B7-2 Nija Interview (Patreon)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of these. Would you guys have preferred that I queued these up? Or would you rather just let them sit in your inboxes until you get around to reading them?

So, maybe there's a hacker on board. That leads the trail back to Tori's favorite person: Nija.

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Tori waited while Sese requested override access through a second ring of locked doors. She was very glad the big security officer had decided to come with her as no one had answered either when they knocked.

When the door finally clicked open, cold air spilled out of the computer-filled room. “Doesn’t anyone answer the damned door around here?” grumped Tori. She thumped her green cane as she walked, carefully negotiating the short ramp up into the computer operations center.

Just ahead, Thojy stood up from the console he’d been studying. “Tori?” he gasped. “What are you doing in here?”

“Oh! Thojy,” said Tori. Sese turned to the investigator, ears raised high. So, Tori explained, “Thojy used to rent the apartment we’re in.” Sese still stared, so Tori added, “We met on V-Day. Thojy and his family are friends with the family living next door to us.”

“Oh,” Sese finally said, drawing the sound way out. She reached out and touched paws with him. “I’m Sese.”

“I’m so sorry,” said Thojy. “We’re really not allowed to have any visitors in here. Let me log off and we can speak outside.”

Sese waved his suggestion away with a flick of her paw. “We need to speak with Nija.”

“My boss?” he said abruptly.

Tori’s fur stood on end. “Nija is your boss?”

Thojy’s eyes darted this way and that. His ears hung low. “...Yes?”

Sese watched the other two with a glare but said nothing. Tori explained, “Officer Sese and I need to ask her a few questions. Is she here?”

At that, Thojy tensed more before he seemed to relax. “Oh, well yes, she’s here. She’s been diagnosing some sort of packet storm all morning. I was just about to head out to lunch.” He pointed down a narrow corridor between two identical rows of computer racks. “If you head down that way, you’ll find her near the back, on the right.”

With a nervous smile, Thojy logged off. He hurried down the ramp and out the door, leaving Tori and Sese alone.

Sese stared at Tori for a long moment before speaking. “What in the hells was that all about?”

“Yeah,” sighed the smaller geroo. “Thojy creeps me out. He was going on and on about how much he hates his boss and how he hopes the killer gets her. He said there was a pool betting on the next victim, and his money is on Nija.”

Sese’s jaw hung open and she looked at the door he’d just exited through. “That’s sick!”

“I know,” said Tori. “He made me nervous enough that I dug into his background the next day.”

“Find anything?”

“Maybe,” Tori said as she headed down the aisle. “He’s in deep financial trouble and has a pattern of spending way more than he makes. His family keeps getting kicked out for not paying rent, but instead of spending less money, he’s actually spending more. I couldn’t link him to Boots or to most of the victims, but I suspect he’s dirty. He must have a lucrative side hustle, and whatever it is, I doubt it’s legal.”

Sese nodded and tapped some notes on her strand. “Once we get past the commissioner’s visit next week, we can investigate him, find out what he’s up to.”

They found Nija in the back, but with the roar of the forced air conditioning, she clearly hadn’t heard the pair approach. She sat hunched forward, her eyes just centimeters away from a screen, a green knitted blanket wrapped around her shoulders to shield her from the room’s chill.

“Nija?” called Tori, startling the older gal.

Nija’s paw slid quickly from the keyboard, stopping atop a paper envelope lying beside it. “What do you want now?” she demanded. “And if I hear one more lie about Asui filming a video, I’m going straight to the captain!”

“No, I just need to ask some feasibility questions.”

“Bah!” the older gal huffed before turning back to the screen. “I don’t have time for that.”

“Well, make time,” said Sese, stepping closer. “Tori has questions about computer tampering.”

Nija’s glare slid over Tori like a shadow. “Who tampered with what?”

“I’ve got access to the door logs, and I noticed there’s no unexpected access entries into one of the victim’s apartments,” Tori explained, “but I’m fairly certain that someone got in. I wanted to know how hard it would have been to erase those log entries.”

Nija sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. She fixed Tori with her golden eyes. “No one can erase log entries,” she said.

“I don’t buy that for a moment,” laughed Sese. “Maybe no one is allowed to, but it’s just data in a computer, right? If it can be written, can’t it be overwritten?”

“You think someone tampered with the logs?”

Tori sighed and wished she had a chair, but the computer chief sat in the only one in sight, and once again, she didn’t offer it up. Tori glanced up at Sese for a moment before returning her attention to the chief. “Don’t know. But there’s no suspicious log entries, and I’m sure someone got in. So, either someone changed the logs or entered without leaving a computer trace. I’d love to eliminate one of those two possibilities so I can narrow my search.”

“Well, you’re right,” Nija finally admitted. “It wouldn’t be simple because there’s lots of systems in place to prevent record tampering, but yeah, the records could be changed.”

Sese smiled, looking smug. “And who could change them?”

“Well, I have access,” the older gal admitted, “but I can’t be the serial killer because I’m not stupid!”

Tori’s eyes opened wider. “You don’t think the killer is very smart?”

“I don’t know that!” Nija barked. Her ears pulled back in rage. “Stop putting words in my mouth. But obviously the killer isn’t someone in power, is it? Look at me. I’ve worked my way to the top of the ladder. My boss is the captain himself, and I’d rather jump out an airlock than take his job, so how could I possibly benefit by knocking someone off? There’s nobody I could kill to get a promotion. I’ve already got the position I want.”

“Well, sure, but—”

“So, no upside, and a huge downside,” she explained. “Someone in power killing those in power? That’s just begging someone to bump you off!”

Sese frowned. “How do you figure? If you were the killer … it’s not like you’d murder yourself.”

Nija gasped in exasperation, pointing as Sese with both index fingers. “See? This is why The Viper is still running loose. How can you expect to catch him when you’re so dim?”

Sese scowled and internally, Tori was growling, but she somehow managed to keep her fur down. “We’d love to hear your analysis.”

“I bet.” Nija folded her paws in her lap. “The killer has normalized killing those in power. How long will it be before other crew start doing it too?”

“A copycat?” asked Tori.

“Ugh, no!” Nija groaned. “I’m thinking more like a mob.”

Tori gulped and thought back on Runo’oa’s story once more—a mob that prevented a poisoning victim from getting help, from puking the poison back up. How far was that from a mob that murdered someone who hadn’t even been poisoned first?”

Not far, she reasoned.

Tori lowered her eyes and stared at the cold beck beneath her paws for a moment. “So, who else could tamper with logs?”

“Impossible for me to answer that,” she said. “No one else has legitimate access, but despite all our security measures, computers can be hacked. With the proper skillset, it’s conceivable that a user could elevate his access authority up to my level. And if they knew how to do that, they’d probably know enough to bypass the security measures that prevent log tampering too.”

Sese scowled. “And who on board has that level of knowledge?”

“Hopefully? No one,” said Nija. “The krakun go out of their way to make sure that none of us ever learn how to hack. We’re forbidden from doing any research, our systems are laced with daemons that watch for anyone who might be dabbling in it, and the penalties for getting caught with malware of any sort are downright Draconian. The ancestors-be-damned krakun are so paranoid about computer hackers, that they won’t even let us study it in a defensive way.”

“And if your systems did get hacked?” asked Tori. “How could you respond?”

“Our protocol is simple,” said Nija. “If we suspect our systems have been compromised beyond our ability to repair them, then we call the company for help. They will send a team of gleaming white hacker knights to handle it, and we won’t be allowed to witness any of what they do. Planetary Acquisitions keeps their hackers on a very short leash.”

“What about using the computer to gain access to the victim’s quarters?” asked Sese. “Tori said that two of the senior staff can key through any of the door locks without even generating an access log entry. Could someone give themselves that level of authority? Or maybe tell the computer to unlock someone’s door without checking authority or something?”

Nija rolled her eyes as if the question had been stupid. “That’s still hacking. Same answer as before.”

Silence stretched and Tori’s ruined ears rumbled with only the sound of air conditioning.

“So, what’s in the envelope?” asked Sese. Tori perked up, glad that she hadn’t been the only one to notice it.

Nija scowled and plucked the unsealed envelope from the desk. She opened it up and pulled a kitchen knife from inside. Though not the most threatening knife one might find in the typical geroo kitchen, it was certainly big enough to be dangerous—just barely short enough to fit completely inside the envelope. “Just a little bit of protection, Officer,” she said. “Enough camouflage that an attacker might not stop me from sticking them with it, paper fragile enough that the blade would push right through with the first jab.”

Tori swallowed. How many others were walking around the corridors with an envelope right now? How long until the ship boiled over into a full revolt and the company was forced to purge the crew?

“Honestly, you two should get one as well,” Nija said, then looking up at Sese, she added, “The screwdriver is a good start, but it’s stupid not to keep it hidden. You may not be anyone’s boss, but the crew is lumping all of security into the company’s power structure. You should be careful if you don’t want to be discarded … like a Boot.”

Tori looked up at the concern on Sese’s ears. Was she worried, merely irritated by Nija’s abrasive manner, or was she regretting that they hadn’t been back to the security office so she could grab her nightstick once more?

“And you,” Nija said to Tori, “do you think the crew wants you to find The Viper? To stop him? You’re in just as much danger as I am—probably more!”

“Cheerful thought,” sighed Tori as she pushed it from her mind. If someone wanted to kill her, she was in no position to stop them. A concealed knife would be little help.

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jmyWkH7c6_IJ2J4V2AY8KcLN2MQ613f_MmX0Tw-bFLU/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?