The Hacker

Captain Daniel Walker stepped onto the main bridge of his ship, Independence. It appeared just as it had the first time he had stepped onto it just two short years ago. Which was to say: round, gray, and full of buttons. The chairs still had their same blue cloth, although it was starting to fade. Some of the labels on the buttons were fading. Engineering was supposed to be taking care of things like this, but it hadn't been done yet. In short, the bridge looked perfect. 'Which,' he mused as he approached his seat, 'Now only means that the previous watch didn't have any accidents.' Coffee cup in hand he faced the commander of the previous shift, Lieutenant Commander Jason Morrison, the ship's Second Officer and CAG.

"Report, Commander," Daniel said as Morrison vacated the Captain's chair. As the other man began, Daniel took the seat and settled in.

"Ship is functioning normally," Morrison said, handing Daniel a computer printout with a copy on it. "The Faster Than Light drive is functioning nominally, and basically all that's changed in the past sixteen hours is out position relative to the Tauron system. Engineering reports that the shielding adjustments to protect us from the increase in cometary debris will be online by the end of your shift." Morrison stopped, either running out of things to say or forgetting the rest. Knowing his Commander Air Group, it could be either, Daniel wryly mused as he looked at the printout. The report was indeed finished. He returned his gaze to Morrison. "Very good. Dismissed, Commander," he said. Morrison nodded and left the bridge.

"Helm, ETA to FTL disengagement point closest to the Tauron system?" Daniel asked, setting the printout aside and taking a drink of coffee.

The main watch helmsman, Lieutenant Kabal, turned to face him. "We'll make the Biers disembarkation point in an hour," he stated. "After that, it will be another four point two hours at maximum sublight speed to the Tauron system. The shield modifications will need to be online within five hours, as we will start seeing an increase in cometary debris as we come within one million kilometers of the system."

Daniel nodded. "So noted. Have you informed Engineering of this?" Kabal shook his head in the negative. "No sir, I have not at this time." Daniel sighed, searching for the button on his chair arm that would open up a communication link between the Engineering deck and the Bridge. Finding it, he pressed it. "Captain to Engineering."

A tired sounding voice came over the speaker. "Chief Engineer Garret here. What do you need, Captain?"

"How are you coming along on the shield modifications, Chad?" Daniel asked. The response was clearly less than thrilled, like its speaker didn't really want to say it. "We anticipate having them fully ready in about eight hours sir." Chad Garret was known throughout the fleet for meeting or beating deadlines when it came to feats of Engineering. Failure to meet a deadline was highly uncharacteristic of him.

"Sorry Chad, but that's not going to cut it. I need them online in five hours, unless you want to spend the rest of your time on this mission patching the hull. Just who else do you have working on this project anyway?" Daniel asked, curious.

"Lieutenant Simmons and Ensign Walters, along with a couple Scientists whose names I forgot about six hours ago," Garret responded. Daniel sighed. Simmons and Walters were two of the worst Engineers on the crew. Unfortunately, everyone else in the fleet knew it, so Daniel could never transfer the pair off his ship. Equally worse, they seemed to be immune to Engineering "accidents."

"Sorry Captain, they're the only ones that were available. I could push them harder, but that would only decrease the effectiveness of their work. The scientists are bickering about how the modification program should be crafted, and the rest of my crew is either noticeably absent or doing other tasks and trying not to laugh," Garret explained, picking up the lack of a reply as a question.

"Then pull a couple of them off of whatever they're doing. We need that done quickly and correctly, Chad," Daniel instructed. "If Simmons and Walters aren't cutting it, then get some people you can trust."

"I'll get on it, Captain," Garret said. "Engineering out." A beep from the chair signaled that the communication had terminated. Sighing, Daniel made a note to check with Chad every hour on the project's progress.

"Lieutenant Kabal," Daniel said. The helmsman turned around again. "Sir?" he asked.

"I want to see your proposed route for our approach to Tauron. Link it to the holoproj," Daniel said, rising from his seat and approaching a low, round table at the center of the Bridge. Kabal pressed a few buttons on his console and joined Daniel at the holoprojector. He then pressed another button and a star map appeared in holographic 3-D. Another button showed Independence's route, highlighted in red, linking them to a bright blue circle about four inches from the miniature holographic ship, and then another red link to a yellow star and a series of spheres identified by the holoproj as the Tauron system. Current astrophysics data, updated continuously by the computer, showed the trajectory of a group of comets toward the third planet in the Tauron system.

"Sir, I was planning to take the ship on a circuitous route from the Biers Dee-Em Point, around the system's sun, and approaching Tauron III from that point. This will reduce the amount of stress on the ship's shields from cometary debris; however, we will have to activate heat-dissipation fields. I would recommend taking the excess heat and channeling it into the particle beams, firing them at the cometary field immediately after we pass the major heat-generating core of the star," Kabal stated, tracing the path with his finger. Daniel keyed in a couple of changes, and a different route-in blue this time- led out from the Biers D-M Point, skipping the sun and approaching Tauron III more or less directly, and asked the computer for a side-by-side comparison of the power requirements necessary for each route, removing from consideration power requirements required for FTL transition at the D-M Point, and standard shield power.

These data charts appeared next to each route. The computer dutifully listed the requirements, and then flashed an inquiry on the console, asking if Daniel or Kabal wanted its opinion on the best route to take. Daniel pressed the "Accept" button, and a golden line appeared from the D-M Point, in between the red and blue lines, along with a data chart showing power requirements.

Daniel immediately began a spirited discussion with Kabal about the benefits of each separate choice.

-.-

However, while the two Confederate officers debated the merits of each route, six systems away a man sat in front of a computer terminal. The code had been done for months. The transport of the comets from the outer system clouds had been in the works for years. The only missing piece was a Confederate ship to come within communications range. Unfortunately, it was impossible to make a course change while in FTL transit, so it would have to wait until the ship identified by its transponder as the Confederate Battle Cruiser Independence reached the Biers D-M Point and made its transition to sublight…in all of a half-hour. That was all right. The hacker was patient.

-.-

"Secure all stations, prepare for FTL disembarkation and transition to sublight," Kabal intoned.

"Shuttle One, are you ready to depart for Tauron III?" Daniel enquired over a comm.

"Yes Captain, my team is ready. Our shield modifications have been checked out and certified. Tell Chad I thank him for another job well done," replied the voice of Commander Ryan Daniels, the ship's XO and Daniel's second-in-command, from the cockpit of a shuttlecraft that would investigate conditions inside the comet cluster.

"You're clear for departure as soon as we transition from FTL and make sure we didn't lose anything to the D-M Point," Daniel told him, as Kabal counted down the last ten seconds to transition. "Bridge out." All comms had to be closed before a FTL transition. It was Fleet policy.

"Five…four…three…two…one…transition!" Kabal announced, as the blue gateway appeared around the Biers FTL Disembarkation ring. Time stood still for a few seconds as the Einsteinian Laws of Relativity were negated by the Independence's FTL technology. Daniel's ears seemed to stop up, like a pressure difference during atmospheric flight. Finally, time reverted to normal and Independence could see the stars of local space, as well as the ring station behind them.

"We intact?" Daniel asked. Lieutenant Corey Micheals at Tactical gave the answer: "Ship is holding together, all inertial compensators running at maximum, Time Dilation Drive is cooling down…nothing's missing, Captain."

"Very good," Daniel said, re-opening the commlink to the shuttlebay. "Shuttle One, launch now!" he ordered. The familiar thuds of a shuttle dropping free from its docking clamps and flying away from the ship sounded and reverberated. Lt. Micheals confirmed that Shuttle One was safely away and headed for the comet field.

"Alright, let's make our own way in," Daniel said, as Kabal input the course they had finally decided on.

-.-

From that same computer terminal, the man noted the Independence's transition to sublight velocities. He sent his transmission, which the Independence's computer would register as a normal computer update from Fleet Command…right as the program re-wrote the entire core and made the Independence his own remote plaything. As much as he would like to just play with it for a while, he had instructions from his employers to bring it directly to them.

-.-

"Course Zero-Seven-Five, Mark II at max sublight," Kabal said, confirming Daniel's instructions. "Course laid in, waiting for your orders."

"Engage," Daniel said, just as all lights on the Bridge, including the consoles, flashed. Kabal pushed a button. Nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing happened.

"What the hell?" Daniel asked, pushing several buttons of his own. Nothing worked.

"Everything's gone useless!" Micheals reported from Tactical. A young lieutenant at the Engineering station had worse news. While no one could make his or her consoles do anything, the status readouts were still going strong. "Captain, the computer core is showing a re-write of all programming. It appears that we have been…well, the archaic term is 'hacked,' sir. They got in using a backdoor code from Fleet Command, and well, look what happened," he said.

-.-

The hacker let out a chuckle. It was time to bring the Independence to his employers. A Confederacy-class battle cruiser wasn't a bad haul at all. Not at all, indeed, he mused as he brought the ship's Time Dilation Device back online, inputting FTL transition coordinates for an old D-M Point in the outskirts of his system. Transmitting a hasty message from the Independence to the Ring Station to get them to re-activate the FTL portal, he moved the ship in and, after reversing the Einsteinian Laws of Relativity once again, the ship was gone.

-.-

As Independence vanished through the portal, Commander Ryan Daniels practically screamed orders to the shuttle's crew. First, a message was sent to Tauron III explaining their soon-to-occur delay, then a message was sent to the Ring station to clear them on the same vector the Independence had just departed on, and finally-just before the shuttle passed the event horizon of the portal- a message drone was jumped through a separate portal to advise Confederation Fleet Headquarters of the situation, and then the shuttle's Time Dilation Device kicked in, speeding it along after its mothership.

All Daniels could think about was the sight of the Independence hanging dead in space, one of her sublight ion drives exploding from the sudden start and equally sudden and lurching stop; 1500 meters long, 250 wide, 20 decks of useless titanium and steel, her darkened running lights giving her the appearance of a beached whale. The communications static, even on emergency frequencies, despite the assurances of the shuttle's scanners that all of Independence's systems were functioning properly and that all personnel were at their posts. Then, to see her power up, spin a 180 and vanish again through the portal, taking Captain Walker and the crew God-only-knows where…Ryan decided that he was shocked that he had reacted as calmly as he had. Offering a silent prayer for the safety of the Independence, he leaned over to check their destination. The computer displayed the D-M Point at a system called Palleh.

Ryan was instantly confused. The Palleh D-M Point hadn't been used in 20 years. It wasn't even considered usable by the Confederacy Jump Certification Board. It was an old Class II D-M Ring, ten years outdated by the current Class III D-M Ring Stations, like the Biers D-M Point near Tauron, and twenty-five years behind the new Class IV D-M Ring Complexes that were being tested by the CJCB as links between new frontiers and Earth. But Palleh…Palleh had been Ryan's first assignment out of the Academy. He had been the officer that recommended deactivation of the Palleh Station after Palleh Sector had been stripped of all usable resources, angering several planets' worth of miners. The decision to deactivate Palleh Station as a D-M Point along the Mu Supply Route incited the miners into armed rebellion against Lieutenant Ryan Daniels and the Confederation, which-after leading his meager station defense flotilla against Daytonaa Mining Corporation rebels on Burtonerf VI-only made the deactivation of the Palleh D-M Point all the easier for Ryan.

He called up current Confederation Fleet records and noted that D-M origin points had detected sporadic activity at the Palleh Station about twice a month over the past six months, and that pirate attacks on Confederate explorers in nearby sectors had doubled in that timeframe.

"This," he muttered, "is going under the file marked 'NOT GOOD.'" After several of his mission team asked as to why, he shared the information with the rest of the group. Several of them expressed the same misgivings as Ryan, but maintained that they had to catch up to the Independence and discover what had gone wrong.

-.-

Meanwhile, on board the ship in question, Daniel was walking down the carpeted hallway on Deck 14 with an escort of two Confederate Marines, their MA-18 rifles held at guard. Keying the manual release, Daniel opened the bulkhead to Main Engineering, and immediately walked over to where the largest group of Engineers had congregated.

"What the hell's going on here?" he immediately asked; looking for the person he believed could answer best. Sure enough, Chad Garret poked his head up from a diagnostic board for computer circuitry to respond.

"We have lost all computer control. Manual diagnostics show that the core has been completely overridden and re-coded to suit the personal needs of the new commander, sir," he said. "The way we see it, we have three options. We could try to hack it back, you could try and override it personally, or we could try and replace it. The more egotistical among us wish to try re-hacking it, but we'll leave the final decision up to you, Captain."

"Well, I say we just go with them in order, and maybe one of them will work. You lot do have a preliminary plan of action just in case we do have to replace it, right?" Daniel asked.

"Yes," one of the junior engineers replied, "However, we definitely only want to have to use it as a last resort."

"That good, huh?" Daniel asked, as three Lieutenants lined up and jacked in personal keyboards and display drives to the computer for option one.

"Always, sir," the engineer replied, and shut up as he turned to watch the attempt. Daniel followed his gaze and settled back against a console to watch.

-.-

The hacker's computer duly noted the attempt of the Independence engineers to re-take the system. However, he had thought of this plan, and so he tasked the computer to activate automated anti-hacking programming. The computer obliged and isolated the data leads of the Engineers. Then they sent out massive electric shocks that gave the Engineers severe burns and melted their hardware. As the trio was rushed to the Medical bay, Daniel stepped forward.

"Computer," he began. There was a tone to acknowledge that the computer had heard him. "Relinquish control of Computer systems to Captain Walker, Daniel C., Confederacy Emergency Access Code Walker Six Bee Two Ay Ar Seven," he finished. The computer beeped again.

"Unable to comply," it said in a heavy masculine tone, "Confederacy EAC not recognized."

"You were saying?" Daniel asked the junior engineer, who had gone pale.

"Well?" he asked. "What is the plan for replacement? Chad? Anyone?" Several Engineers glared at each other before the one Daniel had spoken to earlier stepped forward.

"We intend to copy all of the data from the shuttle computers onto new hard drives, and swap enough out with the currently corroded drives that we can gain a foothold into controlling the ship, and from there, have the new hard drives overwrite the currently corroded ones that will be left," he said.

"How long will this take?" Daniel asked.

"Give us a half an hour, and we'll let you know," the young man replied. Daniel surveyed him.

"Get it done and you'll get promoted to Lt. Commander," he said, turning and exiting the room. The young man stared for a moment, then made a beeline for the supply closets for spare hard drives.

-.-

Back on board the shuttle, Ryan noted their approach to a D-M Point. They would have to transmit a response to the Station's query soon. Ryan typed out a cursory message and prepared to transmit it. However, no message came. Not even when they got within the optimal ID range for shuttlecraft. Then something weird happened. An alarm started sounding in the back. A warning message flashed on Ryan's console: A jump conduit from the station had just launched an object at the shuttle. Activating visual screen displays, Ryan picked up and identified the object: a Confederate Mark XVI Gate Defender Missile, which-when detonated- would critically damage the shuttle and immobilize it upon exit from the gate.

"Brace yourselves!" he shouted to his team, "and get away from the FTL Drive!" GD missiles homed in on those sections of the targeted craft. Three people hurried forward, just as the missile struck and the shuttle began its transition out of FTL speeds.

True to its reputation, the GD missile did quite a lot of damage to the shuttlecraft. Most of the aft portion was shredded, and the Time Dilation Device only barely managed the transition before giving out, leaving the shuttle with leaking fuel cells and no FTL drive. Ryan was instantly on the emergency comm system, demanding an explanation from the station's controllers. The explanation he received froze his blood. A large pirate ship, almost the size of Independence, appeared. The ship was built out of whatever parts had been at hand, and had plenty of weapons-more than what it and its controllers needed to handle an unpowered shuttle.

"Confederation Shuttle," boomed a gruff voice over a forced communication, "Stand by and prepare to be taken aboard. You are now Prisoners of War to be held by the Nosou Syndicate."

"Do we really have a choice?" Ryan shot back. "You've disabled our craft! And we didn't even do anything to you!" The partly slagged systems barely registered the shot, but the shuttle rocked with its impact. Now Ryan definitely felt good about having his team evacuate that area, as there was absolutely nothing left of that part of the shuttle.

"Alright, fine, we give up. You people DO recognize the Interstellar POW Code, right?" Ryan asked the pirate.

"Yes…to an extent," the pirate captain replied. Ryan's shoulders sagged as the tractor beam took hold and dragged the shuttle into a cargo bay. Ryan and the other five members of his team were marched out of the shuttle, each shock-cuffed and clubbed over the head with a nasty-looking modified MA-18, then dragged to the ship's holding area and thrown into a forcefield pen that had most recently held cattle, by the smell of it. As he woke from unconsciousness, Ryan wondered how Captain Walker was faring.

-.-

Daniel, as a matter of fact, wasn't faring much better. Half an hour ago he had left Main Engineering so that the Engineers could work on fixing the computer, but had actually not gone more than three feet in any direction. Pacing back and forth, he figured that he knew this particular stretch of carpet far more intimately than he would prefer. As his wrist chronometer sounded an alarm, Daniel shut it off and headed back into Engineering.

"Is it done?" he asked the engineer he had promised a promotion. The man turned to address him, optimism on his young face, along with a beaming smile.

"We're ready to test it now. Everything has been installed, we can proceed on your order sir," he said. Daniel didn't even blink, uttering his assent with a simple "Do it." The engineer turned away and pressed a button. There was an audible thunk that echoed through the room. Daniel looked worried, but the engineer assured him that it was just the programming severing the connection of the corrupted hard drive units to the ship. A second thunk would occur when the new hard drives took over vital ship functions. Soon enough the second thunk shook the room, lighting up displays with a new vibrance. As a test, Daniel input a command. It worked. Smiling, Daniel reached into his pocket and pulled out a new pair of rank insignia and walked over to the Engineer. He pinned the new insignia on him, congratulated him on his work, and left Engineering for the Bridge. There were things that needed to be done.

-.-

Arriving on the Bridge, Daniel snapped out a request for a status report. Kabal turned around hesitantly; clearly unhappy with what he had to report.

"Sir, you know we recently passed through the Wellington D-M Point, correct?" Kabal began. When Daniel nodded, he continued. "The Wellington Point was a major staging jump point for the Palleh system, which the Confederation abandoned about twenty years ago. Commander Daniels was the last Station commander, and he was the one who made the suggestion to deactivate Palleh's D-M Point and Station. Recently, Fleet Intel assets report the system becoming a hive of pirate activity. The last count transmitted to us as a precaution due to our proximity to the major staging areas for the system was twenty-five major capital ships, under the control of what seems to be called the Nosou Syndicate," Kabal reported. "The Navigational Computer confirms it, sir. We're headed for Palleh, most likely to be enslaved and paraded as prizes to Fleet Command."

"Well I'll be damned if I'm going to allow that," Daniel stated. "What's our ETA to Palleh, Lieutenant?" he asked. Kabal quickly checked his console before replying, "One hour, Captain."

"Tactical, I want us to be at action stations now. Make sure everything is charged and ready to go the moment we've transitioned, Lieutenant," Daniel instructed. Micheals nodded, clearly wanting payback for the ordeals Independence had undergone during this mission.

-.-

An hour later, the Independence's computer announced that it was approaching the Palleh D-M Point. The fight was short. The pirates, as many as there were, were no match for the battlecruiser. They were of quite a heterogeneous composition, and their shields, powerful as they appeared prior to bombardment, could not stand significant bombardment. Six were destroyed or disabled in the first salvo.

"Resistance is light, Captain," reported Lt. Micheals. Then an alert tone sounded from his console, but different from the one that would alert the ship to an incoming salvo. "Sir!" he exclaimed. "Our sensors are reading the signal implants of Commander Daniels and his team aboard the largest ship."

Daniel took the news calmly. "Save that ship for last. Activate the Subspace Destablizers. That should hold them here. Continue with the battle plan, Lieutenant. And order a team of Marines to stand by for Search and Rescue Boarding." Micheals nodded, and returned to orchestrating the dealing of destruction to the pirates.

-.-

Aboard the lead pirate ship, Ryan Daniels watched out of a viewport as pirate ship after pirate ship had their shields overloaded and their hulls imploded to vanish in a blaze of fire. Then the entire team felt the shuddering as missiles and plasma blasts started to rock the ship they were riding with. One of the sharp-eyed techs in the team noted the launch of another shuttle from the Independence, even as she continued to pound away at the only decently shielded ship in the pirate fleet. A shuttle that was headed right for their cargo bay, which was only protected from the vacuum of space by the bulkhead door of the cargo bay. And the forcefield guarding their pen had recently gone down in a power surge.

"Prepare for depressurization!" Ryan yelled, pulling out a small oxygen mask from his utility belt and snapping it over his face. The rest of his team followed suit and grabbed on to the bars of the pen just as the shuttle launched a hull-breaching missile that ripped open the bulkhead. Ryan and his team were slammed mercilessly slammed into the bars of their pen as the air evacuated the cargo bay and the shuttle flew in, rotating on its axis and opening a door near the pen, revealing a Confederation Marine Sergeant beckoning them into the ship. Ryan managed to make a gesture signifying their inability to move. In response, two Marines tethered to the shuttle and in vac suits leapt out and installed a portable forcefield generator over the hole in the bulkhead, restoring the atmosphere to the bay. As soon as their hold on the pen was released, the team ran to the shuttle and insisted that the Marines help them take over the ship. The Marines simply armed the team with MA-18 rifles and made their way through the ship, systematically putting an end to the pirate's operation of it.

-.-

After this task was finished, the Marines-who had suffered no casualties- and the team returned to the shuttle, and from there to the Independence. Independence returned to Tauron III, along with the tool she would use to complete her mission…a pirate ship with an unstable power core. The explosion it created destroyed the cometary field the ship had been sent to deal with, and had - unbeknownst to them - been orchestrated by the pirates in the first place. After all the reports were filed to Confederation Command's satisfaction, the crew threw a celebration in the ship's lounge, which managed to last for exactly fifteen minutes-good enough for a couple of tumblers of "ginger ale" before an urgent message came in from Command, relayed by a junior Lieutenant that no one really knew the name of. A group of rebels had overtaken the Confederate Embassy to Kalkut IV…