Learning the Hard Way 3

by H. P. Caledon

  “What?” Mike exclaimed, baffled.

  “That’s what the colors said,” Danny explained and shrugged. “And then it usually works.”

  “So I’m not the only one who feels like my skull is empty?” Misery asked.

  Mike sighed frustratedly. “Every time I ask about something you’re doing, you talk about colors.”

  “Now I just need to connect the rest, and we should be ready.” Danny got up while Mike slid down so far that Misery feared he’d slide all the way to the floor.

  “You look so enthusiastic,” Keelan commented.

  “I’d rather read politics.”

  “Okay, we’ll switch for a while.” Keelan got up.

  “Oh, no, I need that speaker you promised me, or we can’t get much further,” Danny said.

  Mike sighed heavily and got up. “Maybe a short break from studies would be good. Misery, would you help me? Hand me tools and stuff?”

  Oh, I like your ideas!

  * * * *

  Keelan stood bent over the table in the common room, waiting for Danny to tell him what to do. Danny was lying under the table with the thingy.

  “Could you stick the end of all those cables down here, please?” Danny poked a hand through a hole between wires, boxes, computer parts, screens and... it looked like a speaker.

  Mike and Misery were still in the cargo hold, trying to get the promised speaker from the hull of the ship. Given Mike’s cussing, it wasn’t going as well as hoped.

  “Your partner is pretty hot,” Danny said, pulling at the cords Keelan fed through the hole. “How long were you in together?”

  “Four months.”

  “That’s not long. You guys had to have become pretty good friends in that time... unless he was suicidal from a guilty conscience and therefore sprang you from Irgang.”

  “I don’t know,” Keelan said, grinning. “Where are you going with this?”

  “Is he as good in bed as I am?”

  “Don’t know, haven’t tried.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, change of subject, please.”

  “Jeez, prissy much?” Danny mumbled. “I’m done down here.”

  Keelan stepped back and grabbed the bottom of Danny’s pant legs and pulled him out from under the table.

  “Hey, if you’re gonna pull my pants off it would be much easier if you asked me to unbutton them first.”

  Keelan gulped in air to respond, but nothing useful came to him. He finally just sighed and went into the cockpit to put the tools away.

  Danny still had that smirk on his face when Keelan returned. “So, your partner... ”

  “Danny, could we talk about something else right now?”

  “Food, sleep, and sex, that’s all I ever think about.” Danny laughed. “You said so yourself, and you might remember that I didn’t argue. You’re way better in the sack than Johannes, I’ll reveal that much.”

  “Useless knowledge, second drawer from your left!” Keelan exclaimed.

  Danny roared with laughter.

  Mike and Misery came up the stairs with the speaker. Mike stopped short and stared at the table, floor, and half the couch, which was all covered in techy stuff. “What a fucking mess.”

  “A necessary mess, I’m afraid, can I have that?” Danny reached for the speaker. Mike gave it to him, and Danny unassembled it to make it into something else.

  “Hope it was worth it,” Mike muttered, looking at his banged-up and bleeding knuckles. “Don’t think it was ever intended to be removed after having been installed.”

  “There we go. And you wanted to enter SWIS?”

  “Yes.” Mike looked up from his knuckles.

  “And we need to make it look like the freighter that picked you up flew into a fragment storm or something and got busted and we died,” Keelan said.

  “Oh, yeah, IDs, please.”

  “Any ideas on how to do that?” Mike asked.

  “Sure, we just call from a shipper waiting for the cargo, this is done easily, but I need to do a follow up on it and add a louse. Id,” Daniel waved his hand.

  Mike went to the cockpit and returned with the circuit board, which Danny connected to the open tower.

  “Where’s the pilot. I mean... this guy?” Danny pointed at the picture of the figure Keelan had used.

  “How well do you know me, Danny?” Keelan asked.

  “He’s dead, right?”

  Keelan heard the same underlying sadness in Danny’s voice as he had after he’d killed Walter, so Keelan opted not to answer and let the young man work.

  “I just need to find a few sats, logged, plotted and... gotcha,” Danny mumbled while his fingers danced on the keyboard. “This is so much easier when lying directly in the paths of information. You won’t believe the hoops we had to jump to get into the Senate from another planet. We even had to move our entire operation to Silliton just to get close enough to the Semakus System. It took us a week to catch all the satellites needed... and a ferry we had to hack the mainframe of. It lay dead in space for three days so we could use it as an off-world uplink which even had to be strengthened directly from Semakus. On top of that, it took four days to hack the pathways—it was such a mess,” Danny said while he worked.

  Keelan looked closely at the young man, then at the screen, which just showed a lot of inexplicable doodles.

  “There, now I’m dead, and so’s the other guy, finally confirmed.” Danny sent Keelan a disapproving glance. “And now SWIS.”

  Keelan, Mike, and Misery watched Danny work the screen’s incomprehensible information, but the hacker seemed to be focused on something else—something Keelan couldn’t see. Sometimes he’d point to something invisible in the air and follow lines while his eyes looked out of focus. But just for a few seconds. Then his focus would return, and he’d concentrate on the screen.

  “I need your codes,” Danny said.

  “They’re disconnected,” Mike informed him.

  “No, they just put an alarm on them, which is why we’re working through these four drives first. The next two are safety, and the last one, that monstrosity there, is where we’ll be downloading their files and see what they’re trying to hide from us. But I can’t find that without your codes as the entrance to see the underlying programming.”

  “I didn’t understand any of that,” Keelan mumbled.

  “And that’s why you love me,” Danny said, smiling. “Codes?”

  Mike reached over and put in his code while Danny held his finger over a button on a box next to the screen.

  “Ha, got ya’!” Danny said. “And they didn’t get us. Now I just have to dabble with... oh, that’s a nifty little cousin—that’s what I call a good trap. Let’s see how he plays with this little cousin.” Danny worked the keyboard, and a drive began making noises. Danny clapped his hands and whooped. “Virus for the boys, now hand over that code... thank you! What did you want to know?” Danny looked up.

  “You’re in?” Mike asked, gaping.

  “Yepper.”

  “Keelan, you’re brilliant,” Mike exclaimed, grabbed Keelan’s arm, and shook it.

  “Yeah, yeah. Do they know anything about her? Check my profile.”

  “Uhm.” Danny worked his way through. “How about I just download a lot of stuff real quickly, because they can find us. The virus I uploaded isn’t the best in the Systems, and I need time to break down the programming codes, because I’m not the best code breaker in the worlds. Just give me names and whatever else you need information on.”

  Mike took a deep breath and began. “Cecil Hallett, John Mathers, Andy Thompson, Misery Fall, Churchburrow, Dave Ratkins, Mike T. Matthews, Keelan Hunter, Kaleb Hunter, Alice Wiseman, Irgang, Delta Zeich... ”

  “Snot... you already have your very own file with all those names in. And some others.” A drive beeped. “Time’s up, boys, we gotta go before the next one beeps.” Danny disconnected everything quickly and pulled two drives from the tower. He stuck a label on them and
wrote virus from SWIS on them. “Gotta take a closer look at these later. They actually have a decent security, but the Senate?” Danny gave an impressed whistle. “Some of... I know that code. You’re not gonna like this, but there’s a military code in your file. A... ass sweat by the liter, that’s a Spec Edit!”

  “Number twelve?” Mike asked calmly.

  Danny looked up horrified. “You knew?”

  “Yeah, I served there.”

  “There’s also something about a Spec Edit five, hold on... reading, reading, Jasper... Sergeant Matthews, mercenary calling in... oh, there’s only one, and that’s about a kid being transferred to serve there.”

  “And twelve?” Keelan asked.

  Danny kept reading. “Something about a physician. Ha, they even spelled it wrong. With a capital letter, not like that’s a proper noun.

  “In his case, it is,” Mike said.

  “Okay. There’s bits missing here and there. Something about you and... a hospital. Ah, there it is... bad Keelan.”

  “Could you just take us through all that and see if there’s anything relevant there?” Keelan asked, amused by Danny’s attempts at adding humor to the old event.

  “Yeah, I’ll just transfer it to memo-pads. You can read and swap among each other then. Got enough info for fifteen.”

  “I’ll get them,” Mike said and left.

  * * * *

  Keelan trusted Danny, and so far, it looked like Mike did too, because they left him more and more to perform a job that neither of them understood much of.

  Danny sat by the computer most of the day and did a lot of sedentary work. He only got up to eat and use the bathroom. Keelan had even found him sleeping in front of the computer once or twice.

  Keelan was still fighting his way through the information Danny had downloaded from SWIS mainframe, and he had to ask Mike to help explain some of it since the text contained so much terminology that he couldn’t just look up in a normal dictionary.

  So far he’d gotten to Misery’s file, and he was thoroughly pissed at discovering that whoever updated the files had connected the dots between Keelan and Alice and that Misery was his daughter because then the Kaleb-identity had to be a bust. Via a link, he found Kaleb’s profile with bold letters across saying falsified identity and with a link back to Keelan’s profile.

  “Danny, I need to send a letter that no one else can read. Any ideas?” Keelan asked.

  “Sure, but... that’s gonna need some beforehand communication. We need a secure VID line, and it has to be very short.”

  “More or less than fifteen seconds?”

  “Ha, more. A hundred twenty tops, and I need a ghost drive set up to confuse. I can’t hack locally from here unless I go through the pathways. Maybe we could hack another call with another address, but—”

  “Danny, I don’t understand half of what you just said. Can you?”

  “Of course, and that’s why you love me.” Danny smiled and began working.

  “Maybe a little,” Keelan mumbled.

  “Is the message for Alice?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good, I have a hacker on Verion Four who can fix it. Locally, he can hack her inventory list and find her. He’ll keep an eye on deliveries and put the note in with an invoice.”

  “Won’t your hacker friend find out you’re out of prison?”

  “Yeah, but I trust him. He’s one of the hackers who helped on the Senate, and I covered for him. And the other six on the team.”

  “Okay, I’ll write the letter now. But you can’t tell them about me, Mike, Misery, Alice, or any of that.”

  “Don’t worry, Keelan, I understand the severity of the situation and that we’re on the skip. I won’t give them any information that could jeopardize them or us. It’s too dangerous for them to know, so they won’t know.”

  What convinced Keelan fully was that the humorous nature of the young man was completely gone.

  “Do you know when the letter can be in her hands?”

  “As soon as she gets a new shipment.”

  “That’s usually in the beginning of the week.”

  “Well, then write, man, write! I have an ass full of hacking to do before that.”

  “You could hack SWIS in a couple of hours,” Keelan noted.

  “Yeah, but that was just one target with a floating server, and how long did it take to set it up? Most of the programming was done by then. Here we have a lot of human factors... or in this case, foreign species factors to take into account.”

  Keelan smiled and plopped down on the other couch so he could begin a more in-depth explanation of their situation. In the meantime, Danny worked to set up the hack.

  Keelan finally handed Danny the pad.

  “Can I read it?” he asked, looking up.

  “It’s kind of private.”

  “Yeah, I was just asking to determine if... the one who’ll be converting this into codes will have to read it, so I figured you’d share it with me and not someone you don’t know.”

  Keelan nodded, because yeah, he’d rather share with Danny.

  “Sweet and to the point. You don’t often hear about this kind of love in the real world.” Danny looked at Keelan with a mixture of longing and understanding. Keelan looked away. “Don’t worry, I get it. I’m just teasing you, that’s how I am.”

  “Yeah,” Keelan said, smiling. “But isn’t that why I love you?”

  Danny looked up from the pad, and in a second the devil-may-care was back in his eyes. “True.” He laughed. “But I’d think you can safely send this. I’d take out Misery’s name, though.”

  Keelan bolting upright. “I wrote that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, uhm... change it to Rosita, then Alice will know who it’s about.”

  “Yepper.” Danny turned his attention back on the screen. “Just wanna let you know one thing. I have friends and hiding places on Verion Four—enough so you can just drop me off there when you don’t need me anymore. I owe you, and you can collect favors for the rest of your life, but... you don’t have to keep me if your skip gets easier by me not being around.”

  “You sure about that? Because I don’t leave my friends,” Keelan said, wondering whether the young man said it because he felt in the way or if he really did have that level of security on Verion Four.

  “Yeah, I’m sure,” Danny said, smiling. He looked sure. “We can even keep you guys laid up or hidden for a while.”

  “Sure?”

  “Yes, Keelan, I’m sure.” Danny held his gaze, and Keelan decided he believed him.

  “I’m from Verion Four. I contemplated whether the bounty hunters would soon figure out that I have a bad habit of always returning there to hide.”

  “They won’t find you where I’m hiding. Security is too high. And that was actually where I figured you guys would be hiding, too. The offer will remain open. No expiration date.”

  Keelan nodded to himself, thinking about Verion Four.

  “You can pay the rent in kind.” Danny wiggled his brows.

  The door to Misery’s room opened, and Danny leaned over the couch armrest to look down the length of the hall. He slapped a hand over his mouth and giggled, while Keelan felt thankful for the interruption to yet another of Danny’s dirty streaks.

  Misery plopped down next to Keelan. “You wanna come train with me? And Mike promised me you’d show me how to make knives.”

  “Did he, now? Well, that sounds sensible, but let’s train first.” He got up, but stopped to look at Danny. “Are you gonna come, too? A body breaks from sitting still that long.”

  “Oh, okay then.” Danny was about to get up when he seemed to remember something. “I have no training clothes.”

  “You can fit Mike’s. I’ll find you a set.” Keelan went into Mike’s room to get the clothes from his closet.

  Danny changed, and they made their way downstairs, where Mike was warming up.

  Mike grinned. “Oh, my. I thought he’d g
rown attached to the couch.”

  Danny threw out his arms and bowed deeply.

  Misery shoved Keelan. “How far can you run?”

  “On this ship? From that wall to that wall,” he said, pointing. She glared at him as if he was a snooty kid. “Okay, if someone’s after me then I can run for longer than if no one chased me.”

  “Told you he was strange when it comes to physical stamina,” Mike said.

  “What’s weird about wanting to survive?”

  Mike shrugged and winked at Misery.

  “Wanna race me?” she asked Keelan.

  “Warm up. We’ll race later.” Keelan set a slow jogging tempo around the small arena.

  Danny sighed and followed, ending up next to Misery. “Do you train often?”

  “Yeah.”

  “For how long?” Danny continued, but his breathing quickly revealed the setbacks to his sedentary lifestyle. Keelan glanced over his shoulder, finding Danny’s face already red and him out of breath.

  “You do know it takes more oxygen to run and talk at the same time, right?” Mike asked. Danny laughed but stayed quiet as they continued their warm-up jog.

  Keelan slowed and finally stopped. Misery stopped next to him, and he smiled at her improved conditioning. Danny stood bent in half, his hands on his knees, and heaving for air.

  “Wanna race me now?” Misery asked. Danny stood with a horrified expression.

  “No, we wait until after training, because you’re supposed to be able to outrun someone even after your body’s exhausted,” Keelan said. Danny looked positively surprised at the beginning of the sentence, but once Keelan had finished, Danny sighed, put the back of his hand to his forehead, and mock fainted on the mat.

  “Aha, and why’s that?” Mike asked, stepping over Danny.

  Keelan smiled knowingly. “Because when you can’t fight anymore, it’s nice to be able to run away.”

  Mike considered the theory before shrugging.

  Danny raised his head from the floor. “Why not just begin with running away?”

  “Because, at that point, your opponent can still run, too. Maybe even faster and longer than you.”