The Red Myths

Prologue

It was 30 minutes before the current shift was to end and Marianne, an information analyst, was watching the internet activities of several groups that the Religious High Council considered radical. Just like the previous days, she noticed nothing out of the ordinary, so she chose to end her day and resigned for the evening. She moved her mouse to the log-off button on her computer screen.

As she was about to click it, a notification appeared. She considered leaving it for the incoming analyst, but since it arrived during her shift, it required her to respond per company policy. When she clicked the notification, a window appeared. There was a message on the inside. As soon as she opened it, Marianne sat back in her chair, jumped to her feet, and dashed up to her boss's office. She knocked on the door, waiting for a response with eager anticipation.

She was fidgeting at the entrance when she eventually heard a female voice say, “Come in.” Marianne walked into the office, where a middle-aged woman sat at a desk, reading and taking notes from a binder. Although she was eager to tell her what was happening, she took a moment to gaze through the glass window that overlooked the office below.

Oftentimes the analysts who dubbed the room “The Bridge”, joked that they were in a spaceship from a science fiction television show. Marianne had a blank stare when the woman interrupted her.

“Marianne, how may I help you?”

"Ma'am, there is something you need to see," Marianne replied.

As she approached the desk, her boss quickly closed the binder. Marianne took a quick glance at it, and when she saw the title, she muttered, “DIM tech?” She shook her head to return her attention to the situation, then typed a command into her boss's computer. Within a few seconds, a window appeared.

“What am I looking at?” the woman asked.

The words "HISTORY IS BEING REWRITTEN, SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCE OF YOUR ACTIONS" were displayed on the notification window.

Beneath the words was a fast-moving progress bar and a countdown indicating when the revision would be completed. There was no cancel or exit button to put an end to it, so what was happening was out of their control.

“Ma'am, we've been hacked, and data about our history is being rewritten and released on the internet. Let me see if our backup drives are affected.”

Marianne took control of her boss's computer while she moved aside. She quickly browsed through several of the High Council's backup drives, and all showed signs of revision. She went to the council's website, and it too was impacted by the computer virus. “Dammit,” Marianne exclaimed. “Mother F-ers!” Realizing she had just used obscene language, she felt the need to apologize and explain what was happening. “I’m sorry, ma'am, but our entire history stored on our database and backup drives is being rewritten by a computer virus. At this rate, all of the original data gathered over the past 300 years will be lost.” “What do you mean by rewritten? Is that even possible? Wasn’t the data protected by complex encryption?” “They are ma’am, but whoever is doing this is good.” “Can it be reversed?” the woman asked in exasperation. “I'll get my team to work on it right away, ma'am. We'll figure out how to stop it and get whoever is responsible.” “Okay. Get on it now,” the woman said, with her voice now lowered. As Marianne moved from the desk, her boss slid her chair back into position and then added, “This is not good, Marianne. The ramifications will be enormous. Have Jordan draft a statement because there will be a lot of questions from the public.” “Yes ma’am.” “Our people are already divided by their economic situation, this will drive them to revolt,” the woman continued saying. “We must not allow it to spiral out of control. Our culture cannot be destroyed by misinformation. We can't allow people to believe in alternative realities.” “Understood, ma’am. Would you like me to reach out to Roger?” “Yes, set up a meeting.”