Version Innocent

Chapter 1

The red phone on Jeff’s desk rang….it never rang. Jeff felt his stomach lurch and his hand went instinctively to hold it. The thing was an antique from another era before video phones, personal electronic companions, and neural implants. The only thing the phone had going for it was that it was secure, and it was never supposed to ring except in emergency that threatened the division. He looked at the phone in disbelief for a second and then picked it up.

This is Jeff, he answered, thousands of scenarios spinning wildly in his mind.

Sir, this is the monitoring room. We have a problem with the storage system. It’s been compromised. We’ve already lost ten thousand and it’s growing geometrically. We haven’t been able to isolate the problem.

Jeff stood up still holding the phone, the panic rising in him, but he managed to keep it from totally engulfing him. He thought for a second.

Did you trigger the physical disconnect? he asked. Ten thousand, it’s a goddamn disaster. This isn’t supposed to be able to happen, the system is isolated. His thoughts raced.

Yes, sir, but what ever it is has already jumped into all the storage areas.

Alright, do the best you can to contain it, and I don’t have to tell you that this needs to be kept quiet until we know more…but get anyone you think can help to solve the problem.

Yes, sir. The technician on the other end hung up. Jeff put down the phone and sat down in his chair, staring into space. Ten thousand backups lost, how many of them weren’t corporeal? Involuntary dissolution of thousands, it was murder pure and simple. Who would do something like this? Jeff knew that he had to call his superiors. The backlash from this was going to be furious, especially once the media got a whiff. He picked up the red phone and dialed the President.

***

Two hours later the red phone rang again. Jeff picked it up. This is Jeff, he answered.

Sir, we have it under control now, the tech said nervously.

What’s the damage? Jeff asked.

We lost thirty-five million. Three thousand of them weren’t corporeal.

It was unthinkable and Jeff sat there in stunned silence. After a few seconds the tech squeaked. Sir, we’ve traced the virus’s origin. We know how it got into the system.

How? Jeff snapped. Someone’s head is going to roll for this. Where did it come from? The tech was silent for a second before answering. Well? Jeff said angrily.

Sir, we traced it to that backup cube you sent us this morning. The tech had a little fear in his voice now, after all it wasn’t every day that someone blamed the biggest disaster in the history of the department on the Director.

Jeff’s jaw dropped… His eyes fixed on the two backup cubes stacked neatly on his desk. Sam’s cube…oh, God, the Resistance has him. He’s been compromised and they used his relationship with me to get it in the system…I had hoped that the letter was sincere…I’m such a fool.

Sam 6.7 was Jeff’s crèche brother and more. They had formed a pact when they were only young adults to fight the restoration establishment. Jeff had focused on bringing down the system from within, and Sam had gone to destroy it from the outside. The irony was that instead of Jeff bringing down the system from inside, he had been gradually convinced of the fact that the current system was the only way. So he had worked hard and had risen through the ranks of civil servants to become the director of the Restoration division of the U.S. Government, despite the fact that he was a Newbie.

He had sold out, and he knew that Sam 6.7 had never forgiven him. It had cost him the closeness of the rest of his crèche mates, but Jeff knew he was right. It had seemed that Sam had given up on trying to fight the system as he grew older. Contact had lessened between them over the years until it had been almost nonexistent and Jeff had had no idea what Sam was doing until this morning.

When Jeff entered his office earlier that morning he had found a package neatly set on the center of his desk. It was odd to get a physical package these days, but not unheard of. He found that it was from one of his crèche mates and had contained a post-it note and wrapped box. The post-it simply indicated that Sam had sent it to their crèche mate, to be forwarded to him. The note was cold and reminded him that his crèche mates didn’t want much of anything to do with him any more. Inside the box he had found a letter from Sam 6.7 and a backup cube.

Dear Jeff,

I’m sorry it’s been so long since we’ve spoken, and I realize that you may not wish to hear from me, but considering the situation that I’m in I have decided to risk it. For the longest time I have felt that you betrayed your promise to me. I know that you think what you’ve done is the right thing, because you always did what you thought was right. Of course I think what really got to me was that every time we talked you tried to force those beliefs on me. I’ll never agree with the system that you now direct, but I must admit that I no longer believe the system to be truly evil and the whole cause of the world’s problems.

I have been living on Mars for the past few years working here and there on various small engineering projects, but I have stumbled on to something that even I think is sinister.

I have found a group of Martian Newbies that are not only discontent but are willing to achieve their goals to topple the current hold on the Martian government by the Terran Restoration establishment by any means necessary. When I first met one of their people I heard their arguments and, given my past beliefs, was very influenced by them, but as I came to know them better, I realized that this group was planning some kind of terrorist act against your center.

I believe that I am now in too deep with these people for them to let me leave the resistance. I have managed to escape for the afternoon and was able to get to a backup clinic. I had them make a cube with no transmitted backup so that the Martians would have no way of knowing what I had done. I just hope I wasn’t followed, they don’t trust me much and I would be surprised if they didn’t. I am going to try to escape from them, but I don’t think it will work. They will most likely kill me before I can get away.

I am sending you this cube through our Crèche sister so that no one will know that I have sent it for you or that you have received it. I know that you have an infiltrator among your staff, but I was never able to achieve a level of trust with the resistance to find out who they are. But they are not a simple resistance, they are Terrorists and I believe that they would stop at nothing to keep this backup from getting into the system, as I already know too much. I trust that you will be discrete. If you haven’t heard from me within a month of the date on this letter please initiate my restoration as I am probably dead.

Your Crèche Brother,

Sam Storm, 6.7

The date on the letter was already two months old, and Jeff had heard nothing from Sam in that time. He believed the worst, that Sam was dead. The implication that someone was planning violence against the center and that this Martian resistance group had infiltrated his staff left Jeff feeling panicked. If he was to discover who it was and how the attack was to take place, he needed what Sam knew. Even though Sam had not been declared legally missing and presumed dead, Jeff took the cube to be downloaded in to the system and for the restoration procedure to be started.

It was technically illegal, to restore someone who was not legally deceased, but Jeff felt that the circumstances would be justified if they could avert a major disaster. Sam was not one who could ask easily for help, and Jeff knew that Sam wouldn’t ask for his help except in the most dire of circumstances. He knew that he could trust Sam despite their disagreements, they were crèche brothers after all.

***

Jeff sat at his desk, staring at the two backup cubes of Sam’s. It was already five PM, the news broadcasts had already started. The technical report had come back that the cube Sam had sent him that morning contained a very sophisticated virus that was triggered when the restoration of the backup was begun. The virus infiltrated the system and started to destroy the backup stores. It hadn’t been too hard to stop. It had only taken a few hours.

All things considered, the damage was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. There were over twenty billion backups in the system. Thirty five million was a small number, but nothing like this had ever happened before. The system was supposed to be safe from these kinds of threats, so the backlash was likely to be severe. It probably meant that he would be removed from his position. After all, he had initiated the illegal restoration of Sam and caused the event.

Jeff could only imagine two possibilities of how this could happen, and he didn’t know which one disturbed him more. The first was that Sam was sincere in his letter and that the resistance had caught him and used it as the conduit for their attack, and that in all likelihood Sam was dead. The resistance had used Sam’s connection with Jeff to target their attack.

The second possibility, and the worse of the two, was that Sam had intentionally done this. He had used his relationship with Jeff to initiate this attack. The betrayal was almost too much for Jeff to contemplate.

It must be this resistance, but how can I be sure? he thought. In Sam’s eyes I have already committed a betrayal that would be almost equivalent to this, but I can’t believe for a second that Sam would ever do that. It must be the resistance.

Jeff’s eyes moved from the backup cube that Sam had sent him to the other cube. This one was very old, made on Sam’s twenty-third birthday. That was the day they had made their pact to take down the system. They had both had cubes made that day and given them to each other. It was like a pact of blood brotherhood, something stronger than just being crèche mates. They always had the symbolic support of the other no matter where they went. As far as Jeff knew, Sam still had his backup from that day. Jeff kept that old backup on his desk as a reminder of his own betrayal. The old backup cube of Sam 23.1 was a much more innocent time in their life. Jeff quietly longed to be returned to that time for a second chance, but that wasn’t possible.

Another disturbing fact that Jeff had discovered only a few minutes earlier as part of the report on the virus, was that all of Sam Storm’s backups had been purged from the system. The old backup cube of Sam 23.1 on his desk represented the only backup of Sam in existence. Was Sam 6.7 still alive? Jeff didn’t know, but there was going to be hell to pay for this, especially once Damon Harding was informed. Just the thought made Jeff’s stomach lurch, his hand went quickly down again to hold it. Too many questions.

Chaper 2

Damon Harding stood looking out the window of his penthouse in New York. The whole city sprawled around him. The penthouse was as close to space as one could get without actually going there, and therefore the best the world could offer. He was silent but he had a large smile on his face. He already knew about the virus. He had been informed the moment it had been detected. It had given him the perfect opportunity to get away with murder, and it was like a giant weight had been lifted from his shoulders. A weight that had been upon him for several centuries now.

Damon’s companion interrupted his thoughts. Sir, the total damages have been assessed as thirty-five million lost, three thousand of those were non-corporeal. The source of the virus was determined to be a backup cube that was inserted in to the system this morning. Our intrusion was not detected.

The smile on Damon’s face got bigger. Thank you, Julia, that’s just the news I wanted to hear. And Director Hughes’ involvement only sweetens the whole affair. Julia was Damon’s semi-sentient neural implant electronic companion, that helped him manage his affairs and kept his secrets. Julia gave him access to the data sphere and acted as a personal secretary.

Damon Harding, was the CEO of Second Chance, Inc., the company that had developed the procedure for both backing up and restoring a human being. It was the most powerful technology ever invented, more so than even nanotechnology. This fact had not escaped Damon when the procedure was first being developed. There were only ten people who knew how the technology worked. Only three, including Damon, that knew all the software algorithms that enabled the restoration process to succeed. All of them but Damon were now gone forever, thanks to the virus attack this morning. The others, including all those that had worked on or built the restoration machinery, had been voluntarily backed up and had no corporeal version.

The inventors had agreed to this over two hundred years ago, to be restored after a thousand years, in order to protect the technology from getting out of company hands. Second Chance had never filed a patent, so the process was a complete secret. The workers who had built the restoration machines had also agreed to be backed up in this non-corporeal state in return for large bonuses to be paid when restored with the inventors. They were restored only intermittently when new machines had to be built or the older ones serviced.

That was how Damon had held control of the technology against tremendous pressure for several hundred years. It was how he had become the most powerful and wealthy man in the solar system, and how he had the power to control the US Government, and through them every other government. The only thing that could stop him had been those who knew how to duplicate the procedure, and that threat was now over.

Damon had been patiently waiting for more than a century for the opportunity that had developed this morning. He knew that sooner or later someone would attack the system. He had used his backdoor access during the chaos to purge the backup files of the three thousand who knew how to build a restoration machine, including his founding partners. He was the only one left who could build a restoration machine, Julia stored the plans and software in his neural implant.

Jeff Hughes, that’s an interesting development. It seems Jeff is a typical Newbie after all, but it seems sloppy to me. Perhaps he didn’t know what he was doing. If he didn’t, then who was behind it? Damon pondered.

Julia, whose backup cube carried the virus? He directed the thought to his companion.

Julia responded immediately. The backup cube belonged to Sam Storm 6.7, version was listed as 54.3. There is no further information about the cube in the database.

Sam Storm, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a while. He was a hell of a nanotech engineer. Julia, do you know what Sam has been up to in the last decade? I believed that he had left the LNRC to teach at one of the children’s cities.

Sam Storm, formerly a senior researcher at the Lunar Nanotechnology Research Center, tendered his resignation approximately twelve years ago. He returned to the children’s city of Denver to teach Advanced Nanotechnology to upper level students. Records indicate that he is still teaching, Julia replied, while simultaneously bringing up an image of Sam in Damon’s display.

I seriously doubt that he’s still there. What’s the connection between Storm and Hughes? Damon had met Jeff Hughes on more than several occasions.

They were crèche mates in a group of six, the companion replied.

Crèche mates, well, that would explain a lot. Julia, start an investigation into Sam Storm and Jeff Hughes over the past twelve years. I want to know what they’re up to. And when it is determined that the three thousand non-corporeal backups are those from Second Chance, make sure their families are compensated for their loss, Damon ordered. He wasn’t a complete monster, he was only doing what had to be done. Some of his founding partners had been his dearest friends back when they were just beginning. It had taken a century to realize that they had to be stopped from being restored.

They hadn’t all realized the full extent to which the world would become dependent on the technology.

The peace in the world over the last two centuries that stemmed directly from the control Damon could exert was unprecedented. If the others had been restored, that would have ended, and then the wars would begin.

Damon weighed these choices and chose peace. He was the only one who could make this painful decision but it was for the best. He knew any one of them would do the same in his place. Their sacrifice made them heroes. Unknown heroes of this new world.

A few moments later Julia interrupted again. Sir, there is another development in regard to the virus’s actions.

Yes, Damon replied.

It seems that several restorations were triggered by the virus of non-corporeal backups. The system was able to halt all but one, which had progressed too far to stop legally.

Anyone important? Damon asked.

Terra Gates, she was not scheduled to be restored for another two decades as per her request. There is an anomaly, the backup used is outdated by almost eight years. All more recent versions were lost to the virus. Julia replied.

Very interesting. Damon considered. And certainly no coincidence. The odds are astronomical that this particular out dated backup would be the one to make it too far to be stopped. Something is going on here, and if the former head of the Mars Department of Industry is involved, it’s not in my best interest. That virus’s attack was planned to wipe certain backups, probably as a cover up for something, and I am going to find out what.

Legally, a backup that preceded the commission of, or the conspiracy to commit, a crime was innocent of that crime. A great many detective movies and novels had used that angle. Of course, in reality there was no way to purge any more recent backups from the system, and only the most recent backup could legally be restored, until now. If in the course of an investigation it was determined that the restored backup had planned something, it could be prosecuted as if it had committed the crime. But in the case of Terra Gates there was no indication that she had done either.

Damon walked from the window to the coat closet, grabbed his heavy jacket and went to the lift tube door. The FBI would be his first stop, and then he would pay Terra Gates a visit as soon as she was restored.

Chapter 3

It had been three days since the virus attacked the system and Jeff was still the director, but he knew it would not be long. The news had been leaked to the press and public outrage had been the result from around the solar system. The event was being compared to the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center in New York by Islamic fundamentalists, early in the millenium. Even though the number of backups lost was in the millions, the number that had no living version from which to have a new backup made was only in the low thousands. Still a huge number considering that true death had almost been eliminated. The unreality of the situation was compounded by the lack of documentation and reporting.

The US had made many guarantees over the years to foreign governments that the backup storage facility was secure from outside threats. That guarantee of security had convinced many nations to allow the US to continue its monopoly on the restoration technology. Not that they had a choice. Foreign nations were now afraid that their backups were compromised despite assurances that all the casualties had been US citizens.

There were calls for Jeff’s resignation and prosecution, and he was seriously considering the former. But that wasn’t the worst of it. The debate over Newbie positions in the government was now flaring again. Newbies were people born more than a century after the restoration technology had been invented, when society had fully embraced the change and all children were raised in the children’s cities. Primers were those that had been born and raised before the children’s lottery was established. They acted like two political parties except that the Primers outnumbered Newbies a thousand to one, and had had enough time to acquire great sums of money and power before the Newbies had been born.

Most Primers thought of the Newbies as children despite the fact that many Newbies were also centenarians. For the most part, like teenagers, Newbies didn’t agree with the current system of government and restoration, they thought that society had stagnated and was headed nowhere slowly. A century earlier many Newbies had organized demonstrations and some had resorted to violent terrorist acts. They had been distrusted by the Primers ever since, even though all those had been caught and exiled or had their restoration rights revoked.

That was the heaviest thing on Jeff’s shoulders at the moment. He had originally agreed with the Newbies that society had stagnated because of the restoration technology, but he had been convinced that it was an inevitable technology for a species to achieve, that the current means of controlling that technology was the only way for a society to use it peacefully despite the disadvantages.

He had worked hard to get his position as director of the Restoration Division of the United States government to prove that Newbies weren’t all bad, and that they could work with the system. His appointment to that position had been improving the sentiment towards the Newbies and they were becoming more accepted, but now… Not that many Newbies cared about it, most of them stayed in the Children’s cities and worked and socialized with their own, or took jobs off Earth, where the Primer to Newbie ratio wasn’t so high.

Jeff navigated his way through the crowd toward the zip tube stop. He was on his way home for the evening to his apartment in Denver. The tube stop consisted of two large holes eight meters across separated by about three meters. They both had circular roofs above them supported by three strong pillars. The hole that Jeff was heading towards was the green roofed hole, the down hole. The other hole had a red roof, and was the up hole. People in front of Jeff streamed towards the down hole from three sides in concentric circles and disappeared from view. Jeff waited as the circle of people in front of him took the plunge. From the other hole Jeff could see people rising up from the hole to the surface and walking out.

As he reached the front shell he continued to walk out in to the middle of the opening having the appearance of walking on air. Of course this was just an illusion. Approximately ten others joined Jeff standing on the opening, and then they began to descend, and as they went they accelerated to cover the distance to the two mile deep zip train station. The tube wasn’t as empty as it appeared but was filled by utility fog that acted as a sort of elevator.

Utility Fog was a product of nanotechnology, but it was not nanotechnology itself. The Fog consisted of billions of small robots that were still large enough to be seen by a microscope. Each unit, called a foglet, was a small autonomous robot that had arms extending from eight sides. These arms were capable of telescoping in and out and grabbing on to other foglet arms. When these arms connected, the foglets could hold each other while also using the connection to transfer power and data between them.

In the elevator column the swarm of foglets worked together to raise or lower passengers by exerting a lifting force in the case of the up column, or by decelerating passengers to prevent them from falling too quickly in the down tube. They could make themselves appear invisible or they could form images that seemed to hang in space.

Traveling down the lift tube always felt like falling to Jeff, but a controlled fall. He felt his stomach give way as it was left at the surface for a few moments until Jeff stopped accelerating. The tube walls were a uniform color which gave the illusion that one was standing still once a certain downward velocity had been achieved. The fog column could lower passengers to the zip train terminal a mile below the surface in less than a minute. The energy created by the lowering of the passengers through the down tube was partially reclaimed by the fog and used to power the ascent of the up tube passengers like a counterweight. The corresponding trip back up the tube took two to three minutes.

The other passengers were quiet as they descended. It was always that way. People didn't like to talk much when sharing a confined space with strangers and that was fine with Jeff. A few of the passengers glared at Jeff for a moment before they looked away. They obviously had seen him in the news or had identified him using their SS companion. He was now probably the most infamous Newbie in history. Jeff felt the beginnings of deceleration as they were slowed to gentle stop at the exit of the column. Because the column of fog could support itself, they were lowered out of a hole in the ceiling of the terminal ten meters through the air to the ground. The passengers quickly moved out of the circle of the fog column moving towards their departure gates.

Jeff stepped out of the circle of the fog tube into an anteroom to the main terminal. There was a large arch doorway on one side through which Jeff could see hundreds of people moving around. He had come off the back side of the lift tube circle, so he walked along the path that surrounded the circle and through the portal into the zip train terminal hub.

The terminal twenty meters high, and had the diameter of half a football field. All around the edges of the terminal were large ornately carved doorways. The entire floor was marble with patterns in the stone that radiated from the center like a sun, each ray pointing towards one of the doorways. In the center hanging from the ceiling was a large circular display that had the arrival and departure information for the next hour. In between the archways were some smaller doors that led to various cafes, restaurants, and information access terminals for those without companion information assistants.

Jeff was one of a very small minority. He was one of those without a neural implanted SS companion. Instead, Jeff wore a pair of glasses, an ear piece, and a belt computer. The glasses worked as a display, similar to the display of the neural implant but not as all encompassing because one could still see the frames. The ear piece provided him with sound, and the belt computer controlled everything. These three items could provide most of the functionality of an implanted companion, but one lost the direct mind interface, enhanced memory, and the security.

A neural implant could not be hacked, and no information could be coerced from it without killing the host, which was generally a significant deterrent. Because of the security concerns of the non-implanted companion, which could be stolen and hacked at will, Jeff couldn't wear his companion at work. This gave him a slight disadvantage but one that he was willing to accept for now.

He would eventually have an implant but not until he needed restoration because of an accident or natural causes. A neural implant could only be implanted when a person was being restored, and to this point in his life Jeff had never been restored. At fifty four Jeff was a stocky, slightly overweight graying man. He didn't exercise much or eat very well ... not that many did. The advantages of the implant were great enough that most people would backup and dissolute so that the neural implant could be added at the restoration. Jeff didn't believe in dissolution, the voluntarily killing of his own body, even if it wasn't permanent. Most Newbies didn't.

The zip trains didn't always arrive and depart from the same terminal so Jeff needed help from his companion. Without a thought interface that meant he had to interact with his companion, Chevy, by speaking to him or at least subvocalizing.

Chevy anticipated his need, Your train is departing from terminal twelve today. I'm overlaying the path.

Jeff began to follow the green path that appeared only in his glasses display and guided him to terminal twelve. The express Denver zip train always departed at five thirty, and the trip took about twenty minutes. It was almost five thirty now, and if Jeff missed the express he'd have to take a train that made more stops.

Jeff had to push his way through the crowd. Most people were heading for the west coast trains. When Jeff reached the entrance arch to terminal twelve there were again two circular lift tubes. They were much smaller than those from the surface. Each terminal had a lift tube that went to a different depth, which allowed the zip tubes that the trains traveled through to continue without having to curve. This meant that the trains not stoping at this station didn't have to turn which was almost impossible when traveling by zip train.

At the bottom of the lift a long hallway extended, three or four meters then split like a U and two walkways extended for around a hundred meters. The walkways were partially crowded with people standing and facing the empty space between the walkways. The train hadn't arrived just yet; it was still a few minutes until five-thirty. Jeff hurried toward the far end of the walkway where there were the fewest people.

Just as he arrived a blue flashing light came on along the ceiling of the long divided hallway. The people stepped back towards the walls. The floor that was between the two walkways became transparent and a long bullet shaped train with five cars rose from the floor through the fog barrier from the vacuum environment of the zip tube below. Doors at the midpoint of the cars opened and people streamed out and towards the main terminal. After the arriving passengers had all exited, the light that was flashing blue changed to green to indicate that the train was now ready to be boarded.

Jeff waited patiently as those in front of him stepped in to the entrance. As he passed through the doorway, Chevy piped up in his ear, The sum of fifty-one dollars and twenty cents has been debited to your personal account for zip tube fare.

Once on board Jeff proceeded down the isle towards the back of the train. There were rows of seats but the spacing between them left quite a bit of room for each passenger. Each seat was raised slightly from the floor on a post. Jeff grabbed a seat. The entire half cylindrical ceiling of the train appeared like a window showing the terminal outside.

The train will be departing momentarily. Please take your seats, a pleasant male voice echoed inside the car.

Jeff sat down in his seat, which was well padded. As he did, he sank down a bit. The cushions were made of utility fog and they enveloped his body. He still had some freedom of movement but the fog would constrain him from falling out of the seat during the acceleration phase.

The train is now departing, the voice said.

Jeff felt the train begin to descend. As it did, it moved slightly to the right from its central position into the west bound zip tube. Zip trains were only allowed to move in one direction in the zip tube, so there were two tubes on each route, one for each direction. Jeff watched them lower down into the tube through the ceiling window. Once they were settled, the opening to the terminal above closed and they were in darkness for a few seconds.

The train began to move, slowly at first but with increasing acceleration. After a few seconds the ceiling windows, which actually formed a very high resolution display, showed them exiting a tunnel into a simulated country side on the surface. This simulation was provided for the duration of the trip to help keep the passengers from feeling claustrophobic, which had been a common occurrence when the zip tubes had first been constructed. Being several miles underground tended to give many people claustrophobia.

The train began to accelerate faster. As it did the seats pivoted so that the passengers would feel less of the acceleration through their backs and more through their seats. Jeff felt pushed back into his seat and heavier than normal. The express train accelerated at one earth gravity; the normal zip trains only accelerated at half a g. The train continued to accelerate for six minutes until it reached its cruising velocity of eight thousand miles per hour; propelled and suspended by super conducting magnets. The simulated surface view, however, only moved at eighty miles an hour, keeping everything from becoming a blur as it rushed by.

Usually Jeff slept on the ride or watched the latest newscasts on his displays, but the events of the last few days made sleep almost impossible, and the newscasts were mostly about the scandal of which he was the centerpiece. Jeff was currently under investigation. He had not been formally charged with any crime yet, but charges could yet be filed. He had spent the previous two days under interview which was just a nice way of saying interrogation. Until the investigation was complete, he had been suspended from work.

The most disturbing thing about the events of the last few days was that Jeff hadn't heard a word from Damon Harding. Damon didn't particularly care for Jeff, and he had made that quite clear. Damon objected to him mostly because he was a Newbie, and because Damon rarely liked any one from the government that had any degree of autonomous control over the restoration division. Jeff was afraid that because he hadn't heard from Damon yet, that he was only experiencing the calm before the storm. He continued to worry until he heard the deceleration warning and his seat spun around to face the opposite direction.

The deceleration lasted for the same amount of time as their acceleration, and as the train came to a halt, the ceiling display changed back to a black tunnel and then the opening to the terminal appeared above them. The train lifted gently, shifting to a central position over the two zip tubes. The zip train then rose up through the floor of the arrival terminal, which was identical to the departure terminal.

A blue light was flashing on the ceiling of the terminal and the voice came on again, Arrival at The Children's City of Denver. If this city is your final destination and you are not a resident, or employee in the city you must check in at the Visitors office before you may leave the station.

Jeff's fog cushion restraint let loose, and Jeff stood up and proceeded to the exit of the train. He proceeded back up the lift tube at the end of the gate and arrived in a central terminal identical to the one he had come from in Washington DC. Jeff walked quickly to the lift tube that would take him to the surface. As he was approaching the upward tube, Jeff noticed that a man who was standing in the lift circle didn't lift with the rest of the people in his group. The man looked perplexed.

You know, said Jeff, that you have to check in at the Visitors Office and get visit approval before you can go up the tube, don't you? Jeff hadn't thought that there was anyone who didn't know that.

Of course, the man said as he started to walk off the lift circle, but I'm starting a job here tomorrow and I thought I'd already be in the system...oh well, I better go to the Visitors Office before security gets called to pick me up. As the man walked past Jeff, he patted Jeff’s shoulder, attaching a number of micro-bug surveillance devices. Thanks, he said smiling as he departed.

No problem, Jeff replied as he stepped on the pad with several others. The physical contact of the stranger was abnormal, but any suspicion slipped from Jeff’s mind as he was thought of other things. As soon as the pad had filled to about half full, Jeff and the others began to rise, slowly at first until they cleared the ceiling and then they accelerated up the tube for ten or fifteen seconds. After a few minutes they began to slow until they came up from hole to the surface and stopped.

Jeff arrived at his apartment without incident. As he grabbed the handle the door unlocked with an audible click. The lights came on around the apartment as he entered and he could hear the heater come on as well. He hung up his coat and took off his companion glasses, ear piece and belt computer and put them on a table near the door. As he was walking past his office, he saw that the master view screen had a mail icon in the corner. Jeff often got mail at his terminal, but the odd thing was that unless the mail had arrived at that instant his companion should have already received it and let him know. Jeff stopped and turned into the office and sat down at his terminal. The system sensed his presence, scanned his iris, and logged him into the system.

Open Mail, Jeff said.

The mail program started up, and there was only one new message in the system. Jeff didn't recognize the address but he opened it with a tap of the screen. The message was audio only, so Jeff initiated the playback. As he heard the voice, he felt his stomach grumble a bit. It was Sam.

The recording began, Jeff, I know that by now the virus attack has worked because this message was to be sent only if one of my software agents found the attack reported in the press. Apparently one of them has. I would contact you personally, but unfortunately I am no longer able. I am sorry that I used you to get the virus into the system. I take full responsibility for this action, but it was necessary for my cause. I made sure that the virus would only destroy backups of those that still had a living version. By now I'm sure you have realized that all of my own backups are gone from the system.

Jeff was confused, he knew Sam was methodical to a fault when he was planning or designing. Something here wasn't right because three thousand non-corporeal backups had been destroyed and were not recoverable. It seemed to Jeff that Sam was saying that he didn't intend for that to happen.

Sam continued, I have good reason for what I have done, and I hope that you will be able to forgive me one day. I am now outside of the data sphere, and I do not plan to return. I have been working on a very important project for the last decade, one that I wish I could share with you here, but I think that if I told you it would only put you in more danger. I have dispatched a message to the government, by the same agent mechanism, that claims responsibility for this attack and this message indicates that you were not involved. It explained that I used our friendship to accomplish my own goals. I don't know if they will believe me. I hope they do for your sake.

And now, after all I have done, I need to ask you a favor, I know I shouldn't, but I don't have any other choice. In order to complete my project I made several deals, which I cannot now personally fulfill. I couldn't risk leaving any version of me in the system that had any knowledge of my activities. The only backup version of me that now exists is the one in the cube I gave you years ago. I hope you still have it.

On April first I need you to go to Stacey’s house for dinner with a restored version of me from that cube. She knows to expect you, one other guest, and the other version of me, but she knows nothing of what has transpired. You know Stacy, she's doing this out of love, and blind faith. I can only imagine what she must think of us now. I owe this guest more than I can repay. She already knows to go to Stacey’s on that day to meet me. Unfortunately, I can't be there, and I can't tell you where I am, but she needs a version of me to get to where I am to collect on the debt. The guest will know how to start looking for me, and my other version will have the DNA and biometrics necessary to get through barriers that are in place.

Sam paused for a second. I hope that you will accompany them, so that when you find me you will understand why I have betrayed you. Take care, Jeff. I hope to see you soon. The recording stopped. Jeff sat there in stunned silence.

What the hell are you up to, Sam? Jeff thought. Mysterious work, debts owed to strange female guests, dinner parties, and old versions. It's like a damn mystery novel or something. And why April first? That's three weeks away. Even if I could still have the restoration started tomorrow, it wouldn't be complete until a day before then. He was getting angry now. How dare Sam do this to him? It didn't matter why or for what cause Sam was wrong, and his methods were wrong, and he had killed despite his claim that his virus wouldn't do so.

He would have forwarded the stupid message to the government, but he knew it wouldn't do any good now. He was through, Sam must know that. He would never have a government job again. He would never be trusted again. Jeff wished for a second that he still could restore that old version of Sam just to beat him to a bloody pulp...but no, that Sam was different, innocent of this betrayal, and didn't deserve his anger. Jeff loved that old Sam, even if he had become a monster.

What made this happen to you, Sam? What project is so important that you did this to me? I wish I could go find you, kick you around a little and find out why. Jeff started to tear up, but he wouldn't cry so he