new alexandria (dystopia rebooted)
Posted: 2006-05-11 04:10pm
New Alexandria
Part I
Jim Jones
The jury said “he’s guilty sir”
And the judge said “For Life I’m sending you Jim Jones across the stormy sea, to join the iron gang. Don’t be to gay in botany bay or you’ll surely hang. Or else you’ll hang.”
News report:
“God bless, this is Christie Carson, today marks the biggest success in the war on crime. Today our military captured the Terrorist leader Damien, also known as the Cyber-Antichrist!” the news woman spoke in a far too cheerful voice, as images of military commandoes with guns at the ready stormed a low income house somewhere in the wastelands.
Of course in his penitent jumpsuit Rust walked slowly as the computer selected him not to go to his mockery of a trial, but to the transportation rail, to cross the stormy sea to Mars. So far no one knew how thoroughly he had penetrated the justice department’s networks, he had merely turned himself in, so that he could control his destination, and not get abducted and sent to some technology less hell hole.
The news screens were showing the propaganda of the day, all about his life, his crimes, the footage of the dead suicides in Tokyo, D.C. and New York the day after his first computer crime, the theft of a third of the US GDP, Well technically it wasn’t his first, it was just the first one that had been big and ostentatious enough to be noticed, besides he needed the money to save the books. Simply speaking Rust had known that censorship and religious theocracy along with a government enforced ignorance was getting intolerable. If they were still copies of 1984, or Brave New World, or even Fahrenheit 451 available someone could draw the connecting lines. But the governments were not just censoring the paper, they were censoring all things electronic as well. Rust had began stealing money to finance his hidden hoard, of banned materials, he had amassed so much information it wasn’t easily portable, nor could he hide it so well anymore.
He had began with a small shell company, a minor clerical company keeping track of invoices and warehouses on the penal world of Mars, where the half strength gravity left the convicts and their descendants prisoners long after their sentences had been served. No one noticed that hidden behind the spreadsheets and ledgers was something more, vast troves of data disks containing most everything that had been banned in the last hundred years, ever since the wars had began over the dwindling resources of the earth.
Rust’s vision grayed and formed black tunnels with a single pinprick of light, as the acceleration forced his spine into the hard metal confines of his restraint couch. Despite the breathing panic, and the helplessness, he knew this was the blood pooling in the back of his head, starving his brain for much needed oxygen, some would die from strokes, or be crippled by the gravities they were being subjected too. He had chosen to turn himself in at an equatorial location with this in mind. The acceleration would we less here then say in Siberia, or Utah.
It was already clear to Capt. Jackson that this was not Alex ‘Damien’ Rust, the prisoner looked weak, emaciated and ravaged by low grade drugs, and alcohol. Alex Rust was a University trained computer genius, who was already wealthy when he began his career in computer terrorism. The Prisoner couldn’t tell him anything about where funds were stored, or anything else that would be of interest. However he could provide some “Entertainment” for the ‘Stress Specialists’ who would be debriefing him on Rust’s crimes, and forcing him to confess and ask for god’s forgiveness for those offenses. What was disturbing Jackson, more was where had the real Rust disappeared to?
“Captain Jackson, sir?”-the female aide approached obviously afraid he would lash out at her or worse over the situation.
“Spit it out, Soldier!”
“The relays to the ships on their way to Mars, they’ve stopped responding to our transmissions, the onboard detonators haven’t activated. They’ve gone silent sir.” - a sudden swallow, as she realized fully what this had to mean.
“So Rust has been Transported to Mars, and taken over all of our spaceport controls. So where are the defense lasers presently targeted?”
“D.C., Utah, China, and everyone of our primary staging areas for space launch ,sir.”
“Just LEAVE!”-Jackson massaged his eyes and head as the massive migraine began to set in. He had to find someone to take the blame, someone below him, the world’s most wanted hacker was now enroute to another planet, and if anything it was going from bad to worse.
Televisions across the world. “Tonight’s juvenile gladiators will be not be seen so that we can bring you the confession and incineration of Alex Rust. “ The stock photo of rust seemed to blur as computer animation suddenly showed him smiling. “and in today’s trading, I have managed a leveraged buy out of all Martian penal companies. And I regret to inform you that your leaders have failed again, at your expense I am now on my way to your Penal colony. Better to Rule in Hell, then to serve in Heaven.” the smirking face replied, Government censors would have to explain that last bit to their masters, as “Paradise Lost” had been banned over a few decades ago.
Part I
Jim Jones
The jury said “he’s guilty sir”
And the judge said “For Life I’m sending you Jim Jones across the stormy sea, to join the iron gang. Don’t be to gay in botany bay or you’ll surely hang. Or else you’ll hang.”
News report:
“God bless, this is Christie Carson, today marks the biggest success in the war on crime. Today our military captured the Terrorist leader Damien, also known as the Cyber-Antichrist!” the news woman spoke in a far too cheerful voice, as images of military commandoes with guns at the ready stormed a low income house somewhere in the wastelands.
Of course in his penitent jumpsuit Rust walked slowly as the computer selected him not to go to his mockery of a trial, but to the transportation rail, to cross the stormy sea to Mars. So far no one knew how thoroughly he had penetrated the justice department’s networks, he had merely turned himself in, so that he could control his destination, and not get abducted and sent to some technology less hell hole.
The news screens were showing the propaganda of the day, all about his life, his crimes, the footage of the dead suicides in Tokyo, D.C. and New York the day after his first computer crime, the theft of a third of the US GDP, Well technically it wasn’t his first, it was just the first one that had been big and ostentatious enough to be noticed, besides he needed the money to save the books. Simply speaking Rust had known that censorship and religious theocracy along with a government enforced ignorance was getting intolerable. If they were still copies of 1984, or Brave New World, or even Fahrenheit 451 available someone could draw the connecting lines. But the governments were not just censoring the paper, they were censoring all things electronic as well. Rust had began stealing money to finance his hidden hoard, of banned materials, he had amassed so much information it wasn’t easily portable, nor could he hide it so well anymore.
He had began with a small shell company, a minor clerical company keeping track of invoices and warehouses on the penal world of Mars, where the half strength gravity left the convicts and their descendants prisoners long after their sentences had been served. No one noticed that hidden behind the spreadsheets and ledgers was something more, vast troves of data disks containing most everything that had been banned in the last hundred years, ever since the wars had began over the dwindling resources of the earth.
Rust’s vision grayed and formed black tunnels with a single pinprick of light, as the acceleration forced his spine into the hard metal confines of his restraint couch. Despite the breathing panic, and the helplessness, he knew this was the blood pooling in the back of his head, starving his brain for much needed oxygen, some would die from strokes, or be crippled by the gravities they were being subjected too. He had chosen to turn himself in at an equatorial location with this in mind. The acceleration would we less here then say in Siberia, or Utah.
It was already clear to Capt. Jackson that this was not Alex ‘Damien’ Rust, the prisoner looked weak, emaciated and ravaged by low grade drugs, and alcohol. Alex Rust was a University trained computer genius, who was already wealthy when he began his career in computer terrorism. The Prisoner couldn’t tell him anything about where funds were stored, or anything else that would be of interest. However he could provide some “Entertainment” for the ‘Stress Specialists’ who would be debriefing him on Rust’s crimes, and forcing him to confess and ask for god’s forgiveness for those offenses. What was disturbing Jackson, more was where had the real Rust disappeared to?
“Captain Jackson, sir?”-the female aide approached obviously afraid he would lash out at her or worse over the situation.
“Spit it out, Soldier!”
“The relays to the ships on their way to Mars, they’ve stopped responding to our transmissions, the onboard detonators haven’t activated. They’ve gone silent sir.” - a sudden swallow, as she realized fully what this had to mean.
“So Rust has been Transported to Mars, and taken over all of our spaceport controls. So where are the defense lasers presently targeted?”
“D.C., Utah, China, and everyone of our primary staging areas for space launch ,sir.”
“Just LEAVE!”-Jackson massaged his eyes and head as the massive migraine began to set in. He had to find someone to take the blame, someone below him, the world’s most wanted hacker was now enroute to another planet, and if anything it was going from bad to worse.
Televisions across the world. “Tonight’s juvenile gladiators will be not be seen so that we can bring you the confession and incineration of Alex Rust. “ The stock photo of rust seemed to blur as computer animation suddenly showed him smiling. “and in today’s trading, I have managed a leveraged buy out of all Martian penal companies. And I regret to inform you that your leaders have failed again, at your expense I am now on my way to your Penal colony. Better to Rule in Hell, then to serve in Heaven.” the smirking face replied, Government censors would have to explain that last bit to their masters, as “Paradise Lost” had been banned over a few decades ago.
