Fortis looked at George riding on the courser beside him. “George, have you ever heard an ancient Terran phrase, ‘sneaker net’?”
“No.” George was mildly interested.
“Basically, computers have always been able to communicate directly via wires, then eventually with radios and now through galactic hyperspace signals. Aside from signal delays through whatever media, it meant instant sharing of data. But the same data carried via some physical storage by hand from one computer to another was called a ‘sneaker net’. I’m told it’s an obscure reference to footwear.” Fortis gave George a half smile.
“And on Misty we have the bird net.” George smiled.
“So a great deal of data is shared and compared periodically that way?”
“Though the pace of our development might not be as fast as out there where you come from, we now get the entire Council archives on each bird chip with much room to spare. It’s encrypted pretty well, and various algorithms compare signatures and such. They meet physically every so often. Corruption, by accident or intent, is controlled that way, even if it does take awhile.” George laughed.
“Does an updated copy come with the judicial robe?” Fortis asked.
“With a key for decryption, Professor Intuition.”
A moment later, Fortis asked, “What would induce a ranger to dishonest reporting?”
“That’s our mission.”
Back on board the ship, the Captain was laughing in a most undignified manner. When he caught his breath, he stood up straight and said, “Give the order, Judge Manley.” Not just any judge, but he was a Special Magistrate of the Council.
Out loud Fortis wondered, “Who outranks you?”
The Captain gleefully jumped in, “Nobody!” He began laughing again.
“It’s not permanent,” George reminded him with almost no humor.
Fortis half smiled, not sure why the Captain found it so funny.
“Great power, even greater headaches,” George noted. “Once I put this on, I have to give people the permission to breathe, for goodness’ sake. They are required to stop whatever they are doing and wait for me to order them to proceed. The whole purpose is to investigate without warning.”
On the voyage to the ranger station, George asked Fortis to share the digest of some of the books. Fortis outlined the obvious differences he had come to understand. George was disgusted. “Of all the hideous things. An empire of people who quickly forged their own chains of slavery because they worshiped material prosperity. All it took was a few lies to take advantage of popular ignorance to win the popular vote. And all that assumption about being under attack when it was they who were attacking everyone.” He shook his head.
Fortis nodded. “The worst part is all the clandestine services, which pretended to serve the governments who sponsored them, but actually served some shadowy global government. They were the ones who masqueraded as enemy and conducted all the supposed terror attacks on their own people. This continued until the end of the brief existence of that first Terran global empire. Your predecessors were lucky to escape alive before the next one found itself facing a much bigger interstellar human space.”
Turning to Fortis, George asked “You are sure it won’t turn on again?”
Fortis promised. “I reversed the polarity on the battery and it burned the circuits. You saw the smoke, smelled it.”
“Depending on how many people are infected with that virus, it may take a full generation to rid ourselves.”
“Well,” Fortis noted, “there were at least a dozen in Johnston.”
It was ten days sailing in the strong easterly winds to reach the ranger station. George directed the Captain to anchor behind a low forested island until dark. There was a long wharf for larger vessels, and the ship slipped in quietly before dawn. The crew themselves tied up to the dock. George, Fortis and the twins simply stepped off the rear deck and marched up the dock. By the time the watch noticed, it was too late to give notice. The black robes with white trim was unmistakable, and he simply froze.
“Remain on duty and notify your watch commander if anyone else approaches, including your fellow rangers,” George ordered him.
The man had been guarding the entrance to a large building not unlike the one Fortis remembered on Johnston Island’s southern approach. The stairs were in a similar location and they climbed without delay. The man slumped at the desk nearly fell into the floor trying to jump to attention.
“You are the watch officer?” George inquired mildly. To the man’s nod, he continued in the same tone. “You will insure your harbor crew render due services for my ship at the dock. By no means will you interfere with the personnel aboard that vessel, as the Captain is your superior officer.” The man nodded vigorously. “You may speak when we have left the building.”
And so it went, throughout the morning. The barracks was ordered made ready for inspection, but George noted it was simply to keep them busy. The commander was marched into his own office in front of the quartet, and the door locked behind them.
“Colonel, you may call me Judge Manley. Professor Plimick is my assistant. We will now conduct an examination of your records. Our particular interest concerns first a pair of prisoners I shall name. You will bring up the raw logs from the chain of custody.”
It only took them two hours to find it all. Roughly a century previously, the technician and the adulteress, among other prisoners, were on board the prison ship. The boat managed to make the crossing without incident, but upon clearing the northeast corner of the western continent, the woman created a disturbance. Apparently she undressed partially. In the chaos, she managed to dive into the sea, followed closely by the technician. They cut loose the line on the dinghy, and maneuvered right in among the rocks at that location, disappearing in the direction of the shore.
Assuming the pair would not do well without their supplies, the crew decided to resume their journey with the other prisoners to their assigned island exiles. Returning, they found they could by no means approach nor gain sight of the area where the pair escaped. In both directions for some distance was this highly unusual rocky buffer holding the ship at least a half-kilometer from the shore. The matter was forgotten, until the ship returned and it was noted some equipment and supplies of the rangers themselves was missing.
A month later, a different ship with a different crew passed the same area, as was the routine for such ships. Nothing was recorded, but the ship returned missing some equipment, and the rations were unaccountably short. No action was taken. At first, this sort of thing was random. Monthly voyages on regular rotation would see a small loss with no apparent pattern, but no one bothered to investigate or report. Yet the basic facts of in and out were logged.
This continued until the last voyage, which had returned a week ago. George checked the roster of crew members and ordered those men to assemble in the training yard.
