Dhungwana 2117: A captivating sci-fi novel: The Dhungwana Chronicles (2117-3451) Part 1 (2 page)

Dayla walked back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen, stress made her thirsty; and since she had set foot in the house, she had continued drinking and wandering back and forth without ever sitting down for a moment.

She went over to her bag and pulled out her wristsynk, she had hidden it in the bag a few moments before the security services’ raid. It contained the files she had downloaded from her office workstation after accessing the new data. Fortunately, the hasty security agent had performed a thorough cleaning of her workstation before checking if there were any manual downloads onto other devices, and in doing so had erased any possible traces.

However, in addition to her discomfort at the security agents’ intervention in her office, she discovered her workstation was under investigation by the corporation, as always in the event of a systems breach. It didn’t matter that the intrusion had been temporary and performed by robots that ignored or couldn’t understand sensitive private information. Dayla felt her privacy had been violated.

And then there was a problem to be solved immediately: she was required to submit her wristsynk for a system integrity scan, hackers could have used her device to violate the corporation’s intranet.

Dayla's mother had given her a new wristsynk four days earlier but she had forgotten to declare it and upload it to the corporation’s intranet; now she was too late and subject to sanctions. In addition, she had worn the new wristsynk for the first time that day and had downloaded the files and saved them in that device’s memory for later use.

First, Dayla submitted her old wristsynk so that it was scanned and certified, then she looked at the time, turned everything off, took some personal items, pajamas, change of clothes and went out to find a taxi.

Her mother found her daughter out on the landing with no warning of a visit, and with a curious and suspicious expression she opened the door.

“What happened? Did you fight with Ian?”

“No, no, it's okay. Don’t worry. I made a mistake and I need your help to avoid fines from the corporation.”

Dayla convinced her mother to send the following communication to her workstations at the office and home:
Dear Dayla, you still haven’t come to get the new wristsynk I bought for you four days ago. Why haven’t you been to see your mother when I have a gift for you? I'll expect you for dinner tomorrow. Mom.

“I forgot to register the device in time.” Dayla explained: “This way, if they run a check, the email can be used as evidence.”

“Yes, I see. However, it's really strange that you forgot about it. Are you okay?”

“You're right. It is strange. But I'm fine; I'm just a little tired these days. Tomorrow afternoon I will register the new wristsynk. Do you happen to have some non-paper? I have to print some documents.”

“It’s in the top drawer of my desk” said her mother, without asking any further questions.

“All right, I’ll do it right away.”

Dayla printed all the files from her new wristsynk and programmed five consecutive erase cycles, overwriting the memory and removing all traces of her actions. She then went to her room, put on her pajamas, lay down on her bed and began studying the files that at first glance had seemed strangely inconsistent with the previous data.

“Yes, affirmative, these are my credentials. I'm registering a new wristsynk and deleting the old one. I am right in front of the biometric scanner at my desk in the office... Yes, I know you can see me... ” said Dayla a little bit embarrassed as she replied to a question asked by a BlueGray Corporation security agent.

“Well, please place the device to be replaced nearer the scanner... Ok. Deleted from the records. Now bring the new one up to the scanner” the man said: “Enrolled, registered and certified. No recorded data. Good, that’s fine. Have a nice day, Ms Erle.”

“Thank you, and the same to you.”

Dayla was restless, she had spent most of the night analyzing the aggregated data she had printed out and, being a good analyst, was certain that some of the data had never been made available and had never been incorporated in the financial statements and end of the year reports. This was a very sensitive issue; therefore, before asking any explanation, she would have to investigate and make sure that she hadn’t misinterpreted the data.

She began by calling administration and asking for Nathan Chungle.

“Ms Erle, what a pleasure! We haven't talked for a long time!” said the director of the department, David Visp.

“You’re right, I called you last night but, unfortunately, you had already left the office. Actually, this time I’d like to talk to Nathan... Could I speak to him, please?”

“Nathan is no longer with the company; he left yesterday... Didn’t he tell you that?” asked Visp.

“No, he told me that he had been working in the office for a month, but he didn’t mention that it was his last day” said Dayla, focusing on sounding calm and not betraying her anxiety.

“Unfortunately... you know how things go... A good person but he didn’t pass the probation period... so tell me, how can I help you?”

“I need the access code to the usual monthly data. Yesterday I wasn’t able to work.” replied Dayla. Now she not only smelled a rat, but she was absolutely sure something was wrong.

“Of course, the intrusion attempt has left everyone baffled... I’ll send you the passcode, and if you need any more details or explanations, call me.”

“Thanks, David” she said, closing the call.

The code was delivered few minutes later. Dayla downloaded all the files and opened them. As she had expected, the data were now perfectly congruent with the monthly reports, and there wasn’t any deviation or any particular issue.

She rose from her chair and counted the steps to the window, repeating the action from all sides of the room; when she was certain she was in a blind spot, hidden from the office surveillance cameras, she made a small mark on the ground and then went back to her seat.

Now she was ready to act, took a deep breath and called Alyssa knowing that the girl was engaged in a refresher course.

“Hello, Alyssa. I need Theodore for quarter of an hour at most: I have to analyze some aggregate financial data in-depth. Thanks.”

“Hello, Ms Erle, today I’m attending a training course, I cannot join you in the office. If it is a simple check, then Theo can carry out it without me. If it’s not urgent, however, I’ll come tomorrow.”

“Unfortunately, it is urgent. Yesterday I wasn’t able to work and I’m behind schedule with my reports. Tell Theo to join me in the office, please. If I have any problems, I’ll let you know and meet you tomorrow for clarification.”

Dayla had to understand what was going on, and because the corporation prevented free access to the various departments in the absence of a specific request and tracked almost anything with the intranet and security cameras, she didn’t have much room for maneuver. Above all, she could no longer trust her colleagues.

Dayla knew that Theo wasn’t an advanced or sophisticated robot: those like him, still in operation, had been reprogrammed as accountants and as trainers for students who joined BlueGray Corporation as interns.

Theodore had limited capabilities with first level automated administration characteristics: first level robots recorded financial transactions for analysis but weren’t able to communicate with each other. So Theodore offered her an opportunity to search for suspicious transactions without leaving any traces on the system.

Theodore arrived within a quarter of an hour, and Dayla stood at the very spot she had marked on the floor, forcing the robot to come to her at the window.

One by one, she scanned the papers she had printed the night before, and she gave Theodore the voice command to drill through the data.

For each sheet that was in front of its scanner, the robot began to slowly project the data on the floor, disaggregating the figures deeper and deeper, till it reached the transaction records. However, since Theo was a technologically undeveloped machine, it didn’t store any of these processes in its memory.

Dayla followed everything carefully, even if she couldn’t photograph anything because it would be too dangerous.

When the robot finished the last check, she hid the sheets in her back trouser pocket, and then moved back to her desk and dismissed Theodore.

Dayla would have immediately compared the records, but because she knew she was on camera, she wanted to avoid any unnecessary risks and continued working on the report to the shareholders as if nothing had happened.

When Dayla left the office at 19:30 she was still shaken, but Ian had decided to come back a day early, so Dayla, who couldn’t wait to see him, went straight home. For the moment, she decided not to say anything about what had happened in the office. She had to think about what to do.

Ian was waiting for her in a bathrobe; he had just come out of the shower and had already finished unpacking. When he saw her at the door of the apartment, he opened the door and closed it quickly behind her.

“Hello Dayla, you look scintillating!” he said as, skipping the pleasantries, he began to remove her clothes, leaving her standing there wearing only a slip.

“Ian, love... but what... ”

He dimmed the lights with one urgent order to the housenet, then began kissing Dayla passionately. She surrendered to such fervor, unbuttoning his pants to make sure he was excited. With her hand she began to stroke his erect cock which poked out of his underwear.

Then Ian turned her gently, made her bend forward and slowly penetrated her. Dayla, intoxicated with pleasure and the thrills running through her body, didn’t notice anything unusual until she raised her head: in the room there was a life-size, full-color hologram of them fucking in real time, with multiple zoom-in views focusing on details.

The background of the scene was one of the dark regions of Jupiter's moon Ganymede, highlighting their milky and sultry bodies in a fascinating setting of craters and ice.

Surprised, Dayla watched as Ian moved rhythmically, tight to her body. Then she pushed him onto a chair and sat astride him, admiring their curves and their sinuous movements, until Ian turned off the hologram and the light, and let himself be carried away by Eros.

Ian was beginning to doubt his sanity: it was 9 pm and he was still in the lab trying to find a solution to an error that materialized every time he repeated an experiment.

He was on the 374th floor of the BlueGray Food Corporation, the same division for which Dayla worked only a few floors below.

Ian Lonvell was a highly respected molecular biologist and had worked in one of the research centers for the development of new viral genetic strains for the food industry for more than ten years and yet he had never seen anything like this before. He was completely mystified.

He was standing with his back against the wall, his head in his hands… he needed to calm down in order to think clearly and make further checks. He decided to simply stop, and walked over to the next door lab to see if Orlando Steiny, a bioengineer, was still at work.

“Orlando! What are you still doing here at this hour?” Ian asked in a loud voice, just to give his colleague a fright.

“Good grief, Ian! You scared the life out of me! But what a question... and what are you doing still here?”

Ian smiled and then replied thoughtfully: “I don’t know how but somehow I’m contaminating a result. I can’t figure it out. It’s just alien to me. What are you working on?”

“Always bees. The new DNA plug-in configuration seems to work on the worker bees, there are less deaths, and for the moment antibiotics aren’t necessary. Tomorrow I’ll inject the queen and the drones... we'll see” Orlando replied.

“Uh huh… Well, I'm leaving in ten minutes... Aren’t you starving? I noticed you haven’t eaten at all today!” Ian said, changing the subject.

“No, not really. I guess what I eat is enough for my metabolism.”

“Lucky you! In a few years, you won’t have to fight against love handles like me!”

Ian said goodbye to Orlando and returned to his laboratory.
Is it possible that I'm NOT wrong?
he thought as he unlocked the labnet with his wristsynk.

The issue had begun about three weeks before. While Ian was conducting a study on the resistance of rice to aflatoxins, he had accidentally come across data related to the modification of certain GM rice genes, a major food source for humankind. The modifications could change humanity’s immune defense ability.

He had tried different varieties of rice and other parameters that might have affected results but always came up with the same outcome: all GM rice contained genes inserted deliberately and capable of modifying the human immune system as well as metabolic parameters.

Unnerved by this accidental discovery, he had mapped the rice genome, and the genetic map revealed an abnormality in all the varieties of rice on the market. So it couldn’t have been a transformation that had occurred naturally or accidentally. Who could be responsible? he wondered.

At 11.30 pm Ian decided it was time to go back to Dayla’s house. He went to say goodbye to Orlando, but he had already left.