can reconfigure the data processor control module. That way, I can get direct access to 2’s comm. bank. Maybe I can shut it down that way,” she said in an almost whispering voice as if someone was listening to them.
“Maybe! I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation,” he said as he sat back down again.
“Just help me with this one thing. If it doesn’t work, I’ll find a way to erase your history and take the entire problem off your shoulders,” she said with her hands clasped together as if in prayer, a doe-eyed expression that all women can engage in when they need that extra bit of sympathy.
Both Abbey and Alex’s wrist comms. sounded off at the same time. They both looked down seeing the same message.
RAIDA progress meeting in three hours. RAIDA conference room. Stryker.
Alex flushed and started to sweat again. “I’ll give you the next two and a half hours to do something about this, and then I’m out,” he said, then a long stare before saying, “What do you need me to do?”
The sheer relief that flooded over Abbey at his last words was evident by the tears that she shed. Alex looked uncomfortable for a minute, as if he thought she was going to hug him. But the moment passed. She walked out of his office with a “come with me.” Alex jumped up and followed her to her office.
“We need to get to our desks in flight control. From there, we can reconfigure the data comm. With you opening the comm. port to 2 and me opening the data comm. to the main frame, we should be able to configure what we need and close it up.” She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out two thumb drives, handing one to Alex and pocketing the second. “If we can get 2 back under control, and I can get the thumb drive out of the server room, we should be in the clear,” she said with confidence.
With any other project that had just been shut down, flight control would be in the dark while the final details of the project were sewn up. Then it would be reassigned to another project. But not this time. Flight control was teeming with techs, reconfiguring programs, and changing the parameters for the return to Lunar 3097.
Luckily, both Alex and Abbey’s desks were clear, so were the desks next to them. There would be no wondering eyes to watch out for. They both turned, looked at each other, and donned their headsets; then they configured them through the wrist comms. so that they were on a private line and able to talk with ease.
“Okay,” said Abbey, “so far so good.”
Alex laughed in her ear.
“What’s so funny?” she said.
“That’s what the falling man said each time he passed another floor.”
Abbey was so involved in her computer that she hardly heard his comment. “Install the thumb drive,” she said as she pushed hers into the rear of the CPU and waited for the screen to react. Alex did the same and looked around the room and noticed that there were four security guards in the room. Then he realized that there was always four guards in the room. There had been four every day for the last seven years, but now they seemed to be a threat. Just the fact that he was conscious of them told him that what he was doing was not a good idea. Twelve years to get to project flight control tech, twelve years gone if this doesn’t work, he thought, still glancing at the guards as if they knew something was wrong. “Stop being paranoid, idiot,” he said to himself under his breath.
Inserting data to connect with RAIDA2 was a long process when you have shutdown using Tango Alpha 2 Protocol, the last communication that Alex had any part of that was meant to be the final communication. Now, all his years of experience will be needed to get back to where they were just three days ago.
Abbey opened the server program and started to type code to rebuild the comm. link to Alex’s computer and reestablish control from her terminal. A progress bar appeared on her screen. She gave a clear sigh of relief as the actions she and Alex were performing hadn’t set off any alarms … yet. I have to get back in the server room, she thought to herself. That’s easier said than done. At this point, there are techs in there all the time working on the new rebuild for the RAIDA project return.
Stryker came into flight and started to ask questions of the various techs working at different terminals around the room. Alex started sweating profusely. His hands started to shake, and he reached down and wiped his palms on his pants.
“LaGrange,” said Stryker, “make sure you bring all the data you have to the meeting. We don’t have a lot of time. We just worked out the launch window is in six months, so we have to move quickly.”
“You hear that?” said Alex into Abbey’s ear. “There’s no way to undo the amount of damage you have caused in time for this project to be viable.”
“Just do what I asked, please, Alex. Give me the time you promised; then we can talk about the next step.”
“Next step? What next step? I thought that we were done once we get through to 2.” Alex was looking over the top of the cubicle wall at her. Abbey avoided his gaze and kept on task, hoping against hope for the right result. She switched the co
mm. on her terminal to pass through her wrist comm. This way, only she and Alex would hear any reply from RAIDA2
“RAIDA2, this is Flight Control One. Do you read?” she said into her headset mike. “RAIDA2, this is Flight Control One, do you read?” Nothing. Abbey continued to call for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was only about fifteen minutes.
“Maybe the signal vector is too much. Let’s give it ten minutes and try again,” said Alex.
“We don’t have the time to keep this up. We need to connect. It will take more than an hour to upload the programming, and that’s after we dump what’s there. Who knows how long that will take!” whispered Abbey. “RAIDA2, this is Flight Control One. Do you copy?”
“Fligh …”
“Did you hear something?” said Alex. “I heard something. It was 2. I know it was.”
“Flight … this … RAI …”
“RAIDA2, do you read me? This is command,” said Abbey excitedly.
“Flight Control One, this is RAIDA2. Receiving you.”
Both Abbey and Alex jumped up and down like children that had just been told they were going to get ice cream. Then they both realized where they were and sat back down.
“RAIDA2, prepare to receive ALPHA TANGO 3. Confirm.”
“RAIDA2, prepare to receive ALPHA TANGO 3. Confirm.”
Abbey tried again. “RAIDA2, prepare to receive ALPHA TANGO 3. Confirm.”
“Command, RAIDA2 … Negative request for ALPHA TANGO 3 upload. Conflict with self-preservation protocol.”
“RAIDA2, this is Command. Initiate Delta 1 override protocol, section 12, code ident 66574,” said Alex.
“What’s that?”
“It’s the safeguard program we installed to allow us to clear out any errant programs should one of them go rogue.”
“Why didn’t I know about this?”
“It was installed at the front end just before you came on the project. I guess it never came up,” said Alex. “RAIDA2, this is Flight Control Two. Initiate Delta 1 override protocol section 12, code ident 66574,” repeated Alex.
Lunar 3097 Page 3
