Chap. 400 Get the Spoon
“Only because I’ve done my tai chi and had my morning klah do I not behead you, Raylan.”
Raylan sighed in relief. Evvelin did not like people bursting into her office shouting. But this is too much, he’d thought.
She’d sat down at Jansen’s terminal, astounded at the change.
“You are SURE you posted the duty roster I sent last night?” she said, her tone icy.
“Ma’am. I swear on my life, I did. I always do. Ma’am, I don’t screw up. I don’t,” Jansen said, her voice quavering. “I kept this page just as you see it. I was afraid if I did ANYTHING it would have disappeared.”
Evvelin regarded the technician’s dismay. I know she’s no liar. She’s almost in tears but I recognize them-they’re tears of indignation.
“I know that, Jansen. You were wise. I will insist Data look at it. But you must know, I have to make sure before I go any further. This is NOT what I posted last night. Raylan, did it show up on yours?”
“No, ma’am,” he said, his nerves still jangling. While Evvelin’s threat was pure melodrama, still-when she chooses to fire you, it’s final, he thought.
“Both P’jar and K’ndar got the message on their terminals in their quarters, I sent them, because, well, datalinks are down due to Incognito phase, ma’am. K’ndar immediately complied and P’jar came here to ascertain the change, as he’s scheduled as dragon transport, then he went off to ‘repair a water line,” Jansen said.
The enormity of Jansen’s remark hit Raylan. Yes. All over Pern, datalinks are inoperable. If you’re not at a computer terminal, how do we communicate with someone on the other side of Landing? Or the other side of Pern?
Evvelin pondered the damning message on Jansen’s computer screen. This is outrageous, she thought, both the altered duty roster, sent to only three people, the message also changing her assignments, and then this snotty message supposedly from Council, in a tone guaranteed to get a rise out of Raylan. Somebody’s done an awful lot of hacking, she thought. To MY duty roster. Mine. Making it look as if I’m losing it? No longer capable of being Chief? Oh, this is NOT good.
She remembered the feeling of trepidation when she brought it to the Council’s attention.
I had to stuff my indignation down into my shoes, she thought, never mind trying to learn who, if any of the councilmembers had created the message without making it sound like an accusation.
I’m happy, though, they were as perplexed as I am. “We don’t do this, Chief,” Lord Cecilia had said, “We leave administration of Landing’s personnel to you.”
And the look on Lord D’nis’s face! Now I know what an angry bronze dragon would look like if they had faces. “Someone’s using MY name to pull this stunt?” He’s digging through Engineering’s database right now, looking for their standard operating procedures. It will take him awhile, even he admits that these computers are a bit above his experience. Just like me.
How DARE this shithead do this! There have been precious few times I’ve allowed myself to unleash the dragon in my soul, and this is one of them. No mercy. Whoever you are, you can run but you can’t hide. When I find you out-and I will, I’m going to send you to an island so far out in the Eastern Ring they’ll have to pump light in.
“Hello, what’s going on?” Data’s Chief came in.
“I’m looking at changes someone made to MY duty roster,” Evvelin said. “And take a look at this nasty message supposedly sent by Lord D’nis.”
Within moments, his reaction was volcanic. “This is NOT our work, ma’am. No. No. NO way on Pern would ANY of my people change anything Admin sends. Someone has hacked into your database, Chief, maybe all of Landing’s. You were wise, Jansen, to not do anything to your computer, I’m certain the hacker has it set to vanish no matter what command you give it.”
His stomach tightened. If the hacker did this, what other mischief has he done?
“Thank you, but it’s because, when I first got here, the very first day I was told, don’t you ever dare make a change to Chief Evvelin’s duty roster. I was told that if you did, she would behead you.”
Evvelin nodded, scowling and only half kidding. “With a wooden spoon.”
Data continued. “This is going to take some deep digging,” he said to the three. “Let’s go to my conference room. I have several open terminals and screens on the wall. Ma’am, choose one, Jansen, you too, please. I’ll be using yet another. My gut tells me this is a complex knot to untie and it’s easier when everyone has a terminal within arms reach of another.”
Evvelin and Raylen followed him into the conference room, with several unused terminals. Raylen reflected that, while most of the Chiefs at Landing had names, no one knew what Data’s birth name was. He’d been at Landing forever and had been in the position for so long that people simply called him Data. For all he knew, even Data didn’t remember.
They sat down at terminals. Data ducked into his office and called out, “Christa? Would you please join me in the conference room?”
A teenaged girl entered the room, nodding in respect to the others.
“This is Christa, my new apprentice. She’s young but has a real talent for unraveling hacks like this.”
She ducked her head and shyly mumbled a polite ‘good morning’, obviously overwhelmed by all the alphas in the room.
He looked at Evvelin. “She’ll have to open everyone’s programs, please. She won’t change anything, not without your approval, but I’m confident she’ll find out who did this. First off she’ll look at the messages on Jansen’s terminal.”
Christa called up Jansen’s two messages and almost squealed in delight. Her fingers flew over her keyboard as she began to dig into the coding behind them. The code was gibberish to all but Jansen and Data, and even then, the girl was so fast it was soon lost on Jansen.
“Ooh, isn’t this clever,” Crista said, giggling, “I do love a good puzzle.”
I wonder if I should be embarrassed by this girl’s obvious mastery, Jansen thought. She’s not been at the terminal more than five minutes and she’s already cracked the code open like an egg. Watching her is like watching a hunting dog on a hot scent.
I don’t care that she’s half my age. When I see excellence, I’d be a fool to not learn from her.
“Christa, when we get to the bottom of this, will you please show me your steps?” she asked.
Christa nodded. “Of course, ma’am,” she said, pleased to be treated like an adult.
“Don’t you dare, Jansen. If you do, Data will snatch you up and I’ll lose my right arm,” Raylan protested.
Data shook his head, his expression one of feigned innocence. “Noooooo, would I do that?”
“You bet your arse you would, Jansen’s good and she’s mine,” Raylan reposted.
“Good morning,” a voice said behind them, as a bronze fire lizard flew in over their heads.
Fafhrd found a perch above the terminals and settled his wings.
“Good morning, Grafton,” they all greeted Landing’s Headman.
“And to you all, good morning. Did I hear something about a hack on the computers? All of them?”
“I don’t know that yet, sir,” Data said, “but someone hacked into Chief Evvelin’s duty roster, and made some unauthorized changes, and we’re trying to find out who did it.”
The headman inhaled sharply. “That was foolish. Even I wouldn’t want to cross Chief Evvelin. She’d have my head on a pike.”
They laughed, but except for Evvelin’s, they were more of the nervous sort than a truly amused one.
Data bent down to Christa and said, softly, “Please, say aloud what you’re doing and enable the computer voice to read the text so that Grafton can follow what you’re doing.”
“But his fire lizard sees for him,” she said, softly. “He’s right behind us, up high.”
“Yes. He’s highly intelligent but I doubt he can read.”
Grafton may have been blind but his hearing was supernatural. “Thank you, Chief, but that’s not necessary. Fafhrd cannot read, and I cannot see, but together, we manage quite nicely. I can read the screens overhead through Fafhrd’s eyes.”
Crista said, “Yes sir, but I will still say things out loud. I’ll probably be filling up the top screens, this whole thing is very complex.”
She pointed at a screen that just then filled. “See this? It’s the message the database generated, that of opening the building on Galileo immediately,” she said. “No where in my database does it show what’s IN the building, but see this exclamation point? I’m thinking it’s been generated in response to the Incognito shutdown. Maybe Housing can say what’s in it? Oh, wait. Look at this change! Someone knows his coding!”
She sent a page to one of the wall mounted screens. “Engineering got today’s duty roster last night, just like every other division. No where does it say anything about the building being opened. Incognito took effect at 0500. The database generated the Open Building order at 0501. When it does that, it tells me this is an automatic response to the datalink shutdown. At 0515, someone in Engineering read that division’s duty roster. Hmmm,” she said, “This looks like a program.”
They all waited, some understanding, some not.
“Oh, I get it. I’ll have to dig through the archives, but this hacker is one creative lout. He, uh, inserted what’s called malware into the entire database.
He created a program that, when a message from the database hits his terminal with a task that includes certain terms, in this case, ‘open building,’ it does three things, maybe four. It opens up Admin, Maintenance, Housing, Logistics, Engineering and Data’s programs. He’s made it so he doesn’t even have to input his employee number, I will have to dig further for that.
It allowed him to look at all the taskings listed in Admin’s programs. He found the codes for ‘open building’ and ‘repair water line’. He went into Admin’s database and reassigned the open building task to Maintenance. Then he went back into his own database and added “repair water line”.”
“Um, I’m confused?” Evvelin admitted.
“Ma’am, see, here, the original task was Maintenance was to ‘repair water line’ and Engineering’s was ‘open building 1632 Galileo with trained personnel immediately.” He swapped the tasks, he changed ‘trained personnel’ to ‘assigned personnel’ and this little ding here? I think that means ‘duty roster.’ It went to your duty roster, found employee number S 1974 was scheduled to ‘repair the water line’ and he changed it to ‘open building’. Then the sent the whole package to Maintenance at zero five twenty hours. Chief Orlon opened the message at zero five twenty eight and acknowledged immediately.”
“That’s K’ndar’s employee number,” Jansen said.
Christa was silent for several moments, scrolling through code swiftly.
“Then he added S 1975 to Engineering’s ‘repair water line’ tasking.”
“S 1975 is P’jar,” Jansen said.
“But why was P’jar assigned to work on a water line? He’s listed as dragon transport standby today,” Raylan protested.
“Let me look, I’m going to use another terminal, I don’t want this coding to vanish. I can’t see it, but the hacker probably created a back door to escape through. I’m really surprised he’s not seeing me looking at this.”
She scooted to another terminal and looked at Evvelin for permission. “Chief, I’m going to have to open up your program, please?”
Evvelin said, “Do it. Track this shyster down. When I find out who he is he will wish-wellllll, I have plans for him.”
No doubt, they all thought, and I hope to the stars I get to see it.
Christa called up Admin’s employee roster.
“I can see that he went trolling through a few divisions, he’s got a string of letters here that means something personal to him. I can’t read it, but,.oh, here. It went RIGHT TO this one roster, it has just five names on it. Oh, dear. It’s Lord D’nis, Francie, K’ndar, P’jar, and Lord T’bor.”
“They’re all Landing’s dragonriders,” Jansen said.
“K’ndar and P’jar are mine,” Raylan said, “and Francie is my wife.”
“Of the five dragons assigned here, only three are available for transport. They’re on a secondary duty roster,” Evvelin said, “It’s alphabetical so that P’jar is after K’ndar. Maybe he just went to the next name on the dragon roster. Whomever did this, for some reason, he wants that water line repaired and needs another person to do it.”
“But why…why not someone from his own division? Engineering?” Crista asked.
“That is what I brought you in, Crista,” Data’s chief said. “I know how you can find the tiny little knots of code that no one else can.”
“I know why,” Jansen said, “He’s a sneak, and in a hurry. He’s also protecting himself, he’s hiding the open building order from his Chief. She’s brand new, maybe she doesn’t know how the duty roster works. No matter, my gut says that this jerk has made it his business to rearrange Chief Evvelin’s duty roster and work assignments.”
There, she thought. I bet my best boots that the jerk in my office is this hacker, and if I can put a stinger in Evvelin’s ear to rile her up even more than she is already, so much the better. Blame me, will you, arsehole? I don’t get mad, I get even.
Raylan’s resentment kicked in. My dragon riders-and Francie who works for her but she IS my wife-they’re on TWO duty rosters? Everyone else in Landing is on just the one. Essentially, the dragonriders who aren’t councilmembers have three jobs, their own, that of standby AND a regular tasking. That’s not fair. And they all three, submit without a complaint. I have to get through to her, it’s not fair. To me or to them. I don’t know why she made two, but I don’t dare confront her.
But Grafton did. The headman cleared his throat. “Ma’am, forgive me, but that sounds to me as if the dragonriders are then expected to pull TWO taskings in addition to their professions, whereas everyone else here has only one tasking.”
Evvelin felt cornered. How do I explain this? I don’t even remember how it came to be like this. Maybe I am losing it.
“Well, Grafton,” she started, then paused. “I, uh,”
Grafton pressed on. “And, to continue, why, I wonder, did this man, I assume he’s a he, change the tasking to Maintenance?” Grafton asked. “That’s Engineering’s responsibility, not Maintenance.”
“That is true,” a voice behind them said.
Lord D’nis came in. They all nodded in respect to the Councilman.
“I did some digging on the terminal in my office,” he said, “It took me a while because I’m an old dragonrider and computers are still very new to me. Young lass, your name?”
“Christa, my lord,” the girl said, solemnly. Inside, though, her heart thrilled. A COUNCILMAN, talking to ME!! He asked my name!! Wait until my friends hear this!!
“Christa, please, access my screen and you will see the message I’ve composed. If you would, please send this message to Engineering, Administration, Science, and Maintenance. Sign it Lord D’nis, Councilman.”
“Um, excuse me, my lord, but you’re asking me to go into your personal program?” she asked, afraid.
“Yes, lass. Trust me, anything you find that I’ve created will bore you to tears,” D’nis said. I’m sure I’m the only one who will ever be interested in my memoirs, he thought.
“Aye, my lord,” Christa said. Within a few strokes, the text was on the main screen.
TO: Chief Kendra, Engineering
FROM: Lord D’nis, Landing Council of Six
Chief Kendra: Someone in your division created the following message, sent this morning, attributing it to me.
Science Division Chief Raylan: due to inattention to daily communications regarding tasking, this is a reminder that your staff member, P’jar, is scheduled to work with Engineering on a water line. He must report to the team leader immediately. In the future, please insure your personnel read the duty roster on a daily basis. D,C of 6
I did not, nor did anyone else on the Council of Six, create this message.
At this moment I am in meeting with Admin, Science and Data, and I’m absolutely certain that once it is discovered who and how this false message was created and acted upon, we will be contacting you, as it is apparent that someone in your division has perpetrated this.
Chief Kendra, your having been in your current position for only two weeks makes me believe that you are not personally responsible for this outrageous misdirection of taskings. I do not believe that you directed this or are aware of the person who did.
Despite this, you will be held responsible for their actions until you have proven you are not responsible for that action. When you have the person, he or she will report to me, to the Council of Six, the Chiefs of Science, Maintenance, Data and Administration and explain how and why he or she was able to make unauthorized changes to any program not explicitly his own; change Admin’s duty roster; usurp two of Science divisions personnel without authorization, and most importantly, assign non-Engineering personnel to open a building.
Finally, Chief Kendra, it strains the imagination that I was forced to delve into your own Standard Operating Procedure manual in regards to opening a building. Below is taken directly from your SOP:
“Only certified Engineering personnel, trained in structural integrity, inspection of and determination of building stability before, during and after excavation; preservation and prevention of damage to all external appliances such as solar panels and heat pumps, and any other situations to be determined upon examination, will do any excavation of buildings.”
No one outside of your Engineering Division meets those qualifications.
I will be happy to hear your explanations, at your soonest opportunity.
Lord D’nis, Council of Six
The rest were quiet for many heartbeats. “Soonest opportunity” was a polite way of saying report right shaffing NOW.
Christa stared at the message, not sure what to feel.
Lord D’nis, stifling a laugh, said, gently, “please send that to Chief Kendra?”
Crista flinched as if coming out of a coma. “Oh, yes, sir, I mean my lod (sic) sir, I mean, oh, I’m sorry, Lord D’nis,” she gabbled, her wits completely flown.
Lord D’nis allowed himself to laugh. “I won’t eat you, lass. I apologize for interrupting your process of tracking down this miscreant. Please, I am going to watch the ongoing hunt. If you please, Crista? send it, to Engineering?”
Crista stabbed the ‘send’ icon, trying to corral her wits after they’d bolted like so many chickens.
“Do we know that Maintenance is at this moment opening the building?” Data asked.
“Yessir,” Jansen said. “Both K’ndar and P’jar obeyed the duty roster.”
“We need Chief Orlon here,” Evvelin said. “Christa, would you please call him?”
“Pardon me,” Data said, “But the only way to contact him right now is through his computer or in person, he doesn’t have a portable terminal. Remember, the datalinks are down and will be for a long while. I have no doubt whatsoever he and his team are already at work on the damned building, the one he’s had shoved onto his plate by this hacker.”
She and everyone else groaned. He’s right.
“It says a great deal for Chief Orlon that he hasn’t protested these shifts to his division,” Grafton said, seeing an opportunity to right a long festering wrong.
“Why would you say that, Grafton?” Evvelin said, hearing something accusatory in his tone.
“While I hadn’t been aware of the SOP stating so, Chief Orlon and his team have had to deal with this dumping of disagreeable, laborious and dangerous tasks on them for at least two years.”
“No, really?” Evvelin said, dismayed.
“Begging your pardon, ma’am, but it is true,” Grafton said. “Chief Orlon and some of his crew have been complaining to me about these specific taskings since the database was changed two years ago. They’ve been tasked at least eight times to ‘open a building’, despite not having the tools, the training or the time to do so. Chief Orlon knows it’s not his division’s job. The job itself is hazardous, one of his men almost fell into a building when the roof collapsed underneath his feet. And the ash itself is even more dangerous, if it gets into your lungs it can kill you. Orlon’s team is forced to defer scheduled maintenance and that doubles their work load. Opening a building isn’t just crack a door open and take a peek, it’s at least a week’s work of hard manual labor. Once the building’s been opened, Engineering then ‘inspects’ it and by doing so, makes it appear as if they did all the work, and get the credit. It’s just been too coincidental for it to be an accident. It is a definite action, a purposeful shifting of work by one or perhaps many Engineers who don’t want the job, just the position. This malware is proof of that.”
“I…I didn’t know that,” Evvelin said, “Why didn’t Chief Orlon come to me with this complaint?”
Everyone was silent for a moment.
Grafton turned his eyeless face to the Chief. Even I fear you, he thought, but my job is to speak truth to power.
“Ma’am, forgive me, because I normally do not reveal anything of the conversations I have with ANYONE in Landing, unless, of course, what they have done is illegal or immoral. It is, in this case, definitely illegal as well as unethical. Chief Orlon and his team are good, honest people, dedicated to their very unglamourous lot in life. And they obey a tasking.”
“But, well, why …”
“Why didn’t he complain at what it appears to him was YOUR purposeful shifting the task to his team? Who has the courage to question YOU? Who has the bollocks to question your duty assignments? Has anyone ever? I doubt it. Even P’jar, who, today, is currently expected to pull TWO duties, didn’t complain. Personally, when I’ve been assigned a task, I trust you insure that it’s something I can do. Chief Orlon just assumed that it was your decision to shift Engineering’s jobs to him. For that matter, so did I. Chief Orlon dares not ever complain about your assignments, he is afraid that if he does, you will fire him.”
Everyone gulped. Yes, Jansen thought, the familiar feeling of dread chilling her innards. Yes, Evvelin. What Grafton said. What he said!! You’re forbidding. You’re like a guardian dog who, at times like this, I’m not quite sure which end to believe, the wagging tail or the bared fangs.
Evvelin’s jaw dropped. She looked at the others, but none of them would meet her eyes. She’s been called out, they all thought, and if she thinks I’m listening to every word she will eat me.
Evvelin was abashed. And humbled. “I, um, oh, my. This is getting so ugly. I imagine he and his team resent me.” No one said a word. But they all thought, yes. They do. I know I would. And I wouldn’t complain, either.
They are all afraid of me, Evvelin realized. Even Grafton, who is as deeply loved and respected as Lord Lytol, fears me. This is not what I thought I would become.
She heard a soft hiss and looked up at Fafhrd.
The fire lizard’s eyes bored into hers. They were a bright, roiling orange-one step below angry red.
He fears nobody, not when it comes to defending me, Grafton thought, feeling the bronze fire lizard’s wrath. Fafhrd, I am so proud of you.
She swallowed hard. How many people have I hurt? Unwittingly, not on purpose! And not a one said a word. They all took it.
“Evvie,” she remembered her father saying, “There are times when you’re going to have to admit to being wrong. I promise you, your bollocks won’t fall off if you do. And trust me, when you admit to being wrong, people will respect you more than if you just refused.”
I always thought he was just joking when he said that…I’m female. But now I understand. I wish someone had said this to me years ago.
“Uhhhh,” she sighed, and gulped. “I am, well, I’m ashamed to say that I had no knowledge of this. I’ve failed him and his team. Thank you, Grafton. Of all the people on Pern, only you had the courage to hit me between the eyes with the truth.”
Grafton shrugged.
“I doubt it even came close to your eyes, ma’am. I’m a lousy shot.”
There were chuckles, but they were forced.
“So, um, what have you found, lass?” Data said, wanting to get back to the hunt. Now I really DO want to track this asshole down. And when we do-because my daughter here will find him-I think we all will put a pole up his arse and throw him onto Chief Evvelin’s mercy. She won’t have much. You don’t embarrass the Admin Chief without repercussions.
Relieved, Christa went back to her screens.
“After he changed all this, this hacker sent messages to P’jar, K’ndar, Jansen and Chief Orlon to Maintenance doing the opening, not Engineering. See? It’s clear as the sky on moonlit night,” she said, turning and smiling at them. She failed to see that most of them were already dazed. Her terminal pinged.
“Oh, good, it found it,” she said, typing fast, “He made a back door and set a trap on it, to make this disappear in case someone like went code hunting. But it didn’t work! I’ll just shut that escape door right now and reset it for him! Hehehehe! Oh, this is so much fun! Heheheeee! You can’t hide from me!”
No one was quite sure what ‘it’ was, but they all admired the girl for her talent. “Now here, this block? it’s supposed to show who did all these changes, but it’s full of null symbols. He doesn’t want to be caught.”
“But you’ve caught the bastard, Christa,” Evvelin said.
“Yes, ma’am. It’s fun. Now I know how he thinks, it’s easy.”
Data had been able to keep up. “That box with the null figures is supposed to show the origin of any message.”
“Okay, that makes sense,” Christa agreed, “I have to say this, he’s a master at this.”
“Does it show that he impersonated me?” Lord D’nis asked, “because I’m already building a case on this shyster.”
“Yes, my lord, it does,” Christa said.
“Don’t forget me, my lord,” Evvelin said, “we should give him the choice of which dragon rider gets to take him out to the islands.”
“I hope he chooses P’jar,” Raylan said, “He’s just lazy enough to only take him halfway.” Jansen snickered.
I would, too, D’nis thought. You don’t impersonate me, make me look like a shithead, and get away with it. Yes. We’ll fly him out to the Eastern Ring and then, I’ll ask Corvuth to roll over in midair and watch the lout fall into the sea. It wasn’t me who did it, it was merely gravity.
“Ma’am, it wasn’t just the message,” Jansen said, getting mad all over again, “It was the little shit coming into my office accusing me of incompetence after he stole P’jar.”
“Christa, you’re truly my master,” Jansen said, grateful that the girl had proven her innocence. “I’ve never seen these screens. I will be very happy if you can take the time to teach me what you’re doing.”
The girl blushed. “Nah, I just like this stuff. I’ve been playing with code since I was little. It’s like this wonderful puzzle.”
Jansen looked at the screen the girl pulled up.
“Um, will you please go back to that code you had one screen before this one?”
The girl said, “Of course,” and complied.
Jansen read it, her mind in full coding mode, and she pointed at a small snippet of code. “What is this?”
The girl looked at it. “Um, y’know, I don’t know. I don’t,”-she typed in code that only she, Data and Jansen could understand.
“It’s, it’s a ticket number,” Data said. “I think I know, it’s Maintenance’s ticket number for the water line.” He sat down at the one remaining open terminal.
“Here. I’ve accessed Maintenance’s database. The repair water line ticket was issued three days ago. Orlon put it near the top of his to do list, see, here, this code is for ‘quarters water supply for 7006 Regulus’. But we know that the shutdown has put all maintenance on lower priority to open the building on Galileo. And here….hmmm.”
He typed again and the screen changed.
“Where are you going with this?” Evvelin asked, resentful that these younger people were so blinding fast on a computer that she still, after a few years, had to work so hard at using.
“Ma’am, there’s something odd here,” Data said. “I’m going into Housings database and”-it took a minute or two to get down the list- “this building, 7006 Regulus, is listed as “uninhabited.”
“What?”
“See? The entire complex was due to be opened two years ago. 7006 was opened for ‘exploratory purposes’, that means, I think, do we waste time on a complex that’s empty? It was opened and someone went in to evaluate the contents. There was nothing inside. Maybe it was emptied when the ancients evacuated, I don’t know, but there was nothing in it but volcanic ash and crawler crap.”
“Does it say WHO opened it?”
He scrolled his way through the code.
“Yes. Maintenance.”
“Hmmm, Jansen said, “Christa, this box with the null symbols, it’s where one is supposed to put their employee number when they first sign in, then the database automatically inputs it. The hacker’s page that he sent to me? Does it have an employee number somewhere?”
“Oooh, I didn’t catch that. Let’s see,” Christa said, “But before I do, I have an idea. I’m going into Maintenance’s data base.”
She typed “Display all open work order tickets.”
A long list poured out. “My word, but they have a lot on their plate,” Raylan said.
“The employee numbers all start with M.”
“For Maintenance,” Evvelin said.
Data saw it.
“Look. LOOK! Whoa!”
What? What? the rest asked.
“Look. We’ve been opening buildings for years, but only about five years ago did we have the database tracking Divisions, employees, and so on. Then we had to change the database two years ago. That was a total nutroll of a job, but it got done and it works much better now.
Up until two years ago, well, I’ll have to look at your database for personnel, Chief Evvelin, but see these numbers? They all are in the same number sequence.”
Evvelin looked over his shoulder. “Yes, see? The numbers start with E for engineering, and when we installed the new database, I made it so that the numbers following the letter are all in the 5000 series. If I’m reading this right, it was Engineering doing the opening. But, starting two years ago, the employee numbers, meaning the work opening buildings, are all M and all start with 13.”
“Why such a strange arrangement of numbers?” Data asked.
Evvelin shrugged. “Well, I suppose it’s rather silly, but E is the fifth letter of the alphabet and M is the 13th. It may be non technical, but it works.”
“It’s not silly if it makes life easier,” Data said. He cursored to another page. “Up until two years ago, all the ‘open buildings’ work orders were sent to employee number E 5031. Then the database is updated two years ago, and all the open building orders, eight of them, are sent to M1335.”
“That’s Chief Orlon,” Evvelin said.
“Meaning, Maintenance was suddenly assigned opening buildings, because I don’t see another Engineering employee tasked for that after the database was changed,” Data said. He went back to the original message. “This employee number, I don’t see it anywhere in Engineering’s work order tickets.”
“Oh, but I can find THAT,” Evvelin said, at her terminal. “I’m calling up my employee roster.” A long list of names in alphabetical order appeared. “I used to be able to say that I knew the names of every person assigned to Landing but these days, we’ve gained and lost so many that I confess some of them are unknown to me until I meet them. This number, 5031, tells me this person’s been here many years. At least since the database was first enabled.” She entered E5031.
E 5031. Wendall, Engineering followed by his quarters number, family members, assignment date and other information.
She paused. “Now I’ll pull up my duty roster.”
It appeared. She remembered how long it took to create it. Forever, I think, but it works. I’m proud of it.
“This is the most important slate of my division,” Evvelin said, using the old term from the days before the database had been fully implemented. “It used to be kept on a chalk board. It got to the point where I had more boards than walls, that’s when the database was changed. That made my life so much easier, but still, I sort of miss that old system.”
She sighed, and continued. “This roster is a list of every staff member, their family members over the age of eight and under eighty who are expected to perform a task commensurate for their age and capability. At this time, there are only ten people exempt from duty. They are the Council of Six, Lord Lytol, who is wayyy over eighty but still insists that he be considered for tasking; and Rahman and his two telescope technicians on Western Continent. Even Grafton and I aren’t exempt, as I will demonstrate.”
Unconsciously, Jansen had been counting on her fingers. Ten people, exempt from duty.
Evvelin scrolled down to the C’s
Cecilia, Council EXEMPT
“And here’s me, Evvelin, Administration 459. The number says what my place in line is for duty. When it hits nine hundred seven, that’s the current number of people working or living here, I’ll have duty. What that might be, I don’t know. The computer evaluates all tickets and assigns based on which person is capable of doing the work.”
“I remember being briefed that if one messed with Admin’s chalk boards, one can expect to have their head separated from their neck,” Data said, laughing.
Evvelin glared with pretend ferocity. “Yes. With a wooden spoon, one of which I keep on my desk for just that purpose.”
They laughed. “So,” she said, “l’ll call up E5031, Wendall, to see where he is on the duty roster.”
Wendall, Engineering EXEMPT
Her jaw dropped.
For one long moment, there was dead silence. Grafton spoke first. “He’s not,” the headman said. “Wendall got into your duty roster, Chief, without your knowledge, I’m certain, and exempted himself from all duties. Isn’t that cute.”
Evvelin felt a tsunami of emotions: shame, embarrassment, humiliation and fury. The arrogant little shit. I never caught it. I didn’t think of it ever happening. I just took it for granted that no one would even think of doing this.
“He did, and I had no idea,” she said, following her father’s advice, “The slimy little cheat, not only did he mess with my duty roster, for two years, he’s avoided doing his share of tasks.”
“Get the spoon,” Raylan growled.
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