Earth and Beyond

While Roed waited for his simulation to run its course he pulled out his new Chiron Pocod and examined it. Everyone on board had found one waiting in their apartments when they’d come on board. He’d been too busy to explore the games but now he was pleased to find the latest update of Arachnoids in Space. Gleefully he battled up a few levels, then he got stuck. Noticing he’d have to get back to work soon, he decided to hunt for a cheat code. It turned out to be harder than he’d thought. Finally, he found the Ambassador had a file labelled “AracInSpaceInfo.ecgcfied.” He laughed out loud that the government would classify game codes as top secret. It made sense though, he supposed, that the Ambassador would be privy to them in case she needed to hand them out for morale reasons. He wasn’t going to ask for them, though, and admit he’d been defeated. Thus, he started the laborious process of hacking in so she wouldn’t notice. Finding it was just as fun a game to break into his boss’s files as the one he was trying to cheat on, he pursued it vigorously. Finally, he had an in. Opening the file, he skimmed it for level codes, but didn’t see any. Instead of the expected data and game code, he had some sort of essay in front of him. He was disappointed until he started reading. It was much more interesting than he’d thought; he laughed out loud when he saw Rich had seen real ships that were covered up with an elaborate game creation scenario. Their esteemed Captain could probably have figured it all out when aliens became undeniably real, with similar form to the shadowy one he’d first seen so long ago. Should he tell him? No—it would be fun to gloat until he got in big doo doo for hacking. After a moment of enjoying his success it occurred to him to wonder what else the government was covering up. Skimming file titles, he was strangely stunned when he saw one with his name on it. He stared. Could he open it? Should he? A beep called for his attention, saving him from a decision. Knowing he might have to start over or never get back in, he closed doors and covered his tracks to put his full attention to the coming Quantum Displacement.