Chapter 7
Unseen hands pushed a small cart through the curtain. It had two trays with the odd food that Chan had come to love.
Pete allowed Chan to bring a tray back to his chair, and then gestured at the screen. The display produced a series of still images reviewing what Chan and most other students might have learned about philosophers of the past and some popular quotes. Chan recalled at age twelve that he had flirted with the school’s Philosophy Club, but it had actually been more about logic and debate, with little examination of the bigger questions philosophers had tried to answer. The screen went blank about the time Chan finished eating.
Pete queried him. “When Darvesh explained to you about the social mythology regarding romantic encounters, did it break with your previous sense or morality?”
The question was totally unexpected, but Chan realized immediately it was true. “Yes. I had serious internal conflicts because I knew what he told me was true, but all my feelings ran against it. I still need to go through that book in the library a couple more times so I can break the conditioning.”
Pete nodded. “You’ll get your chance. But first – has it occurred to you yet that such conditioning might have affected more than just romantic relationships? That perhaps a good bit of what you consider normal and right about the world in general is at least partly one big lie?”
Chan reflected a moment. Obviously it had, though not in such terms. “I knew that joining The Brotherhood meant adopting a different way of looking at things. Most people carry a measure of cynicism about official pronouncements, but I always felt their cynicism never went far enough. I suppose it was as at least partly my own frustration at the system holding me back.”
After a bit of deep thought, he suddenly looked up. “Darvesh mentioned how sexual orthodoxy was the product of how Western Civilization arose. Is that what the philosophy review was about?”
“Exactly,” Pete confirmed. “A primary question of every philosopher was the meaning of virtue and morality. How do we get the most from our existence? Can we construct a society that makes life worth living?”
“I suppose it stands to reason that, if our social orthodoxy about sex is all wrong, then we don’t have much else right,” Chan offered. “All the wrong ideas come from the same place.”
Pete shook his head in a way that suggested frustration. “I wish we had the luxury of guiding you through a college level study of all the details before we … Chan, no one is going to push you. This is something only you can decide. Your level of involvement with us must be your decision within the limits of what we can offer. That in itself should have suggested we do not operate on mainstream morality. The whole point of The Brotherhood is keeping alive a moral perspective that is contrary to what most of the world believes. We are convinced this moral perspective is much more consistent with reality and that most of the world is deeply deceived about what is real, not to mention deceived about the very nature of the question itself.”
Pete stood and placed his empty tray on the cart. “Explaining our different approach would require a very extensive review of Western intellectual developments. For example, we have no interest in steering the course of human history to some imagined better end, the very issue that has consumed nearly every Western philosopher.” He sat back down on the edge of the chair. “But it should be obvious we are doing something that might change some elements of our human existence, despite our attempts to avoid that. Our interests are very narrow and a primary objective is nothing more than restoring global communications outside government controls. There is no revolutionary intent but we are determined not to spend any more time constrained by an artificial Dark Ages than is necessary.”
He rose again to his feet and said, “Let me show you something.” He moved toward the curtained doorway.
Chan followed him out. Farther along the same corridor they came to another of those door-sized panels. Pete performed a slightly different gesture with his watch at this panel, then stepped back and waited. This time the door opened inward to reveal a rather large fellow standing there. He glanced at Pete and then Chan, and then backed away from the doorway to admit them. This was a larger room with tables and equipment that Chan could not begin to understand. Two or three men were working off to one side over something Chan couldn’t see.
Pete led him over to one corner where a cabinet stood. He waved his watch at the front, which looked like a series of vertical slats. They split apart in the middle and appeared to roll back into the sides. From among the shelves inside, Pete pulled out a larger version of the clear plastic, vacuum-packed envelope that had held Chan’s new watch. It looked like a small pulp novel. The cover was faintly tattered with the same generic imagery as most of the books Chan had recently traded away.
Pete gently patted the face of this package with the palm of his right hand. “Obviously this is not what it appears. You recall hearing about previous generations carrying around personal computing devices with fairly broad wireless access to the Internet?”
Chan raised one eyebrow and tilted his head to one side. “The Internet that is now totally controlled by the government?”
With a half-smirk on his face, Pete nodded. “Most technological advances of this sort come from military research. If the government can keep you from knowing about the results of that research, it reduces the likelihood enemies can learn of it, too. At least that’s the idea, a standard government reflex. A single government ruling all the countries of the world also must face all the various resistance groups existing in all those countries when it takes over. Making traditional warfare impossible or just difficult does not dissolve resistance. It simply makes the resistance find new ways to fight. In this case, it means the government itself will have to deal with resistance inside its own bureaucracy.”
Pete let that sink in for just a moment. “The natural corruption that comes with power opens a million doorways to infiltration. We are not part of that resistance, but The Brotherhood certainly benefits from it, as any other private individuals or groups might do. We have a vested interest in recovering the free access of the old Internet,” patting the package again, “or something that works the same.”
Chan placed his left hand under his right elbow, and then rested his chin in the crook of his right thumb and index finger. “So the government has already found something that works the same, and the resistance has gotten their hands on it and leaked it to us.” It was a statement.
Pete nodded. “That’s how we got the masking and teleportation. And the same technology that makes teleportation possible has opened up what your fiction authors call ‘subspace communications.’”
Chan grinned and pointed at the package still held between Pete’s palms. “And this, looking like a book that makes such technology imaginable, even as it marginalizes the whole idea as silly fiction, just happens to conceal something that accesses a sort of subspace Internet?” He started shaking with laughter.
Stepping past Chan, Pete carried the package to an empty workspace nearby. Chan joined him, still chuckling. Pete placed it on the countertop in front of Chan, but kept one hand on top of it. “The old Internet used a collection of protocols that made it possible for a government to eventually take control. The new version is utterly and completely open. Traffic is no longer passed between various nodes along a path of devices strung together by wires and short-range radio signals. All of that was controlled by a tiny handful of central traffic routing computers. Such is utterly impossible in subspace. Every device broadcasts to every other device on equal terms. Any access is total access. Devices are required to filter out anything the user doesn’t want, which is quickly becoming a huge amount of traffic. Until it reached a certain threshold, we dared not use it much.”
Chan nodded. “So while snooping is easy, it could easily overload any system using this network.”
“The key is coding and encryption,” Pete said.
“I thought quantum compu
ting made it too easy to crack encryption.” Chan’s wrinkled brow made it a question.
“Quantum computing gave rise to quantum encryption. And it gave rise to software that was so complex that we mostly allow computers to write their own code and design their own hardware. Right now, no one has come up with a way of perverting the process to gain any unfair advantages. Everyone is forced to trust the basic system all computers use, and that includes the protocols for subspace networking.” Pete removed his hand from the package. “This is the primary reason the government has kept it from the masses. They need it but can’t control it. Once it gets out, who knows what will happen? We would be content to keep it secret, too, but only a fool thinks it will last much longer. We aren’t trying to accelerate the process of leaking; just trying to make sure we are in a position to take advantage of it.”
Chan rested his hands on either side of the package, but looked up without touching it. “It sounds almost schizophrenic. You say we want everyone to have it, but we aren’t willing to take action to make that happen?”
Pete raised one index finger. “We aren’t. We know you are.”