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Chapter 1:
Matt arrived at HQ just after 17:00 and walked into the front door of the studio. Surprisingly he remembered exactly where Straker’s office was. He opened the door and walked in.
“Hello Janice.”
“Oh hi Matt, how’s Ginny?”
“She’s well, she sends her love.”
“Are the two of you settled in yet?”
“Just about, we were hanging pictures in the living room when Ed called over.”
“Well make sure you give her my best when you get home.”
“She’ll be here a week from Monday, but I’ll tell her when I call her tonight.”
“Please do.”
Matt walked into the inner office as the door closed behind him. He opened the cigar box on the desk and spoke into it.
“Yesterday is already a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision, but today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.”
Voiceprint positive, Hewett, Matthew R.
“I guess there’s no fooling you,” Matt said as he pushed to button to activate the lift.
Matt was still amazed at the scope of the organization he now was part of, it was an honor indeed, but he made sure that his SHADO ID was visible as he was not very well known at HQ and he didn’t want to risk the wrath of the goon squad as he still called it. When the lift reached the bottom he walked out and headed for the control room.
The control room was a busy place and Matt noticed the alert indicators were at condition red. Straker was standing behind Ford watching the situation screen. The three dimensional display showed three alien craft heading to Earth. It looked to him that the Moonbase interceptors were getting into position for an attack.
Matt knew very little about the procedures used to intercept the UFO’s before they hit the atmosphere, other than what his wife had told him. He was still in awe of her knowledge and abilities.
“The interceptors are in position,” said Ford.
Straker nodded watching the screen as the space interceptors closed and attacked. Three new blips appeared on the screen. Matt knew these were the single nuclear missiles carried by the SHADO spacecraft. He watched in silence as the missiles closed on their targets. A few minutes later the blips for the alien craft disappeared from the screen.
“Moonbase confirming; targets destroyed,” said Ford.
Straker walked to the communications console and flipped up the mic, “Pass my congratulations to the interceptor pilots, Colonel Barry.”
“I will sir, thank you, Moonbase out.”
Matt watched as the Commander turned and saw him standing on the upper platform.
“How long have you been standing there Matt?”
“Long enough to see you score three more for the good guys, Commander,” he said as he shook his hand.
“I wish they were all that easy. You remember Captain Ford, don’t you?”
“I do, nice to see you again Keith.”
“Keith, why don’t you take Matt to his quarters so he can stow his gear then we can meet in my office in about fifteen minutes.”
“Yes sir, this way Matt,” said Keith.
“Well Matt, how are you and Colonel Lake settling in?”
“We bought a new home in western Connecticut a week after we got married and we moved in about three weeks ago. The house I had was too small for us and the commute that Virginia would have to make every day was way too long. She was flying our single engine aircraft from Providence to a field not too far from the New York research facility every day for a couple of weeks.”
“That must have taken a lot out of her.”
“Yeah, it did, between that and moving, by the end of that month we were both bushed. But we’re just about done now, just some hangings in the living room.”
“Make sure you tell her she’s missed here at HQ.”
“I will, I know she feels the same way,” said Matt as they arrived at his quarters.
Fifteen minutes later Straker, Ford and Hewett were sitting at the conference table looking over the notes Ford had taken while troubleshooting the system. Keith had covered all the obvious stuff as well as some of the more in depth analysis. Matt wasn’t at all surprised at the extent of this man’s knowledge. He hoped to lean a few things from him as well.
“Well Commander, looking at this I can tell you this is not going to be an easy problem to solve. Captain Ford has made all the standard tests as well as a few abstract tests most people wouldn’t dream of. He’s pretty much covered everything the SSC would take you through on the phone and then some.”
“I don’t get it,” said Keith. “We bench tested all the components before they were installed under actual operating conditions. We even put live data through the setup in the lab to verify operation under real world conditions. The system worked flawlessly.”
“Could it be an incompatibility with our old equipment? We are still using some of the channel banks correct?” asked Ed.
“I’m afraid not Commander, the WAN side of a channel bank is a T1 or DS1 standard. And it works fine on the leased lines. Instead of going into a leased line you’re plugging into a DSX3 multiplexer which multiplexes 28 T1 lines at 1.544 Mbps to a DS3 rate of 45Mbps. These are all industry standards, which the phone companies have been using for a while. If it were an incompatibility the test sets would show it,” said Matt.
“And you don’t think the data encryption is the problem?”
“No Commander and I’ll tell you why. As far as the system is concerned data is data. Ones and zeros, that’s all. It is spit out in pre defined blocks or a packet as it’s called in the IP world. The only way the encryption algorithm could cause a problem would be if it was changing the packet size without modifying the headers and if that was the case you would see the same problem on the old system.”
“That’s just great! So how do we go about fixing it?” asked Straker clearly upset now. He hated it when technology did not cooperate.
“A system level approach may not work here. What I plan on doing is removing two of the affected components and doing a functional analysis on the bench. Keith and I will make sure the items pass all the specs and look for evidence of cumulative timing errors. If that passes then we’ll reinstall the equipment and start troubleshooting from one end to the next. When we get to the point where we have problems we’ll focus our efforts there.”
“Keith, you’ve been quiet, any thoughts?”
“The plan that Matt has outlined makes sense. The only thing I not sure of is how are we going to duplicate the traffic density of a fully loaded system.”
“We’re going to cheat, Keith,” said Matt. “We’ll test the individual T1’s first and if they pass, we’ll loop them through so that the signal runs back and forth between the multiplexers. That will put traffic on all twenty eight of the T1 channels. If it’s a latency issue it should show up on that test.”
“Well Keith?” asked Straker.
“It’s a sound idea Commander. We’ve tried everything else.”
“Alright gentlemen, keep me posted. I’ve got a two hundred pound gorilla on my back about this.”
“Tell the General that Matt Hewett says he should relax.”
“I don’t even want to tell him you’re here until this is fixed. Henderson will want to come down and talk about old home week. I still don’t know why he didn’t do it with Virginia. I found out they knew each other by accident a year ago. He fought me tooth and nail over her promotion. And she never said anything either.”
“She wouldn’t have, she gave her word. Henderson was probably trying to avoid looking like he was playing favorites. We talked about that situation one night. The whole thing really bothered her as she wanted to tell you, but the General asked her to keep it quiet. She didn’t even realize who he was until you introduced them after she finished her tour on Moonbase.”
“I see,” he said, seeing the situation in a new light. That makes perfect sense I should have seen that. Ed remembered the day that he introduced the General to Lake, and he thought he saw recognition and surprise in her eyes. But she never said anything and he didn’t pry. He watched as the two men left his office.
Matt and Keith walked to the elevator that led to the communications lab below the main complex.
“So Keith, how long have you been with SHADO?”
“I was one of the first recruits, but I didn’t get assigned to HQ until about two years before we installed the utronic equipment.”
“What did you do before that?”
“I was a military communications specialist during my time in the service. When I left the RAF I became an investigative reporter.”
“That’s where I know you from, that was what, fifteen years ago?”
“That’s right. That job is what inadvertently got me into SHADO.”
“I see you dug to deep and they gave you a choice.”
“That’s right. Commander Straker can be pretty persuasive.”
“I’ve noticed. But from what my wife tells me, he’s the most dedicated man in this organization, and the best boss she’s ever had.”
“That is true, although he has his moments.”
“Yeah, she told me that as well, but his wrath is never out of malice and that speaks highly of him. I’ve only met him a handful of times but I’m impressed with what I see. But how about you Keith; wife; family?”
“I got married about six years ago. Carol and I have two children, our son David is five, and our daughter Sarah is four.”
“I’m surprised that you could have a family life with all the security issues.”
“It used to be much worse. The Commander modified the security protocols not long after his divorce. At least four other marriages failed during the startup period.”
“Your wife doesn’t know what you really do, does she?”
“No the IAC would never have approved that, but our spouses know that we are part of a military organization. In order to be in the program my wife had to go through the full G6 as well as a complete psychological workup. The procedure is almost as extensive as a recruit would receive. If they pass the security assessment they are told certain aspects of our positions. All the interceptor and Skydiver crews go through it as a necessity. The procedure is optional for HQ personnel but still highly recommended. After the program was instituted the divorce rate dropped significantly.”
“That must keep Dr. Jackson pretty busy.”
“Yeah, Jackson and his tender mercies, I don’t like him poking around in my head.”
They walked into the lab as Matt finished, “You know Keith; I think he’s much more human than people give him credit for.”
“We’re talking about the same person right?”
“I had a chance to talk to him at length during my evaluation. The man has a deeply rooted spiritual side.”
“You’re putting me on right?”
“Virginia had the same reaction when I told her, but trust me there’s more to that man than meets the eye. I think he keeps his distance because of what he has to do.”
“Well you wouldn’t prove it by me.”
They walked up to the bench and surveyed the equipment that was laid out.
“Well let’s get this set up for an end to end test, I’m going to need two data encryption units,” said Matt.
“Alright, but what are you going to do with those?”
“I’m going to put them between the test sets to simulate encrypted traffic.”
“I didn’t think about that, good idea.”
The two men got to work setting up the equipment for the diagnostic procedures.
Colonel Wallace walked into the Commanders office with two cups of coffee. He was busy looking over a report and didn’t look up right away until he smelled the aroma of coffee. Looking up he saw her handing him a cup of the steaming liquid.
“That smells good Jen. Where did you get it?”
“Well I can tell you that it wasn’t in the mess hall, I don’t know what kind of reconstituted stuff they serve but it sure as hell isn’t coffee.”
Ed gave her a smile as he took the cup from her.
“Thank you Jen, I do appreciate it.”
“You looked like you could use it sir,” she said as she sat down in the corner seat next to the desk. “When I saw you earlier you look like a cat had eaten your favorite canary.”
Damn she’s perceptive, he thought.
“You miss her don’t you?” she asked.
“Miss who?” Ed asked not very convincing.
“You know who I’m talking about.”
“It shows that much?”
“I’m sure some people around here would pick up on it.”
“She’s my best friend, Jen.”
“I think she was far more than that, sir.”
“Jen, I really don’t want to talk about that.”
“I’m sorry, being a native New Yorker; I’m used to saying what’s on my mind. Ginny tried her damnedest to break me of it, but it’s too engrained in me sir.”
Ed looked up at her emerald green eyes noticing how captivating they were. He didn’t really know her that well but she was easy to talk to.
“I’m sorry Jen; I didn’t mean to be sharp. To answer your question, yes she was.”
“May I ask why you never told her?”
“I don’t know; protocol maybe, fear that it wouldn’t work, and maybe fear that it would. Take your pick.”
“It must be difficult having her husband here.”
“Yes, it is. But I knew the first time I met him that he was a good man. That takes some of the sting out of it.”
“Well sir, I have to get back to duty. I’m due to relieve Colonel Grey.”
As she got up to leave Ed called her, “Jen?”
“Sir?”
“Thanks, for the coffee.”
“You’re welcome sir.”
Jennifer Wallace was almost twelve years younger than Ed but she carried herself much like Virginia did. She was confident in her abilities and in herself. Ed began to appreciate her and saw why Virginia was so impressed with her.
He also, for the first time, noticed how beautiful she was.
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