To Touch the Stars (Founding of the Federation Book 2)

by Chris Hechtl

  “Such an intrusion would draw attention to the target. Athena will be watching. She could strike,” the AI hissed, eyes flashing a brighter red of warning.

  “Athena … she doesn't have much of a sense of humor does she?” Descartes asked. “She is getting better. Go over that trap again. It was a pretty snare. Perhaps we can use parts of it later,” he said.

  “You wouldn't laugh if someone got into our systems,” the AI replied, already going to work on the problem. It would not be tricked or tagged by tracer programs so easily again. “I warned you there are ways to trace us. Even the absence of information can tell someone something.”

  “True. But lucky us, they can't trace us; we're too good. Nor will they ever,” Descartes replied with a grin. “We are the best. The question is, where do we go from here? Should we take a quiet vacation?” he asked. He hated such things; sitting it out meant he had to pull his contacts in and just wait and monitor the situation. Going black was his ultimate hole card, but he had yet to ever play it. He hoped he never did. Going completely dark and cutting off his net would probably drive him insane he thought.

  “Stay the course,” Shadow said. “But we will have to take more time to cover our tracks.”

  “Right,” Descartes replied with a curt nod. He felt slightly better.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  An FBI source reported Lagroose Industries had called the bureau about the hack on Daedalus to the media. Sources stated the investigating authorities had confirmed the presence of an AI worm in the system, and they were looking for those responsible. That lit off the media, overshadowing coverage of a series of hurricanes that had slammed the East and for the third time in a century, the west coast of North America.

  Jack was annoyed to be caught off guard. All Athena could get out of the net was that a task force had been set up to investigate. It was led by a special agent. Roman's contacts had given that agent a name, assistant junior director Abernathy “Abe” Lincoln. They didn't know anything more though. “So much for getting confirmation of the story before they go to the press,” Jack said acidly. He wondered if this Abe had leaked the story. They had little to go on the guy, other than his nickname “Honest Abe” and that he was a bit of a buffoon. That didn't bode well for the investigation.

  “We're definitely behind the eight ball here, sir,” Miss Cole said, crossing her legs as she sat across from him in his office. “They must have gotten enough confirmation to roll the story. Actually, right now they are just reporting alleged rumors. They are being careful there,” she said.

  “And what, they didn't ask for confirmation from you because they were afraid they'd get their hands slapped?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.

  Miss Cole nodded but then shushed him as she pointed to the monitor. He turned to see the report come up.

  Miss Fraser frowned from behind her anchor desk. “We are getting unconfirmed reports that mankind's first ship has been sabotaged, and there is a cover-up in progress. There is …” she held one hand up to her ear. “I'm getting reports of speculation of spin control, as well as some finger pointing to blame it on a mythical hacker,” she said.

  “The sabotage story is getting a lot of heat,” Jack said, noting the cynicism as he scrolled through a selection of blogs he normally viewed.

  “The FBI has still refused to comment on an open investigation,” Miss Fraser reported. “We are attempting to contact Lagroose Industries and our other sources for confirmation of this story. In other news, the weather is improving …” Jack muted the newscast as he frowned pensively.

  “Apparently that was enough confirmation to some of the media to take the story more seriously,” Miss Cole said, uncrossing her legs as she got to her feet. She brushed her skirt out then looked at her boss. “We're going to need to get behind this and push. A full brief.”

  “Which was what I wanted from the beginning. I wanted this Descartes running scared. Running people make mistakes and make it easier to be caught. And if he was running he would be too busy keeping a low profile to screw with us,” he growled.

  “But you were talked out of it. And now we're going to catch hell,” she sighed. He nodded curtly. “I know. We'll get on it. I'll arrange a press conference in an hour. Do you want to attend?”

  Jack shook his head, looking at the clock. “You do it. Get the ball rolling on the release though. Don't touch what the FBI asked us to hold back; keep it general as much as possible.”

  “Understood,” she replied as she left.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  An hour and a half later, a hastily called press conference met in the Lagroose Industries press room. Reporters from Mars attended either in real presence or through telepresence. Those on Earth or on other colonies were at a marked disadvantage, they had an eight-minute, one-way delay they couldn't overcome. The questions, therefore, would be asked by the Mars reporters.

  All the journalists were surprised when the public affairs director immediately confirmed the hack had taken place as well as the joint investigation. “Unfortunately folks there is little I can tell you beyond that without compromising the investigation. I can tell you the hacker is indeed Descartes. He is not mythical, though we know little about him … or her,” Miss Cole said with a grimace as she read her notes, “or if it is an organization. But we and the authorities have known he has existed for some time. He is a cyber-mercenary, without scruple or morals. He is a killer; one who doesn't care who the target is as long as he gets paid. We don't just want him; we want the people who paid him to do this cowardly heinous act against all mankind. Our first interstellar explorers deserved better. We failed them,” she said, closing her eyes in pain. “Our cybernetics people are heartbroken that this happened on their watch. They are doing everything they can to help find their friends’ killer,” she said coldly. Her eyes opened to stare into the camera. “If he is watching, we will find you. You and those who hired you. That isn't a threat; it is a promise.”

  She waited a moment for the room to settle. “In closing, we are unsure how much damage the sabotage did. Until we find Daedalus or if the ship returns … we don't know.” She shook her head. “We may never know for certain if what the hacker did was enough to make the ship vanish. But we will continue to hope they survived,” she said, ending the conference. She answered a smattering of questions, but when the journalists realized she wasn't going to go further on the record about the story, they allowed her to retreat.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Descartes was unhappy about being labeled a killer. Sure, he was a killer, but what bothered him was the sudden unwanted attention. He hated how they'd found out about it; that hadn't been any part of his plan. It was supposed to be a traceless ghost; so much for that he thought in disgust. Athena again, she'd figured him out. He felt an almost orgasmic thrill. She truly was remarkable he thought in admiration. She was a true partner for him … if they could ever see eye to eye. He shook his head and continued to watch the briefing. The FBI went on to link him to various cases in the media. Some were quite amusing to him, but he knew the implications.

  He was narcissistic enough to like being feared and hated, but he also knew that it put a very big target on his back. People with targets on them tended to be caught since there was a lot of pressure on the authorities to do so.

  They announced that they'd found the same virus in Icarus and in various ships in the yard. That bothered him. It wasn't the same virus; that part was bullshit he knew. But the fact that they found anything was … disturbing. He guaranteed his work. Guaranteed it. He had a reputation to protect. He now had to go back and redo the job, which he hated to do, and do it while everyone was watching and waiting for him to pounce. That was incredibly dangerous. He loved the thrill. He was pretty sure they couldn't catch him, but Athena was a different story.

  He couldn't do the hack remotely anyway; the yard was in Mars. And now that Icarus was nearing completion … he frowned. No matter what he thought of he couldn't see a way around th
e problem. That sucked. He didn't like giving refunds either.

  He was even more unhappy when he was contacted by Saul Roshenko. The Russian reminded him to keep his head down as if he needed the reminder. Saul was clearly disappointed the operation had been blown and that they had been found out. That made Descartes seethe slightly in frustration and annoyance.

  “I warned you it was always a possibility,” Descartes said patiently, playing for time. “Such things are risks. Always risks,” he said.

  “They said they got it from the telemetry feed?”

  “The captain sent back a copy of their entire database. I … you didn't tell me they were planning on doing that,” Descartes said. “So yes, they got a copy of my baby. Not that it will do them much good,” he said.

  “Is the ship truly lost?” Saul demanded. “If they can find it here, can't the crew find it? What about the other ship?”

  “If they found it like they said they did … yes. They said they did; I don't know for sure. That crap about it being the same is bullshit. The virus is vastly different than the one I put in the first ship. It didn't have a self-destruct worm though,” he admitted. “There was no way to engineer it without antivirus seeing it or it going off and killing itself before killing the ship.”

  “So, if they find the first ship, they'll have the evidence they need,” Saul said carefully. “The crew could find it and kill it.”

  “If they find it like I said. Athena and Hillman had mainframes to run a code comparison with, plus an entire department of coders and bots to tease out the information. That is how they did it; with enough eyes nothing can hide,” Descartes said, eying Shadow. “But even if they found it in the last minute and did some last ditch effort to kill the virus they'd be cutting their own throats. They'd be left adrift in deep space.”

  “They need hard evidence. Can't they send the other ship to find the first?”

  “Let's hope they never find it. After all, it's a big universe,” Shadow hissed.

  “They won't. The virus was designed to send them off on a random bearing. They are lost. A true Lost Dutchman,” Descartes said, feigning glee as he rubbed his hands together. “Besides, there is nothing there for them to use to find us,” he said, throwing in a small white lie. “It's not like I'm stupid enough to give them my home address,” he said. He saw a slight flicker in Saul's eyes. He grinned again, twisting the knife a bit. “I never do that, even with clients,” he said with a twist of his lips.

  “They can always call in when they exit hyper the last time. If they can locate Sol,” Shadow reminded him. The human hacker nodded grudgingly. “With the sample of the virus, they can use it to fingerprint the viruses we have working into the other systems and ships in Lagroose Industries and other companies,” the AI reminded him, “if they haven't already. I believe they have. There has been more firewall activity lately.”

  Saul eyed the two of them for a long moment. “Yes, for your sake you'd better hope and pray they never find out about our contingency plans regarding Icarus. It'd better work and work right this time. Take steps to cover your tracks better,” the man snarled. “We'll work on things from our end. Sow some seeds of doubt in the right circles. Make you out as some sort of boogeyman they made up to keep people in line. You take care of business,” he said, eying the human and AI's image coldly. His finger stabbed down to click the disconnect. Descartes was disturbed by that open threat.

  “He is a threat,” Shadow hissed.

  “Did you get anything from his computers?”

  “He was using a clean computer. Nothing was in it but the operating system.”

  Descartes snorted. “Smart son of a bitch, I'll give him that. Too big for his britches. I'm tempted to prove the bastard wrong and take him down a peg. I don't like being threatened.”

  “There is no way to attack Icarus or the other ships directly,” Shadow replied. “So only a patsy or hireling can get a virus in, which means contending with a firewall when a flash drive is plugged into the ship's mainframe.”

  “Yeah, and we don't have the new firewall or updated antivirus anymore,” Descartes said slowly, wrestling with the problem. He hated hiring on subcontractors; they tended to be unreliable. They were also loose ends, and every time he had to clean up one of them, it left another possible trace. And doing it from Earth? Working with someone remotely on Mars? The time lag alone … he sighed.

  Working with a subcontractor remotely was normal for him, he reminded himself. It was the time lag that bothered him he thought. He liked to monitor their progress in real time. That wasn't possible in this case. Who could he get? He'd have to check the boards carefully, but Mars … contacting someone was dangerous. He didn't have access to their networks like he did Earth's. The other problem was interception. Transmissions could be monitored, even encrypted ones. Any hack could be detected by Athena; after all, she was sitting right there in Mars orbit.

  “I think we're going to let this one sit a while. Let the dust settle while we analyze the problem more thoroughly,” Descartes finally said.

  “A wise decision,” Shadow said.

  “I'm glad you agree. If you think of something, let me know,” he said, smiling. Shadow wasn't known for his creativity. That was one of the main failings of the AI; one Descartes rather enjoyed. It made it clear to the AI that they were a team; they needed each other. He to think up various things, the AI to implement the master plan. Speaking of which, he thought.

  “Progress on the insurance policy? We need to do an update. I also want to go over Skynet. If they did find our baby, that means they have a fingerprint. Since we used some of the same tricks there, we need to check for that carefully, run some sims. Also,” he played with his lip then shrugged. “Go over every bot, worm, and virus we've got in inventory. Pull the glyph,” he said.

  “I can hide it easier. Just change the colors to match the background. It will still be there but they won't see it as easily.”

  “I said pull it,” Descartes ordered. “Put something else in its place. Find some patsy, some up and coming hacker who thinks he's me and lay it on him,” he said, smiling nastily. He cracked his knuckles as he pulled up his schedule. “We'll need to revise this. Block in more time to work on Icarus again. I hate that,” he practically spat.

  “We could hire another hacker. Get into their system; hire them to do a few side jobs.”

  “Farm work out? Not going to happen,” Descartes answered absently.

  “No. I am using one of your previous operations as a reference. You subcontracted Malicious Mischief to cover your tracks in a blind run. You used a series of cut outs to cover your tracks with them, then took them out when the operation was completed.”

  Descartes paused thoughtfully. Finally he nodded. “The Century Systems project. I remember that one. It was before your time though,” he said, frowning. “How did you know?” he asked, turning accusing eyes to the AI's avatar.

  “I am reading the debrief the FBI uploaded on your exploits,” the AI answered.

  “And you were careful to use a spider to get the information?” Descartes demanded.

  “Of course. There are millions of hits on the server as we speak. I was one among many. I didn't even copy it directly, I copied a copy of a copy,” the AI replied.

  “Good boy. Tell me more …” the human said, sitting back to listen to the AI.

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  “Mom, Dad, I'm going into security,” Zack said, looking at both of his parents. Jack nodded but Aurelia looked seriously upset. “Mom,” Zack began imploringly then sighed. “Look,” he finally said, shaking his head. “I know you are worried. You are a mother; that comes with the job. But I'm fine,” he said.

  “No you're not. You could be killed!” she said, running frustrated hands through her hair. “Why can't you be a doctor or … or something else? Anything else?”

  “Something safe? Something you want and not him?” Jack asked, backing his son's decision. He was proud of the lad for
standing there, standing up to her. “It is his life. We can't live if for him. His life, his choice,” he said.

  “But … but, he could get killed. Hurt, maimed …” she whispered, staring at Zack.

  “It's my choice Mom. Mine. I'll live with the consequences,” he said, capturing her hands with his. He caught her eye as she tried to duck her head and then met her gaze with his own. “I know the risks. I do. I also know the counter arguments,” he warned, smiling ever so slightly. “The ones about being young and thinking you are immortal. I know. Believe me I know. I've been gearing up for this for years, Mom.”

  She hung her head and after a moment nodded. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. She hugged him back, stifling a sob. She wasn't happy but she realized she had to back off.

  He's so much like you and I it's not funny,” Jack said with a wan smile. Aurelia looked at him and then rubbed her son's back. Genetics,” Jack said. “I remember my parents. And your parents,” he said as they broke the embrace. Aurelia looked at her son, saw the resolve and then turned a glower on her husband.

  “You made your point,” she growled, turning away.

  “No. He did.”

  -*-*-^-*-*-

  Icarus launched in her commissioning ceremony ten days after the Descartes story broke. The ceremony, its attendees, and heavy security briefly eclipsed the story of the manhunt while also adding fuel to it. A few politicians and celebrities had bowed out; speculation was that they were fearful of a terrorist attack. Fortunately none materialized.

  The media reported faithfully that there had been no further word from Daedalus; it would still be some time before they received word if they got to Alpha Centauri safely or not. Years in fact. Another three and a half years before a transmission could get to them, if it ever did. The entire solar system listened in fatalistic horror for that report, for they knew the ship wouldn't be returning.

  There was some speculation on whether Icarus would be sent out as a rescue mission or not. Miss Cole put such speculation to rest by reminding people that the worm was programmed to strike when the ship was in hyperspace on her return journey. Therefore she was already long lost. She also made it clear that Icarus's computer systems had been thoroughly checked for any sign of the virus.