Hacking Larissa
By Russell Hemmell
“Where is he? Can you see him?”
“No, he’s hiding somewhere. Doesn't matter -- this is
the only way out of the lab. We’ll get him.”
“How many times did I warn those geniuses on the main
deck? Leaving children out of storage is a bad idea.
Just one week of travel, and they’re already swarming
around like crazed locusts, particularly where they
shouldn’t be. I hate to be always right.”
Hidden beneath a desk, Ramsey winced, trying to get a
better view of the area adjacent to lab, plunged in
semi-obscurity. She couldn’t manage more than a
glimpse, but what she had heard was enough. Bad
luck, she thought. The security officers
were still there, obstructing her escape route.
Showtime. Here we go. She grabbed one of
instruments, threw it to the far side of the lab, and
then started running away as fast as she could.
They were misled only for a couple of seconds.
“Get the kid!”
One tried to get hold of her arm, but she was quicker.
She climbed up the emergency stairway, opened the
hatch and rushed into the air conduits. It was only
when she was back to the safety of the rear hangars
that she gave an appraising look at her prize. A phial
of grad-A nanodiamond arrays, top of their category.
Exactly what she needed.
Satisfied, Ramsey pocketed it. She leapt out of the
conduits and headed back to her hideaway. It had been
since embarking that she had been confined to the
hangars of the space ark, the only area where a
clandestine like her could find a suitable place to
hide. And with all air conduits built as stand-alone
systems for security reasons, in order to explore the
rest of the space ark she had to go through the
portals. Easier to say it than to do it: locks were
not crackable by reprogramming their codes, and so a
brute-force approach was ineffective. Nothing short
of a qubit-powered codescrambler would get the job
done. Ramsey had almost finished assembling one,
and she had finally put her hands on the essential
component still missing.
Yes. Yes.
It was not just a matter of comfort. Without leaving
the hangar zone it would have been impossible for her
to discover the ark’s current location in space. She
had no idea whether Space Ark Larissa, as her mother
called it, had even left the terminal located on one
of the Earth-Sun orbit Lagrangian points. She knew it
was only after the ark had passed the two gas giants
that she could make her presence on board known; after
all, they could not throw her out once beyond the
inhabited Solar System. With her scrambler and some
(plenty of) luck, she would have been able to operate
the portals of the hangars and finally explore the
ship.
She gathered her tools and went to work. It was going
to be a long night.
###
She woke up late in the afternoon, famished. It was
strange having days and nights under the same light,
she thought. Was it going to be like that forever?
Probably, she decided, until they reached their
destination, which she had no idea when and where it
was going to be. Not even her mom knew. She had died
without even being informed where the ship she had
given her life to build was heading to…. Tears of
anger welled up into Ramsey’s eyes, tears she fought
back with determination.
Time for a walk.
Ramsey sneaked out of her small hiding place, across
the deserted hall and entered the main hangar. She
went to the portals, located the electronic padlock
and connected it to her scrambler, holding her breath.
The moment of truth. With a whizz, the doors opened.
You’re an ace, Ramsey Asher.
She cautiously looked outside. Nobody around.
According to the blueprints, she was just 150 meters
away from the East Wing’s lower deck. A civilian area,
thus no ID checking was to be expected once she had
gained access to the wing itself. She wondered how
many civilians were around. Most of them had been put
in suspended animation down in the storages like a
bunch of herrings, and they represented the majority
of the 100,000 people or so on board of the space
arks, of which Larissa was both the prototype and the
flagship. But if off-storage, they were free to move
around.
Ramsey jumped on a moving sidewalk, discovering with
glee that it was leading her straight to the dining
hall. Being late afternoon, the place was almost
empty.
She swooped down on the buffet, eating as much as she
could. Finally a decent meal.
“Hi.”
There was a boy nearby, staring at her while enjoying
his ice cream. She quickly appraised him. Blond, blue
eyes, few years older than her. Not looking dangerous,
so she relaxed. “Hello. I am Ramsey.”
“Ramsey
who?”
“Ramsey Asher. And you?”
“I’m a Jonkheer. Aleane Jonkheer.”
She looked at him puzzled. “Why do you have a girl
name?”
“It’s not a girl name. It’s Aleane, not Aline. A-l-e-a-n-e.”
“Got it, Aline.” She replied, laughing.
“Well, you get this too!” The boy gave her a punch on
her face, and they fought rolling on the floor for a
few minutes. Tired, they decided to call it even and
got back on their feet.
“So, Aleane not Aline. Why are you here?”
“I’m one of Larissa’s citizens.” He replied proudly.
She snickered. The elects, this was the way her
mother called them not without irony -- those 750,000
people initially chosen for following Them to
space on board the Larissa Ark Fleet and starting a
new, joint civilisation elsewhere. Them, or the
Guests, as everybody was calling the aliens.
Rather mysterious aliens that ordinary people had only
heard about but never seen, in the flesh or in any
other way, and had no idea what they looked like. To
the point that some were actually wondering whether
they existed at all, and if they were not another ruse
of an increasingly secretive Government for deporting
part of the overblown Earth population somewhere
farther away than the Solar System, even this becoming
more packed by the day. But the fact that a good half
of the ones leaving with the space arks belonged to
the rich and powerful of Earth was somehow in contrast
with conspiracy theories.
“What about you?” He asked, noticing her smirk.
“Me? I am with the technicians. We’re nowhere as good
as you, but you still need us to make your journey to
glory possible.”
He ignored her sarcasm. “I didn’t know they were
allowed to bring children on board.”
“You’re dumb. You think people would leave their
families behind?” She replied. That was only half
true. All personnel working in the Larissa programme
had been selected among the ones without family ties
exactly for this reason. Only few exceptions had been
allowed, her mother among them. But she had died
before taking her on the space ark, and Ramsey had
chosen to go for it nonetheless, government permission
or not. She was an Asher, coming from a family that
had given its children’s lives for space adventures
for generations: she was not going to be the one being
left rotting on Earth.
“I’m surprised they keep kids out of the cryo units.”
He observed.
“I could say the same about you.”
They looked suspiciously at each other then got back
to their food.
“How old are you?” He asked without hiding his
curiosity.
“Ten. Almost eleven. You?”
“Thirteen. Do you want to go for a visit to my part of
the ark? We have ERMR games in L3D I am sure you
haven’t tried yet.”
“Why not?”
She followed him outside up to a portal gate, and,
after Aleane gained access, a strange new world opened
up in front of her marvelled eyes. There was an entire
town in miniature inside. It was a sort of rural
landscape, like a village on the old Earth, with its
historical buildings, its fountains and its taverns.
For a moment, the self-assurance she was feigning
failed her. She knew theoretically everything about
the Larissa space arks, thanks to her mother, but she
would have never expected what looked like a perfect,
disturbing hologram of her home planet.
“You look surprised.” He said, noticing her face. “You
said you were with the technicians.”
“And I am. But…” She turned her head around. “My mom
never told me it was going to be an Earth-like old
town on board.”
“There’s far more than that. Wait to see the South
Wing. I have been told it’s a true metropolis, with
skyscrapers and all.”
Yuk.
Ramsey looked at him bewildered. “How is this even
possible? The original blueprints of the space ark are
actually based on my mother's own designs. And she
wouldn’t have dreamt of putting micro-cities here.”
“I wouldn’t know about that.” He replied. “But I’ve
heard these parts of Larissa have been designed on
specifications They have supplied.”
“They?”
“Yes. The Guests. The aliens,” he replied. “Or
whatever you geeks call them.”
“Specs -- like what?”
“I’m not sure. Antimatter reactors, certainly, and the
artificial gravity to live safely on board.” He said.
“According to my father, they gave us everything we
needed for space exploration, even technology we have
later used for establishing our own colonies in the
Solar System.”
Ramsey remained silent for a moment, musing. “What do
They look like, Aleane? You elects had to meet
with them quite regularly.” She asked after a while.
“I have no clue.”
“So you haven’t talked to them.”
It was his turn of remaining silent, frowning. “No, we
haven’t. That’s what father said.” He said eventually.
“Meaning?” She didn’t like the sound of it.
He looked at her with wary eyes. “My father is one of
the directors of the Space Ark Larissa
programme, and the single major provider of private
funding to the initiative. If he has never seen them,
I doubt anybody has.”
###
That night she stayed over in Aleane’s luxurious unit,
after his sister Cynthia insisted for her to remain
there. Their parents were residing in the Command
Wing, she explained, while the two kids were confined
in the East Wing with nothing to do during the day
apart from eating, sleeping and gaming. For the first
time since they have left the space terminal, Ramsey
was able to sleep in a real bed and, when she woke up,
she was treated to a hot shower and a sumptuous
breakfast.
She found the siblings discussing their travel.
Cynthia was considering the possibility of being
cryoed, she confessed to Ramsey. How could she bear
one more year in these conditions?
One year?
Ramsey felt disheartened. She kept quiet for a while,
thinking. Maybe sneaking on board was not a great
idea after all. What am I going to do now? “Where
are we, by the way?” She asked herself. She had wanted
to leave Earth at all costs and to work like her mum
on space missions, yes, but there were other
possibilities instead of one year on the space ark as
a (technically illegal) migrant. With some luck, she
could try to disembark on Mars. A close relative of
her resided in the Mons Olympus settlement, in a
colony known to train the best space pilots of the
Solar System. And maybe one day I would be the one
of them.
“Now?” Cynthia said. “No idea. My knowledge of the
Solar System’s astrography is abysmal.”
“How can you be my sister?” Aleane said with a
grimace. “I’ll tell you where, Ramsey. We have passed
Pluto’s orbit and now we are heading to Eris. We
should be there tomorrow, and then finally leave the
heliosphere.”
“What?”
Her heart stopped beating for a moment.
“Why are you so surprised? At the constant
acceleration we are travelling, we would soon reach
the outskirts of the Kuiper Belt.”
Ramsey felt a growing fear, and she had to struggle to
control her voice. “Do you know where are we heading
to? I haven’t been told.”
Cynthia shrugged her shoulders, but Aleane was ready
to reply. “We are going to Lalande 21185. Where there
are two Earth-like planets that are suitable for
life.”
“Says who?”
“My father.”
“No Aleane, father said those places may be suitable,
but that we are going to stay onboard until
investigations are completed and the presence of
hostile organisms ruled out.” Cynthia corrected him.
“More time in this awful place. I’ll die of boredom….”
Ramsey stopped listening to them. Why in heaven were
they travelling so far away? Mom had never mentioned
anything like that, when talking to her about the
mission. Did she know? No, certainly not. There was
something really wrong in all that if not even the
programme’s engineers had been made aware of the
destination. I had to find out what’s going on
here. It seems I don’t have a lot of choices in any
case.
She stood up and headed toward the exit.
“Ramsey. Wait!” Aleane called her. “Where are you
going?”
She did not bother to answer.
###
After having left East Wing’s residential area, Ramsey
decided to go back to her favourite method of
navigating the Larissa Space Ark: air conduits. In
order to find out the truth behind that travel and the
whole glorious Space Ark Adventure, she had to reach
the place where all data were kept, and hack them.
The Command Wing.
She studied the map. Her target was located at the
centre of the space ark, connected to all other wings
by sets of corridors. The air conduits of each wing
were isolated from the corridors, but once admittance
to them was gained, they would lead straight to the
Command Wing. Ramsey found an entry point, cracked it
open and climbed up inside. She then started running
through the shortest path calculated by her ER
navigator, and kept running until she reached what
looked like the CPUnit Area of the Larissa Ark. For a
moment, she feared the airlock was physically
inaccessible from the inside; then she realised there
was just an easy-to-unlock electronic pad. Blessing
her mother and her design once more, she hauled
herself outside the air vents and jumped down to the
floor.
Ramsey inspected the unit. She first located where
weapons were kept, and grabbed a portable laser gun.
Not enough to blow up a ship, let alone a space ark of
that size, but certainly good enough to inflict a good
deal of damage to the instruments, should she want to.
She was still looking around when something caught her
eyes. A huge mainframe, protected by a glass vault all
around. That was what she was searching for, and she
cracked it open in less than one minute. Morons,
she thought. How can you trust people that keep
their security levels so low?
She started analysing data and visualising archives.
Entire wall-size screens of data started pouring in,
and she was struggling to make sense out of them. Most
were useless technical specs, but eventually something
useful popped up. A guest repository. From
here I’ll know for a fact who’s behind all this.
Ramsey began writing her queries, thinking
about her conversation with Aleane. He had said that
the aliens had given humans the key technology to make
the Larissa Space Ark possible in the first
place, and They were allegedly involved in the
Larissa Space Ark programme since the onset.
So, Ramsey concluded, They had to be on
board too, if nothing else to make sure everything was
going as planned. How would the system record
aliens? No matter how accurately she searched, the
space ark AI always gave her back the same reply. All
people on Larissa, both in the cryo units and the few
thousand out of storage, had a name, a surname, and
more disappointingly, a birth location somewhere on an
Earthian system. Out of 103,657 registered people on
board – 103,656 legit: she was the number 103,657th,
an intruder -- the overwhelming majority came from
Earth, Westphalia, with less than 10% from some
scattered places in the Pacific Rim. Nobody from
Capricorn, in the South of planet Earth. And a few
hundred from the Space Colonies, and namely Moon,
Imbrium: 259, Mars, Cydonia: 78, Mars, Mons Olympus:
23, Vesta: 6, Enceladus: 30.
The final check, a routine written on the fly that
checked for all biosignals on board, gave her the
confirmation she was dreading. 103,658, not one more.
Carbon-based, human DNA organisms. Not even cats,
let alone aliens, here or elsewhere. The conspiracy
theory was not a theory, it was reality. Those
bastards in the Government are going to ship us away
to a slave colony and let us rot there. And who knows
what else.
She was still recovering from the shock, when she
heard a noise. The military personnel had discovered
her presence. And now they were coming for her.
###
The moment they entered the CPUnit room, Ramsey was
standing in front of the mainframe, the laser gun
ready to fire.
“If you come nearer, I’ll shoot you.” She said.
The four officers -- three males, two of them quite
young, and one woman -- stared at her in surprise, but
she could also read worry in their looks. For a long
moment, they all remained immobile, while she aimed
her weapon at them.
“I’ve told you somebody was here.” The woman said.
“Yes, Ma’am. I am sorry, Ma’am. And yet, the odds of
having a terrorist here were close to zero.” One of
young ones replied.
The older guy was clad in a dark blue uniform full of
badges, and seemed to Ramsey the highest in command.
He observed her with curiosity, then he shook his
head. “It’s not a terrorist we are dealing with. It’s
a child.”
“A child with an attitude and a laser gun -- that can
fry us dead and destroy everything in this room, if
fired at the right intensity.” The lady replied. “And
she knows it.”
“Ease down, kid. We won’t do you any harm.” The guy in
blue said, coming nearer.
But Ramsey made him stop, pointing her gun right at
head level. “You have lied!” She yelled. “You have
lied to all of us. We’re not going to colonise a
planet with Them. There’s no Them.
Aliens have never existed. The Government is going to
deport Earthian people beyond the heliosphere. You
will use us like slaves on some remote planets, where
we have no rights, and no possibility to escape.”
“Put the gun down – it’s not going to help anybody if
you fire it in this room.” He said, keeping his voice
steady.
Ramsey didn’t move. “Better to die in space than live
as human guinea pigs on a far-away rock.” She aimed
and started hitting instruments with the highest
possible charge allowed by her laser gun, whilst the
people nearest to her took cover.
Profiting from her diverted attention, the woman
managed to reach and hit her with a violent kick.
Ramsey cried out in pain and fell on the floor, losing
grip of her gun. One of young officers secured it,
whilst the other blocked her hands and made her stand.
The guy that looked like the Commander came forward,
removing the scrambler from her belt and studying it.
“A quantum-powered device. Ingenious. I’ve trouble
believing a little girl like you has done all of this
alone. You are something special.”
“She is nothing of the sort.” The woman said with an
annoyed regard. “She must have been helped by some
adults. Terrorists, as Durham said.”
“And blowing the whole operation up in this way after
all the efforts? It would be utterly stupid. I don’t
buy it.” He said.
They both looked at Ramsey, with a quizzical
expression on their faces, but she just turned away
her head, fixing her eyes on the wall screen.
“Terrorist or not, she’s a liability. Lock her down
and keep her that way.” The lady said to the young
officer that was still holding Ramsey’s hands behind
her back.
The Commander shook his head. “She’s just a kid. We
can’t treat her as a criminal.”
“She’s maybe not a terrorist, but certainly more than
an ordinary kid, Captain.” The fourth officer said. He
was waiting for the Commander’s attention. “Permission
to speak, Sir.”
“Permission granted.”
“I have just received biodata about her. Asher,
Ramsey. Born in 2358, September 3, in Winnipeg,
Westphalia. Her mother, Asher, Kim, was among the
engineers who have designed the original Larissa
Space Ark model, and was supposed to live on this
ship together with her only child. But she died of
cancer a month ago, possibly from radiation; the kid
was taken out of the passenger list after her mother’s
death, but she managed somehow to get back in.
Probably by hacking the system.” He said. “One more
thing: kid has a famous aunt. Asher, Lindsay, space
pilot instructor on Mars, Mons Olympus.”
The other young officer whistled in admiration, but
was stopped by the hard stare of the woman. She must
be the Larissa Space Ark’s XO, Ramsey thought.
“This surname is not unknown to me.”
“Obviously not, Sir. These people belong to the same
family that a couple of centuries ago had captured the
asteroid we now use as the Earth’s spaceport. Ellen
Asher was the mind that designed the whole mission,
and her brother Arian was the one that actually
carried it out.”
The Commander looked to Ramsey. “Well, that makes
sense. It seems that brain and courage run in the
clan.”
The woman shrugged her shoulders with impatience.
“Let’s cryo her. She will sleep her voyage away. We
won’t miss her company here.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” The Commander
replied. “What she said to us, she might have also
told others. If she now disappears, they would wonder
what has happened to her. And, more in general, if
this is what our people do believe, we will need to
address these concerns. We’d better get started – from
today.”
“You give too much importance to this brat.”
“This brat, as you call her, is an intelligent and
educated kid. She’s just scared, and rightly so, if I
may. I would be probably thinking in the same way in
her place, Lyla.”
The woman called Lyla gave him an irritated glance.
“Captain Lagerfeld, this decision has been taken long
ago, when the Joint Earth Command decided not to
disclose any detailed information about interstellar
travel, or about Them. This has been done to
protect our people, remember, not to feed their
paranoia or nurse their fears.”
“But they have become fearful. Probably this was a
miscalculation on our part.”
“This is above your pay grade, and not a decision for
you to make.”
“You’re right. But what happens now on this ship is my
call, and mine only. And I am not going to punish one
of us just because she’s asking the right questions.”
He turned his head, addressing the young officer that
had told him about Ramsey’s story. “Lieutenant, please
accompany the kid to my cabin. Make sure she’s
comfortable and she receives food and water for the
day -- just lock the door on your way out. And be
careful with the combination. She has proved to be a
damn good programmer, devices or not.”
Lyla looked at him, with an astonished, almost
outraged stare. “You can’t be serious, Ethan.”
For the first time since hell broke loose in the room,
Ramsey saw the severe face of the Commander relaxing
in a dry smile.
###
The lieutenant took Ramsey not far from the CPUnit
area she had broken into, and asked her not to make
his task more difficult than it could be. There was
nothing to be gained from it, and he had his orders.
He did as instructed and went out, locking the cabin.
As soon as she was alone, Ramsey tried without any
success to crack the code. Not that she had expected
to. She initially forced herself not to eat or drink
anything, for fear of being drugged. She did not want
to finish in a cryounit and find herself prisoner in
some unknown places. She would have rather killed
herself. However, after a while she decided she’d
better eat: it would have not made any difference if
that was her fate, and one of her rules was --
always feed yourself when you got the chance.
Then, tired after all the turmoil of the day, she fell
asleep on the floor. She dreamt of crashing down with
the space ark on an asteroid and getting lost in the
interstellar void.
###
A
sibilant noise woke her up all of a sudden. The door
opened and a tall, slender man entered the cabin. She
observed the visitor coming forward and sitting in
front of her at some distance. She noticed his
appearance -- exotic, different from the rest of
people on board. He was in a restricted area, but he
didn’t wear a uniform, just a white costume with no
nametag or distinctive sign. And no weapons either.
He had long, blond hair flowing to his shoulders, like
a golden halo, and his eyes were of a shining clear
blue, with an intense, enigmatic look. It was
impossible to give an age to that unwrinkled, handsome
face, and yet she was sure she was in the presence of
somebody older than he looked. His hands were white
and elegant, and his demeanour emanated an aura of
serene strength.
“I am Sylvian Maris Agenor.” He said calmly.
She waited for him to continue. But he didn’t add
anything to that. He remained there, in silence,
looking at her. Eventually, she decided to talk to
him. “I’m Ramsey Asher.”
“I’ve been told your name, and your story.” He
replied. “You wanted to see me. Here I am.”
“What are you talking about?” She said. “I have never
asked to see you. I don’t even know who --” And then
she stopped, looking at the blond, pale man in
disbelief. Then she shook her head. “You people are
just making fun of me. Is this a military technique to
brainwash children? You’ll have to do better than
that.” She challenged him.
He didn’t seem to take any offence. “I don’t expect
you to believe anything not proven to you first.
You’re a remarkable exemplar, and I can’t but be
pleased humans are capable of logic at such a young
age. This is one of the reasons why we have selected
your species, after all. But you are a born leader,
Ramsey Asher, and you can personally do a lot to help
mankind attain the next step: look at what you have
done on this ship in one week.” A smile appeared on
his face. “Just to let you know -- it was not our
decision to keep things hidden. We have only played by
your rules, in this as in other occasions. And it’s
not up to us to decide if this is right or wrong. But
it is my decision now to show you the reality behind
the looking-glass.”
“A looking-glass named Larissa.” She murmured in a low
voice.
“Indeed.” He stood up and extended her his hand.
“Come. We will travel together to Aeglem. Nothing will
be kept from you.”
“I thought we were going somewhere else.”
“A matter of definition. Aeglem is our name for your
Lalande 21185 and its planetary system.”
Ramsey hesitated. She could not rationally believe she
was talking to Them in person. But she felt
deep inside that the eerily beautiful man was telling
her the truth, and that was far more terrifying than
the alternative. Mom, help me now. But
curiosity was stronger than innate fear of the
unknown. And looking at him, at his relaxed, collected
attitude, she realised what was going on.
“And then farther than that.“ She said slowly. “For
that isn’t the final destination you have chosen for
us, is it? That’s a stepping stone, only to avoid
scaring us away. Like the Larissa Space Ark,
something so primitive that you wouldn’t dream of
using it yourself. But it was only by helping us build
something we can handle that you could be sure we were
going to follow you willingly.”
A
glint of satisfaction passed into his clear eyes, and
she knew she had guessed right.
“Are you going to hurt me?” She said. “To hurt us?”
“Would we have spent all this time and taken you so
far away if that were the objective? Destruction is
such an easy task compared to creation. And create we
will -- your species and mine. You and I.” He smiled
again, noticing her regard. “When you’re older, Ramsey
Asher. I guess ten years represent a right time span
for you to grow up and get to know us.”
She felt a shiver going down her spine. She wondered
whether that was what he looked like in reality, or if
that was just a shape he had assumed in order not to
frighten her. It doesn’t really matter, does it?
We have finally got what we had searched for since
the beginning. As Mom would have said, you have to be
careful what you're asking for. Now it’s time to live
up to our dreams – or nightmares. Fighting her
fear, Ramsey reached out and touched his face. The
stranger’s skin was silky and cold, unlike anything
else she had experienced before.
She took his hand, and they walked together out of the
Commander’s room.
The End