by OMAR FINK
Tony asked, “Professor, how soon can this device be manufactured in a form that can be used on an industrial level?”
Professor Morgan answered, “As I mentioned, there are some limitations that make them somewhat exclusive. Putting them into action in a space environment may provide answers to many of these, just like the nanotubes. They are expensive to interface with, and require a lot of energy, at least at this stage they do. The bottom line is all these factors require a considerable amount of funding to which I do not have access.”
Peter asked, “Professor, we can provide all the funding you need. Can you convince us that this device will work or maybe more importantly, how well it will work?”
Professor Morgan said, “Although I don’t actually have a working prototype yet, I can demonstrate the functionality of the DMJ. You can bring in a team of scientists to evaluate the demonstration. I have no doubts in the functioning of the device. The sole problem lies in the fact that we don’t really understand quantum level processes and when I try to offer an explanation I can’t prove, my requests for funding fail. The people who approve the funding seem to require their evaluation scientists to say they fully understand what is happening, and of course they can’t say that. I need that funding to finalize the research phase, and build a working prototype.”
Tony said, “Good. Professor, we’ll set up the demonstration and give you your shot at proving it works. Just let us know what you need, and we’ll make it happen.”
+5 years, 11 months, CREW RING, AU 2.7
Kaz and Sonny sat next to a workbench table that had been cleared to make room for a meal. Scotty walked over from the food synthesize with a stack of packages in his hands and sat down to join them. He said, “Dinner is served, gentlemen.”
Sonny frowned, “What flavor of cardboard are we eating this evening?”
Scotty replied, “Be thankful for whatever flavor you get. With a one-tank synthesizer, the range of flavors and textures is limited. But this cardboard usually beats the sawdust we get in the Nutritional Rations.” He smirked.
Kaz already had a mouthful of food and spoke around it, “What’s wrong with NRs?”
Sonny laughed, “You’ve spent too much time in the field eating military rations, son. And drinking those damned Nutritional Liquids is no better.”
Scotty sighed and added, “What I wouldn’t give for a few drams of the good stuff.”
Sonny looked over at him, “And what would be the good stuff for you, Scotch?”
Scotty grinned back, “Of course. Single malt, blended, even age doesn’t matter that much. Any Scotch whisky is better than any other whisky.” He shrugged matter of factly.
Sonny looked at Kaz, “What about you, Kaz. What’s your poison?”
Kaz raised an eyebrow, “That’s an apt description. I’ve been known to taste a little bit of gin or vodka, but mostly I just consider all alcoholic beverages to be stupid juice.”
Scotty leaned back, “Oh my. That’s mighty close to heresy.” He grinned at Kaz.
Kaz shrugged, “If it makes people stupid, I can call it stupid juice. You can’t argue that it makes them act stupid. Besides, I like the NLs. They make me feel good, not stupid.”
Sonny leaned back, “Okay guys. Besides our dire need to add more tanks to our food synthesizer and build a still, what should our top priorities be? From my viewpoint, as lead for rescue operations, it’s still mostly on building faster emergency supply drones and getting everybody to adopt our safety standards. Scotty, how about the mining part?”
Scotty looked amused, “A still, eh? That gives me some ideas. But seriously, improving our grappling and drilling process is still our top priority, and will likely remain at the top of the list for many years. We’re also beginning to work on a widely accepted claim registration database and process. Kaz can tell you more about that.”
Kaz nodded, “We’ve worked out a process. Miners need to file a claim request when they find a rock they want to work. The database will confirm there is no outstanding claim on that rock and issue a tag number. The miner tags the rock with a beacon that squawks the tag number to protect the claim for a certain amount of time until the mining operation can begin. If the time period expires, the claim is revoked and anybody can claim the rock. This is all pretty simple database stuff. We just need to get agreement by everybody on the same standards.”
Sonny said, “That sounds good. Anything else?”
Kaz said, “Yes, there is. My expertise with cyber security is somewhat light and focused on the penetration side rather than defense. At some point, we’ll need some good defensive security experts to start designing security controls into our systems from the beginning. I know enough to know our systems are not safe, but I’m not experienced at designing the defenses.”
Sonny nodded, “Good point.”
12 Resistance
“Out of clutter, find simplicity.”
― Albert Einstein
+6 years, 1 month, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND
Tony Azaria and Bill Decker sat in the AGT executive conference room watching a news broadcast on the large video screen. Gitane Levesque said, “The group that identifies itself as ‘The Resistance’ has claimed credit for three torpedo attacks against HU ocean based space elevator platforms. Two of the attacks caused only minor damage, but the third attack sank one of the platforms. and brought down the elevator ribbon cable.” A video began playing that showed an aerial view of a severely damaged sea platform with a column of smoke rising from it. Fire and rescue crews worked around the platform in small boats.
Levesque continued, “Several climber cars near the top of the cable were able to complete their voyage, either on the remaining top of the cable or with assistance from nearby construction crews. Two climber cars on the lower part of the ribbon that were still in the atmosphere, fell back to Earth. Telemetry signals indicate their emergency parachute systems slowed their descent, but the climber cars have not yet been actually located. The status of their passengers is unknown. The lower part of the ribbon fell back into the atmosphere and was partially consumed by friction. Other parts landed harmlessly in the ocean. Five platform crew members are missing and presumed dead. Seventeen passengers that were still on the platform are missing and presumed dead. Over a hundred more survived, many with minor injuries. Some had to be rescued from the water when the platform sank. The Resistance has issued all their standard claims that the HU is an attempt to take over control of the entire world, and is using the threat from the comet as an excuse. They further claim that the threat from the comet does not exist, and was made up to enable the coup. They insist more attacks will be coming until the HU stands down and returns control of everything they have taken over back to the rightful owners.”
Tony punched a button on the remote, and the view on the screen changed to the face of Zorba Omega.
Tony said, “Hello, Zorba. This is Tony, and Bill Decker is also here with me. Bill, Zorba has some information we need on ‘the Resistance’. You have the floor, Zorba.”
Zorba nodded at the viewpoint, then spoke, “Thank you, Tony. Some time ago, I became aware of the resistance group, and took actions to build contacts inside the group that I thought might become helpful at some point. I instructed Billy Street to offer assistance to the group including funding. I supplied him with an expense account, and gave him permission to use the funds in any way necessary to penetrate the group and acquire information.”
Bill Decker interrupted, “You gave them funding? Did you consider how dangerous that might be?” He was frowning.
Zorba responded, “Yes, I did consider that, but if you’ll let me finish, you may consider the foothold we have gained worth the risks we took. As I was saying, my operative offered funds, and the group took them. We paid them in HU coin.” He paused.
Tony looked over at Bill and explained, “Most people have a misconception about cyber currency that it is completely anonymous and therefore perfectly suited for illi
cit activities. In fact, the opposite is true. Every cyber coin transaction is recorded in the blockchain journal, and since the blockchain has integrity verification built in, it cannot be tampered with.” He looked back at Zorba on the screen.
Zorba picked up where Tony stopped saying, “The blockchain offers a perfectly reliable record of every transaction. It’s on the outside of the cyber currency that problems may exist. If cyber coin transactions are made using anonymous sources, then even while they can be tracked and traced, the only information at the end points are anonymous. It’s the cash and conventional banking tools that have a problem of attribution.”
Tony interrupted, “Yes, and since we took measures to ensure a reasonable level of identification and authentication with every HU coin transaction, we have pretty good accountability. However, it’s still possible to move funds into mechanisms with lower accountability or even privacy protection, like the famous anonymous bank accounts.”
Zorba resumed, “And that’s exactly what the Resistance did. They took our HU coin funding donations, and moved them around as you’d expect any large organization to do, then at key end points, they moved the funds out into old-fashioned cash to avoid being traced. As HU coin has taken over most of the economy, there is less and less use of cash, but it’s still possible.”
Bill Decker asked, “I don’t understand. Were you able to trace the transactions or not?”
Zorba smiled, “Yes and no. We tracked them across their organization, and lost some of the traces when the funds exited into cash. But the key thing to understand is because it’s so much easier to move HU coin around electronically, they did that most of the time, until they considered that they needed some anonymity, and then they moved into cash. The end result...”
Bill smiled at the screen, “Now I get it. You mapped out almost all of their organization from the movements they made before they went underground into cash.”
Tony was nodding at Bill and Zorba confirmed, “That’s right. We now possess a map of their organization right up to the end points, and ME has been able to fill in the rest of the blanks using both his cyber methods and help from TYCHE.”
Bill said, “Okay. Well, thanks. Now we should hear how Muffled Edge has been doing with the effort to penetrate the network. ME?”
ME cleared his throat, then began speaking, “We have indeed penetrated much of their network, and we own most of their systems. We are confident that we have accomplished this quietly enough that they are completely unaware of our presence at this point. We know this because we can read most of their email, and have access to many of their planning files.” His thin face seemed almost gaunt, but like Decker, he had an intense expression.
He puckered his thin lips for a second as though thinking then continued, “I’d say we own more than eighty-five percent of their network and have a good idea of how the rest is laid out, but they have a system of air-gaps at the core that we have not yet penetrated.” He hesitated, then added, “For those of you who may not know, the term ‘air-gap’ means there is no network connection. The only way to cross the ‘air-gap’ is via physical access. We have several plans in place to accomplish this, and are probing for the most effective path. If we can get a spy physically inside, this should be easy, but so far they are not making it easy to do that. We also have some malware designed to jump gaps by infecting flash drives, but their good defensive discipline has prevented that.”
ME paused, then added, “The TYCHE computer agent has been a big help. First, we used it to crack password hashes we collected from systems in early penetrations. It’s incredibly fast at doing that. Then we learned we could teach it to do our network probing, and adjust them on the fly to keep them quiet and stealthy. These are all things we’ve been doing for some time, but TYCHE can do them much faster and more efficiently than we can, once we’ve taught her how to do them. But why not let TYCHE give the group an update herself?”
Bill Decker turned toward the wall screen and said, “TYCHE, are you there? Can you give us an update?”
TYCHE responded, “Yes, General Decker. Muffled Edge has already given you a brief but accurate description of our collaboration. I am constantly being trained by his team to take over routine processes, and that saves a lot of human effort hours to be refocused on more important tasks. Cracking password hashes and doing automated probes is simple for me, and can be relegated to background processing. It’s worth mentioning that I have also been helpful in filling in the map ME has developed of the Resistance organization. By combining the human intelligence from Mr. Street with the network surveillance probes, and cross-referencing that data with analysis of the blockchain transactions, we have been able to fill in many blank areas, and both infer connections in other areas and validate them.”
ME nodded, “TYCHE has been invaluable in this area.”
+6 years, 2 months, HABITAT-34, NEAR-MARS-ORBIT
Billy Street got off the elevator on Level 2, floor 20. As he stepped out, the elevator control panel announced, “Level 2, floor 20. The gravity on this level is eight tenths of a G. Doors closing.” The same information was displayed on the transparent visor he wore over his eyes.
The doors closed behind Billy, and he stood still for a moment and gazed down the wide boulevard in front of him. Overhead, the ceiling dipped and soared in irregular patterns, creating both low ceiling areas and high atriums. The atriums soared upward toward tops that looked like some kind of open sky or a transparent covering with sky beyond. The lower ceiling areas were decorated with themes local to the areas nearby. Many of them looked like forest canopies, but there were many varieties including buildings in differing architectures. Transparent panels along walkways on floors above, gave people there a view of the open boulevard and shops and people below.
Billy tapped his earpiece, “Help, directions to city square ‘Alhambra’ on floor 20.”
The earpiece responded, “City square ‘Alhambra’ on floor 20 is 430 meters to your left.” At the same time, a transparent map was displayed near the top of his visor that showed the needed path. The earpiece added, “Your path will be updated as you move. To clear it, say ‘map, clear’.”
Billy turned to his left and began to walk. Along the way, other people passed by who were on foot, some rode perched on two-seat, two-wheeled carts that they guided with joysticks on the armrests, and still others used boots with roller-blades to cruise along.
As he walked he tapped his earpiece and asked, “Help, what is the significance of the name ‘Alhambra’ with regard to the city square?”
His ear responded, “Sorry, I don’t understand the question. Can you rephrase it please?”
He tried again, “Help, tell me about ‘Alhambra’.”
The ear said, “A hamburger is a sandwich that consists of a patty of ground..”
Billy interrupted, “Help, stop. Help, tell me about AL-HAMBRA.” He emphasized the word.
The earpiece replied, “The Alhambra is a palace and fortress campus that was re-built from earlier ruins in the thirteenth century near Granada in Spain.”
Billy said, “Help, tell me more about ‘Alhambra’.”
His ear continued, “Parts of the fortress were converted in a palace and walls and in 1333, it was made the royal palace of Sultan Yusuf I. It features classic Islamic architecture and is famous for its park that contains English Elm trees, nightingales, and several fountains.” Pictures of an external view of the complex began slowly scrolling across his visor, then it changed to internal views showing ornate archways and courtyards.
As Billy approached the square, he could see that the local architecture and theme had been derived from the images he had just viewed. When he got closer, he could see a throng of people gathered around the middle. A woman was speaking from near the center of the group, “What we’re asking is what right does the city have to regulate our businesses. If some shop engages in fraud, they can be challenged in city court. Why do you think you need to register
and license my shop?” She looked defiant.
Somebody in the crowd said, “It’s not us, it’s the city.”
The woman swung toward the speaker and shouted at him, “You are the city, you toad!” She softened her tone but continued, “We are the city. All of us are the city. What need or right do you have to interfere with my business when you have no complaint against me?”
Another speaker offered, “Sara, you know it’s not that easy. Your clothing design shop is fairly simple, and it’s true that nobody is forced to buy anything from you. But other business are more complex. What about software design when it malfunctions or needs updates. What about the investors union? Don’t you want to know if their officers are getting kickbacks from any business partners? Surely you can see there’s some need for regulation.”
