Date: 10.7.2152

To: you, my only friend

Subject: happy birthday to me

hi,

I don't know if you remember, but it's my birthday today. No need for gifts or cards – maybe just drink a shot for me...

Every year on this day, I get a package of moon cakes delivered. They are not my favorite pastries - I would prefer a chocolate cake. But it's a tradition, and traditions should be honored.

While I was still living at home, no one ever bothered to remember my birthday, not to mention get me something. Shortly before I turned 8, I had carefully scattered some reminders around the house and, for whatever reason, was hoping that this year things were gonna be different.

Alas, my efforts went unnoticed. And being a child, I got very upset about it. Our neighbor Mrs. Huang saw me crying in the yard. She invited me over and treated me to some moon cakes and sweet-smelling jasmine tea. Since then, until I left home, she would always give me moon cakes for my birthday. It is the best memory I have of that place.

So I continued the tradition when I started living alone.

Mrs. Huang passed away in 2149. I was sad when I found out – it felt like my childhood had died with her. My last trip, before I stopped leaving my apartment, was to her grave. I left three moon cakes on her headstone.

Usually, I feel a bit sentimental around my birthday – it reminds me about the passage of time, and that every year I get closer to my own headstone. It is a lonely feeling. Can you relate, or does it seem too grim?

A couple of times, I celebrated my birthday with Mia, and it was... weird. Once, she made me watch a soccer match at an outdoor arena which bored me to tears. The other time we cooked mushroom quiche together. It tasted like a rubbery sole of a sneaker and smelled just as awful. And then the last time, she came by for 15 minutes to give me a birthday kiss and a self-help book called "How to be more assertive" as a present. Come to think of it, I prefer being alone on this day. Even if it's a little sad, at least I get to be in control of what I'm sad about.

This year I decided to spend the whole day looking into the backgrounds of my new annoying acquaintances.

The idea came to me when I saw the monthly listings of passed-away terraformers. What do you know – Katja B. was on the list. This either means that the government knows that she escaped Neptune, and they are trying to cover it up, or they've been successfully tricked by her. And this would indicate that she doesn't have her chip anymore.

It took me a while to dig stuff up on Sarah and Maxime. My only link to them was Kevin, but he didn't have any email communication with those guys. However, he was reckless enough to have a list of all the people involved in his little "organization" saved on his computer without so much as password protection. I had to roll my eyes when I discovered that.

It's exactly what I'm talking about! Way to protect your super-secret operation. I wonder why didn't he directly call the document "Anti-government rebels, full names and IP addresses", so the government has an even easier time capturing them?

To my surprise, when I checked Sarah's and Maxime's government profiles, they were also listed as dead. Do you think they had their chips removed or somehow found a way to modify their data in the system? Ha, as if. If they suck at decryption, they are definitely not able to hack government servers. Most likely, they found a way to either disable their chips or get them out completely. Which is a noteworthy feat, I have to begrudgingly admit.

I also looked into Sarah's and Maxime's past, and a couple of curious details popped up. First of all, Sarah is from Hamburg, Germany, and according to her geolocation traces, has never been outside her country. Same thing with Maxime, except he is from Lille, France. The same question as with Katja arises – how come neither of them has a noticeable accent?

My parents immigrated from Korea when they were barely 18 and spent most of their lives in the US, yet, last I remember, their English was far from perfect.

Are Katja, Sarah, and Maxime some kind of language whizzes? That would be a weird coincidence.

I dug more into their past and found evidence that Sarah and Katja were indeed somewhat connected to the rebellion of 45. However, neither of them was at the forefront of it. Sarah had associations with some German youth anarchist groups that basically went around vandalizing things. And Katja had maintained a rebel website with related news and propaganda articles through years 44-45. The site, of course, had been taken down, and I was lucky (and stubborn enough) to find only some cached fragments of it in the deep debris of the net.

Weird how she got sentenced to terraforming only after the incident with the chip. This kind of website would have definitely made her into at least a second-degree criminal a long time ago. Maybe, the secret service just didn't dig hard and long enough. The end of 45 was a busy time for them, after all.

But the most surprising thing I found concerned Maxime – as it turns out, he used to work for the government before his supposed "death". Officially and unofficially, he has no connection to the rebels or to the rebellion – he comes from a family of a high-powered government official and has the cleanest track record I've ever seen.

What do you think he is doing with people like Sarah, Katja, and Kevin? He could be a double agent. Then again, the pessimist in me says he might be a government spy.

Is Kevin even aware of Maxime's previous occupation or his family connections? I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't. Judging by the way he runs this operation, I would assume he doesn't do a thorough vetting of the participants.

If Maxime is actually spying for the government, he'll send them my way at some point down the line. But not too soon – such undercover operations are usually a long con.

I'm so glad that at least I didn't say anything about the files. Sometimes I'm really grateful for this special character trait I have, which many describe as "paranoia", but I would call it "common sense".

Should I contact Kevin and tell him about Maxime? Or do you think it's not my problem? I'm gonna have to wait it out. If I start seeing any suspicious activity in my logs, I will know who to blame.

Well, as you see, it's been a very productive birthday for me. Will be getting to my moon cakes now.

Yours,

Ryan