Connection - 24

~1057

“I don’t understand, Ms. Hope, why would anyone aboard that ship need a record like this?” The secretary was a supremely muscular woman whose bicep looked almost as big around as Kerra’s head. Kerra supposed it was her job to look intimidating and rebuff any requests the public made.

“They’re interested in the genetics of the last couple centuries because there’s a high probability that their own genetics will tend toward a similar outcome.”

“But we’ve seen no genetic indicators related to anomalies, why would it matter?”

“We haven’t seen any so far. The scientists on that ship are the best our society has ever seen. Maybe they just want to do research with a couple centuries of data.” Kerra threw her hands up into the air. “I don’t really know all of their reasons. I’m no scientist, I’m just a messenger. I was just asked to get it for them!”

“This is highly classified information, Ms. Hope. People are entitled to their privacy…”

“I realize this, but I believe I am an authorized governmental employee, able to look at whatever information the captain on the ship requires, and this is information she needs. I don’t see how people that are light-years away could possibly misuse this information. The only person who’s on this earth who needs to see it is me, and I have perfect clearance on a need-to-know basis. And I need to know. The documents, please.”

The secretary grudgingly handed over a tablet. “Fine. But don’t let this out of your sight. I can’t stress how highly classified the information is.”

Kerra took the tablet. “No one else will even see it. You have my word.”

--

It had all been a lie of course. Kerra felt supremely guilty as she scrolled through the tablet. It was a comprehensive database of all the people of Abyssia, and all of the information the government had about them. This included normal things like age, address, and occupation, but it also had some other interesting information such as family and friend connections, political leanings, cybernetic enhancements, and, what Kerra was looking for: information about anomalies.

She sorted the list by anomalies, removing citizens of Abyssia who had none or very common ones like webbed fingers or glowing eyes. Then she went through and picked off any that were clearly no help in breaking into an apartment without a trace, like sweat that smells like citrus, or insanely fast-growing hair. Most of the anomalies would be no help in breaking in, but there were a few that Kerra thought might help.

There were several people who had some various forms of “boneless,” which might allow them to get into Ruth’s house through the vents. There were also some very small people that this applied to as well. Then of course there were people like Kerra who had had to replace their skin. Some didn’t have genetic material in their cells at all. Some never lost skin or hair. There were a couple of people who could phase through walls or teleport, and one who could even manipulate time a little. There was one who could manipulate thoughts as well, though only with people they were looking at. Kerra didn’t see how that could have gotten the person through Ruth’s door or left no DNA evidence, but it might explain how it looked like Ruth had killed herself.

Going carefully through the long list of citizens and anomalies was tedious, but Kerra felt like she was learning about the citizens of Abyssia more deeply and intimately than she could otherwise. What would the everyday life of a person who had two mouths be like? Kerra couldn’t imagine it, but for thirty citizens of Abyssia, that was considered normal.

Kerra tried not to be nosy, but she couldn’t help but notice whenever the name of one of her friends was next. It surprised Kerra that most of them actually had anomalies that she was unaware of. Drigg, for example, had an extra set of small, nonfunctioning lungs in his chest. He’d never told Kerra about them before, but she’d never asked about his anomalies. It’s wasn’t exactly polite to ask.

When she got to her own name, curiosity drove her to expand all the details. It was kind of creepy how much they knew about her and how much accuracy they had. She had a special section that most people didn’t have about how she had been put into stasis. That section read like a human had wrote it, like it was a short biography, and Kerra wondered whose job it had been to write it.

She read through the part that listed her movements over the last few years. It had a general time table of her everyday schedule and the days that she had deviated from it significantly. It listed the night that she had gone to Shandi’s life celebration party as well as the day she had gone to the Heats. Kerra guessed that the government hadn’t actually cared she was down there after all.

She made it to the section that listed some of her most crucial likes and dislikes before she couldn’t read on. She hadn’t realized how accurately you could paint a picture of someone in just a few words. She collapsed the information about herself and moved on.

Eventually, she had narrowed down her list to several hundred candidates—or should she call them suspects? It had taken the better part of a week working practically nonstop, and now she had to work through these names at a deeper level, looking any other clues like motive or location.

What frustrated her was that many people had removed the identification chips that informed reported their location. Kerra had never thought twice about her own, knowing that she probably would never have a reason to remove it. Not only that, but if she removed it, it would be significantly more difficult to use the elevator systems and get into her apartment. She’d have to manually jury rig the front door to her apartment to open manually somehow.

But it was clear that some people didn’t like the government knowing their every move. For those people, the only thing under the “recorded movements” was “Identification chip likely removed” or “Identification chip destroyed” or “Identification chip inaccessible.”

(A/N: this chapter isn’t done but I’m outta time! Tune in next time for some more excel sheet sorting or whatever lol)