Signal Through Sura
Jackie found a quiet spot among the hydroponic towers in the upper tiers of the dome city. The bioluminescent plants, relics from the year 2505, glowed softly in hues of turquoise and violet, their roots suspended in nutrient-rich solution flowing through clear conduits. Tiny nanobots drifted through the water, constantly scanning the plants for nutrient deficiencies and microbial growth, adjusting pH and mineral concentrations in real time. The faint hum of the hydroponics system was almost meditative.
Settling onto a reinforced observation platform, Jackie extended her neural interface and activated the encrypted link to Sura Tanith. The nanites she implanted into Sura's wound whirred, receiving Jackie's thoughts and vocal signals as a secure digital stream.
"Sura," Jackie said, her voice calm but deliberate. "I've established a secure position. The upper tiers are stable. HydroShield integrity is nominal. Security patrols are routine; nothing anomalous beyond what we've seen before. Life support metrics are within expected parameters. I'll be staying here to monitor the sector for the next few days before heading back to the surface for reassignment."
She paused, curiosity mixing with duty.
"I would really like to know this side of our world."
As she spoke, her cybernetic eye's analytical overlay mapped the nutrient currents in the hydroponic towers and flagged the bioluminescent plants' photosynthetic activity.
"Energy absorption optimal," BDJ noted. "No structural compromise detected. Bioluminescent growth patterns consistent with historical 2505 strains."
Jackie's eyes scanned the flowing water, following the nanites adjusting concentrations with precision. "It's impressive," she murmured. "Even centuries old, they're still adapting perfectly to the dome's internal ecosystem."
Sura's voice came through clearly, soft but filled with concern. "Understood, Jackie. Maintain your position. Monitor the lower sectors as well if possible, but your safe return is paramount. You have already been assigned living quarters; downloading that information now. Nanite link remains stable?"
"Stable," Jackie confirmed. "I'll keep a full log for review. No anomalies, but I'm watching every structural sensor and environmental feed."
"We need to run a deeper diagnostic on the sector's internal comms array," Sura instructed. "I'm getting intermittent flicker anomalies on the sector-wide telemetry, specifically the Acoustic Sensor Net (ASN) deep-water feed. If you can, cross-reference the last six hours of thermal regulation data with the ASN baseline."
BDJ's synthetic voice responded immediately, as if it had received a direct command. A data stream scrolled across Jackie's ocular implant as her system whispered into her ear.
"Initiating Level 3 cross-correlation. Sector 7 thermal output shows a minor, non-critical spike—0.04\text{ degrees Kelvin}—coinciding with the ASN anomaly. The spike is localized to Sub-Level Beta, Conduit 4-9. Diagnostics suggest the thermal event is the result of an increased localized power draw, not a fault."
Jackie noted the information, even as her room assignment came up.
"Sorry, Sura. I am not on assignment here. Subaquilus One is running fine. I will check in soon."
Sura sighed. "Understood. Dr. McGregor wants you to check in every 12 hours. General Thorne is also requesting check-ins."
Jackie smiled. "Guess you're officially my liaison."
"I have no problem with that. I owe you that and more, if we are honest. You saved my life, and these nanites have increased my neural processing by 20% already. I owe you a lot."
Jackie shrugged and adjusted her position, as her ocular implant processed all of BDJ's incoming information. An eyebrow went up. "Don't worry about it, Sura, we're friends now. I will check in soon. Ending transmission."
She cut the comms and focused on BDJ's transmission. She was intrigued, to say the least.
'Power draw increase? What's pulling the load?' Her interest was piqued, but she was so new to all of this that she did not know what to do next. Of course, she could navigate many systems in her previous life, but these systems were now worlds above those.
BDJ quickly took over and manually routed a command to access the dome's Power Allocation Matrix (PAM) for Sub-Level Beta.
"The PAM indicates a 1.8\% increase in energy flow to the primary Atmospheric Recirculation Unit (ARU) in that sub-level," BDJ analyzed. "The unit's operational log cites a 'Minor Calibration Adjustment' performed five hours ago. Standard protocol, but the adjustment magnitude is excessive for a routine cycle."
"This is much more power than is needed for a simple calibration."
"Accessing live surveillance feed now," The image of a massive, tiered air filtration unit appearing in the corner of Jackie's vision. The unit looked normal—no sparks, no obvious mechanical stress. "Visual is nominal. No human personnel are currently registered on-site. The maintenance log is signed by an 'Elias Thorne,' System Technician Grade 2. Thorne's access credentials are valid, but he's currently assigned to Dome Delta—two sectors away."
Jackie thought for a long moment. She may not have a current assignment, but it seemed she would not be bored. BDJ interrupted her thoughts.
"An out-of-sector technician making a non-routine, over-calibrated power adjustment, which caused a flicker on the deep-water sensors. Elias Thorne may be part of the Resistance within Subaquilus One."
This was the opportunity that Jackie needed. It was time for her to collect data on the two opposing forces currently in her life. Her ocular implant flared to life as its data worm detection began searching the city, reading ingoing and outgoing transmissions bouncing throughout the great dome, piecing together the given data.
BDJ spoke again.
"Finding an access point and remotely auditing the unit's firmware. To ascertain exactly what the calibration changed."
Jackie nodded as she moved from the platform. She scaled the adjacent hydroponic scaffold, her grip finding reinforced struts. The nutrient-rich water below reflected the eerie, pulsing light of the plants, creating shimmering illusions.
"I'm bypassing the main grid's Firewall Protocol Omega," BDJ's calm, calculated voice seemed to flow through her neural net. "Injecting a polymorphic probe through the diagnostic port. The objective is to identify any non-standard instruction sets or data siphoning protocols embedded in the ARU's operating system. The physical hardware might be clean, but a sophisticated intrusion would hide in the firmware layer."
Jackie was suddenly glad she disconnected the communication with Sura. Was she really ready to dive so deep into this world that never really made any real sense to her before?
She just wanted to protect and be of service, but now, now everything had changed, and everything had new meanings.
BDJ is running a sandboxed emulation of the target firmware first, to simulate the injection before committing the actual probe. As her systems worked, her neural net seemed to explain all to her.
Jackie was essentially learning in real time, with her own system as her guide.
Red lines of data flowed past in the upper right corner of her ocular implant, and she knew that if there was a trigger, it would fire on the virtual environment, not the live system. Time of execution: 3.0 seconds.
Her eyebrows arched. Her ocular implant continually gathering information, BDJ working at a speed faster than most neural nets could process, and Jackie immersed and tracking it all.
Jackie crouched, the schematic of the ARU's local processor unfurling in her vision. 'You are going to do this remotely?'
"Probe deployed," BDJ announced. The sound in Jackie's ear was a faint, high-frequency ping as the polymorphic code slipped past the security perimeter.
A second later, BDJ delivered the chilling result. "Detection of Foreign Instruction Set Confirmed. The 'calibration' was a script that diverted 85\% of the ARU's processed environmental data—air quality, temperature, acoustic signature—and compiled it into a burst-transmission packet."
"Where was it transmitting to?" In her shock, Jackie spoke aloud.
"Standby... tracing the packet header. It's an encrypted low-band microwave signal... originating from Sub-Level Gamma, in the main structural ballast tank. It was a data bridge. They weren't damaging the system; they were turning it into an intelligence node."
Jackie sat back in thought, her heart racing.
The Resistance.