by A. K. DuBoff
He smiled to himself. Wearying or not, he wouldn’t choose any other life.
The lights cut out.
Fok, not again.
Before he had time to react, the lights returned at maximum output. He shielded his eyes from the sudden brightness.
Power surge? It was wishful thinking. No controls would have the illumination at those levels.
Kaen stepped over to the nearest information screen on the corridor wall, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw foreign code scrolling across the screen. His heart leaped into his throat. We’ve been hacked.
Orion Station’s security had never been compromised—not on this level. If an enemy had gained control of the computer network, they could easily get physically inside the base.
Without hesitation, Kaen sprinted toward the corridor leading to the operational command center.
— — —
Leon powered down his workstation for the day, relieved to finally be finished with the most recent round of Gaelon sample testing.
“Team happy hour!” Tess exclaimed. “It’s like we’re bonding, or something.”
“Calling attention to the fact kinda ruins the magic,” Jack replied.
Leon smiled. He hadn’t experienced proper team comradery since grad school on Mysar, and it felt good to be part of a group again.
“Kira will likely join us later on,” he said. “So, Jack, try to keep the ‘weird science experiment’ talk to a minimum, okay?”
“Hey, I can conduct myself like a reasonable person. I mean, nanites aren’t everything. There are recessive genetic traits to talk about, like her red hair,” Jack replied.
Leon laughed. “Dude, you really don’t want to go th—”
He stopped short when the lights turned off.
Instead of complete darkness like he expected, there was a subtle blue glow illuminating the lab.
The darkness lasted only a split second. When the lights returned, they were so bright, he had to squint.
“Did you see that glow?” he asked.
“Yeah, I did notice something,” Tess concurred. “What was it?”
“Hit the switch.” Leon instructed.
Jack, who was closest to the controls, turned off the overhead lights.
There were a few low lights from ambient equipment, but a distinct blue glow was coming from elsewhere.
Leon looked around for the source of the light and was surprised to see it emanating from the rack containing the samples from Gaelon.
His brow knitted. “Uh, did they do that before?”
“Fok if I know!” Jack exclaimed. “But that doesn’t look good.”
Leon looked closer. “Wait, is that moving?”
The fragments were crawling up the sides of the test tubes and congregating near the stoppers. There was no mistaking that they were trying to burrow through.
“Shite, can it get out?” The panic was evident on Tess’ face even in the low light cast from the glowing samples.
“Better question: what could it do if it does get out?” Jack asked.
Leon didn’t want to find out.
“We need to get it in something more secure,” he said, his mind racing about what that might be. He scanned around the room. “The glove box! Come on.”
Leon raced toward the rack, grabbing a pair of tongs from a canister of tools on his way.
Jack grabbed another set of tongs while Tess opened the side of the glove box, a one-meter-wide transparent cube with built-in rubber gloves on two walls, which was used for handling potentially contaminated materials. It didn’t come into play too often in their research activities, but the thick, corrosion-resistant walls stood the best chance of anything in the lab to contain the tiny particles.
Leon and Jack each grabbed test tubes with the tongs and gingerly transplanted them to the bottom of the glove box. Tess closed the hatches over the four glove openings as an extra precaution.
“Was this stuff alive the whole time?” she murmured.
“Depends on your definition of life,” Leon replied while transporting another vial.
“Crawly, glowy things certainly seem to fit,” Jack said. “Not that I’m crazy about the idea of a bunch of rock that had been exposed to the vacuum of space suddenly being able to spring into action like this.”
“Is it too far a leap to hypothesize that it’s connected to whatever is going on with the lights on the station?” Tess ventured.
“With this timing, no,” Leon replied. He placed another test tube in the glove box; only three more to go.
Tess wilted. “That means it’s…”
“Foking Trols,” Jack completed for her.
“But computers!” Tess objected.
“They got one of the external processors,” Jack reminded the two scientists. “If they’re as good at reverse engineering as it seems like they are, then it’s no surprise they figured out a hack.”
“But where are they? Is this telepathic?” Tess’ eyes were wide with worry and wonder.
Leon placed the final sample vial in the glove box, then swung the side hatch closed and latched it. “I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”
— — —
“Fokity fok,” Kira said under her breath.
“Theory, Captain?” Sandren asked as he shielded his eyes from the overly bright lights.
“Weird happenings on both starships and at base? Someone or something has hacked into our central control systems,” Kira replied.
“I figured as much. Care to hazard a guess at whom?”
“I really want to be wrong, but I’d put money on the Trols taking advantage of the tech we inadvertently left them.”
Jasmine said in her mind.
“Fantastic,” Sandren said in a low voice, shaking his head. “We need to get to central command. If it’s them, you’re our best chance at opening a dialogue.”
“Yes, sir.”
They set off at a fast jog from Sandren’s office, following the main corridors on a direct route to the control center at the heart of the star-shaped station. Other soldiers in the halls quickly moved out of their way. A few tried to ask questions, but the major ignored them all. Kira followed his lead.
A dozen meters from the control center entrance, Kira spotted Colonel Kaen approaching from the opposite direction.
“Sir,” Kira acknowledged.
“Major, Captain,” Kaen greeted with a curt nod. “It would seem we were due for another crisis.”
“All to keep us on our toes, sir,” Kira replied. She forced a smile, but on the inside she was terrified to find out what they were up against.
Kaen was the first through the entry door, followed by Sandren. Kira reluctantly followed.
The round room was abuzz with activity. Communications techs were yelling at each other across their consoles, arranged in two concentric circles, and officers were barking orders. Kira tuned out the din in an attempt to identify any information about what was going on. Nothing stood out, aside from a list of errors flashing in red on the broad viewscreen wrapping the back wall.
Kira stepped up next to Sandren, while Kaen ran over to talk with the other senior officers gathered in the center of the room.
“Sir, Jasmine said the controls are locked.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Sandren murmured. “I thought we were dealing with a telepathic enemy, but this…”
“They don’t just manipulate biology. Technology, too,” she replied. “But I didn’t see a computer hack coming, either. I’d really hoped they were all dead.”
“Me too.”
Kira looked around the room. “Until we can put a face to these things, I can’t do anything here. But I do happen to know two of the best hackers around.”
Sandren looked at her under his brow. “Hack our own computer network?”
“If we’re locked out, what other choice do we have?”
“All right, get them up here,” Sandren agreed.
“I’ll need to find them in person,” Kira told Sandren. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
He nodded. “I’ll relay your recommendation to the other officers. If it’s a go, we’ll be ready for you when you return with Kyle and Nia.”
“Yes, sir.”
Kira raced from the control room toward the corridor leading to the residential arm housing her team. She’d normally hop on the maglev, but with the power fluctuations, getting trapped in a transport car was too great a risk. Besides, with her new abilities, running was a breeze.
She tore past the confused soldiers traversing the halls in an attempt to find answers, deftly navigating the corridors until she reached the part of her trek where she needed to go vertically.
Kira rolled her eyes.
She reached the ladder access shaft, which was two meters from the main elevator bank. Twisting the lever to the side, she swung the hatch door open. She peeked inside. It was a long way up—nine stories to her destination.
She made quick time up the ladder and unbolted the access hatch on the destination level.
Her team’s quarters were forty meters down the main corridor and off a short side passageway.
Please be here, Kira wished silently to herself. She knocked on the door.
To her relief, the bolt unlocked after five seconds, and the door opened a crack. Kyle peered back at her.
“Kira?” He swung the door open fully.
“Hey.” She spotted Nia and Ari seated at the table. “Thank the stars you’re here! We need you.”
The soldiers came to attention.
“What’s going on?” Nia asked.
“Pretty sure the Trols hacked into our central network,” Kira stated.
“Foking external processor,” Kyle swore.
“Yeah, I knew that was going to come back to bite our asses in a bad way,” Kira said. “But beating ourselves up again won’t help. Our immediate concern is we’re locked out of our own systems.”
“Shite, really?” Nia stood up.
“My crazy suggestion was for you two to try to hack in,” Kira continued. “They’re waiting for us back at the command hub.”
Nia cast Kyle a look bordering on pure glee. “It’s what we always dreamed of doing.”
Kyle’s eyes were bright with equal wonder. “The ultimate test of skill.”
“Yeah, happy for you, and all, but this isn’t for bragging rights,” Kira stated.
“Oh, but there’s going to be so much bragging,” Kyle replied with a grin. He ran to the locker at the foot of his bunk to retrieve his equipment kit. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
“What should I do?” Ari asked from the table.
“Wait here. We don’t need the muscle right now,” Kira told him. “I’ll be in touch as soon as we get the comms working again.”
“Good luck,” he replied.
Kira led Kyle and Nia back to the ladder she’d ascended.
“Ugh, I hate ladders,” Nia commented as soon as she saw the narrow chute.
“We use ladders all the time.” Kyle climbed inside.
“That doesn’t make me detest them any less!” she shot back while following him.
Kira groaned and waited for Nia to descend enough so she could enter.
Jasmine paused.
At the bottom of the ladder, Kira took the lead for the run back to the command hub. To her surprise, Kyle and Nia were more winded than her when they arrived.
“Wait here for a moment,” she told them, both to give them an opportunity to catch their breath and so she could get final clearance on her hacking plan.
Kira entered the command room to find that the shouting had stopped. The near-silence was somehow more disconcerting.
She spotted Kaen and Sandren standing at the center of the room with the other senior officers, including General Lucian.
People or not, it was still intimidating.
Kira gathered her courage and approached the group. “Sirs.” She gave a differential nod.
General Lucian evaluated her. “I heard you want to try hacking our own computer network.”
Kira met the general’s level gaze. “Yes, sir. If the techs are unable to gain access through other means, maybe Kyle and Nia can help.”
“So much for keeping those two out of trouble.” He sighed. “I didn’t think it’d come to it, but our other efforts have yet to yield results. Have them proceed. Just… try not to break anything.”
“Yes, sir,” Kira acknowledged. She saluted, then ran back to the hall to retrieve her team members.
“We’re a go,” she told them. “General Lucian said not to break anything.”
“Psh, we always leave things more organized than we found them,” Nia replied.
“Except when we really fok something up,” Kyle whispered.
“Shh!” Kira lowered her voice. “Don’t do that.”
Kyle waved his hand. “I’m ninety-nine point seven percent sure we won’t cause irreparable damage.”
“It’s that point three percent that worries me,” Kira muttered. “I’ll leave you to it.”
She stood at a distance with her arms crossed while the two tech specialists got settled at adjacent workstations along the curved outer wall.
“Wow, they really did a number on the system,” Nia muttered while she tried to gain access to the locked directories.
“This encryption pattern is familiar,” Kyle mused. “Definitely resembles what we encountered in Gaelon.”
Kira’s heart sank. As if we didn’t have enough evidence already that the Trols were back.
Kira groaned in her mind.
Jasmine laughed.
“Fok!” Nia exclaimed, returning Kira’s
attention to the events in front of her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Our normal tricks aren’t working,” the soldier replied. “Just need to beat the system into submission, nothing to worry about.”
“Maybe we should have brought Ari after all,” Kira said in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Nia chuckled. “When in doubt, hit it with a hammer, right?”
“Or shoot it with a plasma rifle,” Kyle added. “The glow of melting computer innards is rather beautiful.”
Kira snickered to herself. She was always impressed by how the two could maintain witty banter while typing. Sometimes she thought it even made them work even better.
After several seconds of silence, Kyle sighed. “Remember when we were joking back in the Protheon facility about getting a real challenge? Well, we got it.”
“But you can get in, right?” Kira asked cautiously. She’d never doubted her team’s abilities in all their years working together. Five minutes tops, they could get into anything. The fact that they’d passed the seven minute mark was a testament to the severity of their present situation.
“Yeah, of co—” Kyle cleared his throat. “I think so.”
Kira gulped.
Her concern deepened as the minutes passed. Even Kyle and Nia were relatively quiet, aside from the occasional comment or profane outburst.
Kira glanced over every so often at the officers in the center of the room, but their frowns prompted her to turn away. Kyle and Nia will get this. They’re the best.
