“Talk. Fast,” Commander Jones said. She was a head shorter than Zed, but she towered over him all the same.

  “Someone’s hacked Naug,” Zed said.

  “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “They used the Bubble in Time game to do it. It shows the movements of everyone in the colony.”

  Commander Bao made a series of rapid CIG gestures. “Well I’ll be—he’s right. Does Johns know that you know, Zed?”

  “I’m sorry. I told him everything,” Zed winced.

  “Why the hell didn’t you tell us first?” Commander Jones said, turning on Zed.

  “I was afraid you wouldn’t believe me. Johns was supposed to be my backup. I didn’t think he was—”

  The Commander shook her head. “It doesn’t matter right now. Is there anything you know that can get us out of this room?”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  Zed’s mind felt like the impact crater they were living in. Johns’ betrayal had turned every solid thought he had into mush. He could feel Unen taking the new information and turning it into answers he wasn’t ready to face yet.

  “Wait a second,” Zed said, sudden realization bringing him to his feet. “I didn’t tell Johns everything.”

  Commander Jones stopped her frantic CIG gestures and gave Zed her full attention. “Go on.”

  “I told him I knew the back was through the Bubble in Time program, but I didn’t tell him what I’d figured out with it.”

  “And what did you figure out exactly?”

  Zed was already opening Bubble in Time with his own CIG. He sent a shared space invite to both commanders. They quickly accepted.

  “I guess it’s a little late now, but this is what I was going to show you. I told Johns I’d found out about the movement tracking, but not the rest.”

  “This is a nightmare,” Bao said. He seemed to be in total shock. “How could we have missed this?”

  “Alina didn’t miss it,” Zed said. He wasn’t going to say, “I told you so,” but he was thinking it.

  “What’s the rest of it, Zed?” Thabisa asked. She was starting to have trouble hiding the desperation and helplessness building behind her eyes.

  “Well, there’s are the doors for one. Not just the doors, though. Any kind of mechanism connected to the network can be accessed. It’s not obvious in the sim, but if you go to the spot where you know a button should be, you can feel it and push it. Here, let me try.”

  Zed swiped his way to the virtual version of the room they were trapped in and felt for the door switch. He pressed the open button and heard the real door open behind him.

  Bao ran for the door, as if he were afraid it would slam shut again.

  “Wait!” Zed shouted after him. “There’s more you need to hear!”

  ***

  “You’re a little psycho, you know that, Zed?” Commander Bao said with what sounded like respect.

  Zed had just finished laying out the preparations he’d made in case things went as badly as he feared. He had never imagined it would be so soon or at the hands of Johns.

  “Can we tell if he’s acting alone?” Commander Jones asked.

  “It should be easy enough to find out,” Zed said. “If he’s locked down Naug, then he and his people would be the only ones moving freely in the caveman sim.”

  Zed popped back into the Bubble in Time program and zoomed out on the Neanderthal representation of Naug. He could see a large group of colonists in the mess hall who had probably been gathering for supper. There were a few other pockets of people that appeared to be trapped in their rooms or places of work, but the mess was by far the largest concentration.

  “What’s this now?” Commander Jones said under her breath. Clearly, she was looking at the same thing that had just caught Zed’s eye. Two groups of individuals were moving freely down different corridors.

  “That’s got to be them, right?” Commander Bao said.

  “It seems likely,” said Commander Jones, “but why are they moving in different directions?”

  “I think they’re after the Mars plant samples,” Zed said. “I don’t know where they’re being kept, though. Is either group moving toward them?”

  The Commanders glanced at each other and then back at the virtual Naug.

  “Yes,” Commander Jones said. “These two, right here. They’re moving toward the hydroponics bay. The samples are in the specimen vault there.”

  “Does Johns have access?” Zed asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

  “Yes,” Bao groaned.

  “You guys OK with me kicking off the chaos? Unless you had something better planned?” Zed asked with a little more enthusiasm than he intended.

  Commander Jones smiled grimly. “You’ve been causing chaos since you got here. At least this time you can put it to good use. Proceed, Zed. Bao and I will make our way to the vehicle bay. Hopefully, we can cut them off before they have a chance to make their escape.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  “Yeah,” Commander Bao said, “whoever they are. We could run right into them and not know for sure. Johns is the only conspirator we’ve actually confirmed.”

  Commander Jones made her way toward the door. “Anyone moving freely is suspect, got that?”

  Commander Bao nodded and looked around, searching for something.

  “What is it?” Commander Jones asked.

  “Well, it’s just that everything is printed into the floors. There’s not even a table leg I can break off to use as a weapon.”

  “We’ll figure it out as we go, but we can’t wait any longer. Let’s move. Zed, do your thing.”

  And with that, the two commanders rushed out of the room, leaving Zed to kick off what was sure to be the most fun he’d had in a very long time.

  When Zed started planning for the hackers to set their plan into motion, he tried to work in as general terms as possible. He had theories, but even with Unen, he had no real way to know what the hackers would do or what they’d be after.

  He hadn’t imagined that they’d go as far as they already had. The physical demolition of the hardware that allowed them to contact Earth wasn’t going to affect his defense plans, but it certainly was a massive problem in the long run.

  Zed shook the thought away. He couldn’t afford to let his mind wander off to try and solve a tangential problem when he had so many right in front of him. He had to work under the assumption that the five people moving about were hostiles. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, but he was more than ready to slow them down.

  Zed hadn’t forgotten that he had the access codes to the public virtual overlays. Well, actually, he had, but Unen hadn’t. He could easily distinguish the real from the virtual, but with the usual warning labels or outlines removed, no one else would be the wiser. Virtual objects that were indistinguishable from reality were to be their first line of defense.

  “Let’s start with a little misdirection,” Zed said to the empty room.

  He glanced at the Bubble in Time sim to see where the group of three was headed, then activated a virtual wall across the corridor. He watched as they slowed to a stop upon reaching it. They stood there for a moment, clearly confused. Then, to Zed’s delight, they started walking back the way they had come, most likely assuming they’d made a wrong turn.

  Zed smiled. “Suckers.”

  I wish I could see who I was messing with, Zed thought. It was maddening to realize that if Johns, someone he considered a friend, could have fooled him so easily, then who could he really trust? How could he even trust himself? If he had had Unen working in the back of his mind earlier, would he have caught on? Would some piece of information have made things clear before it was too late?

  “Pull up, Zed,” he mumbled to himself. "We don't have time for this now."

  He glanced at the group of three, who had come to a junction and taken a path down another hall. As soon as their backs were turned, he placed a virtual wall behind them. They walked a few steps down the hall before one of them looked over their shoulder and tapped his comrade on the shoulder. They all turned and backed away a few steps.

  Zed knew he couldn’t give them time to think too hard about things, or one of them would try to touch the new wall. Their CIGs would make it feel real, but their hand would still pass through it if pressed. It was time to escalate. He just needed to decide where.

  A glance at the map made it simple. It was a risk, but if he couldn’t lock them in somewhere, he would have to drive them to someone who could.

  “Douglas, activate the ‘glass ceiling’ sequence starting from their back and running toward the outer blue wedge.”

  Douglas gave him a wink and vanished.

  The effect on the three was immediate. They staggered backward as if a bomb had gone off. Zed knew that from their perspective, it probably felt like one had. In their effort to back away, one of them fell and reached out to his companion for help. He was met with a shove as his fellow conspirators ran for their lives.

  Zed moved into the virtual hall to watch his handiwork up close.

  Violent cracks spread across the ceiling, sucking the air out of the hall. The chunks of ceiling, too heavy to be sucked away, crashed to the floor. One particularly large piece came within inches of crushing the downed figure’s leg.

  There was no audio, but based on their reactions, Zed could only assume whoever it was let out a horrified scream before scrambling off after their compatriots. A wave of destruction followed close behind.

  “Right on target, Douglas. Guess I’d better give the Commanders a heads-up.”

  Three potential mutineers are headed your way. Ignore the decompression damage if you see it. Just one of my haunted house attractions.

  A few moments later, Douglas appeared and gave Zed a dejected shake of his head. He held a printed document in his hand that read, “Error: Unable to Send or Receive.”

  “Well, crap.”

  Zed kicked himself for not having seen this coming. He assumed that whoever had made the hack would have to keep internal communications up to coordinate. Clearly, that wasn’t the case.

  All he could do was hope that the Commanders could handle whoever it was running their way. Zed had filled them in on his virtual booby traps, but seeing an apparent colony decompression was enough to give any astronaut pause.

  There would be time to beat himself up about it later. All he could do was keep moving forward with his plans and hope that they were enough.

  I’m glad I asked Baat to hang out with Janice, he thought. It would have been too late to send her help now.

  Zed turned back to the Bubble in Time sim and watched as the three cavemen he’d been harassing ran full tilt at the figures he knew represented Commanders Jones and Bao.

  They must have heard the frantic footsteps coming their way because the pair turned in unison. They stepped back, no doubt reacting to the apparent destruction that was following the mutineers down the hall. One of the Commanders turned as if to run, but the other put a hand on their shoulder. A few moments later, the two groups collided.

  Despite the dire nature of the situation, Zed couldn’t help but crack a smile at the absolutely absurd visuals he was witnessing. Five heavy-browed cavemen in fur togas wrestling was a sight to see. Zed had to remind himself that reality was anything but funny. This was life and death, no matter how ridiculous it looked.

  All the character models for the cavemen were more or less identical. There was one carryover from reality, however: the height of the real person seemed to come through in the cavemen that represented them. Most of the people now grappling with each other were of similar height, but there was one who was noticeably shorter than the rest.

  Well, at least I can keep track of Commander Jones, Zed thought.

  She and Bao seemed to be winning. They each managed to pin someone down, but the third mutineer took off running. They were clearly still under the impression that the destruction coming down the hallway was real.

  Two out of three ain’t bad, Zed mused. But where are you running off to?

  In all the excitement, Zed realized he hadn’t been keeping an eye on where Johns and the other mutineer had gone. He zoomed out on the map, his eyes frantically searching for movement.

  One rather tall caveman was busy carrying something out of Johns’ office. Zed smiled to himself. When the Commanders had first mentioned the samples being in hydroponics, his heart had sunk at the realization that there was nothing standing in Johns’ way. He’d almost forgotten an important detail.

  Hydroponics was the most vulnerable system in Naug, at least as far as the Bubble in Time program was concerned. If Johns had assumed he didn't know how to use the sim to interact with physical systems, then there was a chance it was still unprotected. Zed could do much more than control the virtual overlays there. But it was a useless advantage if he couldn’t act before Johns made his exit with the Martian samples.

  “Douglas, activate the close encounter sequence. Wish me luck.”