by Alex Deva
“I can’t, you stu… I mean, Your Excellency. I am cut out from the system. As I have been doing my best to explain to the other, erm, excellencies, I can access neither anyone’s transceivers nor the station’s environment. I. Have. No. Control.“
“How is that possible?“
“It is possible because someone broke into our computer systems.“
“Of course someone broke into your computers. Do not patronise me. How was that possible? Weren’t your security protocols supposed to be top of the line?“
Rrapi stood up, trying to keep the ambassador between itself and the mob it'd just been plucked from.
“I will be more than happy to explain how our security measures were defeated as soon as I find that out myself.“
“Well, snap out of your low speed drugs and get to it. Better yet, take some of the other ones. Why are you so slow anyway?“
“I… This human here and I had been negotiating when the… event took place.“
“Can’t you talk to your people?“
“It is tedious when I am so slow, but yes, I tried to explain what has happened. They are trying to regain access, at considerable speed, I might add.“
“Well, I suppose that is something. So all we have to do…“
“…is wait. Yes. It will, however, compound the problem if my avatar is lynched by twenty-something diplomatic representatives.“
“Yes, that might pose some political issues,“ said the Saudade, apparently not sacrificing too much thought about Rrapi as a person. “I shall take care of that. Until this is over, consider yourself under the protection of the Saudade Conglomerate.“
Standing up, she prepared to address the creatures around them.
“Listen, everybody. Things will be under control soon. All we need to do is have some patience. Everything is going to be…“
White walls suddenly erupted from the floor, forming a rectangular grid which trapped everyone wherever they happened to be. The walls went up and up, infinitely high, and they had no visible opening.
Rrapi, the Saudade ambassador, Zi and Mark now shared a space of about twenty square metres. The tall alien did not finish her sentence; startled, she reached out with her long hands, in the same gesture she had made when her office had disappeared. Moving incredibly fast, Rrapi jumped to the white wall, feeling its surface, hitting it, pushing, scratching, trying to get out. Mark stepped to the wall and touched it too; it did not feel as if it was offering resistance, but at the same time his hand refused to go through it. It behaved exactly as a virtual wall, present only in his mind, ought to behave.
Rrapi fell into a corner into a mass of limbs and joints, and went quiet, presumably engaged in high-speed conversation with its home base. The ambassador shrunk to approximately human size and asked Mark:
“Any ideas?“
The Brit had, in fact, developed a working theory. It was not the first time he had seen something like this. Well, perhaps not in terms of virtual realities embedded in someone’s mind, but certainly in general, theoretical terms.
“We’re being isolated and separated so that whoever hacked us can have control, in order to search for someone,“ he said. “In the endless space we all shared before, we could’ve moved about, or perhaps hurt one another and thus their plans. Encased like this we are harmless and manageable.“
As always under stress situations, he felt his brain kick into gear.
“This means a few things,“ he continued, reasoning as he spoke. “I believe that they don’t know whose transceiver is whose. I’m not a specialist, but it seems to me that that would be pretty basic information, so if they have to resort to person-to-person searches, then their grip on the system must be relatively limited. Most likely they just got through the station’s firewalls and did a really simple reprogramming of the virtual environment.“
“That’s why everything’s so basic, like just a floor and nothing else,“ said Zi.
“Right. And it took them a bit to figure out these walls, too, and even they aren’t particularly well made, endless and… functional as they seem.“
“Easiest to make them go forever than to bother programming what happens on top,“ chimed in the Albanian again.
The ambassador looked from one to the other.
“Are you sure this is your first visit?“ she asked suspiciously.
“Oh, sure,“ said Zi. “Mark’s just really clever, that’s all.“
— Stop it, sent Mark.
“So what happens next, clever humans?“
— Jessica, are you there? Anyone?
Nothing.
“Your Excellency, we appear to have lost contact with our home planet. We do not think this is the result of a technical problem, as we are still able to communicate with each other via the same local loop, which is not part of our telesentience feed. The only viable hypothesis is that our base of operations has been compromised and our contacts are… unavailable.“
— Yeah, we’re probably locked in, sent Zi.
— What? How do you mean? asked Mark.
— Dahlberg’s orders. If the laboratory was attacked, whoever of us was on guard duty had to lock out the systems so that nobody can access them.
— Wait, what? I thought they weren’t accessible to begin with.
— I mean, nobody. Not password-protected, Mark. Locked in, for good. There’s nothing to crack, nothing to hack, nothing to break. Just encryption with a random key.
— Nobody, not even Lem and his team?
— Not even them. Nobody.
— So there’s nobody to pull us back, then?
— Even if there is, they can’t do it. The computers aren’t taking orders from anyone. They’ll just look after our bodies as best they can for as long as they can.
Mark swallowed.
— Yeah, I know. Dying shrivelled in a purple soup with a laser up my ass wasn’t really how I hoped I’d go, either.
“You are talking to each other,“ observed the ambassador.
“Excuse us, Your Excellency.“
“To hell with my excellency. I do not feel all that excellent at the moment. Call me Jox.“
Mark bowed slightly. “Only Jox? No title?“
“Jox will do. Do humans use names?“
“This is… Zi, and I am Mark.“
“And that’s Rrapi,“ supplied the Albanian, pointing to the huddled alien.
“Is it? I did not know that,“ said Jox. Mark just let it go.
“Even given the magnitude of this diplomatic operation, I believe it is unlikely that the attack on our home base, simultaneous with the attack on this complex, are coincidental.“
“Let me guess. You suspect the Squares.“
“They have already attacked our home planet.“
Jox made a gesture that might possibly have symbolised sympathy.
“Ah. What a shame. You shall undoubtedly either surrender or perish.“
“We’re not dead yet, Jox. In fact, we now have reason for optimism.“
— We do? sent Zi.
“If I’m right, and the two attacks are coordinated, then it can only mean that the station attack was meant to prevent us from meeting someone; someone willing to help us, that is. Otherwise, why bother? Stopping us, and in such a rush, implies that we had a very good chance to succeed. And that is very good news indeed.“
“I did not think of that,“ muttered the Saudade ambassador.
“Me neither,“ said Zi.
“Well, it makes sense. And now all we have to do is discover who we were prevented to meet, and I believe I know who that is.“
“How? Who?“
“You must understand that I moved through the station randomly, Jox. I did not have a list of ambassadors to visit. I simply read the facts sheets posted next to the doors, and tried whoever happened to be available. There was no algorithm, no plan, nothing.“
“So?“
“Rrapi said there are about a half million ambassadors currently on
station. Given the general refusal trend and factoring in pure chance, it would take several lifetimes to meet someone willing to help, by random tries.“
“You are probably right. I cannot think of anyone insane enough to side with you against the Squares.“
“But I can.“
“Human, you are confusing me. You do not even know most of the races here. How can you possibly know that which you claim?“
“This attack feels too shabby, too improvised. We can still talk to one another, and the rest of you still have access to your private channels. That’s amateurish, even for our standards as newcomers. Someone capable of such a feat of computer engineering should certainly do much better. I believe that they acted in such a great rush because the minutely tiny chance of me finding the right ambassador had suddenly become certainty.“
“What?“
“I believe they were trying to prevent us from meeting you, Jox.“
The Saudade ambassador froze. Her double torso grew and shrank slowly, as if that was how she was breathing.
“But we did meet. And we are still talking. And, more importantly, we cannot in fact help you against the Squares.“
“We are only still talking because you happened to offer to take me to my colleague. And we ended up together only because we happened to be near each other. None of these incidental circumstances could have been predicted; or, better said, the only way to prevent them from happening would have been to reprogram the station’s environment so that your avatar ended up really far from mine. The fact that our attackers failed to do that speaks again of the hurry with which they deployed their attack.“
“But they are evidently getting better at this. These walls…“
“Not if Rrapi’s people have any say in it. I think they’re fighting each other for control, even as we speak.“
Jox pondered. “I really wonder who ‘they’ might be.“
It was Zi’s turn to speak.
“Ever heard of the Mallam?“ he asked.
“Sure,“ said Jox. “Very advanced technology, on about the same lifespeed coefficient as you and us. They’re just really adept at this tech stuff.“ She pronounced “tech stuff“ with a good measure of disgust.
“Allied with the Squares?“
“The Squares aren’t allied with anybody. They just do what the Eight tell them to do, nobody knows why. And so have the Mallam, ever since they were persuaded to.“
“By the Squares?“
“Precisely. You are learning fast.“
Mark bowed his head as thanks, even as he was thinking about the next step. Then, he said:
“I think there’s an easy way to test my theory. The Mallam, or whoever is doing this, seem to have the upper hand for the moment — at least until Rrapi’s people figure out a way to recover. Their next move would be to locate us, and to locate you… and then to separate us.“
Instinctively, Zi moved closer to the Saudade ambassador. From her impressive height, she inspected him from heat to toes, unmoving.
“We are not physically here,“ she reminded him. “Separating us is a simple matter of reprogramming the station so that our avatars are separated by a wall, or by distance. That they did not do it already would appear to speak only to the speed at which they were forced to work. If Mark is correct, we shall soon be separated.“
“And that is why we have to talk about this now,“ said the Brit. “Jox, we’re running out of time in literally every way possible. Do your people have a way to fight the Squares? Honest answer, please. Negotiations can wait.“
“But I have been honest. We have nothing, nothing useful against the Squares. And I would be surprised… no, I would be utterly astounded if we did, or if anyone else did. And that is the truth, according to me.“
Mark looked at her, trying to read her alien face, and evidently couldn’t. Am I wrong about all this? he wondered. Am I being too self-confident?
“How segregated is the Saudade society?“ asked Zi suddenly.
“Excuse me?“
“No, excuse me. What I meant to ask was, what are the chances that your military possessed something that your diplomatic corps is not aware of? Because, honestly, that’s pretty common where we come from.“
Jox was silent for a while.
“It is not out of the question,“ she admitted after thinking for a few moments. “But even assuming we had something, going to war with the Squares would be a monumentally stupid idea. We would have to murder every last one of them across the galaxy, and then deal with their masters, the Eight. Not to mention every other race which they control. It does not take a soldier to recognise zero chances of military success in a scenario like this.“
“And yet, they’re afraid,“ he said.
“If you are right in your speculations,“ she said — and vanished.
Zi waved his hand in the empty space that the Saudade ambassador had occupied, and then turned to Mark.
“Well, I guess that answers that.“
XXI.
“The ancient CERN tunnels,“ said Souček. “They’ve been derelict for hundreds of years, but they’re still there.“
“How would they reach the tunnels, traveling underground from the research complex?“ asked Tiessler.
“It’s about ten kilometres to the nearest point of the tunnel. I can only assume that they dug.“
“Our most advanced tunnel digging technology could dig so much in maybe five, six months,“ said Dahlberg.
“But going through twelve layers of reinforced concrete in under one minute seems to indicate that the Squares can do it faster,“ said the German.
“Yes. We were not prepared for that. We chose that underground laboratory precisely because we assumed a subterranean attack would be physically impossible,“ she said.
“You mean, like putting together someone’s brains is physically impossible?“
“Yes Souček, I mean exactly like that. Look, I’m sorry about your people. But you were involved in the planning every step of the way. You know how this was supposed to work. You can’t say we didn’t do our best.“
“May I suggest that this discussion would be best left to whoever survives this,“ said Tiessler dryly. “It would be much better to decide on a course of action. Are our people still connected to the diplomatic complex?“
“We have no way of knowing,“ said Dahlberg. “My man managed to lock down everything, and the… prophet or whatever you want to call him, he took the whole telesentience interface with him. I mean, the whole setup is really sensitive to vibrations, and digging through the Earth isn’t really a smooth ride, so I have no idea what to expect. Is the connection to the starship still stable?“
“I admit that I did not think to check,“ said Tiessler, “but that raises the question of how we break the news to the rest of their crew.“
“You have someone there,“ said Souček. “A Romanian captain. Her job is to mediate. Well, get her to mediate. If they’ve not been disconnected, then all is not yet lost.“
“If that is the case, can we not link in to the feed? After all, the equipment on board Doi is our technology. We should be able to re-access our own data from it.“
“No. That’s locked, too. Our protocol, on which — may I remind you — we all agreed, clearly stated that all of our side of things would be irreversibly locked in case we are compromised.“
“And it was your idea that your Rook should know about this, but not Greene,“ said Souček.
“Greene has literally been given a new life. Would he have risked it on this mission, knowing we had a button that made it impossible for him to return?“
“Again, a discussion best left to the survivors,“ said Tiessler, still annoyed. “I will order captain Toma to find out what she can. In the meantime, it would be advisable to spin up our backup system.“
“You want to send someone else? Who?“
“I don’t know yet, damn it. We’ll find someone.“
“We only have on
e transceiver left. That means one person.“
“Then that’s how many we’ll send. Let’s speak again when we have news.“
“Good news, hopefully,“ said the priest quietly, and stood up even before he broke the connection.
“Lykke, wait,“ said Tiessler, after the Czech was gone.
The Chief of Security’s hand froze above her tab. “Yes?“
“How’s Lawry?“
“Half dead. But not the bigger half. We’ve flown her to Berlin together with the rest of the survivors. We evacuated everybody, left everything undefended and just buggered off. The bastards swarmed the building, hung around a bit, and then left as they came. Italian, French and German soldiers, they were. We checked the dead bodies, all hundred sixty-four of them. Defectors, Eighters, the lot.“
“And I ask again. How’s Lawry?“
“She’ll be fine, Karl.“ She checked something off-screen. “Broke both her arms, with nerve damage on the left one, pleural effusion, broke half of her ribs, got lung perforations, one ear drum shattered and the other one cracked, intra-abdominal fluid and some other stuff I’m not even really sure I understand because I’m not a surgeon. But it’s nothing they can’t fix in a few days or so. You’ll have her back, good as new. We may not be able to put brains back together, but with this we have no problems.“
Tiessler nodded, and kept on nodding even after she finished speaking, showing an abstract, tight-lipped expression. After a few seconds, he suddenly said:
“Good. Thanks. Speak soon.“
And then he hung up.
* * *
“Ileana, you’d better not tell me that… oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. What happened?“ asked Doina, instantly teary-eyed.
“I was going to ask you that,“ said Toma by way of an answer. “Doina, could you please check that the telesentience connection is still running?“
The girl froze and looked forward for a few seconds, and then answered: “Yes. Your device is still connected via our comms system, and there’s data flowing through it as before.“
“Well then, that’s great news. Our scientists say that means both Mark and Zi are alive and well. Otherwise there would be almost no data.“
