The Decipherment

PART 6

  It is generally observed that when the body experiences hunger and thirst, and is exposed to weather that it normally doesn’t face for example cold, it looses its ability to function as well as it should – mainly because it is not getting the appropriate amount of nutrients and oxygen it needs for proper functioning. The muscles start to loose strength, hence resulting in reduced physical activity and the brain, being deprived of the essential components it needs for working, becomes tired and malfunctioned. It affects the ability to think properly as well.

  This may not always be the case. Sometimes, the body itself has the power enough to stabilize itself even in such energy-deprived condition; it can harness the weakness growing inside of it and use it to prevent itself from slowing down completely. Today, we search for ways to do such wonders: to create such methods that could utilize the amount of destruction being born in the universe and harness it to create something useful, something with energy.

  Yet ever so blinded we are in this aspect that acquires simple observation into our own complex selves. Little do we realize that this power resides deep within us, and when we learn to use it for our own good energy, only then can we learn to recycle the energies surrounding us. The math of the universe would definitely help us to calculate those energies and the extent to which we can restore them from their ruins.

  Order out of chaos.

  Isabelle Aimery was among the few lucky ones who had the capability to energize themselves despite falling weak. Even though she was all spent out, hunger and thirst forced her to give up and slump right there on the floor and most of all, she felt as cold as ever; yet she painstakingly willed herself to continue with whatever this madness was. She didn’t let the hunger pangs deprive her mind from thinking straight. She had taught herself to be strong even without an ounce of energy left in her body.

  The cold and damp atmosphere around also didn’t seem to be such a problem. No matter where she was or what she did, her mind always conjured up numbers and symbols, keeping her absorbed in a magical world of codes and formulae – it was indeed magical for her.

  Even now, as she stood there tired and aching everywhere, she could clearly remember all the ciphers and anagrams she had learned over the years. Her mind brought up perfect images of all the code-breaking methods she had learned, small bits and pieces of texts and illustrations from books she had studied on cryptology and what she knew of the art of codes and symbols came bouncing up in her mind, making her find anything that might help break the code. But she didn’t bring up much complex thoughts.

  Think simple. Think straight.

  Simple is always best.

  A simple code; a simple cipher.

  XWPERLEZHGIITSIJVQWIMQWSWCISHPCVEM

  As Isabelle had predicted, if this was a substitution cipher, there was only one simple way of deciphering it: by using the Caesar cipher.

  The very first use of substitution cipher appears in Julius Caesar’s “Gallic Wars”. The great general sent secret messages to one of his commanders named Cicero, giving him specific military commands that he wished remained secret from the enemy troops.

  The Caesar cipher, also known as shift cipher, Cesar’s shift or Caesar’s code, is one of the simplest and widely used encryption techniques. It is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced or substituted with one fixed number of places down the alphabet. Like every other cipher, this one also follows a specific grid that is given to it by its creator.

  A grid is any basic rule on which a code is based. It can be a number, a letter or any other constant. For example, if the grid in Caesar cipher is 2, then each letter in the plaintext is replaced by another letter 2 places down the letter; A would become C, B would become D and so on. Once the constant of the grid is known, it becomes very simple to decipher a code made in this way.

  Now, the only problem Isabelle faced was that she did not know the grid. It could be any number. The world of numbers is infinite. She couldn’t possibly try putting each of them in the grid and break the code. The most common grid was 3, but then again, it could be anything. Still, she had to give it a try.

  Isabelle mentally arranged all the letters of the code by using a shift of 3. The portal before her that held the image of the code changed and the green digits replaced themselves with 3 letters next to them. The new code that formed appeared thus:

  AZRHUOHCKJLLXVLMYTZLPTZVZFLVKRFZHP

  It still made no sense. Isabelle tried breaking it up in pairs. If she divided all the letters into groups of threes, she would get eleven pairs. But to do that, one group would be the odd one out since it would be occupied by a fourth letter left at the end.

 

  AZRH UOH CKJ LLX VLM YTZ LPT ZVZ FLV KRF ZHP

  Now this was a trigraph cipher, with 3 letters in each group. But it was uncrackable. No phrase in English could possibly consist of all the words containing only 3 letters in them. She tried shifting the places of the trigraphs instead. Maybe they were not supposed to be aligned in a single line.

  Often times, the plaintext could be shifted into different locations on the same plane so as to render it unintelligible. The opposite could be done as well. If the characters of the cipher actually form one single phrase or are positioned together in a single row or column, they can be split up and moved into different places, thus making it look like each character of the code is different from the rest and stands independently.

  During one of her early cryptanalysis lectures, Isabelle had learned a few basic and simple encoding methods that involved the principle of shifts. If each letter in the plaintext that was to be encoded is shifted according to some selected number of places, either in rows or in columns, it could form an entirely different code. It would look as if some letters have been omitted to confuse the receiver when although it is one single message split up into parts scattered at different places. For example, if the word ‘the’ was to be encrypted, its letters would be simple relocated into rows or columns. It would look something like this:

  T

  H

  E

  Or, it could be arranged like this as well:

  T E

  H

  The alignment of the letters could be set in many different ways, so long as it was confusing. This is called the rail fence cipher. It simply follows one rule according to which alternate letters are written on separate upper and lower lines. The sequence of letters on the upper line is then followed by the sequence on the lower line, to create the final encrypted message. The security of the cipher can be improved by choosing more than two lines to encrypt the message with.

  To decipher a code of such type, it is crucial to know how many lines were used to encrypt the message. Although this was one of the simple ways of encoding, it was not a substitution cipher. It was one of the transposition ciphers. Isabelle wondered how it could work out for this code – a substitution cipher.

  The world of codes is extensive, stretching beyond boundaries of logic and reason we can only begin to comprehend. The methods used to write a simple text into something entirely different are both simple and complex.

  And if these methods are inter-mixed with one another, the result is even more complicated and diverse in form.