Manifest

Xavier

As the next night falls, our group solemnly assembles in front of the barracks.
Sgt. Smith – Lance, as he offered me to call him last night – holds his mandatory speech, but nobody really is listening and Lance really isn't putting his heart into it either.
After he is done, Mary steps up and explains, "I had a little...chat with the programmers behind the Semper Fi software."
Marty raises his hand and asks, "How did you manage to pull that off?"
"I have a few...shall we say 'friends' which helped me establish contact. After explaining our plight, they agreed to fork over the source code."
I shake my head and ask, "And what really happened?"
Mary sighs, looks over to Lance and asks, "What I'm going to say now, could well get me executed. And if I go down, I'll be taking you with me. So I believe it would be in our mutual best interest, if this stays between us. Alright?"
Lance merely nods.
Mary nods in agreement and begins to explain, "I contacted a few friends of mine, as I already said And while they created a diversion, I hacked myself into the servers of the military R&D department, where I found a number of classified documents regarding Manifest and, more importantly, the source code for the software upgrade."
"...I'm supposed to say that I don't believe you and that it's impossible to hack into the military servers and everything now, right?" Lance replies, a deep sense of tiredness in his voice.
"It'd be nice if you at least acted like you were surprised. But yeah, it is fairly simple once you know the security protocols. I simply logged myself in as the head researcher, whose name I got from the personal files...you wouldn't believe how many people are still using 'Password' as their password. One should think that they have become smarter by now."
Zach laughs, "Mary, no computer system in the entire world would allow 'Password' as a password any more. Stop pulling their legs."
"...fine you spoilsport. Look, I'm not going to bore you to tears with all the details, but I've got the source code or at least a very big chunk of it. I've spent all of yesterday with the analysis of the important functions and, even though I'm nowhere near done, I discovered a number of major security flaws in it. One of these flaws allowed me to hack myself into Tommy's CAI in the first place. But that's not all...there's also something else I found, something that's alarming to say the least."
She then turns to Lance, looks him straight into the eye and asks, "Sarge, does the word 'Xavier' ring a bell with you?"
Lance looks back firmly and eventually shakes his head, "No, not that I'd know of. Why?"
"Because I found a subroutine called Xavier and while I'm not an expert on the field of biochemistry, the commentary suggested that..."
"Mind control!" I blurb out.
"You know, it's no fun if you guys keep stealing my thunder...how'd you know?"
"Professor Charles Francis Xavier is a fictional character from the X-Men comics."
"...never heard of 'em," Marty admits, whereas Robert asks, "You read comics? Honestly?"
"When exactly were these comics? I mean, what with..." Zach suggests and I sigh, "Yeah, they were from the 1950s to somewhere in the 2000s. I don't know how long ago they were exactly. Look, I just am fond of the classics, so sue me!"
Mary whispers over to Zach, just barely loud enough for me to hear, "More like obsessed, if you ask me," to which Zach only shrugs.

I clear my throat audibly and explain, who Professor X is, what it was he could do and once I'm done, I conclude with the words, "So, as you can see..."
"Man, and there I thought I was the biggest nerd in this group," Zach laughs and I stop talking, blushing lightly, but it fades quickly, as Lance starts talking.
"So, you found a subroutine that can...control a person?"
"It's not unheard of, Sarge. Actually that was one of the greatest concerns, when the CAI was first introduced 50 years ago. That it could be used to control the thoughts of people. According to the net, the CAI almost didn't get introduced due to those fears, however it still somehow managed to take the corner, after the manufacturer called for programmers and hackers all around the world to see if they could get into the system and do what they feared. None succeeded, due to the cerebral encryption system, where the brain's computing power is utilized to create an encryption key so strong, that no computer in the world could crack it. Not even another CAI user, because no two brains are the same. That's also, how it managed to become the encryption standard of our time, with everything we hold dear encoded with it. Bank accounts, memory stores, cloud access etc."
I smile and think, 'And they're calling me a nerd, hm? But then again, I guess we all are in our very own way," before looking up to the Manifest moon sparkling over us.
I cannot help but wonder, whether the aliens chose us, who we are one of the most insignificant groups of people on this planet, on purphaose, or if it was just an accident and what makes us into Geeks and Nerds just happens to also be, what makes our Manifests the strongest. I fear we may never ever know.
After the little chat round is over, Mary resumes control over the conversation and explains, "Either way, I dare say that the security flaws have been left in this software on full purpose, so the CAI of the one with this software could be accessed remotely without the person knowing. It is closely coupled to the 'Titan' subroutine too, which looks like it's meant to enable us to summon the Manifest at will. I believe, that the entire Manifest program was never meant to counter the wild Manifests or to protect the people, but much rather to create a standing army of living weapons."
Zach asks, "...so what, we're going to split now? Try to run away? Spread the word?"
"Only if you like your ass served to you well done, Zachariah," Mary throws in and then continues, "Listen, for now the higher ups must not know that we know about the subroutine Xavier. I think, that I can alter the upgrade to close the loopholes they want to use to get control of us. We do the training until we've got a solid handle on the Manifests."
"And then what? March upon the government and demand answers?" Marty asks. He is clearly not convinced of the idea.
Mary merely smiles viciously, "No, of course not. We wouldn't get any anyway. No, they'd just sic their puppets on us and walk away. However, what if let's say two or three Manifests suddenly attacked a government office. What if, supposedly, at the same time, in the same town, a small group of hackers would break into the central server of the Manifest control program and upload a worm, which would then spread to all the connected Manifest operator, patching the security holes and severing the connection. They would lose their puppets in an instance."
"You're talking high treason," Lance replies dryly after having stayed silent for the entire time.
"No, I'm talking reason. Listen Sarge, I know you don't want to hear this, but the existence of the Xavier subroutine proves, that the government either doesn't have has a really wicked plan to deal with the Manifest moon involving their own creatures, or they don't even intend to do anything about it. Quite personally, I think it's the later, so if you ask me, the government has betrayed us first. And I will not stand by idly and be a good little pawn in their game."
Lance sighs and asks, "Okay...but either way, we need to start training. Otherwise the brass will get suspicious. I can delay the software upgrade a little, but by the end of the week, you'll have to have a working solution. There's only so much delay I can explain with personal doubts and trauma."
Mary nods and says to us, "Okay, I'll get to work right away. Zach, you with me, right?"
"Like I'd miss that!" Zach chirps happily. Quite honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to find these two sharing the same bunk tomorrow.

After the two take off, Lance returns to business and starts telling us about the theory behind summoning a Manifest. Once again nobody really listens to him, but we play along.
I just hope we aren't making a mistake by laying our lives into the hand of Mary and Zach.