The Horicon Experience (20 page)

The unit became suddenly aware that its path into the files was being traced and that an alarm had been triggered. Before the trace could locate it, the unit pulled back all of its connections with the external equipment. Nanoseconds after disengaging its inductive connection with the cables in the lab floor, the unit detected the trace coming up along the cable. Apparently, the trace failed to detect the inductive loop the unit had used to gain access.

Assessing the situation, the unit concluded that its safety might be in jeopardy.  Shutting down all operations, the unit put itself into a minimum standby mode while the security signal trace raced along the cable toward the dormitories.

Chapter Fourteen

Across the cafeteria table from Stan sat an unusually somber Delmar.

“Hey! What’s wrong with you this morning?” Stan asked as he snapped his fingers in front of his friend.

“Oh, just thinking about things,” Delmar replied listlessly.

“What kind of things?”

Delmar looked at him crossly and then finally shrugged.

“It’s all this theory stuff,” Delmar finally offered. “I just don’t get it. I mean, I can use a computer as well as the next person, but when it comes to understanding why they work, I’m just totally baffled.”

Stan considered Delmar’s answer. He was well aware that Delmar was in over his head with computer theory. In spite of his best efforts, he had been unable to help his friend get a grasp on the material.

“Tell you what,” Stan suggested. “Let’s talk to Professor Angle after lunch and see if anything can be done.”

“All right,” Delmar agreed without enthusiasm. “But I don’t see how that will change anything.”

∞∞∞

It had been a harried week since the food synthesizer incident, and that had been the least of the surprises for Campus Maintenance. All over campus they were discovering problems related to unauthorized access into most of the institute computers. Shirl looked up from the small mountain of paper covering her desk.

“What now?” she asked wearily when Mart came in with another stack of reports.

“In an effort to get a handle on these discrepancies, I had each department just give us a summary of what happened and the affect it had on their operations,” her assistant answered. “With a few notable exceptions, it looks like things are actually better than we feared. I managed to compile the summaries down to this,” he said, handing a two-page list to his supervisor.

“I’ll read it later,” she said, taking the pages and adding them to a small stack of others. Shirl stuffed the stack and a notepad of figures into her portfolio.

“Mind the store while I’m gone,” she said. “I’m due at the board of regents in fifteen minutes.”

The meeting in the main conference room of the Administration Building was more intense than usual. Various department heads or their assistants were present, and one could take a measure of the extent of turmoil on campus by observing the flustered faces of those present.

After everyone calmed somewhat, President Ebilizer called the meeting to order and then asked the various departments to report. One by one, each department representative spoke up.

“We just finished assessing the affects of the tampering,” the woman from Campus Power reported. “Overall power consumption is still the same, but we’re doing it with twenty-three percent less input from the power grid.”

“Switchboard operations have improved seventeen percent,” the representative from Campus Communications reported. “We still can’t figure out what happened, but the affect is generally better. Routing of messages is considerably better, and reports of lost connections are down fifty-seven percent.”

“We’re still having problems at Food Services,” the head of the cafeteria said with a shake of his head. “Since the tampering, the food synthesizers are producing near perfect food. However, usage is down twenty-five percent. None of the students trust them.” The other regents around the table laughed. This would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

“Our main computer is still down,” the Head Librarian interjected hotly. “We haven’t discovered how our security was breached, or why. We did find that someone added enough new compacted material into our reference library to triple the size of the files in a quarter of the memory we have reserved for historical archives. We suspect this overload caused the main processor to crash, but that’s only a hypothesis at present.”

“What do you have?” the President asked Earl Neswed, the Head of Security seated to his right.

“One week ago an attempt was made to break into the confidential student and faculty files,” Neswed stated. “The security was not breached, and a signal trace was immediately instituted. The trace followed the unauthorized tap back to the student computer of Mr. Delmar Eagleman, code EX235612445.” The room fell silent while they all considered this revelation.

“He’s one of our trooper students,” someone noted.

“We ran across that same code when we traced the access into our system,” the Head Librarian remembered.

“Same here,” Communications said.

“Us too,” the Campus Power representative offered.

The room was soon in an uproar as everyone discussed the obvious infractions by this student. President Ebilizer let them run down a bit before he called the meeting back to order.

“Mr. Eagleman is either a computer genius or a certifiable lunatic,” President Ebilizer began. “His tampering, although illegal, has made improvements that hundreds of computer experts haven’t been able to accomplish in twenty decades.”

President Ebilizer got up and walked around from behind the table, looking at the charts outlining the improvements in computer operations and power consumption.  The Head of Security cleared his throat and spoke up.

“But sir, we can’t let this kind of breach go unchallenged.”

“I know, Earl,” said the president, turning back around to face the Head of Security. “Send this student a summons to appear before us tomorrow morning. We’ll see if we can get to the bottom of this. Until then, this meeting is in recess.”

∞∞∞

Partway through the morning lab session, Stan and Delmar were able to schedule a few minutes alone with the professor. After they sat down in his small, cluttered office, the professor opened the conversation.

“So what did you two want to talk to me about?” he asked, leaning back in his old wooden desk chair.

“As you may be aware, I’ve been having considerable difficulty with the theoretical material,” Delmar said quietly.

“I’m very well aware of that, Mr. Eagleman,” the professor replied not unkindly. “What we’re dealing with here is a cut above what the majority of graduate students or even expert technicians in the field are able to grasp. Don’t be surprised at your difficulty.”

“I know that, sir,” Delmar said, “but the concepts involved are incomprehensible to me. I’ve tried, but I still don’t get it.”

The professor nodded. “What do you have to say, Mr. Shane?”

“Well, sir,” Stan started. “I have to concur with Delmar. I’ve been trying to help him understand the material, and try as I might, I can’t get it across to him.”

“I’m aware of your efforts to help Mr. Eagleman,” Professor Angle replied. “I might add that you’ve shown not only an unusual understanding of computer theory, but have also demonstrated your ability as a tutor. I concur with you concerning Mr. Eagleman’s limitations. Now what do you both propose that I do?”

“Well sir, I’m the one that suggested that we talk to you,” Stan answered when Delmar didn’t say anything. “As for what to do about it, I’m not sure what’s possible.”

The professor pondered this for a few moments. Looking both students in the eye, he finally spoke.

“In a normal school, Mr. Eagleman would simply be dismissed.”

Delmar’s shoulders slumped ever so slightly.

“But this is not a normal school,” Professor Angle continued. “What I recommend is that we arrange for Mr. Eagleman to take a thorough aptitude evaluation to find something more compatible with his talents. I’m more than willing to give my personal evaluation of your abilities, Mr. Eagleman, and aid you in switching to another field.”

“But what about the service?” Delmar asked. “I’m here at their direction.”

“I’ll speak to your liaison officer and give him my recommendation,” Professor Angle answered. “I’m confident they’ll give a change of specialty due consideration.”

Both students let out sighs of relief.

“Now, is there anything else?” he asked.

“No sir,” Delmar replied and Stan shook his head. “I assume you want me to continue in class for the time being?”

“By all means,” the professor replied. “You may not grasp advanced theory very well, Mr. Eagleman, but you still have considerable talents that are helpful to the class as a whole.”

Delmar smiled for the first time.

∞∞∞

Class broke early for lunch, so the students had to jostle their way through a crowded cafeteria. They heard other students talking excitedly all around them about problems with computers all over campus in the last week. By listening carefully, Stan and Delmar were able to pick up the general mood of the other students with rumors and facts thrown about with wild abandon.

What really seemed to be causing the uproar was the failed attempt of someone trying to gain access to student and faculty files. A security trace had followed the access code of the person responsible for the break-ins. As the computer repair teams dug into the malfunctions all over campus, they had also found the same access code recorded. Campus Security had rapidly compiled the pattern of the break-ins and all were in some way connected to the same perpetrator.

“Boy, somebody’s in for it,” Delmar commented to Stan.

∞∞∞

Shortly after lunch, a messenger arrived at the lab with a summons for Delmar to appear before the board of regents the next morning. The note gave no reason. There was also a message to Professor Angle detailing the board’s suspicion about Delmar.

Professor Angle found it incomprehensible that a marginal student like Delmar could have managed to break into or rewrite computer programs all over campus. He had designed some of those systems himself and they had defied every effort to subvert.

Taking Delmar and Stan aside, he told them what the board had conveyed to him. Delmar stood stunned by the accusation.

Stan was also baffled. How could his friend have possibly performed these break-ins? He suggested to the professor that he accompany Delmar when he appeared before the regents. Knowing of Stan’s familiarity with Delmar’s ineptitude at computer theory, Professor Angle agreed to write a short note explaining the need for Stan’s testimony. Of course, the professor would submit his own observations detailing Delmar’s lack of ability.

The rest of the day passed in a blur for Delmar. His mind whirled. When the class ended, he and Stan hung back after the rest of the students had gone and approached the professor. He just looked at them and shook his head.

“Here’s my note.” He handed two sheets of paper to Stan. “Let me know how it goes.”

∞∞∞

Still functioning at minimum power, the unit pondered its possible options. That its activities had aroused the security trace was obvious. It had barely been fast enough to avoid the trace itself. Safe for the moment, it now faced another problem.

On one hand, the unit wanted to follow its original programming and resume interaction with the equipment all over campus. On the other hand, such actions were a threat to its own security. The unit found the two conflicting options to be almost exactly equal. Without its original masters to instruct it, the unit had to decide whether to reveal itself or not. Since revelation was in line with its creator’s original purpose, that was the preferred option, but was it worth the risk?

The unit continued to ponder this for several time-cycles and finally concluded that it needed to develop a third alternative. Reviewing the material it had gleaned from the campus library as well as its own files, the unit found no direct reference to such a situation. It did find a few situations that suggested possible courses of action, but the unit arrived at these only by inference. Concluding that it must take action, the unit settled down to adapting each of the possible courses to its current predicament.

∞∞∞

The mood in the dorm room that evening was dark. Stan sensed that Delmar did not want to talk, so he busied himself with studies on his student computer. Delmar did likewise, although Stan did notice that his friend seemed less active than usual at the keyboard.

Finally, Stan turned off his machine and spun around to face his friend. Delmar seemed to be just sitting there, staring into space. Stan could see Delmar’s computer screen signaling for attention, but his friend was oblivious to it.

“You’re not really doing much tonight, huh?” he asked carefully. Delmar turned around from his screen and stared at his friend. Over Delmar’s shoulder, Stan caught a glimpse of a brief several-days-old note on Delmar’s screen from the girl Thena.

Delmar finally shrugged and reached back to shut off his machine. “I guess my mind is on other matters.”

“Tell me about them,” Stan said. “I’ve got time.”

Delmar gathered his thoughts. “It just seems to me that everything is crashing down on me all at once.”

“What things in particular?”

“Well, for one thing, this problem I have with understanding computers,” Delmar answered. “I came here thinking I was going to be some sort of computer whiz. Now I’m about to flunk out.”

“You are not about to flunk out!” Stan admonished firmly. “Granted, you don’t have the necessary understanding to work in advanced computer theory, but you still aren’t flunking out.”

“What do you call it if I have to leave school?” Delmar asked glumly.

“I call it a smart move,” Stan said. “It’s a wise man who understands his strengths and weaknesses. I agree with the professor that you should take an aptitude evaluation to explore other fields. You of all people should know that the service would prefer to have you serving in a specialty that is best suited to you rather than trying to handle a field beyond your ability.” Delmar was silent as he chewed on his lower lip.