Backdoor Summary

PERPLEX CITY, SEASON ONE The search for the Receda Cube on Earth

Purpose

This page is intended to collect the exceptionally juicy bits of the Backdoor excursions. That is a lengthy page to wade through, so it is the goal, herein, to present a Reader's Digest Abridged version. Just the facts, ma'am.

Miscallaneous Notes

These two items seem like the only bodies with any actual message in them, outside of the inventory and audio logs. And, as you can see, even these don't have a lot to say.

To: 55321801 FROM: MANSOOR H. Kiteway's programs are disrupting the entire department. Breeding hostility and distrust among amicable colleagues. The man doesn't belong here anymore, why can't he keep his damned pet projects in his own office? Crypto is mine now, not his. Well, here are the metrics to show he's not minding his own business. Number of times Kiteway has visited dept. offices this year: 78 And in 268: 129 And in 267: 23 Dept. suspicion level on the Howe-Panntonin Index: 8.8 And in 268: 7.3 And in 267: 4.5 Suspect the man has his own agenda and isn't sharing with the proper channels, for example me and you. Suspect he is subverting the time and resources of my faculty without consulting me ahead of time. Behaving as though he can't trust his own senior fellows. Ridiculous. How long must we put up with this childish rigmarole?

Approached the Master today about begining on an updated and revised edition. V. pleased to discover he considers the idea warmly. He actually said, 'My ideas are in good hands with you, and you will of course receive full credit for the work.' Somehow I expected more of a struggle. V. gracious indeed. He's not quite the glory-hog SOME people have made him out to be, I guess.

Parts Identification

These may be or may have been quite useful in the Theft of The Cube.

Crypto Parts Reference	External Reference	Field	Name	Description
477DI5-2Y	0928ES	Engineering	Active Noise Control system	Increased area effect range. Altered waveform-analysis algorithms, increased network size to 1024 nodes.
3085NC-6R	7297CR	Engineering	Broadman Nuclear Decay RNG	Upgraded statistical tests according to new guidelines.
5BPK76-8H	7560WW	Engineering	Quadropole Magnet Current Regulators	Debugged in line with requests from facility. Problems with intermittent field spiking between F and D types fixed.
72690B-0F	43914D	Engineering	Smart Dust Cameras	Corrected auto-power off firmware bugs, increased bandwidth.
9451RZ-4U	811WS6	Engineering	Tajison Plasma Wakefield Accelerator	Controller reconfigured to accept special material particles.
177ETC-1U	ET185C	Engineering	WHISK array	Debugged data traffic handling systems, added documentation to beta features.
122C76-3S	45442R	Imaging	Klebold plates	Networked in array for large-scale 3D spatial scanning. Double redundancy.
62999E-3M	80EV21	Imaging	Nanoscale imager	Reprogrammed for higher resolution and contrast on all material types.
6032VQ-0J	10086W	Neuro	Experimental remote TNI scanner	Security and identification firmware updated for new Cognivia prototype.
384621-5A	9CE42T	Optics	High Power phase-conjugate laser	Calibration and adjustment for high spaciotemporal accuracy.
3141PU-1M	OUF12M	Physics	Baker Spherical Magnetic Containment field	Interfaced with dedicated fibre network. Tested at 120% maximum tesla strength to ensure no field leakage.
460WDN-4X	IKLC45	Physics	Flux Compression Generator	Explosively Pumped; Linked to 174Ytb clock and Nelis battery backup system.
26637C-8Y	5933EN	Physics	Nelis Nuclear Isomer battery	(Hf-178-2m); Made compatible with facility electrical subsystem and dedicated fibre network. Enhanced burst mode added.
813QE2-7X	9315WC	Physics	Reynolds ioniser	Adapted for use with Baker SMC-E for quick startup time.
5239JL-4M	873AR8	Physics	Yorke-Takayuki simulator	New compartment added for traffic analysis research.
254ID9-3R	HN424P	Physics	174-Ytterbium Atomic Clock	Locked time-signal to interface with dedicated fibre network and 3D imager

Audio Logs of Karen Moro

Kurt identified this as the being the voice of Karen Moro. She has some issues with her personal and professional life.

Checking In

So you've got what you wanted. It's Thursday the, what ... 14th of July? And here's your report. I don't know what you're expecting to hear but ... I don't know what's going on; it might be nothing. I ... I could be getting completely paranoid as well. I mean with you lot snooping round I'm already on eggshells. <swallow> Camden keeps watching me across the office - pretty sure he doesn't trust me. I might be imagining it all I .. I dunno. Anyway, today I think I saw something odd. And it - and it might not be anything but if it keeps you happy here it is. We got this delivery - we get deliveries all the time, you know hardware upgrades and stuff, but there was an extra item. It wasn't on the manifest. I only noticed it cos I was nearest the door when it all arrived, so I ended up signing for it. So there was ... there was this packing case and, now I don't know what's in there. And it's locked in the stores now so I ... I can't get to it even if you want me to - it's about 5 feet high, 3 feet across and quite slim, like ... a painting or something. So is this an art-theft thing? Is that what you're after - some kind of fence operation? And if you told me what to look for I might have a better chance of helping. <tsk> Well - that's it. I'll ... I'll let you know if anything else happens.

A Thing Has Gone Missing

Well, hello again. <sigh> I hate talking into these things. Hang on, I think someone's coming! <rustly noises> No, no, it's alright. Right, okay... that packing case... it's disappeared. I don't know when it went, but it's not there today. So I.. I think I saw it a couple of days ago... that was the last time. Not much help, I know. I gave the case a bit of a kick the other day, to see if I could hear what was in there. I think it was tech stuff. Anyway, I'm meeting up with a guy for lunch tomorrow, and he's kind of a hardware freak. So I might try kind of nudging him, see if there's anything going on. He's a nice guy, so he might be helpful. I'm not going to do anything, y'know, just to get information for you. It's bad enough sneaking around like this. I can't just talk to people anymore, it's like I'm always interrogating them, even my friends. I can't look at anything without suspecting it. It'll do my head in. <sigh> You'd better look after your side of the bargain. It's the only reason I'm doing this.

Mild Progress

I saw my dad the other day so, thanks, he told me about everything and... Well I’m, I’m just glad there’s a point to all this; he’s... he’s looking much better... and I suppose that means that you’re happy with how I’m doing, so I’m... probably on the right track? I’ve been keeping an eye on the deliveries here, um I don’t think there has been anything funny for weeks now, but , you know, I might have missed something. There have been a couple of odd projects coming across my desk though. Nobody ever gets the full picture here, but I’ve noticed some themes in the encryption work I’m doing, for a start it’s pretty advanced, everything’s been marked for ‘quantum’ (which isn’t perfect yet, but it’s about the highest level we’ve got). But <sigh> there are a couple of words that keep coming up too and... well, I <stumbles over words> I don’t have a clear picture of what they mean, but maybe they’ll mean something to you, the sender or the recipient is always called ‘Viendenbourg’ and there are all these references to ‘the material’ and how much of it they’ve got. I know I’m not seeing all the messages, they spread the work around – you know, security - but only a few of us can handle quantum encryption so I’m seeing a fair chunk of the correspondence. It just seems odd it needs to be so secret, so... that’s why I mention it. I’d better go soon, there’s umm, a protest outside the museum and it will take me ages to get past them. Anyway... I can’t think of anything else... nope that’s it.

Threatened

If he dies, you realise that's it. You can do what you like to me - I don't care about me. Someone in my block got beaten up the other night. He isn't a violent guy; he's a calligrapher. But he just got attacked well for ... nothing basically. Well I think it was random, but I don't think I believe in random any more. Was it you? Are you trying to scare me? You don't need to so just ... stop it. I did what you wanted anyway. Last night ... I worked until I was the only one left in the office. Must have been about 11 when this delivery guy turned up with a trolley full of boxes. And he did look a bit surprised to see me there. These two big boxes were for us, so I signed for them and went next door to grab Angelica so she could open the stores. Anyway, the boxes were really heavy, so the delivery guy wheeled the trolley into the stores and dropped them off there. Then I saw him slide one of our cases under the trolley; when he moved the trolley, it wasn't there anymore. It was quick but I'm sure he swiped something. Then he left, and Angelica locked the door. I would have followed him ... well, probably ... but Angelica started talking to me about my research and I couldn't just rush off. I saw him go to the end of the corridor ... to the elevator, and he hit the down button. There's only the basement under us, but I think there might be passageways for internal mail and things. I honestly don't know. And I'm not going down there in the middle of the night, so don't ask. No matter what you threaten me with. Ummm the delivery guy was about 6 foot, white, short dark hair. I haven't seen him before. Keep an eye out, will you?

Scared And Alone

Look this is getting seriously dodgy. Last week, Lucas completely cut me out of a meeting, and Mansoor has been ripping into my white paper and... I'm sure it's not professional, it's personal. They know what we're up to, I swear. No I don't, I don't know anything. I'm losing it. Please, I can't be that important. You could get someone else. The whole place is shutting down over Solstice. You...you could get someone to break in here and I don't know...isotope tag one of the packages and track it you probably do that all the time...what do you need me for? Well, happy holidays.

Washing Her Hands

So this is it. Can't say I'm not glad it's over but, well, one day maybe you can tell me what this was all about. I mean, I read the papers - police raids on subway stations - sounds like your kind of thing. We've had a few more deliveries come in since January, but still no sign of the mystery man. It's been a different courier each time, and they've - they've all looked pretty innocent. The Viendenbourg messages are still going backwards and forwards. I appreciate what you've done for my dad, but ... I've done my bit. That's it. That was the deal. You can go digging around in the tunnels if you like but don't expect me to do any more of your dirty work. You told me to stop, so I'm stopping. Don't ever tell my dad about this. Over and out.