Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 9: No One to Trust

 Tom had just received conclusive investigation reports on the information disappearance at the labs. As initially thought, it was the work of a thinking program. The attack was clean and swift; no traces of intrusion were left. Usually hacking software left something behind - a piece of data or an imprint of commands to the intruded system. It was different this time, this time there was nothing. Tom knew no one the ship capable of such creations – the program must have come with the libraries uploaded from Earth’s servers.

Thinking program was a general term. Most of them were called such, only because they could make complex decisions without the input from the users. Only a small amount of them could really ‘think’ and from those, only a small percentage was capable of simulating users and writing new code to their core data. There was more than one time in history when complex software caused unimaginable casualties. Computers and their software were made to serve and help people, but sometimes even the smallest mistake in their coding could result in devastating disasters, especially if there were errors in basic logic rules. After accidents in the solar system, people trusted the software less and less. The most famous case was when AI, which was in control of the space station closely orbiting the sun initiated lockdown and ordered navigation systems to drive it into the star. Casualties reached tens of thousands. The reasoning of the program behind this action was left unanswered.

He stood up, walked to the center of his room and waved his hand. Instantly, he was surrounded by holographic windows. He used his fingers to enter the commands and scroll through different data. Soon a single window was projected in front of him. The information listed in the window was as following:

Name: Lester Bales

Age:  Unknown

Work position:  Unknown

Home address:  Unknown

 Big question mark was in the frame where person’s photograph should have been.

Holding his chin, Landau looked intensely at the window. This was the only record he could find. What worried him was that this data did not come from the remains of the deleted databases inside the bio labs. It came from his intelligence mainframe and there had never been information labeled as ‘unknown’. His database had much more powerful firewalls than any network on the ship. Intrusion of such a level was possible only by one program he knew of – Stacy. The damn program Ermac trusted.  If she truly was involved, what was her role? How the hell was the deletion of important information going to help the Navigator? Whose side was she on? Was the letter he sent to inquire about the blackouts even going to reach the Navigator?

He stopped thinking about things he couldn’t control and focused. This man… Lester Bales, Lester Bales. Tom had heard that name before.

Tom waved his hand the data window disappeared.  He picked his comms device and strode out of the room. There had to be a piece of non-digital info about that man and he knew places where such data existed – the central library, the wedding palace, the obstetrics hospital.

Tom used a cab to visit all the locations. In the first two he found nothing but in the obstetrics hospital he got lucky. There it was - in front of him, a file – Lester Bales, son of Judie Bales, born 4 years after the launch.

Tom went back to the cab and ordered it to wait. He scrolled through the results on search of Judie Bales on his portable comms gadget. They brought nothing, only the fact that the woman died thirty years ago. It was better than nothing; it meant that Lester must have been raised in the orphanage. That was his next destination.

The orphanage was considered to be one of the most important institutions after the launch. Back then, the corridors inside were creaking with children laughter, now, the place was almost empty, filled with dead silence. A familiar old woman greeted Tom at the entrance. The lady must have lost her sight and had bionics surgery; her cold, artificial eyes looked empty.  Tom approached her, feeling a strange fascination, as if he was about to talk with a human sized doll.

“Miss Benet, how are you?”

“I’m fine, thank you for asking, dear. What brings you to this place? It has been a long time. Are you looking for new recruits? I could call some talented children for interviews,” the old lady replied warmly.

“No, no, not now. Currently I’m investigating a dangerous man. I came here to ask for information about him. He had spent his childhood in this place.”

“Then you are lucky to have met me, I’m the person you should ask, have been working in this place from the time it was built. Eyes got a bit tired as you might have already noticed, by my memory is still there.”

“Miss, please tell me. What do you know about a person named Lester Bales?”

“Lester Bales...oh I remember him…that poor kid, poor kid, poor poor child.” Her words turned to silence, she was close to tears.

Tom coldly continued with his questions, “What poor kid? According to my data he should be a grown man, a dangerous man to be precise.”

The old lady shook her head. “Nonsense, he never had the time to grow up. He was killed by an accident after he turned fourteen. Remember the incident with the overcrowded elevator? No one was blamed for what happened to the poor child. An accident, your people said.”

Now Landau remembered him, the old lady was right. The death of Lester was one of many he had forgotten. The intelligence mainframe held files of both suspects and victims. The file he checked earlier today must have come from the latter.

“Thank you.” Landau turned around and walked out.

As he stepped into the cab, a powerful explosion shook the ground. The sound came from the place where the reconditioning facility was. He instantly ordered the cab’s computer to fly up into the sky. Fire and smoke came from the facility. After his intuition was confirmed, the cab flew him to the spot of the incident. The building was a shambles. He heard screams coming from the rubble.  Medical cabs were flying from the hospitals. A crowd started gathering. Soon someone would start asking him questions. He had to leave. He would get all the reports about the incident anyways.

Here it was - another problem, another nuisance in the search for the mystery man.

*********

 Claire was working at the kitchen when Cyrus got home.

“Hey darling, have you heard the news?” he asked while taking the coat off.

“Yes, it’s terrible”

"Yes it is." He walked into the kitchen. “I was contacted by the board of scientists just a minute ago. Starting tomorrow I am going to work on the creation of new reconditioning devices.”

“My husband can do everything.”

Cyrus came closer and gave her a smile with a kiss. “Yes, he can.”