The minders moved close to Sheba with their cattle prods held in front, but did not attempt to pin Sheba down. Mischa approached Sheba and touched the neural analyzer on her skin. This time the reaction was instant and not just in a shift in her position. Almost reflexively, she transmitted back through the neural analyzer. It was a huge amount of data.
They had taken Ramesh’s advice and used a wired data connection this time. Sheba transmitted for only a second or so, but the rate of transmission was close to 40 Terabytes per minute. So they had lost half the data in their previous recordings due to bandwidth limitation of the wireless connection. Mischa repeated the procedure a few times, reducing and increasing the signal strength from the neural analyzer, since they did not know what was the correct signal strength expected.
The team of Mischa, Violet and Ramesh went back to their research with the new data and after a day were back with a refined version of the same signal. They repeated the same routine, first trying the ultrasound version, and then the neural analyzer.
The neural analyzer was connected to Violet’s terminal, and this time they got back a reply signal, which the computer could interpret. It was just a few words and it said – ‘Yes, hungry I am. Want food.’
Chapter 4
Cracking the code
Titan
July 2061
On hindsight it was obvious, they should have tried it before. Mischa realized that they had been thinking in anthropomorphic ways, the same sin she had been accusing the Shaitans of. Just because humans eat solid food as adult, did not mean that the Shaitans should be doing the same. In fact almost all large animals on earth started their lives with liquid nutrition.
Violet had not found any teeth in her dissections, which should have been a pointer. They should have looked for liquid food. Sheba had asked them to fetch the liquid from the ‘growing tanks’. They now had been able to refine their understanding of the Shaitan language tremendously in the last few days.
Humans now understood that Sheba had asked them to fetch the liquid from the growing tanks in desperation. It was food for the Shaitan growing in that particular tank, which would now probably die. The Shaitans manufactured their food, and kept it stored in tanks. The Shaitans would bathe in those tanks to eat whenever they were hungry.
The humans just couldn’t figure all this out initially when Sheba tried to tell them so, it was too complex for their understanding at that point of time. Now however would come the more difficult questioning for Sheba and Mimi. The two Shaitans had been fed to their heart’s content, and they had visibly gained back most of the weight they had lost previously.
Now it was time for Ramesh and Jorge to extract their pound of flesh. They wanted to know everything possible about the machines in the habitat. How to operate them, what their design was and so on. Mischa was a bit scared for these two Shaitans. They had cooperated till now, since all the questions were about feeding and the wellbeing of the Shaitans.
Now the questions would be of a nature, which the Shaitans would consider compromising their species’ security. If they thought like humans, they would not cooperate easily. She was sure the marines would not hesitate in using forceful means of persuasion. Mischa was not sure whether Geneva Convention applied to Shaitans, but she was sure that Daniel and Alex would not think too much about it.
Daniel was now the ranking officer and hence the leader of the humans on Titan. Alex was in charge and the CO of the Shaitan habitat. At one level she knew the necessity of extracting as much information through any means possible from the Shaitans. She should be hating these two Shaitans after what their kind had done to them on Titan. Yet she could not get herself to hate Sheba and Mimi. She regretted giving them names, it had made the Shaitans more of a person in her mind.
From the conversations with the Shaitans, Mischa had come to know that Sheba was a member of the ‘Builder’ caster, while Mimi was a member of the ‘Curious’ caste. The best sense the humans could make out of it was that the builder caste must be the Shaitan equivalent of Engineers, while the curious caste must be the equivalent of scientists.
Each of the Shaitans were posed the same questions separately. No coercion had been tried till this point. A few things became clear with the initial gentle questioning. First was that Mimi was probably a higher ranking individual, probably more intelligent and experienced than Sheba.
Mimi was uncooperative, while Sheba answered questions that she knew answers to. As the humans learnt more of the vocabulary of the Shaitans, they realized the reason for this. Mimi refused to answer citing ‘safety of their beings’. What she probably meant was ‘I refuse to give intelligence to the enemy’.
The interrogators realized the reason for this quickly. Sheba was born during their journey in the ship, she was barely four years old, if the humans have got the conversion of the Shaitan unit of measurement of a ‘Cycle’ correct. Both the Shaitans had referred to Sheba as ‘Learner Builder’, which probably was the equivalent of an apprentice or a trainee.
It is possible that Sheba was the Shaitan equivalent of an adolescent or someone just out of their teens. She did not have a proper concept of information security or military intelligence. It was possible that as an adolescent going through mental and physical trauma, she was disoriented mentally. She just said what she thought at the moment, without thinking of consequences to their species. It was even possible that she may cooperate in exchange for good treatment.
Mimi on the other hand was referred by Sheba as an elder. This might mean that Mimi was better versed in the security implication of whatever they would say, and hence would not be cooperative without adequate persuasion.
They decided to concentrate on Sheba as the easier target. There was plenty she knew that could be used to learn about the Shaitans initially. Once the humans had learnt enough about the Shaitans, it would be easier to use that information to interrogate Mimi.
The first breakthrough the humans got from Sheba was in cracking the nature and the purpose of the slime coating almost everything in the habitat. As had been suspected, the slime was the interface to all machinery in the habitat. Violet had been able to calibrate a neural analyzer very precisely to mimic the electrochemical signals given out by a Shaitan body in terms of the strength of the signal.
The complexity of the signal depended entirely on the complexity of programming, and while that was improving, the team still did not know enough about Shaitan neurology to mimic the entire range of complex electrochemical signals that a Shaitan could transmit through their slime.
They had given Sheba the incentive of better food. Mischa and Violet had told Sheba, that if Sheba could help them operate the Shaitan food processor, then they could provide both of them with proper food, about which Sheba had complained several times. She was still living on the liquids taken from what they now knew as growing tanks, meant to grow new Shaitans.
They did not dare let the Shaitans touch or get near any machinery. There was no telling what they might be able to activate. Sheba recorded the exact activation electrochemical signals in the neural analyzer, which they tried to replay on the food processor several times. It did not work.
It was possible that Sheba was making a fool of them and had provided a phony sequence, but everything she had done till now had been truthful. There was no logical reason for her to try to fool them on something that would give her better food. There was only one way to know, but involved risk.
Daniel finally made the call that they needed to take the risk if they were to proceed any further in learning Shaitan technology. So he removed all non-essential humans for this project far from the Shaitan habitat. Then they escorted Sheba in restraints to the food processor.
Violet had taped the neural analyzer to one of his limbs. She held that limb and touched it to the slime of the food processor. They all prayed that it was the food processor they were letting Sheba touch and not some self-destruct mechanism. It was Sheba who said that this was a f
ood processor, the humans knew no better.
Thankfully nothing exploded. A shallow tank near the food processor started filling with a thin soupy slurry. It was thicker than the liquid from the growing tanks that they were feeding the Shaitans. It also had a very different pungent aroma compared to the sweet smelling liquid of the growing tanks. This was probably adult Shaitan food, and the growing tanks had baby food. Sheba was allowed to go and wallow in the shallow tank, under the watchful eye of four armed marines.
Mischa, Violet and Ramesh, the only three civilians in the habitat right now huddled around the Violet’s terminal analyzing the signal pattern that Sheba had used. She had not been lying. It was the exact pattern Sheba had given earlier. It was clear that the same pattern when used by Sheba worked, but not when mimicked by the neural analyzer.
“I guess the electrochemical sensitivity of the neural analyzer or my programming is not good enough. There must be far more subtle signals coming from a Shaitan body, which this piece of equipment must be missing.” Violet said disheartened.
Ramesh suspected something else altogether. He was now thinking like a computer engineer. “But didn’t you say that the neural analyzer is sensitive enough to detect a few hundred molecules of organic material, any biology cannot be more precise or subtler than that?”
“Yes I did Ramesh, but this is clearly not working, so I must be wrong.” Violet replied still in a despondent mood.
“There is one obvious thing we might be missing here.” Ramesh said thoughtfully.
“Pray let us know what it is?” asked Violet.
“Security. More precisely computer and network security. What is the first thing you do when you switch on you DNA analyzer? You enter your password of course. Try any of our specialized equipment in our human camp, and they are all protected by passwords to thwart unauthorized personnel from using it. So why should it be any different for the Shaitans? We don’t password protect our food though, but you get the idea.” Ramesh said smiling.
“So you are saying that Sheba entered her password, which was not part of the pattern she had given us? So why does the pattern look exactly the same?” Violet challenged Ramesh.
“The concept of Password is a human idiosyncrasy, it is a product of our history, psychology and social behavior. There is nothing sacrosanct about having to use passwords to establish identity. In fact it is a very error prone, inefficient and insecure method to establish the presence of a person. As long as anyone knows the password, the actual person authorized need not be present.
Biometrics on the other hand is fast, efficient and secure mechanism to establish the presence of the authorized person. You take something unique about the body of the person like finger print, eye or face scan. The person can never forget that or forget it at home. You can be certain that the person authorized is physically present with a biometric authentication.” Ramesh said professorially. The subject was obviously close to his heart.
“Yes that might work. It is unlikely to be a fingerprint, or limb print in this case though. One can touch the machine slime anywhere and from any part of the body that has body slime. In fact the body does not need to be in touch, only the slime. So it still has to be an electrochemical signal, and we did not see any difference in signal if you recollect.” Violet said.
“You know that the Shaitans keep mentioning about ‘signing by taste’ and ‘signing by smell’ during their conversation. For example when confronted about the signal pattern given by her not working, Sheba said and I quote ‘That is the exact pattern, I can sign it by my taste’. At that time I thought it was just a Shaitan expression which meant something like ‘it is true, I swear on myself’.
What if they culturally use their slime and their odor to establish identity? On Earth territorial animals like Lions and dogs excrete urine, feces, and rub their bodies on trees to leave a trail of their identity. The Shaitans could be doing the same.” Mischa spoke up. She had been quietly hearing the exchange till now.
“Yes I agree to the theory, but the proof is the signal. That signal is exactly the same in both cases.” Violet said.
“Wait a minute!” Ramesh said excited. “A few days ago when we were preparing for this precision recording, one of the first things that you asked me to program was a filter. The signals coming out of the Shaitans like all biological beings is analog. You asked me to filter out what looked like white random noise, which was riding on the signal.
What if that if that was not random noise, but a long period repeating pattern, which might be unique to an individual? If that is the case, it would be the perfect chemical signature… wait a minute! The original signature is still recorded. I am only filtering the output. Let me analyze the random noise component to check if there is any pattern.” Ramesh was already pushing his way in front of Violet’s terminal. He was excited and forgot his manners. Violet didn’t mind, she looked at Mischa and both women smiled.
Once Ramesh knew what he was looking for, it did not take him long to find the pattern. The pattern was very long and could never have been seen visually. It had to be run through mathematical analysis for it to be found, but it was there. Ramesh quickly removed the filter to be able to replay the raw recording. He looked at Violet, who gave him a nod. He picked up the neural analyzer and touched it to the slime of the food processor. Sheba jumped visibly when the shallow pool started filling up again with another helping of Shaitan food!
“Congratulations Ramesh. You did it. I guess I was too clever for myself. I wasted your time making you write that filter, and wasted a few days of us trying to get this working, when a simple recording would have done.” Violet said in an apologetic tone.
“On the contrary, it is a lucky break thanks to you Violet. We have unwittingly cracked the Shaitan security system. At least, one that works on their food processor. Suppose Sheba out here knows the command to open up the nuclear power plant for inspection. She shares the command pattern with us, but she is not authorized to do it. Mimi however is authorized to do it but will not share the command with us.
We would have never been able to crack it with a simple recording. Now with this knowledge and the filter, we can simply record Mimi’s signature from any communication she makes, filter it out and transpose it on the command from Sheba, and viola we have our job done!” Ramesh said with excitement.
“That reminds me. Do dead Shaitans transmit electrochemical signatures?” Ramesh asked Violet.
“I have recorded electrochemical signals from dead Shaitans, although I am not sure whether they were degraded or just junk signals once they are dead. The signals must surely keep deteriorating anyway soon after they die. Why do you ask?” Violet asked.
“There might be systems which neither of the two live Shaitans have authorized access to. If that is the case then we might be screwed. If we can salvage chemical signatures from as many dead Shaitans as possible, maybe we might have a better chance.” Ramesh said.
Over the period of next few days they found out that the chemical signatures of Shaitans do deteriorate in a warm environment. All the dead Shaitans brought into the habitat for study had no electrochemical activity. The Shaitan who had died outside and frozen in the cold of Titan however, when thawed to Shaitan room temperature of 15°C by the application of a thermal blanket, would resume electrochemical activity for a few hours before it stopped.
Since there were no rank markings on the suits of Shaitans, they did not know which were higher ranking Shaitans. They spent the next one week collecting the chemical signatures of as many Shaitans as they could get hold of outside the Shaitan habitat. The people in the Human base were also instructed to collect the signatures in a similar way, although most of those were likely to be lower ranking warriors meant for dying.
Once Sheba had given them enough instructions for operating innocuous equipment like air filters, temperature controls etc. The humans were able to discern patterns in the switch-on, switch-off instructions. They were then able to
operate some of the equipment that even Sheba would not or could not give commands for. The humans for example were able to shut off row by row of the Shaitan growing tanks, which even Sheba would not share instructions for. They left one row of 8 tanks on. Scientists may want more live Shaitans for future experiments.
The biggest breakthrough came however when Ramesh was able to crack full level access to the Shaitan computers. Ramesh had gotten basic maintenance level access from Sheba by tricking her about some maintenance issue. It was clear however after some time, that Sheba did not have either access or the commands to get deeper into the computer system.
It was the first time that they had had to torture Mimi to get to know commands for higher level access to the computer along with her chemical signature. However even she didn’t have full access to the computer memory and to certain critical equipment like the nuclear reactor. Mimi knew the commands, but didn’t have the authorization. The authorization signature came from one of the dead Shaitans lying outside the habitat.
Ramesh had gathered the leadership team in the hall that housed the nuclear reactor for a demonstration. He had his terminal placed near the central block that housed the hemispheric nuclear reactor.
“Wait a minute. Did we get it wrong? Is this actually the computer room? I thought you were going to give us a demo and insight into the Shaitan computer system.” Jorge said in a circumspect manner.
Ramesh reverted back to college speak with his college friend. “Dude, if we primitive humans can network our computer and work from anywhere we want, do you think that the Shaitans would be so primitive that you would have to stand in front of the quantum cores to hack into it? The entire habitat is networked. We could be standing anywhere in the habitat and doing this. I just chose this place because it is a cool place, and also because of what I am going to demonstrate to you. The computer core room is slimy and yucky anyway.”
Wrath of the Shaitans Page 5
