Version Innocent

by Pete Molina

  Chaper 2

  Damon Harding stood looking out the window of his penthouse in New York. The whole city sprawled around him. The penthouse was as close to space as one could get without actually going there, and therefore the best the world could offer. He was silent but he had a large smile on his face. He already knew about the virus. He had been informed the moment it had been detected. It had given him the perfect opportunity to get away with murder, and it was like a giant weight had been lifted from his shoulders. A weight that had been upon him for several centuries now.

  Damon’s companion interrupted his thoughts. Sir, the total damages have been assessed as thirty-five million lost, three thousand of those were non-corporeal. The source of the virus was determined to be a backup cube that was inserted in to the system this morning. Our intrusion was not detected.

  The smile on Damon’s face got bigger. Thank you, Julia, that’s just the news I wanted to hear. And Director Hughes’ involvement only sweetens the whole affair. Julia was Damon’s semi-sentient neural implant electronic companion, that helped him manage his affairs and kept his secrets. Julia gave him access to the data sphere and acted as a personal secretary.

  Damon Harding, was the CEO of Second Chance, Inc., the company that had developed the procedure for both backing up and restoring a human being. It was the most powerful technology ever invented, more so than even nanotechnology. This fact had not escaped Damon when the procedure was first being developed. There were only ten people who knew how the technology worked. Only three, including Damon, that knew all the software algorithms that enabled the restoration process to succeed. All of them but Damon were now gone forever, thanks to the virus attack this morning. The others, including all those that had worked on or built the restoration machinery, had been voluntarily backed up and had no corporeal version.

  The inventors had agreed to this over two hundred years ago, to be restored after a thousand years, in order to protect the technology from getting out of company hands. Second Chance had never filed a patent, so the process was a complete secret. The workers who had built the restoration machines had also agreed to be backed up in this non-corporeal state in return for large bonuses to be paid when restored with the inventors. They were restored only intermittently when new machines had to be built or the older ones serviced.

  That was how Damon had held control of the technology against tremendous pressure for several hundred years. It was how he had become the most powerful and wealthy man in the solar system, and how he had the power to control the US Government, and through them every other government. The only thing that could stop him had been those who knew how to duplicate the procedure, and that threat was now over.

  Damon had been patiently waiting for more than a century for the opportunity that had developed this morning. He knew that sooner or later someone would attack the system. He had used his backdoor access during the chaos to purge the backup files of the three thousand who knew how to build a restoration machine, including his founding partners. He was the only one left who could build a restoration machine, Julia stored the plans and software in his neural implant.

  Jeff Hughes, that’s an interesting development. It seems Jeff is a typical Newbie after all, but it seems sloppy to me. Perhaps he didn’t know what he was doing. If he didn’t, then who was behind it? Damon pondered.

  Julia, whose backup cube carried the virus? He directed the thought to his companion.

  Julia responded immediately. The backup cube belonged to Sam Storm 6.7, version was listed as 54.3. There is no further information about the cube in the database.

  Sam Storm, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. He was a hell of a nanotech engineer. Julia, do you know what Sam has been up to in the last decade? I believed that he had left the LNRC to teach at one of the children’s cities.

  Sam Storm, formerly a senior researcher at the Lunar Nanotechnology Research Center, tendered his resignation approximately twelve years ago. He returned to the children’s city of Denver to teach Advanced Nanotechnology to upper level students. Records indicate that he is still teaching, Julia replied, while simultaneously bringing up an image of Sam in Damon’s display.

  I seriously doubt that he’s still there. What’s the connection between Storm and Hughes? Damon had met Jeff Hughes on more than several occasions.

  They were crèche mates in a group of six, the companion replied.

  Crèche mates, well, that would explain a lot. Julia, start an investigation into Sam Storm and Jeff Hughes over the past twelve years. I want to know what they’re up to. And when it is determined that the three thousand non-corporeal backups are those from Second Chance, make sure their families are compensated for their loss, Damon ordered. He wasn’t a complete monster, he was only doing what had to be done. Some of his founding partners had been his dearest friends back when they were just beginning. It had taken a century to realize that they had to be stopped from being restored.

  They hadn’t all realized the full extent to which the world would become dependent on the technology.

  The peace in the world over the last two centuries that stemmed directly from the control Damon could exert was unprecedented. If the others had been restored, that would have ended, and then the wars would begin.

  Damon weighed these choices and chose peace. He was the only one who could make this painful decision but it was for the best. He knew any one of them would do the same in his place. Their sacrifice made them heroes. Unknown heroes of this new world.

  A few moments later Julia interrupted again. Sir, there is another development in regard to the virus’s actions.

  Yes, Damon replied.

  It seems that several restorations were triggered by the virus of non-corporeal backups. The system was able to halt all but one, which had progressed too far to stop legally.

  Anyone important? Damon asked.

  Terra Gates, she was not scheduled to be restored for another two decades as per her request. There is an anomaly, the backup used is outdated by almost eight years. All more recent versions were lost to the virus. Julia replied.

  Very interesting. Damon considered. And certainly no coincidence. The odds are astronomical that this particular out dated backup would be the one to make it too far to be stopped. Something is going on here, and if the former head of the Mars Department of Industry is involved, it’s not in my best interest. That virus’s attack was planned to wipe certain backups, probably as a cover up for something, and I am going to find out what.

  Legally, a backup that preceded the commission of, or the conspiracy to commit, a crime was innocent of that crime. A great many detective movies and novels had used that angle. Of course, in reality there was no way to purge any more recent backups from the system, and only the most recent backup could legally be restored, until now. If in the course of an investigation it was determined that the restored backup had planned something, it could be prosecuted as if it had committed the crime. But in the case of Terra Gates there was no indication that she had done either.

  Damon walked from the window to the coat closet, grabbed his heavy jacket and went to the lift tube door. The FBI would be his first stop, and then he would pay Terra Gates a visit as soon as she was restored.