Marta headed for the air lock between the greenhouse and the atrium area. Then the vertigo hit. She felt herself spinning and closed her eyes but the spinning wouldn’t stop. Marta abruptly sat down and began to crawl towards the lock. She still had ten feet to go when she passed out.
She awoke in the atrium on one of the lounges. Her husband Abel was there and so was Hermann Adler who worked in the greenhouse with her. “How do you feel honey?” asked Abel.
“My head hurts and the room is spinning a bit when I turn my head. What happened?”
“John is in the greenhouse right now trying to find out,” said Hermann.
“What!” she exclaimed. “You let John go in there.”
“Don’t worry honey,” said Abel. “John is suited up, he should be protected from whatever caused you to pass out.”
Just then John came through the greenhouse door carrying someone across his shoulder. He moved to where Abel and Hermann were standing and they helped him place the body on another lounge.
“Lauren,” Hermann said. “I didn't know anyone else was in there.”
“I found her in the far corner,” said John. “I was checking the oxygen concentrator panel and almost tripped over her. Maybe that was what she was trying to do when she succumbed. I have to go back in there and finish checking.”
“Okay son,” said Abel, “but be careful.”
John was back at the oxygen concentrator's panel. The readouts looked okay but something was strange. They were too steady, they didn't have the tell-tale jitter that showed the cycling of the concentrator. John opened the cabinet doors. Except for the power light the unit appeared to be in bypass. He tried the reset and the system restarted. John could hear the unit cycling as he would expect.
By the time John had returned to the atrium Lauren had been taken to the hospital. “How's Lauren?” asked John as he unsuited.
“Not too good I'm afraid,” said his dad. “She was not responding so we had her taken to the hospital, they should be able to bring her around. What did you find in there?”
“The concentrator was offline,” said John. “You wouldn't know it to look at the front panel but if you opened the door it was obvious. The oxygen hadn't been scrubbed for some time, the concentration must have been pretty high. I reset it and it seemed to start working again.”
“Let's see if I can pull up the oxygen sensors.” John pulled out his Annie. “Yeah, they appear to be working, oxygen content three times higher than normal but falling.”
“What could have caused this John?” asked Abel.
“I suspect it was the same thing as the EV dad, a bit of sabotage.”
12
John worked late with his Annie that night following a hunch. He went to bed with a pretty good idea of how the incidents were happening although he still didn't know who was behind them.
“All right,” said Daniel Keys the next morning. “Let me get this straight. You don't think anyone on Mars is responsible for these incidents. Is that right?”
“That's right Daniel,” said John. “I suspect and I have some proof of my suspicions that these incidents were caused by a distant source. How distant I'm not sure, but the network trace I did last night leads me to believe that the source is not on this planet.”
“That would explain why we haven't been able to find someone with the expertise and motive,” said Daniel. “You believe someone could break into our net?”
“It would be a challenge but it wouldn't be impossible. The moment we tie one net to another we have a possible security breach. The only way to have perfect security is not to have inter-network operation.”
“That would explain how someone could have the varied expertise and the necessary resources and remain unknown to us,” said Abel who had accompanied John to see the sheriff.
“As a matter of fact,” said Abel. “We can't be certain if we are dealing with just a person, an entity like a non-governmental organization or maybe a government itself. If it's a person they are rich. If it's a NGO it would have to be a clandestine, back room operation to protect their general interests. If it's a government, well that could be provocation for conflict with the Mars Republic. We really need to find out. This has suddenly become much more than a local criminal investigation Daniel. We are going to need some planet wide resources to find the answer.”
“John,” said Abel. “Work up a report on the incidents and what you have learned. You too Daniel. We will go to Bradbury to the Attorney General and present our findings. Can you both be ready by tomorrow?”
John and Daniel nodded yes.
________
John and Abel met Daniel at the tube station the next morning. John and Daniel were a little bleary eyed. This was Abel’s first time on the Bradbury Express so he intended to stay awake and take in the full experience but John and Daniel were dozing soon after leaving Candor Station.
Abel had visited Bradbury when there was no tube link. The journey then had taken two days, now it would be only an hour and was the only way anyone would even consider traveling between the two settlements. The tubes were built underground where they were protected from dust and surface weather. Evacuated of even the tenuous atmosphere of Mars the tube provided an excellent right of way, straight or only slightly curving, for the speeding cars that carried passengers and freight. Each car could carry up to fifty passengers. The car carrying Abel, John and Daniel was full, the hour of travel time gave Abel a chance to think.
Politics, thought Abel. A power struggle over the future of Mars even after some sixty odd years of independence. Someone or some group on Earth had never accepted the independence declaration. The Republic’s foes were getting old now, maybe this was their last chance to change the power balance.
But what were they after exactly? And why was my settlement in Candor targeted, he wondered. I've never been particularly political. No, there are no Jackson’s on Mars that would make clear targets. But what about Earth? Uncle Ephraim and his family are still there. I wonder if he has been up to something without informing the rest of the family? Certainly Ephraim is prone to do exactly as he wishes, whatever the consequences. Abel thought he would have to get in touch with him and find out.
He got a message from Candor on his Annie. Lauren had regained consciousness. The internal damage was extensive but the doctors believed that the gene therapy she was receiving would correct it. She would be in the hospital for some time but should be back home eventually.
Abel stared at the message. That was it he thought. It was too dangerous not to pursue, he would do all he could to find out who was behind Lauren's injuries. He had to, there was no guarantee that a further threat to life was not forthcoming. Abel closed his eyes to pray.
________
The presentation to the Attorney General went well. He promised to refer the matter to the head of the investigative division. They would cooperate with tracing network activity into the Jackson's settlement.
After the meeting John pointed out that it was all well and good that the government agreed to monitor the network but to trace the next intrusion meant that there would have to be a next intrusion. And who knew what the target would be this time.
Abel said, “Yes, I agree with you John but it is good that the government is involved even if we are going to have to do most of the work. Eventually when we find the people responsible we will need government authority to bring them to justice.”
“You're right dad,” said John. “What are we going to do now?”
“Well, Daniel is going to continue to focus on the who of the matter. I want you, John, to find a way to monitor our network and discover any intrusion before it has a chance to interfere with operations. And I am going to try to find out who off world might have a reason to cause these intrusions and why.”
Daniel said goodbye and headed back to Candor. Abel and John spent the day in Bradbury visiting the Academy and some of Abel's old friends that he hadn't seen for years.
&n
bsp; They were both quiet on the ride back. John was working with his Annie, trying to find a way to monitor all the network traffic into the settlement.
Abel spent the time drafting a message to his uncle Ephraim on Earth. Trying in a non-demanding way to find out what he had been up to. Abel wouldn't be surprised if the source of their problems began with his uncle's activism.
13
Evram was getting irritated. His customer was calling and he was getting too inquisitive. He wanted to know too many details of the next incident Evram had planned.
The customer continued, “Look, the Mars Republic is putting pressure on my people, some very important people, I just need to be able to assure them that everything is under control. And to do that I need to be able to give them some of the details of the next operation.”
“But when I started this job you guaranteed me that I would have complete control, without interference or consultation,” said Evram.
“Circumstances have changed,” said the customer.
“Not for me,” said Evram.
“Look,” said his customer. “This is the bottom line. Either you give me a briefing on what you are planning next so I can get it ok'd from above or you are out of business.”
“You can't threaten me,” said Evram.
“I am not threatening you,” said the customer. “I am just telling you that if you find it impossible to cooperate on this new basis then your services are no longer needed.”
“That's fine,” said Evram. “When I get paid for the planning I've already done then I'm out.”
“Paid for doing nothing?” said the customer laughing. “You've got to be kidding.”
“If you think I'm kidding then you will find out the hard way that I am not.”
“Whatever,” said his customer. “Expect no more money or contact from me.” The customer terminated the call abruptly.
Evram sat there in a rage with his Annie to his ear. He couldn't think. He couldn't move. He had never been so insulted, treated so dismissively. It would be the last time. He didn't know who his customer was but he would find out. And if he wouldn't pay Evram cash he would pay in other ways.
14
John was in discussion with their IT manager, April Williams. “April,” said John. “We believe that someone is using our network from the outside to cause the 'accidents' we've experienced. We need a way to monitor the network and catch the intruder before he can cause more problems.”
“John,” said April. “I have all the cyber-security countermeasures possible already implemented. If the intrusion was from outside we can search the activity logs for verification. But whoever got in has to be really good to outsmart the software. It should have caught any intrusive activity and reported it to me not long after the intrusion.” John nodded.
“As far as catching such an intrusion in real-time, I will have to mirror the log to a computer that's running some statistical sampling software on the continuous batches it’s sent. I can set up an alert when it spots a suspicious pattern of activity. But we will first have to find signs of the intruder in the logs to imprint that pattern.”
“Sounds good April, if you want, I can run the stats on the logs to find the pattern while you get the mirror ready.”
“Sure John,” said April. “And thanks.”
John setup a computer to run the statistical analysis on the network logs sent to him by April. He decided to begin the run on the day before and the day of the incidents. Even on one of the fastest computers in the settlement the analysis would take hours. He hoped he had time to find a pattern in the data before the next incident.
________
Abel got the answer he expected from Earth. His uncle Ephraim was involved in a movement to recognize Martian independence by the UN. Ephraim confirmed that they had a lot of opposition and a lot of it was at the higher levels of power and authority. He was sorry about any problems his activism may have caused Abel and the others. But he pointed out that no matter how much he agitated that was not an excuse for anyone to cause the dangerous and potentially deadly incidents that Abel had witnessed. He asked that Abel keep him informed, he would do what he could on his end to discover any connections to the incidents.
________
John was awakened by his Annie. The analysis was complete. He looked through the resulting numbers without any recognition. He switched to a two dimensional view of time versus network traffic and still didn't see any obvious pattern. He used the terrain view to inspect the results. The resulting topographical representation made it clear that there were four repeatable peaks in the data which couldn't be overlooked. Using the cursor he measured the time from peak to peak and found it to be seven hours and thirty-nine minutes for all four. The trace showed that the source of the peaks seemed to lead to the office of the local Representative to the Republic's Senate. The Senator's office was close enough to wirelessly connect with the Jackson's network.
The office was probably just a proxy thought John. The periodicity of the data peaks was the real clue. Plenty of data could be downloaded or uploaded during those peaks. And the only reason John could think that the peaks would have that particular periodicity was because they were tied to the orbit of Phobos, Mars' innermost moon. There was no other reason that he could think of for such a period, except as maybe a subterfuge. But there was a way to check that.
He called up a planetarium program on his Annie to see where the moon Phobos was at the time of the data peaks. As he expected the moon was over the area of Candor at those times. High enough in the sky for line of sight communication. Someone at some time had established at least a repeating station on Phobos and used it to break into and interfere with the settlement's net.
Before he showed the results to his dad he wanted to run more analyses to find further corroborating evidence and the identity of the perpetrator.
15
Evram wasn't following 'orders'. As if anyone had the right to give him orders. His customer had insisted that he wouldn't pay for anymore incidents unless Evram met his demands. Apparently the political pressure was getting too intense for his customer. Evram didn't care but he hadn't planned the next incident for nothing. He would just give his customer a free one. He would also give him more trouble on Earth than he could believe.
Evram set out to trigger the next incident on Mars. This one was as simple as it would be deadly. All he had to do was adjust the water purification system. Just as with the O2/CO2 regulator too much of a good thing would be deadly. Evram programmed the avatar's and uploaded them.
________
They were in the system again.
The avatars had just gained access to the target system when the avatar Av-Em spoke up. “We have a monitor alert,” it said. “I am compensating but Av-Evram, you have already triggered a source response. Recommend withdraw. I will block and parry any attempt to trace.” Av-Evram relayed the news of the intrusion failure to Evram immediately.
“Damn,” said Evram out loud some twenty minutes later. “I can't believe it.”
He immediately pounded out instructions to the avatars but would have to wait almost forty minutes to know the results.
Av-Evram quickly broke contact with Mars upon receiving Evram's orders. The avatar scrubbed his trace from the colonist's system all the way back through the government office. The other avatar Av-Em was withdrawing with him.
“We have exited,” said Av-Em. “I suggest decommission of the relay station also.”
“Yes,” said Av-Evram as he sent the information back to Earth before initiating the scrambler that would trash the relay station software and hardware and avatars.
“Withdrawal successful, station terminated,” said the message from Av-Evram.
Evram was relieved but now that he had a moment to think his mood changed from one of surprise and panic to anger.
It's all your fault, thought Evram, referring to his unknown customer. I'll get you. You'll wish you had never heard of me
when I'm finished with you.
Evram begin searching for his customer. He employed all his weapons including the Em. It wouldn't be long until he knew who had hired him and it wouldn't be long until his customer knew that he shouldn't have crossed Evram.
16
John was late getting up the next morning. He found his father in the atrium with Daniel and some of the volunteer deputies from Bradbury, among them was Rex Stamford. John showed them the results of his analysis. “I think you’ve found the how of the incidents,” said Abel. “And I think that I’ve discovered the why by messaging uncle Ephraim.”
“Don’t tell me,” said John. “He’s involved in more activism.”
“Yes,” said Abel. “Our uncle as usual is pursuing his beliefs to both positive and negative consequences. He is involved with a group that is trying to get the UN to recognize the right of independence for the Republic.”
From the Earth: A Future Chronology Anthology Page 15
