hotmtlnovel Book 2: Chapter 26: Selling Poseidon
Book 2: Chapter 26: Selling Poseidon
Book 2: Chapter 26: Selling Poseidon
Riker
December 2175
Sol
“You seem incapable of preventing them from striking at will.” Ambassador Gerrold seemed to be enjoying the situation, which made his attempts at portraying anger unconvincing. I’d ignored his jibes in the past, but I was getting tired of it.
“And what have you been able to do, Ambassador? Found the source of those hacking attempts yet? Made any arrests? Got any suggestions? Anything besides endless carping?” I exchanged glares with the ambassador for a moment, then moved on. “We’re working on replacing the donut, but it’ll still be a few months. Plus whatever time it takes to get the farm regrown. There will be short rations for a while, but no starvation.” I had a sudden inspiration, one of those mid-action moments, and added, “VEHEMENT got lucky this time. We stop most of their attempts before they get anywhere. They aren’t really that smart.” It wasn’t true, but baiting them might force some kind of reaction. VEHEMENT depended on fear, and being publicly dissed might provoke a response.
[No detectable increase in Earthside traffic. One anomalous communication to spaceside]
“Uh, excuse me?”
[It was a tight-beam signal. It would not have been detectable except for a chance alignment with one of our drones on cleanup duty]
Oh. Shit. That just did not make sense. Why would Homer be helping them? Why would he be sabotaging his own project? Unless he didn’t have a choice...
Suddenly Homer’s change in personality took on an ominous cast. It was very un-Homer-like. The complete cessation of jokes, the withdrawal from the rest of us...
Perhaps because it wasn’t Homer.
I sent a message to Charles, requesting a physical meet-up.