Backstory sidefic: Justice, Revisited
Sep. 15th, 2005 12:17 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
kintail.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
if_i_traceFollow-up to Justice, set some years after the events in that story, but before Like Opening, Like Closing.
~730 words, worksafe except for some swearing.
Justice, Revisted
Steve had always been surprised by how skilled his mentor had been with the computer network, given that Valin had been with the force since before most of the current technology had been invented, never mind implemented.
Of course, it seemed to help that Valin's skill in making people eager to help him out extended to the techs who had done the various installations and upgrades over the years. Steve hadn't realized just how many back doors and little helper programs Valin had had worked into the system for him until the old guy had retired and given Steve all his access codes, and set all his scripts and bots to report to Steve instead.
Not that Valin had explained about all the scripts in advance, especially not their purpose, but Steve soon got used to how certain messages that met certain pre-defined criteria were mysteriously diverted into his inbox instead of the intended recipient's. And he soon learned to puzzle out the significance of such rerouted messages and to then use those back doors to tweak a couple of things, alter a few variables, and set things right -- at least, more "right" than the proper channels of the system would have allowed for.
Steve probably should have expected this latest message, redirected from Lt. Berdo's inbox to his own, especially since he'd talked so much with Valin about the case in question at the time. But maybe it was because it had been such a difficult situation, awkward and frustrating in ways he couldn't define or justify to himself, that he'd put it out of his mind after the trial.
Besides, he'd fully expected the convict to end up dead before his prison term was up.
It seemed he'd not only managed to survive (more or less -- Steve couldn't help but wince when he checked the results of the poor bastard's latest physical, and the prognosis), but he was about to be released. Conditions for his re-integration into society were being determined, and so Berdo was being notified so that he could submit his own "recommendations" for said conditions. Except Valin's old bots and scripts had ensured that the notification was delivered to Steve instead, and Berdo would never see it unless Steve decided to forward it along, which was not frickin' likely.
Sometimes, Valin had used to talk about the strange Indian philosophies he'd grown up with. Sometimes he'd even talked as if he believed in them, or wanted to. Karma. Samsara. Reincarnation and the debts of past lives. A law beyond the law, something that couldn't be bribed, that would get the ones that the cops couldn't, or wouldn't. Steve used to call it bullshit, around his cigarette, and Valin would laugh.
It was bullshit. He didn't owe this guy anything. He'd never spoken to the guy, never even looked him in the eye. And anyway, it wasn't like he could have saved him, at the trial. It wouldn't have made a difference if he had been so stupid as to refuse to contribute to the case against him.
He'd had no power to do anything back then.
Now, though....
Steve had learned not stick his neck out or go out of his way for anyone else, not unless there was something in it for him to make it worth it. This didn't require such trouble, though, nothing Steve had to justify to himself. It only took a few keystrokes, after all. Just a couple minutes of his time. No big deal. A violent offender flag removed, keeping him out of the public registries. A flag of approval added to that almost impossible application for rehab assistance and a bump to the top of the list. A bit of impenetrable red tape taken out of the way for that otherwise futile name change application.
No big deal. Just a chance for the guy to actually make a bit of a life for himself in whatever time he had left, if he was smart about it and kept his head down.
It was the least Steve could do to ease the weird feeling of a weight of debt he just couldn't seem to shake off.
~730 words, worksafe except for some swearing.
Justice, Revisted
Steve had always been surprised by how skilled his mentor had been with the computer network, given that Valin had been with the force since before most of the current technology had been invented, never mind implemented.
Of course, it seemed to help that Valin's skill in making people eager to help him out extended to the techs who had done the various installations and upgrades over the years. Steve hadn't realized just how many back doors and little helper programs Valin had had worked into the system for him until the old guy had retired and given Steve all his access codes, and set all his scripts and bots to report to Steve instead.
Not that Valin had explained about all the scripts in advance, especially not their purpose, but Steve soon got used to how certain messages that met certain pre-defined criteria were mysteriously diverted into his inbox instead of the intended recipient's. And he soon learned to puzzle out the significance of such rerouted messages and to then use those back doors to tweak a couple of things, alter a few variables, and set things right -- at least, more "right" than the proper channels of the system would have allowed for.
Steve probably should have expected this latest message, redirected from Lt. Berdo's inbox to his own, especially since he'd talked so much with Valin about the case in question at the time. But maybe it was because it had been such a difficult situation, awkward and frustrating in ways he couldn't define or justify to himself, that he'd put it out of his mind after the trial.
Besides, he'd fully expected the convict to end up dead before his prison term was up.
It seemed he'd not only managed to survive (more or less -- Steve couldn't help but wince when he checked the results of the poor bastard's latest physical, and the prognosis), but he was about to be released. Conditions for his re-integration into society were being determined, and so Berdo was being notified so that he could submit his own "recommendations" for said conditions. Except Valin's old bots and scripts had ensured that the notification was delivered to Steve instead, and Berdo would never see it unless Steve decided to forward it along, which was not frickin' likely.
Sometimes, Valin had used to talk about the strange Indian philosophies he'd grown up with. Sometimes he'd even talked as if he believed in them, or wanted to. Karma. Samsara. Reincarnation and the debts of past lives. A law beyond the law, something that couldn't be bribed, that would get the ones that the cops couldn't, or wouldn't. Steve used to call it bullshit, around his cigarette, and Valin would laugh.
It was bullshit. He didn't owe this guy anything. He'd never spoken to the guy, never even looked him in the eye. And anyway, it wasn't like he could have saved him, at the trial. It wouldn't have made a difference if he had been so stupid as to refuse to contribute to the case against him.
He'd had no power to do anything back then.
Now, though....
Steve had learned not stick his neck out or go out of his way for anyone else, not unless there was something in it for him to make it worth it. This didn't require such trouble, though, nothing Steve had to justify to himself. It only took a few keystrokes, after all. Just a couple minutes of his time. No big deal. A violent offender flag removed, keeping him out of the public registries. A flag of approval added to that almost impossible application for rehab assistance and a bump to the top of the list. A bit of impenetrable red tape taken out of the way for that otherwise futile name change application.
No big deal. Just a chance for the guy to actually make a bit of a life for himself in whatever time he had left, if he was smart about it and kept his head down.
It was the least Steve could do to ease the weird feeling of a weight of debt he just couldn't seem to shake off.
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-15 08:35 pm (UTC)...Oh, I *love* watching Steve type this all out, in my mind. I *adore* the tiny visuals of this, confined to a computer desk and yet - so - sweeping.
Love.
no subject
Date: 2005-09-16 05:49 am (UTC)And yes, very little happens here, and yet so much happens. Diverting a tiny stream that might cause or prevent a flood or drought somewhere far away...
So glad you liked it!
one of my favorite theories:
Date: 2005-09-16 06:08 am (UTC)Re: one of my favorite theories:
Date: 2005-09-22 04:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-17 04:28 am (UTC)Also...I must ask. Is mentor-Valin intended as a reincarnation of anyone in particular...? Am I reading too much into things to feel a hint of Koumyou in him?
no subject
Date: 2005-09-17 08:36 pm (UTC)Tav initially claimed that mentor-Valin was *not* Koumyou reincarnated, but I couldn't help it, he insisted on being written this way, and I think he must be, too. Sure feels like him. ~_^
Argh why can't I get words to behave at all today without a fight! I want to get back at Aaron's backstory fic....
I don't suppose you'd want a sneak peak.no subject
Date: 2005-09-17 08:42 pm (UTC)Yesyesyes, that's it exactly! You say it so well.
I can never say no to sneak peeks ^_^;no subject
Date: 2005-09-17 09:32 pm (UTC)Of course, now I'm going back through it and revising, so it's no longer the latest version...
no subject
Date: 2005-09-26 11:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-27 04:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 07:53 am (UTC)Hurray for backstory. =)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 11:07 pm (UTC)As for the mention of name change application, it's a loose end and misleading but he only changed his last name (again), as he'd taken the last name of his Chinese maternal grandfather as a kid after his parents died. Now he'd rather be less of an oddity, to better pass under the radar of society that catches on things that don't seem to play by the rules of what's expected. More details in the backstory-backstory Aaron (http://www.livejournal.com/community/if_i_trace/5699.html) (which
was an experiment in a slightly different style and I'm not sure it worked consistently and so I want to disclaimer and apologize in advance as much as it's generally against my personal philosophy to do so, and stuff, aghI ought to see about rewriting someday.)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 11:42 pm (UTC)