Command Authority, page 13
part #5 of Last Hunter Series
“Very well,” he said. “Why don’t you take the extra seat while I get started?”
David found and activated a camera that could record Christine and then pressed the button that sounded a chime in the aliens’ quarters. They turned their heads toward the speaker.
“What do you want?” Larista asked in a tone that could be charitably called hostile and suspicious.
“It’s that time of day again, where we speak upon matters that might be of interest. I do have something different this time, though. One of my colleagues would like to ask questions about where you came from and your society. Nothing of military interest, just to get to know you better. In exchange, she is willing to negotiate on your behalf for certain accommodations. I told her I didn’t think you’d be interested, but she seems certain she can be persuasive enough to get you to talk to her. Her name is Christine Hooghuis. Would you like to speak with her?”
The aliens looked at one another and then spoke in low tones. With the high-gain microphones, David could hear them arguing about whether they should talk with Christine. Unsurprisingly, Aralan favored the idea, and Larista was against it. He was by far the more reasonable of the two.
He let them argue without intervening, curious what kind of conclusion they’d come to. In the end, the male prisoner was more persuasive and at least convinced his mate to listen to what Christine had to offer.
“What do you propose?” Aralan asked.
“I just want to know a little about you,” Christine said. “I’m not in the military or part of any intelligence gathering operation. I make documentaries. I’m someone that finds out about people and tells their stories. I want to hear your story.”
“I do not understand why you would be interested,” Larista said in a tone that conveyed her skepticism. “We are your prisoners and have no recourse. You can do whatever you wish. Why would anyone want to know more about us? This is some kind of trick to convince us to tell you military secrets. We will not tell you anything.”
“This is David Chen. Let me tell you what we know. Your forces followed the Tardan colonization ships. You came with one large military vessel and three smaller ones. One of those vessels got away, and we tracked down where it was going, but when we intercepted what we thought was that ship, we found a scout vessel. And by that, I mean a ship designed to spy on a system to determine what was there before other ships came in. One damaged warship is still out there, and I suspect other ships are nearby. Perhaps they haven’t arrived yet, but are on their way. That’s not information you need to worry about us pulling from you because we already have it.”
From how the two aliens looked at one another, they had no idea what he was talking about. He didn’t even know what they did aboard the warship. There was no reason to expect they had classified information of any significance. Of course, they might have been officers and were deeply in the know about what the Novarites intended. Still, he didn’t think so based on how the warriors treated them.
“And you should know that we’ve gained access to some of the military computers,” Tina said. “Oh, this is Tina Chen. Right now, we’ve only cracked the Tardan military system, but considering that it’s based on your computers, we have a fair amount of confidence that we’ll get access to your ship’s computer and the one recovered from the scout vessel. In the end, we’ll find out what we need to know. All Christine wants to do is talk about your lives outside the military. What could that hurt?”
“And if we agree, what type of concessions would you be willing to offer us?” Aralan asked.
“What do you want?” Christine asked. “I can’t guarantee I can get anything specific on your behalf, but they’re willing to make certain concessions for your cooperation. I haven’t asked what they’re willing to offer yet, but if you tell me what you’d like to have, it gives me a beginning place in the negotiations. You have my word that I’ll act in good faith in negotiating something that would be in your favor. Do you want to spend the rest of your lives in a cell like this? Would you rather be returned to live with the warriors? Something else? I can’t advocate on your behalf until you tell us what you’d like.”
The aliens leaned closer and whispered softly enough that David couldn’t pick up the information without cranking the microphone all the way up. He didn’t. It was more interesting to listen to this as it happened.
After a minute of terse discussions, Aralan straightened and looked toward the speaker. “We would like a space that has more amenities like our home. We are prisoners, and that will never change, but perhaps we can forget our situation for some time if we have a retreat that is camouflaged as a den rather than a prison.”
Christine raised an eyebrow, and David nodded.
“Something like that can be arranged,” she said. “We can get items from your ship. There are also things from the scout ship that could be used as part of your quarters. They won’t let you have anything that could be used as a weapon, but I’m certain I can successfully negotiate for this. Is there anything else?”
“The food is terrible,” Larista said. “We would like more meat. This paste you feed us is for the troops rather than the crew. Even so, it is worse than what we had before we joined the military. I am no cook, but I can describe what a good meal should be, and we would like better rations. And privacy. I know you watch us, but perhaps we could have a bedroom where we could at least not have cameras watching us and microphones listening to our every word.”
David reached over and muted the microphone. “They’re prisoners, and I’m not willing to say that we won’t have a microphone listening in. I would be willing to have the bedroom and bathroom without cameras. Right now, everything they do is recorded. I can understand the desire for some privacy, and I’m willing to go that far.”
“Let me push back on that a little,” Christine said. “Are they more likely to say something since they know they’re monitored at all times, or might they be willing to do more if they could talk with some level of privacy? What are they going to hide from you? Anything they don’t want you to know, they just won’t say. In any case, even if we promise not to have a microphone in the bedroom, how would they know for sure? You’re not the kind of person that would tell me one thing and then do something else, are you?”
He said nothing.
“David is that kind of person,” Tina said. “But if we give you our word that there is no camera or microphone in a room, we will abide by that. I’ll make sure of it.”
Christine reached over and activated the microphone. “It took some negotiation, but they’re willing to do so.”
The aliens sat stock still for a few moments. Then Aralan made a snorting noise. “I don’t know if we can trust you to keep your word, but we are willing to speak about unclassified things like our homes before we joined the military.”
Christine smiled somewhat triumphantly. “That’s excellent. While they’re getting everything arranged, why don’t we get to know one another better? Let me start off by telling you about myself.”
David stood and stepped to the back of the compartment with Tina. “I’m not sure this is the best idea, but it’s different from what we had in mind.”
“I think it’s going to relax them somewhat, and we might actually get cooperation on the military front once we can build a rapport,” his wife argued. “Christine is very persuasive and extremely personable. Give her a couple of days, and I’ll wager she has them saying things they’d never have conceived of giving away. This is great.”
He wasn’t so sure but was willing to let it play out. Building trust with the prisoners was the only way information could be gathered. He’d have never thought to bring the documentarian in on something like this, but it was a stroke of good luck that he wouldn’t turn down.
“Why don’t we leave her to talk and grab something to eat,” he suggested. “Without us in the room, she might get them to reveal far more than they intend. Besides, we need to start figuring out some really embarrassing questions for our interview.”
Tina laughed and took his arm as they started down the corridor. “You’re a cad. I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
15
Lisa walked around the Novarite computer systems they’d installed in one of the forward compartments. They had three: one from the warship they’d wrecked, another from the ship Confederation Intelligence had been studying, and the one from the scout ship.
The units looked substantially the same, and they shared many aspects with the Tardan military computer, but she was confident there were significant differences under the hood.
First of all, the Tardan military had modified a civilian computer to create something they considered more secure. The warlike Novarites would’ve begun with something significantly more secure. The only real differences would be between the one procured two centuries ago and the other two, she suspected.
Even so, the hardware itself was substantially the same, which allowed her a little more leeway in probing the oldest system. After a thorough inspection, she decided a security override was unlikely to destroy the hardware itself. She might lose data, but they’d once again taken the precaution of copying the files to a new location before she started.
The hardware was designed to prevent that, but Professor Prescott had discovered the secret of bypassing that lockout early on with the motherships. His workaround was crude but effective, so it took that worry off her mind.
During the process of exploring the hardware, she triggered a system wipe four times in less than an hour. Thankfully, copying the data back wasn’t a burden. On the fifth attempt, she managed to gain complete access to the system and eliminate the security protocols. Unlike the Tardan systems, they didn’t have a specific piece of hardware she could remove, so the work was more tedious, but she managed.
With her newfound knowledge and experience, she turned to the scout ship’s computer and made a run on it. Again, she was glad they’d copied the data because the security was tighter and the hardware slightly different. She caused a system wipe twice before she tamed it. That made the run on the warship’s computer a comparative walk in the park. It took her almost no time, and she didn’t trigger the security protocols.
With all three Tardan systems unlocked, she sat back in her seat and smiled widely. She really was that good.
She considered Regex’s comment for a moment before responding. I’ve still got quite a lot to learn, but everything makes more sense than I expected. Tell me, are you picking up some of this as well? You’re sharing the same information I am, so some of my hacker skills should be coming through.
She raised an eyebrow. And where have you been coding that? I haven’t seen my hands typing on any keyboards? Are you doing that all in your proverbial head?
Exactly how do you intend to get the program out of you and into a computer? We don’t have a hardware interface where we can plug into a computer and go to town. That seems almost as intrusive as having you inside me. I don’t think I’d want to be able to link up with a computer like that.
Lisa was ready to reject the entire concept out of hand, but maybe there was something to it. There had been science fiction stories for ages that involved artificial intelligence linked with human minds. Sometimes those were implanted inside the brain. Others merely had access to the brain through hardware or even a wireless connection. That was creepy, but she had to admit that she was living something significantly stranger than that.
If she could access a computer directly, what advantages would she have? Obviously, she could program something faster, and if she was plugged directly into hardware, she could perhaps intrude into a system easier than if she were running programs. Be more nimble, as it were.
If there were programs running in her mind or working via hardware that connected to her mind directly, how would that be different? She wasn’t sure, but it was an intriguing thought. Not one that needed to be acted upon, but perhaps something to consider.
Well, in any case, we’ll have to sit down and type out your program or make the modifications to the existing program, but we need to focus on the computers we’ve got sitting in front of us right now. Let’s see if we can find anything interesting.
She logged into the scout computer and began searching for information on the Novarites. Almost immediately, she hit pay dirt. There were navigational logs and even star maps that showed the area of space controlled by the Novarites.
A quick check located the Tardan home world. Now they knew where everyone came from, at least in relation to one another. She had no idea what the stars were or where they were located, and that would take someone like Derek Calvo digging into the navigational aspects to figure it out.
She sent the information to a computer she’d plugged into the Novarite system. It was primarily made of Tardan components, but it had some add-ons allowing it to interface with Confederation equipment. That would be the bridge through which they could take the data they acquired and have a good look at it.
The next thing she wanted to know was what mission the scout ship had been on. Where had it gone? What had it been hoping to accomplish?
Finding that information took longer, but once she’d located it, it was a treasure trove. The scout ship was meant to be the eyes and ears of this small incursion. If the Tardans had not detected the Novarites approaching them, it would have sat outside of detection range from a system and gotten as much information as it could.
For a few minutes, she wondered how that would work. After all, the Tardans had hyperspace detectors. Even the scout ship would’ve been detectable as it approached any system.
The range of the Tardan hyperspace detector was sixty light-hours. That was almost sixty-five billion kilometers. That was an unworkable distance for sneaking in without using hyperspace. One would have to exit beyond a system’s edge and then sneak in at normal space speeds. That would take months. Maybe a lot of them.
So that meant there had to be something else. How could a scout ship sneak in without being detected in hyperspace? It wasn’t as if the scout ship had been undetectable because Hunter had tracked it down. There had to be something she was missing.
Regex, if this ship is meant to spy on someone, how does it get close enough to do so? The hyperspace detector would pick it up when it’s sixty light-hours out. What am I missing?
She still wasn’t happy doing that sort of thing, but it wasn’t as if she would ever be rid of her passenger. She might as well accept there would be times when it made sense for her to grant Regex access to her body. This was one of those times, so she just needed to get over her aversion long enough for them to do what needed to be done.
Go ahead.
Her hands rose smoothly and began working at the computer, her head turning to see what it needed to see. She recognized what Regex was doing and could keep up as he began his search, but once he’d delved deeply into the system, she had to admit that it was taking more mental effort to follow along than she’d anticipated. This was definitely something he was better at than she was.
After about fifteen minutes of searching, Regex stopped.
And that helps conceal it how?
Can you update the hyperdrive detector to work with that band?
