39 - Knowledge Crime

Terry’s eyes snapped open as he tried to reconcile the machine coding interface with the real world, his manipulators – based on his ice handlers – grasping and clutching at the code that had brought that... person... those eyes... he’d never seen eyes such colours and there weren’t supposed to be anyone in code like that... from there.

He found himself staring at his screen, showing Xanadu.   

“Come back?” he said to the lonely air of the moon station.

That code... had not been from Xanadu.  He didn’t touch the screen or inquire of any of his official station links to the ground.  His supervisors could see anything he did.  All his keystrokes were monitored.

He leaned back and turned his head, called up an illegal screen on the wall next to him.  “Visual. Sheol.”

The stone continent, thrust higher out of the toxic basins of sand, was patched with pale green and white of biomass, mottled with darker orange, pink and bloody red dunes.  The edges of the earthen biomass and where Chishiki fought for domination looked leprous and raw.

Terry scanned the valleys blasted out of the razor sharp tsingy rock and found them the darkest green, with occasional tiny puddles of surface water that was purple and mauve.  There was no sign of human activity on the surface whatsoever, so it his mysterious person... boy... it had to be a boy since women didn’t bellow into one’s face or stare into your eyes, even when startled and in shock. Who was he?

In the code... running still in the back of his head... there was no sign of any kind of code activity except for sanctioned and established programs.  It was all based on Xanadu and it was all based on Perrin and the original programs from the founding.  There were no ferrets in the walls of code.  There was no one pulling a tree out of code or... sniffer monsters honking and howling after the strangest people he’d ever seen.

He pulled back and as he did he caught a faint ripple on the edge of his vision as he was shutting down the code in frustration. Wait.  But the program shut down even as he tried to stop it. He lunged up out of his chair, snapped off the official and sanctioned computer, hands smacking the wall by the side of the door as he slapped the panel back out of his way.

Everything was too small all of a sudden.  Everything was too close and too constrained and too controlled. He’d been in his chair for hours he suddenly realized and his body was actually in pain. Who were these people?  Monsters and dreamlike creatures... but... and those eyes.

He emptied his bladder, washed his hands and face... shrugged and thrust his whole head into the washbasin to douse it.  It didn’t really clear his head, even though he called for cold water, which was melted straight from the ice.  He came up gasping and stared at himself in the mirror, realized it was recording his image to play it back to him... and was accessible.  “I don’t feel well.  My stomach seems to be upset.”

The station chimed and the voice of the mechanical supervisor, in a calm and soothing voice said “We recommend ginger tea and an afternoon’s bedrest.  Extended shift ended. Bed rest granted with no dockage of pay.”

“Good.”

The station was recording him... everywhere but in the control room itself. And in private with Siva... since his jamming programs gave them privacy.  This is odd enough and strange enough... and illegal enough that I need my own jamming programs.  This station hasn’t yet recorded me doing anything stranger than being in the control room more than I have to be.

I... know.  My statistics are recorded in a suit, but not what I am doing.  There is routine maintenance soon.  I will be able to build a program inside the privacy of my suit, while I clean ice crystals out of the leeside sensor arrays.

“Station?”

“Yes, tech?”

“I didn’t finish shutting down the control room properly.  I have to go back and do it right before I drink my tea and go lie down.”

“Acknowledged.”

If they catch me, the Font of All Knowledge will disown the whole family...if I’m lucky that’s all he’ll do.  He’s been getting meaner as he gets older and my brother already suspects me of knowledge crime.  I’ve been a naive idiot.  Did I let anything slip outside the control room?