website design software
Story 3

Russell Hemmell

What can you say about a space ark named "Larissa"? A ten-year-old computer genius braves the clueless adult passengers to find the alien secret hidden on her generation starship. Russell Hemmell serves up all that and more in Hacking Larissa.

Russell Hemmell is a statistician and social scientist from the U.K. He is passionate about astrophysics and speculative fiction. Recent stories in Aurealis, Cast of Wonders, Flame Tree Press, and others. Find SFWA, HWA and Codexian online at their blog and on Twitter.”

Blog: earthianhivemind.net

Twitter: @SPBianchini

 

 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

 

[Index] [About Us] [Stories] [Story 1] [Story 2] [Story 3] [Story 4] [Guest Art] [Editors Write] [Archives] [Contact Us] [Links]

Copyright © 2020 by 4 Star Stories. All Rights Reserved.