“Like what?”
“Can you imagine a better way to shape how someone will vote? Or how to shape public perception? Or, better yet, how to ensure that no one will ever rise against you, than being plugged in directly to a person’s brain?”
Farrah lowered her voice. “How is that freedom?”
“It’s not. Once they have the folks on Earth completely obedient, it’ll only be a matter of time until they come after us and our families,” Jarak said.
“Sir, why can’t we free the people of Earth, too? Sounds like they are more of a prisoner than we are.”
“We—well—I don’t know. Being what we are, and how the people on Earth look at us, just because we don’t come from Earth, I’m not sure they’d even want the help, especially now. I—”
“That may not be true,” came a male voice over their intercom system. “You know, the moon is pretty.”
“But I’d prefer something warmer,” Jarak said. He smiled under his helmet. “Glad you made it.”
“Sorry I’m late. I got held up by a security guard at the air lock. You can call me … Paul,” the agent said.
“Why the pause?” Farrah asked.
“That’s not his real name,” Jarak said. “Paul, do you have something for me?”
Paul reached into a pouch along his belt line and pulled out a jewelry box, handing it over to Jarak. “Here.”
Jarak opened the container. Inside, a silver necklace embedded with rubies and sapphires rested on the felt bottom. A heart-shaped diamond, must have been three carats, was the centerpiece of the silver chain. “It’s beautiful.” He passed it to Farrah. “Are you asking me out?”
Paul laughed. “Hardly. The diamond is actual a memory crystal. The virus is on that.”
“What about the instructions on, oh, I don’t know, how to use it?” Jarak asked.
“I almost forgot,” Paul said as he reached into the pouch again. This time he pulled out a rock like you’d see at the Europa Museum. “Here’s another memory crystal.”
Jarak took it from Paul. “A rock? Couldn’t you be more creative than that?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
“Look, if this test is successful, you have to let us know as soon as possible. If we miss this opportunity to stop the corporation now, it may be too late.”
“Why?” Farrah asked.
“Their AI is getting smarter every day. I … I can’t say any more. I’ve got to go.” Paul turned away from Jarak. “Once you’re done, meet me on Pluto. Do not send any transmission about this. We can’t risk the fleet intercepting this. Got it?”
“Understood,” Jarak said.
“I’ve got to go. See you on Pluto.”
Jarak nodded. He looked down at the rock in his hands. If I’m not successful, everything I’ve ever fought for will be for nothing. I won’t fail.
5
I can’t believe I’ve sunk this low, Lea thought as the WTB (Work Transit Bus) entered Section 44. It was a small town that no longer had a name, just a number. The rising sun shone through the dirty window, causing her to squint. For five weeks, she’d been riding the WTB every morning to their Level 3 jobs. “Is it as glorious as commanding the Renault?” Cain would say. “No, but it’s better than the alternative.” Ha! What could be worse than doing a job that robots used to do when she was growing up?
The bus had rows of bench seats that sat eight and an aisle to their left. Dirt and dried-up mud covered the floor like a carpet. Cain sat next to her, smiling. “Another day’s pay.”
Lea glared at him. “Sometimes, you are such a dork.”
“I know, but you love me anyway.”
Lea grinned. “What choice do I have?”
“None.”
Lea lurched forward as the WTB came to a halt. She sighed.
“Come on,” Cain said. As the double doors opened, he rose to his feet.
Lea followed him off the bus. As usual, everyone on the bus got into a rectangular formation. It had six ranks with twenty people in each row. Formations where common in the military, but unheard of in the civilian world—unless you were in prison.
Sergeant Herbert Williams stood in front of the formation, holding a tablet. He was an overly plump man who seemed to enjoy his duties of watching others work. His thumb scrolled across the tablet’s screen. “Right, same work assignments as yesterday. Be back here no later than 2100 hours. Remember, you only get two fifteen-minute breaks and a twenty-minute lunch.”
“We work over fifteen hours a day,” complained a worker.
Williams smiled as he tapped his tablet. “Jones, your family just lost three days’ rations. Do you want to go for a week?”
The man hung his face in shame.
“Any questions?” After a few seconds of silence, Williams smiled. “Have a good day.”
“What a prick,” Cain said under his breath.
“Yeah, I wish I had him under my command,” Lea said.
“Or mine. He’d look a lot different and show some respect to the—”
“To what? The people?” Lea asked. “The government seems to have forgotten that, too.”
“Come on,” Cain said as he led her down the street.
The foul smell of chemicals burned Lea’s nose. When they first came here, Lea could hardly breathe. After a few times, she began to get used to it. Certain processed chemicals were needed to operate dark-matter engines, and they appear to affect inorganic materials more than people. Well, so they were told. Lea was no chemist, but she didn’t believe them. As Cain said, it didn’t pass the smell test. Who cared, now?
Lea scrunched her nose as she entered Diner 5. Dirt covered the wooden floor. A single counter stretched from one end of the room to the other, with blue stools waiting patiently for a patron. Blue booths littered the remaining floor space, leaving very little walking area for the servers. To the right of the counter was a door going into the kitchen. Lea smiled. “Time to save the world.”
“After you,” Cain said.
Lea pushed her way through into the kitchen and headed straight towards the dishwashing station. There was a row of six empty sinks, each with its own faucet. She grabbed a rubber apron hanging from the peg on the wall. She smiled as Neil Pittsman and his wife, Emma, joined them. “Emma, feeling better?” she asked as she handed the frail, elderly woman an apron.
“I’m doing okay, for an older lady,” she said.
Lea swallowed. Was that going to happen to them? The Pittsmans were undernourished. They look more like skeletons with rubber skin than humans. She painted on a smile. “Good.”
Neil turned on the faucets. “Mary and Kyle gave up.”
Cain raised an eyebrow. “Gave up? Suicide?”
“Might as well have been suicide,” Emma said. “They decided on getting the implant.”
“Well, it is their choice,” Lea said.
“When people get that thing, they lose themselves. I’ve heard stories, you know,” Neil said.
Lea smiled. Maybe a good story would help pass the—ugh—fifteen hours of washing dishes. “What story?”
“It’s no story. It’s true,” Emma interjected.
“I want to hear it, too,” Cain said.
Neil smiled. “Okay.”
“Here we go,” Emma said. “Don’t you exaggerate, now. They want to know the truth, not one of your … tales.”
“We’ve got time, while we’re waiting for dishes,” Cain said.
“I’ve heard that when you get the implant, things are great, at first. You think faster and you can seek advice from GIS just by thinking about it. Slowly, your opinions change, and the way you vote changes.”
“Maybe that’s the reason only people with the implant can vote,” Emma added.
“Please, let me finish.”
“Sorry.”
“As I was saying, most people seem to fall into that category.”
“Anyone in the upper circles of power and society surely knew that. Why would t
hey get it?” Cain asked.
“The wealthy and powerful were the first to jump at the implants because the government claimed it could stop the appearance of aging,” Neil said. “As far as changing their ideas? Most of them agreed to them anyway.”
“Did it?” Cain asked.
Neil nodded. “Yes. Something about artificial increasing—I don’t know how it works. That was about four years ago. A political idealist, centuries ago, labeled such people as useful idiots,” Neil snickered. “He had no idea how right he was.”
“I can see, logically, how a device that reads your thoughts and ‘writes’ to your brain the answers to your questions could alter your thoughts, maybe even your memories,” Lea said.
“Yes, that’s right. But, that’s not the worst of it,” Neil said.
“What?” Cain asked.
“People who publicly disagree with President Anna Zahrof get sanitized.”
Emma frowned. “Neil, you said you wouldn’t exaggerate.”
“That is not an exaggeration!”
“Yes—”
“I’d like to hear it,” Lea said.
Neil straightened up. “Good. Rumor has it that when someone is a threat to the powers that be, they sanitize them. The implant wipes their memories, thoughts, everything. They become like a drone robot themselves.”
“Of course, he’s never actually seen one,” Emma added.
Neil frowned. “Have you ever seen a polar bear, woman? No, but they exist. I—”
“Hey, enough chatter back here,” Williams said. “There’s a tray of dishes waiting to be picked up. Get it done or lose another week’s worth of rations.”
Neil’s face turned white. “I … I’m sorry.”
“Go.” Williams went back into the dining area.
Lea’s blood boiled. Treating half-starved people worse than animals soiled the uniform she’d worn for nearly two decades. He’d pay for that, she’d make sure of it.
Captain Justin McDavid scratched the implant on his neck. It’d been a week since he’d had the procedure and the damn thing still itched! He yawned. Nothing ever happened on the patrol around Pluto. It must have been at least fourteen months since the battle cruiser Lenin encountered a pirate or alien, or even an angry miner. He leaned back into his captain’s chair on the bridge.
Commander Kris Tyrone tapped the control panel on her executive officer’s chair, right next to Justin. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight bun. Her brown eyes scanned the tiny 3D image that appeared just above the control panel. “No contacts in the sector, sir.”
The brown-haired, thirty-four-year-old captain sighed. “What else is new? Report back to HQ and—”
“Sir, contact!” the weapons officer yelled out.
“What is it?”
Kris looked over the tiny holographic image of the ship. “No known entries. This ship is not registered with—”
“Sir, they’re trying to contact us,” the short female communications officer said.
Justin nodded. “Okay.” He closed his eyes. What should I do?
Answer their request and scan their armaments. If it is an alien vessel, we need to examine their technology and confiscate anything that can improve me GIS said through Justin’s implant.
Justin ran his fingers through his hair. “Come about and charge the particle beam cannons.”
Ensign Jason Lovit’s hands flew over the controls at the weapons station. “Cannons ready.”
Justin looked at Kris. “Scan the alien vessel. I want to know if there’s anything worth confiscating.”
Kris nodded. “Yes, sir.”
Fire on my mark GIS said.
You got it, Justin thought. “Jason, I want you to disable it, don’t destroy it; not yet.”
“Yes, sir.”
Jason leaned back in the captain’s chair. How easy command had become ever since he’d had the implant installed. Sure, things had changed. When his wife refused it, he was upset at first, but it didn’t last. She used to be his confidant, but GIS was so much better, right? If someone could tell you what to do whenever a hard decision came up, why wouldn’t you use it? GIS never let him down, even when it came to searching for a new mate.
I’m picking up—a transmission—stop—why—what—help! GIS said.
What is it? Jason thought.
Virus detected. Unable to quarantine. Severing connection
“Virus?” Jason asked.
“I heard it, too,” Kris said. “The implants are connected to our nervous systems. Do we have anything to worry—” Her body arched, knocking her out of the chair.
One by one, Jason watched his crew collapse to the ground. He knelt down, placing his fingers on Kris’s neck. No pulse, nothing. “She’s dead.” The small console in his chair exploded. GIS, what do I do? GIS! Another panel exploded, knocking Jason to the floor. His body arched as if someone commanded every muscle in his body to tighten. His heart! His heart was a muscle! Pain! The pain shot through his body as his heart slowed. The milliseconds seemed like centuries. Dark spots blotted out his vision. “Help me! I can’t—” Jason’s body released as he died.
6
Jarak sat on a rock just outside an abandoned mine fifty miles from Pluto’s only settlement. His black environmental suit kept out the nitrogen and methane atmosphere. He smiled underneath the suit’s dark helmet. “Think we’ll get a medal?”
Farrah was pacing around an abandoned mining cart. “I think we’re foolish for being here. You saw what the virus did.”
“As far as I’m concerned, we got a new ship without firing a shot.”
“Did everyone have to die?”
Jarak frowned. “They’re not like us, Farrah. You know that.”
“I know, but—”
“Are you two always like this?” Paul asked over the intercom.
Jarak turned around as he stood up. “Paul?”
“Yeah.”
Jarak pulled a tablet out of a pouch on his hip. “The test was a great success.”
Paul took the tablet and shoved it into a pocket on his right thigh. “Thanks.”
“Aren’t you going to even look at it?”
Paul shook his head. “No.”
Jarak frowned. “Why not? This has to be the biggest breakthrough we’ve had against the Earth’s government.”
“I know,” Paul said. “I … I just think that we need—well, I—never mind.”
“Never mind what?” Farrah demanded. “The captain needs to know.”
Paul waved Jarak off. “No, I’m not going there.”
“No need to know?” Jarak asked.
“None.”
“Why?”
“Just—shut the hell up and listen. The planning for the invasion of Earth is well underway. Command wants to perform a few more tests and, perhaps, get a few more ships in the process.”
All those years of small incursions and fighting security forces on the fringes of their empire was coming to an end soon. How many times had he dreamt of his family’s death? How many humans had he saved over the years from slavery and exploitation? Jarak smiled. Now, he was going to put an end to it. No more fighting the security forces along the outskirts or hiding when a battle cruiser popped up on the scanner. No, now he’d take the fight to them. Jarak would make them pay for everyone they’ve killed, over and over and over again. “When do I leave?”
“Does the virus need to be adjusted or are we testing the software drop?” Farrah asked.
Paul turned away. “You’re not going.”
“What?” Jarak demanded. “I have to go!”
Paul whirled around. “No, you don’t. General Tippins doesn’t want you there.”
Jarak’s rage began to heat up his environmental suit. “Why not?”
“The jump station is critical to the invasion. We can’t even begin without it.”
“Let someone else babysit the damn thing.”
“They want you.”
“Why?”
&nb
sp; “I don’t know.”
Jarak clamped his lips tight. “That’s not an answer.”
“That’s the only answer I’ve got,” Paul said. “Besides, that operation is already underway. It’s too late to change anything.”
“You saw the whole thing, didn’t you?” Farrah asked.
Paul nodded. “As it was happening. We gave the orders for the additional testing as soon as you boarded the ship.”
Damn it! Jarak sighed. “All right, well, I guess we can watch over your stupid jump station.”
Paul pulled out a small memory crystal from the pocket in his environmental suit. “Here,” he said as he handed it to Jarak. “This data crystal contains the coordinates of the station and intel reports, etc.”
“Does it include the Earth’s most probable course of action?”
Paul nodded. “And the most dangerous one, as well.”
Jarak shoved the crystal in his pocket. “Forget the reports. Talk to me.”
“Sure. Our intelligence told us that GIS is aware of how the ship’s crew was taken out, but since the virus was never transmitted beyond the ship, it wasn’t able to exploit it.”
“Exploit it? What do you mean?” Farrah asked.
“In order to defeat a virus, you need to analyze it. That’s what I meant by exploiting it,” Paul explained.
“Okay.”
“Anyway, they can’t operate their ships.” Paul looked at the ground. “They … they’ve required implants on everyone now. Our operatives tell us that people refusing the implants are being shoved off into camps; for their own safety, of course.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Jarak said.
Paul shook his head. “I wish I was. But, that also means that everyone in the military has an implant.”
Jarak smiled. “Which gives us the advantage.”
“With no other options. Jarak, you’ll be given a few ships to protect the jump station. Once the fleet comes through the station, you’ll join them and invade Earth.” Paul took Jarak’s hand. “It’s been a pleasure.”
“Will we see you again?”
“No, but I’ll be watching you.”
Cyber Invasion (The A.I. Conspiracy Book 1) Page 4
