Earth-Net

by David J. Garrett

  Ray hung her head resigned. It may have been a mistake confiding in Jonah. Things were already getting out of her control. Jonah made to stand up, but Ray grabbed his arm. “I’m trusting you,” she signed, “please don’t betray me.”

  Jonah nodded seriously and headed over to Aymes. Ray watched as he spoke for a minute or so. Aymes favoring him with two quick nods indicating that she understood. Aymes looked up at Ray briefly, considering her, then dismissed Jonah.

  He walked back over to a Ray and sat down. “Well that’s that then.” He spoke quietly. Ray nodded feeling sick. This could all go horribly wrong and what if came back on Sparks, Nettle, and Bones?

  “I’m going to try and sleep,” Ray signed, straightening out her sleeping mat. “Busy day tomorrow. I’m just going for a pee.” Ray headed out a short distance into the bush around the far side of the tree. She found a clear spot and squatted down to do her business. As she finished and stood up, she heard a rustle behind her and turned to look. Pritchard stood between her and the campsite, a small spade over his shoulder. Ray immediately felt herself drop into a half fighting stance. Pritchard stood, staring at her, his face contorted slightly as if he were straining to control himself. Ray could see the tendons in his hands popping out with the force of his grip in the spade handle. Pritchard’s free hand moved slowly towards his pocket. Ray’s mind cycled through options. If he has a gun, I need to close the gap fast or run. She made the decision to run if he made a move. His hand however slid past his pocket stopping over the fly in the front of his pants. Ray watched confused as he unzipped and pulled his flaccid member out through a slot in his underpants. His face and spade hand maintained their rictus as he started to piss on the grass, unblinking eyes drilling into Ray’s. Not caring that it was splashing up onto his boots and pants. Disgusted Ray averted her eyes, she hurriedly sidled into the bush keeping him in her peripheral vision, and circled around back towards the camp. Once clear she jogged the final distance back to her bed, heart hammering in her chest.

  “You Ok?” Jonah inquired,” you look spooked.”

  “Pritchard surprised me. You were right. That guy is creepy.”

  “You OK?”

  “Fine,” Ray answered feeling anything but. “Let’s get some sleep.”

  Jonah nodded and lay back on his sleeping mat. The rain had eased so neither Ray nor Jonah had bothered with a sleeping bag. Ray doubted she would be getting much sleep, but she closed her eyes in hope.

  CHAPTER 22

  The two vehicles arrived at the first comms tower about four hours after heading out the next morning. The dense forest was lighter here and gave way to large tracts of open savannah, deeply rutted by the course of ancient rivers. As they traveled, the horizon took on a distinctly pinkish hue as the outskirts of the Sunset Ring approached. Ray pointed this out to Jonah.

  “It’s really beautiful as you get close,” she was saying. “The colors depend entirely on the weather, the type and density of the cloud cover, and even humidity. It can go from burnt orange all the way through to hot pink. You’re in for a treat.”

  Ray used the first tower as a teaching tool. Showing the CDSE engineers how the doors opened and what to watch out for in terms of water ingress and degradation. The tower was only due for a software update, but Ray used the opportunity to pull out the wiring and fiber optic looms and pointed out the routing of the solar collectors and antennae.

  Ray had expected the engineers to be avidly enthusiastic about the old tech but instead they seemed only vaguely interested, asking very few questions and slumping into obvious boredom after an hour or so. Jonah did his best to jolly them along with his translation efforts but even he failed to coax out all but the most insipid smiles.

  Ray had the flash stick in her pocket looking for an opportunity to download a current Net map if she could. When it came to closing up the tower and tidying away her tools, rather than helping, the CDSE engineers all drifted away and Ray thought she might have an opportunity. Pritchard however stood leaning against a vehicle, arms folded watching her, and Jonah stayed around chatting about nothing. She already felt that she had told Jonah more than was good for him or her and had no intention of revealing her insane plan of closing off Dianian airspace. It’ll keep, she thought to herself.

  The rest of the day’s travel towards the fringe of the Sunset Ring passed without event. The last few hours they travelled across a dry flat expanse of grass, coursed with shallow stony braided stream beds. Not exactly flat but much smoother than the forest terrain they had endured the previous day. The independent hydraulic wheels accommodated the undulating ground much better now and Ray managed to catch up on missed sleep in patches. They pulled in to camp about ten at night on a river bed terrace looking down towards deepening forest fringes and the Sunset Ring proper. Today the sky was a vibrant orange and peppered with wispy clouds. Here, the Euronet had finished and the California net arched overhead. Ray figured it must by early afternoon in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The stark brown squares of dirt surrounding the tenement blocks of outer LA were clearly visible against the fading blue sky and starkly visible as the Diana sky deepened to navy blue and then the black of the Darklands.

  “This place is beautiful,” Ray was saying to Jonah, “but it’s better when it’s night time in LA and the street lights show through. I always thought it’s a pity not to be looking at the stars beyond though. The air here is so clean, the view of the stars must be amazing. There is no place within traveling distance of Atlas where there are no nets, so I have never really seen the stars properly. Only dimly when it’s night on Earth and the Earth half of the net is over an area that does not have very much light pollution.”

  “It’s the same on Earth now.” Jonah responded, “You have to travel a long way from the cities before you find a place without net cover or with low enough light pollution that stars are visible.”

  “We live among the stars and never get to see them. Shame really.” Jonah and Ray shared the view for a while in stillness. Ray loved the change from perpetual day to night. She felt her body could relax. She was aware of course that humans are designed to operate on a day night cycle but whenever she came out here, she could feel every cell in her body reaching out to the sleeping darkness. Where many Dianians regarded the dark with fear and superstition, she found it peaceful and comforting.

  “When do you want to start on the hand to hand combat lessons?” Jonah suddenly asked.

  “…No time like the present I suppose,” Ray responded reluctantly. She would much rather have crawled onto her bed roll but figured she would probably just end up lying awake once her brain had a chance to remind her of everything that had recently gone wrong with her life.

  “Let’s go then,” Jonah said out loud unfolding his long legs and rising easily to stand, apparently unaffected by the days travel. He hefted his assault rifle and slung it across his back in a practiced motion.

  Ray got up a little more stiffly and followed Jonah a short distance from the camp where an ancient river channel moraine created a natural amphitheater, shielding them from view.

  Jonah chose a sandy spot with less rocks to trip on or roll an ankle. He asked Ray to walk him through the strikes that she knew, complimenting her speed and form.

  “Aymes is right, you guys have taught yourselves a lot. Why don’t we start with a few takedowns? Most fights end up on the ground, so you need to know what to do once you’re down.”

  Jonah proceeded to show Ray a hip throw, choosing a spot with softer sand so they didn’t hurt themselves. Jonah and Ray were engaged in their third run through when Aymes’ voice cut over their efforts.

  “Waste of time,” Aymes appeared as if out of nowhere, rising from a crease in the ground eroded by recent rain falls. She carried one weapon in her hands and the other slung over her shoulder. She walked over to the pair, checking behind as she moved.

  “It is likely that she is going to have to fight soon,” She said to Jonah. “If she has
to fight she will be fighting trained men who are much bigger than her and they will likely be going for the kill. Give her a knife and teach her three good techniques. She needs to strike first and disable in one hit or she’s dead.”

  Aymes looked around as if surveying the weather. Jonah and Ray stood waiting, unsure if she’d finished. If Ray was apprehensive before, she felt sick with worry now. Aymes’ attention turned to Ray this time.

  “I had PFC Pham check out the lake bed.”

  Ray froze. She somehow knew what was coming but had been trying to deny it to herself for weeks.

  “Three bodies …not one,” Aymes continued. “Stone, Clear, and Spiranos.”

  Ray’s hand flew to her mouth. “Spiranos? “Jonah spoke, “Why?”

  Aymes shrugged, “unclear, I sent Pham out before I talked to Jager. Thought I should have all the facts first. It was lucky I did. There is no way that Jager doesn’t know about Spiranos. Something here stinks bad…Spiranos was…a good man.” Aymes paused, not visibly upset but Ray imagined Aymes was regathering her emotions.

  “Jager ordered me on this mission,” Aymes continued. “I’m starting to feel like he wants us out of the way. He was pretty distant after what happened at the Medbay and as soon as Pritchard was assigned to lead this charade I knew something was up.” She turned to Jonah.

  “Fielding… XO Jager is operating outside of his mission directive and has committed military and possibly civilian crimes. I will deal with him when we get back. We now have good reason to believe that we are in danger, quite possibly from our own team. Watch your six Fielding, and stay close to her.”

  Jonah nodded, he looked as shocked as Ray felt.

  I have to tell Sparks.” Ray signed once Aymes had crested the small embankment behind them.

  Jonah nodded once again.” I agree,” he signed, “As soon as we get back. But first this.”

  Jonah pulled a small spring knife out of a pocket in the front of his pants. He demonstrated the side button that released the blade from its sheath if it recognized your fingerprint. Mirror polished silver faded to deep black at the edges.

  “The cutting edges have industrial diamond on them,” he explained. “They grow it on in some kind of reactor and then sharpen it in a plasma. It’s sharp at the atomic level which means it will cut through human flesh almost without resistance. Be very careful.”

  Ray took the weapon between her thumb and forefinger, handling it like it were a live snake.

  “Aymes knows her stuff. I’m going to show you two techniques that we will practice now. She’s right, you need to strike first and strike to kill. No hesitation. A moment of pity or doubt and you will die, got it?”

  Ray nodded.

  “First things first, where are you going to hide it and you need to practice getting to it quickly.

  Ray found no opportunity to practice the techniques Jonah had shown her the night before during the first two towers they attended. Venturing into the deepening darkness of the Sunset Ring the next day. The two software updates had gone without a hitch however. The engineers had pretty much left Ray to herself and were now showing almost no interest in learning about the towers at all. They also displayed limited knowledge of electronics and optotronics in general.

  Ray was becoming increasingly suspicious that, as Aymes had hinted, this mission was a complete charade with some other objective entirely. Like keeping Ray and Aymes away from Atlas. At least Ray had been able to give Sparks and Nettle a heads up the night before. Jonah had lent her the spare communicator for just enough time to send through a text message and receive acknowledgment.

  The group were currently having a short rest in the early afternoon, before attending to the last of the towers now deep into the Sunset Ring. Ray had done a brief assessment and set up some lights for her to work by in the looming darkness. The tower had clearly been hit by lightning and needed a substantial amount of work. In the darkness now, Ray could start practicing drawing and using her knife in earnest.

  The main move Jonah had shown her was simple. To be used if the attacker was close or holding her throat or shoulders. She would draw the knife from her pocket flick the blade out and either slash the throat if she could or stab straight up into the chin if the attacker’s arms were in the way. After thirty minutes of constant practice she was starting to become reasonably adept at getting it out of her pocket without it snagging. She had to be careful how she did it in case she hit the button too early and the blade shot into her own leg.

  Ray practiced for as long as she could before Pritchard appeared out of the dusk and flicked his head for her to get back to work. She checked the position of her knife and of the flash stick hidden in another pocket in her pants. This could be her last and best opportunity to download the Net map.

  The CDSE team were less present when she worked, and the darkness would help. Ray gathered her tools and headed towards her array of pole lights on the far sight of the camp. As she suspected, only a couple of the CDSE crew moved with her to investigate the tower. The rest lounged around, resting and chatting but alert. A few watching her progress across the campsite.

  Ray sat, opened the access doors and extracted the wire and fiber optic looms. Straight away she could see several components that had been damaged beyond repair. These she extracted first before beginning integrity tests on the boards that appeared undamaged. She was thinking fast and playing the wiring diagram, which she knew by heart, through her mind. Power first then antennae then amplifiers. After that she should be able to drive the tower in slave mode with her handheld interface and download what she needed. Once the data was on her HHI she could download it to a flash stick at her leisure and send it to Sparks.

  The biggest risk was back in Atlas. There would be an event log that showed information had been accessed by this tower. Ray hoped beyond hope that CDSE hadn’t been smart enough to encrypt or password protect the files. She doubted it because as far as she knew she was the only one who had been out here, and the towers would need to be updated with encryption keys to operate if CDSE had encoded everything. Maybe that was exactly what she had been uploading the last few days.

  Her heart was hammering in her chest as she hooked up power to the servos that maneuvered the small dish and antennae, and started to test the radio amplifier board. Half way through, one of the CDSE crew wandered off and the other was reading something of his data console, so Ray risked plugging in her HHI. Using the unit as a surrogate central control board, she booted up the tower systems and waited for a response from the servo system’s control board.

  Expecting the worst. Ray jumped a little when the various servos started reporting and rotating autonomously to locate their limits. The CDSE man looked up at the sound of the larger dish rotating through three sixty degrees to find it’s home location. He looked back down to his reading after a second or two presumably assuming it was part of the process. Which it was actually Ray thought to herself.

  Feeling more confident. Ray set her HHI to emulate the pre-update control board and instructed the tower to acquire a radio data link with Atlas. The dish moved to face East and Ray’s cursor flashed awaiting the connection. Ray’s stomach sank as the seconds ticked by. Eventually the attempt timed out and the “connection failed” message scrolled across her screen. New encryption perhaps. Ray switched her HHI to the current updated version and reattempted the connection. The connection established after a few seconds.

  Ray had to fight to stop her shoulders visibly slumping in relief. This was it, Ray’s one chance. She called up tug transport navigation data, necessarily as accurate as possible to avoid getting tugs tangled in the nets. The map consisted of astronavigation coordinates for every netpod on every net, not just on Diana but also Earth and at all the remote recycling centers.

  There was no way for Ray to sort the data now, so she was forced to initiate a bulk download of the whole lot. When the file size and estimated time to download flashed across the screen Ray froze. 3.4 h
ours.

  Ray looked at the unchanged download bar in consternation. She immediately changed the screen to another mode, hiding the download in a small bar at the bottom, making it at least a little more difficult to see. For the next hour Ray poked at the various fried and unfried peripherals around the lightning singed cabinet. Sometimes actually testing and sometimes flat out pretending. The final CDSE crewman had given up and retreated to the camp.

  She was running out of believable ways to extend her investigation. They all knew that the parts were all interchangeable and she had spares. It was a simple matter of just plugging in the new bits and pressing go. Glancing over her shoulder she saw Pritchard looking over at her and talking to the last of the CDSE men to leave. In desperation Ray reached in and quickly removed the servo lead connecting to the main dish motor.

  Pritchard sloped over, his trade mark contempt written all over his face. Jonah looked up from the far side of the camp as Pritchard approached, watching his every move. Ray’s heart hammered in her chest. Pritchard cast shadows on her work as he past the circle of work lights. She turned to face him. He stared down at her hunched over the console, kneeling on the ground by the tower access hatch.

  “I thought you were supposed to be good at this,” he hissed.

  Under the protective gaze of Jonah who now had his assault rifle held loosely in his hands, Ray stood up, indignant. She pointed at the drive cog of the main dish and mimed a breaking motion.

  “I don’t give a fuck,” Pritchard hissed again, his lips curling back into the barely contained grimace Ray had seen him use before. “You did this to me,” he whispered, his lower lip trembling. You owe me. You owe me big!

  Ray looked back at Pritchard. She had no clue what he was talking about. Sometimes he seemed so rational, in control and able to take charge. Other times, like now, he seemed completely out of his mind.

  “One day … soon … I’m gonna extract what I’m owed.”