Free Audacious by Mike Shepherd Page A

“Kris, I have a message from Great-grandmother Ruth. She wonders if you are interested in lunch today.”
    “I could be,” Kris said, glancing Jack and Captain DeVar’s way. They nodded, so she assumed a full escort was available.
    “She is teaching today, and asks you to meet her in front of Garden City University Faculty Center shortly after noon.”
    “Tell her I’ll be there.”
    No doubt, it would be fun talking to Gramma. And maybe she’d slip Kris a sealed envelope under the table. Orders sent by way of an innocent gray head.
    Innocent? Ha! Kris’s paranoid self wasn’t buying.
    But why was Kris here?

13
    Settled into her chair at the bargaining table, Kris put a smile on her lips, a bright look on her face… and told Nelly she was ready for a long, informative briefing.
    It did turn out to be long. But informative? Maybe… if Kris could fit all the pieces together. And guess her way around a whole lot of blanks.
    K RIS , E DEN NOT ONLY HAS SOME OF THE BEST ENCRYPTION INVENTED BY HUMANS AND COMPUTERS, BUT THERE ARE FIREWALLS BEHIND FIREWALLS EVERYWHERE I TURN. A ND THEN THERE IS DATA THAT IS ONLY AVAILABLE OFF-LINE AND I HAVE TO PAY TO HAVE SOME HUMAN AUTHORIZE ITS RESTORATION. A ND THERE IS NOT A SINGLE DATA STANDARD. T HE PLACE IS ONE HUGE BABEL AS FAR AS INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL IS CONCERNED.
    M OST PLANETS ORGANIZE THEIR DATA SO IT IS READILY AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE. N OT HERE. I DO NOT THINK THEY WANT ANYONE KNOWING WHAT ANYONE ELSE HAS.
    Kris kept puzzlement off her face as around her the two sides talked about the cost of each unit and upgrades. Grampa Al had a standing offer of a job for Kris if she’d just resign from the Navy. He promised to keep her safe within the security cocoon he’d built for himself in Nuu Enterprise’s headquarters.
    Kris made note to send Grampa Al a nice letter declining his gracious offer. And asking him if, in the future she ever did accept, to please shoot her when she showed up for work.
    Surely, some space alien had eaten her brain.
    But back to Nelly’s problem. It looked like the last thing anyone on Eden wanted was to share information. Kris had been raised to think of information as power. Well, Eden was doing its best to see that very few got their hands on it.
    What must research be like? Kris would have to ask Gramma.
    Nelly was going on at great length about the lack of any data standards. Most individual’s files on Wardhaven opened with a person’s name, date of birth, and identification number. On Eden, those might be hidden anywhere in the file. And each system assigned them different locations.
    A ND YOU HAVE TO CRACK EACH SYSTEM. E ACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM!
    T HERE HAS TO BE A DATA DICTIONARY OF SOME SORT , Kris thought.
    O H, THERE IS , Nelly agreed. O FF-LINE OR OFF SOMEWHERE UNDER G OD ONLY KNOWS WHAT TITLE. K RIS, THESE PEOPLE ARE PARANOID. A ND SCHIZOPHRENIC. T HEY ARE ALL CRAZY. L IKE IN THE BOOKS.
    Nelly, of course, had access to all the medical books on Wardhaven, but those weren’t the ones she meant. Lately, Kris’s computer was analyzing all the action, suspense, and murder fiction she could get. Nelly was curious about the human experience of fear. She blamed it on the penchant Kris had for so often getting them almost killed.
    I F YOU ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL, I NEED SOME EARLY WARNING. S OME SENSE THAT WE ARE IN FOR TROUBLE. J ACK AND P ENNY KNOW IT IS COMING. T HEY HAVE FEAR. A LL I HAVE IS MY OWN DATA FORECAST. I NEED SOMETHING BETTER.
    So Kris put up with dreams of being chased and mass murders and some really ugly stuff until she demanded that Nelly buffer her nighttime studies better, and those nightmares had stopped.
    To be replaced by the usual ones of being chased and people trying to kill her. Or visits from those people who had followed her orders into an early grave.
    Kris shivered, something definitely not called for at the bargaining table. “Anyone else cold?” she asked. No one was.
    Kris paid attention to