Code Breakers: Beta

by Colin F. Barnes

  Malik smiled “Thanks. You’re a good guy, Gerry.” He clapped Gerry on the back and headed over to the rations boxes that the others were sat around sharing.

  The morale within the group had taken a positive boost, but The Family’s silence over his message made Gerry nervous. He knew they’d received the message, his connection with them was entirely unbreakable, and only through his encryption wrapper had he managed to suppress their direct monitoring of him. At the very least he expected a furious reaction at locking them out, and the damage to the Dome when he flew away.

  But there was nothing. Had they accepted that he was lost to them? Had they abandoned him?

  He thought about sending another message, more to give him something to do while he waited, but as he checked his internal AIA systems, he both felt and saw something on the Meshwork that made his heart skip a beat.

  “It’s back on!” Gerry said, shouting to the group. “The Meshwork is back up.”

  Everyone turned to him, their faces as quizzical as he imagined his own to be.

  He turned to the Upsiders. “Did you do something with Omega?”

  Liza-Marie shook her head, “No, it’s always been on doing whatever it does, and we just look after it. I’m not sure what’s happened.”

  Jess looked up at Gerry, “He’s always been awake,” she said. “The man in the box is happy now.”

  Gerry moved over to her, knelt down to face her. “How do you know he’s happy?”

  “He told me.”

  “Wait, you can communicate with the server?”

  She nodded as casually as if she had been asked if she had seen the sun. Gerry smiled at her, kept her at ease. “Does he have a name, this man?”

  “Yeah, but it’s hard to say. It’s Hero or Hirojeem. I can’t pronounce it. He’s not very clear sometimes. But now he’s with his friend, he seems happy.”

  “Who is his friend?” Gerry asked.

  “Her, silly,” Jess said, pointing to the other server, Alpha.

  “And you can hear her too?”

  Jess shook her head. “Not really, she’s very quiet. But I can tell she’s happy too.”

  Everyone in the room stared at Gerry and the young girl. It appeared that she could somehow remotely access the servers. Gerry knew that Alpha, or Old Grey as it was called before, had an AI within it, but when he had accessed Omega last, he couldn’t tell what was in there. Must be another AI, Gerry thought. But the curious thing was how the girl ascribing emotions to them: software by its nature doesn’t have emotions.

  Not wanting to grill the girl further, or get her upset, Gerry tapped her gently on the shoulders, stood up, and sat back down at his desk. He closed his eyes, focused on the stream of data flowing to and from Omega. He checked the log files. The traffic didn’t exist an hour ago, but something had happened. Like a snowball at the top of the hill, the data started small and grew larger and larger the longer it rolled.

  While in the computer’s system, he could find no evidence of another sentient AI, or even any code that might explain what Jess was hearing. But that aside, he wanted to explore the Meshwork now that it was back up and running. First thing he wanted to do was get in touch with someone at GeoCity-1; see if there were any survivors, and discover the status of the Red Widow’s force.

  He navigated to the address that used to be GeoCity-1, received no reply. The place was a data desert: nothing going in, and nothing coming out. Not surprising if Red Widow had completely taken it. A stream of traffic, albeit small, came from Darkhan, and an equally smaller stream came from the Dome.

  It seemed City Earth had a few hackers within its populace still managing to operate, despite the increase of security since Jasper’s failed attempt at taking it down.

  Gerry found that comforting, realised it was probably Kaden.

  As he scanned the data streams, he noticed a peculiar package of data amongst the sea of information. It stuck out to him because of the Helix++ code surrounding it. Unlike the regular flow of data that split into smaller packets of information, these were whole and although still relatively small, there was something odd about the encryption.

  He focussed his mind on one, and loaded it into his AIA. From there, he looked closer at the code. The algorithm seemed familiar. To Gerry, all code was like handwriting. Everyone has their own unique style and approach, and after a while if you’re exposed to someone’s coding, you get to recognise their style.

  And this style, all brash and elegant in equal measure meant only one person that he knew.

  He ripped into the algorithm. His heart rate spiked. The anticipation made him dizzy. Layer after layer, he unpicked the code, unlocked the data to find a text message that made him smile a ridiculous grin.

  Yo Gez, Petal here.

  This is awkward. I don’t know if you’re alive or dead. If you’re still with us, and on Earth, I wanted to let you know I’m safe and with Criborg, my makers, kind of. Long story. I’ll fill you in another time. I got a new implant chip, this is my new network address: 2039:0db6:82c2:0022:1100. There’s a doctor here, Jimmy Robertson. He’s kind of my father. Anyway, tell Enna and Gabe if they’re with you that I’m all cool and fixed and upgraded.

  We’re on our way to Darkhan with a small army. We’re fighting back, man! Let me know what’s happening with ya’ll and we’ll come and get you.

  ~ Petal.

  “She’s alive!” he shouted. “Petal’s coming!”

  As everyone turned to stare at him and react to the good news, he received an audio communication from The Family:

  “Gerry, this is Jachz. We’ve looked at your data, and believe it to be true. We’ve also had some other factors to consider and the decision has been made. We’re evacuating City Earth of Priority one citizens. The Family have requested that you return to the Dome, with Petal, preferably within the next three hours.”

  “Wait, what? What factors? Why only priority One? What’s going?” Gerry couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Priority One people were those exempt from the Death Lottery: the government, the president, and a handful of Family members on the surface.

  “As I said, Gerry. Your presence has been requested.”

  “Put me through to Amma, Jachz. Right now.”

  “As you wish, Gerry.”

  There was a short delay, before Gerry’s mother responded.

  “Gerry, my love, this is serious. We’re under attack in more ways the one. The Family board have agreed to bring forward Phase Three of our mission. Please, come back. This isn’t reversible.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? What’s not reversible, and what is Phase Three exactly?”

  He heard her sigh over their communication channel.

  “Phase Three is off-world development. I’m sure we spoke about this when you were with us. I hoped we would have more time, but our infrastructure both on the surface and in orbit is under attack and we don’t have the resources to defend those positions. We have no other choice. This is the catalyst. It was always going to come to this.”

  “Catalyst? Stop talking in code and tell me what you are planning on doing.”

  “Gerry, please. Just get to the City and get on the evacuation shuttles. I don’t want to lose you again.”

  “Why dammit? What’s going to happen?”

  “We can’t fight that force conventionally, Gerry love, we don’t have the personnel. Our mission is too precious to us. Furthering of humanity is too precious. It’s all we have.”

  Slamming his fist on the desk and losing his temper, he blasted back his thoughts across his connection, trying to get as much as anger through as possible.

  “Just tell me what the hell you’re planning!”

  Amma sucked in her breath before answering.

  “Posthuman, Gerry. It’s been agreed we’re moving forward with our plans. It’s our time to be born anew. And to defend our transformation we’re using nuclear deterrents. Nothing can threaten our evolution. It’s all we have le
ft. We can’t allow scum like the Red Widows to simply take our City or destroy our satellites. We only have the station left. It’s too precious to risk.

  “This is why you must return, come with us. Bring Petal. Leave the world. You have a bright future with us. You’ll be at the centre of it all. A new world, new beginnings!”

  Gerry collapsed back into his chair, as a cold dread crept up his bones, chilling him through to the marrow. Nukes! They were going to nuke the planet again. And only Priority One saved. Priority One was fewer than a thousand people. They were going to sacrifice all of the innocent citizens as if they were nothing but trash.

  “Gerry? You understand the circumstances, please, come back,” Amma said.

  Of all the things The Family had done, or planned on doing this was beyond anything he imagined. They’d justified their actions of ending WWIII to save humanity, and stupidly he’d partly believed that. Sometimes there was a greater good argument, but this was beyond the greater good. It was cold genocide anyway you looked at it.

  “You’re all nuts, you know that?”

  “Please, try and see it from our point of view.”

  “You’re point of view is sick and inhuman.”

  “No, Gerry, not inhuman, posthuman. Don’t you understand? We’re diverging. And you’re one of the key parts of that. You’re not one of them. You’re not a barbaric backwards species. You’re one of the enlightened, the next stage of evolution. It’s our time, like all branches of species, to ascend to the dominant position.”

  “You can’t play that card with me anymore,” Gerry said. “I will not allow you to do this. I will not allow you to sacrifice a million souls to save a thousand. No matter how low you consider them as a species. You mistook me. I’m not one of you. I’ll never be.”

  “Look, an ambassador will be at the port of the Dome within a few hours. Please, talk to him. Hear him out. If you decide you don’t want to come, at least liaise with him and help organise the City’s security.”

  Before Amma had chance to argue further, Gerry cut off his connection, surrounding it again within the encryption wrapper. The others in the bunker stared at him with worried looks. Gone were the smiles brought to them by the news of Petal and the Meshwork.

  Enna was the first to speak. “It’s The Family, isn’t it?” she said. “They’ve decided on a response.”

  “Something like that,” Gerry said, trying to think of the best way of putting it. Jess was starting at him like a startled lemur, her eyes wide with fear. She could sense it, could sense from his body language that it was something awful. Hell, she’d probably heard every word.

  “We’re leaving. We need to get to the Dome right now.”

  Without further discussion, Gerry set to work loading the truck, and in a tense silence, the others followed. Except the two Upsiders: Liza-Marie and Ghanus. The half-masked woman approached Gerry. Spoke quietly while Gerry re-packed the truck, “We’re not coming with you, I’m afraid. You have the server now, it seems our job is done. We’ve lost too many of our kind in this war. It’s time for us to stay behind and do what we need to do.”

  “And what’s that?” Gerry asked.

  “You don’t need to concern yourself with us anymore, Gerry. We’ve done all we can to aid you. You’re welcome to take as many supplies from here as you need. I wish you well in the struggles ahead, but for Ghanus and I, we’ve come to the end of our journey.”

  With that, she pulled down the half-mask, exposed her twisted mouth. The flesh inverted, abnormal, her jaw mutated to hang low on one side. She gave Gerry a kiss on his cheek. The heat of her lips warmed his skin. “Thank you, Gerry, for helping us to complete our purpose.”

  She turned away from him, took Ghanus by the hand, and sat in a huddle with their backs to everyone else. Gerry had an idea of what they would do. Everything had been taken from them, and he was a part of that. And now he was taking away their server, their computer god they had cared for and worshipped, protected until this day.

  “Thank you,” Gerry whispered before turning back to the task at hand.

  Gabe stopped Gerry while he was on his own near the back of the bunker collecting more water and food. “What’s the truth, man? What they gonna do?”

  Gerry kept his voice low. “Nukes. They’re evacuating a few important people from City Earth and nuking the planet. They said they’re going off-world, bringing forward their next phase: genocide.”

  “S’what’s the plan?”

  “We get to the Dome, defend it, find a way of stopping The Family from nuking us all to hell. We have the servers. I have a direct connection. How are you feeling for an epic-level hack, old man?”

  Gabe grinned, pulled the dreadlocks away from his face. “I say, Amen, brother!” And then he suddenly remembered: “Where’s Petal? Ya said she’s coming.”

  “She said to say that’s she’s all good, safe, upgraded. She’s heading to Darkhan with a Criborg force. Once we’re on the road, I’ll send her a message, tell her what’s going on, but we need to leave now. They’re evacuating in three hours.”

  “Dammit, we’re at least four away. How we gonna make it?”

  “I don’t know, Gabe. We gotta have faith, I suppose.”

  “Aye, man, I always got faith.”

  Gerry was glad one of them did. His stomach churned with fear and anxiety.

  Chapter 27

  50 kilometres east of GeoCity-1

  The long, almost-silent, rumble of the transporter’s engines infiltrated Petal’s murky dreams. Unclear, foggy things came to her in pieces. She knew something connected the random shapes and far-away images, but she couldn’t quite divine their meaning before the physical interruption of the outside world pulled her from her dream state.

  For a brief moment, she thought she recognised those odd shapes. They looked like people, staring at her from far away in both time and distance, and yet she had a terrible feeling of dread that lingered far longer after the details of that particular dream had drifted away like the morning fog of summer.

  She opened her eyes, yawned. The impossibly heavy fatigue only the gross lack of sleep could bring weighed down upon her. Her legs ached, no doubt due to the awkward, curled-up position within her seat she had taken on in order to get comfortable.

  “What’s going on?” Petal said, her words weary and slow. “How long’ve I been out?”

  “About four hours,” Robertson said. “We’ve had to change course. We’re no longer heading to Darkhan.”

  “Eh? Why not?”

  “They’re mobilising,” Vickers said. “Vulture ahead of us reported seeing a dust cloud from their ground vehicles. They also picked up encrypted communications like the ones we usually detect from their Jaguars. It’s a sizeable force down there.” He didn’t look up at her. Petal could almost hear the sneer in his voice. Before she could question him further, he took his slate and, via an integrated earpiece, received an update from the other two planes. “The Widows are heading away from the city. Abandoning it by all accounts, and they’re coming our way. Probably heading for the Dome.”

  “Change of plan then?” Petal asked.

  Robertson, Sasha, Petal, and General Vickers huddled together across their seats and made plans. Petal suggested abandoning Darkhan and heading straight for City Earth.

  “I don’t know your guys’ history with The Family,” Petal said. “But I can certainly say the vast majority of the public in the Dome are decent people. We could do a lot worse than pitching up there to help defend the place.”

  “Work with The Family?” Vickers said, snarling his lips.

  “Not work for them per se,” Petal said. “Use them for a strategic purpose. An enemy of an enemy is a friend and all that.”

  Vickers opened his mouth to speak.

  “It’s logical,” she said, cutting him off. “Think about it. We’ll be in position to take over the place once the Red Widows are neutralised. I’m sure The Family have some defensive resources we cou
ld use, and what better way of fighting back at them from within their own city?”

  “I agree,” Robertson said. “But I’d like to suggest we deploy the combat ‘droids elsewhere. Buy us some time, bog Red Widow’s forces in a ground battle before they even got to the Dome. Where we’ll be waiting.”

  Sasha, Petal, and Robertson waited for Vickers’s response, giving him the respect of being the one with the most military experience to consider the options.

  He turned away from them, assessed his slate, and spoke to a lieutenant in one of the other transporters. He nodded a few times, gestured across the slate. Mulled over the data.

  “Okay,” he finally said with a long exhale. “I’m with the Doc. My men have identified an outpost, held by a number of Red Widow members a few clicks out from City Earth. It seems they have a small advanced squadron out there.”

  “Yes!” Petal said. “I know the place. GeoCity-1. Before you ask, there’s no GeoCity-2 or 3 for some reason. I guess they never got built. Anyway, we must have passed it an hour or so ago. It’s where one of the servers used to be. It’d be a good place to defend, and it would be far enough outside of the Dome that we could arrange defences behind their ring of security.” To Petal’s mind it made strategic sense, but also her motivations were driven by the hope that maybe Gabe, Enna or Gerry would be there. It made sense, given how difficult it’d be for them to stay in Darkhan, or the Dome.

  “We all agreed?” Vickers asked.

  All three of them agreed.

  “Okay, we turn around, get ahead of the Widows, and prepare for battle.” Vickers confirmed the instructions with the pilots of the Criborg fleet. As one they turned, gunned their great engines, hurtled towards GeoCity-1 in a bid to outrun Red Widow’s force on the ground. At the very least, they’d have time to take the settlement and deploy the ‘droids.

  ***

  Ten minutes into their new flight plan, Petal’s implant buzzed with an incoming message. Her heart nearly jumped out from her chest as she instantly recognised the data signature. It was him. Gerry!