Bits and Bytes

Fear and Courage

ok...... there is airlock. cant leave this trolley outside airlock for too long. someone will call if it is lying too long unattended. ok. fold and take it. crap! 3 tool boxes ..... i should have taken only 1. what to do ? ..... hey sting ? feel free to jump in.

'we drag them outside. no gravity. easy to move than'

you could have helped before. no point us getting caught.

'I am INSIDE your brain. why do you think you notice all these things. I WAS giving our brain hints'

oh. ok. thanks. now what to do? should we hang to a ship or shuttle from outside ? no! we wont survive a jump clinging to ship surface. was that you sting ?

'yes. why you ask ? you KNOW whenever you make a tactical error, i will correct you'

yes i do. so .... ok. lets see. if we don't make a entry inside, they will find us. but we cant make entry without actually entering inside. inner airlock will not cycle till outer is closed. I have to make entry. after they left. 2-3 hrs maybe. time to load viruses. viruses!! yes. attach to maintenance port. ok, virus for sensor feed corruption, virus for erasing older logs. virus for airlock entries corruption. virus for maintenance request and log corruption. wait, why them ?

'they will restore them back. they WILL find our entries and think they are normal entries. if they don't find our entry, it will stand out. if they find entries without corrupt entry, they will check every entry. if they find log corrupt, they will think we did it to hide our odd entry. they will be looking for odd entry, not our proper entry. maintenance request will prove our entry as authentic. trails. always remember, trails'

ok. if you say so. now what ?

'it need processing power of our brain to talk to me. so stop talking to me and keep working. i will give hint internally. how many times i have to clarify it to you? i cant process anything else when I am talking!'

ok,ok. so.... electronic maintenance box. open it. hummm..... only temp fixes. wait, circuit printer. good. gravity free type ! good. i need this. no! if i take it someone will notice. but not if i print some circuits. they don't measure these their ink so accurately. it can only print 100 nano-meter resolution. humm.... print on circuit stamp. ok select which i don't have. sting, you have list, you do that. .................... ok. catch them. they can fly away. ok, all stamp collected. take some ink for future. all 3 types. i will find printer somewhere else. then i can make my circuits instead of standard circuits. what else? lets leave other things. my mass is higher by 9.2kg. move carefully. hey !! why not enter from dock force field? oh. it is on star side. star flares. maybe we will get lucky ? no. too close to star. even star wind is enough to blow away. dock will also be full of people. they notice.

wait! tracker's ship !!! they wont park in dock, they must be on some airlock. if i can get on their ship, they will take me outside. but how? do i have info about them ? yes!! good girl sting. i should have thought of this before virus release. wait a second. YOU are influencing me to take this risk !!! you crazy bitch !! fear keep us safe, courage get us killed! do you want to deliver me to them you bitch ?! and you wanted me to think it was my idea !!

'dont be a coward. i calculated distance for their airlock. their ship is shuttle-30B class. they are only 5 man team. one will stay back for covering you loop back. 2 will fly shuttle. 1 will report findings to whoever want you dead. they will be tired and space is for 30 man. they will take 11 minutes to planet. nobody will check for anything in a rented shuttle for such small duration. all we need to do is rip a slit into airlock tunnel fabric, get in, glue it back. i will open airlock of shuttle. we hide in cargo area. on landing, we remain there till they leave. then we are free to go. simple. risk free. clean'

CLEAN !!! are you crazy ??!? we have a airlock entry due in logs, we have 3 maintenance box and a trolley due in equips !! how do you know they are only 5 ? what if someone is waiting in shuttle ? he will catch us !! and how will you hack in airlock of shuttle ? they WILL have it locked and encrypted. aren't you suppose to be accurate ?!?

'trust me i have all planned'

care to share ? NO! i dont want to know your half baked plan. clearly you missed a lot of things.

'i missed nothing. it is only way to get off clean. if you listen to me for just once'

NO!! ....ok.. maybe. but I will decide. wait, you are again influencing me !

'just listen. then you can decide. i wont put thought in our brain'

hufff.... ok listening. go.

' they dont have more then 5 man because they have to cover whole station. 5 are way too low already. nobody will 'defend' a rented shuttle and reduce size to 4. they will simply lock it and leave. 1 person they have to leave behind to cover your circle back to station.

you enter airlock tunnel, exit from their airlock. anybody on station will think you are one of them. i have already copied profile of 1 which you can imitate.

before that, stamp i printed is for shuttle-30B class airlock control. they will have lock on it. so you open shuttle airlock panel with toolbox-mechanical. change shuttle stamp with our stamp, open shuttle outer airlock only. don't open internal door. air pressure drop will set off alarms. now replace original stamp and panel. leave outer door open.

get out of tunnel, go to nearby airlock. open outer door and put inside maintenance boxes. close outer door, don't open inner door. go back in tunnel and this time enter station from shuttle connected airlock. glue fabric back to seal it. they are so old, nobody will notice a new tear and repair. once inside station, go to other airlock and open inner airlock with manual release from inside station. many times airlock don't open so they are released manually from inside station. this will give missing entry log.

replace maintenance box in closet and come back to shuttle airlock tunnel. now go to shuttle, outer airlock is open already. no need to hack lock. it has no lock. once inside, erase logs. shuttle is rented, company normally clean them after fixed times. also trackers will not check their own shuttle for us. now all we need to do is hide inside their large cargo area. they must be in hurry to rent such large shuttle. anyway, you are free on planet, all loose end tied, no trace of you.'

hmmm....... you planned this from start, didn't you? that's why you choose that closet and those tool boxes. THAT is why you took me to that corner of station!! even our exit airlock is near their shuttle. you took risk on MY life. you have no right!

'OUR life. if we go by your way, we will be caught. we share this brain. this body is all i have to live. my plan is fool proof. you only run. I keep us safe'

what about shuttle connected airlock entries ? there will be 2 entries which are odd.

'for station staff they wont be. for left over tracer, yes. but he has no reason to check his own shuttle during this time. anyway, corrupt logs will make it impossible for him to find out what happened. he will have to assume one of them went back for something. sensor data cant be recovered as log entries are backed up but sensor are live only and in 1hr loop. too much data to store.'

I dont trust your judgement.

'Do you have a better idea Ray ? no. i am keeping us alive. fear has its value but not irrational fear. now you are wasting time. now GO !'