Christopher Nuttall - A Learning Experience

“And who,” Wilhelm asked, “are you working for?”

Kevin nodded, mentally. He’d expected the question. Unlike the others, Wilhelm had good reason to be suspicious of any offer, particularly with an unverifiable source. The CIA had turned more than one American business into a front operation over the years, doing serious damage to American interests when the truth finally came out. Wilhelm was hardly interested in turning his company into a cover for the Company, particularly given the pressure on his operations from the NSA.

“Someone new,” Kevin said, evasively. He reached into his briefcase and produced another NDA. He’d rewritten it for Wilhelm, his wife and any of his employees he felt like inviting into the secret. “Someone who needs your assistance in selling his wares.”

Wilhelm’s eyes narrowed. “Tell me,” he said.

Kevin had considered several cover stories, but most of them would be easily to disprove, given enough incentive to ask questions. And Wilhelm would definitely have such incentive.

“Sign,” he said, instead. “And then we will discuss matters.”

After a long moment, Wilhelm took the paper and sighed it.

“Let me get this straight,” Wilhelm said, after he’d been teleported to the starship and given a brief tour. “You’re founding your own nation and you intend to sell technology to finance your operations?”

“Basically, yes,” Steve said. He found himself liking Wilhelm on sight, but it was hard to trust anyone who hadn’t seen the sharp end of war completely. “We have various… gadgets we intend to sell, through you if you’re interested in helping.”

“A case could be made that your actions are treasonous,” Wilhelm said, after a long moment. “What do you make of that?”

Steve put firm controls on his temper. “I understand that you are having your own problems with the government,” he said. “What do you make of our desire to avoid the government?”

Wilhelm nodded, slowly. Steve smiled, recognising he’d scored a point. He wasn’t sure he fully understood Kevin’s explanations of precisely why Wilhelm Technology was having problems, but he was sure it was because of government interference. Besides, if Wilhelm had been completely committed to the government, he would have stayed and worked for them on a very low wage.

“We’ll have to claim they came out of the factory near Bern,” Wilhelm said, finally. “We were ramping up production of the new hard drives in any case, so it isn’t completely implausible. Not being able to file a patent, on the other hand, might raise some eyebrows.”

“You can file a confidential patent,” Kevin pointed out.

“The government would still have access,” Wilhelm reminded him. “But it might not be a bad thing if another company eventually cracked the secret of how the technology worked.”

“No, it wouldn’t,” Steve agreed. The devices they’d intended to suggest were advanced enough to be noticeable, at least ten to twenty years ahead of Earth’s finest technology. It was depressing to realise that the alien starship designers probably considered them nothing more than toys. “How quickly could you start selling them?”

Wilhelm considered. “Maybe a month or two,” he said. “We could claim that the whole project was so secret hardly anyone knew about it — that isn’t uncommon in the computer world — which would allow us to start selling in two weeks, but that would probably raise eyebrows. Few secrets remain secret indefinitely.”

Steve smiled, tiredly. “Are you interested, then?”

“I’d be very interested,” Wilhelm said. “But I’d also be interested in relocating to the moon once you have a colony established. What sort of laws do you intend to have covering commercial operations?”

“We haven’t thought that far ahead, yet,” Steve admitted.

“Better get thinking about it,” Wilhelm said. “There are quite a few possibilities that don’t include alien technology, if you have free access to outer space. Zero-gravity production, for one thing, would allow us to produce all sorts of improvements on current technology and machined components. And then there would be no need to worry about pollution.”

He paused. “You do realise that setting up a lunar base probably contravenes the Outer Space Treaty?”

“I didn’t sign it,” Steve said. “And nor did the aliens.”

Wilhelm blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“There are thousands of alien races in the galaxy,” Steve said. He learned forward, meeting the younger man’s eyes. “As far as we have been able to determine through searching the alien database, the only law that is actually enforced regularly is a ban on genocide. And even that may be a bit iffy.

“We cannot rely on the aliens blindly accepting our laws when they enter our solar system,” he added, coldly. “The galaxy appears to operate on the principle that might makes right — and they are far mightier than ourselves. If we’re lucky, the best we can hope for is to become a protectorate, just like a newly-discovered tribe of natives in some godforsaken jungle lucky enough not to live near something a more advanced nation wants. If we’re unlucky, we will be enslaved or crushed beneath an alien boot heel. We need to make this work, Markus, before we run out of time. And we cannot rely on the government to do anything other than impede us or smother the effort under countless studies of how to do it quickly.

“To hell with absurd treaties, to hell with charges of treason. I want to win, I want to safeguard humanity’s future. And the only way to do that is to use this opportunity as ruthlessly as possible.”

Wilhelm studied him for a long moment. “Very well,” he said, finally. “I will join you.”

“Excellent,” Steve said. He nodded to Kevin. “My lovely assistant” — Kevin snorted, rudely — “will work with you to determine what would be the most… productive items to enter the market.”

“I could advance you a loan now,” Wilhelm offered. “I may not be Bill Gates, but I do have quite a bit of money stashed away.”

“That would be very helpful,” Kevin said, before Steve could say a word. “We’re sitting on the largest gold mine in human history and we have barely a cent to our names.”

Wilhelm smiled. “It will be done,” he said. “Can I see one of the aliens?”

“Our sole captive,” Steve said, standing. “Come with me.”

“They don’t seem very clever,” Wilhelm observed, as he followed Steve through the alien corridors. “To let you take control of their ship so easily.”

Kevin smirked. “How many people do you know who use ADMIN as the username and PASSWORD as the password?”

“Point taken,” Wilhelm said. “Half the problems I handed while I was in the service were caused by someone neglecting basic security precautions. One idiot actually took a USB stick he’d found in the trash into the Pentagon and inserted it into his computer. The Chinese must have laughed their heads off when they realised how it had happened.”

Steve turned to look at him. “The Chinese?”

“They’re constantly poking the edge of the electronic fence,” Wilhelm said. “You won’t believe just how much crap they’ve tried to pull, from inserting spyware into almost every computer produced in China to paying officers to obtain passwords and admin permissions for them. There was a whole flurry a few years ago about a remarkably nasty computer worm that might well have come straight from China. We never really got to the bottom of that, no matter what we did.”

He shrugged. “Or it could be the Russians,” he added. “Asymmetric warfare is their thing .”