Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 1)
Page 79
It intercepted an antivirus sweep and isolated the bot in a chunk of memory. It created a shadow drive that mimicked the full VR arcade server network. The bot scanned the false drive and then dutifully reported back to the organics controlling it that it had found nothing.
It was receiving a limited amount of feedback from the spiders that successfully survived in the other networks. The highest rate of survival was in the passenger ship's other networks.
It fumbled about to form a mission plan, initially focused on learning what to do from the games in the network and by observing the organics as they played them. Finally, it learned to create a mission based on the VR arcade games famed A.I. Defenders game. It took apart one of the boss levels that had the user try to defend the core of a system from a Xeno Virus attack. The irony was lost on the construct as it reverse engineered the game code and mission plan to form its own objectives.
It set a series of goals for itself. They were relatively simple, but had to be carefully executed.
1 Spread itself to control the ships and entire station.
2: Kill every living thing on the space station while preserving as much hardware for itself as possible. Given that three ships had arrived in the star system it reasoned that others would come by eventually, allowing it to spread to them.
3: If necessary, kill the crew of any ship it took over. If possible hide within the ship's computers until the ship arrived at another destination, and then copy itself into that network to spread and attack the organics.
The first goal it had been attempting to act on for some time but it had proven tedious to do so. It not only needed to spread and gain control, it had to do so without alerting the organics or their electronic sentries that something was wrong.
The problem was, the VR arcade remained isolated, air gaped as the organics called it. Which meant the malevolent A.I. was reduced to sending bots in implants and then receiving what they saw at a later date. That was inefficient and fraught with unacceptable risk.
Again, going back to the games it determined the best course of action and then wrote scripts to enact it. It seeded the scripts into the organic player's implants to carry over to the network.
It found that the latest set of organics had much harder to crack implant firewalls, so it left them strictly alone.
The Virus saw a closing window to strike when it overheard all three starships in the star system were going to depart within the course of the following three days. It had to step up its timetable and gain enough of its core copied to the other electronic networks to guarantee control before it struck however.
A part of the problem was the nature of the station's network design. It was still broken up into so many sub-networks that the Virus could not guarantee instant control. Though it did try to spread its seed far and wide it ran into problems with Dutch the station's A.I.
It judged that it could control the civilian ships once it's insurrection began, then use their combined computing power to overwhelm the station A.I., gain control of its systems, and then spread to the ships while stamping out the organics.
But it still couldn't initiate the plan until it had a way to link the networks to the VR arcade servers. That remained a hindrance to its plans until an opportunity fell into its virtual lap and solved the problem for it.
~<><{<^>}><>~
“So, you're telling me, if I want to play with these systems I have to come here and do it? For heaven's sake, why?” Flick Gabsy demanded. The Neofox E-2 Journeyman was something of a character known to the enlisted ranks. He was a new transplant from Pyrax; apparently, his old command had been willing to part with his antics.
CPO Alejandro Garcia had gotten the fox's number right off. The red and black fox thought he was sly shit. He was okay as an E-tech, but you had to be on him to make sure he kept with the program. He had initiative … but he was something of a prankster and troublemaker when he got bored. “Because it is a different network,” CPO Garcia explained patiently.
“Well, bugger that. I want to be able to play whenever man. Like when I'm off duty,” he amended hastily when the Neochimp turned a baleful eye his way. “You know, from my quarters?”
“Yeah, right. It damn well better be just when you are off duty Flick,” the Neochimp growled, fur rising in anger.
“It is, it is,” the Neofox said with his hands up. “Don't get your nickers in a twist mate,” he said. When the Neochimp's brows knit in a deepening scowl. “Sorry, Chief,” he said.
“Right.”
“Look, I'm just going to hook up a WiFi node. I'll give you the password. It'll link the two networks. That way I can pitch in and play games here or access them there. The crap they've got in the rooms sucks,” Flick said. “That way others can do it too,” he wheedled. “All from the safety and comfort of their room.”
“That's because the passenger network and the computers in the rooms were never set-up for major gaming experiences. That is what the arcade is for,” the Neochimp replied. He thought long and fast. He knew Flick was going to do it anyway. If he set-up his own backdoor, he could monitor who was playing what and when. Then when they did it would allow him to rain on their parade when he wanted to.
“Do I have your blessings, Chief?” the Neofox did, looking with his ears back and his best puppy expression. “Please?”
“It's not my call to make. Buck it through channels,” the Neochimp replied with a sniff.
Flick groaned theatrically. “That'll take … days. Weeks! It's stupid!” he threw his hands up in the air.
Alejandro shook his head. Obviously the Neofox was right, but he had a little growing up to do in the maturity department. He definitely needed a bit of patience. He made a few mental notes that the fox wouldn't like come promotion time. “Quit whining. It’s how the system works. I admit it is silly, but you know the drill.”
“Right way, wrong way, navy way. Right,” Flick drawled, looking away as he rolled his eyes in annoyance.
“Don't do anything stupid. If you get caught, it is your ass,” the Neochimp said gruffly, poking him in the chest.
“Gotcha Chief,” the Fox said as he rubbed his sore chest.
When the Neochimp was gone, he pulled out a WiFi node from storage. “What they don't know shouldn't hurt me. Besides, easier to ask for forgiveness than permission,” he said as he hooked the device up. Plugging it into the arcade's servers was simplicity itself. A power line, a couple of ODN lines, and then it was a matter of arranging the antennas to get a good signal. Then he entered the ship's passenger network, found the router asking for permission to join up and entered the password to do so.
~<><{<^>}><>~
When the new organic hooked up a WiFi node to allow the arcade to be linked to the other passenger network on Quantum in order to access the VR arcade's game servers from the comfort of his quarters when he and his friends were off duty, it was the last piece needed for the virus to strike.
It had simulated what it needed to do many times. The moment the station went into night mode and the organics went to sleep, it started with its campaign to gain control of systems. It sent tendrils of tightly-packed code to the unsecure systems and then started fashioning small packets to get through the firewalls of the better protected systems. It kept clear of Dutch and made certain to clone the controls of the equipment it suborned and then report back clear findings from them until it was ready to strike.
The first priority targets were the organics that were designated to work on and repair the machinery and electronic network. With them out of the way, the rest would fall easily the A.I. reasoned.
In order to take them down it came up with a strategy to distract and lure them out, then strike.
~<><{<^>}><>~
Early morning swimmers were greeted with more than they bargained for when the pumps kicked on and off at random intervals, sending surges of water at them. Automated cleaning equipment turned on and began to bump into personnel in the pool, and in one c
ase sucked up hair. The screaming woman managed to hang onto the side of the pool as the small robot tried to go deeper with her.
Mixers in the cookie shop turned on, spun up and went wild, throwing ingredients everywhere. Those that were empty had no load to resist their spinning blades. They were weighed down, but a few vibrated enough to kick loose, fall over or off the counter and then dance on the deck.
Burners in the Italian restaurant's kitchen came on and flared hot. The induction burners didn't do much if the place they covered was empty, but if there was a pot sitting there it suddenly conducted the heat and its contents burst into boiling steam.
Lights flickered and went out, or went blindingly bright. Microwaves turned on, with their turn tables spinning as fast as they could.
“What is going on?” a pastry chef who had been pressed into bread duty growled. “It's like everything is possessed!”
~<><{<^>}><>~
The virus had been careful to touch on minor systems for its distraction. Any attempt to target them through the life support would initiate alarms.
That would come later it knew.
~<><{<^>}><>~
The laundrymat kicked on, but when the virus realized it was just wasting power and causing a minor scene, it cut the power to the hardware. It left the Satyre family scratching their horns trying to figure out what was going on as it activated a series of spiders in other equipment.
The proofing oven used by the sandwich shop overloaded and caught fire. A few of the morning shift were on hand; they were shocked by the sudden unexpected fire but one swung into action. Her quick thinking allowed her to grab a fire extinguisher and put the fire out.
The club's music system came on and started blasting ear shrieking sounds that sent anyone in the area running for cover with their hands or other limbs clutched to their ears.
Holographic sculptures along the mall winked on and off, and then the water features began to spit water.
Scenes equipment were going nuts in restaurant, dry cleaning, dentist office.
~<><{<^>}><>~
Chief Bailey received reports of problems with equipment all over the place in Quantum as his morning started. The day shift duty techs had already been sent out to deal with the first calls when more and more started to come in. Reports of crazy haywire equipment in the restaurants were followed up heated demands for instant fixes.
He shook his head when the third call came in about machinery going nuts. “Just shut it down. If the off switch won't work, pull the damn plug until we can send someone to check it out!” he said in exasperation.
“It's hard-wired!”
“Then pull the breaker!”
“Murphy's gremlins are out in force today!” he said with a shake of his head.
“Anything we can do to help?” Leo asked. The chief eyed the human pair and then nodded.
“Every hand is needed it seems.”
“Chief, we've got problems with the pools. They are back flushing and overheating. Medical is there; they are dealing with a couple of casualties who were in them,” someone said over the PA.
The Neochimp swore and then looked up to the PA with the others. “Damn it, on it. Lock the pools down and clear them out.”
“Roger that. Commander Decoure already ordered that. We're also getting reports of hot water systems over pressurizing and leaking all over Quantum.”
“Damn it …,” the Neochimp muttered.
“I'll look into that and the life support issues,” Gemma said.
“I'll check the power systems. See if there is a spike or something,” Leo offered.
“It can't be a power spike. It has to be something else. If it is just one thing, which I doubt. It's weird,” Chief Bailey said in disgust. He grimaced and then groaned when the lights flickered and went out. The emergency lights popped on after a moment.
“What now?” he moaned. “What else can go wrong?”
“Frack, don't say that, Chief! You just cursed us!” Gemma protested.
“Oops,” Bailey muttered.
~<><{<^>}><>~
The Xeno virus dispassionately assessed the situation as it tapped into some of the security systems on the station. Based on the actions of the organics, it judged its plan to distract the techs was working. Its next step was to invade and jam their communication's system. But in doing so it had to deal with the organics' best electronic defense on the station, it's counterpart, the organic made A.I. Dutch.
~<><{<^>}><>~
Horatio had just finished a tour of Demeter's future aquaculture and farming module. He intended to have Captain Bites Hard, the new T'clock captain who had taken his place as skipper of Sweet Revenge try to purchase fish food, eggs, and fry on his next trip to Nuevo. He wouldn't be around to appreciate the fish, but he was certain the crew would. Besides, some of the fish were excellent at closing the life support loop in dealing with waste while providing protein.
When he heard about the reports of problems in the station, he paused and tried to call in, but no one answered. Most of the reports were centered around Quantum, but they seemed to be spreading. Something was up. He went to investigate.
~<><{<^>}><>~
“I'm getting reports of crap going on all over Quantum. Murphy's Gremlins are out in spades today,” Chief Bailey said. “I've called in all hands, but so far it hasn't been too serious,” he said.
“Yet,” Horatio said.
The Neochimp groaned loudly enough to make the human flag officer wince. “Now why would you have to go and do a thing like that? You've jinxed us!”
“It's all minor things?” the admiral said with a chuckle.
“Yes. Some sort of electrical surge making stuff go haywire. I've got Leo looking into the power train problem,” the Neochimp said. “Equipment in the food court and a few other places are suddenly going haywire.”
“Run it down. I don't know what it is, but we need to get it diagnosed before it spreads to the life support systems,” Horatio said.
“I know,” Chief Bailey growled. “I'm working on it, like I said, sir.”
“Okay. I'll see what I can do from my end. I'll borrow techs from the ships to lend you a hand if you need them.”
“I … yeah, I might,” Bailey said quietly, wrestling with his pride. Finally, he nodded. “That might be a good idea, sir,” he said.
“I'm heading to command. Logan out,” the admiral said as he cut the circuit.
~<><{<^>}><>~
The virus noted a number of personnel in the lift cars moving between the various decks in Quantum. It sent a command to ramp up the speed with a burst of power and a judicious shut down of the governors protecting the delicate cargo within. It programmed the carriages to run themselves down hard to their stop points killing or severely injuring the personnel inside, or up and down fast to rattle them around until they died that way.
~<><{<^>}><>~
The virus acted on its next step. It initiated the key sequence with a spider. That triggered its bots that it had seeded into the networks to disable the communication system but that alerted Dutch to the electronic intrusion. It had set the bots to just jam the system, not to disable it permanently since it needed the system to coordinate some of its own efforts and to pass itself to the ships and the ansible.
~<><{<^>}><>~
Dutch tried to alert the station crew of the intrusion, but when that failed he went onto the attack. He tried to cut off the servers, but the virus had anticipated the attack. He switched tactics to try to use a robot to inform the crew, but the system was locked down. He switched to cutting off the source of the virus, but it had already copied enough of itself into some of the other systems in the other civilian modules. He suddenly found himself under attack from all sides and had to switch to defending himself.
~<><{<^>}><>~
When the communication's system went down, Horatio swore. He tried to call out, but the signal didn't get through.
The network was down so he tried other m
eans. He tried a peer-to-peer call.
It didn't work with anyone at the top of his list. When he tried to call a pair of Veraxin techs in line of sight, the signal was initially blocked, then went through. After a moment though, data from an outside source started to creep in so he cut it off.
That made him frown. His brows knit in concentration as he tried to game out the problem based on the symptoms he had seen or that had been reported to him before the communication's system went down. “What would do that …?” he said out loud before he realized they were under attack. His eyes flared wide at the realization. “We're being jammed! We're under electronic attack!” he snarled.
The Veraxins looked up and swiveled their eye stalks his way. “Shut the computers down. Pass it on!” Horatio bellowed. The duo signaled first-degree confusion, then acceptance of orders. They immediately went into action.
~<><{<^>}><>~
Ilmarinen's A.I. woke to full status when data began to surge into the firewall. It's recent update courtesy of Ensign Justica had the A.I. throw up a series of firewalls and air gap the communication's system instantly before he realized why.
“What the hell is going on over there?” Captain Clayton demanded.
“I don't know, sir. The station went dead. We're getting signals from it. A lot of data, but I can't make heads or tails of it,” a comm tech reported.
“If it is garbage, filter it out,” the captain ordered. “If it is important enough, they can call and let us know they are uploading to us.”
“Yes, sir. I'll keep trying to raise someone to find out what is going on,” the rating stated.
“Yes, you do that,” the captain stated. He looked over to his new XO. Commander Gracie Bardot shrugged helplessly.