Martian Dawn

Part 4, Chapter 14: Hostile Takeover

"What do we do?" Dawn asked the room.

"He needs to disconnect from the VPN," said Mitchell.

"If he does that, he locks me out, too," said Piper.

"You're already locked out. You said yourself..."

"Doesn't mean I haven't been trying to hack back in."

"We'll also lose his GPS signal, but neither of us are doing him any good, right now, and shutting down VPN will keep him alive until Finn gets there."

"The port airlock just blew!" Danny's frantic voice said from the speaker.

"Tell him to go offline, now!"

Dawn clicked the mic. "Danny, disconnect from the VPN."

The room listened intently for Danny's voice. Dawn leaned over her mother's screen. She was monitoring his address, so that screen would be the first to tell them if he went offline.

Instead, Piper's terminal disconnected. Piper jumped out of her seat. "What the hell!"

Danny's voice crackled overhead, in a rising panic. "I can't disconnect! I keep hitting the button, and it won't go offline!"

"OMFG," Dawn muttered. She thumbed the mic, and told him, "Danny, physically disconnect the antenna. Do you know where it is?"

"I think so; it plugs into one of the ports in the comm panel, but--AGHHHH!" Danny's scream was cut off, abruptly.

"Danny? Are you still there? Over."

Silence.

"Danny, do you read? Over!"

No response.

"What just happened?" Dawn demanded of the room.

"Our hacker took over the VPN," Piper explained.

"I know that!" Dawn said sharply. "I mean what just happened to Danny?"

Everyone looked at everyone else. Mitchell suggested, "This might just be another attempt to scare him. They heard you on the radio, and they know you calmed him down, so now they're stirring him up again."

"By blowing out his airlocks?" Emilio scoffed. "That is very scary!"

"But not fatal," Mitchell insisted. "It hardly even used up any of his air, just what was in the lock at the time--a few hours, at most."

"If that's true, we can assume our hacker is on Mars, and that they're listening to the radio. They reacted right away to what was said," pointed out Michael.

"What's more," said Piper, "there are far fewer people on Mars who could just take over the VPN, like that. Our suspect pool has dropped to less than 40."

"Most all of whom are Colonials, I believe?" Aguilar commented. Several pairs of hostile eyes homed in on him.

"I mean, there is no need to hack if you already have administrative status, right?" He continued.

Before that statement could generate a confrontation, Dawn interrupted.

"Guys! Focus! Why isn't Danny responding?"

At that moment, the radio crackled. "Terra Aurora, this is Danny. Do you read?"

Dawn lunged for the mic. "Yes, we read you, Danny! You scared us there, with the radio silence. What just happened, over?"

"I heard the latch clunk on the inner port airlock door, and for a second, I thought my number was up. But the door didn't open." He chuckled, weakly. "I feel like I just got shot with a blank. Why didn't the door blow?"

Dawn replied. "The inner door swings inward, so the air pressure is holding it in place. That's by design. The good news, Danny, is that whthomever is doing this would have to be someone who would know full well that would happen. So we think they are still just trying to scare you. Over."

"Well, it worked, so... well done there! The good news from my end is that I'm fairly certain I pulled the plug on my satellite antenna. Over."

Mitchell glanced at his GPS display and confirmed that Danny's signal had gone offline. Danny's icon now showed as a red "last known position."

"Perfect, then you can rest assured they can't screw with you, anymore. What's the bad news? Over. "

"I pulled every plug in the panel," Danny said. "Even the dome light went out, not to mention the radio. Then I started plugging things back in. The computer is rebooting, now. 'System was not shut down properly. Select an option below.' Which one should I choose? Over."

Dawn looked at her mom, who mouthed the answer.

"Danny, select Safe Mode. That'll run all your life support, but won't connect to the network. Also, if you haven't already done so, latch your airlock doors manually. Over."

"Right! The doors! Right."

A moment later, he came back. "Hey, how long is this reboot going to take? My breath is already frosting up the windows. Over. "

Dawn looked around the room, again. "How long? Anybody done one of these?"

Siwan answered. "Depends on how long it's been since it was last done. We haven't used the solar buggies much since the Aguila landed, so it might be a while."

"How long is a while?"

Without waiting for a response, she clicked the radio back on and hailed for Finn, who acknowledged.

"Can you shave any time off your ETA? Over?"

"I'm at marker 650. If I put the pedal to the metal, I'll be at Seven in two and a half hours. I'll still need to slow down for the offroad portion, but I should be there in five hours. Over."

"Thanks, Finn. Here that, Danny? Worst case scenario, you'll be warm and toasty in five hours. In the meantime, I recommend you suit up for the extra insulation. Over."

"Should I be breathing from a tank? Over."

"In cabinet 14 is a handheld O2 meter. You can keep track of your oxygen with that. If it drops to about 15%, go onto a tank. Until then, you might as well save your tanks. Over."

"Sounds good. Out for now."

"Terra Aurora, this is Finn, again. Do the meth-ox buggies have a GPS governor like the solar buggies? Over?"

"No, they do not, Finnegan. Over."

"Well then why did my buggy just stop, and why is it telling me I have proceeded too far from base? Over."

Dawn felt a deep chill creep over her body. She looked at her mom.

Her mom spoke in a near-whispered, "A network administrator can push whatever software they want to any computer on the network."

Dawn squeezed the mic viciously, while she composed her next words. "Vigilante, this is Dawn. I know are listening, and I presume you believe you are acting on my behalf. I am requesting that you please stop what you are doing. I do not want this. Please return network control to the proper administrators and walk away from your terminal. This has gone far enough."