"Hey Lisa." Sarah sat strapped at the same table she had floated over during their last conversation, a half-eaten ration cube steadily drifting away from her and out of sight of the camera. The same green flightsuit sat loose over her shoulders, hair in the same untidy bob, but her expression was considerably saner, considerably more sober. Alone in the Galley’s mess, the emptiness made the small room seem far larger than its cramped quarters merited.
"Leslie’s waiting to grab her lunch, so I won’t keep you too long." Sarah absentmindedly drummed her fingers across the table, looking for the right words. “I did some work for some people a while back-“
No, that was no good. No matter how much she wanted to, Sarah couldn’t get away with telling her nothing. No-one worked for nothing, no-one could work with nothing. Besides, if Lisa did what she asked she’d learn soon enough anyway. Sarah took another breath. “Sorry, let me start again. Around half a year ago I helped put a few comms satellites in orbit for some people. Pretty straightforward, all laser comms, light-speed system-only type stuff. Any lower tech and you’d be waving bits of cloth over a fire and chanting.”
She glanced down at the datapad, flicked off a non-existent speck of dust, and continued. ”A couple of weeks before Leslie picked me up, I got an update on the traffic coming through those satellites, and it was… Well, it wasn’t apocalyptic, but it was more than I was expecting when I helped put them together. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem. I’d just flick through the report and check up on the messages but someone went and changed the encryption key not long after I left the system.”
Probably intentionally.
”Again, not normally a problem. If the client was on the subspace network, I’d just shoot them a message and ask for the new key. But, er, as you probably guessed by now, they’re not.” Not because the Widerstand didn’t have a subspace relay, but because Sarah had been locked out of it. A frown creased Sarah’s forehead. Probably not worth mentioning that. ”So, short of going back to Rheinland in-person to ask, which is a bad idea for all sorts of reasons, I’m stuck with a bunch of messages I can’t actually read and a problem I can’t start to diagnose. Without access to the messages, there’s no way to know if it’s an actual increase in use, or if something in the system’s gone haywire and it’s just shooting off nonsense. Not likely, I know, but I’d like to make sure.
I hate to ask so soon, but I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind having a quick look at them. I’m not sure how close decryption comes to what you do but, hey, can’t hurt to ask, right?” Sarah glanced back up at the screen. ”I don’t expect you to work for nothing. I mean, I don’t think I know you that well. I don’t have a whole lot of credits, but I can probably get you access to the network if you can get me in to those messages. It’s not going to work wonders for any long-distance traffic, unless you like waiting a century and a half for a message to arrive, but if you need to send something in Frankfurt off the official grid, it can do that.”
Sarah shrugged. “If you get a chance to look at it, that’d be great. I’ve attached one of the messages that went through just before I jumped on with Leslie. It’s pretty much gibberish as far as I can tell, but maybe you’ll have better luck.”
“Thanks Lisa. I should get going, before something else falls off and this bird drops out of the sky.” Sarah raised a hand in farewell. “Take it easy.”
To:MCFARLEN, Sarah Source: JAEGER, Lisa Subject: RE: Decryption Encryption:Jaeger Cipher Priority:High
Tj Lhxms,
Cwgqk ywt zrf fnhc dnnqvgak. Fsz Xcof ngt wfmvfj i xpd hl ypdd zt uf wcys stf xirc afa lllle, tze moz nvoafwfqao tazmnrms sa mpg yxjcrxz kxp tlgb vdzqof mv hk qkptzz zwghr mu esmvv. Cmmt, uiu djbobkh opyvo, njhxz ual oxwxb P omdq ixyk, vfcb.......
- - - - - -
RECIPIENT DETECTED: SARAH MCFARLEN
EMBEDDED DECRYPTION SOFTWARE RUNNING... DONE.
DECRYPTING MESSAGE...
- - - - - -
Hi Sarah,
Sorry for the slow response. The Navy has dumped a lot of work on me over the last few weeks, and the encryption attached to the snippet you sent proved to be pretty tough to crack. Well, not exactly tough, given the tools I have here, just... time-consuming. You see, there's a lot of ways to tackle decryption, but if you don't know the key they all have something in common - they're all trial and error of some sort.
To:VWA Logistics Division Sender:Quartiermeister Jakob Goldschmidt Origin:Frankfurt Relay #2
Operation: Erlösung
Genossen,
If you received this message then you are most likely a transport captain or otherwise involved with the logistics of the Widerstand. Today will be the start of one of our biggest logistical operations so far, operation Erlösung. The Widerstand has come to an agreement with the Order about usage of their shipyards for our benefit. The details of the project are kept secret for now for security reasons. It will however need a lot of resource and it is your task to deliver those resources. These resources are to be delivered to Planet Akabat in the Omicron Mu system as soon as possible.
You will receive a 1000 credit bonus per unit of any commodity delivered.
The goods to be delivered can be found in the following list which will be updated whenever a delivery is made to stay up-to-date. Also included is the suggested source of goods.
All deliveries will have to be documented properly and reported via this channel. Information that needs be included:
- What goods were delivered
- Where/how were these goods were acquired
- Timestamped visual proof of delivery on Akabat
Safe skies, Genossen!
End Message
If more traffic is floating around on this network, the key I derived is LI5iCJOfP4SEOhDq. Hopefully it's not a rotating key, but I really have no way of knowing.
You are aware I'm currently working for the Navy, right? The information in this message might be of considerable interest to them, considering their relations to the Widerstand and the Order. Would you have any objection to me passing this along?
Tell Leslie and James I said hi, if you see them. Let me know if you need help with anything like this again. Pay's not necessary for a friend, and I'll try to turn it around quicker next time!
Sarah was perched on a hanger bay container, a hand drumming nervously on a radiation warning label. Behind her a pair of boxy auxiliary fuel tanks were slowly rolling up a ramp into the Adventure Galley’s belly under the hands of a dozen scruffy men and women and the supervision of a red-faced cargomaster. Other stations would have used robots for the labor, but on the Barrier flesh was cheaper and easier to replace than steel. Sarah turned her attention back to the camera, swallowed, and tried her best to look nonchalant. ”Sorry to keep you waiting. I’ve sort-of had my hands full with the ship lately, and James is supposed to be dropping in today or tomorrow, so it’s been really hectic.
Thank you for looking at that for me. I’m not sure I like what’s in that message, but I appreciate having it anyway.” Even if she was questioning the wisdom of handing it to Lisa. Whatever Freya was up to, it sounded like something big. Something that needed the Navy’s assistance. Therefore, something that was very likely to fall apart if word got back to them about their equipment ending up in the hands of the Order. A little knot of worry twisted into her shoulders.
Lisa sounded cheerful enough, but she would have been a moron not to wonder where Sarah had found the message in the first place. From what she’d seen, Lisa was about as far from a moron as a flea was from becoming president. Sarah tugged a hand through her hair.
”Really, I’m a little worried about this thing. I thought it must’ve just been someone using the network for a pirate radio station or something, not this. Just… Look, give me a little while to have a snoop around first before we get the navy involved. The stations are in some weird places, it’s not impossible that they’ve just picked up on an old transmission that got bounced around a bit.”Liar. Sarah glanced towards the ceiling and sincerely hoped that Lisa’s knowledge of satellite dynamics was a lot thinner than her knowledge of encryption. ”It’ll be a while before I’m close enough to get any traffic from that network again, but once I’ve got some more messages I’ll run that key through and see what turns up. If it doesn’t work, we can be reasonably sure that it’s a one-off. Just give me a chance to confirm things before we go scaring the navy. I’ll let you know as soon as I know-”
Maybe. Freya had been abundantly clear that Sarah had already done enough damage. She frowned. ”But let’s not make this bigger then it is until then. Just… I’d take it as a huge favour if you could keep it under your hat for a little while, okay? I’m heading way out of range for a while, but I’ll look into it first thing when I get back. Please?”
Behind her, a tank was pushed off a lift with a long screech of metal on metal. Sarah winced. She hadn’t even secured them yet and they were already getting damaged. Hopefully Leslie wouldn’t notice the scratches. ”I’ve got to get on with this, but I’ll tell Leslie and James you said hi when I next see them.
Thanks again Lisa, and take it easy.”
Message Ends.
"This is really sort of a personal project of mine."
- James Arland, on single-handedly engaging an enemy regiment.
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decryptedforSarah.txt
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