Writing > Misbegotten (new addition)

Chapter 36

(1/1)

Daen:
Chapter 36

Bez was having a bad day.

Ever since the war started, it seemed like his problems had been building up on top of each other, piling up like water behind one of those dams he'd read about. He'd been able to ignore them, out there behind the controls of a fighter jet, but now that the war had ended, the proverbial dam had broken and his problems were now flooding all over the place!

The biggest problem was Naomi. She'd told him, when all of this had started, that she wasn't ready to be with him yet. She'd agreed to stay in contact, wherever she would be evacuated to, and she'd been true to her word. Her messages had been a bright gleam of light in an otherwise very dark time. But now, she and everyone else had moved back to civilization. Like all the other unmarried women and the surviving children from Harmony, they were being housed in a large building complex on the west side of the city. He'd gone to see her several times now, but she'd been... distant.

What did she want from him? He'd done everything he was supposed to. He'd been patient, considerate, and aware of her needs as best he could be. And he'd survived a war, no less! He might not have been the best pilot up there, but he had risked his life for her and for every other human on this world. Maybe he was doing something else wrong here. For perhaps the hundredth time, he wished he could talk to Diana. She understood Naomi better than anyone.

Diana was another problem. What was going to happen to her? Simon had gone in to speak with the President, to argue her case, but the meeting hadn't lasted long. Then he'd asked Bez to stay out of it, and then he'd voted to ratify the very document condemning his wife! What had he been thinking? Even a protest vote would have been a gesture to the population that what was happening was unfair.

Bez wanted to think that Simon was playing some long game here—manipulating the President and the Chief Justice, and a bunch of other people into doing what he wanted and eventually freeing Diana—but there was no evidence of it yet.

Work was a problem as well. He'd just started an engineering firm (they called them firms back on Earth, even though he wasn't a legal expert in any way; he still didn't know why) right before the war had started. Naturally he hadn't been able to get any work done on it, or gain any employees or clients during the fighting. Now that he was back, he'd reached out to his old contacts, but two of them had been killed when Harmony had been attacked. Another had signed on to work with Argent instead. That left Bez with just two more potential employees, and neither had responded to his messages yet.

He was an engineer, for God's sake! He wasn't built to run a business or company! Bez had always been happiest when he'd been up to his elbows in some new piece of machinery or fine-tuning one of his mechanical inventions. Sure, he'd taken up politics because he had some good ideas of how to upgrade this developing society, but that wasn't the same as making and selling a product either.

Maybe he should go to work for Argent as well. There was no shame in being an employee himself, or so Argent was always saying. Not that he knew what it was like. Argent had been self-employed since before he'd even graduated. Virtually his entire life had been devoted to that goal, and it showed. Still, he treated his employees well, compared to some of the surviving historical files that had made it through the data corruption. And if he was working for Argent, Bez would have less responsibility and be able to devote more time to advancing his political agendas.

Which brought him to his final problem. Bez had just stepped out of his house, and there were at least a dozen people waiting for him. In the lead was Walter, the planet's first reporter and newspaper editor, and practical founder of the Fourth Estate. "Congressman Bezalel. Do you have any official comment on the arrest of Diana, sir?"

Bez froze in the spotlight. He barely knew Walter, really—the kid had been pretty insular back in Harmony. Still, he seemed to take to reporting like an Earth duck to water. They didn't have any duck species here just yet. For a moment, Bez considered what to say, and then shook his head. "I can't make any official statement at this time, sorry. If the President or Chief Justice have anything to say, they'll schedule a press conference for you."

"Is it true that Diana and Tycho swapped places, Congressman? That it was actually Diana up there all those times, training her fellow pilots and shooting down enemy drones?"

Bez grimaced. He could still barely believe it himself, but it was true. He'd been there outside Cain's core drive with everyone else. He'd seen her standing there, carrying a drone's machine-gun as casually as he carried his tools around. The voice disguiser had kept him completely in the dark. Still, he'd spread the word himself, anonymously. As angry as he was at both Diana and Tycho, she had saved his life several times out there. She might deserve to be punished, but the President had seriously overreacted by arresting her. This was the least he could do to help her, and Simon by extension. "It appears so. I put my plane down outside Cain's core drives, and saw her there myself."

Walter had been a pilot too, but his plane had been damaged and he'd been unable to join them in that final mission, or he would have seen it for himself. "The President has confirmed that he ordered her arrest, and that she's being held humanely, but securely. Do you agree with his decision?"

Belatedly, Bez realized that the 'official statement' he hadn't been willing to make, was being made now anyway. Walter was good at this. He started to shake his head, but then stopped. Even a nonverbal cue might send the wrong message, and Walter's newspaper, Understanding in Faith, was doing quite well. He'd been up there with them during missions, and had documented a large portion of the fighting in a voice log. Apparently he'd then transmitted those logs and his own war journal to someone else who had been responsible for distributing them (after the President had made sure it didn't leak any classified information of course) to people listening at their radios.

Walter might not be a businessman in a financial sense, but he was a lot like Argent. He knew very well how to promote his own skills and findings.

Bez still had a question to answer, though. "I may be a New Eden Congressman, but I'm also a soldier. It's not my place to disagree with my Commander-in-Chief," he responded carefully.

Walter gave him a wry look. "If you were in the President's position, would you have ordered her arrest?"

"I'm not in the President's position, and to speculate on it is a waste of everyone's time."

Not to be dissuaded, the reporter held his phone up again. "You voted in favor of ratifying the new Constitution, which codifies a woman's role into law. Are you concerned that people might take that decision as an endorsement of the President's actions?"

"All five of us voted for that," Bez said dismissively, trying to end the interview. He paused though, looking not just at Walter but the others as well. Their eyes were all on him, expectant, curious, even eager. There was no antagonism in those stares, not yet at least. They deserved a statement from him, even if it was brief. "All right. Here's what I can tell you: this is the very first adult crime we've ever had on New Eden." Bez resisted the urge to wince at his poor wording. He should have said 'first adult ever accused of a crime'. "I don't know exactly what the charges are, or if it will go to trial, or who will represent whom, but I do know that it will take a while. The results of this... event, will have ramifications beyond just this city, or even this planet. It will affect future generations as well, so there's plenty of reason to proceed meticulously, carefully, and most importantly slowly."

"But what—”

Bez didn't let himself get sidetracked this time, and cut him off. "Excuse me; I have other things to take care of."

The dozen-or-so citizens, most of them Walter's fans or informants, continued asking questions, but they eventually parted so that Bez could weave his way between them. He was actually in a hurry, but he tried not to show it. Simon had contacted him a few minutes before, asking to meet him at Simon's place. He'd sounded, well, Bez hadn't really known what to think of his voice. It wasn't quite excitement, nor was it worry. It was as if Simon himself hadn't really known what he was feeling when he'd called.

Once on his bike and away from the crowd, Bez felt a little better. He'd listened to some of Walter's broadcasts back during the fighting, and had found them interesting. Still, when it came to in-person encounters, a little time with Walter went a long way.

For some reason, Simon had asked him to bring his tools along. They were piled into a tote bag, hanging from one of the handlebars. It made pedaling a bit awkward, but Bez could manage it. As he made his way across this tiny section of the city, he thought a bit more about Walter and his questions. Or more accurately, about the reason he was asking them.

Bez had heard of reporters, newspapers, editors, and such, from childhood. Like everyone else growing up in Harmony, he'd seen examples of them in the movies they'd watched. Still, now that he thought about it, there was very little mention of them in the Faith historical documents. They'd existed in old America. That was about all he knew for sure. There was something... inspiring in Walter's choice of profession, as a result. He wasn't embracing tradition, like John and Adam, and he wasn't rejecting it like Diana. He was exploring a part of their history that seemed to have very little to do with tradition, positive or negative.

Simon's place was just ahead now. Bez slowed his pace a bit, and then unslung his tote bag. He pushed the bike into the rack outside, and knocked on the door. A voice called him inside, and he walked in curiously. Was Simon finally going to reveal whatever intricate plan he had in mind to help Diana?

Simon looked strange. He was obviously tired, with bags under his eyes and tangled, unkempt hair. But his eyes were shining with excitement at the same time. He beckoned Bez in quickly, and then moved past him to close the door. "I've done a sweep myself, but I need you to do one. You know how to do it better than I do," he muttered, looking around the room as if for unseen attackers.

"Uh, a sweep for what exactly?" Bez inquired, trying not to sound like he was talking to a crazy person.

"For bugs. Or transmitters. Or anything electronic that I didn't install myself. I just need to make absolutely fricking sure that no one can hear what I need to tell you. That's why I asked you to bring your tools."

Bez had never seen him like this, and it was getting more concerning. Still, he worked with his friend to rig up an electronic sniffer. With some of the equipment Simon had brought here over the last year, and Bez's tools, they did a pretty thorough search of the house over the next twenty minutes or so. They covered both bedrooms, the bathroom, the kitchen, the simulator room—everything. Finally, still wondering just what could be so important, Bez leaned back and stretched. "Are you satisfied?"

"Almost. I need to you to take out your phone's battery and ID module, so it can't be tracked either. I've already done the same to my own."

Wow, he wasn't taking any chances. For a layman, disabling the phone like that could be risky, but Bez could disassemble the whole thing in his sleep if necessary. He obeyed, and then looked at Simon expectantly. "Wanna tell me what this is about now?"

Simon let out a long breath, and that amazed-excited look had returned to his eyes. "Here." He returned them to the simulator room, and pulled up another chair for Bez. He sat in the pilot's chair himself. "Where to begin," he muttered. "All right. You know how our historical database was like 98% corrupted, and has been for as long as either of us can remember?"

Bez nodded. "Sure. Noah was damaged on his way here, right? That's what caused it?"

"That's what he said, yes. I think it's what he really believes, but it's not true. Diana and I've been thinking about it, and the damage is way too specific. We believed, before the war started even, that the historical files were deleted, not corrupted. I mean, the Faith histories cover Rome, Scandinavia, Britain, and then America, and nothing else. The world histories have nothing in them but those same things. Everything else is unrecoverable, apparently. The odds of data corruption causing that are like... a billion to one. At least."

Not sure what to make of that, Bez only shrugged. "I haven't thought about it that much, but I'll take your word for it. Why is it important now?"

"Because of this." Simon tapped a key, and a stream of data popped up on the main simulator screen. "Before I moved out here from Harmony, I copied the entire historical database from Noah's archives. He thinks it's a waste of time, but I've been trying to unscramble the data ever since."

Bez leaned forward with interest. So much of Earth's history was unknown to everyone, even now that people were becoming adults and taking control of the society for themselves. "Did you have any luck?"

Simon shook his head. "Not at first, no. But there was an Easter Egg in Noah's programming, which I accidentally copied along with the database. I wrote a program to decrypt it, and that program was running when I went on that first trip out to find Cain. It's been running ever since, and apparently it finished a few weeks ago, while I was still out there. I just didn't bother to open it, what with everything that's been happening with Diana. Now I wish I'd opened it right away."

"Why is that?"

In answer, Simon tapped another key, and a subsection of the data streaming across the screen froze. "This is the Easter Egg. I thought it was just a joke, written by the Faith's programmers back in the Cradle on Earth, but it's not. It's a video message." The data vanished, replaced by a human face. Diana's face!

She looked strange, though. Her hair had been curled, and it wasn't in its usual ponytail as she'd been wearing the last time Bez had seen her. Her face was lined, too, as if she'd seen things no one else had. "That's not Diana," Simon explained immediately. "Near as I can figure, it's the woman who donated the cell samples that created Diana. She's the original."

This was getting more and more interesting, as well as intense. "So, this video message was recorded on Earth?"

"Over a hundred years ago," Simon said, nodding. "This woman—Diana's mother, I guess, for lack of a better term—is long dead by now. I'm about to play the message. Are you ready?"

Bez nodded nervously. It seemed that Simon had watched this message himself, and it had apparently kept him up for more than a full day now.

The woman's face started moving, and immediately split into a smile. "Hello. My name is Georgina Caro, and I'm leaving this message for you, in hope for the future."

Even the voice was almost identical. If Bez hadn't been told, he would have been sure this was a slightly older, more worn version of Diana herself! He looked over at Simon wonderingly, and was met with a haunted look.

"If you're watching this, then you must be a skilled programmer. I wrote the failsafes myself, on my home computer just to make sure no one else knew. I'm a programmer at the Cradle—and I'm sure they would fire me and destroy my research if they found out I was doing this."

Bez blinked in surprise. He was just getting used to the idea of a woman pilot, but a woman who was a programmer skilled enough to work at the Cradle? One who could compare with Simon's skills, no less? This was a bit much to take. Part of him wondered if this wasn't some kind of practical joke, but that curiosity didn't last long. He was the prankster here, not Simon. Besides, Diana was still in prison, so Simon had no reason to joke around.

"I'm sure you're surprised to see a female programmer," the recording went on as if reading his mind. "I was raised in the Faith like you, but they needed every skilled engineer, programmer, technician and other expert they could find in order to make Noah as functional as possible. I'm responsible for his problem-solving heuristics, among other things. It's... my hope that whoever you are, you're also a female programmer, but that's a faint hope. It's one of the reasons I'm making this recording."

She looked away from the camera, and faint patches of color appeared in her otherwise pale face. "As I'm sure you know, the Cradle partnered with the US Military to build Cain, and later to build Noah. Most of that happened while I was still in college, but I still work closely with a very strict general. We have to submit all programming suggestions to him and his staff before they get uploaded into Noah's mainframe. He's not a bad man, really, just uptight. His orders, as forwarded to him by the Pentagon, were to include a complete historical record of Earth, so that you could all learn from our successes and our mistakes." She sighed slowly. "Unfortunately, that's not what you were raised with, was it?"

"How could she have known the data was erased?" Bez wondered. Simon just shushed him, and pointed back at the screen.

Diana—no, Georgina—sighed again. "My superiors in the Faith ordered me to delete that information. They wanted to create a society free of conflict, and they decided that the full Earth history, which I spent a long time compiling, by the way, would just get in the way of that. I wrote a program that would wait until Noah was underway; until the Hail Mary was out of comm range of Earth, and then it would locate and delete anything in the historical database that contradicted the Faith's version of history."

So Simon and Diana had been right after all? This was amazing! Bez found his eyes were now locked on the screen, as if he was watching the maglev derail itself or something.

"Please don't misunderstand me here," Georgina went on, as if pleading with them. "I'm still a member of the Faith. I still believe in the same things they do, and I still gain great purpose and joy from worship. But... the Faith's attitudes towards women are just plain wrong. It goes well beyond that actually, but I'm not going to go into detail here. I know from my studies of Noah's directives that you were raised with those attitudes. I was ordered to reinforce them, but I couldn't go through with it. Instead of deleting that information as ordered, I encrypted it. I had to make it look good, or my superiors would have seen through it. I couldn't even write the program to undo itself. Still, I think that's for the best. Information this important should be viewed by an adult, and despite the work we've all put into Noah, I still don't trust him to handle this on his own.

"You should know that by decrypting this message, you've also decrypted the entire database itself. Humanity's entire recorded history, as written and later videotaped, by thousands of individuals. Hundreds of historians from all over the globe, each with their own perspective and experience, but who all share the goal of putting this information down, for others to examine and experience for themselves. It won't be a perfect representation—what is, after all? History is written by the victors. But it will be a much better one than what you were raised with."

She smiled again, but this one was laced with sadness. "I don't know who you are, or where you ended up. I don't know what kind of life you've lived, or the heartbreak you've overcome. I'll be long dead before you ever see this message, if you end up seeing it at all! Still, I want you to know, beyond a shadow of any doubt, that I love you. Every last one of you. I want you to have every chance to build a wonderful world, no matter what consequences it might have for me."

She blinked several times in quick succession, and then reached out to her videocamera. "God be with you," she said finally, and turned it off.

Bez wasn't sure how to react at first. "Like mother like daughter, I guess," he said flippantly, but Simon just nodded.

"More than you know."

He sounded so serious; so haunted, that Bez couldn't help but stare at him. "What exactly did you uncover here, Simon?"

Simon pressed a few keys, and an historical listing popped up on the screen. It was a grid: by country across the top, and by year across the side. "So, so much! If it weren't for Diana's—uh, Georgina's—data compression, I couldn't have even fit all of it on this computer! The truth is so much bigger than I thought! Wars, occupations, oppressions throughout history. The Faith didn't technically lie about anything, but they cut out every single negative thing that has ever happened in American history and earlier. I've been studying all night, and I've barely even scratched the surface!"

"Why do you look so grim?" Bez asked. "This is good, isn't it? You can use this to help Diana!"

"This stuff is dark, Bez," he said with another haunted look. "Like really, really bad. Video footage of things... well, we're adults, so I guess we can handle it. Still, I wouldn't want anyone younger than us viewing it. Hell, I don't want to be viewing it."

"We don't have to release everything, do we? Broad strokes, Simon. You can summarize the really big events, if they help Diana. As for the rest, you can put in an age lock, can't you? Just encrypt all the stuff that's not right for children, and let the parents decide for themselves when to unlock it."

"That's why I called, you," Simon said after a moment. "Not the encryption, I mean. The distribution of all this. Right at the beginning, when I first started looking at the database, my instinct was to release it all right away. I even made a backup copy just in case I damaged it. Though I suppose Noah has the original in his core drives, doesn't he? Anyway, I ordered Noah to make this database publicly available to everyone, but he refused. Only... an elected representative of New Eden has the authority to do that."

An elected representative. Like the President, or Senator Argent, or Bez. "You knew the others would never agree, so you asked me."

"I know it's a big ask, but—”

"A big ask?" Bez let out, standing up suddenly. "A big ask, Simon? Think about what this could mean! If what you're saying is true—if this Georgina wasn't lying as well—this could turn our whole society inside out! If I help you get this out, who knows what could happen? And it might not even help Diana in the long run! For all you know, the President might retaliate by ordering her execution!"

"Adam, Bez. His name is Adam," Simon said softly. "He's just a man in the end. So is John, and Argent, and you and me. These histories—they showed me things I'd never comprehended, and that's after just one day! They show American presidents who did terrible, monstrous things, often just because they could, or because they benefited from it. And they always got away with it, too, right up until the point when Noah was launched! Shouldn't we make sure the same stuff doesn't happen here?"

He pulled up a few files, showing American presidents as Bez had never seen them before. The transcripts of their speeches had always been so dignified—so stately. But these speeches? When they weren't rambling, they were offensive, or insulting, or just stupid. The files Simon had dug up had been recorded at the same time, showing the actions those same presidents had ordered. Bombs dropped on civilians was the most obvious example, but it was clear that was just the very smallest part of what Simon had uncovered so far. "I know that doing this might get Diana killed. I spoke with her about it," he briefly explained how Jimmy had flown him out to see her. "She wants me to fight, and that's what I'm going to do. I want you to be there with me, if you're willing."

"I—uh, I need some time with this," Bez said, feeling pained, as if even those few words had been wrenched out of his chest.

"I get it," Simon responded immediately, and gestured towards the screen again. "After studying all this, I really, really do. Take the time you need. But tomorrow night, with or without you, I'm going to start telling people about this. I can't let Diana languish in there forever."

He pulled out a removable hard drive. "This is a copy of the database. I configured it for direct connection only, and to not interface with your computer's wireless connections. You should be able to look through it without anyone knowing. Except Naomi, if she's there with you."

"She's not," Bez said distractedly. He'd been hoping to distract himself from the Naomi situation, but this was even more complicated.

There didn't seem to be much else to say, so Simon bid him goodnight, and good luck. As Bez made his way through the darkening city, he had the feeling that his day hadn't gotten any better. Still, Simon was taking a huge risk by giving him this. He had the skills, probably, to hack Noah himself, and force him to release this information to everybody. He was putting his trust in Bez's hands.

Bez just wished he knew what to do with it.

Navigation

[0] Message Index