Sarsuk 16 (Patreon)

Ghost adventures!

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Sarsuk was by no means a galaxy-class hacker, but he maintained his basic certificates with regular refresher courses as the company required all commissioners to do. Although size and brawn could easily extract passwords from most geroo, guile was often more effective.

And though he knew all three hundred and forty-seven of the standard hacking techniques, one worked so often that he seldom needed to try anything else: Find an input that expected a small amount of data—for example, the simulated phone on his coffee table that expected him to enter a twelve-digit phone number. Then, enter in a ridiculously large amount of data—like millions of digits—and if it caused a crash, then experiment with stuffing executable bytecode into it until it ran his malicious code.

Because even though programmers should check how much data was entered into every field, they tended to be lazy and presumptuous. “No one in this simulation would ever dial a million-digit phone number!”

No one would … unless their goal was to cause a computer crash.

# # #

Sarsuk surprised himself by broaching a subject that he wasn’t certain he wanted to discuss. “You believe in the supernatural, don’t you, Siki?”

The little geroo lowered her tablet and gave him her full attention. “How do you mean?”

He frowned, already regretting, but there was no point in stopping now that he’d begun. She’d only wheedle it out of him anyhow. “Spirits, ghosts, souls, reincarnation…” he explained. “That sort of stuff.”

She nodded. “I do, but how is that ‘supernatural’ and not just ‘natural’?”

He shrugged. Back before his execution, he’d written geroo spiritual beliefs off as silly superstitions, but he felt less confident now. “I don’t know. That’s just what we call things that we can’t see, touch, taste, or smell—where no experimentation can support belief in them.”

Her ears widened in a sly smile. “Like love?”

He grinned too. “I suppose.”

“Why?” asked Siki, leaning an arm on the table. “Do you believe in the supernatural?”

“No. I mean, I didn’t. I mean, I’m not so sure.”

She grinned even harder. Setting the tablet aside, she rubbed her paws excitedly. “Now, I’m definitely curious. Why the change?”

“Well,” said Sarsuk quietly, then a long pause where he tried to build up his courage, “I might have seen a ghost.”

Her ears shot up. “Just now?”

The krakun shook his head. “No, back on Krakuntec,” he explained. “Do you remember when I told you about losing my claw?”

Siki nodded. “Yeah, I think you said you were punishing a criminal and there was some sort of … accident?”

The former commissioner nodded. “Both Kanti—the criminal—and my arm went into the recycler. They were completely vaporized, and like I said, I had to have a new one cloned.”

“Yuck,” she said with a shudder. “So, Kanti is a ghost now?”

“He could be, yes,” Sarsuk confided in her, “even though I still don’t want to believe that’s possible.”

Siki stared at him until the silence grew oppressive. “And you’re hoping that I…?”

“I don’t know!” he admitted. “I’ve wanted to discuss it with someone. Very few krakun believe in the supernatural. They’d all think I was crazy.”

He chewed at his lower lip, not even certain what he was so worried about. Would she think he was crazy? Who cares? He whispered, “But if you’re a believer, then I’d be really curious to hear your perspective.”

She raised her palms. “I’m not sure I believe in ghosts, but I do believe in souls and spirits and reincarnation.”

Sarsuk cocked his head, asking, “How are ghosts any different from spirits?”

“Well, a ghost is a whole person, a soul trapped between bodies,” explained the geroo. “A spirit is less tangible, like their love for friends and family left behind after they die. You know, urging their descendants to make the best choices, fortifying them when they’re weak.”

She wiggled her fingertips at him. “A ghost is more like a monster.”

“Great, a geroo monster. Just what my life needed,” sighed the enormous head. He stared down at her, trying to pick apart her beliefs in his mind. “But you don’t think they exist, even though you’re already open to the notion of disembodied souls?”

“I’m not discounting what you’ve experienced. Honestly, I haven’t really thought about ghosts all that much,” she said with a smile. “The geroo believe that souls reincarnate when we die, so there’s no reason one would linger as a ghost.”

Sarsuk fiddled with a corkscrew he’d found in one of the drawers. He couldn’t recall buying it, but didn’t doubt that he had. The thing had probably survived a couple moves without ever being used. It made a lousy fidget toy, but he found that he enjoyed exploring the shape when he didn’t know what else to do with his claws.

He stretched his neck closer and whispered, “But aboard a gateship where the company enforces a constant population of ten thousand, the geroo believe that each time someone dies, they reincarnate into whomever got their birth token.”

She nodded, whispering back, “I guess…”

“And if no one got their birth token,” he said, “then isn’t it possible for the soul to … get stuck?”

She shrugged. As if it weren’t already obvious, she said, “I don’t know, Sarsuk.”

“Well, that’s what I’m wondering. This Kanti guy was born without a birth token, and when he died, he had no token to pass along.” He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe that’s why Kanti is haunting me.”

“Haunting you?” she exclaimed.

“Maybe?” He twisted the corkscrew anxiously between his talons. “I saw him twice back on Krakuntec. If his soul wasn’t tethered to me somehow, then why would I have seen him multiple times? Why wouldn’t he still be aboard the ship where he died?”

“That’s a great question,” Siki conceded. “And you’re wondering if your proximity to him when he died forged that bond somehow?”

Not that she’d see, but he covered his eyes with a palm. “It’s more than that. I caused his death. Could he be haunting me because I … killed him?”

Her eyes opened wide, her ears up in alarm. “Maybe,” she admitted. “That sure is a spooky notion.”

Silence fell over the lab for a long while, then the two jumped when Doctor Palani dropped some metallic item on the floor.

Sarsuk drew great breaths with his eyes closed. Eventually, he opened them and managed a grin. “I guess if Kanti is tethered to my body, then I’m free, right?”

Siki yarped a laugh. “I suppose!”

The levity faded, and she added, “But seriously, I think the reason I’m so iffy on ghosts is that they don’t seem to … serve a purpose like other spiritual stuff does. What does a ghost accomplish?”

To Sarsuk, that question seemed naive and myopic. “Revenge?”

The geroo shrugged. “That seems kinda pointless, doesn’t it—a dead person taking revenge on a live one?” She slapped her forehead. “But then again, I think maybe krakun are capable of hating much more deeply than geroo are.”

The krakun suspected that she could be right. However, he said only, “Really?”

“Well, I don’t know any geroo who’d risk prison for perjury just to hurt you, like your boss did.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tyW0B4SnYxZ_5IZdm4K8WyM-MEnHy0yGtUv_tnr6l6E/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?