Vict Read online

  Mina ran over in her mind, what would be going on. Security forces would be checking everyone’s location logs during the break-in. Looking into where everyone was at the time of the breach. Who they were with, where they were. She’d ordered her dinner from her apartment over the system. Set her door release to log it opening and closing again at the right time. Then collected her meal on time, stopping at the bar for a quick drink. Enough people had seen her to make it look real.

  She pulled up to the security barrier and plastered on a smile. “Hay Gregor, you on earlies today?” She asked passing him her ID badge. He took it and scanned it.

  “Morning Mina. Yep, but we’re all in today. There was a breach two nights ago. We’re still working on it.” Mina gave what she hoped passed for a shocked expression.

  “O no, is everything ok?”

  He gave her a nod and passed back her ID. “I’m sure it will be sorted soon. Expect an interview.” Mina gave him a nod back and the barrier lifted. She pulled off slowly towards her parking space.

  Just a normal day…. Show time …

  ***

  Vict scanned the information from this world’s social media. On the surface, it was a very good propaganda machine. Underneath, it was a very different matter. It was all about disinformation. Pushing what the ‘Corporations’ saw as their agenda. It was a familiar theme. It was the kind of thing that had worked for many generations in many places. It worked because people heard what they wanted, found something to believe in and/or didn’t want to rock the boat or feared doing so. Fear, was a good motivator. A good manipulator. Used well, it would break most things and people.

  The only thing attacking and breaking down the propaganda, giving a different point of view or ‘the truth’ as they saw it, was a heavily encrypted stream. Not easily accessible, unless you were in the loop, or Cyborg.

  It was never a surprise to see a power, using that power to abuse others. Vict read the information again. This world didn’t like dissention. It appeared to act swiftly with people not following orders. Opposition to the Corporations, was a risky business for anyone to get involved in. People went missing, never seen again.

  Vict reviewed the information again over the next few hours. He noticed a convergence of data, that supported the rebels suspicion of state wide monitoring. It seemed to come from the same source, as other information he’d seen on technology misuses. If it was true, it was good intel. Thought Vict. Dangerous work. They also had evidence to back up their theories. He crossed referenced into the worlds social media and other electronic files for a few more hours, before being satisfied. Vict connected his neuro net.

  Fine me this person and a way through the planetary security net.

  Affirmative.

  ***

  Mina walked back to her car keeping up the conversation with her co-worker. She had little interest in it but after such a day, it would be expected to talk about it. Mina followed the conversation and nodded and agreed in all the right places. Seeing her car off to the left, she made her goodbyes and headed over. Opening it, she threw her bag in and slipped behind the wheel. All she wanted to do was crumple in a mess with relief, but she knew she was still under surveillance, so she started the car, plastering a smile on her face, waving to her colleague and driving out the parking lot heading for the barrier that lifted as she approached. Mina pulled out into the traffic and headed home. Only when she was some distance away did she take several deep breaths. She’d got through the day. She’d made it so far.

  Her relief, made her realise it hadn’t been as bad as she’d thought it would be. She’d been interviewed all right, but they’d already had her logs and seemed to be satisfied. Her story held up. The fact that the cameras had stopped working, helped. She’d spent days, planning her route back to her car that night. She’d stayed out of sight. Moving in the darkness, so street cameras couldn’t pick her up. A casual glance of the recording of her building, would show her leaving at the right time to pick up her dinner. It was faked but the return wasn’t. Her ‘friend’ would have scrubbed the image of her leaving earlier and replaced it, with the other at the right time. It seemed to have worked.

  Mina blew out a breath, suddenly exhausted. Playing happy Mina all day, had taken its toll. She needed a good night’s sleep. Mina yawned, as she turned into her street. A quick meal, then bed, she reasoned. She’d need to be able to keep this up for a while, before security would move on. One slip and it would all be over. She knew what happened to those that challenged the Corporations. They disappeared and that’s why she did what she did. Too many people were going missing for it to be accidents or co-incidents. She wasn’t stupid and too many odd things were coming across her desk. Something was seriously wrong on this world and they needed to know what, before it was too late.

  ***

  Do we have this person’s location on our scanners? Vict asked over his neuro net to his second Brek.

  We do, location on screen. The vid screen came alive with the cities layout on it and a pin point of the person they were looking for on it.

  The Planetary security net? He asked.

  We can cause a faze load in the satellite. It will allow a ship to pass. It is likely someone will come to investigate if they have off world abilities. Vict gave a nod.

  Remain cloaked. Ready an off-worlder. Monetary system?

  Universal credits. Vict gave another nod.

  Ready my team and identify a landing location.

  Affirmative.

  Vict moved through his ship towards the loading bay. His landing party would meet him there. If they wanted to know if this world posed a risk to them, he needed to be on the ground doing research and this hacker seemed a good place to start.

  ***

  Vict checked his wrist data pad. The locator, indicated the hacker was on line now and coming from the building in front of them. They’d been several layers of electronic security in place. He’d looped several, not taking them off line. Leaving them off line, would give them away and the hacker would likely to make a run for it. Vict and his men covered the building. Some at the back, some on the escape routes and the rest with him. They’d tried heat signature software and it hadn’t showed up a thing. So, it was either empty, which was unlikely given the electronic security or it had masking capabilities. Something to hide? His logic told him. And if it was empty, why were they getting a signal? He mentally gave a nod and they moved in.

  Their scans of the area, had told them this building was in the older part of the city. It was full of old store houses. Some had been up graded but most, had been left. The people moving on to bigger and better options over the years. The area becoming another victim of the success of the city. They had a strong signal coming from the building, it was unlikely to be just a bounce. It had taken them a while to find, it had been hidden well. The human was good, very good. He’d bounced his signal all over the city, up and back to several satellites in no particular pattern. It was very random. Imaginative. Vict smiled. He was looking forward to meeting this person. They had skills.

  He moved to the front entrance, cameras surrounded it. Another indication this was not an empty building. Someone wanted to keep an eye on things. The door had an electronic key pad, Vict over rid that silently. If the door had an opening sensor, it would give them away the moment it was opened. He turned to Brak who glazed over and searched for the software that had the door alarm. Vict waited. It didn’t take long. Brak’s eyes cleared and he gave him a nod. Vict connected with the rest of his men.

  Now.

  Brak took point breaching the building, Vict fell in behind him. He didn’t need to hear his men acknowledge the order, to know they were doing the same. They would be moving in, infiltrating the building and securing anyone they found. He moved through the building sweeping left and right. The lower level appeared empty. Left as it had been when vacated for the last time. Doors open, crates and boxes open on the floor. Empty shelves. A few desks, chairs. Nothing
of note. They moved on, checking each room finding no one.

  His men clearing their own sector, meeting him at the stair case. Two down here, everyone else with me. He told them over his net.

  Brak moved up the staircase, scanning for booby traps, electronic alarms or sensors. He was stopped several times as Brak dealt with something. They moved silently and slowly up to the next floor. Vict turned up his audio, hearing fingers moving over key boards and low conversations. Whatever was going on here, these people were worried about speaking openly.

  We have company waiting for us. No one leaves. He told his men.

  Brak moved up the last few steps, Vict close in behind him, checking to make sure they were not visible to attack. The staircase led directly into an open space. Braks visual of the area, told him and his men, that six people were on this level, all working on electronic systems. It looked to be a command centre of some kind.

  Vict assessed the layout. There was every chance they would be seen before they’d got up the stairs. The only saving grace was that Cyborgs moved silently and quickly and the humans were heavily engaged in doing something. Their attention was elsewhere.

  Go. He ordered.

  They moved quickly and silently up the stairs and stood in front of it facing the small group. It took a few moments, then someone went to get up and realised they had company. The rest soon realised they were no longer alone. Frightened faces stared at him.

  “Good day.” He told the shocked six people, who didn’t know if to run or try to fight. He held up his hands. “We’re here to talk. Nothing more. We are not your security forces, nor do we work for them. What we want, is an exchange of information. We are interested to know what this world is doing. We have scanned your social media, we know this is a police state. What we want to know, is what they are doing. And you, appear to have some of those answers. In exchange, we will offer to upgrade your security, so no one does this to you again. We would also suggest, that you have people work legitimately from this building so anyone seen coming and going in this sector, would have a reason to do so. Currently, it puts you all at risk and masking the building, just adds to your problems.”

  A young man stood. “You’re not from here?” Vict shook his head.

  “Nope. We didn’t know of your existence until a few months back. Earth Corp have a lot to answer for. They seeded this sector of the Universe, then left people to die. This world boarders our space. As do six others. One of those worlds was a science tech world. They created a genocide bomb that went off and killed nearly all the population. It’s a dead world now. So, we’re checking you all out.”

  The young man stepped forward. Vict watched as he looked them over. There was no hiding that they were bigger, stronger and faster than any male present, that they dressed differently, spoke differently. Vict guessed their weapons were different too. The male seemed to make up his mind, then spoke.

  “You can get us off this rock? Have space capabilities?” Vict nodded. The kid grinned opening his arms. “Welcome to the resistance. We’ve been waiting for you.”

  ***

  Mina walked through security and headed to her office. Things seemed calmer today. Security appeared back to normal. People had lost some of that scared factor. She was glad to see it, felt guilty, to have put good people through it. People didn’t look so afraid, going about their business, getting on with their jobs, not looking over their shoulders waiting for an axe to fall. She could appreciate that herself. Mina took that as a good sign and walked through the door, nodding and smiling to a few people, greeting a couple of others, then took her seat and booted up her data pad, requesting the results of her programmes from the day before.

  “Hay Mina, Geshum wanted to see you when you came in.” She turned to her colleague behind her.

  “Thanks, I’ll go now.” Mina locked her things away and headed for his office.

  Geshum was at the end of their section; his door was open. Mina walked in. “You wanted to see me?”

  He looked up. “Yes, I need you to work on a new project. It has high value and highly confidential. Your work has been excellent, and you have a knack of finding things. I’ve sent you the details. It’s a priority piece of work.” He looked back at the data pad on his desk.

  Mina guessed she’d been dismissed. She turned and walked out, going back to her own desk. Unlocked it and got to work. For a moment, she’d remembered that could have gone very differently. Pushing it aside, she focused on what he wanted her to work on that was so high value.

  ***

  Vict went over the information they’d gathered from their new friends, the night before. This world had been seeded with one purpose. Take advantage of the rare mineral and make something with it that Earth Corp and the other Corporations could use. There were records of supply ships from Old Earth for the first 20 years or so, then they’d stopped. By that time, a ship had come each year, bringing more and more equipment, taking back the mineral to Earth Corp.

  It wasn’t clear what Earth Corp had done with it but the Corporations, had built this city and its technology with it. There were also rumours that travellers had come to the city on and off over the years, but no one saw or heard from them, or the general population didn’t anyway. They remained rumours.

  Since then, this Planet had been alone. Isolated in this part of space. They had taken the mineral and done as instructed. Found a purpose for it. It’s lightweight ore, turning into flexible metal under smelting, with a greater strength of most known metals, had been put to good use building the cities. They had established their own credit system, paid people to work, steered them in the direction of their abilities and made sure everyone did their jobs.

  The whole city was run like a Corporation. Its CEO ran this world with a board of directors from the other Corporations. Under them, department heads, office managers and workers. Everyone had a role to play and if you didn’t, security moved in and made sure you did, or you went missing. Life choices were very limited on this world. If you didn’t like something, you kept it to yourself or were extremely brave and took a stand. Few did. The penalty for being found out was death.

  Vict wasn’t surprised, the people were kept in ignorance, given miss leading information to keep them naive. Given carrots to keep them compliant. When that didn’t work, threats and if that didn’t work, something worse would happen.

  Kanane, their new friend and his people were the tip of the iceberg. Spearheading the ‘truth’ to those that would listen. Staying hidden. Each of them with a death sentence on their heads. Kanane had showed them their intel and records. After sifting though it for several hours, Vict was convinced Kanane was right. This world was corrupt at the top. How far it went down, wasn’t known. There had been a number of concerning projects over the years.

  The latest intel from someone inside one of the research centres, told of experimentation going on and city-wide spying on the people. There was evidence of research into biometrics for no logical reason and software that made no sense. This person had come across it by accident doing other research and reached out. Kanane had thought it too good to be true. Hands on intel, but the person had come through making the meet. It was genuine.

  When Vict saw it, he knew they had a problem. He recognised it as fragments of Cybernetic code. If Earth Corp ships hadn’t been on this world for over 150 years, then how did they have this? His logic argued. Cyborg creation had started around 120 years ago according to what they now knew.

  Humans had been used illegally to start the process. Experimented on. Given substances to make them bigger, stronger, faster than normal humans. Sometimes they were soldiers, but mostly, they were prisoners with no rights. Then their genes had been impregnated into females. Females who were mainly prisoners themselves, who had also been given treatment without their consent. Earth Corp owned the prisons. It had been a well-kept secret until it got out. A horror story of abuses were made public. For several generations, they treated people this
way. Used them for experiments. Then those children allowed to live, were tested and quantified, trying to decide what was worth keeping and what wasn’t.

  Every generation becoming stronger, better than the one before. Until it was possible to mix cybernetics’ and coding with the gene pool. Then it had taken on a whole new approach. Cyborgs, rather than just super soldiers, to help win wars, take over worlds and overthrow governments. That had started over 100 years ago, and the first generation of Cyborgs had been born.

  Vict reflected that the originals were long gone. The oldest Cyborg they knew of, was a generation 6. They knew this because a very special human, mated to a Cyborg Councilman had found this in the archives of Earth Corp. They were the creators, looking to police new worlds and control old ones.

  What were the odds that this world had just found a way by chance, to do that? His logic came up with the answer. Far too high to be viable. There was only one way this was possible. They had an example.