“That bad?” he asked, hoping she’d assure him it wasn’t. Her silence had the opposite effect.
Quey rounded everyone up and herded them into the kitchen on the third floor. They took seats around the table, save Quey who leaned against the kitchen counter near Ryla, standing before the table. The kids sat listening from the couch, Amber chewing her lower lip with a nervous look about her.
“Go on,” Quey insisted. “Seems you’ve got something of mighty importance on your mind.”
The room was silent and tense as they waited for her to begin.
“I wanted to be thorough in my analysis of the status of the planet, so I ran a series of simulations to conclude its environmental stability.” Around the table there was a nod of understanding. “My original hypothesis was that the planet had five to ten years before it became incapable of sustaining life and my first group of simulations, based on the data geo collected puts its life at seven years eight months and nineteen days.” A look passed around the table.
“I feel like there’s a but coming,” Rachel said.
“Yeah,” Rain agreed, “and I don’t think it’s a small one.”
“I did a final analysis this morning based on the data we pulled from the pylon. In six months they’ll be out of the preliminary phase of the project and begin running the main phase.”
“What does that mean?” Reggie asked.
“It means the planet’s going to die faster,” Natalie said. They all looked to Ryla and she confirmed the assumption with a nod.
“How much faster?” Arnie asked.
Ryla looked solemn as she said, “In six months it is likely that the time remaining for saffron to sustain life will drop to two years ten months and five days.”
Reggie settled back in his seat, face blank, and sighed heavily. Rachel felt numb as she touched the slight swell of her belly, contemplating whoever was inside. Arnie put his arm around Rain as she and Natalie glanced toward Leone and Amber.
“That does have an effect on the landscape,” Quey said. He sounded like someone had just punched him in the gut.
“Yeah,” Reggie agreed. “I think I’ve seen photon detonations with just that sort of effect.”
“What I don’t understand,” Arnie said, “Is what’s the point.” All eyes were on him now. “I mean, if the planet was going to die in seven years anyway why go through all the trouble of building the pylons just to lower it by a handful of years.”
“They didn’t” Ryla said. “Right now the spires are in the preliminary phase of operation. In my estimation they have, to date, shaved somewhere around fifty years off the planets habitability. In six months they’ll move along to the next phase and, according to the information we’ve acquired, begin aggressively attacking the environments stability.”
“Still,” Leone barked, standing. “Why?” His eyes shimmered.
“Money,” Reggie said. “A stinking pile of money.”
Leone stared for a moment then asked, “Yeah, but why?”
“I think there’s more to it than simple greed,” Rain said. “Hell, he’s got money. I think a man gets to a certain point in power and he starts getting bored. When he was young it was enough of a thrill to get the promotion, to make the billion dollar deal. Then there was the notoriety, having people at his beck and call, women, fancy restaurants, tickets to whatever, it was exciting for him, but it doesn’t last. It corrupts, that feeling of power over others, and soon you’re forging scientific data, employing men like Sticklan Stone, murdering your wife among who knows how many others, and killing a planet. No,” she said, meeting her brother’s eyes. “I think the money’s just another bullshit excuse, just like the ones he has for coming after us. I believe he’s doing this just to see if he can.”
“I believe you might be right on that,” Quey said. “But whatever the reason it is happening, and as it happens we might be the only people in the world who know about it that might also be inclined to do anything about it. Question now is what exactly.”
“Well what’s really changed?” Rachel asked. “I mean, we still need to get this information out to people and the network’s still the best means of doing that.”
Quey nodded, “You’re right on that. But there is one other problem.” Everyone looked at him. “Time,” he finished.
“What do you mean?” Arnie asked.
“I’ve estimated,” Ryla began, “that from the time the information hits the universal network, assuming there’s no attempt by Blue Moon to cover-up what’s happened, the time it will take them to assess the information, formulate, fund and carry out a plan of rescue will exceed the time remaining to Saffron by nearly seven months.”
“And that’s assuming a speedy response, no bullshit?” Quey asked. She nodded and he added, “Anyone here wanna bet on that?”
After a long silence Natalie asked, “So what then?”
“Well that is the sixty four thousand dollar question,” Quey said. “And we’re gathered to find an answer for it.”
“What about the pylons?” Arnie asked. “Can’t we do something to them?”
“Sure that should be easy,” Reggie said. Then he turned to Ryla and asked, “Hey darlin, you wouldn’t happen to have a few thousand spare bombs laying around this place, would you?”
“Cute,” Arnie said, “Almost better than actually having an idea.”
“Oh,” Reggie said nodding. He was about to continue when Quey interrupted.
“Enough. This isn’t the time for bullshit. You wanna partake in that particular pastime I suggest you make yourself somewhere else because it ain't doin us any good up here.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Rachel said. “What Arnie said about doing something to the pylons,” she added. “I mean, a virus of some sort would slow them down a bit.”
“Not significantly,” Ryla said.
“We make the virus aggressive enough, embed it properly, could take them weeks just to isolate it,” Quey offered.
“They won’t bother with the software,” Ryla told him. “The best we could hope for is to set them back a few months.”
“Ryla,” Natalie said with a twinge of desperation. “You’re telling me that you can build everything in this place, including something as advanced as Jacob and you can’t figure a way to sabotage their computer systems.”
“I can,” Ryla said. “Easily.”
“The problem is that she’s right,” Rachel said despondent. “Anything we do to their software is fixed simply enough by wiping the hard drive and starting from scratch. They’ll have backups for all the core systems, they’ll load them up and be back online in the bat of an eye.”
Rain sat silent and thinking while they discussed how they might more effectively sabotage the pylons. At some point she might have even heard talk about blowing them up but she ignored it. Finally she spoke. “We’re thinking about this all wrong,” she said, and silence settled in the room. She sat forward. “What we need to do is send two messages. The first should come from Richter Crow himself and go to Blue Moon headquarters,” she said. “It should be a call for aid, maybe something as simple as the truth, environmental instability. Saffron’s been on lock down for over a decade, they’ll buy the idea that my father’s failure could include total planet loss.”
“If the call comes from him,” Quey said, understanding as he spoke. “There’ll be no delay, they’ll send boats right off.”
“Right,” Rachel agreed. “So what’s the second message?” she asked.
Rain shrugged, “The one we always intended to send. The one that tells the truth of it.”
“Gotta say I like it,” Reggie said.
Quey stood rubbing his chin thoughtful for a long moment. “Simple. Direct. Its got everything I like in a plan.”
“Simple?” Ryla asked.
“Yeah, simple for who? It’s Ry and I that’ll be beating our heads trying to crack Blue Moon’s network,” Rachel added.
“Yeah, well,” Quey said, tentative. “I meant,
you know… simple when you say it.”
Natalie had read more scientific journals in her time at school than anyone else in the group so it fell on her to assist Ryla. The two of them began to compile the information into a comprehensive file that scientists would recognize as legitimate while common folk wouldn’t be pressed to understand. It wasn’t difficult, just time consuming. The first pages, which Natalie took to writing herself when it was plain that Ryla lacked the eloquence necessary to convey complex ideas simply, told the jist of it. After that Ryla was able to shine as she went through the data, the manner in which it was collected, the tests she’d run, and the conclusions they’d led her to with a detail and accuracy Natalie had never seen in even the most professional of papers. If there was to be any criticism of Ryla’s work it would be that it was too perfect.
When that was done Ryla and Rachel began looking into cracking Blue Moon’s network, which was proving to be quite difficult indeed. Rain joined them, thinking she might be of help if she could shed some light on how her father thought but within a few minutes she came to realize that didn’t matter. The way Ryla and Rachel were going about getting in they didn’t need to guess passwords or usernames so she sat quietly and watched and took to fetching water or a snack from time to time.
“No no no!” Rachel yelled at the holographic screen floating in front of her as lines of code streamed down it. The words, ‘intrusion detected,’ flashed for a moment and Rachel shouted, “Fuck,” and then the screen went blank.
“What happened?” Rain asked.
“We fucked up, that’s what happened,” Rachel replied.
Ryla spun in her chair and looked at Rachel. “We didn’t fuck up,” she said plainly. Then she looked at Rain and continued, “The access point to the universal network is heavily guarded. There may not be a way to access it at all.”
“It’s right there,” Rachel said, gesturing toward the screen. “We were at its fucking door.”
“I can work on this by myself for a while,” Ryla offered and Rachel looked at her. “You haven’t eaten in over five hours and I read that pregnant women require a substantially greater calorie intake to sustain their basic functionality.” She looked over at Rachel, staring at her for a tick, and said, “I think you’re hungry.”
Rachel chuckled and replied, “Maybe you’re right.” She stood then paused, “You want me to bring you anything?” Ryla shook her head and Rachel asked the same of Rain who also declined.
As Rachel made her way toward the door, Rain took the chair beside Ryla. “Can you do it?” She asked.
“No,” she replied as she watched Quey enter, passing Rachel on his way to where they were sitting.
“Not going well?” he asked, pointing his thumb over his shoulder at Rachel heading for the third floor.
“It’s the universal network uplink.”
“What about it?” Quey asked with a slight shake of his head.
“I don’t think it exists, not on Blue Moon’s corporate network anyway.”
“I thought Rachel said you were at its door,” Rain said with a furrowed brow.
“I understand why she thinks that. It looks like the door well enough but I think it’s just a trap.”
“How do you mean?” Quey asked.
“It claims to be the network uplink. It has all the security precautions you’d expect, only once you bypass them and try to access the system that’s it. I believe it’s a fake system. It logs and locks out anyone who tries to access it because only an intruder would attempt to.”
“What do you mean it logs you, like, they know where you are?” Rain asked.
“No. If they attempt a trace the trail will end at a computer in a university library that no one was using at the time.” Ryla shrugged, “This hack attempt ends in a stalemate.”
Quey smiled at her, “You’ll get ‘em next time.” Ryla smiled a bit. “Hey, why don’t you take a break,” he told them. “I was going to head down and find some food, and I wouldn’t mind the company.”
“I’m not hungry,” she said simply.
“Oh, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be good company,” Rain interjected. Ryla looked at her, eyes slightly wide.
“Wise words,” Quey added.
Ryla seemed cornered. “Maybe in a little bit,” she said. “I want to run a program that’ll map the Blue Moon Network.”
Quey smiled and tapped the desk with his knuckles, “Right. And you know, I’ve been at the ping pong table all morning. Might antae up and beat you this time.”
“No you won’t.”
He laughed at her bluntness. “Mighty certain of yourself.”
“In order for you to win you would have to practice a minimum of five months and with opponents near to or above my skill level. Since you’ve done neither it is a reasonable conclusion that you will not win. Playing for a wager doesn’t serve a reasonable function for you at this juncture.”
Quey looked stung. “Alright. Well I’ll be downstairs, you two ladies feel free to join me if you’d like.” He started away.
Rain stared at Ryla for a moment, watching as she worked on the computer in front of her. “Ouch,” she finally said and Ryla looked to her.
“What?”
“I guess you don’t break balls so much as rip them off.”
Ryla cocked her head at her. “I don’t understand.”
“You don’t see the function in playing him again?”
Ryla shook her head.
“What about the function being that it might be fun?”
“Why would it be fun?” she asked.
“Because you like him.”
“Something happened earlier and I believe I do not like him.”
Rain laughed. “Of course you do.”
“No,” she said plainly. “I don’t think I do. I feel strange when he talks to me and looks at me. And I don’t like it.”
“Strange?” She asked. “Strange how?”
“Like I’d like to be something else.”
Rain laughed. “Like you want to be better?” Ryla looked at her. “Oh, but that’s how you know you like him.”
“No. It’s not that,” she trailed off and Rain waited, watching her until she continued. “It’s that I don’t know what to do. They don’t like me, I know that.”
“They like you,” Rain assured her.
“No. They like me for a robot. When they look at me that’s what they see. That’s what they expect.”
Rain reached out and touched her shoulder, “They don’t care,” she said tenderly, then added, “He doesn’t care.”
“It’s not about whether he cares or not,” she protested. She looked at Rain, her eyes pleading, “They look at me and that’s what they see and I don’t want them to see a robot. I don’t want to be parts. I want them to see a girl.”
Rain nodded slowly and said, “Okay. Well then we should start with your date.”
Ryla looked at her and after a moment she said, “I have a boyfriend.”
Rain shook her head, “No you don’t.”
“Yes I do,” she snapped defensively.
“It’s not the same.”
“He performs all the necessary functions to satisfy my desires in that area.”
“No he doesn’t.” Rain said.
Ryla peered at her. “Of course he does. That’s what he’s programmed to do.”
“But it’s not the same.”
Ryla stared hard at her. “You don’t know.”
Rain smiled and caressed her arm. “You’re right. I don’t know how he makes you feel, but I know it’s different with someone who’s not programmed to be with you.”
“The program mimics, that’s what it does, that’s its function. I don’t understand how it could be not the same.”
Rain took a breath. “Okay, well what’s he doing right now?”
“Boyfriend? He’s waiting for me. Soon he’ll come to check on me.”
“Why?”
Ryla shrugged, “
He’s programmed to.”
Rain sighed. “See?”
“No.”
Rain thought for a moment then asked, “You know why I love Arnie?” Ryla shook her head. Rain spun Ryla’s chair so they were facing one another. “It’s because he considers me. I occur to him. And he occurs to me. Just like you occurred to Quey. He could have went to the first floor, eaten dinner and continued about, but he came here specifically to ask you to join him.”
“Us,” Ryla corrected.
Rain smiled and shook her head. “No, that was politeness. He doesn’t really want me to come. He wants to see you,” she said giving Ryla a slight poke.
“How do you know?”
“Because he couldn’t take his eyes off you. Because he recognized me as an after thought.”
“I still don’t understand. Why do you love Arnie?”
“Okay,” Rain said, gathering her thoughts. “It’s like this. Arnie and I spent a lot of time on the road, and we made a lot of stops, right?” Ryla nodded. “Well, say Arnie went into a store to get something. If he happened to see something I would like while he was inside he’d get it for me.”
“So it’s because he buys you things?”
“No,” Rain said, shaking her head. “It’s not that. It’s that he takes me into account, as I do him. It’s like in how he knows I like long hot showers so he always lets me go first, and how I always keep them shorter than I’d like so he doesn’t run out of hot water himself. It’s how if I get ice cream I always get vanilla because I never finish it all and he doesn’t like chocolate. And how he can’t walk past a candy isle without looking for a truffle. That’s what makes it so that even if we’re not together we’re not really alone, because the other is always there, inside our thoughts. And neither of us is sitting around waiting for it to become time to consider the other. It’s special because of that. Like its special that Quey came down here to ask for your company or that he brought you breakfast. He wanted to see you. He was sitting around, doing his own thing and then suddenly he felt a desire for your presence.”
Ryla looked from her lap to Rain and said softly, “I think I’m scared.”
Rain smiled at her and took her hand. “Of course you are. It’s scary to do that, to let someone occur to you. One day they may not want to anymore but that’s not a switch that just clicks off. It takes time. And it hurts.”
The Saffron Malformation Page 57
