The Before Short Story Series. Part 1 - Иван Перепелятник

An inscription appeared on the wall: ‘Welcome to the Museum of the Moon History! Let’s start our journey!’

‘On the other hand, we would hardly feel more confident if we were in an interrogation room with an iron table and chairs bolted to the floor,’ Meryl continued reflecting. Lewis, sitting next to her, was tapping his fingers on the table.

‘Good afternoon, Mrs Stern, Mr Podger,’ a man, about 120-130 years old in an officer’s uniform briskly entered the room. ‘My name is Ilya Tochkov. I am the senior security officer of the Hipparchus Lunar Station.’

Ilya combed his gray hair with his hand, poured himself a glass of water, pressed something on the control panel built into the table—a photo of Alessandra Bucinni, whom Meryl and Lewis had met a few hours ago at a restaurant for breakfast, appeared on the wall.

‘The thing is, Mrs Stern and Mr Podger, your Trackers have been hacked. And it was through them that, there were attempts taken to penetrate the PAX quantum system here at the Lunar Base.’

Meryl and Lewis didn’t move.

‘What do you mean hacked. It’s impossible,’ Lewis seemed to come to his senses.

‘Unfortunately, it turns out to be possible, Mr Podger. Possible.’

‘Perhaps. Let’s say. I don’t understand anything! What do us and the PAX have in common, why anything needs to be hacked, and this girl there!’ Meryl pointed at the screen.

‘The story is quite interesting. This girl, Mrs Stern, is exceptionally resourceful, and got down to business creatively. Attempts to hack both the Tracker and the PAX system have not stopped for decades. Unfortunately, your case, I think, will not be the last. The first contact with you, Meryl, the so called Alessandra Bucinni—her real name is Petra Orzhanka—tried to establish more than once during 8 months in the States. This is how we understand the situation at the moment. I would note that the investigation is not over yet. In the end, she managed to get partial access to your digital passport just recently. The folder with documents that your employee at the museum handed you allegedly with a request from a gallery in Milan, actually contained a built-in Tracker hacking system. The problem is, Mrs Stern, that it takes a considerable amount of time for this miniature system to provide full access to your chip. Any electronic system requires power, and the system of an active cyber-hacking chip even more so. The electronic components power supply embedded in the folder, I have to admit, is an extremely talented solution. The electromagnetic waves that surround us everywhere contain sufficient energy for the functioning of this low-voltage electronic pick-lock, so to speak. The energy of the waves remained to be collected and accumulated. But, as I noted, such a scheme works slowly. Luckily for you. A more powerful system would require a more capacious power supply.’

‘What’s that got to do with me? Why did I get into the focus of attention of some crazy hackers?’

‘Mrs Stern, you are far from the only one on the list of this group who was attacked.’ Orzhanka does not work on her own. We believe that they are connected with divergents and with a hacker group in Russia. We have recorded several dozens of such digital attacks in the U.S. alone. But they were especially lucky with you.

The PAX system at the lunar base is protected by several different protocols. Of course, for obvious reasons, I will not go into details. I’ll just note this. Firstly, there was a little more chance for them to penetrate, to hack the PAX through the base on the Moon than on the Earth. And, secondly, the main word here stands for was. Since now this, let’s say, back door has been already closed. The second time,’ continued Ilya, ‘Petra got into contact with you already here on the Moon, when you were having your breakfast. That’s when your Tracker was finally hacked, Mrs Stern.’

‘Are you saying that a couple of minutes of our communication with her were enough?’

‘That’s right. All she had to do was finish the work she had started in your office at the museum.’

‘Once again, Officer, I still don’t quite understand why they need me. If they flew to the Moon with their hacking system, why not do all the work themselves on the spot? They won’t interfere with themselves?!’

‘Meryl, the reasons are obvious. Your social status in society is slightly different from the achievements of Orzhanka after several years of her residence in the U.S. It is your name that provides you not only access to certain places, first of all, the level of your credebility is different. Secondly, why should they expose themselves when they can entrust the dirty work, so to speak, to be done by someone else.’

‘This is a complete nonsense.’ Meryl started rubbing her temples with her fingertips.

‘Let’s say for a while,’ Meryl continued, ‘what does Lewis have to do with it in such a case?’

‘Mr Podger, can you add something from your side?’

‘What do you mean, Officer?’

‘Can you guess, do you have any assumptions, where and under which circumstances an unauthorized contact with your Tracker could have occurred? Where could your Tracker have been hacked?’

‘No. I hardly understand what’s going on here and what we’re talking about!’

‘I see, Mr Podger. I should note that we don’t have the whole picture yet either. There are a number of assumptions about where, who and how they could have contacted you…’

‘I have no idea, Officer, where this hacking or attack, what did you call it, could have occurred.’

‘The basic reason determining the potential attractiveness of your chips, Meryl and Lewis, is as follows. You, as wealthy people, were among the first to implant these modules many years ago, when the relevant technology became available. As you understand, over the past hundred years, many changes have taken place