Star Trek: Bendross
Episode #10: There’s never a Hacker when you need one…
(Fall 2072)
By
And
The Bendross Players
"Lovely." Hamilton Ashby said, looking at the Nuclear limpet mine. He was bobbing a short distance away from the mine and the hull of his putative interstellar colony ship, the Bendross III.
Kerenski moved his own Pod into position next to the Bomb. "I need an electronics took kit. Maybe I can disarm it."
"What's that feature, there?" Hamilton asked. "About 2/3rds of the way out at about my four O'clock?"
"That's probably a data port." Kerenski said shortly. "That's how they set the mine and define its security conditions. That way you need a terminal to interact with the mine. You can't just flip open an access port."
Hamilton blinked slowly. "That looks like a standard data port."
"It probably is." Kerenski said "This sort of mine was designed to be as user friendly as possible."
"A nuclear limpet mine for Export!?" Hamilton was aghast. Anyone who'd lived through then preceding fifteen years would be.
"You know the Russians." Kerenski sounded resigned "Black Market to the World. When you absolutely, positively have to screw it up over night."
"Selling Weapons to Khan is one thing. Nuclear mines at your local convenience store is another." Hamilton yelled.
"Sure." Kerenski said. "Now. Can we discuss politics later? Right now I have a bomb to disarm."
"How sensitive is the bomb to being touched?" Hamilton asked.
"Pod One Fiver, do NOT touch that Bomb!!" Orbit city control yelled.
"It's down to twenty five minutes now, according to the count down." Hamilton replied. "Where's security?"
"They will be there shortly!" Control sounded like she was on the verge of losing her professional demeanor.
"If you can trust the timer readout." Kerenski said.
"What?" Hamilton asked.
"The readout is programmable. It could go off at 117 just as easily as 0." Kerenski explained.
"Greeeeaaaaaat." Hamilton felt his awareness of his surroundings grow very heightened. "So we have no guarantee about when this thing might go off?"
"No. None."
"And if we can tie into the control computer through a terminal, then we can shut this thing off, right?"
Kerenski shook his head. "That computer probably have very recent security and anti-tampering defenses in its control computer. And all we have are the computers on these pods."
Hamilton grew frustrated. "If I had my rig here, I could walk all over that thing. I bet it's a down market bomb bought bottom dollar by the Luddites."
Kerenski shot him a look across the four feet that separated their pods. "That makes sense. But the Luddites have some very good hackers."
"I know, trust me. But this isn't one of theirs. A real hacker's idea for destroyed the Bendross III would be to subtly reprogram the control computers so we fly off course without realizing it. Or to program the engine control computers so that we overload the engines. Something subtle and clever that only another hacker reviewing the code in the computers might spot it before it was too late. This is too physical and too much blunt force trauma for a hacker."
"Which means..." Kerenski prompted.
Hamilton thought it through. "Oh, it'll be routine job. A watchdog, and maybe a couple of anti-intruder programs but strictly off the shelf stuff. I bet the computer is small time, too. Dammit! If I had the tools I could screw this thing with my eyes closed!"
"But-" Kerenski led.
"Thoughtlessly, I forgot to load my corporate lap dog work pod with illegal intrusion software this morning at the top of the shift." Hamilton griped. "I don't even know where my Computer is anymore."
"Can you attempt this without the software?" Kerenski asked. "Because defeating the anti-tampering devices with robot arms will be a serious challenge."
Hamilton looked up at Kerenski " 'A serious challenge' to rhyme with suicide?"
"Not that bad," Kerenski said, "but bad enough, especially considering the circumstances."
Hamilton thought furiously. He didn't have the programs but he knew who did. If only he had some way of getting them to the pod the pod's little control computer might just be able to run it. It would be slow and hopeless up on the net. However, up against an off-the-shelf control system it might just work. If only he could get his hands on it.
To Be Continued
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.