by Ray, Joseph
“I could hear you guys arguing,” she whispered. “You were right about the expiring ring code. The Hopper will be stuck in whatever system Quaid is in when the time comes. I never thought about him lying about his name, but it makes sense. He always stuck to secluded planets with weak governments and security. I never really put it together why he kept a low profile, but I guess I was trying to keep myself in the dark.”
She looked down, continuing to stroke the long, dark hair of her younger sister. Jenna sighed, snuggling her head further into the thigh of her older sister.
“The real problem is why we were with Quaid to begin with,” she continued, still looking down at Jenna.
“That question had crossed my mind,” Abe whispered. “You two don’t seem like the type to be hiding from society. I’m guessing it has something to do with your father though I can’t imagine what that would be.”
“You’re right,” she muttered, tucking a lock of hair behind Jenna’s exposed ear. “You’re always right. I told you that Dad used to take medical supplies around to those who needed them. What I didn’t tell you was how he got those supplies. The man was a thief. He’d break into private doctor’s offices and steal everything he could get his hands on. He always targeted doctors who treated the wealthy, always making sure that they had insurance that would cover the theft. He’d take the supplies to shelters and free clinics in the city and drop them off by the back doors after he took all the tags off.”
Abraham remained silent as he listened to the story, imagining this modern day Robin Hood breaking into rich practices, then trekking to the broken down areas of the cities to ensure that everyone had access to the medicine they required.
“He took what work he could find,” she continued. “Always making sure we had food on the table and clothes on our backs. One day, the police showed up at our door while Dad was out dropping off a load. They took all of us into custody, leaving a message for my father to turn himself in. We were released the next morning, but we never saw him again. Our mother passed away long before then, leaving us girls on our own whenever Dad was out. So there I was, eighteen years old with my little sister, not even a teenager yet. We had no way of making money. I tried working at restaurants and factories, but it was impossible to keep a job. I kept Jenna in school, but I didn’t have time to take care of her. I had to work double shifts in order to make ends meet. They charged monthly fees for school, making it impossible to pay the bills, the rent, and get food for the two of us. I can’t tell you how many nights I went hungry while I forcefed her. She’d cry and beg me to split the food, but I wouldn’t allow it. I was done growing.”
Abraham’s brow lowered. He knew that Sandra came from a harsh background, given the tone she’d used when she described her father a few days ago, but he’d never suspected how hard she’d struggled at such a young age.
“The hunger is what got me,” she continued. “I got caught stealing food. I was fired, my employment card permanently marked as a troubled person whom shouldn’t be hired. I couldn’t get a job after that. They shut off our power, threatened to turn off our lights, and eventually threatened to kick us out of the apartment. We ended up in a homeless shelter for about a year. Jenna would disappear after school, doing God knows what with God knows who. She started to resent Dad for leaving us, started hanging out with the wrong crowds. One day, I went through her bag when she was sleeping. I found two data pads, some jewelry, and a little vial of something. We fought til the sun came up. Needless to say, we were kicked out of the shelter once the police showed up after they’d traced the pads. I dumped her bag on the bed and shoved her out the window. We were homeless, traveling from city to city on the open roads. I got desperate. Started breaking into homes when people were working, stealing food and whatever I could get my hands on. Jenna taught me how to hack through security systems, how to access data streams, all the crap she’d learned from those jackasses she hung out with after school. Those friends of her started our fighting, but what they taught her kept us going. We got pretty good at stealing. We found an old dentist office on the edge of the city and turned it into a makeshift home. Started stealing from vehicles, houses, businesses, just about anywhere with anything of value. One day, I found a ship sitting in an empty lot. I didn’t even hesitate. I broke into it and started to pull the Eden tech out of it, figuring I could sell the artificial gravity device in the alley markets. I guess I don’t have to tell you what happened.”
“Quaid came back to his ship and found you stealing from him?” Abraham asked.
“Yeah,” she muttered. “Lucky for me, he was impressed that this young girl had broken through his security and got on his ship. He offered me a job, helping him break into abandoned places to salvage whatever had value. We picked up Jenna and never looked back.”
“I saw you had a misdemeanor warrant out for your arrest on Mesa,” Abraham started. “However, I felt it best not to mention it. I wasn’t certain if Jenna was aware of it and I didn’t want to cause more problems than I already had.”
Sandra smiled as she lifted Jenna’s head and slid out from under the slumbering teen. She stretched her aching muscles as she stood then walked over to the open doorway and started pushing the cryo chamber through the corridor. Abraham quickly caught up, opening the swinging doors, they came upon and likewise with the doors to the laboratory. The lights came on as they entered the lab, as well as the workstations and computer terminals. Sandra looked around the room, unable to determine what the tools in the glass cases that lined the walls were. She watched as the Cyber hooked the cryo chamber to a hoist and lifted the large device off the hovering board. He swung it over to an enormous metal table. Sandra’s first instinct was to stop him as she couldn’t believe that the table would hold the weight of the chamber, but the structure proved her wrong as Abe unhooked the hoist and slid open the chamber’s lid.
Cybill looked the same as she always had though the lights in her eyes were no longer lit. She took the lid from Abe’s hands and laid it over the hover board, which she pushed clear from the Cyber’s path. He went to various clear boxes on the walls, returning with various devices and instruments, none of which she had ever seen before. Finally, he grabbed a camera the size of his head from next to one of the computer terminals and held it steady over Cybill’s head. A live image appeared on the computer screen as Abraham worked the device around the unconscious woman’s head.
“Let’s see what’s on your mind today,” he muttered, his black discs focused upon the screen.
***********
“Give me one DAMN good reason not to have you fired,” Vice President Wilkes snapped as she slammed her hands on the glass surface of the table. “You were in charge of those things. I have advisors informing me that you may have been in on the attack on the courtroom. What am I supposed to tell the press?”
President Garber rested his hand on the shoulder of Colonel Andrew Gates, keeping the tall man from lunging at the small woman across the table from him. Garber sighed, realizing that the meeting was taking far longer than he’d anticipated. The hours since the attacks by the Cybers had been taxing, leaving the President little time to rest.
“We’ve shown that the signal controlling the Cybers did not come from within the military facility, nor from any device in Colonel Gate’s possession,” Garber replied. “I asked Andrew here to discuss matters other than where he was when the attacks commenced and whether or not he was involved.”
Gates adjusted his glasses, a bead of sweat forming on his balding head. Per usual, the man wore a black suit, white shirt, and a black tie. His glasses were black as well, finishing the color coordination of his wardrobe. The ring of hair around the bottom of his scalp was still dark though more gray seemed evident over the last few days. Black circles formed around his eyes, showing that the head of the Cybers had little rest since the attacks.
“I’m well aware of why you asked him here,” Wilkes hissed. “However, I told you that the matt
er needed to be discussed in private. Inviting him here is the same as telling me that my opinion doesn’t matter. Giving power to the man who was in charge of the Cybers when they attacked is an insult to every citizen in this city. You may as well line them up side by side and spit on every one of them as you pass.”
“Now that part I can agree with,” Andrew Gates stated, his voice ringing off the walls. “I’ll swear my loyalties to your administration, but I agree that the public won’t like having me lead this new Department of Homeland Security. They’ll run you out of office for this James.”
President Garber returned to his seat, his heavy frame crashing down onto the chair as he let out a sigh of exasperation. His folded his hands behind his head, leaning as far back as the chair would allow him. The lining of his jacket fell open, displaying two heavy circles of sweat beneath the man’s outerwear.
“Let the public think what they want,” Garber muttered. “The truth is that the Cybers will likely strike again. When that happens, I want the best man controlling our defenses. You know the Cybers and their capabilities better than any technician does, hands down. I want this new department up and running in days. The more time we waste debating over whether or not Gates should be in charge of the DHS is more time the people pulling the strings of the Cybers have to carry out their next plan. I want our defenses up and our soldiers as prepared as possible for handling the Cybers.”
“So if we are ignoring public opinion,” Gates replied. “Perhaps we should start with detection. I’m not stupid enough to believe that every third gen Cyber worked for the military. There HAS to be stragglers out there, perhaps even sleeper cells. I don’t want some school blown to bits because we didn’t bother to check the janitorial staff.”
“Agreed,” Wilkes added. “Detection first, starting with our own staff. Then we go through the heads of every department and their subordinates. Let’s make certain that we don’t have any wolves in the henhouse before we start sweeping the cities.”
Garber closed his burning eyes as the Vice President made her demands. He hated agreeing with the woman on any topic, but she had a valid point. So long as they didn’t check each person within the government and military, they would remain vulnerable to an attack from within. Still, he suspected there were other threats outside of the defecting Cybers.
“Whoever is pulling the strings has human help as well,” Gates replied, practically reading Garber’s mind. “There aren’t enough Cybers to fight a war, which is what they declared when they opened fire on the courtroom. We can’t just assume that the attackers are only using Cybers. They could have any number of people on the inside.”
“That’s true,” Garber muttered, slowly opening his weary eyes. “But I don’t think we can spend all of our resources chasing ghosts. This is just one more reason to get Homeland Security off the ground. The sooner we start protecting our own, the sooner we can sniff out trouble from within.”
Jana Wilkes thought hard about the repercussions of having Homeland Security digging its new claws into the sides of the government. There had been a time in the past when DHS stretched out across America, pissing on the people as it sought to protect their borders and national security. The people on the inside of the governmental structure understood full well what DHS was doing, but the uneducated public was easily swayed by the voices crying out foul from every social media outlet. She wished that the days of social media controlling the population had been left in the past, but new forms of outlets continued to rise and fall in every generation. As soon as one media outlet collapsed, another was ready in its wake. There had been a hundred year span when the government used this outlet to their advantage, having strategic planners act as media criers, swaying the public’s opinion in their favor when the situation deemed it necessary. Like all good things, the lid had been blown off the project, leading to another fifty years of the people not trusting their government. That was the state the country was in when America had been abandoned due to disease outbreaks, war, and famine. The greatest country, supposedly, had been turned into a third world nation within the next generation, just before the Cybers had been born. She wondered how THAT government would handle a situation such as this.
Another thought crossed her mind. The DHS would start to look within the government for possible breaches. That would make her sessions with her blackmailers all the more difficult. If she were discovered, she’d be charged with treason and possibly executed. She doubted she could do anything for her daughter’s safety from beyond the grave. She needed to stall this forming of the DHS until she had the situation under control, but the President’s urging to have the matter resolved quickly was leaving her little opportunity to change the stubborn man’s mind.
“How does the council feel about reestablishing the DHS?” she asked. “I know it’s considered an internal matter, as in not requiring the approval of the council, but I believe it would help public opinion, as well as government approval if the council sided with your suggestion.”
“It IS an internal issue,” Garber snapped. “Besides, what would the council care about it? I’ve already spoken with King Isom, so Parasus is with us. Eden doesn’t care for anything that happens outside of their smug atmosphere, Mesa can barely control their own people, and the rest of the planets are too far out to be affected by this. Our own government, however, is a different story. We don’t NEED their approval to start the DHS, but it would certainly help.”
“I can get the ball rolling on that,” Gates started. “I could share our new training program with them, showing how we are preparing to fight the Cybers and protect our cities. It’ll take a lot more than just a few videos and progression statements to sway them, but it’d be a start.”
“I still want to know how we reached this point,” Garber replied. “I’ve racked my brain repeatedly, trying to find a reason anyone would have for attacking us. Why make such a public display of it? Why not just have the Cybers leave, if it was really about their liberation? Why go through all the trouble and shed so much blood just to prove a small point? I know this is just the tip of the spear, but there isn’t much left the Earth has to be taken away from us. We import our food, our spacecraft, and the majority of useful technologies. There were a few technologies mentioned this morning that someone may possibly want, but they have to know that those techs died along with the Cyber that created them. The planets practically BEGGED us to intervene on interplanetary disputes. We’ve followed the laws and a request of every planet, with the exception of Joseph’s killing of Lord Elsmere of course. Still, if they were retaliating for that, they would have started by killing him, not by trying to take him to safety. None of this makes any sense.”
“Since when did terrorism EVER make sense to anyone besides the terrorists?” Wilkes added. “There were centuries of people bombing their own land over religious disputes and killing women because they didn’t cover their faces in public. Tell me how you expect a terrorist to make sense to us?”
“Those attacks made more sense than you realize,” Gates offered. “The women who were attacked were acting out against their customs. The same thing happened in other countries, leading to what some religions saw as vulgarity and displays of sexualism. The men and women who attacked them didn’t want their cities or countries to fall victim to modern culture. The same could be said over religious disputes. Many of them didn’t want their religions caving to the changes of the Western world. Some of them were attempting to keep other religions off their sacred lands. It doesn’t make sense to you because you’ve never had those old beliefs instilled upon you as a child. It is possible that not every planet wanted the Earth to intervene in disputes. The news feeds from other streams is filled with protestors of the Military Advisory and Interplanetary Investigative Units from Earth. Some planets adopted laws prohibiting Cybers from stepping foot off their ships, including our ally King Isom. I think that Garber needs to ask the council’s opinion of this intervention. If aiding othe
r planets is what led to this attack, and possibly more attacks, then maybe the council should start handling the disputes themselves.”
“We can’t allow that,” Garber snapped. “Earth has little to offer our sister planets as it is. If we start to withdraw our aid then other planets may stop sending us resources. If we were left to fend for ourselves, we’d starve within a year. The internal wars of old would fire up again as the remaining nations would annihilate each other over the few acres of productive soil left on the planet. The west side of the planet is nearly abandoned, save South America and the northern tundra of Canada. Europe and Asia left the planet centuries ago, only leaving a few million where billions once lived. We’ve managed to produce crops here in Africa and a few other countries, but not enough to sustain the population. If we are cut off, we die. It’s just that simple.”
“Maybe that’s what the terrorist want,” Gates replied. “If we have no resources to be taken, then what else is there? I’ve heard the talks from the dignitaries when they come here to the capital. I hear them pissing and moaning about how the Earth is the biggest crutch of the galaxy, how their planets could progress if they weren’t constantly keeping the mother world alive. We’re an elder mother in a nursing home and the grandchildren are getting tired of taking care of us.”
“So we should just pull the plug and die, is that what you’re saying?” Wilkes said, pursing her lips. “Cut off the nose to save the face. Does that about sum it up for you, Gates?”
She knew she sounded ignorant, but she was getting desperate. She needed Colonel Gates to vacate the room so she could talk Garber into postponing the development of Homeland Security for as long as she could. She needed time to convince the blackmailers that the technology they sought was no longer accessible. She wanted to ensure her daughter’s safety, perhaps even her own safety if she could manage. None of that would be possible so long as Andrew remained in the room. The man had a temper and she intended on exploiting it.
