Hereafter

Hereafter: Part II Graduation Day, Chapter 21

21

I WAS ONE OF SEVERAL PROGRAMMERS at Corellian Microsystems. We always made it a point to put in secret keys so we could easily get back into the systems we wrote code for regardless of any extra security that might have been added on. I guess we were the first hackers from our generation, the first to have the growing power of computers at our fingertips.

Instead of the evolution of smaller PC’s from the room-sized mainframes, as happened on Earth during the 80s, our original small cell was slowly evolving into a larger smart phone with real computing power.

I was in the design and programming group at Corellian responsible for that development. Two of the other geeks on the team were friends, Elizabeth, and Seymour, who prefers to go by his last name, Birkhoff. They both felt like I did, that the Citadel and its totalitarian fascist policies had to go. We’d get together away from work to see what we could come up with on our own by way of applications that could help us accomplish that goal. Given the overwhelming military superiority of the Citadel security forces, we knew that some kind of armed conflict would end up being death by dumbness, so that wasn’t the answer. What then?

By sunrise I knew Kristen wasn’t coming back. I called Elizabeth and Birkhoff to tell them of my suspicions, hoping they would agree to get together at our makeshift R&D digital den we called the Rat’s Nest, or Nest for short, a secret space in a basement room under one of the obscure buildings in the Corellian Microsystems complex. It was stocked with all kinds of cell phone and computer parts, things we could use to carry on with our subversive research. We were the only ones who knew it was there, and if anyone else found out it could mean immediate execution or banishment as slaves to the Citadel. It was risky and dangerous, but we didn’t care.

During a politically turbulent time on 21st Century Earth there was a period known as the Arab Spring when Middle East dictatorship after dictatorship fell to popular uprisings. The call of Freedom was so strong that not even the death of thousands could hold back the Tsunami-sized wave of change. In fact, the brutal massacres on the part of government forces only fueled the resolve of the people to overthrow them. Now, with my sister gone, I finally understood what would make someone willing to give up their life to confront tyranny.

I arrived first and fired up the primitive dos-like makeshift mainframe that we used for programming. I’d been thinking that our cell phones should be able to send simple messages much easier than the system and network resources it took to send voice in real time. I just started keying in some code when I heard our secret knock at the door—two short, a pause, and two long. Elizabeth and Birkhoff came together and I let them in.

“No word from Kristen yet?” Elizabeth asked, hoping something hopeful might have happened during the last hour.

“I wish, but no . . . that’s why I asked you guys to come—I’m pretty sure they took her. We have to step up our plans to do something about all this. Can I count on you to help me find a way to at least slow down the Citadel, if not stop them dead in their tracks? I want to spend this time brainstorming, then, we’ll decide on the best idea and get to work tonight to make it happen.”

“Well, you know I’m there . . . and by the way, when you said Kristen didn’t come back after the Graduation Day ceremonies, I knew she was a goner. The Citadel is nothing if not predictable. That really sucks and when we turn 21 it could be one of us. Yah, absolutely, let’s do something,” Birkhoff responded supportively, and with a definite tone of disgust.

“I’m in too, but what did you have in mind? We’re programers, what are we going to do, throw our cell phones at the Citadel guards when they come to take us away?” Elizabeth whined, willing, but not believing we’d ever be able to hit them hard enough to hurt.