Winston Chronicles Qob/Tranquility Universe: Treason

[Byblos 0]

2418

Treason

 

Cycles of Death Barracks; Warehouse Quarter. Unspeakable District

 

 

 

Even after a long day’s work in the dark tunnels of Tranquility City, Vargros utterly enjoyed working on his computer. The Cycles network was his contribution to the gang, maintained and partially financed by siphoning of funds of Guardian civil projects. The latter Vargros enjoyed the most, milking his enemies electronically without them knowing it. What Vargros lacked in Nausicaan combat and physical skill he more than made up for it with his knowledge of computer engineering.

 

But the code on his display screen, on his network he built under Death’s command, was not his. And he couldn’t decide what was worst at the moment, the electronic intrusion into his domain or the horrid snoring of the Nausicaan behind him. It was time to wake Byblos up from the dead.

 

“Hey ‘killer’...got something to show you,” Vargros gave his roommate a swift kick.

 

That action produced a couple of growls and coughs from the bigger Nausicaan but failed to wake him up. Vargros could understand why Byblos was exhausted. He had carried the large ODRI defeating device underground for miles. Beneath the target, he stood guard for the 2 hour installation job. Finally, the “old” guy walked home with the sore back he always complained about. Relentlessly. Clearly something else had to wake the big guy up.

 

The luke warm beer to the face did the trick. “What the jykin’!” Byblos awoke to a wet face of bad brew and was quite upset. “Vargros! You son of a cyberwhore! What is the matter with you!”

 

“Time to talk now that everything is in place buddy.” Vargros stood and slid his chair away from the screen towards his groggy friend.

 

“I am too jykin’ tired from being your Orion slave at this hour!” Byblos dried himself with a tattered blanket. “I need sleep, not one of your cybersex videos! And my back is..”

 

“Very vulnerable according to what is on my computer screen..look at the text on the screen.”

 

Having stumbled out of his bunk and checking to see if the door to the outside hall was closed, Byblos cleared away the foul beer in his eyes and looked at the screen. “This is not Porn, nor amateur Guardian death video. What the heck am I looking at, Smartarse!”

 

“That my friend is a conversation, taking place between the Boss and someone we do not know.”

 

“So what? Death is the Boss he can talk to whomever he pleases, and what the hell are you doing eavesdropping on-” The Nausicaan held his back and looked at the odd looking text displayed on the terminal. “What language is that? It’s all numerical.”

 

“That my friend is a friend is a very, very sophisticated computer code which I have been very curious about. You see, Death the great biker leader he is, does not possess the skills to decipher let alone operate such a level of encryption and I did not install it on our mainframe.”

 

“Wait, let me think.” Byblos pulled up a chair to the ancient Federation monitor that served as Vargros’ eyes into his cyberworld. He also noted Vargros activating some sort of Tricorder-like device that illuminated a green blinking light. The Nausicaan tech master only hit that button when he did not want to be heard by anyone. “Who is Death talking to?”

 

“I wish I could tell you, but I have no idea. What you are looking at is a type of encryption called Fractal. It is rumored that even the Borg could not crack a form of that code. And I did not install it into the mainframe when this first appeared months ago.”

 

“Wait, you knew someone HACKED your-our network months ago and did nothing? Vargros this is what we depended on you for to prevent Guardians from-”

 

“I assure you Death has not been conversing with a Guardian Slicer for the past six months.” Vargros turned from the screen to Byblos with a face he had not seen before. “Byblos, everything you have requested for you have recieved from Death the last six months. He did not even demand you to trim a single order for weapons, armor, tech-

 

Byblos stopped Vargros. “Enough! I agree, Death is getting ‘gifts’ from someone else.” The Larger Nausicaan stood from his chair putting his hand on his chin in thought. “You said this was downloaded into our computers, so whoever Death is talking to made the first contact?”

 

Vargos nodded. “Yes, and all those small raids other Cycles have been performing outside the district began when this,” Vargros pointed at the screen. “When this began. Byblos you saved my life when I first arrived on Tranquility, now it is time for me to repay that debt. Someone has taken control of the Cycles. Death is just following orders. Brother, this last mission must be our last. If successful, the Guardians will hunt every Nausicaan down in the City. Death is being used. We are being used.”

 

Byblos tried his best to digest what Vargros was getting at. Vargros was a Brother, rescued by him seven years ago breaking into a Guardian Credit Union ATM. He would not make this up. Whoever Death was conversing with was not a Nausicaan. After a few moments staring at the ground, he resumed the conversation. “If this has been going on for six months with you watching, he doesn’t know you are watching him. Right?”

 

“Death is not strong with computer knowledge. He wouldn’t know I was maintaining a constant presence on the mainframe unless whoever he is talking to told him. I figure if that were the case, I would not be alive today.”

 

Byblos began pacing. “We best not tip our hand before the Garage Op. Let Death get his big moment of glory with his ‘friend’ and afterwards we get out of Tranquility. But how the heck are we going to do that? We can’t simply ride to the spaceport and ask for a ticket to Nausica!”

 

“Don’t worry brother,” Vargros grinned placing his hand on the taller Nausicaan’s shoulder. “I have not been just watching Death and his new best friend; I have been planning an exit strategy for us. Here is how we are going to stop playing pawns in some Pe`taQ’s game.”