One day later, July 8th. 04:15 CNS Fargo – Secondary Cargo Hold
Despite his shift having ended nearly eight hours earlier, John was still inspecting the random stuff, they had taken back with them. Everything was laid out in a grid pattern. Officers could walk around and inspect everything.
John was down to one knee as he was inspecting a terminal. It caught his attention because of the surprising tangle of wires. His focus was laser-like on this weird terminal. This was odd as there were far too many wires for a normal terminal.
“What in the hell?” John muttered under his breath.
Private David Olson picked up a tray and looked at it. He sighed, documented it, and brought it over to other similar items. After dropping it off he noticed his commanding officer’s head was practically buried in a terminal.
“Sir, what are you looking at?”
“A terminal. Pick up another one and let me know if you see a shitload of wires near the rear access port. Should be like way more than normal.”
“Sure thing, boss,” the young private said happily.
John then heard snickering from the chief engineer behind him. He turned to look at him. Omar was shaking his head in disgust at him.
“You’ve seriously never seen that have you?”
“I’m not an engineer, chief. I kill things really well though,” John said sarcastically.
“It’s a quantum module. Old one by the looks of it. The new ones are built into the boards of terminals these days. Modules like that haven’t been used in a hundred years.”
John looked back down at it, “It’s that old? How sure are you?”
“Absolutely certain. And it’s because we, being the Confederacy, don’t connect to the super database on Luna with those modules. Not anymore, that is.”
“Lieutenant, I ain’t finding shit in all these other terminals,” David shouted from the other end of the hold.
John rose to his full height holding the terminal, “So this connects to a server or other computer through… entanglement, right?”
Omar nodded, “Yup. The question is whose server or computer, is it? And why would anyone make new modules of stupidly old tech?”
John nodded, “Can this be separated and tied to another terminal?”
“Probably, let me take a look at that,” Omar said as he walked over and took the terminal, “Yup, clicks off just like this.”
Omar then plugged it back in and out. As much as he may not like the scheme-filled Lieutenant, he was the kind of man to educate so he wouldn’t have to answer the same question twice. And Omar appreciated when others respected his vast knowledge of all things mechanical and technological. He then handed the terminal and quantum device back to John.
“And it just powers on like that?” John asked.
Omar shrugged, “Depends. You should see it in the connected modules window of the terminal. The earliest ones didn’t have much in the way of safety protocols. They were on or off and had a connection to a server. So, you should be able to power that thing on and see whatever server it is paired to.”
“And the only way to sever that connection is to pull the pairing, right?”
Omar nodded, “Ahh so you did know some about it.”
“Not much, again, my specialty is command and killing.”
“That’s why our forebearers bailed on the original plan. Way too much of a pain in the ass to monitor and control. Lose one half of the pair then the other needed to be located, pulled, and then replaced with another.”
“How likely would someone be monitoring a server setup with old tech like this.”
“I honestly have no clue. Database management isn’t exactly my cup of tea. Would depend on how organized the group that has a setup like that.”
“Dave,” John shouted as he tossed the terminal sans quantum module, “Catch. Also, check that piece and let me know whose room we got that out of. I have something to do.”
John nodded to Omar in respect and headed out of the cargo hold. He hurriedly walked to his room. Once there he set the quantum computing device on his desk and stared at it. For nearly ten minutes he pondered his next move.
“Eve, is there any way to remotely scan a terminal to see if one of these is installed on the base or ships?”
“Not without physical access to the terminal.”
“Shit. What can you tell me about this device?”
“Please plug in the primary connector. Do not connect the power cable,” Eve said.
John did as he was instructed. The primary connector supplied a minimal amount of power, just enough to verify current could flow through the board. Several commands and diagnostic runtimes were flipping through the screen.
“Device is functioning as expected.”
“Is there any way to know where or what server this is paired to?”
“Crosschecking the serial number,” Eve said leaving the room silent for a moment, “This quantum pairing was produced in 2138. The server component was last checked into a Naval storage facility in Alpha Centauri in 2204.”
“That means it was stolen sometime after that.”
“The facility was raided by an Alliance special forces team. Several server halves were stolen without the team fully being aware of what it was that they stole. The terminal component was stored in another facility. Which was also raided.”
“Fuck, no clue how many times it changed hands over the years. Ok, is there a way to activate and log into the server without the other pair being aware?”
“This serial number corresponds to a pairing line that lacked any security protocols. The server would have no clue if you were logged in, provided the server pair was active,” Eve continued to speak, “However, if you interact with any files, they will know you are online.”
“Look but don’t touch. Ok, I’m going to plug this,” John said as he plugged in the power adaptor to it, “Turn it on, let’s see what we have.”
Eve did as she was told. The quantum computer began drawing power. John’s terminal immediately detected it and transferred to its screen. A loud belly laugh was left out.
“Holy shit balls,” John said as he scrolled through the list of files.
He was seriously tempted to copy as much as he could and transfer it to his server. Somehow cooler heads prevailed. John powered the device off and leaned back in his chair. All he could do was blankly stare at his terminal. Several different plans and methods were popping up in his mind. But the two primary things were to be patient and to do a hell of a lot of research.
9 days later, July 17th. 09:25 St. Mary’s Station – Admiral Nelson’s Office
John was ordered to meet with the operation’s ultimate leaders. He was getting a halfhearted dressing down of his actions. It was painfully obvious to both Admiral Nelson and John that the admiral didn’t really mean anything he was saying. But the Admiral was either unwilling or couldn’t admit fault for such a broad order that was given to John.
“Ok, enough with that bullshit,” Admiral Nelson said, “How many suspects are you down to?”
John shrugged, “The VIs are running non-stop, however, we’re still well over two hundred possibilities.”
“How long until you feel confident about reporting any particulars?”
“I’d prefer to narrow the list to under ten. I also…”
Admiral Nelson interrupted him, “No, you do not have the authorization to break into anyone’s personal quarters. We also inspected the workplace terminals our staff uses. No quantum computing devices were attached to them.”
“Which is why…” John was interrupted once again.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“No. You are not going into anyone’s quarters unless you were specifically invited into them,” Admiral Nelson took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, “I appreciate your dogged focus, but I cannot order you to break the law. Nor can I suggest you do that. This investigation needs to be clean.”
“What if it doesn’t need to be, sir? Plus, they wouldn’t know.”
“The answer is still no. And it doesn’t matter if you can violate their rights and get away with it,” Admiral Nelson said rubbing his forehead, “The quantum device doesn’t work?”
“It appears it was either sabotaged by its former user or damaged when we pulled the terminal from the wall,” John was lying expertly through his teeth, “A would-be promising find resulted in utter disappointment. Also, I’m kind of leaving this discovery out of any reports at this time.”
“That is unfortunate. Admiral Zhang’s complaint was received by the way. She’s not happy with how things turned out,” Admiral Nelson put his glasses back on, “Son if this mission ends in success, I can assure you that the complaints are just going to disappear into the ether. If it’s a marginal success I doubt they will do any real damage to you aside from Zhang never wanting you in her fleet. If we don’t…”
John interrupted the Admiral, “We will succeed, sir.”
“On that note, Fleet Command and our civilian government have reiterated their mission parameters that Dr. Norman be taken alive. His top Agent, Lisa Benning, has also been flagged for capture.”
John looked down at the Admiral with a look of disgust on his face, “Surely you jest.”
“Computer, turn off all recording devices,” Admiral Nelson said as he held a button on his terminal, “Son, officially what I’m about to tell you never happened. Kill Lisa, she’s no use to us and frankly is a looser cannon than you are. The task force agrees with capturing Dr. Norman, there are things he can do to help us.”
John almost recoiled with that statement, “His work is tainted by the lives of thousands he brutally slaughtered or injected with poison. He doesn’t even deserve a swift death. The moment the Alliance figures out we’re using him they will flip the fuck out.”
General Mizrahi said gruffly, “I don’t disagree with you on a personal level. However, if he is on our side…”
“General, you don’t understand this man. Right now he’s authorizing rogue groups to conduct illegal and unethical medical research on our citizens. He will not stop his plans if we are his goalers. Instead, our state will be the one sponsoring said eugenics research.”
“And forfeit the moral ground over the Alliance in any war or conflict that stems from this. The others are aware of it and are accepting of the risk,” Admiral Nelson leaned back in his desk, “When, or if, the final attack happens on his organization, a special task force will be accompanying you to ensure his capture.”
John closed his eyes and took a deep breath, “What, in theory, would happen if I say over my dead body, sir?”
“Fleet Command has said you can accept the order or be reassigned with immediate effect.”
John grinned, “Reassigning me means the task force is destined to fail. You don’t have the connections that I do that are critical to the success of this mission without starting another war.”
Admiral Nelson stood up from his desk and pulled a shade down to peak out of his office, “I have told Fleet Command this. Their stance didn’t change. Computer, turn back the standard recording devices on. Lieutenant, what is your choice?”
John once again lied expertly, “I will accept Fleet Commands' decision, however unwise as I personally see it, and accept their assistance when we finally assault his compound.”
“Good, you are dismissed. Enjoy a couple of well-earned days off,” Admiral Nelson said.
John saluted to both men and walked out of the room. General Mizrahi stood up and paced near the door to the office. He looked every bit as sick as John had.
“I agree with the Lieutenant. This is too risky,” Uri said.
“Can’t say I disagree with you, old friend,” Admiral Nelson grabbed a pair of glasses from his shelf and set them on his desk, “I’m surprised he accepted their demands.”
Admiral Nelson pulled a bottle of scotch from his desk and poured a drink for the pair.
Uri picked the glass up and drank it in one gulp, “Off the record, he’s going to kill Dr. Norman with or without permission.”
Admiral Nelson grinned, “Of course he is. The question is how is he going to do that? He can’t underestimate the special task force that command will assign to us during the last push. They do one thing and only one thing and are kitted out with even more advanced gear than we have.”
Uri nodded, “They are soldiers through and through. They aren’t John though.”
“What do you mean?”
“John isn’t a soldier, he’s a wolf in a soldier’s clothing. He’s a consummate professional, but deep-down Naval Intelligence made him a highly effective murderer. Once he’s locked on nothing will stop him. Including those special forces.”
“I hope you are right because these orders made my skin crawl. The cabinet cannot seriously think this won’t go sideways in the future.”
“Oh, they know it will, but they are confident the gains we receive will be offset by a meager war or two,” Uri said sardonically.
“Uri, what’s going to happen to them when John does kill him?”
“Fleet Command will likely sweep it under the rug. They have too, their willingness to keep him is half-hearted at best. The civvies are the ones that want him. The question I have is how far would they go for retribution?”
“The question is less how far they would go Uri, and more what he will do to them if they try anything.”
2 days later, July 19th. 17:35 St. Mary’s Station – Residential Wing
The Lief-Robertson residence was quiet. John was scavenging leftovers from the fridge for his dinner this evening. While he did enjoy cooking meals for himself and Alice, leftovers were a guilty pleasure for the young man. Alice walked out of the bedroom dressed for an evening out on the town.
Alice looked at John from the kitchen island, “Are you sure you don’t want to go out?”
John laughed and turned to face Alice, “Go out with you and six women and one highly queer co-worker?”
“We are a bunch of fun though!” Alice grinned.
“Ah hell, I know that,” John turned to look back at his wife, “And yes I know Finn is cool shit. But man, he is just…”
“Fabulous?”
“More like flamboyantly out there and highly fabulous. He’s also super tiring to be around. And he doesn’t like fighting,” John shrugged.
Alice rolled her eyes, “Finn is only tiring to you. You are probably just going to nerd out at home.”
“More like work, though I need to talk to an expert,” John shrugged as he walked with his plate of food to the couch and looked at the screen.
“Well don’t have too much fun. You know where we are going to be,” Alice said as she walked over to the couch and shook his shoulders, “Love you!”
“Love you too,” John patted Alice’s butt as she walked by but as soon as he did his focus was changed to the TV, “Kevin, buddy, thank God you answered.”
“Hey bud, how are things?” Kevin smiled as he looked at John.
“Things are a little chaotic. So, the reason I called, and apologies it wasn’t to shoot the shit or anything fun, but how knowledgeable are you of those old ass quantum-paired computers?”
Kevin’s eyes lit up, “I know of them. We even got to play with a couple during the academy. My high school had one of them too.”
“Sweet, is there a way to spoof one of them?”
“That’s a hard negative. On the plus side there’s no removing their access without physically pulling the paired server core,” Kevin leaned back in his chair, “That means their IT department or whatever needs to be on top of things.”
“What about hiding one’s actions while logged into a pair?” John asked.
“That’s not exactly my area of expertise buuuuuut,” Kevin dragged out his statement a moment, “It is possible to hide some actions from a logger.”
“Is there a way to surreptitiously identify if other users are online or modify a log file?”
“Fairly easily actually. If you know what you’re looking for that is. I’ll send you what I know. The military kept a lot of this shit real hush-hush. There were way more flaws with it than the public knew.”
“Hold the fuck on. That’s like no security at all.”
Kevin chuckled, “Yeah basically. Hence why they went with a different system. But then we were too stupid to actually destroy our shitty technology. We at least stored the pairs in different locations at least.”
“I fucking never heard about that. This is crazy. These were actually on ships?”
“Sure was. The servers were all stored at a military facility. When the civilian version of it was launched the security concerns were worked out.”
“Hold on, how the hell do you know all this?”
Kevin almost fell out of his seat laughing, “I cannot wait to tell Andern that I know something you don’t. Hot damn. One of the professors told my class about the disadvantages of it.”
John noticed Kevin’s message on his tablet. He opened it hurriedly and skimmed through the contents. Laughter was all John could muster in response to this.
“Kevin, you have got to be shitting me!”
“Well, there’s a limit to all of that. You can modify the log, but the fact that it was manually changed is going to be pretty obvious to any competent server administrator.”
John gently tossed the tablet on the table and shook his head, “Good lord man. This is nuts.”
“Well good luck with whatever sketchy shit you’re planning.”
John tried to look offended, “What makes you think it’s sketchy?”
“You are involved with it,” Kevin laughed, “When aren’t you trying to do something questionable? Or something that is outside your orders? Or actively doing sketchy shit.”
“Hey, technically…” John stopped and laughed, “Yeah I can’t speak about it but technically…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever helps you sleep at night bud. Hey, so when are you going to be out my way?”
“Been out in your neck of the woods a couple of times. Been all over the place with this operation.”
“So, are you done with command now?” Kevin sounded concerned.
“Nah, not for good. My unique set of skills was necessary just for this operation. I should have my own ship by the end of this shitshow.”
“Unique my ass,” Kevin laughed, “Well hey, Theresa is getting off her shift soon and I told her I’d make dinner.”
“Take ‘er easy. We’ll catch up soon.”
John switched the TV’s screen to that of his terminal. He was reviewing the potential list of presumed traitors. There were now just over one hundred names remaining on the list. There were far too many names on the list for him to act. But a troubling figure began showing up on the screen.
“Eve, confirm the elimination time.”
“Time to eliminate potential subjects has increased exponentially. The remaining individuals have substantially more contact with other individuals either in person or in writing. As a result, the time to eliminate a person has increased up to twenty hours or more.”
“I presume you are using as many run-times as possible?”
“All available resources are being used.”
John looked a bit defeated, “Estimated time to get to ten names?”
“Three to six months.”
“Fucking hell,” John said dejectedly, “Finally have a bit of good news, and now this. Damnit.”
The good mood that John was in was soured. Knowing his luck, it’d be closer to six months than three. Which meant a best-case scenario would involve this operation last at least another year. Maybe more. Though that time frame largely depended on how quickly they could find some hard evidence to use against Dr. Norman.
Little did John know at the time, but this estimated target was woefully underestimated. His secretive VI farm would take more than nine months to narrow the list to twelve individuals. The task force was anything but lazy. They eliminated forty-two more labs in that time. Only a third were captured while operational though.
The number of detainees continued to grow as a result of those raids. An entire prison on the surface of Manchester was dedicated to holding the former employees of the illicit labs. It was curious to see that many highly educated, but highly disturbed, individuals were locked up in the same place.
Sadly, the number of horrors they discovered continued to grow as more bases were assaulted. Eight members of his platoon were rotated out due to medical, or specifically in this case mental health, reasons.
So much more work needed to be done before they could take the fight to Dr. Norman in his territory. But first John had housecleaning work that needed to be done. There was a traitor, but who could it be? John certainly had his theories, but to what lengths was he willing to go to prove them?