Ceo

  Broken Wall

  August 5th, 2133 15:46 hours

  I stood behind a cheap chain link fence, barbed wire lined the top. On the other side of it I saw the buildings the two recon squads reported.

  The two smaller buildings looked drab, it was just largely grey concrete, with there being nothing around it. Only the recent footprints of the two recon squads stomping around was the only interesting feature.

  The building farthest from me seemed to be the smallest as well. I caught a glimpse of a large window which looked like it gave a view of the biggest building. A long road separated the two smaller buildings from the largest one, but that one was also devoid of any features as well, the only notable detail about it was the fact that it was paved. No road markings were visible however, it was just white. That white concrete road also was next to the fence, separating nature from the rest.

  The biggest building was also equally drab and empty of any outside features as before. But unlike the smallest one there wasn’t even a window on it. No clear way inside either, I stopped my observation of the building, and moved to my left, the buildings seemed to be at least 30 feet away, the entire outer fence was only 320 feet wide.

  I looked to the part of the fence that was pretty much parallel to the wall, and the gate was wide open. I moved to the gate and what could be described as one of those toll booths was there in between the two gates, a small building with glass windows overlooking both sides of the road it was situated in between. The two roads had an entrance and exit painted on them.

  I approached the small booth where I saw a single Kyntari stormtrooper sitting in it reading a book.

  I knocked on the window, “Where’s the rest of your squad?” I asked him.

  The Stormtrooper jumped up from his book, I clearly had startled him. He got his bearings, looked at me, put down his book and opened the window.

  ”I didn’t see you there ma’am.” The Stormtrooper didn’t have his helmet on but the rest of his armor was. The armor band on his arm told me he was a Private.

  “I can tell.” I said.

  ”So what are you doing here?” He asked.

  ”I am here to take a look at what your squad found inside the buildings. Where are they?” I asked.

  ”Um, who are you exactly?” He asked.

  ”Take a look at my armband.” I said.

  He looked at my arm, “Oh… You’re the Colonel.” I nodded, he didn’t immediately respond, “Um… I think my squad is in a smaller building.” He pointed towards the building to the left of anybody entering the complex.

  I nodded, “Thank you.” I said, moving towards the building 30 feet away.

  ”You're welcome!” The Stormtrooper yelled.

  The building was largely just a concrete slab on the outside, a single door slightly embedded into the building lit up by a light was all that showed me the entrance to the building. When I got closer, I saw that the door was metal, a single sign was on the front of it, saying “Command Center”

  The door handle was handicap compliant, like the kind you’d find in a public building. Opening the door, I was met with a softly lit hallway that pretty much ran the length of the building. A labeled map was on the right side of the hallway several feet in front of the door when fully open. It was labeled the first floor of the Command Center.

  The map showed several Rooms, at the bottom right side of the map, pretty much the wall the map was on, was a room labeled Extra Space. To the left side of the map was the Data Storage Room, above that was the Quantum Computer Room, above the extra space was an unlabeled room, to the right of that was a room labeled Medical. At the top of the map was the stairwell, next to that was the Breakroom, and in between the Quantum Computer Room And Breaker Room was the Interface Room.

  In between the Quantum Computer Room and Data Storage room was a long hallway running parallel to them labeled maintenance hallway.

  The most curious thing about this entire place was the Quantum Computer Room and most specifically the existence of an Interface Room. Especially since a person with a neural link cannot interface with a quantum computer. It just doesn’t work, unless you want to destroy all the information held in the computer.

  But I needed to find the rest of the recon squad and hear what they have to say about this place.

  “Hello! This is the Colonel, where are y’all!” I yelled down the hallway, my voice didn’t echo surprisingly enough.

  A short beep went off, followed by a voice, “Second Floor Colonel.” I looked up and saw a camera on the ceiling, the lens was looking at me.

  I nodded, and moved down the hallway, I passed a door that led to the extra space, then Data Storage, followed by the maintenance shaft and then the door to the Quantum Computer room, the hallway turned and at the end was a sign pointing to the stairway. There was another door at the end, a glowing red exit sign was above the door.

  I approached the stairwell, there I was met with another Storm Trooper.

  “Are you the Colonel?” He asked.

  ”Yes, I am, where's your commanding officer?” I asked.

  ”I am the commanding officer.” He held out a hand “First Lieutenant Bomblitz here.” He said.

  ”Colonel Ceo.” I took his hand and shook it.

  He nodded, “So I heard over the camera’s.” He began to climb the stairs and I followed suit.

  ”Alright, what have you found since I last got a report an hour ago?” I asked.

  ”Not much actually, the computers are unprotected but there's nothing on them other than operating systems files. I have no idea how to access the files in Data Storage, and I don’t even want to touch the Quantum Computer with a ten foot pole.” Bomblitz explained, we had reached the top of the stairwell.

  ”Y’all are stuck then.” Bomblitz passed through the door and I followed suit.

  ”Stuck isn’t how I would describe it, more like we don’t even know where to start for information.” Bomblitz said.

  I nodded, the room that I had entered was large, and filled with lots of computers. All neatly organized into 3 rows, with a total of 10 columns, the row closest to the window was also the lowest, the row behind it was up by a foot, and the row behind that was another foot above it. The window gave a view of the largest buildings’ roof, just more white concrete, all along what I could see.

  I turned to Bomblitz, “Where did you access the cameras and PA system here?” I asked.

  “From the security room there.” He pointed to a door down the hall 10 feet away from the stairwell.

  I nodded, “Can you access anything more than the cameras?” I asked.

  Bomblitz shook his head, “I’ve tried, can’t figure it out.”

  “Alright, are there any more rooms you can't access?” I asked.

  “The rooms in the same hallway of the Security room.” Bomblitz said.

  I nodded, “Alright, how much of the complex can you see from Security?” I asked.

  “Almost all of it, including the perimeter, It’ll be easier to show you.” Bomblitz said.

  I nodded, and we quickly made our way to the security room. There was another recon squad member who was busy watching the cameras. In the room there were 5 screens in total, each one was watching something different. One screen displayed a view of the gate where I had entered, another screen was watching the Northside, another was watching the South side. I could see a small sliver of the Wall on that one. The fourth screen showed the entrance to the we were currently in, the screen was titled Command_Building_Entrance_First_Floor. The other screens had names that were equally easily understandable, North_Fence_1, South_Fence_3, Gate_1.

  However the fifth screen on the furthermost right was different from the others, it didn’t display a camera feed, but a simplified satellite view of the entire complex and surrounding area. Looking around that screen I saw it was entitled motion sensors, with various information such as the copyright date for the software being from 2076, and that it was using both passive infrared and active ultrasonic sensors. There were identified contacts in the last hour, and unidentified contacts in the last hour displayed on the top right of the screen. Identified Contacts numbered at 1, and unidentified contacts 0.

  On the desk was obviously a keyboard and mouse, along with a microphone, with old decaying tape on it with the words PA scribbled on it. The rest of the room had nothing else in it, it was empty, clean and new, yet despite that there was a nearly 60 year old copyright being used.

  “This system is old.” I said.

  “Yes, it is. That was one of the first things we noticed when we first booted up this computer.” Bomblitz said.

  “What else is there to this?” I asked.

  “Well there's the manual, it's how we figured out how to use the PA system, and the cameras.”

  I nodded, “Alright, what else can you see on the screens here?” I asked.

  “As I said most of the complex, Reivax changed the camera to the Fusion Reactor’s command room.” Bomblitz ordered.

  “Alright give me a second.” Reivax said, and he got to work putting his hands on the mouse and keyboard.

  “A Fusion Reactor is here?” I asked.

  “Yes, and the most interesting detail is that it is running. We aren’t running off of some sort of backup generator, or solar panels here.” Bomblitz said.

  “How do you know it's on?” I asked.

  “Best to take a look for yourself.” Bomblitz said.

  Reivax moved out of the way from the screen, allowing me to get closer to it. There I saw a room, the lights were off but the camera was looking in the infrared, there were a surprisingly small amount of screens in it, each one laid along a wall, but they were off. A simple console was beneath each one, literally just a keyboard and mouse as well. The camera was placed in a corner that allowed me to see almost all of the room. Yet there was no information that suggested the Fusion Reactor was on.

  “I don’t see what you are talking about.” I said.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Turn the camera to the left, move the mouse cursor to the left side of the screen.”

  I grabbed the mouse and moved it to the left, and the camera view turned to meet the leftmost wall and a single screen that was on came into view.

  “How do you turn off the night vision?” I asked.

  Reivax pushed the ‘N’ key on the keyboards and the camera view changed to pure black, the screen faintly lit up the room. “Can you zoom in the feed?” I asked, Reivax put his hand on the mouse and scrolled the wheel up. The screen quickly became much clearer and I could see words displayed on it.

  “Reactor 1: On: 5%”

  “Reactor 2: Off: 0%”

  “Reactor 3: Off: 0%”

  “Reactor 4: Off: 0%”

  “Total Output: 90K Kilowatt Hours”

  “Estimated Sustainment Time:

  754 Days, 15 hours 29 minutes”

  I just stared at the computer screen, unsure what to say. Just confused and surprised. After a moment only a single question came to mind. “So is that how we have lights in the bunkers?” I asked.

  “Possibly.”

  I gave a sigh of relief, “This makes everything much easier for us now.” I said.

  “Yes it does. But that doesn’t mean we have control over it, the door is locked and I don’t know how the security systems will react to us trying to blow up the door.” Bomblitz said.

  I nodded, “Agreed, this place is called the Command Center, correct?” I asked.

  “Yes it is.”

  “If it is then we can probably unlock everything from this building here.” I said.

  “That is possible, but the computers have nothing on them that can allow us access to the locks, or to even try to hack into the locks.” Bomblitz said.

  “What about the other rooms in this hallway? They must have something.”

  “Well we tried to get into them, but the rooms here are all locked and as I said before-”

  “I know, you don’t know how the security systems will react.” I said.

  “So what do you suggest?” Bomblitz asked.

  “I’m going to take a look at the locks myself.” I said.

  “I doubt you can guess the password, it's one of those eye scanner things.” Bomblitz said.

  “I’ll look at them anyways.” I left the room back into the hallway, there were four doors to each spaced about 7 or so feet away from each other. A small sign was next to the door, labeled Office 1 and an empty name tag spot next to it.

  I didn’t see the eye scanner Bomblitz was talking about, the metal door handle was the same as the one at the entrance. It could be one of those lock systems where the eye scanner jumps out of the ceiling the moment you attempt to open a locked door. I placed my hand on the handle and turned it fully the next thing I knew I was jumping backwards several feet away from the door I was once at. In my place at the door was a camera suspended on a long snake-like body coming from an opening in the ceiling panel that was looking at me.

  I heard Lieutenant Bomblitz and Reivax snickering, “Don’t worry, I also jumped backwards the first time it came out of the ceiling.”

  “Retinal Scan is needed to unlock Office 1.” The camera said, I approached the camera. “Hold your right eye wide open.” I held both eyes wide open, the camera had moved very close to my right eye, all I saw was a red dot in my right eye, followed by the red dot disappearing then a bright flash. A moment passed where nothing had happened but then it said “Access Expired.”

  “What?” I said confused, I was expecting a Denied, but not expired.

  “What?” Bomblitz exclaimed, approaching me.

  I turned to him, “What?” I responded.

  “For us it said Access Denied when we tried, not Access Expired.” Bomblitz explained.

  “I was wondering why it said that as well.”

  Then the PA went off, “Welcome back Commander Maldonado, last signal contact with Earth was in 2093. There are 10 unregistered humans in the complex, last check was 1 minute ago. I will unlock Office 3 for you now. I will also renew your security clearance to Level 1 Alpha.” Said a robotic voice, the PA clicked off with a beep.

  Then the door to Office 1 swung open, I didn’t know what to expect from the Office. For one it didn’t smell 40 years old. The room was dark, the only light coming in was from the hallway but it was actually more than enough as the room was small, no more than a small windowless room five feet by five feet. A single desk with a monitor and a small Computer Tower next to it.

  “That is oddly convenient. For you.” Bomblitz said.

  “You're not suspecting me of hiding anything?” I asked.

  “I am not, this system is probably half a century old and no ones been here Since 2093. So for all we know it just mistaked you for someone related to you. This place is old enough to cover your entire extended family so it's very likely your grand aunt or someone else worked at this place.” Bomblitz said.

  “If that is true then why did they leave, and more importantly why did we get sent here when Pordier at War got shut down?” I asked.

  “Well, I’m pretty sure you can at least answer the former.” Bomblitz said, pointing to the computer in the room.

  I nodded, turned back to the door, and entered the room. Lights didn’t turn on, so I felt the wall next to the door and felt a light switch, flicking it to the up position. The room was bathed in a cool white glow. The room didn’t look decayed, but still eerily fresh like someone had just cleaned this place, or nothing had gotten in.

  I moved over to the desk, there was the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and of course the PC tower. On the monitor was a web camera not built into the monitor but placed on top of it. There was also one of those old telephones that were only for calling and voicemail. The PC was off, I pressed the power button and the fans immediately booted up. The screen flicked on, and a boot up title was on the screen.

  ”Project Ra.” In big bold letters in the center of the screen, placed above a seal that was the Egyptian Symbol for Ra, which was a Sun surrounded by hawk wings. ”Ad Astra Per Aspera.” Was on the bottom half of the circular seal. The screen was replaced with lines of numbers flying by fast as part of a systems check, then the login screen appeared, a simple blue background appeared with the time, though it said it was 23:42 hours, when last I checked it was still day out around the afternoon.

  I clicked the mouse and it revealed a passcode, then it suddenly said below the password input “incorrect password try again” I looked at the webcam, the sides around the camera glowed a cool white I looked at it directly while keeping an eye on the screen. A moment later a 7 digit password automatically filled in and the computer unlocked. Revealing a Linux based operating system layout with a basic layout task bar at the bottom of the screen filled with basic shortcuts.

  ”What the hell is going on here?” I mumbled to myself.

  The speakers for the computer went off, “Is there something wrong Commander?” Asked the same voice from the PA earlier.

  I was taken aback for a moment, “Have you been listening in on me?” I asked.

  ”Affirmative, standard protocol for work computers. But is there the wrong commander?” It asked again.

  ”Um… No, I am just surprised my Face ID is still in the system after being gone so long, I’m surprised you even still recognize me.” I said, ‘I’m surprised it recognized me at all, and even more surprised it's constantly mistaking me for the old Commander Maldonado. Whoever that was, for all I know it could be someone else with the same last name as me and my family.’

  ”It was your orders before the crew had left in 2089, keep the system running, don't let the technology fall into the locals or worse Hawk’s hands.” The computer system said cryptically.

  ”Hawks?” I asked.

  ”I’ve transferred your data from the local cloud to the computer you are at, you will be able to review the notes you’ve taken for the 8 years you’ve been here. You can review the information in the folder titled ‘Aliens’ and then in the sub folder ’Hawks’ there you will find all the relevant information.” It explained.

  The once empty screen suddenly filled up with folders, dozens placed in 3 columns with the rows going to the bottom. Several software programs appeared in the taskbar.

  ”I am more interested in getting a refresher on the systems in here, and how to assign security clearance.” I said.

  ”Do you wish to assign security clearance to the 10 unidentified humans here?” It asked.

  ”Um, yes I do.” I said.

  “You will have to manually add them yourself, go to the taskbar and click on the second icon away from the file explorer. It should be titled Clearance software, it will give you the information on all who have been given a clearance to be on the premises.” It said, I did as ordered and the software very quickly booted up. A single input appeared calling for a security code.

  ”Before we go on, I forgot what your name or code name is?” I asked, One part genuine curiosity and one part in a vain attempt at distracting it from realizing I hadn’t immediately logged in.

  “I am GEAR, the name isn’t an acronym.” GEAR answered.

  I nodded, “Do you have my security clearance code?” I finally decided to ask.

  “I will be sending you your security code, and dedicate it to memory. It is different from the last one.”

  A notification pinged on the bottom right of the screen.

  “Security Code: A53D667”

  Note: The letters are military alphabet

  This message will be completely wiped from the system after the given code's first use.

  I looked at the code, and then clicked over to the Security Clearance Software and quickly typed in the code, A53D667. The software accepted the code and gave me access. I wasn’t met with some tutorial that made you click through dozens of widgets as it was introducing everything to you.

  The UI layout was simple, just a side panel with 5 different tabs to choose from, “Current Security Clearances”, “Canceled Security Clearances”, “Expired Security Clearances”, “Add Security Clearances”, and “Remove Security Clearances”.

  I clicked on add Security Clearances and a several boxes appeared on the screen being a fill out form, asking for first, middle, and last name, date of birth, place of birth, social security number*, current rank/station*, mothers’ name, fathers’ names, siblings’ name (if any)*, home address/last place of residence, with the city, state/province, and nation. Finally a security question. At the bottom was a checkbox saying “I will not reveal my given security code to anyone that is inside and outside of the Ra Program whether they are US government officials or not. I understand that the security code I am assigned is to be dedicated to memory and to be not written down.” Then a blanked out next button that would obviously become green once the bare minimum was filled out.

  I sighed, “GEAR will this system work without contact with Earth?” I asked.

  Gear voice came out of the speaker, “It will, as anybody added will be done so locally. However if you do add anyone permanently and we reestablish contact with Earth don’t be surprised the Directors and a congressional committee to question you about any additions made, largely due in part the program is quite secretive.” GEAR warned.

  I nodded, “We’ll get there when we get there. I would also like to ask how you would handle adding someone who doesn’t have a social security number?” I asked.

  “Then they wouldn’t be able to be given a security clearance no higher than Delta Echo, the lowest security clearance, largely reserved for visitors, if we have any. However there have been several instances where locals from this planet have been given a permanent security clearance, though they were given American Citizenship with the expectation of heading back to Earth.” GEAR answered.

  “So you're saying there are several aliens living on Earth?” I asked.

  “I didn’t say they were aliens, just that they were local from this planet.”

  I sighed, “Ok, alright then. Got it.” I paused before broaching into my next topic. “I don’t know if this question has been asked yet, but I will ask it anyway.” I said.

  “Go ahead, I’ll answer to the best of my ability.” GEAR asked.

  “What if, the person being added has a social security number, but the number isn’t in the system due in part to the lack of contact with Earth. Like say they were born after the year 2093.” I said.

  GEAR didn’t respond immediately, followed by him bringing up an image of the communication system. “Then it seems like your immediate priority is to get back into contact with Earth then. I’ll then send an automated message to Command which will then prompt an automatic security update which will include updating relevant information including Social Security and members that would naturally be cleared due in part to their position.”

  “Well that will make calling for help much easier, however we are in an entirely different solar system hell another universe possibly. How will we get a reasonable response time, or even a response at all. We don’t know if Ra Command even exists any more, how do I know that repairing the communication equipment will do something for us.” I asked.

  “You seriously forgot commander?” GEAR asked.

  ‘Ok, ok.” I said standing up, “How about I make something clear first, this will make things way easier for the both of us. I am not who you think.” I said.

  “Pardon? Your eye structure is identical to that of Commander Maldonado.” GEAR said, bringing up the data results of my recent eye scan, and the last one performed on December 19th, 2092.

  “I may be a clone of her, who knows. When was commander Maldonado born?” I asked.

  “Commander Serena Maldonado was born on July 11th, 2055.” It answered.

  “I was born on December 15th, 2107. That's a 52 year difference between the two of us. Along with that my name isn’t even Serena, it's James. However, I think my grandmother's first name was Serena.” I said.

  GEAR didn’t respond, just silence.

  “You there GEAR?” I asked.

  “Affirmative James, I am here.” GEAR said almost somberly.

  “What's with the silence?” I asked.

  “Just searching for a picture of Commander Maldonado.” He said, a moment later, a photo of a cybernetic face that I hadn’t seen in years since her death, and one that looked very, very similar to mine. “Commander Maldonado is my Grandmother?”