{{TRANSCRIPT OF DIALOGUE FROM BASE 231.8
STATUS: SECURITY LEVEL 1
DATE: 31.12.16
TOPIC: STATUS REPORT ON SUBJECTS


A: The mission went off without a hitch, and he showed good adaptability in not getting caught. I'd say he's a success.


B: My superiors and I agree. He's everything we hoped for and more. The emotional training took, as well. It will provide a strong tie later on. There's a little bit of concern about this business of names. We weren't informed of it.


A: That's because we didn't know about it. The boys are, understandably, very close and secretive, and it's impossible to monitor all of their conversations. I'm assuming from the dialogue here that they've been planning this for some time. It could be very detrimental to their work if we tell them that they aren't permitted names. They would obey, but it might impair their efficiency. I honestly can't see the harm in letting them pick names as a celebration of their first successful mission. It's been described to them as both a test and a coming of age, so it makes sense they would want to change their self-image, just a little.


B: Names are normally reserved for humans.


A: There is no indication that they are beginning to think of themselves as human. In his debriefing One referred to himself as a project and to his completing his mission as what he was created for. The names mean nothing on that account, I assure you. Besides, analyzing what names they choose may be valuable in ascertaining what they value.


B: In that case, we see no harm in allowing him to keep that name, and that goes for the rest of them. It does seem appropriate. Heero, a hero of the Alliance. You have trained them well.


A: Thank you.}}


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The tears that streamed down Rina's cheeks as she hurried out of the car were real, but the way she clung to her father, weeping hysterically, was not. That was for the benefit of the reporters who had followed them home following Representative Surd's assassination. All they would see was a hysterical ten-year-old girl, clinging to her father for comfort and protection after seeing a horrible crime occur right in front of her. As soon as the doors closed behind them, Rina let go of her father and ran up to her room, blinking the tears out of her eyes. Mourning could wait until later. Now she had a job to do. Quickly seating herself at her desk, surrounded by several screens and a computer many earth side countries would have envied, she went to work.

At the top of her mind was the image of the assassin, the boy. He was a colonist... at least he had the coloring of a colonist, but what was most shocking was the fact that he was just a child, only ten years old. It never occurred to Rina to question why she would consider someone her age to be a child, while she was an adult. It was a constant in her life that she was different from other people, so normal standards didn't apply to her.

But they don't seem to apply to him, either. Rina replayed the images in her mind. She had been sitting by her father when the first shot was fired, the distraction. She had immediately started tracking to the source of the shooting, and had seen the boy get off the second shot less than a second after the first, from a distance of well over one hundred meters without the aid of a scope. The shot should have been impossible, or else the boy was incredibly lucky. Rina didn't believe in luck.

Rina had made herself into a fairly major player among the Rebels, although she'd never met any of them face-to-face and never intended to. Since she'd had the accident three years ago she'd come to realize just how different she was from normal humans, and had discovered that the differences had to be by design. I was created, like a machine, through genetic manipulation. I'm sure of it. Rina had performed numerous tests on herself. She was stronger than seemed humanly possible, could bend steel with her bear hands, and her reaction time was close to that of a computer. In addition to that, her senses were stronger than normal, which was what had allowed her to spot the assassin on the rooftop.

In the last few years, what time she didn't spend working for the Rebels she spent researching herself. She was positive that she had been designed, although by whom and for what purpose she couldn't guess. It didn't make sense that someone would take the time to create someone like her, than abandon her at an orphanage. For a while she entertained the possibility that whoever it was was still watching her, but she would have noticed that sort of surveillance. She had picked up the spies that the Alliance placed around her father with no trouble at all. None of which brought her any closer to finding out how she came to be. I suppose I should be grateful to whoever it was. I'd never be able to help the Rebels if not for them. Rina carefully steered her mind away from wondering what it might have been like to have a normal childhood, and the other things she had found in her bloodwork. Some of them she had identified, some she had not.

None of that now. Right now she had to figure out who that boy had been, how he'd managed that shot, and why he had killed Mr. Surd. Several more tears trickled down her cheeks. Although she was four years older, Mr. Surd's daughter, Julia, was one of Rina's few friends. She didn't really know anything about Rina, but she was nice to the younger girl and when Rina got together with her in order to throw off the psychologists, she often had a good time. Rina had suspected that her friend's father might be the target of an assassination by the Alliance, but she had checked the security and thought he would be safe today. Because of that assumption, the closest thing she had to a real friend had lost her father. Rina could never forgive herself for that.

Even as these thoughts flashed through her mind she was ducking through various levels of the Alliance's security systems within their computers. There were loopholes and blind spots in every program, the trick was to jump from one to another without being caught. So far that hadn't happened, but there was always an element of risk that she would be caught and the line would be traced. To help void that danger, all of her calls were being bounced off several satellites. In case someone did catch her, she'd have over a minute to disconnect before they traced her home. She was always afraid that her clandestine activities would somehow get traced back to her father, and get him killed. Already she openly acknowledged the possibility that she would get herself killed, but that didn't concern her as much, for a number of reasons.

That reminded her... she breathed a short sigh of relief once she made it into the main computer. Here she was relatively safe. A few years ago she'd created a false agent for the Alliance, and used his ID and security clearance to get into just about any files she wanted. She paused in her work long enough to reach into the desk and pop a few pills in her mouth. She swallowed them and then called up a general search query. There she hesitated for a moment, then began typing in a description of the boy she'd seen, along with a request for confirmation of orders concerning the assassination of Representative Surd. She started the search.

Even for a computer like the one that ran the Alliance headquarters, the search took a few minutes. Rina took that time to clean herself up and change into some more comfortable clothes. In public she might play the dutiful daughter, but at home her business was her own, and no one told her what to do. "Rina," said her father's voice from the doorway. Rina didn't jump - she'd heard him coming, and it was easier at home not to have to pretend to have normal reflexes. "It wasn't your fault."

"Don't patronize me," Rina said coldly.

"Have I ever patronized you?" he asked in gentle reproach. "Ever? Not since you were less than one year old, I think, if ever."

"Never," Rina said after a moment's contemplation. At first she had been too young for him to patronize - he thought she wouldn't have understood the words, and when he noticed how bright she was, that she did understand his words, even if her baby mouth couldn't form them properly yet, he quickly realized just how intelligent and how mature she really was. He had never patronized her. "But it was my fault. I should have warned the Rebels that he might be the target of a strike..." she cut herself off. Although they talked sometimes about the things she did, she tried to keep her father out of most of what she did, and only gave him general statements when they did talk, for his own protection.

"Would they have believed you? And could they have done anything about it?"

Rina considered his words. She accepted, and was grateful for the fact that even though her father wasn't as smart as she was, he had a lifetime of experience, and helped her keep a perspective on what she was and what she chose to do with her time. "They would have believed me," she said confidently. "They trust me enough now on things like that. But they couldn't have done anything. The security there was as good as any I've ever seen - I don't think the Rebels could have added anything to it. That was one of the most well-executed, precise strikes I've ever seen. I'm still trying to work out how he managed to get a gun in at all."

"He? You saw the assassin?"

"Top of the number 83 building." Rina turned as she heard the low tone of the computer, indicating it had finished it's search. She wasn't sure that she wanted to discuss the boy with her father, anyway. "I have to find the assassin, though, before he can do any more damage."

Her father nodded, but she noticed that he had a worried look on his face as she went back into her computer room. She'd almost managed to stop the Alliance assassinations, until this boy showed up. How had he managed to get a gun in there? She had a clear picture of the gun he'd used in her mind. It could be taken apart into many pieces, she thought she recognized the model, but even in pieces, there's no way any of them would have made it past the guards. Unless they didn't go past the guards... She knew that the security people ran daily, sometimes hourly sweeps of the grounds up to weeks in advance, so that no one could plant a bomb. But those sweeps only detected certain materials, certain energy signatures... the pieces of that gun wouldn't show up. In order to plant all of the pieces, he must have made over a dozen trips in the past week. Despite herself, Rina felt a hint of admiration for the assassin. The hit had taken planning and a lot of skill.

Then she remembered Julia's scream as her father slumped limply to the ground, the smell of burnt meat coming from what was left of his head, and the frantic search around her for the assassin, a search she knew would be fruitless because she had seen the assassin, up on the rooftop, just a few seconds before he turned and ran. The moment of admiration disappeared, and she felt guilty and disgusted with herself that she could think such a thing, even for a second. She turned to the computer. She would find out who this boy was, and she would hunt him down and find a way to stop him, even if she had to do it herself. That would end the threat. In the last three years Rina had also become an expert marksman and a decent fighter, and had purchased a gun for herself under another name, which she kept secreted in a hidden cubby in her room. She'd managed never to kill anyone, although she had been out hunting several times. It would have been easy to kill people, especially those that were truly dangerous. The ones who carried orders to commit other acts of destruction against the colonists, against innocents, those were the worst. It would have been so easy to kill them, but so far she hadn't, restraining herself so that she only disabled them for crucial periods of time, until the Rebels could mount a defense or organize an evacuation. Sometimes she had only a few hours warning on those, and if the messages had been passed, many more people could have died. Rina kept a black jumpsuit with a mask in the same cubby as her blaster.

When she pulled up the results of her search, she got a surprise. The data she was looking for was under something called 'Project Titan,' but when she tried to pull it up, she got a security message on the screen. {{Intelligence Officer Hobbs, you are not connected with Project Titan. Your security code is insufficient to allow access to data.}}

Rina leaned back in her chair, staring at the screen. When she had created the profile for the nonexistent Intelligence Officer Hobbs, she'd given him the highest security rating she could find. It should have been sufficient to get her access to any project, regardless of whether or not Officer Hobbs was connected with it. Her curiosity and sense of foreboding increased. Whatever this is, it's got the highest security rating I've ever seen. They really don't want anyone seeing this, which means I have to get in. She cleared the search and hacked her way back into the enlistment records. Pulling up Officer Hobbs' record, she noted that he was currently assigned to colony Kappa. Rina always made a habit of coming in here now and then to change his assignment, so it didn't look strange. Easy enough to get access. Hobbs has now officially been assigned to Project Titan. Rina quickly made the appropriate changes, and backed out of the enlistment records. The change would be instantly transmitted to all regions of the Alliance's computers. Pulling up another search, she quickly typed in the words, 'Project Titan', followed by her security code.

The screen blinked several times, and just when Rina was about to think that she'd had some sort of short when the screen went white, with the words 'Project Titan' stamped across the top of the page, with 'Top Secret' in blood red right below it. Rina called up the first page. It was a series of genes. No, more than just a series, hundreds, thousands of symbols. A chill ran up and down her spine as Rina realized that the numbers on the screen in front of her could represent the entire genetic makeup of a person. She looked at the label at the top of the screen. All it said was 'ONE' - no name, no ID number, no nothing. Rina frowned and went back to the genetic data. By now she was something of an expert on DNA, after all the work she'd done studying her own, and as she continued to scan the data, she saw something else that truly frightened her - a large similarity between her own genes and those of this 'One' person.

There were differences, of course, but the genes that had been changed to make her what she was - the ones that made her smarter, stronger, faster... all of those genes were also present, in addition to the normal genes of an individual. It couldn't be a coincidence. But how could she have the same genes as an experiment of the Alliance? Rina finally reached the end of the DNA sequences. Next were the results of a series of tests, measuring speed, intelligence, memory retention... all of the things that had been changed in her own genes. And the results of the tests were very similar to her own abilities. After the tests came a list of 'training missions', to test the abilities of the subject under real conditions, which meant everything from combat situations (combat?) to designing defense systems. The most recent entry was dated today, just a few hours after the assassination, saying that One's first mission had been accomplished successfully, and there was a file attached to it.

Rina wanted to know what the file was, but before that she went down to the end of the file. And there she stopped. There were finally a series of pictures of the mysterious One, and she got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. One isn't just an experiment of the Alliance, he's also the assassin. And I was created by the same people.


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Eight hours later, Rina had accessed every file, every data bite on or connected to Project Titan. She no longer had any doubts about where she came from. Now she had to figure out what to do about it. This had been the first 'real' mission for any of the five boys in Project Titan, but the reports made it clear that many more missions would follow the first, if it was successful. They'll be able to crack the Rebel's computer system as easily as I did. They can destroy the Rebels without any help.

Rina knew from reading their profiles exactly how dangerous they were. They were all as smart as her, had the same training with weapons she'd gotten for herself, but they had been taught, since birth, to be killing machines. Through a combination of drugs and hypnotic suggestion, beginning from the day they were born, they had all been trained to believe that they could feel no joy unless they completed their mission. They had been taught to have no mercy, and felt no empathy whatsoever for any of their victims. In fact, they had repeatedly been told that they weren't human, and they seemed to accept it. Under other circumstances, Rina would have pitied them.

She realized now just how lucky she had been that the Alliance hadn't wanted girls, that she had ended up in the orphanage. She had the same basic capabilities as those five boys, but she had been raised in a real home, with a loving father who taught her to have morals and to care for people. A father who showed her that just because she was different didn't mean she wasn't part of the human race. These boys obviously hadn't had that, and it made them even more dangerous.

I have to do something. She'd read in one of the reports that a lab assistant for the project had become very upset at the way the subjects were treated, and had defected to the Rebels. He would know more about them, and might be able to give the Rebels an idea what they were up against. At the very least she had to warn them, while she tried to figure out what she could do about this new threat. She exited the Alliance's computer and got into the Rebels. She now had a place where she could regularly leave them messages, and they could leave them for her. For a moment Rina just sat in front of the blank screen, trying to compose her thoughts. Then she started to type.


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Arthur was checking over some data on troop deployment when Heero came over. "How is it going?" he asked.

Checking up on me to make sure the reject doesn't screw anything up? Arthur thought resentfully, then regretted it. The thought wasn't worthy of either himself or Heero. Heero was probably just following orders, they always double-checked each other, and besides, it wasn't his fault that Arthur just wasn't as satisfactory a product. He wasn't that much slower - he just didn't think of things the same way the others did, the same way they'd been taught. He was as good or better than the others in some things - unfortunately the commanders rarely had any use for those talents, which meant he just wasn't as useful to the Alliance as he would have liked.

But none of that mattered right now. Right now he was supposed to be looking over the troop deployment stats and giving his opinion on their economy. Without looking at Hiro he replied, "There are three convoys in sector A3 that could cut their fuel use by 3% if they flew at a slightly more acute angle, say, 31 degrees right of the axial plane."

Heero's attention was fixed on the screen. "That's the same conclusion I came to," he reported, and started to head back to his consul.

There was a tone sounded over the loudspeakers, and they all paused and looked up. "Four, report to the briefing room," said an atonal voice, and then there was a click as the system was turned off.

Arthur looked around as he stood up to obey orders. The others had mixed expressions. Heero, as usual, had no expression at all. Two kept glancing at loudspeaker as if wondering if it had made a mistake. Three was merely thoughtful. Five looked angry, maybe jealous too. No one had expected that Arthur would get the next mission, including Arthur himself. Oh, he could see Two getting it, if they were going by numbers, or Five, because he was so eager. Maybe even Three, because of his patience. But Arthur had no special qualities suited to the sort of mission he had known would come eventually. Why pick him?

The door opened to admit him with a low chime, and closed behind him. Arthur didn't turn to look, but he knew if he did, he would see the red light indicating that the door was locked against intruders. He knew that they were an expensive investment, and that the Alliance would go to great lengths to keep them safe while on base. As he walked through the featureless halls, Arthur wondered what the others would think if they knew he already thought of himself by his chosen name, rather than by designation, even though he had yet to complete his first mission. He knew what the commanders would think, and inside shuddered to think what would happen if they ever found out. But how could they find out?

Finally a doorway flashed a green light as he approached, and he turned as the door opened. He reminded himself to keep his back straight, chin high, eyes forward as he entered, and wondered if the others had to think about these things the way he did. Without letting his eyes move, he focussed on the faces around the table in front of him. Some he recognized, some he didn't. Those faces that were unfamiliar he filed away for later research. Without moving any part of his body other than his mouth, he said, "Four reporting." There was a long silence, the duration of which Arthur was forced to remain at complete attention, trying not to blink. He fought with frustration and resentment inside of himself. Why should he feel resentment over the way they chose to treat him? He wasn't human - he had been created to serve them, and belonged to them. Their only goal was to make him into a better soldier, a goal that he wanted to share. Still that little knot of resentment burned inside of him.

Finally Commander Ell said, "At ease."

Of course, Arthur's tense body posture didn't relax at all, but now he could move his eyes. He looked around the table, waiting for orders. When none came, he wondered if he was supposed to say something. More time passed, and he decided they must be waiting for some sort of response from him. Keeping his voice emotionless, he said, "Sir?"

"Yes, Four?"

Well, that didn't tell him what they were looking for, only that they were looking for some sort of an answer. He finally asked, "Who do you want me to kill?" He was horrified to hear a hint of bitterness in his voice. Surely they would hear it, too, and then they'd...

"Four, do I detect a hint of resistance in your voice?" Mr. Mem said in a tone as sweet as sugar. Arthur knew better than to answer - that would just get him in more trouble. He knew that Mem was just waiting to strike when he used that tone of voice - he'd heard him use that voice to order a man put to death after Arthur finished interrogating the prisoner. He kept his face carefully blank as he waited to hear his punishment, although he already knew what it would be. "I think Four may need some time in the chamber, to help him concentrate on his duty to the Alliance. An hour or two, at least."

Through a great act of willpower Arthur managed to keep the dread he felt off his face. The euphemistic chamber was a room also used to torture prisoners into talking. The boys had first been put in it when they were five, to start training them to resist torture if they were caught. Time in the chamber had helped them learn to focus their thoughts, to ignore outside distractions. It was the only way to keep your sanity in the chamber. After their training with it was done, the chamber became punishment if one of them slacked off or broke the rules, or exhibited the wrong attitude. Arthur had spent more time in the chamber than the other four put together. To his knowledge, Hiro had never been put in the chamber. Two and Five had been in it a few times, Two for having too much fun with his work, and Five for being too enthusiastic about his training. Three had only been in it once or twice, mostly for trying to protect Arthur. Sometimes Arthur was such a failure that he ended up in the chamber as much as once a week. In the chamber, lights flashed blindingly at random intervals, horrible screeching sounds played over loudspeakers, cold water was shot at him from time to time, and the floor gave him an electric shock if it looked like he was getting control of himself. Arthur managed to keep all of the pain and fear the memories brought him off his face as he delivered the appropriate response. "Yes, sir."

"Later this week," Commander Pel said to Mem. "Now we have a job for him." He turned to Arthur. "Yesterday there was a security breach in Alliance's main computer."

Arthur managed to hide his relief as earlier he had hidden his dread. They weren't going to send him to kill anyone yet. It was another of his weaknesses, the value he held for human life. None of the others had it - they were all eager for their first missions, eager to prove themselves to the Alliance. Arthur wanted to prove himself, too, but he didn't want to kill. Heero was right when he called him weak. "How deep was the penetration, sir?" he asked. Now that the briefing had begun, he was allowed to speak, to ask questions, if he wanted.

"Full. They had access to every level of our operation, all of our projects, including you."

Arthur frowned as he absorbed this startling information. He had designed the basic layout of the computer security system years ago. It was one of the few things he was good at. It wasn't perfect - no security system was, but no one should have been able to penetrate it that far. "How did they do it?"

"We haven't figured out how they got into the main system yet, but when they did, they created the personnel file for an Intelligence officer that doesn't exist. The fake officer was given a very high security pass. Looking back in our records, we discovered that the fake file has been there for close to three years, but we don't know what else it has been used for. The only reason we caught it now was because of the extra security you put on your files. When the intruder failed to gain access through normal channels, they changed the personnel files to move the fake officer into Project Titan. The computer then recognized his right to access the files. The intruder was on for a number of hours, looking through your files. We're assuming they copied the data and have hard copies somewhere else, since they went through all of your files and all of the connecting ones in a little more than eight hours."

Arthur nodded. It was a reasonable assumption - no human could read and absorb that much information in that short a period of time. "Do you want me to find out who the intruder is?"

"No, Intelligence is looking into that. We want you to figure out how the intruder got into the system in the first place, and to find out what else the fake ID has been used to access. I've already transmitted all of the data to your terminal."

Arthur nodded again. "Do you want me to construct a temporary shield to protect the system until I find out how they got in and block that route?"

"No, that has already been taken care of."

Arthur had no more questions, and snapped back into attention, eyes straight forward. Pel studied him for a moment, then said casually, "You will be sent instructions on when to report to the chamber." He studied Arthur's face for a reaction, but there was none. "Dismissed."