Chapter 2 - Rewind? (2/2)
Sophia was a special case. She was ten years elder to him and they shared a romantic past. In the 27th century, the medical advances helped increase the general life expectancy to 180 years and the a.d.u.l.t phase of a man lasted for about a hundred years, a young man of 20 and his grandfather could be mistaken for brothers. As such, the relationship between him and Sophia could be considered commonplace. She was a good friend to him even after his discharge. He trusted Sophia had nothing to do with this as she was the one who brought the proof against Jane in future.
After much deliberation of the pros and cons of including Sophia, he decided to pull her into the loop. He owes her a lot more than that. She gave him the chance to redeem himself. He sent a message requesting her to meet him after lunch.
He can keep watch on his personnel on the planet, some way or other, without letting them know, but he can hardly do much about the moon base. Though he was the commander, he was very young and there are many who consider him too young and inexperienced for his post and he wouldn't have the same level of control of the moon base. They wouldn't respect him and probably seize any chance they get to undermine his authority. Both lieutenant colonels on the base come under this category. There is a high chance of his plan leaking to unwanted parties if he directly contacted them.
There are two things which occupied Balthazar mind. First, in order to catch Jane in the act he needed to know, who are the other parties outside the military working with her and when would the next cargo ship make the trip near moon base. Second, he needs to set the detection systems back in working conditions regardless of whether it would lose him the chance of catching Jane. If he fails it would result in the same catastrophe, he was responsible for the first time.
He realized that he could only hash out the details of the operation after consulting with Jacob, Jones and Sophia. He walked himself down to the mess in the ground floor. He ordered a couple of sandwiches, gulped them down as fast as he could, returned and waited for them to arrive.
Sophia, the early bird that she was, arrived a couple of minutes before the scheduled time. She knocked at the door and opened it.
”Col. Blyth, may I come in?”
”Yeah! Sophia. Get in. Have a seat. Major Jacob and Capt. Jones would be here in a minute. So, let me get you up to speed. Jacob and Jones observed that someone is allowing unauthorized cargo sh.i.p.s near the PK-170-B moon base. The detection systems of the base failed to detect the ship, which could detect on their rounds. I have observed the security footage from the hangar and noticed two personnel making unauthorized, unscheduled visits to corrupt the navigation logs of the sh.i.p.s.” said Balthazar showing her the security footage from the hangar.
As she was looking over the footage, Jacob and Jones arrived.
”Get in guys. Was just discussing your concerns with Sophia, here.” said Balthazar as Sophia rolled her eyes. He was always a bit informal with the personnel, which Sophia being a stickler for rules and rites frowned upon.
”Col. Balthazar, do you have any idea who they are? Whom are they working with?” she asked.
”One of them is in Jane's battalion and the other in Sophia's.” said Balthazar with a smile. The atmosphere in the room abruptly changed. Jacob and Jones looked at Sophia with shock. ”Don't get so tensed. He recently transferred for a better position into you battalion.” continued Balthazar. Sophia looked angrily at Balthazar as she asked, ”I hope you got a plan about this.”
”Still in work. The most important thing which we need to do is to first make sure that the detection systems on the moon base work. We need to have surveillance on them without knowledge of any other parties. Emphasis on keeping it secret. Regarding the personnel who is in contact with the cargo ship, the prime suspect is Jane.”
”Just because you found one guy from her battalion doesn't make her guilty. How can you consider her a suspect without any investigation on the two personnel?” asked Sophia.
”I am not blindly considering Jane a suspect because of those two. To convince a cargo ship to fly in unauthorized entry requires the men to have a certain level of assurance against the risk involved, which someone like a Major or Captain can't provide. Thus, my first guess is Jane. Then, the Majors in her battalion. I have other sources too for considering Jane, but for reasons I can't explain we will leave it at that.”
”Sophia can we count on you to keep the discreet surveillance on Jane and the rest. Any permissions, equipment you require, I will try my best to provide” said Balthazar.
”Sure, will be done.”
”The second thing on the agenda is to fix the detection systems without letting others know it. If we let them know, we lose our advantage. The best scenario is one where they attempt to get another cargo ship near the base with the detection system working and we capture them in the act. But the most important thing is to get the detection system working as it is a high-level security issue.”
”Irrespective of whether they realize it or not, we need to get it up by tomorrow. Else the consequences could be disastrous, if the apes attempt another intrusion. That is priority one” said Balthazar. The room went silent for a few awkward seconds as none of them expected the fix to be done in a day.
”Now, all suggestions are welcome. Don't hold back.” smiled Balthazar.
”Any hardware changes to the system would be clearly noticed by many personnel, especially for systems like these which are used all day long. But a software patch, system updates would be done in a few minutes. Hence, the only issue is with the system would be because of an unauthorized software patch. We would just need to change it to default factory setting and update it to the latest authorized software version.” explained Sophia.
After further discussion, they decided that Jacob could arrange someone to get onto the base to fix the detection systems. Jones could captain a ship stealthily to verify if the detection systems are working. But they got stumped at one issue. They needed someone on the moon base to let them dock in quietly to check and fix the detection systems.
”I will try to get someone to assist you at the moon base. We shall convene again in four hours. Just be ready for the mission by tomorrow. Dismissed.” concluded Balthazar.
Both Jacob and Jones were confused. Balthazar was very young, and he just took the colonel post four months before. He hardly had any influence or rapport with the personnel in the moon base on PK-170-B. They were concerned about this and immediately consulted with Sophia.
”It is not that we doubt his intentions, but he was in the service for less than 5 years and he didn't earn much favors during his tenure. We are just worried that something untoward might happen if he is not careful.” expressed Jacob.
”I understand why you guys would be worried. But it is unnecessary. He has the means for it.” smiled Sophia as she left to her office.
Following their departure, Balthazar changed out of his uniform and left the building. He went out of the military campus and continued along the road to west in his hover car. The campus was situated on the north side of the outskirts of the city K4 like most of the military installations.
He crossed the border of the military grounds and continued along the desolate road for more than half hour, till he reached a recently constructed township. He drove through, to the north of the township till he reached a large gate between 9 feet stone walls. The words ”BANDERAS GYM, SHOOTING RANGE AND WARFRAME TRAINING GROUNDS” were etched on the gate in a large and bold font. Confirming his id to the guard at the gate, he drove to the complex inside.