Asterion (3 page)

“The system needs to identify foreign matter and other aberrations accurately that could arise during the course of the operation. These have similarities to what we are using and I wanted to see if the instrument could differentiate the samples. If it can’t, then we may have problems.”

“Okay, that is not a bad idea. We can’t be too cautious.”

Each subsequent experiment of increasing complexity revealed problems that the team studied, tested their solution, and progressed to the next level. The failed experiments are not always dead and ending an animal life, even a short-lived one is not a pleasant task. You felt responsible for making them and if it is not right, you not only failed yourself, but the creature also.

The systems lab, filled with computers and associated equipment is separate from the other, sterile rooms. This is where Trent spent most of his time. Trent always looked like he is looking over his shoulder. Like someone doing personal tasks at work who is trying to prevent discovery.

Taylor and Christine worked closely on the technology that interacted directly with the engineering, replication, incubation and maturation parts of the project in the main laboratory. Taylor noticed that she is not like the other female scientists he had ever worked with in the past. Beside her attractiveness, she displayed tendencies of caring genuinely for others and not just for herself. A side effect of the government learning centers that raised the children of this society is a lack of compassion caused by not forming familial bonds and neighborhood friendships. Achievement, cooperation, and adhering to the principles of the society are encouraged. Individuals formed relationships out of mutual benefit for the parties involved, be it procreation, pooling of resources, recreation and other needs rather than feeling of love and camaraderie. Delinquency resulted in special reeducation at an early age. The children who went to those learning centers seldom came back and if they did, they are never the same. The underachievers or lazy, went to their own reeducation centers. The central authority is successful with most of these individuals. It seemed to find just the right motivation to help them make a fundamental change in their lives, which is somewhat scary when you think about it.

In the course of casual conversation in the lab and the break room, Taylor could tell that she might be a Christer. Christers are what society called Christians now. It is kind of a pejorative for anyone who believed in what the central authority called an unhealthy belief in myths and legends. You could study mythology, but to place rules and regulations on yourself and encourage others to do likewise is prohibited and punishable. Professing that there is only one-way to an imaginary utopia in some other dimension is called a hate crime and punishable by reeducation because it excluded non-adherers. The Leader frowned upon anything that upset society.

They started sharing their breaks and lunch. The break room offered a change of pace from the lab. Softer lighting and the standard accommodations for refreshments is a welcome environment. Christine is also from a military family and grew up on military bases. Taylor grew up in one of the protectorates formed after the Euro-Arab War. America was on the European’s side. It started when Israel was in danger of falling to the other countries on the Arabian and North Africa land mass. Stopped from overrunning Israel and Turkey, they created areas called protectorates to prevent further action after agreeing on a truce. Israel became a forward protectorate where troops rotated in-and-out to bolster their security. Tensions remained high for many years. The central authority had not yet implemented the full scope of their learning systems in those far-flung areas. People like Taylor and Christine created much consternation with government officials. They are an unknown quantity of questionable controllability. Common backgrounds and interests brought them closer in a world that keeps its distance.

Devin calls a meeting in the conference room. After making Taylor and his team wait for over half an hour, he enters the room with another person. Here stood a tall brunette with straight chin length hair. Dressed in a black, pressed, fitted uniform typical of the security forces, she is the real deal. Piercing green eyes and a cold professional demeanor, she stood by as Devin introduced her to the team. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Milar, who is now head of security here at the lab. Central Authority has sent her to insure the safety and security of the facility.”

Without a word, she quickly looked us over, making eye contact with each of the team. She turned and looked at Devin, nodded, spun around and briskly left the room. Looking at each other, they are somewhat dumbfounded. Scientists are used to being casual about everything except their work, but this is unusual for a meet and greet.

Devin revealed, “I’ve been instructed to turn over safety and security to Milar with no restrictions on the scope of her actions. Don’t complain about anything to me. I can’t do anything about it and I have to comply with everything she implements. This meeting is over.” Devin darts out of the room and leaves the facility on business. Taylor gets the impression that for Devin, the fun is over and he is seeking a friendlier place to be for a few days. Better to see the finished product than to watch your world become more restrictive.

Taylor and the team head to the break room for a much-deserved rest. Small talk of the weather, recreational plans and other issues break the silence until Trent asks, “Does this security seem excessive for a lab in the middle of the country?”

Taylor thought for a second. “Well maybe, but we have to consider the implications of this technology if it is stolen, or if one of our experiments crawls away. A thief could turn this technology into a devastating weapon and if they can’t control it, a runaway freight train is unleashed on the world. If our experiments decide to leave on their own, no telling what the environmental impact would be on the world.”

Christine laments, “It does mean more trouble getting in and out of the labs.” Taylor and Trent nod in agreement and sigh in resignation of the coming changes.

Returning to the lab, they engage in a brief conversation of what they are working on and return to their activities. No one sees Milar for several days until suddenly the team receives a call to assemble in the conference room for a meeting with their new security chief.

Entering the room, Milar is already waiting. Something tells Taylor that her timing is impeccable and she would only be late if she were unconscious or dead. Individual greetings from the team elicit only a general, group greeting from Milar.

Taylor smiles and thinks, “This is progress.”

Milar begins by displaying mockups of the new security equipment and performing the procedures to operate them. “The work here needs to be secure. Only those with clearance can gain entrance to the labs. We are implementing several challenges to lab entrance. Retinal, print, keycard and codes will allow each of you access to the lab areas associated with this project. The only other personnel with access to these areas are security and Devin.” She then hands over keycards, allows them to set up their codes and practice the entrance procedures while she is there to clarify and instruct us.

Milar heads for the door, “Thank you for your cooperation.”

Christine laughs. “She’s going to be fun.”

Trent sarcastically adds, “Yea, a joke a minute.”

Taylor laughs and issues this caution, “Okay you two, Better safe than sorry.”

Trent laughed again, “Way to drag out the ancient sayings. What’s next, because I told you so?”

Laughing together, Taylor is pleased that the team is bonding and getting along well. The team spent a lot of time sequestered in the lab. That made it imperative that everyone get along and work well together.

The team moved past smashing into the door when it did not open to the routine of complying with the security measures. Milar occasionally made appearances in the lab, mainly to check on the security systems and their progress. Taylor suspected that there is more to the security measures, but kept quiet about it. Milar became a bit more sociable as time went by, but still kept her distance. Taylor would often see her in the fitness center at the facility. The society pushed healthy living as it reduced the burden on the health system. Penalties for being overweight or not exercising motivated the populace to comply. She is lean and muscular and he noticed that her routine is a mix of strength and cardio similar to most military training. Brute strength is nothing without endurance. They sometimes made small talk about methods and routines, but not much else. Taylor had trouble reading her. Is she beholden to the bureaucrats? Is she here to spy on us for the government or an enemy? Could she just be doing her job? It is difficult to tell and she is not revealing any cards.

CHAPTER 3 - BREACH

Taylor returns to his apartment after a long day. Plugging in his car and locking the door, he enters the apartment door. Taylor’s benefit to society allowed him enough credits to live in an individual apartment and not in a singles dorm. He enters into a spacious living room where his status allowed him to purchase furnishings that followed his taste for last century modern furnishing, art and books. He lacked for nothing and his circumstances are better than most. The monitor is on. Set to informational programs, or news, he rarely turned it off. The noise made the apartment seem less lonely. He rarely watched the reality, game, and other frivolous entertainment genres that keep the masses happy and pacified. The critics of them called it bread and circus after the Roman Empire’s attempts to mollify its citizens. Settling down in his warm bed his thoughts are on Christine and whether he should take the chance and ask her to dinner. If she accepted it would be great, but what would happen if she declined. It would make it awkward at work and could jeopardize the project if she quit with all they had done so far. That would be on Taylor’s head and he would have to answer for that mistake. Nothing is easy in this world. There are too many complications for someone desperate for rest. He tossed and turned until fatigue won out.

Taylor, late from oversleeping, rushed out the door. He enters his vehicle and the charge is low. He plugged it in last night. Did they have a power outage for an extended period last night? Sometimes on a cloudy day followed by a lack of wind, the solar cells and windmills would not charge the grid sufficiently for a full night of power. He inquired of a passing neighbor who said they were up all night and the lights never went out. That is strange. Maybe it is a fault with the car or the outlet. It is still charging, so what could it be? “Never mind,” he thought. He would try to make it to work and put the vehicle on a charge there. Tearing out of the garage, he raced to work. Two miles short of his destination the car jerked to a halt, so he ran the rest of the way. Huffing and puffing he arrives and wonders if there is a better way. In his office, he calls to have the vehicle towed to work so he could charge it.

This is already turning out to be a bad day when Trent entered his office. “The communication between the nano-mechanisms is being corrupted and I haven’t been able to pinpoint the source.”

The lab has a Faraday cage that doesn’t allow outside signals to interfere with the wireless communication between the nano-mechs and the controllers. This problem needed a full court press to resolve the issue quickly.

After that revelation, Devin, who just returned after several days, catches Taylor and motions him into his office. Closing the door behind him and looking around the office for any changes, he turns to Taylor and whispers, “It’s possible that Milar may be a spy?” His eyes shifting back and forth as if waiting for someone or something to jump out and surprise him.

Taylor whispers back, “For the central authority?”

Devin, leans in close, “No, maybe one of our enemies.”

“Are you sure?”

“I don’t know for sure, it’s just a hunch or suspicion, but we must be careful.”

“Encryption is active on all notes and software. We use our own algorithms, not any of the governments. We are also on our own network which is segregated from other networks in the complex.”

Taylor leaves Devin’s office. Devin is less panicked, but still suspicious. Taylor is accustomed to paranoid bureaucrats. It is their best survival technique. Stab your enemy in the back before they do it to you. Taylor shakes his head. It is just not the way to live.

Taylor and Trent continued to work on the interference problem between the control systems and nano-mechs. That problem jeopardized the whole project and without a solution, everything is a no go. Dismantling the AutoDNA instrument, they eventually found that some of the internal shielding keeping stray signals from causing interference with other electronic circuitry had separated from the welds, allowing stray signals in the millimeter wavelength to flood the instrument. Correcting the issues is easy and they worked through the evening to insure that the problem is resolved. In the morning, they felt good about resolving the problem.

Taylor turns and looks at one of the signal snoopers and notices a strange signal is emanating from the nano-mechs. Not the usual communication between them and the control system, but steady streams of data like a transfer or backup. Trent ports the signal stream through the network and what they discover is shocking. Not only are the nano-mechs relaying information about their communication between themselves and the controller, but also all the applications, settings, database, systematic actions and other information. Whatever it is, it is performing a complete dump of sensitive information. Compromised in the only way they had not considered they capture the stream before it stops transmitting due to the repair of the shielding.