In a future of increasing government control and a declining standard of living, technology is promising a world of unlimited potential and destruction.
The Hardware and Software Administration controls the use and production of technology. Its agents and analysts ensure that software and hardware are safe and compliant.
That is until analyst Matthew Driggs finds himself framed in a terrorist hack directing an asteroid into Earth. The allegations put the reputation of himself and his church in jeopardy.
Prospective agent Dalyce Reigns sees this as her opportunity to shine and secure a better future for herself and her family as she hunts down the real terrorists. Her path will challenge her understanding of good and evil despite its apparent benevolence.
Matthew Driggs and Dalyce Reigns must fight through reality and virtual reality to bring those responsible for the terrorist attack to justice.
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His parents had always told young Matthew that he should never go into the Sewers. They were not actual sewers. Maybe part of them were at one point. They were underground, a huge network of tunnels snaking under the city.
Since the government had started consolidating the population into a handful of cities, most people had to dig down instead of building up. Everything above ground was already densely-packed skyscrapers and already pushing the limits of what engineering could reasonably do. Suburbia no longer existed so the land could be in its natural state. Cities became like icebergs, with more below than above. Most of the underground was fine. Normal people who just could not afford to live above the surface. However, the deeper you went, the darker it got. The deeper sections were the most recently built. However, looking at the graffiti, garbage just dumped in the tunnels, and people who had never seen the sun, nor cared enough to make the effort, you knew why people called them the Sewers.
Matthew’s parents had always told him never to go down there. There were bad people down there. Normally, Matthew listened to his parents. When he went running around, he would stick to their building, or only go to some of the upper levels of the underground. A few weeks ago, his parents had taken him down to some of the Sewers. It was for their church. They were distributing food and recycled clothing.
For Matthew, the only thing he remembered was a pile of trash. He thought he saw the edges of a dumpster poking out, but the pile had grown too big and swallowed whatever had been there to hold the garbage. Whoever had been in charge of cleaning up must have either forgotten, or given up. What Matthew had remembered was the trash. So much of it was old computers and hardware. There had even been a few Virtual Reality sockets, which were hoods combined with collars that allowed you to experience virtual reality as if you were really there. No controls, just think and it happened.
They had been walking with the whole group from the church. Matthew asked to stop and take a look, even pulling on his Dad’s arm, but they kept going. His parents wanted to stay with the group and not get separated. Matthew had looked at it as long as he could, until they had turned a corner and cut off the view. As they kept walking, Matthew did his best to remember every turn. He pulled his computer out of his pocket and snapped pictures of some of the signs they passed. He would come back one day and dig through that pile of trash.
His chance had come a few weeks later when his parents went out to visit some friends for the day and left Matthew alone at home. They told him he was only allowed to leave to visit friends who lived on the same floor of their tower.
As soon as his parents left, he grabbed some food and a bottle of water and put them into his backpack, along with a few extra bags in case he had a really good haul. He only waited a little while to make sure his parents had gotten on the bus and were long gone so they would not see him outside their apartment.
Getting to the sewer was not hard. It was only about a block away and down. Down a long way. The elevator did not even have a button for each floor, there were so many: just a keypad to enter your floor number. His goal was on floor -322.
The ride took a while, the elevator stopping every few floors to take on more people and let others off. As he got deeper, the people getting on and off started smelling worse and worse, and their clothes looked worse too.
At floor -322 he finally got off and started running. The ride had seemed to take forever and he was getting impatient knowing it would take a long time to get back up. He needed to get back home before his parents. The signs were the same ones he had taken pictures of a few weeks before and he remembered them well enough to not even need to look them up on his computer. Rounding a corner he spotted what he was after: still there, if anything, even bigger, the pile of trash.
A quick dig brought him the socket that he was after. He tried turning it on, but it would not. Probably low batteries. Even if there was something wrong with it, it would be cheaper to fix than getting a new one. Some more digging brought Matthew another socket and several old computers. They had broken screens, but otherwise seemed to work. Matthew had a friend who was good with this stuff; he could fix it. They could make some money selling these.
After digging around for a while, and filling up his backpack with treasure, Matthew heard the footsteps of someone coming. They came really close to Matthew, and that was about the last thing he remembered there.
When he woke up, he was in a dimly lit room with a dozen other children. Some younger, some older. They all looked scared.
“Where am I?” said Matthew.
A few of the kids looked at him, but no one responded.
“What’s going on?” He spoke louder, but everyone stayed silent. This time they did not even look up.
He got to his feet, wanting to look around the room for an exit. As soon as he got to his feet he sat back down. He did not want to sit back down; his body just did the motion without any direction from his brain. A few kids looked at him, then went back to staring at the floor.
“What?” he said, looking around the room. If any of the kids were looking at him now, they would see the pained expression of someone who had no idea what was happening. Further attempts to stand up failed as soon as he got to his feet.
This was getting frustrating. Matthew ran his hands over his head and brushed his right ear in the process. Only, it was not his ear.
He reached up to grab his ear again to investigate what was there. Then his arms snapped to his sides, knuckles banging the ground and hurting as a layer of skin came off.
“Don’t touch your implant,” came a voice.
“Who said that?” said Matthew, but no one answered.
Matthew did not have any implants. He knew that. Implants were something bad people had. They would get implants put into their bodies. Sometimes replacing body parts. The implants connected directly to their nervous system. A seamless connection between man and machine.
Was his ear an implant now? He tried to touch his ear again. Just a brief touch. Whatever was there was not his ear. It was hard. It must have been an implant. His arms snapped back down to his sides and the voice came back: “Don’t touch your implant.” It was not really a voice. Just the implant sending signals to his brain to make him think that he was hearing voices.
Looking around, he could see that the other kids also had implants. Their right ears were gone. Replaced with a round, grey, plastic blob with faint green lights.
Tears started to form in his eyes and he pulled his knees up to his chest. This was why his parents had not wanted to stay in the Sewers, why they had told him to never go down there: because this could happen. He did not know what was going to happen to him. A few times he had seen things on the news about police rescuing kids with implants, but would they rescue him? He wanted to go home. He wanted to be with his parents again.
Telling time was impossible because the dim lights in the room never went out. A few times someone came in and dropped plates of food in front of them. Matthew never saw who it was; the implants made him close his eyes each time the door opened. The food did not taste of anything. Just some sort of nutrient gel.
It must have been at least a day later when they left the room. The implants took complete control of them and moved them like puppets. As they exited the door, the implants closed their eyes again. Walking with your eyes closed is not fun, but the implants had complete control and moved them around several corners. When they stopped, Matthew could sense the other kids near him and heard the sound of some sort of door closing. Then the implants opened their eyes and they were free to move again.
Now they were inside some sort of cargo vehicle. It started moving with an abrupt jerk. Some of the kids fell down; others managed to catch themselves on the smooth walls before quickly getting seated. Matthew knew these cargo vehicles were self-driving transports. Literally a box on wheels, motors and batteries underneath and some sensors and cameras on each end. Vibrations in the straight sections and the g-forces in the corners said they were moving fast. It also seemed that they were going up. The floor was not level. Likely, their captors had loaded them somewhere underground–maybe on the sewer level, and this transport was going to the surface. Then where?
At some point, the floor leveled out, but the vehicle kept moving. It stopped and started a few times like it would in a city, but then the ride kept going without stops. The whine of the motors said they were going faster than ever. Were they outside the city? It was rare for anyone to travel outside the city. You needed a permit for that. Matthew just wanted to go home, but that seemed to be getting farther and farther away all the time.
When the vehicle stopped, at the end of what felt like a dirt road because it was so rough, the implants closed Matthew’s eyes and made him stand up. He heard the door open and he started walking towards it. There was some sort of ramp he walked down. At the bottom the ground felt soft under his feet. Not hard like concrete. They must be outside the city then. The air was cool and smelt funny. A light breeze was blowing too. He could not place the sounds he was hearing until he remembered the sound of wind in trees from a nature film he had seen. There were no trees in the city.
A few steps and the ground became hard again and the air became warm as he entered a building. He heard voices. A lot of voices. It sounded like a party. Some were talking, others cheering about something. The smell of alcohol hit Matthew’s nose. Glasses clinked together.
Matthew would have been shaking in fear if not for the implant keeping any movements under control. The kind of terrified where he knew this was the end. Nothing had prepared him for a situation where an implant was controlling his every move. Even the involuntary shakes that would normally happen in a terrifying situation were suppressed. From the outside, he was as still and calm as a monk in meditation.
“Ok everyone, gather round,” came a man’s voice. “It looks like the surprise I planned has arrived.”
More cheering at these words.
“I wanted to do something special. Because we are celebrating something special here tonight. Sam, could you come up here?”
More clapping and cheering at this.
“Sam has just been elected to congress. A first election, I’m sure, in a career which will forward our aims more than I ever have.”
“You’ve done more than you give yourself credit for,” came a woman’s voice followed by some sounds of admiration from the others.
“Well, the kids are here. There’s plenty for everyone. Take your pick. They’re all under implant control, so they’ll do anything you want. Unless you want the implants turned off for some old fashioned fun. I have the controls right here.” Some laughed.
For the next few minutes, Matthew could hear and sense people moving around him, talking quietly to each other. Occasionally someone touched him. One person played with his hair.
“I’ll take this one,” came a man’s voice.
“This one for me,” said a woman.
“Can I take two?” said someone else to the sound of laughter.
Slowly the voices died down and Matthew heard the sounds of doors opening and closing. Two main voices remained: the woman who had spoken earlier and a new man.
“Come on Sam, just pick one,” said the man.
“Oh, I don’t know,” said the woman, “they’re all so scrumptious.” After a pause. “Ok, this one.”
“Finally,” said the man. “I’ll take her.”
Footsteps were the only thing Matthew heard, and those were getting quieter. The room sounded almost empty, but Matthew had no real way of knowing; his eyes were still forced shut by the implants. He had no idea what this place was or what was going on.
After several minutes of quiet, he started walking again. The implant made him turn around and marched him out of the building. The warm air of the building was gone, replaced by the cool outdoor air. He walked up the ramp, back into the vehicle and stopped. The door shut and the implant released him. Matthew was back in the vehicle. Although this time, there were only two other kids with him. What had happened to the others? They must be back in the building. They all turned to look at the door as if they could see through it to where the others were, but the vehicle started moving again and they all fell over.
The vehicle drove for a while before it came to an abrupt halt. Matthew and the other kids slid to the front of the cargo space. The implants activated again and froze them in place. They could hear shouting coming from the outside. Within seconds, one of the doors was rolling up and a bunch of men holding flashlights were looking in.
“That’s a lot less than we thought,” said one man.
“We’re too late,” said another.
“At least we got these,” said a third. “Don’t worry kids. We’ll have you free in a minute.”
One of the men was tapping at a tablet. “There,” he said. “How’s that?” The implants released and Matthew and the other kids could move again. “Don’t worry, we’ll get you back to your parents.”
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Dalyce Reigns jogged across the campus. She was running late for a meeting with a professor.
Earlier that morning, her mother had had another episode. That was what they called it. The doctors had trouble figuring out what the problem was, although they all mentioned that it was likely the by-product of years of malnutrition. A number of those years were from starving herself to feed Reigns and her younger sister.
The episode was under control though. This one seemed to be of a lesser severity, and Reigns’s sister had the situation under control. So Reigns was still trying to make the meeting.
The campus was quite beautiful, as one of the few places in the city that planners had not turned into a giant cluster of towers. They still had areas of green grass, on which walking was strictly forbidden, and a few trees. She ran past these. Other people walked slowly, enjoying the brief bits of nature that no longer existed in any other publicly-accessible area.
She ran up the steps of an old stone building. A few students sat on the stairs, chatting about something. Reigns always looked at these students, with all the time in the world, with envy. She had worked hard to get here, and needed to make the most of it. Her mother and sister were depending on her to succeed. So she did not have a lot of time to spare to sit on the steps and enjoy her surroundings.
After more staircases in the building she finally arrived at Professor Jacob Weishaupt’s office. “Reigns, you made it,” said Professor Jacob with his usual smile and everything-is-at-ease demeanor.
Reigns began to apologize, but Professor Jacob waved her off.
“Nothing to worry about,” he said. “I was just finishing something up myself and running a little late too.” He chuckled, cheeks turning a rosy red. Reigns started to relax and catch her breath. He pulled his computer out of the dock, disconnecting it from the larger screen and keyboard, and put it into his pocket. “Let’s take a walk. I’ve been in this office all day.”
“So what did you want to talk about, Professor Weishaupt?” said Reigns when they were outside. There was a bit of a tone in her voice, but only because her mother’s condition worried her and it would have felt better to be back home than here.
“How many of my classes have you taken, Reigns?” said Professor Jacob. “I forget. And you don’t have to call me professor anymore. You’ve graduated.”
“Well, I think it was five,” said Reigns. “Modern Ethics one through three, and Practical Social Change one and two.”
“That’s just about all of them,” said Professor Weishaupt chuckling. “You were one of the best students I’ve had in the past few years. You really seemed to believe in what I was teaching more than most of the other students.”
“I took those classes for a reason,” said Reigns. “They were electives for me.”
“Which is one of the reasons I wanted to talk to you today,” said Professor Weishaupt. “It’s so rare to find someone who takes most of my classes, but is majoring in a more practical field like your cyber criminology. It potentially makes you very useful.”
Reigns’s face gave a half smile, and a half I’m-not-sure-if-this-is-good look.
“Oh don’t think this is bad. It’s really good. You see, all of my ideas I talk about in my lectures, they’re just theories. They’re not going to change the world unless someone actually does something.”
“It made me take your classes,” said Reigns. “Isn’t that something?”
Professor Weishaupt smiled. “You’re kind. You are probably right. Some of my students likely have taken some of my ideas out into the world and are doing what they can to implement them. However, I would like to see them put into action some more and would like you to be part of it.”
“You want me to put your ideas into action?” said Reigns. “Me?” The idea of doing that seemed impossible to her. It was such a huge task.
“Oh, you wouldn’t be alone in this,” said Professor Weishaupt. “In fact, we have a good start already. I’ve been teaching for a long time now. I’ve had many students who I’ve asked and have volunteered. We have a sort of club. Some of your classmates have already agreed to join. We have people all over the country.”
“And you think I can really do something?” said Reigns.
“Why don’t you think you can do something?” said Professor Weishaupt. “You are a very smart, capable young woman. Even without my group, you could do a lot if you really tried. I’ve seen less talented people do incredible things.”
Reigns felt her cheeks go rosy red and she tried to cover them with her hands. “I…I…I wouldn’t know where to start,” she said.
“Oh we can help with that,” he said with a chuckle. “In fact, we already have some plans for you if you want them.”
Reigns swallowed. Plans? Plans for her? She had her own plans too. Responsibilities. “Um,” she said “My mom is pretty sick, and my sister really needs me.” For most of her academic career she had been focusing on ways to get a good job and help out her family.
“You can do both,” said Professor Weishaupt. “Wasn’t that one of the things that made you interested in my classes? My ideas about society would improve the situation your family is in. It would have prevented your family from ever getting into its current situation.”
Reigns nodded. He was right about that. The vision Professor Weishaupt painted for the world was something of a fantasy for her. She would think about it like some sort of fairytale. Only, this one was taught at a university as something that could actually happen. Every time her mother had another episode, or the fridge was empty, she would think about Professor Weishaupt’s classes, hoping that his ideas would happen one day.
“And you would have a good job in the process to help your family out.”
Reigns snapped her attention to the professor at this. “A job?” she said. So far, her attempts to find a job had not been successful.
“Of course,” said Professor Weishaupt. “How did you think this was going to work? Activism only does so much. If you really want to change things, you need to be in the places where the power is. You wanted to work at the HSA, right?”
The HSA, or Hardware and Software Administration. Years ago, when technology was largely unregulated, it created a lot of problems. People had the ability to access super powerful computers. Anyone could take down websites, store vast amounts of data, and use software capable of all sorts of illegal things. There were times evil actors managed to make the majority of the country believe outright lies. This led to huge amounts of distrust and a breakdown of society. It took over a generation to get things where they were now. Authorities found how catastrophic unregulated technology and communication could be. So, they created HSA to regulate it all. The HSA certified every piece of hardware sold in the country. Any program available was rigorously tested, if not created by, the HSA to make sure it was safe. Regulations limited the amount of computing power anyone could own. It really was more than most people needed.
A few people tried to rebel, of course. Which is why the HSA also had an enforcement arm. “I always wanted to work for them,” said Reigns. “But what are they doing as part of your plans?”
“More than you know, or I can say right now,” said Professor Weishaupt. “It really is an important job at the moment.”
Reigns was quiet for a few minutes. “I’ve never really thought about it,” she said. “Being someone who could make a difference in the world.”
“Most don’t until they try to,” said Professor Weishaupt. “Most people just look at the size of the problem and think they can’t do anything. In reality, changing the world is a lot easier than most people think.”
“I’ll have to think about it then.”
“Please do,” said Professor Weishaupt. “I won’t lie that it is a big decision. A big commitment. We really only want people who are in it for the long haul. Of course, I’m biased in thinking that it is well worth it.”
She left Professor Weishaupt and spent the next few minutes hoping the train would move faster. She really wanted to get back home to check on her mother.
At home, she found her mom resting on the bed. Sitting next to her mother on the bed was her sister. Their mother seemed to be doing ok at the moment. Looking around the tiny apartment, she knew something had to change.
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The alarm was starting to get annoying and was making it difficult to concentrate. Matthew Drriggs, using nothing but a thought, pulled up a holographic control panel. The panel floated in front of him, a semi-transparent collection of lights. He pressed a few of the buttons. Despite its holographic appearance, it felt solid to his touch. A small message appeared, allowing him to turn off the alarm, but a red blinking indicator would remain in his field of vision. He acknowledged the message.
“What’s going on here?” said Commander Ted, his avatar appearing next to Driggs. Commander Ted was Driggs’ superior at the HSA, the Hardware and Software Administration. He was in charge of Driggs’ group of analysts, who were responsible for checking all sorts of digital systems under HSA jurisdiction.
“I’m not sure,” said Driggs, looking around him. The sight was not on earth. It was from a NET, a Neuro-Electronic Transmission–virtual reality, in simple terms. Right now, Driggs and Commander Ted were standing on the surface of an asteroid flying through space. At least, that was what their avatars were experiencing. The real asteroid was far away.
“You were just doing the audit, right?” said Commander Ted. “Nothing else? Not having fun with the toys?”
“Just the audit,” said Driggs. “I was working my way through the shuttle craft when the asteroid’s control engines started firing.”
Covering the surface of the asteroid were all sorts of autonomous gear: various types of digging crawlers; shuttle craft to carry what was dug up; and rocket engines mounted directly onto the asteroid. A modern asteroid mining operation. 100% autonomous, and therefore subject to regular audits from the HSA to ensure the AI was still behaving itself.
When Driggs had started the audit, everything was normal. Now, the rockets on the asteroid were firing off all over the place.
“Can you just shut it down?” said Commander Ted. He had a holopanel up. “I don’t seem to be able to.”
Driggs pulled up his own panel. “No,” he said after a few seconds. “Nothing is responding. It’s like I’m locked out. The system dimmed the controls too.”
“Were they like that a minute ago?” asked Commander Ted.
“Everything was normal,” said Driggs. “I had full access. Could do anything I wanted.”
“And you started the audit program?”
“Of course,” said Driggs.
“So what happened then?”
“I’m looking at the transmission logs,” said Driggs. He pulled up a set of holopanels which arched around him and displayed an array of information. Commander Ted walked up behind him to look at the screens. The tops of the screens were graphics giving a general overview of the data flowing to and from the asteroid. The rest of the screens were scrolling text. Fast scrolling text.
“I never got the hang of reading these things,” said Commander Ted.
“Give me a minute,” said Driggs. He was good at reading these things. His attention and ability to handle the details was what made him a valuable analyst.
Most of the data was coming from the asteroid towards earth, which was how they knew what was happening on the asteroid. Driggs was more interested in the data going from the earth to the asteroid. It was mostly a hunch, but he thought that there may have been some commands which were coming from earth to make the asteroid do this. The software for these asteroid mining operations were very rigorously tested. They contained a number of fail-safes and internal barriers. The rockets were still firing. Haywire. On and off. There had to be a command from earth telling them to do so. Driggs did not know what it was doing to the asteroid’s flight path, but he knew he needed to get it under control.
“What do you make of that?” said Driggs, pointing to the chart at the top of one of his holopanels. “The part that keeps coming in and out?” On the chart, a blue shape would appear for a few seconds, next to shapes of other colours before disappearing. Then it would come back a little bit later. It represented data going to the asteroid.
Commander Ted leaned in to look. “Looks interesting,” he said, shrugging. Driggs sighed inside.
The flashing in and out meant that it was not a persistent signal. With a command, Driggs brought up a holo-keyboard and started typing. The keyboard appeared as nothing more than a collection of lights floating in front of Driggs. Yet, the feedback from the virtual reality NET was very realistic. The ‘keys’ even felt real and pressure sensitive.
“What are you writing?” said Commander Ted.
“I’m trying to see if there is a correlation between that signal and the rockets,” said Driggs. With a few commands he had isolated the metadata from that blue signal. Then he converted it into a clean dataset and combined it with the timing data of the rockets. A few more keystrokes brought up a graph comparing the two. “Correlated,” said Driggs. “Really well correlated.” This was proof that the signal was controlling the rockets.
“That’s not good,” said Commander Ted. “Where is this signal coming from? Not the HSA, is it?”
Driggs did not respond but started typing again. All the text that was scrolling past on the screens changed to blue. He wanted to see the text itself. The information would be there. More typing and Driggs had various algorithms running to parse out the text. The algorithms looked for repeating segments. These would be useful metadata and translate the complex machine instructions into something he could read.
On one of the screens, the text stopped scrolling and showed the results. “The signal is at least passing through the HSA,” said Driggs. “Not sure yet if it comes from the HSA or from outside.”
“We have a problem though,” said Commander Ted. “I’m going to send out an alert.” He walked away to send the alert. Driggs kept looking at the holopanels.
Somewhere here was the answer. Reading computer logs and software output was never fun. Most of it was messages made by some developer who never thought that anyone would actually read this. Most of it only made sense to the developer, at the time.
In the mess of text and awkward grammar, something stood out. Driggs had not seen this before and had trouble identifying what it was. Part of it was commands, but there were some very long strings of numbers that did not fit any format Driggs could recognize.
The HSA had a large selection of digital tools to use. One was a syntax search engine for text like this. It would take in the text and try to figure out what program or source made it. Driggs copied and pasted the text he had found into the search field and hit “go.” A few seconds later the text came back. It was from the NULLNET.
For a second Driggs just looked at the result, not sure what to make of it. There were many NETs available for people to experience virtual reality. Driggs was currently in a development net (DEVNET) to do the audit of the asteroid. The HSA had recently created the SMARTNET. A public NET which was safe for anyone to use and enjoy. The NULLNET was one of the largest illegal NETs out there.
To access most NETs, users were only required to put on a socket. This hood-and-collar device would read, manipulate, and intercept the user’s brain waves to make them think they were experiencing what the NET was telling you. Right now, in the real world, Driggs’ body was sitting in a chair, in a socket room in the HSA.
The NULLNET did things differently. They used implants to make their connection. Driggs reached up and rubbed his right ear. It existed in this NET, but not in real life. Supposedly the connection was better with an implant. Direct contact between the hardware and your nervous system. Implants were illegal in most cases. Most cases definitely included the NULLNET.
If this signal was coming from the NULLNET, then that meant a user on the NULLNET had hacked them. Who knew what else the hacker had access to, besides the asteroid. Driggs needed to stop the hack.
Driggs started typing furiously. He typed commands to bring in more tools. Firewalls. Security programs. This hacker would get blocked from the HSA systems. Then Driggs would send a legion of tracing programs after him.
Success. Driggs blocked the hack. On the screens, the blue flashing shape was gone. The rockets around Driggs had shut down. Driggs was not much for emotion, but he smiled. He sent some more programs out to do a damage assessment. Where had the hacker gone? What did they do? There was going to be a large report to write after this. Likely some sort of investigation. Driggs wanted to make sure all the data was ready.
“Hey Driggs,” said Commander Ted. “Could you log off right now?”
“Right now?” said Driggs. He turned to look at Commander Ted’s avatar while pointing back at the screens he had been working on. “But I…”
“Now please,” said Commander Ted. The tone was not angry, but clearly indicated something was wrong and this was the wrong time to not follow the command.
Driggs brought up another holopanel and logged off. The virtual world of the asteroid surface around him disappeared. Replacing it was the real world of the socket room. He had to blink a few times until his eyes worked properly. He was sitting in the same chair from a few hours earlier when he had started the asteroid audit. Around his neck was a collar that would intercept commands to his body and prevent him from moving. The socket sent those commands to the computer, which turned them into movements in the NET. On his head was a hood which would make him think he was experiencing the NET like real life. Around the room were similar chairs. Some had other analysts in them; others were empty.
In front of Driggs stood several people whom he had not met before. He tried to raise his hand to rub his eyes but found someone had handcuffed them to the chair. Restraining someone in the chair was rare. They used to do it as a safety precaution when the occasional movement was not captured by the collar, but went to the body. Driggs was about to say something when one of the people standing in front of him spoke.
“Analyst Matthew Driggs,” said the man. “I’m Agent Harold Kim. You are under arrest for using HSA resources to tamper with private property and to jeopardize life on earth.”
Driggs had trouble processing what he was being told. What did Agent Kim mean about jeopardizing life on earth?
“Could you please tell me what is going on?” said Commander Ted. He must have just logged off too and had walked over from the socket he had been using. He still had his hood and collar on, connection cables hanging off of him like tentacles.
Agent Kim looked at Commander Ted with a bit of annoyance. “As I’m sure your analyst here knows,” said Agent Kim. “The asteroid he was working on is now on a collision path with earth.”
Driggs’ eyes widened and he got a sinking feeling in his gut. Commander Ted shared a similar look to Driggs. You could almost smell the poo about to come out.
“Don’t look so surprised,” continued Agent Kim. “We have it all. The data clearly shows you started a program which directed the rockets on the asteroid to change their flight trajectories towards earth.”
There was a program, Driggs knew. Driggs did not start it though. Someone had hacked them.
“I want to review that data,” said Commander Ted. “And get some of my people to review it.”
“Of course,” said Agent Kim. Somewhat smug, he clearly had no doubt on the data.
Driggs was sitting there shocked and scared. The data was going to show that he was innocent. He knew that. In the decision between fight or flight, he chose the most common answer. He froze.
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It was evening. The sun was going down outside. Reigns would see that when she left the apartment in a few minutes. This apartment had no windows. She knelt beside her mother, who was sleeping. “I’m going to step out for a bit,” she said. “I’ll be back later. I’m going to help us.” Reigns gave her mother a kiss before leaving and going to the university campus.
The campus was a lot emptier at night. The sound of footsteps echoed in the hallways instead of absorbing into other people’s bodies. As she got closer, the emptiness left. Around Professor Weishaupt’s office were five other students chatting away.
“Dalyce, you’re here,” said Jesse, one of Reigns’ friends from class. They hugged as they met. “It’s exciting, isn’t it?”
Everyone seemed to be in a good mood and this was making Reigns feel better. These were people she knew and trusted. If they were here, then Professor Weishaupt’s plans must be ok.
At precisely seven o’clock, Professor Weishaupt stepped out of his office to join them. “Hello everyone,” he said, making eye contact with each of them. “I’m so glad you could make it here this evening. I hope that this will be a special night for all of you and you will remember it for a long time.” He took a breath. “It feels like starting an adventure.” Some gave nervous chuckles. “Well, off we go.”
He led them down the hallway to the elevator. On the way, Reigns noticed that the others were wearing really fancy clothes. The boys were wearing suits and even Jesse was wearing a nice dress. Reigns herself was in her normal clothes. Not that she had much in the way of nicer clothes anyway.
The elevator carried them to the basement. Everyone was awkwardly quiet until it reached the bottom and Professor Weishaupt led them out. “We’re all here,” he called out as he stepped out of the elevator. Stepping out herself, Reigns saw the Chancellor of the university standing beside an open door. He hugged Professor Weishaupt as they met and looked at the rest of the students.
“You know,” said the Chancellor, “I was once in your same position. Jacob here captivated me with his lectures and recruited me into the League of Light. It was the best thing I ever did. This night is going to change your lives.” Wow, thought Reigns. Even the University Chancellor was part of the group. He was so much older than her, but Professor Weishaupt was even older still. Just how large was the organization at this point? And how powerful?
The Chancellor led them into the room. It was like no other room on campus. Most of the campus, as an allowance to the open grounds, made very efficient use of the buildings. Rooms were small and cramped. Well organized, but cramped. This room was the opposite. It was luxurious. Empty space seemed to be what most of the room contained. Covering the floor was a soft, red carpet. Most of the ground that Reigns had ever walked on was hard: concrete, or concrete covered in plastic or thin carpet. Reigns could feel her feet sink in a little with every step. It would take a little getting used to walking on this.
The perimeter of the room had a sort of balcony around it with a large number of doors both on the level she was on and the balcony. A group of people were standing on the balcony looking down at them. They were all well-dressed. Reigns recognized a few of them. Most were professors at the university. She’d had a class with one of them. Another one was the mayor. What was the mayor doing here? This was all confusing to Reigns, like she had walked into another world.
“Welcome to our little clubhouse,” said Professor Weishaupt. “A few more senior members of my group have decided to come today to welcome you. You might recognize a few of them. Over the next few years, I hope you get to know them better. They’ll basically become a family to you. Later, if you have time, on the walls are pictures of all the others I have recruited over the years.”
Professor Weishaupt led them into the middle of the room where the only fixture in the space stood. A clear pyramid was hanging from the ceiling on a gold chain. The hanging pyramid, which looked like it was glass, or really clear crystal, had veins of gold running through it. The chain was not fixed to the ceiling, but ran through a pulley. It anchored back to the ground where it wrapped around a wheel that could let out more chain, or pull it in. Below the pyramid was a large gold base on the ground, with a flat top that looked like it would fit the clear pyramid if lowered all the way.
“This,” said Professor Weishaupt pointing to the pyramid cap, “is a physical representation of the Great Goal. A true, and beautiful idea, coming down from above to our world below. Every time we make some progress towards the Great Goal, we let out a bit of the chain and it gets lower. Once our work is complete, the goal will rest on the base.” Reigns looked at it. The cap was a lot closer to the base than the ceiling. There was not much more to go. They were close.
“Like heaven coming down to earth,” said Reigns. The cap was just an object, but in it she saw something that could help her and her family.
Professor Weishaupt turned around. “That’s very…poetic,” he said. “I’ll have to use that.” Then to the rest of the group, he said, “Ok, gather around and form a circle.” He motioned where to stand, and the new members spaced themselves in a circle around the pyramid.
Now talking louder so that everyone in the room could hear. “We are here tonight to welcome some new members on our quest,” said Professor Weishaupt. “These will be our new brothers and sisters. Our friends, colleagues, and teammates. Welcome them.”
Reigns almost jumped when it happened, but the rest of the people in the room all spoke in unison. “Welcome, our new brothers and sisters.” Reigns looked up to the balcony where they were standing. All of them were smiling down on them.
“Welcome to the League of Light,” said Professor Weishaupt. “Our purpose is to bring about the Great Goal. Let me ask you what the Great Goal is?”
He looked at the new members for a second. “Come now, I’ve said it pretty much every day in class.” He motioned for them to speak.
“The Great Goal is the perfect society. Free from need or want, where everyone is equal,” they all said, in a jumbled attempt at unison. It really did not turn out all that impressive.
“Again, then,” Professor Weishaupt had a smirk on his face. This was not the first time.
“The Great Goal is the perfect society. Free from need or want, where everyone is equal,” they all said again. This time it was a lot better. More in unison.
“With some confidence now,” said Professor Weishaupt.
“The Great Goal is the perfect society. Free from need or want, where everyone is equal,” they said to the applause from the upper level.
Professor Weishaupt was smiling at them. “I ask you now,” he said. “Do you pledge yourself to this goal? To see it through to its completion? To give your body and mind to it for the benefit of humanity?”
“Yes,” they all said, and more applause came from the upper level. Reigns did say the words, although inside she knew she still had some reservations. She had people who depended on her. However, if Professor Weishaupt’s offer of a good job at the HSA was right, then it should be ok.
“Great,” said Professor Weishaupt. “The last part is a sealing of the pact. This is–I never want to say ‘sacred’–but it is like that. It is serious.” A woman dressed in a robe walked into the room through a door–not the door they had come in, but another one. The hood of the robe covered the woman’s head. She carried a tray which looked empty until she got closer and Reigns could see a set of knives on the tray. Once she got to Professor Weishaupt, she stopped next to him. Professor Weishaupt picked up one of the knives. “If you take a close look at the pyramid, you’ll notice there are a large number of stains covering the base. My blood is on there. Everyone here on the balcony–their blood is on it. Tonight, yours will be, too. It is a symbol that the Great Goal is being supported by our lives. Use these knives to give yourselves small cuts on one of your fingers and wipe the blood on the base. When you do, say your name and that you are pledging yourself to the Great Goal.”
One by one, Professor Weishaupt handed a knife to the new recruits. When Reigns got hers, she studied it. All metal, but light. The blade was about as long as her finger. The handle was a similar length, but thin with some Latin engraved on it. This knife was not really for any practical use, but ceremonial.
Some of them had already done it. Jesse winced as she pushed the blade into her thumb. She nearly wiped the blood off on her clothes before she remembered the pedestal. She knelt at it and wiped her thumb on it. A fresh layer of bright red blood on top of the dark stains of the generations before them.
Reigns knew it was her turn. A few were looking at her. The door was behind her. As far as she knew, it was not locked. However, leaving would not be good. She put the edge of the blade to her thumb and applied pressure. The knife cut easier than she would have thought. It went deeper than she had intended, the blood flowed easily, and it left a large new stain on the gold of the pyramid.
When she finished, several more people in red robes had come out of the door and were applying bandages to everyone’s hands. One provided cases for the knives. Reigns put her knife in her case. It was wood with a glass top. The knife fit easily into a carved-out section of the wood below an engraving of her name. She looked at Professor Weishaupt. He was looking at her across the room with a smile. ‘Thank you,’ she mouthed. He bowed his head in response.
“Come on down and say hello,” said Professor Weishaupt to the people standing on the balcony. They disappeared through a door, then reappeared through another door on the lower level. This room had a large number of doors.
More robed people came. They may have been the ones who had already come out; Reigns could only differentiate them by height. They carried trays with glasses and pitchers of a red liquid. She took a glass from one person, and another person filled it with the liquid. She had trouble placing it. The colour was red, but not wine. It did not smell like any other drink she had ever had. It was thicker than wine.
When everyone had a filled glass, Professor Weishaupt spoke from the centre of the group. “We’ve been doing this for decades now. The Great Goal was not something that I came up with. There were others before me, and others will come after me. I’m just doing my part in my time. This glass has bound us all together though through all the ages.” He held up the glass. “To the Great Goal.”
“To the Great Goal,” everyone else said together and they emptied their glasses. It had a metallic taste, but also a sweetness. It stained everyone’s lips red. Within a few minutes a warmth came over Reigns. She thought that there must have been some sort of drug in the drink, but she did not feel intoxicated in any way. Sharper, if anything. More alive and energetic.