Lonetrek region – Okela constellation
Tsuguwa system – Planet VI
Caldari Navy Assembly Plant Station
13 December YC 126
I hoped to have a word with Purkkoken today but he was incommunicado. As there was no prospect of a new mission, I decided to busy myself with a stocktake of the loot I got during Okela constellation clean-up, which was still in Merimetso’s hold. There was a lot of useless Tech 1 stuff, with sporadic highlights like an Enduring Multispectrum Shield Hardener. Most of the modules I marked for sale, but decided to keep a few interesting ones and all the ammo.
Eventually I came to the last heap which I extracted from the Overseer Frigate. There was a Worm blueprint which I decided to keep, and a cannon and some metal scraps which I intended to sell. I looked curiously at the last crate which was identified as 7th Tier Overseer’s Personal Effects. On the top of the crate I could see a motley collection of objects: a wad of kredits, probably counterfeit; a few bottles of wine; holo-reels; and a datapad. I picked up the pad and examined it – the device looked pretty ordinary. I considered a possibility that it could be booby-trapped, but after some thought dismissed it as unlikely, and switched the datapad on. The screen lit up and, after a brief boot sequence, displayed a message:
Welcome, Overseer. Please identify yourself.
It looked like it was following a standard login sequence which required a personal ID card. I smirked, produced my capsuleer ID and tapped it on the datapad NFC sensor. An error message appeared:
The ID is incorrect. Please present a 7th Tier Overseer ID card.
I scratched my chin in bafflement but then a thought occurred to me. I put the datapad aside and started rummaging in the crate, removing objects from it and placing them on the floor. My guess was correct – at the bottom of the container I discovered a white plastic rectangle, the same size as a standard ID card. I picked it up and tapped it on the pad. A new message appeared:
Good morning, Overseer Dralok Ralkin. Please insert tier 6 chain key.
I looked the datapad over again. It had all standard ports and I couldn’t imagine where a key could be inserted, to say nothing about what that key should look like. I called Aura on the local cargo hold terminal and explained the problem to her.
Aura thought for a while and then said, “If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that it wants a decryption key. Such a key, I’d expect, would be stored on a memory card which could be inserted into the datapad.”
“So, what you are saying is that just an ID card is not enough to get access to the datapad?”
“It may be sufficient if you are connected to the corporate network, and the ID may be verified by the directory server. Also, the decryption key may be extracted from the central vault and used to decipher the stored information. In the field conditions, where such connection is unavailable, an additional security measure may be warranted.”
“But what, in such case, does ‘tier 6 chain key’ mean? Why ‘chain’? Why ‘tier 6′?”
Aura shook her head, “No idea. For all I know, my theory is just a product of an overactive imagination.”
I sighed, “Thank you, darling. You have one more theory than I, so let’s take it as a working hypothesis.’
I then combed through the personal effects again but could not find anything resembling a memory card or, for that matter, anything that could be inserted into other datapad ports.
“If that key is somehow related to 6th tier overseers, then maybe we can find it in their personal effects,” I mused.
“That’s unlikely,” objected Aura, “It would mean that the 7th tier overseer can’t log in to his datapad without a 6th tier overseer. Too complicated.”
“But where is the key then?” I asked, frustrated.
Aura shrugged, “He could have lost it. Or it could have been on his body rather than in his cabin with other effects. Did you check the overseer’s body, by the way?”
I remembered my mission to extract Phenod’s DNA and shuddered, “I wouldn’t even if I had such a bright idea at the time of looting.”
Aura grimaced, “Well, then there is nothing we can do about it right now, eh?”
I nodded, put all the overseer’s belongings back into the crate and, after some hesitation, marked it for keeps.