Epigraph

content/read/015.md

@@ -1,143 +1,79 @@
-# Dr. Carter Ramirez --- 2112
+# Ioan Bălan --- 2305
 
-"Avery. What's up?"
+Dear,
 
-The ping had sounded in Carter's ears like a soft bell, and the faint outline of a door had appeared at the periphery of her vision. Someone had requested a meeting. After a moment of dictating a note to herself for when she got back, she made her way through the door. One of the stats-and-history folks stood, waiting with arms crossed, in the private space.
+While I'm sure that your clade, with the resources and minds at its disposal, has already decrypted the AES message, I have only just managed the feat today. It was at least somewhat easier once I learned a bit more about the history of the whole affair.
 
-"Running up against a bit of a snag, Dr. Ramirez," they said. "This new patient, uh...0224ebe8?"
+You say that you all like old things, so perhaps you will be delighted to learn what was inside if you have not already. Here is the message in full:
 
-"What about them?"
-
-"Well, I'm getting some doubled records. Weird things are duplicated. Sort of."
-
-"Duplicated? How?"
-
-"Well, we've got some records from way back with a different gender marker on them and no pronouns." They looked thoughtful. "I ran into a bit of that when I changed everything over, myself, but the process changed all of my past records, too."
-
-Carter frowned. "So e8 changed their marker and pronouns officially, but you're seeing duplicate records under a different one?"
-
-"Mmhm. I was wondering, do we have any location data on them?"
-
-"Not really, no. You've got all the same data I do. Most have been redacted."
-
-"I figured, yeah, but wanted to ask. I just know some friends back in America ran into similar, too. Some ancient conglomerate or something holding onto old records or not updating their systems, so I was wondering if e8 was over there."
-
-Carter shrugged. "I don't really know. That sort of thing is scrubbed before we get the cases. I'm actually surprised the files weren't normalized before we got them."
-
-Avery laughed. "We're one of the big three, so of course it's all extra difficult." Carter must have looked nonplussed, as Avery continued, "Banking, government, and healthcare. Ask any one of the big three to adopt to social change, and you'll get eighteen different reasons why it's impossible to update their systems."
-
-"Fair enough. So they have two markers and no pronouns."
-
-"Well, ey has two markers, X and M, but only the one set of pronouns. None listed on the records with the M marker."
-
-"Is this going to be much of a problem?"
-
-"Don't think so," Avery said thoughtfully. "The records are complete so long as we take both sets into account. You might want to run it by Sandra, though, is the thing. I don't know if us knowing that this change occurred is too much information for us to have. Legally, I mean."
-
-Carter knit her brow. "And there's the snag."
-
-Avery nodded.
-
-"Well, hopefully not." Carter leaned against the wall and thought for a moment, then asked, "What can we do with this information, anyway? We've seen a pretty good spread across gender markers with our set of cases, do you think this'll change anything?"
-
-"I don't know. The friends back in America who ran into this were all ones that made the change later in life. The younger you are when you change markers and such, the easier it is because the less of a record you have to change. It's kind of like you're burdened with a marker from birth, and the longer you go before changing it, the heavier the burden gets."
-
-"And they had a big one?"
-
-"Not so big, all told, but it's enough that all of eir records from when ey got eir implants are under a different marker."
-
-Carter nodded.
-
-"From a history standpoint, that also means that eir marketing footprint takes something of a hard left at one point."
-
-"When th--" Carter backtracked. "When ey changed eir marker?"
-
-It was Avery's turn to nod.
-
-"So we've got someone who's advertised to with a masculine marker, then with a neutral marker--"
-
-"And ey seemed to have given the whole romance thing a miss, too. Eir marketing footprint is mostly just rig gear and furry stuff. It's like ey slipped through filters unnoticed, which, in itself, leaves a trail."
-
-"Well, if you can't sell em sex, what's left to sell?" Carter laughed.
-
-"Oh, plenty, I assure you. Just that, pushing nine billion, advertisers mostly rely on larger demographics. GQ folks and asexuals aren't broad enough segments to bother wasting ads on. Granted this is only going by the transparency reports. There's all sorts of weird guerrilla marketing going on these days."
-
-"Yeah, fair enough. Any similarities with our other furry?"
-
-Avery shook their head. They swiped their hand to the side to bring up a snippet of desktop, dug through a few decks of vcards. "Being a furry seems to be the big thing they have in common. e8 is X, d7 is M. e8 is single and not looking, d7 is in a long-term relationship. d7 is almost a parody of a DDR junkie, e8 has almost no...well, hold on."
-
-Carter waited.
-
-"Looks like ey was prodding around the DDR spaces a few hours before the event." Avery had that far-away look to their eyes that one got while digging through data on cards. They shook their head to clear their vision, smiled to Carter. "Sorry, looks like I've got a bit of work ahead of me on that end. Any thoughts on the snag?"
-
-"No, carry on as you were, I think. Sandra will keep an eye on it and let us know if we're at risk of overstepping our bounds."
-
-Avery nodded and stepped back out of the meeting cubicle.
-
-Back in the sim proper, Carter watched as the cards surrounding 0224ebe8 began to sift into two piles as the shadowy form that must be Avery worked. White cotton thread began to string itself around two groups, followed by the tags '0224ebe8 (M)' in one and '0224ebe8 (X)' in the other.
-
-After a few minutes, she walked back to her constellation of decks. On a hunch, she created a small grouping in her area and labeled it "DDR Activity Pre-Event". She began looping in relevant cards from both 0224ebe8 and aca973d7.
-
-There was a soft *ding* within the sim, and a wave of shadowy heads looked up, Carter's included.
-
-Directly above them in the middle of the 'ceiling' was the current time in faintly luminescent letters. As always, they would look different for each member; for Carter, traced out in fine cotton string was the '12:00' that indicated lunch.
-
-Carter's vision began to dim. She backed out before the ominously cheery message instructing her to stretch her legs urged her to do so. University policy stated employees should work in a sim no longer than four hours in a row without fully backing out, so when she pulled back from her rig, she saw everyone else doing the same.
-
-Most of the team gathered around the fridge and microwave by the coffee station to collect their lunches. She hadn't had the time or energy this morning. Lunch out it was.
-
-At least she wouldn't be alone. There a few folks who made their way across the street from the campus building to the shops, hunting falafel or curry. She put on her best chummy face and tagged along with. The group chatted, inevitably but amiably, about work, comparing notes on the cases they were focusing on.
-
-The group --- three of them, with Carter --- decided on a small Vietnamese place nearby. It would be a long lunch, with the wait and all, but she was promised that the food was amazing. Besides: Friday. Even the boss can enjoy a lunch every now and then.
-
-Standing outside as they waited on a table, they made an obvious target for the tabloid sellers. They were wandering a little further than usual from the tube station entrance today, and the restaurant hadn't noticed them yet to shoo them off.
-
-Carter rolled her eyes when Prakash bought a copy.
-
-"Hey, don't look at me like that. I promise I read it for the laughs," he said.
-
-Carter shrugged, "It's less about why you reading it, and more who you're giving money..."
-
-Prakash and Aiden stood in silence, eyes on Carter. They exchanged glances before Prakash broke in, "Hey boss, you doing okay?"
-
-"Can I see that?" She didn't wait for an answer before she snatched the flimsy paper from his hands.
-
-> **Soho Theatre Mourns Lost Tech**
+> Odists,
 >
-> RJ Brewster was the pride of the Soho Theatre Troupe's tech department.
+> You know me. I will not tell you how, and I will not tell you why this secrecy is in place. Not yet. For now, though, you may refer to me as Qoheleth, or, at need, Hebel.
 >
-> The brainy American who blessed them with boosted bass was admitted to the University College Hospital after apparently getting lost during a rehearsal on Wednesday. Ey was discovered during an intermission completely unresponsive. Medical crews declared em lost on the scene after analysing eir implants.
+> I am sorry for having said --- or, rather, written --- the Name, but not too sorry. I need to get your attention. There is something serious going on, and I need you focused on the matter.
 >
-> The genderqueer young man was described as "bright, but obsessed." Ey was a member of the furry cult and spent most of eir time on the 'net, which friends blame for em getting lost.
+> Let's meet, yeah?
 >
-> The STT promises that productions will go on as planned, with back-up techs running the sound system.
+> `-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----`
+
+(There follows another block of gibberish similar to the first.)
+
+> `-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----`
 >
-> Brewster represents the 135th case of the lost marked in the world. Ey will be cared for by doctors at the UCH. Members of the University College London studying the lost were unavailable for comment.
+> Your move, by the way:
+>
+> ♦2 ♠8 ♠Q ♦8 ♣9 ♣Q ♥2 ♦A ♦4 ♣4 ♣3 ♣A ♠J ♣2 ♦7 ♦5 ♠7 ♥9 ♥5 ♠10 ♥7 AX ♥10 ♠3 ♥4 ♣8 ♠9 ♣6 ♠4 ♥J ♥K ♣10 ♦J BX ♣5 ♣K ♣J ♥8 ♥3 ♦9 ♠2 ♠A ♥Q ♥A ♥6 ♦K ♠5 ♣7 ♦Q ♦10 ♠6 ♦6 ♦3 ♠K
 
-Carter let the paper droop. Aiden retrieved it before it was closed completely, opening to the page where she had been reading.
+There are several things of interest here. I'm sure you'll want to talk this all through, but as I will inevitably be writing this all down in the end, I figured I would also get my thoughts down on paper now, while they're fresh.
 
-"Oh, hey! Stuff about a lost person!" He read down further, then looked up at Carter. "Did you get an interview request from them?"
+The passphrase for this encrypted message was *kemmer*. If the other Odists figured it out, I would be curious to see what they make of it, just as I'm curious as to your thoughts. Perhaps later. For now, there's a bit of story, here.
 
-She shook her head. "Not a word. Not to me, at least. Maybe PR turned the interview down."
+I did not originally find the passphrase, as the letter itself was decrypted through known weaknesses. None of the tools that I was able to find would (could?) give me the key, since all of the attacks were along direct avenues. Don't ask the details, I can hardly understand them..
 
-Prakash read over Aiden's shoulder. "Do you think we could go see em? We're with UCL. Maybe we could--"
+Instead, I found the passphrase by accident while doing a search on some of the contents of the letter. Notably, I searched on *Qoheleth*, and then *Hebel* in relation to that name. There's lots of juicy stuff here. *Qoheleth* is more title than name, and is used in a book in both the Christian and the Jewish bibles. Given the author's reference to the Hebrew word, I've been restricting myself to searches surrounding the Tanakh. I should add that, while in the Tanakh, the book is called by the same name, while in the Christian bible, it is called *Ecclesiastes*, from the Greek.
 
-He fell silent at a look from Carter. She spoke carefully, voice carrying the weight of a prepared statement. "Ey's in good hands. Trust the doctors on this. We'll receive all relevant info from them. Any contact with a patient may introduce bias in the study."
+*Qoheleth* can mean 'teacher', but also 'gatherer' or 'director of the assembled'. This last one, I suppose, fits in with their suggestion that the clade meet up. Perhaps all together? It is also referenced as *Ecclesiastes* in words such as ecclesiastical, 'relating to the church *qua* assembly'.
 
-Aiden frowned, shutting the paper. "We shouldn't have this."
+*Hebel*, in this case, appears to be an approximation of what is usually spelled *havél*, which translates to 'vapor', but is also interpreted as 'vanity' or, when taken metaphorically, 'meaningless'. For instance, the book begins:
 
-"No, we shouldn't."
+> havél havalím 'amár kohélet havél havalím hakól hável.
 
-He quickly balled up the tabloid and, finding no rubbish bins nearby, set it on the restaurant's outside windowsill. Researchers were as jealous of their data as the lawyers were of patient privacy. Keeping the tabloid would only be a risk.
+Which is, in some translations:
 
-"But what about the theater troupe?" Prakash asked.
+> "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
 
-Carter caught herself in the act of shaking her head, turned instead toward the restaurant. She tilted her head back and let her eyes trace the sharp contrast between the gutters of the building and the steel-gray sky, seeing neither.
+Bleak, no?
 
-"We can't," she finally murmured. "Same risk of bias."
+The entire book is quite fascinating, and the tone seems to waver between this comfortable sort of nihilism (I hesitate to say hopelessness, as hope does not seem to be a factor in play here) and education, with Qoheleth using their past experiences and meditations to offer instruction on how to live a full life.
 
-A safe answer. A rote one. A required one. The legal aspect was plain, the ethics clear. If she wanted to learn anything from the doctors treating this RJ or the Troupe, she'd have to file a request, wait for the ethics board, wait again for the lawyers, and even then, even if she succeeded, she would only be able to write a questionnaire for them to fill out.
+Back to the passphrase, though.
 
-And yet here, a half hour tube ride away, was a social connection. The very thing she wanted most to understand.
+I have found several references to the term *kemmer*, with the primary source being an ancient speculative novel by the name *The Left Hand of Darkness* by Ursula K. Le Guin. I forked and read this while investigating the Tanakh, and the book seems to surround the sociopolitical ramifications of a subspecies of humans which is androgynous most of the time, but which undergoes a biological process (*kemmer*) wherein they settle into one of two physiological sexes for the purposes of sex and procreation.
 
-She was distracted, thankfully, by the host inviting them in to eat.
+I was not able to deduce anything concrete out of this term, because I cannot tell where it is directed. While I do not presume to know the Name (nor do I wish to!), one possibility is that it refers to the author of the Ode. Another is that it refers to some aspect of the Ode clade itself. You are perhaps uniquely positioned to answer this, as I don't imagine the entirety of the Ode clade are agender foxes, given both what I know of Michelle Hadje and how you speak of your cocladists. A third possibility is that the term may apply to Qoheleth themself. A fourth is that it relates to the mystery at hand in some way. And, of course, it could be meaningless (hah) in terms of subtext, in this case and does not apply beyond being a neat word.
+
+That said, I'm not a fan of the final interpretation, as upon further digging, I came across the line "the key word is kemmer, that's what yo' ass need" in an equally ancient song ("Air 'em out" by clipping. *[sic]*), which was too tight a coincidence to pass up. The annotated lyrics to that song, in turn, were packed with more references and discursion than this letter, many of which refer to old science fiction books and movies. This verse in particular features heavy references to *The Left Hand of Darkness*, including the phrase 'Ansible' --- which shows up in other books as well --- and, in turn, shows up in some of our technology: the communication system by which uploads are sent from Earth to the sim-system here at the L5 point is called 'Ansible'. This struck me as particularly important. I found this song both in my searches on *kemmer* as well as on the Ansible, having taken to heart your suggestion that the clade likes 'old things'. The Ansible turned up a *third* time in the context of asymetric cyphers, mentioned below.
+
+Given this additional set of coincidences, I've compiled a list of further references in this song for research down the line.
+
+At this point, I have only addressed the encryption passphrase and the salutation of the message! You must forgive me for the discursive nature of this letter. There are many layers at play, here, and I believe this is intentional on the part of the author. As you mentioned, amanuenses form a collection of semiotic processes relating to the task they are participating in. I've taken this to heart and am amassing documents surrounding the subtext as well as the text.
+
+The second paragraph of the letter I would like to discuss with you in person, as I think that there is context here that may well be specific to your clade. I cannot imagine what might be so serious.
+
+After that paragraph comes another block of text. Rather than being an encrypted message, however, it is a private key used for the RSA cryptosystem. It is an asymmetric cipher, which means that there is out there somewhere a corresponding public key. Strange that we are given a private key rather than a public one, as such keys unlock doors, rather than lock them. RSA can be used for many things, so that we were given the private key in this case makes me think that this will be used to either decrypt or otherwise access information down the line. Before you ask, yes, there is a passphrase involved with this. However, I have not yet figured out how to extract that from the noise yet. Cryptography is intriguing, but much of it is over my head, so I am relying on off-the-shelf solutions.
+
+Finally, after the key block, we get a deck listing for a standard deck of playing cards. I am assuming, here, that the cards labeled *AX* and *BX* are jokers, though I have not seen them differentiated as such in the past. I am, frankly, at a loss when it comes to this section, so all I can offer are some thoughts on subtext.
+
+"Your move, by the way" implies two things. First, it implies that there is some sort of ongoing game going on between Qoheleth and the clade. This strikes me as strange, and I cannot put my finger on why. It is not that you do not seem the type to play games, as you seem playful enough to me. Perhaps it's that the letter begins with riddles about the true identity of Qoheleth, yet any ongoing game (and such a weird way to provide it!) would perforce give away that identity immediately. Perhaps it is simply this --- all of this --- that is the game?
+
+The second implication is broader, and consequently more of a hunch on my part: this is a very casual thing to say to someone. For one, to have a *non sequitur* of a postscript on a letter that seems very focused on a single topic is a strange thing to do. It's the type of thing you might do when sending a friendly letter to someone rather than a riddle of a message (I will admit, I'm considering what postscript I leave at the end of this letter now). The tone also differs from the remainder of the letter. It is familiar and friendly. The only thing that is even remotely close being "Let's meet, yes?", and even that feels more formal.
+
+So, one question answered and several more raised. The largest, of course, remains: how deep does this all go?
+
+I will continue my investigations and keep you in the loop on those. I hope to hear from you soon --- I know I shall.
+
+All my best,
+
+Ioan Bălan
+
+PS - In engaging with this project, my searches and purchases on the exchange are shaping my reputation quite strangely. \#Tracker has received several queries for future projects surrounding both novel forms of encryption and a few requests for historical analyses on speculative fiction. Ey has turned down all of the former and seriously considered all of the latter --- and ey wishes you to know that ey places the blame for this squarely on your shoulders.