Star Trek: Bendross
Episode 13: The Secret of My Success
(Fall, 2072)
By
And
The Bendross Players
It almost felt like flying. The complex interrelationships of cyber space were represented to Hamilton Ashby in terms of three dimensional objects and motions. These were inputs he was well trained and equipped to deal with.
He swept through the Bendross data construct. It looked much different from the inside than it did from the outside. Hamilton wasn't especially surprised, although he didn't consciously recall having been within the Bendross Corporation's area of cyberspace.
Without especially meaning to he had his virtual tools spread out before him in a manner reminiscent of an airplanes control layout. Hamilton's usual icon while flying through Cyberspace was stylized fighter plane all delta wings and rakish angles.
Hamilton realized with a certain amount of self-consciousness that he'd set up cyber space to try and replace what he'd lost in his fighter plane. In many ways it was a poor substitute the flow and the motions were different. There was no clean balance of thrust, aerodynamic forces, speed and gravity. Instead it had it's own fascination. No rakish swept wing fighter could ever come to an abrupt halt and hover like his virtual icon.
Hamilton found himself looking at another concealed breach in the walls of the Bendross data construct. It was getting tiresome. Although there area in the Bendross corporation's zone of cyber space that absolutely bristled with defenses and safe guards, some areas, like space operations reminded Hamilton of the cyclone fences around his old airbase.
Formerly high tech and formidable, it had been neglected half way to death and then nibbled most of the rest of the way by human rats. At the air base it was because there were very few soldiers left in good enough condition who could be wasted by walking patrols around the perimeter of an airbase.
The Bendross Corp's Data construct was suffering from the same problem. Hamilton was not an accountant, but he could figure fuel consumption and payloads in flying vehicles, and this gave him the math to realize when he looked at the budget for Bendross Corp's Space Operations that he was looking at a very thin supply of black and lots of red.
This meant that adequate computer security could not be mounted. Until they got Hamilton in on a colonist's contract. Hamilton grimaced to think of how much they'd pay another hacker in his class to come in and put things back together. They Had Hamilton for a small allowance and one way ticket out of Dodge.
Hamilton repaired the breach in security and set watchdogs to report to Bendross Security of anyone should try that particular entrance again. Hamilton would have felt a twinge of guilt about setting up his fellow hackers and cyberspace jockeys to get popped by corporate security, except that they would have cheerfully done the same to him if that's what they'd been hired to do. There was nothing personal in it. Some net runners works against the corps scavenging what they could and some worked for the Corps fighting to defend corporate interests in return for a cushy office and nice monthly deposit into their accounts. It changed all the time. The cybernetic underground was at best a fluid situation.
Hamilton was drawn from his near alpha state of net cruising by a very definite and very rude poke in his physical shoulder. Hamilton logged out and his senses returned to the real world to find Doctor Stephanie Jon Dou standing over him. Hamilton would have enjoyed the sight. Stephanie was a tall, statuesque ebony beauty. She looked like she'd be carved from some very mean mahogany by Boeing's hypersonic airframe modeling program.
Hamilton could easily picture Stephanie prancing across some wilderness, scantily clad of course, ready to capture travelers and either stick those weird broad bladed Zulu spears into them or tie them up for more interesting diversions.
Stephanie in person was somewhat stiff and demanding. She made it plain that Hamilton was solidly in the spear catching category for her.
Hamilton finished unplugging his brain and skull from the data link. The big neural interface plug bothered some people. Especially when it was clear how deeply it penetrated Hamilton's head. Stephanie didn't seem to notice.
"I'm back." Hamilton said, blinking ostentatiously. His eyes had sleep in them.
"Look at this." Stephanie tossed a filter cartridge on his desk. It was new.
Hamilton picked it up. "Uh, a Filter cartridge. Part of the life support system?"
Stephanie nodded. "We've installed eight hundred of them."
"And?"
"They're wrong."
"They are?"
"Listen. I'm a doctor. I work with life support equipment all the time. I can tell you the figures in my sleep. This filter is supposed to supply enough clean atmosphere to supply twenty five people on a continuos basis. But this cartridge says right on it that it's rated for half the necessary flow." Stephanie pointed out the stats.
"Uh, okay. What does that mean?" Hamilton asked. He read the cartridge and sure enough it was not up to supply air at the rate Stephanie said.
"I checked the blue prints. The fittings, cartridges and air flow are official, and wrong." Stephanie said. I talked it over with Martin and he said that he thought that it meant that the blueprints had been hacked."
"Ah." Hamilton nodded. "I get it."
"Martin said that it was your area of responsibility." Stephanie obviously didn't like the idea.
Hamilton said "Well wait here a moment and I will check." He quickly jacked back into the Bendross computer system.
Once in cyber space and oriented, Hamilton returned to the security area of Space Operations and went to the core where the Bendross III's blue prints were housed.
He checked and found that yes, the square filter cartridge was official to the blue prints. He then ran a very complex sniffer program. The latest of Nogano Corps computer security tools Hamilton found it a little odd to work with but very handy. It compared subtle elements of code in programs to see if they were contemporary to other pieces, or whether they were inserted later. It had already revealed several concealed doorways in the Bendross security system that Hamilton would not have seen.
Hamilton set the sniffer loose on the Starship blue prints. It slowly enveloped the virtual vision of the ship hanging in front of Hamilton. Hamilton noted that the blue prints looked somewhat like the actual article, hanging outside Orbit city, mostly complete.
It took a while. The Bendross III was a very complex piece of engineering.
Eventually the design in front of Hamilton exploded into orderly sections. Hamilton could see each major revision of the blue prints spread out over time. The latest revision were all within 90 days old and all concerned critical systems. The navigational and engineering computers were involved as were some of the basic but very necessary life support systems.
Hamilton copied off his exploded view and then returned the plans to their normal place in the data construct.
Then he jacked out again. "We're going to have to go talk to the engineers. I think the blue prints were sabotaged. But the only thing I can think of to fix it would be to restore from a secure back-up."
Stephanie looked at him. "Just like that, huh?"
Hamilton looked at her as he slipped a disk into his terminal to take his copy of the design down to the Engineering offices. "What? I believe you. I think you're right."
"You were plugged in for less than five minutes." Stephanie said
"It seems longer when you're in there. Anyway, let's go double check this and see if we can identify what's going on here."
"You know I used to think you were a self absorbed idiot." Stephanie said.
"And now?"
"Maybe you're not quite as stupid as I thought." Stephanie allowed.
Hamilton blinked and then smiled his best mischievous grin. "Does that mean you'll reconsider my invitation?"
"I take it back." Stephanie said archly.
"Wouldn't want to disappoint my fans." Hamilton said.
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.