EIGHT MONTHS PRIOR

Stephen Delta-32711 was the ranking computer expert in the Black Box, something that had, thus far, been more or less useless since Sam-UL vanished, the hacker joining Herod and just disappearing. He was a network and operating system expert, had routinely worked for some of the biggest omni-corps out there, and even had a whole fist full of patents to his name.

Not that any of it had helped.

It galled him to admit it, but a 'teenage' hacker had accomplished more, somehow, than he had managed even in the months since the kid had vanished.

"His work is right there," Delta said, pointing at the door to Sam-UL's workshop. "Why can't I go in and get it? Or at least copy it?"

"That lab has been listed as deadly force engaged off limits," the Confederate Science Intelligence Agent said, staring up at Delta, her gun-metal gray eyes emotionless. "No information may enter or leave without express permission of the Project Administrator. No entry without express permission, only granted for a limited time, by the Project Administrator."

"And where is the Project Administrator?" Delta snapped.

"That information is Need to Know Classification," the agent said.

"For the last few months I have made no progress, and that kid got into the system somehow in less than two months," Delta said. "I need to get a look at his data."

The agent shook her head. "I cannot comply."

Delta sighed and turned away, doing the rude action of just derezzing and vanishing. He re-appeared in the hallway, walked down to the dining facility, and then jumped to inside. He just used the VR object 'food dispenser' to get him meal, stomped over, and slapped his tray down. The 'juice' in the glass splashed inside the 'glass' but didn't spill outside of the rim.

Flowerpatch looked up from where she was reading a book that Delta could see was called "Raising Dogbois Big & Small" and frowned.

"Problem?" Flowerpatch asked.

Delta snarled. "I can't make any headway into figuring out how to access any part of the SUDS computer systems. That kid cracks it in less than two months, with archaic hardware, vanishes, and the intervening months I can't even figure out what he did, much less where he went," Delta snapped.

Flowerpatch nodded. "All right."

"I have no idea what the kid accomplished, how he got the system to talk to him, or even what he was doing," Delta said.

Flowerpatch pushed the meal away, put her elbows on the table, and rested her chin on her hands. "All right, so let's take a look at it all."

Delta gave her an arch look. "I thought you were materials section."

Flowrpatch shrugged. "Eh, I'm working on making sure all the Goodbois and Purrboies are all right before we let the last of them loose. Bobco kind of jumped us on it all and beat us to the release even though they're crediting Confederate Science Division."

Delta sighed. "All right, the problem is, we know that Sam got into the system somehow. He then used his access to apparently use a mat-trans to get to the SUDS, and we've only gotten a couple of messages from them since. No real data, just requests from them," Delta said. "Right now, everyone's pretty much stuck. We know what SUDS on our side is made with, we know how it works, but not why it works or what it does or anything else."

Flowerpatch nodded. "And you think Sam cracked some of it."

"He had to!" Delta said.

Flowerpatch reached over and speared a beet slice with one fingernail, popping it in her mouth and chewing on it, holding her finger out for quiet. When she swallowed she smiled.

"All right. The biggest thing is that we know that each SUDS repeater is talking to another one, we know that one of the signals is talking to and being talked to by the systems, right?" Flowerpatch said.

Delta nodded.

"What kind of equipment are you using to try to figure it all out?" Flowerpatch asked.

"The best the Confederacy can provide," Delta saikd.

Flowerpatch nodded. "All right. Do you know what Herod had Legion build for him?" she asked. When Delta shook his head she smiled. "One for one replicas of particle research systems, not modern ones, but ones from Pre-Glassing. Even one that failed and exploded."

"Right. Why? I never understood that," Delta said.

Flowerpatch nodded again. "He said more than once, before he vanished, 'to understand the particle I must be the particle', to me and others. Do you remember what happened a week before he vanished?"

"He proved Hellspace existed and it proved he existed. Physically melted down one of the mainframes," Delta said.

Flowerpatch nodded. "Right. I looked over his data repeatedly. He had figured out that the spooky particles that were in use by the SUDS transmitter needed pretty precise conditions to be formed," she leaned forward. "You're using modern stuff. Do you know what Herod and Sam were using?"

"I don't know. Abacuses?" Delta asked.

Flowerpatch nodded. "Damn near. Pre-Glassing tech."

"So they ran it off the creation engines?" Delta asked. "That's not going to help me."

Flowerpatch shook her head. "No. We're talking actual Pre-Glassing tech. There's four or five storerooms full of it. Computers, from mainframe six-qbit quantum systems to full on metal over silicon chipsets."

Delta frowned. "You think that's the difference?"

Flowerpatch nodded slowly. "Think about it. It's the Age of Paranoia, you are working on one of the most top secret projects since the bronze spear, what's one of the easiest methods to ensure that something that relies on a high penetration zero-lag signal, cannot be hijacked."

Delta slumped slightly. "Proprietary hardware."

"Ah, but you can't do that. No, think sideways," she smiled. "It was when I managed to replicate the early flintsteel fabrication that I figured it out."

Delta shook his head. "Just tell me."

Flowerpatch sighed. "All right. You're supposed to figure it out on your own," she smiled. "All right, it's fairly simple: the system they developed is entirely reliant on the equipment they built with the technology they possessed and developed," she reached out and stabbed another beet slice as Delta stared at her. "You're trying to get the system to pay attention to you, using high speed molecular circuitry that uses quarks and tachyons for the signal," she grabbed another beet slice. "Maybe the system won't respond to you because you can't pass the most basic of hardware checks."

Delta stared at her for a long moment.

"The system could be checking for something that is no longer needed," Flowerpatch shrugged. "Like the impedance of the filament in a vacuum tube transistor."

Delta just stood up and walked out.

"Hmm, wonder if it was something I said," Flowerpatch mused, sliding her tray back in front of her and eating another beet slice.

-----------

SIX MONTHS PRIOR

Flowerpatch was walking through one of the parks in the Black Box. Not a VR or eVR construct, not even a hard-light simulation. An actual park, lit by a fusion generator in the sky.

She had long ago given up trying to estimate the dimensions of the Black Box when she found out that the particle accelerator that Legion had built for Herod was exact down to the photographed tool marks on the bolts and the thickness of the label stickers.

Robbie was walking next to her, wearing polarized glasses to protect his sensitive eyes.

"What are you thinking about, mommy?" Robbie asked.

"Trying to figure out that puzzle, sweetie," Flowerpatch said.

"Oh," Robbie said, quickly losing interest. He took a bite of his ice cream cone and walked next to his 'fuzzy mommy', enjoying the scents on the breeze and the warm sunshine.

Flowerpatch suddenly changed course to a bench. "Sit down, Robbie, mommy has to talk to one of the grey women."

Robbie looked around conspiratorially. "They all smell the same, mommy."

"I know," Flowerpatch said, reaching out and ruffling his fur between his ears. She touched her temple. "This is Flowerpatch, I need to speak to an Agent."

It only took a few minutes for one of the black suited women to leave a nearby bathroom, walking toward Flowerpatch and Robbie with swift authoritarian steps.

Yeah, like you were just in there using the bathroom, Flowerpatch thought to herself sarcastically.

"You need assistance?" the Agent asked.

"You stated that Sam-UL's lab is off limits," Flowerpatch said.

The Agent nodded.

"Who is his supervisor?" Flowerpatch asked.

The Agent closed her eyes for a second then opened them. "Cherubic Torturer-82674 is pro-tem Project Administrator during Dhruv Deshmuhk's absence."

Flowerpatch smiled. "Thank you."

"Do you require anything else?" the Agent asked.

"Can you ask Torturer to join us and wait until he arrives," Flowerpatch smiled.

It took only ten minutes for Torturer to arrive. Robbie ran over to him and loudly talked about seeing the birds, smelling the little squirrels that were jumping from tree to tree, and how the grass smelled. Flowerpatch noticed how Torturer's normally stern face was lit up by a smile as he talked to Robbie the whole way over.

When Torturer sat down, Robbie went over to throw pebbles into the pond.

"What's going on, Flower?" Torturer asked.

Flowerpatch turned to the agent. "Tell him who the facility administrator is," she said.

"Cherubic Torturer-82674 is the temporary facility commanders and Project Administrator until the return of Professor and Doctor Dhruv Deshmuhk. He has full authority barring cancellation of the project, opening the Black Box, or unauthorized outside communication," she said.

Flowerpatch turned to Torturer. "We need to get into Sam-UL's lab," when the Agent opened her mouth she held up her hand. "We need to clone his drives, have the Agents make a copy of those notebooks, and just observe the area," she looked right at the Agent. "Not disturb the lab in any way."

Torturer looked at the Agent. "I can grant inspection and security inspection authorization, correct?"

The Agent nodded.

"You, Flowerpatch, nobody else," Torturer said. When Flowerpatch opened her mouth he shook his head. "You use a nanite body so that you don't interact unexpectedly with things. It would take most of us days or weeks to learn to use a disaster frame, you can interact without force projectors or hard light projectors. Go in, with some Agents."

"I need his notebooks and clones of his drives," Flowerpatch said.

"Done," Torturer said. "Tomorrow, you have three hours. Disturb as little as possible. Stay away from that janky mat-trans, the creation engines, and that scorched up quantum system."

Flowerpatch nodded.

-------------

FIVE MONTHS PRIOR

Delta pinged Flowerpatch, who took only a few minutes to arrive. She knocked on the door and Delta was surprised to see that Robbie wasn't with her.

"You need me?" Flowerpatch asked.

Delta nodded. "I've been reading Sam-UL's notes and comments," he said, motioning at the copies of the actual paper sheet notebooks and the copies of the computer systems they had fabbed up. "It took me nearly two weeks to figure out that the big list of random characters at the back of that notebook was his logins and passwords."

"All right," Flowerpatch looked around, then moved over to pull a rollaway chair away from a desk and sit down. "Why do you need me?"

"The strange matter coating, it's been bothering me. He doesn't list why he needed it, but he was fairly careful in his searches," Delta said. "I asked Vanishing Point and a few others about some of the search strings he did."

Flowerpatch nodded.

"The strange matter coating is listed as having been used for scientific probes at one time," Delta said.

"Hellspace, and whatever left Herod stunned for two days only able to mumble about violent and purple," Flowerpatch said.

Delta nodded. "Correct."

"So they used the mat-trans and were exposed to Hellspace and someplace else?" Flowerpatch asked.

Delta nodded. "Which points at a rather ugly supposition."

"That the SUDS isn't in this universe, or even this dimension," Flowerpatch guessed.

"Right. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense. Probably a bubble universe," Delta turned and tapped a computer. "At the time, they were examining 'extra-dimensional spaces' for a clue on how to move faster than light in this universe."

"Pop in another universe, move fifty miles, reappear in our universe fifty thousand light years away," Flowerpatch nodded. "Jumpspace, hyperspace, Hellspace, all of those, that's how they worked."

"OK, here me out," Delta tapped a drawing of overlapping circles. "What if they found an extremely limited dimension, with a tiny universe, and put the SUDS there?"

Flowerpatch raised an eyebrow. "You'd need the spooky particles and strange matter for sure."

"And if so, I think I figured out what's up with the spooky particle that's been driving everyone nuts," Delta said.

Flowerpatch raised an eyebrow.

"When a particle is generated in our reality, a mirror duplicate is generated in the other universe and loaded into a SUDS communication array," Delta said.

Flowerpatch nodded slowly. "The old 'paired quark' system."

Delta smiled. "Exactly."

Flowerpatch was silent for a moment. "That's... that's a big deal."

"That's not why I invited you, though," Delta said. He pointed at one of the LCD 2.5D monitors. "I had a breakthrough."

"What kind?" Flowerpatch asked.

"I got the system to talk to me," Delta said, smiling.

Flowerpatch focused on the monitor. It was a menu with a half dozen options.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

MILITARY ACCESS

RESURRECTION SYSTEM TECHNICIAN

were just the major ones.

ADMINISTRATION

MAINTENANCE

DATA INFORMATION SYSTEMS were the other three.

"I'm going to try to get into the admin files," Delta said. He pointed at the screen. "It's a text GUI, no pointer, not touchpad, no nothing. Straight text."

Flowerpatch nodded. "Did you document how you got here?"

Delta nodded. "And I have a list of passwords and logins that Sam-UL had," he said.

Flowerpatch frowned. "You know, we didn't ID a lot of that hardware," she said.

"If the kid got in, I can get in," Delta said. He tapped a few keys. "See, there, the login."

"At least get one of the Agents in here," Flowerpatch said.

"I don't trust them," Delta said. He tapped in a login and password.

CERCOG PROTOCOL PASSWORD appeared

"Sir-Kawg?" Flowerpatch asked. She frowned and stood up, moving toward the door. "I don't like this."

"It should be one of these single passwords," Delta said, consulting the copy of Sam-UL's folder. "He had logins with passwords that are connected by lines to other passwords. Here, I'll try this one."

Delta typed it in and the computer beeped.

UNAUTHORIZED INTRUSION - POWER DOWN TERMINAL AND AWAIT SECURITY

Flowerpatch moved against the door. "I don't like this, Delta."

"Dammit," Delta hit a complex set of keys and the interface dropped back to the original. He typed in a quick password and login.

The door opened behind Flowerpatch and one of the Confederate Scientific Intelligence Agents bustled in, her hand filled with an ugly old style magac.

"Don't!" she snapped, leveling her pistol at Delta.

Delta looked over even as he hit enter. "What? I'm trying to..."

HACKING INTRUSION DETECTED appeared.

CERCOG PROTOCOL ENFORCEMENT appeared underneath.

The Agent fired her pistol, hitting the case of the computer tower, blowing chunks of metal and plastic all over the floor.

Two other Agents peeked around the door.

"I think I..." the Agent started to say.

Flowerpatch felt a weird fzzzt on her nanite molars.

A figure appeared in mid-air, floating several inches off the floor. It was in a raggedly black cloak, the hood pulled up. It held a long curved blade on a long wooden handle in one hand. Its head and hands were completely fleshless, pale white bone gleaming in the lights.

A booming deep laugh echoed around everyone.

The figure reached out with one hand, a finger extended, and touched Delta's projected image.

Delta just vanished.

There was another laugh and the figure vanished.

"What was that?" Flowerpatch asked, feeling the tingle of fear race up and down her spine.

"Black ICE," the Agent said. "Older design, nasty stuff."

Flowerpatch nodded. "Did it eject him from the system?"

The Agent touched her earpiece, then shook her head. "No. He's gone. Deleted," the Agent looked at Flowerpatch. "He's dead."

Flowerpatch frowned. "How did Sam get by that?"